e-Governance

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 eGovernance…

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Introduction

E-Governance Defined.

Definitions of eGovernance range from “the use of

information technology to free movement of information
to overcome the physical bounds of traditional paper and
physical based systems” to “the use of technology to
enhance the access to and delivery of government
services to benefit citizens, business partners and
employees.”

Why eGovernance
It provides a framework and direction in the
implementation of Government Policies for the following:
• Across the Public Sector Organizations and the
institutions (G2G)

• Between Government and Business Community (G2B)

• Between Government and Citizens (G2C)

The term eGovernance has different connotations:

1)eAdministration
The use of ICTs to modernize the state; the creation of
data repositories for MIS, computerisation of records.
2)eServices
The emphasis here is to bring the state closer to the
citizens. Examples include provision of online services. E-

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administration and e-services together constitute what is
generally termed e-government.
3)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.
4)eDemocracy
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 could be a
new definition of public governance characterized by
enhanced efficiency, transparency, accountability and a
citizen-orientation in the adoption of IT enabled
governance.

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eGovernance in India
The Indian government is using IT to facilitate
governance. The IT industry is doing its bit to help as
public-private partnerships become the order of the day,
says Atanu Kumar Das

The last couple of years have seen e-governance drop

roots in India. IT enables the delivery of government
services as it caters to a large base of people across
different segments and geographical locations. The
effective use of IT services in government administration
can greatly enhance existing efficiencies, drive down
communication costs, and increase transparency in the
functioning of various departments. It also gives citizens
easy access to tangible benefits, be it through simple
applications such as online form filling, bill sourcing and
payments, or complex applications like distance
education and tele-medicine.
According to Sudhir Narang, vice-president, government

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& service provider business, Cisco Systems, India &
SAARC, "Almost every state has an IT policy in place with
the aim of evolving itself from being an IT-aware to an IT-
enabled government. State governments are fast
recognizing the benefits of an IT-enabled working
environment."
As of now, e-governance projects are being run only in
certain departments. This approach will gradually be
extended to all departments eventually, leveraging the
power of IT to streamline administrative functions and
increase transparency.
Shivaji Chatterjee, senior director, sales and marketing,
Hughes Escorts Communications says, "IT has a vital role
to play in all transactions that the government
undertakes. It helps the government cut red-tapism,
avoid corruption, and reach citizens directly."
Chatterjee points out that such initiatives will help
citizens learn about the various policies, processes and
help-lines that the government offers. The governments
of Singapore, Canada and Switzerland have implemented
such portals, and set the benchmarks in this regard. With
the help of IT, the government can process citizen to
government transactions such as the filing of tax returns,
death and birth registration, land records, etc.
Adds Rajiv Kaul, managing director, Microsoft India, "A
strong technology infrastructure can help central and
state governments deliver a comprehensive set of
services to citizens."
Microsoft is working with several state governments to
help evolve a long-term technology blueprint for IT
infrastructure. It is working with various departments of
the central government, and has undertaken several
projects and initiatives with state governments as well.
Manoj Kunkalienkar, executive director, ICICI Infotech

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says, "As far as e-governance projects are concerned, the
government is gradually changing its role from an
'implementer' to a 'facilitator and regulator.' It will
encourage private sector participation in e-governance
projects, so more projects in e-governance based upon
the public private participation (PPP) model should come
about in the near future."
Agriculture, power and education are fields where the
government makes use of IT to provide services to
citizens. The revenue collection department is in the
process of using information technology for applications
such as income tax. Some notable examples:
1)A Kolkata-based hospital leverages e-governance for
tropical medicine. The hospital employs tele-medicine
to assist doctors in rural areas as they analyze and
treat panchayat residents. This method does away with
patients having to travel all the way to Kolkata for
treatment. Patients feel better being examined in their
own village. Using tele-medicine, the hospital is able to
dispense its expertise to far-flung districts. The patient
goes for an examination to the local doctor in the
panchayat. This doctor is in contact via a voice & data
connection with a doctor at the hospital for tropical
medicine. Thus, the panchayat resident gets the
benefit of being treated by both a local doctor and a
hospital specialist.

2)The Karnataka government’s ‘Bhoomi’ project has led

to the computerisation of the centuries-old system of
handwritten rural land records. Through it, the revenue
department has done away with the corruption-ridden
system that involved bribing village accountants to
procure land records; records of right, tenancy and
cultivation certificates (RTCs). The project is expected
to benefit seventy lakh villagers in 30,000 villages. A
farmer can walk into the nearest taluk office and ask

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 for a computer printout of his land record certificate for
Rs 15. He can also check details of land records on a
touch-screen kiosk by inserting a two-rupee coin. These
kiosks, installed at the taluk office, will provide the
public with a convenient interface to the land records
centre.

