In an exclusive conversation with Express Computer, Sandip Kumar, Director, Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM), discusses how Kerala is emerging as a national leader in digital governance. From pioneering certificate-less services to experimenting with AI-led innovations, unified government platforms, data-exchange systems, and cyber-resilience programs, he explains how the state is reshaping citizen service delivery and preparing for a future driven by AI, data, and secure digital infrastructure.
Edited Excerpts:
Kerala’s certificate-less governance program has gained national attention. Could you walk us through its journey and impact?
Our certificate-less governance initiative is essentially a full-scale adoption of DigiLocker across all citizen-centric service delivery departments. Although DigiLocker has existed since 2016–17, many departments had not onboarded themselves into the system. When I joined KSITM, it became clear that Kerala required a structured campaign that would enable the state to fully leverage the platform. We began positioning it as a certificate-less governance mission, ensuring that every certificate issued by any department would be stored in DigiLocker, and that all applications for government services would fetch required documents directly from DigiLocker with the citizen’s consent.
This required both the issuing and verifying functions to be implemented across departments. In Phase 1, from March to October, we targeted 109 certificates and successfully integrated 104 of them. We also enabled 65 out of 99 departments as verifiers. The campaign pushed departments to digitise legacy records as well. Kerala recently received national recognition for being one of the top-performing states in DigiLocker implementation. Phase 2 has now been launched, integrating 34 more departments and focusing on remaining high-priority certificates so Kerala can achieve complete certificate-less governance.
A key achievement was the digitisation and upload of many legacy certificates and old records into DigiLocker—something that hadn’t been done before. This effort helped establish an ecosystem that allowed everyone to fully leverage the benefits of DigiLocker. We celebrated this success and, earlier this month, Kerala received national recognition for being one of the top-performing states in terms of DigiLocker implementation.
How have citizens responded to digital certificates and the new process?
Citizens have found the system extremely convenient. They no longer need to scan and upload documents repeatedly for different applications. When they apply for services such as a caste or community certificate, all required documents can be retrieved automatically from DigiLocker after obtaining simple user consent. This eliminates paperwork, reduces cost, and shortens processing time. During disaster situations, DigiLocker has proved invaluable.
After the Wayanad floods, where more than 200 houses were washed away, we restored citizen records within a week, enabling immediate relief efforts. It has become a resilience tool as much as a governance tool.
KSWAN is crucial to unified digital governance. Can you elaborate?
KSWAN is an old initiative, established under the National e-Governance Plan, that provides Kerala with a secure and reliable network backbone, which has accelerated the rollout of services such as e-Office and e-District. While maintaining its network nodes and infrastructure does involve significant costs, the speed and security it offers have made it indispensable. We are now working on integrating KSWAN with the Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON), which will help further strengthen the state’s overall digital ecosystem.
Kerala has been progressive in adopting AI. What are the current initiatives?
We’re fully recognising the disruptive potential and efficiency that AI technology can bring, especially in government operations. To harness this, we launched the “Kerala AI” program, which has already seen significant progress. We’ve conducted workshops and events where we gathered problem statements from various departments. These statements were then curated and shared with startups, companies, and, in Phase 2, with college-based innovation clubs. This approach has led to the development of AI-driven solutions for several use cases.
In Phase 1, we successfully identified five key use cases. One standout example is in industrial safety, where we’ve implemented an automated system to detect safety violations in real-time. Another exciting development is face authentication, which is being explored across multiple departments, particularly in e-health, where we’re automating tasks like pre-consultation report generation and discharge procedures.
One particularly innovative use case we’re exploring is landslide prediction. Given Kerala’s history with landslides, especially during the monsoon season, it’s crucial to predict and plan for such events. We’re developing an AI-powered landslide vulnerability mapping system that factors in rainfall, soil type, vegetation, and past records to generate a hazard map. This map will help us create early warning systems, enabling better evacuation planning and minimising potential loss of life and property.
We’re also exploring AI in the legal assistance domain. Many government departments frequently need legal opinions, and there are often inconsistencies in handling cases. AI can assist in streamlining decision-making, ensuring compliance with laws and precedents, and reducing delays in the legal process.
