Tamil Nadu: AI-enabled e-Sevai 2.0 to bring 1,000 services under one platform

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu’s proposed e-Sevai 2.0 platform is being designed to use artificial intelligence (AI) and integrate up to 1,000 government services, compared with the 275 available on the existing platform. The proposed system is also intended to help eligible citizens access certain services without having to submit fresh applications.

The existing e-Sevai platform provides 275 services across 38 departments through 25,277 centres. It handles an average of 50,000 to 60,000 requests a day, with demand reaching 80,000 on peak days. The proposed platform is designed to accommodate an average of 60,000 to 1.2 lakh requests a day, with peak demand of up to 1.5 lakh, supporting at least 50,000 concurrent users.

Named as Vetri Tamil Nadu Integrated e-Sevai 2.0 Platform, the Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency (TNeGA) issued an Expression of Interest (EOI) inviting technology providers to propose solutions for a common platform to manage applications, approvals, documents, payments and certificates across government departments.

The platform is also intended to support a “No Application” service delivery model, under which authorised government databases would be used to identify eligible beneficiaries and pre-fill application details. Where service rules permit, eligible citizens could receive services without submitting a separate application.

The platform is expected to connect around 15 departmental portals and 18 State and national digital systems. These include Aadhaar-based authentication, e-Sign, DigiLocker and payment services, as well as government databases. TNeGA estimates that around 110 terabytes of data, including databases and supporting documents from the existing e-Sevai and e-District systems, would have to be migrated.

The existing e-Sevai centre network is expected to remain part of the service-delivery ecosystem. The proposed platform will have mobile applications, messaging services, call centres and IVRS, alongside other digital government platforms.

A substantial part of the transition will involve migrating data from the existing e-Sevai and e-District systems including databases and supporting documents, which would have to be transferred to the new platform.

The proposed AI tools include a conversational interface in Tamil and English to help users find services, document-processing capabilities and a workbench to assist government officers in handling applications. AI is also proposed for classifying grievances, routing them to the appropriate authorities and identifying duplicate complaints. The AI system would operate within TNeGA’s environment, with citizen data not leaving that environment. The proposed platform is to run on government-provided infrastructure rather than depend on a vendor-hosted cloud service to provide seamless service.