Tantra Digital Governance Platform December

Proposal 2021
By

Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

Professor and Head of the Department
Computer Science and Engineering
CMR Institute of Technology, Bengaluru
Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shreekanthprabhu/
 Good Governance 2
प्रजासुखे सुखं राज्ञः प्रजानां च हिते हितम् ।
नात्महप्रयं हितं राज्ञः प्रजानां तु हप्रयं हितम् ॥ अर्थशास्त्रः १.१९.४३ ॥

Chapter 19 titled राजप्रणिण िः - duties of the king in Arthashastra of Kautilya

The happiness of the king is in the happiness of the people,
his welfare is in the welfare of the people.
The welfare of the king lies not in what he desires, but what his subjects desire.

Mahatma Gandhi propounded the concept of “Su-raj” and according to him “Good governance”
has the following eight attributes, which link it to its Citizens: 1) Accountable 2) Transparent 3)
Responsive 4) Equitable and inclusive 5) Effective & Efficient 6) Follows the rule of law 7)
Participatory and 8) Consensus oriented

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

 Governance Vocabulary 3

• Governance: General approach of Government towards core governance, development and

welfare of people.
• E-Governance: Electronic Governance. Here processes of Governance are automated towards
better delivery
• Good Governance: Best practices in Governance using appropriate models and policies. This goes
hand in hand with social change. Good Governance is human-centric compared to E-Governance
which is process-centric.
• Digital Governance: An approach to Governance which makes use of digital technologies in a
systematic manner with appropriate architectural framework, innovative technical solutions by
keeping in mind concerns related to information governance and need to operate in appropriate
legal and policy framework.

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

 Motivation 4

• Over the last few years, India has made phenomenal advance in deploying digital
identity in the form of Aadhaar as well as in adoption of digital payments. Many
processes of Governance are already digital.
• In this context, India now has a phenomenal opportunity to be a global leader in Digital
Governance.
• An overarching Digital Governance Platform is an essential prerequisite for such an
aspiration which can unify disparate applications and point solutions.
• Government needs to leverage the power of information to analyze status of economy
and society, set goals and design, implement and monitor appropriate interventions
based on data/evidence which can realize good governance.

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

 Market Trends 5

1. There continues to be interest in solutions that give a unified view of information. Recent
foray of IBM Into Data Lakes is one such development.
2. Knowledge-Graphs are making a re-entry into discourse in academia as well popular press.

3. Information utility is a natural successor computing utilities

4. Process Mining and Distributed Ledgers also are about taking a system level view.

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

Reimagining Economic Development 6

Digital Governance
can cater to all the
four corner-stones

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

 Digital Governance Opportunity 7

• Lack of quality information to assess how society/economy is doing is an

inhibitor to good governance. Compare this to USA which could track how
consumers spend money on day to day post quantitative easing.
• Lack of information on informal sector leads to guess work in economic metrics
and assessing level of unemployment.
• Inability to link different types of information across sources make it easy to
commit frauds, evade taxes and so on.
• Better understanding of society can enable us to assess how they respond to
new ideas
• India has got good success in digitizing personal Identity dimension, now we
can cater to more dimensions and link information to gain insights.

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

 Proposal 8

• We propose development of Tantra Digital Governance Platform(TDGP) that

digitally represents all aspects of societal information in the context of
Governance.
• We propose use of Tantra Ontological Framework to develop such a platform
• Current platforms considered by MEITY such as IndEA have operational and
process focus.
• Platforms such as E-Pragati have focus on unifying citizen-facing point solutions.
• Tantra Digital Governance Platform has a holistic approach towards Good
Governance with societal focus.

