eGovernance in India - Time to Transform and Make

it Participative
Ajay Singh Chahal, Sandeep Sood, Lalit Kapoor
Senior Technical Director, Principal Systems Analyst, Technical Director
National Informatics Centre, Himachal Pradesh, HP Secretariat, Shimla-171002 (HP)
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
94182-75076, 94184-53053, 94184-75044

Abstract and businesses facilitating electronic transactions, which

are a pre-requisite for eGovernance. But eGovernance is
eGovernance has been the buzzword during the last
effectively the usage of electronic means in the interaction
decade and a number of innovative projects, making the
between the Government and citizens/ businesses/
best use of ICT tools, have been implemented in India. It
employees and in internal Government operations to
is a known fact that majority of the projects are started
simplify and improve the democratic, government and
with a lot of fanfare but fail in the long run. There are a
business aspects of Governance [1].
number of eGovernance projects which have resulted in
huge benefits to both the Government and the citizens. Good governance is at the core of eGovernance too and
Over the years, the focus under eGovernance has shifted it means the process of decision-making and the process
from pure automation to process re-engineering with by which decisions are implemented or not implemented.
emphasis on the “e” rather than the “Governance” aspect, Application of advanced ICT tools is not going to benefit
which is the underlying principle for eGovernance. Some the intended users unless the objective is good governance.
new ICT models of service delivery have emerged in the It is usually equated with SMART Governance and has
private sector, which have proved beneficial to both the the features given in Figure-1 [2].
citizens and entrepreneurs. These models could be adapted
in the Government sector. This paper studies the various
models of eGovernance, major ICT projects implemented
across the country during the last 10 years, key-learnings
and suggestive methodology to follow in future so that
the citizens of India benefit the most from eGovernance
initiatives through participative governance. The new
generation will espouse the digital mantra of “Jan-Dhan,
Aadhaar and Mobile”-the JAM trinity.
Keywords- eGovernance, digital India, citizen service,
transformation, participative
I. Governance And E-Governance
Figure-1: Characteristics of good governance.
India has the advantage that while industrial or green
revolutions took place in other countries and we had to II. Methodology
wait to reap their benefits, the ICT revolution took no To study the impact of eGovernance during the last 10
time to reach India. We are soon going to have the largest years in the country, various stage models are presented
mobile network, smart phones and Internet users in the first to highlight the features of eGovernance vis-à-
World. Since the Y2K bug bit the advanced nations, vis Good Governance. Every eGovernance initiative
India has been addressing the ICT requirements of other in the country is covered in the eTAAL 1 central portal
developed nations of the world on a regular basis. where transaction count of all eServices is reflected by
The Government sector in India has been part of directly integrating the eTAAL portal with the individual
the ICT revolution and a number of initiatives were services of all Central/ State Governments. Also, the
implemented as per technology advancements over the national eGovernance plan of DeitY lists 31 Mission
years. Starting with simple computerisation of repetitive Mode Projects being implemented at Central and State
tasks, the focus shifted to governance aspects and then levels. The implementation of some of these MMPs in
from client/server technology to the Cloud of today. This States has been studied by covering G2C, G2B and G2E
shift came once the Internet was well in place around the services offered and analysed in tandem with the eTAAL
year 2000. The word “eGovernance” is often confused counts to review the status of eGovernance in the past
with the word “eGovernment”. eGovernment refers to decade and identify the issues and challenges which
the processes and structures which are required for the must be addressed to offer participative and transformed
delivery of electronic services to the citizens, employees
1 National e-Transaction count at http://etaal.gov.in

