Anna’s JLP bill assumes that what’s broken can’t be fixed.But actually it is not the case ,we have a lot of good laws and regulations ( and if not then why he is not asking for specific strict amendment to law) but implementation is somehow bogged down at many level of system.
Being an IT professional and believing in the fact that India is IT capital of the world, I always think and try to find out - How to use IT strategically to tackle( I am not using the word solve ) the problem of corruption in India.So here are the points that I come across :
Electronic Identity : Government has already taken initiative by creating Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and soon under the visionary leadership Nandan Nilekani, we will see its impact in reducing corruption. Though there will be hiccups but remember this is herculean task , so one should not lose hope towards best possible finish. Once each Indian is covered ( even if 70% coverage we should treat it 100%) we will identify the real beneficiary and slowly and slowly each and every transaction done by AADHAR holder will be traceable which will certainly control the corruption.
Online Legal information system : Anna’s JLP grants powers to initiate Prosecution against anyone found guilty. This implies some kind of a parallel judiciary and law enforcement mechanism. Do we need one more court in country of 1.2 Billion people? Why not make reforms to our current courts system and law enforcement enterprises and expedite the pending 30 million cases first to reduce the burden from judiciary. Justice delayed is justice denied. Why can’t we have a electronic system of managing the legal cases , so that people get justice in a specific time-frame and long pending cases get priority and a transparent system of appraisal exists for judges and advocates.
Integration and Networking: We have experienced that ATM have revolutionized core banking and reduced the burden of banks and so banks are engaged in more productive banking work. Similar reform is much widely appreciated in railways where Centre for Railway Information Systems (or CRIS) is doing fantastic job. So networking and integration is the key to reduce corruption as manual intervention will be controlled, limited and transparent. For example:
- - Integration and networking of police stations
- - Integration and networking of different municipal agencies like Nagarpalika and development authorities (DA).
- - Integration and hospitals and Nursing homes and if possible then even medical stores.
- - Integration of traffic police and transport department
Online Tendering and Evaluation : Since tendering in government departments plays a very important roles in boosting corruption, so computerizing this tendering process will certainly help in transparency. Government can create a specific department for online tendering processes and ask enforce all the government agencies to publish tenders via this interface. Another option is to outsource this online process to some IT company like TCS or Infosys.