CHAPTER- 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1.0 E-GOVERNANCE: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

e-Governance refers to electronic governance or digital governance which is concerned with the
effective use of Information Technology (IT) to improve the existing system of governance that
is in place, and thus provide cost effective and timely services to the Citizens. It can be
understood clearly though different definition which is given as below;

UNESCO provides a definition of e-governance, stating that it “is the use of ICT by different
actors of the society with the aim to improve their access to information and to build their
capacities”. It also adds about the importance of encouraging citizen to partake in the
decision-making process of government services. The Council of Europe adds that e-
governance augments the relationship between public officials and communities, which in
turn leads to a “stronger, more accountable and inclusive democracy”.

According to the World Bank “e- Governance refers to information Technology used by
government agencies of that have the ability to transform relation with citizens ,business and
other arms of government .these technology can serve a variety of different ends. Better
delivery of government the resulting benefits can be less corruption, increased transparency,
greater convenience, revenue growth and/or cost reduction. ”

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam defines e-Governance as “A transparent smart E-governance with
seamless access, secure and authentic flow of information crossing the interdepartmental
barrier and providing a fair and unbiased service to the citizen.”

On the basis of above definitions, e-Governance can be defined as e-Governance refers to

information technology used by government agencies to provide effective and timely services to
the Citizens. It also helps in reducing corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience,
revenue growth and/or cost reduction.
ROLE OF ICT IN E-GOVERNANCE:

ICTs play a critical role in speeding up the flow of information and knowledge between
government and common people and transforming the way in which governments and common
people interact. Through e-governance, government services will be made available to common
people in a convenient, efficient and transparent manner. The government is being the service
provider, the aim is to make them thorough with e-governance applications and responsive to
technology driven administration. ICT is the biggest enabler of change and process reforms with
minimum resistance. Decades of attempts to reform government and its processes fade in the
face of what ICT has achieved in few years. People did not so readily accept process change but
in the name of ICT they do.

The main role of ICT for governance is as under:

1) Improve the quality of governance products and services being currently provided

2) Provide new governance services and products

3) Enhance the participation of the people in the choice & provision of governance products &
services

4) Bring new sections of society under the governance sphere including those who are most
likely to remain excluded - namely the poor, the illiterate, the differently abled, the indigenous
people, the migrants and displaced people

E- Governance is about transforming government to be more common people -centered through

IT. E-governance and ICT are seen as elements of a larger government modernization program.
Success of e-governance depends on how government works, how it deals with information and
how officials view their jobs and interact with the common people. Achieving e-governance
success requires active partnerships between government, common person and the private sector.
Stakeholders should also think about how to harness technology to achieve their objectives for
reform.
FUNCTIONS OF THE E-GOVERNANCE

There are various functionalities of e-governance. The following is an illustration of the specific
classifications of services available to be delivered through the e-governance process.

Figure 1: The five functionalities of e-governance

1. Government to citizen (G2C).

This group of services is between the government and their citizens, where an exchange of
information and services takes place. This platform allows for the government to provide
certain beneficial services to its citizens, while at the same time creating an open dialogue
with the community where it can listen to and communicate with those involved in the
process. Citizens may receive access to government services remotely from their electronic
devices, without actually coming into contact with government officials. This creates an
efficient and effective way of receiving timely services such as paying bills, completing
income taxes or requesting official licenses and certificates. Additionally, governments can
 offer a wide array of online information, various application forms, training and development
opportunities, job search assistance, advice on health and safety concerns, offer travel and
recreation information, among many other services.

2. Government to business (G2B)

The services under this category are the ones that are used by businesses, corporations, and
other agencies for commercial purposes. Through these services, governments may also offer
assistance for the development of certain business ventures. While on the one hand
governments provide information and services to businesses, on the other, a two way
interaction is created with business to government (B2G) classification, under which
businesses may offer services and products for sale to the government.

