Hyderabad: As many as 17 states have successfully completed reforms in Public Distribution System (PDS) and implemented the 'One Nation One Ration' System, under which a beneficiary will be able to buy subsidised foodgrains from any Fair Price Shops (FPS) across the country.
The states, which have implemented the ' One Nation One Ration' system are Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Manipur.
The One-Nation-One-Ration-Card system ensures the availability of ration to beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and other welfare schemes, especially to migrant workers and their families, at any fair price shop across the country. It also enables better targeting of beneficiaries, elimination of bogus cardholders, and enhances welfare besides reducing leakages.
On the other hand, Andhra Pradesh has become the first state in the country to successfully undertake ease of doing business reforms and thus become eligible to raise an additional amount of Rs 2,525 crore through open market borrowings.
The ease of doing business is an important indicator of an investment-friendly business climate in the country. Improvement in the ease of doing business will enable faster future growth of the state economy. To incentivise implementation of district-level and licensing reforms for ease of doing business, an additional borrowing facility of 0.25 per cent of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) has been allowed to states on the recommendation of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
In May, the Centre had allowed an additional borrowing limit of up to 2 per cent of GSDP to the states for the financial year 2020-21 in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. This made an amount up to Rs 4.27 lakh crore available to the states. One per cent of this is subject to the implementation of four specific state-level reforms where the weightage of each reform is 0.25 per cent of the GSDP. They are the implementation of the One-Nation-One-Ration-Card system, ease of doing business reform, urban local body and utility reforms, and power sector reforms.
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