Title of Paper
TOWARDS AN E-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA:
A QUALITATIVE APPRAOCH
Name of the Author:
Dr Badruddin
Affiliation: Reader in Political Science
PES’s SRSN College of Arts & Science
Goa University, Farmagudi, Ponda,
Goa- 403 401, INDIA
INTROUDUTION
E-Government is the latest trend in the governance process all over the world and are attempting to move from the era
of efficiencies in the public. It is a significant transformation through digital technology which is extensively employed
in almost all government as well as NGO sectors. In a simple language, it as a SMART (Simple, Moral, Accountable,
Responsive and Transparent) government, an essential component globally. The developed countries of the west like
UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, Germany, etc have already gone in a big way by adopting the e-Government
Policies. Third World countries like India, China, Brazil, Mexico, etc. have already entered into an agreement of egovernment. Thanks to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) comprising telecommunications, software,
optical fibres and internet that are increasingly important ( Prabhu, 2004).
CONCEPTUALISING E-GOVERNMENT
The concept of e-government is a recent origin and finds comfortable place in IT sectors. The emerging concept has
brought about a paradigm shift in ICT usage and applications of good governance. Its four stages : information,
interaction, transaction and integration indicate the extent of benefit that the stakeholder get through various e-
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government projects prevalent in any country ( Satyanarayan, 2004). While its five pillars : computers, connectivity,
content, consumer and confidence building are supportive elements. However, the following brief points may be of
great help to understand the parameters of e-government (Parinder 2001).
FOUR PARAMETERES OF E-GOVERNMENT

E-administration—the use of ICTs to promote scientific base in the state; the creation of data repositories
for MIS, and computerization of all records.

E-Services— to bring the state closer to the citizens through provision of online services. E-administration
and e-services constitute what is generally coined as e-government.

E-Governance- Promotion of IT to enhance the capacity of government to address the valuable needs of
civil society in the form of publishing of policy and programme related information to transact with citizens.

E-Democracy—The use of IT to facilitate the ability cross
sections of society to participate in the
governance of the state with a view to promote transparency and accountability.
OBJECTIVES OF E-GOVERNMENT
Movement form IT to ICT and then Information Society (IS) are the strategies in E-Governance which can be identified
as follows:
1.
Delivery of essential services to the citizens
2.
People friendly image of government
3.
Formation of sound public opinion and democratization process
4.
Efficient Administration and enhancement of productivity
5.
Elimination of socio- economic backwardness and improvement of quality of life
6.
Prompt Delivery Services.
NEED OF E-GOVERNMENT
The increasing interest of government and citizens worldwide
to learn and exploit new media, leadership, and
information services have earned rich dividends. It may be briefly summed as: reduction in time and paper works,
resource management, agriculture productivity, online banking and trade, decentralized decision making, access to
information, greater transparency and monitoring files and records.
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E- GOVERNMENT IMPLEMENTATION
In the changing economic scenario and
emergence of corporate sectors, the three e-government models : Funded
Projects- NIC, CMC, C-DAC and IT; Profit Sector Project like Kiosk Model; and Joint Initiatives like E-Seva are the
significant ones. The major areas of implementation include:
1.
Services offered by E- Government to Citizens : The varied services ;like G2G, G2C, C2G, G2B, and B2G
are well identified facts in E-Government policies today. Valuable services like issue of PAN Card, Public
Grievance Registration, Marriage Certificate, Railway Reservation, Passport, Birth and Death Certificates,
jobs, services, public libraries, education, police, crime, etc. are duly noted.
2.
Services to Farmers : It includes Land Record, Crop Loans, weather forecasting, natural calamities, new
methods of cultivation.
3.
E-Business : It includes VAT, Declaration & Notification, Corporation Tax, Customs Declaration, Income
Tax, Public Procurement.
4.
E-Governance in the Legal Regime : Indian Parliament has passed first cyber law under IT Act 2000 with
a view to promote e-government. Thereafter, the Act established legal validity and enforceability of digital
signatures (Sumanjeet & Mehlawat, 2004).
It briefly deals: Legal recognition of electronic record, digital
signatures, retention of electronic records, and publication of electronic gazette.
PRE REQUISITES OF E-GOVERNMENT
E-government is a tool which needs proper social environment and support base services. Before its implementation,
some most important considerations like : large scale computerization, appropriate IT Infrastructure, standardization
data coding, application of logic and knowledge networking, are significant parameters ( Rangan and Mehrotra, 2003).
PROMOTION OF E-GOVERNMENT IN INDIA: NEED OF ACTION
Union Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India declared 2001 as the ‘Year of E-Governance’ so as
to make electronic transactions safe in India to incorporate IT Based Polity. Action Plans like Clear vision,
controlled ambitions, client driven, sustainability, well defined public funding, evaluation projects, IT Infrastructure,
and growing reliance on computers were given in due consideration.
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FINDINGS
E-Governance is a new initiative to improve service delivery, dissemination of information, greater transparency,
public and private partnership, efficiency and accountability. A democracy needs coordination and incorporation of egovernance euphoria. Stumbling blocks like poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, public corruption and poor education
etc need to reformed though lines of e-governance and not the policy agenda merely on paper. Hundred percent
success will be ensured only though hundred percent use of IT Skills, management techniques, involvement of
stakeholders, and scientific net workings.
E-GOVERNMENT: BASIC STRUCTURE
Layne in 2001 described a four-stage growth model to develop a fully functional e-government. Based on technical,
organizational and managerial feasibilities, the four stages of a growth model for e-governance are:

