India’s Digital Innovations & Democracy, Inclusive Transformation (“ I did it” )
Global advances, indigenous innovations and local adoption of digital technologies for wider social & e-governance usage offer promise towards socio-economic development. It could also potentially address some of the most pressing social challenges. As some of these technologies engage society and business in a different way of the world, they could also create new bias and effect differential distributional dynamics. The implications of which would be high and long lasting. But can they be inclusive ? Will they worsen economic disparities, create further barriers and even undermine democratic governance ?
Technology, per se, is not inclusive. Leveraging public policy framework and the relevant economic tools to make it accessible to all, technological transformations can potentially build inclusive prosperity. But the continued questions that one has for democratic societies only keeps increasing in count and primacy of democratic-security.
Social inclusion is essentially the guarantee of social and political participation for all citizens. It has to become essential element of social fabric and prime basis of a functioning democracy. That’s where the challenges begin in creating a balanced & inclusive democracy.
Democracy and digital influence
Democracy is not about multiparty elections alone. It is not just about local governmental governance. Democracy thrives when citizens can feel their own citizenry influence, in what they say as feedback and in what they don’t accept.
Ideally a digital-enabled democracy has to help society in being efficient, and in their view on governance. A democracy needs ability for open debates, with civility and no fear. A democratic debate needs citizens to participate in it, and if it makes them more aware. Democracy is about free choices, and not free of choices. That in the digital world we live in, can be easy and yet challenging. We have seen fake news narratives and distressful and distasteful peddling of extreme views using digital modes.
Digital information & communication technologies offer us the possibility of a new world or type of freedom. Yet it brings together the possibilities of surveillance and control (of narratives). The society has to settle that debate between these two realms.
The performance of public institutions and public awareness about them is vital for a democracy to develop. Globally, sufficient research and civil society voices have brought the worries about unequal political participation. Probably this is where digital inclusion can bring in increased social involvement for political participation. Governments and political parties can be transparent, accountable and inclusive using technology. Like any inanimate object, technology cannot be praised or damned. The real question is : is the user ready to use the technology to be transparent ?
Politics of digital & digital politics
Democracies and their intended functional systems aim toward increased citizenry participation. In that endeavour, digital communication has made it easier for such a movement globally. With the popularity of political figures over the last few years, and their extensive usage of social media to appeal to the larger audience (especially the younger demographics), the engagement with the masses has been on the rise. Political narratives, (idealogical) sides being taken, rhetoric being used are common now. One wonders if digital technology is reshaping or unevenly empowering established power structures of democratic governance or those who can afford those digital steering tools ?
Hence regulating digital carefully and not with any vested interest of polity or policy sphere is important. Who makes that decisions, and how does one check if regulatory frameworks are adequately balanced, and would help with the digital governance of the people, by the people and for the people ?
For an ideal world where equal access to information would be a reality, policy journey would need to improve digital literacy and digital access to all. Unregulated digital innovation could significantly alter established power structures and can even undermine democratic institutions.
Data is the foundation
As with any efficient decisioning system, democratising access to data, with relevant data governance mechanisms and decreasing barriers to information would be the only way to build a honest trust-based digital society.
With such system in place, governments can increase their political legitimacy and policy transparency; they can use those in making their markets stable for all investors and also attractive for global investors. They can further boost entrepreneurship and hence enhance livelihood potential for all. Equally beneficial for the citizens will be the availability of credible information to form their views for better participation in day to day democracy.
India and digital
There are sufficient data and statistics available in the public domain to showcase that India has been building a large internet user base, social media adoption, including from urban - rural areas. For example, the JAM trinity - Jan dhan banking, Adhaar & Mobile - have already brought in large proportion of citizens into the digital fold. Even the pandemic saw the usage of digital technology in the form of Cowin program for the covid vaccination drive. Yes, we will need to work harder to make this digital access as a universal one.
The GoI, over the past few years has been the biggest champion for digital inclusion across various spheres - public domain, business use case, banking and financial services, governance, judiciary etc. The outcomes are still under observation with varying degree of success so far. In this endeavour, ‘Digital India’ is the flagship drive of the GoI. It aims in transforming India as a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.
Digital India Mission focuses on three objectives :
Digital India aims impetus building across 9 growth areas, which cut across most of the ministries and governmental departments :
Building Inclusiveness
Digital divide poses a large risk of exclusion in societies where information, governance, and citizenry discussions have gone digital. In the current digital century that we are in, digital skills are as important as conventional literacy. This is where policy leaders will be expected to fast track investments and efforts towards digital education.
We need to worry about Digital Exclusion too, where we have to solve for barriers that hinder accessibility due to geography, gender, caste, religion, social or economic segment, language, physical or mental health, educational level etc. In this entire digital journey as a nation, we have to create safe layers for accountability and transparency, and to bridge the gap between what’s public and private.
However, the commercialisation of newer technologies poses a challenge to both mature and aspiring democracies. Creating a trusted space between citizens and their elected representatives is a prerequisite for creating a digital society. e-Governance, when designed efficiently and executed transparently, can deliver high levels of transparency and accountability; and can help citizens relate to their public institutions. This can be helped with increased public participation, oversight and scrutiny of such national institutions.
Let’s hope that sooner than later, as a large populous democracy, we can say “I did it” of the inclusive nature.
The author is a Corporate Advisor
@ssmumbai