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governance to the citizens. A suggestive ICT solution has Siau & 2005 Information, Interaction,
been proposed under Way Forward, which may appear Long Transaction, Participation,
more theoretical at this time but is very much achievable, Transformation, Involvement in
taking a clue from the success of Aadhaar, Jan-Dhan and decision-making
DBT schemes. The UN’s eGovernment Survey 2014 has
been analyzed in view of the manifold growth of Internet Anderson 2006 Interaction, Integration,
penetration in India. & Transaction, Streamlining,
Henriksen Transformation
III. Models of E-Governance
An interesting fact noticed in these stage models is that
A number of eGovernance models, proposed by different
most of the models include information, interaction,
authorities, are available on the Internet since the year
integration and transaction stages. The later models
2000. Comparative studies have been undertaken to
(including Gartner model of 2000) stress more on
evaluate these models. For the purpose of this study, these
streamlining of processes, citizen participation in
models are listed in Table-1, as the last decade has seen a
decision- making and transformation aspects. Therefore,
number of eGovernance initiatives based on one or more
it is an important point to make the citizen participate
of these models. Understanding these models will help in
actively in the governance process and the Government
proposing the way ahead for us [3].
needs to streamline and re-engineer its processes to
Table-1: Stage Models of eGovernance provide efficient, timely, corruption-free and convenient
services to citizens.
Stage Year Concepts
Model IV. Decade Of E-Governance in India
Gartner 2000 Information, Interaction, The year 2005 saw a number of Government websites
Group Transaction, Transformation [4] already in place offering information and interaction to
Deloitte 2000 Information, Integration, the citizens in the form of downloadable forms, functions,
Research Transaction, Streamlining contact information, schemes, procedure to avail the
Layne & 2001 Information, Integration, benefits or services from offices, email based interaction
Lee Transaction, Transformation etc. The payment gateways were becoming popular
during this year. Therefore, the transaction stage was to
Hiller & 2001 Information, Interaction,
come after 2005. The integration of services or data came
Belanger Integration, Transaction,
after the transaction stage. Technology was changing
Streamlining, Participation,
fast at this point of time with cheaper computers, higher
Involvement in decision-
Internet band-width and accessibility, switch from VSAT
making
based connectivity to fiber optics, cheaper and large
Scott 2001 Information, Interaction, capacity storage, conversion of client-server software
Integration, Transaction, into web-based software due to availability of additional
Participation, Involvement in features/ new software languages and connectivity.
decision-making
The Government has been able to offer new services, like
United 2000- Information, Interaction, land record copies, welfare pensioners’ pension through
Nations 2008 Integration, Transaction, bank accounts, salary and pension into the bank accounts
Participation, Involvement in of employees, budget preparation to its distribution and
decision-making final submission of bills, bill payments, bus and hotel
World 2002 Information, Interaction, bookings; by using online payment modes.
Bank Transaction
The Election Commission of India has done excellent
Netchaeva 2002 Information, Interaction, work in generating the electoral rolls and keeping these
Integration, Transaction, updated on regular basis. The ECI has also developed
Participation, Involvement in ICT solutions for candidate nomination and results’
decision-making compilation. However, ECI has been reluctant to use the
Accenture 2003 Information, Transaction, same electoral rolls and other solutions for all kinds of
Transformation elections in the country. The State Election Commissions
West 2004 Information, Transaction, of various State Governments are responsible for holding
Streamlining, Participation, election to urban and rural bodies under the Panchayati
Involvement in decision- Raj Act. These elections are also held every five years.
making Logically, when electoral India is one, it should be able to
generate electoral rolls for all elections [5].
The year-wise progress against the stages of eGovernance

