Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, today chaired a high-level review meeting to assess the progress made on the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in governance in Jammu and Kashmir and the establishment of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Artificial Intelligence here.
The meeting besides the concerned Administrative Secretaries was attended by the representatives from Indian Institute of Technology Jammu; BISAG and other concerned officers of the Union Territory.
While reviewing the progress, the Chief Secretary observed that Artificial Intelligence has the potential to fundamentally transform governance by improving efficiency, transparency, responsiveness and quality of public services. He maintained that the Government must leverage emerging technologies not merely as digital tools but as strategic enablers for better governance, faster decision-making and enhanced citizen service delivery.
The Chief Secretary called upon the Administrative Departments to proactively engage with the Information Technology Department for expeditious implementation of the identified use cases. He directed the departments to nominate dedicated nodal officers wherever required and ensure timely sharing of quality datasets essential for development, testing and validation of AI solutions.He further stressed that data quality, interoperability and departmental ownership would remain critical to the successful deployment of AI applications across government.
Calling for a structured implementation framework, the Chief Secretary directed that sector-specific workshops be organised with all departmental nodal officers, technology partners, domain experts and implementation agencies to comprehensively assess data availability, infrastructure readiness, operational workflows and field-level requirements before commencement of pilot projects.
The Chief Secretary also emphasised that progress achieved under each AI initiative shall be monitored on a regular basis through defined milestones and outcome indicators so that implementation bottlenecks are resolved in a time-bound manner. He stressed the need for close coordination among all stakeholder departments to ensure that the identified AI initiatives translate into measurable improvements in governance across the Union Territory.
Earlier, a detailed presentation was made by the Commissioner Secretary IT, Saurabh Bhagat on the organisational framework, implementation strategy, current status and future roadmap of the Centre. The presentation also highlighted the action taken on the decisions of the Union Territory Level Steering Committee, the progress achieved on the identified AI use cases and the proposed roadmap for pilot implementation across departments.
During the meeting, the Chief Secretary was apprised of the progress achieved in establishing the MeitY Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence at IIT Jammu, conceived as a mission-mode national initiative to accelerate AI adoption across governance and public service delivery.He was informed that the Centre is being readied for operationalisation, with around 10,000 square feet of space already earmarked and infrastructure being prepared for occupancy by August this year.
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary in a meeting of Housing & Urban Development Department (H&UDD) reviewed the adoption of Chandigarh’s Property Management System (PMS) developed by their National Informatics Centre (NIC) for digitising the management of housing colonies under the Housing & Urban Development Department (H&UDD), here.
The initiative aims at providing transparent, efficient and citizen-centric online services to the allottees of government housing colonies across the Union Territory.
Emphasising the importance of leveraging technology to improve public service delivery, the Chief Secretary observed that adoption of the Property Management System would mark significant step towards digital governance in the Housing & Urban Development Department.
He said that the online platform would simplify property-related procedures, minimise physical interface between citizens and government offices, reduce processing time and provide greater convenience to the allottees of government housing colonies across Jammu & Kashmir.
The Chief Secretary directed the concerned departments and implementing agencies to ensure time-bound implementation of the project by working in close coordination with NIC Chandigarh and NIC J&K. He stressed the need for completing the required customisation, ensuring data accuracy, undertaking comprehensive testing and completing the security audit before rolling out the system for public use. He also called for adequate capacity building of the concerned staff to facilitate smooth implementation of the project.
