Nepal Engagement Session

20 Feb 2026 17:00h - 18:00h

Session at a glance

Summary

This discussion focused on how AI and language technology are transforming rural governance in India, particularly through the Ministry of Panchayati Raj’s digital initiatives. Shri Alok Prem Nagar from the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and Shri Amit Kumar discussed the implementation of AI-powered tools that have revolutionized how India’s 2.5 lakh gram panchayats operate and engage with citizens.

The conversation highlighted two major technological breakthroughs. First, the integration of Bhashini (India’s language AI platform) with eGram Swaraj portal enabled panchayat members to access financial information and planning documents in their local languages, dramatically improving transparency and participation. Second, the launch of Sabha Saar, an AI-enabled voice-to-text meeting summarization tool, addressed a critical pain point for panchayat secretaries who previously struggled with manual documentation of gram sabha proceedings.

The speakers emphasized how these tools have achieved remarkable scale and adoption. Uttar Pradesh successfully onboarded all 59,000 gram panchayats to the eGram Swaraj system in just 40 days, while Sabha Saar has processed over 115,000 gram sabha meetings across multiple states. The discussion revealed that 65% of panchayat secretaries identified meeting documentation as their most time-consuming activity, making Sabha Saar’s automated transcription and translation capabilities particularly valuable.

Both speakers stressed the importance of building solutions that address real grassroots needs rather than imposing technology from the top down. They highlighted how AI tools are enabling participatory governance by making government processes accessible in local languages and creating systematic records that citizens can review and act upon. The conversation concluded with optimism about India’s potential to lead global efforts in population-scale, multilingual AI for governance, leveraging the country’s experience with digital public infrastructure and frugal innovation approaches.

Keypoints

Major Discussion Points:

– Digital transformation of Panchayati Raj institutions through AI and language technology: The discussion centers on how the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MOPR) has leveraged Bhashini (India’s language AI platform) to make governance platforms accessible in local languages, enabling better citizen participation in gram panchayats across India’s 2.5 lakh villages.

– Sabha Saar – AI-powered meeting documentation tool: A key innovation that converts audio/video recordings of gram sabha meetings into structured minutes using voice-to-text technology, addressing the major pain point identified by 65% of panchayat secretaries who struggled with timely documentation of proceedings.

– eGram Swaraj platform and its multilingual capabilities: The comprehensive digital platform that handles everything from planning to payments for panchayats, enhanced with Bhashini’s translation capabilities to make financial information and governance data accessible to citizens in their native languages.

– Implementation challenges and solutions in rural AI adoption: Discussion of practical hurdles including connectivity issues, dialect diversity, and training needs, along with successful strategies like leveraging existing mobile phones rather than requiring new infrastructure investments.

– Future vision for AI in grassroots governance: Exploration of next-phase developments including service delivery improvements, automated issue tracking through image recognition, and the potential for India to lead global efforts in population-scale multilingual AI governance solutions.

Overall Purpose:

The discussion aims to showcase how India’s Ministry of Panchayati Raj has successfully implemented AI and language technology solutions to democratize access to governance information and improve participatory democracy at the grassroots level. The conversation serves as both a case study of successful rural AI implementation and a blueprint for scaling similar solutions across other government departments.

Overall Tone:

The tone is consistently positive and celebratory throughout, with speakers expressing genuine enthusiasm about the achievements and impact of these AI initiatives. The conversation maintains an optimistic, forward-looking perspective while acknowledging challenges pragmatically. Both officials demonstrate pride in their accomplishments (particularly the rapid adoption in Uttar Pradesh’s 59,000 gram panchayats) while remaining grounded about the practical realities of rural implementation. The tone becomes increasingly confident toward the end as they discuss India’s potential to lead global efforts in population-scale AI governance solutions.

Speakers

Speakers from the provided list:

– Shri Alok Prem Nagar: Works with the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MOPR), involved in implementing digital governance platforms like eGram Swaraj and Sabha Sar for gram panchayats across India

– Shri Amit Kumar: Associated with digital transformation initiatives in the public sector for over 20 years, works on AI implementation and public digital infrastructure

– Moderator: Session moderator facilitating the discussion on AI in rural governance and panchayati raj institutions

Additional speakers:

– Ms. Deepika: Mentioned at the end to felicitate Mr. Alok, specific role or title not mentioned

Full session report

This comprehensive discussion explored how artificial intelligence and language technology are fundamentally transforming rural governance in India, featuring insights from Shri Alok Prem Nagar from the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MOPR) and Shri Amit Kumar on the implementation of AI-powered tools that have revolutionised how India’s 2.5 lakh gram panchayats operate and engage with citizens.

The Digital Transformation Challenge

The conversation began with a powerful personal anecdote from Shri Alok Prem Nagar, who described attending a Gram Sabha meeting in Karnataka where, despite being a senior government official, he “didn’t understand a thing” due to language barriers. This moment of realisation became the catalyst for understanding a fundamental problem: how can citizens meaningfully participate in governance when they cannot comprehend the information being presented? As Nagar explained, “it is public money. Everybody in the panchayat needs money. It needs to know what kind of plans are uploaded, how many works got done that were as per the plans, how much did it cost.”

This challenge was particularly acute with the eGram Swaraj portal, a comprehensive digital platform that handles everything from planning to payment stage for all 2.5 lakh gram panchayats across India. Despite its comprehensive functionality, the platform operated exclusively in English, creating a significant barrier to citizen participation and transparency.

Breakthrough Solutions: Bhashini Integration

The transformative moment came with the integration of Bhashini, India’s language AI platform, into the eGram Swaraj system. This integration was first showcased at the Manthan 2023 event, an industry consultation initiative where experts were invited to suggest improvements to government operations. As Nagar described the impact: “imagine that a person from a panchayat is looking at the expenses page for his gram panchayat or her gram panchayat. And then by a click of a button, they’re able to see it in their own language. It was magic.”

This breakthrough enabled citizens to access financial information, planning documents, and governance data in their local languages, dramatically improving transparency and participation. Citizens could now independently review panchayat expenditures, understand development plans, and engage meaningfully in local governance without requiring intermediaries to translate English documents.

