The Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who will soon assume leadership of the Electoral Commission, talks about how there is scope to be ‘revolutionary’ even in a security-conscious environment.
Effective this month, Vijay Rangarajan will take up a new post as chief executive of the Election Commission, overseeing the operation of local and national electoral processes that will have to contend with threats in the coming months. expected to play a role. Disinformation and deepfakes.
But this is hardly an upgrade in responsibilities from his current post as Director-General of the National Development Agency, with responsibility for Afghanistan, Pakistan, the British Overseas Territories, the Middle East and North Africa. The division works on energy, climate and the environment and serves as a board-level champion for digital, data and technology.
In addition, Mr Rangarajan was previously the UK Ambassador to Brazil, and before that was responsible for the FCDO’s work on the Brexit referendum and subsequent negotiations. Early in his career, he held positions in the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Justice, focusing on political and constitutional reform and the UK’s democratic process.
public technology We are pleased to be working with the Cabinet Office’s Central Digital Data Office on this ongoing project. Download the digital reader A series of interviews with some of the most prominent figures in government in areas such as digital, data and technology.
So far, recently retired digital chief executive Megan Leigh Devlin, former head of the Prison and Probation Service Joe Farrar, national statistician Sir Ian Diamond and the Treasury We have published an interview with Mr. Catt, who is the second director and will soon become the leader of the Cabinet Office.Mostly, this article features the recent discussion between former CDDO Secretary and Rangarajan (Both photos above).
Megan Lee Devlin: You have been a strong driver of digital transformation at the FCDO, including representing the digital agenda on the executive committee. What do you see as your role as a digital leader?
Vijay Rangarajan: We need to spend more and more time enabling the right conversations within senior governance, including how technology is changing our business models.
We are a huge target, so at the FCDO we are very security conscious for a number of reasons. As a team, we need to balance security and digital transformation. Make sure you have the right capabilities to look ahead and make sure you have the right structures in place to enable digital transformation.
Approximately 70% of our time is spent getting the basics right, such as cloud-based international IT structures that allow people to collaborate anywhere in the world during crises such as Gaza and the COVID-19 pandemic. I’m spending a lot of time on that. That was a big change for us.
We can only evolve by 20%. For example, leverage the data you have access to and share it to make a difference.
10% is something more revolutionary that actually changes the way we work: disruption. That will eventually confuse everyone. We want to embrace it, actively utilize it, and change our own business models.
MLD: In that space, towards the more revolutionary end of the spectrum, what excites you most about the role of digital and data in transforming the way we work?
VR: There are three themes that speak very clearly to us. There is a lot of data that can help improve efficiency. Second, we can change the way we interact with people. People live digitally and the way we interact needs to evolve. And third, internally, we know how digital can make processes easier and more efficient.
When your job is to influence, it’s also very interesting to know what people are thinking and understand what their stories are. Social media analysis can now be automated and is much more responsive.
Data in a broader sense means thinking about what data you have, what data you want to collect, and what will be useful in the future. Digital twin mapping is especially important if you are trying to map the stability or importance of a conflict, for example. There’s also a lot of things in the climate and energy space where this could really help. Obviously, the world of climate science is very good at this, and its modeling is very good. But how do we actually use that to protect against water scarcity? Or do we take the leap from there and compile all the indicators of stability in a given region, such as migration and weather patterns? Is not it?
Very frequent experimentation is required. I don’t think we’re there yet. I don’t think people experiment enough or encourage people to experiment.
Mr.Vijay Rangarajan, FCDO
MLD: What are you particularly proud of in terms of what you and your team have achieved through digital and data?
VR: A good example is the coronation of a king, which draws a large number of people from all over the world. The logistics were incredibly complicated. Flights, security, cars, everything had to be coordinated, and I believe this was the first time it was done digitally. The entire process was automated, arrivals and departures were tracked, and it worked.
As part of the FCO and Department for International Development (DFID) integration, we completed the UK Government’s first secure cloud-to-cloud migration, consolidating all users and their data onto a single platform. Collaboration between teams is essential, especially during a global crisis.
FCDO’s Data and Analysis Center – We are looking at the language process for data use and what kind of data we need. This helps move resources to where they are needed.
Finally, we are a highly differentiated and complex organization. The scale is huge, from planning for climate change emissions to massive compounds in Islamabad and complex missions in Doha and Kabul. So how do we measure our carbon footprint? What is the most effective way to decarbonize? What do we do for old, beautiful buildings like the one here on King Charles Street? Can we do it? What are the cost factors? Until we understand our carbon footprint and think about what is the most cost-effective way to reduce it, how can we use digital and data? We have a lot.
MLD: We’re tackling both the problems we have today and the problems that are becoming increasingly incendiary platforms. Looking further ahead, if we fast forward to 2025, what would you like to achieve in the digital and data space?
VR: This space will forever evolve, iterate, and iterate. Therefore, you need to experiment very often. I don’t think we’re there yet. I don’t think people experiment enough or encourage people to experiment. By 2025, we will have better systems to be more aware of what’s going on in our departments, share best practices, and provide an environment that fosters experimentation. The FCDO hopes that by having a large-scale data model up and running, it will be able to establish the next stage in how consular services are conducted. And I’d like to see more and more automation of the processes that we’re doing now. And by 2025, we want to actually implement one of our “disruptive” ideas…
Check out more interviews in our Digital Reader download series.
Check out our interview with Lee Devlin. The department’s biggest legacies include his de-risking, unlocking £8bn of technology investment and insight into the rollout of the government’s three-year digital strategy so far. Or, here, former UK Prisons and Probation Service Commissioner Jo, who shares her thoughts on virtual reality and the potential of AI, and why it’s time for civil servants to stop embracing her outdated IT. You can read her discussion with Farrah here. The discussion between Leigh Devlin and national statistician Professor Sir Ian Diamond follows the ONS chief’s discussion of how data can provide “answers that could only be dreamed of almost 20 years ago”. You can read it here, including some insights. The outgoing CDDO Secretary also met with Cat Little, Second Permanent Secretary of the Treasury Department. In an interview shortly before she was announced as her new civil service chief operating officer, Little spoke about how policy and digital can be combined to deliver “fundamental” new outcomes. Told..