Unit 1: Introduction

E-Governance- An Overview
E-Governance is a form of e-business in governance comprising of processes and structures
involved in deliverance of electronic services to the public, viz. citizens. It also involves
collaborating with business partners of the government by conducting electronic transactions
with them. Besides, it entails enabling the general public to interact with the government,
through electronic means, for getting the desired services. In other words, e-governance
means application of electronic means in the interaction between

1. government (G) and citizens (C), both ways (i.e. G2C, and C2G),
2. government or business (B), both ways (i.e. G2B and B2G), and
3. internal government operation (G2G)

The aim, ultimately, is to simplify and improve governance and enable people's participation in
governance through mail, and Internet.

E-governance is much more than just preparing some websites. It ranges from the use of
Internet for dissemination of plain web based information at its simplest level to services and
online transactions on the one hand and utilizing IT in the democratic process itself, i.e.
election on the other.

E-governance implies e-democracy, wherein all forms of interaction between the electorate
(i.e. general public) and the elected (i.e. the government) are performed electronically. E-
government, as distinguished from e-governance, comprises a pragmatic application and
usage of the most innovative technologies in computer and communication technologies,
including Internet technology, for delivering efficient and cost effective services, and
Information and knowledge to the citizens being governed, thereby realizing the vast potential
of the government to serve the citizens.

Various manifestations of e-governance initiative will be in terms of the government delivering

services to citizens of transacting business, offering general information, or conducting
interactions with the general public and business using such IT tools as:

E-mail
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Internet web sites publishing (including online interactive transaction)

 WAP application and publishing
SMS connectivity
Intranet development and usage
Promotion of citizen access.

The advent of these other components and of Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) as a highly leveraged enabling tool for delivery of services in the public and private sector
has now been universally recognized. This has resulted in a redefinition of the fundamental
concept of governance and also in recognizing its potential to change both institutions and
delivery mechanisms of services for betterment of people.

Need for E-Governance

The fundamental motivation for the campaign of e-governance in India and elsewhere is a
slogan—to provide SMART government—"SMART" being an acronym for Simple, Moral,
Accountable, Responsive and Transparent Government, a laudable ideal, though difficult it
may be to achieve in reality. Thus, we may conceive a Smart Village or Smart Municipality or
Smart State, all very difficult but ideal models. Notwithstanding the difficulties involved in
achieving this, a clear objective of e-governance can be cutting the cost of e-governance and
also minimizing the complexities of the procedures by possible business process
reengineering. The concomitant benefit is empowerment of people through what is called
'disintermediation'; in other words, eliminating the middleman or tout between the
government and the people. For example, by doing so, property tax assessment and collection
system can reduce the element of corruption in the system apart from increasing consumer
convenience. The online system based on the Internet will reduce contacting with the
mediating officials, thereby reducing the possibility of malpractice. This does not however
mean that the primary objective of e-governance is tackling with corruption, even though it
may be a fallout (though not necessarily).

Evidently, the objectives of achieving such e-governance go far beyond mere simple
computerization of stand-alone back office operations in government offices. It should mean a
drastic change in the way the government operates, and this means a new and redefined set
of responsibilities for the executive, legislative and the judiciary. This requires bringing about a
social catharsis, which needs to be done in a comprehensive, concerted and planned manner.
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Historically, it was Chile that a real e-governance initiative was taken up as early as in 1972,
when the IT applications were unheard of in government and were limited even in the
business. They used techniques of IT not to just make government paperless or less of paper
(as is presently being done) but to perform government work efficiently. They realized that
transparency is the ability to regulate the conditions, not the transactions. Prof. Stafford Beer
implemented for President Allende of Chile, the first e-governance software that would help
the government survive a severe crisis. The question that was asked to and answered by the
software was whether the government would survive by getting adequate grip and control
over the situation in time of a severe inflationary crisis due to economic blockade resulting
from stopping a copper exports (which was accountable for 80% of the foreign exchange
earnings of Chile). The software which was developed did help in restoring prices back to
normal, thus making the government survive. Chile thus became the first country to have
successfully implemented e-governance.

Even though the Chile experiment of the real e-governance early in 1972 was a success story,
the subsequent efforts in implementing e-governance in various countries, including the
developed ones, were not aimed at such profound or sweeping purposes of critical nature.
Generally, the e-governance applications have been more mundane, simple and
straightforward. As the winds of e-governance and e-government blow widely through public
organizations across the world, more and more governments in different countries have been
harnessing the Internet and the powers of IT provide services of varied nature as follows:

G-to-G (Govt. to Govt. –within and across the Govt.)

G-to-C (Services by the Govt. to Citizens)
C-to-G (Interaction of Citizens with the Govt.)
G-to-B (Service of the Govt. to Business)
B-to-G (Business interaction with the Govt.)

Issues in E-Governance Applications and the Digital Divide

Initially, the e-governance activity starts with providing information services by the
government departments to the public in terms of State Websites. These websites provide
information about the department concerned, facilities available, and services provided to the
public along with the fees payable, etc. However, as the role of IT in the specific organization
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increases, the websites of government departments attempt at providing more advanced

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services such as dynamic information and also specific transactions such as making utility
payments. Gradually, this e-interaction of the public with the government leads to
organizational transformation, transparency of public services, speed of service performance,
increased citizen participation in the government, and thereby greater facilitation of
participative democracy. Ideally, as the public agencies such as government departments and
public sector undertakings begin implementing e-governance and e-government initiatives,
their performance improves and they are better equipped to interact with citizens and provide
services over the Internet. Thus, the citizens are enabled access to government documents,
file taxes, make payments as utility bills, obtain or renew licenses and permits of different
kinds, make bookings and reservations for public services, lodge complaints or file applications
for various benefits, and even employment.

