By Desaraju Surya

AMARAVATI: The Chandrababu Naidu-led National Democractic Alliance government in Andhra Pradesh is swiftly heading towards a digital transformation leading to an Artificial Intelligence-powered governance to “re-imagine public service delivery and social equity”.

The government will primarily build efficiencies using new technologies, which are driving the ‘digital disruption’, like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Big Data Analytics.

The move will also be towards data-driven or evidence-based decision making that will lead to a “proactive governance”.

These new technologies are “exceptionally powerful, highly affordable, easy to use” and enable quick implementation, according to former Secretary of MeITY Rentala Chandrasekhar.

Chandrasekhar is currently Chairman of the Centre for Digital Future.

The retired IAS officer, however, cautioned that the government should avoid the “tech-first trap” but instead focus on “citizen-first” approach.

“Start with the problem, not technology. Technology is only the enabler, not the goal,” Chandrasekhar told senior bureaucrats of the government at a two-day Skill Development Workshop on AI and Emerging Technologies for Government Digital Transformation.  

He stressed on the need for defining the problems first, aligning them with the stakeholders and then applying AI for finding solutions.

“The outcomes have to be clearly defined and measured,” the former bureaucrat noted.

The new digital technologies could primarily be used in key departments like agriculture, medical and health, rural and urban development, police (traffic management), education, mines and geology and labour.

The state government will now choose a team of young IAS officers, each with 7-10 years of experience, who will be trained as ‘AI Champions’ and ‘AI Enablers’.

These tech-savvy champions and enablers will drive the government’s digital initiatives and data-driven programmes through their innovation and problem-solving capabilities.

By October, these champions and enablers will develop ‘Proof of Concept’ on varied themes and present to a jury to be constituted by the IC&T Department.

In the next step, the government will identify AI-led digital transformation projects in large citizen-centric departments and prioritise them.

An AI Strategy Roadmap will be prepared with the prioritised project and a data platform built.

An AI Steering Committee headed by the Chief Minister and an AI Task Force led by the Chief Secretary will be constituted for smooth implementation of the AI roadmap.

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