IT in Governance - An analysis of e-Rupi

An insight into what IT in governance is trying to achieve.

IT in Governance - An analysis of e-Rupi

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• The story: A minister recently praised the PM for his "scientific temper". Whether that is true or not, but one thing is surely true - the PM knows how to harness the powers of information technology (IT).
• IT IT everywhere: If all the government schemes launched since 2014 are observed, they are largely based on IT for scaling and reach. From Aadhar (that came from UPA govt.), to JAM trinity (Jan-Dhan, Aadhar, Mobile), the PM tried using IT to try and remove the intermediate government machinery and reach the citizen directly.
• Botched Covid response: While India failed in giving a coherent response to Covid, but the IT initiative worked well - CoWIN application. Remember that "Vaccine Maitri" collapsed as the second wave arrived.
• eRUPI's launch: The electronic rupees UPI (unified payments interface) was launched in August 2021.

1. Modi wants to launch one more IT solution to tackle India's developmental challenge
2. His other passion (obsession) is that of turning everything into a DBT (direct benefit transfer) and that goal gels with eRUPI
3. The cash mukt Bharat goal also works well with this, something that started with the brutal demonetisation drive in Nov 2016
4. This eRUPI is built by NPCI's UPI, which is doing very well on its own. This eRUPI electronic voucher payment will work with UPI on backend.

• What exactly is eRUPI: It sounds like digital fiat currency, but is actually just apre-paid voucher. It helps you get govt. services, via QR code or SMS e-vouchers. Since SMS (or QR code) both are generated, the intended beneficiaries may or may not be digitall literate to use it. So while UPI needs a smartphone, this does not.
• Where to use: eRUPI will be used for Mother and Child Welfare schemes, TB eradication, Ayushman Bharat, PM Jan Arogya, etc. Just give the eRUPI voucher and get the services. The supplier will cash in the voucher and get money from govt. Why do all this? Govt. claims this will totally change delivery, as human interface won't be needed (no corruption, leakage etc.). And since it's pre-paid, service delivery happens before payment (so no fraud).
• The fundamental question: So to tackle poverty and inequality, it is good to plug leakages and delivery inefficiencies. All poverty elimination schemes since 1970s have lagged due to such problems. But should that alone be the core objective?

1. The actual problem is not leakage and corruption, but the "actual delivery of the physical service itself"
2. Lack of health cards doesn't harm Indians, lack of actual healthcare does! India has spent so little over the decades, that there just aren't enough hospitals.
3. eRUPI cannot solve these structural problems of "lack of service ability" itself, it will only solve the "leakage while trying to access service" problem
4. So if you get an eRUPI voucher for vaccination, and there are no vaccine does, then?
5. It's just like the giant insurance scheme for healthcare, when there aren't enough hospitals!

• Why RTE and NFSA 'failed': The general tendency in India is to see rights-based initiatives as a burden - so the Right to Education is seen as someone getting undue benefit, hence the powerful remain indifferent and even adversarial towards it. Some allege that Right to Food and Right to Education could not deliver what the goal actually was, and instead, patronage networks came up.
• Solution: First, the public servants have to stop assuming they are doing a favour to the public, by doing a job they are paid for. The entire thinking and structure of the govt. machinery has to be upgraded. The eRUPI is a digital token, nothing more, and it cannot change mindsets.
• EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Explain the key constraints in the working of any large government, while handing out social goods to citizens. (2) What are the IT initiatives that the Modi government has taken since 2014? How good or not-good have they been, insofar as a fundamental change in government's functioning is concerned? (3) What is the eRUPI all about? How does it ensure better service delivery? What problems does it solve? Explain.

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