In a large country, building reusable infrastructure, integrating services and transferring the knowledge present both real challenges and also good opportunities. “The scale of many projects here, such as the Unique ID programme, are huge and themselves a challenge,” says Joan McCalla, Distinguished Fellow, Internet Business Solutions Group at Cisco Systems. “But once India has gone through this, the impact will be profound.”
Before taking up her current role with Cisco, McCalla served as a public servant working for the Government of Ontario, Canada’s largest province, for 27 years. She was the Corporate Chief Strategist, in charge of Ontario’s e-government strategy between 1999 and 2006.
She then joined Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group, a division dedicated to providing strategic advisory services. She spends almost half of her time in India, working closely with the Department of IT and other agencies on strategy, capacity building and implementation.
Comparing the challenges facing India and her home country, McCalla explains that the difference in scope and scale struck her the most. “India is not comparable to my home experience, and many processes of the government are not automated,” she says. “India is really taking giant steps forwards.”
Another key difference between India and Canada is the ‘general population readiness’, as McCalla puts it. While Canada already had relatively high computer usage and a high broadband penetration rate, in India access to technology tools and even general literacy remain challenges that the government IT planners have to contend with.
“It is a government transformation initiative, and people at all levels need to be engaged in this process,” comments McCalla, who says capacity building at multiple levels is vital for the success of this ICT-enabled plan to transform the government. She also says that specific project teams need to be built with the right expertise, sometimes leveraging the private sector.
Eventually the awareness programmes will be applied to the public such that they will know what the government is doing for them and how they can benefit from these initiatives.
India’s approach to e-governance is basically ‘centralised planning with decentralised implementation’. Plans are designed and priorities are set at the central level, so are the basic infrastructure components working with the State governments. Over time, the Department of IT has laid down the plans for many of the fundamentals: networks, data centres, Common Service Centres (CSCs). The states are now implementing those plans and, along with the central government line departments, filling up that infrastructure with services, “to begin their process of real business transformation.”
“It is important to have DIT championing the plan,” comments McCalla. “It is just like you need someone to put up solid scaffolding such that construction of a beautiful and durable house can start.”
As any other expert in government transformation, McCalla does not forget to mention the deciding role of political will and support of senior leadership. “The number one factor is always leadership – you need that to make things happen,” she says. “IT, as an enabler, sees the opportunity and is able to leverage that. But there are tough decisions to be made along the way – that’s where you need strong leadership.”
Another reason for political leadership is that while transformation process is ongoing, government has to remain operational and services available. “It takes extra resources and senior level support ensures that such resources are available when needed.”
CSCs are under different names in different states. “That makes sense in a particular setting with local languages, culture and practical conditions,” comments McCalla. While CSCs have been introduced to many rural areas and services are built on them, McCalla believes that the rapidly growing mobile phone penetration in the country presents another opportunity.
“The government is beginning to introduce the call centre concept,” she explains. “The ability to access public information and services via mobile devices will simplify access to many services and avoid many of the readiness problems the government is facing.”
“India is doing more than simple operations of government, but truly transforming how governments work,” she concludes. “Although there are undoubtedly many challenges ahead, I think it will become a role model for large developing countries.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Jianggan Li
Quelle/Source: futureGov, 05.05.2010
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