IAS man’s ‘accident’ software draws PM Modi praise

New Delhi: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi often urging bureaucrats to come up with new ideas, recently an innovative concept from a young bureaucrat left him impressed. During his interaction with the 2015 batch IAS officers, a presentation on rapid response for accident victims by one officer caught his attention.

Highly-placed sources said at this particular meeting, out of eight presentations shortlisted to be shown to Mr Modi, one particularly interested him. The officer had, in collaboration with Google, prepared a software that can instantly determine the location of the caller from the accident site and on a real-time basis send out an SMS to the affected person informing him/her about the actual time the nearest ambulance will take to reach the spot.

This way, sources said, the ambulance will reach the spot in a span of minutes, avoiding wastage of crucial time and helping save the life of a critically injured victim.

Normally if a call is made via the medical emergency number 108, operational in 21 states across India, it takes time for an ambulance to reach the accident spot, which may prove fatal in many cases.

However, with the help of this software, a call from the accident site will be tracked by the call centre that in turn will send an SMS immediately to the affected person, telling him how long the ambulance will take to reach the location.

Simultaneously, the nearest available ambulance will also be directed by the call centre to reach the spot by giving it accurate geographical details about the location of the accident.

Sources told this newspaper that the Prime Minister was impressed with the presentation and praised the officer for being imaginative. While nothing is final as of now, sources said the proposed concept could even become part of a larger policy if it is approved by the PMO.

In 2015, Mr Modi started the concept of making newly-recruited IAS officers undergo training in Central ministries in New Delhi for three months before they join their respective state cadres. The idea is to give them an opportunity to be a part of and experience firsthand how policies are drafted in Central ministries. They are also given a chance to come up with new ideas of their own, which if liked by the PMO could become part of a larger policy framework in future.

Some of the best presentations prepared by young bureaucrats on new ideas or concepts are shortlisted and shown to the Prime Minister during his interaction with them, prior to their departure for their respective cadres.