Govt forms two-member panel to assess fairness of much-criticised Sprinklr deal

Two-member committee formed to assess the fairness of Sprinklr deal
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Chief Secretary Tom Jose has constituted a two-member expert committee of former IAS officials to judge how fair the Sprinkler deal was in the backdrop of the threat posed by COVID-19.

M Madhavan Nambiar, former Civil Aviation Secretary and former Secretary Information Technology, Government of India, will chair the expert committee. Rajeev Sadanandan, former Additional Chief Secretary (Health and Family Welfare, Government of Kerala), will be the other member.

The Committee has been asked to examine the following issues. One, whether the privacy of personal and sensitive data of individuals has been protected under the agreements entered into with Sprinklr Inc?

Two, whether adequate procedures have been followed while finalizing the arrangement with Sprinktr Inc?

Three, whether deviations, if any, are fair, justified and reasonable considering the extraordinary and critical situation the State was facing at the relevant period?

Four, suggestions for future guidance.

Right at the outset, the chief secretary's order speaks of the context in which Sprinklr had to be roped in. "Predictive models using statistical techniques warned of a possible worst-case scenario in which the number of COVID-19 infections in the State could go up to 8-10 lakh in a short period of time," it says.

The order states it was was to prepare for this exigency that steps were initiated to set up a data analytics platform to integrate data from various sources available in the government, agencies and from the field.

And then, as a reason for setting up the expert committee, the order says: “Subsequently, certain issues have been raised in the public domain as to whether the arrangements made with the US-based company was in accordance with laid-down procedure and done after taking necessary safeguards to protect the privacy of citizens' data.”

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