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

 E-Governance Pillars 9

• E-Services: Efficient provision of G2C (Government to Citizen) services through

automation and business process re-engineering.
• E-Participation: Participation of Citizens in the process of Governance through
suggestions, complaints and inputs for policy formulation
• E-Democracy: Using electronic means such as E-voting, online petitions and referendums
to further democracy using electronic means
• E-Management: Management of back-end processes of Governance using automation

So far lot of Focus on E-Services end but not adequate focus

on higher layers in particular E-Management
Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu
 Proposed E-Governance Maturity Model 10

Tantra Digital
OPTIMIZING
Governance Platform Deep Analysis of Governance
Information

MANAGED
Comprehensive
Current E-Governance Governance Metrics
Solutions DEFINED
Processes change
based on citizen
inputs

REPEATABLE
Reliable Online
Services

INITIAL
Static Department
Web-sites Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu
How Information can help in Good Governance 11
Right objectives,
priorities
interventions and
targets

Well-designed
Outcome Analysis & Fairness in policies Policies
refinement of Time-bound Services Programs
interventions Projects

Greater
communication,
Responsiveness,
transparency and
accountability

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

 Tantra Social Information Management
Framework(TIMF) 12

Aspects
Perspectives Who Where When What How Why Relator Relationship Separation

Contextual

Conceptual

Logical

Physical

Detailed

Extended the Zachman Framework by adding three additional columns Relationships, Relators and Separations
Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu
 Tantra Social Information Management
Framework(TSIMF) 13
Aspect Mapping
Who People, Households and Businesses
Where Address, Location, Zone, Jurisdiction, Electoral Constituency District, State,
Country
When Event (Lifecycle) and other events
What Asset, Artifact, Income, Benefit, Tax
How Operational Process, Governance Process, Policy Intervention and sub-
processes
Why Goals, Objectives, Measures and Metrics
Relator Institutions –private, public and Government. Relator can bridge/worsen
separation
Relationship Residency, Citizenship, Employment, Marriage, Education – any thing that
links aspects
Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu
Separation Financial, Informational, Temporal and Spatial as well as knowledge/capability
that keeps citizen away from accessing what he needs.
 Reification of People using Tantra Framework 14
Perspective All people Citizens Residents Resident Aliens Resident Citizens
Named All the people People who People who are People who are Resident Citizens
(Identified & known and to be are citizens residents resident but alien
Contextualized) known to the
framework.
Defined What makes one a Concept of What makes one What makes one a What makes one a
(Conceptually member of this Citizenship a member of this member of this member of this
Structured) domain/role domain/role domain/role domain/role
Logically Related attributes Related Related Related attributes Related attributes
Designed that map to other attributes attributes that that map to other that map to other
aspects. that map to map to other aspects. aspects.
other aspects aspects.
Configured Representation in Representati Representation in Representation in Representation in
Graph database as on in Graph Graph database Graph database as Graph database as
nodes and edges. database as as nodes and nodes and edges. nodes and edges.
nodes and edges.
edges.
Instantiated Instantiate with Instantiate Instantiate with Instantiate with Instantiate with
unique ID. with unique unique ID. unique ID. unique ID.
ID.
Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu
 Persons Categorized in Variety of ways
(indicative) 15
As per As Beneficiaries As Privilege- As per Duties
classification Holders
• Students • Ration-card holders • Voters • Income tax
• Farmers • MGNREGA • Driving payees
• Retirees beneficiaries License • Indirect tax
• Widows • LPG subsidy Holders payees
• Employed beneficiaries • Passport • Professional tax
• Self-Employed • Fertilizer subsidy Holders payees
• Housewives beneficiaries • Property • Property tax,
• Communities • Mid-day Meal Holders transaction fees
beneficiaries • Vehicle • Vehicle tax
• Education Quota Owners • Customs duties
• Employment Quota

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

 Relators and Relationships 16
Driving License Voting PDS
Named Name of the Name of the Name of the Name of the Name of the Name of the idea
(Identified) idea and idea and idea and context idea and idea and and context for
context for context for for relationship context for context for relator
relationship relator relator relationship
Defined Concept of Role of the Concept of the Role of the Concept of Role of the
(Conceptually the Privilege relator Privilege relator benefit relator
Structured)