Cataloguing (Information) : Establishment of online presence of Government

Transaction : Connecting with internet government system to online interfaces.

Vertical integration (Interactive) : Refers to administration at local and national level.

Horizontal integration (Strategic, interactive) or transformation : Integration across different functions and
utility services.
INDIA : BEGINNING OF E-GOVERNMENT
Unlike west, the history of E-Governance in India is young. It goes back to seventies with a focus on in- house
government applications in the areas of defense, economic monitoring, planning and the deployment of ICT. The key
objective was to manage data intensive functions related to elections, census, tax administration etc. The initiative of
the National Informatics Center (NIC) to connect all the district headquarters during the eighties was a milestone
achievement. During early nineties, e-governance has seen the use of IT for wider sectoral applications with policy
emphasis on reaching out to rural areas with support of NGOs. There has been an increasing involvement of
international donor agencies such as G-8, ADB, UNDP, World Bank and WTO under the supervision of egovernance for sustainable development. While the emphasis has been primarily on automation and computerization,
state endeavors to use IT include forays into connectivity, networking, setting up systems for processing information
and delivering services. At a micro level, this ranges from IT automation in individual departments, electronic file
handling, access to entitlements, public grievance systems, service delivery for high volume routine transactions. It
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includes the payment of bills, tax dues to meeting poverty alleviation goals through the promotion of entrepreneurial
models and provision of market information. The thrust has varied across initiatives, with some focusing on enabling
the citizen-state interface for various government services, and others focusing on bettering livelihoods.
E-GOVERNMENT : VARIED SERVICES
Although policies may have lofty goals, much seems to have happened only in automation and computerization. All
states and union territories in India except Daman and Diu, have a web pages. However, few have progressed to
delivering e-services. Even among them, efforts are in pockets. E-seva is perhaps one of the few e-service initiatives
that now has a clear roll out plan to cover all municipalities in Andhra Pradesh. Despite these trends, it must be said
that while five years ago IT was the handmaiden of few states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, today most seem to
have jumped on to the bandwagon.
Very few initiatives in India seem to have ventured into the more complex areas that transcend the efficiency and
management concerns of governments and put in place programmes addressing quality of life issues. Tremendous
possibilities exist in these domains. For example, states can use IT for:

Services that increase productivity and income of communities -like Warana, Maharashtra; DISK, Gujarat

Agriculture extension/Better returns for produce - like Krishi Marata Vahini, Karnataka

Service delivery in health - like the Telemedicine Projects in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh

