Preparing for a digital future

• India is in the midst of a massive digital transformation, with the second largest online market in the world, cheapest data rates, and the fastest growing fintech landscape.

Digital Acceleration and Rising Inequalities

• India’s digital acceleration has also created the potential for new divides.
• Inequitable access to technology has exacerbated the divide in the ability to work from home, as well as in learning outcomes for children during the pandemic.
• Recent surveys pointed out the systemic lacunae with Aadhaar-based digitisation of social security programmes
  • Biometric mismatches or non-possession of Aadhaar can result in denial of benefits.
• Poor access to smart devices and internet services can worsen inequalities in income and opportunities.

Digital Infrastructure

• The State of India’s Digital Economy Report highlighted the role of missing analogue foundations that support and drive the digital economy.
• This includes physical and social infrastructure.
  • For instance, poor power supply impacts the quality of internet access.
• Usage gap on the other hand, is driven by poor levels of literacy, affordability and lack of digital skills.

Steps Taken by India

• The Indian government has set a target to provide 4G networks to all uncovered villages by 2024.
• Digital literacy initiatives are being strengthened for various target groups to skill, upskill and reskill users through training, internships and apprenticeship programmes.
• The government is also working towards addressing the weakness of the ecosystem by raising awareness and building technical security.
• The recent launch of Sanchar Saathi is one such initiative.
• With India Stack, the government has established itself as a trailblazer for Digital Public Infrastructure
  • Deploying technology at population scale to manage identity verification and make payments and exchange data.
• However, the metrics of digital ambition must not be restricted to the number of new technologies or programmes and their users, but the impact it has on the lives of people.

Way Forward

• There are four principles that policy makers could consider:
  • Not everything needs a digital solution, especially when the building blocks are not ready.
    • The preoccupation with “digital only” must be challenged.
  • The need for consultative policy making that keeps beneficiaries at the centre of the process.
    • Efforts should be made to strengthen the consultation process, moving towards a ground-up approach to policy formulation.
  • Focus on adaptive policy and agile regulatory frameworks.
    • Emerging trends in regulatory sandboxing, participative or co-regulation, are instruments that governments need to foster.
  • The policy should be grounded in evidence.
    • Data on the digital economy is inadequate for any meaningful analysis or assessment of the digital ecosystem.
    • The success of any transformative process rests on transparency, regular monitoring and impact assessments, which must be institutionalised.