For the first time, farmer Kapil Kumar was required to have his fingers scanned to buy fertilizers from a grain market in the north Indian state of Haryana. Biometric scans of farmers like 27-year-old Kumar are a key part of a pilot program by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to identify final buyers of fertilizers that are important to boost agricultural output and provide food security.
The plan aims to generate long-term savings by preventing the heavily-subsidized farm nutrients getting smuggled into neighboring countries like Nepal and Bangladesh and stopping their diversion for industrial purposes. It follows a program to directly provide subsidy to millions of consumers of cooking gas, dismantling a previous practice of paying suppliers to keep retail prices low.
Read more of this in a report published in Financial Express....