Service delivery in Education - like Head Start, Madhya Pradesh; Community Learning Centre, Karnataka;
and Akshaya, Kerala

Disaster management - like Flood Management, Bihar; Earthquakes Management, Maharashtra

Use of IT based tools for planning and decision making - like the India Health Care project, Rajasthan
Through the focus
of good governance the touchstones to examine various parameters in e-governance have to
essentially come from expectations of good governance. If we were to operationalise the touchstones, it would
encompass the dent that IT interventions have made goals of efficiency and effectiveness based on equity,
transparency, accountability, participation, responsiveness, strategic vision and rule of law. However, we can attempt to
look broadly at how states have attempted to address these goals. Let us examine these goals in brief.
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EQUITY
Equity addresses the special responsibility of governments to account for the needs of the marginalized community.
Many initiatives that reach information about policies and programmes and deliver government documents so as to
promote services
to rural India.
In many contexts, such as in the RASI Maiyams of Kanchipuram and the E-Seva
initiative in West Godavari, and micro-enterprise models for promoting employment through kiosks have focused on
socially disadvantaged populations. E-Seva runs through self-help groups of women in the villages. The partnership
between the Government of Karnataka and the Azim Premji Foundation (APF) to establish and run community learning
centres in the schools in rural areas, especially in certain backward districts aims at equipping the rural schools with
state of the art learning resources driven by IT. Thanks to the Learning Guarantee Programme, a joint initiative of the
State Government and Azim Premji Foundation, for lakhs of primary school children, examinations will now be a lot
more fun!
TRANSPARECNY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Robert Klitggard of RAND has an interesting equation to explain corruption : C = M+D-T. Corruption = Monopoly +
Discretion - Transparency. In India, the state governments holds monopoly over most of the delivery of basic services.
Hence a greater need is felt to bring basic changes to promote better accountability. Take example of Bangalore City
Corporation that has recently introduced the Fund Based Accounting System (FBAS) as a strategic management tool.
Apart from radically altering the basic financial architecture by generating accurate and timely data, FBAS also loops
back the information to the public domain. This highly enabling framework of integrating backend reforms with frontend outreach has virtually galvanized civic participation by applying this credible and open information base to monitor
the activities of the local government.
The initiative called PROOF (Public Record of Operations and Finance)
is an advocacy campaign that uses the
quarterly statement of the corporation as a tool to take information about the financial performance of the corporation
to citizens. It seeks to bring multiple stakeholders together in an exercise to track financial statements of the
government, develop performance indicators for different expenditures, and create a space for management discussion.
It seeks to ask the basic question, where is the money of the government going and what value are we getting out of the
money being spent. Online Citizen Charters on key services is another example of using the power of ICT to usher in
more transparency and accountability. By openly committing to standards and norms, public agencies are now holding
themselves to account. And technology has dramatically altered the ease of public access.
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PARTNERSHIP AND RESPONSIVENESS
Higher level of participation in plural democratic institution are responsive to healthy social environment. One
undisputed impact of the ICT revolution is the widening of the space for participation and contestation. Space and
hierarchy have been virtually decimated by the web technology. This of course, has also meant that traditional power
