QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

1. What is E-Government & E-Governance? State the difference between them?

---- E-Government

Electronic government (or e-Government) is the application of Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) to government functions and procedures with the purpose of increasing efficiency, transparency and
citizen participation. The appropriate application of e-Government allows for higher levels of effectiveness
and efficiency in governmental tasks, improvement of processes and procedures, increases the quality of
public services, also improves the use of information in the decision-making processes and allows for better
communication among different governmental offices.

TYPES OF E-GOVERNMENT
E-government offers services to those within its authority to transact electronically with the government.
These services differ according to users’ needs, and this diversity has given rise to the development of
different type of e-government. E-government functions can be classified into four main categories.

Government-to-citizen (G2C)
The majority of government services come under this application, towards providing citizens and others with
comprehensive electronic resources to respond to individuals’ routine concerns and government transactions.
Government and citizens will continuously communicate when implementing e-government, thus supporting
accountability, democracy and improvements to public services.

The primary goal of e-government, is to serve the citizen and facilitate citizen interaction with government by
making public information more accessible through the use of websites, as well as reducing the time and cost
to conduct a transaction. In applying the idea of G2C, customers have instant and convenient access to
government information and services from everywhere anytime, via the use of multiple channels. In addition
to making certain transactions, such as certifications, paying governmental fees, and applying for benefits, the
ability of G2C initiatives to overcome possible time and geographic barriers may connect citizens who may not
otherwise come into contact with one another and may in turn facilitate and increase citizen participation in
government.

Government-to-business (G2B)
Government to business, or G2B, is the second major type of e-government category. G2B can bring
significant efficiencies to both governments and businesses. G2B include various services exchanged between
government and the business sectors, including distribution of policies, memos, rules and regulations.
Business services offered include obtaining current business information, new regulations, downloading
application forms, lodging taxes , renewing licenses, registering businesses, obtaining permits, and many
others.

The services offered through G2B transactions also play a significant role in business development, specifically
the development of small and medium enterprises. The government-to-business G2B is as useful as the G2C
system, enhancing the efficiency and quality of communication and transactions with business also, it increase
the equality and transparency of government contracting and projects.

Government-to-government (G2G)
This refers to the online communications between government organizations, departments and agencies
based on a super government database. Moreover, it refers to the relationship between government and its
employees as outlined below. The efficiency and efficacy of processes are enhanced by the use of online
communication and cooperation which allows for the sharing of databases and resources and the fusion of
skills and capabilities. It renders information regarding compensation and benefit policies, training and
learning opportunities, and civil rights laws in a readily accessible manner. The vital aim of G2G development
is to enhance and improve inter-government organizational processes by streamlining cooperation and
coordination .On another G2G front, the use of information technologies by different governmental agencies
to share or centralize information, or to automate and streamline intergovernmental business processes such
as regulatory compliance, has produced numerous instances of time and cost savings and service
enhancement.

Government-to-employee (G2E)
Government to employee is the least sector of e-government in much e-government research. Some
researchers consider it as an internal part of G2G sector and others deal with it as a separate sector of
government. G2E refers to the relationship between government and its employees only. The purpose of this
relationship is to serve employees and offer some online services such as applying online for an annual leave,
checking the balance of leave, and reviewing salary payment records, among other things. It is a combination
of information and services offered by government institutions to their employees to interact with each other
and their management.

G2E is a successful way to provide e-learning, bring employees together and to encourage knowledge sharing
among them. It gives employees the possibility of accessing relevant information regarding compensation and
benefit policies, training and learning opportunities, and allowing them access to manage their benefits online
with an easy and fast communication model. G2E also includes strategic and tactical mechanisms for
encouraging the implementation of government goals and programs as well as human resource management,
budgeting and dealing with citizens.

