Great Expectations, Few Returns

State governments in India want to use the burgeoning applications of IT so
as to bring administration closer to citizens. Good idea. The increased spending
by states on IT is heartening and timely. However, e-gov experts as well as many
in the administration feel it will remain a halfway street if the efforts aren't
extended beyond the provision of information services. It is equally important
that the respective governments get their acts together at the back-end before
they start implementing their operations online, experts suggest.

While respective state governments' goals for e-gov are fine, the
methodology adopted to achieve these is often questionable. The question of
"means" apparently needs to be addressed on an immediate basis as
nations around the world are making steady progress towards electronic
governance. Hence, experts feel that India's moving up the e-gov index-from
85th place in 2003 to the 27th in 2004, according to Brown University research-isn't
serving any real purpose.

"E-gov in India is nothing but hype. The governments, instead of
adopting the public-private partnership model for offering information and
transactional services, should concentrate more on taking back-end operations
online," said Tamil Nadu commissioner for disciplinary proceedings C
Umashankar.

In
areas where bribery is common, the operations are still manual and the common
man is yet to be freed from the clutches of corruption. "Rather than
remaining content with taking transactions such as payment of electricity and
water bills, where the scope for corruption is not vast, online, it is areas
such as making land registrations, birth and death certificates, taxes, pension
schemes and scholarships that should be made online on a priority basis,"
he added.

Agreeing with the view, former project head for good governance Sameer
Sachdev said, "While the e-gov initiative as a function is always there, an
integrated approach towards it does not exist. Providing informatory services is
primary, but the irony is that many official websites are outdated." He
insisted that national level data repositories be maintained, with the
technically interoperable systems.

Conceding this point, Dr K Jayakumar, IT director, Ministry of Personnel,
Public Grievances and Pensions, said, "Networking is vital in e-governance.
Connecting all the field officers, talukas and panchayats would ensure proper
flows of information, reducing the periods before transfer of files, which is
otherwise a time-consuming process."

Umashankar says of the budgetary factor that many international funding
agencies are coming forward, and even otherwise, the government is the largest
spender, though hardly the wisest user. "They buy machines, dump them in
rooms and by the time they actually start using them they become obsolete,"
he said.

E-gov drives cannot compromise, for instance, on areas such as security
conventions, besides connectivity. A huge network has to be built connecting all
the villages, talukas and mandal offices. While numerous such factors have to be
kept in mind for furthering the movement towards digital government,
transparency in operations is the one issue that must remain uppermost on the
priority list in the effort to ensure fair governance. Brainstorming within the
government to put an end to moneymaking opportunities for insiders can only
amplify the already burgeoning potentials information technology holds.

Sunitha Natti, CyberMedia News