India, the second-most populous country in the world with over 1.2 billion people, boasts one of the fastest-growing economies bolstered by the youngest workforce in the world. While millions of dollars are spent every year on tackling malnutrition, 3,000 children die every day due to hunger. In a bid to combat this problem, Accenture Labs has teamed up with Akshaya Patra, the world's largest NGO-run mid-day meal program, to use disruptive technologies such as the blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) to boost the number of meals served to children in schools in India that are run and aided by the government. Since 2000, Akshaya Patra has been working toward reaching more children to provide them with wholesome food every single school day. When it first started it was serving 1,500 schoolchildren in five schools.

At first glance, the letter from the Delhi police commissioner's desk could have easily been dismissed as another routine laundry list of his department's "achievements" in the previous year. A closer look at the letter, written a little over two years ago, would have sprung a pleasant surprise in the context of the city police's technology prowess. The Delhi Police, according to the letter, had partnered with the Indian Space Research Organisation to implement CMAPS--Crime Mapping, Analytics and Predictive System--under the "Effective use of Space Technology-based Tools for Internal Security Scheme" initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014. CMAPS generates crime-reporting queries and has the capacity to identify crime hotspots by auto sweep on the Dial 100 database every 1-3 minutes, replacing a Delhi Police crime-mapping tool that involved manual gathering of data every 15 days. It performs trend analysis, compiles crime and criminal profiles and analyses the behaviour of suspected offenders--all with accompanying graphics.

Accenture Labs and Akshaya Patra Use Disruptive Technologies to Enhance Efficiency in Mid-Day Meal Program for School Children "Million Meals" project applied artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and blockchain to drive efficiency and timeliness of lunch program in government schools across India BENGALURU, India; Apr. 20, 2017 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Akshaya Patra, the world's largest NGO-run Mid-Day Meal Program, collaborated on an innovative project that used disruptive technologies to exponentially increase the number of meals served to children in schools in India that are run and aided by the government. The "Million Meals" project revolutionized Akshaya Patra's supply chain and operations, resulting in improved food quality and expanded service reach. Rooted in a vision to eliminate child hunger, the "Million Meals" project demonstrated how disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain can help address significant challenges in mass meal production and delivery. Accenture Labs, the research and development arm of Accenture, executed the project over a period of six months in Akshaya Patra's Bengaluru kitchen. An analysis of the project indicated a potential to improve efficiency by 20 percent, which could boost the number of meals served by millions.

"Million Meals" project applied artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and blockchain to drive efficiency and timeliness of lunch program in government schools across India Accenture and Akshaya Patra, the world's largest NGO-run Mid-Day Meal Program, collaborated on an innovative project that used disruptive technologies to exponentially increase the number of meals served to children in schools in India that are run and aided by the government. The "Million Meals" project revolutionized Akshaya Patra's supply chain and operations, resulting in improved food quality and expanded service reach. Rooted in a vision to eliminate child hunger, the "Million Meals" project demonstrated how disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain can help address significant challenges in mass meal production and delivery. Accenture Labs, the research and development arm of Accenture, executed the project over a period of six months in Akshaya Patra's Bengaluru kitchen. An analysis of the project indicated a potential to improve efficiency by 20 percent, which could boost the number of meals served by millions.