This paper shows how technology platforms affect the character and functioning of municipal governance. It does so by tracing the genesis, implementation, and effects of three technology platforms for spatial governance in Bhubaneswar.
They are considered ICT-GIS platforms and leverage spatial and information technologies to monitor public lands, pinpoint households with alphanumeric codes, and algorithmically approve construction projects on private lands. I conclude that digital infrastructuring shifts control from weakened municipal departments to consultant-driven control over governance practices, and the three platforms limit access to democratic institutions. Multiple public agencies such as the National Informatics Centers, State Computer Application Centers, and city-level Development Authorities created and embraced ICT tools under these policies for city planning, delivering urban services, and enhancing citizen engagement.
States and municipalities use these new technologies to implement a variety of municipal functions ranging from urban planning and delivering services to actively engaging citizens. In policy documents, technologies are promoted as offering the following dual benefits Purandare and Parkar : service delivery is faster, generates new solutions for urban problems through data and automation, and improves information exchange; it has also been said that citizens have greater access to urban services, enhanced transparency, and scrutiny and are able to participate in the governance of the city.
However, these studies do not refer to the municipal transformations in functions, service delivery, and capacities or the impact of technologies on governance. This gap in understanding how the technological aspect impacts the practice of urban governance is quite clear in the Indian case. For this paper, digitalization is defined as the way in which the transformation of tools, ideas, and practices brought on by technological interventions affects urban governance.
While the role of consultants in urban planning and policy is not new Kennedy et al. The digital interventions explored here are clear examples of this transition, whereby both the identification of problems and the tools offered for governance come from existing tech industry trends and not necessarily from democratic or bureaucratic channels.