Logically Related Related Related Related Related Related

Designed Attributes Attributes Attributes Attributes Attributes/steps Attributes/steps
to measure to measure
Configured Schema Schema Schema Schema Schema Schema
Instantiated Instantiate Instantiate Instantiate with Instantiate Instantiate with Instantiate with
with unique with unique ID unique ID with unique unique ID unique ID
ID ID

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

 Tantra Good Governance Framework(TGGF) 17

The Goals are captured under “Why” aspect, Intervention under

“How” aspect and separations under “Separations” aspect

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 Applying Bartels’ Theory of Separations 18
Type of
Description
Separation
Spatial Health-Center, School, Ration Shop or such a facility which may be termed as relators are not close
enough.
Financial Here even if spatial separation is bridged the financial condition is such that a person cannot make use of
the facility. These issues may be not having the money to pay any add-on costs
Informational Even though Government has all kinds of schemes, the information about them is not circulated widely
enough.
Temporal For many of the schemes enrollment or utilization windows may be small and people may not get right
information at the right time.
Capability A particular policy of Government may create certain kinds of job opportunities but people may not have
the right capability to make use of them
Cultural Here even though people may have the required proficiency, they may not have the right work culture or
professionalism or ability to communicate across cultures.
Social Some separations can be grouped as Social. Say belonging to educated class or urban class of people.

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

 Tantra Digital Governance Framework(TDGF) 19

Information
Champions
configure the
framework.

Information
Agents populate
the framework

Tantra Digital Governance Framework contextualizes Tantra Good Governance Framework in

broader digital Governance Architecture by leveraging ideas from TM Forum’s Frameworx
Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu
 Tantra Framework Development using Neo4J
Graph Database 20

• Tantra Framework is developed using Neo4J Graph Database. Some of

the unique features of Neo4J are given below.
• Neo4J allows nodes to be labeled with multiple labels. This is useful to
associate an entity with domain(set) and roles(subset), recursively.
• Neo4J allows realtionships to have properties and multiple edges
between same two nodes in a given graph.
• The advantages of using Neo4j include minute-to-milliseconds
performance, accelerated development cycles, high business
responsiveness and Enterprise Readiness.

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

 Tantra Framework Typical Application
Scenarios 21

• Master Networks(Master Data • Threat Analytics

Management related)
• Revenue Capture
• Social Sector Analysis
• Financial Inclusion
• Metrics Analysis
• Fraud Analytics
• Trade Analytics
• E-Participation
• E-Democracy
• Public Policy Analytics

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

 Tantra Framework Application Landscape 22

Digital
Flexible Balanced Currency
Knowledge Social Benefit Live Census
Development (Patent Application
Management Plan Filed)

Identity Analysis of Digital

Property Tax Balanced
Management Agricultural Voting
Capture Growth Ecosystem

Managing Intelligent PDS using

Electoral Social Metrics Blockchain
Rolls Banking Analysis

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

Adjacent applications
 Social Benefit Analysis Case Study: Flexible
Social Benefit Plan and Fairness 23

• We need to question current social benefit schemes regard to

efficacy. Is the Government spending the money optimally? Do
people get what they need?
• Flexible Social Benefit Plan (FSBP) scheme intends to fairly
distribute social benefits as per the chosen needs of individuals
and families and save costs for the Government while getting
better outcomes for the people.

