Professional Documents
Culture Documents
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3.1 Introduction
An extensive literature review has been done on the concepts and theories related to
the implication of e-governance services. A review of research papers and articles has
been undertaken to take note of and acknowledge work that has been done in this
field. The researcher has collected secondary data from reputed journals and
magazines, newspapers, articles, internet websites and archives. The researcher has
visited libraries in and around Pune City, to collect secondary data. The researcher has
identified research papers published in renowned journals and conference proceedings
along with articles published in newspapers on various topics such as implementation
of e-governance, impact of e-governance services on citizens etc. The review of
available literature on each topic is taken into account in this chapter.
The researcher has done a literature review on each and every criteria of egovernance. These criteria focus mainly on various aspects of e-governance like3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8
3.9
3.10
73
[9]
The results of the study indicate that the implementation of e-governance through the
mechanism of e-Seva has been received wholeheartedly by the citizens of AP state.
Since the electronically delivered services have aided the convenience and comfort of
all sections of the society irrespective of age, educational background and technical
awareness, citizens are willing to pay the nominal extra charges for improved and
cumbersome-free services. The working days and the daily working schedule of the
service centers are providing an added convenience and benefit particularly to
employed citizens. The substantial role played by informal sources in the spread of
information is also highlighted by the study. The study revealed that mental maturity
plays a vital role in welcoming any new system like e-Seva and in analyzing critically
the merits and demerits of the system introduced, since 71% of the people belonging
to the age group 40-60 expressed high satisfaction with e-Seva. The study has shown
that e-Seva is a highly satisfactory method of bringing about e-governance. With the
implementation of e-Seva, the vision of e-government in Andhra Pradesh has seen its
reality. This has become a model to be emulated by all other administrative bodies. eSeva implementation has brought the government of Andhra Pradesh, unparalleled
credit for two reasons- firstly for introducing a project that has brought great
convenience and comfort to its citizens and secondly, for innovating and
implementing a project of a unique nature.
2 Driss Kettani, Bernard Moulin & Asmae Elmahdi have published their article on
A framework to assess the impact of e-government systems on governance
[11]
[37]
The intention of the Lokmitra project is noble. It is meant to provide citizen centric
service and information at kiosks and redress citizens complaints through a single
window interface. In this way the harassment of the people can be put to an end,
administration will become responsive and accountable and benefits of the ICT will
reach the general public. Initially the project functioned satisfactorily because there
was a strong leader in the District Centre who took keen interest in monitoring the
project by thumb rule in the absence of a proper strategy. Since the project was a
pilot project there was a need to define the metrics for measuring the performance
against the objective and timelines so that it could be replicated in other districts of
the state. This could happen only when the project stabilized.
4. Kadam Kedar has published his article on Usability: High value proposition
for successful e-governance in India
[18]
In this paper the researcher has focused on a case study applied successfully in
completing projects for the PMC. According to him, e-governance is a very powerful
tool to bring IT to the common people and also to streamline all transactions that take
place within the government. Over the past 10 years there has been a steep rise in the
75
Response
out of 300
Response in
% out of 300
180
60
122
40.66
75
25
75
25
[17]
[7]
The objective of this research paper is to explore the impact of IT as an enabling force
in its efforts to meet the present and emerging challenges of a digital age on the rural
people in West Bengal (WB). In WB, Burdwan (Bardhaman) district has been
selected for implementing the country's first rural e-governance pilot project. This
paper wants to argue that introduction of rural e-governance in Burdwan, is likely to
generate development gains only when it is closely adapted to the needs and
capacities of the Panchayats. The primary focus of this study was on the executive
authorities responsible for implementing e-governance at the rural level. The
researcher went to 30 people below the poverty line of three villages with a structured
questionnaire that provided ample opportunity to measure the socio-economic needs
of the local people and to correlate those needs with the gains of e-governance. The
sample size is relatively small. Replication of this study with additional blocks and
gram panchayats in the sample will allow stronger validation of the main argument.
77
7. Kumar Amod, Singh Amarpal, Shukla Amit Shukla have published their article
on LOKVANI: An E-ffort to Empower Citizens
[19]
78
[24]
[26]
Governments at all three levels in India- Centre, State and Local bodies, are making
an effort to adopt ICT to deliver efficient and quick services to citizens. The state of
UP, unfortunately has a long way to go, as compared to other states, in the adoption,
diffusion and usage of e-governance. An analysis of the functioning of various egovernance projects has shown that mere good planning cannot ensure success. It is
essential to identify the characteristics of the local people and the region in terms of
79
[8]
This research study examines two of the e-governance initiatives taken in the State of
Maharashtra i.e. Road Transport Office (RTO), Pune and the Registration
Department, Government of Maharashtra. The research started with the assumption
that leadership is committed to e-governance and that field functionaries may not be
ready for the same. According to the research, field level staff is not only ready but is
clamoring for computerization, and that the leadership must respond and channelize
it. e-governance is rightly associated with providing speedy and efficient services to
citizens. It is also apparent from a survey of the above two departments, that egovernance in Maharashtra as of today, implies computerization/office automation
and integration of a few systems. Integration of all services at one place for citizens is
being introduced in phases through SETU and local initiatives. B.O.T. for hardware
has been a success story and needs to be replicated through transparent procedures.
