Dealing with the digital panopticon: the use and subversion of ICT in an Indian bureaucracy

Authors:
Rajesh Veeraraghavan
Affiliations:
University of California, Berkeley
Venue:
Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development: Full Papers - Volume 1
Year:
2013

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Abstract

To what extent can information technology be used to eliminate government corruption? In this paper, I examine an ambitious experiment by a South Indian state in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) within a bureaucracy to reduce corruption. In this initiative, the senior bureaucrats built a digital network to remotely control the implementation of a public rural employment scheme. Focusing on the technology-based implementation for this paper, I show that centralization of implementation that the technology enabled could significantly overcome the endemic corruption that tends to happen in the local "last mile" of such schemes. I also find how technology designed for control can be subverted at the local level. My work suggests that the future of such government programs lies in incrementally resolving the conflicting forces and interests involved and that the move towards technical is as much a political project.