Cabinet clears Rs 25,000-crore scheme to reform public distribution system
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Rs 25,000-crore Sarthak Public Distribution System (PDS) scheme aimed at modernising India’s food security network that currently supports nearly 80 crore beneficiaries, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said during a press conference after the Cabinet meeting. The scheme seeks to strengthen fair price shops, modernise the public distribution system and provide assistance to state agencies for intra-state movement of food grains. Calling it a “structural reform of the whole PDS system”, Vaishnaw said the state governments would benefit from improved food distribution arrangements and more efficient supply chain operations. However, he added, “This is not a replacement of the existing PDS. It is a reform to the PDS system’s transportation, logistics and material handling.”
The minister said the programme was designed around three key pillars – “Nirmal”, “ASHA” and “Saksham” — to improve efficiency, transparency and citizen engagement across the country’s food security architecture.
Nirmal is an AI-driven real-time PDS beneficiary registry that would enable live inter-ministerial integration and cross-scheme cooperation to streamline welfare delivery and reduce duplication.
ASHA focuses on multilingual AI-powered grievance redressal and citizen engagement. Integrated with WhatsApp and chatbot services, the platform will be scalable to handle up to three lakh interactions per day, officials said.
Saksham is an AI-enabled supply chain management platform featuring vehicle tracking, QR-code based traceability and demand forecasting tools aimed at improving logistics efficiency and monitoring food grain movement.
According to the Centre, the programme is expected to reduce travel distances for food grain transportation by 15 to 50 per cent, improving operational efficiency and lowering logistics costs. Vaishnaw also told the media that the Prime Minister discussed the issue of rapid climate change during the Cabinet meeting, noting that he had recently highlighted the matter through a series of public posts on social media.
Patiala’s Raja Randhir Singh, a five-time Olympian, passes away
Veteran sports administrator, Asian Games gold medallist shooter and the standard bearer of Indian Olympics Raja Randhir Singh (79), is no more. Bedridden for over a year due to kidney issues, he passed away on Wednesday morning. He had suffered a stroke on Monday. A descendent of the former Maharaja of Patiala and cricket player, Bhupinder Singh, and a cousin of former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, five-time Olympian Raja Randhir’s greatest innings was played within the confines of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). From becoming a state chief of Delhi Athletics, he rose to become the Joint Secretary, IOA, in 1984 and then became its longest-serving secretary general, from 1987 to 2012. India played host to the first Afro-Asian Games and then the Commonwealth Games in 2010, with him becoming the vice-chairman of the organising committee. Randhir Singh was never irrelevant to the offices of Indian Olympic Association, the IOA Bhawan in Qutab Educational Area. Not even when he was ousted by a team led by Abhay Singh Chautala and Lalit Bhanot.
The duo was elected against that IOC diktat that stated that tainted persons (charge-sheeted individuals) cannot contest IOA elections. The IOA was subsequently suspended, and in 2014 a fresh body was elected, wherein late N Ramachandran took over as the president, with Rajeev Mehta as its new secretary general. Amid the infighting that started with the 2012 elections, and the taint within the premises of the IOA because of the 2010 Commonwealth Games scandals, one man remained unscathed: Raja Randhir Singh. Such was his influence that even during his ‘retirement years’, the man who was an IOC member from 2001 to 2014 and an honorary member after that stayed relevant in international sporting affairs. No office in India, irrespective of the ruling party, was ever shut for him. In his later years, he rose to first become the acting president of the Olympic Council of India (OCA) in 2023 and then its president in 2024, where he was elected unopposed.
SC issues notice to Centre, CBSE & NCERT over 3-language policy
The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Centre, the CBSE and the NCERT on a PIL challenging the CBSE’s three-language policy that made it compulsory for Class IX students to study three languages, including two native Indian languages, from academic year 2026-27, commencing on July 1. A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M Pancholi asked them to file “comprehensive” replies within two weeks and posted the matter for hearing in the second week of July. It also asked Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati to submit a report on the logistical preparedness of the CBSE for implementing the decision. On behalf of the petitioners Yashica Bhandari Jain and others, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi submitted that the CBSE’s May 15 circular mandated students to study three languages from the very next academic year. “Even textbooks are not available,” he submitted. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal said the matter raised important constitutional issues, and was a “federal issue” as well. Maintaining that language was a matter of choice, Sibal said it can’t be imposed.
While seeking urgent hearing of the petition challenging the CBSE’s three-language policy, Rohatgi had on May 22 said it would create a chaos. “How can they suddenly learn it and appear in Class X,” he had wondered. The petitioners have sought quashing of the May 15 circular and restoration of the position declared in the board’s April 9 notification deferring compulsory implementation of the three-language for Class IX until 2029-30. They have also demanded interim protection against enforcement of the revised policy for existing students.
CBSE students typically studied two languages — English and Hindi or a regional language up to Class X. However, the May 15 circular requires students beginning Class IX to study an additional language, increasing the number of languages studied at the secondary level. Terming it an arbitrary decision, the petitioners submitted that schools, students and parents had planned their academic year relying on that representation, and that the sudden change with barely weeks before implementation has caused widespread uncertainty and disruption.
