E-Governance in India: Measures for Effectiveness

INTRODUCTION

According the Indian Public Administration Society18, e-Government is defined as: "the practical usage of the latest Information Communication and Technologies such as the Internet for efficient financial services on every front. It is the decision-makers' responsibility to strengthen the partnership between the government and the citizen. The requirement for customer-oriented, productive and open provision of services to the nation, the public and the businesses is on the rise among governments around the world, thus improving the efficiency of government operations. The technology has revolutionized through numerous reforms and the simple change is apparent from e-Government as well as development and progression of government. The technological aspect of government services is justified by the fact that e-Government enhances public management's competence for the meaning of public value. The introduction of e-Service provision provides citizens with easy links to public resources and the e-Government helps officials as well as people to communicate and obtain the necessary information, a major change in public policy and operations. The promise of e-government is to boost transparency, accountability, curb corruption and regulatory red tapisim.

18 Source: https://www.managementstudyguide.com/role-of-public-administration

The aim of e-Governance is to focus on improving effective governance and in general, good governance is characterized by participation, transparency and accounting. The recent developments in digital technologies and the Internet offer opportunities for a new integration in partnerships between governments and citizens to help achieve good governance objectives. The usage of IT will improve the widespread engagement of citizens e in the democratic process at all levels through the creation of on-line conversation forums and the accelerated growth and efficacy of advocacy groups.

Accessibility: accessibility is necessary if government programs are to meet the requirement of the citizens.. Nevertheless, as the first cornerstone of e-Governance for operational online administration, there must be a clear connection. Knowledge: State machinery can utilize competent engineers to treat information administration in a practical manner and be able to track all kinds of technological failures in information governance operations. Information Content: The archive will provide the application resources to share some data or information on the Web and to link to government agencies. Capital: the last component of e-Governance is private or public investments as the funding mainly

The economic gain is' an advantage that can be represented numerically as a sum of money to be saved or created by actions. The economic effectiveness19 of e-Government is the direct effectiveness of citizens that leads to direct cost and time savings. Cost savings include a reduction in travel costs, investments in the money received to the agencies in order to facilitate the delivery of services and savings in expenses for telephone calls, mail, etc. The usefulness of 'time saving' is linked to a decreased amount of expenses, including a rising travel period, saved time due to the one-time data delivery, etc. In a developing country like India where citizens do not have very high incomes, 'economic effectiveness' is of considerable importance because they have to do with direct financial realization.

The performance QoS or standard of service is a calculation of how effectively a service offered suits the consumer demand. Many authorities describe QoS as the degree to which a company satisfies the desires or aspirations of consumers. In the context of online services, several researchers have identified several aspects of service quality. The Quality of service (QoS) is an integral factor of e-Government performance. Propose a multidimensional e-governance quality-service (EGOSQ) metric system that involves consistency and data efficiency, cordial relations between staff, convergence of systems, increased usability, and successful service recovery and service security. Test e-government QoS by consistency of attitude and activity exchanges with functionaries, compliance with complaint management process and problem solving, flexibility of working hours and ease of access to the service. Measure e-government targets across different metrics, such as performance, security, enforcement, interactivity, personalization and responsiveness. Proposes three main metrics for assessing efficiency, connectivity and sensitivity in e-government service quality. Defines reliability as the (government) ability of the service provider to offer accurate and reliable services. Communication informs and informs customers (citizens) while responsiveness is the willingness of the (government) service provider to support citizens by delivering rapid and efficient services.

19 Source: http://ceejme.eu/wp-content/uploads

governance. QoS is an essential feature of e-government effectiveness.

