Introduction
The outset of this article should be with clarity about what is digital transformation from the perspective of a sovereign government. For a common man the perception could be that delivery of services through an App in smart phones, safe maintenance of records of events and transactions in a computerised storage system may be all and the end of it. But Digital Transformation (DT) is a journey. Perhaps that is the first step towards digitally transforming any government’s systems and processes with the power of deep digital technologies.Governments of emerging countries may not disagree that citizens in urban areas are ahead in adopting digital devices and applications. Their devices are flooded with plenty of options for receiving service from private parties. Hence, government must accelerate and catch up. Otherwise, there may be existential threats from private entities, who may encroach privileged domains and take over tasks of governments. The case in point is the financial ecosystem into which private cryptocurrencies have made inroads about a decade ago. Digital gurus suggest that digitization of data is what enables and empowers organisations of any nature to digitally enable their policies, processes and actions to start with. For example, biometric digital identity management through Aadhar Cards for about 1.35 billion citizens has placed federal and state governments of India in enviable possession of an ocean of data. These can further be complemented, diversified, and powered by data from census, subject to ensuring data privacy, for effective and efficient DT of government administrations and service delivery processes. This can also help collaboration with private sector organisations for ultimate benefits of citizens simultaneously with growth and prosperity of emerging countries.

Objective

This article aims at analysing some of the dimensions of digital transformation of major functions of a country’s government, and delivery of both welfare and paid services from the perspectives of both administration and citizens of an emerging country like India. Learn more  from pdf >>>>>>