Fundamental Concepts of Digital India

Author: Abhishek Mishra

In past few days I came across a lot of people who are vehemently criticising the digital India campaign. As Lord Shiva had said, 'evil is nothing but lack of knowledge', I would like to discuss a bit on what exactly is the significance of Digital India.

First of all it is not a program which will start showing its effects as soon as implemented, rather it is a vision under the ambit of which different programs would be executed and we will observe the changes afterwards. In its formal definition it is an initiative of the Government of India (GOI) to connect all remote parts of India with atleast 4mbps internet connection. This boring definition compels people to come up with bizarre interpretations like 'India first needs dal bhaat for many then what the hell will they do with internet'. Some are coming up with arguments that with internet penetration is the GOI trying to provide luxury of whatsapp, twitter and shopping facilities to people who are struggling a lot for making up their basic necessities of life?

For common people like us these are the most common ways to think but before jumping to conclusions let us see some other prevailing aspects. India has ~25.1million tonnes of wheat reserves, far more than the required 6 million tonnes to meet any unforeseen calamity. Recently the government exported 2 million tonnes because the increasing stock in warehouses because the MSP (minimum support price) was becoming an extra headache. Till recently China was the largest producer of rice but India swiftly and steadily surpassed it. In many other food grains, cash-crops, fibres we have an international reputation. Even in dairy sector thanks to Dr Verghese Kurien that India surpassed USA in 1998 with 17% global output in 2010-11. We now have milk availability of 300g/day per person, which is much higher compared to 124g/day in 1950. Then the big question is that, why are 33% of Indians suffering from starvation? Why are the aspirations of many limited to dal-bhaat? Why the rate of pulses sky-rockets sometimes? The answer lies in the philosophy which had been realised by British in 15th century AD. The concept is that any society is agrarian based in the primary stage of its evolution because food is the prime resource that we need to survive. As long as nearly everyone is involved in agriculture related activities, the society is primitive, i.e., everyone is struggling only for food. Now if by the method of advanced means a fraction of the population is able to cultivate surplus then it will provide an opportunity for the other fraction to engage themselves in other form of activities. To meet the objective of prosperity, the surplus must lead to TRADE. That is why it was a tagline of British who were belonging to merchandise school of thought that 'trade brings prosperity'. Despite having huge food surplus if our people are still going hungry then it implies only one possibility that we are lagging behind in trade and that the machinery of economic engineering which we have adopted so far needs an improvement.

Let me explain this with a very simple and illustrious example. In Bihar there is a place 'Hazipur', famous for its delicious bananas. The production is so much that the farmers and all their family members are compelled to sell them on highways running from one bus to another and as cheap as INR 10 for 16 bananas. The surplus is fully spoilt in peak seasons because selling them with so much labour on cheaper rate won't even get them standard-labour-market rate which is at present INR 300 for 6 hours which they can easily get in rapidly expanding construction sector. On the other hand we pay fairly good price for banana flavored drinks, ice-creams, FMCG (fast moving consumer goods like dried banana chips in corn-flakes). So is it not logical that if the banana farmers of Hazipur are provided with a food processing unit, proper cold-storage facility and good market then this will bring prosperity? It will also encourage them to produce more and employ more intense and technologically advanced measures to cultivate. Due to the TRADE of the surplus the employment will automatically increase in the area. The banana was an example and same story goes with every perishable item be it potato, tomato or sugarcane.

Now that the requirement of processing and storage units is clear but the question is- Who will invest? Is our government capable enough to invest in every sector in such a large country? The answer is flatly 'NO' because it is still struggling to provide very basic amenities to its people.

Can private players play a role? Yes!

Can we depend on Ambani and Tata for every establishment we need?-NO!

Then what is that thing which we are missing in almost every sector. What is that in which we Indians are not good despite of a huge population of 1.25 billion? The answer is 'ENTREPRENEURSHIP'.

In our country everyone aspires for a secured, well-settled life. Everyone wants job, but no one wants to do something different so that he/she can create jobs for others. People here lack courage to compete and play in the market. The society is also very immature, that looks upon a bank P.O earning 20k/month with more respect than a start-up businessman who might be earning in lacs and might be contributing a lot more to the economy or society. There are many more problems with the people here but let us leave that and jump to solution.

