The government in Orissa, a state on the East coast of India, has introduced biometric smart cards to replace ration cards that will be used in a pilot with its citizens in the Rayagada district, according to a SiFy article. The new program was developed in a joint effort between the Orissa government and the United Nations World Food Program in hopes of improving the Targeted Public Distribution System.
Among the many hopes of the new program is also to improve transparency in the program and reduce the chances of fraud. While the move towards biometric-based cards alone is expected to help reduce fraud, one of the efforts to improve transparency is posting transactions between beneficiaries and Fair Price Shop owners on the government Website.
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