Digital India

Ache din aanevale hai!

We have been saying this since the beginning of the Modi campaign, and after a long period into his tenure we sure have doubts about his management, what with the beef ban and the excess Hindutva show. Then came a time for the brooms to rise again, with Kejriwal rising again in Delhi, and the nation began to think if he should have been the prime minister. And then again, the AAP government came up against the wall of their problems.

A nation is worked by a prime minister; a nation moves on the backs of the managerial committee; and the same nation thinks with the minds of its citizens. Quite similar to the “of the people, for the people, by the people” statement by Abraham Lincoln, this is how a true democracy must function. We must not discount our voices in the shout for development, and for justice and for a good future; but we should rank ourselves as important figures for the future of the nation. It is rightly said, “Every tiny drop contributes to an ocean”.

With the scale of development at a high, technology and its use are being increasingly used at previously unthought-of levels. E-governance is one of the important aims of the Modi government and is sought to be one of the top priority aims in coming times. With science and the tech world racing ahead of the generation, it is certain that the time has come for us to latch on to the Ferrari of the future from our Maruti 800 of the past.

Our visits to each and every government are marred by the lack of speed and agility in the staff, but is it entirely their fault? Our lives have been exposed so much to technology that anything which is devoid of machinery impacts a slow feeling to us. This is exactly where e-governance must insert itself to pick up the dropped baton of hope we have on our system.

But this is not a time to talk about the grievances and the problems which we face in our day to day exchanges we have with our government. This time is for us to head into the future with our hands held together and with the whole nation embracing and trusting technology to lead us into a new day.

Coming to think of it, e-governance has more to it than what meets the eye. A steady growth in a resolute e-governance system will not only make it easier for people to get access to government services, but to a point, it will help cultivate their technological knowledge as well. Reducing the pains faced by the citizens, this move to e-governance will work to hike the satisfaction and the happiness of the people on its government, leading to a sure rise in development.

In numerical terms, the introduction of technology and most probably the internet too shall work to increase the people reached by the government, and this is a very important point as it can and will lead to a rise in the money obtained from taxes, etc. By curtailing the lack of knowledge on information and communication technology (ICT), this move will lead to a development of human resource and also human capital, which shall in turn facilitate the nation’s growth.

But those are all very complicated economic terms which are clouding our mind. Let’s just stick to the basics and consider an example.

Last week, one of my friends had to get his car papers updated. Reaching the assigned office at the given time, he waited for an hour before he was shown the door, the reason being stated that the officer wasn’t in a good mood. (One of the reasons behind me not even applying for a driver’s license.)

With submissions week looming on us, my friend wasted an hour and bunked a couple of lectures to just reach the place on time, and in the end it all went in vain. This was the plight of one honest citizen who got sent away just for a reason non-existent in any rule book. E-governance will work to control this and maybe in the future, we shall be able to finish such chores sitting at home by uploading certain documents in the form of images.

This will further lead to save the time, energy and also scarce resources being wasted in the travelling and waiting, etc. Working on the basic problems will also contribute to development in some way or the other and this will in the end benefit the nation.

To cover a major populace, there will have to be the introduction of various, and I mean hundreds, of servers which shall not hang or face performance issues (like IRCTC), and there shall also be needed a security system to prevent manipulation. This step shall in turn update the nation in term of technology as it might signify an increase in the internet users.

Parts of the population cannot be sidetracked with e-governance, and thus this surely means that rural areas shall face a complete upheaval and will rise in the fire of development. Working on this new idea will increase opportunities for the youth, and shall induce employment in the technological sector and to a point this may work to reduce brain drain from our nation. But this idea surely will take India into the pro league.

The process of conversion from our age old methods to this new and efficient way is a cumbersome process and it is already in action. Time consuming and also a pain in the neck, the result is surely something we must wait for in the future. Contributing not only in terms of technological development, this idea shall take our nation ahead on a lot of points. The future is bright for our nation as this plan progresses to the final stages to see a digital India. We must believe and contribute in every possible way to this initiative to see a digital India as soon as possible.

This post is written for the #DigitalIndia contest by Intel on Indiblogger.