--- E-Governance

E-governance, expands to electronic governance, is the integration of Information and Communication

Technology (ICT) in all the processes, with the aim of enhancing government ability to address the needs of
the general public. The basic purpose of e-governance is to simplify processes for all, i.e. government, citizens,
businesses, etc. at National, State and local levels. In short, it is the use of electronic means, to promote good
governance. It connotes the implementation of information technology in the government processes and
functions so as to cause simple, moral, accountable and transparent governance. It entails the access and
delivery of government services, dissemination of information, communication in a quick and efficient
manner.

Benefits of E-governance

 Reduced corruption
 High transparency
 Increased convenience
 Growth in GDP
 Direct participation of constituents
 Reduction in overall cost.
 Expanded reach of government
Through e-governance, the government plans to raise the coverage and quality of information and services
provided to the general public, by the use of ICT in an easy, economical and effective manner. The process is
extremely complicated which requires, the proper arrangement of hardware, software, networking and
indeed re-engineering of all the processes to facilitate better delivery of services.

--- Difference between E-Government and E-Governance.

E-Government E-Governance

It refers to the implementation of information and It is a part of e-Government. E-Governance is

communication technology like the internet. dealing with all regulations and policies to control
Through the use of technology, it improves the the services provided by the e-Government.
government activities and process.

• Benefits of E-Government • Benefits of E-Governance

I. Better provision of government services I. Better provision of government services

II. Improved interaction with different groups II. Improved interaction with different groups
and citizen
III. Citizen empowerment through access to
III. Citizen empowerment through access to information
information
IV. Efficient government management.
IV. Efficient government management

V. Easy implementation of Right to

Information

VI. It is a two-way process Government to

citizen and vice versa.

E-Government is a system. E-Governance is a functionality.

2. List Down 3 Initiatives taken by Government under E-government & E-Governance & give a brief about
them?

1. E-Awas

eAwas is a computerised system for government accommodation management automating all the activities
starting from the submission of the application to the vacation of the residential unit by the allottee. This
system is radically different from the earlier system which updated databases in offline mode making it less
current and therefore of not much use. The required software has been designed and developed in-house by
the National Informatics Centre, the premier eGovernance organisation of the GoI.

eAwas has been developed with the following objectives:

• Automating all the business activities / processes involved in the allotment of GPRA;

• Facilitating easy maintenance and prompt updating of housing records;

• Making housing records / transactions tamper proof and genuine; and

• Allowing applicants easy access to all relevant information either through Internet or Information Kiosks.

Scope of the Project: eAwas cover the following activities related to the allotment of GPRA houses:

• Business Process Reengineering of the application form itself;

• Reducing the number of forms;

• Simplification of the application form;

• Registration of applications for initial allotment, change of accommodation, and allotments on medical /
functional and other grounds and printing of acknowledgement slips in real time;

• Registration of vacation of house for any category;

• Preparation of waiting lists for initial, change and adhoc allotments;

• Preparation of proposal for allotment according to various waiting lists;

• Allotment as per the finalised proposal for allotment;

• Acceptance / technical acceptance of allotment by the employee;

• Reconsideration for re-allotment by the employee;

• Cancellation of allotment;

• Retention / extension of house after cancellation;

• Regularisation of house allotted to an employee upon death, retirement and transfer as per rules; •
Accounting of license fee recovery from allottees;

What is Unique to eAwas?

• Authentication with a difference – Virtual Private Database and Role-based Menu: The eAwas software
incorporates the concept of data access according to Oracle user account and the associated set of rules &
policies implemented through Virtual Private Database (VPD). Each authorised user of the system has been
given a username with password and has been assigned specific roles to operate on eAwas. Based on the set
of rules and policies associated with his / her account, he / she gets a specified housing stock and based on
the roles, he / she gets a customised menu option which helps him / her to do the activities allocated to him
/ her. He / she cannot see or operate on the housing stock assigned to any other user. He / she cannot do
the activities not assigned to him / her;

• No more Hand Written Records / Letters: All letters, registers, records and MIS reports are generated by
the system;

