Opposition alleges that decision was taken by CM on his own.
New Delhi: The Covid-19 pandemic success story in Kerala is marked by a deal the Left Front government struck with US-based Sprinklr, a citizen and customer experience management firm, to collect and manage the virus data in the state.
The opposition, led by the Congress, is alleging that the tie-up with the US firm is in violation of all norms and taken by the Chef Minister without discussing the matter in the Cabinet.
No global tender was floated prior to selecting the company and the legal department was not consulted. Further is the accusation that data of 1.75 lakh people were collected without their prior consent.
Healthcare workers are collecting the data house-to-house, seeking answers to 41 questions on existing chronic and serious ailments of those under home quarantine.
It is said the information would help doctors and medical officials take quick and accurate decisions on further treatment and hospitalisation.
Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala has questioned why the administration took the assistance of a foreign entity when there were institutions within the state, such as the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (CDIT) and the Kerala State IT Mission, which could do the same job. Chennithala also said the decision to appoint Sprinklr, launched in 2010 in New York and owned by a Malayali, was taken unilaterally with the knowledge of the Chief Minister and without prior clearance from departments such as Law, Local Self-Government and Finance. Since the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who also holds the IT Department, refused to answer saying he didn’t have time and inclination to give explanation on “baseless allegations”, Chennithala moved the High Court.
The state government claims that the company has offered its tools free of cost, in the form of a software-as-a-service (SaaS). According to the IT Department, the data were being collected on a massive scale and therefore needed an application that could collect and analyse the same. Sprinklr’s SaaS tool was ready and only had to be customised for the state’s needs. Pinarayi Vijayan, who briefs the press daily on the virus, initially refused to take any questions regarding Sprinklr.
Though flanked by Health, Revenue and Agriculture Ministers and the Chief Secretary, it is the Chief Minister who answers queries from media persons, including those concerning the ministers present at the briefing.
But when it came to IT, he bluntly told the media to check with the IT Secretary. So the IT Secretary, M. Sivasankar, who is also in charge of the CM’s office, spent one whole day giving interviews to various TV channels.
At the end of which he owned up responsibility for the deal with Sprinklr. “Sprinklr is a SaaS firm which offers its service to agencies like the World Health Organisation. The company offered its service free of charge till September and considering the emergency requirement in the state, it has been decided to avail its service. The decision has been taken on war-footing using my discretionary power and not consulted trolled law or other government departments,” he said.
The opposition wondered as to how a secretary could take such a major decision involving a foreign company, irrespective of its ownership, without even consulting his minister. CPI, the junior communist party in the government, too joined issue with the Chief Minister on privacy concerns in data sharing.
This forced the government to set up a two-man committee to study the deal and submit a report in a month’s time. It was all too clear that the government was trying to whitewash the deal by seeking time.
Considering the petition filed by Ramesh Chennithala seeking cancellation of the agreement owing to data privacy, the Kerala High Court of Friday raised certain questions, short of cancellation of the deal, leaving the government in a tight spot.
In its interim order, the court said the government should anonymise the data before it is shared with Sprinklr. Also the government should inform individuals that their data would be accessed by Sprinklr.
More important, the court said that consent of individuals should be obtained before collecting the data for analysis. While issuing the order, the court said the directions were given with the intent of “ensuring that there is no data epidemic after the Covid-19 epidemic is controlled”.
Both the opposition and Pinarayi Vijayan, who now by had started reacting to Sprinklr questions, had claimed the court order was in their favour.
Pinarayi Vijayan has tried to justify his actions by saying “extraordinary situations call for extraordinary actions”.
That was why the IT secretary had said that patients would not have answered the questionnaire if they knew the intentions behind the data collection. Now that the court has asked the government to reveal the motive, it is to be seen whether the government would go ahead with data collection in the future.
Sprinklr may be forgotten, but it is unlikely that the people of Kerala forget IT Secretary, a senior IAS officer, going to a party office to explain his actions to the leader there.
That was what IT Secretary Sivasankar did when he called on CPI State Secretary Kanom Rajendran at party headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram. “There is nothing unusual in it,” said a senior minister of Pinarayi Vijayan government justifying the act.
