Technology for Good Governance in Bharat

Technology for Good Governance in Bharat

*Kumar Rakesh

In Bharat (India), over the past year, governance has emerged as one of the most contentious issues. This comes after the party that won a resounding victory in the Centre in May 2014 used the phrase “less government, better governance” or “minimal government, maximum governance”, as one of its key campaign themes by BJP government in the great leadership of our global leader PM Narendra Bhai Modi.

The World Bank and multilateral donor organisations felt that the developmental assistance they provided to many African countries over the previous 20 years had not had the desired impact on these countries’ development and that their grants and loans had essentially gone down a bottomless pit. This perception led to the emergence of an international interest in “governance” per se in the early 1990s.

Its key conclusion was that these governments’ lack of “appropriate” and “effective” governance was to blame for the failure of developmental assistance to have the anticipated influence on development in these nations. Over the past 20 years, there have been numerous attempts in India to study governance and administration and make them more effective.

A sudden and rapid advancement in information technology has provided India with a singular and exceptional potential to quickly improve its governance and get closer to levels commensurate with the world’s developed economies.

Growth of information and technology in Bharat (India)

Over the past three decades, communication technology has undergone enormous and rapid growth, which has revolutionised humanity in many ways. The continued widespread use of mobile phones, personal computers, and Internet services has made scientific knowledge and market information about goods and services widely accessible to the average person. Many transactions that were previously thought to be highly complex and inaccessible to many have also become transparent and simple as a result of these developments.

Technology and the widespread usage of cell phones have made it easier to efficiently balance supply and demand through the price regulation of a variety of commodities and services.

Farmers and traders across the nation are quickly informed of the pricing of various agricultural products in various locations, which results in the automatic stabilisation of numerous product prices and the elimination of product hoarding.

Even online ticketing services for bus, train, and air travel have helped these services become more commonly used in India. To some extent, online shopping and selling of commodities has reduced trading costs and time, making it more popular.

Formerly, corruption permeated practically every industry. Because of the widespread adoption of technology and mobile phones, these have significantly decreased in India. Mobile phone penetration and advancements have greatly improved governance by automatically resolving a number of governance-related problems.

Technology now has a significant role in shaping government, per capita income, and human progress. The government of Bharat (India) has launched a vast initiative to computerise and link all critical services offered by the government and public sector organisations across several states and local governments. The Bhartiya (Indian) government announced the national e-governance plan (NeGP) in 2006 with the goal of making all government services “available to the ordinary man in his neighbourhood, through common customer service outlets, and ensuring the expediency, integrity, and trustworthiness of such services at an affordable cost to actualize the basic aspirations of an “average citizen.”

What is e-governance?

Electronic governance, often known as “e-governance,” is the use of information technology to deliver government services, including the exchange of information, communication transactions, and integration of numerous stand-alone systems between government and citizens (G2C), government and businesses (G2B), government and employees (G2E), as well as back-office operations and interactions within the overall governance.

There is a distinction between e-government and e-governance, despite the fact that the two phrases are sometimes used interchangeably. E-government is the use of ICTs in public administration with the goal of enhancing public services, democratic procedures, and popular support. This goal is achieved through organisational reform, new skills, and the use of ICTs. ICT governance, however, is not included in e-government.

The COVID-19 pandemic has limited the public’s and public institutions’ capacity to physically congregate and discuss issues of national concern. Due to lockdown and social distance standards, almost all of the government apparatus and public and commercial organisations have come to a complete halt.

Remote working has become the wave of the future, and in this situation, information sovereignty is crucial to the success of a democracy. A worldwide information society that is quickly emerging as a result of the development of information and communication technology (ICT) is altering how people live, study, work, and communicate.

At present the world’s most effective BJP’s Narendra Bhai Modi government has therefore revamped its information and communication technology (ICT) policy and made it more innovative with the active participation of development organisations in order to sustain the institution of democracy.

E-governance during Covid-19

Due to COVID-19 in 2020-2021, the function of Parliament and many state legislatures as an institution of debate, deliberation, and law-making has been disturbed. Being trusted institutions, these legislative bodies must continue to scrutinise the activities of the government, especially during times of emergency. It is at this point that technology-driven solutions have guaranteed work continuity in legislative bodies even when physical sessions are unable to take place. As a result, legislative bodies’ online sessions aided in advancing discussion and consideration of crucial matters. The introduction of electronic legislation also contributed to a decline in the use of ordinances.

With all means during this pandemic period, Bharat has achieved a lot on financial terms with special efforts to make productions to combat covid with all tools & equipment’s & also manufactured many vaccines to serve the nation under strong leadership of our global leader PM Narendra Bhai Modi, as he had coined new words-AAPDA ME AVSAR”(Opportunities  even in difficult times) with the support of all technologies to save humanity not in Bharat but more than 100 countries on free of cost.

Following this, a virtual parliament has been established in democracies such as the United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Italy, Japan, Australia, France, Germany, New Zealand, and others during  that crisis.

Bolstering the legislative committees

These smaller committees, such as MP sub-groups that gather outside the House to discuss matters of public significance, are essential since they are tasked with conducting in-depth analyses of government laws.

