Innovation – gramvaani.org

Technology

Our theory of citizen participation for democracy is based on nurturing active citizens by helping them become informed and voice their opinions. In order to develop empathy of state & society, we require communication infrastructure that integrates feedback and provides a fair representation of diverse viewpoints.

At Gram Vaani we develop technology products with a focus on social responsibility to ensure responsible outcomes from our tech interventions. We believe ethics form a very crucial foundation for thinking about ICT projects. Our ICT projects are guided by an underlying ethical framework on their objectives, design (user interface design, data and algorithms, system design) and deployment.

Gram Vaani’s objective is to provide an alternative tech-based media platform, powered by the community, designed to empower them to change their lives.

Layer 4

Intelligent Onboarding

2019-2020

Tika Vaani – Optical scanning

A platform to aid front line workers engaged in child vaccination programmes.
An Android app that helps FLWs click pictures of the Mother and Child Protection (MCP) card, get automatic due lists and tally lists for Village Health & Nutrition Day (VHND) schedules and other vital information about the children and vaccines required in the upcoming VHNDs.

Advanced image processing and machine learning to extract information from the MCP cards.
The IVRS integration helps send automatic reminders to the eligible children about upcoming VHND and share information on common side effects of the vaccines post vaccination.

Layer 3

Intelligent Support

2018-2019

Data Analytics & Monitoring

Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics framework to help analyse call and content consumption statistics.
Open Data Kit (ODK) integration to create complex reports by combining IVR and field data.
Power BI integration for a rich presentation of the data.

2020

Automated Moderation

Integration of Machine Learning modules for automatic accept/reject, gender and theme classification.
Google speech2text integration for transcribing audios.

2018-2019

Case Manager

IVR-based service for grievance management.
Independent beneficiary call flows and handlers call flow to provide updates and resolutions for the grievances.
Moderation interface to moderate and assign grievances.

2019-2020

Distributed Moderation

Distributed Moderation of item and grievances for scalability.
Registered users able to moderate items and provide updates on grievances from the Mobile Vaani App.
Three levels of access for item moderation: Partner, Community Manager, Volunteer.

Layer 2

Innovations

2020

IVRS Voicebot

Voice bot over IVR using automatic speech recognition and DialogFlow integration for data collection and natural conversation with users using conditional flows.

2020

Voice Based Quora

IVR system to answer user queries in real time
A large corpus of FAQs under multiple themes curated to answer user queries.
State of the art ML models trained to match user queries with the appropriate answers using the curated FAQ database

Layer 1

Ensuring Access

2009

GRINS

Low latency audio device interconnections
Low cost Community Radio Automation Software (RAS)
Low maintenance and low cost
Astrix for calling and Gstreamer for Routing.
35 installations across India and Africa
Over 0.5 million community outreach

2011

VAutomate V1

Launched in 2011 as a radio over mobile service with Jharkhand and Bihar Mobile Vaani.
News and vforum functionalities as par
Press 3 function for users to record their voice and contribute on the platform.
Service access over toll free numbers
GWT (Google Web Kit) based Moderation Interface for moderating user content.

2013-2014

VAutomate V2

State machine models for complex IVRS designs. New services launched with the new framework.
vSurvey as a mobile service for doing surveys

2018-19

Mobile Vaani (MV) App

Android app for accessing Mobile Vaani content over smartphones
Registered users able to contribute content using the app along with sharing the content over WhatsApp and Facebook and forward to mobile numbers.
Pictures, YouTube links, title, transcription and contributors profile shown with items.

Research Papers

admin 12 Oct, 2021

Experiences with the Introduction of AI-based Tools for Moderation Automation of Voice-based Participatory Media Forums – A. Khullar, P. Panjal, R. Pandey, A. Burnwal, P. Raj, A.A. Jha, P. Hitesh, R.J. Reddy, Himanshu, and A. Seth. KDD Workshop on Data Science for Social Good, 2021.

Voice-based discussion forums where users can record audio messages which are then published for other users to listen and comment

admin 12 Oct, 2021

Costs and Benefits of Conducting Voice-based Surveys Versus Keypress-based Surveys on Interactive Voice Response Systems – A. Khullar, P. Hitesh, S. Rahman, D. Kumar, R. Pandey, P. Kumar, R. Tripathi, Prince, A.A. Jha, Himanshu, and A. Seth. ACM COMPASS, 2021.

Recent improvements through machine learning in speech technologies and natural language processing has prompted active interest in the development of conversational agents for various tasks.

admin 12 Oct, 2021

The Power of Narrative Persuation: How an Entertainment-Education Serial Drama Tackled Open Defecation and Promoted Contraceptive Use in India – H. Wang, A. Singhal, P. Muttreja, A. Vajpeyi, R. Laddha, S. Singh, P.D. Mazumdar, A. Srivastava, V. Rao, S. Saini, D. Rautela, and A. Seth. Journal of Development Communication, Volume 31(2), 2020.

Television and radio serial dramas have been used as an effective entertainment-education (EE) strategy to address complex health and social issues around the world.