CM ON THE WATCH

The 'Tamil Nadu 360' digital dashboard has helped CM Stalin track performance of government departments to find solutions both at the micro and macro level

- Amarnath K. Menon

At his first official meeting after taking charge as Tamil Nadu chief minister in May 2021, M.K. Stalin sought information and a plan for an electronic dashboard system giving real-time information on government projects and programmes. Just six months later, on December 24, Tamil Nadu's oldest first-time chief minister unveiled a system to track, analyse and increase administrative efficiency in the state.

It's now 2023 and the 'CM Dashboard-Tamil Nadu 360' is proving to be more than a transformative digital information tool. Its centrepiece is a 180 sq. ft screen that takes up part of a wall in the chief minister's conference room and integrates dashboards of various departments, thus acting as a ready reckoner for the CM and his bureaucrats. Some 103 dashboards covering activities of different departments and flagship programmes have already been integrated.

All 38 government departments and 220 directorates will have dashboards in their offices by March-end. Currently, the CM's dashboard provides real-time information on storage levels of key reservoirs, rainfall patterns, the price mesh that monitors the price stability of over 25 foodgrains, vegetables and fruits, current employment trends, civil supplies' stocks status, health-related information, daily police reports of major crimes with reference to districts that require attention, housing progress for the urban and rural poor and progress of water supply schemes. The public grievance redressal system and the status of petitions received through the CM's Helpline and 'CM in your Constituency' programmes are also tracked continuously. The last is of course to stay up to date on the slew of schemes launched by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government in line with its 500-odd pre-poll promises.