It is the application of ICT to the processes of government functioning for good governance. In other words, e-governance is use of ICT with the aim to empower information and service delivery, encourage citizen participation in decision making and make Government more accountable, transparent and responsive. It is a move towards SMART governance.
Owing to e-governance there is improvement in the internal organizational processes of Government, increased openness in govt.’s functioning; and enhanced political credibility & accountability in governance. Democratic practices through public participation & consultation are also facilitated through e-governance.
E-governance is a conceptually wider connotation than e-Government though most of the times they are used as synonym only. E-Government is the modernization of processes & function of Government using the tools of ICT so as to transform the way it serves its constituents.
E-governance on the other hand goes beyond the service delivery aspects and is seen as a decisional process. It is about the use of ICTs in the system of governance i.e. using ICT to involve multi-stockholders in decision making and in making governments more open & accountable.
Reinventing Government has been a dominant theme since 1990, wherein governments World over are attempting to improve the system of public service delivery. Rapid strides made in the field of ICT have facilitated the reinvention of governments and prepared them to serve the needs of a diverse society. It is with this concern that the concept of e-governance became prominent. Democracies in the world share a vision of the day when e-governance becomes a way of life.
E-governance means SMART Governance.
Simple- meaning simplification of rules regulations and processes of government through the use of ICTs and thereby providing for a user- friendly government.
Moral- connoting emergence of an entirely new system of ethical values in the political and administrative machinery. Technology intervention improve the efficiency of anti-corruption agencies police, judiciary etc.
Accountable- facilitating design development and implementation of effective Management Information System and performance measurement mechanisms and thereby ensuring accountability of public service functionaries.
Responsive- streamlining the processes to speed up service delivery and make system more responsive.
Transparent :- bringing information hitherto confined in the government documents to the public domain and making processes and functions transparent, which in turn would bring equity and rule of law in responses of the administrative agencies.
IMPACT OF IT (E-GOVERNANCE) ON ADMINISTRATION:
Owing to e-governance there is improvement in the internal organizational processes of Government, increased openness in govt.’s functioning; and enhanced political credibility & accountability in governance. Democratic practices through public participation & consultation are also facilitated through e-governance.
E-governance is a conceptually wider connotation than e-Government though most of the times they are used as synonym only. E-Government is the modernization of processes & function of Government using the tools of ICT so as to transform the way it serves its constituents.
E-governance on the other hand goes beyond the service delivery aspects and is seen as a decisional process. It is about the use of ICTs in the system of governance i.e. using ICT to involve multi-stockholders in decision making and in making governments more open & accountable.
Reinventing Government has been a dominant theme since 1990, wherein governments World over are attempting to improve the system of public service delivery. Rapid strides made in the field of ICT have facilitated the reinvention of governments and prepared them to serve the needs of a diverse society. It is with this concern that the concept of e-governance became prominent. Democracies in the world share a vision of the day when e-governance becomes a way of life.
E-governance means SMART Governance.
Simple- meaning simplification of rules regulations and processes of government through the use of ICTs and thereby providing for a user- friendly government.
Moral- connoting emergence of an entirely new system of ethical values in the political and administrative machinery. Technology intervention improve the efficiency of anti-corruption agencies police, judiciary etc.
Accountable- facilitating design development and implementation of effective Management Information System and performance measurement mechanisms and thereby ensuring accountability of public service functionaries.
Responsive- streamlining the processes to speed up service delivery and make system more responsive.
Transparent :- bringing information hitherto confined in the government documents to the public domain and making processes and functions transparent, which in turn would bring equity and rule of law in responses of the administrative agencies.
IMPACT OF IT (E-GOVERNANCE) ON ADMINISTRATION:
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E-governance programme calls for basic restructuring of age-old, archaic & colonial procedure – it indeed involves almost elimination of existing dysfunctional system of governance.
It straight away offers a package of efficiency, time boundedness & cost efficiency, in fact much more, transparency, demolition of discretion & arbitrariness & above all clientele orientation and redressal of citizen grievances. It will down size, cut numbers, unite knots and do away with regulation & procedural bottlenecks, reduce time & increase customer satisfaction. -
It has led to flattening & down-sizing of today’s organizations, eliminating the need for levels of bureaucracy & a long chair of command. People are replaced by technology & organization is able to down size or right size. The impact of IT is mainly felt at the middle level management. Downsizing of Government departments & directorates would create a new administrative culture by doing away with middle management.
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IT brings in a rapid change in management pattern, such as breakdown of hierarchy in administration & increase in coordination activity. Computers make coordination better & cheaper. It will facilitate Decentralized administration i.e. delegation of authority.
