Now is a unique opportunity in the history of India to leave behind the British Raj and re-engineer and modernise government processes to build a new India of the 21st century. Hence it is essential that we first redesign the government processes keeping the citizen at the centre, providing hassle-free enablement of citizens, businesses, producers and consumers, replacing the old mistrust and control regime from the British Raj, says the Knowledge Commission in its report to the Prime Minister of India
Businesses often do not harvest optimum benefits from computerisation. There are many reasons for this. Sometimes messy processes are computerised. The computer helps to speed up the mess. Sometimes silos and fiefdoms come in the way of sharing data and information. Software platforms are not inter-operable. Systems cannot be scaled up. Reliable data is difficult to find. Companies create islands of information and it is difficult to sift business insights for decision-making.
Thus, chief information officers do what Hanumanji did when asked to fetch
Sanjeevani — they use larger boxes and faster wires to transport “mountains” of
data!
Not surprisingly, what ails the private sector also bedevils the
government. Business transformation is not just about IT. Boxes, wires, software
and systems are important ingredients of e-governance. But e-governance is not
about automating existing government processes that are archaic, bureaucratic
and not designed for customer service. In this case, we are dealing with a
different customer. It is not the customer who votes with his wallet. It the
customer who pays taxes and actually votes at the ballot box — the
citizen.
Successful businesses place the customer at the centre of their
strategy and do everything to improve customer experience. E-governance should
not be driven by layers of bureaucratic rules, thereby increasing the misery for
citizens. So, how can we improve services for citizens? We can do so by making
access to information easier, by cutting cycle times, by providing web-centric
self-services and by improving efficiency and productivity. In order to do that,
we need to focus on the hardest nuts: administrative reforms and re-designing of
government processes.
It would be unfair to conclude that all our civil
servants are corrupt or inefficient or both. The majority of our civil servants
are hard-working, intelligent and well-meaning as individuals. But much of the
delays, inefficiencies, harassment, corruption and hassles are either engendered
or facilitated by archaic government processes and rules. If we rely only on
technology to take-off, we will be embarking on a project akin to making an old
truck fly like a jet plane.
I have five suggestions. First, there is no need
to re-invent the wheel. If certain applications are working successfully in a
particular state then that e-governance application should be picked and
replicated across the country. Why should different states embark on 10
different land records systems and 15 different motor vehicles registration
applications? If there are problems with incompatibility, then let us
re-engineer the processes. The barrier of difference in vernacular languages and
scripts is a red herring. Technology can solve the issue of using a Telugu
application in Bengali without much effort.
Second, let us set standards that
are common and well thought out. The standards should be vendor-agnostic and
must provide the best value. I am not a fanatic about “open systems”. I would
make sure that the total life-cycle cost is the lowest measured by
performance.
Third, use outsourcing thoughtfully. Some of the most dependable
services required by government employees are outsourced. Motor vehicles,
canteen and security services, for instance, are usually run by outsourced
contractors. Why not citizen services that are IT-enabled? In some cases,
citizens are willing to pay user charges. The knowledge commission in 2006 had
recommended the appointment of chief information technology officers (CITO) for
every state and every major central government department. I take this
suggestion, which has not been implemented, with a few pinches of salt. It is
difficult to attract and retain the best IT talent in a bureaucratic ecosystem.
Besides the real power in the government rests with ministers and the civil
servants who can
render the “IT guy”completely ineffective with the
swish
of a pen.
Governments will not succeed in running large captive “IT
shops”. They must use outsourcing smartly to clean up corruption and drive
efficiencies. They should develop vendors who can perform the tasks cheaper,
faster and better. After all, even in the corporate world, companies such as ADP
process millions of payrolls of Fortune 500 companies for a living.
Fourth,
instead of aspiring to build large IT shops within the government, we should
focus on imparting to government teams certain managerial skills. These skills
will include intelligent procurement of services that are to be outsourced,
managing projects tightly to time and budget and thinking long-term about using
technology to make governments efficient, clean, agile, transparent and
citizen-centric.
Last, but not the least, India must increase its spending on
e-governance. We will acquire the reputation of the best cobbler’s shoeless son
if we do not. Our best talent in consulting and technology are transforming
businesses and governments across the planet. They are helping them become more
efficient, productive and successful. In India, we are saddled with old and
archaic systems that are becoming bottlenecks to our own development and
modernisation.
The writer is the managing director of Deloitte Consulting. These are his personal views