As part of their winter study tour (Bharat Darshan), 18 IAS trainees, 2014 batch, visited The Akshaya Patra Foundation in Bangalore on 29 and 30 January 2014.

On the first day of the visit, they were addressed by thought leaders, Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, who spoke on the importance of spiritualism in public life. Chanchalapathi Dasa, Vice Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, spoke about the contribution of Akshaya Patra in the mid-day meal programme.

Dr R. Balasubramaniam, Founder and Chairman, Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM), engaged the participants in a discussion on effective leadership and the need for convergence between government programmes. Mr Chiranjeev Singh IAS (Retd) and Mr A N Yellapa Reddy, IFS (Retd) discussed various aspects of rural development.

On the second day of the visit, the IAS trainees visited a Government school to observe the impact of the mid-day meal programme and later visited Akshaya Patra's centralised kitchen at Vasanthapura.

Another batch of IAS Trainees had attended similar exposure visit in Akshaya Patra Ahmedabad in December 2013.