Tag: e-Governance

Use JAM to Deliver Smart Services

With the launch of the Digital India programme in July 2015, a lot of expectations have been created in the country with regard to faster and more efficient delivery of electronic government services. Indeed, e-governance is one of the key pillars under the programme with the objective to ensure that all possible government services are delivered electronically in a seamless and end-to-end manner with comprehensive government process reengineering to make delivery simpler, paperless and more efficient.

How can this objective be achieved? In the current model of e-governance, almost all the services are being delivered by various government departments and agencies in silos through standalone applications with lot of duplication and little process reengineering, though there are some notable exceptions. The government websites and applications are also mostly not mobile compliant which makes it very difficult for mobile device (phones, tablets) users to access them.  Online authentication of users and online payment of fees are also often missing. Payments to beneficiaries under various government schemes are also not made directly to their bank accounts except for some schemes. In short, most of the electronic services currently are not end-to-end.

To address this issue and make the e-government services really smart, the JAM trinity comprising the Jan Dhan Yojana bank account, Aadhaar platform and mobile phone can be used as the foundation for all e-government applications. JAM will help in making electronic services completely end-to-end by allowing a user to avail a service fully electronically without any need for physically visiting the concerned government office for submitting any identity proofs or supporting documents. How can this be accomplished?

First, all e-governance applications must integrate the Aadhaar platform for online authentication within their applications. This will eliminate the need for people to submit any physical identity and address proofs. With the recent approval of the Aadhaar bill, this platform has been provided a legal footing to allow it to be used for delivering a wide range of services. With over 100 crore Aadhaar numbers already issued, this step will go a long way in eliminating a lot of paperwork and hardship to the people.

Secondly, all e-governance applications must also incorporate the mobile platform for delivery of their services through mobile phones and tablets. With mobile penetration at a much higher level in the country than access to computers and internet, it is imperative that all electronic services are also delivered through mobile devices for greater accessibility. Already, the national Mobile Seva platform of Government of India has shown its utility by integrating the applications of over 2000 government departments and agencies across the country with its mobile based services. This must be extended to cover all e-government services in the country.

Thirdly, all the schemes where payments are made to the beneficiaries must incorporate bank account information in their applications so that money is transferred directly to their accounts. The bank accounts should also be linked to the Aadhaar platform for ease in authentication and payment as has been done for the LPG scheme. Various subsidy and pension schemes can all be transformed in this manner so that the benefits can reach the eligible beneficiaries directly without any hindrance or delay. This transformation will also yield substantial savings to the government as all the duplicate and ghost beneficiaries can be easily eliminated. This will also help in making all the financial transactions cashless and electronic.

In addition to the incorporation of the JAM trinity, some other measures are also required to make the services really smart. These include undertaking comprehensive process reengineering before introducing IT in governance, delivery of services through a cloud platform to avoid duplication in creating ICT infrastructure and applications and ensure that the ICT resources are efficiently utilized, incorporation of an online payment gateway, use of a digital locker to store and share government issued documents in electronic form and use of Aadhaar linked digital signatures to provide legal validity to the documents as per the IT Act. Already platforms for online payment, digital locker and Aadhaar linked e-sign have been created and made available for use by the departments. A national cloud platform is also readily available to be used. The main task now is to get all the government departments and agencies across the country on board these platforms. The recently approved e-Kranti or the National e-Governance Plan 2.0 framework of Government of India under Digital India incorporates all the above elements and holds great promise in ushering in a new era of smart services in the country. All the concerned stakeholders must utilize this opportunity to make the lives of citizens and businesses easier by making their services truly ‘smart’.

Sustaining Digital India: Converting Hype Into Reality

The Digital India programme has created a lot of expectations both within and outside the country. The high profile launch of the programme in July 2015 and the subsequent pronouncements by the prime minister have given rise to high expectations that India will embrace a path of technology led transformation across all sectors of the economy and society.

