Notebandi and GST hit the poor: Mark Tully
Jamal Ayub
Bhopal:
Veteran journalist Mark Tully has cautioned that digitalization isn't a cureall, and feels that notebandi and GST have been hard on the poor.
“We seem to be living in an era now where we assume everything can be solved digitally. All these things sound attractive. Technology without institutional change will never deliver core health education and public services,“ Tully said at the third MN Buch Memorial Lecture on `Challenges of Governance in India' in Bhopal on Thursday .
“Everyone has been seduced by economic reforms and now it is the idea of digital revolution. Not everything can be solved through digitisation. We've got to think of the idea of problems ailing the government,“ he pointed out.
Narrating his own experience, he recalled how difficult registration of his fingerprints was for the Aadhar card. “I cannot assume that a PDS employee would be patient for a long time if fingerprints of a beneficiary seeking food ration became a challenge. The government needs to work right, only then will the PDS system and bank teller become efficient,“ he said. “Demonetisation and GST implementation, I can tell you, were executed very inefficiently. The main sufferers, as a result, are the poor,“ he added. “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?“ he remarked -a Latin phrase that translates to `Who will guard the guards?' Few know India as well as Sir Mark Tully , who has covered the sub-continent for over five decades. Autonomy of institutions has declined, he said, adding, “Good governance should control bad leaders.“
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