E-GOVERNANCE: Winds of Change

Several states are using IT to revamp everything from payment of taxes, issuing of licenses, power distribution and even examination procedures. But these are yet only individual state government initiatives. E-governance has yet to assume country-wide adoption and national significance. Will it burgeon into a national movement and really impact the average citizen’s life?

Read on for an analysis on the status of e-governance in the country. 

E-governance

is the next big trend occurring in India with at least half a dozen states

jumping onto the bandwagon. While these are individual state government

initiatives, they lack a national perspective. Yet, with the realization of the

benefits of e-governance among the central and state governments, in India it

can actually become a reality. This will enable a healthy citizen-government

interface. And for that however, what is needed is a change in the mindset of

people in the government, changes in processes in bureaucracy, development of a

national infrastructure and a governing body on e-governance for the country.

Anomalies

In fact, the

Indian government is yet to talk of e-governance at the highest level. There are

small initiatives such as applying for jobs online and online procurement, but

nothing major. Worse, there is nobody taking ownership for e-governance from the

government of India. According to sources at the Ministry of Information

Technology (MIT), it is not surprising because seriously implementing

e-governance calls for restructuring procedures as well as doing away with the

existing system. These are not decisions that the center would want to exercise.

MIT is the erstwhile Department

of Electronics (DoE). The change in the name came about when the need to

modernize the work allocation of DoE was felt. However, despite the mandate of

MIT being convergence, there is no mention of e-governance in the mandate.

Similarly, though MIT is responsible for publicizing the internet and its usage,

policies regarding the same come under the Department of Telecom Department of

Telecom (DoT). Such anomalies continue to plague a uniform and consistent

approach.

Which is one of the reasons why a

standard definition for e-governance is yet to emerge. For instance, at the most

fundamental level, e-governance would mean facilitating citizen-government

interface by making it not just efficient but transparent as well. Now, such a

definition is yet to find its way among the formal statements issued by the

Government of India.

Having said that, it would not be

fair to point out that activities in the name of e-governance are not being

taken seriously. In fact, there is considerable enthusiasm at the individual

department level driven by forward looking individuals. Indeed, what is lacking

is a cohesive movement, with one single definition governing the e-governance

bandwagon. Again, efforts are on to define some set standards, and though

nothing has been prescribed yet, MIT is talking in terms of broad open

standards, which can be followed by different states.

Pramod Mahajan, Minister for IT

says, "We would like the states to create the right environment for IT. The

importance of the IT industry is gradually being recognized by state

governments. Not all of them had recognized this so far. Till today there is

varied reaction from them. Chief ministers like Chandrababu Naidu, SM Krishna

and Naveen Patnaik are directly handling IT, and giving it a special status. But

some governments don’t even have an IT minister, and they have given the

portfolio to some secretary. So frankly, we have to bring some kind of

uniformity–not in decisions but in the importance, because of this big

computer divide between the section of society with computer access, and the

section without access. That’s not just socio-economic but also geographical

along with other factors."

Filling gaps

In order to

address the gaps that are happening in e-governance in different states, a chief

ministers’ conference or a conference of IT ministers is being planned by the

MIT. The prime minister’s secretary is trying to prepare a paper, toward some

kind of uniform role in IT by the state governments. "This will be a first

move, it will create an atmosphere. And common decisions can be taken,"

adds Mahajan. The objective of the meet is to have a consistent approach across

states, with each benefiting and learning from the other.

Nevertheless, what is actually

happening is state governments who are jumping onto the e-governance bandwagon

are taking initiatives in this direction. Clearly the southern states of AP,

Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have taken the lead in terms of implementing these

projects at different citizen-government interface departments. Slowly, but

surely, other states across the country have been swiftly moving to keep up with

the changes in the south, and states like Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and

West Bengal have been trying to catch up fast. There are plenty of other states

beginning to work on different projects to enable e-governance at its basic

levels, including Kerala, Orissa, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, to name a few.

The results

What is important

is that as a result of the competition that has set in among the various states,

the first level of e-governance initiatives has reached the masses. Although

stereo-typed, all the state governments so far have targeted and taken up

revenue-earning departments such as the registration department, commercial

taxes department, transport department, ration card and public distribution

system, education department, health department, treasury, and municipality for

computerization. This definitely has made an impact on the lives of the common

man in a short time and in the process, has made the respective departments

efficient, fast and accountable.

The best thing that has happened

as a result of e-governance initiatives across different states, is firstly, the

consolidation of a database that has been computerized and updated. Access to

information ‘anywhere, anytime’, both for the administration and the

citizens, has been the biggest achievement in a short period of time by the

government. Better still, the computerization process has brought in more

accuracy and authenticity in the processes, and in some places have even

eliminated room for corruption or fraudulent practices, that had been prevalent

in the system.