How can we increase trade and entrepreneurship? The first step required would be to connect the people to central economy via banking sector. For the purpose many steps had been taken like no-frill accounts, payment banks, white label ATM and the milestone 'Jan-Dhan Yojana' (specifically to promote financial inclusion).

What can be second step? To provide a market platform/accessibility! For that purpose what can be the best means in 21st century? Obviously high speed internet. Saying that, a silly question can be asked as-'How can everyone gain from internet knowing that India has still not attained 100% literacy?' The answer is very simple- 'ofcourse everyone cannot gain directly but atleast everyone can get employed under someone who will be gaining on his behalf'.

Then comes the apprehension of another major problem- CORRUPTION. It is a universal fact as the government leans toward socialistic ideologies, corruption increases. Not going into details, for reference we can take failure of socialistic approaches in USSR in the recent decades… there the farmers used to burn their own crops to claim higher compensation despite national scarcity.

So is capitalism a solution? The answer would be negative because the people are aware of their right of equality (economic equality) and our constitution already has a socialistic orientation which can be ascertained by looking at the preamble. In India even some healthy non-disabled people expect that the government should provide them dal-bhaat daily 2 times for 5 years for free just because they have voted in their favour to bring them in power.

So the situation is neither good for socialistic ideologies not ripe enough for capitalistic moves, then what can be the solution for steady change? TECHNOLOGY! Yes it is technology which can do miracles. How? Again let me explain by an example. Government has a scheme of crop insurance, according to which if more than 50% (earlier 70% and it can vary in different states) of a particular crop in a specified area fails, the government needs to provide compensation (50% criteria implies natural calamity and this limit is necessary so that farmers don't spoil their crops by malpractices). Now the process involves corruption in three stages adding to the miseries of farmers and sometimes compelling them to commit suicide. The first stage involves politicians. It happens when the central government grants calculated funds to respective states as per their estimation (because agriculture and land issues are subjected to state list and not central or concurrent list). The inspection process for analysis of level of crop failure also involves corruption at political level. Then comes the second stage which involves bureaucracy when the fund is provided to panchayats and local governing bodies via respective blocks. Third stage is at local level where Mukhiajee charges a large share. Sometimes if the recipient party is weak, Mukhiyajee takes the signature and eats up everything himself.

How can technology help to improve the situation? First step will be DBT (direct balance transfer) which again requires bank accounts and financial inclusion of every citizen. Secondly we can use satellite photography for crop inspection. Later internet can provide a platform for incorporating both DBT mechanism and satellite data manipulation/assessment. It is an easily programmable issue which will not only provide crystal clarity in fund allocation but it will also make the audition process damn easy. Each penny can be traced, executing cost will drastically decrease and the huge time lag will be reduced to minutes. This was a particular example where internet and technology can check on corruption. Further it can provide an eye to the surveillance agencies in the remotest of areas and can promote transparency. So basically what we need is political will, financial inclusion and internet penetration. By God's grace we are on its way. Another thing which is required is technology and huge investment in IT sector for which our Prime Minister is working relentlessly. I personally feel that his visit to the Silicon Valley is going to be tremendously successful. (It is quite amusing that the cheap Indian media is only showcasing news like xyz wiped his hands after handshake with Modi and uvw asked for side from Modi. Infact the media provides the masala news in which majority are interested in).

'Digital India' is an initiative of the GOI to ensure that government services are available to citizens electronically, so it will obviously put a check on corruption. For creating such digital platforms we again need big IT giants for which our PM is working hard and we should encourage him by showing our support. If we cannot support, atleast we should not criticize instead contribute in some way towards India’s prosperity.

Now let us focus on judicial issues. Most of the burden on the Indian courts is due to land issues between brothers and neighbours. For survey you can go to any random village on a working day, ask any three person going to town that where they are heading to, atleast one of them would certainly confess that they are going to visit the court, block or munsif/magistrate for land dispute matters.