3. Government to government (G2G)

These services may occur at two levels, domestic and international, where local governments
can interact with the central or national government, as well as, where the exchange of
information and services between governments can take place internationally as an instrument
for international relations. Online partnerships and collaborations are important aspects of the
interaction between government institutions and departments. ICTs create an open
environment, where government representatives may share information, resources, databases
and other competences in providing fast and efficient services.
4. Government to employees (G2E)
This is a relatively newer concept, where government uses services in improving the
operations and functioning of its employees. This is where the government can take advantage
in providing proper training and learning opportunities for its employees, so that in return they
may assist citizens in a timely and effective manner. Not only is it a good way to provide
useful information for its employees, it is also a way to communicate and engage the
government’s employees in the decision-making and operations processes.
5. Government –to- nonprofit (G2N)

Exchange of information and communication between government and nonprofit

Organizations, political parties and social organizations, Legislature, etc.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN E-GOVERNMENT AND E-GOVERNANCE

e-Governance and e-Government both the term are treated to be the same though there is little
difference between these two. E-government is the use of ICTs in public administration
combined with organizational change and new skill to improve public services and democratic
process and to strengthen support to public policies. E-government has traditionally been
understood as being centered on the operations of a government. E-governance is understood to
extend the copy by including common people engagement and participation in governance .So
as, E-governance is the use of technologies that helps governing and has to be governed.

ORIGIN OF E-GOVERNANCE IN INDIA

E-Governance originated in India during the seventies with a focus on in- house Government
applications in the areas of defense, economic monitoring, planning and the deployment of
ICT to manage data intensive functions related to elections, census, tax administration etc.
The efforts of the National Informatics Center (NIC) to connect tall the district headquarters
during the eighties was a watershed. From the early nineties, e-governance has seen the use of
IT for wider sectorial applications with policy emphasis on reaching out to rural areas and
taking in greater inputs from NGO sand private sector as well. There has been an increasing
involvement of international donor agencies such as DfID, G-8, UNDP, and WB under the
framework e-governance for development.

While the emphasis has been primarily on automation and computerization, state endeavors to
use IT include forays into connectivity, networking, setting up systems for processing
information and delivering services. At a micro level, this has ranged from IT automation in
individual departments, electronic file handling, and access to entitlements, public grievance
systems, service delivery for high volume routine transactions such as payment of bills, tax
dues to meeting poverty 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 citizen30 .E-Governance state interface for various government
services, and others focusing on bettering livelihoods.
Chronology: e-Governance

The chronological details in respect of e-Governance must be read in conjunction with the
development of internet also. Some details are given below.

15 August 1995 – Launch of Internet in India

1998 - Department of Information Technology, Government of India e Procurement,

Statewide Area Network, Common Service Centers, State Data Centre is initiated in random
fashion.

May 18, 2006 - GoI approves the National E-Governance Plan. (NeGP)

2007 – Broadband Launched

May 1998 - Establishment of the National Taskforce of Information Technology and

Software Development.

2009 – Total Broadband connections in the country have reached 2.996 million by the end of
August 2009. During August 2009 there is an increase of 0.09 million Broadband connections
(TRAI Report)

2010 – Introduction of 3 G Services.

2015 - 4 G introduced across India in limited phases. Digital India boosts E-Governance

2016 - Smart Cities concept announced.

All the above Protocols and Services have contributed to the growth of E-Governance in
India. E-Governance is more than just a government website on the Internet. But what is it
exactly? What are the benefits of E-Governance? What can governments do to make it work?
Solutions to development issues often require changes to government processes, e.g. by
organizational SOPs. Objectives are generally to improve efficiency and effectiveness and to
save costs. The driving force can also be public demand for online services and information
that increase democratic participation, accountability, transparency, and the quality and speed
of services. The implementation and use of ICT solutions can support governance reforms.
E-GOVERNANCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION

India has one of the largest higher education systems in the world .Despite having the largest higher
education system, the quality of education, in general, cannot be claimed to be the best. Technical and
vocational Education in India has seen enormous growth in recent years with a large increase in total
number of institutes imparting higher education. On one hand, this growth promises to produce more
skilled youth to fulfill needs of ever growing Indian industry and on the other hand it poses a huge
challenge for the governing bodies like UGC, AICTE, NCVT, NCTE, PCI, MCI, INC, DCI etc. and state
technical education boards to maintain & improve the quality of education being imparted through
these new & existing technical and Vocational institutes. But as has been reported by
NASSCOM(National Association of Software and Service Companies) in its 2004 report, out of 3 million
graduates and post-graduates added to the workforce in India every year only 25% of technical and 10-
15% of non-technical graduates are employable by growing IT, and other sector points to is a very
serious situation. This lack of knowledge, qualities & skills desired by the employers, from the youth,
may lead to the problems like unemployment/underemployment, which detain will lead to their
disapproval& hence their offense that will be reflected in terms of an increase in crime and other
antisocial activities.

