The internet in India has come of age. Chronologically that is. It’s been 21 years since 1995, when commercial internet services were introduced in India. It is only logical that it is now embracing adulthood by touching the lives of virtually every Indian, thanks to demonetisation and its consequent cash squeeze. Even the illiterate and semi-literate on the street—consumer or trader alike—has started learning the ropes to embrace the digital route for financial transactions. A bit of a compulsion perhaps! But India is now going through a paradigm shift in digital inclusion.
There is, however, a need to disentangle demonetisation from the larger digital debate. Yes, it is true that the two are bound together by a cause and effect paradox. But, Digital India is not about politics or personalities. It never was and never should be. Nicholas Negroponte, the iconic head of MIT’s Media Lab, wrote in his book, Being Digital, published in 1995, “like a force of nature, the digital age cannot be denied or stopped. It has four very powerful qualities that will result in its ultimate triumph: decentralizing, globalizing, harmonizing, and empowering.” The internet in India, having turned 21, is indeed showing signs of vindicating Negroponte’s vision.
Keeping the politics and economics of demonetisation aside, one needs to dispassionately look at the adoption of digital payments since November 8. The surge in credit card, debit card, net banking, mobile banking and mobile wallet transactions have largely been due to demonetisation, but when the man on the street— both buyer and seller—is making an effort to learn how to transact digitally from their smartphones, the digital literacy curve is unlikely to slide back once the cash squeeze eases in the next few months. Companies like Paytm, Mobikwik and Freecharge are now taking on the might of banking behemoths like State Bank of India, which has tied up with Reliance for its mobile wallet. Paytm has become a verb— Paytmkaro (Do Paytm). “I don’t need to sleep, this is a dream that I am living while trying to solve the pain of people,” says Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm, the largest mobile wallet company.
The fact that vegetable vendors, street food stalls, grocery shops, massage parlours and even sex workers are accepting mobile wallet payments, is taking public preferences and awareness about digital transactions to a whole new level. The growth numbers may get arrested and stabilise, or even slide back to reach a more sustainable level, but the learning curve that demonetisation has injected into every Indian’s veins, will be irreversible.
Now, let’s connect this to education. In a country of 1.2 billion and growing, the deficit in primary and secondary education enrolments still feeds India’s dubious distinction of having the world’s largest illiterate adult population, at about 287 million. And this can’t be wished away overnight by any re-engineered education policy. The solution may involve taking the digital route and aiming at smart literacy, driven by smartphones and the internet.
The mobile phone revolution has already brought about a social disruption: de-linking formal education from literacy. Today, the illiterate street food vendor has a smartphone. He can effortlessly identify numerals, dial a number, change ringtones and even send a text message. All this, despite the fact that he never went to even primary school. In the future, he can leverage his smartphone for more features, as long as it benefits him. The digital revolution can hope, skip and jump over India’s literacy barrier and dilute the deficiencies of primary education ecosystem. But for that, one would expect the Centre to bring in policy decisions that allows Digital India to thrive, not just for entrepreneurs and professionals, but also for the common man. A drastic cut in the prices of entry-level smart phones, lowering cost of bandwidth and simpler compliance processes would be a good start.
The Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digidhan Vyapar Yojana are great initiatives to spur this process. But while private mobile wallet companies are burning marketing dollars to spread awareness and increase penetration, the government’s UPI or BHIM apps still remain limited to those who have read about it. The powers that be should devise an incentivised scheme that encourages the educated user to help initiate the not-so-educated and the illiterate user of a smartphone into adopting digital transactions. That will truly cement the pillars of Digital India.
Yes, the transition is forced, no doubt. It has been imposed by a government, whose demonetisation decision hasn’t gone down well with the Opposition and an entire universe of voices who would love to see the move reversed. But let’s not kid ourselves and believe Digital India could’ve been achieved voluntarily.
Think about it: The growth of online advertising was also predicated on the perils of recession, which forced advertisers to seek cheaper and yet more measurable means of reaching their consumers. How many of us grew up doing every good thing voluntarily, without our parents scolding us, or sometimes compelling us to fall in line, without a choice? The ‘cruel’ mother has always scored in the long term by firmly denying candy at bed time.
For 19 years, successive governments have treated internet as a novelty, unconnected from the masses. Computers were rarely seen in government-aided schools, colleges or even in PSUs. The internet should now become a fundamental right. Because today, a Right to Internet is more practically feasible than a Right to Education. And implementing the former will de facto spur the latter. Digital India is the answer to a lot of our country’s woes.
Saurav Sen Senior journalist-turned digital media consultant based in New Delhi
Email: saurav@sidnetdigitalia.com