Sabha Saar: Revolutionising Meeting Documentation

The second major innovation emerged from systematic user research. A survey conducted by UNICEF using Rapid Pro questioned 8,000 panchayat secretaries across the country about their time allocation. The results revealed that 65% of respondents identified meeting conduct and recording as their most time-consuming activity, creating a significant bottleneck in panchayat operations.

This insight led to the development of Sabha Saar, an AI-enabled voice-to-text meeting summarisation tool powered by Bhashini’s automatic speech recognition services. The solution addresses connectivity challenges in villages by allowing recording on one device and processing on another system. The technical workflow involves Bhashini converting local language recordings to English, AI creating structured meeting minutes, and then Bhashini translating the final document back to the local language. The system includes “human in the loop” provisions for corrections and is expanding to include 11 additional languages including Assamese, Boro, Maithili, and Santal.

Since its launch in August 2024, Sabha Saar has processed over 1,15,115 Gram Sabha meetings, with states like Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Tripura advancing to second-stage implementations where they use the structured meeting minutes for systematic activity tracking and follow-up actions.

Implementation at Scale and Adoption Challenges

The discussion highlighted the extraordinary scale at which these solutions have been implemented. Uttar Pradesh, with its 59,000 gram panchayats, successfully onboarded the entire eGram Swaraj system in just 40 days. This achievement required registering digital signing certificates and transitioning completely from traditional chequebooks to digital payments across all panchayats.

As Shri Amit Kumar noted, “India’s population scale means even pilot projects exceed the performance scope of entire European countries.” This scale advantage, combined with India’s frugal innovation approach, enables solutions to be implemented at costs significantly lower than Western alternatives whilst maintaining quality standards.

The speakers acknowledged that challenges extend beyond technical issues to cultural change. Even in well-resourced corporate environments, manual note-taking persists despite available technology. The key to success was addressing infrastructure barriers by leveraging existing resources like mobile phones, eliminating procurement requirements and enabling rapid scaling. As Kumar noted, “All they need to have a mobile phone, which any which way they have, right? And the idea is just to kind of record and upload.”

Innovative Applications Beyond Core Functions

The speakers detailed several innovative applications demonstrating the broader potential of AI in rural governance. The Swamitva scheme, which conducted drone surveys over 3.3 lakh village habitations to establish property rights, generated dense point cloud information that was initially underutilised. AI analysis of this data has now enabled the identification of solar panel potential across 2.38 lakh gram panchayats, with roof-wise calculations available through the Gram Manchitra platform.

This solar potential mapping has been integrated with the PM Suryaghar Yojana portal, enabling gram panchayats to drive solar adoption campaigns effectively. Citizens can now zoom into their village, click on solar potential icons, and receive detailed information about how many solar panels can be fitted on specific rooftops.

Additional integrations include daily weather forecasts from the meteorological department delivered to every gram panchayat in local languages, and the Pancham WhatsApp-based chatbot platform for two-way communication with sarpanchas and panchayat secretaries.

Future Applications and Pilot Projects

The conversation explored ambitious plans for expanding AI applications in rural governance. A pilot project in Guwahati uses buses equipped with cameras to capture and automatically categorise infrastructure issues like potholes and drain overflow. This system integrates with the Meri Panchayat mobile interface for image-based issue reporting, automatically analysing images, assigning appropriate issue labels, and routing them to responsible departments with built-in escalation mechanisms.

Spatial development plans and visualisation tools have been implemented for 34 gram panchayats near highways, with Andhra Pradesh adopting spatial planning statewide. The next frontier involves comprehensive service delivery systems where citizens can vocalise their demands in local languages, track application status, and receive automated responses.

The speakers also discussed AI-powered agenda generation that could automatically populate meeting agendas based on previous commitments and follow-up requirements, creating systematic accountability loops.

Implementation Philosophy and Success Factors

Both speakers emphasised the importance of user-centred design and addressing real needs rather than imposing technology from above. As Nagar explained, “if you are ready with a product that addresses their needs and it is friendly and it meets, of course, my need was that I needed the money well accounted for and their need. It was a system that could make it very easy for them to do it. So we met halfway.”

Key success factors identified include: starting with clearly defined problems rather than technology-first approaches; ensuring solutions address mutual needs of both government and citizens; leveraging existing infrastructure to minimise adoption barriers; conducting thorough user research to identify real pain points; and maintaining focus on simplicity and accessibility rather than technical sophistication.

As Nagar noted, AI should be treated as a “good servant, bad master,” emphasising that technology should enable rather than replace human decision-making.

Cross-Departmental Adoption and Scaling

The MOPR experience offers valuable lessons for other ministries implementing AI solutions. The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation has already approached MOPR to use Bhashini for Village Water Committee meetings, demonstrating the potential for cross-departmental adoption of these language AI tools.

Democratic Impact and Structural Changes

The implementation of these AI tools has created measurable structural changes in panchayat functioning. States adopting Sabha Saar are developing second-generation applications that use structured meeting minutes for activity tracking, creating systematic records that enable citizens to monitor follow-up actions and hold officials accountable.

The availability of meeting minutes in local languages has enabled diaspora populations working in cities like Mumbai and Pune to monitor their home panchayats remotely, increasing engagement and accountability. Citizens can now drill into their gram panchayat’s records to examine Finance Commission grants, implementation status, bill preparation, payment completion, and asset locations with geographic tagging.

Global Leadership and Technological Sovereignty

The discussion concluded with optimistic assessments of India’s potential to lead global efforts in population-scale, multilingual AI governance. Drawing on successful experiences with digital public infrastructure including Aadhaar, UPI, FASTag, and GST, both speakers expressed confidence in India’s ability to implement AI solutions at unprecedented scale.

Shri Amit Kumar emphasised the importance of technological sovereignty, noting that “despite, in spite any kind of geopolitical risk, we should survive. Our system should run.” This requires open architecture, interoperability standards, and the ability to shift between different technologies whilst maintaining data residency within India.

Conclusion

This fireside chat demonstrated how AI can serve as a democratising force when designed with inclusion and accessibility at its core. By addressing language barriers and documentation challenges through problem-first rather than technology-first approaches, these initiatives have transformed passive governance systems into participatory platforms where citizens can meaningfully engage with local democracy.

The success of MOPR’s AI journey suggests that rural areas can adopt advanced technology more rapidly than urban environments when solutions address genuine needs without creating additional barriers. The experience positions India to lead global efforts in developing population-scale, multilingual AI governance solutions that could serve as models for other developing nations seeking to leverage technology for democratic participation and transparent governance.

