Citizen Centric e-Governance
in India
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 they do
indeed grow to incorporate individuals around the country (and globe) , they
present the national governments with a number of challenges and opportunities.
Governments
in democratic states are primarily a representative mechanism whereby 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 context of e-governance.
Firstly,
those elected representatives need access to information and communication
resources. It is necessary for them to inform and listen to their constituents;
it is necessary for them to communicate with one another; and at the most
basis, it is necessary for them to discover and represent the wishes of those
who have elected them as their representatives. While we elect individuals , we
appreciate and understand that they must then balance three sometimes opposing
forces : their own conscience; the philosophy of their party ; and the interest
of their constituency itself.
At the simplest
level, the implementation of e-governance can then support this information and
communication requirement. E-mail between politicians, and between politicians
and departments can be easily established. Since many state govts. Are
providing Lap tops to their MPs and MLA’s , they can publish their home pages
on Internet, to act as constituency interaction center. This then touches on
the next 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 express their views. There are similarly endless ways to utilize
Information and communication technologies (only limited by the imagination of
the implementing agency) 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
- Present Scenario of
e-governance efforts in India
- Strategies/action plan for
designing e-government projects for addressing immediate objectives 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
& Local levels, citizen & businesses, and to empower citizens through
access & use of information.
What e-government is NOT! :
Terms such as “data resale ”,
“digital democracy ”, “e-politics” etc. are
also frequently mentioned within the same breath as “e-government. Neither of
these terms, however, observes the principle of leveraging the Internet to
simplify government. Digital democracy is, in fact, “e-politics ”rather than
e-government; that is, leveraging the Internet to simplify the election process
(rather than government). It is important that these terms not muddle the
objectives of e-government.
e-governance evolution : History and Present
Status
Global
shifts towards increased deployment of IT by governments emerged in the
nineties, with the advent of the World Wide Web. The technology as well as
e-governance initiatives have come a long way since then. With the increase in
Internet and mobile connections, the citizens are learning to exploit their new
mode of access in wide ranging ways. They have started expecting 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 “e-citizenship” 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 deployment of IT 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 very significant development. From the early
nineties, IT technologies were supplemented by ICT technologies to extend its use 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 under the framework of e-governance for
development to catalyze the development of e-governance laws and technologies
in developing countries..
While
the emphasis has been primarily on automation and computerization, state governments
have also endeavored to use ICT tools 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 workflow systems, 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. Every state govt.
has taken the initiative to form an IT
task force to outline IT policy document for the state and the citizen charters
have started appearing on govt. websites.
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. Following
are some of the recent e-governance projects implemented by 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,
Saukaryam, Online Transaction processing
|
Bihar
|
Sales
Tax Administration Management Information
|
Chattisgarh
|
Chhattisgarh
Infotech Promotion Society, Treasury office, e-linking project
|
Delhi
|
Automatic
Vehicle Tracking System, Computerisation of website of RCS office, Electronic
Clearance System, Management Information System for Education etc
|
Goa
|
Dharani
Project
|
Gujarat
|
Mahiti
Shakti, request for Government documents online, Form book online, G R book
online, census online, tender notice.
|
Haryana
|
Nai
Disha
|
Himachal
Pradesh
|
Lok
Mitra
|
Karnataka
|
Bhoomi,
Khajane, Kaveri
|
Kerala
|
e-Srinkhala,
RDNet, Fast, Reliable, Instant, Efficient Network for the Disbursement of
Services (FRIENDS)
|
Madhya
Pradesh
|
Gyandoot,
Gram Sampark, Smart Card in Transport Department, Computerization MP State
Agricultural Marketing Board (Mandi Board) etc
|
Maharashtra
|
SETU,
Online Complaint Management System—Mumbai
|
Rajasthan
|
Jan
Mitra, RajSWIFT, Lokmitra, RajNIDHI
|
Tamil
Nadu
|
Rasi
Maiyams–Kanchipuram; Application forms related to public utility, tender
notices and display
|
North-Eastern
States
|
Arunachal
Pradesh,
|
Community
Information Center. Forms available on
|
Manipur,
Meghalaya,
|
the
Meghalaya website under schemes related to
|
Mizoram
& Nagaland
|
social
welfare, food civil supplies and consumer affairs, housing transport etc.
|
Source
: PC Quest Article
e-governance evolution in India – Challenges before Stakeholders
Since 1996, I was fortunate
enough to work closely with a variety of
govt. and commercial concerns , investigating the continuing trends in the
field of e-governance area . I can say,
from my experience that although lots of efforts have been made in the creation
of infrastructure and internal information handling by govt. bodies as well as
public services, the diffusion of technologies in moving towards e-governance
have been rather slow. This may primarily 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-B
projects. The administrative structure is not geared for maintaining,
storing and retrieving the governance information electronically. The general
tendency is to obtain the data from the files (print) as and when required
rather than using Document Management and workflow technologies. Lately the use of DMS and workflow
technologies has been able to find its use only in those departments where
there is perceptible lightening of workload of the subordinate staff.