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

 Operationalizing Tantra Framework for FSBP 24
Topic Remarks
#
1 Issues in the current system Lack of clarity on how effective the Social Sector Schemes in meeting are need of people. The
information is distributed in silos. No unified view and lack of easy “what if” analysis.
2 Change Agents Government bodies that handle policy, legal aspects, execution all the way to last mile. The
shops/relators that beneficiaries interact with.
3. Desired Change The people should have flexibility to pick and choose benefits nudging them to use high-value benefits
in lieu of cashing out sustenance benefits. The Government should see greater value from its
expenditure.
4 List of Services to be built using Tantra Framework FSBP Card Service with points loaded that can be configured with sub-head limits across categories.
5 Strategic Alignment between Objectives and services The services can facilitate economic, educational and social mobility of people. If things succeed more
(How these services meet the objectives) and more benefits can be configured under FSBP.
6 Design of change Process with Purpose Using Tantra Framework broad social data from formal and informal sources is collected and this can
help validate the need, pilot and scale out the change process and finally evaluate the outcome of
FSBP.
7 Transition Process Current processes should give way to services that are built on the framework with ability to seed and
validate data about people and build the eco-system of relators, consumers and suppliers.
8 Operational aspects and organizing actors/Institutions An organization needs to be set up that can co-ordinate the design, implementation and roll-out of
FSBP process.
9 Process
Copyright:for
Dr.collecting
Shreekanth feedback
M Prabhu Feedback from all stakeholders can be collected and shared as appropriate. Feedback should be used
to achieve continuous service improvement.
10 Training Plan The officials and people need to be trained with online material as well as off-line programs.
11 Future Roadmap The FSBP scope can be increased. A cash component can be introduced in the lines of UBC.
 Modelling FSBP using Tantra Framework 25
Sr. No. Aspect Remarks

1 People Here the data on beneficiaries and the classifications they belong to is stored. This may be based on rural/urban, age-groups,
castes, income levels, gender and so on. Different groups may find different kind of benefits valuable at different points in time.

2 Locations, Zones The consumption behavior has cultural connotations. The benefits extended to citizens can be configured differently based on
locality. For example, certain districts traditionally use grains other than Rice and Wheat. Some localities may be prone to
illness.

3 Events The transactional events of claiming benefits as well as events pertaining to availability of benefits. Recruitment of new relators
and availability of food grains can be tracked as events. Some change markers are treated as events. For example, moving over
from Kerosene subsidy to LPG or cash completely for a given area or group of people.

4 Attributes Attributes of beneficiaries. Attributes of benefits, relators all can be tracked here. Quality may be an issue in certain areas.

5 Process FSBP as a theory of change process can be tracked under process. This is detailed earlier in the implementation chapter.

6 Objective Use of FSBP, satisfaction among citizens, cost savings, mobility indicators as seen by the choice of benefits.

7 Relator All actors in the process other than beneficiaries are tracked as relators.
8 Relationships The relationships between different aspects
9 Separations Lot of higher order subsidies such as transport, loan, education and health-care are not available to the poor as either they do
Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu not consume adequately or face other kinds of separations. A Primary Health-Center may be accessible but may have poor
 Analysis of FSBP Case 26
# Aspect Remarks
1 People Analysis can be made using criteria such as fairness. Is the distribution of benefits fair and equitable and is it as
per the need of people? Is there leakage and waste in one place and when there is unfulfilled need somewhere
else.
2 Locations, Zones Analysis based on relator zones, backward and forward districts can be done. This can be used to target the
benefits better.
3 Events Events can be analysed to understand acceptance of new scheme as well as timeliness of process.

4 Attributes Attributes can be analysed prior to the launch of process and after the institution of process to assess the
difference.
5 Process Analysis may be made on blockers to process and if technical, policy or process issues come in the way. The change
management process, authentication process, etc. can be fine-tuned. Feedback from people and civil society can
be analysed.
6 Objective Objectives at various levels can be analysed to assess the effectiveness of the changed process. Effectiveness of
targeting and impact on the overall economy can be analysed.
7 Relator Analysis of how well relators perform. This includes Government Offices, officials, online portals, process
documents and so on.
8 Relationships Every new ‘fact” can be stored as relationships among different aspects. Each relationship in turn may make use of
other relationships.
9 Separations All the different separations – spatial, temporal, financial, informational and capability can be analysed that come
in the way of FSBP.
Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu
 Metrics Tantra Framework can monitor 27
Metric Description
Poverty Level Number of Poor who have income below poverty line (income level) per thousand.
Inequality The people’s income distribution can be done as per quantiles. For every thousand people, the income ranges in different quantiles can be computed.
Genie Index is another way to measure inequality
Unemployment Number of people who are not employed per thousand. This may count only those who are part of formal economy or include self-employed as well as
those who have irregular employment. This can be looked at along with the wage data to separate out those who are only notionally employed.
Further analysis can include whether people are productively employed or not – here people get wages on paper without doing any useful work.
Productivity This is ratio of output vs input. Output may be tasks completed say in Employment Guarantee scheme. The input could be hour or the wage/per.
Access Metric The number of people per thousand in a given context who have access to a particular service maybe through relator. This may include PDS grains,
electricity, water, health-facility, education and so on. These are basic necessities that ideally everybody should have

