e-governance

Paper submitted by:
MIRZA MOHAMMAD IDREES UL HAQ BEIGH
B.E, 1st SEMESTER, (ELECTRICAL)
MIET, KOTBHALWAL, JAMMU
MOBILE NO: +919419429085
Email:beighidi@gmail.com
Website: www.beighidi.bloggspot.com
e-governance

Governments around the world are changing, both because of the internal desire to be at par with the practices adopted by the private sector, and the aspirations of the citizens who are placing newer demands on the government. This change or transformation in the way governments function is often termed as e-Governance – a transformation in governance, enabled primarily by the adoption of ICT (information and communications technology). Simply put, e-Governance can help governments provide the following activity sets across various domains:

• Information dissemination – Information intended to be used at large by citizens and businesses is pushed over the Internet for easy and anywhere access.

• Two-way communication – A medium for dialogue between the government agency and the customer (citizens, businesses or other government agency) is provided where communication can take place across entities without the need for a physical visit.

• Transaction conduction – Government service request and processing including service delivery wherever possible is conducted electronically by the use of ICT.

• Governance – Governance aspects are streamlined and automated, viz. online polling, voting and campaigning.The anticipated benefits of e-governance include enhanced process efficiency, improved service delivery, better accessibility of public services, and increased transparency and accountability.

We also hear about ‘e-Government,’ at times…

It is essential to understand that e-Governance is not the same as e-Government. Both these terms are used synonymously many a time, although they are quite different, have differing audiences to cater to and different objectives to achieve. E-Government refers to the use of electronic technology to improve the business of government; whereas e-Governance is a wider concept that defines and assesses the impact technologies are having on the practice and administration of governments and the relationships between them and the wider society.

Haven’t we had successful e-Governance projects? What has changed?

True, we have had quite a few successful e-Governance initiatives in the country. If we look at the development of many of these, we will realise that they were conceptualised with specific focus on any one core aspect of the e-Governance value chain.

For instance, some initiatives focused completely on provision of services in a better way by setting up best-in-class front-end service delivery mechanisms; while others focused on improving efficiency in operations by streamlining their back-end processes and systems.

Only when these initiatives were successful in achieving the desired value from the targeted component, they looked at exploring the other aspects. Much of it was also attributed to the fact that many organisations were undergoing the learning curve, since not many of those initiatives were tested before in the country.

The intent of undertaking most of the e-Governance engagements initially was to provide citizen services in a better way; but it has slowly
changed over the last few years into increasing public sector efficiency, improving transparency and accountability in government functions, and allowing for cost savings in government administration.

ICT can help reinvent government in such a way that existing institutional arrangements can be restructured and new innovative arrangements can flourish, paving the way for a transformed government.


We have had e-Governance failures too. How can these be prevented?

Failure of many e-Governance projects in delivering the intended benefits is directly linked with the level of complexity of the projects. Also there is ample evidence to prove that the success or failure of an e-Governance initiative is as much a people issue as it is a technological issue.

Hence it is imperative for the governments to ensure that they lay strong emphasis on conceptualising a project keeping all its constituents and inter-dependencies in mind, and



follow a holistic implementation strategy which strives to deliver the right benefits to all stakeholders. This strategy should focus on exploring what’s possible, and then drive the change fighting with the existing set of challenges.

Technology, at the end of the day, should function as just an enabler and a tool to drive this change. The real benefit of e-Governance is not measured by the level of use of technology to simplify the operations, but by the




application of technology in bringing transformation and innovation in the government functioning, to enable ‘better governance.’

What can make the new paradigm of e-Governance successful?

The new approach indicates a change in the mindset of the government entities, where they share objectives across organisational boundaries,




instead of working solely within an organisation. This is an important step forward as it involves design and delivery of a wide range of policies, programmes and services that spill over the traditional departmental boundaries.

The earlier approach towards implementing e-Governance initiatives focused on provision of services, whereas the new ‘integrated-governance’ approach focuses on increasing the value of government services for the citizen.

This value enhancement is possible only when a consolidation happens in the way back-end systems and processes in the organisation work to bring about the front-end service delivery. The use of information technology helps governments in maximising that value, making services more efficient, more useful, more accessible and more responsive.Increasing investment in IT by government entities is fast becoming the need of the day, to ensure extension of service delivery into new delivery channels, automate and integrate the back-end systems, and set up of connectivity infrastructure to enable widespread reach of e-Governance. To realise the full value of these




investments, governments will have to bring greater coherence in the way different departments and agencies deliver citizen services.Departmental silo-based ICT infrastructure will have to give way to coordinated service delivery architecture to cost-effectively meet the citizens’ continually rising expectations of government service.

