OPINION | Bridging digital access and new-age public infrastructure in India

Governments, among their other duties, are expected to provide certain basic infrastructure to their citizens. Roads, hospitals, schools, drinking water, etc., have been accepted as a basic minimum that governments shall provide. But what constitutes essential infrastructure is not immutable.

As the nation develops, and new age technologies become a part of everyday life, the necessity of adding some items to this list arises. If a democratic government is a social contract, it cannot remain etched in stone and must evolve through time, and so should the duties of each party.

In the digital age, the modern human needs more than clean air and water to live a meaningful life. Access to basic computing has not just become ubiquitous but has become a necessity. The interconnectedness of all citizens via instant messaging and social media has changed social, economic and political life forever.

Can we imagine a life without these in modern times? If not, then they have become too critical to our lives that they should be upgraded to the status of digital public infrastructure and made available as part of the social contract.

A digital identity is the cornerstone for accessing digital infrastructure and therefore, the governments should ensure non-exclusionary access to it. The digital identity will enable access to all e-governance initiatives. Let us reflect for a moment and list which digital identities are the bedrock for accessing digital services as of today.

A mobile number has to be at the top of the list, followed by an email ID. Surprisingly, both of them rely on a third-party private provider. From banking needs to online police complaints, the access relies on a private party which can at any time change the terms and conditions of such access, and much worse deny its use completely.

There have been cases where a citizen has lost access to all digital platforms for not recharging their mobile number for 90 days. And if a private email provider decides to suspend your email for the alleged violation of its terms and conditions, there is no court or forum to resort to.

A state-provided digital identity can mitigate such issues, but initiatives like Aadhaar have already been marred by the perceived Right to Privacy concerns. A more focused and less ambitious alternative may perhaps pass the test of such concerns.

The next step is to ensure the infrastructure of digital interconnectedness. This may take the form of email, instant messaging, or other basic means of digital communication. One may ask at this stage, and rightly so, why the government needs to ensure digital connectedness? Why should communication between citizens be considered a matter of public infrastructure when private companies are already providing these services?

The answer, if it exists, is the same as in the case of postal mail, railways, and road transport. These are not merely examples of infrastructure; they are examples of services that the State has, at various points in its development, considered sufficiently important to provide directly to its citizens. The reason for such public provision is not that the State is necessarily better at operating every service, but that certain services are considered too fundamental to the functioning of society to be left entirely to the discretion of private enterprise if the ability to send a letter is considered important enough to warrant a public postal service. Why should the ability to communicate digitally be treated differently merely because the technology is new?

Further, the State need not necessarily provide every service itself. Its role may instead be to ensure that the foundational infrastructure necessary for those services remains accessible to everyone.

The State may provide a basic, universally accessible layer of digital communication, while private enterprises remain free to offer more sophisticated, specialised, or commercially differentiated alternatives.

Blockchain-based smart contracts and the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) are just a next step away in the progression of this argument. The further course is limited only by time and imagination. As technology and society progress, the addition of new items to public infrastructure becomes necessary.

The author is an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the 2020 batch of the Assam-Meghalaya Cadre.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.