# Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution is a government ministry of India. The ministry is headed by a Cabinet rank minister.

## Departments

The ministry is divided into two departments, the Department of Food and Public Distribution and the Department of Consumer Affairs.

### Department of Food and Public Distribution

The objectives of the department are to ensure:
* remunerative rates for the farmers.
* supply of food grains at reasonable prices through the public distribution system.

#### Public Distribution System

The Indian Public Distribution System (PDS) is a national food security system that distributes subsidised food to India's poor. Major commodities include wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene. Surpluses of food from increased crop yields (as a result of the Green Revolution and good monsoon seasons) are managed by the Food Corporation of India, established by the Food Corporation Act 1964. The system implements national policy for farm price support, operations, procurement, storage, preservation, inter-state movement and distribution. PDS has a network of about 478,000 Fair Price Shops (FPS), perhaps the largest distribution network of its type in the world, operated by the Union Government and state governments.

### Department of Consumer Affairs

The department administers the policies for Consumer Cooperatives, price monitoring, essential commodity availability, consumer movement and control of statutory bodies such as the Bureau of Indian Standards(BIS) and Weights and Measures.
The department is responsible for:
* National Test House
* Standards of Weights and Measures
* The Bureau of Indian Standards
* Consumer Cooperatives
* Forward Markets Commission, Mumbai
* Monitoring of Prices and Availability of essential commodities
* The Consumer Protection Act, 2019
* Consumer Welfare Fund
* Internal Trade
* Inter-State Trade: The Spirituous Preparations (Inter-State Trade and Commerce) Control Act, 1955 (39 of 1955).
* Control of Futures Trading: the Forward Contracts (Regulations) Act, 1952 (74 of 1952).
The department regulates the availability and prescribes measures to see that the system works towards the food security of vulnerable people. This intent is to increase dignity, accountability, visibility, positive orientation and changed mind set.

## Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) under the Ministry

1. National Cooperative Consumer's Federation of India Ltd.

## Ministers
### Food & Agriculture (1947–71)

| # | Name | Term of office | Term of office | Term of office | Prime Minister | Party |
| 1 | Rajendra Prasad | 15 August 1947 | 14 January 1948 | 152 days | Jawaharlal Nehru | Indian National Congress |
| 2 | Jairamdas Daulatram | 19 January 1948 | 13 May 1950 | 2 years, 114 days | Jawaharlal Nehru | Indian National Congress |
| 3 | K M Munshi | 13 May 1950 | 13 May 1952 | 2 years, 0 days | Jawaharlal Nehru | Indian National Congress |
| 4 | Rafi Ahmed Kidwai | 13 May 1952 | 24 October 1954 | 2 years, 164 days | Jawaharlal Nehru | Indian National Congress |
| 5 | Ajit Prasad Jain | 25 November 1954 | 24 August 1959 | 4 years, 303 days | Jawaharlal Nehru | Indian National Congress |
| 6 | S. K. Patil | 24 August 1959 | 1 September 1963 | 4 years, 8 days | Jawaharlal Nehru | Indian National Congress |
| 7 | Swaran Singh | 1 September 1963 | 9 June 1964 | 282 days | Jawaharlal Nehru | Indian National Congress |
| 8 | Chidambaram Subramaniam | 9 June 1964 | 12 March 1967 | 2 years, 276 days | Lal Bahadur Shastri Indira Gandhi | Indian National Congress |
| 9 | Jagjivan Ram | 13 March 1967 | 27 June 1970 | 3 years, 106 days | Indira Gandhi | Indian National Congress |
| 10 | Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed | 27 June 1970 | 2 May 1971 | 309 days | Indira Gandhi | Indian National Congress |
| Ministry of Food was renamed as Ministry of Agriculture with four departments, including the Department of Food |||||||||