Major e-Governance Projects

Gyandoot

Gyandoot is an intranet in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh, connecting rural cybercafes catering to the everyday needs of the masses. The web site is an extension of Gyandoot intranet, for giving global access. The site has these services to offer: Commodity/ mandi Marketing Information System; Copies of khasra, B1/khatauni and maps; On-line registration of applications; Income Certificate; Domicile Certificate (mool niwasi); Caste Certificate; Landholder's passbook of land rights and loans (Bhoo adhikar evam rin pustika).



Warana

The primary objective of the recently launched Wired Village project is to demonstrate the effective use of IT infrastructure in the accelerated socio-economic development of 70 villages around Warana Nagar in the Kolhapur and Sangli districts of the state of Maharashtra. The existing cooperative structure has been used in concert with high speed VSATs to allow,Internet access to existing cooperative societies. The project aims to provide agricultural, medical, and education information to villagers by establishing networked ‘facilitation booths' in the villages. The site features IT initiatives proposed by the Maharashtra government. These include Computerization of Government departments with very high public contact (e.g. sales tax, revenue, health, education, irrigation, PWD, etc.), Computerization of Government departments with very high public contact (e.g. sales tax, revenue, health, education, irrigation, PWD, etc.)





"RajNidhi": Information kiosks

"RajNidhi" is a web enabled information kiosk system developed jointly by Rajasthan state's Department of Information Technology and Rajasthan State Agency for Computer Services (RajComp). Earlier on March 23, 2000, Nayla became the first village of Rajasthan to have a "Raj Nidhi Information Kiosk" when the US President, Mr. Bill Clinton visited this village to observe the functioning of a Gram Panchayat.


"raj-SWIFT": Rajasthan government's Intranet

The Rajasthan State’s Department of Information Technology (DoIT) has developed Government’s own Intranet called as "raj-SWIFT". SWIFT here stands for Statewide Intranet on Fast Track. This system which has been built using Internet technology and tools, would facilitate online data, text and e-mail communication between the office




of the Chief Minister and all the 32 District Collectors on one-to-one basis, thus bringing the Chief Executive of the State and the district administration close enough to be just a mouse click away.
To overcome the inordinately long time required to obtain the statutory approvals/licences etc. from various government departments/agencies, the Bureau of Industrial Promotion & Office of the Commissioner (Investment & NRIs), Government of Rajasthan, has introduced a Single Window Clearance System through a Single Composite Application Form.

E-Governance in Kerala

The website of the department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions features an article on the e-governance initiatives adopted by the panchayats in Kerala. The Government of Kerala has launched a project titled PEARL (Package for Effective Administration of Registration Laws) for computerisation of the Registration Department in the State.Government of Kerala web portal, provides access to




government services by providing online application forms for services from various departments like the electricity board, revenue
department, corporations, public distribution system. Besides facilitating online application for grievance redressal, the site carries information of government machinery, contact details of elected representatives and a discussion forum. It also provides links to various govt., NGOs and educational institutions.


E-Governance in Himachal Pradesh

Himachal Pradesh to focus on IT-enabled services & e-governance, which would include medical transcription, call centres, data processing, back office operations and GIS.


E-Governance Centre at Haryana Secretariat

The Haryana Government has set up an e-governance centre at the Secretariat to effectively monitor information technology in the state.


Research Centres

Centre for Electronic Governance, Ministry of Information and Technology, Govt. of India

The MIT website features the Centre for e-governance set up by the Ministry of Information and Technology (MIT), Govt. of India. Apart from offering e-governance solutions and services, the Centre showcases applications by various IT majors like C-DAC, CMC, IQ Virtuals, Microsoft, NIC and Oracle. This list will expand soon. The Centre aims to offer services such as technical consultation, proof of concept and thematic presentations, apart from creating awareness amongst decision makers at the Central and State level and helping them in defining and implementing process and policy changes for effective e-Governance.

Centre for Electronic Communities
The IBM Centre for Electronic Communities, Institute for Electronic Government, is a leadership resource in strategy, policy and development of online resources in Government, education and healthcare.