Efforts to bring in private sector investment are crucial, as the government does not
have adequate resources. Online services through the internet have been accepted as a
concept, but are a long way from execution.
80
11. A Ph.D thesis by Sardesai Swati Prakash on Study of Citizen Centric Egovernance, Projects in Maharashtra from University of Pune
[1]
81
[31]
This research paper proposes a method to assess in an objective manner the change in
service quality as a result of e-government project implementation. e-government
projects operate in an open environment having multiple stakeholders and varied
understanding of benefits and costs. Here a model based on the AHP technique has
been proposed for assessing the change in service quality brought in by an egovernment project. The methodology proposed here can be part of the overall
assessment framework for e-government projects. Firstly the method provides a
convenient and robust way to compare tangibles and intangibles and thus provide a
valid assessment of the overall change in service quality. Secondly the method
prioritizes the service quality dimension from the citizens point of view along with
the change in the satisfaction level of those service attributes. This information can
significantly help in improving the project as periodic evaluations can provide inputs
to government agencies regarding the priorities of the citizens and their current level
of satisfaction of those priorities. Finally when assessing change on a periodic basis is
important and not just the assessment of the current level of service, the method
provides a very convenient tool to e-government project managers to monitor the
progress made and focus on areas where improvement is required.
13. Shafi Al-Shafi , Vishanth Weerakkody , Zahir Irani & Habin Lee have
published their article on e-government Adoption In Qatar: An Investigation Of
The Citizens Perspective
[35]
This research presents an initial attempt towards understanding the adoption of the egovernment services in Qatar from a citizens perspectives. Using a survey based
study this paper describes a citizens behavioral intention and adoption in terms of
applying and utilizing the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of technology
(UTAUT) model to explore the adoption and diffusion of e-government services in
the state of Qatar. A regression analysis is then conducted to examine the influence of
e-government adoption factors and the empirical data reveals that performance
82
[4]
In this research paper, the researchers main focus is to assess the efforts made by
Jordan in the direction of e-governance and people's perception of corruption, trust
and e-governance. For this study they use Desk research which was conducted using
secondary data sources followed by a field survey conducted with 412 sample
respondents in three major cities of Jordan. Following the triangulation approach, the
responses of university professors and the common people were also secured.
They found out that The Jordanian government's efforts towards e-governance are
commendable in the Middle East. However, there are certain impediments that are
witnessed in the form of the digital divide, corruption, social bottlenecks, the stage of
83
[28]
The trust of citizens in their governments has gradually eroded. One response by
several North American governments has been to introduce e-government, or webmediated citizen-to-government interaction. An internet based survey of 182
Canadian voters shows that using the internet to transact with government has a
significantly positive impact on trust and external political efficacy. Interestingly,
though the quality of the interaction is important, it is secondary to internal political
efficacy in determining trust levels, and not significant in determining levels of
external political efficacy. For policy-makers, this suggests e-government efforts
might be better aimed at citizens with high pre-extant levels of trust, rather than in
developing better websites. Governments around the world continue to invest in the
internet, and have largely adopted the mantra of service efficiency. This study
challenges this by showing initial support for the salience of political self efficacy as
it leads to trust in government. Individuals with a priori trust in government, and
correspondingly high levels of internal self efficacy will have these reinforced
through electronic interaction with their governments. The reverse also holds:
distrustful, low self-efficacy individuals will not increase their trust, irrespective of
84
Web-based
e-government
services
with
citizen-centric
[21]
This research mainly focuses on a general theory for evaluation of web based
application and an experiment to test the validity of that approach. At this point the
experiment has been pretested and will be conducted over the fall of 2004 using
citizens from the Syracuse City School District (SCSD). The theory model identifies a
transaction between an individual and a website as the appropriate unit of analysis for
evaluation. It further notes that to accurately measure the process and outcome, a
model must control all the relevant sources of variation in process and outcome, task
characteristics, site characteristics and individual characteristics. The model
anticipates that these three clusters of variables are likely to interact with one another
in determining the process and outcome of the transaction. The major contribution of
this model is to direct incorporation of a critical variable likely to influence system
performance and the ability to sort them into factors that can be controlled and those
that cannot be controlled. The approach is labeled a citizen centric approach and one
that is appropriate for e-government applications. It is expected that data from this
experiment built around the development of a website for the SCSD will demonstrate
the utility of the proposed model. Also, instruments developed in the SCSD
experiment will provide useful references for other similar government agencies if
they need to apply this model for the evaluation of their web-based services. Such
agencies could be other school districts or local government agencies that serve
citizens directly. Accumulation of data for similar government agencies makes it
possible to derive lessons for improving web based e-government services that are
specifically useful for that group or category of government agencies.
