DailyPost 2023
SPARKS OF EXCELLENCE INSTITUTIONS – AGENTS OF CHANGE
Whatever credit we might give to the individuals for creation of institutions, they are much bigger and impactful agents of change than anybody or anything else. As and when there has been a need for good institutions, at times some have cropped up out of nowhere. Sometimes they have been the creation of a different type of vision and when an unexpressed requirement gets met with. While it was not there, still nobody felt the need. Some academic and research institutions fall into this category and so do business enterprises, who create a non-existent yet niche market for themselves. While all these are being created in this fast-moving world there are gaps left unattended in practice, which are major obstacles in the fulfilment of real life goals envisaged by institutions and organisations and expectations of the people.
They can broadly be called the Lacunae Institutions, they fill the gap, as a mode to bridge various gaps in the areas concerned, the Sparks of Excellence, which would finally turn out to be the agents of change, as none other. A National School of Governance, aimed at creating humongous resource material through Business Case Studies and dedicated to creating executable blueprints at the confluence of governance, technology and modern management practices and models. Creating one of its kind calibrated mid-career programs, which should have the capability to transform the public servant and make him a learning and a practising professional. This spark of excellence to fill the gap, which the national academies and IIPA may not have been able to fulfil. The task is humongous. This knowledge and expertise needs to reach every practitioner.
A Practitioner’s National Police IT Center, which aims at converging all police tech initiatives so far, researched threadbare, documented and from the current cross roads to how to gainfully take it further. The stated outlier goal would be the complete technological transformation of the Indian police. A Center of CCTV TV Research, would not be out of place, to fine tune, whatever has been invested in this area and yet it has only partially delivered. The dovetailing of it with the available new tech and producing tailor made solutions to our requirements. Standards are missing and so is tech validation. An Open CCTV Lab, would be an excellent research institution to validate anything in our required CCTV domain. On a totally different side, a National Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Lab, can do wonders in every area of policing. A Cyber Security Support Organization is a must with every police/government struggling in this field.
Given the nature of exponential change, we cannot run away from our destiny for long. A Disruptive Technologies Studio is a must. This would showcase each of the technologies agreed upon to the stakeholders and the users, help in understanding the products, create projects and how to do about it. Lack of National IT Standards Organization has brought us to this plight, do we really want to continue in this manner. An ERP Agency for the government, to bring about standardization in govt workflow, while supporting differential requirements, and provide all tech support and change management. While we keep on navigating the tech maze, a Multistakeholder Metaverse – Web3 Research Center, would help us grab the opportunities ahead, better navigate our tech and business and the growth of the country, as we enter the third generation of the internet. Suffice to say such lateral entry focussed institutions would change the way we look and deal with the ever changing world and add immense value to the infra and resources we already have.
SPARKS OF EXCELLENCE INSTITUTIONS CAN BE OUR NORTH STARS IN THE COMPLEX CHANGE ENABLED WORLD.
Sanjay Sahay