Thiruvananthapuram: It has come to light that former principal secretary of the chief minister M Sivasankar initiated the controversial contract with the Sprinklr company. The government had signed the contract for data collection and analysis during the initial stage of COVID, with Sprinklr, the company owned by a US-based Keralite entrepreneur.

The contract was valid upto six months from March 25 or till the COVID transmission is under control, whichever is first. The service was free of cost for 6 months. When allegations arose that the procedures were not followed, Sivasankar himself came up with explanations.

As a controversy erupted regarding the security of the data collected by Sprinklr, it was transferred to the server of the C-DIT. Meanwhile, the contract was also brought to the court. The government made it clear that the data collected by Sprinklr are safe.

Following the controversies, the government appointed a 2-member committee to inquire into the contract signed with Sprinklr. As the contract, which had only 6-month validity, expired on September 24, that  service also was terminated.