The conversation ultimately reinforced that AI’s greatest value in governance lies not in replacing human decision-making but in enabling more informed, inclusive, and accountable democratic processes that strengthen the foundation of India’s democratic institutions whilst providing practical benefits that improve the daily lives of citizens across the country’s vast rural landscape.

Session transcript

Shri Alok Prem Nagar

All panchayats, all two and a half lakh of them, they are present on eGram Swaraj. For right from planning to the payment stage, everything is done on a portal which is called eGram Swaraj. This portal works in the English language. So I’ll tell you, in 2019 when we were starting something called the People’s Plan Campaign, I happened to attend a Gram Sabha in the state of Karnataka. I was there for something like 45 minutes and I was felicitated and sat on stage. And I didn’t understand a thing. And then it struck me, you know, I had this thing that how do you expect these people really to relate to what is happening? Because it is public money.

Everybody in the panchayat needs money. It needs to know what kind of plans are uploaded, how many works got done that were as per the plans, how much did it cost. It costs them to do it. And subsequently, they can raise issues in the meetings pertaining to the works close to their residences. And along came Bhashini. I think we had in the year 2023 an event called Manthan, where we invited a lot of people from the industry to tell us how we could conduct our business better. And so Bhashini was a revelation. And imagine that a person from a panchayat is looking at the expenses page for his gram panchayat or her gram panchayat. And then by a click of a button, they’re able to see it in their own language.

It was magic. And that was the starting point. Yeah. And subsequently, of course. We went from there and. We found out through a survey that what really hurts a panchayat secretary is not to be able to produce the minutes of meeting in time, which are very important, which are the only record of a panchayat’s proceedings. And then, again, using Bhashini and another tool, we were able to create Sabha Sar, in which if you input the video slash audio recording of your meeting, you are able to get a minuted draft, which you can then edit and upload. So that was miracle number two. And briefly, if I could also address Swamitva, the scheme that you mentioned.

Swamitva is a scheme where drone surveys are carried out over all the village habitations. So there are these pictures that are subsequent. Subsequently converted to ortho rectified images and they lead to property rights. for the people living inside those villages. But the way the images have been captured, there is dense point cloud information, all of which was getting wasted. Why? Because we were confining our attention only to the orthorectified images. So we had the AI guys look at that, and then they converted all those rooftops that they could see into the solarization potential. As a result of which now, out of the 3 .3 lakh gram panchayats where drone surveys have been carried out, in 2 .38 lakh gram panchayats, you can go to gram Manchitra, and you can zoom into your village, and then you can click the icon corresponding to the solar ability potential, and it will tell you roof -wise how many, panels can you fit there.

We’ve gone further. and we’ve integrated that with the PM Surigarh Yojana portal. As a result of which, the Gram Panchayat can drive it like a campaign and lead to greater rewards for everybody all around.

Moderator

Actually, it reaches the last mile citizen when you talk about those benefits. So India’s last mile operates in local languages and dialects, as you mentioned, solving that problem. So in your view, how critical is language AI in ensuring that digital governance platforms are inclusive and participatory and increases citizen trust and participation in Gram Sabhas?

Shri Alok Prem Nagar

Like I said, people are now able to follow what was something that was written in. They could still see it, of course. In the English language, then they’d have to go to the person who they knew to be very smart in the village and they’d have this person read it out to them. Now they can see it at their leisure. not just people here but people outside who are working in Mumbai can see what is happening in their panchayats and close to Pune or something and immediately they can get active about it so and the miniaturization tool that I mentioned that opens a whole new set of avenues now you can have a record then against that you can have action taken reports and then you could have follow up in the next meeting it makes it all amenable to very systematic representation on portals so that is what some of the states have already started doing and it is truly remarkable that anybody can go in there and when I say anybody I don’t mean just the panchayat secretaries anybody in a village can drill into their gram panchayats record and see that corresponding to the finance commission grants for any year what was the plan against which how much has been executed, how many bills were prepared against each activity and what is the status of the payment, whether it has been completed, where the asset exists, the geotags and then you can zoom in and maybe see it on Gramman Chitra.

So there are great rewards for everybody all around and we need to of course now intensify it through a capacity building training program. That is something we started doing from the previous year, but it has been an incredible journey. And it is being adopted all over, yeah.

Moderator

So Alokji, let’s talk a bit about Sabha Saar Impact. Let’s let our audience know about it. And with its launch on 14th August 2025, MOPR introduced an AI -enabled voice -to -text meeting summarization tool powered by Bhashini ASR Services. So as of 4th February 2021, over 1 ,15 ,115 Gram Sabha meetings have been held. process. So this is a good number I need a round of applause. So what structural changes have you observed in the panchayat functioning after Sabha Saar?

Shri Alok Prem Nagar

Sabha Saar was one thing that we carried out for the convenience of the panchayats and the panchayat secretaries as opposed to E. Gram Swaraj which was our selfish motive. We wanted panchayats to plan there and show all their vouchers there so that we could tell that this is how the money has been spent. But Sabha Saar actually came through as a part of a survey that was carried out using Rapid Pro by UNICEF. We asked something like 8 ,000 panchayat secretaries all over the country that how do you spend your time? How much of it is spent in inspections and attending programs? And meetings and making records? So one thing that came through was the conduct and recording of meetings was the in 65 percent of the respondents.

That was the activity that was sitting, you know, very heavy on their entire time availability. And so having realized this and having the help of Bhashini, we converted it into a tool. So in Bhashini, it’s very simple. There is no big standard operating procedure, as it were. So if you’re standing having a meeting, there has to be a recording device. It could well be your mobile phone. And then through audio or video recording, you can just place it. Each time somebody speaks and later on, you input this into a into the sub -assert tool. the sabasa tool is not something that is a part of the device on which you carried out your recording so the issue related to connectivity in villages is something that we have been able to sidestep and once you do that it gives you a draft minute of meeting so bhashini turns it into English and the English thing is monetized using the AI engine again bhashini gives it back to them in their own language and yes it’s voila the person can just make a few changes and upload it and we’ve had some heartfelt gratitude coming to us from villages as a result of this

Moderator

ok so has the structured documentation improved transparency participation tracking or monitoring of meeting frequency and agenda quality too

Shri Alok Prem Nagar

now that the minute is ready if there are 5 items, 10 items ok So the states that have really gone ahead and adopted it, which is Odisha, which is Tamil Nadu, which is Tripura, all these people are into the second stages now where they are looking at the minutes of meeting and converting it into or refining it into tools that help them keep track of the activities after they’ve been created. We also realized through our meetings that why is the number just 1 ,15 ,000? So there are a whole lot of people whose languages do not exist on Bhashani. So from there, we asked those states to provide Bhashani with the necessary expertise so that they can train their bots.

