Part 2: How technology can transform govt. to citizen services?

Amit Midha, president, Dell, Asia Pacific & Japan in conversation with Thomas George, head of CyberMedia Research(CMR), Anil Chopra, group editor of CIOL & PCQuest and Ibrahim Ahmad, group editor of Voice&Data speaks on the inherent challenges of the 'Digital India' vision and what kind of service delivery approach the government would require to make it happen.

Excerpts:

Amit Midha, president, Dell, Asia Pacific & Japan

'Digital India' is an amazing promise and the government of India has a huge role to play in it and use it as a means to transform the society. There is huge scope for technological advancements and process automation in government services like pension plans, healthcare services, educational institutions and universities.

But with the unlimited opportunities, there exists, several challenges also. One challenge is that the Indian society is large, complex and diverse. To fulfill the promises of 'Digital India' vision, the government requires productivity solutions at all levels.

Another imperative is to make government services available in an easy and secure manner. Government officials should have a dashboard just like corporates have. They should be able to know how the services are delivered, and whether they are more efficient than the traditional or not.

When you use digital services to do something faster which used to take days or months earlier, it sets a new bar for efficiency. It brings promises of a transparent and transformative society as well. But there’s is a fine line between the vision and the execution which government needs to walk through.

Technology providers also have a critical role to play and move forward by taking successful examples from citizen services that have worked well globally. They must come forward and find out ways of how to make technology cost-effective.

Click here to read the first part of the interview.