IT – The Future Mantra of Progress

Asoke K. Laha
President & MD, Interra IT

IT had never had it so good really. Information technology is fast coming up to the centre stage of governance in terms of leadership, empowerment and facilitation. You might ask me how, why and when, et al, when the financial health of the industry is not looking very good. That is a legitimate query. Since I have made the statement, it is, indeed, for me to explain that. Those who are in sync with the developments in the apex chambers are aware that Kris Gopalkrishnan, a well-known IT leader, has taken over as the president of CII the other day. He is perhaps the first one to take up that task from our fraternity and heading an apex chamber. I am sure these positions must have been offered to people like Naryana Murthy, Azim Premji, etc. Compulsions would have forced them to decline the post. People like Nandan Nilekarni, instead of heading business organizations, opted for the governmental responsibilities. I am sure Aadhaar and many other path-breaking digital policies will continue to be the standing testimonies of the contributions of our fraternity to the nation, other than creating wealth and quality employment across the geographies. 

I am sure Kris will be pushed to the central stage in the immediate future. He will be consulted by the government, foreign dignitaries, civil society, and media during the year. He will have to articulate the views of the business community. Chances are unlikely that he may have to take a stand against the interests of the IT community, since I believe that the problems and challenges of the brick-and-mortar industry and IT are somewhat similar except, perhaps, in a few isolated cases. I, for one, would very carefully watch what Kris is going to do over the next year. There is a personal side to that inquisitiveness. When Kris is laying down the office of the President of CII, I may possibly be taking up the mantle of another business association – Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) as its national president. Incidentally, it is the first time an IT-connected man is taking over as the national President.  There also, I will have to wear two hats – one as an IT entrepreneur and the other as the president of a binational chamber, where I will be required to address a number of issues which are not connected with my immediate domain – IT.

There is another connotation when I mentioned that the information technology never had it so good before. That, I believe, is more important. In one year’s time (possibly even earlier), we will go for the general election.  Battle lines are drawn. Media is ripe with speculation as to what formation is going to come at the centre. The events that were unfolded in the recent past were clear indications. I am not getting into a debate as to who would come into power and what would be the type of coalitions that will be tossed up etc. These are uncertain and mired in conjectures and subjective speculations. But one thing that I can predict is that the future elections will be less fought through posters, wayside speeches, personal visits, handshakes and what have you. Technology, particularly IT, will be a keen player in every aspect of the election, be it in the selection of candidates, deciding the election strategy, campaigns, polling, counting – and the list goes on.

We have been hearing that the future elections will fought be on three counts – better governance, transparency and accountability. Happily, all these realms are organically linked with the area of information technology. Let us take governance, which presupposes addressing the problems of masses and creating structures that help to know the needs of the people and evolving delivery systems that can address the situation. That also presupposes collation of information, analysis, swift and continuous interface with the stakeholders. These can be achieved only by creating digital platforms, powerful enough to collect data on a pan-India basis, its quick segregation, interpretation and feeding the value-added information to the implementing agencies.  No one can hoodwink the stakeholders by creating faulty structures and wooing them over by rhetoric and polemics. That will fall flat on the political parties. Those who believe that the electorates can be taken for granted are living in a fool’s paradise. A case in point is the direct cash transfer by using the Aadhaar (UID) identification card. The government realized the difficulties that were encountered in the operation of the system. Urgent and foolproof steps are needed to address the defects of the system by creating digital mechanisms that can directly transfer the subsidies to the beneficiaries, instead of routing through third-party organizations.

To have a fair system, there should be structures to evaluate the accountability. That is not confined to the political and administrative systems and cuts across the whole system, such as business, judiciary, and even ordinary citizens. If a citizen is liable to pay taxes, be they income tax, service tax, property tax et all, he or she has the right to know how that money is going to be spent and  how he or she has benefited in tangible and intangible terms. That motivates them to part with higher resources for common good. Otherwise, there will be resistance to pay what they are supposed to give. The other day, Mr Narendra Modi, while addressing the FLO members, said that the politicians should know how to tell “no” and bureaucrats should learn to say “yes”. He is absolutely right in that. Politicians should not give false promises to the people and they should commit only those things which can be achieved. That will mean that vote bank politics couched in too many promises should give way to measurable performances appraised by the people in due course.  Similarly, officialdom should not find excuses for not doing things, which they are supposed to do. Business also has accountability to the common man. They should not take advantage of the law hiding behind myriad of loopholes and interpretations. While they can demand from the government to create an enabling situation for business to grow and prosper, they are duty bound to pay what is due to the government and the civil society. 

Let me go back to the point I tried to make in the beginning: IT never had things so good. Friends, I still believe in the phraseology since I am convinced that IT will play an expanding role in the unfolding landscape and those who are missing it will be left high and dry. The future of the nations, I sincerely believe, depends on the deployment of the IT tools in all aspects of governance – be they political, societal needs and citizens’ welfare.