India’s largest school lunch program just got a major digital upgrade. In a groundbreaking collaboration, Automation Anywhere and The Akshaya Patra Foundation are using AI-powered automation to overhaul how one of India’s most vital social impact organizations delivers its mission—feeding millions of children daily through the government-backed PM POSHAN program.
The headline result? A 70% reduction in donor engagement turnaround time, shrinking a 20-hour process to just 40 minutes. That’s not just efficiency—it’s transformation at scale.
AI Goes to the Heart of the Kitchen
Akshaya Patra currently provides mid-day meals to over 2.35 million children across 25,000+ schools in India. And while cooking and delivery are the visible parts of that massive operation, behind the scenes lies a sprawling web of donor management, supply chains, logistics, and route optimization. That’s where Automation Anywhere’s Agentic Process Automation (APA) comes in.
By automating donor workflows, optimizing delivery routes, and streamlining supply chains, the Foundation is freeing up its teams to focus on what really matters: expanding impact and deepening community engagement.
“We see technology as an enabler of purposeful transformation,” said Vinod Sudhakar, CIO at Akshaya Patra. “With smarter tools, we’re reaching more children—faster, more sustainably, and more effectively.”
Agentic Process Automation: Compassion Meets Code
Agentic Process Automation—Automation Anywhere’s latest evolution of RPA—combines AI agents with workflow intelligence to go beyond traditional automation. It’s not just about replacing repetitive tasks; it’s about building responsive, self-optimizing systems that adapt in real time to changing needs. That’s critical when your mission is to ensure no child in school goes hungry.
“Every rupee goes further, every meal reaches faster, and every child is nourished better,” said Neeti Mehta Shukla, Co-founder and Chief Social Impact Officer at Automation Anywhere. “We’re scaling compassion with precision.”
It’s also a reminder that AI, often maligned in public discourse, can be a force for immense good—when paired with the right mission.
What’s Next: Direct Sourcing, Smarter Fleets, Zero Waste
Phase one of the collaboration may have revolutionized donor processing and basic logistics, but what’s coming next is even more ambitious.
Upcoming initiatives include:
- AI-driven procurement systems to enable direct sourcing from local farmers and millers—empowering rural economies while reducing costs.
- Demand-responsive production planning using Agentic AI to minimize food waste and adjust kitchen output in real time.
- Fleet performance optimization across 2,200+ delivery vehicles and 1,500+ daily routes, using AI for better route planning, fuel efficiency, and operational visibility.
These enhancements aren’t just digital upgrades; they’re force multipliers for a mission that already operates at staggering scale.
A New Blueprint for Charity Operations?
The success of this partnership could mark a turning point for NGOs globally. Charitable organizations—often underfunded and overstretched—have traditionally lagged in adopting cutting-edge tech. But this collaboration proves that Agentic AI and automation aren’t luxuries; they’re enablers of greater impact.
As India scales its PM POSHAN program to cover more children and regions, Akshaya Patra’s digitized model may well become the standard for how social impact meets modern infrastructure.
In a world racing toward automation, it’s heartening to see those tools being used not just to grow margins, but to feed futures.
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