Swarajya

Whether it’s utilities (Aadhaar, Bharat Billpay, Digilocker), healthcare (CoWin, Aarogya Setu, e-Sanjeevani), travel and transportation (FASTag, Parivahan/Passport Sewa), finance and banking (UPI, GSTN, IMPS, AEPS), Agriculture (e-NAM), procurement (GeM) or welfare (Umang, MyGov), the Union government (and even states governments like mKisan by Karnataka and GlobalLinker by Telangana) have proved that they have the wherewithal to create world-class tech digital public (or club) goods (FASTag is a club good where only those who pay can use it while CoWin is a public good).

These have been executed like standalone projects and without any systematic ecosystem within the government. Now, some might argue that these have been successful precisely because of this reason for permanent bureaucracy is the bane of good governance in India. Still, there is case to be made for a tech czar or a chief technology officer (CTO) operating out of the Prime Minister’s Office who can not only efficiently manage the ever increasing number of these digital public goods but also work towards creating new ones (and even closing down the ones that don’t work or modify the ones which have flaws).

It goes without saying that such a person will have to be given autonomy the level a typical CTO enjoys in corporate world for building teams for different projects and chucking out those with performance issues. In the government, there is a limit to what can be paid to the executives, so good talent needs to be attracted with non-monetary incentives which only the government can provide (say, a flat in Lutyens for the duration of their employment). To avoid, permanent bureaucracy, short term contracts may be a good idea. In short, corporatisation of at least this section of government will have to be mandatory for it to work.

The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare on Tuesday signed 5 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for pilot projects with five private companies­ — CISCO, Ninjacart, Jio Platforms Limited, ITC Limited and NCDEX e-Markets Limited (NeML).

According to the Agriculture Ministry, Jio Platforms Limited will conduct its pilot project to provide advisories to farmers in two districts of Maharashtra– Jalna and Nasik. The ITC Limited has signed the MoU for building a “Customized ‘Site Specific Crop Advisory’ service.”

“The proposal will be implemented in identified villages of Sehore and Vidisha districts of Madhya Pradesh and support Wheat crop operations,” the Ministry said sharing the details about the MoU done with the ITC Limited.

According to the Ministry, Cisco will “conceptualize a Proof of Concept in effective knowledge sharing between farmers, administration, academia and industry” in two districts–Kaithal (Haryana) and Morena (Madhya Pradesh).

Under its MoU with the Ministry, the NCDEX e Markets Limited (NeML) will work on four services–Market Linkages, Aggregation of demand, Financial Linkages and Data Sanitization– across three Districts–Guntur (Andhra Pradesh), Devanagere (Karnataka) and Nasik (Maharashtra).

The statement said that Ninjacart will develop and host the Agri Marketplace Platform (AMP), which will enable bringing together all the participants in the post-harvest market linkage.

The Union government did issue advisories to Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland that border Myanmar to prevent entry of nationals from that country fleeing the crackdown by the military junta there. But Mizoram made it clear that it would not prevent the influx “on humanitarian grounds.”

The Union Home Ministry asked the three states not to provide any asylum to Myanmarese nationals and directed them to arrest illegal infiltrators from Myanmar and deport them. The states were reminded that they do not have the powers to offer asylum to foreigners and that India is not a signatory to 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1957 Protocol.

The Assam Rifles, which guards the India-Myanmar border, was also asked to step up vigil along the border and prevent entry of Myanmarese into India. But the border is unfenced and most areas are thickly forested, thus making it impossible to prevent the frequent breaches that occur.

Mizoram had also refused to abide by the directives of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on the grounds that the Mizos and the Chin are of the same ethnic stock and the state is “obliged on moral and humanitarian grounds” to offer refuge to nationals of Myanmar who are fleeing the military junta.

Mizoram Chief Minister Pu Zoramthanga wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that Mizoram would continue to provide refuge to the fleeing Myanmarese. Mizoram shares a 510-kilometre-long border with Myanmar, and more than 10,000 Myanmarese are said to have taken shelter in Mizoram.

The MHA’s directives against providing refuge to Myanmar nationals was met with widespread protests on the streets of capital Aizawl and other places in the state.