Have you ever wondered why cricket matches are getting shorter – from test matches to one-day matches to T20 and now T10?
There are two possible reasons – either people can’t stand so much cricket, or it’s not cricket’s fault. Perhaps, people can’t stand anything for that long.
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Evidence suggests that the latter is more likely to be true. With a plethora of services and information to choose from, young Indians are falling short of one critical and finite resource – attention, cognitive space.
Herbert A Simon, a psychologist, economist, and Nobel Laureate, coined the term’ attention economy’. He noted that “a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention”.
In 1997, theoretical physicist Michael Goldhaber postulated that the international economy is becoming attention-based rather than material-based. Goldhaber added that while information is not scarce, attention is.
With shrinking cognitive spaces, consumers prefer door-to-door services and apps that reduce their active involvement in a task.
For instance, the proponents of autonomous cars support the idea with two benefits: crash risk reduction and commuter productivity. By outsourcing driving, commuters free up their cognitive space.
What is cognitive load, one might wonder?
Pioneered by Australian educational psychologist John Sweller in 1988, cognitive load theory suggests that the working memory of individuals can hold between five and nine chunks of information.
Sweller said that since working memory has a limited capacity, it shouldn’t be loaded with information that doesn’t directly contribute to learning.
Similarly, with the chaotic abundance of information and limited space in working memory, it is likely that, if given a choice, humans would outsource some of the “passive” and “lacklustre” tasks, such as commuting, to an app or another person.
This practice may be both good and bad for sustainable transport. On the one hand, commuters don’t want to go through the “nightmare” of finding a rickshaw for the last mile of their trip. On the other hand, driving on congested streets and finding a parking lot is a cognitive load.
However, this outsourcing varies across geographies and socio-economic backgrounds. For instance, a team of researchers from the University of Kentucky found that ride-hailing services have had a drastic impact on public transit use across the United States.
Whereas, in India, the impact of the ride-hailing platform is felt by the automobile sector, as shared by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in 2019.
In both cases, apps do take the cognitive load of ride-hailing off the commuter’s mind. They plan the trip from point A to point B, removing everything that goes on in between the trip.
However, considering ride-hailing apps to be a panacea to urban transport problems, such as congestion and pollution, might be myopic and even naïve.
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, Uber’s ride-hailing trips resulted in nearly 69 per cent more climate pollution on average than the trips they displaced.
There exists a maxim in transport: “If everybody drives, nobody moves”. Most four-wheelers are not utilised to their full capacity. The average occupancy of a four-person car is just 1.15 person. If shared mobility doesn’t focus on increasing occupancy, it runs the risk of increased cognitive load in the form of congestion in the future.
A paradigm shift might be in order. Planners must stop pegging transport aggregator apps and public transport against each other. Indian cities need systems in which public transport and paratransit complement each other and are presented to users – Indian cities need MAAS (Mobility As A Service).
MAAS is the integration of various forms of transport services into a single mobility service accessible on demand. To cater to the commuter’s need, MAAS provides a diverse menu of transport options, such as public transport, taxis, car or bike sharing, and car or taxi rental.
For the user, MAAS can offer added value using a single application to provide access to mobility, with a single payment channel instead of multiple ticketing and payment operations.
MAAS shouldn’t be confused with on-demand mobility, where the supply and demand for transport are managed through feedback control, for example, Uber and Ola. MAAS entails integrated mobility solutions, often offered through subscription.
MAAS is the future for depleted cognitive capacities because it reduces the cognitive load of trip planning, multiple payments, waiting, parking, and congestion. With their working memory freed up, commuters can exercise agency on what they wish to put in their minds.
However, MAAS mobility is a long way off for India.
The challenges to the introduction of MAAS primarily pertain to regulatory barriers. For instance, even sustainable practices like motorbike taxis and carpooling are not legal in India.
Additionally, many businesses have tried to enter the public transport space, only to halt their operations due to the contract carriage versus stage carriage licensing dubiety.
Only if innovations like MAAS are encouraged can they be made safer for the public through regulation.
There exists a lack of coordination between the government and private players. A clearly-chalked-out data-sharing policy and revenue-sharing model can come in handy to make sure the two can work together.
First, government agencies need to define ‘public data’ in urban mobility and make it available for private operators to build solutions.
Second, arriving at the fair-calculation method, such as fixing the upper and lower limits, might impact both the commuter uptake of these services and incentives for private operators to enter and stay in the market. The terms of collaboration between the two can support or weaken the future of MAAS in India.
Governing the attention-poor requires attention. Paying close attention to MAAS in India could be the way forward.
