Government of India: The world’s biggest App Factory

The Indian government is on a massive mission to build apps. But our analysis of its efforts reveals that in its enthusiasm, it may be putting the app cart before the citizen horse.

Given the structure of the government — horizontal at the central level (ministries, departments) and vertical at the state and the local government level — everyone wants to have their say

The government's app push comes at a time when countries are looking the other way i.e. they have tried it and discarded it

Even a company with Flipkart's scale and resources realized that going app-only was sacrificing user reach (which in the government's case would be, citizen reach)

Apps, government officials believe, serve a completely different cause, or even a completely different audience. Apps even lead to easier recall.

Have you seen the television advertisements? A few village folk are beaming with pride on how they can now see progress of road construction in their village; peering into a smartphone and feeling like, yay, we have real time information on our fingertips. Well, that ad is all over the place. But, if you haven’t noticed, the Government of India has embarked on an ambitious program to appify itself. In short, turn every other citizen service or interface into well, an app.

Its app factory, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), located in Mumbai and Delhi, is churning out five or six apps every month. Read that again: five or six new apps every month.

As the name suggests, C-DAC is the country’s top R&D organization in the field of advanced computing, an agency one doesn’t associate with app making. But the brief was handed to it “from up above”. It was tasked with developing a store platform — Mobile Seva — where small companies and individual developers could showcase their apps and which then expanded to churning out apps.

Now, grab your phone and see how many apps you have. 10? 20? Maybe 30, on the higher side? You get the picture, don’t you? Five to six new apps every month.

It’s happening at a scale so massive that there really is no comparison. Just for perspective, the United States of America has a total of 218 apps in its directory. And the United Kingdom (UK), well, they abandoned native apps in 2012, opting instead for responsive websites (that is, websites that scale and repackage their content automatically to mobile browsers).

But India is going all out on apps.

978

The number of apps on the government's Mobile Seva app-store since its inception in December 2013

Given the structure of the government — horizontal at the central level (ministries, departments) and vertical at the state and the local government level — everyone wants to have their say and taking the brunt is the official app-store, Mobile Seva, which now lists nearly 1,000 apps (978 as per the latest update) since its inception in December 2013.

It started in May that year with an Android app called Sikkim CET which was essentially an application for the Common Entrance Test in the state. Two months later, the Ministry of External Affairs released its Passport mSeva app. In November, it released a host of health-related apps. Then the floodgates opened.

These apps range from G2G (Government to Government) to G2C (Government to Citizen), besides what is classified as utility apps (bill payments, speed check and so on).

AUTHOR

Venkat Ananth

Venkat is currently in his tenth year in journalism. Prior to The Ken, he was Deputy Content Editor at Mint as part of the newspaper’s digital team. He also wrote in-depth features on the business of sport for the newspaper. His earlier assignments include Yahoo! (as a columnist) and the Hindustan Times, where he began his career. Born in Mumbai, Venkat holds a Bachelor of Mass Media (Journalism) degree from SIES College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Mumbai and a Master of Arts degree in International Studies from Goldsmiths, University of London. He currently resides in New Delhi, where he moved nearly five years ago.

View Full Profile

The only business subscription you need

Unrivaled analysis and powerful stories about businesses in India and Southeast Asia from award-winning journalists. Includes access to longform articles, premium newsletters across a range of topics depending on your interest and our top-ranked podcast. For those who want to be prepared for what comes next.

So much journalism in India is superficial.

Articles are generic, almost cookie-cutter in their approach. And they don’t provide enough context on the issues they cover. The Ken is different. I don’t always agree with everything they say but I appreciate their commitment to publishing deeply reported narratives and investigations. Their reporters find new ways to analyze tech among other industries. And that’s always worth a read.

Sid Talwar / Co-Founder and Partner / Lightbox Venture Capital

As entrepreneurs, we thrive on being in the know at all times.

A personal subscription to The Ken was a no brainer. But as startup founders, this isn't enough. Team members also need to be in the know, for everyone handles customer-facing responsibilities and an ecosystem change that impacts customers also impacts us

Kiran Jonnalagadda / Co-founder / HasGeek and Internet Freedom Foundation