Commonwealth Secretariat's Centre for Electronic Governance

As part of its activities on Public Services Management, as mandated by the Commonwealth Programme "Towards a New Public Administration", the Management and Training Services Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat has announced the launch of a special focus centre under the name of The Centre for Electronic Governance. Currently the Centre is a virtual organisational entity. The status of the Centre's physical manifestation is the subject of discussions and consultations with a number of organisations and institutions. However, the Centre's virtual presence is to be located the following URLs, for which the website is currently under construction:

http://www.electronic-gov.org; and http://www.elerctronic-gov.net







Websites of Indian central and state governments

National Informatics Centre
This is the site if a premier IT organization in India which provides state-of-the-art, solutions for the IT needs of the Government at all levels The NIC home page gives access to a comprehensive Directory(http://goidirectory.nic.in/) providing links to web sites of Government of India Ministries, Departments, States, Organizations, Union Territories.


Government of Delhi

The official website of the Delhi government provides a 'single window' for all the citizen’s information needs and queries regarding the various public services of the Delhi Government, ranging from obtaining a driving license to getting a marriage registration certificate made. The site provides all relevant application forms for downloading and printing.





E-Governance in Noida city

Compaq India has joined hands with Electronics Research and Development Centre of India (ERDCI), Noida, to set up a competence centre that would enable e-governance in Noida city and various other states. Residents will be able to pay electricity and phone bills, file I-T returns, register marriages and deaths, among other things at information kiosks located in the city. Once the project becomes fully operational citizens can pay utilities, get grievance redressal and a variety of
other essential jobs through these info kiosks.


Tiruvarur district Administration

This site is intended to assist Government departments and I.T users in various Government departments in TamilNadu and the rest of the country through online software and hardware consultancy service, free software downloads, sharing of experience in I.T development with reference to various fields in Government etc.




The site has been designed for maximum use for District Collectors for computerizing various
Government activities at district level such as Taluka (administrative unit) office automation, including land record computerization, Block office automation, DRDA automation, fair price shop computerization without use of computers or any other equipment at the fair price shop level and so on.



Parliament of India

Website of the Indian Parliament carries information on the proceedings of both the houses of the parliament, the Constitution of India, various budgets, resume of work, parliamentary debates, secretariats, committees and members of the houses, and links to other central and state government websites.




Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances

This is a section of the website of the Department
of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and
Pensions of the Indian Government. It has well categorized links to E-Governance initiatives from around the world and a review of the Indian experience with E-Governance.



E-Governance in West Bengal
Official site of the West Bengal Govt. features the e-governance initiatives to be undertaken by the state govt. Initially for better citizen interface the following will be emphasized for computerization, viz., vehicle registration, land records, birth and death registrations, employment exchanges, payment of excise duty, sales tax and local tax, electronic bill payment of water and electricity, computerization of health records, relevant
education through internet, work of Police and Police Stations, Criminal Justice etc.

e-governance in Jammu & Kashmir:

Jammu and Kashmir government is yet to implement e-Governance across its various departments. The government should speed up the process in order to generate better job opportunities and serve the masses in a better way.
It is very sad to say that the future of the information technology professionals in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) is not very good as the state government does not have
a clear-cut policy to adopt the IT culture in the government departments. Only by giving the advertisements of e-Governance in the newspapers to gain the vote bank of the educated and professional class is not going to work in a long run.

It seems that the government is still confused how to implement the information technology structure in the various government departments.

The Central Government, however, already has its system in place. The Union Government had opened 135 community information centres in each block headquarter in J&K in 2004. The centres

implement information technology to bring high tech services at the door step of common people.
The centres are basically meant for public use and all the services are available at the nominal fee.

The facility of Internet is very useful for implementing the centrally sponsored schemes like National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). The Internet facility directly links one office to another while ensuring fast and hassle free communication.
In spite of all good technology can do to governance, the state is not doing much to get hold of it J&K government should start the e-Governance from the basic level. The state is equipped with technically sound staff, working full time with various state government departments, which can be used to develop required techno-environment for the set-up.
Thus model for e-governance is a one-stop portal, where citizens have access to a variety of information and services. hence it is hoped that it will reinforce the connection between public officials and communities thereby leading to a stronger, more accountable and inclusive democracy.