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Building Capacity, Managing Knowledge

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DQI Bureau
New Update

Capacity building has emerged as one of the most critical components in the
modern project management body of knowledge. This pertains to two major areas
management of human resources and training. Also, knowledge management serves as
an overarching support component across the capacity building realm.

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The conceptualization of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) started some
time before 2004. In early 2005, while formulating NeGP, states were at
different levels of readiness, and e-governance initiatives and computerization
of government systems were mainly champion-driven. So for all the states to
assume the ownership and participate in the national program, capacity building
was considered to be vital at various levels within the government across the
country.

In March 2005, the Department of Information Technology, Government of India,
provided financial assistance to all the states, so that professional services
could be hired for preparing e-governance roadmaps (EGRMs) and capacity building
roadmaps (CBRMs).

EGRM is an important report, wherein states have aspired to achieve a certain
level of e-governance initiative. This is broadly dependent on the study of
various departments, their readiness, and the identification of the citizen
services to be transformed. Broadly, the report includes vision, mission,
present scenario, gap analysis, and fund arrangements. This gives an overall
picture of readiness and aspiration levels of various states. EGRM, therefore,
serves as a roadmap to complete the e-gov program in a state.

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CBRM details the capacity building requirements in a state mainly in terms of
manpower and training along with detailed requirements of capacity building for
state specific programs within the broader framework of NeGP.

The government formally approved the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) in May
2006. Subsequently, a capacity building scheme was formulated for all states and
union territories (UTs) following a uniform approach. Importantly, an
institutional framework has been suggested for states and UTs. However,
depending on the readiness, population, area, and a few other parameters, there
are some variations in terms of the magnitude of the implementation but the
overall response has been quite encouraging.

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The Government of India approved the capacity building scheme in January 2008
which will be implemented in all states and union territories. The scheme is for
the establishment of an institutional framework for state-level strategic
decision-making including setting up of a state e-governance mission team. This
will provide professional manpower support to the policy and decision-making
process and will help the overall management of the program and its effective
implementation.

The scheme also has a provision for orientation courses and specialized
training to key public functionaries and senior government officials involved in
the program. The training institutions in states/UTs would also be strengthened
so that various training programs can be offered on a regular basis. The scheme
has an outlay of Rs 313 crore to be implemented over a period of three years.

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A central capacity building management cell is being set up for coordination
and implementation of the scheme. This cell will facilitate various activities
under the capacity building scheme.

Toward Capacity Building

For taking up an ambitious program like NeGP, which has a wider implication
like transforming the government processes and the citizen service delivery
system, the vision and policy direction comes from respective governments in
states and union territories. So, the first and foremost task was to set up an
e-governance program steering council ideally under the chairmanship of the
chief minister.

For achieving the state policy goals and objectives, an apex committee was
set up to provide strategy direction and oversee the state e-governance program
and ensure inter-departmental coordination. For operationalizing the CB scheme,
the state government has designated a state nodal organization that would
provide services like selections, contracting for external resources, and
administrative support to the SeMT. This is referred as the institutional
framework needed for systematic approach to the e-governance program.

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It is very encouraging to see that most states and UTs have already set up
the framework. The next major steps include establishing SeMTs at the state
level, initiating various training programs and the knowledge sharing process,
and strengthening training institutions in the states.

Presently, the most challenging job is to get on board suitable professionals
in the SeMT. The management of a huge program like NeGP necessitates sourcing of
professional skills in various areas of expertise such as project/program
management, process reengineering, change management, technology, financial
modeling, etc.

Sourcing of SeMTs is envisaged in the following ways: first, to look for
suitable people from within the government organization and the rest can be
recruited from the open market on a contractual basis. In the present scenario,
it is difficult to get suitable manpower in limited time. Also, the attrition
rate is quite high. So, it is inevitable that a suitable HR policy as well as HR
management for these professionals would be required. Mere size of SeMTs might
deter individual states to have their own policy. So, centrally, the DIT will
facilitate recruitment as well as manage a suitable HR policy. Similar
collective initiatives are also being taken for arranging specialized training,
conferences, workshops, and knowledge management.

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States that have been aggressive in implementation of e-governance, even
before NeGP formulation, are the frontrunners. They have capabilities and
capacity within. Some of these states also have organizations like the
e-governance society under their administrative control. Now, under this
capacity building scheme, even those states and UTs that could not move forward
at a fast pace will get a chance to augment themselves and will be better
equipped to handle the challenges of e-gov implementation.

Knowledge Management

Government departments across the nation are getting into e-gov program
development and implementation. Because of various associated activities in the
e-gov space, tremendous amount of knowledge is being generated in this process;
and this knowledge can also be used suitably for similar initiatives in other
states, thereby reducing the overall cycle time for e-gov projects.

Like any other project, e-gov faces change management as an issue that needs
a lot of attention. Intervening into the legacy systems and infusing process
transformation across all components is a challenge but e-gov is generally
welcome and has been accepted at all levels.

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The workforce with the government would be suitably trained for the new setup
and will result in more interactions, empowerment, and training to handle the
new environment. It is considered that these steps would be useful for the
inclusive participation and building confidence in the changed environment.

Change management is an important aspect for taking NeGP forward. Out of the
key strategic pillars of an organizationpeople, process, and technologyit is
the people element that is critical for the success of any large-scale
developmental program. The CB initiative lays emphasis on the people element
to make NeGP a success.

Dr Dhrupad Mathur

The author is senior consultant on the National e-Governance Plan of the
Government of India

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in

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