The Public distribution system (PDS) is an Indian food Security System for the poor people established by the Government of India under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution. While the Central government is responsible for procurement, storage, transportation, and bulk allocation of food grains, the State governments hold the responsibility for distributing the same to the consumers through the established network of approximately 5 lakh Fair Price Shops. Major commodities distributed include wheat, rice, sugar, and kerosene. A study on the role of PDS in Shaping the Household and Nutritional Security was carried out by the erstwhile Independent Evaluation Office, now the Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office, on a request received from the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. The study was designed with an objective to explore the effectiveness of PDS in ensuring food and nutritional security to the beneficiaries. The other aspects explored were efficiency in PDS, importance of foodgrains provided to the beneficiaries, balancing between cereal and non‐cereal and food and non‐food expenditures, effects of change in income on food expenditure/consumption patterns, etc. The study is based on the findings of the India Human Development Survey (IHDS), a panel survey undertaken jointly by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and the University of Maryland in 2004-05 (IHDS-I) and 2011-12 (IHDS-II).