As a result, the use of ICT platforms allowed legislative committees to operate effectively.

The committee also had the added benefit of hearing from a variety of stakeholders who would not have been able to present in person before the committee.

Virtual Courts

Even in the immediate aftermath of the lockdown phase, it was clear that normalcy in the judiciary could not return quickly.

As a result, it presented a chance for the judiciary to utilise information and communication technology, ensuring that everyone receives justice promptly.

Also, the backlog of cases is decreasing because the judiciary is implementing initiatives like e-courts.

Fostering democratic participation

A previously unheard-of option for community collective choice exists, allowing residents who were impacted by a set of governing laws to collaborate with their local government representatives to choose and design policy and rank expenditure priorities.

Such a mechanism supports social auditing. With the myGOV site, for instance, residents can now directly offer proposals to the government.

Good Governance in Practice

With the use of information technology, the government is now able to promptly carry out and implement decisions made about policy across the entire country in a number of locations.

Additionally, it guaranteed accountability and openness, as well as prompt and efficient government responses to concerns and recommendations from the populace.

According to the Global Governance Indicators maintained by the World Bank, India scores 57, Indonesia 55, the Philippines 52, and Thailand 67 on a scale of 0 to 100 in terms of government effectiveness. For comparison, advanced Asian economies like Singapore and Japan receive scores of 93 and 100, respectively.

As a multifaceted notion that involves, among other things, the efficient delivery of public goods like education, health, social security, and transportation, new technologies hold considerable promise for enhancing government effectiveness.

Getting the Sustainable Development Goals Done

For efficient public service delivery, the government has adopted many of the ideas of e-governance. Also, it assisted in accomplishing sustainable development objectives when used in conjunction with developing technology.

The pandemic’s disruption has given public institutions a chance to make use of technological advancements and fulfil their constitutional obligations.

Numerous e-government initiatives under the BJP’s Narendra Bhai Modi administration

In order to emphasise the need to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of government departments, Prime Minister of Bharat Narendra Bhai Modi has turned to the idea of “minimal government and maximum governance.”

This strategy appears to be predicated on shrinking the government and improving its efficacy and efficiency. He also demanded that the Urban Renewal Mission and the Digital India Mission work in perfect harmony. For the past few years, initiatives to implement electronic governance and paperless government have been made. Nevertheless, there aren’t many comprehensive studies that statistically assess different aspects of governance and track them over time to look at how governance is developing.

The National Informatics Centre and the Department of Information Technology, Govt of Bharat are leading this vast project under the direct supervision of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), but progress has been sluggish and numerous deadlines for digitising government data have not been met. This is due to the fact that government systems have, for many years, been characterised by islands of various subsystems employing heterogeneous platforms and technologies, dispersed across various geographic regions, and in varying stages of automation. Systems range from keeping outdated hard copy registers in many government offices to directly uploading data gathered in outlying centres to a centralised system online. By serving as a standards-based message switch and enabling smooth interoperability and data sharing between the departments and states, the National e-Government Service Delivery Gateway (NSDG), a Mission Mode Project (MMP) under the NeGP, aims to ease “this task.” Several e-government apps are being built as part of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), which aims to deliver government services to the public quickly and affordably. 31 Mission Mode Projects (MMP) have been created under the NeGP to address a variety of industries, including income tax, central excise, transportation, banking, insurance, treasury, e-office, the citizen unique identity project (UIP), and others.

By adding it as one of the MMPs under NegP, the RTI Act’s use of technology in implementation has significantly improved the efficacy and efficiency of its implementation of various government programmes.

Any citizen may submit a pending concern with the government through the RTI Act gateway established under the MMP approach in 2005 and request a response in the form of action done within a specified amount of time. It requires prompt responses to citizen requests for information from the government. At both the state and federal levels, RTI commissioners have been appointed, and it is their legal duty to provide the information that person who file RTI Act appeals request. This Act has received praise on a global scale as one of India’s greatest achievements in democratic governance.

The most famous examples of how technology has been incorporated into governance include the use of Aadhaar for vaccine distribution and the use of drones to deliver vaccines to rural areas. The JAM troika, which links Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar numbers, and mobile phones, is another achievement that ought to be highlighted since it has made it possible to stop government-subsidy leaks through DBT and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

While some of the highly developed economies are struggling, technology has kept the Indian economy growing. India has revealed a major programme to teach three million government employees nationally cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, AI, and machine learning for efficient local government and service delivery.

Bharat(India)’s status in the G20 in terms of technology

Bharat(India) is well-positioned to lead the G20 in debates on innovation and investment as a country with a robust startup environment and a strong focus on technology. The G20 Bharat(India) initiative intends to offer a worldwide strategy for achieving shared goals like a just transition to a green economy, revitalised multilateralism, financial and digital inclusion, and the idea of sustainable lifestyles. It has a big part to play in closing the digital gap since it places a lot of emphasis on technology and advancements. All have had adverse consequences for various geographic areas and important economic sectors. India was no different.