And they’re already working on something like 11 more languages, which includes Assamese and Boro and Maithili and Santal and whatnot. Yes. So those languages are also. So it’s been. So. a very gratifying experience and then the learning continues.

Moderator

Yeah, it’s commendable that things have reached to that level. So over to you, Amitji, from an accountability lens, does structured documentation change behavior with the governance systems?

Shri Amit Kumar

Thank you. So I think, you know, so if you have understood the enormity of the situation, right, what we are talking about, 250 ,000 plus gram panchayats and different kind of languages. So just to circle back, if you look at the frugality of the situation, right, so for example, if you look at, in India, generally people talk about either we live in a bullock cart stage, right, or we are aspiring for bullet train, right. So the point is, if AI has to tell us in terms of, you know, how we learn in the future, how will we transform, so we cannot, I mean, leave out 900 plus million people who are living in villages, right.

Absolutely. So the idea is not to make it very, very urbanized, you know, very, very kind of elitist idea that, you know, that. That AI is only for urban, AI is only for industries, AI is only for commercial sector. So, obviously, this is a journey, right? So, you have to start somewhere. So, for example, I mean, the frugality what I was talking about, that we did not ask Gram Panchayat to invest anything, right? All they need to have a mobile phone, which any which way they have, right? And the idea is just to kind of record and upload. Obviously, there will be some challenges and kind of resistance also in the beginning. But, you know, once they get used to it, so, for example, today we are asking them to kind of upload your recording, right?

The rest is done by system. And system also has a provision of human in the loop so that we can go and correct it. Now, tomorrow, we see the next step what we will be doing, what we can do perhaps, right? When the next meeting happens, we can also populate the agenda from last meeting, right? So, what was discussed last time, what was committed, whether you are doing or not doing, right? And then everything goes to kind of public domain. so generally the people who live in city they know that when there is a RWA meeting nobody goes and attend but they all warfare in the whatsapp group in the village also it’s not easy to bring people but once they start getting the hang of it that okay there is a meeting I am getting the mom and it’s available in the public domain we are using AI, AI is for good AI can also be leverage for rural sector why it has to be very very elitist only for passport save so that’s just a beginning it’s just a journey and also if you see from idea point of view phenomenal idea for ministry of panchayati let me congratulate sir and the entire team to think of something like that because AI is all about idea and use case if you have the right idea you can do wonders but you have to have idea and muscles to execute it so that way I believe that this whole documentation will do wonders for them.

Gram Panchayats will also realize something which was missing in the most part of the world that you know the record keeping accountability, transparency so and so forth because generally these decisions were taken by some people only and executed by some and the large population was largely kept out of it knowingly or unknowingly right. So I think that’s what I said that you know it will change the way they work, it will change the way they think because this is only for a you know kind of we are starting only with a let’s say meeting but now they will start thinking and there will be demand from states and otherwise right what more can be done with AI.

So broader scales would be achieved. Yeah Sabasar is an example like Praman we are doing we have launched this Pancham you know bought also for all elected and selected representatives so I think it’s a great you know kind of experience efficiency would obviously help them adopt it. I mean let me tell you in our own corporate meetings we are still some of us making note. despite being on teams despite using co -pilots despite having all tools at our disposal but we are still using it we expect a junior guy to take notes and circle back so that’s a cultural change which you have to also see and these changes and these changes couldn’t have been possible if we wouldn’t have the infrastructure like Bhasni because ministry on its own how ministry got benefited we have infrastructure like Bhasni we have the GPUs got available to us through the NDIA mission otherwise procurement itself could have been a big challenge we have a team to kind of build applications so I think it takes a village to move something so that’s what has happened here

Shri Alok Prem Nagar

thank you for sharing your thoughts just continuing with that the department of drinking water and sanitation has actually approached us that the meetings of their village meeting VWC’s village water committees. They want to use Bhashini for that and there has been some initial interaction between the two teams.

Moderator

That’s commendable, I would say. That’s awesome. So Alokji, let’s talk of some implementation challenges in rural India with AI. AI in rural governance is transformating, but complex. So what are the biggest operational challenges, infrastructure, though a bit, I think Amitji was about to share that, but then infrastructure, training, dialect diversivity and connectivity. So what challenges are you facing? How receptive are panchayat functionalities and rural citizens to AI -enabled systems?

Shri Alok Prem Nagar

Challenges, of course, there are many and you would have anybody tell you. What we have found out, the adoption of e -gram swaraj by our villages gram panchayat and then we have A case in point, Uttar Pradesh has got something like 59 ,000 Gram Panchayats. And for Uttar Pradesh to onboard eGram Swaraj seemed like an impossible task because it involved registering your digital signing certificates and then everybody agreeing to completely dispense with checkbooks. All your payments were then going to be, can you imagine Uttar Pradesh did it in 40 days flat. All 59 ,000 Gram Panchayats. So my point was that if you are ready with a product that addresses their needs and it is friendly and it meets, of course, my need was that I needed the money well accounted for and their need.

It was a system that could make it very easy for them to do it. So we met halfway and if UP can do it in 59 ,000, I am not prepared to hear an excuse from any other state in the country. It’s a trial by fire. Likewise for Sabasar, Sabasar again I said initially that there was a demand that was indicated from the state. So when we set out to meet that, we were clear what is it that we are looking for and people were so forthcoming. In fact, Bhashani also enabled me to write letters to the states in their languages and people were gushing with affection and what not. I got a letter in Telugu for the first time and all that.

