IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

It came as a pleasant shock to Ratan Debbarma from Kachucherra when he applied for his land mutation papers at the directorate and got them on the same day. He never thought that it could be done so quickly and easily.

This has become possible through the new service e-jami that is now operational in Tripura.

The result is that most school and college administrations are in the dark about the current state of affairs in their respective institutions — whether it be the performance of students, faculty and staff, the adequacy and quality of equipment, etc. Because of such ignorance, institutions are ill-prepared for situations such as the sudden shortage of certain essential lab chemicals or teachers of a class going on medical leave at the same time, and the like.

"It is an important milestone for India's e-governance initiative," said J Satyanarayana, secretary in the department of electronics and information technology. "With better accessibility and more projects getting completed, this number should keep rising."

The last couple of years have seen e-governance drop roots in India. IT enables the delivery of government services as it caters to a large base of people across different segments and geographical locations. The effective use of IT services in government administration can greatly enhance existing efficiencies, drive down communication costs, and increase transparency in the functioning of various departments. It also gives citizens easy access to tangible benefits, be it through simple applications such as online form filling, bill sourcing and payments, or complex applications like distance education and tele-medicine.

The word is so magical and has the tendency to overpower everything else. But the question that has some more important aspect is: What matters most: Reality or an Image? The article is a sincere effort to make our readers aware of e-governance in India, its aspects and what all are the security norms for it? Which phase it is still in India?

The Centre has already spent about Rs 10,000 crore till now in such initiatives, and is willing to pump-in another Rs 20,000 crore in various projects under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) in the coming years. “The investment will cover the cost of all kinds of hardware and software that will be required for capacity building,” said R Chandrashekhar, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, The Government of India, during an interaction on the sidelines of Apex Committee on National e-Governance Program (NeGP).

Like in most other economies, disruptive forces of digital technology are paving the path for better governance in India. The e-Governance movement holds potential to radically transform the way services are delivered to the populace. It promotes a collaborative approach to decision-making by allowing active participation of the common man in improving quality of public services through higher transparency and accountability.

The seeds of e-Governance in India were sown back in 1987 with the launch of national satellite-based computer network — NICNET. Since then, several e-Governance projects have been initiated at both Centre and State level. Rapid computerisation in the 90s coupled with widespread tele-connectivity and internet proliferation in recent times has provided an impetus to various e-governance initiatives in India.

Services provided through the various e-Government initiatives assist Governments in reaching the yet ‘unreached’ and thereby contribute to poverty reduction in rural and far-flung areas by increasing access to critical information and opportunities. At the same time, this process also enables involvement and empowerment of marginalized groups through their participation in the government process.

The Centre will implement the new projects as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for good, transparent and effective governance.

Giving a push to the Digital India mission and digitalisation of services in India, the Central government will implement a slew of e-governance projects. It will also streamline and legalise several existing services for greater transparency and efficient functioning of the government.

Principal Secretary, IT, GoUP, Chandra Prakash, said: "The secretary was very impressed with the results of pilot e-governance project being implemented in 6 districts of the state. After seeing its initial success, he has now proposed to roll out the project across the rest of the country as well."

The boom in technology has broken the power of conventional communication methods, making the data as the new oil in the entire digital universe that’s surrounding us. Technology has become the new home which serves the information and new experiences in form of data. In the present scenario, Information innovation has added the driving force to the services provided by the government.

There is immense potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in supporting the good governance in developing countries, especially like India. E-governance has made the Indian governance more efficient by contributing in improving government processes, connecting citizens and building external interactions. Indian government has been using IT for more than 45 years now.

As India Inc is trying its best to fight with the menace of corruption, the tool of e-governance is ideally placed to help the various stakeholders in this regard. Hence, it is essential to institutionalise e-governance systems that will help reduce the human interface in the course of delivering public services and also check corruption in the processs.

News and social media feeds often bring you face to face with the grim realities of the country’s public healthcare situation. Instances of how the lack of proper access to treatment and medication claims the lives of several children, women, and men in India are unfortunately too many to count. In 2012, it was reported that nearly 16.9 million in the country died due to the unavailability of anaesthesia and surgical facilities.

Corruption, bureaucratic hassles, lack of public healthcare expenditure, ineffective government initiatives, unutilised funds, unavailability of doctors and inaccessible hospitals – problems plaguing India’s public healthcare system are plenty. In the last 70 years, preceding administrations have achieved little in the way of improving the state of healthcare delivery in India.

The session was rather unique as it brought together for the first time three current and former secretaries of the department of information technology of the government of India. Their insights on the emerging challenges and opportunities that will shape the IT sector and government at the states and Centre were candid.