Connecting the Unconnected is a monthly column by the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) that explores how technology can drive inclusion and governance in India. The column focuses on how the digital divide impacts communities differently and advocates for equitable, citizen-informed solutions that ensure technology empowers rather than excludes.
India’s governance challenges are well-known: overburdened bureaucracies, delays in public service delivery, inconsistent policy implementation, and the ever-present threat of corruption. As the world’s most populous democracy, governing India efficiently requires not just human effort, but intelligent systems that can work at scale. This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be transformative.
While AI is often discussed in the context of private sector innovation, its real power in India could lie in reforming how the government serves its citizens. With the right vision, AI can shift governance from being reactive and manual to being predictive, automated, and citizen-centric.
Imagine a rural citizen applying for a government scheme online and instantly being told whether they qualify, what documents are needed, and when they will receive the benefits — all via an AI-powered chatbot in their native language.
This is not science fiction. In states like Karnataka, AI is already helping citizens track their applications through platforms like Seva Sindhu. AI can drastically reduce the inefficiencies that plague public service delivery in India. Used well, AI can eliminate bureaucratic bottlenecks, reduce human discretion, and speed up access to entitlements like pensions, scholarships, and subsidies.
Crucially, AI can also help identify eligible beneficiaries more accurately by analysing income, household, and geospatial data — minimising exclusion errors and leakages. India’s policies often fail not due to intent but due to poor targeting and a one-size-fits-all execution. AI can help fix this by enabling hyper-local, data-driven policy design.
Consider agriculture: with AI analysing satellite data, weather patterns, and soil conditions, the government can offer localised crop advisories or plan procurement more efficiently. Similarly, predictive models can identify health risks or school drop-out hotspots long before a crisis unfolds. Instead of waiting for manual reports from the field, AI enables real-time situational awareness — helping the government respond faster and smarter.
Telangana Data Exchange (TGDeX), India’s first state-led Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), is an effort in the same direction. It aims to improve service delivery using cross-sectoral AI-based solutions in governance.
Urban India is straining under the pressure of population growth. Traffic congestion, pollution, and crime are daily realities. Here too, AI can step in. Smart traffic systems powered by AI are already being piloted in cities like Delhi and Bengaluru. These systems use computer vision to manage traffic lights dynamically, detect rule violations, and even help emergency vehicles reach their destinations faster.
AI can also help municipal bodies with predictive waste collection, automated water management, and better disaster preparedness. It can also be harnessed to increase effectiveness in taking appropriate measures for climate change. These are not just tech upgrades — they are quality-of-life improvements for millions.
India’s judiciary is overwhelmed, with over 40 million pending cases. AI cannot replace judges, but it can assist them. AI tools can help sift through vast legal databases, find precedents, and translate judgements across languages. The Supreme Court’s SUVAS platform — an AI-driven translation tool — is a small but important step in this direction. If scaled responsibly, AI can support faster legal research, better case management, and smarter prioritisation of cases.
AI offers a way to fight corruption not just through audits but through prevention. Machine learning models can flag suspicious financial transactions, inflated tenders, or unusual procurement patterns — long before they are discovered in post-facto reports. The Public Financial Management System (PFMS), for instance, already tracks fund flows digitally. Adding AI layers to such systems can enhance transparency and reduce human discretion in high-stakes decision-making.
Moreover, AI can scan grievance redressal systems, social media feedback, or helpline data to identify recurring citizen complaints and hold departments accountable in real time.
Of course, AI is not a magic wand. If it comes across a new scenario beyond the realm of its training data, it is most likely to make an incorrect decision. Its misuse can reinforce biases, invade privacy, or automate injustice. India must build strong data protection laws and ethical frameworks before embedding AI deeper into governance. Equally important is bridging the digital divide. An AI-enabled government must not become inaccessible to those without internet, smartphones, or digital literacy.
India stands at a pivotal moment. With a growing tech ecosystem, vast public datasets, and ambitious digital public infrastructure such as Aadhaar, UPI, and TGDeX, the groundwork for AI-enabled governance is already laid. What is needed now is political will, regulatory clarity, and a focus on inclusion. AI should not be seen merely as an efficiency tool. It is a governance equaliser — one that can bring the state closer to every citizen, in every language, in every corner of the country.
Used wisely, AI could help India not only govern better but govern fairer.
Dr Hemant Adarkar is a member of the Advisory Council at the Digital Empowerment Foundation.
Views expressed are the author’s own.