So there are challenges but then the Ram Panchayats are predisposed to meet you halfway. So you need to begin that journey and we have seen that with regard to a number of things. There have been campaigns. Every year they carry out a campaign from 2nd October to… the 31st of December, which extends to January typically, where all two and a half lakh gram panchayats prepared their gram panchayat development plans and uploaded on the portal. So 2 .5, 250 ,000 gram panchayats, all of them planning for the next year. And so before you enter the next financial year, their plans are ready. I mean, we don’t do it in the departments, in the ministries. And all these gram panchayats have not done it once, twice.

They started in 2018. They’ve continued to do it ever since. In the COVID year, there was a request that we don’t do this campaign. So there was a massive pushback from the states that, no, we want to do it. The inertia was so great that they still did it. So there are challenges. But if we make an application like he was saying, that this is a simple recording device, this is a mobile phone, there aren’t things that you need to procure to set it up. So if you make a simple tool, people would grab it with both hands. So I think that is the embracing of challenges rather with the response we are getting with Bhashani.

Moderator

So for ministries delivering last mile services such as Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, what lessons from MOPR’s AI journey would you share? How important is open architecture and interoperability in your sense?

Shri Alok Prem Nagar

That is dangerous territory. I am not in a position where I could start advising anybody because they have got pretty robust systems of their own. If you look at Manrega Soft and the PM Avas Yojana, because they are running schemes which are very pointed. Avas Yojana is just about houses. Manrega is a scheme where there is of course it is as large as the things that you do in the Finance Commission. It is a very big scheme. It is a very big scheme. but it is fairly well organized and in all of these typically the beneficiary is the individual. In Panchayati Raj mode there are individuals at the end of it but our emphasis is on the institution, the Panchayat and not just E. Gram Swaraj and the things that we do for their accounting and planning.

We also hooked up with the meteorological department and there are daily forecasts being generated for every Gram Panchayat. This people are able to see on their phones and all with the similar ability as they are able to see everything using Bhashini. So it’s a great enablement all around and it can only get better.

Moderator

Absolutely. So Amitji over to you. How critical is open architecture ensuring long term sustainability? And avoiding vendor lock -in.

Shri Amit Kumar

if I can take a minute and talk about the previous question please go ahead sir rightly mentioned that different ministries have got a different mandate it’s not an apple to apple comparison but see you also have to see the panchayati raj the main role of panchayati raj what I understand is the mobilization because they are not running major schemes on their own compared to others and generally the best practices doesn’t have to be in form of technology or architecture only the idea is that if you go down from top there are two different ministries and if you go to the village you will see the same infrastructure, same set of people are only working from both departments right so the idea is if one can do others can also do So there is a lot of learning in terms of method that how we could overcome, how could we mobilize, how we could implement some of these solutions.

And I’m sure we know that RD and agriculture are also doing a lot of things, but their mandate is much bigger. But they can also, you know, take a lot of pride or kind of learning from the success which we have, right? What was the second question? The second one was that how critical is open architecture in ensuring long -term sustainability and avoiding the window lock? So you must be hearing this word called sovereignty quite a lot, right, nowadays. So the whole idea of, you know, being sovereign in any part of the, you know, technology, be it defense, be it IT, be it any way, it’s a survivability, right? So the idea is despite, in spite any kind of, you know, geopolitical risk, we should survive.

Yeah. Our system should run, right? So for that, generally, people confuse sovereignty with also making India local, et cetera. So that’s not the case, right? We will always have. some technology from outside. But we have to design in a way that it is kind of ready to shift, right? So either from a technology point of view, we have the interoperability, the standards which we have chosen, the models which we have chosen, the infrastructure which we can move around and the teams which can control, right? So the data residency has to be within India and data is with us. So obviously if we have trained on one, we can train on something else also. So the idea is also to look little bit long term.

See, what has happened that when we started, obviously there were a lot of POCs. Nobody knew, right, how AI will behave. Still we don’t know. Still we don’t know, right? I mean, so obviously that you have to start somewhere, right? And then you have to also ensure that in future, when we start with one use case, it becomes easy, right? When the department itself becomes fully AI enabled and we have 10 AI use cases running, then it becomes a problem, right? Problem of management. So that’s where I think we need to plan better for future. so that we plan. I mean, it’s not that a use case is defined. Then we found an easy method of procurement of infra or the model which I knew.

So going forward, I think there will be a platform approach. So where we have to think for future also that, okay, these AI cases are likely to come in future as well. Different kind of AI, be it agentic, be it gen -AI, be it conversational, be it computer vision analytics. And accordingly, we have to have open architecture like the way we did in a normal digital transformation. Even digital transformation, there used to be time where we created our own independent monolith applications. But now we are creating applications, you know, which are more API -based, can integrate with anybody, right? And futuristic, can scale our modular. So same concepts have to be used for AI initiatives as well.

Moderator

Well said. So I think adoption comes with responsibility and that’s what you are scaling at, looking at the future. So Alokji, Sabha sir demonstrates how language AI can power grassroots governance. After Sabasa’s success, what deeper integrations do you envision with Bhashini and what does the next phase of collaboration looks like? Let’s talk about that.

Shri Amit Kumar

And we would like through, and people are going to be speaking in any number of languages. I think the next step, my government is something that has already been very, always been very invested in providing services to making ease of living easier, as it were, and providing all manner of things. Everything is finally a service. You need to look at a doctor. You need your road fixed. You need a street light to be working. You want the log water to be drained or something. She needs more attention than us. Yeah. Okay. Over to you.

Shri Alok Prem Nagar

So people should come to expect. they should demand these services from their gram panchayats. There are mechanisms of doing that because gram panchayats don’t have a lot of resources in terms of manpower, in terms of people who are at their beck and call to carry out the activities that are flowing from the charter. So there are systems in a lot of these villages. You have common service centers in some states. They have their own system of common service centers like UP, like Bapuji Seva Kendra in Karnataka, like Mi Seva. So we need to take that further and we need people to be able to talk and find out if a certain service that is available to them, can they avail it in their village?

If they are to do that, what is the mechanism? And if they’ve already made an application, that what should be able to tell them that where that thing currently stands? so that is a very wide area like I said that there are a number of services we also learnt of a pilot that was carried out in Guwahati where the bus used to have a camera it used to drive through capture all number of images and basis that it would assign issue labels to them as it were if there is a drain overflowing so it takes note of that if there is a pothole then it takes note of that and then it assigns it to all these agencies whose job it becomes now to fix that so not that but maybe we have a mobile interface called Meri Panchayat which ports a lot of information from E Gram Swaraj Meri Panchayat also has the capability of capturing images of the issue that is being reported I think the next step is that image it makes sense of the image and it assigns it to the necessary department.

