How data driven decision making leads to effective governance

One of the criterion of effective governance is the right delivery of services. And data can help in the decision making. The best support for the same will come through emerging technologies. Anil Jain, Partner, Deloitte India in conversation with Dataquest talks about the adoption of smart governance for faster delivery of services to the citizens, the role blockchain, AI will play in the same and how it will transform the economy.

Need for paperless, presence less and cashless

The advent of Smart Governance shifted the focus on ‘how fast the service can be delivered?’ from mere successful delivery of services. This necessitates the need to reengineer all the processes optimally with the objective of making them Paperless, Presence less & Cashless. Considering these objectives, the Government is also setting up sandbox environments for citizens to develop their own application interface to avail government services.

Data driven decision making in governance

Use of services based on emerging technologies such as Internet of Things (IoTs), Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, and Bots would be the important drivers to achieve efficiency and transparency in governance. Government data reserves have led to creation of large data mart. Hence, there is an immediate need to develop innovative solutions for evidence-based monitoring and data-driven decision making to enhance effectiveness in governance.

Role of enterprises and startups

Government has been fostering startups through various promotional campaigns such as ‘Make-In-India’ and creating more incubation labs to promote innovative homegrown solutions. Hackathons and similar programs are being organized on periodic basis to curate solutions for growing challenges of the country. Also, Centres of Excellence (COE) are being setup that are professionally tied up with the India’s premier educational institutes.

Further, enterprises/startups can also participate as actual service delivery providers, especially in rural areas for delivering transactional Government to Citizen (G2C) services.

Customized and realistic roadmap

There is a need for a customized and realistic roadmap for successful implementation and adoption of smart governance.

The suggested action points for the government and policy makers, inter alia include:

• Developing customized strategies for all government schemes post assessment of techno-commercial viability
• Educating the citizens about smart governance and build capacity of the local authorities for increased adoption
• Strengthening public and private collaboration through new schemes and policies

How will this transform India’s economy?

Smart governance inherently embraces data-driven decision making, transparency, responsiveness, inclusion, and sustainability in the day-to-day functioning. These foundations will help India in moving towards a well-planned urbanization thereby improving quality of life. It will facilitate attracting new businesses, driving economic growth and consequently transforming India’s economy.

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

There are numerous success stories within India and around the world of the effective use of technologies for smart governance. Three Indian case studies are given below:

Case-I: Aadhaar: India’s Aadhaar Digital ID program is being used at a large scale to deliver the government services to targeted citizens.

Case-II: Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) is supporting the integrated digital health ecosystem of the country, including creation of unique ABHA ID, which will be linked across various health providers.

Case-III: Smart Cities and Command & Control Centre: Smart Cities Mission promotes cities to provide core infrastructure, clean and sustainable environment and provide a decent quality of life to their citizens using ‘smart solutions’.