Areas of concern remain

Nevertheless, one

area of concern is how much of thought has been going into setting up systems

for e-governance. Says D Prakash, Secretary, IT, Government of Tamil Nadu,

"First of all governments need to understand what e-governance is, in the

true sense of the term. And the idea should be to further the governance

processes toward easier, better citizen-friendly schemes as and where required.

And these initiatives have to be looked at in totality, offering services

required by the common man. Echoing the same views is a

private vendor, who says, "In most of the initiatives, what is actually

required by the government is clear thinking about what needs to be achieved and

where to get the expertise and solutions to achieve it in a cost-effective,

time-bound manner. Hardware and software constitute only 10% of the problem,

while 85% of the problem is an organization management problem that is internal

to the government. This is because the government is a complex animal that

cannot be understood by external people, who have not been familiar with the

system. So much so, the issues pertaining to IT in government have acquired

obvious urgency in the minds of not only the IT industry and the governments but

the common man too, who has realized that he stands to benefit immensely from

good governance. Technology is no longer viewed suspiciously, but as a tool for

administrative and business processes.

Commenting on the overall

e-governance scenario in the country, Randeep Sudan, Special Secretary to the

Andhra Pradesh chief minister, says, "E-governance initiatives still remain

at a nascent stage in the country. Most of the states have yet to go about

pursuing e-governance seriously. Even the Government of India has yet to evolve

a strategy for coordinating various e-governance initiatives in different

states. It is extremely important that the Government of India should determine

the overall architecture for e-governance initiatives in the country in order to

ensure consistency of pan-Indian projects. Unless such an overarching

architecture is available at the national level it will be difficult for the

country to derive the full benefits from e-governance initiatives." He

illustrates this point showing the need for a citizen’s ID that will be

uniform across the country, so that databases can be aligned in a manner that

can link citizen data at the national level.

According to Suresh Kumar,

Principal Secretary, IT, Government of Maharashtra, "It will be safe to

assume that in the next decade, governments either embrace e-governance or cease

to effectively govern". He further adds that governments are struggling

with fundamental changes in the way they work and are seeking ways to provide

better services for citizens and improve the climate for business growth.

Agreeing with him on attitudinal changes that have to occur in the government

set-up for e-governance, Vivek K Agnihotri, Additional Secretary, Department of

Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, comments, "Making

e-governance work is more an attitudinal issue with 55% resting on it. The

remaining 45% is split between software and hardware in the ratio of 40% and

5%. _{Tackling the concerns}Having

understood this, the states and the Center, with the new MIT ‘avtar’, have

come together to work jointly on making efforts reach across the length and

breath of the country. To start with, MIT is setting up a center for

e-governance at its office in New Delhi. Basically, a demonstrative center, this

will store all the applications developed by different states for e-governance,

for the other remaining states to see and check out its applicability for their

own departments. The idea is to avoid duplication or reinventing of the wheel

and instead spread the cause of e-governance quickly across the country.

"The ministry of information technology should ideally be the ministry of

speed. It should help to quickly dismantle all obstacles coming in the way of

rapid expansion of connectivity and should proactively go about ensuring that

decision-making processes in government are expedited in so far as they concern

matters pertaining to information technology. It should also engage itself in

issues relating to IT architecture with a pan-Indian perspective,"

explains Sudan.

While there is a lot that MIT

would like to do to propagate the cause of e-governance, it is restricted by the

funds available. It has to make do with Rs5 crore for pilot projects. So even as

it scouts for applications such as CARD registration in the Government of AP,

and put it up at demo centers for others to duplicate, it is also encouraging

other states to develop pilot software for specific applications. The idea is to

encourage adoption of e-governance by displaying what can be done and its

benefits. Similarly, the ministry is also considering setting up a National

Institute of Smart Governance, with participation from the IT industry, to take

IT to the masses.

The first wrung of e-governance

initiatives, have showed the people what to expect from the administrative

system with the deployment of IT. Now, with a consolidated and central level, the realization that a more cohesive implementation ofeffort at the state

e-governance initiatives, linking the entire country through a national IT

infrastructure, formulation of relevant laws and policies and sharing from the

experiences of others is bound to make a difference. This is especially true of

the population in the villages.

Akila

Subramaniam



in Chennai


with inputs from Alokananda Ghosh, Srinivas R, Latha Kuttapan-Chandradeep,
Venkatesh Ganesh, and Yograj Varma

.