The Ministry of Defence (MoD)recently launched an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered grievance management application in New Delhi. It was developed by the Ministry of Defence with the help of the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur (IIT-Kanpur). The application, which will be deployed in the Ministry, automatically handles and analyses complaints, reducing human errors, saving time, and enhancing transparency.
According to a press release, this is the first AI-based system to improve grievance redressal for government operations. The tool can understand the content of the complaint and automatically identify repeat complaints or spam. Based on the meaning of the complaint, it can categorise complaints into different categories even when keywords normally used for such a search are not present in the complaint.
The tool enables the geographical analysis of complaints in a category including the analysis of whether the complaint was adequately addressed or not by the concerned office. The release added that the user-friendly search enables users to formulate their own queries/categories depending on management requirements and seek performance results based on the query. Thousands of complaints are received on the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances’ (DARPG) Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS). The application will aid in understanding the nature of complaints, geographies from where they emanate, and policy changes that can be introduced to create systemic improvements to address these grievances.
Speaking on the occasion, Singh described the application as a product of good governance, which reflects the growing synergy between the government and academia. He claimed that the initiative is another citizen-centric reform. He lauded DARPG for playing an important role in the reform of the public grievances redressal system. He added that the active involvement of educational institutions like IIT-Kanpur will further bolster the system and resolve the grievances of people effectively and transparently.
The release of this application marks the introduction of AI-based innovations into governance and administration. This project is a first-of-its-kind initiative by the government that uses AI, data science, and machine learning techniques in grievance redressal. The success of this project in the Ministry of Defence will pave the way for the extension of this application across other ministries. The Ministry and IIT-Kanpur intend to drive their collaboration forward in the coming years, seeking to better leverage the use of AI for the disposal of citizens’ complaints, the press release noted. The centre received over 28,000 public grievances between March and June this year, of which 19,694 were disposed of.
The government has been collaborating with several educational institutes to deploy technology-based solutions for public service delivery. Areas like AI, machine learning, and deep learning are quickly developing traction. In fact, machine learning, AI, computer programming, and deep learning have become the top online courses taken up by Indians, according to a report by an online learning platform, Coursera. About 10.6 million Indians have registered on the platform to date, falling behind only the United States. The findings come at a time when online learning has taken over traditional classroom lessons. As OpenGov Asia reported, Other popular courses include Javascript, blockchain, the Internet of things, web development, and C programming. These courses are also popular in other countries such as Germany, Russia, China, Australia, and Saudi Arabia. India ranked 67th among 104 countries in terms of digital skills.