3)In Gujarat there are websites where citizens log on

and get access to the concerned government
department on issues such as land, water and taxes.
4)In Hyderabad, through e-Seva, citizens can view and
pay bills for water, electricity and telephones, besides
municipal taxes. They can also avail of birth / death
registration certificates, passport applications, permits /
licences, transport department services, reservations,
Internet and B2C services, among other things.

5)eChoupal, ITC's unique web-based initiative, offers

farmers the information, products and services they
need to enhance productivity, improve farm-gate price
realization, and cut transaction costs. Farmers can
access the latest local and global information on
weather, scientific farming practices, as well as market
prices at the village itself through this web portal-all in
Hindi. eChoupal also facilitates the supply of high
quality farm inputs as well as the purchase of
commodities at the farm. Given the literacy and
infrastructure constraints at the village level, this
model is designed to provide physical service support
through a choupal sanchalak-himself a lead farmer-who
acts as the interface between the system and the
farmers. The contents of this site in their entirety are
made available only to the registered sanchalaks.

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Government initiatives
The national e-governance plan (2003-07) reflects the
strategic intent of the central government in the right
perspective. Many projects are earmarked under this
plan, and it is trying to address the digital divide.
Kunkalienkar says that from a political perspective, after
watching the performance of some IT-savvy states in the
recent elections, the system has woken up to the need to
focus more on rural development. "The political systems
are keener to use IT to disseminate information faster to
farmers, disburse loans, improve education and the
health systems in villages, etc. There is a clear-cut
incentive to do it as 60 percent of the vote-bank still lives
in rural India."
The central government has analyzed and appreciated
the concept by creating a separate e-governance
department headed by a secretary to trigger e-
governance in India. The World Bank, ADB and UN have
been approached, and in response they are generously
funding e-governance projects.
In future, education, agriculture, statewide area networks
(SWANs) and Community Information Centre projects will

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be rolled out backed by a strong public private
participation model (PPP) to achieve long-term
sustainability.
Projects with PPP models in these segments can
revolutionize the governance experience. In the next
couple of years the industry is expected to grow by 22-25
percent.

Overview of Trends in the Indian Market

Government in India is emerging as the fourth

largest vertical purchaser of Information
Technology (IT) after the telecom, manufacturing
and banking and finance industries. According to
Gartner estimates, the Indian government has
spent around US$ 1 billion 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

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fact, the government accounted for 9 per cent of
the total IT spending 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.
3% of the plan expenditure of each central ministry
is allocated towards computerization and most of
the state governments also follow a similar
strategy. NASSCOM estimates that in the next five
years, state governments in India will spend close
to Rs. 15,000 Crores (US$3.3 Billion) on
computerizing their operations. This estimate
excludes major projects such as the National
Identity Card that is currently undergoing pilot
implementation and is likely to be executed within
the next five years. This project alone is expected
to cost the government between 10,000 and
15,000 Crores (US$2.2-3.3 Billion).
According to NASSCOM, the E-Governance market
is witnessing year-on-year growth and is estimated
to be Rs. 1400 Crores (US$308 Million) in size in
2001-02. The E-Governance market grew by 18%
last year and is the highest growing vertical in the
domestic IT market. NASSCOM’s analysis of E-
Governance implementation undertaken in 10 key
States revealed that the southern States of Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu are leading in
terms of implementing projects at different citizen
- Government interface points. Others like Kerala,
Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West
Bengal and Rajasthan, are catching up fast.

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 State-wise Teledensity

Teledensity

URBAN RURAL TOTAL

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

*As on 31 March 2003

Source: Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

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Partnerships
Even as it is the responsibility of the government to
further the development agenda through e-governance;
government alone cannot ensure that ICT plays its
designated role in development. There are several
stakeholders, many times better positioned than the
government to ensure the success of e-governance
initiatives.
The government does need to play a key role in providing
the basic socio-economic infrastructure, on which the
other players can plug the superstructure of IT hardware,
software and applications. But it is the private sector that
has valuable know-how. The Indian private sector has in
fact, gained a leadership position across the globe and is
well positioned to use the expertise gathered to work with
the government and further development goals.
NGOs also can bring in their perspectives in promoting
equity, transparency and participation goals. They have
played and do play a major role in development and have
the knowledge, the experience and the grass roots
organization required to induct ICT into existing projects
and design projects aimed at utilizing ICT in innovative
ways. International donors, with their long track record in
supporting development activities, can use their

