| Headquarters | New Delhi, India |
| Products | National Food Security |
| Services | Public Distribution System |
| Ownedby | Government of India |
| Website | pdsportal.nic.in |
| Logo |  |
Ration Card (Hindi: राशन कार्ड)
Ration cards are mainly used by middle and lower classes of people of india for purchasing subsidized provisions like wheat, rice, dall(gram), cooking oil, sugar and kerosene. This is a important poverty eradication tool to get the food offered by government welfare programmes. Indias public distribution system (PDS) is based on the ration card, which it uses to identify households supply through a network of fair price shops, also known as ration shops. The details of ration card are maintainted by Department of Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs.
Eligibility for the Ration cards are based on BPL(Below Poverty Line) and APL(Above Poverty Line) ration cards is based on the economic status of the family. India has 478,000 ration shops constituting the largest distribution network in the world.
To get an APL or BPL card in any state in India, the applicant must present two copies of a photograph of the head of the family, proof of identity and address, along with the old ration card if available, with proof of income sources.
Government of India has decided that in select schemes including the TPDS,the database will be digitised in standardised core formats developed by Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY). It has been also decided that Aadhaar numbers for each individual shall be entered along with other data. While UIDAI and NPR have been asked to complete Aadhaar enrolment for the entire population by June 2015, State Governments / UT Administrations should complete the above mentioned exercise for the existing Aadhaar numbers by December 2014. As and when the remaining Aadhaar numbers are generated, the same may be included in the digital ration card database.
Register a Complaint relating to Ration card queries can be done through http://pdsportal.nic.in by selecting state portal Grievance link.
Public distribution system, PDS is an Indian food security system, Established by the Government of India are managed jointly by state governments in India