Now a days, our education system is untidy, to say the least. It is characterized by substandard technical
and vocational institutions lagging good infrastructure and qualified teachers, teacher truancy, obsolete
syllabi, inadequate infrastructure, unemployable graduates and a lot more other problems. The scenario
has been further worsened due lack of some effective & real time monitoring mechanism & widespread
corruption prevalent in Govt. regulatory bodies that help such substandard institute to start & remain
functional without bothering to maintain any quality at all. Mushrooming of a large number of
unrecognized & substandard fake universities/institutions distribution fake technical certificates,
diplomas, degrees &Ph.Ds. fraudulently, without being caught, is also another outcome of such an
untidy system.
 CHALLENGES OF E-GOVERNANCE IN INDIA

Implementation of e-governance has changed the way of living of the people in many countries.
The GoI has embraced e-governance as a trigger and means to redefine and Streamline outdated,
inefficient processes and procedures while simultaneously exploiting the full power of modern
ICT. The aim is to provide citizens with easier and faster access to government services. India
has recognized the benefits of e-governance and through it, ushered in a paradigm of citizen-
centric service delivery. E-governance is reforming the way government manages and shares
information with external and internal clients. Specifically, it harnesses ICT to transform
relations with citizens, businesses and the various arms of government. There are however,
numerous challenges. Some of the key areas needing attention are as under:-

1. Clarity in objective setting:

Project approval and funding of projects through multiple departmental budgets lead to wide
variations in the approach to project objective setting, without a clear focus on outcomes or on
building sustainable services. The service needs of citizens/ businesses and those of other
departments are often either overlooked or accorded lower priority in relation to internal needs.
Very often, objective setting is purely in ICT terms such as computers, networks and so on
which are specified in great detail, while government business process outcomes are either not
defined or are defined in vague terms that do not lend themselves to measurement post
implementation.
2. Ensuring service delivery:
e-Governance projects have primarily focused on internal process automation and generally are
hardware and infrastructure driven with little focus on citizen service delivery or outcomes.
3. Awareness:
There is a general lack of awareness regarding benefits of e-governance as well as the process
involved in implementing successful G2C,G2B and G2G projects. The administrative structure is
not geared for maintaining, storing and retrieving governance information electronically. The
general tendency is to obtain the data from the files as and when required rather than using
document management and workflow technologies
4. Awareness of government officials about ICT:
 More than anything else, it is the mindset of government officials that poses the biggest
bottleneck to e-government. There are a number of reasons why they resist the use of computers
beyond the usual typing of letters and documents. The primary reasons are that they are resistant
to any kind of change in their familiar working environment; they fear that computerization of
different government activities may make some people redundant and think that computers are
meant for low-level typist kind of work.
5. Public Awareness about ICTs:
Although there is much hype about IT among the younger generation, there is not a high level of
awareness among the general public about how ICTs may be useful to their lives. Also, there is a
cultural inhibition about the use of PCs in this country. From a cultural context, people are
generally not familiar with the concept of using computers. ICTs are still generally perceived as
catering to the rich and the elite. As a result, there is no demand or pressure from the public for
service delivery through the use of ICTs.
6. Non-acceptability of IT systems: It is often seen that even after an IT system is implemented in
a government office, it becomes hard for government officials to convince themselves to use it.
Besides the general lack of awareness about ICTs and the fears discussed earlier, some other
factors also play a part in the non-acceptability of IT systems. They fear that important data may
get lost or they are doubtful about the security features of computers.
7. Leveraging Private Capital:
The experience of successful e-governance initiatives indicates that well-structured service-
oriented projects can attract private capital linked to explicit service-linked revenues from users
or from government. The current system of project formulation i.e. based on budgetary allocation
/ grants places little or no pressure on departments to develop project structures that can attract
private capital, a goal that necessitates additional rigor and complexity at the project formulation
and development stage.
8. Resistance to re-engineering of departmental processes:

Successful implementation of e-governance projects requires a lot of restructuring in the

administrative processes and redefining of administrative procedures and formats. This meets
with resistance in almost all departments at all levels. Additionally there is a lack of expertise
among departmental MIS executives in exploiting data mining techniques, updating of and
collection of real time content in the website etc. Therefore the content collected or maintained
by various e-governance portals is unreliable or full of gaps. In such a scenario, it is difficult for
any e-governance solution to achieve its intended results.

