India in intelligent era, tech-driven governance

BJP formed a third successive government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Since the inception of the third government, we have witnessed a significant development in policy to boost digital aged governance reforms. As announced by IMF, the Indian economy has become the fifth largest in the world and is currently the fastest-growing large economy globally. Over this decade, the government’s Budget has tripled from RS 16 lakh crore to RS 48 lakh crore. Among many milestones, one stands out for symbolising India’s qualitative transformation—the leadership of the Narendra Modi government.

For decades, Indian governance model was characterised by dysfunctionality and corruption. This was famously quoted by Rajiv Gandhi, then Prime Minister in the late 1980s when he noted that out of every RS 100 allocated, only RS 15 reached its intended recipient, he quoted in his election rallies. This leakage, corruption, and inefficiency defined India’s governance for six and a half decades after Independence and got curtail after recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed his office, bringing with his vision of ‘Maximum Governance’.

In the era of technological dominating society, we are observing remarkable technological transformation. This paradigm shift and tech driven institutional arrangement is no longer about potential—digital age is now a reality that is reshaping economies, improving and empowering lives. India has also recently seen first-hand how technology can empower countries that were once marginalised, enabling them to leap into a new era of opportunities.
The Indian government is stepping towards advancement in technologies like AI and regulate the domain with significant caution and ensuring security and data sovereignty. Broadly, Indian government supports innovation driven governance and AI regulation. To unlock this dead lock government brings the blueprint of a New Digital India act. The government commitment also reflected in the G20 Ministerial Declaration made during India’s presidency, as well as a statement in Parliament in April 2023 that “[the Indian government] is not considering bringing a law or regulating the growth of AI in the country.

AI ecosystem will enhance the capacity, scope to work for governance meanwhile AI-enabled harms and security concern exist at various levels. Therefore, while the governance of the tech stack is a priority, governance of the organisations developing AI solutions, or the people behind the technology, could also be productive.
Even as democratisation has made AI more accessible, assigning responsibility and defining accountability for the operation of AI systems have become more difficult. There are ongoing debates about who is responsible for the harms emanating from AI.

India is completing its 100 years in 2047, and present dispensation is observing it as Amrit Kal and taking policy steps to bring in line of reforms to strengthen, empowering and making more effective governance. It will be focused on priorities NextGen reforms and quote “In this decade of Amrit Kaal, we will give priority to Next Generation Reforms. We will ensure that all facilities like service delivery should reach citizens up to the last mile; it should reach the last person seamlessly, without hesitation or any kind of difficulty. For the overall development of the country, unnecessary interference by the Government and Government processes in the lives of the people has to be ended” – Prime Minister Narendra Modi

The government attempted to improve the ecosystem’s transparency and speed by simplifying procedures and processes at every level. Various citizen-centric initiatives, including redressing public grievances and disposing of service delivery applications, have been undertaken by the government to expand the outreach of service delivery mechanisms and make them more effective. The emphasis was on projecting the immense potential of technology to bring citizens and government closer, as a powerful tool to empower citizens as well as a medium to optimize transparency and accountability in day-to-day functioning.

In the era of technological advancement, Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming societies, industry ecosystem across the board as leaders recognize the technology’s potential to improve productivity, enhance creativity, boost quality, and generate new solutions. Opening new domain will be game-changer while many leaders also acknowledge that mitigating risks associated with AI can lead to a competitive advantage and fundamentally contribute to their success. Therefore, adopting the technology ethically and responsibly has become a key consideration, leading to the rapid emergence and adoption of AI governance.
AI is changing work culture ecosystem and enabling the way of working and lives, providing unprecedented advantage to organisations, individuals and society. Its developing a new technological culture, which is self-adaptive, sensitive and self-reliant.

Future holds even greater promise as it converges with other advancements such as quantum, bio-technologies and other nature inspired technological developments. It has become necessarily for governments to adopt new technologies with preventive measure to meet with NextGen aspirations and societal advancements. Recently, Prime Minister Modi had quoted AI as Aspirational India, which roll the opening the boundaries of Government and its commitment.
“Thinking about the future allows us to imagine what kind of future we want to live and how we can get there.”

Satyendra Tripathi is Chairman, LokNeeti India; Secertary General, East Africa Foundation & a social political activist. Visiting Fellow, India Foundation.