Improving Public Services in India with Cloud, Mobility and Analytics

In recent years, India has become a hub of economic activity. The country is experiencing unprecedented trade growth, but the Indian government is now faced with the challenge of providing its citizens with access to improved online services.

Three emerging trends—cloud computing, mobility and data analysis—will help the Indian government deploy new services, such as improved healthcare, to hundreds of millions of citizens in the country’s metropolitan, regional and remote areas.

During this video clip, Kishore S. Swaminathan, Accenture's chief scientist, discusses how mobile applications can help the Indian government reach out to its citizens, and how India is already ahead of other developing economies in providing new online government services.

He highlights how cloud computing—where hardware and software resources are shared by multiple agencies in India—can streamline the introduction of new government services to improve the economic and social welfare of residents across the country.

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Kishore S. Swaminathan is Accenture’s chief scientist and the global director of Accenture’s technology research organisation, Accenture Technology Labs. He is responsible for defining Accenture’s vision for the future of technology and setting Accenture’s research and development agenda.

Swaminathan discusses how three trends—cloud computing, mobility and the ability to analyse large amounts of data—are impacting how Indians and citizens in other emerging markets gain access to government services.

Cloud computing provides governments in emerging countries like India with the ability to share computing resources, cutting the cost of providing various services to citizens, such as enabling them to pay their bills online.

For example, each district in India provides the same set of services. Individually, the districts are too small to benefit from the rollout of new technology services but under a cloud computing arrangement, many agencies can share the same infrastructure at a lower cost.

In the video clip, Swaminathan discusses how mobility technologies let individuals interact with the Indian government through technologies such as short message service (SMS). He also talks about how data analytics tools can be used to gather and better analyse data to provide a range of services from local weather forecasts to crime detection.

Government agencies in India are starting to use cloud computing infrastructure, mobility applications and data analysis tools to improve how they deliver services and engage with residents in many locations across the country.

Cloud computing enables the Indian government to add computing power quickly, which speeds up the time it takes to make new services available to its citizens.

Swaminathan points out that mobile applications such as SMS allow individuals to quickly and efficiently interact with multiple government agencies. Mobile applications are an ideal solution for governments that need to reach out to remote populations.

Swaminathan also highlights how creating a process for collating data about citizens can help the Indian Government build systems that will ultimately provide improved services.

India is already at the forefront of economic growth using these technologies and is leading the way for other developing economies that cannot afford to miss out on these opportunities.

Government agencies in India need to explore and exploit cloud computing infrastructure, mobility applications and data analysis tools now, to reduce costs and create a more inclusive society by building services that can be accessed by all Indians.

Accenture is already seeing examples of how these technologies can be used innovatively to maximise benefits to the Indian economy. The government must continue to take advantage of cloud infrastructure and mobility applications.

Government departments across India must also shift large amounts of data, relating to many millions of citizens across the nation, from silos onto a virtualised platform in the cloud, to create a central repository for data analysis. This data must also be accurate, because making decisions using bad data is much worse than not using data to make decisions.

The ultimate goal is to provide all Indians with easier and more cost-effective access to government services and ultimately improve the quality of their lives.