Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution is a government ministry of India. The ministry is headed by a Cabinet rank minister.
Departments
The ministry is divided into two departments, the Department of Food and Public Distribution and the Department of Consumer Affairs.Department of Food and Public Distribution
The objectives of the department are to ensure:- remunerative rates for the farmers.
- supply of food grains at reasonable prices through the public distribution system.
Public Distribution System
The Indian Public Distribution System is a national food security system that distributes subsidised food to India's poor. Major commodities include wheat, rice and sugar. Surpluses of food from increased crop yields are managed by the Food Corporation of India, established by the Food Corporation Act 1964. The system implements national policy for farm price support, operations, procurement, storage, preservation, inter-state movement and distribution. PDS has a network of about 478,000 Fair Price Shops, perhaps the largest distribution network of its type in the world, operated by the Union Government and state governments.Department of Consumer Affairs
The department administers the policies for Consumer Cooperatives, price monitoring, essential commodity availability, consumer movement and control of statutory bodies such as the Bureau of Indian Standards and Weights and Measures.The department is responsible for:
- National Test House
- Standards of Weights and Measures
- The Bureau of Indian Standards
- Monitoring of Prices and Availability of essential commodities
- The Consumer Protection Act, 2019
- Consumer Welfare Fund
- Internal Trade
- Inter-State Trade: The Spirituous Preparations Control Act, 1955.
- Control of Futures Trading: the Forward Contracts Act, 1952.