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is given in Table-2. MMPs Central: eOffice, IVFRT, UID, Pension,
Evaluation of successful projects has been undertaken Banking, Posts
to analyze the outcomes vis-à-vis the project benefits/ State: MCs, CCTNS, PDS, Health-MCTS,
targets. The NISG report says that only 15% eGovernance NRHM, ePanchayat, eDistrict, NLRMP
projects have been successful with 35% being total failure
and 50% being partial failure 2. Similarly, majority of the CSC Common Service Centres at Panchayat
level in rural areas of the country.
websites or portals direct the citizens to other links for
services which turn out to be systems which accept online Mobile The m-App Store currently hosts over
applications but force the citizen to submit hard copies by Seva 240 live mobile applications to provide
post or in person and service delivery is through manual various services to citizens on their mo-
modes. bile phones/ tablets.
Recent MyGov citizen portal of Prime Minister
Table-2: Year-wise stages of eGovernance
Initiatives of India, Digital India, Jeevan Pramaan,
Years Concept Services AEBAS, Aadhar Enabled Payment system
Before Information and Websites, Client-server (AEPS), eKranti for linking remote villag-
2005 Interaction technology based back-end office es with Internet, Meghraj-Cloud, Online
automation software for specific
work areas within departments OPD reservation system in Hospitals.
2005 to Transactions Introduction of payment The UN survey on eGovernment 2014 puts India in the
2010 gateways, web-based software middle category with scores between 0.25 to 0.50 in the
for public and intra-office eGovernment development index which comprises of
operations
3 indexes of online services (OSI), telecommunication
2010 to Integration Web-service based data exchange infrastructure (TII) and human capital index (HCI). India
2013 among various software and
departments, web-portals, has good scores of 0.54 and 0.47 in OSI and HCI but a
eProcurement low of 0.14 in TII [7]. However, the Internet user base in
2014 to Participative and MyGov, Mobile Apps, inviting the country is growing fast with an increase in the smart
2015 transformative ideas from citizens, cloud based phone users who use Internet from mobile phones which
hosting of applications, Jeevan will naturally push the TII up. The number of internet
Pramaan, Direct benefit transfer
users in India would have reached 354 million by the
scheme, AEBAS, ORS
end of June 2015. The latest figure indicates that India
has more internet users than the population of the US
Many initiatives to facilitate eGovernance have been
and has become the second largest country in terms of
initiated through central funding and these are listed in
the number of internet users after China. According to a
the Table-3 [6].
report published by the Internet And Mobile Association
Table-3: eGovernance Facilitators of India (IAMAI), the internet users in India have grown
by 17% in the initial 6 months of this year, adding 52
NeGP The NeGP has been formulated by
million new users. Almost 60% users access Internet
the Department of Electronics and
through their mobile phones now. This will definitely
Information Technology and Department
improve India’s rating in the eGovernance in near future.
of Administrative Reforms and Public
Grievances in the year 2006. It aims In the last 3 years (since eTransaction count was started in
at improving delivery of Government the year 2012-13), the electronic transactions have tripled
services to citizens/businesses and to in the year 2015 as compared to the year 2013 and are
ensure efficiency, transparency and steadily increasing, as shown in Figure-2.
reliability of such services at affordable
costs at the door-step of the citizens.
SWAN State Wide Area Networks to connect
all Government offices for reliable
connectivity for back-office ICT
operations
SDC State data centres in all States for local
hosting of web-applications with DR sites

Figure-2: Electronic transaction count for last 3 years.

2 Website at http://www.nisg.org/docs/539_Report.pdf

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V. Issues and Challenges now, could never see the day of light, had it not resisted
the objections of World Governments.
Some key issues, posing serious threat to the success of
eGovernance initiatives, are listed below: Lesser industry partnership: The National Informatics
Centre provided the initial support to Central & State
Digital Divide: You are reaching the national capital in
Governments in all their computerisation activities since
an airplane or train and need a taxi to reach your place
the year 1975. However, due to wide-spread use of ICT in
of stay. Minutes before disembarking, start the taxi
Government sector after the year 2000, private sector is
booking application on your smart phone and the taxi is
now actively associating itself with various eGovernance
waiting for you at the departure terminal. The App even
initiatives. But their role is either advisory (consultative
tells the number of small or big taxis available near your
without accountability) or limited to software solutions.
GPS location, the time it will take to reach you, your
telephone number to the taxi driver. You don’t have Plenty of eGov champions: Due to short tenure postings,
cash or change to pay to the taxi driver. No issue. It is everyone needs a new eGovernance initiative every year
automatically deducted from the amount you may have during one’s short tenure of posting. The larger good
added in the taxi App. The bill / receipt is mailed to your is ignored for smaller, short term gains resulting in a
Email account. Unbelievable some years back! But do number of small eGov initiatives which routinely go out
we have such facilities in the majority of rural areas or of service after the eGov champion gets transferred.
smaller towns? No. Although, the Government has set Lack of citizen literacy: Education itself will address
up Common Service Centres in all Panchayats of the a number of eGovernance issues and the citizens will
country, their actual functioning and the services offered, become more demanding. As of now they are either
need to be revamped to address the digital divide, which careless or become too aggressive in their actions. A case
is the objective of these CSCs. in point is that of change of vehicle number plates with
Lack of opportunities and/or interest for citizen high security plates. No one has questioned why these
participation: Except for the recent initiative of the plates are not fixed on all vehicles all over the country or
Hon’ble Prime Minister http://mygov.in, there is why they needed to be changed at all.
reluctance both on the part of the Government as well Resistance to change: Government officials still resist
as the citizens to be active partners in the Governance any attempt to introduce ICT systems in their work place.
process. The “e” in Governance is capable of providing Earlier Bank employee unions resisted the efforts of
easy citizen participation in the Government decision- management for computerizing their operations. Today,
making process. As of now the citizen participation is banking is streamlined and customers are better served.
through elected members of Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha
and Panchayati Raj Institutions. The elected members Missing back-end office automation: ICT solutions
make all the decisions once they get elected and citizens have evolved over the years and integration of various
keep waiting for the next cycle of election to have their services with front end citizen interfaces has been
active say, even if it is a small request/requirement for possible. However, in the absence of robust back-end
construction of a bridge at a particular place on a river computerisation of individual office functions, such
flowing from their own village. schemes often fail.

