On the definition of e-governance and its end goal
E-governance for me is a citizen centric process that primarily leverages IT for improving governance by bringing transparency, responsiveness and efficiency. As far as the end goal is concerned, e-governance should be a journey towards smart governance where all transactions are made online with the least possible delays and at the lowest possible cost. In other words, it's a dream of anywhere, any time, non-stop governance.

On whether citizens should pay for e-Governance services
In my personal opinion there are no free lunches in life. I would not say that the citizen should pay, but, for any model to be sustainable, there has to be some revenue stream built into it, or else the project will hit a roadblock in a year or two. Hence, there is a need for a sustainable revenue stream that may vary from one project to another. At times one may need to charge, on other occasions it could be free-there can't be a very straightjacket approach to this.

On the status of a backbone infrastructure
The most important thing that comes to mind when we talk about infrastructure is the WAN. As of now, most of the states do not have connectivity up to the block level, forget the dream of linking every village. Though in most states, districts have been connected through NICNET and other networks and the way all the state governments and the central government are moving, with the DIT giving 100% funding for capital investments, it is only a matter of time. I am worried that there will be a deluge of State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) everywhere. Unfortunately, we do not have enough applications to run on these SWANs.

We have the DIT funding, and then there are funds available with the line ministries as well. With the kind of comfort level that departments have in maintaining compartmentalization, we may soon have several parallel networks working in each state-each not knowing what is being done by others. This would lead to sub-optimal utilization of the infrastructure. We need to really look at how we will utilize it or else it would be a colossal waste of citizens' money.

On whether incentives or penalties can help drive e-governance
It is only because our mainstream models are not working. Say you are paying money to someone, won't you be concerned that the money should be utilized properly? Are you not going to face the consequences if the money is not utilized well? If these systems are inbuilt in the way the government works, the question of incentives will not arise at all. No model can succeed unless the people involved in the project are working. If we have a clear cut system of implementing work on 'project management' and 'mission' mode, with clear cut defined responsibilities, outcomes, rewards and penalties there won't be any problem at all. Without these, despite incentives, the project and the desire to make it successful would ultimately fizzle out.

On open source versus proprietary software for e-governance
While encouraging and supporting open standards, I would not like to take a jehadi approach toward open standards, because, ultimately, it is a question of a particular application for which one requires a particular kind of software. In a small place like Raipur, there is hardly any localized vendor base-in terms of hardware support, software development, or ITeS services. So, while deciding on a project here, one needs to take care of critical factors like maintenance and product support. For me these are very important parameters and often the success and failure of the project may depend on these things. At times, what is free now may have hidden costs latter on.

On whether the Hota Committee report takes care of Government Process Reengineering
GPR is a very serious issue that has to be dealt with at the grassroots level, at the individual departments. Hota Committee took a very lateral view of the whole administrative process and gave very good recommendations. But, if I want to implement e-procurement in my state, then I have to look at the works manual. This has to be amended to reduce the tendering time as per the desired target. This is an activity that has to be taken up across all the stakeholder departments, including the line department.

On Chhatisgarh versus other states
If you compare Chhatisgarh with other states, in terms of attracting investments in IT, or in terms of exports, we are definitely behind states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. But, we have some of the best projects in the country: CHOICE, which empowers people and provides anywhere, anytime services, including that of administration; the e-panchayat project-where we have connected all the panchayats in the state and also provided them with very good decision support system; e-suraj or good governance; and, we have developed a very ambitious GIS with 39 layers and this year we hope to develop applications for it.

Shubhendu Parth/CyberMedia News

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