E-GOVERNANCE IN DIGITAL ERA FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIA

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1 E-GOVERNANCE IN DIGITAL ERA FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIA Shabana 1,R. A. Siddique 2* 1 Assistant Professor, Shobhit University, Meerut,India 2 Assistant Professor, COVAS, SVPUAT, Meerut, India ABSTRACT E-governance is a backbone of good governance in India. Digital platform through means of information and communication technology make government more efficient and effective and also bring transparency and accountability in its operations. E-governance is the necessities of new generation to improve service delivery and participating public in all aspect of government activities. It is due to bless of e-governance where people are getting all the government facilities round the clock that mean all interaction with the government can be done through one counter 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without physically waiting in lines at government brick-bound offices. Each and every citizen able to contact with the government through a website where all forms, news and other information will be available 24/7. Government has taken major initiatives to transform the government to e-governance yet there are various gaps hindering effective implementation of e- governance in India because of inadequate physical infrastructure and low level of literacy. Most of the people are not aware about the benefits of e-governance and do not use Information and Communication technologies to a much extent. India is facing number of obstacles like social, economical and technical in implementation of e-governance in India. This research paper highlights benefits of e governance, main challenges and also explores various ideas and suggestions to implement e-governance strategies in efficacious manner to reform government processes. Keywords: E-Governance, Information and Communication Technology, Implementation, Physical Infrastructure, Transparency I. INTRODUCTION Information Communication and Technology (ICT) has made all most everything Electronic like E-Commerce, E-Services, E-Voting, E-Villages, E-Learning, E- Governance, etc.now Indian Government is in the bandwagon of institution attempting to harness ICT in their activities E-governance is the effective use of Information &Communication Technology (ICT) to improve the system of governance that is in place, and thus provide better services to the Citizens. By the bless of e-governance, it is a real situation where people are getting all the government facilities round the clock that mean all interaction with the government can be done through one counter 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without physically waiting in lines at government brickbound offices. Each and every citizen able to contact with the government through a website where all forms, news and other information will be available 24/7. E-Governance implies E-democracy where in all forms of interactions between the electorate (general public) and the elected government is performed electronically. The ultimate aim of E-Governance is to increase the citizen s participation through mail and improve governance 692 P a g e

2 working.governance is the implementation and delivery of government services through the information communication technology to provide transparent, effective, efficient, responsive and accountable governance to the society. E-Governance involves new styles of leadership, new ways of debating and deciding policy and investment, new ways of accessing education, new ways of listening to citizens and new ways of organizing and delivering information and services. According to Former Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi A. Annan, "Good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development. The rise of e-government has been one of the most striking developments of the web Global shifts towards increased deployment of IT by governments emerged in the nineties, with the advent of the World Wide Web. The technology as well as e-governance initiatives have come a long way since then recognizing the increasing importance of electronics, the Government of India established the Department of Electronics in 1970.The subsequent establishment of the National Informatics centre (NIC) in 1977 was the first major step towards e- Governance in India as it brought information and its communication in focus. However, the main thrust for e- Governance was provided by the launching of NICNET in 1987 the national satellite-based computer network. This was followed by the launch of the District Information System of the National Informatics centre (DISNIC) program to computerize all district offices in Country for which free hardware and software was offered to the State Governments. NICNET was extended via the State capitals to all district headquarters by E- Governance was started in India by AHSHAYA in Kerala. This project involves setting up around 5000 multipurpose community technology centers called Akshaya e-kendra s across Kerala. Run by private entrepreneurs, each e-kendra set up within 2-3 kilometers of every household, will cater to the requirements of around families to make available the power of networking and connectivity to common man. Akshaya is a social and economic catalyst focusing on the various facets of e-learning, e-transaction, e- governance, information and communication. In E-Governance, government makes best possible use of internet technology to communicate and provide information to common peoples and businessman. Today, electricity, water, phone and all kinds of bills can be paid over the internet. All this is what government and citizens is using and doing. All are dependent on internet and when citizens depends on government internet services all that come is E-Governance. II. FOUR PILLARS OF E-GOVERNANCE 1. Connectivity:-Connectivity is required to connect the people to the services of the government. There should be a strong connectivity for an effective e-governance. 2. Knowledge: - Here knowledge refers to IT knowledge. Government should employ skill full engineers who can handle the e-governance in an efficient way. These engineers also handle all kind of fault that may occur during the working of e-governance. 3. Data content: - To share any kind of knowledge or information over the internet, there should be its database. This database should have the data content which is related to government services. 4. Capital:-Capital can be on public or private partnership. It refers to money used by government to provide their services or to that sector of the economy based on its operation 693 P a g e