Separation Metric
Macro-economic metrics
Governance Metrics
Longitudinal Studies
These pertain to opportunities for further growth through participation in markets. Typical separations are spatial, temporal, informational and
Financial. Certain separations are related to capability to make use of opportunities. This metric can be done per thousand people and aggregated
upwards.
These pertain to GDP, per-capita income, Capitalization, Competitiveness, Tax-GDP Ratio, Debt-to-GDP ratio, Sector-wise spends as percentage of GDP.
Tantra Framework can assist computation as well as validation of these metrics using the Social Information in the Framework
Different Governance Processes and schemes can be tracked for their effectiveness using Leanness and Agility indices. This may point to the processes
that have too many steps? and steps/sub-processes which take too long. They also can point to issues with specific relators and Government
Departments. Equally important to track if Government Processes are fair using Fairness Index Metric which can be computed using beneficiary data
from Social Benefit Analysis.
Tantra Framework can assist studies over long periods of time to assess economic and social mobility of the society to Customer (Citizen, Community
and Business) Perspective as well as behavioral changes/shifts that are important for Learning & Growth perspective.

Targeting Tantra framework can help target an intervention to a specific micro-segment that badly needs it. For example, compensation to crop damages get
widely distributed whereas those who badly need it don’t get enough. Targeting can help get around class imbalance problems.

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

 Good Governance Index Computation (Example) 28

Maslow’s Motivation Typical Indicators of No of People Weight for Level Maximum

Level fulfillment /Thousand who the Level Score Score
have achieved this
Physiological Shelter, Salary 400 0.3 120 300
Safety Financial Security, Safe 200 0.3 60 300
Neighbourhood
Love/Belonging Community Support 600 0.1 60 100
Esteem Social, economic and 100 0.2 20 200
educational mobility
Self-Actualization Recognition in Society 50 0.1 5 100
on account of any
achievement.
Total Score 265 1000

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

 Economics and Tantra Framework 29

• Tantra Framework can be used to study/validate/implement economic

models example: Balanced Growth
• Tantra Framework can act as an anchor to model, analyze and
operationalize new policies say related to Farm Sector or Social Sector.
• Tantra Framework can assist in management of schemes such as
Ayushman Bharat.
• Tantra Framework can be customized to a specific context say handling
urban management for smart-city.
• Tantra Framework can be used as an important construct for
development economics as well as micro-economics while aggregating
useful information for macro-economics.
Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu
 Linking Digilocker with other applications 30

As more and more

applications get Tantra-
Enabled, pool of common
master-data and meta-data
gets further enriched
enabling high value analytics.

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

 Comparing Frameworks
Tantra
Focused on Good Governance
and not just E-Government
Leverages Common Societal
Information, builds on Zachman
Framework
Digital Governance, Good
Governance and Information
Management concerns
addressed in a conceptually
coherent manner
Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu
31
E-Pragati IndEA
Models State Government Takes off from Enterprise
stakeholder concerns in a Architecture Frameworks to
guide application
comprehensive manner development efforts across
the Government
Looks at how Government
can be run efficiently Uses TOGAF
Information and
Well-grounded and exhibits Communication needs across
understanding of applications not handled from
operational issues a common vantage point.
 Conclusions 32

• Tantra Digital Governance Platform can serve as Lynchpin of Digital Governance

Strategy for India.
• TDGP needs to be architected with a strict information governance regime with
access and configuration rights.
• TDGP can inter-operate with solutions such as event ledgers that cut across
governance land-scape.
• TDGP is useful to State and Central Government, bodies such as NITI Aayog, RBI,
SEBI, NPCI and Ecosystem participants with requisite information sharing
protocols. It can be useful for Urban bodies as well.
• TDGP can be particularly useful to Government of India with additional
interfaces to policy planners, economists and social scientists.

