No real 'Digital India' without including Panchayats

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of “Digital India” won’t come true without including Panchayats, a senior government official has said.

Addressing a conference on ‘Digital India’ held as part of the 37th Skoch Summit here, N. Ravi Shankar, Secretary, Ministry of Personal, Public Grievances and Pensions, highlighted the importance of roles to be played by individuals and Panchayats in transforming the overall digital culture in the country.

“Time has come now when the Public Private Partnership (PPP) should be known as Public Private Panchayat Partnership (PPPP),” Shankar said. He said rural India has been looking for it for long and greater convergence would be effective for empowerment of the masses.

The comments came in the backdrop of the government’s plan to connect 50,000 Gram Panchayats this fiscal and 100,000 in the next financial years and a similar number in 2015-16.

A daylong conference on ‘Digital India’ brought to the fore the key nuances of the government’s recently launched “Digital India” programme. The conclusion emerged through the experts and citizens’ views that while the newly launched “Digital India” has path-breaking potential – but the earlier launched programmes too were helpful for India in charting out an important journey of a technology intensive economy in the wake of economic reforms.

Albeit this time around, the focus has to be laid upon to remove the possible flaws from the new digital drive in offing– with carefully taking into account, the implementation specific lapses of previous programmes as ‘key learning’.

Notionally it sounds fine. However, the reckoning should be zeroed at how the missing gap in eService delivery has slowed down the digitisation efforts of the previous governments and eventually caused for lesser impact than their actual potential.

Hence, the “Digital India” platform shall be carried like national roll-out of application rather than reinvention – with keeping in focus, effective application and citizen centricity.

As the fog is still not clear how exactly the new policy scheme will work, the discussions must go further with spotting the criticality of outcome based governance in the current scenario where the technological changes are fast-paced and hardly belittling with any bound. So, the “Digital India” shall make citizens empowered and key stakeholders that only can remove the hassles of procedures, those blocking the free flow of information and entrepreneurial opportunities.

Hitherto missed, but now the technology required for the specific policies have to be made India specific, as inevitably it has to cope with an uniquely diverse populace and culture – also the eWaste has to be dealt on priority basis to control the environmental hazard, it unrelentingly offers.

The close overtures between the government and industry has been seen and noticed in recent years, so it is irrational to call any longer the existing technology stakeholder, a ‘vendor’. As lately, the realisation should be at commonplace that they play game-changing role in handling various schemes and making them meeting with the aims targeted.

Technology is fast changing and it is really hard for any system to keep the pace in its accordance. So, the government has to be emphatically proactive to meet with the imminent challenges. Among those challenges, the new time will see “Agile Governance” – and that agility will come from the industry and citizens, not alone from the government.

Apart from these legitimate challenges, the “Digital India” mission may face hurdles within the government. Some of insiders are not convinced with the whole framework behind making it on mission mode so soon. Among them, one is Rahul Khullar, chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). In a recent interview to ET, he said the plan is short on specifics. He added, "Is it possible to get a birth or a death certificate online in Delhi? If not, what sort of applications are we really talking about?”

Principally, the vision set forth for “Digital India” is concentrated in three areas: digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen – digital identity, mobile phone and bank account, safe and secure cyber space, and governance and services on demand; services available in real time on online and mobile platform, making financial transactions electronic and digital empowerment of citizens; and all documents, certificates available on cloud.

Indeed, a lot more thinking and resources must be devoted to release these applications instead of rushing to launch e-based programming for critical core areas like education and health. Experts believe that the current bandwidth of 100 mbps per Panchayat is not sufficient. They opine on condition of anonymity that it should be at least 1 gbps given that it serves three villages of around 10,000 people and videos are in HD (high definition) now.

As a matter of fact, one can't keep laying new fibre and the current architecture does not allow for the bandwidth to be revised.

