CHENNAI: After coming out with an Ethical Artificial Intelligence policy, the State government is planning to come out with a data policy as it is chalking out a vision for the state to harness the technology for data -centric-governance and social betterment.
Speaking at Nunnarangu ‘21 -Tamil Nadu AI & Data Analytics Conclave: A Hybrid Conclave featuring experts from government, academia and industry, Information Technology Minister T Mano Thangaraj said that the focus of the government is for data-driven governance and data drive decision-making. The aim is that people eligible for government schemes are able to avail it, said the minister.
Currently, data collected by different departments are in silos and need to be put into an integrated format so that inferences regarding new schemes, welfare measures, and proposed subsidies can be drawn. This would remove ineligible and fraudulent beneficiaries availing schemes.
After the success of the paperless Assembly session, the government is keen to bridge the digital divide in the state secretariat and make it paperless. A total of 3,600 staff in the secretariat are undergoing training. The minister also highlighted projects using IT tools and solutions to provide efficient Government to Government (G2G) and Government to Citizens (G2C) services.
Similarly, the government is coming out with applications using artificial intelligence and one of them was e-paarvai. Under this NeGA has developed an intelligent AI-powered mobile application called E-Paarvai to identify the presence of cataracts in a person’s eye. Apart from this, the state is looking at tapping artificial intelligence for the agriculture sector. Already AI-based apps are developed for identifying pests in wheat crop, says Information technology secretary Neeraj Mittal.
Similarly, TN e-governance Agency is developing an app to advise farmers on soil health and the kind of fertilisers to be used, said K Vijayendra Pandian, director and chief executive officer of TNeGA. This app will be developed using sensors and drones. Similarly, the government is planning to develop AI-based security apparatus. This could be applied in Palani temple to manage security breaches.