'Digital India' is okay but provide basic needs please

Most people, particularly Indians, would think that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his predecessor Manmohan Singh are poles apart. Not just because they belong to political dispensations that are fiercely opposed to each other. There can be a number of other reasons like the differences in style, personalities, ideas, ideologies, content, and compulsions. But there is something common between the two of them. It is their penchant for pushing technology into the nation’s system.

For the two terms that Manmohan Singh was the PM, he pursued nuclear technology, in particular nuclear power, almost as an obsession. His measure of success seemed to depend on the concessions that the US and other First World powers were willing to give us in using nuclear technology for our domestic purposes. He overrode the people’s opposition for the Jaitapur and Kudankulam nuclear power projects like no other point on the agenda was more important.

Today, Modi is doing something similar. He has been visiting the Silicon Valley and has met a number of top leaders in the American Information Technology industry – Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg,  Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai of Google and several others. Modi is obsessed with ‘Digital India’ just like Manmohan Singh was with dotting India with nuclear power generation plants.

Using nuclear energy may be justified to some extent, not chasing it. Similarly, having digitising as one of the many programmes may be justifiable. IT is good; use of social media is good. But, these can help a lot more only after certain pre-conditions are met.
Information Technology cannot be the panacea for India’s problems. As Modi said, the farmer can get information related to agriculture: weather forecast, monsoon’s spread and reach, even information on what should be sowed or planted, what and when it should be produced.

True. But ultimately, whether the farmer succeeds in getting the agricultural or plantation produce depends upon several other things that are in the ‘real’ world, like whether he has proper and required access to water, whether the water resources are conserved, preserved and distributed so that all of the farmers benefit. Whether electric power is available to the farmer when he needs it for the various stages for his crop including harvesting, storing the produce, or in converting the produce into something that is better preserved over time.

Much of India’s poorest of the poor derive their livelihood from agriculture. Their problems are of the ‘real world’, that is, the physical world. Today, the marginal farmer has much to worry about the small finance that he needs. A timely loan or a waiver when a natural calamity strikes him, will go a long way in supporting him. For not possessing Rs 50,000, many farmers across the country have committed suicide. The governments, both the state and the Centre, have been insensitive to the poor farmers’ needs.

Lakhs of crores of rupees are squandered on the non-performing assets (NPAs) of banks – a euphemism for absolute dishonesty by the big business who take huge credit from the banks and fail to repay.

Banks go out of their way to ‘restructure’ such loans – another euphemism for getting the big cats out of trouble by giving them concessions in several ways including the redrawing the schedule of repayment, reducing installments of settlement or what amounts to a partial write-off.

Hunger is still a considerable problem, in both rural and urban India. Over a quarter of our population is below the ‘official’ poverty line. Nearly half of our country’s children is below the age of five are malnourished for obvious reason; they do not get enough food.

‘Basic’ struggles
India’s problems still are at the very basic level: food, health, hygiene and primary education. “Roti” is the most basic problem. “Kapda (clothes) and Makaan (house)” are quite far. Health and hygiene are problems that have not been resolved even in the biggest and IT-savvy metros.

Rural India is far removed from what needs to be achieved in hygiene, sanitation and health. Talk of “telemedicine” to be made available to rural areas is not just absurd; it is really being insensitive to the poor people’s plight.

Governments, for the past nearly 70 years after independence, have been providing little to the healthcare in general and pathetically miniscule amount to the poor. It is wrong to assume that the poor in rural areas do not know about toilets. Their energy is consumed in just obtaining their food. The health issues could be reduced by over half if proper sanitation and hygiene facilities are provided to them. The governments have to do that job.

As it is even in the urban areas, slums are increasing. Governments turn a blind eye when the population spreads. Slums have neither sanitation nor hygiene. Hence, diseases spread for which there are totally inadequate hospital facilities.

One may applaud Modi’s ability to appreciate technology. However, there is a place for the ‘virtual’ world. Yes, it can help solve some of our physical problems too. But certainly, virtual solutions or a load of information cannot provide the solid physical inputs that we in India need particularly for the poor and  the very poor. With no capacity to find two morsels of food, what is the point in talking to them of ‘Jan Dhan’ and bank accounts and spread of internet? The need is to get real and recognise our priorities. Let us talk about ‘Hunger-free India’.

(The writer is former Professor, Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore)