Lessons from India in digital disruption

Digital technology can rapidly transform how countries provide services such as education and health for their citizens. Public services in the future should be effective, efficient, fair, data-driven and responsive to individual needs. And the groundwork to turn this vision into reality needs to be laid now.

Managed wisely, data can be the key to providing quality healthcare and education for all - at speed, at scale, and in a sustainable way - and to boosting social and economic inclusion. But countries also have to anticipate and manage the associated risks of the digital revolution. To this end, India's use of data and technology offers four lessons for other developing countries.

First, scale should be built into the project design from the very beginning, instead of being an afterthought. India must think about how it can help 1 million community health workers provide healthcare for people in rural areas, and how it can improve the skills of 100 million youths seeking better jobs. The world must ask a similar question: How can we provide safe, high-quality vaccinations for 20 million infants around the world and educate the more than 260 million children and youths who are not in school?