Panel on FCI Restructuring to Hold First Meeting on September 8
Press Trust of India | Updated On: September 03, 2014 15:46 (IST)
New Delhi: The first meeting of a high level committee set up to recommend ways to restructure state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) will be held next week.
"The meeting of the committee has been scheduled on September 8. It will discuss the overhauling of FCI, which is plagued by functional and cost inefficiencies," Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan told PTI.
The eight-member panel, headed by Member of Parliament from Himachal Pradesh Shanta Kumar, will recommend various models to restructure FCI and submit the report in 3 months.
FCI, set up under the Food Corporation Act, 1964, is a nodal agency for procurement, storage and distribution of food grains to the PDS (public distribution system) and other welfare schemes.
FCI restructuring is a campaign promise of the government.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had in his Budget 2014-15 speech said, "The government is committed to reforms in the food sector. Restructuring the FCI, reducing transportation and distribution losses and efficacy of the PDS would be taken up on priority."
The terms of reference of the panel are to study various models of restructuring or unbundling of the FCI and suggest the best-suited model to improve its operational efficiency and financial management.
The panel will give suggestions to reorient the role and functions of the FCI in the minimum support price (MSP) operations, storage and distribution of foodgrains and food security systems of the country.
It will also recommend cost-effective scientific models of storage, rationalised foodgrains movement, technology upgradation in foodgrains management and a way forward for the integration of supply chain of foodgrains.
Members of the committee include FCI chairman-cum-managing director C Viswanath, former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) Ashok Gulati, and Electronic and IT Secretary Ram Sewak Sharma.
The Chief Secretaries of Punjab and Chhattisgarh, besides academicians G Raghuram and Gunmadi Nancharaiah from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, and Hyderabad University, respectively, are also part of the panel.
"The meeting of the committee has been scheduled on September 8. It will discuss the overhauling of FCI, which is plagued by functional and cost inefficiencies," Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan told PTI.
The eight-member panel, headed by Member of Parliament from Himachal Pradesh Shanta Kumar, will recommend various models to restructure FCI and submit the report in 3 months.
FCI, set up under the Food Corporation Act, 1964, is a nodal agency for procurement, storage and distribution of food grains to the PDS (public distribution system) and other welfare schemes.
FCI restructuring is a campaign promise of the government.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had in his Budget 2014-15 speech said, "The government is committed to reforms in the food sector. Restructuring the FCI, reducing transportation and distribution losses and efficacy of the PDS would be taken up on priority."
The terms of reference of the panel are to study various models of restructuring or unbundling of the FCI and suggest the best-suited model to improve its operational efficiency and financial management.
The panel will give suggestions to reorient the role and functions of the FCI in the minimum support price (MSP) operations, storage and distribution of foodgrains and food security systems of the country.
It will also recommend cost-effective scientific models of storage, rationalised foodgrains movement, technology upgradation in foodgrains management and a way forward for the integration of supply chain of foodgrains.
Members of the committee include FCI chairman-cum-managing director C Viswanath, former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) Ashok Gulati, and Electronic and IT Secretary Ram Sewak Sharma.
The Chief Secretaries of Punjab and Chhattisgarh, besides academicians G Raghuram and Gunmadi Nancharaiah from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, and Hyderabad University, respectively, are also part of the panel.
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