Bangalore: Indian American Vivek Kundra, former chief information officer of U.S. advised public servants to serve citizens making maximum use of the existing technologies rather than spending money on programmes which are not efficient enough, reports it World Canada. Kundra is the executive vice-president of emerging markets at Salesforce.com.

"The hard thing to do is be obsessed with the customer experience. That wasn't happening in the U.S. government, and for that matter it isn't happening in most governments around the world," said Kundra in a meeting of the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC). He also added that majority of the people across the globe have to undergo terrible situations while dealing with Governments.

Kundra also advised Governments to treat their citizens as co-creators of democracy and not as subjects. The Governments have to understand that the power is now with the citizens with the support of internet and social media and they make use of these tools in demanding enhanced service from governments and businesses. "That is why for governments around the world it is so critical to change from being closed, secretive and opaque to be open, transparent and participatory", he said.

Kundra was appointed as the first CIO of the United States, by the Obama administration in March 2009.His responsibilities as the CIO included adopting game-changing cloud computing technologies, empowering the cyber security posture of the nation and introducing an open government movement.

Kundra was successful in managing more than $80 billion technology investments. In June, last year he quit his job so as to take a fellowship at Harvard University.

Earlier, Kundra served as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the District of Columbia and assistant secretary of commerce and technology, Virginia. He completed his graduation in psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park and post graduation in Information Technology from the University Of Maryland University College.