But although most nations continue to struggle under these challenges, it appears that the Bhartiya (Indian) economy has advanced. The Bhartiya (Indian) economy has shown a remarkable recovery by utilising its development drivers and prioritising important concerns in the domestic and global sectors through strategic policy action.

Bharat (India) has made a strong start to its presidency of the G20.The narratives of technology and its role in broadly resolving human issues has been well constructed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also supported the ability of digital technologies to scale in the vast digital universes that we currently live in. In truth, India has a significant influence on how the globe develops technologically and digitally. And the G20 president provides both inspiration and opportunity.

A tactical political and economic alliance is the G20. Also, it makes up two-thirds of the eight billion people who live on the planet. An important turning point in Bhartiya (Indian) diplomacy has been the assumption of the G20 chairmanship. The Bhartiya (Indian) leadership should take advantage of this event to bring together world leaders to discuss how to reshape diplomatic discourse through the use of emerging technology. Bharat (India) can lead the next Tech-Ade of multilateral change, whether the focus is on technology for diplomacy or the nexus between technology and diplomacy.

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union are all members of the G20. Bharat(India) has also suggested a brand-new engagement group called “Startup 20” that aims to give startups from various nations the chance to work together.

Bharat(India)’s use of block chain to combat corruption

Emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) could be investigated in India, which has seen a significant advance in the digital revolution, to combat corruption at different levels and departments of government.

AI could be applied to fight corruption via top-down or bottom-up strategies. Whereas the bottom-up approach sees institutions as evolving through habits, beliefs, and traditions, the top-down approach is based on the idea that existing laws shape institutions. As a result, whereas the former demands the government leadership’s genuine commitment and efforts, the latter must be established by civil society organisations, journalists, and cultural organizations. India had also introduced the GeM platform, which was scalable and could be used across the country when combined with AI and data analytics capabilities.

Corruption in the healthcare industry may be fought with the use of AI and blockchain technologies. Drug firms have been known to pay doctors to prescribe their products. This can be decreased by using blockchain and AI to make it easier for patients to get information about the efficacy of medications. The patient database must be digitalized in this context, with the essential privacy tools incorporated, so that patients can log in and learn about the efficacy of particular firms’ medications. Many works have been also done by the concern ministries & authorities of this BJP’s Narendra Bhai Modi Government in Bharat  to combat corruptions in such places since 2014.Those results have been also appreciated by the concern beneficiaries time to time accordingly .

The use of AI in banks and financial institutions for fraud detection, suspicious transaction analysis, and financial crime investigation is essential. Another enormous area where AI might be used to stop leaks and spot suspect activity is the public distribution system.

AI could be investigated for analysing the likelihood of corrupt behaviour by civil servants.So it has been initiated in this present system of Modi Government.

Finding reliable information from multiple sources and maintaining a consistent database structure across different states are two hurdles in this regard, though. Based on cross-sectional and time-series data for a certain industry, corruption predictions may also be achievable.

Conclusion

The creation of a parallel economy and the production of black money will be reduced in an era of e-governance. At maximum level it has been controlled but more works to be done. Individual discretion will dwindle as contact between the service provider and the customer shifts to an electronic format, and middlemen’s activities will be eliminated from the supply chain.The right of citizens to get value for their money will apply.

Transparency will inhibit corruption by putting officials’ acts under electronic scrutiny and encouraging professionalism in how they conduct themselves. This will directly affect the effectiveness and efficiency of the systems, and higher productivity will lead to a healthier economy.

Government and bureaucracy must overcome all opposition in order to permeate their policies down to the general public. The future of governance will be characterised by transparency, accountability, responsiveness, effectiveness, efficiency, and economics. It is a tool with the ability to drastically change service delivery, streamline processes, and adopt new practises. Nothing can refute the fact that it has arrived.

Bharat(India) is quickly becoming a world superpower because of its swift adoption of new technologies in all domains. Every nation now acknowledges its strength, intelligence, potential, and productivity of our New Bharat (India) with all means for integrated growth,peace, prosperity with sustainable development goals of United Nations resolution adopted by all members including Bharat in 2015 in which our global leader PM Narendra Bhai Modi had delivered his wonderful speech with promises appreciated by all in UNGA as I was also witness to report to all for our Bharat at UNGA.

[This research paper was presented for SWARAJYA International Conference from 1st -3rd March 2023 held at Gadag, Karnataka organised by Ministry of Rural Development, Govt of India,ICCR, Govt of India, Rural Development dept. Karnataka, Prajna Pravah, & KSRDPR University, Gadag, Karnataka]

About Author-:

*Kumar Rakesh is a Bhartiya Sr. Journalist/Writer/Author/Poet/Educator/Motivator/Socio-Political- Foreign & Governance Affairs Analyst/Commentator/Broadcaster of more than 34 years in Journalism, Media, Communication in Bharat & Many Countries. Travelled for media coverage/fellowships/seminars on almost all continents including Special reporting from United Nations, HQ,NY,USA many times.

*At Present, Mr. Rakesh is the Editorial Chairman of Global Governance News Group &Samagra Bharat Media Group, New Delhi, Bharat & Many countries.