In the nineteenth century, historian Vincent Smith had praised
the Indian polity for its resilient nature, for its “Unity in Divesity”.
In 2007, with IT having pervaded every sphere of life in India, it is the
concept of e-Governance that best illustrates the diversity across different
Indian states, but at the same time highlights the underlying unity that binds
them together. True, different states are on different levels in their march to
adoption of e-Governance, but all are at least united today in acknowledging its
importance, and looking at how it can be effectively utilized to improve the
quality of governance.
IT is an immensely effective tool for increasing the penetration
of a service to its intended beneficiaries. Governance, as a service, is no
different. Spreading the benefits of governance to the citizens of the country
has been an uphill task for the Indian government agencies. IT is giving it a
welcome leg up. E-Governance helps take the benefits of government’s citizen
services to the common man.
E-Governance is still finding its feet. This year, the
Dataquest-IDC e-Governance Satisfaction Study focuses on the respondent’s
satisfaction with e-Governance, further measured by satisfaction with the ease
of use, availability and quality of e-Governance services meted out by the state
governments.
More and more services are being aided by IT, but the
satisfaction of the citizens and businesses with regards to the ease of
interaction, availability and quality of these services differs greatly from
state to state. While Goa, Karnataka, Delhi, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh seem to
have understood how to leverage IT for governance services, UP, Rajasthan,
Punjab, Orissa and HP seem to be lagging far behind.
Measuring e-Gov Success
With increasing budget allocations, increasing per capita spend on IT and
increasing number of initiatives on the road, the state governments seem to be
well on their way to successful e-Governance. However, none of these mean
anything if the intended beneficiaries-in this case individual citizens and
businesses-are not satisfied. That is why the Dataquest-IDC e-Governance Study
this year measures the satisfaction levels for these services in terms of ease
of interaction, availability, and quality.
| More and more services are being aided by IT, but the satisfaction of the citizens and businesses with regards to the ease of interaction, differs greatly from state to state |
| The Champion: Goa |
| Satisfied!: Karnataka |
| Makes the List: Delhi |
| UP is Down: Uttar Pradesh |
| The e-Gov Scorecard of Indian States |
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| The perennial debate on whether having smaller states help in providing better governance is further fueled by the results of the Dataquest-IDC e-Gov survey. While a tiny state like Goa emerges at the top and a city-state like Delhi features among the Top 3, the largest state in the country, UP, lands with the wooden spoon. Is there a lesson herein for our bureaucrats and other decision makers responsible for framing state reorganization policies? |
Among the 20 states that this study covers, as already mentioned
Goa, Karnataka, Delhi, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh ranked as the Top 5. The
tail-enders included Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, and at the
very bottom, Uttar Pradesh.
The states were measured for satisfaction of the beneficiaries
as well as e-readiness of the governments, and quite often, the results were
disparate. For instance, Karnataka, which had the highest score in satisfaction,
had a very low score in e-readiness. Goa, which topped the study, has high
scores in both (highest score in e-readiness and second highest in
satisfaction). The lowest score in satisfaction was landed by Punjab, while the
least e-readiness score was Orissa’s. In general, e-readiness scores for most
states are lower than satisfaction of the beneficiaries, except for Delhi and
Punjab.
The Top 5 states in overall satisfaction levels for e-Governance
services for citizens are Karnataka, Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Assam. The
states that fared the worst were Orissa, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and
Uttar Pradesh.
| There is now a nationwide thrust on e-Governance. Not only the high-performing states but also the so-called low performers have several e-initiatives under way |
In terms of overall satisfaction levels for e-Governance
services for businesses, the Top 5 states are Karnataka, Goa, Gujarat, Andhra
Pradesh, and Assam, while the bottom 5 are Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh,
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, with Punjab at the bottom. Of the 20
states, only two (Maharashtra and Punjab) performed better in their services for
the citizens than in their services for the businesses.
From the Eyes of Citizens and Businesses
In the citizen services, the maximum score that any state achieved in any
parameter for overall satisfaction is for income tax department, and the state
is Gujarat. The second highest score has been bagged by Gujarat for power
utility. On the other hand, the lowest score by any state for any parameter is
for police and security and the state is Punjab. The second lowest, similarly,
is for Transport/RTO, and the state is Uttar Pradesh.
In services for business organizations, the maximum score has
been bagged by Assam for passport services, followed by Gujarat, for power
utility. On the other hand, as in citizen services, the lowest satisfaction
score is achieved by Punjab for police and security, followed by again Punjab
for power utility.
The study took into consideration qualitative and secondary
factors as well. When making a qualitative assessment of the states’
e-Governance initiatives and IT vision, the top states is Madhya Pradesh, while
the states that fare the worst is Haryana.
However, in terms of overall secondary scores, which include the
above qualitative factors as well as a number of factors that evaluated the
availability and usage of ICT and social/educational infrastructure, the state
that scored the most is Goa, while Orissa had the least score.
It is evident that there is now a nationwide thrust on
e-Governance. This is reflected in the fact that not only the high-performing
states but also the so-called low performers have several e-initiatives under
way. It is hoped that this will not only help the low-performing states pull up,
but also raise the overall standard of the ease of interaction, availability and
quality of government services for citizens and businesses alike.
Similarly, if one were to look at things from the perspective of
the services, there are some that seem to fare better than others, like
education, power utility, income tax department, passport services, supplies
provisions and business registration.
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Why They |
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| (States whose ranks have dropped by more than four positions from the DQ-IDC E-Gov Survey last year) |
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For UP, the scores across In case of Punjab, the The scores across each of |
For Kerala, the scores Madhya Pradesh has seen the In case of Chattisgarh, the |
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But there are some services that most states are struggling
with, like police and security and agriculture for citizens and police and
security and licenses and permits in the case of businesses. Overall, though,
businesses seem to show higher satisfaction with e-Governance initiatives than
individual citizens. This could either be because businesses do interact
directly with governments more often than individuals, or because the state
governments are more focused towards businesses when it comes to e-Governance.
| One of the main objectives of most e-Governance initiatives is increased transparency, and, therefore, reduced corruption but they don’t seem to have gone very far with it |
The most evident benefit of e-Governance is the increase in the
sheer ease of use. For many years, Indians, whether individual citizens or
business entities have suffered from the excessive red tape surrounding
government services, and the increase in the ease of use has obviously been
received well. There has also been an increase in the availability of services
because IT has helped in opening more service centers. One of the main
objectives of most e-Governance initiatives is increased transparency, and
therefore, reduced corruption. That, however, seems to be the Holy Grail of
state e-Governance initiatives and they don’t seem to have gone very far with
it.
| Methodology | ||
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Research
Research
Phase I: Selection of States
Phase II: Survey of State IT
Phase III: Survey of Citizens and The key citizen services The key business services These ‘service types’ |
Analysis Phase II: Survey of State IT A further qualitative Finally, the 20 selected
Phase III: Survey of Citizens and To arrive at a 100-point |
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The IT spends of the state governments are going up, as is their
plan for per capita spend. There are several e-Governance projects under way or
in service. But the disparities between the states are immense, whether it is in
the intentions or in the actions. E-readiness is generally low across the board,
clearly indicating that work needs to be done, both in ensuring that more
initiatives are put in place, as well as ensuring that those initiatives reach
the intended beneficiaries and deliver the benefits that they are supposed to in
the best possible way.
Rajneesh De
rajneeshd@cybermedia.co.in
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