How a lab in IIT Delhi is looking to plug leakages in PDS with digitisation

Academics at the Public Services Lab are hard at work trying to optimise logistics for foodgrain supply chains across Indian states

Nestled in the Mechanical Engineering Department block at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D), the Public Systems Lab (PSL) — recently inaugurated by the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Piyush Goyal — is a busy place. More than 20 researchers, predominantly PhD scholars, are hard at work designing digitised solutions for a more efficient Public Distribution System (PDS).

The PDS, one of the most extensive security nets in the world that covers nearly 800 million people, has been plagued by leakages in both food- and non-food-related schemes. Leakages in food-related subsidies alone accounted for about 47