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The Union Cabinet on Wednesday, May 27, approved the ₹25,530-crore Sarthak Public Distribution Scheme for a five-year period to strengthen and modernise India’s food distribution network.
The scheme is expected to benefit around 80 crore people and will focus on improving efficiency in the Public Distribution System (PDS), including support for intra-state movement of food grains, assistance to fair price shops and overall supply-chain modernisation.
A key feature of the scheme is the integration of artificial intelligence across multiple layers of PDS operations.
This includes an AI-driven real-time beneficiary registry aimed at improving targeting and transparency, a multilingual AI-based grievance redressal and citizen engagement platform capable of handling up to 3 lakh interactions per day, and an AI-enabled supply-chain management system.
The supply-chain platform will include vehicle tracking, QR code-based traceability of food grains, demand forecasting and route optimisation to reduce leakages and improve delivery efficiency.
The scheme is expected to benefit around 80 crore people and will focus on improving efficiency in the Public Distribution System (PDS), including support for intra-state movement of food grains, assistance to fair price shops and overall supply-chain modernisation.
A key feature of the scheme is the integration of artificial intelligence across multiple layers of PDS operations.
This includes an AI-driven real-time beneficiary registry aimed at improving targeting and transparency, a multilingual AI-based grievance redressal and citizen engagement platform capable of handling up to 3 lakh interactions per day, and an AI-enabled supply-chain management system.
The supply-chain platform will include vehicle tracking, QR code-based traceability of food grains, demand forecasting and route optimisation to reduce leakages and improve delivery efficiency.
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