Sanjay Kumar Mohindroo

Beyond Digital Access. Closing the Accountability Gap in Digital India Discover how Digital India can evolve from online portals to true outcome-driven governance by closing the digital accountability gap through automated escalation. Digital India has transformed something fundamental: the way citizens reach government. Applications can be submitted online. Payments can be made digitally. Documents can be uploaded remotely. Services and grievances can be tracked without starting with a visit to a government office. That is real progress. But after three decades of watching technology transformations unfold across large organizations, I have learned to ask a second question once the technology works: Did we digitize the interface, or did we improve the underlying outcome? That question now matters for Digital India. The programme's stated vision has always gone beyond connectivity and portals. “Governance and Services on Demand” is one of Digital India's three core vision areas...

Digital India: When Digitization Does Not Translate intoBetter Governance. India's digital transformation is one of the country's most visible governance stories of the past decade. Applications have moved online. Payments can be made digitally. Certificates sit in DigiLocker. Grievances can be filed from a phone. Government services that once required repeated visits to an office can increasingly be initiated from home. Digital India was built around precisely this ambition. Its original vision included not just digital infrastructure, but "Governance and Services on Demand", integrated services across departments, electronic application tracking and greater public accountability. There is little doubt that India has made enormous progress in building this digital infrastructure. But there is a more uncomfortable question that deserves attention: Has digitizing government actually made government more accountable to the citizen? For many citizens, the answer can depe...