81% of Indians feel online government services are now a lot easier to use, VMWare study

With more citizens going online to access government services, government spending on IT in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region including India has also grown, resulting in improved user experience. 

Around 81% of Indians involved in a new VMWare-Deloitte APAC study said that online services offered by the government are now a lot “easier to use” and 78% said that the quality of services has improved. However, 86% of Indians still believe that governments should spend more on technology. 

In APAC, 77% of participants said that they use digital platforms to access government services, while the use of in-person government services declined by 50% in the last two years, the study found. 

In India, 80% of the participants involved in the study believe that the use of technology in government services will make society more egalitarian. Around 89% of Indians also said that they are ready to learn new digital skills or use a new platform. 

“Citizens expect the same level of services and quality as those delivered by private companies or organizations,” Sylvain Cazard, senior vice president and general manager, Asia Pacific and Japan, VMware said in a statement. 

Cazard has a point. The study shows that 67% of participants in APAC expect the quality of online services by the government to be as good as that of private companies.

“Service delivery in terms of multi-cloud infrastructure as well as modern containerized applications and services are the way forward, so governments also need to align thinking and resourcing along these major trends to meet their citizens’ needs,” added Cazard. 

Pradeep Nair, vice president and managing director at VMware India, said, “easier access, greater transparency, and increased data security are specific areas to focus on.”

Deloitte interviewed 3,840 people for the survey from multiple countries including India, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Singapore. According to Deloitte, these countries are together expected to add 900 million new internet users by 2025.

According to a July report by Deloitte, IT spending by governments in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is expected to grow by 8% annually to $151 billion by 2025, surpassing the 6% growth in overall government spending.