Discover how IIT-Kanpur's innovative AI-powered "Family Score" system is set to transform welfare delivery by efficiently identifying deserving households using existing government data, offering a cost-effective alternative to traditional surveys.
Key Points
- IIT-Kanpur developed an AI-powered "Family Score" system for identifying welfare beneficiaries.
- The system uses existing government data, eliminating the need for new surveys.
- It offers a faster and more cost-effective method for assessing socio-economic conditions.
- The AI models outperform conventional surveys in determining household socio-economic status.
- The initiative, in collaboration with Andhra Pradesh, aims for transparent and responsible AI in public service.
The Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur has demonstrated the potential of an AI-powered system to help governments identify households requiring welfare support using data already available in government systems, the institute said on Tuesday.
The Family Score system assesses the socio-economic conditions of households without requiring additional surveys, potentially offering a faster and more cost-effective way to identify beneficiaries at scale, it said.
Revolutionising Welfare Identification With AI
The system was developed under a collaboration between IIT-K and the Andhra Pradesh government, with the first phase examining whether AI could provide a reliable alternative to conventional household surveys for assessing socio-economic conditions.
The findings showed that an ensemble of AI models developed by IIT-K can outperform conventional surveys in determining the socio-economic conditions of households, while requiring relatively little additional cost and effort from the government, according to the institute.
The findings were presented to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and senior government officials by an IIT-K team comprising Director Manindra Agrawal, Dean of the Wadhwani School of AI & Intelligent Systems Nitin Saxena and Manish Srivastava, CEO of Airawat Research Foundation.
Naidu appreciated the capabilities demonstrated by the system and its potential to help identify and reach the right families with targeted welfare support, the institute said.
How The Family Score System Works
The Score uses existing government data to assess the socio-economic well-being of families and classify them into defined categories. It uses an ensemble of conventional machine learning models trained on around 15 government-owned datasets containing indicators of household socio-economic conditions.
The models are calibrated against socio-economic scores generated through a statewide survey. Once trained, they can generate dynamic family scores for households represented in available datasets without requiring fresh surveys or additional data collection.
"Family Score is an effort to use AI and existing government data to better understand the socio-economic conditions of families and enable more targeted welfare delivery," Agrawal said.
"The initial results are encouraging and demonstrate the potential of this approach to reduce the dependence on costly and time-consuming surveys. Our collaboration with the Government of Andhra Pradesh reflects our aim to put rigorous and responsible AI in service of citizens, while ensuring that the process remains transparent and open," he added.