### Food & Civil Supplies (1983–91)

| # | Name | Term of office | Term of office | Term of office | Prime Minister | Party |
| 11 | Bhagwat Jha Azad | 14 February 1983 | 31 December 1984 | 1 year, 321 days | Indira Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi | Indian National Congress |
| 12 | Rao Birendra Singh | 31 December 1984 | 25 September 1985 | 268 days | Rajiv Gandhi | Indian National Congress |
| 13 | Kamakhya Prasad Singh Deo | 25 September 1985 | 27 January 1986 | 124 days | Rajiv Gandhi | Indian National Congress |
| 14 | P. Shiv Shankar | 27 January 1986 | 12 May 1986 | 105 days | Rajiv Gandhi | Indian National Congress |
| 15 | H. K. L. Bhagat | 12 May 1986 | 14 February 1988 | 1 year, 278 days | Rajiv Gandhi | Indian National Congress |
| 16 | Sukh Ram | 14 February 1988 | 2 December 1989 | 1 year, 291 days | Rajiv Gandhi | Indian National Congress |
| 17 | Nathuram Mirdha | 8 December 1989 | 10 November 1990 | 337 days | V. P. Singh | Janata Dal |
| (12) | Rao Birendra Singh | 21 November 1990 | 21 June 1991 | 212 days | Chandra Shekhar | Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya) |

### Food (1991–96)

| # | Name | Term of office | Term of office | Term of office | Prime Minister | Party |
| 1 | Kalpnath Rai | 18 January 1993 | 21 December 1994 | 1 year, 337 days | P. V. Narasimha Rao | Indian National Congress |
| 2 | P. V. Narasimha Rao | 21 December 1994 | 10 February 1995 | 51 days | P. V. Narasimha Rao | Indian National Congress |
| 3 | Ajit Singh | 10 February 1995 | 16 May 1996 | 1 year, 96 days | P. V. Narasimha Rao | Indian National Congress |

### Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution (1991–96)

| # | Name | Term of office | Term of office | Term of office | Prime Minister | Party |
| 1 | P. V. Narasimha Rao | 21 June 1991 | 18 January 1993 | 1 year, 211 days | P. V. Narasimha Rao | Indian National Congress |
| 2 | A. K. Antony | 18 January 1993 | 8 February 1995 | 2 years, 21 days | P. V. Narasimha Rao | Indian National Congress |
| 3 | Buta Singh | 10 February 1995 | 16 May 1996 | 1 year, 96 days | P. V. Narasimha Rao | Indian National Congress |

### Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution (1996–present)

| # | Name | Term of office | Term of office | Term of office | Prime Minister | Party |
| 1 | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | 16 May 1996 | 1 June 1996 | 16 days | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| 2 | Devendra Prasad Yadav | 1 June 1996 | 21 April 1997 | 324 days | Deve Gowda | Janata Dal |
| 3 | Inder Kumar Gujral | 21 April 1997 | 24 April 1997 | 3 days | I.K. Gujral | Janata Dal |
| 4 | Chaturanan Mishra | 24 April 1997 | 10 January 1998 | 261 days | I.K. Gujral | Communist Party of India |
| 5 | Balwant Singh Ramoowalia | 10 January 1998 | 19 March 1998 | 68 days | I.K. Gujral | Independent |
| 6 | Surjit Singh Barnala | 19 March 1998 | 13 October 1999 | 1 year, 208 days | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | Shiromani Akali Dal |
| 7 | Shanta Kumar | 13 October 1999 | 1 July 2002 | 2 years, 261 days | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| 8 | Sharad Yadav | 1 July 2002 | 22 May 2004 | 1 year, 326 days | Atal Bihari Vajpayee | Janata Dal (United) |
| 9 | Sharad Pawar | 22 May 2004 | 19 January 2011 | 6 years, 242 days | Manmohan Singh | Nationalist Congress Party |
| 10 | K. V. Thomas | 19 January 2011 | 26 May 2014 | 3 years, 127 days | Manmohan Singh | Indian National Congress |
| 11 | Ram Vilas Paswan | 26 May 2014 | 8 October 2020 | 6 years, 135 days | Narendra Modi | Lok Janshakti Party |
| 12 | Piyush Goyal | 8 October 2020 | 10 June 2024 | 3 years, 246 days | Narendra Modi | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| 13 | Pralhad Joshi | 10 June 2024 | Incumbent | 274 days | Narendra Modi | Bharatiya Janata Party |