The ‘Vocal’ Strikes a Chord With Modi Government: To Create Alexa, Siri Like ‘Desi Assistant’ For India 

The Narendra Modi government is planning to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) voice assistant on the lines of Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri for its citizen services app UMANG, Financial Express has reported. Through this upgrade, the government hopes to reach the rural audience and illiterates.

Presently, UMANG app provides about 300 services which include broadband, electricity, gas, waters, crop insurance, soil healthcare services, agricultural advisors from 66 central departments and 17 states.

The National e-Governance Division (NeGD) of the Information Technology (IT) ministry is scheduled to meet and brainstorm with vendors on 4 October. Providing the service in mother-tongue of the masses will increase the reach and user-friendly quotient of the app.

Several companies like Flipkart and Microsoft are also working on voice-enabled services to tap users in smaller parts of the country. This is expected to reach next 100-200 million users in various parts of the country.