NITI Aayog partners with GNFC for fertiliser subsidy disbursement

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : NITI Aayog and Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Limited (GNFC)  signed a Statement of Intent (SOI) on June 29, 2018, to work together towards implementing a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) application using Blockchain Technology for fertiliser subsidy management.

They will jointly develop the use case, undertake research, interact with multiple stakeholders, develop Blockchain solutions, exchange learnings, organise forums, and disseminate learnings across their networks. Learnings, insights and outcomes of the PoC will enable NITI Aayog to suggest policy recommendations and actions in strengthening the subsidy mechanism making it more transparent and immune to leakages, according to a PIB release.

Fertilizer units manufacture approximately 31 Million MT of fertilizers across country, whereas  approximately Rs 70,000 crore of subsidy is disbursed to the manufacturing units. The subsidy disbursal takes two to three months’ time.There are multiple entities involved in verification process and the transaction process is very cumbersome which has the potential to be automated to give significant efficiency gains.

With implementation of BlockchainTechnology, it is expected that the distribution will become effective and efficient, and subsidy transfer could be automated and made real time.