Delivery of social protection measures is a big challenge to
any government; especially in a developing country. Social protection program has three key
components.
The first component is how we can uniquely identify the
beneficiary and enrol them into the program. Digital Id revolutionised this part.
The pandemic demonstrated that the countries which have established a
foundation of digital id can manage the outreach much better than a country
that is lacking in this area. Countries which have gone one step forward and
have established a somewhat comprehensive registry of uniquely identified deserving
beneficiaries did even better.
The second component is the payment system. Building on the
foundation of Digital ID, in India we have introduced Unified Payment Interface
(UPI) which is a completely open and interoperable protocol that has transformed
the payment system. As of now, UPI handles
more than 1.25 billion transactions per month which is more than four times the
volume of transactions handled by the Credit / Debit card network every month. We
are now in the process of building a next layer on top of it to provide a
digital voucher using completely open protocol. This could be a straightforward
money voucher, or it could be a voucher that is meant for a specific product if
the government wants to ensure that the benefits are provided in kind with
respect to certain goods and services.
The third element is the market including the supply chain, and
it is still a challenge. That is why the governments are forced to run the
whole physical operation of procurement, supply chain management and retail
shops. Often very very inefficiently.
BECKN foundation established by Nanden Nilekani has come out
with a brilliant solution to this problem. It has published and open protocol specification
which can completely revolutionize the marketplace.
What is the challenge it is attempting to solve? Digital marketplace is a big boon; but the
market is still heavily siloed. It is increasingly
becoming walled gardens of few players. Take for example retail. There are a few large aggregators like amazon/ big basket/
Alibaba They are doing a great job; but, they are walled gardens. Same is the
case with delivery or mobility or health service. It is a pain for the consumer
who must look at multiple apps to make an ideal choice. This limits the choice and
makes markets inefficient.
The service providers are also constrained. Unless you are a
part of the aggregator platform you are at a big disadvantage in terms of discoverability.
BECKN protocol addresses this issue for both the service
provider and the consumer. It is a paradigm shift; we are making internet,
small business friendly and not small business internet friendly.
A simple adapter to the payment system or inventory
management system based on BECKN protocol can provide any service provider
equal access to the market whether he is big or small. Any frontend app which
is comfortable to the consumer; could help him or her to access all the options
seamlessly if it has a BECKN based connector to the network. It may be WhatsApp
may be telegraph may be Google map or a special app provided by the government.
These mean simplification of service delivery [e.g. one stop
payment, personalized workflows combining multiple services, granular view of
events as and when they occur], freedom of choice for consumers, stitching of
suppliers to fulfil a comprehensive service, much better (network driven) view
of consumer demand and ability of suppliers to fulfil that demand
Such a marketplace has also the potential for bringing dramatic
innovations in terms of option to the beneficiary. Once such an Open
Benefit Delivery Network is in place, governments can focus on scheme design
and enrolling the beneficiaries and reaching him the subsidy / financial
assistance . Then leave the markets to make the best offer.
The beauty of this solution is that we are not talking about
huge investment in a new platform or software solution. The service providers at
a very low cost can be enabled to plug into the market. We are democratising
the market just like HTTP democratised the internet. This is not a wishful
thinking. We are helping the first solution built around BECKN to go live in
India next month and few more are on the way.
It is time to give this a
serious try and be an innovator to solve fundamental problems so that we can
manage emergencies like the pandemic much better.
“He
who is best prepared can best serve his moment of inspiration and desperation.”
―
Thanks Koshy the Great.
ReplyDeleteThis would be a huge revolution. I only hope that the Government takes it up with positive energy. That will change the game.
Best wishes
Amul Asthana
I attended your session yesterday by CETAA Mumbai on Digital Transformation. It is good that you introduced to this blog during Q&A. Your posts give a lot of insights and logically connects various intiatives government and voluntary agencies take for overall social benefit. As you have pointed out, India is in a "revolutionary" mode, which is becoming a role model for many. Let us hope that BECKN also will be quickly adopted by the ecosystem, enabling greater benefit to the common man.
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