GoM bats for Universal National Social Profile
NEW DELHI: India should create a Universal National Social Profile in order to have a more immediate and thorough record of people entitled to government benefits, a group of ministers (GoM) looking into e-governance and e-education has said, suggesting the information also include details about people’s families.
The suggestions are part of a report by the GoM and details ways in which delivery of services and benefits through digital means can be overhauled, identifying 12 specific strategies such as creating a unified data system for all government offices, ensuring personal records are digital from when a person is born and improving digital literacy as well as infrastructure in order to ensure these reach to every corner of the country.
The report, which also includes suggestions on improving e-education, was seen by HT. “A Universal National Social Profile capturing individual and family benefits may be created and updated on a real-time basis. This would help in minimizing inclusion /exclusion errors... This should enable a holistic assessment of the requirement for assistance from the government based on the family/individual’s real-time situation and have the feature of national portability of entitlements,” according to the report, which adds that such a measure would “improve the present arrangement where such information is available through SECC data collected once in 10 years”.
The GoM is headed by Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan with Arjun Ram Meghwal as coordinator and Rao Inderjit Singh and Sanjay Dhotre as the other members. Their report also suggested creation of a multidimensional, secure, real-time, geo-tagged, robust, and accessible unified data system for all interactions that a citizen makes with the different levels of governments. They pitched for simplification of government procedures so that they can get services from anywhere in the country or the world. This simplification can be done by creating a single sign-in facility, ensuring that any office can serve functions of any other government office location, setting up a proactive platform that will present citizens with options for services and benefits and unify certifications. “The number of available services and the number of services that need to be made available through e-governance may be first identified. Then action needs to be taken accordingly. National Digital Platforms may be developed in line with National Digital Health Mission for various domains,” it said.
The report also suggested strengthening information and providing affordable access to the Internet as a pre-requisite for going entirely towards digital services. The report notes that there are rural areas with connectivity issues and has suggested last mile connectivity through innovative technologies.
“The privacy issue should be appropriately addressed even as every effort is made for transparent and efficient implementation of government schemes with fidelity. Citizens should have control over their data. They should be able to decide what they would like to share voluntarily. Suitable precautions should be taken so that both ends are achieved,” the panel has recommended.
“Any model of e-governance should act as an enabler and facilitator in addressing public interest. With regard to issues concerning personal records and personal data it should align with the architecture as defined in various judicial pronouncements, particularly the SC judgement of Nov 2019, SC vs Subhash Agarwal, as also private data protection bill under consideration,” said former Union secretary Bimal Julka who also served as the chief information commissioner.
Eminent expert Nilanjan Sircar said while e-governance improved services, it was important that the data is anonymised to prevent any misuse.