Pandemic exposes digital inadequacies

While Indians have become more adept at using online and digital resources during the lockdown, it has only helped to heighten the displeasure at shoddy online systems thrust on them by governments

The Modi government has ha­r­p­ed on about the importance of digital India and e-governance since 2014, but most government and public sector institutions (without many exceptions) have been caught well short by the Covid-19 pandemic when it co­mes to serving their stakeholders online.

When the rubber met the road, the impact of digital investments made over the last decade and deployed during the lockdown turned out to more lip service for media sound bites and less about citizen service. Our collective incompetence and inability to adopt user-friendly technology at scale at all levels of government has been exposed as badly as our lack of ICU beds and hospital capacity.

Even institutions have not been able to cope. Take the TCS AGM, the first online, virtual shareholder meet held last week via the NSDL system. It turned out to be a frustrating experience for many retail shareholders who had patiently rigged up their devices to watch and interact with the TCS directors. Despite just 30-odd queued shareholders with questions, the NSDL virtual AGM platform and servers were unable to cope with this traffic load as it had reached its capacity of only 1,000 concurrent users — not nearly enough for a company AGM that has over 853,000 retail shareholders.

With capacity breaches, most shareholders were unable to use their videoconferencing facilities and were limited to audio only. Many shareholders initially complained that the company was not enabling their video streams, until TCS clarified that the NSDL servers were taking too long to respond to activate video streams from shareholders asking questions. Others complained that the screen set-up should allow them to not just see TCS chairman N Chandrasekaran, but also wanted to view all the other directors, “just to make sure they had not gone off to sleep”, as a shareholder Adil Irani quipped while asking a question. “Why can’t it be like a Zoom call,” asked ano­ther shareholder, quoting the videoconferencing service that has emerged as the app of choice for many citizens connecting with family and friends.

Efforts by the state governments have also been dismal. Their attempt to use online platforms to service and engage with citizens during the 10-week lockdown did not turn up trumps either. State online portals were not up to the mark in terms of the functionality, ease of use or ability to scale with demand. Their user interfaces are not only archaic but also,  for the most part, a direct digital translation of paper-based processes and workflows that defeats the entire purpose of going online.
 

States, including Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh, have all tried to use their e-gov portals and platforms to issue police passes for movement of people and goods involved in essential services or for emergency movement of citizens. They have tried to use the same portals to issue tokens or permits for online purchase and home delivery of liquor, but have failed to cope with huge traffic loads generated by citizens.

Probably even worse has been the total inability of the administration to use or harness data about infections, tests, hospital capacity and quarantine areas. Till a week ago — despite the first case being registered on January 30, 2020, — major metros like Delhi and Mumbai did not have a centralised, real-time information dashboard of hospital capacity, testing trends and were unable to help and direct patients in need of critical care. Media has been rife with stories of patients running from one hospital to the next in search of a bed, in the absence of accurate information.

Even the few online success stories — mostly emerging from Kerala and its use of digital means to track, test and treat its citizens — got mired in controversy. The Kerala government’s tie-up with Sprinklr, a US social analytics firm, for a real-time statewide Covid dashboard was met with strident protests from the political opposition about data security of citizens and went up to the Kerala High Court for a decision. While the court did not stop the relationship with Sprinklr, it did make government officials hesitant to scale up with digital partners on other aspects like telemedicine fearing another backlash.

Perhaps, the only national online systems that can work well at scale and where users are accustomed to its capacities have not been put to use — the GST and income tax systems have largely been on hiatus with tax paying deadlines extended to June end and beyond.

While Indian citizens from small and big towns have become more adept at using online and digital resources from shopping to learning and networking during the lockdown, it has only helped to heighten the displeasure and disgust at shoddy online systems being thrust on them by the state and local governments.

The writer is a communications strategist. bagchip@gmail.com; I @bagchips