85
17. Wang Jin-fu Hang Duo has published his article on Customer-centered egovernment service quality evaluation: Framework and case study
[42]
Public Administration aims at producing value for its customers, by the use of egovernment to develop quality government services and delivery systems that are
efficient and effective. So the promise of e-government is to engage citizenry in
government in a user-centered manner. This suggests that governments will provide
services and resources tailored to the actual service and resource needs of users,
including citizens, residents, government employees, and others. e-government is a
relatively new subject of research so the conception of services quality and aspects of
quality evaluation is quite limited despite the importance of such processes. This
article reveals the analysis of e-government conception in order to clarify important
aspects for e-government services quality evaluation. Several discussions on how
customers and citizens should be treated in the public organization are presented.
Then, using systematic, logical and comparative analysis of concepts and conclusions
published by different authors, theoretical assumptions of e-government services
quality evaluation were formulated. Finally, a case of Xi'an e-government service
evaluation compared with 5 western cities was specialized for empirical research.
18. Sethi Neerja and Sethi Vijay have published their article on e-government
Implementation: A Case Study of Dubai e-government
[34]
In this paper, researchers describe a case study on the successful implementation of egovernment in Dubai using Chan, Lau, & Pans (2008) e-government Implementation
Framework. The various e-government initiatives undertaken by the Dubai
government have been described using the four components, namely information
content, ICT infrastructure, e-government info structure, and e-government
promotion.
According to the researchers, Dubai has been a showcase of success in the last decade
both from a financial and economic perspective. This paper sheds more light on the
changes in the way government services are delivered that have allowed for greater
efficiency, visibility, and overall enhanced competitiveness of doing business in the
country. The transformation has been accomplished by leveraging the internet and
moving towards an e-government framework. Vision and leadership, combined with
meticulous planning, along with a cooperative mentality that was fostered, all
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contributed to the success of the initiative. The powerful lessons that have emerged
from the Dubai e-Government experience will serve as a robust guide to other nations.
The success of e-Government in Dubai also demonstrates the power of IT to
transform government services even in countries that started late on the journey and
where peoples motivation and capacity to embrace change may not be high.
19. Sachdeva Sameer has published his article on e-Governance Strategy in
India
[32]
[10]
The main purpose of the study was to identify what factors could affect the citizens'
adoption of e-government services, in the case of Romania. According to the UN egovernment survey conducted in 2008, Romania comes under mid-range countries for
87
utilization of e-government (37 percent). Romanias national portal www.eguvernare.ro aims at progressively making all services and information accessible
through the portal. The study is an extension of the Technology Acceptance Model.
The proposed model was validated using data collected from 481 citizens. The results
provided substantial support for most proposed hypotheses and showed the
significance of the extended constructs. This study provides an understanding of the
factors that facilitate the adoption of e-government services. The analysis revealed
that the citizens higher perception of usefulness, ease of use, quality and trust of egovernment services directly enhanced their satisfaction and implicitly indicated the
level of adoption of e-government. For an effective adoption of e-government
services, widespread and attractive awareness campaigns should be conducted,
targeting potential users properly to inform them about the real benefits that would be
gained.
This study is mainly to focus on understanding the potential users adoption behavior
of e-government. Such a user acceptance model can be used by e-government service
providers to predict the adoption of their new solutions. In the design stage, such
evaluations can be used to identify and address user requirements, and, therefore,
shape a new service. Services already deployed may be improved. Information
gathered in the survey can be used to better understand the users preferences, and the
reasons for lack of acceptance of some e-government services. The scales will not
only indicate which of the factors are fulfilled overall, but an analysis of responses to
each criteria may be useful to identify very specific areas of improvement. Moreover,
it enables meaningful comparisons of various systems.
21. Akther Mohammad Shakil & Takashi Onishi58 and Tetsuo Kidokoro have
published their article on e-government in a developing country: citizen-centric
approach for success
[3] [40]
There are very few successful e-government projects in developing countries. There
are successful projects which took the low end route. This paper examines one such
project to find out the reasons behind its success. The research concludes that the
stakeholders participation is the driving factor for success. The major issue is not IT,
but an understanding between the citizen population and their complimentary
governmental entity, which acts as the critical factor for triumph in e-government.
88
Within a developing country, more participation by its stakeholders was one probable
conclusion that was established. A particular project was examined where such an
approach was taken and found feasible and practicable. Due to the active participation
of stakeholders, both the birth registration and immunization rates have increased.
Concurrently other unforeseen benefits were realized, such as image enhancing of
public and elected officials, use of data for school enrollment and decision making for
vaccine management for the society as a whole. Yet, research clearly demonstrates
that the stakeholder theory fits the e-government context as well. If stakeholders
needs are assessed prudently and applied accordingly, e-government projects in poor
countries can be successful without taking a high-tech approach. In the end, it can be
concluded that in order that successful e-government projects within developing
countries take place, a full understanding between the roles of Government agencies
and its citizens creates a more profound impact than technology.