• Allotment of Allottee Account Number (AAN): eAwas allots an Allottee Account Number (AAN) to each
allottee of the government accommodation. Once allotted, the AAN shall remain the same throughout the
entire service of the government servant. This shall facilitate the accounting of the license fee recovery and
also tracking of the movement of government servants from one accommodation to another; and

Benefits accruing out of eAwas:

• DoE has replaced Block Allotment Year with Rolling Allotment Year in which the applicant can now apply at
any time of the year, instead of waiting for the call of applications;

• Applicant can now submit application and can get acknowledgement in real time on the spot;

• Waiting lists are generated in time, resulting in faster allotment process;

• Applicants can now view the waiting lists / allotments through the Internet or Information Kiosk, thus
implementing the Right to Information and making the allotment process transparent and corruption free;

• Applicant can now see the trends in allotments helping in judiciously exercising options for change
allotment;

• Vacant houses are better tracked and quickly allotted than before which has resulted in better satisfaction
level by meeting the demand of houses and also better revenue collection for the Government;

• Unauthorised occupation of houses beyond the permitted period of occupancy is better tracked than ever
before;

• Cancellation and eviction proceeding are done without delay resulting in lesser loss of revenue to the
Government;

Conclusion: The successful implementation of the eAwas has attracted the attention of many senior level
officers in the GoI. It has established credibility of the DoE. eAwas can be further integrated with Central
Public Works Department’s (CPWD’s) cpwdsewa created for the maintenance of these houses by the
maintenance agency CPWD for online transmission of Occupation and Vacation reports. This shall reduce the
delay in receiving as well as the loss of these information submitted to DoE in the form of reports resulting in
delayed allotments and thus reducing any loss of government revenue and human intervention. Requests
have been received to implement a similar system in the regional offices of the Directorate and also from
some other agencies and other sections like Markets and Land & Development Office. Future Plans: The
system is easily replicable to other geographical locations. The system can be run in both ownership-
through-license mode as well as ASP mode. The system is going to be made available to 8 regional estate
offices of the Directorate of Estates in ASP mode. Subsequently, it will be made available to other
organizations having considerable housing stock in their possession.
UTS

E-Governance has turned the whole attention towards it in governing process all over the world. It is not to
post all necessary information on the government website, but it is a process of reformed governance. e-
Governance denotes the application of IT (Information Technology) to the process of government
functioning in order to bring about better governance, which has been an innovative term as SMART
(Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent ) . The mobile density and smartphone usage are
much higher in India compare to computers. To increase the utilization of e-governance projects, the
government administration can take the benefit of technology advancements like high-speed broadband
technologies like UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), wireless networks and high speed in
3G and 4G networks. With a clear foresight, the Indian government has taken many initiatives to modernize
Indian railways through e-governance. In 2005 they launched Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) to provide
a centrally administered computerized ticketing system over the entire Indian Railways. Taking a note from
the statistical data the ministry of Indian railways found that more than Twenty-one million passengers
travel daily on Indian Railways using the unreserved ticket because they have to travel a short distance. The
increased volume of daily passengers travel by train attracted their attention to developing e-Governance
system to provide them with the greater ability not only in urban and remote areas. UTS is a mobile and web
application which was developed by Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) and launched in 2014.
Initially, it was implemented for the metropolitan cities for reducing the crowd standing in a long queue at
the ticket booking centers and making the ticket booking process efficient. In December 2014 the
government has also launched UTS mobile apps. The objective of the mobile app is to provide a paperless
ticket.

More than 21 million passenger travel every day on unreserved journey facility which means that the service
does offer no reserved seats or berths, as well as the ticket, is not for specific services. The main purpose of
using unreserved ticket is to facilitate economically backward people who cannot bear the burden of
reservation charges for short and long distances. Booking of unreserved tickets is available round the clock.
In an attempt to reduce the cost, labor, time and to give better services, Indian railways implemented the
use of the digital system in 2005.