Effectiveness Governance20 quality (QoG) was also known as good governance and various researchers has studied itand in developed nations, QoG has gained expanded coverage. The several foreign organizations, such as the World Bank and the United States, utilize the principles of QoG and effective governance. QoG measurement from the World Bank's "Worldwide Governance Indicators" by various parameters, such as accountability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality and corruption control, argues that the QoG is indicated by impartiality, lack of corruption, democracy, and public efficiency. It argues that 'equal opportunity for individuals to make full use of their potential and maximum productivity' is also an indicator of good management or QoG. E-government will serve as a critical factor in order to boost QoG‘s transition. Some of the effectiveness observed as the result of the implementation of e-government is reducing corruption, greater transparency and accountability. Transparency and transparency in governance lead to the social cohesion that enables people to achieve effectiveness particularly among the down sided and privileged segments of society. E-government renders members of the nation more responsible. Like the manual method, improper behavior in the e-government program may be tracked and corrected. Citizens can track their applications, complaints and any delay that may help to improve government accountability and reduce corruption, thereby improving their QoG. In the sense of India, where corruption is a major issue, QoG quality should be taken as an dimension of e-governance effectiveness.

The professional growth requires increased self-knowledge, increased or existing abilities gained and enhanced ability. The implementation of E-Governance will contribute to the personal growth of citizens through improved e-commerce, stronger data literacy and civic empowerment. E-knowledge is the collection of technological skills and internet know-how and principles required for the successful usage of e-government services. The United Nations Expert Group Meeting Report on e-Government (2011) stresses that e-

20 Source: https://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-organisations/measuring-the-effectiveness

knowledge shifts that have grown in German people as a consequence of e-Government. Mr. Narender Modi, Honorable Indian Prime Minister, has also emphasized the digital empowerment of Indian people by placing all the government documents/certificates in online manner under the 'Smart India' initiative. The active growth of citizens (in terms of democratic participation and strengthening of technical skills) are therefore a significant feature of e-Governance.

The Indian economy faces problems in the designing of e-Government deployment due to inadequate preparation and appropriate strategies. The Central Government requires a plan for capacity development to be fully executed. The State has to draw up a long-term strategy to fulfill the National Vision for e-Government for the purposes of the National E-Governance Program.21 The capacity development approach must be differentiated from strategies or emergency steps such as preparation etc. The main measures for an e-Governance capability building policy in India as defined by the author are: Structure and Structural Framework: the construction of frameworks is the first step towards capacity building for e-Governance. The thought was initially that outsourced consultancy research should be undertaken, instead PPP organizations were conceptualized, so the government required its own trustworthy advisors and hence the EGPMU idea was born. It is now felt that a separate e-Government agency in NEGA may be required. There are multiple institutions are needed for e-Government in India that is given in the report "E-government Strategy for India" and "e-Government Act for India." These bodies are as follows: The Regional Committee for e-Government The Chief Executive of e-Government Towards the CIO Website The Joint Committee on Regulatory Reform (ARC) The Quality Performance Center Core and State Plan and Project Planning Systems Therefore, the position of each entity should be specifically established and an ego conflict or / and clash may be prevented.

21 Source: https National_e-Governance_Plan

organization. It is important to make clear the role of a job profile before hiring the talents, regular feedback for improvement, employee development initiatives and biannual salary increases available, however, are few steps required to maintain e-Government talent. E-Gov Champions‟ Central Database: a third move in e-Governance policy would be to create a databasethat listing national and foreign e-Governance services. A catalog of this type can help to define the expertise required for a given project. The database will include practitioners from all involved groups, i.e. government, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, consultants and the academics. Teamwork: The next key step in building capacity is to ensure the training of teams and an individual must be included in one team at Sate or central level only. Often it is felt that each committee has limited e-Governance22 champions, thereby limiting its role to attending the meetings. The officilal such as (e-Gov) or State IT Secretary be essential for multiple teams, he should become a member of the central team only, not of every project team. Besides this the officials from the line departments have to be drawn to achieve the true merits of e-government. Strengthening of Established Organizations: The strengthening of existing organizations should be the next move in e-Governance capability building policy23 and The professionals that are working in the Central Institutions such as NISG, CDAC, NICSI, Cert-in, MLA, DOEACC, ERNET and State-leveled organizations such as Punjab Infotech (Punjab), ELCOT (Tamil Nadu), GIL (Gujarat), APTS (Andhra Pradesh), Raj Comp (Rajasthan) MAP IT (Madhya Pradesh), HPSEDC (Himachal Pradesh), HARTRON (Haryana), UPDESCO & UPTRON (Uttar Pradesh) must be taken in the formulations of policies of capacity building for running the E-Governance projects. Training Evaluation Need: The evaluation of training is an important component of the e-governance capacity building strategy and the educational requirements of all officials must be assured. In addition, training requirements for each MMP must be identified and ensure the required training is delivered well in advance to Departmental staff. Capacity-Building Grants: The most of the e-Government programs are required grants for the preparation and capacity-building but in practically maximum money is spent on integration, software