22. Prabhu C.S.R. has published his article on Cost effective solution for effective
e-governance-e-Panchayat
[30]
There are various models and solutions of e-governance in the World. However a cost
effective solution is always preferable. An electronic knowledge based system titled
e-Panchayat with the active involvement of the stake holders at the lowest
administrative level was successfully designed, developed and is being implemented
in Andhra Pradesh. Several states such as Uttar Pradesh, North Eastern States,
Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamilnadu etc., the same project is going to be replicated
after due customization. The project involves e-governance right at the grass roots
level i.e., village level and offers a very cost effective solution. The methodology
adopted for implementing the system is novel, cost-effective and self-sustaining. To
achieve high efficiency the system harnesses the state-of-the-art of ICT which is
highly efficient.
For sustainable socio-economic development at the grass roots level, a wide
involvement of the communities and businesses would need to be ensured. This
would automatically warrant forging of sound business relationships based on
transparency, mutual good will and benefit. Currently the Government of AP has
rolled out NICs e-Panchayat in 475 Major Panchayats in Phase I and is to expand to
all 1300 Major Panchayats in subsequent phases. The e-Panchayat project
demonstrates the feasibility of grass roots level implementation of ICT in e89
governance at the village level. The NeGP (National e-Governance Plan) has a
Mission Mode Project for Panchayats which is being realized through e-Panchayat in
Andhra Pradesh. Due to the successful demonstration of e-Panchayat implementation
at the field level, several awards such as Oracle e-governance Excellence Award and
Skoch Challenger Award were given in 2006 to e-Panchayat as a Project of
National Importance. Therefore, the model of e-Panchayat in AP can be replicated
at the national level in other states and also in other countries with due adaptation and
localization.
[5]
The framework was used to make detailed assessments of five mature wide scope
projects representing different types of e-government applications - G2C, G2B and
G2G. The assessment involved a systematic survey of users and employees conducted
by a professional market research firm.
For four projects, data from 240 randomly selected respondents from 7 to 8 stratified
locations was collected systematically. For the fifth project, 180 respondents
representing two major categories of users were randomly selected from 7 locations.
The responses clearly encapsulated the experience of the respondents with the use of
the computerized system as well as the manual system. The survey covered nearly
120 questions grouped under 5 dimensions on which impact was being assessed. The
dimensions were: cost of access to clients, client perception of quality of service,
client perception of quality of governance, agency costs and revenue and employee
perceptions about process changes. The difference between the e-governance and the
manual system was analyzed for each dimension and the statistical significance of the
difference was evaluated. Study results indicate that respondents who have used both
the manual and e-governance systems in the five projects have indicated an
overwhelming preference for the e-governance system. In most cases the cost of
accessing service has been reduced because the number of trips that needed to be
90
made to the concerned offices has been reduced significantly and the waiting times
have come down by nearly fifty percent.
All projects seem to have reduced costs for the users to a significant degree. Direct
travel cost reduction needs to be seen in the context of total expenditure incurred by
the clients for obtaining the service. Reduction in number of trips and wait time are
important as they also involve an indirect opportunity cost. Waiting time has almost
been halved in most projects. e-Seva has shown a significant improvement in service
quality whereas e-Procurement has shown a marginal improvement. In quality of
governance, except for KAVERI where the impact is very marginal, there is a
moderate impact in other projects. Specifically for corruption, both KAVERI and
Check post have had little impact. e-Seva shows a very significant improvement as
the computerized counters are rated close to very good in the composite score.
KAVERI indicates only a marginal improvement over the manual system. The
ranking of projects using data in Table No.3.2, particularly the composite rating, can
represent the degree of success of the project from the point of view of the clients. eSeva can be rated as a very successful project, and KAVERI as a project where there
is considerable scope for improvement.
Table No. 3.2: Descending order of improvement in composite scores
eSeva
Manual
Mean
S.E
3.388
0.041
Computerized
Mean
S.E
4.658
0.025
Difference
Mean
S.E
1.27
0.049
Khajane - DDO
3.242
0.084
4.429
0.049
1.187
0.102
Khajane - Payee
3.083
0.069
4.186
0.049
1.103
0.098
eProcurement
3.224
0.039
4.259
0.039
1.035
0.052
Checkpost
3.48
0.051
4.323
0.038
0.842
0.048
KAVERI
3.345
0.056
3.897
0.048
0.552
0.045
Project
Surprisingly the overall preference for computerized systems over the manual system
is very high for all projects other than Check post even though two of the projects do
not deliver much improvement in service quality and governance. Perhaps the clients
are acknowledging the benefits of even a partial improvement.
