E Governance Initiatives in India

This topic is a part of General Studies Paper 2 and it deals with important aspects of e-governance applications, models, successes, limitations and potential. E-governance is an innovative phenomenon for redeveloping Indian public administration purely because of the fact that its objectives are to enhance the quality of government services to citizens, speed up communications through the use of technology, reduce government expenditure, bring in more transparency, reduce corruption and subjectivity, reduce costs for citizens and make government more accessible and accountable.

It is an imperative for economic progress in today's world. Today many government departments have started using information and communications technology (ICT) to automate their works because of ease of access to computer technology and the numerous developments in the field of information and communications technology.

There has also been an increased efficiency in the functioning of the government services because of computerization of services like ration cards, income certificates, building licences, Passport/VISA, Pensions, Road Transport, Property Registration, Railway services, land records, and income tax payments etc. which has made life convenient, efficient and transparent for the citizens.

The growth of e-governance first began with National Informatics Centre (NIC) being established in 1977. This was a first major step towards e-Governance in India. Subsequently there were many initiatives that were launched to support the growth of e-governance in India. The launch of NICNET in 1987 was one of the driving forces for e-Governance.

The other significant initiatives include the creation of A Union Ministry of Information Technology in 1999, identification of a 12-point minimum agenda for e-Governance by Government of India for implementation in all the Union Government Ministries and Departments by 2000 and the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) established in 2006, which set out an impressive agenda for developing e-Government services.

‘eKranti’ or NeGP 2.0 was also conceptualized with a focus on electronic delivery of services. Later Digital India which was launched on 1 July 2015 is an initiative to ensure that Government services are made available to citizens electronically by improving online infrastructure and by increasing Internet connectivity.
According to an administrative reforms commission report e-Governance initiatives implemented in the last 10 to 15 years can be categorized into the following

• Government to Citizen (G2C) is an initiative which deals with extending the reach of governance to have a major impact on the people at large. Projects taken in this direction are Computerization of Land Records (Department of Land Resources, Government of India), Bhoomi Project: Online Delivery of Land Records, Gyandoot, Lokvani Project, e-Mitra Project, Project FRIENDS, eSeva, Revenue Administration through Computerized Energy (RACE) Billing Project, Admission to Professional Colleges – Common Entrance Test (CET) etc..
• Government to Business (G2B) is an initiative which deals with activities of government which impinge upon business organizations. The objective of bringing activities like registrations, licenses and exchange of information between government and business under e-Governance is to provide an amiable legal environment to business, speed up processes and provide relevant information to business. Some of the projects are e-Procurement Project, e-Procurement, MCA 21, etc…
• Government to Government (G2G) is an initiative which deals with large scale processing of information and decision making within government systems. This initiative has been taken to help in making the internal government processes more efficient. Some of projects are Khajane Project in Karnataka, SmartGov (Andhra Pradesh), etc…

E-Seva, a Government to Citizen Project:
The e-seva project whose services include online payment of utility bills, issuing certificates, issuing licenses & permits, e-forms etc started in 1999.It was designed to provide ‘Government to Citizen’ services. It delivers services online to consumers by connecting them to the respective government departments and providing online information at the point of service delivery.

The project has become very popular among the citizens especially for payment of utility bills. Success of this project is largely based on payment of electricity bills. It exemplifies the potential for integration of delivery of Union, State and Local Government services at one point. However, it also shows that the model based on payment of utility bills could not be rolled out in the rural hinterland.

Project FRIENDS, a Government to Citizen Project
FRIENDS (Fast, Reliable, Instant, Efficient Network for the Disbursement of Services) which was launched in June 2000 is a Single Window Facility providing citizens the means to pay taxes and other financial dues to the State Government. Its services are provided through FRIENDS Janasevana Kendrams. This project is a classic case of achieving front end computerized service delivery to citizens without waiting for completion of back end computerization in various government departments.

This project thus tries to avoid the complex issues involved in business process re-engineering in the participating departments. FRIENDS counters are not even networked with the participating departments or entities. Print-outs of payments made through the counters are physically distributed to participating entities for processing.

To remove bottlenecks at the time of processing, a government order was issued to treat a receiptfrom a FRIENDS counter as equivalent to a rceipt from the concerned government
entity.

E-Procurement Project, a Government to Business Project:
Prior to the introduction of an e-Procurement system procurement in Government departments was done through a manual tendering process. The process consisted of a long chain of internal authorizations and scrutiny which necessitated several visits by the suppliers to government departments.

