Estonian e-governance can be a role model for NDA’s NPR scheme

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Tigutorn Tower, Tartu’s tallest building, behind the Emajõe Centre, the city’s second highest tower. (Photo by Wiki.org)

Digitisation initiative in Estonia and its ability to provide efficient administration puts it in a different league. After gaining independence from erstwhile Soviet Union in 1991, the country has progressed at a rapid pace which no other country could have matched, considering the small time frame. However, despite several challenges, this tiny country has thrived on its own as an independent and democratic country. The most extraordinary thing about Estonia excels in understanding and utilising technology for public welfare. It ranks high on internet density and offers world-class education to its people.
How Estonia leads the tech-race?
After two decades of hard work, it is a world leader in technology. How did this happen? Estonians redesigned and overhauled their entire information and infrastructure for simple and yet strong governance. In 2005, Estonia became the first country to allow online voting in a general election, while other countries are still debating on the concept of online voting because of various security concerns. Despite obvious concerns regarding hacking threats, Estonian Government has built a system which considerably minimises hacker’s success. And so far, they have succeeded in it. Estonians have built the technology platform which is user-friendly making it accessible. The Government uses a simple, unique ID methodology across systems to make governance easier for its citizens. The ID is used by all to avoid paper work and tedious processes. The digital IDs are useful in keeping track of passports, banks, Government offices and hospitals. Such an easy process is a result of positive and simple approach by the Government and its citizens.
How does it work? 

The Estonian Government issues unique pins and logins for online Government services to its citizens, so they already have a secure infrastructure in place. Clearly, Estonians are early adopters of this technology. This probably will be the way of the future and many countries can learn from it.
Estonia passed the Digital Signatures Act in 2000 by standardising a National Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), which binds citizen identities to their cryptographic keys to make the digital signature more authentic. This way, the Government cannot turn down a citizen’s digitally signed document and demand a paper copy instead. As citizens opt for convenience, bureaucrats see a higher inflow of digital forms and in turn invest in systems that will help them manage the process. However, to prevent this system from becoming outdated in the future, the Government did not lock in the technical nitty-gritties of digital signatures. The Government changes its implementation from time to time. Initially, Estonian authorities used to a microchip in the traditional ID cards issued to every citizen for identification and domestic travel inside the European Union. The chip carries two certificates, i.e., one for legal signatures and the other for authentication when using a website or any service that recognises Government’s identification system, i.e., online banking. Every person over 15 years of age is required to have an ID card, and there are now over 1.2 million active cards, which comes close to 100 per cent penetration of the population.
In 2000, when the Estonian authorities declared Internet access to be a human right, the web spread into the boondocks. Free Wi-Fi became commonplace. Rubber stamps, carbon paper and long queues gave way to “e-government”. Therefore, to accelerate processes, the Government tendered building and securing the digital signature-certificate systems to private parties, including local banks and telecoms, which enables integrated e-services for various sectors. For example, the Estonian Government was the first one to follow flat tax system in Europe. While Estonia is fairly a small sample because of low population in comparison to other countries, the results have been quite positive so far. However, many countries who adopted a flat tax after Estonia, could not do well to contain the economic crisis, and reverted back to the traditional ways of book keeping. Despite criticism from various quarters, the country believes it is still the best system, because the economy has recovered from the crisis. To achieve this, the Government increased the Value Added Tax (VAT), which helped the Government to restrict expenditure.
What India can learn from Estonia
Like Estonia, India too is trying to introduce a digital based identity format for easy governance. However, the scheme Adhaar or UID could not be implemented properly due to unclear policy issues. But with main thrust on good governance, which is based on ‘responsiveness, transparency and accountability through e-governance, ‘ one sees possibilities from Estonian style of governance. In fact, emphasis on usage of technology for better governance and reaching out to his people being a vital cog for this, technology upgradation and popularisation is imminent. Moreover, India has shown immense potential with rising net usability vis-a-vis net density. Which surely is an indicator that people are open to adaptation for personal benefit. While security concerns need to be addressed more aggressively since the threats are larger, yet the need to extend reach of the Government to the doorstep of every individual can be fulfilled only with a digital revolution.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had repeatedly said, “The time has come for the political class to adapt to technology and reinvent itself! It needs to embrace the Internet’s many powerful facets. The political class needs to stop seeing technology as a problem creator, and start harnessing it in the right spirit.” His mantra was based on 5 ‘E’s meaning ‘ease, economy, efficiency, effectiveness and ethics, and he made sure that technology was used as an important tool for governance!
If these 5 ‘E’s are seriously followed and implemented by the Government then India will progress without many hiccups which was not the case under the UPA rule. Moreover, everything has to be paced judiciously well. Aadhar Card and National Population record can be used effectively by Narendra Modi-led Government towards this end.

The Union Home Ministry has asked the Registrar General of India (RGI) to identify the ‘citizens’ and ‘non-citizens’ while preparing the National Population Register (NPR) various newspaper reports suggested. Under this the NPR authorities will undertake a door-to-door verification exercise across the country in this regard.
The citizens’ register, to be called the National Register of Indian Citizens, will serve as the database for national identity cards carrying a unique national identity number for each citizen of the country, besides other identification fields.
According to Times of India report, “NPR authorities will carry out the nationwide verification exercise to establish the citizenship of each and every person on its population database. A list of 19 documents, including birth certificate, death certificate, land records, school records – have been identified for proof of citizenship”.
Here the Estonian model of e-governance can play a pivotal role in developing India.  Indian authorities can draw some inspiration from Estonia’s Cyber Defence League, which will help India in protecting sensitive date against hacking. The model could make governance take a proactive role, where every decision making take people’s opinion into account.
Estonian ID card system can help India in taking NPR-UID experiment to a more efficient level, thus becoming a pathbreaking example of e-governance among nations with large population size. Clearly, Modi Government can ensure corruption and babudom becomes obsolete with the emergence of a tech-friendly nation.