e-governance-2

7/29/2019 e-governance-2

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2e-GOVERNANCE : CONCEPTUAL FRAMEwORK2.1 Enabling Good Governance through Use o ICT

2.1.1 Te emergene o Inormation and communiations ehnology (Ic) has provided

means or aster and etter ommuniation, eient storage, retrieval and proessing o

data and exhange and utilization o inormation to its users, e they individuals, groups,

usinesses, organizations or governments. What had egun as a aster, more aurate andsimpler means o word-proessing quikly lent itsel to eing used as a tool or proessing

and taulating data as an aid in deision making. With growing omputerization and

inreasing internet onnetivity, this proess has presently reahed a stage where more and

more users are motivated to modiying their ways o doing things in order to leverage the

advantages provided y Ic. In other words, this has led to usiness proess re-engineering.

So ar as governments are onerned, the oming together o omputerization and internet

onnetivity/we-enalement in assoiation with proess re-engineering, promises aster

and etter proessing o inormation leading to speedier and qualitatively etter deision

making, greater reah and aountaility, etter utilization o resoures and overall goodgovernane. In the ase o itizens, it holds the promise o enhaned aess to inormation

and government agenies, eient servie delivery and transpareny in dealings and

interations with government.

2.1.2 With the inreasing awareness among itizens aout their rights and the resultant

inrease in expetations rom the government to perorm and deliver, the whole paradigm

o governane has hanged. Government, today, is expeted to e transparent in its dealings,

aountale or its ativities and aster in its responses. Tis has made the use o Ic

imperative in any agenda drawn towards ahieving good governane. It has also led to the

realization that suh tehnologies ould e used to ahieve a wide range o ojetives and

lead to aster and more equitale development with a wider reah. In its Fourth Report

entitled Ethis in Governane, the commission had learly stated that the tools o modern

tehnology suh as Inormation and communiations ehnology (Ic) should e used to

transorm the relationship o the government with its onstituents, itizens and usinesses,

and also etween its own agenies. While reognizing the potential o Ic in transorming

and redening proesses and systems o governane, the commission had suggested that


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e-Governane is the logial next step in the use o Ic in systems o governane in order

to ensure wider partiipation and deeper involvement o itizens, institutions, ivil soiety

groups and the private setor in the deision making proess o governane.2

2.1.3 e-Governane or eletroni governane is asially the appliation o Inormation

and communiations ehnology to the proesses o Government untioning in order

to ring aout Simple, Moral, Aountale, Responsive and ransparent (SMAR)

governane.3 Tis would generally involve the use o Ics y government agenies or any

or all o the ollowing reasons: (a) Exhange o inormation with itizens, usinesses or

other government departments () Speedier and more eient delivery o puli servies

() Improving internal eieny (d) Reduing osts / inreasing revenue (e) Re-struturing

o administrative proesses and () Improving quality o servies.

2.2 Defning e-Governance

2.2.1 Although the term e-Governane has gained urreny in reent years, there is no

standard denition o this term. Dierent governments and organizations dene this term

to suit their own aims and ojetives. Sometimes, the term e-government is also used

instead o e-Governane. Some widely used denitions are listed elow:

i. Aording to the World bank,4

E-Governmentreferstotheusebygovernmentagenciesofinformationtechnologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing)that have the ability to transorm relations with citizens, businesses, and otherarms o government. Tese technologies can serve a variety o diferent ends:better delivery o government services to citizens, improved interactions withbusiness and industry, citizen empowerment through access to inormation,ormoreecientgovernmentmanagement.Teresultingbenetscanbeless

corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and/or cost reductions.

Tus, the stress here is on use o inormation tehnologies in improvingitizen-government interations, ost-utting and generation o revenue and

transpareny.

ii. UNEScO denes e-Governane as:5

Governance reers to the exercise o political, economic and administrativeauthority in the management o a countrys aairs, including citizens

Promoting e-Governane Te SMAR Way Forward

2paragraph 6.4.1 o the Report3

paragraph 83, Report o the Working Group on convergene and E-Governane or Te enth Five Year Plan (2002-2007), Planning commission,Novemer, 20014Soure: http://go.worldank.org/M1JHE0Z280 (extrated on 18.08.2008)5Soure: (http://portal.uneso.org/i/en/ev.php-URL_ID=4404&URL_DO=DO_OPIc&URL_SEcION=201.html)


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e-Governane : coneptual Framework

articulation o their interests and exercise o their legal rights and obligations.E-Governancemaybeunderstoodastheperformanceofthisgovernancevia

the electronic medium in order to acilitate an ecient, speedy and transparent

process o disseminating inormation to the public, and other agencies, and orperorming government administration activities.

