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Highlighting that the use of AI has reduced the turnaround time significantly for food subsidy claims sent by states, which used to take several months in the past, Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said the government is aiming for greater depth in use of technology in the next year to increase efficiency in food security.
Describing the journey towards technology as "very satisfying", he said that technology has covered the entire breadth of the Department's operations.
Speaking to CNBC-TV18 on the sidelines of the AI summit in New Delhi, the secretary said that though food seems a mundane subject that isn't compatible
with technology or AI, he noted that the past few years have been very productive in the use of technology in the operations of the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD).
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Stating that the use of technology in the Department operations has made processes transparent while the use of AI has made procurement operations across India more responsive, he added that AI is being used right from the movement of grains to storage in smart warehouses to gauge temperature as well as check rodents and fire.
He explained that the distribution process of food grain itself involves over 2 lakh calls being made per day as part of customer feedback from those receiving rations.
Earlier, on Feb 16, the Centre rolled out a principle-based AI governance framework anchored in seven “Sutras” aimed at enabling safe, trusted, and inclusive artificial intelligence innovation across sectors.
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The framework underscores New Delhi’s attempt to strike a balance between accelerating AI adoption and embedding safeguards around accountability, fairness, and broader societal impact — as AI use cases expand rapidly across healthcare, agriculture, education, mobility, and public service delivery.