Internet connectivity: It remains one of the major issues Inter-operability: It has been an issue but now it is being
and will remain so for the coming years too as the new addressed through web-services. Still, heterogeneous
applications are becoming more bandwidth hungry systems necessitate adherence to eGovernance standards.
because of new features and functionalities being offered VI. Futuristic Egovernance Model
to citizens by private players. Connectivity along the
National highways and in the urban areas is best, but the Every citizen of India has a right to be part of the
smaller towns/ villages are still out of this net. Governance process and every citizen is being given a
unique ID in the form of Aadhaar or NPR. The citizens
Political leadership: Aadhaar coverage should have been move from one place in the country to another for
100% by today but for the resistance from some State livelihood, studies, family circumstances etc on regular
Governments or political parties. National interest is basis. The corresponding addresses of citizens change on
deliberately ignored for smaller political gains. regular basis. This requires changes in driving license,
New Set of Rules and Acts: Government process re- vehicle registration, PAN card, election ID card, ration
engineering is an integral part of eGovernance. But do we card, Aadhaar itself, Passport etc. Similarly, citizens
need another set of rules or acts to match every GPR being need to apply for various certificates/services or seek
introduced to facilitate citizens? As a result, the number permissions from Government offices and they need to
of new rules and acts are confusing everyone. Simple pay bills on regular basis. They also have grievances or
Government orders should suffice for stakeholders. issues which require redressal. During the last decade,
Google Maps, which is such a popular and useful tool online services have been introduced in silos for different

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kinds of services. of the unique ID (Aadhaar or NPR) and all documents
The ideal scenario is to ensure that all online services issued under the new scheme will have linkage to the
take the unique ID (Aadhaar or NPR) of the citizens as correct new address and paper copies need not to be re-
the first step to get their name, father/mother/husband/ issued.
wife name and present correspondence address from a Taking this scenario further, citizens need only to give
central database. This ID is embedded in every service/ their unique ID and verify it through their biometrics, as is
job application/ permission/ certificate and a copy of being done in the Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance
the service delivered is stored in the Digital Locker (or System. In some cases, this unique ID will be fetched
other similar wallet) of the citizen. This record will be directly from the vehicle number or driving license. The
useful for the citizen and the Government alike. Further, Figure-3 demonstrates the information flow in this model.
expanding the example of the change of address of a
citizen, the citizen need only apply for change in address

Figure-3: Futuristic paper-less eGovernance model.

