New Delhi: IAS and IPS officers could soon be given postings in the central government using artificial intelligence, ThePrint has learnt.
According to sources in the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the Narendra Modi government is in the process of creating a database for officers, which would maintain data about their background, interests, training history, etc.
This database will automatically list suitable candidates for different vacancies based on artificial intelligence, a senior DoPT official said on the condition of anonymity. After a pool of officers has been suggested, the final choice of a particular officer for the post can be left to human intelligence.
“But going ahead, there will be a system wherein officers are chosen for posts in areas they are interested in so that they have domain expertise,” the official said. “There won’t be random posting of officers in completely different sectors.”
The official added that there will not be a definite launch for this practice, and instead, as and when the technology matures, it will start getting adopted.
ThePrint reached the DoPT spokesperson for a comment through text messages, but there was no response till the time of publishing this report.
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iGOT crucial to AI-based system
Crucial to this AI-based system of postings would be the Integrated Government Online Training (iGOT), under which targeted and interest-based online training is provided to government servants.
“There will be strong incentives for government servants to constantly up-skill themselves and take up courses since their postings will be dependent on their training history,” the official said.
The iGOT, which was initially launched in December 2018, was relaunched by the Modi government as part of its Karmayogi Scheme or the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB), in a bid to transform status-quoist and rule-obsessed civil servants working in silos into “experts”.
After its relaunch in September 2020, the iGOT scheme is attempting to challenge an oft-repeated criticism against civil servants — that they clear an exam in their 20s and then do little to build on their skills. They are also accused of not changing their ambit from “rules” to “roles”.
The government has also announced the provision of iGOT-Karmayogi, a continuous online training platform, which would allow all government servants from assistant secretary to secretary level to undergo continuous training, depending on their domain areas.
(Edited by Shreyas Sharma)
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