The 2012 Wishlist: Five Uncool Technologies

As we enter 2012 and beyond, my bet is that more and more Government-owned or managed networks will start talking to each other. Which allows me, in theory, to punt on what some big 'uncool' utility applications could be.

Govindraj Ethiraj
Updated: Jan 2, 2012 12:14:58 PM UTC

We know all about the cool tech that’s coming our way in 2012. What about the uncool stuff? Despite many half-starts and failures, India has undertaken several technology-led, citizen-focussed initiatives that eventually came through. Many were without precedence, at least for the scale they were embarking on. The payback has been immense, in sheer convenience, time and money saved.

As we enter 2012 and beyond, my bet is that more and more Government-owned or managed networks will start talking to each other. Which allows me, in theory, to punt on what some big 'uncool' utility applications could be. Tempting as it might be to launch into a long dhobi's list, let me stick to five.

Before that, lets look at a few examples of what’s worked so far. Looking back, a train journey has always been fun. Booking a ticket for it has not, at least until the last decade or so. Indian Railways’ computerisation efforts, initiated in 1985 and fully completed in 1999 brought about fundamental changes. Instead of single-point isolated booking centres, there is a connected network accessible through 4,000 terminals across 1,200 locations covering 3,000 train journeys. Over a million transactions, mostly bookings, happen daily.

Online bookings started only in 2002. The beginnings were modest with ticket sales rarely crossing a few hundreds in early days. Over time, traffic increased and the network was also opened up to outside travel commerce sites. Despite that, the unusually named (for the primary objective it serves) Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation Ltd  is one of the most visited websites in India, reportedly drawing almost 45% of travel and 19% of total internet audiences. Some 97 million tickets were booked in the last year.

Bank computerisation is another big one. It began with baby steps inside standalone branches in the 1980s -  which itself did not help the consumer much. It began coming together when banks graduated to 'core banking solutions' (CBS) which allowed all branches to talk to a single network. Then all banks joined hands, ATM machines (estimated around 75,000) started popping up and finally in the last few years, we began experiencing the joy (and pain when it didn’t work) of transferring money online to each other through the National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) system.

Another interesting application of technology in India has been the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs). The first machines were used in Kerala in 1982 for a bye-election across 50 polling stations. In the last parliamentary elections in 2009, some 1.4 million are believed to have been used. EVMs have been attacked by various experts around the world for lacking in security. And yet, the approach of treating them like a physical ballot box with appropriate security has helped ensure its efficacy. Note that for all its killer app like success in India, except for Bhutan and Nepal, no other country is known to use it.

If you think carefully, the next round of utilities in our hands could involve the creation of new networks or just linking some or many of the above. In some cases, you could create more 'currencies' thus reducing the flow of cash in the system and I will talk about this in a later post. Their success will however depend on the ability of different arms of government or functions to speak to each other.  Which mostly is a policy and not a technology challenge. Here is my 2012 wishlist.

1.  Provident Fund: We open and close Provident Fund (PF) accounts everytime we move jobs. Many people I know (including me) have opened several accounts because the pain of liasing and transferring from one organisation’s account to the other can be daunting. With bank account mobility, we should create a system that links Provident Funds to single accounts accessible (via the PF office) across the country.

But the big  opportunity is targeting some 300 million migrant workers. Imagine if they could link their bank account (already happening thanks to various financial inclusion initiatives) and then a PF account linked to it, regardless of where they go. They can get their contributions in and some sense of long term social security.

2. Seamless Voting: Voting is confined to constituencies and booths within that. There is no reason why there can’t be seamless voting across the country. The challenge is always identification.

But look at it this way, over a 180 million debit cards are used in India and hard cash is withdrawn from locations totally different from where the original accounts were held. So what if I could link the bank debit card authorisation system (which trusts me sufficienty to hand out thousands of rupees) to a Central Election Commission (CECs) polling booth network.

Remember, the important thing is facilities like these should be additional so as to provide an option for mobility and after having established aspects like citizenship. And a bank network is just one proxy.

3. The Complaint Box: Having glanced at some Lok Ayukta case files, many of them involve former government employees filing for pensions and the like. What if there is a system that starts electronically escalating any citizen complaint upwards over a period of time. So, if a complaint/issue is pending for more than let’s say six months, it automatically, lands in the inbox of an Ombudsman or the Chief Minister. If everyone down the line knows that, they will act.There are variations of this in existence in some states. The challenge is to create one uniform, country-wide system.

4.  Baksheesh Cum Tipping System:  India's Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik C Basu & Infosys Founder N R Narayana Murthy have already supported a 'protect the bribe giver' policy. Why not take this forward?

What if I want to genuinely reward a Government department (not the individual) for processing my matter quickly. Guess what; I don’t mind rewarding someone if my driving license application is processed in an hour and I can be on my way. And what if I can pay to a consolidated fund per department as a donation?

The counter-factual to this is that your form is held back if you don’t pay. But isn’t that the case already!  All one is saying is that you can work out a mechanism where the department creates a collective incentive and benefit system. Something like waiters in a restaurant who pool tips and then share equally. You can also highlight employees whose performance resulted in the department benefiting.

Yes, the question of how the Government will reward the employee is a trickier one. But the rewards can be soft. And incentive-based performance structures have been attempted in rigid governmental structures as well. Try this as a pilot to replace the 'speed money' system at Mumbai’s JNPT Port, which comes pretty close in any case.

5. National Travel Ticket:  There have been several initiatives here but we are yet to create a solid, working coupon system which can then be used to pay for bus and train fares across a city or country. Imagine buying a coupon in let’s say Chennai and then using it in a bus in Mumbai when you travel. These can be real or virtual.

There could be more but the big challenge in coming years is to get more networks talking to each other, including  successful ones like Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, the world’s largest general insurance programme with over 100 million poor covered for health insurance.

I'm fairly convinced that the technical complexity is no more than lets say attempting a cash transfer of subsidies project for the entire country for which work is already on and pilots are being run in different parts of the country. The combined effect of networks integrating will mean a fundamental change in our life and lifestyles, for the better. And perhaps less pressure to implement Jan Lokpal like anti-corruption initiatives.

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.

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