The Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) is the Government of India's primary digital platform for citizens to lodge, track, and monitor grievances against central ministries, departments, state governments, and other public authorities. Operated by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, and hosted and developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), the system has been progressively enhanced with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities since 2021. CPGRAMS currently interlinks 91 central ministries and departments and 36 states and union territories, with over 74,000 registered government users processing approximately 20 lakh (2 million) grievances annually. Between 2020 and 2024, the system handled over 11.2 million grievances in total, making it one of the largest public grievance redressal platforms globally. The system received international recognition as a advanced grievance redressal system at the Commonwealth conference in London in April 2024.
The AI and machine learning integration within CPGRAMS operates through two interconnected components. The first is CPGRAMS version 7.0, which introduced auto-routing functionality to direct grievances automatically to field-level offices at the last mile, using a questionnaire-guided registration process with dropdown menu-based filing. The second is the Intelligent Grievance Management System (IGMS), developed through a formal memorandum of understanding signed between DARPG and the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) on 14 December 2021. The IGMS was developed by a team at IIT Kanpur's Centre for Data and Information Sciences (CDIS), led by Professor Shalabh from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics (also Dean of Academic Affairs) and Professor Nisheeth Srivastava from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, along with student researchers. The upgraded version, IGMS 2.0, was launched on 29 September 2023 by Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology.
The IGMS performs four core AI-driven functions within the CPGRAMS ecosystem. First, it provides automated spam detection, identifying and filtering spam, bulk, and repetitive grievances in real time. Second, it conducts semantic content analysis using natural language processing to extract the gist of grievances by analysing their text contents and PDF attachments, effectively performing automated topic identification without requiring manual review. Third, it performs issue clustering to identify recurring complaint patterns across departments and policy areas, enabling root cause identification. Fourth, it provides spatiotemporal filtering capabilities that allow officials to track policy and implementation-level issues by location and time period. The IGMS dashboard provides instant tabular analysis of grievances filed and disposed, with state-wise, district-wise, and ministry-wise breakdowns. It also generates automated draft letters for selected schemes and ministries to expedite the grievance redressal process.
The system also includes urgent grievance flagging capabilities. Grievances of an urgent nature are mapped on the CPGRAMS platform with system specifications and flagged to all Nodal Officers and Grievance Redressal Officers (GROs). This AI-driven urgent flagging is part of the ten-step CPGRAMS reform programme that also includes the universalisation of CPGRAMS 7.0 for auto-routing of grievances to the last mile. In addition, DARPG has issued a procurement notice to further modernise the platform with enhanced AI capabilities, including improved natural language processing to understand informal multilingual complaints across India's 22 scheduled languages plus English, voice AI for citizens with limited literacy, and predictive analytics to detect systemic issues and anticipate complaint surges.
The regulatory framework governing CPGRAMS operations was strengthened through a comprehensive Office Memorandum issued by DARPG on 23 August 2024, which reduced the maximum advised resolution time from 30 days to 21 days for original grievances, with a 3-day target for urgent or priority cases. Appeals against disposed grievances must be handled within 30 days by designated Appellate Authorities at the Additional or Joint Secretary rank. The OM mandates that grievances cannot be closed by stating that the matter does not pertain to the receiving ministry or department; instead, efforts must be made to transfer the grievance to the correct authority. An appeal mechanism was operationalised on 21 January 2021, enabling citizens to escalate unsatisfied grievances through designated Nodal Appellate Authorities.
The human oversight model follows a human-in-the-loop paradigm. GROs review and act on AI-assisted triage recommendations, with appeals and escalations handled by officials according to the guidelines established in the August 2024 Office Memorandum. The AI system classifies, prioritises, and routes grievances, but substantive decisions on grievance resolution remain with human officials. Auto-escalation timelines ensure that unresolved grievances are automatically flagged for higher-level review. Performance monitoring is conducted through the Grievance Redressal Assessment Index (GRAI), which provides monthly rankings of ministries and departments across efficiency, feedback, domain, and organisational commitment dimensions. Analytics dashboards are accessible at treedashboard.in and dashboard-pmopg.nic.in. The 2023 GRAI assessment showed that 85 of 89 ministries and departments achieved enhanced resolution rates compared to the previous year.
In terms of measurable impact, the average disposal time for central ministries and departments decreased from 32 days in 2021 to 18 days in 2023, representing a reduction of approximately 44 percent. By 2024, the average resolution time had further decreased to 12 days, with over 24 lakh grievances received and a 98 percent resolution rate achieved. The system is available through the CPGRAMS web portal, native mobile apps on Android and iOS, the My Grievance application, and integration with the UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) platform. Citizens can also lodge grievances via WhatsApp and feedback call centres.