There will be requirement of payments for various requirements of the citizens [8].
services like bill payments, application fee, service VII. WAY FORWARD
charge, toll tax payments etc. In case a bank account of
the citizen is linked (as done in case of gas subsidy), the The futuristic eGovernance model introduced in the last
payments to Government and citizens by the Government section may take some time to become fully operational.
can simply be routed through this bank account. No However, there are certain points which will have to be
paper money will be required. A person driving on the adhered to by the Government systems so that the overall
national highway will not have to take money out. The direction of the eGovernance in the coming times is in
vehicle registration number having linkage to the unique synchronization with the futuristic model.
ID of the citizen (who will have the linked bank account Offer platforms to citizens to participate in Governance:
number and mandate to auto-pay) will ensure toll payment Invite suggestions from citizens on Email and publish of
reducing the stopping time. There will be absolutely no these on the website. Increase the citizen participation by
need of any paper documents ever! conducting opinion polls or online surveys for citizens.
Citizens will also be able to participate in the Governance Take a final call on Unique ID of citizens.
process through online surveys, opinion polls, location
Address digital divide: Efforts to address the digital
based questionnaire to select groups. The Government
divide need to be strengthened and supported by the
will need to publish the results of such surveys and inform
Governments at all levels because 69% of the citizens are
the citizens about the basis for its decisions. Because of
still living in rural areas despite a proportionate increase
the unique ID, the chances of fraud or mis-representation
in the urban population during the last census of 2011 1.
will be negligible. In effect, Government will disappear
from people’s everyday lives and will be visible through No need to visit offices: Besides the time and money
the delivery of its services and their outcomes as per the 1 Census of India 2011 website at http://censusindia.gov.in

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of citizens being saved, lots of corrupt practices will be management on wide scale: This will be a basic
stopped and government functioning will become better. requirement all the time whenever new or improved ICT
More mobile apps: These are easy to use as you don’t solutions are to be implemented in the Government.
need to remember multiple Ids or passwords and the No option for dual systems: There should be no option for
interface is easy to use. employees to continue with or go back to manual systems
Let’s not overdo it: Every bank is asking for Aadhaar of after the ICT systems are implemented.
account holders. Whosoever gives it, gets another surprise Continuity of champions: Some minimum tenure of eGov
when the gas subsidy goes to the latest bank account champions should be fixed to enable them to properly
which gets linked to the Aadhaar of that individual. implement the eGov initiatives.
Industry participation in service delivery: It is being done VIII. Conclusion
in the case of VISA issuance by US Embassies in India or
India has been witness to the ICT revolution and the
by the CSCs for Government services on payment basis
Government sector has tried to make its best use for
to ensure quality service at lesser cost and time.
eGovernance initiatives in silos in the last decade. It is
Make it simple: All good and popular things are simple. high time now to transform it and make it participative
The Google maps are so easy to use because of its as per 4th phase of the Gartner study [1]. The Central
interface. Processes need to be changed so that anyone and State Governments need to work together to simplify
can understand and make use of it. The online tourist the processes and deploy single point online interface
permits for visiting Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh for citizens to apply, enroll, verify, pay bills, seek
get exhausted within 15 minutes of their being opened to permissions, receive payments into their bank accounts,
public. There is a limit on the number of vehicles visiting without visiting offices. These services should be made
Rohtang on daily basis. The service is mostly used by taxi available through mobile apps too. The common service
drivers. They just need a mobile phone and Internet to get centres in rural areas should offer access to citizens on
a permit on their mobile phone, which can be shown at the nominal charge basis. In built controls or locks within
Barrier as proof of permit (where there is no connectivity the back-end office computerisation should ensure that
as of now to verify its validity through web) 2. corrupt or delaying practices are brought to the notice
Transform service delivery system: Try changing of higher authorities by the ICT systems without human
application and approval process for every service being intervention. Participation of citizens in the governance
offered to the citizens by issuing necessary orders and process should be encouraged through online surveys,
integrate service delivery systems, including participation opinion polls and results/decisions taken on the basis of
of citizens, businesses, as per Gartner model in Figure-4. these surveys need to be published online. A single unique
ID will pave the way for participative and transformative
Governance in India. E-Commerce has done it in the
private sector. eGovernance will change the role of
Government, its objectives and the way it functions in
India.
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default/files/good-governance.pdf
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Pradesh, Informatics newsletter of NIC, Vol.23,
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2 Online permits website at http://admis.hp.nic.in/ngtkullu

49
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