Why can't India build a decent visa website, asks The Economist. Indians respond

Summary

A sharply worded column by The Economist criticising India's government websites, particularly its online visa portal, has triggered an equally spirited debate on social media, drawing reactions from politicians, journalists, entrepreneurs and technology commentators. The opinion was expressed in Ashoka, the weekly column of The Economist dedicated to India. The piece opens with a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that readers should "grab a glass of water and 1,000mg of paracetamol" before attempting to navigate India's visa application website. NCP (SP) spokesperson Anish Gawande used the piece to criticise India's digital governance. "This is the state of Digital India ," he wrote, adding that "a ninth-standard student with Claude Code would probably vibe code a better website than the e-visa website (and, honestly, most government websites)." Indian-American entrepreneur and Hotmail co-founder, Sabeer Bhatia, also weighed in, calling it "a broken system," and adding, "No wonder India is falling behind some African countries. "How come The Economist notices this obvious problem in India, but millions of Indian software engineers don't complain or fix it?" he wrote. Journalist Pranav Dixit, responded with a pointed comparison, writing, "Has anyone at The Economist ever tried booking a US visa on usvisascheduling.com?" Some people argued against The Economist, saying their experience with the Indian government's visa website had been smooth. Perhaps the editorial team needs to review their Internet/browser literacy skills before taking a potshot at the e-visa site?" asked Karthik Subramanian, a startup co-founder. "India's Aadhar, passport, electricity portals are very very good," he wrote. Travel entrepreneur Ankit Sawant said concerns over India's visa website have repeatedly been raised within the tourism industry itself.