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IT helps in fast & better disposal of grievance of citizen & comments.
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IT will lead to administration & management revolution. The file pushing processes will be done away with, & data processing and decision making will be done quickly and cheaply. Ex.: If an information system would be built up for gathering databases regarding crimes and criminals, these data would enormously help police officer to track down criminals and prevent crimes.
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Wide use of IT is likely to offer people friendly administrative culture by making people’s easy access to data and information about public administration, bringing the functioning of bureaucrats and other public servants under the gaze of effective public scrutiny, by helping the people to assess the moral and attitude of public servants towards the people. Appreciation of needs of people will be greatly facilitated.
E-governance or IT would be the instrument for transforming the nature & style of India’s Public Administration into a Participative Culture, taking the people as partners in development administration -
Other impact :
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Global governance, co-governance integrated governance are expanding.
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E-citizen comes up.
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Online grievance redressal of citizen and public personnel both is possible.
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Vigilance and Monitoring is modernized.
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Public service will be performance based.
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Legal reform is better possible.
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Delivery of health and education service will be better.
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Effective Disaster management.
CHALLENGES TO E-GOVERNANCE :
A. Creating Infrastructure: For reaching the benefits of e-governance, more e-government projects have to be implemented by building adequate e-infrastructure particularly in rural background regions.
B. Sound Policy and Legal Framework: Removal of obsolete laws and discretionary power, simplification of procedures to avoid administrative bottlenecks and constitution of single window delivery system to ensure speedy disposal of cases. Besides this there is need of:
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Laws for making public servants accountable & responsive for non-performance and not functioning.
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Laws for privacy to ensure that information is not misused.
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Amendment to consumer protection law tariff and trade, IPR etc. is required.
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Laws are required for emerging challenges like cyber crime e.g. Hacking.
C. Socially relevant technologies & integrated management:
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Updating of data in local language, incorporation of local language and local content in internet in a massive way, standardization in all area like encoding, application logic for common application Preparing data dictionaries.
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Accessing internet using keyboard may limit the use of internet, so there is a need of developing voice enabled internet service with Indian language.
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Government Kiosks to facilitate illiterate people
D. Capital : more R&D, funds, budget allocation
E. Lack of capabilities in organisation / HRD & Capacity building:
E. Lack of capabilities in organisation / HRD & Capacity building:
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Non-availability of proper’ skilled human research
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Official mismanagement, lack of favorable attitude and orientation on part of officials hinders progressive of application of e-governance in India.
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Training for imparting skills & inculcating motivation among officials are very essential for ICT to be effective.
F. Changing the Mindset of Government functionaries
G. Addressing the issue of increasing unemployment due to automation
H. Lack of bureaucratic commitment
I. Frequent changes in technology
J. High cost of automation
K. Political and Administrative Leadership: Lack of political will can reduce positive impact of ICT.
L. Grievance Redressal Mechanism: Need of establishing appropriate agencies and a time-framework to address entire concern.
M. E-security
N. Digital divide
POSSIBLE SOLUTION/SUGGESTION :
Technology by itself is not panacea for solving all the problems and it requires enabler in the form of human resource management and leadership of organization to reap greater benefit of it. Below figured diagram shows the pillars for success of e-governance.
G. Addressing the issue of increasing unemployment due to automation
H. Lack of bureaucratic commitment
I. Frequent changes in technology
J. High cost of automation
K. Political and Administrative Leadership: Lack of political will can reduce positive impact of ICT.
L. Grievance Redressal Mechanism: Need of establishing appropriate agencies and a time-framework to address entire concern.
M. E-security
N. Digital divide
POSSIBLE SOLUTION/SUGGESTION :
Technology by itself is not panacea for solving all the problems and it requires enabler in the form of human resource management and leadership of organization to reap greater benefit of it. Below figured diagram shows the pillars for success of e-governance.
SOME POINTS FOR SUCCESS OF E-GOVERNANCE
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Leadership support
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Procedural Reform
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Stress on staff training
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Careful system design
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Citizen – centric approach rather than technology centric approach
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Clear service standard fixing standard, citizen charter
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Centralized Monitoring
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Decentralized provision of services
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Convergence of services to be provided by one centre
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Sustained effort required to prevent sabotage
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Attitudinal and technological training of Government employees.
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Public policy should form on bridging digital divide existing in India.
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Single window concept
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Village knowledge centers linked with local Government will help
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Networking within secretariat and between secretariat and field agencies
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Design projects to suit citizen needs
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Built in e-governance scheme
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Increased spending
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Affordability
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Publicity is critical
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Role of media and civil society: They can play active role in extending ICT
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PPP Model
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