3 Fig. 1 Pillars of E-Governance Fig. 2 Conceptual model of E Governance Conceptual model of E Governance Fig. 2 shows E-Governance enables interaction between different stake holders in governance. Government to government (G2G) This model refers to the services which are shared between the governments. There is lots of information that need to be shared between various government agencies, department and organizations. Main intent of this interaction is to increase efficiency, performance and output. These types of services or information are sharing of information between police department of various states and Government document exchange which includes preparation, approval, distribution, and storage of all governmental documents is also done through e-governance. Most of the finance and budget work are also done through e-governance. Government to citizens (G2C) This model of e-governance refers to the government services which are shared by citizens. Here, citizens visit to the link of services that they want to use. This models strong the bond between government and its citizen. Type of services which are provided by this model includes:- a) Payment of online bills such as electricity, water, telephone bills etc. b) Online registration of applications. c) Copies of land-record. d) Online filling of complaints. e) Availability of any kind of online information Government to businessmen (G2B) Through this model, bond between private sector and government increase and businessmen use to communicate. They share information through this model like: 694 P a g e

4 a) Collection of taxes. b) Rejection and approval of patent is also done by this model. c) Payment of all kind of bills and penalty. d) Sharing of all kind of information, rules and data. e) Complaints or any kind of dissatisfaction Government to employees (G2E) This model increases the transparency between government and its employee. Information that can be shared by this model: a) All kind of data submission(attendance record, employee record etc) from various government offices is done by this model b) Employee can file all kinds of complaints and dissatisfaction by this model. c) All kind of rule regulation and information for employees can be shared by this. d) Employees can check their payment and working record. e) Employees can register all kind of working forms online. III. E GOVERNANCE INITIATIVES IN INDIA Transportation Services provided by e-governance in this area are issuance of Time Table of buses, provision of booking facility for Interstate transport, transportation Improvement Program, regional Transportation Plans, Congestion Management Process, transportation Demand Management. Projects in this area includes the following a) CFST (Citizen Friendly Services of Transport) b) Vahan and Sarathi c) OSRTC (The Orissa State Road Transport Corporation) d) HRTC (Himachal Road Transport Corporation) Online payment of bills and taxes Services provided by e-governance in this area are online Transaction, payment of Bill, Payment of taxes, payment of house EMIs. Projects in this area includes following portals: a) E-SEVA b) BWSSB c) DOMESTIC d) E-Pourasabha Municipal Application e) E-Mitra f) SAMPARK g) E-Suvidha 695 P a g e

5 Information and public relation: With these kinds of projects people can get any kind of information with just a single click Projects in this area: a) Lok Mitra b) Mahiti Shakti c) OLTP Municipal services House Tax Assessment, Billing and Collection, maintain records of Land & property, issue of Death Certificates, registration & Attorneys of properties, review and approval authority for site plans. Various projects are as: a) E-Panjeeyan b) SDO Suite: c) Palike d) Rural Digital Services e) TRIS Roads and traffic management Services provided by this type of e-governance are network of Roads & Bridges, road construction and their maintenance, traffic management, Safety, Accident and pollution control Various projects are as: a) BHOOSWADEENA b) I-Geo Approach Internet Geometrics c) RSPCB (Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board) Agriculture Following are the projects used in agriculture sector: a) Gyandoot b) BELE c) AGMARKNET: d) SEEDNET e) Mustard Procurement Management System Local information: - For local information such as prices of seeds, fertilizers, loan rates etc. government has started e-governance service in this area also. a) E-JanSampark b) Prajavani c) WebPortals for Hyderabad and Cyberabad Police d) Intranet Portal of Chandigarh Administration e) E-DISHA Ekal Sewa Kendra f) E-Samadhan 696 P a g e

6 Disaster management We have important project in this area is Chetana. Land record management: Major projects in this area are:- a) Bhoomi b) Comprehensive Modernization of Land Records (CMLR) c) Land Record Computerization d) Land Records Management System State e) Government of Punjab f) Devbhoomi State Government of Uttarakhand g) Bhu-Lekh UP State Government of Uttar Pradesh h) E-Dhara State Government of Gujarat Panchayat Services are under this area are issue of Birth/Death certificate, application for inclusion of name in Voter list, conducting various welfare schemes for the poor and needy sections of the society, preparing district wise planning, implementing those plan, and review for success. Provide wage employment to the needy from amongst the poorest section of the rural society, rural water supply and sanitation Various projects are as: a) E-GramViswa Gram Project b) RajNidhi c) Raj-SWIFT d) Support for P & RD sector in Assam e) Samanya Mahiti by the State Government of Karnataka Health Service provided by these following projects is availability of medicines, special health camps, facilities at Anganwadi centers. a) Various projects b) Online Vaccination Appointment for International traveller Certificate c) SMS based Integrated Disease Surveillance System d) Hospital OPD Appointment e) NLEP (National Leprosy Eradication Program) f) Healing Education Services are providing basic education (elementary, primary, secondary) to Children, providing computer education to children, results for 10th& 12thclasses, information on eligibility for Distribution of books scheme Various projects:- a) CASCET b) Online Scholarship Management System 697 P a g e