So far, the views aired by the experts from the different walks of life on the “Digital India” are to an extent in conformity that the great convergence in India will come through actual digital revolution – not merely by another policy initiative. The new digital policy has to pass the acid test – it seems mandatory.
-Atul K Thakur
Email: summertickets@gmail.com
(Published in INCLUSION)

Kathmandu is now Closer Post Modi's Visit

In the official establishment of Nepal, and among its masses, there has been a lingering sense of dissatisfaction over improper diplomatic reciprocity from India. This was understandable, as no Indian Prime Minister thought it essential to visit Kathmandu for seventeen long years. Hence, Modi's invitation to SAARC leaders for his swearing-in ceremony was seen as an indication of a strong neighbourhood policy, and that was welcomed by Nepal.

Further, Nepalese Premiere Sushil Koirala's visit to New Delhi in May helped establish fine working terms with the new government, which became evident when India’s external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj made a visit to Kathmandu and won the hearts of the Nepalese people.

India has always played a crucial role during the political transitions in Nepal. This goes back to the time in Monarchy, where India thoroughly enjoyed a non-competing role.

Thus, Modi’s long and nuanced extempore speech in Nepali Parliament wherein he touched upon certain long-pending issues, was very well received in the country. He also spoke a few sentences in Nepalese, which was a humbling gesture. Apparently, even radicals like Prachanda and Baburam Bhattarai hailed his efforts and came to agreement.

Modi not only offered Nepal soft credit to the tune of Rs (Nep) 10,000 crore for various development projects, he even simplified the terms of diplomacy in his precise remarks that “India is an elder brother, not a big brother”. In the past, anti-India sentiments over the interventionist approach of the Indian mission in Kathmandu persisted, and there was no parity in political negotiations.

So, under this backdrop – Modi's simple yet sensitive approach to the issues at hand made his time in Kathmandu highly productive, not only on a political level but also in terms of improving trade relations between the two countries. He also spoke for rationalising the telecom arrangements and enhancing cooperation on security related matters.

Although the open border has been a unique feature of Indo-Nepalese relations, it has also been a major cause of concern for India apropos to its potential misuse by unscrupulous elements posing security threats to either side.

It was agreed that neither India nor Nepal would allow their respective territories to be used against each other. Both sides agreed to finalize the texts of Extradition Treaty and MLAT on an early date.

Crucial projects such as the Pancheshwar Development Authority (PDA) received the nod for approval. The Karnali hydro-power project– besides other power projects like Arun III, Upper Marsyangdi and Tamakoshi III - has also seen significant development. The development of projects of this magnanimous size will be a major catalyst for the development of Nepal’s enormous hydro-power potential.

The Nepalese side highlighted the trade deficit it is facing viz. its trade with India, and suggested measures to address this deficit through increased Indian FDI, relaxation of non-tariff restrictions including SPS standards for agro products, increased support in product development, relaxation of Rules of Origin requirement for duty free access to Nepalese products, and mutual recognition of standards, conformity assessment and accreditation.

The Nepalese side also requested the removal of Quantitative Restrictions (QRs) on the four core Nepalese export products namely vegetable fat, copper products, acrylic yarn and zinc oxide. The Indian side assured it would consider these requests – however it reminded them that the trade deficit could best be bridged by the development of hydro-power in Nepal and the export of surplus power to India.

The talks also included deliberations over three additional air entry points at Janakpur, Bhairahawa and Nepalgunj, and cross border routes to facilitate direct flights between regional airports (Pokhara-Bhirahawa-Lucknow), in order to save time, cut costs and improve air connectivity.

The two Prime Ministers directed relevant authorities to expedite all work related to the development of cross border transmission lines as was agreed by the Joint Commission. At the request of the Nepalese side, the Government of India agreed to consider undertaking the rehabilitation of Koshi Pump Canal, Koshi Western Canal System, and West Gandak Canal System with a Lift System to irrigate additional land in Nepal.

Modi’s visit to Nepal has brought about decisive and visible changes. It has reset the game with China now batting from a weaker pitch.

In the last two decades, China has been spending billions of dollars to categorically diminish India’s traditional stronghold in Nepal – but with new synergies in Indo-Nepal relations, China's propagandist interventions into the Himalayan nation will be in vain.

