New Delhi, August 14 (HS): In a landmark step towards digitising grassroots governance, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj today launched SabhaSaar, an Artificial Intelligence-powered platform designed to instantly transform Gram Sabha and Panchayat meeting recordings into precise, structured Minutes of Meeting (MoM).

Union Minister of Panchayati Raj Rajiv Ranjan Singh (Lalan Singh) and Union Minister of State Prof. S.P. Singh Baghel unveiled the cutting-edge tool at a ceremony in the national capital, calling it a game-changer for decentralised democracy.

Built on advanced AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) frameworks, SabhaSaar can transcribe spoken discussions, automatically identify decisions and action points, and generate well-formatted minutes. The system is fully integrated with Bhashini, the Government of India’s National Language Translation Mission, enabling support for 13 Indian languages at launch, with plans to expand this capability.

To fast-track adoption, the Ministry has instructed all States and Union Territories to use SabhaSaar for documenting the Special Gram Sabhas scheduled on Independence Day, August 15, 2025. The pilot rollout will see all 1,194 Gram Panchayats of Tripura, including traditional local bodies, using the tool to create official meeting minutes.

Officials say the innovation will slash documentation time, boost efficiency, and enhance transparency — freeing Panchayat staff from laborious note-taking so they can focus on governance and service delivery.

“This is more than a tech upgrade — it’s a leap towards a transparent, accountable and participatory democracy,” the Ministry said, highlighting that the tool could set the standard for digital governance at the village level across India.

---------------

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar