India, Nov. 10 -- It began as a promise; the promise of ease, efficiency, and transparency. The System for Pension Administration (Raksha) [SPARSH], was launched to bring the nation's veterans into a seamless digital fold, wherein pensions could be credited with precision, and the endless queues of bureaucracy would hopefully fade into the background. Yet, what was meant to be a bridge has become quite a rift. For tens of thousands of soldiers who once stood guard at the Republic's borders, the new frontier is not a line on a map but a login page that will not load.

SPARSH centralised what had long been a decentralised, bank-mediated system. Every pensioner's data, once verified by local branches familiar with faces and histories, was no...