E-governance in India

The application of information technology and communication for the purpose

of governance is commonly known as e-governance. Through e-governance,
information can be distributed to the public in a transparent manner.

What is e-Governance?

Electronic governance or e-governance is adopted by countries across the

world. In a fast-growing and demanding economy like India, e-governance
has become essential. The rapid growth of digitalisation has led to many
governments across the globe to introduce and incorporate technology into
governmental processes. Electronic governance or e-governance can be
defined as the usage of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by
the government to provide and facilitate government services, exchange of
information, communication transactions and integration of various
standalone systems and services.

In other words, it is the use of technology to perform government activities

and achieve the objectives of governance. Through e-governance,
government services are made available to citizens and businesses in a
convenient, efficient and transparent manner. Examples of e-governance
include Digital India initiative, National Portal of India, Prime Minister of India
portal, Aadhaar, filing and payment of taxes online, digital land management
systems, Common Entrance Test etc.

Types of interactions in e-Governance

E-Governance can take place in four major types of interactions, apart from
the processes and interactions in the back-office, within the government
framework:
Government to Government (G2G)

Information is exchanged within the government i.e., either, between the

central government, state government and local governments or between
different branches of the same government.

Government to Citizen (G2C)

The citizens have a platform through which they can interact with the
government and get access to the variety of public services offered by the
Government.

Government to Businesses (G2B)

The businesses are able to interact with the government seamlessly with
respect to the services of the government offered to businesses

Government to Employees (G2E)

The interaction between the government and its employees occurs in an

efficient and speedy manner.

Objectives of e-Governance

The objectives of e-governance can be listed down as given below:

 To support and simplify governance for government, citizens, and
businesses.
 To make government administration more transparent and accountable
while addressing the society’s needs and expectations through efficient
public services and effective interaction between the people,
businesses, and government.
 To reduce corruption in the government.
 To ensure speedy administration of services and information.
 To reduce difficulties for business, provide immediate information and
enable digital communication by e-business.
While e-governance provides the advantages of convenience, efficiency and
transparency, it also has problems associated with it. They are as follows:
  Lack of computer literacy: India is still a developing country and a vast
majority of the citizens lack computer literacy which hinders the
effectiveness of e-governance.
 Lack of accessibility to the internet or even computers in some parts of
the country is a disadvantage to e-governance.
 e-Governance results in a loss of human interaction. As the system
becomes more mechanised, lesser interaction takes place among
people.
 It gives rise to the risk of personal data theft and leakage.
 e-Governance leads to a lax administration. The service provider can
easily provide excuses for not providing the service on technical
grounds such as “server is down” or “internet is not working”, etc.

e-Governance in the Indian context

e-Governance in India is a recently developed concept. The launch of

National Satellite-Based Computer Network (NICENET) in 1987 and
subsequent launch of the District Information System of the National
Informatics Centre (DISNIC) programme to computerise all district offices in
the country for which free hardware and software was offered to the State
Governments provided the requisite impetus for e-governance.
e-Governance thereafter developed with the growth of technology. Today,
there are a large number of e-Governance initiatives, both at the Union and
State levels. In 2006, the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was
formulated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology and
Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances that aims at
making all government services accessible to the common man, ensure
efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at affordable costs to
realise the basic needs of the common man.
The NeGP has enabled many e-governance initiatives like:
 Digital India was launched in 2015 to empower the country digitally.
Its main components are:
o Developing a secure and stable digital infrastructure
o Delivering government services digitally
o Achieving universal digital literacy
 Aadhaar is a unique identification number issued by UIDAI that serves
as proof of identity and address on the basis of biometric data. It is
being used to provide many benefits to the members of the society.
One can e-sign documents using Aadhar.
  myGov.in is a national citizen engagement platform where people can
share ideas and be involved with matters of policy and governance.
 UMANG is a Unified Mobile Application which provides access to
central and state government services including Aadhar, Digital Locker,
PAN, Employee Provident Fund services, etc.
 Digital Locker helps citizens digitally store important documents like
mark sheets, PAN, Aadhar, and degree certificates. This reduces the
need for physical documents and facilitates easy sharing of
documents.
 PayGov facilitates online payments to all public and private banks.
 Mobile Seva aims at providing government services through mobile
phones and tablets. The m-App store has over 200 live applications
which can be used to access various government services.
 Computerisation of Land Records ensures that landowners get
digital and updated copies of documents relating to their property.
In addition to the above, State level e-governance initiatives include:
 E-Seva (Andhra Pradesh) facilitates payment of utility bills, issuance of
certificates, licenses and permits.
 Khajane Project (Karnataka) digitalized the treasury system of the
state.
 FRIENDS (Kerala) is a single-window facility to pay taxes and other
financial dues to the State government.
 Lokvani Project (Uttar Pradesh) is a single-window solution relating to
the handling of grievances, land record maintenance and providing a
mixture of essential services.

e-Governance Portal of India

The Indian e-governance portal is https://nceg.gov.in. On this portal, one can

get comprehensive information regarding the National Conference on e-
Governance and reports on earlier conferences.
Additionally, the portal provides links to the following important pages:
 Digital India
 National Portal of India: It is developed to provide access to information
and services being provided by the government
 PM India Website: provides information relating to the Prime Minister’s
Office.
 United Nations e-governance website