India’s food subsidy architecture has already reduced leakages through digitisation. The next transformation lies in responsiveness.
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Sanjeev Chopra
India has digitised its food security architecture at an unprecedented scale over the last decade. Every stage of the value chain from procurement and storage to transportation, distribution, and subsidy settlement, is now underpinned by digital systems, generating continuous operational data while serving nearly 80 crore beneficiaries every month.
The next governance challenge is converting this transparency into administrative responsiveness. Visibility alone is insufficient, the system must be able to interpret patterns, prioritise risks, and respond in a timely manner. Recognising this shift, the Union Government is deploying artificial intelligence (AI) to strengthen decision-making across the system.
During procurement, quality assessment of rice supplied after milling to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) relies on visual evaluation against prescribed parameters such as broken grain percentage, impurities, and discoloration. At scale, outcomes can vary due to human subjectivity. AI-enabled Automatic Grain Analyzers (AGA) are being deployed to assess these parameters through image-based analysis. By standardising measurement and reducing subjectivity, these systems improve consistency in quality verification while operating within existing procurement norms.
At storage facilities operated by the FCI and the Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC), IoT-based monitoring systems are being introduced to strengthen oversight. Sensors capture temperature, humidity, phosphine, and CO₂ levels, while AI-enabled computer vision tools support automated bag counting and stock verification. These systems generate continuous data on inventory and environmental conditions. Integrated with Depot Darpan, the DFPD’s warehouse grading platform, this data can be analysed using predictive analytics to identify patterns associated with spoilage risk, stock discrepancies, or compliance gaps, enabling earlier and more risk-based supervisory action.
During movement of food grains, transportation is planned using route optimisation tools (‘Anna Chakra’), while Vehicle Location Tracking Systems (VLTS) generate real-time GPS data on truck movement. States have reported annual savings of approximately INR 238 crore through route optimisation. Although route planning is systematised, monitoring thousands of journeys across states presents operational challenges. AI-based pattern detection and anomaly identification are being planned to analyse movement data and flag recurring route deviations, abnormal delays, or unusual stoppages. These analytics strengthen oversight and enable more focused verification of transport operations.
At the distribution stage, beneficiary records maintained by states are consolidated under the SMART-PDS platform, creating a unified national repository of ration cards. This enables cross-verification with other government databases to identify potentially ineligible cards under state-defined criteria. To date, 8.51 crore ration cards have been flagged through such verification, with 2.18 crore deleted by state governments after due process. However, inconsistencies in names, addresses, Aadhaar seeding, and household composition can limit the effectiveness of rule-based checks at scale. Machine learning–based data matching techniques are being planned for deployment to identify probable duplicates, linked identities, or unusual restructuring of households. The resulting risk flags would support targeted verification by states, improving accuracy within existing eligibility norms.
Beneficiary complaints serve as important signals on service delivery and grain quality. Although multiple channels for registering grievances exist (including online portals, call centres, WhatsApp, and IVRS), the volume and linguistic diversity of grievances can complicate timely routing and resolution. The government has rolled out the Anna Sahayata Holistic AI Solution (ASHA), which uses multilingual voice outreach and AI-based analysis to gather structured feedback from beneficiaries. Automated classification and sentiment analysis generate dashboards for administrators, improving prioritisation and response times. ASHA currently reaches around 20 lakh beneficiaries each month and is being scaled nationwide.
Finally, states submit subsidy claims through the Subsidy Claims for NFSA (SCAN) portal along with supporting documentation related to procurement cost components. Although formats and checklists are standardised, incomplete, mismatched, or illegible documents can delay scrutiny and reimbursement. AI-enabled document validation and quality assessment is being deployed to conduct preliminary checks—verifying document relevance, data consistency, and upload clarity. This reduces repeated queries and improves the efficiency and consistency of claim processing.
India’s food subsidy architecture has already reduced leakages through digitisation. The next transformation lies in responsiveness. By embedding AI across procurement, storage, movement, distribution, and claim settlement, the system becomes more capable of detecting risks early, correcting errors faster, and ensuring that entitlements reach beneficiaries as intended. In a programme that underwrites food security for over 80 crore people, greater responsiveness is not incremental reform; it represents a structural strengthening of the social protection backbone.
The author is Secretary, department of Food and Public Distribution.