Digital transformation involves how organizations use technology, people, and processes to deliver value in an increasingly connected world by reimaging their business processes. For governments, this means moving beyond digitalizing existing processes to creating entirely new ways of serving citizens and making decisions. India has positioned digital transformation as a cornerstone of its Viksit Bharat goals, driving inclusive growth and systemic reform.
The Digital India program, launched in 2015, aims to transform the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy through core components of digital infrastructure, digital delivery services, and digital literacy. Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) has further amplified this transformation, mobilizing participation at scale. Ever increasing digital initiatives have altered the data landscape of the country. Unprecedented volumes of administrative and transactional data had been generated as our digital footprints increased, and as a result, the country plunged into the era of data deluge.
In this digital era, National Statistics Offices (NSOs), across the world face mounting pressures for producing more granular and contextualized data. However, traditional systems by design are insufficient to harness data sources needed to track complex developmental goals. The old systems cannot handle new data, and there is a risk of NSOs becoming irrelevant if they continue with their old ways. The Indian NSO, acing the same risk, decided to equip itself to handle unprecedented volume, variety and velocity of data to meet ever increasing user expectation. Digital transformation for the National Statistical System was started with the objective of creating an agile, responsive, and modern system by embedding technology into the organization’s workflow.
What are the challenges?
Globally, statistical agencies are grappling with challenges around digital infrastructure, institutional capacity, organizational change, and the need for a cultural shift. India’s National Statistical Office is likewise navigating these complex dynamics involving people, processes and technology.
The toughest barriers aren’t technical, but rather human. Lack of data management personnel and fragmented institutional knowledge had been major roadblocks. Agile sprints became marathon exercises, with every initiative needing extensive change management processes. Every product owner wanted their data to be prioritized first, turning straightforward data transformation into complex negotiations. The culture of winning together was sorely missed.
There were no established processes to implement cross vertical initiatives like digital transformation. Organization as a whole was found to be non-existent at the institutional level. The first transformational step was the creation of a Central database for all our legacy data; about 41,000 tables in PDF/Excel and extending it for future datasets. The process required involvement of the product owners for seamless integration into the production and dissemination stage. However, each vertical has its own priority and timelines to meet. The transformation could never get due priority. Add to it the numerous emails and meetings needed even for minor issues to be sorted out, while having a big procedural roadblock before we rolled over to the next step.
The NSO faced a classic dilemma between the “open source first” policy and users’ preference for familiar licensed tools. The concerns of security and user comfort weighed heavily on the decision-makers while adopting practices like cloud infrastructure & open source. True agility demanded open-source services in managed cloud environments, but implementing them in the context of legacy systems became much more than a simple infrastructure upgrade due to resistance emanating from fear of unknown.
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