OVERHEARD: What is common in US President Donald Trump and Communist Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan? Both refuse to answer questions based on “fake news”.
The opposition, led by the Congress, is alleging that the tie-up with the US firm is in violation of all norms and taken by the Chef Minister without discussing the matter in the Cabinet.
No global tender was floated prior to selecting the company and the legal department was not consulted. Further is the accusation that data of 1.75 lakh people were collected without their prior consent.
Healthcare workers are collecting the data house-to-house, seeking answers to 41 questions on existing chronic and serious ailments of those under home quarantine.
It is said the information would help doctors and medical officials take quick and accurate decisions on further treatment and hospitalisation.
Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala has questioned why the administration took the assistance of a foreign entity when there were institutions within the state, such as the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (CDIT) and the Kerala State IT Mission, which could do the same job. Chennithala also said the decision to appoint Sprinklr, launched in 2010 in New York and owned by a Malayali, was taken unilaterally with the knowledge of the Chief Minister and without prior clearance from departments such as Law, Local Self-Government and Finance. Since the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who also holds the IT Department, refused to answer saying he didn’t have time and inclination to give explanation on “baseless allegations”, Chennithala moved the High Court.
The state government claims that the company has offered its tools free of cost, in the form of a software-as-a-service (SaaS). According to the IT Department, the data were being collected on a massive scale and therefore needed an application that could collect and analyse the same. Sprinklr’s SaaS tool was ready and only had to be customised for the state’s needs. Pinarayi Vijayan, who briefs the press daily on the virus, initially refused to take any questions regarding Sprinklr.
Though flanked by Health, Revenue and Agriculture Ministers and the Chief Secretary, it is the Chief Minister who answers queries from media persons, including those concerning the ministers present at the briefing.
But when it came to IT, he bluntly told the media to check with the IT Secretary. So the IT Secretary, M. Sivasankar, who is also in charge of the CM’s office, spent one whole day giving interviews to various TV channels.
At the end of which he owned up responsibility for the deal with Sprinklr. “Sprinklr is a SaaS firm which offers its service to agencies like the World Health Organisation. The company offered its service free of charge till September and considering the emergency requirement in the state, it has been decided to avail its service. The decision has been taken on war-footing using my discretionary power and not consulted trolled law or other government departments,” he said.
The opposition wondered as to how a secretary could take such a major decision involving a foreign company, irrespective of its ownership, without even consulting his minister. CPI, the junior communist party in the government, too joined issue with the Chief Minister on privacy concerns in data sharing.
This forced the government to set up a two-man committee to study the deal and submit a report in a month’s time. It was all too clear that the government was trying to whitewash the deal by seeking time.
Considering the petition filed by Ramesh Chennithala seeking cancellation of the agreement owing to data privacy, the Kerala High Court of Friday raised certain questions, short of cancellation of the deal, leaving the government in a tight spot.
In its interim order, the court said the government should anonymise the data before it is shared with Sprinklr. Also the government should inform individuals that their data would be accessed by Sprinklr.
More important, the court said that consent of individuals should be obtained before collecting the data for analysis. While issuing the order, the court said the directions were given with the intent of “ensuring that there is no data epidemic after the Covid-19 epidemic is controlled”.
Both the opposition and Pinarayi Vijayan, who now by had started reacting to Sprinklr questions, had claimed the court order was in their favour.
Pinarayi Vijayan has tried to justify his actions by saying “extraordinary situations call for extraordinary actions”.
That was why the IT secretary had said that patients would not have answered the questionnaire if they knew the intentions behind the data collection. Now that the court has asked the government to reveal the motive, it is to be seen whether the government would go ahead with data collection in the future.
Sprinklr may be forgotten, but it is unlikely that the people of Kerala forget IT Secretary, a senior IAS officer, going to a party office to explain his actions to the leader there.
That was what IT Secretary Sivasankar did when he called on CPI State Secretary Kanom Rajendran at party headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram. “There is nothing unusual in it,” said a senior minister of Pinarayi Vijayan government justifying the act.
OVERHEARD: What is common in US President Donald Trump and Communist Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan? Both refuse to answer questions based on “fake news”.
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