91
[14]
[20]
According to the researcher The relationship between government and citizens has
evolved from its traditional hierarchical and arms-length one to a more reciprocal
one where citizens are genuine stakeholders in their government. Through egovernment initiatives such as online financial transactions, requests for documents
and information, and additional means of contact with government leaders, the
Internet enhances the relationship of citizens to their government. To investigate the
92
[15]
Suwidha was launched at Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab in October 2002 and rolled out to
all districts of Punjab by January 2004 on the basis of a self-sustaining revenue model
wherein the operational cost of running the centers is recovered from citizens in the
form of facilitation charges. Eighteen Suwidha centers (covering all 17 districts) serve
as the one-stop shop for delivery of more than 150 citizen services offered by the
central, state and local governments. Frequently used services relate to attestation of
documents and issue of affidavits, issue of driving licences, services to pensioners,
issue of birth and death certificates, and payment of bills. The annual volume of
transactions in each center is about 500 to 700 thousand. The survey was conducted at
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6 locations and covered a sample of 610 respondents. Users of Suwidha have reported
a positive improvement of 3.48 percent over the manual system that required dealing
with individual departments. However, an analysis with respect to improvement
across locations reveals that there is a significant difference among the six districts,
with composite scores varying between 2.64 and 4.17. Results also indicate that more
than 97 percent of the respondents prefer Suwidha centers over the departments.
Waiting time in Suwidha centers has reduced significantly in comparison to agency
counters from 145.4 minutes to 80.8 minutes. There has been a significant
improvement of 1.05 points on a 5 point scale in the quality of governance. There has
been a significant improvement of 0.91 points in service quality on a 5 point scale.
With respect to the attitude of the citizens towards e-government, the results indicate a
highly positive perception on all parameters.
27. Impact Assessment of e-governance Projects, Dept. of IT, Ministry of
Communication and IT, Govt. of India has published a report on FRIENDS Multiagency Payment Centers in Kerala
[16]
system. Overall, the survey reveals that there is a high preference for the egovernance system with 99 percent of respondents favoring a FRIENDS counter over
the manual operations. The composite score of 4.0 on a 5 point scale also indicates an
overall perception of improvement in the e-governance system vis--vis the manual
system. However, respondents felt that better helpdesk facilities to guide customers,
and power backup systems to tackle frequent breakdowns in electricity would help to
improve service delivery through the FRIENDS centers.
[13]
In this thesis, researchers have focused on Pakistan e-Government. They have used the
survey strategy to find e-Services and relevant expectations from the citizens of
Pakistan. They have suggested 133 different e-Services and also identified certain
areas for improvement. They have emphasized the required e-Services hence an
arranged list of e-Services has been provided separately in the thesis. This research can
be a first step towards a citizens options and to enhance the understanding of egovernment functionality in Pakistan. e.g. Paying utility bills electronically will
increase productivity by saving the resources of both the government and citizens.
The overall conclusion from the survey analysis is that the interest and e-Services
expectations of citizens are increasing towards e-government. The following are the
expected e-Services groups from the most demanding to the least demanding. They
are: education, taxation, utility bills, passports, jobs, national ID card, health and care,
voting system, citizen directory, vehicle registration, birth/death/marriage certificates,
driving license, hajj, police, banking, customer care, traveling, visa processing,
construction of a governmental portal, internet facilities, agriculture, hunting and
fishing, procurement, social benefits, export, firm registrations, insurance, judicial
systems, national savings, state parks TV/Radio license and others. According to the
researchers this can become a platform for the development of e-government services
in Pakistan.
95
[36]
This study examines the working of FRIENDS centres in Kerala based on the
satisfaction level of citizens and responses from within the government, especially the
participating departments and personnel. It also undertakes a cost benefit analysis of
the system. The researchers analyzed that FRIENDS has been able to provide a much
better overall service on all accounts. The lack of proper awareness among the
targeted citizens has restricted its use to about one-third of the targeted population. It
was also found that it was equally important to roll out the centers at the sub-district
levels for easy access and accessibility. It is also interesting to note that the
participation of women in making payments at FRIENDS is higher than at department
counters. The project has also been able to demonstrate to the common man the
possibilities of ICT in governance and has thus been able to garner the support of the
general public for future e-governance projects in the state.
The study also shows that a majority of service officers are extremely happy about
their work in FRIENDS. The positive perception of the service officers highlights the
fact that with better service environment and appropriate motivation, government
employees can provide much better services than what is presently provided through
conventional mechanisms. The project has successfully created employment
opportunities outside the government, for women belonging to the below the poverty
line strata. The project could very well be considered a unique and successful PPP
model where citizens, service officers and private partners have benefited.
The study has also brought forward an interesting fact that FRIENDS is accepted by a
large majority of employees in the participating departments, who are not deputed to
FRIENDS. This has happened in spite of the fact that the centers have systematically
curtailed some of the authority vested with these employees. What is more remarkable
is the fact that a large majority of these employees support FRIENDS as a single
window for citizen services rather than arguing in favor of FRIENDS-like counters to
be attached to their office.
96
30. SrivastavaAnurag and Team Members have published their research article on
Impact Analysis of Jan Mitra Samadhan Kendras of Gwalior
[2]
The present study measures the overall impact of the 'Jan Mitra Samadhan Kendra' on
the stakeholders. The project was initiated in mid-December 2009 by ABV-IIITM
Gwalior in association with the Gwalior Collectorate. The main motto of this study is
to evaluate the mechanism developed and deployed by the Gwalior Collector as part
of a e-governance model for reaching out to its citizens.
