Defence Minister launches AI based public grievance lodging application; lauds DRDO, IIT

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday, July 15, launched an artificial intelligence (AI) based public grievance lodging application called CPGRAMS. The application has been launched with the combined efforts of the Defence research Development Organisation (DRDO) under the Ministry of Defence and IIT Kanpur. 

Making a way towards citizen-centric reforms

Acclaiming the introduction of the artificial intelligence-based grievance analysis application, the Defence Minister commended the Defence Research Development Organisation for its effort in paving way for citizen-centric reforms with scientific knowledge and technology in the country. "We are approaching towards citizen-centric reforms with scientific knowledge and technology. It is a pivotal initiative and the defense ministry has been at the forefront. Will will be launching the application today," he said.     

IIT applauded for active participation  

During the launch, the Defence Minister added that the initiative will be of immense help to the masses while extending his best wishes to all associated with the project. He also applauded the role of esteemed organisations like IITs in developing scientific innovations for reforms in the society."The world is progressing in the field of science and technology. AI is being used in every field. It will help people lodge their complaints easily and effectively. The active involvement of reputed institutions like IIT Kanpur will further strengthen the system and resolve the grievances of people in a transparent and effective manner. I extend my heartiest congratulations and best wishes to all associated with this project," he said.

He further appreciated the DRDO for executing the project under the Ministry of defense. "The Ministry of Defense had been working on Artificial intelligence for a long time and DRDO has done huge work. The organization has successfully developed robots for use in the military, applications like 'NETRA', equipment like 'Atman AI' to detect Covid from chest X-ray and many other things," said the minister.  

First of its kind initiative 

It may be noted here that, the initiative is considered to be the first of its kind as the launch of the application marks the introduction of AI-based innovations into governance and administration in the country with an aim to improve grievance redressal in the Government. 

According to the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public grievances, The Centralized Public Grievance Redress And Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) is an online web-enabled system that primarily aims to enable submission of grievances by the aggrieved citizens from anywhere and anytime (24x7) basis to Ministries/Departments/Organisations who scrutinize and take action for speedy and favorable redress of these grievances. The AI tool developed as part of the initiative has the capability to understand the content of the complaint based on the contents therein. As a result, it can identify repeat complaints or spam automatically. This application will have great use in understanding the nature of complaints, geographies from where they emanate, and policy changes that can be introduced to create systemic improvements to address these grievances. 

Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar; Additional Secretary, DARPG Shri V Srinivas, Additional Secretary MoD Smt Nivedita Shukla Verma, Director, IIT Kanpur Prof Abhay Karandikar and other senior officials of MoD were present on the launch of the application.