22 Source: https://cleartax.in/s/e-governance 23 Source: https://www.digitalindia.gov.in/content/capacity-building

the computer. Therefore, it will be assured that a minimum expenditure of 20-30 percent should be used for the construction of efficiency building and project preparation. Training Strategy:. Throughout the introduction of every e-Governance program, training scheduling and participants must always be defined such as calendar of training and programs, faculty of training, content of training and training outcomes are few of the areas that have to be covered by the training strategies at the initial stage of implementation of the project. Capacity-Building Partnerships-Resource Exchange Programs: The forging resource partnerships are another important part of Capacity-building approach towards the implementation of E-Governance project. It could be recommended to share the information between government, the private sector and the education, to insure that people have a broad view of the full spectrum of services that are available. The individuals may also choose to vote for organizations that provide a wide spectrum of resources and a true champion of e-Governance would require varied policy, consulting agency, PPP, multilateral agency, academics, product development companies, program integrators and prospective technologies. E-Governance School: When conceptualized, the e-Governance School would be based on four foundations, i.e. Governance, computer infrastructure, e-governance and administration. The school should be an independent institution with an e-Governance advisory council for the capacity building approach. Sustainability Plan: The project having a sustainability plan is much effective and it should not be that the capacity building initiative is a one-off affair but it must be examined in the long term. Knowledge Management: The knowledge management in e -Government is also an important requirement for the capacity building in E-Governance project. It is really necessary to create a Central Repository system where all the stakeholders may connect to it as a common knowledge source and an effort should be also there to generate the type of environment24 without any ego or clashes.

24 Source: https://simple. /Environment

The method of information collection for the citizens and enterprises becomes significantly simplified and this allows the citizens to collect the information about every policy matters. E-governance strengthens the very fabric of democracy by ensuring greater participation of citizens at all governance levels E-governance also contributes in the transformation of infrastructure that allows information readily available to all the citizens. It revolutionizes the working of democracies to maintain a far greater degree of accountability and thereby eradicate abuse. As information on each government activity is easily available, it makes each government department accountable as they know that their actions are monitored closely. The proper implementation of e-Governance projects the citizens to get their work online, thus avoiding unnecessary travel problems to their respective offices. The successful implementation of e-Governance offers better service delivery to the citizens, enhanced interactions with industry and business, empowered citizens through access to information, better administration, greater convenience, growth in revenue, reduced costs, etc. The implementation of e-Governance puts administrations closer to the citizens. E-governance projects enable the businesses to obtain the information that could be relevant to them by single clicking on website.

There are several challenges to e-Governance adoption in India that can be listed as: environmental and social problems, economic challenges and technological challenges. These challenges are discussed below:

Specific Language: India is a nation where citizens of diverse cultures and faiths are residing and the citizens from different countries speak specific languages. The diversity of people in the language context represents a major challenge for implementing e-governance projects, as application for e-governance is written in English. And also, applications, which are to be implemented in more than one language for the entire nation and can be acceptable to users of a particular language. Low Literacy: The literacy can be described as the ability to read and write in any culture with comprehension but a person who can simply read but cannot write cannot be regarded as a writer. There is no need to consider any formal education or minimum standards of education to be literate. India‘s literacy level is very low and represents a huge challenge in carrying out e-governance programs.25 Low IT Literacy: Many Indians are not educated and those who are literate do not have much information about technology related skills. The majority of people in India are not conscious of the use of IT. So, in India, where IT literacy is so low, how can e-Governance projects be successfully implemented? We can say that IT analphabetism is a major obstacle to e-Governance in India. First and foremost, Indians should be made aware of the use of information technology. Application Identification: Identification of citizens' e-governance services is another big obstacle. It is a challenge to have all citizens fully aware of and confide in the facilities offered by the e-government, so that citizens are prepared to accept the facilities. Government websites are User-Friendly: The users of e-Governance applications are often non-expert users who cannot use the applications correctly and such users need guidance so that they become able to carry out their transactions with the government agencies. The Government websites therefore need to be user-friendly, so that more and more citizens can use them easily in effective manner. . This website may therefore be more successful if government websites are designed in an easier format and these will be more useful to the users who are not perfect IT experts. Services are not easy to access: The e-governance claims to increase the government's efficiency and effectiveness, but these objectives will only be met if the services are made available to 100% of the population. Although Internet users are growing but still a large proportion of the Indians do not have access to e-Government activities for a variety of reasons, some people may, for instance, have limited access to information and communication technologies and devices. Thus, Government must therefore provide Internet access via public terminals as part of its universal access efforts.

25 Source: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library

which he / she interact. Even the government should take action to enable users to trust the technology they receive and Government needs to find the balance between ensuring that a system prevents fraudulent transactions and the burden of extensive controls on honest people. Separation/ Digital Divide: The separation among individuals, communities, and enterprises that have access to and do not have access to information technology is also a major challenge in the way of implementation of the E-Governance projects and economic poverty is closely linked to this limited IT resources. The people that are living below the poverty line cannot afford to make the use of the e-Government and other online services by using a computer and Internet connection. The only reason for this separation is not the economic poverty but it can also be caused by people's unconsciousness. Even some economically stable people in India do not know the scope and services of e-government. So the Central government must take certain measures to narrow this separation in order to implement e-government projects effectively. The fight to change: The effort to change phenomena can explain many of the reluctance on the part of constituents to move from a paper-based to a web-based system to interact with the government but the citizens, employees and companies can all participate in the processing of transactions. The modifications that occur in the application of the ICT cannot be overlooked by government agencies and public policy managers. The education regarding the value of the new system is one step in reducing some of this battle. Population: India's population26 is probably the greatest challenge in the implementation of e-Government projects. As the population is considered an advantage for the country, it also offers certain other challenges, for example to identify individuals. There is no unique identity of citizens in India, though Central Governments are striving to provide their citizens with a unique identity. Apart from this, it is important to measure population, maintain the database of all Indian people and keep that database up-to - date, and then provide the entire population with e-Government services. Missing Integrated Services: The majority of e-Government services provided by the State or the Central Government are not integrated in the scientific manner due to lack of exchange between various Government departments. Therefore, the information in one department has no or very little

26 Source: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/population

People's lack of knowledge: The most of the citizens are unaware of the benefits of electronic governance services provided by the various departments.. Even the government does not pay much attention to inform the citizens about e-Government actions. Thus, ignorance is an important challenge in the implementation of e-government projects at various levels of country.

Price: The price is one of the biggest barriers to introducing e-Governance in developing countries such as India, where majority of the citizens residing below the poverty line. A large amount of capital is spent in financial matters, repair and developmental functions of the Government organisations. Such expenses must be relatively small to guarantee a reasonable cost-benefit ratio. Low Per Capita Income: The per- capita income is low compared with other developed nations. Consequently, citizens cannot afford Government-led electronic programs that are an obstacle for the introduction of e-Governance in very effective manner. Small Financial Resources: The GDP27 is the national income indicators and may be defined as the total market value of all finished goods and services produced in a given period within the country and it is financial strength measure but India has restricted financial means for the effective operation and maintenance of e-Government initiatives.