There are people who are mapped whose job it is to carry it out and within a certain amount of time it doesn’t happen, then there is escalation. We need to go deeper into that system. That, I think, is the next frontier. And, of course, because it involves vocalization of your demands, so bhasini is absolutely critical in this. So when we say there is a long way to go, I think that phrase is no more relevant. It’s a short way, but not even a big journey, an intelligent journey to move ahead.

Moderator

So India is building public digital infrastructure for AI at scale. So how do we balance scale with accountability and public trust? We have talked much about how we are building things. But let’s talk about the other side. And can India lead the world in population scale? Of course it can. I am sure about that. But then multilingual AI for governance, when it comes, if you would like to have a shot at it first,

Shri Amit Kumar

so one thing you all have to realize that whatever we do is a population scale and unparallel right because of our size so even our POCs exceed the kind of performance of European countries our UP sir talked about UP 60 ,000 panchayats if you look at UP maybe it will be in top 10 country right sir in terms of population and size I think the world is vouching for us when it comes to the use cases yeah see if you look at that we have got that scale now we have the experience behind us right we did Aadhaar, we did UPI we did Fastag, we did GST and we did Income Tax so now we have that confidence behind us that we can do anything of scale and with the same Prugal approach we will do 10 times cheaper than Western world and certainly not worse better only right so in terms of that and also from last decade we have evolved right so for example the concept of privacy like dpdp act consent based usage like you know adhar brought so a lot of things have improved from a policy side of it now now once you have policies in place systems are easy because system themselves act as a rule you know once you have policies in place then you don’t need so much of human intervention or discretion so since we have done it since we have kind of you know done so much so now if you look at the very simple case bhashni i remember four or five years back and i and amitabh used to i mean kind of debate also whether we need a bhashni okay right because we we had some of the google translate services so on for forth right but the idea is that i mean in the hindsight that was the right call right in future we have to have something called sovereignty word right we have we don’t have to dependent I mean we need to be frugal and we don’t want to use you know the applications which are very expensive from a taxpayer money point of view so similar things we have done a lot right so I think the next step for example if you look at roam around in AI summit you will see how many LLMs and SLMs we are building on our own right honorable ministers talked about five layers application I think we have ample talent to build applications LLMs we use open LLM but we are developing our own and Bosnia also like one of the common infrastructure energy will take care right infra and chips anyway will have dependency but that’s the rest of the world also has a dependency right not that everybody has a rare earth and everybody is building chips so that way I believe that you know that and because we have that technical know how also I mean that’s our kind of bread and bread and butter now a day right so we’ll be able to take the learnings from all these systems and we’ll move forward as of now we were a bit slow in last year or two because AI itself was new for everyone so we took some time but now I think from this year onwards we’ll really scale it up because we have tested the blood, we have seen the success and we will scale it up

Moderator

sure, thank you for sharing that so as we come towards the closure of this conversation I would like to leave with one final thought which is like if Panchayati Raj institutions are the foundation of democracy can AI when built on a public stack and powered by language inclusion become the strongest enabler of participatory governance in 21st century just closing thoughts from you both Alokji, would you

Shri Alok Prem Nagar

absolutely he was just telling you that that we’ve been able to do things at scale this thing about UP that I told you I wear it like a badge that to have done it in some place so and it’s not an easy ask because there are so many stakeholders they’ve got various kinds of issues of their own you’ve got to engage with them address those things and if my problem is well defined and if I know what kind of a thing is going to help me redress that like Bhashini did for us I think that what you said is going to come true because that is so being able to understand my problem and knowing what parts of the problem can be fixed in what manner using the various tools that are available that is the key and it’s not an over simplification but good servant bad master so that is something that stays and it is not going to land you in the right places if you just let it go around like an animal.

But then if you know where to put it, what modules to be inserted, what has been used in the background, and so that would make you more confident. I’m not really an AI person, so I’m just speaking on the strength of what I’ve learned and the experience thus far has been outstanding, partly because we’ve had a very good partner. But other than that, I am not throwing it all open out to AI. I don’t wear T -shirts saying I love AI or something, but I have a problem and it needs fixing and I need to be able to know what aspects of AI can help me fix that in the best possible manner. And that’s my thing on this.

Shri Amit Kumar

Yeah. So like like sir said, you know, sir is not a person. Neither am I. So if you look at, you know, that he was transparent enough to share that. No, no. So look at that way that none of us were right. Because if you’re talking about AY, I’ve been doing this, you know, digital transformation for public sector for over 20 years. Obviously, there was no AI even when there was no DPI, DPG also, you know, what we kind of retrofitted with the names. Right. So if you look at the idea of Panchayati Raj itself is a participative governance. Right. That people have to assemble in the Gram Sabha and decide on the money which they are getting, how to spend and prioritize.

Absolutely. And if AI tools like Pramana and Sabha Sar and Pancham can help that strengthen, what best you know you can expect from from a participative government, from a democratization point of view. So I think this sometimes, you know, that technology becomes secondary. And in my view, most of the time, right, the ideas have to be clear in terms of what you want to achieve. and what problem you want to solve, what scale you want to solve, what are the guardrails you have to kind of, you know, also put in place. So, for example, when we do AI, that it cannot be 100 % autonomous, right? Of course. And it cannot be 100 % human in the loop also.

Because if we have each and every transaction being, you know, approved by human in the loop, then it defeats the purpose of AI. And there is no AI, right? Then we are still living in the rule -based algorithms. Algorithms. So the idea of, you know, that AI will be that we also train, monitor, have the mechanism to take complaints, have the mechanism to perfectly, you know, kind of train it better so that we improve our accuracy. So that is how AI journey. So AI journey is slightly different from the previous digital transformation journey, which were more like a transactional systems, right? So that way, I think, if you look at currently also Sabasar, I think whatever I am hearing from people, market teams also, So it is giving great accuracy, right, in terms of translation and summarization.

And I’m sure whatever there are little bit areas to improve, it will improve on its own. So we cannot stop it, right? So once we have boarded a flight, then we can only get down at where we have to, right? So I think future is bright. And also from a MOPR experience point of view, it will also, I’m sure, energize and motivate a lot many others. I can say with my experience that if MOPR can do in rural, we can use AI tools. There is no stopping for us as a nation.