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international experiences for scaling up small
experiments.
Thus, a range of domestic and international partnerships
(public-private, government-CSOs, and private sector-
CSOs) is both inevitable and necessary in the area.
The private sector has been playing a key role in many e-
governance initiatives. The Governments of Madhya
Pradesh and Kerala are talking to Gartner India Research
and Advisory Services for consultancy. The Andhra
Pradesh Government has engaged Gartner for more than
four years now as consultant and research provider. IBM
India has been closely working are Kerala, Tamil Nadu,
Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, West
Bengal, Pondicherry, Goa and Haryana. Last year IBM set
up the 'IBM e-Government Center' in Gurgaon, near New
Delhi to offer technology, support and infrastructure to
help governments and total service providers to design,
develop, test and port proof-of-concept and prototypes of
e-government applications.
Microsoft too has been working closely with the
government, signing memoranda of understanding with
some of them and helping in evolving a long-term
technology blueprint for IT infrastructure.
An interesting example of an NGO-government
partnership is the RASI Maiyam initiative in Kanchipuram,
Tamil Nadu, where FOOD, a Tamil Nadu based NGO has
built and implemented the model. However, this is an
exception and in terms of NGO involvement to bring in
development perspectives into e-governance,
governments across the board need to become more
proactive.

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Conclusion
Hazarding judgments about relative performances of
states based on the available information are a rather
tricky business. In the Indian landscape, states like
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh seem to
have more thought-out policies and many initiatives on
the ground, but islands of innovation exist across the
board. This needs to be sorted out fast.
The future is poised on how efforts can sustain
momentum and meet the load of increasing expectations
and demand; how governments are able to learn from
each other and leapfrog; whether citizens, particularly the
disadvantaged, can and will influence the face of e-
governance and the role that civil society organizations
will need to play towards this; and the huge challenge in
upscaling successes. Worthy of mention here is the
unexplored potential in the gizmos of a lesser god like
cable TV, radio etc.
E-governance is not just the Internet as the common
perception goes and governments need to move back in
a certain sense, to reappropriate the older
communication tools like radio and cable TV. A critical
mass of people is required to push e-governance to the
next gear.
The India-egov@yahoogroups.com seems to be a
platform with much promise for the exchange of ideas.
Finally, governments need to start putting in place MIS
that track user and beneficiary profiles of their initiatives
and ensuring that e-governance is meaningful to the last
woman.

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1 CORE POLICIES Overall Vision, Mission, Strategy and
Approach.

2 CORE National E-government Intranet (NICNET,

INFRASTRUCTURE ERNET and other service providers), State
wide Intranets, National eGovernment Data
Center State Data Centers
3 SUPPORT INFRA. Service delivery infrastructure at State,
District, Block and Village levels including
Wireless infrastructure for last mile
connectivity

4 INTEGRATED SERVICES India Portal State Portals Electronic

Document Interchange

5 CORE PROJECTS Income Tax Passport Visa & Immigration

Project Central Excise

6 HRD & TRAINING E-Governance policy makers Chief

Information Officer Project specific training
7 TECH. ASSISTANCE Support for undertaking survey on needs,
expectations, etc, Benchmarking of
interventions, Feasibility studies,
8 ORGNASATIONAL National Electronic Governance Council
STRUCTURE

9 R&D Architecture, Standards, Integration

Strategies, Language technologies

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 Electronic payment systems

10 AWARENESS & E-Readiness assessment of various States/

ASSESMENT Departments
Setting up of Virtual E-Governance Forums
Assessment of E-Projects

KARNATAKA AND E-GOVERNENCE

KARNATAKA aims to be the leader in e-governance within
the next two years, when all the public-facing initiatives
undertaken by various State departments would begin to
show results, said the State IT Minister, Mr. D.B. Inamdar.

Speaking at the inaugural of the seminar on IT for

common man and e-governance in Karnataka, Mr.
Inamdar said the State Government is of the firm belief
that IT should be utilized to usher in an era e-governance
aimed at demystifying the role of the Government,
simplifying procedures, bringing in transparency, making
need based, good quality timely information available to
all citizens and providing all services in an efficient and
cost-effective way.

Mr. Inamdar said the Government is convinced that e-

governance could help bridge the gap between the rich
and the poor, urban and rural population by providing

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equality of opportunity in a more meaningful way and by
empowering the less privileged sections of the society.
However, there should be a change in the mind-set of the
administration for e-governance measures to bear fruit,
he added.

The top bureaucracy had to take up e-governance on a

war footing for the benefit of IT to reach all sections of
the society, he added.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the State

Information Technology Department organized the
seminar.

Mr. Vivek Kulkarni, Secretary, State Information

Technology and Biotechnology department, said that
while the industry was free to choose its customers, the
Government did not enjoy the same liberty.

``Those we serve lack access to information technology

tools and that is the biggest stumbling block in the way of
delivering e-governance,'' he added.