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- In the Large States category (overall), Chhattisgarh ranks 1st, followed by Odisha and Telangana, whereas, towards the bottom are Maharashtra at 16th, Assam at 17th and Gujarat at 18th. Gujarat is one State that has seen startling performance ranking 5th in the PAI 2021 Index outperforming traditionally good performing States like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, but ranks last in terms of Delta
- In the Small States category (overall), Nagaland tops, followed by Mizoram and Tripura. Towards the tail end of the overall Delta ranking is Uttarakhand (9th), Arunachal Pradesh (10th) and Meghalaya (11th). Nagaland despite being a poor performer in the PAI 2021 Index has come out to be the top performer in Delta, similarly, Mizoram’s performance in Delta is also reflected in it’s ranking in the PAI 2021 Index
- In terms of Equity, in the Large States category, Chhattisgarh has the best Delta rate on Equity indicators, this is also reflected in the performance of Chhattisgarh in the Equity Pillar where it ranks 4th. Following Chhattisgarh is Odisha ranking 2nd in Delta-Equity ranking, but ranks 17th in the Equity Pillar of PAI 2021. Telangana ranks 3rd in Delta-Equity ranking even though it is not a top performer in this Pillar in the overall PAI 2021 Index. Jharkhand (16th), Uttar Pradesh (17th) and Assam (18th) rank at the bottom with Uttar Pradesh’s performance in line with the PAI 2021 Index
- Odisha and Nagaland have shown the best year-on-year improvement under 12 Key Development indicators.
- In the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu and, the bottom three performers are Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar.
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers were Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram; and, the bottom three performers are Manipur, Assam and Meghalaya.
- Among the 60:40 division States, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are the top three performers and Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Delhi appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland; and, the bottom three performers are Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh
- Among the 60:40 division States, Goa, West Bengal and Delhi appear as the top three performers and Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Bihar appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura were the top three performers and Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh were the bottom three performers
- West Bengal, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were the top three States amongst the 60:40 division States; while Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan appeared as the bottom three performers
- In the case of 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura were the top three performers and Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand featured as the bottom three
- Among the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa and the bottom three performers are Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Goa
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland and the bottom three performers are Manipur and Assam
In a diverse country like India, where each State is socially, culturally, economically, and politically distinct, measuring Governance becomes increasingly tricky. The Public Affairs Index (PAI 2021) is a scientifically rigorous, data-based framework that measures the quality of governance at the Sub-national level and ranks the States and Union Territories (UTs) of India on a Composite Index (CI).
States are classified into two categories – Large and Small – using population as the criteria.
In PAI 2021, PAC defined three significant pillars that embody Governance – Growth, Equity, and Sustainability. Each of the three Pillars is circumscribed by five governance praxis Themes.
The themes include – Voice and Accountability, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption.
At the bottom of the pyramid, 43 component indicators are mapped to 14 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are relevant to the States and UTs.
This forms the foundation of the conceptual framework of PAI 2021. The choice of the 43 indicators that go into the calculation of the CI were dictated by the objective of uncovering the complexity and multidimensional character of development governance
The Equity Principle
The Equity Pillar of the PAI 2021 Index analyses the inclusiveness impact at the Sub-national level in the country; inclusiveness in terms of the welfare of a society that depends primarily on establishing that all people feel that they have a say in the governance and are not excluded from the mainstream policy framework.
This requires all individuals and communities, but particularly the most vulnerable, to have an opportunity to improve or maintain their wellbeing. This chapter of PAI 2021 reflects the performance of States and UTs during the pandemic and questions the governance infrastructure in the country, analysing the effectiveness of schemes and the general livelihood of the people in terms of Equity.
Growth and its Discontents
Growth in its multidimensional form encompasses the essence of access to and the availability and optimal utilisation of resources. By resources, PAI 2021 refer to human resources, infrastructure and the budgetary allocations. Capacity building of an economy cannot take place if all the key players of growth do not drive development. The multiplier effects of better health care, improved educational outcomes, increased capital accumulation and lower unemployment levels contribute magnificently in the growth and development of the States.
The Pursuit Of Sustainability
The Sustainability Pillar analyses the access to and usage of resources that has an impact on environment, economy and humankind. The Pillar subsumes two themes and uses seven indicators to measure the effectiveness of government efforts with regards to Sustainability.
The Curious Case Of The Delta
The Delta Analysis presents the results on the State performance on year-on-year improvement. The rankings are measured as the Delta value over the last five to 10 years of data available for 12 Key Development Indicators (KDI). In PAI 2021, 12 indicators across the three Pillars of Equity (five indicators), Growth (five indicators) and Sustainability (two indicators). These KDIs are the outcome indicators crucial to assess Human Development. The Performance in the Delta Analysis is then compared to the Overall PAI 2021 Index.
Key Findings:-
In the Scheme of Things
The Scheme Analysis adds an additional dimension to ranking of the States on their governance. It attempts to complement the Governance Model by trying to understand the developmental activities undertaken by State Governments in the form of schemes. It also tries to understand whether better performance of States in schemes reflect in better governance.
The Centrally Sponsored schemes that were analysed are National Health Mission (NHM), Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services scheme (ICDS), Mahatma Gandh National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SmSA) and MidDay Meal Scheme (MDMS).
National Health Mission (NHM)
INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS)
MID- DAY MEAL SCHEME (MDMS)
SAMAGRA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN (SMSA)
MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (MGNREGS)