- Underutilization of existing ICT
infrastructure
To a larger extent, the computers
in the department are used for the purpose of word processing only, 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 by the
time application is Ready for use, the hardware becomes obsolete.
- Attitude of
Government Departments
The psychology of government
servants is quite different from that of private sectors. Traditionally the
government servants have derived their sustenance from the fact that they are
important repositories of govt. data. Thus
any effort to implement DMS and workflow technologies or bringing out the
change in the system is met with resistance from the govt. servants.
- Lack of
coordination between Govt. Department and Solution developers
Designing of any application
requires a very close interaction between the govt. department and the agency
developing the solutions. At present the users in govt. departments do not
contribute enough to design the solution architecture. Consequently the
solution developed and implemented does not address the requirements of an e-governance
project and hence does not get implemented .
- Resistance to
re-engineering of departmental processes
Successful implementation of
e-governance projects requires 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. Additionally there is
lack of expertise of departmental
MIS executives in exploiting data mining techniques, updation and
collection of real time content onto website etc. Therefore the content as is
collected or maintained by various
e-governance portals is unreliable or full of gaps. In such a scenario, its
difficult for any e-governance solution to achieve its intended results.
- Lack of
Infrastructure for sustaining e-governance projects on national level
Infrastructure to support
e-governance initiatives does not exist within government departments. The
agony is that the government departments are not equipped to be in a position
to project the clear requirements nor are there any guidelines for involving
private sector. Whatever efforts have
been made by various govt. organizations may be defined as islands of
computerization. The infrastructure creation is not guided by a uniform
national policy , but is dependent on the needs of individual officers
championing a few projects. Therefore , the required networking and
communication equipment is either non existent in govt. departments, or if it
exists at all , it does not serve any tangible purpose as far as the
requirement of e-governance project is concerned. The use of connectivity
options provided by govt. agencies like NICNET etc. are used in a very limited
manner for data transmission purpose between various locations viz. Distt.,
State , Center etc. and is mainly utilized for e-mail and Internet purpose
only.
Most state govts. have formed the IT task force
and have their IT policies in place. Although policies may have lofty goals,
much seems to have happened only in automation and computerization The drawback
is that these IT policy documents are
not made based upon the requirements and inherent capabilities of the state but
are based on the surveys and strategies used by other nations or other states.
Though its very wise to take examples from the successful e-governance
strategies of other states and countries, its equally essential that we
customize our state policies after a careful study of the parameters applicable to the particular state
in question. A tentative action plan is presented to help implement the e-governance
initiatives as below:
e-Gov Action Plan – Strategies for today; Vision for Future
Govt. leaders in India are starting
to realize that e-governance is the key to drive today’s economy
with an increased participation from citizens.
Providing 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 accountability and
performance measurement, govts. will face increasing pressure to make the
services more accessible to their citizens. The pressure comes directly from
the new legislatures and govt. policies to implement high-end technologies in
governing the nations; but also indirectly and perhaps more intensely from
citizens. The citizens now a days are not using govt. services in
isolation, but are simultaneously making
transactions and interacting with the corporate world. In addition to this
direct or indirect pressure, governments must themselves study & realize
the cost saving benefits e-Governance techniques produce With this rise in
demand for e-services, it is a mandatory requirement for government budget
writers that the efficiency enhancement and cost saving potential of providing
online services and information be mastered.
E-governance is about more than
streamlining processes and improving services. It’s about transforming Governments
and renovating the way citizens participate in democracy. So how does a
government agency cuts through the clutter and builds a strategy to
facilitate the transition to successful online or “e” service delivery. If
the govt. Waits , its perceived as being out of touch with the citizen needs
and loses an opportunity to realize the tremendous benefits of online service
delivery and larger citizen participation in overall service delivery. Yet if the e-governance started and implemented
in haste, the are doomed to fail. According to one of the surveys conducted by
a reputed agency , 75% of e-governance may fail because of poor planning
The real challenges is how to
develop and sustain successful e-governance projects and deliver state of the
art e-services to citizens. Unfortunately its not as easy as adding “e” in front of your service delivery
mechanism. Successful e-governance initiatives can never be taken in haste. Particularly
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. No country has so far implemented an e-governance system for one billion people. Some of the requirements 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.
- Connectivity framework for making the services reach
rural areas of the country or development of alternative means of services
such as e-governance kiosks in regional languages.
- National
Citizen database which is the primary unit of data for all governance vertical and horizontal applications across the state and central governments.
- E-governance and interoperability standards for the
exchange of secure information with non-repudiation, across the state and
central government departments seamlessly.
- A secure delivery framework by means of virtual
private network connecting across the state and central government departments.
- Datacenters in
centre and states to handle the departmental workflow automation, collaboration, interaction, exchange of information with authentication.