Overall, we’re currently investigating over 50 use cases, with about 10 actively in the exploration or implementation phase. Phase 2 of the Kerala AI program received more than 700 proposals, and we’re currently reviewing these responses. I believe many more AI-driven projects will be implemented in the coming months as we continue expanding our use of AI across Kerala’s government.
What is your larger view of AI’s role in government?
AI can significantly improve government functioning by performing repetitive tasks faster and more accurately. It can enhance forecasting and pattern recognition, which is helpful in healthcare, planning, disaster management, and financial projections. At the same time, concerns around job displacement, bias, and ethics cannot be ignored. Kerala is now working on the creation of a Kerala AI Mission, which we hope to launch next year. This mission will support innovation, enable access to GPU infrastructure, promote open-data frameworks, and establish a Kerala AI Ethics Committee to ensure responsible deployment of AI.
What are the main challenges Kerala faces in adopting AI technologies?
Adopting new technologies, especially AI, does come with its set of challenges. First, the cost is a significant hurdle, particularly when it comes to training models on powerful hardware like GPUs. These resources can be expensive, and while we’re working within the Kerala AI program to provide some of this infrastructure, the overall cost of processing power remains a roadblock. Another challenge is that AI is not yet well-regulated in India. As an IT department, our role goes beyond just adopting new technologies; we also need to ensure that they are regulated properly. We need to figure out how to establish frameworks for overseeing AI’s ethical and legal use. So, the lack of clear regulations around AI is a concern that we have to navigate as we push forward with its adoption.
As Kerala expands its digital footprint across AI, data platforms, and citizen services, cybersecurity becomes a critical foundation. How are you strengthening cyber readiness and ensuring that citizens’ data and government systems remain secure?
Cybersecurity is an area of immense importance. We are establishing a centralised State Security Operations Centre (SOC) to provide advanced threat detection and strengthen protection of critical digital and physical infrastructure. CERT-K, which works with CERT-In, will continue to play a major role in monitoring cyber threats and coordinating responses, but the SOC will significantly enhance our preparedness. We expect it to be fully operational in the next two months and to eventually integrate multiple departments under a unified security framework.
How are you ensuring digital literacy and access in remote regions?
Kerala has always prioritised digital inclusion, especially for communities in remote, tribal, and hilly regions. The DigiKeralam program recently enabled the state to declare 100 percent digital literacy. KFON is providing free Internet connections to BPL households and extending connectivity to areas where commercial networks have not reached. Additionally, Akshaya Kendras act as citizen service centres, enabling last-mile digital access. We are also working continuously to eliminate Internet shadow zones in the state.
What future initiatives are you working on?
We’re advancing towards the future with the “Nammude Keralam” program, a 7-month initiative under the Digital Kerala framework, approved by the Chief Minister and supported by all departments. The program, aimed at improving citizen services and governance, is divided into four key components.
The first component, Sevana Keralam, focuses on enhancing citizen experiences with government services. Key initiatives include a Citizen Experience (CX) Index, where citizens can rate services, and the development of a unified Nammude Keralam app and web portal to centralise all government services. We’re also exploring service delivery through WhatsApp and chatbots to make services more interactive.
Sadhbharana Keralam, the second component, aims to utilize government data for improved governance. Notable projects include the creation of a Unified Registry of citizens for proactive services and developing data exchange platforms to enable collaboration between departments and open access for innovation from startups.
The third pillar, Bhaavi Keralam (Future Keralam), focuses on adopting emerging technologies like AI, IoT, and AR/VR. Kerala has introduced an AVGC-XR policy to boost the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics (AVGC) sector, offering incentives to integrate these technologies into governance.
Lastly, Jana Keralam emphasizes citizen care and enhancing digital and AI literacy. Kerala’s Digital Keralam program has already made citizens digitally literate, and we are launching Digi Keralam 2.0 to include AI literacy. Additionally, the SafeTech Campaign will raise awareness about digital fraud, cyber threats, and online scams to help protect citizens in the digital age.
These four components—Sevana Keralam, Sadhbharana Keralam, Bhaavi Keralam, and Jana Keralam —are the backbone of our Nammude Keralam- Digital Kerala initiative, and we are optimistic that their successful implementation will take Kerala’s digital governance to the next level.