Paper short abstract:

Big data in two Indian public service organisations - electricity and transportation - is delivering value more at operational than strategic level. It facilitates upward and outward shifts in power, and changes "imaginaries" that enable political agendas to be advanced.

Paper long abstract:

Primary research into datafication - growing presence and application of data - in processes of international development, has so far been limited. This paper presents field study of big data in two state-level Indian public service organisations. In the electricity case, big data derives from installation of hundreds of thousands of digital meters. In the bus transportation case, big data derives from installation of thousands of vehicle tracking systems and electronic ticketing machines. Implementation in both cases has been delayed and problematic; in part arising from gaps between design assumptions and contextual realities. However, both systems are operational and datafication is having an impact.

Organisational value from datafication - understood here via the information value chain model - arises from changes to decision-making processes. This value is emerging more strongly at present at the operational than tactical and strategic levels of decision-making.

However, datafication is also entangling with organisational power and wider politics, given the politicised nature of public services in India. Big data is facilitating a shift in the configuration of internal power; upwards from labour to management, and from middle to central management. It is also associated with some power shift from public service organisations to the private firms that run the big data systems.

More broadly, big data interacts with politics by changing the "imaginaries" of wider stakeholders. It offers a veneer of modernity for vocal middle-class consumers. For managers and politicians, it offers a new vision of public services through which particular agendas and interests can be advanced.