Fadnavis launches MahaINDUS sovereign AI platform and new digital services for Maharashtra government

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday launched several digital initiatives. These include MahaINDUS, a secure artificial intelligence (AI) platform, and new services on MahaDBT 2.0, Aaple Sarkar 2.0 and the MAITRI portal. The aim is said to be to increase transparency, accountability and efficiency in government functioning.

Fadnavis chaired a review meeting of the MahaSarthi portal at the Sahyadri Guest House in Mumbai. The initiatives were launched at the same meeting.

The Chief Minister said the use of AI, integrated databases and digital systems would enable the government to identify eligible beneficiaries, verify claims, assess the effectiveness of welfare schemes and improve services to the public.

According to Fadnavis, MahaID will bring citizens' information to one place and increase the efficiency and accountability of government departments. He said more than one crore IDs have been created since the soft launch of the system. The platform will be rolled out on a large scale once backend integration across all departments is complete.

Integrated digital systems will make it easier for officials to search government resolutions, manage correspondence and carry out routine administrative work, he said. Fadnavis said Maharashtra is the first state in the country to use sovereign AI in this manner.

MahaINDUS has been developed in collaboration with Sarvam AI. It will help with drafting, translation, summarisation and data analysis in 22 Indian languages, including Marathi. According to the government, safeguards have been put in place so that government data does not leave the country and is not used to train AI models.

The platform has three main features: "GR Expert" to search government resolutions and track changes in them, "Email Summariser" to summarise email correspondence, and "RFP Bid Evaluator" to compare and evaluate tenders.

Saying that work on MahaSarthi is nearing completion, Fadnavis directed departments to finish the pending portions at the earliest. He said that if departments' databases are linked through application programming interfaces (APIs), data will be updated regularly, and implementation of schemes, use of funds and verification of beneficiaries will improve. The system is expected to help identify eligible and ineligible beneficiaries in individual-benefit schemes and check whether government programmes are delivering the intended results.

Fadnavis stressed that launching digital platforms is not enough and that departments must use them actively and take them to as many people as possible. He said greater use would allow technical flaws and operational difficulties to be noticed in time and fixed. He also directed departments to meet deadlines and plan the next phases of implementation.

Under MahaDBT 2.0, the government launched 36 new schemes: 24 of the Fisheries Department, 10 of the Labour Department and two of the Women and Child Development Department. Aaple Sarkar 2.0 has added 71 services of various departments, of which 61 belong to the Transport Department. On the MAITRI portal, 13 new services of the Legal Metrology Department have been launched.

Fisheries Minister Nitesh Rane, State Right to Services Commission Chief Commissioner Manukumar Srivastava, Chief Secretary Rajesh Agrawal and Virendra Singh, Secretary of the Electronics, Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence Department, were present at the meeting, along with senior officials, divisional commissioners and district collectors.