Tis denition visualizes the use o the eletroni medium in the exerise o

authority in the management o a ountrys aairs along with artiulation o

itizens interests leading to greater transpareny and eieny.

iii. Te counil o Europe has taken e-Governane to mean:6

the use o electronic technologies in three areas o public action:

- relations between the public authorities and civil society

- unctioning o the public authorities at all stages o the democratic process

(electronic democracy)

- the provision o public services (electronic public services)

In this ase, the ous is on making use o eletroni tehnologies with a view

to enourage etter interation etween government and itizens, promote

demoray and provide puli servies.

iv. Te US E-Government At o 2002 denes eletroni Government to mean

(Setion 3601):7

the use by the Government o web-based Internet applications and otherinormation technologies, combined with processes that implement thesetechnologies, to-

(A) enhance the access to and delivery o Government inormation and servicesto the public, other agencies, and other Government entities; or

(B)bringaboutimprovementsinGovernmentoperations thatmayinclude

eectiveness, eciency, service quality, or transormation.

Tis denition refets the strategy o the US Government regarding the use

o Ic in improving Government operations on the one hand and enhaning

the aess and delivery o inormation and servies to itizens and government

entities on the other.

6Soure: http://www.oe.int//E/com/Files/Temes/e-voting/denition.asp7Soure: E-Government At o 2002; http://rwegate.aess.gpo.gov/gi-in/getdo.gi?dname=107_ong_puli_laws&doid=:pul347.107.pd


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2.2.2 basially, e-Governane is generally understood as the use o Inormation and

communiations ehnology (Ic) at all levels o the Government in order to provide

servies to the itizens, interation with usiness enterprises and ommuniation and

exhange o inormation etween dierent agenies o the Government in a speedy,onvenient eient and transparent manner.8 Dr. APJ Adul Kalam, ormer President o

India, has visualized e-Governane in the Indian ontext to mean:

A transparent smart e-Governance with seamless access, secure and authentic fow o

inormation crossing the interdepartmental barrier and providing a air and unbiased

service to the citizen.9

2.3 Stages of e-Governance

2.3.1 It is evident that e-Governane is intrinsially linked with the development o omputer

tehnology, networking o omputers and ommuniation systems. In developing ountries,

suh tehnologies and systems eame availale with a pereptile time lag as ompared to

developed nations. However, in the ase o India, with the lieralization o the eonomy

rom the early 1990s onwards, there has een a onvergene in the availaility o utting

edge tehnologies and opportunities in the eld o e-Governane. Generally speaking, the

Indian experiene demonstrates that the onset o e-Governane proeeded through the

ollowing phases:

(a) Computerisation: In the rst phase, with the availaility o personal omputers,a large numer o Government oes got equipped with omputers. Te use o

omputers egan with word proessing, quikly ollowed y data proessing.

() Networking: In this phase, some units o a ew government organizations got

onneted through a hu leading to sharing o inormation and fow o data

etween dierent government entities.

() On-linepresence: With inreasing internet onnetivity, a need was elt or

maintaining a presene on the we. Tis resulted in maintenane o wesites

y government departments and other entities. Generally, these we-pages/we-sites ontained inormation aout the organizational struture, ontat

details, reports and puliations, ojetives and vision statements o the

respetive government entities.


8e-Government: From Vision to Implementation y Suash bhatnagar; Sage Puliations; 2004.9Inaugural address at II Delhi during International conerene on e-Governane.


