BMC recovers ₹13 crore with AI detection of irregularities in desilting
Considering this foray into using AI as successful, particularly as monitoring desilting requires wading through legions of footage, additional municipal commissioner Abhijeet Bangar said the civic body will be investing more and bringing on board an agency for better AI detection for the next pre-monsoon desilting exercise.
'The most common violation the AI system flagged was when photos and videos of desilting were not uploaded, which made it an open and shut case,' said Bangar. 'Another slight the system caught is when the time difference between an empty van and a van filled with silt was too little to be believable.'
The AI detection system also recognised desilting footage that was filmed from an old pre-recorded video from a different phone at the site to have correct GPS markers. This was spotted from the shadowing seen in the footage. In these cases, the BMC automatically deducted the payment for the desilting trip to the contractor, without seeking an explanation. Bangar said this was done to increase compliance from the contractors and ensure the job was carried out properly.
In one instance in the T ward, the AI system flagged 90 desilting trips for a 200-meter stretch of a nallah, where far fewer trips were needed. The BMC issued notices to the contractor in this matter before taking action. AI also helped officials identify vehicles allegedly having adulterated debris with silt in the M West ward in May 2025. This resulted in BMC cancelling the contract and blacklisting the implicated contractor for three years.
As the BMC spent a whopping ₹238 crore in 2025-26 on desilting across all nallahs -- minor, major and the Mithi, Bangar reasoned it makes sense to invest in AI so that the exercise would be foolproof. 'For instance, AI can be trained to identify if there is a lot of dust in the process of desilting in the videos uploaded to flag debris being mixed. For this, it needs to be trained repeatedly and refined. An agency will help us perfect this,' he said.
Sources in the BMC also suggest that the stringent requirements of footage and AI checks have resulted in a backlog in the desilting target, particularly in the minor nallahs, with contractors shrinking the work due to the increased checks. Instead of being worried, officials said this would help identify how much desilting is required for the city next year to function in heavy rains.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
41 minutes ago
- India Today
Tim Cook rallies staff, says AI revolution bigger than internet and Apple will invest to grab it
Apple CEO Tim Cook has told employees that the company is going 'all in' on artificial intelligence, describing it as a technology revolution on par with, or even greater than, the internet and the smartphone era. According to Bloomberg, Cook delivered the message in a rare allhands meeting held in the company's oncampus auditorium, following the iPhone maker's latest earnings report. The address was aimed at energising Apple staff around AI and what Cook called the company's 'amazing' pipeline of future must do this. Apple will do this. This is sort of ours to grab,' Cook told staff. 'We will make the investment to do it,' he CEO compared the rise of AI to past technological shifts. 'We've rarely been first,' he said. 'There was a PC before the Mac; there was a smartphone before the iPhone; there were many tablets before the iPad; there was an MP3 player before iPod. This is how I feel about AI.' Cook said the company was 'open' to mergers and acquisitions to accelerate progress. Reports have suggested that Apple has even weighed up potential acquisitions, including AI search engine Perplexity and the French startup Mistral was months behind OpenAI, Alphabet and Microsoft when it announced its Apple Intelligence features last year – and even then, several of those tools failed to arrive in time for the iPhone 16 launch, leading to some awkward delays and Cook downplayed concerns about the slow rollout and said that perhaps not first, but Apple delivers the best. However, he urged employees to speed up how quickly AI is integrated into Apple's work. 'All of us are using AI in a significant way already, and we must use it as a company as well,' Cook said. 'To not do so would be to be left behind, and we can't do that.'AI strategy and Baltra chipsCook noted that 12,000 new hires had joined Apple over the past year, with 40 per cent of those roles focused on research and development. Much of this effort ties into Apple's AI strategy, particularly its inhouse chip development led by Johny has reported that Apple is building a new cloudcomputing chip, codenamed Baltra, specifically designed to power AI features. Alongside that, a dedicated AI server manufacturing facility is being established in retail expansion and new marketsThe meeting also touched on other priorities. Cook acknowledged that tariffs from the Trump administration remain a challenge, saying they will create a $1.1 billion headwind for the current quarter. Even so, Apple has remained optimistic about sales and highlighted that App Store revenue grew by a doubledigit percentage last quarter despite regulatory pressures in Europe and is also a focus area. Cook said Apple is 'opening outlets in India, the United Arab Emirates and China this year, and is preparing to add its first location in Saudi Arabia next year'.'We need to be in more countries, and you'll see us go into more emerging markets in particular,' he told employees. That, he stressed, 'doesn't mean Apple will ignore other places,' but a 'disproportionate amount of growth' will come from new also addressed the company's climate goals, Apple TV+ growth and the increased regulatory scrutiny of Big Tech. 'The reality is that Big Tech is under a lot of scrutiny around the world,' he said. 'We need to continue to push on the intention of the regulation and get them to offer that up, instead of these things that destroy the user experience and user privacy and security,' he added.- Ends
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
AI Won't Replace IT Engineers, It'll Empower Them, Says Zoho CEO
