DailyPost 2498
HYPER CONNECTED WORLD – UNCONNECTED INDIA
We live in an interconnected world to the level, that no moment is missed, in a multimedia way, what is euphemistically called the hyper connected world. The general presumption is that today it is next to impossible to remain unconnected or even less connected. It also gives us a feeling that with this nature of connectivity and data of all types, seamlessly flowing across the globe and the country, the responses would be quick and appropriate. The main bottleneck of data / information and quick communication which has troubled mankind since times immemorial, seems to have been laid to rest, once and for all.
Under these circumstances, it would really be baffling to call this country as unconnected. But that is the harsh reality of Indian existence. We are primarily connected with things which do matter for critical issues of life. The connectedness is for mostly superficial things, sometimes for some passage of government information to the citizen / user and more often than not the vested interests having a field day. The ‘useless’ component of the connected world has firstly become all pervasive and secondly it has turned out to be toxic to the core.
The million-dollar question is, what can connectedness deliver in a broken system? What can it deliver when the person concerned or more acceptably, if the system does not respond? The most tragic part of the whole story is no one knows from where the information or the order comes, a generic name does not explain anything and it of no use. Conversely, we don’t know whether whatever is addressed to the powers that be, by the people, reaches then or not? Because, two-way communication will still take ages to become a norm and that to time bound. They would decide the response and that’s the end of it.
There are none to talk of issues, plaguing us, day in and day, small or big, good, bad and ugly, leave aside solutions. Has the interconnectedness in any manner brought the stakeholders on the same page? Have we even reached a stage to make a list of uncontested facts on any issue, so that a beginning can be made? How much time does it take for a grievance of a person in power to get addressed? Hardly any. Unconnected minds with literally head and heart not in the right place, cannot be facilitated by a connected world, in any manner. Has the vast land mass of India gained by this connectivity? Yes, for person to person contact and variety of other good things. But what about governance? If what happened in north east corner of the country were to happen in Delhi, the story would have been different. The moral of the story is that the system is subserved by the supposedly democratically created vested interests.
WE HAVE SUCCESSFULLY NEGATED DIGITAL CONNECTEDNESS BY A BROKEN SYSTEM, WHICH WE HAVE SO METICULOUSLY CREATED.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.