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(d) On-lineinteractivity:A natural onsequene o on-line presene was openingup o ommuniation hannels etween government entities and the itizens,

ivil soiety organizations et. Te main aim at this stage was to minimize the

sope o personal interae with government entities y providing downloadaleForms, Instrutions, Ats, Rules et. In some ases, this has already led to

on-line sumission o Forms. Most itizen-government transations have the

potential o eing put on e-Governane mode.

2.4 Types o Interactions in eGovernance

2.4.1 e-Governane ailitates interation etween dierent stake holders in governane.

Tese interations may e desried as ollows:

G2G (Government to Government) In this ase, Inormation and communiationsehnology is used not only to restruture the governmental proesses involved in the

untioning o government entities ut also to inrease the fow o inormation and

servies within and etween dierent entities. Tis kind o interation is only within

the sphere o government and an e oth horizontal i.e. etween dierent government

agenies as well as etween dierent untional areas within an organisation, or vertial

i.e. etween national, provinial and loal government agenies as well as etween

dierent levels within an organisation. Te primary ojetive is to inrease eieny,

perormane and output.

G2C (Government to Citizens) In this ase, an interae is reated etween the

government and itizens whih enales the itizens to enet rom eient delivery

o a large range o puli servies. Tis expands the availaility and aessiility o

puli servies on the one hand and improves the quality o servies on the other.

It gives itizens the hoie o when to interat with the government (e.g. 24 hours

a day, 7 days a week), rom where to interat with the government (e.g. servie

entre, unattended kiosk or rom ones home/workplae) and how to interat with

the government (e.g. through internet, ax, telephone, email, ae-to-ae, et). Te

primary purpose is to make government, itizen-riendly.

G2B (Government to Business) Here, e-Governane tools are used to aid the

usiness ommunity providers o goods and servies to seamlessly interat with

the government. Te ojetive is to ut red tape, save time, redue operational



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osts and to reate a more transparent usiness environment when dealing with the

government. Te G2b initiatives an e transational, suh as in liensing, permits,

prourement and revenue olletion. Tey an also e promotional and ailitative,

suh as in trade, tourism and investment. Tese measures help to provide a ongenialenvironment to usinesses to enale them to perorm more eiently.

G2E (Government to Employees) Government is y ar the iggest employer and like

any organisation, it has to interat with its employees on a regular asis. Tis interation

is a two-way proess etween the organisation and the employee. Use o Ic tools helps

in making these interations ast and eient on the one hand and inrease satisation

levels o employees on the other.

2.5 Benefts o e-Governance

2.5.1 In the end, e-Governane is aout reorm in governane, ailitated y the reative use

o Inormation and communiations ehnology. It is expeted that this would lead to:

i. Betteraccesstoinformationandqualityservicesforcitizens: Ic would makeavailale timely and reliale inormation on various aspets o governane. In

the initial phase, inormation would e made availale with respet to simple

aspets o governane suh as orms, laws, rules, proedures et later extending

to detailed inormation inluding reports (inluding perormane reports),

puli dataase, deision making proesses et. As regards servies, therewould e an immediate impat in terms o savings in time, eort and money,

resulting rom online and one-point aessiility o puli servies aked up

y automation o ak end proesses. Te ultimate ojetive o e-Governane

is to reah out to itizens y adopting a lie-yle approah i.e. providing puli

servies to itizens whih would e required right rom irth to death.

ii. Simplicity, efciency and accountability in the government: Appliation o Ic to

governane omined with detailed usiness proess reengineering would lead

to simplifation o ompliated proesses, weeding out o redundant proesses,

simplifation in strutures and hanges in statutes and regulations. Te end

result would e simplifation o the untioning o government, enhaned

deision making ailities and inreased eieny aross government all

ontriuting to an overall environment o a more aountale government

mahinery. Tis, in turn, would result in enhaned produtivity and eieny

in all setors.



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iii. Expandedreachofgovernance:Rapid growth o ommuniations tehnology andits adoption in governane would help in ringing government mahinery to

the doorsteps o the itizens. Expansion o telephone network, rapid strides in

moile telephony, spread o internet and strengthening o other ommuniationsinrastruture would ailitate delivery o a large numer o servies provided y

the government. Tis enhanement o the reah o government oth spatial

and demographi would also enale etter partiipation o itizens in the

proess o governane.


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