Evolving a new citizen-state

Known Unknowns

A defining career moment for me was when I got a research assistantship for my Masters’ programme. The assistantship was funded by NASA. This was in 1990, and NASA was very well regarded. It was beyond a dream-come-true to be working on electromagnetic sensors and AI on the Space Shuttle main engine!

It was before the Big Tech boom. Space and other programmes with international impact were still the domain of the government. There were private contractors for various workloads on these programmes, but they were responsible to the government. In 2004, the US Congress ruled to let the space-tourism industry to self-regulate. Today, the US space programme has an increased dependency on private industry, including completely private space launches! Jeff Bezos and a band of tourists will probably make a space trip next month, entirely at their own risk, with FAA influence on their safety. This is a significant change in the roles of government and private enterprise.

Similarly, public health was part of governments’ role to understand and prevent pandemics, and other large-scale health issues. Today, significant programmes have been developed through private charitable institutions run by entrepreneurs. In my mind, this is good as there are sufficient regulations to ensure that charitable institutions operate with good governance. However, areas such as pandemic response and accessible healthcare programmes should be government programmes and need very strong political leadership.

With the arrival of cryptocurrency, money, which should be a government-owned affair, is also slipping into the private realm, driven by technological progress. Technology, in this case, is a ‘trustless’ system enabled by distributed consensus and distributed ledgers. In a trustless system, the users do not need to trust each other or a third party for the system to function.

Another example of the diminishing role of the government is in media. Social media companies and their platforms’ ability to create and broadcast unfiltered opinions is unlike anything we have known before. The January 2021 instance of social media companies switching off the voice of the president of the USA to prevent incitement to violence is a role reversal that heralds the arrival of a new citizen-state.

In India, given the low number of taxpayers, there is an increasing dependence on corporate social responsibility programmes for what would normally be part of government programmes. The Indian industry rises to the occasion in every emergency. A recent example being industry assistance in everything ranging from masks, oxygen and ventilators for the Covid-19 response. Tata Trusts have long led the way globally for how the industry plays a significant role for public good. Charitable entities such as the Azim Premji Foundation are paving the path for wealthy citizens contributing to the public good. Still, the industrial sector and charities are not equipped nor have the authority to respond strategically to a pandemic and other national-level needs. It is the government that must have the ability to prioritise the welfare of its citizens over winning the next election. World over, governments have failed to do this.

Adam Smith’s view that free-hand self-interest results in prosperity has certainly been the most influential driver in the functioning of capitalistic economies and their governments. According to Smith, the elements of prosperity were enlightened self-interest, limited government, and a free-market economy backed by a solid currency. However, now we know that self-interest is typically short-sighted and not enlightened; a limited government could result in the unbridled disparity of wealth; a free-market economy could result in an environmental crisis. Adam Smith is still relevant but needs an upgrade – 1) Self-interest, tempered with societal concern; 2) free-market, with environmental regulations; 3) a transparent government that regulates 1 & 2 and provides secure borders, law & order, and engages in public works.

Globally, governments are losing the trust of the younger generations; so are the large corporations. Parliament, courts and the police have not lived up to the increasing standards of transparency and accountability. New laws and new technology cannot compensate for the significant lack of political leadership. Laws need to be simplified, modernised, and leverage technology. It must be acknowledged that technology can be used to increase transparency and accountability. Can a trustless technical system like Blockchain help get faster approvals, safer transactions, better authentication, better operating public services, more transparent law and order execution, more accessible healthcare, more inclusive education? Can we have 80% of current government transactional duties enabled by a blockchain system? Yes, and this will be the true promise of digital: Adam Smith 2.0!

(Gopichand Katragadda the former CTO of Tata Group and founder of AI company Myelin Foundry is driven to peel off known facts to discover unknown layers. @Gkatragadda)