The case for a national civic assistant

The Hindu

30-04-2025

At Startup Mahakumbh 2025, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal questioned the focus of Indian start-ups on consumer-centric models, including food delivery apps and luxury services, contrasting them with China's emphasis on deep-tech sectors such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and electric vehicles. He urged the ecosystem to set higher ambitions and contribute to India's technological self-reliance. While receiving criticism from industry leaders who defended consumer-focused start-ups for job creation and economic growth, his remarks raised an important question: what kind of innovation should define India's global presence?
While start-ups may draw inspiration from China's technological path, the Government of India must recognise that it too has a unique opportunity and thereby a responsibility. This opportunity is not simply one to replicate global models, but to go a step further and set an example itself by innovating in the public governance space.
It means that the government has an opportunity and responsibility to use advanced technology to create public governance-oriented systems that are inclusive, transparent, and responsive to citizen needs. Creation of such systems will not only enhance public service delivery and make citizens feel genuinely heard, but may also inspire private sector start-ups to move beyond imitation and contribute to broader, purpose-driven innovation.
Public governance platforms
India already has a variety of digital platforms in the public governance space. The Union and State governments, NGOs, and start-ups regularly introduce new ones. Yet citizens continue to face issues and confusion when filing complaints pertaining to even common civic problems such as stray animals, unattended garbage, potholes, and broken infrastructure. Some cities and States operate their own civic platforms for complaints. Delhi uses MCD 311 and Green Delhi, Andhra Pradesh has PuraSeva, and Karnataka offers Janahita. CPGRAMS is a national portal for grievances.
Most of these platforms follow similar processes which require selection of a category, a written description of the issue, sometimes photos in a particular format and so on. The platforms rely on rigid workflows that struggle with natural, unstructured user input. On certain platforms, complainants are also required to identify and select the appropriate department from a vast list of options. This is often cumbersome and challenging, especially when information about departmental jurisdictions is not readily accessible. Consequently, complainants make errors or become frustrated which may lead to the abandoning of the process midway. Current systems are also challenging for those who are not comfortable with digital tools or cannot describe and convey their issues in a formal language. Furthermore, there exists the problem of outdated user interfaces, and inconsistent platform responsiveness within the current systems. Hence, the whole experience in many platforms remain far from seamless.
Therefore, it is suggested that the government seize the opportunity and utilise technology towards modernising the grievance lodging and redress system by creating a nationally integrated, AI-powered civic assistant. This refers to the creation of a system, powered by large language models, to enable people to report issues in plain language, whether typed or spoken. The assistant would then interpret the complaint, identify the appropriate department and official, draft a formal submission, and provide the option to track its status. The entire interaction should take place through a chatbot interface, removing the need for forms, downloads, or complex navigation.
Accessible dashboard
Most important, once the complaint is submitted, it should be integrated into a publicly accessible dashboard that, while safeguarding personal information, comprehensively lists pending complaints by area, responsible department, and duration of pendency, along with other categorisations. Such a dashboard can act as a mechanism to instil and analyse accountability and transparency.
Today, many grievance redress systems remain opaque. Citizens often wonder if their complaints are even received. A dashboard could change it and act as a foundational pillar upon which public trust in the grievance redress framework may be cultivated. If a pothole goes unrepaired for 45 days, the delay will be public knowledge. If multiple complaints about stray dogs emerge from a single ward, a pattern will be visible. If one panchayat ward resolves issues faster than another, that difference will be measurable. India, despite its digital push, has not yet bridged this last-mile intelligence gap.
Generative AI models, even in their present stage, are capable of creating an impact in the public governance space. Systems such as AI civic assistants are a simple, achievable yet an impactful vision. It is noteworthy to mention that some start-ups have attempted innovation in this space where some designed conversational AI interfaces and some enabled public dashboards of complaints. However, these initiatives remain fragmented and relatively obscure because they often lack widespread public awareness and hence adoption.
A system of the scale and nature such as the AI civic assistant should ideally originate as a government-led initiative, supported by robust public outreach and sustained visibility such as the Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan or the 'Give up LPG subsidy' campaign. This will ensure that citizens across the country are both informed and empowered to make use of it effectively. Pertinently, such a platform should reach the citizen and not the other way around. The mantra can be 'One nation, one civic dashboard'.
Pertinently, a system like this, if designed and implemented with clarity, has the potential to redefine how citizens interact with the government. It will transform fragmented grievance channels into a unified, intelligent framework that sets a benchmark for governance. Hence, the Government of India should take responsibility for showing what is possible in governance through action. If we accomplish this, then other nations may look to India as the benchmark instead of we looking at them as the benchmark.
Finally, the real question is not whether such simple yet impactful civic systems can be built, but whether it will be chosen to be built.
(Sidharth Kapoor is an advocate and public policy and tech enthusiast; views are personal)