Digital Disruption and Human Well-being - a step towards positive politics

Technology is a big disruptor. For not just businesses but for state as well. The governments have learnt lessons from businesses and have started using technology to devise policies and to deliver them efficiently to the end users. Digital disruption is one such initiative and Digital India is one such mission which is targeted to provide seamless services in an open environment assuring transparency, security and speed. Public policy is an area which needs to embrace technology to strategize and develop appropriate policies to improve quality of life of people viz a viz their well-being.

For state to visualise better growth and development there are two approaches which are visible. First is to push the policies whereby driving people to learn and develop an attitude of adapting to change. This pushes the people to change without much choice. By some it is viewed as an imposition whereas some consider it to be the need of time. Whatever be the case broadly it is considered as an approach which may lead to better tomorrow. Second is to empower citizens through providing good education so that they can make better choices and take wise decisions. This approach also focuses on building better social infrastructure in order to assure better future in the long term. In this approach the citizens feel free and are driven from within to take initiatives, to develop the state and to contribute positively for better well-being of people. First approach gives short term result whereas the second approach provides long term returns.

As a state one has to have a mix of these two approaches so that balanced growth takes place with political compulsions and aspirations. And to that the present government deserves lot of appreciation for its policy push to create an environment of forced learning and to drive people to get into digital literacy. There are many schemes to make India digital literate and develop skills to do transactions with convenience and care.

Few months back I attended 10th International conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance hosted by the National E-governance Division under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India and United Nations University in collaboration with UNESCO. The keynote speaker for the inaugural session was Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology. He articulated the link between rich Indian Ethos and Transparency and Tolerance. The larger vision of the Government and the initiatives taken up in order to reach out to all citizens of the country for digitalisation and transparent government were nicely placed before the audience which had participants from around 60 countries. The success stories of people involved in the delivery and dissemination were applauded and an apt case of women empowerment was made as all top bureaucrats involved in the making of the conference from India were primarily women.

Digital disruption has opened opportunities of all kinds for business and with that new employment platforms are generated. ICT has played key role in empowering people whereby committing resources for improving human well being. Digital divide is getting improved and converted into Digital dividend and resultantly is driving digital disruption to leverage excellent new technology to connect with the stakeholders in more efficient manner. It is certainly heading towards building rich knowledge society and as stipulated would help human well-being through digital empowerment.

The state collects revenue and tax and uses digital technology for speed, scale and adherence. It further uses technology tools to know the defaulters and to get them the notifications of that effect. It is excellently done and followed however what is lacking is that there is no tool available for the citizens who would like to know about the use of the tax revenue. Technology needs to facilitate this process which would help the governments to transform themselves into good governments and that would certainly fall within the premise of positive politics. Surprisingly in no country such a mechanism is developed which somewhere reflects poor on their intention.

Bhutan has successfully concentrated on using eGovernance platforms to develop and deliver services to its citizens. This small yet important nation which follows development philosophy termed GNH has shown its commitment for the cause of human well-being and has responded to it with appropriate initiatives using technology and digitalisation for assuring transparency at all levels. Internet penetration and mobile use is remarkable, education and health parameters are improving; physical infrastructure is improving leaps and bounds. This nation is spearheading the movement demanding an alternative measure to gauge and compare human progress which is posed against well accepted and preached term – GDP.

While improving digital penetration and realizing the dream for digital India, we need to follow certain cautions so that it does not boomerang. Digital distraction has to be handled with care and digital wellness has to be assured. Overdose of provisioning digital platforms in a country like India, where education standards are low would be a much greater challenge for all the people involved in designing and delivering digital products and services. It also needs to be taken care that such a move does not negatively affect basic social fabric of the nation. We need to strengthen execution and effective implementation which would be possible only when digital literacy reaches to the nooks and corners of the country.

Nations have to commit themselves for improving quality of life of its people and has to look beyond economic measures. Use of technology should be to provide better and faster solutions which would help citizens to built trust in their elected Governments. India is on a path towards better days in all domains of human well-being and Digital Disruption is playing a key role which is expected to guarantee equity and equality as human intervention is minimized in this kind of thought of eco-system.

[published in SME World, Sept 2017 issue]