Most know the picturesque city-state of Goa as a haven for beach-lovers. But at the helm of its 1,543,500 odd citizen and a concoction of tourists that make the town their own, is the e-gov mechanism that is steering it smoothly toward good governance and citizen satisfaction. The Government of Goa has made sure that citizens get the best out of what technology judiciously mixed with governance can offer, as is evident from when it was ranked the best e-gov state last year. However, the momentum seems to have been caught up in the past year causing a decline in the rank by one position.

Though the state has fallen by a rank in the overall score, it tops in e-readiness and has more than 2-3 new projects in the pipeline like the GBBN (the Goa Broadband Network) and iComitrax. The strength areas of Goa in the overall satisfaction for citizens to the e-gov services are municipal corporation, income tax department and transport/RTO.

In the case of business satisfaction score, the land/property department, incentives and grants, and the business registration department have performed very well and met the expectation of the small but thriving business community of Goa. But citizen services cannot be ignored and proper attention is needed in areas of power utility, passport services and police and security.

Quick Facts Population: 1,543,500 Area: 3,702 sq km Intake of engineering students per 1,000 population: 0.56 Internet subscribers per 1,000 population: 28.0 Telephones per 100 population: 65.2 No of PCs per 1,000 population: 35.7 Per Capita IT spend: Rs 2,045.2

In comparison to last year, the drop in Goas position comes from a slight decline in the citizen satisfaction score and the business satisfaction score. But despite that, Goa has done exceedingly well and if it continues to handle the current projects efficiently and implement the new ones the way it has been, Goa might just be re-crowned the champion next year.

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