Dr Arvind Krishna, the CEO of IBM during the IBM’s Think Digital Event said, “ history will look back on this as the moment when the digital transformation of business and society suddenly accelerated. This is an opportunity to develop new solutions, new ways of working, and new partnerships that will benefit your company and your customers, not just today, but for years to come.”

And India is all set to create this history. The boom of AI in India is real. Along with the national government, the regional and intergovernmental organizations have also raced to put in place AI-targeted policies to maximize the promise of the technology. The state governments are independently taking numerous initiatives and policies to make the best out of AI.

Let’s explore some such initiatives in the year 2021:

Blockchain Network for E-Government Procurement (E-GP) Systems, Karnataka

The government of Karnataka collaborated with CRUBN, an IIT Kanpur-based startup to develop a state-of-the-art blockchain network for all e-Government Procurement (e-GP) systems across the country. This network will be used for validating the claims of suppliers along with their identities. The proposed system will connect all the e-GP systems through a network, which will help retrieve and validate relevant supplier data between various e-GP Systems that are in use within India. The proposed system will also digitize Bank guarantees by powering them using the trust-based automation of Blockchain.

Facial Recognition to Track Covid-19 Patients, Maharashtra

In March 2021, The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) announced the launch of facial recognition by 3,800 CCTVs that are installed across the city, to arrest COVID spread. “The photos of people - with and without masks - who tested positive for COVID-19 will be uploaded on the AI system, and automatically be detected by the CCTV system if they break the home quarantine or are found roaming about in the city. Zonal civic staff will then visit the home of the violator immediately, levy a fine of Rs. 5,000, and admit the person in an institutional quarantine,” said the Nagpur Civic chief Radhakrishnan.

Automated Poll Counting in Panchayat Polls, Bihar

The Bihar State Election Commission announced to automate vote-counting amid the 2021 Bihar Panchayat poll election. This was the first time an artificial intelligence (AI) system was used for vote counting in the country. “JARVIS, an artificial intelligence (AI) powered proprietary Video Analytics of Staqu would count votes through the camera that monitors the screens of electronic voting machines (EVMs) with the help of Video Management Software (VMS) and video analytics (VA). JARVIS will act as a validator for the votes received by contestants. The technology can alert authorities in case of any discrepancy”, said an official.

Targeting Brick Kiln Hotspots of Air Pollution, Bihar

The Bihar State Pollution Control Board (BSPCB) collaborated with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), India to ensure better air quality in the state. According to BSPCB, brick kilns caused 14% of the air pollution in the state, with most of them situated in remote areas making manual inspection difficult. Therefore, AI and remote sensing techniques were used by the state’s pollution control board to detect key sources of air pollution through satellite images and real-time monitoring. With the aid of AI, the challenge of monitoring about 9,000 brick kilns in Bihar was brought down to less than 1,000.

AI to Benefit Cotton Farmers, Telangana

The Telangana State Agriculture Department signed an agreement with Wadhwani AI to deploy solutions for the benefit of cotton farmers. The solution, delivered through an app, offered real-time localized advisory and surveillance, enabling farmers to catch pest infestations early and take correct and immediate action to avoid significant crop damage and subsequently improve the quality of the crop and incomes. The solution was deployed with 700 lead farmers and 17,000 cascade farmers across the four states of Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Karnataka through agricultural programs managed by the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) partners.