E-GOVERNANCE: E-Gov Projects in India

Wednesday, October 15, 2003

Advertisement The ubiquitous mouse has a special place in the Indian psyche. It is revered as the vehicle of Lord Ganesha-the remover of all obstacles. Today, in the arena of governance, its Pentium-powered avatar reigns supreme in the hands of an increasingly e-literate janata

One click is deemed good enough to cut the much-dreaded Indian red-tape to shreds. Another one takes the wind out of all those touts hanging around public offices. Public accountability and responsive services seem suddenly just a blip way. Welcome to the transforming potential of e-Governance... The term eGovernance has different connotations: Some Recent Links Status of E-governance in India (December 2010) Common Service Centers: A Status Report (December 2010) Government: Where is the IT spending Happening? (September 2010) Top 25 E-gov projects (November 2009)

E-administration-The use of ICTs to modernize the state; the creation of data repositories for MIS, computerisation of records. E-services-The emphasis here is to bring the state closer to the citizens. Examples include provision of online services. E-administration and e-services together constitute what is generally termed egovernment. eGovernance-The use of IT to improve the ability of government to address the needs of society. It includes the publishing of policy and programme related information to transact with citizens. It extends beyond provision of on-line services and covers the use of IT for strategic planning and reaching development goals of the government. E-democracy-The use of IT to facilitate the ability of all sections of society to participate in the governance of the state. The remit is much broader here with a stated emphasis on transparency, accountability and participation. Examples could include online disclosure policies, online grievance redress forums and e-referendums. Conceptually, more potent.

Global shifts towards increased deployment of IT by governments emerged in the nineties, with the advent of the World Wide Web. What this powerful means to publish multimedia, support hyperlinked information and interactive information meant was a clearer avenue for G to C interactions and the promise of the attainment of the goals of good governance. Governments weighed down by the rising expectations and demands of a highly aware citizenry suddenly began to believe that there can be a new definition of public governance characterized by enhanced efficiency, transparency, accountability and a citizen-orientation in the adoption of IT enabled governance. Origins in India E-governance originated in India during the seventies with a focus on in- house government applications in the areas of defence, 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 all the district headquarters during the eighties was a watershed. From the early nineties, e-governance has seen the use of IT for wider sectoral applications with policy emphasis on reaching out to rural areas and taking in greater inputs from NGOs and private sector as well. There has been an increasing involvement of international donor agencies such as DfID, G-8, UNDP, WB under the framework of e-governance for development. While the emphasis has been primarily on automation and computerization, state endeavours 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, 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 citizen-state interface for various government services, and others focusing on bettering livelihoods.

State-wise Teledensity
Teledensity URBAN Delhi Punjab Kerala Andaman & Nicobar Maharashtra Himachal Pradesh Tamil Nadu Gujarat Karnataka Haryana Andhra Pradesh Uttaranchal West Bengal Rajasthan Madhya Pradesh North East Jammu & Kashmir Orissa Uttar Pradesh Assam Jharkand Chattisgarh Bihar Total *As on 31 March 2003 30.2 25.7 23.7 15 19.3 39.6 15.2 17.8 15.8 16.5 16.5 12.6 11.5 11.3 10.2 9.2 8.3 11.3 8.8 11.5 6.1 5.6 9.3 15.2 RURAL 0 4.6 7.9 7.7 2.2 5.4 2.1 2.5 2.4 2.3 2 1.3 0.9 1.3 0.6 0.9 0.5 0.9 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.4 0.5 1.5 TOTAL 26.9 11.6 11.1 9.6 9 8.4 7.8 7.4 6.5 6.1 5.6 4 3.7 3.4 2.9 2.7 2.5 2.2 2.1 1.9 1.6 1.4 1.3 5

