Through strategic partnerships between the government and industry, Maharashtra is growing leaps and bounds in its AI adoption, deriving numerous benefits for citizens of the state. Here’s a glimpse into some of the best AI initiatives originating out of Maharashtra.
Detecting forest fires using AI: Forest fires are a great cause of destruction in the wild, often leading to a loss of flora and fauna, and forcing the displacement of local population. IIT Indore is conducting pilot tests for an AI-WSN system that will be deployed to detect forest fires at the Melghat Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra. Wireless Sensor Network deployments comprise sensor-containing motes which then form an ad hoc network that can sense a fire.The biggest problem that was encountered was that of false positives, however. And that’s where AI and ML came in. The research team then thought of deploying really simple algorithms. When the sensors send back signals, the algorithm determines that there is indeed a fire, negating the chances for a false positive.
Facial recognition to track COVID19 patients: As Maharashtra dealt with the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, the Nagpur administration decided to deploy facial recognition technology to track COVID-19 positive patients as part of the measures such as movement restrictions and curfew in containment zones. In March 2021, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) announced that they will launch facial recognition by 3,800 CCTVs that are installed across the city. The photos of people – with and without masks – who tested positive for COVID-19 will be uploaded on the AI system, and automatically be detected by the CCTV system if they break the home quarantine or are found roaming about in the city. These people will be fined and put into an institutional quarantine. This step has earned the city the distinction of being the first city to deploy the technology to arrest the increase of COVID infections
AI to help preserve Ajanta Cave Paintings: The Ajanta Caves in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, a UNESCO Heritage Site, are a treasure trove of wondrous paintings and sculptures, considered masterpieces of Buddhist religious art, from the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C. Mumbai-headquartered Sapio Analytics, a data management company is employing modern technology to restore and preserve the paintings of the cave. The organisation is making these efforts in tandem with global efforts to preserve ancient culture and art. The paintings’ digitised forms will be preserved on the Svalbard island in Norway under the Arctic World Archive. Sapio Analytics have used a dataset of reference work to develop the AI mannequin, called Ancient AI for the work.
Predictive AI for road safety: The government of India’s project iRaste seeks to use the predictive power of AI to reduce fatalities on Indian roads. The project has been piloted in Nagpur, Maharashtra, in collaboration with the Nagpur Municipal Corporation. The NMC vehicles will be installed with collision avoidance technology to reduce accidents and near misses up to 60%; the sensors will identify the dynamic risk of the Nagpur road network to help agencies prevent and repair accident-prone zones, also called black spots. The AI system will further help identify and prioritise data such as road surface condition, signage, marking, signal details, type of vehicles, models in use and utility assets. ‘iRASTE’ project would go a long way in creating a blueprint for the country in order to bring accidents to zero.
Source: indiaai.gov.in