In the 1970s King Birendra proposed that Nepal be a ‘zone of peace’ between India and China and in the 1980s, Nepal began importing Chinese weaponry, which to India was clearly against the spirit of India-Nepal 1950 treaty.

With no Monarchy and the Maoists in mainstream, those arms export struggle between Indian and China is almost over in Nepal – however India’s concern stays about the seized Chinese advanced arms from the Maoists, which all are not under state control.

Nepal is a country landlocked between two Asian giants (India and China), along with a disputed Tibet – this complex geographical and political reality has been a key influence on ties among these three countries.

Modi’s is scheduled to visit Nepal again for the SAARC Summit in October, with which the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) may see a new lease of life. For now, Nepal no longer sees India as ‘Swayambhu’ – this is an achievement.
-Atul K Thakur
Email: summertickets@gmail.com
(Published in INCLUSION)

Economists Agonize Over a ModiNomics Budget

They said “economists make more opinion than their own numbers” – thus means, most of their opinions see no light of the day. This year’s Union Budget came like a shocker to all those, who are in the ‘business of complexity and disillusionment’ – ‘frission of thrills’ replaced by the essentiality of ‘common sense’ in key policy formulations, hence leaving the flock of double minded economists and policy wonks without any anticipated prominence.

Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s piece in Indian Express (Achhe din, like old times, 29th July 2014) otherwise offers a hurried overview on the works of new government at centre but in patches exudes well, the agony of ‘those economists and policy wonks’, who lent their helping hands to the ruling party, in anticipation of plum positions, which did not materialise!
Free from preoccupations so far, this government means business and that more for maximum common good rather than the appeasement of an affluent few.

A very well meaning book by Sameer Kochhar, ModiNomics: Inclusive Economics, Inclusive Governance - came before the term ‘Modinomics’ eminently positioned as a bandwagon in policy circle and seems having strong effect on this year’s budget. The heart of the matter of this book lies in knowing first, and then highlighting the developmental works of Narendra Modi, as the Chief Minister of Gujarat – something, which is known as the “Gujarat Model”.

Precisely this book sums-up the “Gujarat Model”, as nothing but applying common sense in policy planning and ensuring implementations through good governance practices. In that case, bureaucracy becomes an enabler rather than a ‘hassle making blocks’, disowning clarity, honesty, common sense and sense of purpose.

Above all, the intention of leadership makes real difference – and its within recognition, Modi today epitomises it in effect, better than anyone else in Indian politics.

The new government’s preferences are akin to the developmental thinking of Prime Minister, who puts priority on top and work on that. As clearly visible, the budget underlined some of the key visions configured in the first chapter fromModiNomics, The essence of ModiNomics:Rethinking Subsidies (page 28-30):“Sound fiscal management is essential in promoting sustained, strong economic growth” – following that line, the Finance Minister during his maiden and interim budget, tried setting the finance of government in order by strong moves of fiscal correction. The budget aims a new fiscal deficit target of 4.5 per cent and GDP growth forecast between 5.4 and 5.9 per cent for current fiscal year, reflecting the policy clarity from the government – noticeably, ModiNomics pitched high on this.

Financial Inclusion (page 32-34): “The idea of inclusive growth rests on financial inclusion. Savings mobilised through regular institutional sources can sustain India’s economic growth. The role of regulators and bankers is important on this.” During his budget speech, the Finance Minister made it clear that the RBI will issue few more bank licenses and those banks would be differentiated banks, for catering the specialised needs in rural areas.

There are many other provisions but most importantly, on Independence Day, the Prime Minister will be announcing something big on financial inclusion plans, which means common men are the focus of this government in deeds, not only in words.

On Social Inclusion (page 34-36), ModiNomics says, “One of the biggest benefits of good governance is that it does not look at welfare of any particular section of the people; it results in welfare of all. For example, if you improve education or health services, all citizens in an area benefit. That is why we have adopted the mantra of ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’. After all, this is good governance. In fact, Sarva Jana Hitai, Sarva Jana Sukhay is the basic mantra.”The budget came in conformity with that.

