Who is beating the system: Under the shadow of Digital Government Services

Digital India

The trajectory of India’s transformation into digitally empowered society and knowledge economy has been incredulously extraordinary in recent years. Since the 2015 launch of Digital India - a flagship programme spearheaded by the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), success stories in diverse areas of governance routinely highlight the radical changes at the ground level, which were unthinkable in India’s socio-economic background not so long ago. The vision of Digital India has a trifecta of focused priorities:

?? Digital Infrastructure as a core utility to every citizen

?? Government and Services on demand

?? Digital empowerment of citizens

On the digital applications side, Aadhar, UPI, e-Marketplace (GeM), ONDC, Common Services Centre, Digital Seva, Project Udaan 2.0, Grameen e-Store, Agri teleconsultation amongst others have significantly added to the Ease of Living of the citizenry, besides enhancing efficiency and productivity. Aside uninterrupted functioning of public services applications at a massive scale, other public Digital Platforms – e.g., UMANG, DigiLocker, OpenForge, API Setu, Poshan Tracker, National AI Portal, MyScheme, India Stack Global amongst others introduce fresh ideas and innovation in government-public interface and related services. Of course, the wider proliferation of smartphones and adoption of UPI-based digital payments (a proxy to the reflect ubiquity of internet access) has accelerated India’s digital journey.

Ease of Living in government-public interface and digital services

Interestingly, the term ‘Ease of Living’ itself has found a place in the common lexicon in the context of government services in India very recently. Who can forget about the days of unapologetic babudom at its pinnacle –missing officers and staff during office hours, pointless demand of endless supporting papers, extremely slow processing and deliberate delays, even if we do not count speed money (euphemism for bribe) directly or collected through a bunch of touts loitering around government offices. Having undergone a complete transformation, we exult in the streamlined and hassle-free of Passport Seva, Income Tax Services (keeping aside intense grudges of tax evaders and manipulators!), and Voters Services s and many others. Historical and unparalleled achievement of 200 crore vaccinations and certificate management through the flawless services of CoWIN has conclusively announced the rise of Digital India on the world stage.

In the shadow of Digital Services

Exceptional trove accomplishments of the Digital India programme in these years are praiseworthy. At the same time, it must look to its laurels and ensure that the avowed priorities are not scuttled by vested interest groups with or without the connivance of govt officials. This well-oiled Machiavellian pattern has a clear reflection in the pockets of subjects under the concurrent list of the Constitution, where the central government partners with the state governments in facilitating streamlined digitized service delivery to ordinary citizens.

Parivahan Seva under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) carries an unusual blight in India’s digital story. The MoRTH has put all efforts in facilitating digitization and streamlining of services at Road Transport Offices (RTOs) across the country. At the same time, its Sarathi Portal - with a sufficiently capable digital interface and workflows - is unable to penetrate the dark zones to weed out entrenched vested groups and their machinations at RTOs. So, a digital workflow remaining pending ad infinitum for the attention of an RTO staff, an online complaint or emails to the concerned RTO going unanswered and the call centre showing utter helplessness with only advice to visit the RTO – even for a faceless service marked “not required to visit RTO”– exhibits the malaise that someone is manipulating the system for motivated reasons. Ignoring the accosting touts at RTO, what is more ironic is that one is asked to bring the printout of the application and supporting documents, which were already submitted digitally! ?

Change of mindset and attitudinal transformation: Foundational contours of Vikasit Bharat

Digital transformation is much more than limited development of snazzy web portals or mobile apps aiming to integrate workflows supported on digital infrastructure. It is the change of mindset and attitudinal transformation of involved government officials and staff – to ensure the sanctity of the core idea of digitization is not defeated. For dishonest officials and brokers thriving in the shadow of Digital Services, cracking the whip and setting transparent SLAs with a clear escalation matrix, and overall accountability framework would be a few basic requisites. Also, deeper sensitization training for instilling courteousness, respectful demeanor and responsive behaviour can make a lot of difference in warding off an air of apathy prevailing in government offices. Let at each government office, a regime of transparent and public feedback mechanisms covering quality, timeliness, and responsiveness of services is established. Public feedback or rating (like many e-commerce portals) becomes a vital basis for the salary hike and the job promotion of the govt officials. Moreover, it becomes a fundamental criteria for fund disbursal and resource allocation for state government projects by the Government of India.