The analysis has been made qualitatively and quantitatively. The overall study of the
twelve centres of Jan Mitra Samadhan Kendra' project concludes that it is very
beneficial in many respects to the people of that area where it is deployed, in terms of
cost, time, efficiency and quality. Most of the stakeholders find the present system
more convenient and easily accessible as compared to the previous manual system.
This has increased their faith in the operations of the government system in various
domains. Though this system has been appreciated by most of the stakeholders many
things are still required to be improved. In another observation it is found that after
the imposition of a service fee from December 2009, the financial viability of this
project has gone up and this will certainly help the government in revenue generation.
This has also helped in reducing the number of fake applications. The top services of
the 'Jan Mitra Samadhan Kendra' availed by the people are: income certificate,
domicile certificate, khasra khatauni nakal, caste certificate, application for a BPL
card and kisan credit card. Despite a lack of basic infrastructural facilities like an
uninterrupted power supply, communication network and other amenities, the Jan
Mitra Kendras have succeeded in making a breakthrough in the delivery process.
31. Patnaik Pabitrananda, Das Rama Krushna, and Patra Manas Ranjan have
published a research article on Key Characteristics of Indian e-Governance
Projects: A Special Reference to Bhoomi
[29]
97
[38]
[25]
IT major Infosys Chairman Narayana Murthy has said that the Indian government
must take tough action against corrupt people and that e-governance has a great
potential to improve accountability. He said that by making the data of major public
projects available online, corruption can be curbed and accountability enhanced in the
country. We need leadership which can take tough decisions and deal firmly with
corrupt people. e-governance can help reduce corruption and improve accountability
by making budgets and progress reports of major public projects available. And by
providing free accessibility to any citizen and also by identifying people responsible
for causing a delay in decision making. India continues to struggle with corruption
and this image hurts India's reputation abroad and negatively impacts its development.
But there is hope! The good thing is that our bureaucracy has already accepted IT for
governance. Like in Karnataka, land records, property tax bills, water bills, the
issuance of birth and death certificates, trade licenses, and filing of consumer
complaints have been computerized. Heaping praise over the Unique Identity (UID)
project, which is aimed at establishing citizenship, reducing identity- related frauds
and addressing security issues he said, The project for providing unique
identification to every Indian resident is perhaps the most important among such
projects. The pioneer of IT revolution also said that while computerizing government
and corporate functions, security can't be compromised with. Our IT systems must be
fully protected against unauthorized access and malicious attacks by terrorists and evil
elements from abroad. Growth of the IT-BPO sector has highlighted India on the
world map, as a destination of choice for global investors.
34. Sarkar Malabika has published her article on NeGP: the hub of all egovernance projects
[33]
The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was formulated by the Indian government in
response to the requirement for taking a holistic view of e-governance initiatives
across the country. Increasingly, it was perceived that if e-governance was to be
speeded up across the various arms of government at the national, state and local
99
[39]
A very senior bureaucrat recently shared through the media, the experience of the
government in dealing with a host of IT service providers for several e-governance
initiatives. Taking a cue from his experience, I would like to examine the issues from
a holistic perspective and to appreciate the larger problem space. The issues in the IT
space when government is involved, are largely traceable to the character / certain
generic attributes perceived / experienced by service providers of government
organizations, how the government views service providers, how the counter parties
view them, the practical dynamics of dealing with the government as a customer, the
governmental organizational processes, the dimension of ownership/continuity of the
decision maker, the long decision cycles in the procurement process and the
knowledge lag of the buyer team particularly in IT procurement.
100
These can be primarily categorized into internal behavioral / operational factors of the
governmental system, coordination issues and vendor experience and related factors.
Internal behavioral / operational factors within the client organization of government
are:
Taking vendors time and costs for granted by the procurement organization
Long decision cycles - wasted efforts and costs for both vendor & the
government
Lack of ownership of the task on hand in the buyer organization, illiterate (IT),
disinterested, disruptive, multiple stakeholders; misperceptions on what
quality is when dealing with IT / consulting service providers and what to
expect from them
A general perception that things dont move in government and the associated
lack of interest displayed by the team from the provider side
[22]
and improving service delivery to citizens. The ULB (Urban Local Body) is the first
interface between citizens and the government. Introduction of e-governance in
municipalities will assist them to improve their quality of services and improve
efficiency and transparency through streamlined processes & an information
management system.
The MMP on e-governance in municipalities would be implemented under
JNNURM. The central governments share would be met out of the earmarked funds
under JNNURM. The funding pattern is the same as for cities/urban agglomerations.
For those cities with four million and above population the centre and state will
provide grant funding up to 35 percent and 15 percent respectively of the project cost.