Others challenges are problems related to Standardization, Independent Impact Assessment,

Localization/Multi-language support, Internal Capacity/Project Management Expertise,
Underutilization of existing ICT infrastructure, Lack of coordination between the government
department and solution developers, Lack of infrastructure for sustaining e-governance projects
on a national level, sharing of data across various e-governance implementations, Security Issues
and so on

NEED OF THE STUDY

Today, common people are becoming more and more conscious about their rights to get the
essential services at their doorstep and both the state and central governments recognize the need
to deliver faster and efficient services to common people through e-governance which is an
effective instrument of administration. India’s experience in e-governance and ICT initiatives has
demonstrated significant success in improving accessibility, cutting down costs, reducing
corruption and extending help and increased access to un-served groups. E-governance initiatives
have reached millions of common people belonging to these sections of society. It helps to
improve access to information and services because these have provided economic and social
development opportunities, facilitated participation and communication in policy and decision-
making processes and empowered the weakest groups.

The advent of ICT as a highly leveraged enabling tool for delivery of products and services has
now redefined the fundamentals and changed the institutions and their mechanisms of delivery
forever. Technology has covered in all spheres of life. Due to rapid growth of the internet there
has been a concomitant rise in online transactions. This information era paradigm shift is
characterized by common people and business integration driven as it were by the choice of
service providers and means of access. In this context the concept of public governance has not
gone unaffected. It too has seen a fundamental shift in the concept both in the manner and
method by which the e-governance initiatives are being implemented at the central, state and
local government levels through various PPP’s. This new practice of public administration has
developed into the concept of EG. It helps simplify processes and makes access to government
information easier for public sector agencies and common people.

If the quality of Indian higher education system has to be improved to make these really world
class, for this, there is no alternative to the introduction of E-governance in this sphere at the
fastest possible pace. Implementation of E-governance in general, technical and vocational
institution will enable their effective, efficient and real time monitoring by Universities,
regulatory bodies & other stakeholders for maintaining quality and becoming more responsible.
E-governance process brings transparency in the system .so, E-governance initiatives in the field
of higher education will support in reducing the corruption up to a large extent. In the
introduction of E-governance in higher education, teachers & educational administration play an
important role .so, without help of them (teachers & educational administrators), it cannot be
imagined about the successful implementation on of E-governance in the field of higher
education system. Within universities, colleges & other educational institutions, all important
decisions are taken by them directly or indirectly. Educational administrators are that who are
responsible to introduce E-governance in the field higher education system, without proper help
of teaching and non -teaching staff.so, it is most important in order to improve higher education
system in terms of operational efficiency in various key process like grants, utilization
certificates, approval processes, feedback mechanism etc. With deeper visibility and increased
operational efficiency the Indian higher education system would be implemented not only to
satisfy the needs of students by making them more employable but also combat possible
competition from foreign universities. E-governance system may enable the universities or
colleges to submit the document online for approval .all institutions should internally co-ordinate
to carry the details from common platform. This would greatly reduce the unnecessary
duplication of work in the universities.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

If the quantity and quality of output from our education system have to be substantially
improved, then there is no alternative to introducing e-governance in this sphere. However, to be
really effective, the e-governance system deployed will have to go beyond mere computerization
of records or processes. It has to be able to provide the management of the educational institution
information about, why of a happening or a trend besides the What, When and where, so that
adequate prophylactic action can be taken. It should be able to provide answers to queries like:
Why is the performance of a class dropping in a particular subject? Why is a particularly bright
student lagging in performance in the last two terms? Which teacher has produced the best
consistent results for her class? Then again, considering the paucity of funds in our state-aided
educational institutions, an e-governance system which is inexpensive to install, simple to use,
easy to maintain and can be conveniently expanded will be much more acceptable.

RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

The higher education system of India faces tough challenges in the recent times due to the
growing world demands. there are many benefits for both the students ,learner and the teachers
,including the promotion of shared working space and resources ,better access to information ,the
promotion of collaborative learning ,and radical new ways of teaching and learning suklabaidya
& sen (2013. Charnjeet Kour and prem Mehtha (2014) stated that e-Governance has very
important to track their educational functioning such as registration ,admission, student
information ,classes ,time-table, salary and expenses ,examination ,performance ,grades, hostels,
security and reports. It also depends a new ways of debating to the students imparting education
organizing and delivering information and services. e-Governance can also solved various other
problems related to rural higher education and make better relationship between rural colleges
and Universities Kapoor & Kelkar (2013).and also it will allow all the low performing schools
and colleges to reduce the gap with better performing institutes through their administrative
functions that will help in the betterment of higher education in the country and increase the
number of employable students Ashok Kumar(2012).Indian government is spending a lot of
money on e-Governance projects but still these projects are not successful in all parts of India.
Unawareness in people ,local language of the personal data of people of a particular area, privacy
for the personal data of people etc. are main challenges which are responsible for the
unsuccessful implementation of e-Governance Mittal & Kaur(2013).Mahmood Alam (2016)
suggested to gain the optimum impact of e-Governance in higher education ,certain issues;
why e-Governance implement the university administration ,how e-Governance implementation
could be effective ; what the requirements are to achieve effective e-Governance
implementation need to be addressed . The application of e-Governance can change the present
trend of the management of education sector by changing their working, recruiting, coordinating,
maintaining, communication and decision making etc. Procedures. e-Governance application
makes work easy and time saving .if the e-Governance applied fully in education system then
the future generation develops their skills and knowledge thus the whole country is develop in
the field of social ,economic, political, etc. Hamiduzzaman (2012). In that way, the present study
makes its attempt to assess the attitude of teachers and administrators towards e-Governance in
higher education institutions affiliated to Magadh University Bodh Gaya, Bihar.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

“Attitude of Teachers and Administrators towards E-governance in Higher Education

Institutions.”

OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF THE TERMS USED:

E-governance:

E-governance or electronic governance is the application of information and communication

technology (ICT) for delivering government/institution services, exchange of information,
communication transactions, integration of various stand-alone systems and services between
government-to-citizen (G2C), government-to-business (G2B), government-to-government
(G2G), government-to-employees (G2E) as well as back-office processes and interactions within
the entire government framework. In present study , E-governance has used as the application of
information and communication technology (ICT) for delivering government services,
exchange of information, communication transactions, integration of various stand-alone systems
in educational institution.

Higher education:

Higher education includes teaching, social activities, research and exacting applied work of
universities .Within the realm of education, it includes both the undergraduate and post graduate
level of education. In the present study, higher education covers both graduate and post graduate
level within the realm of education.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objectives of the study are:

(1) To compare the attitude of teachers and administrators towards E-governance in Higher
Education Institution.

(2) To compare the attitude of teachers towards E-governance in Higher Education

Institution in relation to:

A) Management of the institution (Govt. institution V/S Private institution)

B) Level of the institution ( UG and integrated UG&PG)

(3) To compare the attitude of administrators towards E-governance in Higher Education

Institution in relation to :

A) management of the institution (Govt. institution V/S Private institution)

B) Level of the institution (UG and integrated UG&PG)

(4) To study the problems found by the administrators in the process of adopting e-
Governance in Higher Education Institutions

HYPOTHESES:

Hypotheses of the study are:

(1) There is no significant difference between teachers and educational administrators in

respect of their attitude towards E-governance in Higher Education Institution.
 (2) There is no significant difference between govt. teachers and private teachers in
respect of their attitude towards E-governance in Higher Education Institution.

(3) There is no significant difference between UG level teachers and integrated UG&PG
level teachers in respect of their attitude towards E-governance in Higher Education
Institution.

(4) There is no significant difference between govt. educational administrators and

private educational administrators in respect of their attitude towards E-governance in
Higher Education Institution.

(5) There is not significant difference between UG level educational administrators and
integrated UG&PG level educational administrators.

DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY:

The delimitation of the study would be:

1. Present study is delimited to the selected higher education institution of Gaya district in
Bihar.
2. Present study is delimited to the selected Higher Education Institution, affiliated to
Magadh University.
3. Present study is delimited to two categories of participants i.e. teachers and educational
administrators coming under /in relation to higher education institution in Gaya district of
Bihar.