Journal of Advances in Developmental Research

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From Watchtowers to Welfare: The Ethical Trade-offs of AI Surveillance in India's Sustainable Governance Agenda

Author(s) Lt. Dr. Kongala Sukumar
Country India
Abstract India's public administration is undergoing a rapid, technology-led transformation in which artificial intelligence (AI) is deployed simultaneously as an instrument of welfare delivery and as a mechanism of population surveillance. Biometric identification, facial recognition, predictive policing, and algorithmic targeting of beneficiaries have converged into what this paper terms a "watchtower-welfare" governance model, in which the state's capacity to see its citizens is inseparable from its capacity to serve them. Drawing on Bentham's panopticon and Foucault's theory of disciplinary power, this paper develops a conceptual framework for analysing the ethical trade-offs embedded in AI-enabled governance, and situates these trade-offs within India's sustainable governance agenda and its commitments under the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Using documentary analysis of policy instruments, case evidence on Aadhaar-linked welfare exclusion, facial recognition deployments, and smart city surveillance infrastructure, the paper identifies four recurring tensions: privacy versus service delivery, efficiency versus equity, security versus liberty, and centralisation versus accountability. The paper concludes that sustainable governance in the AI era requires embedding proportionality, purpose limitation, and participatory oversight into surveillance-linked welfare architecture, rather than treating ethics as an afterthought to technological deployment.
Keywords Artificial intelligence, surveillance, sustainable governance, welfare state, Aadhaar, algorithmic ethics, India, public administration.
Published In Volume 13, Issue 2, July-December 2022
Published On 2022-12-03
DOI https://doi.org/10.71097/IJAIDR.v13.i2.2109
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Crossref DOI prefix of IJAIDR is 10.71097/IJAIDR

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