Digitization Should be a Litmus Test of Intent
A few years back, I’d written about the talk that Nandan Nilekani , the man behind Aadhar, gave on the reasons for yet another ID at my office. In his book Imagining India , he has one section on digitization/electronification initiatives in India over the decades. The first attempt to computerize the passport department in 1986 “got stuck in a quagmire of resistance from department officials”. That being the general attitude, most attempts in those days were “covert, backdoor operations”. The needle was moving, albeit very slowly… - Liberalization in 1991 brought out the need for easy ways to monitor our institutions. The Harshad Mehta scam brought matters to a head. The BSE and its brokers fought any digitization measures tooth and nail. Ok then, said SEBI, we’ll just create a new stock exchange, the NSE, which will be digitized from the get go. The NDSL was next and “demat” became the norm. All this increased investor confidenc...