CHENNAI: About 50 Tamil Nadu government services, including applying for ration cards, nativity and income certificates, payment of taxes, trade licences and booking of tickets in government buses, can soon be done through WhatsApp from anywhere.
An AI-powered bi-lingual chatbot (English and Tamil) will ensure that the user is able to get what they are looking for without being rerouted to any external interface through links or other applications, officials said.
The Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (TNeGA) is working to roll out the WhatsApp-based e-governance solution in next three months, sources said. Minister of Information Technology and Digital Services Palanivel Thiaga Rajan had made the announcement regarding the service in the Assembly in April.
‘Chatbot uses Generative AI to interpret citizens’ request’
“Any form that needs to be filled or document to be uploaded when applying for a service can be done on WhatsApp itself. In case they are applying for documents such as nativity or income certificates, they will be able to download them as PDF files.
Payments (the minimal fee charged for different types of services) can also be made through WhatsApp’s native payment feature. We are also providing other digital payment options,” said Dr Alby John Vargheese, Chief Executive Officer, Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency.
The chatbot will support Tamil and English interactions and through the ‘Flow’ feature of WhatsApp Business Platform dynamically guide users through services. It plans on tapping into Generative AI to interpret citizens’ requests and direct them to the appropriate service.
TNeGA is expected to work out an agreement with Meta platforms before rolling out the solution for the public. A multi-layered security mechanism would be put in place, including OTP authentication for specific services, according to officials.
The facility will also allow checking the status of applications, apart from allowing obtaining a first-graduate certificate, residence certificate, no male child certificate, payment of water and property taxes, viewing and downloading encumbrance certificates, knowing your guideline value, payment of electricity bills and even booking TN Tourism Development Corporation’s boat houses. Application for ration cards, change of address in the cards, and addition or deletion of members can also be done.
The services that will now be on offer will cover at least 13 government departments, which may be assigned unique WhatsApp numbers. User engagement patterns will be used for reviews along with an administrative dashboard for monitoring and management of interactions.
TNeGA plans to go live with 50 services in the next three months and then work on another 50 services in two batches. While it is looking to make 100 services available through WhatsApp in the first phase, it plans to eventually bringing all of the 34,843 services offered at the e-sevai centres to WhatsApp, officials added.