Chennai's Ramco Systems designs new office attendance system equipped with breath analyser

New Delhi, Aug 11 (IANS): For those who can't resist coming to office drunk, be prepared for a breath analyser test as the employee attendance punching machine would now ask you to blow into it, and an app would immediately send a notification to the HR executive if you are found under the influence.

Chennai-based Ramco Systems has designed a facial recognition-based time and attendance system for workplaces that comes with a breath analyser.

According to the company, the system -- intended to enable enterprises to avert any mishap owing to alcohol intake -- works real-time and in an automated fashion with zero human intervention.

"Apart from alcohol detection, we are also working on detecting drug abuse. Quite a few companies, of late, have been raising concerns around drugged employees at work. Hence, we are bringing in the capability to study substance abuse as well," Virender Aggarwal, CEO, Ramco Systems told IANS.

The solution comes at a time when a recent report by Germany-based public research university TU Dresden claimed that between 2010 and 2017, alcohol consumption in India increased by 38 per cent -- from 4.3 to 5.9 litres per adult per year.

In January, in response to a right to information (RTI) query, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) under the Civil Aviation Ministry revealed that since 2015, 171 Indian pilots had been caught drunk before taking off, even for international flights.

In June, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) suspended four of its officials after a video showing them consuming alcohol and playing cards inside a DJB office.

Many industrial setups and employees carrying out jobs that put the individual, his colleagues or the general public at risk (like truck drivers; people at the shop floor and so on.) are expected to be alcohol-free when at work.

By enabling this unique feature as part of the time and attendance application, enterprises are able to avert any major mishap from occurring due to alcohol intake.

Ramco Systems claims that internal trials carried on the breath analyzer of the attendance system showed an accuracy of close to 100 per cent.

"Usually, everyone in the office knows who is under the influence but there are no clinching evidence in order to punish those. Even though such a system would not go well with all workers, it is a great way to monitor the decorum and sanctity of the workplace," said Aparna Singh, a Noida-based HR professional.

Ramco Systems foresees challenges like additional hardware and maintenance cost that the company would have considered while installing the punching system.

"While countries like Australia and China have been widely adopting latest technologies, India has just started embracing the same. This system is intended to benefit a lot of other industries as well -- like aviation, logistics, manufacturing and mining. We are sure that this feature will see increased adoption in the near future," Aggarwal added.