Source: Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

The eGovernance market The Economic Times recently reported that the government in India is emerging as the fourth largest vertical spender on information technology after the telecom, manufacturing and banking and finance industries. According to Gartner estimates, the Indian government has spent around 1 billion USD on information technology in 2002. This includes the expenditure of the Central and state governments on hardware, software, telecommunication equipment, telecommunication services, and IT services, but excludes salary costs of IT staff. In fact, the government accounted for 9 per cent of the total IT spend in India for the year 2002, and in five years that is estimated to go up to 15 per cent. Though e-government is still in its infancy, over 20 states/union territories already have an IT policy in place. In terms of basic computerization, police departments, treasury, land records, irrigation and justice are seen as having the maximum potential. Nasscom estimates that in the next five years, state governments in India will spend close to Rs. 15,000 crores on computerising their operations. The pressure to be IT-savvy is not only to keep with times, but comes from a more pragmatic dimension; loans to governments from multilaterals have now become more or less contingent

upon a proper treasury management system which translates into a computerized system that will tell lending institutions what has happened to the money that it has lent. Currently, India's manual treasury systems don't permit this with the kind of transparency required. For governments, the more overt motivation to shift from manual processes to IT-enabled processes may be increased efficiency in administration and service delivery, but this shift can be conceived as a worthwhile investment with potential for returns. As is evident in the celebrated case of Saukaryam (Vishakapatnam, AP), computerization and more efficient back-end processes can actually imply revenues for governments. Saukaryam is self-sustaining and does not require government funding. More importantly, the real spin-off is in the enhanced image of the government as being citizen-friendly.

Some E-governance Initiatives

State/Union Territory Andhra Pradesh Bihar Chattisgarh Delhi Goa Gujarat Haryana Himachal Pradesh Karnataka Kerala Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Rajasthan Tamil Nadu Initiatives covering departmental automation, user charge collection, delivery of policy/programme information and delivery of entitlements e-Seva, CARD, VOICE, MPHS, FAST, e-Cops, AP online-One-stop-shop on the Internet, Saukaryam, Online Transaction processing Sales Tax Administration Management Information Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society, Treasury office, e-linking project Automatic Vehicle Tracking System, Computerisation of website of RCS office, Electronic Clearance System, Management Information System for Education etc Dharani Project Mahiti Shakti, request for Government documents online, Form book online, G R book online, census online, tender notice. Nai Disha Lok Mitra Bhoomi, Khajane, Kaveri e-Srinkhala, RDNet, Fast, Reliable, Instant, Efficient Network for the Disbursement of Services (FRIENDS) Gyandoot, Gram Sampark, Smart Card in Transport Department, Computerization MP State Agricultural Marketing Board (Mandi Board) etc SETU, Online Complaint Management System-Mumbai Jan Mitra, RajSWIFT, Lokmitra, RajNIDHI Rasi MaiyamsKanchipuram; Application forms related to public utility, tender notices and display

North-Eastern States Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram & Nagaland Community Information Center. Forms available on the Meghalaya website under schemes related to social welfare, food civil supplies and consumer affairs, housing transport etc.

Even as e-governance signifies a business opportunity for industry and a strategy for the government, from a citizen perspective, there exists an overarching concern. Not how much can be spent, but what could be achieved is really the moot point. Setting up MIS may be an important and necessary exercise but very often cost-benefit analysis is not done and public money is used up in avenues that are not meaningful. A classic example is of buying hardware (like color laser printers) far in excess of requirements or buying computers without a clear training plan for staff. There are larger implications of the absence of visioning. Without a clear vision, huge investments in the name of e-governance may not really contribute to improve the quality of life of citizens despite huge potential.

MIS systems like DACNET of the Ministry of Agriculture have received flak for being no more than tools to control agricultural development activities rather than act as a facilitative platform for informing multiple stakeholders about how agriculture can be developed in India and supporting them in improving productivity and participating in markets, including global markets. Without clear vision, huge investments in the name of e-gov may not really contribute to improve the quality of life of citizens, despite there being huge potential in this How have states in India measured up? Thanks to e-savvy Chief Ministers like Chandrababu Naidu and S.M. Krishna, e-governance has become the buzzword for political success and the key enabler to facilitate reforms. However, a cursory glance at the egovernance map reveals a highly skewed profile. In benchmarking state initiatives, three independent frameworks of analysis seem possible. These frameworks have been presented as possible ways to look at governments' progress and are exploratory.

Assessing the e-readiness of states Assessing the stated commitment through IT policy and actual application by governments of IT tools toward reaching development goals Applying the lens of good governance the cornerstones of equity, accountability, transparency, participation, responsiveness, strategic vision, and rule of law - to what is happening on the ground.

E-readiness The deployment of IT for furthering the priorities and goals of governance is dependent on many factors. There are many constraints on realizing the presumed potential uses of IT and these reflect the readiness of governments to appropriate IT for pursuing development. Among the most obvious and critical is the connectivity factor.