For success of an e-governance
project and superior service delivery, it is imperative that the government
agency focuses on whole citizen experience. Focusing on the citizen is
essential for long term success. The govt. agency needs to integrate
information from all points of citizen interaction. The overall architecture
for e-Governance needs to ensure that the architecture components are
extensible and scalable to adapt to the changing environments. The e-Governance
applications that are emerging as islands of successes have to be
interoperable. Following are some of the
suggestions for the successful transformation from “ A” to “e”
a) Create Literacy and commitment to e-governance
at high level
The most important requirement is
a training program for policy makers in
E-Governance (Senior Public Servants), politicians and IT task force members. The training program needs to be focused according
to the requirements of the policy makers at the top. Such programs can be need
based and outsourced when required. In addition
it should be made mandatory for all the stake holders in implementation
and maintenance of e-governance services to have the general IT skills. There
may be specific requirements for training in certain specific projects. Such
programs can be need based and outsourced when required. A few suggestive
programs include e-governance training, Building web interfaces for citizen
interaction, Document management and workflow applications, security and PKI solutions, Office Automation, networking etc.
b) Conduct Usability Surveys for assessment of existing e-governance projects
There is a varying degree of
development of e-governance among the different states. A few States have
leapfrogged into a digital era whereas a few are yet to start with any
initiative. There is a tremendous divergence in the extent 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 straightaway applicable to all states and the Central
Government. Therefore an e-readiness
exercise should be carried out in all states, government departments to understand
their level of acceptability of the e-governance.
c) Starting with implementation of pilot
projects and replicating the successful ones
The pilot projects taken in
various states should be accessed for their achievement levels. They should be
classified as success or failure according to the desired output written down
before implementation of the projects. The study should be carried out by an
independent agency for the implementation agency The study should be carried
out at each stage of implementation. Bottlenecks and causes of delays should be
documented, even though they are removed later. The successful projects should
be replicated over the nation with members drawn from the implementing team.
The projects, which could not achieve the desired outcome, should be documented
for possible causes of failure. Various bottlenecks and causes of delay should
be identified.
d) Follow
the Best Practices in e-governance
The study of Best Practices will
bring forward the best practices being followed nationally and internationally.
The national and international Best Practices study will give a great momentum
to the process of E-Governance. The State Governments will not have to
re-invent wheel every time and they can learn from the developments already
made.
e)
Build
National resource Database of e-governance projects
This would allow any organization planning an IT project to
instantly ascertain whether any such project has already been implemented
anywhere in the country. Intending implementers would know who the key people
in similar projects 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. So the
lead-time to implement projects can be reduced substantially.
If a project is
already in operation in a similar environment somewhere in the country,
acceptance by all concerned is much faster and smoother elsewhere. So change
management becomes much easier and the time and effort involved in such
implementations. Due recognition would accrue to the pioneers who created the
successes. It would enable others to learn from them if they wish.
For implementing
agencies, be they Government owned organizations like NIC, CDAC and State PSUs
or private IT companies, it offers a unique opportunity to derive the full
return and reward, both domestically and internationally, from their successes
and the IPRs/ products that they have created. It would help create an archive
of e-governance applications in the country.
f)
Have clearly
defined Interoperability policy
The e–governance architecture
needs to ensure that the components are scalable and adaptable to the future
requirements. It has also to ensure that the Local architecture fits into the
State level and the same into National and Global architecture.
Interoperability is a major criterion while defining the architecture.
g) Manage and Update content on govt. websites
efficiently and regularly
Content is the 'heart' of any IT
project. The govt. agency 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 security of transactions and messages. The process of
content development encompasses a whole range of activities starting with a
comprehensive study of the system and identification of the objectives. It ends
up with delivery of the intended benefits to the citizens or other users of the
IT System. The govt. agencies must ensure that the data on the sites is always
updated and relevant.
Conclusion
It is evident from above discussion that objectives of
achieving e-governance and transforming India goes far beyond mere
computerization of stand alone back office operations. It means , to
fundamentally change as to how the government operates, and this implies a new
set of responsibilities for the executive and politicians. It will require
basic change in work culture and goal orientation, and simultaneous change in
the existing processes. Foremost of them is to create a culture of maintaining,
processing and retrieving the information through an electronic system and use
that information for decision making. It will require skilled navigation to
ensure a smooth transition from old processes and manual operations to new
automated services without hampering the existing services. This can be
achieved by initially moving ahead in smaller informed initiatives in a time
bound manner and avoiding large and expensive steps without understanding the
full social implications. Every small step thus taken should be used to learn about hurdles and improve upon the
next steps, both in terms of direction and magnitude. The proposed changes are
likely to be met with a lot of inertia which can not be overcome by lower and
middle level officials with half hearted attempts to diffuse the technology.
The change in the mindset to develop and accept the distributed and flat
structured e-governance system is required at the top level system to beat the
inertia.
About the Author :
(e-Governance Consultant)