50 percent of the project cost will be borne by the ULB. For cities/urban
agglomerations, with a population between one million and four million the centre
and state will provide grant funding up to 50 percent and 20 percent respectively, of
the project cost. 30 percent of the project cost will be borne by the ULB. The MMP
on municipalities has been launched recently by the Ministry of Urban Development.
The guidelines clearly state that the MMP on e-governance will be implemented at the
municipal level through a business model preferably by PPP.
[6]
successful projects that could help enhance the understanding of the key determinants
of the impact on citizens. The researcher studies the impact on citizens/businesses of
three national projects which focused on collection and processing of income tax,
registration of new companies, and issue of passports. It is a comparative analysis of
three state and three national projects from the perspective of their impact on clients
in terms of the key dimensions of cost, quality, governance, and overall satisfaction
reveals.
The results indicate an abysmal state of delivery of services in the existing manual
system in all three types of projects. Users need to make 3-4 trips to government
offices on an average, wait two hours or more on each trip, and pay frequent bribes
(20 percent to 50 percent of all transactions) to get services. Even in a simple service
such as an issue of a copy of a land record, the elapsed time (from submission of
application to receipt of document) averaged five days. For property registration and
drivers licenses, the average elapsed time was 32 and 23 days respectively. In some
states, the elapsed time was as high as 2-3 months. Citizens indicated an
overwhelming preference for computerized systems (91 percent in land records; 96
percent in property registration; and 88 percent in transport) when asked to choose
between computerized and manual modes of delivery. Only in the case of land records
in Delhi and transport in the case of West Bengal, an overwhelming majority
preferred the manual system. The preference for computerized service delivery was
evident in specific areas where concrete benefits had accrued. Overall, in all the three
types of services, the number of trips to the offices reduced significantly (by 1-2 trips)
after computerization. Waiting time reduced by 20-40 percent after computerization.
Direct cost savings to citizens averaged around Rs 60-Rs 110 in the three projects
across all states. Impact on bribes is uneven. In land record computerization,
reduction in the payment of bribes is significant. In property registration and
transport, there is hardly any impact on bribery and a large number of users continue
to go through agents to get the service. Among the three projects, land record
computerization seems to have resulted in the most positive impact on citizens.
Computerization reduced the number of trips in almost all the states by one. In the
manual mode, the average number of trips of all users in all the ten states was 3.2
which was reduced to 2. Waiting time reduced by 30 per cent from an average of 130
minutes in the manual mode. Bribes, which earlier had to be paid in nine out of the
ten states, were either eliminated or significantly reduced in five states.
103
In the case of property registration, computerization reduced the number of trips from
an average of 4.0 to 2.3. Elapsed time and waiting time was also reduced significantly
as nearly one hour was shaved off from a 2-hour wait in the manual system.
Significant gains were also reported in the elapsed time. However, the impact of
computerization on the payment of bribes was very marginal.
In transport agencies, computerization reduced the number of trips by 1.0 on an
average across 12 states. There was a marginal impact on waiting time. Half an hour
was reduced from a 2-hour wait in the manual system. Only one of the 12 states
reported a significant impact on bribes. Impact on elapsed time was also marginal.
Overall in the citizens perception, Himachal Pradesh (HP), Rajasthan, Uttarakhand,
and Tamil Nadu (TN) ranked high whereas Orissa, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh (MP),
and West Bengal (WB) ranked low, based on a composite score (that rated
improvement on 20 dimensions of service delivery) in all the three types of projects.
The passport project has had virtually no impact. Results of the income tax survey
indicate that while corporate users have benefited in some aspects, individual filers
have not benefited significantly. In the case of MCA21, even users accessing the
services from a public access point reported a saving of nearly one trip. The waiting
time at the service delivery centre during each trip was reduced to 25 minutes in
comparison to 75 minutes in the manual system. The project had a significant positive
impact on corruption with the proportion of bribes having reduced from 20 per cent to
less than 5 per cent in the case of the virtual front office (VFO) and CFC users. Users
reported a significant improvement in both the quality of service and the quality of
governance. Users of the income tax portal reportedly had to make multiple visits to
the income tax office to file their returns. Waiting time was reduced by about onethird (from 38 minutes to 27 minutes in the case of individual filers and from 26
minutes to 17 minutes in the case of corporate users) besides a significant reduction in
total elapsed time for corporate users from 10 to 6 days. Chartered Accountants (CAs)
filing on behalf of corporations failed to report data on corruption. Individual filers
reported a marginal reduction in bribes. Although individual filers perceived very
little improvement in the quality of service and the quality of governance, corporate
users experienced a significant improvement in both. In the case of passport issuance,
the reduction in the number of trips and waiting time was marginal as only the
submission of the application was partially computerized, leaving most of the backend processes in their old inefficient form. Incidence of bribery was high for police
104
verification (as much as 44 percent) and small (a little over 4 percent) in the case of
the passport office, but the impact in both the cases was not significant. Very little or
no improvement in service quality or quality of governance was perceived by
respondents. An overall assessment based on a composite rating suggests that MCA21
has been significantly more successful in terms of the value delivered to the users.