structures have been reoriented and the Sarkar-Janata (Government-Public) relations are showing a shift from a
provider-beneficiary mode to facilitator-participant one. How have governments in India responded to this
opportunity/crisis?
Gyandoot and Lok Mitra in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh, the fits kind of e-service for citizens to lodge
their grievances and there is anecdotal evidence that complaints have been attended to by the authorities. A quick study
of the existing scenario reveals that states are by and large, not responsive. For example, though many of the key
political figures, such as our ministers and MPs and Chief Ministers have published their email addresses, in reality,
most do not respond to e- mails.
The manner in which technology is influencing human development in India seems to be top-down, with elite users,
who use it to share information and analysis guiding the mobilization of global as well national public opinion to
change policy regimes. The more democratic face of the technology, evidenced in the use of technology by the
disadvantaged and their participation of in the formulation and implementation of policies, is starkly absent.
SOCIAL
PARTNERSHIP
The Social Partnership - Offering education, training and employment opportunities to the socially excluded
community and Indian offers interesting examples due to hierarchical divisions of caste, class, language and
community.
The government of India need to play a key role in providing the basic socio-economic infrastructure, on which the
superstructure of IT hardware, software and applications can be plugged by the other players. But it is the private sector
that has valuable know-how. The Private sectors in India has in fact, gained a leadership position across the globe
and is well-positioned to use the expertise gathered to work with the government and further development goals.
NGOs as third sector can play significant role in promoting equity, transparency and participation goals to share
knowledge based economy at the gross roots level. It requires to induct ICT into existing projects and design projects
aimed at utilizing ICT in innovative ways. International donors, with their long track record in supporting development
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activities, can use their international experiences for scaling up small experiments. Thus, a vast range of domestic and
international partnerships (public-private, government-CSOs, and private sector-CSOs) are both inevitable and
necessary in the area.
The private sector has been playing a key role in many e-governance initiatives. The Governments of Madhya Pradesh
and Kerala are talking to Gartner India Research and Advisory Services for consultancy. Gartner has been engaged by
the Andhra Pradesh Government for more than four years now as consultant and research provider. IBM India has been
closely working are Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal, Pondicherry,
Goa and Haryana. Last year IBM set up the 'IBM e-Government Center' in Gurgaon, near New Delhi to offer
technology, support and infrastructure to help governments and total service providers to design, develop, test and port
proof-of-concept and prototypes of e-government applications. Microsoft too has been working closely with the
government, signing memoranda of understanding with some of them and helping in evolving a long-term technology
blueprint for IT infrastructure.
An interesting example of an NGO-government partnership, is the RASI Maiyam initiative in Kanchipuram, Tamil
Nadu, where FOOD, a Tamil Nadu based NGO has built and implemented the model. However, this is an exception
and in terms of NGO involvement to bring in development perspectives into e-governance, governments across the
board need to become more proactive.
IT POLICIES
IT boon in India has earned tremendous support worldwide
due to availability of manpower and natural resources.
Almost all sectors have already been incorporated in IT Framework. Six important areas:
agriculture, health,
education, local language, welfare of socially disadvantaged groups and e-governance - have been selected to scan
through these policies. Some broad observations follow:

Agriculture is an area conspicuously absent in policies. Even in a predominantly agrarian state like Haryana,
there is no mention of use of IT in agriculture extension.

References to the use of IT for health is confined to few policies and even here, there is a lack of clarity on
how exactly IT can help the larger goal of health.

IT literacy (learning IT) is dealt with in great detail by most governments. However, there is very little
reference to the use of IT as a learning tool (learning through IT). Karnataka is one of the few states that has
discussed the potential of multi-media applications to promote literacy. Many policies have a narrow
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emphasis on IT education, focusing on employment in low skilled jobs in data entry, marketing, transcription,
call centres, content creation and data processing. Some even look at this as a revenue spinner. Clearly, this is
a short-term and narrow perspective.

Development of applications in local languages has been promised in many policies, but the depth of
perspective on what needs to be done to evolve standards, promote local language content and applications
and appropriate hardware, is limited to few states like Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

The use of IT to help the socially disadvantaged, including in terms of promotion of enterprises by socially
disadvantaged has received attention from very few states. Even where IT is seen as having potential for
empowering women and the economically disadvantaged, like in the case of Karnataka, the vision is
operationalised in terms of creating beneficiary data bases to monitor programmes and automating social
welfare departments. The emphasis is on managing programmes rather than on empowering people.

E-governance is limited mostly to e-services and vision on how IT can help governments to interact, transact
and elicit citizen participation in agenda-setting is absent. GIS, which can be a critical tool for mapping
resources and requirements is sought to be used in very few states like Andhra Pradesh.
One overall observation is that there seems to be a lack of clarity of vision in conceptualizing and operationalising the
power of IT for development. It might be worthwhile for states to revisit their policies a la Karnataka and Andhra
Pradesh.
CAPACITY BUILDING
E-governance is not about software and hardware, but about people and processes. The early efforts of the Indian
government to assign a computer to district headquarters were a major failure since there had been no strategy to
address people's mindsets and reservations. More recently, in Jharkhand, top officials have been given laptops, but
most are not put to envisaged use. Some say they preferred not to use it since they had not been given training.
Capacity-building is a pre-condition for the success of initiatives. A close assessment of initiatives like rural e-seva in
West Godavari reflects the thought and effort invested in training self-help groups who run the e-seva Kendra.
For government departments, the shift towards using IT is actually an opportunity for building the morale of their staff.
Capacity-building to train staff in using hardware and software can have the positive effect of boosting employee selfimage and this is most likely to impact efficiency and productivity.
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Despite its population, the success of its IT industry and the government’s stated intent of wiring up villages, India lags
in bandwidth necessary for info-access on the Net
E-GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES: A CASE STUDY OF ANDHRA PRADESH
Andhra Pradesh one among the 27 provinces of India with over 80 Million inhabitants, has made phenomenal progress
in the field of IT Sectors, thanks to Ex- Chief Ministers like Chandrababu Naidu and S.M. Krishna, e-governance has
become the buzzword for political success and the key enabler to facilitate reforms. With hundreds of water dam
projects, industrial hubs like Pharmaceuticals, electrical machinery, fertilizers, electronic equipments, aeronautical
parts, chemicals, glassware, ore, productions-tourism and many. In tune with policy initiative in Andhra by NIC has
phenomenal. Other e-related offices like District Treasury Office (DTO), Sub Treasury ( STO), and Pay and Accounts
Office (PAO) for effective utilization of resources. Though e-Government Initiatives have been taken by number of
state, Andhra Pradesh remain on the top most in India. Initiatives like E-Seva, E-Khazana, CARD, VOICE, PMHS,
FAST, e-Cops, AP Online, One Stop Shop online, Online Transaction Processing, Saukaryam The official web page
http://www.aponline.gov.in/apportal/index.asp says everything about the achievement of state.
However, a cursory glance at the e-governance map reveals a highly skewed profile. In benchmarking state initiatives,
three independent frameworks of analysis seem possible. These frameworks have been presented as possible ways to
look at governments’ progress and are exploratory.

Assessing the e-readiness of states

Assessing the stated commitment through IT policy and actual application by governments of IT tools toward
reaching development goals

Applying the lens of good governance – the cornerstones of equity, accountability, transparency,
participation, responsiveness, strategic vision, and rule of law - to what is happening on the ground.
WIDE SPECTRUM OF E-SEVA IN ANDHRA PRADESH
Payment of Utility Bills

Electricity bills

Water and sewerage bills

Telephone bills (BSNL & TATA Tele Services)
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
Property Tax

Sales Tax

Certificates : Registration of births / deaths

Issue of birth / death certificates

Registration Department : Issue of encumbrance certificates
Certificates

Registration of births / deaths

Issue of birth / death certificates

Registration Department : Issue of encumbrance certificates

Issue of Caste/Nativity Certificates
Labour Department

License New Registration

License Renewal
Permits / Licences

Medical and Health Department: Renewal of Drug Licences

Issue / renewal of trade Licences
Transport Department Services

Change of address of a vehicle owner

Transfer of ownership of a vehicle

Issue of learners' licenses

Issue / renewal of driving licenses (non-transport vehicles).

Registration of new vehicles
Information
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
Transport Department Procedures

Registration Department: Market value assistance
Reservation

Reservation of APSRTC bus tickets

HMWSSB: Reservation of water tanker

Tourism: Reservation of tickets/ accommodation
Other Services at eSeva Centres

Sale of passport application forms

Receipt of passport applications

Receipt of applications for new telephone connections.