On Digital Inclusion (page 36-38) – ModiNomics mandates, “We must accept that e-governance has a major role to play in our efforts to establish good governance. Gujarat has empowered Panchayat institutions through technology and not replaced them with technology. If I merely centralise all governance through technology, it weakens the participatory process. In our state, the basic philosophy is that technology should strengthen the institution’s capability to deliver services. We have one of the largest networks at the state level under GSWAN, and also the highest connectivity in rural areas. Gujarat is the only state in which 13,685 gram Panchayats have broadband connectivity” – the budget carefully carved niche for technological innovations across the India with the vision shared in the book.

Employment and Skills Development (page 40): ModiNomics says “To realise the full potential of the demographic dividend, he believes that a fundamental transformation has to be made in the way in which the government realises the potential of its youth” – the budget has shown ample orientation towards achieving employment elasticity (relationship between GDP growth and employment data).

The budget ensures that additional jobs have to be generated through the structural changes that Indian labour market has been going through. This has to happen with outbound movement of people from agriculture and allied activities to manufacturing and services. In all probability, this should be a reality with the latest policy supports.

On Public Private Partnership (page 42): ModiNomics recounts the experience of Narendra Modi as Chief Minister of Gujarat, “My experience tells me the same government set-up, the same laws, the same officers can still deliver good governance. What governance needs is good leadership, and not merely political leadership. Quality leadership must be available at every level, including within the bureaucracy. The government cannot run merely on dreams. The government must be policy driven. If the governance is policy driven, those who have to execute those policies will be clear in their mind as to their functions – responsibility and accountability will follow. When decisions are take, the nation moves forward.”

Much on this line, Public Private Partnerships (PPP) have given the heavy weightage in this budget for infrastructure creation but the Finance Minster has also called for to improving some of areas where PPPs are waiting for that. Intently that means, now the PPPs would be working, rather scrawling or not working at all.

And among the many positive stances in the budget, the praiseworthy is assurance to the investors that the Indian tax administration is not adversarial – also that the very effective tax dispute mechanism would be at place soon – to counter the ‘stuck cases’ and lacunas, those constrict tax collection in India.

The revival of economy would be possible through transparency and efficiency in taxation policies those plug leakages. This is for the country’s economic progress and inclusive national growth.

With clarity in mission, this budget will give country a much required growth impetus – at the same time, without overlooking on the incessant ire of inflation and unemployment. Afterall ModiNomics is about applying intelligent economic principles and executing them properly. This budget has shown, aiming growth and inclusiveness is very much possible through the same yardstick.
-Atul K Thakur
Email: summertickets@gmail.com

(Published in INCLUSION)

India’s tryst with democracy

Book Review: Non-fiction/Battles Half Won: India’s Improbable Democracy by Ashutosh Varshney, Penguin, 415 pp; Rs599 (Hardback)

Ashutosh Varshney has long been considered a formidable scholar of South Asian politics and his latest book is a significant addition to his repertoire, particularly at a point in time when Indian politics is undergoing transformations of an unprecedented nature. Battles Half Won: India’s Improbable

Democracy is a compilation of several pieces that seek to trace India’s political trajectory, from the time of its birth to the modern day. What is at the heart of the book is the idea that India is struggling to establish a deeper, more definitive democracy. Varshney has well-captured the centrist tendency in Indian politics, particularly at the national level.

In the states, he says, identities of various sorts still rule the course of political action and outcome. Great use is made of facts and figures to prop up his ideas, testifying to the author’s skill as a truly effective political scientist.
India is presently at a stage wherein the expectations of the electorate are quite diverse, apropos of how the system and its representatives respond to them.

But still we see a Narendra Modi seeking to make his party, his government in Gujarat, and in imagination, the country, an overt extension of his personality. It was the same mistake, in fact, that Indira Gandhi had committed almost four decades ago, making the Congress party her territory.