7 c) AISES (All India School Education Survey) d) CAPnic e) VHSE Examination Management System IV. E-GOVERNANCE PROJECTS IN INDIAN STATES Government officials in India have realized that e-governance is vital technology for economic progress of country in highly competitive environment. It requires an increased participation from citizens. For governments, the more overt inspiration to shift from manual processes to IT-enabled processes to increase efficiency in administration and service delivery, the will be visible to all. This change can be conceived as a valuable investment with huge returns. Some of the recent e-governance projects are implemented by various state governments. Andhra Pradesh: - e-seva, CARD, VOICE, MPHS, FAST, e-cops, AP online One-stopshop on the internet, Saukaryam, Online Transaction processing. Bihar: - Sales Tax Administration Management Information. Chhattisgarh: - Chhattisgarh InfoTech Promotion Society, Treasury office, e-linking project. Delhi: - Automatic Vehicle Tracking System, Computerization of website of RCS office, Electronic clearance System, Management Information System for Education. Goa: - Dharani Project. Gujarat:- Mahiti Shakti, request for Government documents online, Form book online, G R book online,census online, tender notice. Haryana: - Nai Disha. Himachal Pradesh: - Lok Mitra. Karnataka: - Bhoomi, Khajane, Kaveri. Kerala: - e-srinkhala, RDNet, Fast, Reliable, Instant, Efficient Network for the Disbursement of Services (FRIENDS). Madhya Pradesh:- Gyandoot, Gram Sampark, Smart Card in Transport Department, Computerization MP state Agricultural Marketing Board (Mandi Board). Maharashtra: - SETU, Online Complaint Management System Mumbai Rajasthan: - Jan Mitra, RajSWIFT, Lokmitra, RajNIDHI. Tamil Nadu:- Rasi Maiyams Kanchipuram; Application forms related to public utility, tender notices and display V. MAJOR CHALLENGES IN INDIA a) Different language People belonging to different states speak different languages. The diversity of people in context of language is a huge challenge for implementing e-governance projects as e-governance applications are written in English language. b) Low Literacy 698 P a g e

8 Literacy level of India is very low; is a huge obstacle in implementation of e-governance projects. Illiterate people are not able to access the e-governance applications; hence the projects do not get much success. C) Recognition of applications It is a challenge to have all the citizens well aware of the facilities offered by the e-government and have them to trust in it, so that citizens should be ready to accept these facilities d) User friendliness of government websites Users of e-governance applications are often non-expert users who may not be able to use the applications in a right manner e) Services are not accessible easily Many of the government offices are out of Internet connection or using very slow Internet connection. Though, India connected with high speed fiber optics connection but all of the government offices are not connected to the internet yet. So, most of government officials can not get the opportunity to use the internet and different types of government websites lack of internet connection and computer. f) Population As population is considered to be an asset to the country but it also offers some other challenges e.g. establishing person identities g) Lack of integrated services Lack of communication between different departments of government may be its major cause. Therefore, the information that resides within one department has no or very little meaning to some other department of the government. h) Lack of awareness in people Most of the Indian people are not aware of the benefits of e-governance services. i) Cost In developing countries like India, cost is one of the most important obstacles in the path of implementation of e-governance where major part of the population is living below poverty line. j) Maintenance of electronic devices As the Information Technology changes very fast and it is very difficult for us to update our existing systems very fast. Maintenance is a key factor for long living systems in a rapidly changing technical environment. k) Low per Capita income Per capita income means how much each individual receives, in the terms of money, of the yearly income generated in a country. Therefore, people cannot afford on-line services provided by the government which is a challenge for implementation of e-governance. l) Limited financial resources India has limited financial resources so as to implement and maintain the e-government projects properly. m) Security issues A modern organization requires security of all kinds of ICT assets where the government is no exceptional. Threats and attacks to the ICT assets may come in different forms from different sources. In the case of e- governance, the source of attacks can be internal or external to the government. Employees who are working 699 P a g e