Registration Department: Sale of non-judicial stamps

Registration Department: Document writing service

Collection of small savings
Internet Services

ATM: Cashmmmm withdrawals and deposits

ATM: Issue of statements of account

Mutual Funds: Collection of applications

Mutual Funds: Transfer of shares

Cell Phone Bill Payments
Polices Services

Payment of Inquest/Panchanama fees Rupees 50 only

Payment for First Information Report Rupees 50 only

Payment for Inquest/Panchanama fees Rupees 50 only

Payment for Post Mortem Report Rupee 50 only
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SALAIENT FEATURES OF E-SEVA IN ANDHRA PRADESH
Andhra Pradesh is well knit with E-Services thought local, national and international and the information is globally
and instantly available. The overview picture can be briefly summed as:

46 eSeva centres (with 400 service counters) spread over the Twin Cities and Ranga Reddy District.

All service counters are facilitated with an electronic queuing system.

Operating from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm, on all working days and 9.00am to 3.00pm on holidays (Second
Saturdays & Sundays).

'One-stop-shop' for over 66 G2C and B2C services.

No jurisdiction limits - any citizen in the twin cities can avail of the services at any of the 46 eSeva service
centres.

Online services: e-Forms, e-Filing, e-Payments. Payments by cash/cheque/DD/credit card/Internet.
In short, Andhra Pradesh has earned rich dividends to update every possibility information on internet, thanks to
collective endeavor of public private partnership in many domains. It is strongly suggested that information available
must implemented through whole hearted attempt without any political reservation. It is also suggested that a country
like India need strongly democratic support from every corner and particularly fore those who are working for building
e-governance. The success of e-government in Singapore, Beijing, and Hong Kong are noted examples.
CONCLUSION
Hazarding judgments about relative performances of states based on the available information is a rather tricky
business. In the Indian landscape, states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh seem to have more
thought-out policies and many initiatives on the ground, but islands of innovation exist across the board. This needs to
be sorted out fast.
The future is poised on how efforts can sustain momentum and meet the load of increasing expectations and demand;
how governments are able to learn from each other and leapfrog; whether citizens, particularly the disadvantaged, can
and will influence the face of e-governance and the role that civil society organizations will need to play towards this;
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and the huge challenge in up scaling successes. Worthy of mention here is the unexplored potential in the gizmos of a
lesser god like cable TV, radio etc.
E-governance is not just the Internet as the common perception goes and governments need to move back in a certain
sense, to reappropriate the older communication tools like radio and cable TV. A critical mass of people is required to
push e-governance to the next gear. The India-egov@yahoogroups.com seems to be a platform with much promise for
the exchange of ideas. Finally, governments need to start putting in place MIS that track user and beneficiary profiles
of their initiatives and ensuring that e-governance is meaningful to the last woman.
While the growth in the use of e-government is encouraging, our research shows that the majority of such growth is
from citizens searching for information online rather than making transactions or providing personal information to
government. This may be due to perceived security risk. If the use of such services are used, message about the safety
of government online services need to be communicated effectively to entire community building.
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NOTES AND REFERRENCES
Miglani, S.Parinder (2001), “E-Governance”, Productivity, 41 (4), pp.596.
Prabhu, C.S.R. ( 2004), E-Governance : Concepts and Case Studies, Prentice Hall of
India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
Rangan, Alok Mehrotra, P.K. (2003), “E-Governance: Options and Opportunities” in Vayunandan, E. and Mathew,
Dolly (ed), Good Governance Initiatives in India, Prentice Hall India, pp.52-56.
Satyanarayan, J. (2004), E-Government: The Science of the Possible, Prentice Hall of Indian Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi,
pp.19-20.
Sumanjeet & Mehlawat (2004) “ E-Commerce in the Indian Legal
Regime” Indian Journal of Applied Economics, 1
(1), pp. 176-81.
For Details of Azim Premji Foundation, visit http://www.azimpremjifoundation.org/
For Details of Lok Mitra, Visit www.himachal.nic.in/lokmitra.htm
For details of social partnership, visit: www.socialedge.org/discussions/business-models/emerging-nonprofit-businesspartnerships-in-india
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