A ‘verit’able boon for boozers in AP

Nellore: Now, boozers can ensure quality of liquor through an application developed by the AP Prohibition and Excise department right from the beginning stage at the warehouse up to the retail outlet where the consumer picks up the product.

The additional feature is that the customers can also check genuineness of the bottle by verifying on a mobile based application, Verit, just by scanning the 2-D hologram affixed on the liquor bottle.

There has been a lot of exercise to protect quality of the products preventing possible adulteration at any stage keeping in view of huge number of such instances and complaints galore by the consumers. The excise department had finally deputed an IT company for developing a system that can trace and track the material from warehouse up to the process ends at the retail outlet.

As part of the programme, there is a high security hologram which would be affixed on the bottle after completion of manufacturing for tracking and tracing the liquor bottles basing on the data. In fact, hologram is the vital component which enables tracking and tracing of liquor bottles in real time with the help of Hedonic Path Finder System (HPFS).

The system carries activity from the stages of distillation to the end stage of sale to the customers through shipment, storage and supply to the retail outlets and the two-dimensional barcode plays a crucial role in the Supply Chain Management process. The hologram affixed is free from moisture, water and tamper proof and refrigeration or other dampening factors do not affect quality and function of the code by any means, according to officials.

The holograms are supplied to the distillery and the data pertaining to the distillery information, number of holograms, size of the package, date and dispatch time etc., are linked with central servers. The holograms are glued on to the caps of the liquor bottle and the process of authentication begins with data transfers linking to the central server with the inter- related architectures of other systems and subsystems where details of manufacturers, distilleries, depots and vendors are loaded.

Soon after bottles are packed and the data is synchronised with central servers and transport documents containing information related to vehicle info, depot info, number of cartons, time of dispatch, distillery info etc are generated and transport permits issued while being shipped to the relevant depots.

Thus the shipment is further tracked using geo-fencing mechanisms and GPS Route Tracking Systems from time to time. Deviating from or violating the specifically configured route will be notified through SMS alerts, messages for immediate action. The stock received is scanned, authenticated and stored for sale to the end consumers. The customer can verify genuineness of the liquor bottle using an Android/IOS based verification application, VERIT, from their mobile.

“The scanned data related to the 2-D hologram is sent to the HPFS server through SMS gateway and GPRS. The application processes the responses confirming genuineness of the liquor bottle purchased. In case consumer fails to get any data the product can be treated as fake,” said K Balarama Krishna, Nellore Excise Superintendent.