e-Gov In Full Swing

13 Feb 2009 00:00 IST

New Update

Since India witnessed the last technology boom, electronics have taken on an
indispensable place in our daily life. Although most of the IT business is
dominated by the private sector, the Indian government has also started taking
the initiative of using IT under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model
under its e-governance schemes to reach out to its citizens.

Advertisment

e-Governance has come a long way since the late 80s and has now become an
integral part of governance, be it at the center or the state level. In the
Union Budget 2008-09, the government increased the allocation for the IT
department to Rs 1,680 crore from Rs 1,500 crore in the last fiscal. Its target
is to launch one lakh Citizen Service Centers (CSCs) and set up State Wide Area
Network (SWAN) across the country.

It is in this realm that the IT industry, powered by huge government
investments, has started to emerge dominant even in this time of slowdown. Also
recently, schemes for State Data Centers (STDs) have been announced. Out of the
Rs 1,680 crore allocation in the budget, already Rs 450 crore has been allotted
for SWANs, Rs 275 crore have been mobilized for STDs and another Rs 75 crore has
been given to the CSCs across the country.

Vendors in India have a range of solutions for the e-governance projects. HCL
offers e-procurement, e-goverÂnance, e-office and e-district, smart card
solutions, document management system, data center solutions, and SWAN projects
across India. The company won the bid for the system integration contract,
Punjab State Wide Area Network (PAWAN), from the Punjab Government and orders
for automation of a municipal corporation.

Advertisment

As system integration continues to dominate the space in e-governance,
vendors are now bidding hard on the rollout of e-procurement framework for the
Indian Railways, supply of automatic ticket vending machines and other
specialized solutions.

The CSC front

AMD has been working along with the government for their infrastructure
development in e-governance since the inception of the National e-Governance
Plan (NeGP) including panchayat raj and rural development projects in West
Bengal; Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Rajasthan; Community
Service Center (CSC) project in Orissa; SWAN project for Chhattisgarh and Land
Records project in Assam.

It is however, on the CSC front that a lead has been taken by the government
and in this initiative, alredy request for proposals (RFPs) from 25 states have
been issued with 23 states making an incredible run in setting up respective
agencies covering 1,02,827 CSCs (source: IDC). Also, till October 2008, 20,558
CSCs have started functioning (source: IDC) and the government is hopeful of
completing the CSC project by the end of Q2, FY 2009.

Advertisment

The government's stimulus package ensures that capacity building projects
under the NeGP, such as the STDs, CSCs and the SWANs are implemented as per
schedule. In addition, the other state and central mission mode projects not
only ensure the heralding of a new revolution in G2C and G2B services, however,
also sustain the industry in these troubled times.

Expert Speak: e-Governance—The
next level

Today, having executed an array
of e-governance projects in multiple domains across various sectors, there
is far more acceptability in the government corridors for undertaking an
ambitious project which targets all components simultaneously. This paradigm
of e-governance focuses on better service delivery through front-end service
delivery mechanisms, improved operational efficiency through streamlining
back-end processes and systems, reduced processing time through integration
of various back-end systems and applications, and increased citizen
satisfaction by integrating cross-departmental systems and applications. The
key mandate in undertaking such an exercise is to ensure that the front-end
systems get bigger and better, whereas the back-end systems get smaller and
smarter.

This approach indicates a
change in the mindset of the government entities, where they share
objectives across organizational boundaries, instead of working solely
within an organization. This is an important step forward as it involves
design and delivery of a wide range of policies, programs and services that
spill over the traditional departmental boundaries. The earlier approach
towards implementing e-governance initiatives focused on provision of
services, whereas the new 'integrated-governance' approach focuses on
increasing the value of government services for the citizen. This value
enhancement is possible only when a consolidation happens of the way
back-end systems and processes in the organization work to bring about the
front end service delivery. The use of information technology helps
governments in maximizing that value, making services more efficient, more
useful, more accessible and more responsive.

Increasing investments in IT by government
entities are fast becoming the need of the day, which is a mandatory
requirement to ensure extension of service delivery into new delivery
channels, automating and integrating the back-end systems and setting up of
connectivity infrastructure to enable widespread reach of e-governance. To
realize full value of these investments, governments will have to bring
greater coherence in the way different departments and agencies deliver
citizen services. Departmental silo-based Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) infrastructure will have to give way to coordinated
service delivery architecture to cost-effectively meet the citizen's
continually rising expectations of government service.

Failure of many e-governance projects in
delivering the intended benefits is directly linked with the level of
complexity of the projects. Also there is ample evidence to prove that the
success or failure of an e-governance initiative is as much a people issue
as it is a technological issue. Hence it is imperative for the governments
to ensure that they lay strong emphasis on conceptualizing a project keeping
all its constituents and inter-dependencies in mind, and follow a holistic
implementation strategy which strives to deliver the right benefits to all
stakeholders. This strategy should focus on exploring what's possible, and
then drive the change fighting with the existing set of challenges.
Technology, at the end of the day, should function as just an enabler and a
tool to drive this change. The real benefit of e-governance is not measured
by the level of use of technology to simplify the operations, but by the
application of technology in bringing transformation and innovation in the
government functioning, to enable 'better governance'.

Navin Agrawal

The author is Executive Director-KPMG India

Still, the channel community in some parts of the country seems to be
dissatisfied with the way ahead. The case is grave for Haryana (ranked 4th in
the DQ-IDC e-governance survey 2008), where partners across the state are in
dearth of government tenders. As the state government indulges in direct OEM
purÂchases after HARTORE, the state agency floats the tenders; the channel
community has been left dry with HCL, Dell and HP topping the list of
e-governance tenders.

Advertisment

Andhra Pradesh seems to have made considerable progress over the years.
Ranked fifth in the DQ-IDC e-goverÂnance survey 2008, this state is one of the
first IT hubs of India to have e-seva center, where online tax payments, lodging
complains and feedback could be rolled out. With CGG and NISG rolling out most
of the tenders, Hyderabad has not only emerged as a topper in terms of IT
services and exports, it has also grown considerably in the sales space too.

Speaking on the situation in Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad-based Durganath
Venkatha, VP, Locuz Enterprise Solutions said, “Rs 80 crore data center project
is going on and soon, the

Swan project estimated around Rs 150 crore will be rollout. These are some
instances where additional support is required by the government. The
governÂment agencies usually look towards companies to provide expertise in
areas that are new to them. For example, we were recently requested by the
Government of Karnataka to assist them in sizing up their data center. Another
instance was with the West Bengal government, where we imparted knowledge on the
set up for their panchayat and rural development project.”

Upcountry e-gov

Now, the upcountry markets are not distant from the mainstream market and
the IT channel space has started to savor these markets as their primary
targets.

Advertisment

In Haryana, where the channels have not been able to penetrate the e-gov
projects, they have already started to concentrate on the upcountry markets
tapping Ambala in particular. Also, in Rajasthan, with the outstanding
performance of the e-gov projects, Jodhpur and Udaipur markets have begun to
emerge strong in the state.

Avishek Rakshit

avishekr@cybermedia.co.in