India got its first Innovation Officer in Chennai. This is his vision for our city

31-year-old Azhagu Pandia Raja has been behind several earlier initiatives in the city, including the GCC Corona Monitoring App. What is his new role and how can it help power ideas?

On January 25th, Chennai appointed the country’s first Innovation Officer. 31-year-old engineer M P Azhagu Pandia Raja is all set to assume the role.

Azhagu Pandia Raja spent five years with a software firm in the UK, before his urge to contribute to the nation brought him back to the country. He has since had a successful stint as an Indian Smart City Fellow, during which time he pioneered solutions around waste management and COVID response, working closely with the Chennai Corporation. 

He credits the efforts of G Prakash, Commissioner, Greater Chennai Corporation and Meghanath Reddy, Deputy Commissioner, Revenue in making his involvement possible.

Citizen Matters spoke to Azhagu Pandian to understand what his role entails and the potential of the Innovation Officer to engage with the public. 

How did your appointment as city Innovation Officer come about? 

The Chennai Corporation wanted to create a space for citizens’ ideas to be heard. They were in the process of finalising a suitable channel to carry out this work.

During my association with the corporation, we were able to create and implement ideas without much cost to the civic body as we found sponsors for them. Similarly many others may have ideas and suggestions to solve various problems in the city. We will be creating what could serve as a collaborative platform to incubate these ideas.

When the call for applications for the post of Innovation Officer came about, I applied for the position. Based on my prior experience with the CoC, I was able to make a strong case for myself. 

What kind of association did you have with the Greater Chennai Corporation prior to this? 

Before this appointment, I was part of a cohort of fellows working with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Around 40 fellows were selected from across the country and I was one of two people chosen from Tamil Nadu. We were given a challenge to work on a specific urban issue and come up with solutions for it.

I chose waste management and created the Waste Exchange, a digital solution for easy recycling of waste. As we could pilot it in any one of the smart cities, I chose Chennai; I am from Tamil Nadu. After testing the idea here, it is now set to be rolled out across the country as India Waste Exchange. 


Read more: Here’s how Chennai’s novel Madras Waste Exchange is incentivising recycling


While I was working on this, the pandemic broke out and my station in Chennai got extended. During this time I was able to work on activities and issues related to COVID management. I designed the concept called GCC corona monitoring, and the app to go with it, to monitor the spread of COVID in the city. The app reached more than 1.5 lakh downloads on Playstore and Chennai was the first city to launch an app for this. We also developed another app for home quarantine and isolation management. 

Azhagu Pandia Raja was behind the creation of GCC’s corona monitoring app. Pic: Chennai Corporation

Finally, due to COVID, tax collection by the municipality had been really low, so we tried to innovate on the process and designed games (using game theory) to improve the property tax revenue. 

Tell us a bit about your earlier experience. How did you become interested in solving urban issues?

I was a software engineer, working with HCL. I served in the role for five years before I left the job. But I wanted to enter the civil services so I was preparing for the UPSC exam. I enrolled in a Masters in International Relations and also cleared NET exams during this time.

During my civil services attempt I came across the MoHUA fellowship and applied. I was selected and spent two years working on urban issues. It gave me a grounding on how the government works and issues faced by cities. I was able to bring in my IT background to these roles. 

There are a lot of areas where the technological know-how of the youth can serve a useful purpose. I wanted to give something back to society and this has been an opportunity to do so by getting into the system. 

What are the items on your agenda as Chennai’s Innovation Officer?

We are working out all the details right now. As of now, we wanted to have a hackathon where we throw open all the city’s challenges to the public, seeking solutions.

We also want this office to be a place where anyone who has an idea or a solution for any challenge faced by the city can walk in and pitch it. If it is a start-up that could help the government, we will try to help them with minimal funding. In other instances, we can connect with other funding opportunities for the ideas. We want to institutionalise a space where idea exchange takes place and innovations take root. 

The long term vision is for this office to emerge as a think-tank for the entire state. We will have experts from various fields as a part of this process. We will work with academic institutions, private entities, research scholars, think-tanks, NGOs.

We will also have a student engagement cell that can offer internships with the government. 

Could you elaborate on these internships and how students may be involved?

If you are a doctoral student, this could be a great opportunity to work with public data. It is difficult to get data from the government. Even interdepartmental coordination on this is tough.

Through this platform, we hope to be able to place students in various departments depending on the subject they want to work in. This will be beneficial because the government will have a good knowledge resource and the students will also get the information required for their research. 

We see this as a way to get youth involved in issues of urban governance. 

How does the Innovation Office plan to work with citizen activists?

Maybe we can take the problems they face and work out a solution. We can tap into our network and see if we can arrive at a consensus on how to fix the issues. However, the mandate of this office does not in any way overlap with the work of the bureaucrats and the civic body staff. 