How can these expectations be realized and sustained and the vision of Digital India achieved? It is important to understand that Digital India cuts across all sectors of governance, economy and society and is, therefore, very vast in its scope and objectives. Its vision is centred on three key areas: digital infrastructure for every citizen, providing governance and services on demand and digital empowerment of citizens. The programme broadly covers nine pillars of key thrust areas, namely, broadband highways, universal access to mobile connectivity, public internet access programme, e-governance – reforming governance through technology, e-Kranti – electronic delivery of services, information for all, electronic manufacturing, IT for jobs and early harvest programmes. Each of these pillars requires massive and sustained efforts to ensure that the desired objectives are met. 

A massive thrust to create digital and connectivity infrastructure reaching up to the village level is required to achieve universal access to digital services and bridge the digital divide. Access to broadband connectivity at village level would ensure that transformation through increasing digitalization in various domains can really benefit the entire population. Universal access to mobile connectivity can make last mile connectivity and mobile broadband affordable for the masses. Implementation of the BharatNet project and the rollout of 3G and 4G connectivity across the country must be speeded up to achieve these objectives.

The public internet access programme is aimed at universalizing access to common service centres. While increasing the number of such centres to cover every panchayat is important, it must be kept in mind that the bouquet of services being offered through these centres needs to be enlarged and made affordable. For example, education and skill development courses can be delivered through these centres in partnership with the private sector to benefit the rural youth and make these centres financially sustainable.

The two pillars on e-governance, namely, reforming government through technology and electronic delivery of services, require cross-sectoral and whole-of-government initiatives to really transform governance through technology. Common platforms like Aadhaar for de-duplication and online authentication, Mobile Seva for mobile phone based delivery of services, digital locker for online storage and sharing of government issued documents, and e-Sign for Aadhaar based online digital signature are laudable initiatives in this direction. However, massive efforts are required to ensure that these platforms are adopted by all departments both at the central and state levels to make the electronic delivery of services more efficient and avoid any duplication. The services of various departments must also be integrated at the backend using these common processes and platforms to ensure that the citizens are not required to visit multiple portals and fill multiple forms with similar information to avail various services. Single sign-on mechanism must also be made mandatory for various portals to make the life of netizens easier. These initiatives would also transform the currently available services for businesses and help in improving the ease of doing business in the country.

The pillar on information for all aims at providing all information online and use of social media for interaction with the citizens. This requires much greater transparency and openness on the part of the government departments and use of tools like open data platform and social media to allow much greater participation of citizens in governance. Initiatives like data.gov.in and MyGov.in are steps in the right direction. However, very few states are using these platforms. All states must adopt them to really have an impact on governance at the cutting edge.

Domestic electronic manufacturing is a key pillar of Digital India. The target under this pillar is to achieve net zero imports in electronic hardware by 2020. Recently, a number of incentives have been announced by the government to encourage domestic manufacturing in electronics. Duty structure on electronic components has also been rationalized to incentivize domestic manufacturing. However, the country is yet to see major investments in this area. Developing a localized ecosystem for domestic electronic manufacturing is a must to sustain the momentum.

IT for jobs is a very important pillar of Digital India that aims at skill development of the youth and digital empowerment of citizens. Coordinated efforts are required in this domain along with the various skill development programs being run by other ministries to achieve the objective of universal digital empowerment. Participation of the private sector would be crucial to ensure quality content and sustainable delivery.

Digital India is a visionary programme with a huge potential for technology led transformation of the country. However, sustaining the programme and achieving its vision require concerted efforts by all the stakeholders including the central government, all the states and the private sector.

(The author is a senior IAS officer with the Government of Tamil Nadu. He has led the conceptualization and implementation of the Digital India programme while he was serving as Joint Secretary in the Department of Electronics and IT. The views are personal.)

The above article was originally published on February 14, 2016. It is available here:

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/in-other-news/140216/sustaining-digital-india-converting-hype-into-reality.html