In all the three projects, users preferred the online service, even though composite
scores hardly show any improvement in the income tax and passport offices.
38. Tyshchenko Mariia has published an article on Problems and Prospects of
Local E-Government in Ukraine
[41]
The use of ICT in local e-government may produce significant benefits. Information
technologies enable the government to conduct its activities in a manner that is more
open and transparent for the population. For the effective working of the electronic
government in Ukraine it is necessary to make decisions on some tasks: create a
reliable internet network and a unique computer-integrated depository of information
that unifies all subsections of the government of Ukraine and provide the grant of
informative services of electronic government in sectors G2B, G2C, and G2G.
Therefore, the development of e-government in Ukraine will serve the creation of a
national strategy for computerization which will embrace areas of economic and
social life which are central to its future growth and development. The comparison of
the main legal texts that influenced the development of e-government in Ukraine and
Poland shows that Polish Acts set up additional horizontal infrastructure programmes
for all sectors of Public Administration and established a common inter-operability
framework for IT systems in the Polish public sector.
39. M.Afanasjev has published article on e-government projects in Lithuania:
Problems and Prospects
[23]
internet access centers in the network and the relatively high level of the business use
of ICT. Meanwhile, the overall low level of ICT use among the population, compared
with the EU indicators, do not cover the information society opportunities among
older, rural and low income citizens. In most cases the system was developed in
cooperation with one or more private companies and was carried out by so-called
public-private cooperation.
The researcher concludes that good practices and strategies are necessary for the
factor analysis of the e-government system concept through the various activities and
programs of reform, such as research, eEurope, IDA, etc. as well as the initiation of
similar processes in the international, national and regional levels.
40. Dwivedi Sanjay Kumar, Bharti Ajay Kumar have published their article on egovernance In India Problems and Acceptability
[12]
Governments and public sector organizations around the world are facing a lot of
pressure to reform their public administration organizations and deliver more efficient
and cost effective services, as well as better information and knowledge to their
stakeholders. e-governance is the effective use of ICT to improve the system of
governance that is in place, and thus provide better services to the citizens. egovernance is considered a high priority agenda in India. It is considered to be the
only means of taking IT to the common public. According to the researcher
developments in e-governance provide opportunities to harness the power of ICT to
make the business of governance inexpensive, qualitatively responsive, and truly
encompassing.
In this paper, the researchers discuss the basic problems and acceptability of egovernance in India. In India, due to poor infrastructure, poverty, illiteracy, regional
language dominance and many other reasons it becomes very difficult to provide
government services to the people. Hence e-governance is the key to good governance
for developing countries like India to minimize corruption, provide efficient, effective
and quality services to their citizens.
106
41. Nath Kailash has published his article on e-governance: Strategy, Policy,
Prescription and Prospect for the Common ManA Case Study of
Government of Orissa vis--vis India
[27]
The purpose of the paper is to develop e-governance strategy, policy, prescription and
prospects of the government of India vis--vis the government of Orissa in making egovernance accessible to the common person. The author contends that some lessons
have been learnt from the past, and governments at both center and state level are
engaged in serious endeavors in making e-governance system-driven rather than
unit driven. In the process, he indicated many pitfalls and explored the prospects of
e-governance in Orissa vis--vis India. The message is loud and clear: unless egovernance concerns itself with the common persons needs, it is bound to fail in
India. In this research paper the researcher focused on various Orissa e-government
projects. Some of these include Orissa State portal and the official website of the state
government. They currently provide a host of government information, policy &
procedures, tenders & forms, etc. Services such as payment of utility bills, filing of
various kinds of returns, etc. are being added and the aim is to deliver multiple citizen
services through multiple channels like internet, IT kiosks, mobile phones, etc.
Various e-governance projects of Orissa are Bhasa Project, Orissa Telemedicine
Application, Bhulekh, Registration Office Computerization, e-Shish, Treasury
Automation, Computerization of Commercial Tax and Integrated Transport
Management Information System.
Further a majority of the departments have their official websites for providing a
variety of information to the citizens. Modules for receipt of Challans and other
accounting activities have been implemented at 16 districts. Modules for payment of
bills and for payment of pension bills have also been developed and will be soon
implemented. Infrastructure for computerization is complete in all the places and the
system is in operation. The issue of computerized driving licenses has started from
RTO, while the issue and renewal of permits for passenger and goods vehicles are
being computerized. The functions of the road transport authorities are also being
automated. The department plans to introduce smart cards for license and registration
certificates, modernize check gates with e-connectivity and create a consolidated data
bank.
107
No need of
Agents
Helpful attitude
of employees
Ease of
administration
Error free
transactions
Security of
data is high
Good complaint
handling
Adherence to
citizens charter
Paperless
office
Less waiting
time
Good
location
Convenient time
schedule
Less
corruption
Greater
transparency
Equal
opportunity
to all
More
predictable
outcome
Single
window
system
For this study the researcher has taken the views of citizens in and around Pune city
and PMC employees.
108
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