Feeding millions, powered by analytics: DFPD’s Edelman Journey

Published: April 7, 2026

Each year, organizations from around the world demonstrate how advanced analytics and operations research are solving real problems at massive scale – from retail and logistics to healthcare systems, public services, and the complex networks that keep our world moving.

Joining me today are members of the team from India’s Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD), working in partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme in India and the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.

Together, they developed Anna Chakra, an operations research–based decision support system designed to strengthen India’s Public Distribution System by optimizing the logistics that move food across the country.

Today we’ll hear how this ambitious project came together – and how operations research is helping transform food distribution at national scale.

So actually the results have been pretty significant for our operations and they have helped transform the way the public distribution system was run in the past. As you mentioned that it's led to an annual saving of about 2.5 billion rupees, which has happened on account of reduction in the inefficiency that were there in the transportation, taking routes which are suboptimal. And now the public resources, we are happy, are being utilized far more effectively and efficiently. Equally important is the fact that we also were able to ensure 35 % reduction in the emissions, which highlights or which emphasizes the point that the entire system has not only become more efficient, but more sustainable in terms of the environmental impact.

Interviewed this episode:

Sanjeev Chopra, DFPD; Ankit Sood, WFP; Nomesh Bolia, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD), India: DFPD, in partnership with the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) in India and Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, introduced Anna Chakra, an O.R.-based decision support solution, to strengthen India’s Public Distribution System by optimizing state-specific logistics. Its nationwide implementation led to an estimated savings of 2.5 billion Indian rupees (INR) annually and 35% reduction in emissions, contributing to India’s sustainability commitments. Moreover, its deployment and resultant capacity building have fostered efficient planning, expedited delivery and scalable, data-driven improvements, thereby benefiting more than 810 million people, including vulnerable populations. This first-ever nationwide implementation of O.R. in the public sector has created a template framework for a sustainable data-driven decision-making approach that can be scaled up across other departments in India and is ripe for global expansion.