The UTS mobile application is available for both Windows and Android mobile operating system platforms.
To access features of UTS application the user needs to register first with username, mobile number, city,
train type, class, most frequently traveling five routes from source to destination. If the user successfully
registered the Home page (Fig-1) will consists of menus like Book ticket, cancel the ticket, booking history, R-
wallet, profile, show ticket and log out options. In order to utilize this facility, the user needs an internet
connection. At the first time, the R-Wallet will have zero balance the user needs to refill amount in the wallet
by using any UTS counter or through recharge operation.

Once the user clicks book ticket option the following menu display which is depicted in

1. Quick booking - These features allow the user to book advance and current ticket faster as compared to
previous booking method because in the menu the information are already entered by the user.

2. Normal booking- Every time you have to enter the necessary information about the booking of the ticket
from source to destination.

3. Railway pass- This feature allows you to book the monthly pass also known as a season ticket.

4. Platform ticket-These features allow booking platform ticket for the passenger's train.
Scope of Improvement

1. Save password option is not available

2. Changing password option missing

3. Lack of standardization

4. Loading time is more

5. High-speed internet connectivity is required

6. No alert on the app about train schedule and inquiries.

7. Payment gateway is not user-friendly

Government e-Marketplace

GeM is a short form of one stop Government e-Market Place hosted by DGS&D where common user goods
and services can be procured. GeM is dynamic, self sustaining and user friendly portal for making
procurement by Government officers.

Public procurement forms a very important part of Government activity and reform in Public Procurement is
one of the top priorities of the present Government. Government e-Marketplace (GeM - gem.gov.in) is a
very bold step of the Government with the aim to transform the way in which procurement of goods and
services is done by the Government Ministries and Departments, Public Sector Undertakings and other apex
autonomous bodies of the Central Government.

GEM ADVANTAGES
For Buyers
 Rich listing of products for individual categories of Goods/Services
 Search, Compare, Select and Buy facility
 Buying Goods and Services online, as and when required.
 Transparent and ease of buying
 Continuous vendor rating system
 User-friendly dash board for Buying and monitoring supplies and payments
 Easy Return policy

For Sellers
 Direct access to all Government departments.
 One stop shop for marketing with minimal efforts.
 One stop shop for bids / reverse auction on products / services
 New Product Suggestion facility available to Sellers
 Dynamic pricing: Price can be changed based on market conditions
 Seller friendly dashboard for selling and monitoring of supplies and payments
  Consistent and uniform purchase procedures

GeM Facilities
 Listing of products for individual, prescribed categories of Goods/ Services of common use
 Look, estimate, compare and buying facility on dynamic pricing basis.
 Market place buying of majority of common User Items.
 Buying Goods and Services online, as and when required.
 Single window system for aggregating demands and ordering
 Transparency and ease of buying
 Useful for low value buying and also for bulk buying at competitive price using Reverse Auction/ e-
bidding.
 Continuous vendor rating system.
 User friendly dash board for buying and monitoring supplies and payments
 Return policy
3. Discuss different models of E-Governance & Impact of E-Governance.

The Evidence from Tennessee (USA), has given five important models of e-governance, which can be used as a
guide in designing e-government initiatives depending on the local situation and governance activities that are
expected to be performed. These models are:

 The Broadcasting Model

 The Critical Flow Model
 The Comparative Analysis Model
 The E-Advocacy/Mobilisation and Lobbying Model
 The Interactive-Service Model
We will now discuss these models individually.

 The Broadcasting Model

The model is based on dissemination/broadcasting of useful governance information, which is in the public
domain into the wider public domain with ICT and convergent media. The strength of the model rests upon
the fact that a more informed citizenry is better able to judge the functioning of existing governance
mechanisms and make an informed opinion about them. Consequently, they become more empowered to
exercise their rights and responsibilities. Widespread application of this model corrects ‘information failure
situations’ by providing people with the relevant information relating to the governance sphere to make
informed opinion and impact governance processes
Further, the use of ICT opens an alternative channel for people to access information as well as validate
existing information from different sources.