Moderator

Exactly. This is truly an achievement when it comes to MOPI with the government. So you want to say anything regarding this, Alokji?

Shri Alok Prem Nagar

I thought of another application that works. That is something we’ve been working on, which was spatial development plans. Okay. we again engaged with a lot of panchayats that were close to the highways okay so typically if a panchayat is on a national highway close to a big city and have a population of 10 000 plus then you were eligible to participate in this program okay so there were 34 gps that we involved and we got the planning and architecture colleges to prepare spatial plans for them spatial plan would be futuristic it would zone and it would you know assign it would look into the future and see how this place was going to grow it would devise road networks or something and tell people what they would become over a period of time we had a conference with with gram panchayats around bhopal building and the people were so annoyed We don’t need a spatial plan.

Over a period of time, of course, we told them what it was going to be, but we had this epiphany that people need to be able to see what the spatial plan will help them become. And then we went into the next national conference. We had for each of these 34 spatial development plans a visualization. And we showed people that if you want to become this, you have to do this. And then there was greater enthusiasm. So the people on whom this plan is, who are going to be subjected to this plan, if I could use those words. So these people, if they’re not on board, there is no way you can carry it out.

And that, I think, is wide open. And we’ve had after that. the entire state of Andhra Pradesh has gone ahead and said that all their planning is going to be spatial plans. So that is something that is amenable to AI tools. And a final thing that I remembered that lots of times we need to convey through audio video messages. He mentioned Pancham. So Pancham is a WhatsApp -based chatbot platform which allows us to have two -way conversation with all the sarpanchas and panchayat secretaries in the country. So all these people. And so if there is messaging that needs to be conveyed, if there are videos that need to be quickly created using AI tools, that is something that would be hugely effective in getting the message across in the quickest possible way.

Moderator

Thank you. Thank you so much for such endeavor. insights on the Gram Panchayat and how things are working behind. Actually, I’m sure the audience was truly, they were unknown about what’s happening around and this conversation has given a new tangent to how we look at the rural development. Thank you so much Shri Alok and thank you so much Shri Amir for sharing these thoughts on Gram Panchayat development. Thank you so much for this fireside chat. Thank you. I would like to call Ms. Deepika to please felicitate Mr. Alok.

Shri Alok Prem Nagar

Speech speed

144 words per minute

Speech length

Future directions and deeper AI integration

Topics

Artificial intelligence | Closing all digital divides | Social and economic development

Shri Amit Kumar

Speech speed

176 words per minute

Speech length

Future directions and deeper AI integration

Topics

Artificial intelligence | Enabling environment for digital development | Information and communication technologies for development

Moderator

Speech speed

133 words per minute

Speech length

640 words

Speech time

286 seconds

AI in rural governance is transformative yet complex

Explanation

The moderator highlights that AI can reshape rural governance but acknowledges the technical and institutional complexities involved in deploying it at scale.

Evidence

“AI in rural governance is transformating, but complex.” [17]. “So Alokji, Sabha sir demonstrates how language AI can power grassroots governance.” [23].

Major discussion point

Overall framing of AI’s role in rural governance

Topics

Artificial intelligence | Social and economic development | Closing all digital divides

Agreements

Artificial intelligence | Information and communication technologies for development

Information and communication technologies for development | Social and economic development

Unexpected consensus

Cultural resistance to AI adoption exists even in well-resourced environments

Speakers

– Shri Amit Kumar
– Shri Alok Prem Nagar

Arguments

Cultural change is needed as even corporate meetings still rely on manual note-taking despite available technology

Simple, need-addressing tools that don’t require additional procurement are readily adopted by gram panchayats

Explanation

Unexpectedly, both speakers acknowledge that technology adoption challenges are not just about resources or infrastructure, but about cultural change. The recognition that even corporate environments resist AI adoption despite having advanced tools available suggests that successful implementation requires addressing human behavior and established practices, not just providing technology.

Topics

Capacity development | Artificial intelligence

Shared infrastructure approach is more effective than individual ministry solutions

Speakers

– Shri Amit Kumar
– Shri Alok Prem Nagar

Arguments

Infrastructure like Bhashini provides necessary GPU resources and eliminates procurement challenges for ministries

Integration with PM Suryaghar Yojana portal enables gram panchayats to drive solar campaigns effectively

Explanation

Both speakers unexpectedly converge on the value of shared, integrated infrastructure rather than siloed solutions. This consensus suggests a shift from traditional government approaches where each ministry develops independent systems, toward collaborative platforms that leverage common resources and create synergies across different government functions.

Topics

The enabling environment for digital development | Information and communication technologies for development

Overall assessment

Summary

The speakers demonstrate remarkable consensus across multiple dimensions of AI implementation in rural governance, including the importance of language accessibility, the need for inclusive and simple technology solutions, the value of structured documentation for transparency, the critical nature of open architecture for sustainability, and India’s potential for global leadership in this space.

Consensus level

Very high level of consensus with complementary perspectives rather than conflicting viewpoints. The speakers build upon each other’s arguments and share a unified vision of AI as an enabler of democratic participation rather than a replacement for human decision-making. This strong alignment suggests a mature understanding of both the opportunities and challenges in implementing AI for rural governance, with practical experience informing their shared perspectives. The consensus has significant implications for scaling AI solutions across India’s rural governance systems and potentially serving as a model for other developing nations.

Differences

Different viewpoints

Unexpected differences

Overall assessment

Summary

The discussion shows remarkable consensus among all speakers on the fundamental goals and approaches to AI implementation in rural governance. There are no significant disagreements identified.

Disagreement level

Very low disagreement level. The speakers demonstrate strong alignment on objectives, methods, and vision for AI in rural governance. The few partial agreements represent complementary perspectives rather than conflicting viewpoints, which suggests a mature and collaborative approach to policy implementation that could facilitate effective execution of AI initiatives in rural India.