Interoperability: Interoperability is the ability of different quality systems and organizations THAT must be featured in the e-governance applications so that newly developed and existing applications can be jointly implemented. Application scale: e-governance projects must be designed to scale from day one. E-government is meant to influence any person of the world and that frameworks for e-government will have the scope to communicate with each individual. Multimodal Connectivity: The multimodal connectivity enables the consumers to communicate with a device in various forms and government application can be effective if its users can use different devices to access it.

27 Source: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gdp.asp

the introduction of e-governance program in the country. Some effective measures must be taken in the implementation of e-government projects to protect people's sensitive personal information: The lack of standards of security may limit the development of eGovernment projects containing private details such as income, medical history, etc. Tried and Tested Technologies: The technology that is used in E-Governance becomes outdated very quickly. The government should not be willing to procure new computers every year. So, technology and products that are tried and tested for longer periods of time are safer and better than to use the latest. Geographical Issues: The Corporate networks28 are based on trusted and controlled networks and State networks have to travel the certain places that are located in remote area. Nevertheless, it is expensive to wire all the villages in the region. Therefore, broadband networks including the current telecommunications networks will be utilized with e-government services to hit applications in rural regions regardless of geographical problems. Local language: English language adoption in India is quite poor and the documents for e-G governance are published in English language only therefore e-Governance programs are often not very effective in manner. E-governance software should also be published in local people's language so that such systems can be understood and implemented in the desired manner.

Specific factors that create a challenging environment for e-governance are also interesting: Cost Factors: The e-Governance projects require a huge amount of money and economic situation isn't as good, but if we talk of the State wisely, it will be different. Most of the e-Government initiatives are currently on the waiting list owing to the insufficient financial capital on the part of the government of the India. Data Systems Infrastructure: A data support system requires e-Governance that provides adequate information to update the portals in a timely manner. Data quality and data security in India are certainly not yet powerful Legal infrastructure: The laws and regulations are necessary to stop the illegal activities of the e-

28 Source: https:/Corporate_network

Institutional infrastructure: e-governance will only be promoted where institutions operate to serve as a knowledge base and as a medium for e-governance facilitation. In India, there are several organizations that do not manage their website and who do not function without important details made practically compulsory when they have their website. Improper planning during the implementation of E-Governance projects.

The growth of Information Communication and Technology29 in Indian public administration in the government sector will become more citizen-focused, transparent, accountable and free of corruption and red tape. The concept of functional e-bureaucracy has been created to enhance and analyze e-government solutions in government reform and the delivery of public services throughout the system. E-Government, e-bureaucracy and e-services are innovative programs for secure and productive management. The technology has increased government capacity in the provision of e-services and will also play a vital part in the future although statistics show that the rankings are in a poor state. As the study shows, developing countries like India must work tremendously to achieve ongoing development objectives in order to reach a better position in the delivery of government services worldwide. India may establish the correct policy path for implementing e-government and e-bureaucratic systems to provide better democratic e-service for its people. The key strategy for the efficiency of e-government is the formation of the right agencies and institutions and the identification of the right human resources. In addition to that adequate management and governmental experts are recommended for technical implementation of the E-Governance projects in the country. When we equate language differences with others, it is too simple with one country, and many nations use the same language: Canada, the United States of China, all the nations have a common language that makes it possible to talk. In order to reduce this challenge, Government must also consider this barrier. As we address the performance of e-governance in India, which is successful but not powerful, it must be applied effectively. To render it an effective nation, the existing agency in particular the IT and electronics production business of every country needs to be improved. India needs to concentrate on the e-governance initiative in all the public or private sectors with the support of priority legislation. Create a committee that includes designated groups of representatives from each region. The appointment

29 Source: https:/ Information_and_communications_technology

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Julia Schnatz (2019) on The Indian Government‘s E-Marketplace (GeM) Poonam Malik, Priyanka Dhillon, Poonam Verma (2014) on Challenges and Future Prospects for E-Governance in India B.L. Fadia and Kuldeep Fadia (2017) on Public Administration In India M. Laxmikanth (2014) on Governance in India

Assistant Professor in Public Administration, University College, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra