Citizen Centric e-Governance in India

Strategies for Today, Vision for Future

The rise of e-government has been one of the most striking developments of the web. As
the Internet supported digital communities evolve, and assuming that the do indeed
grow to incorporate individuals around the countr !and globe" , the present the national
governments with a number of challenges and opportunities.
Governments in democratic states are primaril a representative mechanism whereb the
selected few debate and enact the legislation for and on behalf of the nation state#s
citizens. There are several aspects to this that might prove of importance in he conte$t of
e-governance.
%irstl, those elected representatives need access to information and communication
resources. It is necessar for them to inform and listen to their constituents& it is necessar
for them to communicate with one another& and at the most basis, it is necessar for them
to discover and represent the wishes of those who have elected them as their
representatives. 'hile we elect individuals , we appreciate and understand that the must
then balance three sometimes opposing forces ( their own conscience& the philosoph of
their part & and the interest of their constituenc itself.
At the simplest level, the implementation of e-governance can then support this
information and communication re)uirement. *-mail between politicians, and between
politicians and departments can be easil established. +ince man state govts. Are
providing ,ap tops to their -.s and -,A#s , the can publish their home pages on
Internet, to act as constituenc interaction center. This then touches on the ne$t aspect,
that of communicating with the constituents. In addition to the standard channels and
mechanisms, the politicians can receive the email messages from those wishing to
e$press their views. There are similarl endless was to utilize Information and
communication technologies !onl limited b the imagination of the implementing
agenc" to provide efficient and transparent solutions to citizens.
Through this paper, I will attempt to provide an insight regarding (
A definition of e-Governance to build a business case for its adoption
A brief discussion on evolution of e-governance technologies
.resent +cenario of e-governance efforts in India
+trategies/action plan for designing e-government pro0ects for addressing
immediate ob0ectives with a vision for future in mind
Definition of e-Governance
E-governance is the application of information & communication technologies to
transform the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of informational
& transactional exchanges with in government, between govt. & govt. agencies of
National, State, Municipal & ocal levels, citi!en & businesses, and to empower citi!ens
through access & use of information.
What e-government is NOT! :
Terms such as 1data resale 2, 1digital democrac 2, 1e-politics2 etc. are also fre)uentl
mentioned within the same breath as 1e-government. 3either of these terms, however,
observes the principle of leveraging the Internet to simplif government. 4igital
democrac is, in fact, 1e-politics 2rather than e-government& that is, leveraging the
Internet to simplif the election process !rather than government". It is important that
these terms not muddle the ob0ectives of e-government.
e-governance evolution : History and Present Status

Global shifts towards increased deploment of IT b governments emerged in the
nineties, with the advent of the 'orld 'ide 'eb. The technolog as well as e-governance
initiatives have come a long wa since then. 'ith the increase in Internet and mobile
connections, the citizens are learning to e$ploit their new mode of access in wide ranging
was. The have started e$pecting more and more information and services online from
governments and corporate organizations to further their civic, professional and personal
lives , thus creating abundant evidence that the new 1e-citizenship2 is taking hold.
The concept of e-governance has its origins in India during the seventies with a focus on
development of in- house government applications in the areas of defense, economic
monitoring, planning and the deploment of IT to manage data intensive functions related
to elections, census, ta$ administration etc. The efforts of the 3ational Informatics Center
!3IC" to connect all the district head)uarters during the eighties was a ver significant
development. %rom the earl nineties, IT technologies were supplemented b ICT
technologies to e$tend its use for wider sectoral applications with polic emphasis on
reaching out to rural areas and taking in greater inputs from 3G5s and private sector as
well. There has been an increasing involvement of international donor agencies under the
framework of e-governance for development to catalze the development of e-
governance laws and technologies in developing countries..
'hile the emphasis has been primaril on automation and computerization, state
governments have also endeavored to use ICT tools into connectivit, networking,
setting up sstems for processing information and delivering services. At a micro level,
this has ranged from IT automation in individual departments, electronic file handling
and workflow sstems, access to entitlements, public grievance sstems, service deliver
for high volume routine transactions such as pament of bills, ta$ dues to meeting
povert alleviation goals through the promotion of entrepreneurial models and provision
of market information. The thrust has varied across initiatives, with some focusing on
enabling the citizen-state interface for various government services, and others focusing
on bettering livelihoods. *ver state govt. has taken the initiative to form an IT task
force to outline IT polic document for the state and the citizen charters have started
appearing on govt. websites.
%or governments, the more overt motivation to shift from manual processes to IT-enabled
processes ma be increased efficienc in administration and service deliver, but this
shift can be conceived as a worthwhile investment with potential for returns. %ollowing
are some of the recent e-governance pro0ects implemented b various state govts.
Some E-governance Initiatives
State/Union
Territory
Initiatives covering departmental automation,
user charge collection, delivery of
policy/programme information and delivery of
entitlements
Andhra
Pradesh
e-Seva, CARD, VOICE, MPHS, FAST, e-Cops, AP online
One-stop-shop on the Internet, Sauar!a", Online
Transa#tion pro#essin$
Bihar Sales Ta% A&"inistration Mana$e"ent In'or"ation
hattisgarh Chhattis$arh In'ote#h Pro"otion So#iet!, Treasur!
o''i#e, e-linin$ pro(e#t
!elhi Auto"ati# Vehi#le Tra#in$ S!ste", Co"puterisation
o' )e*site o' RCS o''i#e, Ele#troni# Clearan#e S!ste",
Mana$e"ent In'or"ation S!ste" 'or E&u#ation et#
"oa Dharani Pro(e#t
"u#arat Mahiti Shati, re+uest 'or ,overn"ent &o#u"ents
online, For" *oo online, , R *oo online, #ensus
online, ten&er noti#e-
$aryana .ai Disha
$imachal
Pradesh
/o Mitra
%arnata&a 0hoo"i, 1ha(ane, 1averi
%erala e-Srinhala, RD.et, Fast, Relia*le, Instant, E''i#ient
.et)or 'or the Dis*urse"ent o' Servi#es 2FRIE.DS3
'adhya
Pradesh
,!an&oot, ,ra" Sa"par, S"art Car& in Transport
Depart"ent, Co"puteri4ation MP State A$ri#ultural
Maretin$ 0oar& 2Man&i 0oar&3 et#
'aharashtra SET5, Online Co"plaint Mana$e"ent S!ste"
Mu"*ai
(a#asthan 6an Mitra, Ra(S7IFT, /o"itra, Ra(.IDHI
Tamil )adu Rasi Mai!a"s81an#hipura"9 Appli#ation 'or"s
relate& to pu*li# utilit!, ten&er noti#es an& &ispla!
)orth-Eastern States
Arunachal
Pradesh,
Co""unit! In'or"ation Center- For"s availa*le on
'anipur, the Me$hala!a )e*site un&er s#he"es relate& to
'eghalaya,
'i*oram +
)agaland
so#ial )el'are, 'oo& #ivil supplies an& #onsu"er
a''airs, housin$ transport et#-
+ource ( .C 6uest Article
e-governance evolution in ndia ! "hallenges #efore Sta$eholders
+ince 7889, I was fortunate enough to work closel with a variet of govt. and
commercial concerns , investigating the continuing trends in the field of e-governance
area . I can sa, from m e$perience that although lots of efforts have been made in the
creation of infrastructure and internal information handling b govt. bodies as well as
public services, the diffusion of technologies in moving towards e-governance have been
rather slow. This ma primaril be attributed to the following reasons(
Lack of IT Literacy and awareness regarding benefits of e-governance
There is general lack of awareness regarding benefits of e-governance as well as the
process involved in implementing successful G-C, G-G and G-: pro0ects. The
administrative structure is not geared for maintaining, storing and retrieving the
governance information electronicall. The general tendenc is to obtain the data from
the files !print" as and when re)uired rather than using 4ocument -anagement and
workflow technologies. ,atel the use of 4-+ and workflow technologies has been able
to find its use onl in those departments where there is perceptible lightening of workload
of the subordinate staff.
Underutilization of existing ICT infrastructure
To a larger e$tent, the computers in the department are used for the purpose of word
processing onl, resulting in the underutilization of the computers in terms of their use in
data mining for supporting management decisions. The time gap between the
procurement of the hardware and development of the custom applications is so large that
b the time application is ;ead for use, the hardware becomes obsolete.
%ttitude of Government De&artments
The pscholog of government servants is )uite different from that of private sectors.
Traditionall the government servants have derived their sustenance from the fact that
the are important repositories of govt. data. Thus an effort to implement 4-+ and
workflow technologies or bringing out the change in the sstem is met with resistance
from the govt. servants.
'ac$ of coordination #et(een Govt) De&artment and Solution develo&ers
4esigning of an application re)uires a ver close interaction between the govt.
department and the agenc developing the solutions. At present the users in govt.
departments do not contribute enough to design the solution architecture. Conse)uentl
the solution developed and implemented does not address the re)uirements of an e-
governance pro0ect and hence does not get implemented .
*esistance to re-engineering of de&artmental &rocesses
+uccessful implementation of e-governance pro0ects re)uires lots of restructuring in
administrative processes, redefining of administrative procedures and formats which
finds the resistance in almost all the departments at all the levels. Additionall there is
lack of e$pertise of departmental -I+ e$ecutives in e$ploiting data mining techni)ues,
updation and collection of real time content onto website etc. Therefore the content as is
collected or maintained b various e-governance portals is unreliable or full of gaps. In
such a scenario, its difficult for an e-governance solution to achieve its intended results.
'ac$ of nfrastructure for sustaining e-governance &ro+ects on national level
Infrastructure to support e-governance initiatives does not e$ist within government
departments. The agon is that the government departments are not e)uipped to be in a
position to pro0ect the clear re)uirements nor are there an guidelines for involving
private sector. 'hatever efforts have been made b various govt. organizations ma be
defined as islands of computerization. The infrastructure creation is not guided b a
uniform national polic , but is dependent on the needs of individual officers
championing a few pro0ects. Therefore , the re)uired networking and communication
e)uipment is either non e$istent in govt. departments, or if it e$ists at all , it does not
serve an tangible purpose as far as the re)uirement of e-governance pro0ect is
concerned. The use of connectivit options provided b govt. agencies like 3IC3*T etc.
are used in a ver limited manner for data transmission purpose between various
locations viz. 4istt., +tate , Center etc. and is mainl utilized for e-mail and Internet
purpose onl.
-ost state govts. have formed the IT task force and have their IT policies in place.
Although policies ma have loft goals, much seems to have happened onl in
automation and computerization The drawback is that these IT polic documents are not
made based upon the re)uirements and inherent capabilities of the state but are based on
the surves and strategies used b other nations or other states. Though its ver wise to
take e$amples from the successful e-governance strategies of other states and countries,
its e)uall essential that we customize our state policies after a careful stud of the
parameters applicable to the particular state in )uestion. A tentative action plan is
presented to help implement the e-governance initiatives as below(
e-Gov %ction Plan ! Strategies for today, -ision for .uture
Govt. leaders in India are starting to realize that e-governance is the ke to drive toda#s
econom with an increased participation from citizens. .roviding services online is no
longer going to remain optional for local and central government as demand for
providing services < internet speed has been coming from the citizens.
In this era of accountabilit and performance measurement, govts. will face increasing
pressure to make the services more accessible to their citizens. The pressure comes
directl from the new legislatures and govt. policies to implement high-end technologies
in governing the nations& but also indirectl and perhaps more intensel from citizens.
The citizens now a das are not using govt. services in isolation, but are simultaneousl
making transactions and interacting with the corporate world. In addition to this direct or
indirect pressure, governments must themselves stud = realize the cost saving benefits
e-Governance techni)ues produce 'ith this rise in demand for e-services, it is a
mandator re)uirement for government budget writers that the efficienc enhancement
and cost saving potential of providing online services and information be mastered.
