In keeping with the digitization effort being actively pursued by the Indian government, the Government of Maharashtra has partnered with Haptik, the world’s largest conversational AI platform, to develop a chatbot for the purposes of effective information dissemination, as part of the Right to Services Act of 2015. The Act mandates that citizens should be able to access information regarding public services through digital platforms. The new chatbot will be another medium through which citizens can get their queries resolved.
Available on the Aaple Sarkar RTS (Right to Services) website, the bot provides easy, conversational access to information regarding 1,400 public services managed by the state government.
The platform has already received an overwhelming response from the residents of the state. The bot has substantially benefited users by providing them with instantaneous, accurate, transparent and complete information, as well as enabling them to track services offered by the state government.
You can try the bot here – https://aaplesarkar.mahaonline.gov.in/en
Haptik’s chatbot simplifies the process of searching through the vast array of public services. Users can simply search for services like ‘driving license’ to view all the prerequisites for the application process, and can then track the status of their application. Accessing relevant information, collating documents, initiating the application process, monitoring its progress to eventual completion and feedback submission, the RTS portal chatbot handholds the user through every stage of the process.
Commenting on the latest initiative, Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis said, “Accountability, efficiency, transparency and inclusion are the cornerstones of Good Governance. In today’s era, the test of true Government is provision of services and processing the paperwork with minimum human interference that too in a time bound manner. One should get the desired services or the desired paper processed in a time bound, transparent and predictable manner without even knowing the person behind the show. Technology is the only way we can scale governance and fulfill the aspirations of our young population and we are proud to state that in Maharashtra we have a dedicated portal ‘Aaple Sarkar’ through which more than 400 online services are being provided. In line with that the Aaple Sarkar Chatbot is another positive step to provide solutions to the queries of public through conversations. With the help of AI, this conversational facility is definitely going to significantly improve the public service frameworks. With the launch of this chatbot, the State Government endeavoured to provide complete range of services to the people in more efficient manner. Moreover, we are also planning to add support for Marathi and Hindi in this chatbot. “
Remarking on this commendable digitization effort, Aakrit Vaish, Co-Founder and CEO, Haptik said, “It always gives us immense joy to implement conversational solutions that can significantly improve public service frameworks, as these impact the lives of millions. The RTS chatbot comprises a range of algorithms that gives it the ability to process a large number of queries every day, analyzing each conversation, maintaining records and providing the user with the most useful information. We have been blown away by the state government’s adoption of AI technology in general, and are excited to work with them in the coming years to make the RTS bot successful statewide across multiple languages.”
Public services have long been accused of being stuck in non-standardized and inefficient methods of operation, which makes availing them a cumbersome task for citizens. In fact, the convoluted process often deters even those residents for whose benefit specific schemes are formulated. In such a scenario, platforms such as Aaple Sarkar offer a new means of making a technological intervention to extend these services in the most optimized manner to those who need it the most.