Smart governance a combo of data, participative governance and tech

Brijendra Kumar, Partner, Government and Public Services, KPMG in India talks about the success of smart governance to be a combination of data driven policy making, efficient delivery of services and open and participative governance underpinned by technology which is accessible, interoperable and trustworthy.

In conversation with Dataquest, he talks about the initiatives in India that have led to business- and citizen- driven approach, the technologies that have helped scale these initiatives and the successful case studies that India has exemplified.

Edited excerpts:

How India can adopt smart governance to streamline both its governance and business practices?

There has been an increased focus now on engaging with the citizen on key reforms and adopting technology for better decision making. Government has already taken some steps in this direction for instance, data governance and quality initiative by NITI Aayog is assessing data preparedness of ministries and departments on a standardized framework to nudge them to utilize data for decision making.

India Enterprise Architecture (IndEA) is attempting to break departmental silos & re-architecting the Government as a single enterprise and adopting the principles of  ‘Interoperability by default’ and ‘Once only’ where citizens and businesses supply the same information only once to a public administration.

Even State Governments like Tamil Nadu and Haryana are implementing projects like State Family Data Base (SFDB) and Parviar Pehchan Patra (PPP) which attempts to bring databases of multiple departments to improve and when needed even proactively deliver the services to the citizen.

Initiatives like MyGov has improved citizen participation but we need to have more channels to further improve citizen’s say in policies at center, state and city levels. Also, going forward Governments may need to evaluate a shift from ‘citizen-centric approach’ where governments anticipate citizens’ and business’ needs to ‘citizen-driven approach’ where citizens and businesses determine their own needs and address them in partnership with governments.

What technologies will play a major role in efficient and transparent governance?

Technology is a key enabler for an efficient, open and transparent governance. The principles like open data, digital by default, mobile first, cloud first, accessibility for all, interoperability by default etc. are dependent on right choice of technology.

Given the improved mobile and internet penetration, the amount of data getting generated and consumed has increased multi fold.

Some of the technologies which are getting increasingly relevant are big data analytics, cloud, social media, open data, digital payments etc. However, it is the emerging technologies which is opening a host of new opportunities like AI, natural language processing, IoT, augmented reality, blockchain, location intelligence and digital twin.

How should enterprises, startups participate?

Smart governance provides multiple opportunities to both enterprises and startups to contribute to both the digital enablement as well as engagement on the policy. Large programs like smart cities have led to large companies investing in cities as technology testbeds. Also, large Indian IT enterprises have participated in the smart governance journey by providing technology expertise and implementing large projects like Passport Seva, GST and MCA 21 where they have leveraged their global expertise. Industry forums like NASSCOM and FICCI which consists of representatives of enterprises play a very important role in providing critical inputs for policy formulations like Data Protection Bill and National Semiconductor mission.

Startups are playing a very important role particularly in leveraging emerging technology for governance. Programs like Startup India and Startup Hub have encouraged startups to find solution to governance challenges and have provided seed funding for some of the promising startups to scale.

Startups have shown great promise in the areas like Artificial Intelligence, Machine vision, Natural language processing, Blockchain, Augmented reality, Drones etc. Currently startups are actively engaged with NeGD, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health and Family welfare, Ministry of Defence etc. for providing innovative solutions.

What should be the action points for government and policy makers with reference to the technologies of smart governance implemented?

Sweeping technological advancements, especially in emerging technology areas, are creating enormous change and disruption in today’s regulatory environment. It has become very important for policy makers to maintain a balance between fostering innovation, protecting consumers, and addressing the potential unintended consequences of technology led disruption.

Some of the action points for government and policy makers in light of such environment are

1. Provide policy frameworks and digital enablers
2. Cloud first
3. Mobile first
4. Whole of the Government Approach (IndEA)
5. Open Standards/ API
6. Trust and Security
7. Digital enablers like Digilocker, Mobile Id, Single Sign on, eSignature
8. Cross leveraging IT infrastructure such as Cloud Data Centers, Quantum computing etc.

• Facilitating bi-directional interaction between government, citizen and business
• Set up Policy Lab: These will be forums where policy makers meet with stakeholders (researchers, businesses, and consumers) to quickly identify and analyze a problem, and cocreate and test a policy solution.
• Making more and more data open (particularly spatial data) and facilitating reuse after ensuring privacy and security.
• Digital platform for citizen and business engagement and a gradual shift to Citizen- and Business- driven Governance.

• Digital Capacity Building
• For the adoption of smart governance, it is imperative that the capacity of government officials be built to plan, procure and adopt technology driven solutions.

How will this transform India’s economy?

India can create up to $1 trillion of economic value (equivalent to 18 to 23 percent of the country’s nominal GDP)) from the digital economy in 2025, with half of the opportunity originating in new digital ecosystems.

The potential five-fold increase in economic value (from current about 200 billion USD in GVA) from India’s digital transformation by 2025 would create a rapidly growing market for a host of digital services, platforms, applications, content, and solutions.

Digital interventions could imply the need to redeploy 40-45 million workers and create about 20 million new tech enabled jobs

This represents an attractive opportunity for global and local businesses, startups, and platform-based innovators who will be investing in emerging technologies (for example, artificial intelligence, blockchain, drones, and robotics) customised to India’s needs.

Also, are there any case studies within India and around the world of effective use of technologies for smart governance?

Indian Case Studies

Digital India: Aadhaar is World’s largest digital identity programme that has provided a unique digital identity to around 122 crore residents of the country. It provides an identity infrastructure for delivery of various social welfare programmes. It has enabled portability and diversion elimination in PDS, reduction of manual intervention, faster delivery of LPG cylinders and access to cleaner fuel, and facilitating access to digital services of government.

JAM Trinity for DBT: The combination of >40 crore Jan Dhan bank accounts, 121 crore mobile phones and digital identity through 122 crore Aadhaar is helping the poor receive the benefits directly into their bank account.

Digital Payments: The digital policy as well as philosophy of India believes in open platforms. The payment platform -UPI is hugely popular for it has made the lives of citizens easy and convenient. In Calendar Year 2021, UPI in India processed more than 38 billion transactions, amounting to INR 71.59 trillion. Launched in 2016, UPI has seen tremendous adoption, further accelerated by the Covid-19 outbreak. It crossed 1 billion transactions for the first time in October 2019. The next 1 billion came in under a year. In October 2020, UPI processed more than 2 billion transactions for the first time. The journey from 2 billion transactions a month to 3 billion was traversed in 10 months, indicating the incredible popularity of UPI as a platform for retail digital payments among consumers.