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

 Publications 33

1. S.M. Prabhu, K.N.B. Murthy,. & S. Natarajan, Validating Tantra Framework using Entropy,, N. Soc. Netw.
Anal. Min. (2019) 9: 18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-019-0562-1
2. S.M. Prabhu, K.N.B. Murthy,. & S. Natarajan,Transforming India’s Electoral Democracy using Tantra
Framework, CSIT (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40012-019-00220-3
3. S.M. Prabhu, K.N.B. Murthy,. & S. Natarajan, Knowledge Management using Ontology Based Tantra
Framework for Good Governance, SRELS Journal of Information Management, Vol 55(6), December 2018, p.
299-308 , : DOI: 10.17821/srels/2018/v55i6/137988
4. S.M. Prabhu, K.N.B. Murthy,. & S. Natarajan, Balanced Development using Ontology-Based Tantra
Framework, SRELS Journal of Information Management, SRELS Journal of Information Management, Volume
56, Issue 1, February 2019, DoI: 10.17821/srels/2019/v56i1/139518
5. S.M. Prabhu, K.N.B. Murthy,. & S. Natarajan, Balanced Growth using Ontology-based Tantra Framework,,
SRELS Journal of Information Management, SRELS Journal of Information Management, Volume 56, Issue 4,
August 2019,DoI:
DOI: 10.17821/srels/2019/v56i4/145577
6. S.M. Prabhu, K.N.B. Murthy,. & S. Natarajan,Intelligent Social Banking using Tantra Framework, April 2019,
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8701399
7. S.M. Prabhu, K.N.B. Murthy,. & S. Natarajan, Revenue Capture using Ontology-based Tantra Framework,
International Journal of Management, Technology and Engineering , Volume 8, Issue no.3, December 2018
(ISSN No.
Copyright: Dr.2249-7455 http://ijamtes.org/gallery/170-dec.pdf
Shreekanth M Prabhu

8. S.M. Prabhu, Information Management Framework for Good Governance, ADCOM 2017, held on September
9-10, 2017 at IIIT Bangalore. Published in IEEE Explore, April 2019.
 Publications
34

9. S.M. Prabhu, K.N.B. Murthy,. & S. Natarajan, Identity Management using Ontology-based Tantra Framework, September
15,2020 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9197922
10. S.M. Prabhu & S. Natarajan, Transforming India’s Social Sector using Ontology-based Tantra Framework, published in Springer
Lecture Notes, August 2021, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-981-16-0882-7_69
11. S.M.Prabhu, Good Governance Model, 2017, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325544499_Good_Governance_Model
12. S.M.Prabhu. Aadhaar and After”, March 2017, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/aadhaar-after-shreekanth-m-prabhu/
13. S. M. Prabhu, Can we replace subsidies with Social Benefits?, August 17 2015, https://swarajyamag.com/economics/can-we-
think-of-replacing-the-subsidy-regime-with-a-flexible-social-benefit-plan
14. S.M Prabhu & S. Natarajan, Analysis of Indian Agricultural Ecosystem using Knowledge-based Tantra Framework, 13 October
2021, https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.09297

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

Contact 35

• Email: shreekanthpm@gmail.com, Shreekanth.p@cmrit.ac.in

• Phone: +91-9880479148
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/shreekanthprabhu/

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu

 36

Thank You

Copyright: Dr. Shreekanth M Prabhu