Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare introduced an AI chatbot as part of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana(PM-KISAN scheme). This disruptive technology represents a meaningful step forward in the assistance of farmers, offering “prompt, clear, and accurate” responses to queries, increasing transparency, and allowing for more informed decisions to be made.
The First AI Chatbot for PM KISAN
Offering seamless integration with the PM-KISAN mobile application, this advanced AI chatbot has been developed with the aid of EkStep foundation and Bhashini. During its first phase, it will assist farmers by providing information regarding application status, payment details, and ineligibility status, among other things. With Bhashini’s support for multiple languages, the chatbot caters to the linguistic diversity and regional variety of the PM-KISAN beneficiaries.
Understanding AI Chatbots
A spin-off of Artificial Intelligence (AI), chatbots or chatterbots, are used primarily on messaging apps. These autonomous programs interact with customers like a human would, offering them convenience at little to no cost. They function either through machine learning or set guidelines. As AI technology advances, chatbot programming is now able to self-learn from new dialogues and words, leading to an increase in the number of questions it can answer and the precision of each response. For instance, Meta (formerly known as Facebook) uses a machine learning chatbot that businesses can use to interact with their consumers via the Messenger application.
What is the PM KISAN Scheme?
The PM KISAN scheme was launched in 2019 with the aim of fulfilling the financial requirements of landholding farmers. It offers a financial benefit of Rs 6000/- per year, which is transferred directly into farmers’ bank accounts in three installments. While it was initially formulated for Small and Marginal Farmers (SMFs) with landholdings up to 2 hectares, the scheme has been extended to cover all landholding farmers. All funding comes solely from the Indian government. A physical verification of 5% of beneficiaries is conducted every year in line with the scheme.
The PM-KISAN Mobile App
The National Informatics Centre, together with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, designed the PM-KISAN mobile app. This tool enables better implementation of the scheme. However, certain higher economic status beneficiaries such as institutional landholders, former holders of constitutional posts, retired officers and employees of government departments, superannuated/retired pensioners whose monthly pension is Rs.10,000/- or more, and professionals like doctors, engineers, lawyers, chartered accountants, and architects registered with professional bodies have been excluded from the scheme.
UPSC Civil Services Examination Question
A question from the Civil Services Examination tests the understanding of the application of AI: “With the present state of development, Artificial Intelligence can effectively do which of the following? 1. Bring down electricity consumption in industrial units 2. Create meaningful short stories and songs 3. Disease diagnosis 4. Text-to-Speech Conversion 5. Wireless transmission of electrical energy.” The correct answer is (b) 1, 3, and 4 only.
