Ajit, one of Bollywood’s favourite yesteryear villains, was best known for his dialogue delivery. The characters he portrayed were so outrageously wicked that they required much more than the paraphernalia of ordinary villains to consummate them.

For instance, he had one of his victims ordered to be put in “liquid oxygen so that the liquid wouldn’t let him live and the oxygen will not allow him to die.”

Weird ideas can only be expressed through equally bizarre imageries.

The era of internet and social networking has likewise created unusual concepts, which have given a new dimension to words of common usage.

We now hear about “liquid information”, which we are told is way beyond both liquid and information, as Ajit’s villains would have assumed. Liquid information, as implied in today’s age, is similar to a liquid market and has the potential to bring down the established order and change the course of history.

Liquid information is a powerful tool in the hands of those who receive it as they can share, use or act on it for a larger purpose. The consultancy firm McKinsey has undertaken a study titled ‘Open Data: Unlocking information and performance with liquid information’, which seeks to put the issue in perspective.

McKinsey points out how free markets and free societies thrive on the free exchange of information. Transparency of market prices and of government operations are the foundations of efficiency and integrity, encouraging participation by market players and citizens, and spurring new ideas and innovations. It argues that today, with massive computing power and data analytics, it is possible to make open digital information ‘liquid’ and shareable to an unprecedented degree.

Liquid information was in focus the other day in Dubai when the World Economic Forum launched its ‘Future of Government Smart Tool box’ report, where the UAE government was commended for winning the trust of citizens by successfully incorporating advanced technology to improve government performance and adopting innovative solutions.

In fact, of the 30 case studies cited in the report, three are from the UAE. These include the rise of Dubai as a smart city, the UAE e-borders project and the bright future for city states like Dubai and Singapore. It showered wholesome praise on the UAE for its leadership and direction to make use of new technologies in achieving more effective delivery of services.

The report notes the speed of change currently visible in the world requires a new thinking on the part of governments and the UAE is clearly one that has taken this challenge seriously and earned the trust of its citizens.

Public sector leaders around the world face a daunting challenge to deliver good governance in the 21st century. They are under increasing pressure to deliver more and better services to a growing urbanised population, and to manage complex issues — from macro-economic uncertainty to international conflicts — in an environment of diminishing trust in government and increasing bureaucratic complexity.

Technology has brought in a paradigm shift in the process of governance and has redefined the social contract between the government and the citizen. The government dominance over citizens was based on the consideration that it knew more about what was best for their welfare. But today the governed know as much as the governors do and this has made civic participation in decision-making processes vitally important.

The report notes that in the wake of the global financial crisis, trust in government has fallen to historic lows, with the US being among the worst affected. According to the report, three characteristics of citizen trust have important implications for government: trust is not static as it can change quickly and dramatically; trust varies significantly across countries and surveys; and trust has fallen over time.