 The Critical Flow Model

The model is based on disseminating/channelling information of critical value to the targeted audience or into
the wider public domain with ICT and convergent media
The strength of this model is that ICT makes the concept of ‘distance’ and ‘time’ redundant when information
is hosted on a digital network, and this could be used advantageously by instantly transferring the critical
information to its strategic user group located anywhere or by making it freely available in the wider public
domain.

 The Comparative Analysis Model

This model is highly significant model for developing countries and can be used for empowering people.
Essentially,the best practices in the areas of governance are assimilated continuously by this model and then
uses them as benchmarks to evaluate other governance practices. It then uses the result to advocate positive
changes or to influence ‘public’ opinion on these governance practices. The comparison could be made over a
time scale to get a snapshot of the past and present situation or could be used to compare the effectiveness
of an intervention by comparing two similar situations. The strength of this model lie in the infinite capacity of
digital networks to store varied information and retrieve and transmit it instantly across all geographical and
hierarchial barriers.

 The E-Advocacy/Mobilisation and Lobbying Model

This model builds the momentum of real-world processes by adding the opinions and concerns expressed by
virtual communities. This model helps the global civil society to impact on global decision-making processes. It
is based on setting Up a planned, directed flow of information to build strong virtual allies to complement
actions in the real world. Virtual communities are formed which share similar values and concerns and these
communities in turn link up with or support real-life groups/activities for concerted action.
Hence, it creates a diversity of virtual community and the ideas, expertise and resources are accumulated
through this virtual form of networking. In addition, it is able to mobilise and leverage human resources and
information beyond geographical, institutional and bureaucratic barriers and use it for concerted action.

 The Interactive-Service Model

It opens avenues for direct participation of individuals in governance processes and brings in greater
objectivity and transparency in decision-making processes through ICT. Fundamentally, ICT has the potential
to bring in every individual in a digital network and enable interactive (two-way) flows of information among
them.
Under this model, the various services offered by the Government become directly available to its citizens in
an interactive manner. It does so as an interactive Government to Consumer to Government (G2C2G) channel
is opened up in various aspects of governance, such as election of government officials (e-bal lots); redressing
online of specific grievances; sharing of concerns and providing expertise; opinion polls on various issues; etc.

Impact of E-Governance.
E-Governance in India has reached in transitional state where almost every sector of Government is
empowered through E-Governance. The people of India are enlarging extent availing these services. The most
popular services like etransport, e-education, e-police, e-court and e-tax etc. The influence of E-Governance
has been observed in rural India where services like Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, Kisan Call Centre etc. are
more popular. The current study concluded that however E-Governance becomes very popular in these days
but still it faces so many hurdles in its working. Funding is the basic issue in e-governance. The projects are not
properly funded and governments are not taking very initiatives in the success of these projects.
Governments, citizens, government employees and businessmen are not friendly with these online services
because they are not sufficient knowledge of these IT based technologies. Privacy is another important issue.
Citizens have to give so much personal information while using online transactions which results in privacy
issues. The availability of internet services is very limited in our country due to which services are not properly
delivered to the citizens.There should be some language software which translates the English language into
other local languages so that citizens can understand and avail the services in their local languages.
• Introduces transparency in data, decisions/actions, rules, procedures and performance of Govt.
agencies
• Automates processes to take away discretion
• Entry point for simplification of rules and reengineering
• Makes decisions traceable-tracks actions
• Builds accountability-greater access to information through web publishing-role of civil society
• Provides documentation to citizens for follow up
• Introduces competition amongst delivery channels
• Standardized documentation of comments/ objections leads to effective supervision-through
comparative indicators
• Centralizes and integrates data for better audit and analysis.