[nasional_list] [ppiindia] e-governance in India
- From: rahardjo mustadjab <bapakjewel@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: apakabar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, ppiindia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, harisuwasono@xxxxxxxxx, Wisnu Sindhutrisno <sindhutrisno.w@xxxxxxxxxxx>, ade_963@xxxxxxxxx, Nithianandum Katherayson <nithianandum_katherayson@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2005 08:29:43 +0000 (GMT)
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http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20050131/egovernance01.shtml
Feature
e-governance in India
The Indian government is using IT to facilitate
governance. The IT industry is doing its bit to help
as public-private partnerships become the order of the
day, says Atanu Kumar Das
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.
According to Sudhir Narang, vice-president, government
& service provider business, Cisco Systems, India &
SAARC, "Almost every state has an IT policy in place
with the aim of evolving itself from being an IT-aware
to an IT-enabled government. State governments are
fast recognising the benefits of an IT-enabled working
environment."
As of now, e-governance projects are being run only in
certain departments. This approach will gradually be
extended to all departments eventually, leveraging the
power of IT to streamline administrative functions and
increase transparency.
Shivaji Chatterjee, senior director, sales and
marketing, Hughes Escorts Communications says, "IT has
a vital role to play in all transactions that the
government undertakes. It helps the government cut
red-tapism, avoid corruption, and reach citizens
directly."
Chatterjee points out that such initiatives will help
citizens learn about the various policies, processes
and help-lines that the government offers. The
governments of Singapore, Canada and Switzerland have
implemented such portals, and set the benchmarks in
this regard. With the help of IT, the government can
process citizen to government transactions such as the
filing of tax returns, death and birth registration,
land records, etc.
Adds Rajiv Kaul, managing director, Microsoft India,
"A strong technology infrastructure can help central
and state governments deliver a comprehensive set of
services to citizens."
Microsoft is working with several state governments to
help evolve a long-term technology blueprint for IT
infrastructure. It is working with various departments
of the central government, and has undertaken several
projects and initiatives with state governments as
well.
Manoj Kunkalienkar, executive director, ICICI Infotech
says, "As far as e-governance projects are concerned,
the government is gradually changing its role from an
'implementer' to a 'facilitator and regulator.' It
will encourage private sector participation in
e-governance projects, so more projects in
e-governance based upon the public private
participation (PPP) model should come about in the
near future."
Leading by example
As far as e-governance projects are concerned, the
government is gradually changing its role from an
implementer to a facilitator and regulator
Agriculture, power and education are fields where the
government makes use of IT to provide services to
citizens. The revenue collection department is in the
process of using information technology for
applications such as income tax. Some notable
examples:
A Kolkata-based hospital leverages e-governance for
tropical medicine. The hospital employs tele-medicine
to assist doctors in rural areas as they analyse and
treat panchayat residents. This method does away with
patients having to travel all the way to Kolkata for
treatment. Patients feel better being examined in
their own village. Using tele-medicine, the hospital
is able to dispense its expertise to far-flung
districts. The patient goes for an examination to the
local doctor in the panchayat. This doctor is in
contact via a voice & data connection with a doctor at
the hospital for tropical medicine. Thus, the
panchayat resident gets the benefit of being treated
by both a local doctor and a hospital specialist.
The Karnataka government?s ?Bhoomi? project has led to
the computerisation of the centuries-old system of
handwritten rural land records. Through it, the
revenue department has done away with the
corruption-ridden system that involved bribing village
accountants to procure land records; records of right,
tenancy and cultivation certificates (RTCs). The
project is expected to benefit seventy lakh villagers
in 30,000 villages.
A farmer can walk into the nearest taluk office and
ask for a computer printout of his land record
certificate for Rs 15. He can also check details of
land records on a touch-screen kiosk by inserting a
two-rupee coin. These kiosks, installed at the taluk
office, will provide the public with a convenient
interface to the land records centre.
In Gujarat there are websites where citizens log on
and get access to the concerned government department
on issues such as land, water and taxes.
In Hyderabad, through e-Seva, citizens can view and
pay bills for water, electricity and telephones,
besides municipal taxes. They can also avail of birth
/ death registration certificates, passport
applications, permits / licences, transport department
services, reservations, Internet and B2C services,
among other things.
eChoupal, ITC's unique web-based initiative, offers
farmers the information, products and services they
need to enhance productivity, improve farm-gate price
realisation, and cut transaction costs. Farmers can
access the latest local and global information on
weather, scientific farming practices, as well as
market prices at the village itself through this web
portal-all in Hindi. eChoupal also facilitates the
supply of high quality farm inputs as well as the
purchase of commodities at the farm.
Given the literacy and infrastructure constraints at
the village level, this model is designed to provide
physical service support through a choupal
sanchalak-himself a lead farmer-who acts as the
interface between the system and the farmers. The
contents of this site in their entirety are made
available only to the registered sanchalaks.
Government initiatives
The national e-governance plan (2003-07) reflects the
strategic intent of the central government in the
right perspective. Many projects are earmarked under
this plan, and it is trying to address the digital
divide.
Kunkalienkar says that from a political perspective,
after watching the performance of some IT-savvy states
in the recent elections, the system has woken up to
the need to focus more on rural development. "The
political systems are keener to use IT to disseminate
information faster to farmers, disburse loans, improve
education and the health systems in villages, etc.
There is a clear-cut incentive to do it as 60 percent
of the vote-bank still lives in rural India."
Chatterjee says that e-governance has to be supported
by the will and resources of those who are in
governance, be it at the central or state level. The
central government has analysed and appreciated the
concept by creating a separate e-governance department
headed by a secretary to trigger e-governance in
India. The World Bank, ADB and UN have been
approached, and in response they are generously
funding e-governance projects.
In future, education, agriculture, state wide area
networks (SWANs) and Community Information Centre
projects will be rolled out backed by a strong public
private participation model (PPP) to achieve long-term
sustainability.
Projects with PPP models in these segments can
revolutionise the governance experience. In the next
couple of years the industry is expected to grow by
22-25 percent.
Getting better all the time
Most vendors foresee strong government initiatives to
make the most of IT, and the future for e-governance
looks bright. Narang says that besides deployment and
training on e-governance applications, Cisco is
working with various state governments. The company,
along with the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) and National Institute of Smart Government
(NSIG) is hosting India's first South Asia Public
Sector ICT Summit, a two-day conference, on January 24
and 25 in Hyderabad. The theme of the summit is 'New
Models for e-Government in South Asia and the World,'
and is targeted at senior government and policy makers
from countries in South Asia, including India.
The summit will be attended by participants from
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and
Maldives at the ministerial and vice-ministerial
level, as well as senior officials from the central
and state governments in India. This is the first such
summit of its kind being organised in India. Last year
in July, UNDP and Cisco came together to organise a
similar event in China.
Kaul points out, "The government benefits from reduced
duplication of work. In addition, the processes of
data collection, analysis and audit are simplified,
and become less tedious. E-governance holds advantages
for the business community too, playing the role of a
catalyst and a channel for e-business, a fact
evidenced by developments in the US and Singapore. But
perhaps the single-largest benefit of e-governance is
its potential to give birth to an entire web-based
economy."
atanu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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