The manual tender system suffered from various deficiencies, including discrimination, cartel formation, delays, lack of transparency etc. The e-Procurement project was introduced in 2003. The benefits of the new system are as follows were reduction in tender cycle time, reduction in opportunities for corrupt practices,

Cost Savings, substantial reduction in the advertisement costs in the press media, Transparency in the bidding process .Besides, it has made a visible social impact, as citizens are assured that government procurement is conducted in a transparent manner, saving taxpayers’ money.

SmartGov, a Government to Government Project:
The processing of information in the Government is predominantly workflow intensive. Information moves in the form of paper files from one officer to another for seeking opinions, comments. SmartGov was developed to streamline operations, enhance efficiency through workflow automation and knowledge management.

The solution automates the functioning of all levels of Government entities and provides a well defined mechanism for transforming the “hard copy environment” to a “digital environment”. It enhances productivity through use of IT as a tool.

SmartGov replaces the paper file with an e-file. SmartGov provides the features of creation, movement, tracking and closure of e-files, automation of repetitive tasks, decision support system through knowledge management, prioritization of work, easy access to files through an efficient document management system and collaboration between departments.

Digital India:
Digital India is the latest initiative which is being coordinated and implemented by the Department of Electronics and IT, it is a program that aims at transforming the country through leveraging information and communication technologies in every sphere of economy and society.

It is centered around providing digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen, governance and services on demand, and digital empowerment of citizens. This was launched keeping in view that despite the successful implementation of many e-Governance projects across the country, e-Governance as a whole has not been able to make the desired impact and fulfill all its objectives.

The approach and methodology being adopted for the programme according to the Digital India portal are

• Ministries, Departments and States would fully leverage the Common and Support ICT Infrastructure established by Government of India. Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) would also evolve or lay down standards and policy guidelines, provide technical and handholding support, undertake capacity building, R&D, etc.
• The existing or ongoing e-Governance initiatives would be suitably revamped to align them with the principles of Digital India. Scope enhancement, Process Reengineering, use of integrated & interoperable systems and deployment of emerging technologies like cloud & mobile would be undertaken to enhance the delivery of Government services to citizens.
• States would be given flexibility to identify for inclusion additional state-specific projects, which are relevant for their socio-economic needs.
• E-Governance would be promoted through a centralized initiative to the extent necessary, to ensure citizen centric service orientation, interoperability of various e-Governance applications and optimal utilization of ICT infrastructure/ resources, while adopting a decentralized implementation model.
• Successes would be identified and their replication promoted proactively with the required productization and customization wherever needed.
• Public Private Partnerships would be preferred wherever feasible to implement e-Governance projects with adequate management and strategic control.
• Adoption of Unique ID would be promoted to facilitate identification, authentication and delivery of benefits.
• Restructuring of NIC would be undertaken to strengthen the IT support to all government departments at Centre and State levels.
• The positions of Chief Information Officers (CIO) would be created in at least 10 key Ministries so that various e-Governance projects could be designed, developed and implemented faster. CIO positions will be at Additional Secretary/Joint Secretary level with over-riding powers on IT in the respective Ministry.

Some of the projects which have already been implemented or are in the process of being implemented in the Digital India initiative are:

• MyGov.in which is a platform that has been implemented for citizens to interactively engage within the government.
• An Aadhaar based biometric attendance system is being implemented in the central government offices in Delhi to begin with.
• JeevanPramaan Portal: A portal which allows pensioners to submit their life certificate, which can later be disbursed to the agencies for necessary processing.
• e-Greetings a portal for government greetings
• www.ebasta.in which is an eBook Platform has been developed; this can be used to upload e-books.
• eSAMPARK which is operational is an IT Platform for Messages to Elected Representatives
• Digital Locker
• Revamping of Mission Mode and Other e-Governance Projects like Transport, PDS, e-Prisons, National Scholarship Portal, Payonline, Checkpost online, etc.
• Policies to help departments in speedy implementation of e-governance projects have been developed. There are also hurdles that are needed to be sorted out. To begin with, there is a lack of digital infrastructure.

Another prime concern has been broadband penetration. According to a report released by The UN Broadband Commission released India ranked 131 out of 189 countries on fixed-broadband subscriptions in 2014.Then there is a concern about rural connectivity, the government is this with the aim to connect more than 2 lakh village panchayats. The monitoring and evaluation system is also weak and needs to be improved.

For e-governance initiatives to be truly successful government support at the highest level is required, next application of Information Technology should be preceded by process re-engineering; then an intellectual and empowered leader with a dedicated team who can conceptualize and implement e-Governance projects with the help of officials at all levels and technological solution providers are needed; Issues of connectivity and electricity supply are of paramount importance; and In case of complex projects, all components need to be identified and analyzed at the outset, followed by meticulous planning and project implementation.