Mr. Kulkarni also called for co-operation from the industry

to define parameters for selection of companies so that
problems relating to Government procurement could be
sorted out.

Karnataka's IT policy focuses on using e-governance as a

tool and delivering a Government that is more pro-active
and responsive to its citizens. The Government's
Millennium IT policy, 'Mahithi', emphasizes the
importance of taking IT to the common man. Several
efforts for implementing Government projects using
electronic means are being carried out, under its IT policy.
The State has implemented and will be implementing
several e-governance projects and actions. The various
departments of the State Government are also
introducing electronic means to computerize their

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activities and take IT to the masses. Each Government
department has conducted several departmental
activities in e-governance.

Bhoomi
Bhoomi Project Karnataka’s computerization of land
records system, also known as Bhoomi, is part of a
broader state policy called Mahithi. It was started a
decade ago or more as a central-sponsored scheme
during the early 1990s. However, the project lay in cold
storage for a while until about five years ago when Rajiv
Chawla was posted as additional secretary to the revenue
department. Chawla, a computer science graduate from
IIT Kanpur, commenced the project process again from
scratch. It is noteworthy to mention that it was his
convincing power and five years of tireless efforts that
made Bhoomi a big success today. Karnataka has 6.7
million farmers and 20 million records of rights, tenancy
and certification (RTCs), spread across 177 talukas in over
30,000 villages. The Herculean task of the project began
with the digitization of manual records. Chawla says "It's
the sheer size of the database that is the most exciting

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part of the whole project. There are 20 million records.
Each record has 45 fields. That's a total of 70 million
fields."

Yuva.com
At another remote village, a group of rural youth are
undergoing training in IT-related services. An IT training
scheme called Yuva.Com has been conceived by the
government agencies. Under this scheme, training
centers are being established in each of the 225
assembly segments in the state with the target of training
100,000 rural youths.

Khajane
An official sitting at the State Secretariat (administration
office) can check treasury payments on his PC. A project
titled Khajane (Treasure) essentially involves the
computerization of 225 treasuries. Karnataka's treasury
payment system handles over $4.166 billion (Rs. 20,000
crore) annually. This consists of, among other things,
payments to 1350,000 old-age pensioners, physically
handicapped people, and destitute windows, and 470,000
other pensioners, including retired government officers.
The government-to-government service is helping to
effectively monitor transactions.

Mahithi:
IT PolicyKarnataka's IT policy focuses on using
eGovernance as a tool and delivering a government that
more pro-active and responsive to its citizens. The

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government's Millennium IT Policy Mahithi emphasizes
the importance of taking IT to the common man. Says
Vivek Kulkarni, IT Secretary, and Karnataka: Several
efforts for implementing projects using electronics means
are being carried out, under the umbrella of Mahithi.

Submitted To: Submitted By:

Mr. H.C. Jain GROUP 3

State wise eGavernance Projects

1) BHOOMI, KARNATAKA

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2)CARD, ANDHRA PRADESH

3)e-DISTRICT, TIRUVARUR, TAMIL NADU

4)FAST, ANDHRA PRADESH

5)FRIENDS, KERLA

6)GYANDOOT, DHAR, MADHYA PRADESH

7)KALYAN DOMBIVLI MUNICIPAL CORPORATION, MAHARASHTRA

8)KOSHWAHINI, MAHARASHTRA

9)SARITA, MAHARASHTRA

10)CIC, LAKHIMPUR DISTRICT, AASAM

11)DRISHTEE KIOSKS, TEJPUR-SONITPUR DISTRICT, AASAM

12)BHULEKH, ORISSA (ANGUL)

13)COMMERCIAL TAXES, BIHAR

14)e-COMPUTERISED OPERATIONS FOR POLICE SERVICES “eCOPS”)

15)ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE (EDI) OF NIC

16)ELECTRICITY POWER BILLING, BIHAR

17)E-PROCUREMENT, ANDHRA PRADESH

18)GSWAN, GUJARAT

19)INTEGRATED FINANCIAL INFORMATION SYSTEM (IFIS), ANDHRA PRADESH

20)KAVERI, KARNATAKA

21)KHAJANE, ONLINE TREASURY COMPUTERISATION PROJECT, KARNATAKA

22)LOKMITRA, HIMACHAL PRADESH

23)SAUKARYAM, ANDHRA PRADESH

24)SETU, MAHARASHTRA

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For completion of this report we have referred to the
following:

Data Quest magazine

Express Computer Journal

Online Articles of Various Newspapers

The Hindu

The Times Of India

Business Line

Various websites

comatc.com

expesscomputeronline.com

ciol.com

bangaloreit.com

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