Navigating digital maturity in India

In a fast-moving digital world, emerging technologies and new trends have the potential to enable organisations to transform their operations, offering the opportunity to improve public satisfaction, whilst potentially creating significant cost savings and labour efficiency gains.

India is one of the largest and fastest-growing markets for digital consumers. Take Aadhaar, the largest biometric identity programme in the world. Since its rollout in 2009, nearly 1.2 billion Indian citizens (15% of the population) have enrolled in the initiative which aims to digitalise everyday activities, such as bank transactions and activating a mobile phone. Likewise, eSanjeevani National Telemedicine Service is a cloud-based telemedicine platform providing user-friendly, round-the-clock support tapping into an expansive ecosystem of 102 000 health centres and 208 000 providers that serve over 225 000 patients per day.

With this in mind, how do Indian organisations keep pace with the digital evolution? Digital maturity assessment tools aim to support progress by formalising both the measurement of organisational maturity and an understanding of the areas where improvement is necessary and could benefit from greater use of data and digital technologies. The optimisation of digital maturity is contextual, relating to the needs and opportunities of a specific organisation and the availability of appropriate technologies. Central and State Governments in India already have many systems and applications in place which act as enablers for achieving digital maturity.

 A strong digital maturity, typically measured on a scale, indicates that the organisation has chosen the right digital technologies to leverage its opportunities, has implemented them effectively, and is maximising value in terms of its objectives. A weak digital maturity indicates that action is required to improve shortcomings in strategy, planning and/or implementation in order to avoid failure to achieve an adequate return on investment in digital technologies.

 BSI (British Standards Institution) recently published new guidance designed to support government organisations around the world to achieve a higher level of digital maturity through the strategic integration of technology, helping them to efficiently deliver services across society. PAS 2009:2024, Digital maturity for government organisations – Guide was developed in light of the acceleration of the pace of digital transformation during Covid-19, when public services such as healthcare moved online; and in response to the increasing use of digital channels by government department in areas such as pensions, and taxation, passports and the registration of births and marriages.

The guidance describes six dimensions for government organisations to address to develop their capabilities with respect to digital technologies: –

1. Leadership and strategy: Leaders set appropriate strategic objectives for digital government, oversee the coherent use of technology across policy areas and levels of government, and strengthen capacities to support better implementation of digital government strategies.
2. People and culture: People’s attitudes, behaviours, capabilities, collaboration, decisions, innovation, and learning determine the success of digital government strategies and their impact on citizens, businesses, and civil society.
3. Legislation and governance: The breadth of legislative and governance frameworks covers all aspects of public services, and inter-governmental and inter-departmental activities.
4. Technology and frameworks: Data and digital technologies are the building blocks of effective and efficient government business and public services. These technologies should integrate with existing activities and operations or drive the digital transformation of government organisations to achieve step-changes in performance.
5. Systems and data: Data and the systems that store data are the basis for evidence-based, real-time decision-making in government and service delivery.
6. User-centred design: UCD fully recognises the requirements of all users of government systems and services in the development of public services, and of government business.

Governments and international bodies have highlighted the role of digital transformation in responding effectively to the needs of society, improving efficiency, accessibility, and overall effectiveness across their operations, accelerating progress towards a fair society for all.