*-governance is about more than streamlining processes and improving services. It#s
about transforming Governments and renovating the wa citizens participate in
democrac. +o how does a government agenc cuts through the clutter and builds a
strateg to facilitate the transition to successful online or 1e2 service deliver. If the
govt. 'aits , its perceived as being out of touch with the citizen needs and loses an
opportunit to realize the tremendous benefits of online service deliver and larger
citizen participation in overall service deliver. >et if the e-governance started and
implemented in haste, the are doomed to fail. According to one of the surves conducted
b a reputed agenc , ?@A of e-governance ma fail because of poor planning
The real challenges is how to develop and sustain successful e-governance pro0ects and
deliver state of the art e-services to citizens. Bnfortunatel its not as eas as adding 1e2
in front of our service deliver mechanism. +uccessful e-governance initiatives can
never be taken in haste. .articularl for the democratic nation of the billion people like
India, e-Governance should enable seamless access to information and seamless flow of
information across the state and central government in the federal
setup. 3o countr has so far implemented an e-governance sstem for one
billion people. +ome of the re)uirements for implementing successful e-governance
across the nation are (
e-Governance framework across the nation with enough bandwidth to service a
population of one billion.
Connectivit framework for making the services reach rural areas of the countr
or development of alternative means of services such as e-governance kiosks in
regional languages.
3ational Citizen database which is the primar unit
of data for all governance vertical and horizontal applications
across the state and central governments.
*-governance and interoperabilit standards for the e$change of secure
information with non-repudiation, across the state and central government
departments seamlessl.
A secure deliver framework b means of virtual private network
connecting across the state and central government departments.
4atacenters in centre and states to handle the departmental
workflow automation, collaboration, interaction, e$change of
information with authentication.
%or success of an e-governance pro0ect and superior service deliver, it is imperative that
the government agenc focuses on whole citizen e$perience. %ocusing on the citizen is
essential for long term success. The govt. agenc needs to integrate information from all
points of citizen interaction. The overall architecture for e-Governance needs to ensure
that the architecture components are e$tensible and scalable to adapt to the changing
environments. The e-Governance applications that are emerging as islands of successes
have to be interoperable. %ollowing are some of the suggestions for the successful
transformation from 1 A2 to 1e2
a" "reate 'iteracy and commitment to e-governance at high level
The most important re)uirement is a training program for polic makers in *-
Governance !+enior .ublic +ervants", politicians and IT task force members. The
training program needs to be focused according to the re)uirements of the polic makers
at the top. +uch programs can be need based and outsourced when re)uired. In addition it
should be made mandator for all the stake holders in implementation and maintenance
of e-governance services to have the general IT skills. There ma be specific
re)uirements for training in certain specific pro0ects. +uch programs can be need based
and outsourced when re)uired. A few suggestive programs include e-governance training,
:uilding web interfaces for citizen interaction, 4ocument management and workflow
applications, securit and .CI solutions, 5ffice Automation, networking etc.
#/ "onduct 0sa#ility Surveys for assessment of e1isting e-governance &ro+ects
There is a varing degree of development of e-governance among the different states. A
few +tates have leapfrogged into a digital era whereas a few are et to start with an
initiative. There is a tremendous divergence in the e$tent of implementation of the
concept of e-Governance. It is, therefore, not possible to come up with a framework for
implementation of e-Governance which is straightawa applicable to all states and the
Central Government. Therefore an e-readiness e$ercise should be carried out in all
states, government departments to understand their level of acceptabilit of the e-
governance.
c/ Starting (ith im&lementation of &ilot &ro+ects and re&licating the successful
ones
The pilot pro0ects taken in various states should be accessed for their achievement levels.
