E-Governance

IT Minor Submission
1/8/2012 SPTM, NMIMS University Sahiba Mehta, Roll No. 46 Division A

E-GOVERNANCE
World Bank defines e-Government or electronic government as the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government. These technologies can serve a variety of different ends: better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more efficient government management. The resulting benefits can be less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and/or cost reductions. The e-Government delivery models can be summed up as: G2C (Government to Citizens) G2B (Government to Businesses) G2E (Government to Employees) G2G (Government to Governments) C2G (Citizens to Governments)

E-Governance and E-Government

E-government constitutes only a subset of e-governance. E-governance is a broader concept and includes the use of ICT (Information and communication technology) by government and civil society to promote greater participation of citizens in the governance of political institutions. Therefore, e-Governance is understood to extend the scope by including citizen engagement and participation in governance.

Stages of E- Governance
Stage I- Web Presence
The first phase is marked by web presence of public institutions and dissemination of information. This has been developed as a basic feature of all public services where type of service and service provider details are made available in a proactive manner. This information is also being integrated for citizen access through the National and State Portals which provide basic information on Government services. Web presence can range from basic and static information to access to databases, documents, policies etc with the aid of help features and site map.

Stage II Interactive Presence

The next stage is marked by an interactive interface with stakeholders with pro-active solutions to problem solving and electronic requests for services and financial transactions. The service starts on the internet but does not always end there. Applications related to property tax, land registration, property titles are now being replicated at the national level.

Stage III Transactional Presence

This interaction in turn results in vertical and horizontal integration which changes the way a service is delivered, the effort being for completion of the transaction for the service through the internet with putting in place of back-end integration. The architectural model for this stage requires interoperability and convergence. There is electronic communication between the platform and citizen and the transaction is completed online.

Stage IV Networked Presence and E-Participation

The fourth stage is marked by a Government to Citizen (G2C) framework based on an integrated network of public agencies, process certification and participation in basic process design and political processes. Web comment forms, upcoming events, on line polling mechanism, discussion forums and online consultation facilities are part of this stage. Integrated Portals are central to this integration. Web based political participation and institutionalization of stakeholder participation with tools like citizen polling mark important benchmarks in this stage.

E-Governance in India
E-Governance in India has steadily evolved from computerization of Government Departments to initiatives that encapsulate the finer points of Governance, such as citizen centricity, service orientation and transparency. Due cognizance has been taken of the notion that to speed up eGovernance implementation across the various arms of Government at National, State, and Local levels. This approach has the potential of enabling huge savings in costs through sharing of core and support infrastructure, enabling interoperability through standards, and of presenting a seamless view of Government to citizens. The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), takes a holistic view of e-Governance initiatives across the country, integrating them into a collective vision, a shared cause. Around this idea, a massive countrywide infrastructure reaching down to the remotest of villages is evolving, and large-scale digitization of records is taking place to enable easy, reliable access over the internet. The ultimate objective is to bring public services closer home to citizens, as articulated in the Vision Statement of NeGP. The online services under NeGP are:

Income Tax Passport/VISA

Company Affairs Central Excise Pensions Land Records Road Transport Property Registration Agriculture Municipalities Gram Panchayats (Rural) Police Employment Exchange E-Courts