B I G L E A R N I N G S M A D E E ASY

Governance in India 9
An initiative of Group

4. To promote rapid replication and integration of • Mobile First: All applications are designed/redesigned
e-Governance applications. to enable delivery of services through mobile.
5. To leverage emerging technologies. • Fast Tracking Approvals: To establish a fast - track
6. To make use of more agile implementation models. approval mechanism for MMPs, once the Detailed
Project Report (DPR) of a project is approved by
Key Principles the Competent Authority, empowered committees
• Transformation and not Translation: All project may be constituted with delegated powers to take all
proposals in e-Kranti must involve a substantial subsequent decisions.
transformation in the quality, quantity and manner of • Mandating Standards and Protocols: Use of
delivery of services and significant enhancement in e-Governance standards and protocols as notified by
productivity and competitiveness. DeitY be mandated in all e-governance projects.
• Integrated Services and not Individual Services: A • Language Localization: It is imperative that all
common middle ware and integration of the back-end information and services in e-Governance projects are
processes and processing systems are required to available in Indian languages as well.
facilitate integrated service delivery to citizens. • National GIS (Geo-Spatial Information System): NGIS
• Government Process Re-engineering (GPR): To mandate to be leveraged as a platform and as a service in
GPR as the essential first step in all new MMPs (Mission e-Governance projects.
mode projects) without which a project may not be • Security and Electronic Data Preservation: All online
sanctioned. applications and e-services adhere to prescribed
• ICT Infrastructure on Demand: Government departments security measures including cyber security. The
should be provided with ICT infrastructures, such as National Cyber Security Policy 2013 notified by DeitY
connectivity, cloud and mobile platform on demand. must be followed.
In this regard, National Information Infrastructure (NII), The approach and methodology of e-Kranti are
which is at an advanced stage of project formulation, fully aligned with the Digital India programme. The
would be fast-tracked by DeitY (Department of programme management structure approved for Digital
Information and Technology). India programme would be used for monitoring the
• Cloud by Default: The flexibility, agility and cost- implementation of e-Kranti and also for providing a
effectiveness offered by cloud technologies would forum to ascertain views of all stakeholders, overseeing
be fully leveraged while designing and hosting implementation, resolving inter-Ministerial issues and
applications. Government Cloud shall be the default ensuring speedy sanction of projects.
cloud for Government Departments.
12 E-Governance
B I G L E A R N I N G S M A D E E ASY

An initiative of Group

• Lack of Trust: Trust in e-government is of vital importance of e-Governance tools will require incentivizing
for the effective adoption and use of electronic public e-Governance among different entities and individuals.
services. The use of information and communication These incentives need to be reflected in the budgetary
Technology tools in e-governance has witnessed allocations. The best practices in the area of
an increasing diffusion and adoption worldwide. e-governance need to be documented so that other
Despite these positive results e-government has not States can also take up these initiatives. e-Governance
yet reached its full potential because of lack of trust projects are best implemented in the Mission Mode.
in the technology. Recent news like website hack of • Developing Awareness: Apart from building capabilities
Ministry of Home Affairs which has the most secretive within the government there is need for generating
documents enforces lack of trust in divulging personal widespread awareness among the public at large.
details. The success of e-Governance lies in increasing the
• Lack of Personal Touch: As the interaction is virtual number of electronic interactions between citizens
without any physical meetings there is no person to and the government and not merely in building the
person interaction which is much valued in the Indian infrastructure of e-Governance.
culture. • Overcoming resistance to change: e-Governance has to
be a collective effort. However, in every organization
Economic Issues
there are people who would not be convinced about
• Cost: Implementation, operations and maintenance its benefits or who would perceive it as a challenge
cost of service provided should be low enough for to certain entrenched interests. Such resistance would
high cost benefit ratio. need to be overcome by demonstrating the potential
• Maintainability: IT has been continuously evolving and benefits of e-Governance; how it strengthens the
software are frequently upgraded. Thus, the system organization internally creates goodwill externally and
must be compatible and maintainable for easily above all enhances citizens’ satisfaction.
fulfillment of emerging needs.
• Training and capacity building: Training would have to
• Reusability: E-governance should be considered as be imparted to government officials starting right from
nationwide plan and the implemented modules must the cutting edge level so that any apprehensions of
be reusable by other administrations. intrusive technology is removed and e-Governance is
• Portability: The primary requisite for portable accepted as an achievable and desirable target.
applications is independence of components from • Creating Infrastructure: To ensure that the benefits
hardware or software platforms to help in possible of e-governance reaches to every corner especially
reuse by other administrations. the rural and backward regions more e-government
projects have to be implemented by building adequate
Other Issues
e-infrastructure. In comparison with the large scale at
Some of the challenges and associated way ahead are as which e-governance training is being undertaken by
under: countries such as China there is a significant gap
• Willingness: Decades of following a particular mode of in the training infrastructure and programmes being
governance procedure tends to develop inertia and implemented in India.
resistance to change. Further, old skills and habits • Training: Any large scale e-governance initiative can
will require to be replaced with new skills and new succeed only if there is an on-going and sustained
processes if e-Governance is to sustain. There has to programme for such training at the State and district
be a strong will from within the government itself to levels. Further, there is also a need for training officials at
crossover from the present system to e-Governance. IT policy level to take policy decisions and handle issues
• Political support at the highest level: The vast scope of strategy. Such officers could be expected to lead large
of e-Governance combined with the enormous task e-governance programmes or become IT Secretaries in
of process re-engineering which will be necessary States etc. The training should include domestic and
at various levels and the infrastructural and financial international components and such officers should be
requirement necessarily call for commitment to the given exposure to such training/conferences/workshops
vision of e-Governance at the highest political level. A internationally at frequent intervals.
bottom-up approach will not suffice. • Business Process Re-engineering: It is essential to
• Providing Incentives: Weaning government entities from recognize that e-government is all about discarding
the mechanical application of technology to adoption old procedures and transforming the process of