The should be classified as success or failure according to the desired output written
down before implementation of the pro0ects. The stud should be carried out b an
independent agenc for the implementation agenc The stud should be carried out at
each stage of implementation. :ottlenecks and causes of delas should be documented,
even though the are removed later. The successful pro0ects should be replicated over the
nation with members drawn from the implementing team. The pro0ects, which could not
achieve the desired outcome, should be documented for possible causes of failure.
Darious bottlenecks and causes of dela should be identified.
d/ .ollo( the 2est Practices in e-governance
The stud of :est .ractices will bring forward the best practices being followed
nationall and internationall. The national and international :est .ractices stud will
give a great momentum to the process of *-Governance. The +tate Governments will not
have to re-invent wheel ever time and the can learn from the developments alread
made.
e/ 2uild National resource Data#ase of e-governance &ro+ects
This would allow an organization planning an IT pro0ect to instantl ascertain whether
an such pro0ect has alread been implemented anwhere in the countr. Intending
implementers would know who the ke people in similar pro0ects are and how to reach
them. It is well known that it is much easier to replicate a solution than to evolve it the
first time around. +o the lead-time to implement pro0ects can be reduced substantiall.
If a pro0ect is alread in operation in a similar environment somewhere in the countr,
acceptance b all concerned is much faster and smoother elsewhere. +o change
management becomes much easier and the time and effort involved in such
implementations. 4ue recognition would accrue to the pioneers who created the
successes. It would enable others to learn from them if the wish.
%or implementing agencies, be the Government owned organizations like 3IC, C4AC
and +tate .+Bs or private IT companies, it offers a uni)ue opportunit to derive the full
return and reward, both domesticall and internationall, from their successes and the
I.;s/ products that the have created. It would help create an archive of e-governance
applications in the countr.
f/ Have clearly defined ntero&era#ility &olicy
The eEgovernance architecture needs to ensure that the components are scalable and
adaptable to the future re)uirements. It has also to ensure that the ,ocal architecture fits
into the +tate level and the same into 3ational and Global architecture. Interoperabilit is
a ma0or criterion while defining the architecture.
g/ 3anage and 0&date content on govt) (e#sites efficiently and regularly
Content is the FheartF of an IT pro0ect. The govt. agenc has to keep in mind some of the
important technical guidelines, while developing the software and computerization, to
facilitate the future integration. The department also needs to address the securit of
transactions and messages. The process of content development encompasses a whole
range of activities starting with a comprehensive stud of the sstem and identification of
the ob0ectives. It ends up with deliver of the intended benefits to the citizens or other
users of the IT +stem. The govt. agencies must ensure that the data on the sites is alwas
updated and relevant.
"onclusion
It is evident from above discussion that ob0ectives of achieving e-governance and
transforming India goes far beond mere computerization of stand alone back office
operations. It means , to fundamentall change as to how the government operates, and
this implies a new set of responsibilities for the e$ecutive and politicians. It will re)uire
basic change in work culture and goal orientation, and simultaneous change in the
e$isting processes. %oremost of them is to create a culture of maintaining, processing and
retrieving the information through an electronic sstem and use that information for
decision making. It will re)uire skilled navigation to ensure a smooth transition from old
processes and manual operations to new automated services without hampering the
e$isting services. This can be achieved b initiall moving ahead in smaller informed
initiatives in a time bound manner and avoiding large and e$pensive steps without
understanding the full social implications. *ver small step thus taken should be used to
learn about hurdles and improve upon the ne$t steps, both in terms of direction and
magnitude. The proposed changes are likel to be met with a lot of inertia which can not
be overcome b lower and middle level officials with half hearted attempts to diffuse the
technolog. The change in the mindset to develop and accept the distributed and flat
structured e-governance sstem is re)uired at the top level sstem to beat the inertia.
.
About the Author (
-i$as 4anungo !vikaskanungo<rediffmail.com" , .hone ( 8G7HI9H97?
!e-"overnance #onsultant"
Chairman - SP5G 6 +ociet for .romotion of e-governance"
C-4 E Internet Consortium India .rivate ,imited