We are yet to set any boundaries for what we could do, so the possibilities are endless. We will accept and analyse all ideas and suggestions and see what is feasible for the government to work on. No such roles existed in India before Chennai carved out this position. Usually R & D is outsourced to private firms and think-tanks, but here we are trying to build capacity within the government itself to test new ideas. 

Will your office be involved in making more data open and available to the public, as we see in the case of cities like Bengaluru?

We have recruited a city data officer. Their role would be to define data and see how various data is classified and organised. But making the data open is completely a decision that has to be made by the corporation or the government. The office can help clean and analyse the data, but beyond that, it is not for us to decide. MoHUA is constantly pushing for open data policy and there will definitely be some progress on this soon by the Chennai Corporation. 

How do you plan to reach out to citizens across a wide spectrum, who may not necessarily have technology solutions to problems, but have ideas nevertheless?

The office has been up and running only for a week. We are in the process of framing policies on engagement and only then shall we be able to push for outreach. We can’t reach out to people before we have the platform in place to engage with them and a definitive set of guidelines. We will use traditional media and social media to get the word out on our work. Hopefully our hackathon will attract attention as well. 

You are in the process of setting things up. How big do you envision your office to be? 

As of now the only thing that is certain is that we will be working out of the second floor of the Ripon Building. We are working out staffing details. We will be looking to recruit many interns in the coming weeks and months. We are conscious that we should not be wasteful of taxpayers’ money but have something concrete to show for the effort we put in.

We are trying to use the resources available, tap into the enthusiasm of the public and look at a blend of private and public funding to power the ideas that emerge from here. 

What would be your message to youngsters who want to get involved in solving problems in the city?

More than 50% of this country is young. There is a strong notion among the youth that the government is not working properly, and nothing can be done inside the government and that the government is corrupt. This is also strengthened by the fact that the stories we see in the media are mostly critical in nature. 

Everyone thinks that there is no avenue for creativity or development in the government. But the fact that I’m the country’s first Innovation Officer proves this wrong. The solutions proposed by me were embraced, even though I was someone outside the government.

To make progress happen on a larger scale, we need more people to believe in possibilities and think positively about how the problems before us can be solved.

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Comments:

  1. mrs suryakumari Natarajan says:

    Super and congratulations to Azhagu Pandian Raja. I am interested in using waste management for agricultural purposes. If a get a chance to meet you, I will explain this. My email: suri_natraj@yahoo.com

  2. Dinesh Elangovan says:

    Good article and relevant.I am a Criminologist and Global security and Investigations professional. Security and Safety is key areas to be included and focused in any innovation.A collaborative security model has to development in urban planning and innovation. My details can be accessed in LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dinesh-elangovan-ssb-cdt-pmp-0220952a

  3. Dinesh Elangovan says:

    Dear Author, I would like to receive the contact of City Innovation officer for futuristic collaboration from OSAC Chennai Chapter. Request if can be sent to my email. Thanks.

  4. Giridhar M says:

    Congratulations to Mr Raja who has been appointed as Innovation Officer. He should take with young talented officers with him and see that the city and surrounding areas become really smart setting an example for other cities.

  5. Sundararaman says:

    It’s really nice and encouraging to know that Fresh blood and Energetic youngsters turn their attention in contributing the nation they belong..Hats off to him..More and more youngsters should emulate his vision and take the nation forward.Sametime would like to appreciate the Govt in roping such youngsters in Public service

  6. BHARGAV SUNDARAM says:

    I couldn’t find any contact information. Then how….??

  7. Raghavan says:

    All vegetable waste can be converted to vermi composite and sold to farmers at reasonable prices so that it is a best use of the vegetable waste crate employment
    Good fertilizer for the farmers

  8. Moham Radhakrishnan says:

    Very glad to know the details.we in valmiki
    Nagar,thiruvanmiyur face some problems,which can be solved in no time if the govt wants.the kuppam beach rias is full of encroachment and people park vehicle on both sides,which makes difficult for the senior citizens to walk thru.will it be heard sir?
    Thanking you,
    Moham Radhakrishnan.

  9. Prathap says:

    Fantastic article. Thanks for bringing it.All the best for such articles to come ahead in the future as well.

  10. haritha krishna says:

    Sir,
    Iam a btech graduate persuing my final year in mechanical engineering.i have been very much influenced by your works so far as i have always been aspiring to witness revolution which can be made through innovation.i would much like to be a part of this platform.

  11. B Sullivan says:

    Great article. May it really lead to the desperately needed innovative actions in Tamil Nadu.

  12. Aravinda M says:

    One thing that needs urgent attention in all urban areas is understanding and appreciating the role and importance of trees for the unique quality of life and invaluable long term benefits for all. It breaks my heart to see century old tamarind trees cut and destroyed for the sake of widening a road in Chitrambalam, that was already 20 metres wide! We need innovative thinking and planning in all road works with regard to these precious trees, which are otherwise senselessly destroyed and satisfy the greed of contracters hauling tons of wood away!!

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