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 per cent of the total grain allocated, according to a March 2022 report by IndiaSpend.

It is such leakages that the PSL aims to eliminate — both at the inventory management stage as well as on the supply side — through its digitisation projects.

The lab’s director, Nomesh Bolia, said the PSL aspires to become the go-to lab for addressing key challenges in the public sector using operations research and all other relevant areas of technology. Bolia, who is also a professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT-D, specialises in the application of operational research to logistics and economic policy. He adds, “An important focus (for the PSL) is the optimisation of logistics for foodgrain supply chains across Indian states, in line with the National Logistics Policy of the government of India.”

The lab, jointly founded by IIT-D and the UN World Food Program (UNWFP), currently channels several of the UNWFP’s projects aimed at improving the efficiency of the Targeted Public Delivery System (TPDS).

On the logistics and inventory management side, Bolia said, PSL is developing the Smart Warehouse project, which monitors food storage facilities through a dashboard and a mobile app, which measures humidity and temperature, and has passive infrared motion sensors for rodents.

A second project — also in partnership with the UNWFP — deals specifically with supply chain planning and optimisation of the TPDS in Uttarakhand, Odisha, and Rajasthan to reduce logistics costs, manage peaks in inventory levels for grain surplus states, and ensure adequate safety stocks in areas where access is affected by seasonal and predictable hazards.

When it comes to optimising beneficiary identification for state schemes, the PSL is developing a dashboard for the Rajasthan government, which will help better identify vulnerable hot spots for strategic planning and targeted action to achieve ‘zero hunger’ in the state, according to Bolia.

These projects, however, primarily work on designing pilot programmes that can then be handed over to the various government branches for upscaling. The prime aim of the PSL is to provide contextualised solutions to strengthen government systems. Despite the innovative digitisation mechanism that the research lab tests out, therefore, the responsibility for efficient implementation ultimately falls on local and regional government bodies. The ultimate test for the reforms PSL is spearheading will be at the 527,000 fair price shops in the country.

Dipa Sinha, assistant professor of economics at Ambedkar University, cautions against the possibility of over-centralisation this can cause. She points out that the rigorous linking of such centralised digitisation systems with government schemes to identify potential beneficiaries can cause an overreliance on such databases as well as arbitrary exclusion.

This, of course, is not the first such attempt by the Indian government at providing a technological solution for issues related to the PDS. One recent intervention was mandating Aadhaar-based biometric authentication. But this initiative suffered from various drawbacks, development economist Jean Drèze says. “For instance, if recipients fail to fulfil the linkage instructions — updating changes in their ration card or linking their bank account with Aadhaar — benefits are often simply withdrawn or suspended,” Drèze points out.

Parvinder Singh, head of communication for UNWFP, insists however that the government’s focus on digital literacy has ensured that more people in smaller towns and rural areas are getting accustomed to using digitised platforms for accessing their entitled benefits. This, he believes, will rapidly reduce linkage-related issues.  

Drèze, too, believes that digitisation itself is not good or bad per se. "It is important to scrutinise the details — what is being done, for what purpose, by whom, who is supposed to benefit, and what the possible challenges might be,” he says. Sinha agrees, “Digitisation does contribute to increasing efficiency and could also contribute to transparency. It's a double-edged sword which needs to be designed carefully.”

The PSL, it appears, is aware that there could be a learning curve in designing technological interventions. The lab plans to offer a Public Systems Fellowship, modelled on the Government Operational Research Service in the UK.

Under this fellowship, the PSL plans to host professionals in government departments and other public, state agencies, and organs of multilateral organisations, who will develop and deploy products and solutions in the identified areas, in collaboration with the department stakeholders and the academic team of PSL. The fellows will be recruited, trained, and (partially or fully) funded by the PSL.