Evolution to Digital Government

Monarchs, war lords, kings & despots have ruled this earth for many millennia, only to be replaced by Republican, Democratic, Socialist, Capitalist, Communist and many other forms of elective or non elective governments in last 200 years. From kingdoms to nation states or ethno-religious based, a state within the state was formed to rule the masses and create order in society. Some do still continue in primordial, bimodal or fully evolved state based on many factors.

I was curiously following recently concluded elections from worlds biggest democracy USA to the successful municipal elections in my hometown. It intrigued me to think on mechanism of adult franchise, its effectiveness and future evolution. How most trouble torn places are evolving successfully into democracy and yet biggest democracies are witnessing turbulence. Social scientists may have answers, but I don't qualify to be one. Rather as a technocrat, my answer was digital democratization of Government and its Governance.

US federal government collected revenues worth $3.5 trillion in 2019 & 98% were through digital means. If that is possible then why isn't it possible to elect the government through digital means like EVM or online Voting ? It could have given trust, transparency and quick audit, removing apprehensions and avoiding violence that bought disgrace to democracy.

If Government can trust our hard-earned taxes through digital backbone, then why not our Votes ? lest they want to give a chance to belittle democracy & its temples by giving a chance to rogue despots to poke fun on democracies.

Today, Democracies across the world face the threat and wrath of terrorism, usurping monopolization of power by political dynasts, fragile economies & fear of bankruptcy especially post Covid. Situation handling in next decade will demand a highest level of prudence, collaboration and transparent decision making. Only silver lining in these dark clouds is to get into new dimension of Digital Governance.

Digital Governance has bought the much-needed power back into the hands of electorate & what was once called as subjugated Proletariat. Covid crisis has catalyzed the need of future digital governance into effective dispensation of policies, identification of needy & maintaining the supply lines from a tribal village to urban clusters.

With its own notions of strict disciplined code, digitalization sometimes has become a weapon in hands of non-democratic countries like North Korea or China. At the same time, developing countries in Asia and Africa are today planning to use IOT with systems like Aadhar to elevate millions out of poverty. Democracy is key to success Digitalization

Another extreme poignant perspective is location independent governance mechanism like Estonia e citizenship powered by entrepreneur spirit where a subscriber can start banking, trading and business with less than €400 with borderless banking system without compromising trust, transparency and ethics.

As unemployment numbers increase across open societies, post pandemic era will be marked with numerous challenges and opportunities. Skill levels are transforming from Industrial revolution era into digital era, Supply chains are getting reset, demographic dividends might vanish, muscle power tactics will mean more isolation and world will be moving from cliché flat sentiment into convex diaphragm . The reverberation is clear for more inclusion of digital governance into Government with participatory citizenship.

The Digital Government Index 2019 is a first effort to translate the OECD Digital Government Policy Framework (DGPG) into a measurement tool to assess the implementation of the OECD Recommendation on Digital Government Strategies and benchmark the progress of digital government reforms across OECD Member and key partner countries. Evidence gathered from the Survey on Digital Government 1.0 aims to support countries in their concrete policy decisions.

The Key messages from this years OECD are clearly pointing to governments across the world , whether a developed country or developing or under development. Some key messages from the report are as under

• Digital by design is, on average, the second highest dimension on country performance. This suggests a relative level of maturity to integrate digital components into internal processes in the public sector to promote better service delivery and long-lasting transformation.
• Top-performing countries have developed sound strategies and established leadership and co-ordination structures empowered with strong decision-making responsibilities bringing cohesion to digital processes in public operations and service design and delivery.
• While all countries have a dedicated public sector organisation (e.g. agency, division or unit) with the authority and mandate to lead and co-ordinate digital government, they often have limited decision-making responsibilities. This risks to hamper the establishment of a sustainable, comprehensive and whole-of-government digital culture, and negatively affect the progress towards digital transformation.
• Similarly, co-ordination bodies for government ICT projects have limited levels of empowerment. While 70% of countries confirm the existence of Council of CIOs or related bodies, they act as consulting actors rather than decision-making mechanisms for digital government policies, limiting coherence and alignment across public sector organizations.
• Many countries have mechanisms for online identification, with 85% of countries possessing single identity systems. In 64% of countries, the system is equivalent to physical national IDs, with more rudimentary authentication available for 21%. Although digital identity is in place in a large proportion of countries, only 58% have half of the public services accessible through these systems.

What's making this possible is the fast digitalization of governments into effective governance but standard best practices across the world are yet to come into a common framework where real Digital Happy Vasudev kutumbakam can be ensured.