In the world of the 21st century where despite the globalisation the world is fragmented arises a new challenge of defining the idea of citizenship. It is not just about your identity but most importantly the sense of security and belonginess. This is where the role of the corporate soft power plays a very important role for the development of the organizational strength that can leverage the brand of a nation beyond the dynamics of politics. This is exactly what is emphasized in this chapter. The idea is now to keep it operating at a level where the focus can be put forth in terms of the future globalization role which has already been set for a long time. This can be seen in the terms of expanse of Samsung from South Korea, Apple-Google-Facebook-Amazon-Netflix from USA across the world using cultural soft power for national brand leverage which has been evolving over time.
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The deliverance of the citizenship services in the form of consumer services is what defines the experiences of people. Citizenship oriented services can be seen in the form of various attributions which are found in the contemporary world. Proper citizenship-oriented services and its delivery needs to be introspected in the form of retail services and its delivery. A case in point can be certain examples from India in the form of basic government services that are delivered the through retail points. The first example could be seen in the form of biometric card much like Social Security of USA. India with a billion plus population had always had the challenge of providing even basic services to its citizens in the form of a time delivery a big hassle. Aadhar card the name given to social security card system in India was delivered to 99.99 percent of Indians in the form of a retail service point. Post offices, retail stores, bank outlets, government outposts all got involved in the form of delivering the documentation. Here in this example the role of technology and governance both came up. The facilitation of services with the help of technology and governance in the form of retail points like citizenship services is now the changing dynamic (Lee & Lee, 2021). The diversity of people and the sheer number being distributed through the nearest retail like outlets which are government owned or operated speaks of the volume of the idea that how citizenship services need to have everyone on board.
Next in terms of the developmental policies, if one can find it accessible what better way to go ahead with public policy deliverables in the easiest possible manner. The development of everyone is critical in the world of crafting nation brand especially with a lack of literature in sufficient context. Policies by nations are generally crafted for the welfare of the citizens but what about the delivery. Access to the points of service differentiates a country in terms of development, happiness and prosperity. The paper is just at the beginning of the theoretical underpinnings trying to forge ahead with empirical studies in process. The results of which will not be discussed here as the paper is yet to go into that direction in terms of the sampling, results as well as the future ways. Getting back to the theoretical approach the case study examples will be the best way to move ahead. Apart from Aadhar card, another example is the banking account operation policy that happened in India under the Jan Dhan Banking Scheme (People’s Wealth Banking Scheme). Banking access in the form of mobile vans, rural post banks, village administration which operated as micro units. These micro units are in the form of retail points which actually works for delivering the experience. The above two examples were focused on the accessibility and the ease of getting the services. Now if we move to the quality, comfort and the delivery time of certain citizen services it will get new direction.
Delivery and addition of citizenship services in the world of technology has become more seamless and easier to deliver. The example of the social security card in the form of Aadhar card and Direct Benefit Transfer were mentioned in the form of citizen services that were distributed in the form of retail offerings from retail service outlets. The advanced/developed countries in the form of resilient citizen services which functioned even during the times of the pandemic was all based on access points and the deliverability. This brings us to another example which can wrap the ideas of the retailing concept of citizenship services would be passport services. The evolution of passport services in the form of application to delivery and its ease, comfort and the transparency of the process in India is worth mentioning. Also considering the fact that the application for Indian passports range in the millions every year. The process is now controlled by the private information technology service company. However, the purpose of mentioning the passport services from Indian context is that it still operated seamlessly even during pandemic. It became possible because of the retail-oriented service delivery points which are known as passport seva kendras. It has become much easier with the access of information and the role of technology. Here this example is not being backed with theoretical framework but this helps us to draw inferences about what exactly the evolution of citizenship services means.