New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved a major reform to improve the quality of rice distributed under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) and other welfare schemes, benefiting more than 80 crore beneficiaries across the country.
Under the revised norms, the permissible broken grain content in raw rice will be reduced from 25% to 10%, while parboiled rice will contain a maximum of 5% broken grains, down from the existing 16%. The phased rollout will begin with the Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2027–28.
The Centre said beneficiaries will receive rice with improved grain quality and appearance without any change in their existing entitlements.
The government will separately utilise the broken rice generated during milling for industrial and other productive purposes, improving operational efficiency and reducing wastage.
The reform is expected to generate annual savings of around ₹2,161 crore through lower transportation, storage and packaging costs, while also reducing the food subsidy burden through the sale of broken rice.
To enhance transparency in the Public Distribution System (PDS), the government will introduce QR code-based tagging of rice bags for end-to-end traceability across the supply chain.
Officials said the revised quality standards were successfully tested through pilot projects in Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha, Telangana and Chhattisgarh before receiving Cabinet approval.