9 within e-governance projects may misuse the access privileges for financial or other gains. Threats may come from external sources like professional hackers, criminal organizations, terrorist organizations, intelligence and investigation agencies. Professional hackers, having excellent technical skills, can break into e-governance systems. n) Geographical problems Corporate networks reside on reliable and controlled networks. Government networks have to go into all areas which are even unfriendly to live. It is, however, costly to wire up all the villages in the country. So, e- Governance systems must have to use the wireless networks like existing cellular networks to reach the applications into remote areas irrespective of the geographical issues. o) Lack of Training Trained people can play the vital role for implementing e-governance project. Unfortunately, majority portion of government officials do not have enough training on Computer yet. It is a big barrier for implementing e- governance. VI. POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS FOR IMPLEMENTING E-GOVERNANCE SUCCESSFUL IN INDIA 1. Internet connection till village level To gain the ICT knowledge and for participating the e-governance activities internet connection from city to village level is very important. Without using internet no one can access the government web portal for their personal tasks. So, government should encourage the private companies to provide internet connection to the public with cheap rate. So that villagers can access the internet easily. 2. Long term planning for e-governance applications Security Issues Security issue is the major concern in all of aspects of e-governance. Different types of cyber attacks may come to different sectors of e-governance. So, Government should takes strong modern long term planning to protect the e-governance all kind of websites, automation systems and software protect from any kind of cyber crime or attacks using modern and updated technology and policy. 3. Financial solutions This is not a big problem for government to arrange fund for establishing e-governance project. Government can take financial support from many foreign organizations such as UNDP, UNESCO, ADB, World Bank, EU or other sources. Government can minimize the cost of e-governance project using locally made software 4. Motivate the public to use the government websites This is not a main aim of e-governance only involvement government officers in the e-governance project. Without public involvement it will not be a successful project. So, government has to take some steps to motivate the public to use different types of government web sites for their daily official tasks 5. Database of citizen Government needs a national database to make the e-governance project successful in every aspect. So, government can use this information and database with adding some additional information of citizen as a national database. 700 P a g e

10 6. Proper training It is very important to provide training to the all government officers regularly. Without proper knowledge of IT of government officers e-governance project will never see the real face of the project. VII. CONCLUSION Good governance is characterized by participation, transparency and accountability. E-governance is explained as delivery of government service and information to public using electronic media.such means of delivery information is often referred to as information technology.the development of information and communication technology makes governance inclusive, efficient, responsive, transparent, accountable and more participatory which embodies the elements of good governance and raped growth of communications technology and its adoption in governance would help in bringing government machinery to the doorstep of the citizens. In India, it is tough task to implement e-governance successfully as unawareness in people, diversity in language and security issue are the main challenges which is responsible for failure of various projects under e- governance. Government must make efforts to aware people about e-governance activities and needs to make significant investment in areas such as government process re-engineering, training assessment and awareness. There is highly requirement of maintaining proper database of all the citizens and well developed infrastructure. Security issue needs to be tackled carefully. Most important is participation of common citizen which is role in implement of successful e-governance. REFERENCES [1] Alam, J. (2012). E-Governance in Bangladesh: Present Problems and Possible Suggestions for Future Development.International Journal of Applied Information Systems, 4 (8), [2] Dwivedi, S. K. and Bharti, A. K.(2010). E-governance in India problems and acceptability. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology, 17(1), [3] Green, M. W., Elliman, N. A. and Rogers, P. J. (1995). Lack of effect of short-term fasting on cognitive function. Journal of Psychiatric Research, (29), [4] Bhosale, V.K. and Kulkarni, H.W. (2014). E-Commerce, E-Governance as a new concept. Journal of Policy and Organizational Management, 4(1), [5] Karaulia, D. S. and Singh, S. (2011). E-Governance: Information Security Issues. In International Conference on Computer Science and Information Technology (ICCSIT'2011) Pattaya. [6] Monga, A. (2008). E-government in India: Opportunities and challenges, JOAAG, 3(2), Paramashivaiah, P. & Suresh, B.K. (2016). E- governance: Issues and challenges in India International Journal of Sustainable Development, 9(8), [7] Hashmi, G. and Khanna, P. (2016). E-Governance: A Journey of Challenges, failures and Success in India. International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering, 4(5), [8] Yadav, N. and Singh, V. B. (2012).E-Governance: Past, Present and Future in India. International Journal of Computer Applications, 53(7), P a g e

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