For a party that had been shaped by a standard democrat like Nehru post-independence, and still carrying some notional attributes of the anti-colonial movement, this had proved a major setback. Varshney emphasises that without the freedom movement, India’s nationhood would have been inconceivable, which means democracy
too would’ve been inconceivable.

He focuses especially on the consolidation of national democracy after 1947, calling it the next remarkable event after India’s independence—where the decisive leadership of Nehru played a major role. It is appreciable that while doling out these analyses, the author is able to keep his personal biases on hold, one of the many strengths of his writing.

The book touches upon, at one point, Mahatma Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj, a radical piece of work. While stressing on Gandhi’s political preferences, Varshney adds, “It is noteworthy that Gandhi himself was not very fond of representative government, his ideal polity was one that had local village republics, more in line with direct, non-representative democracy.” Does this mean then that the Aam Aadmi Party of today is following Gandhian principle?

I suppose that is unlikely, as the AAP, in core, doesn’t oppose representative politics, nor is it its express objective to make representatives accountable. Rather, what the AAP is pursuing is the ‘trivialisation of representation’, visible in the way it has vested the Mohalla Sabha (meetings among residents of a ‘mohalla’, a smaller partition of a ward) with such supreme power.

Given its heavy-handed political maneuverings so far, the party’s plan to contest the general elections in a big way will be much messier, of course. But its strong emergence in the scene has certainly brought democracy under close scrutiny. Varshney offers substantial space in his book for present-day politics, new bases of coalitions, governance and economic reforms—all elaborated upon in his signature style, now become quite popular through the means of his widely read column in the Indian Express.

Like he tends to do in many his opinionated writings in newspapers and academic journals, his book too draws out the differences between the “quality of democracy and existence of democracy.” He envisions India as a mature democracy that has a deeply unstable core, thanks to the socio-economic inequalities and challenges it has encountered with regards to its territorial integrity, making the battle for “deeper democracy” the need of the hour. And the AAP, for Varshney, is an example of the forces within this battle.

For the most part, Battles Half Won analyses the factors behind the deepening of Indian democracy since 1947 and the challenges these have created. The book broadly traces the forging and consolidation of India s “improbable democracy”. The essays delve into themes ranging from caste politics and ethnic conflict, and Hindu nationalism to the north-south economic divide and the politics of economic reform since 1991—issues that have consistently tested the calibre of Indian democracy.

The book also highlights the adverseness of not relying on “intelligent economics”; AAP ideologue Yogendra Yadav, for instance, has made his party’s intentions clear on that by shifting the political and economic agenda away from the “shackle of isms”.

Of course, this is merely in principle so far, and it remains to be seen what the execution will actually be like. But the potential impact of new politics, championed by the AAP—the way it has encroached on the traditional turf of left or right-leaning forces, by injecting flexibility into economic policies and matters of governance—is something that greatly interests our author.

Given the Anna Hazare campaign, which proved so popular a while back, and now with AAP’s swift rise in the power circle, Varshney feels that the bulk of citizens in India are now eager to participate in the overall political process.

While examining all these changes, the book also indicates the next course of development as far as democracy in India is concerned. In Varshney’s view, Indian democracy is the sort that becomes more progressive the more unsettling changes it comes across. After all, time and again, all kinds of political hiccups in India have been solemnised—although with varying degrees of success.

Then again, the stakes are much higher at the moment, and forward-looking Indians can no longer trust a government that offers less than a two-percent job growth rate, for example. Now is the time for political parties to be as prompt in terms of their actions as their electorates are with their expectations. Overlooking that would be detrimental for success in the political fray as other countries in South Asia have evidenced.

Articulate and authoritative, Varshney’s book offers fresh insights into several crucial areas, elements that have shaped India into what it is today, whether that be the complex set of relations under the country’s federal system, the challenges of territorial/cultural diversities, and the contradictory outcomes of economic reforms, among others. Battles Half Won looks back very diligently on successes and failures of India’s tryst with democracy—which despite having many flaws, is charting its course with no full stop.
-Atul K Thakur
Email: summertickets2gmail.com
(Published in The Kathmandu Post on February22,2014)

The break Nitish Kumar will rue

As long as the Janata Dal (United) remained aligned with the Bharatiya Janata Party, Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan could be kept at arm’s length. By snapping ties with the BJP, the JD(U) will feel the heat

Bihar is passing through an unprecedented transition. This time it is imposed by the political compulsions rather by malfunctioning of the state machinery, which hitherto plagued the State on many occasions. The JD(U) and the BJP had changed the political discourse at the height of the RJD’s misrule together.

