Explain main features of the Public Distribution System.

The main features of the Public Distribution System are as follows:
(i) Public distribution is the most important step towards ensuring food security.
(ii) Up to 1992, its coverage was universal with no discrimination between the poor and the non-poor.
(iii) In 1992, Revamped Public Distribution System was introduced in 1,700 blocks in the country. The target was to provide the benefits of PDS to remote and backward areas.
(iv) From June 1997, Targeted Public Distribution System was introduced to adopt the principle of targeting the “poor in all areas”.
(v) It was for the first time that a differential price policy was adopted for poor and nonpoor.
(vi) In 2000, two special schemes were launched viz., Antyodaya Anna Yojana and the Annapurna Scheme with special target groups of “poorest of the poor” and “indigent senior citizens”, respectively. Tire functioning of these two schemes was linked with the existing network of the PDS.