Aadhaar initiative and Make in India campaign: Promoting products or services that don’t deliver is a waste of money

By: R Gopalakrishnan

Expectations from public services are generally low. Hence poor service delivery can pass muster by meeting the low expectations. Sometimes hype is created, for example, when a government wants to signal transformative change, to tom-tom about its performance or during elections. Within a Lakshman Rekha, some hype is acceptable.

In 1961, Rosser Reeves, the American advertising practitioner and chairman of Ted Bates, wrote a seminal book titled Reality in Advertising. His message was that advertising has to be honest by delivery being commensurate with the promise. What I call the “Rosser Reeves trap” states that product promise that is far in excess of product delivery accelerates downfall.

The Aadhaar Promise Does under-delivery compared with promise work differently for monopolistic public services than for competitive company products? Does the Rosser Reeves trap apply to public services? I feel that the Rosser Reeves trap threatens everything that makes claims.

The wonderful Aadhaar initiative started with excessive hype seven years ago, but was sensibly tempered soon after. Recall the disastrous election results after an excellent “India Shining” advertising campaign because of the public perception that the claimed promise had crossed the Lakshman Rekha. Contrast this with our Bangladesh foreign policy initiative of 2015, the green revolution of the 1970s and the economic liberalisation of 1991—great transformations with understated claims in the initial stages.

The Make in India (MII) campaign has been spectacular. The apt logo by V Sunil of Wieden + Kennedy India, the scintillating advertising campaign, the breathtaking scale of the Bandra Kurla exhibition in Mumbai, the diversity of foreign delegates — all of these must count as highly savvy. But in the chambers of commerce, the pink papers and on TV business channels, the question is cautiously debated: have things on the ground really changed?

The fact is that the sclerosis of doing business in India has accumulated over decades. The ground realities surrounding MII and many other initiatives do face the Rosser Reeves trap. Not surprisingly, everybody has a view on the subject but, whatever the truth, it would be foolish to assume that the Rosser Reeves trap is inapplicable.

Business folks are disturbed by simultaneous negative actions — unexpected tax demands on foreign companies, price control on technology-led GM seeds and a ban on combination drugs. Business folks are enthused by the government decision to use the PAN as a single enterprise number applicable across multiple laws and authorities to do business more easily. But hang on, isn’t the common enterprise number what Aadhaar was supposed to do for individuals? After seven years of wonderful Aadhaar, here is what I experienced to effect an address change.

I was naïve to believe that with my Aadhaar card, an address change would be fast and speedy. But I have had to submit a large number of self-attested copies of sensitive documents to multiple authorities. Here is the gist of my experience. The Aadhaar folks verified my fingerprint and iris and, lo and behold, I got the Aadhaar card electronically in a few weeks. Fantastic. But soon I was irritated by every other authority seeking “an original” of Aadhaar because the electronic printout looked like a photocopy to them!

BEST (Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport) wanted the purchase contract of my flat, which is my private document! After making enquiries, BEST implemented the new address on their bills. The ration authorities scrutinised the recently changed electricity bill, did a physical check, and changed the address on the ration card. The RTO sought authenticated copies of many documents and mailed me a new licence only after I demonstrated logistical Terpsichore by being at home to receive the postman with my licence.

Coping with Copies Over seven months, I achieved success with BEST, MTNL, PAN, ration card, gas cylinder and Aadhaar by providing each authority with self-attested copies of all the “already address-changed” documents. God knows how many authenticated original documents of mine are filed in these departments. I worry about the implications for privacy and data security.

Then came my passport, banks, mutual funds and depository. The core passport processes are with the Regional Passport Office (RPO) and the police, requiring one visit to the RPO and multiple visits to the police station and home-waits for the postman’s visit! The banks wanted a KYC and the MFs wanted me to have a CAN.

When all this was done, the MFs texted me a jhatka by asking me about FATCA, whatever that meant! One of them wanted my bank statement for the last six months. We have too many regulators and departments, each with their own processes and bureaucracy.

At about this time I attended a public presentation on J-A-M ( Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile). Very soon, several layers of software will simplify my life to the click of a button. I hope it all works. Meanwhile, I worry about the many authenticated copies of my documents floating around. Where is the promise that my single Aadhaar will establish my identity? Why should business folks expect that the PAN as a single identity will work for enterprises?

Bloated promises and rhetoric are known to produce unexpected election results. In communicating our public change programmes, we must be conscious of the Rosser Reeves trap of the promise getting too far ahead of the product.

(The author is a writer and corporate adviser)