Governance that is efficient, accountable, inclusive and reaches out to every citizen of the country in a convenient and effective manner. E-governance also eradicates corruption, one of the biggest monsters we battle in this country, by providing transparent governance. And, given the recent spate of scandals coupled with the fact that political parties are learning that good governance is good politics, we see a definite trend moving towards greater emphasis on e-governance.
Business process re-engineering (BPR) and the use of ICT, two of the most important aspects of e-governance, can bring around the much needed changes and improvements in the ways government functions and delivers services to its citizens.
Banish the thought that e-governance is only for governments! It cuts across all fields, be it health, education, business or skill-building ushering in an era of better services, better management and faster growth as a whole for the nation. This enables overall efficiency and these industries in particular are likely to strengthen their e-governance initiatives. However, it is in the macro perspective where the average Indian citizen benefits, where we will likely see maximum action. With the right structuring that has been put in place under the National eGovernance Plan (NeGP) in terms of Central/ State/ Integrated Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) and the various components like the core infrastructure (SDC, SWAN, CSCs), capacity building schemes, awareness and assessment, along with the necessary operational guidelines and institutional framework, the foundation for the success of e-governance has been laid. Fruits of this will be realised in the coming and subsequent years in incremental fashion.
Further, the adoption of public-private partnership (PPP) models will gather steam. Even the limited progress made so far has ensured that the domain expertise of various government departments and its officials and the implementation and operational expertise of the private sector has come together in an effective manner to achieve the desired results.
So, what will be the 5 governance issues in 2011-12?
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* Putting the e-governance service delivery framework to test by connecting all the pieces together, pretty much like a jigsaw puzzle, to deliver services to citizens in a manner which is scalable, repeatable and inter-operable.
* Ensuring timely completion of infrastructure pieces—SDC, SWAN and CSCs so that other e-governance projects banking on the availability of the same go as per their schedule. The focus should be not just on completion of these infrastructure projects, but also on ensuring that they are operationally sound.
* Making CSCs self-sustainable, so that their desired objective of extending the reach of government services to the common man in his locality is not just a touch-and-go affair, but a permanent fixture.
* Speeding up service delivery through faster execution and better monitoring and management of timelines, resources and escalation mechanisms. The government is currently developing a strategy for extending the current infrastructure and bringing in cloud technologies so as to achieve the ultimate objective of offering service to various government departments in an optimal manner by quickly rolling out their individual department’s applications and services.
* Ensuring inter-operability and adherence to the standards and guidelines being rolled-out. In the absence of the same, even successful e-Gov projects will remain in silos and the ultimate goal of e-governance will fall short of its expectations. The need is to create a comprehensive and integrated service delivery management framework to carry out SLA management, reporting and monitoring.
We do, however, need to appreciate that e-governance is not a 100 meter dash but a marathon race. It is something that will roll out and strengthen over time. In light of this it makes sense to share a broader vision. In the next 5 years, I see e-governance realising its vision of making all government services accessible to the common man in his locality. An inter-connected, inter-operable, efficient, transparent and accountable government with services reaching to every citizen irrespective of geography, region or accessibility will have massive impact at the grass root level in the rural and semi-urban areas. It will create a transformed, citizen-centric government.
E-governance will also make huge strides towards the socio-economic inclusion of all sections of society into the mainstream, irrespective of regions and geographies. And finally, what will result is a smooth functioning of the various pieces of the jigsaw puzzle put together, with appropriate processes, policies and technologies in place to take care of any exigencies and to ensure that services are delivered to the citizens and other stakeholders at the desired service levels at all times.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Saurabh Srivastava
Quelle/Source: The Financial Express, 18.04.2011
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