Tamilnadu, the southern state that is renowned for industries like sugar, textiles and automobiles, has slowly been building its capabilities as a tech hub. In the recent past, the success of companies like Zoho and Freshdesk, founded in Chennai, have shown that the state too has ambitions to excel as a tech hub. Several IT companies and banks continue their south operations in Chennai, and there has been a spur of startups emerging from Tier 2 cities like Coimbatore and Madurai. 

This year, Tamilnadu made history as the only Indian state to launch an AI policy. TN has also been exploring various applications of emerging technologies for better governance. Here are some examples:

Nation’s First AI Policy

In September 2020, TN CM Eddapaddi K Palaniswami announced the state’s first AI policy, becoming the first Indian state to launch an independent AI framework. The policy recommends the Six-Dimensional TAM-DEF Framework for evaluation of AI-based systems. The framework’s factors like transparency & audit, accountability & legal issues, misuse protection, digital divide and data deficit, ethics and, fairness and equity, ensure that the evaluation is aligned to democratic values.

Voice User Interface in Tamil For Improved Governance

During RAISE 2020, Santosh Misra, CEO of TNeGA expressed the organization’s keenness to start the state’s first Voice User Interface (VUI) in Tamil to help citizens avail government services with ease. This, Misra believed, would also encourage startups to assist the state government’s endeavours.

Facial Recognition System In Schools

The TNeGA developed a facial recognition system (FRS), supported by an AI-based attendance system to monitor school students at Triplicane High Road’s government schools. Following the implementation, the school authorities reported an 85% drop in stragglers and latecomers. The success of this project will precipitate a state-wide rollout programme in schools.

Pest Control System For Crops

Through an app called Uzhavan, TNeGA’s pest identification system helps farmers diagnose pest infection in their crops and provide them with remedial measures

Monitoring Rural Water Supply In A Water-Stressed State 

With TN being one of the most water-stressed states in India, TNeGA developed a low-cost rural drinking water supply monitoring system using IoT sensors, AI and ML. This will generate daily report on drinking water supply in rural Tamilnadu.

Street Light Monitoring For Improved Safety

TNeGA plans to develop an IoT-based automated smart street monitoring system to detect street light failures in real-time. Low-cost sensors assisted by open-source technology is the backbone of this project, and is expected to deliver high accuracy with low error rates.

Smart Assistant For Urban Governance

Last year, TNeGA and Anna University developed a Tamil chatbot named Anil (squirrel in Tamil) using Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence technology. The chatbot will guide and advise people by answering their queries and guide them to obtain government services like obtaining nativity certificates, income certificates, government certificates, and so on.

Centre of Excellence for Emerging Technologies

In January 2019, the CM of Tamilnadu Eddapadi K Palaniswami announced the creation of a Centre of Excellence in Emerging Technologies in TNeGA. The CEET has been established with the vision to bridge the knowledge gap between development and application of emerging technologies in Government Departments. Some projects include identifying crop health using, internal bleed detection using AI, computer vision based attendance systems for schools and other institutions, blockchain enablement, IoT-driven monitoring of water supply, chatbot development for improved governance and monitoring Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.

MoUs For Propelling TN as an IoT, AI hub

The state government, steadfast in its mission to make TN a tech hub, has signed MoUs worth Rs. 20,000 cr this year alone, focused on strengthening the infrastructure for IoT and AI.

Expanding Curriculum In Schools and Colleges

School curriculum will include courses, and more than 60 colleges have started teaching its graduates courses in AI, data science, cyber security, computer science, business systems and Machine Learning.

TNSDC partners with Coursera

Through the Tamil Nadu Skill Development Council, the Tamilnadu government partnered with Coursera to make 4,000 courses in AI, IoT, blockchain, data science and cloud computing available to 50,000 unemployed youths.

AI-based app for COVID screening

Like many state governments and institutions that sprung into action to develop solutions to combat the novel coronavirus SARS CoV-2, Sastra University in Thanjavur district developed a software to screen X-rays of COVID patients. The software uses ML trained on millions of images, to identify and isolate patients that need immediate intervention based on the scan results.

Maintaining quarantine protocols with AI

Pixxon AI Solution, a Chennai based software company specializing in AI tools for surveillance, developed an app in just 48 hours to aid law enforcement officials to keep tabs on COVID+ patients on quarantine protocols

HCL and TN Govt partner to set up data analytics centre

The government plans to set up a Disaster Management – Data Analytics Centre – set up with the help of HCL Technologies, to collate data on the state’s COVID cases, develop data trends and analysis, and assist officials in making more informed plans for disease management

AI for monitoring medical exams

The Dr. MG Ramachandran Medical University is expected to use AI to monitor malpractices during medical examinations