The solution- Technology! How? All land records can be digitized. Records can be maintained in latitudes, longitudes, minutes and seconds rather than taking references from electric poles or peepal trees. Today everyone is having smartphones with GPS, it can be easily checked if a part of land belongs to one's jurisdiction or not. But again to make it possible to employ legally, we need internet in every corner. The most delighting part would be that it will reduce the burden of courts so that they could focus more on speedy trials of other important cases.

Technology will also help to increase the yield by introducing new varieties of seeds which are resilient to damage by climate or pests.

Take any other random sector; say health sector or education sector. In education the most challenging part is the quality. It is evident that with proper infrastructure and planning, internet can do miracles. As internet can open a window of market for traders, it can also open a window of opportunities for students to learn, interact and compete globally. In health sector, medical assistance can be outsourced by internet. A chain of ambulances can be connected via an interface (program) for rapid action as per need availability. In these sectors also surveillance can be strengthened and reporting can be digitized. Telemedicine and e-health services could be the solution to provide inexpensive yet reliable medical help at rural health centers.

In fields like 'environmental impact assessment' technology, internet can prove to be a boon. There are many more things about digital India like safe document keeping for which Modi did a pact with 'cloud computing' recently. It will reduce paper use and enhance speedy government processes. Obviously these changes will take time because it is a kind of major transformation but we are going in the right direction with the right pace. I am quite sure that in coming few years we will start experiencing the fruits of these initiatives.

Recently few politicians claimed that 'Modijee in the capacity of PM of India should not go personally to meet CEOs of different companies and India should learn from China which made itself strong first and the investors automatically got attracted.' But the truth is that the day GOI starts behaving like the Chinese government, these politicians would be the first ones to carry out naked protests at Rajpath. Since India is not China and Indians are not Chinese, the way to excel will also be quite different. Here aspirations of people are not limited to economic and military excellence only, but we are deeply concerned about social justice, fundamental rights and equality. For the matter of fact it is worth mentioning that in China there are higher suicide rates among the labour class and the condition of poor is extremely miserable. Despite these there are things which can be learnt from China. We can draw inspirations that as China has elevated itself in the last few decades so can we, but that doesn't mean that we monkey-copy the way they did. We are taking more time because we are heading towards a better goal. We are developing in a more sustainable way and our people enjoy fundamental rights and human rights in much broader perspective which might be a dream for most Chinese. Simply think what would be the consequences if India implements the one child policy!

It is surprising that except we Indians everybody else believes that the coming decades belong to India. For real performance analysis, all the development indices of last one year can be compared to the past five years. Even the Pakistani media praised the 'digital India' initiative.

For those who are stressing on dal-bhaat, serving free food to people who can work is strictly not an option. It severely damages the work-culture and ethical stand of a society. It is scientifically proved that the food we eat becomes a part of our body. These parts may be macro or micro (neurons). If the food had not been earned with honesty it will only lead to diseased body, spoilt brain and corrupted soul. It is always better to show a pond to the needy rather than feeding him on prepared fish and the only way in which we can create ponds is by promoting entrepreneurship and trade. We have already seen the bad impacts of 'Rs.1-3/kg cereals & sugar schemes' to people below-poverty line. Their willingness to work is dead and only the need for alcohol compels them to work for few days a week. This is creating a lot of labour problems to farmers and the agriculture sector is severely suffering due to disguised man-power.

The hypocrisy is that the same folk who is shouting for dal-bhaat is stressing that India should learn from China. It is like pulling the government down to hard core socialism with one hand and with the other hand promoting the government to learn from capitalistic ideologies. What we need today is optimization of both the ideologies and that is what is being done. Its true that the problems of a vast country like India are numerous.

So it is very easy to criticize. If the government stresses on education, critics would say dal-bhaat first. Even if government starts distributing dal-bhaat, critics would say 'national security first'. Therefore it is quite unfair to prioritize the problems ourselves and then shout this should be first and that last rather whatever positive efforts are taken by the government should be appreciated. It would be ideal if instead of worrying 'what the country is giving me', we should start worrying 'what have done so far and what can we do for our nation?'

To confirm how India is progressing, you may read this from our very own Rockstar Banker: http://profit.ndtv.com/news/economy/article-pm-modi-articulate-spokesperson-for-india-says-raghuram-rajan-1224666