AI as an Enabler, not a Threat Why the 20% Productivity Boost Matters The Human Element AI Can't Replace Live Events Upskilling is the New Job Security Building Human-Centric AI Ecosystems AI Is the Co-Pilot, Not the Captain In a time when artificial intelligence is both celebrated as revolutionary and demonized as a creator of jobs, Zoho Corporation CEO Sridhar Vembu is urging a more practical, future-looking approach. Talking of the actual effect of AI, Vembu said that it makes engineers about 20% more efficient but does not displace them. This vision comes at a juncture when businesses are balancing on a tight rope between making the most of AI developments and maintaining human Vembu, the strength of AI is augmentation, not automation. According to him, AI can make tasks like routine work, debugging code, and boilerplate code writing simpler, but it cannot perform the deep domain know-how, creativity, and context-aware decision-making that experienced engineers 20% increase might not sound earth-shattering at first glance, but in software development parlance, it's a huge productivity boost. AI-based tools such as Copilot, ChatGPT, and DeepCode assist developers in minimizing friction in their coding workflow, whether by automatically creating test cases, marking out possible bugs, or proposing optimized code. What took hours of trial and error can now be done in productivity gain is reflected in quicker product development timelines, quicker go-to-market schedules, and streamlined operations. In essence, engineers can do more with less now, which means innovation at scale, without expanding team sizes or exhausting as AI has been evolving so quickly, it still lacks contextual intelligence, the ability to comprehend a company's strategic objectives, customer pain points, and cross-functional constraints. As Vembu points out, AI lacks empathy, judgment, and long-term vision - qualities that are inherent in human engineers who purposefully design, scale, and responsibly engineers are the ones who train, tune, and control AI systems. Without the control of humans, even sophisticated AI models may develop into prejudice, inefficiency, or security loopholes. This highlights the importance of engineers keeping the wheel in hand, not only to employ AI, but to guide and control its response also quietly underscores the need for ongoing learning. Those engineers who take the initiative to upskill in such spaces as machine learning, prompt engineering, and AI operations (AIOps) are future-proofing themselves. In the current job market, flexibility is need to shift their L&D strategies too, to include AI fluency in their tech teams. AI literacy will become as essential as coding soon. Progressive organizations have already incorporated AI tools into their SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) and are challenging engineers to tinker, iterate, and of positioning AI as an employment-thieving villain, leaders such as Vembu promote establishing human-focused AI ecosystems, spaces in which machines are used to enhance human potential. Such a mindset supports ethical AI adoption , where machines are responsibly infused into workflows to complement, and not replace, human this is in line with Zoho's philosophy. Zoho has invested tremendously in AI-powered productivity while keeping its people culture intact. Sustainable growth, to Zoho, means unlocking talent, not replacing Vembu's words are a wake-up call to both technology leaders and engineers alike: AI is not the threat, it's the change. If AI is utilized judiciously, AI turns into a co-pilot, not a captain. Man vs. machine is not the future of work but man with machine, working smarter, building quicker, and solving more profound than fighting AI, engineers need to step into it, learn its mechanisms, and make it a source of competitive edge. Because ultimately, the most skilled engineers won't be replaced by AI, they'll be the ones designing it.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Apple CEO Tim Cook on AI replacing the iPhones: It is difficult to see ...
Apple recently delivered a strong third quarter for fiscal 2025. The company posted a a record June quarter review of $94 billion. During the earnings call Apple CEO Tim Cook also weighed in on the future of artificial intelligence and its potential to replace smartphones, saying it's 'difficult to see' AI overtaking the iPhone in the near term. Cook made the comment during the earnings call addressing the growing speculation about AI-powered wearables and ambient computing. 'It's difficult to see that today,' Cook said, when asked if AI could eventually replace the iPhone. 'But I wouldn't want to say never.' Cook also stressed on the fact that Apple has investing in AI, particularly for enhancing the user experience across its ecosystem. He also pointed out that features like personalised Siri, on-device intelligence and AI-powered photography are an example of how Apple is working on integrating AI in the Apple devices without. Compromising on the privacy aspect. iPhone still reigns supreme Apple CEO Tim Cook also believes that this perspective overlooks the iPhone's role as an indispensable tool. "The iPhone is not just a phone; it's a camera, a computer, a wallet, a health monitor, and so much more," Cook explained. "It is the device that is with you 24/7. Rather than replacing it, AI will make the iPhone even more powerful and personal, acting as the hub for all these incredible AI experiences. It will be the ultimate AI companion, not its replacement." The iPhone business posted exceptional results with $44.6 billion in revenue, up 13% year-over-year, setting a June record and shipping its 3 billionth iPhone since the product's 2007 launch. CEO Tim Cook highlighted the broad-based iPhone success, noting growth "in every geographic segment and double digit growth in emerging markets, including India, The Middle East, South Asia and Brazil. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like The 13 Most Luxurious Hotels In The World Undo AI investments accelerate as Apple prepares for future During the quarter, Apple significantly ramped up its artificial intelligence investments, with CFO Kevin Parekh confirming that AI represents "a significant portion of the driver of growth" in the company's increased capital expenditure. Cook emphasized AI's transformative potential, stating it's "one of the most profound technologies of our lifetime." Apple has already released over 20 Apple Intelligence features and continues developing a more personalized Siri experience expected to launch next year. The company's approach focuses on deeply personal, private AI features that run directly on-device using Apple Silicon, with more advanced capabilities handled by Apple's private cloud compute architecture.