The end of the JD(U)-BJP coalition in Bihar has returned the subversive rhetoric to the forefront, which makes the present political scene in the State look like what it was in the 1990s. Back then, the Left and the Congress were in bonhomie with the RJD to fight the imagined threat to communal harmony. Although toothless, they will now do something similar in the Lok Sabha election to escape slipping through the cracks of untravelled political routes.

The Lok Janshakti Party’s Ram Vilas Paswan is too consistent in his own way. He has been a face of central politics, and his coalition choice will be decided according to which major alliance will have a better shot at Delhi’s throne.
Lalu Prasad’s son is another politician who was born into this role out of miserable cricket career and his father’s lack of trust in the senior leaders of his motley camp.

So, Mr Tejashwi Yadav is a poster boy and together with RJD’s old horse, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, they are struggling hard to make their presence felt on the rough political turf of Patna.

This is the state of affairs inside the opposition parties in Bihar. Their claim of giving the State a better governance model than the present regime is based on flawed raw material and reckless manoeuvrings. However, the three-dimensional polarisation in the State will give leeway to a certain extent to these parties. But assuming that edge too significant would be an over-estimation.

It is axiomatic that in isolation, both the JD(U) and the BJP will see the upcoming election unprecedentedly tough.
The division of votes and the lack of a natural ally for any potential coalition will haunt both the camps equally. Danger is looming large for another round of devastating political plays by the desperate RJD and the LJP. They will not prefer missing any chance to get back the State.

Development as a political agenda was not commonplace in Bihar before the NDA rose to command in Bihar in 2005. The feudal construct in the State significantly diminished in subsequent years. Besides, social and political changes fast-paced and Bihar performed remarkably well in economic sphere too. But in the changed circumstances now, it is uncertain that the erstwhile component of the NDA will be able to reap any benefits out of that success.

Another crucial factor is the rising expectation of the masses from the Government. This is a positive phenomenon and even if the State Government is being criticised for not curing all ills of public services, it should be seen differently. Recently, Bihar has overcome its chronic power crisis too, next in line with other visible developments.

But the improved infrastructure is not happening in crucial areas like education and industry, and on this count the people are genuinely angry with the incumbent Government. A lacklustre attitude towards industry is another sightable drawback that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Government has been afflicted with.

A casual attitude in the recruitment of teachers, doctors and other professionals is another disastrous move of the regime. When such moves were resisted, they were met with an arrogant response from the Chief Minister. Despite having a stable fiscal position, it is bizarre that Mr Nitish Kumar has no interest in avoiding such treatment to the educated unemployed.

The state of higher education is no less pathetic. Most students are still compelled to migrate for university education. The only improvement is the secured finances to many sick universities. It is not that moves were not made to improve the situation. But, wrongly envisioned, they met with failure. Surrounded with the wrong set of advisers, Mr Nitish Kumar seems to forget the pain of his people
Notably, these advisers come from different orbits and they hardly know the State outside of Patna. Those living in the State are acknowledging the welcome changes of recent years, albeit shunning the insensitive stand of the Government on key issues. As they vote during the election, their anger could impact adversely on the immediate prospects of the JD(U).

It’s time Mr Kumar looks beyond his statistical progression with developmental plans. He must recognise the excluded areas where his Government has failed to go far. Officialdom has its limits and Mr Kumar must not forget that. In the next few weeks, the scenario of alliances would become clear. Bihar will usher into a difficult phase. This time, it would be losing its ‘reformed politics’.
-Atul K Thakur
Email: summertickets@gmail.com
(Published in The Pioneer, on January7,2014)