The use of information technology in public administration is seen as a significant tool for improving efficiency, transparency and accountability in governance. We study the use of various forms of IT, such as computerisation, public management information systems, digital ID and biometrics in the social security pension programme in Andhra Pradesh. IT interventions need to be unbundled in their evaluations since our analysis concludes that there is no automatic link between the use of IT and enhanced transparency or accountability, and the use of IT may reinforce existing power imbalances.
