A Public Systems Lab (PSL) was inaugurated at IIT-Delhi on Tuesday to develop scalable solutions for civic systems and services that impact lakhs of people. The lab was inaugurated by Union Minister Piyush Goyal who called it a “game changer”.
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“Operations research, artificial intelligence, automation and other techniques can be key pillars for a transformative change to make India a developed country. This lab, which we have started today will be the harbinger of what Prime Minister Narendra Modi has articulated as the ‘big vision of India’, a developed nation,” Mr. Goyal said.
The lab has been set up at IIT-Delhi in partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) and the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT). It aims to curb corruption in the Public Distribution System by making it more efficient.
Rangan Banerjee, Director, IIT-Delhi said that the PSL will work closely with all stakeholders to identify projects around food systems and management and innovations, including those involving operations research, product development and data-based innovations.
“One of the proposed initiatives includes a Public System Fellowship programme, under which the World Food Programme and IIT-Delhi will send experts to the Ministry of Food to help them make the food-based safety nets effective and efficient using operations research and optimisation,” Mr. Banerjee said.