Transforming government through digitization initiatives and digitizing the delivery of government services to enrich citizens’ quality of life

By digitizing various processes and making organizational changes, worldwide governments can enhance services offered, save money in each of those processes, and improve citizens’ quality of life. As companies have transformed themselves with digital technologies, common men are calling on governments to follow suit. By digitizing, governments can provide services that meet the evolving expectations of citizens and businesses, even in a period of tight budgets and increasingly complex challenges. Government of India in recent time taken initiatives on Digital payments through UPI based processes, cyber security, digitization of various departments including the judicial system, transformation in Police Firsthand Information Report (FIR) system, engagement with common men in social media platform by different departments of the government, Information Ethics and Right to Information (RTI), involving citizen with the digital culture and Financial Inclusion Programme, initiative in digital healthcare and IT Education, Initiating Smart Cities, Smart Villages and regions, Internet of Things (IOT), data analytics, focusing more on digital currency using Unified Payment Interface (UPI) which is a single window mobile payment system, use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), keeping mining and land record with Geographic Information System (GIS), Initiative on High speed broadband using RF with state run BSNL and finally on Indian language computing in association with global companies like Google Inc. and Microsoft Inc.. When people talk of digitalization, various estimates by experts suggest that these initiatives by various governments on digitization, using existing technology, could generate about INR 650 Crore annually worldwide. Digitizing a government requires attention to two major considerations: the core capabilities for engaging citizens and businesses, and the organizational enablers that support those capabilities. These make up a framework for setting digital priorities which the government of the present day is making it happen. In this article, the author looks at the capabilities and enablers in this framework, along with examples and those guidelines to help governments grab the opportunities that digitization offers. The researcher is pretty sure by digitizing processes and making organizational changes locally, government of the present day can enhance numerous services, which will save money, and at the end of the day; this digitization process will improve citizens’ quality of life. In this article, the researchers also look at the capabilities and enablers in this framework, along with guidelines and real-world examples to help governments seize the opportunities that digitization offers in India and abroad.