Partial agreements

Both speakers agree that technology adoption requires addressing user needs and behavioral change, but they emphasize different aspects – Alok focuses on making tools simple and accessible, while Amit emphasizes the need for cultural transformation even in well-resourced environments

Speakers

– Shri Alok Prem Nagar
– Shri Amit Kumar

Arguments

Simple, need-addressing tools that don’t require additional procurement are readily adopted by gram panchayats

Cultural change is needed as even corporate meetings still rely on manual note-taking despite available technology

Topics

Capacity development | Information and communication technologies for development

Both agree on the need for inclusive technology that serves rural populations, but approach it differently – Alok focuses specifically on language barriers as the key obstacle, while Amit frames it as a broader issue of preventing AI from becoming elitist

Speakers

– Shri Alok Prem Nagar
– Shri Amit Kumar

Arguments

Language barriers in English-only systems prevent rural citizens from understanding public money usage and participating effectively

AI democratization should extend beyond urban and commercial sectors to include 900+ million village residents

Topics

Closing all digital divides | Artificial intelligence

Information and communication technologies for development | Social and economic development

Takeaways

Key takeaways

AI-powered language solutions like Bhashini have successfully democratized rural governance by enabling citizens to access panchayat information in their local languages, transforming participation from passive to active engagement

Sabha Saar has revolutionized meeting documentation by reducing the time burden on panchayat secretaries from 65% of their workload to a simple recording and upload process, with over 115,000 meetings processed

India’s frugal innovation approach using existing infrastructure (mobile phones) has enabled rapid scalability – demonstrated by UP’s 59,000 panchayats onboarding in 40 days

AI applications in rural governance extend beyond documentation to include solar potential mapping from drone data, service delivery systems, and automated issue routing from visual inputs

Open architecture and interoperability are critical for long-term sustainability, avoiding vendor lock-in, and maintaining technological sovereignty while building population-scale solutions

The success of MOPR’s AI initiatives demonstrates that rural areas can adopt advanced technology when solutions address real needs without requiring additional investment or complex procedures

Resolutions and action items

Bhashini team is working on adding 11 more languages including Assamese, Boro, Maithili, and Santal to address coverage gaps

States like Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Tripura are advancing to second-stage implementations using Sabha Saar meeting minutes for systematic activity tracking and follow-up

Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation has approached MOPR to use Bhashini for Village Water Committee meetings, with initial team interactions underway

Next phase development includes creating service delivery systems where citizens can vocalize demands, track application status, and receive automated issue routing

Implementation of computer vision systems to automatically analyze captured images, assign issue labels, and route problems to appropriate departments with escalation mechanisms

Development of agenda population systems that can automatically generate meeting agendas based on previous meeting commitments and follow-up requirements

Unresolved issues

Specific timeline and resource allocation for expanding Bhashini to additional languages and dialects not yet covered

Detailed implementation strategy for scaling AI solutions across all 2.5 lakh gram panchayats uniformly

Integration challenges and coordination mechanisms between different ministries (Rural Development, Agriculture) adopting similar AI approaches

Balancing automation levels in AI systems – avoiding both 100% autonomous operations and 100% human-in-the-loop processes

Specific guardrails and monitoring mechanisms needed for AI systems in governance to ensure accountability and prevent misuse

Resource requirements and capacity building programs needed to train panchayat functionaries on advanced AI tools beyond current implementations

Suggested compromises

Adopting a platform approach for future AI implementations that can accommodate different types of AI (agentic, generative, conversational, computer vision) while maintaining interoperability

Implementing hybrid AI systems that balance automation with human oversight – not fully autonomous but not requiring human approval for every transaction

Using existing infrastructure (mobile phones, connectivity) rather than requiring new hardware investments to ensure adoption without financial barriers

Leveraging open-source models and infrastructure like Bhashini while maintaining the flexibility to switch technologies to avoid vendor lock-in

This comment provides a refreshingly pragmatic perspective on AI adoption, countering the hype-driven narrative often surrounding AI discussions. It emphasizes problem-solving over technology enthusiasm, which is particularly valuable coming from someone who has successfully implemented AI solutions.

Impact

This grounded the entire discussion in practical reality and shifted the tone from technological evangelism to measured, problem-focused implementation. It provided a framework for thinking about AI adoption that other participants and the audience could relate to, making the conversation more accessible and credible.

Overall assessment

Explanation

While great accuracy was mentioned, specific metrics and continuous improvement processes weren’t detailed

Disclaimer: This is not an official session record. DiploAI generates these resources from audiovisual recordings, and they are presented as-is, including potential errors. Due to logistical challenges, such as discrepancies in audio/video or transcripts, names may be misspelled. We strive for accuracy to the best of our ability.

Nepal Engagement Session

Summary

Keypoints

Major Discussion Points:

Overall Purpose:

Overall Tone:

Speakers

The Digital Transformation Challenge

Breakthrough Solutions: Bhashini Integration

Sabha Saar: Revolutionising Meeting Documentation

Implementation at Scale and Adoption Challenges

Innovative Applications Beyond Core Functions

Future Applications and Pilot Projects

Implementation Philosophy and Success Factors

Cross-Departmental Adoption and Scaling

Democratic Impact and Structural Changes

Global Leadership and Technological Sovereignty

Conclusion

Language AI as an inclusion tool

Explanation

Evidence

Major discussion point

Topics

Sabha Saar automates meeting minutes

Explanation

Evidence

Major discussion point

Topics

Rapid onboarding of 59,000 Gram Panchayats in UP

Explanation

Evidence

Major discussion point

Topics

Open‑architecture and API‑based interoperability

Explanation

Evidence

Major discussion point

Topics

Future AI extensions – chatbots, spatial plans, service routing

Explanation

Evidence

Major discussion point

Topics

Preventing urban‑centric AI deployment

Explanation

Evidence

Major discussion point

Topics

Structured documentation drives behavioral change

Explanation

Evidence

Major discussion point

Topics

Connectivity, training and dialect diversity challenges

Explanation

Evidence

Major discussion point

Topics

Open architecture ensures sustainability and avoids lock‑in

Explanation

Evidence

Major discussion point

Topics

Leveraging India’s population‑scale digital foundations

Explanation

Evidence

Major discussion point

Topics

AI in rural governance is transformative yet complex

Explanation

Evidence

Major discussion point

Topics

Agreement points

Language barriers in digital governance systems prevent meaningful citizen participation

Speakers

Arguments

Summary

Topics

AI should be inclusive and accessible to rural populations, not limited to urban/commercial sectors

Sabha Saar automates meeting minutes