Recently, the Tamil Nadu e-governance agency (TNeGA) expressed its desire to create the country's first voice user interface (VUI) in Tamil, to help residents fill up forms to avail government services.

This was announced by Santosh Misra, the CEO of the TNeGA at the global virtual summit, Responsible Artificial Intelligence for Social Empowerment (RAISE 2020) in New Delhi, on Friday, while highlighting Tamil Nadu's initiatives in artificial intelligence (AI). 

He announced this as a way of encouraging start-ups to join the state in their aim to develop this technology. He assured the agencies that the state will back them but also reminded them that these solutions need to be low-cost for the benefit of the common man.

Tamil Nadu was one of the two states to have been specially given slots at the summit to showcase their initiatives; the state is a unique as it has its own policies on ethical AI, cyber-security and blockchain.

A voice user interface enables people to 'speak' and interact with devices using speech recognition technology. Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa are two mainstream voice user interfaces which are also eyeing the market of local language-enabled voice user interfaces. 

Later, while speaking with the print publication The New Indian Express, Misra divulged the goal of developing a Tamil-based government voice user interface as a way to lift the technological barrier between common folks and government e-services. He said that the majority of people, from rural regions like old people, aren't tech-savvy, and still depend on the local e-sevai centres because they either don't have access to a keyboard or face difficulties in operating it. The voice user interface in Tamil will remove the barrier, he added.

He further shared that TNeGA is also conceptualising an AI-based satellite imagery to reduce urban and water body encroachment at the behest of the Chennai Smart City.

The Additional Chief Secretary Hans Raj Verma, who heads the state information technology department, said that AI technology is an area that will ensure social inclusion and create sustainable jobs in the state. He further stated that AI can also help Tamil Nadu document the biodiversity wealth of the state. The session was moderated by Raj Cherubal, chief executive officer of Chennai Smart City.

The session also included Sridhar Vembu, chief executive officer of Zoho Corporation, Jitender Singh Minhas, CEO IAMAI Start-up Foundation, Dr Ashfaq Bhat, Director of Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI) and Tathagato Rao Dastidar, CEO of Sig-Tupple at Raise 2020.