In what could sound surprising coming from the IT city, a recently conducted survey revealed that around 54% of the general public in Bengaluru had never used any of the major government platforms/solutions available online.
At 32%, Aadhaar was the most used government platform among the general public, followed by IRCTC railway ticketing at 23% and Aarogya Setu/CoWin - healthcare apps at 22%. Even among these, there were differences between Socio Economic Classification (SEC) groups.
The survey for the report ‘Digital Society — A study of an Urban City (Bengaluru)‘ was conducted in 2023 by itihaasa Research and Digital, a company that studies the evolution of technology and businesses, and released on Thursday, February 8, at a symposium organised by the Centre for IT and Public Policy (CITAPP) at International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B) on ‘Emerging Opportunities and Challenges in the Digital Society.’
The participants were divided into two groups – 1,640 respondents who were chosen by random sampling method, referred to as the general public, and 206 respondents (booster sampling), who are referred to as IT experts in the report. In most parameters assessed in the study, there were significant differences among the two groups.
For instance, the usage of government platforms/solutions by IT experts was 2.5 times more than the general public. At least 97% of them had reportedly used at least one government solution once in the last year.
Calling friends/family on WhatsApp
The report says the general public mainly (90%) used digital technology for calling friends/family on WhatsApp, while 83% used it to watch videos on social media. They used digital technology for messaging on WhatsApp (76%), using digital payment apps (84%), browsing and commenting on Facebook or Instagram (67%), online shopping (62%) and online delivery of food (60%).
Sudhir Krishnaswamy, Vice Chancellor, National Law School of India University (NLSIU), who participated in a panel discussion at the symposium, said, “Given the media and public discourse on the matter, the abysmally low usage of government platforms even among SEC Apeople in a city like Bengaluru in 2024 is rather alarming.”
However, Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys and Founder of itihaasa, Research and Digital said that the lines between education and entertainment have blurred. “Students now learn a lot from YouTube. So, we should not be worried too much about them not using digital technology for education as the lines between education and entertainment are blurred now. Videos are extensively used now for learning.”