How much of these actually happen? What are the problems encountered in achieving hem?
The enthusiastic initiatives in e-governance and e-government are not without consequential
problems, as any technological innovation has. These initiatives have the potential to create a
digital divide within the society, especially in the poor and developing countries. While the e-
governance initiatives may benefit certain privileged sections of the society, the
underprivileged, those who do not have access to the Internet or not well qualified or
equipped to use Internet will be all the more distanced from the government, leading to
disenchantment. Also, this will aggravate even further the existing divide between the
privileged and he underprivileged. Thus, it is essential that governments concerned ensure
that all citizens of different socio-economic and educational strata will have adequate access
to the basic skills and infrastructure to participate in an increasingly technological society. As
the digital divide becomes perceptible in different countries, public policy makers need to
devise policies that would address issues of universal access and educational needs of their
citizens, so as to match the requirements of an IT enabled e-government and e-society.

In addition, as the e-governments make Internet as the primary access point for all citizens to
interact with the government, the issues that need to be focused are:

1. How will the performance of the government departments/public bodies be improved

by e-governance initiatives?
2. What are the organizational effects of e-government and IT?
3. What are the correct strategies for success in e-governance projects?
4. What are the skills that are required by the government employees in an e-governance
environment in the Information Age?
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While detailed research is required to address these issues, preliminary indications are already
available that e-governance increases efficiency, speed, effectiveness and citizen satisfaction.
However, these will be true only if the e-governance services provided to citizens are fool-
proof, reliable and inexpensive. The structural effects of e-governance and IT in government
departments and public agencies are yet to be identified, and their long-term effects and
longitudinal effects are yet to be studied. More research is required to be taken up to answer
questions as to whether e-governance leads to decentralized decision making, and whether it
results or calls for business process reengineering in the government departments and public
organizations.

IT implementations do indicate the required business process reengineering (BPR) within the
concerned government department. However, whether such reengineering is viable, can be
implemented without any repercussions, what legal changes is required –these issues are
open for discussion. Often, the prerequisites for reengineering of the processes in the
government are not easy to meet: radical changes in the processes or procedures are not
acceptable as they may lead to considerable repercussions, sometimes too radical to be
acceptable or implementable, with many side effects.

A number of organizations are involved in studying these issues. The e-governance initiative, a
part of National Center for Public Productivity at Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey;
Center for Digital Government, a US National Research and Advisory Institute; Center for e-
government, an international body; Center for Electronic Governance, IIM-Ahmedabad; Center
for Good Governance and also National Institute of Smart Governance, both at Hyderabad
India, Center for e-governance at Department of Information Technology, and Ministry of
Communications and Information Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi are some institutions.

Evolution of E-Governance, Its Scope and Content

Even though historically it was Chile which implemented real e-governance solution as early as
the seventies, the current interest and attention on e-governance applications all over the
world has its roots in the "Information Super Highway" concept initiated by the US Vice
President Al Gore in early 1990s. The Information Super Highway was defined largely in terms
of information infrastructure at the national level by many countries including the US, UK,
Canada, Australia and India. The focus was then largely on the development of components of
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the infrastructure, such as fiber optic networks across the States or Nations. Subsequently, the
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interest was widened to include socio-economic considerations encapsulated in the concept of

Information Society or Knowledge Society, which naturally has to encompass e-governance.
That is how e-governance concept came into being in a formalized and focused manner, even
though attempts to implement Information Systems in the government departments and
other public organizations have been made with partial success in various countries including
India. Such earlier attempts did not receive the state patronage on a broad-based manner
while individual or stray attempts may be cited to have succeeded.

In general, during 1980s and 1990s, the governments all over the world lagged behind the
commercial world in accepting and implementing Information and Communication Technology
(ICT). The commercial word, including the industrial world, had gone far ahead of the
governments all over the world in harnessing the potential of the ICT in their core and also
peripheral activities. Commercial enterprises utilized ICT increasingly to reach out to their
customers and business partners, thereby impressively enhancing their service quality, speed
and convenience. E-commerce thus became a big boom (even though the boom never
reached the expected levels). However, visible success cases of ICT application include the 24
hours ATM (Automated Teller Machines) services, 24 hours call centers, electronic shopping
on the web, the use of DTV, integrating cable TV with Internet, etc. The list could be unlimited.
Examples can be cited for typical information systems that run the 'back offices' in the
financial and other sectors of business and Industry. In fact, such 'back office' computerization
could be even handled offshore in developing countries like India, where the skilled software
manpower and also unskilled operational manpower have been available at low cost. The cost-
effective satellite communication infrastructure facilitated such remote development and
maintenance of software of these banking, financial, aviation, and industrial sectors. This
formed to the bulk of the 'software exports' activity in countries such as India, Ireland, Israel,
and China. Similarly, in 1990s and 2000 till now, the IT enabled services (ITES) formed the
major component of remote services such as call centers, data entry etc. However, as
indicated earlier, all these activities were not concerned with e-governance. Governments
were the last in the bandwagon of institutions attempting to harness ICT in their activities.
However, though late, the governments all over the world finally woke up to realize the
potential of ICT in all their activities.

The initial efforts of e-governance simply resulted in only partial automation of the existing
paper based manual procedures and did not result in any significant reengineering or
optimization. While implementation of ICT in the business has resulted in good amount of
Business Process Reengineering (BPR) as to move away from redundant and inefficient
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functional business units and to restructure organizations around processes that support core
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business units and the government enterprises such radical or significant changes have failed
to happen to a large extent. This situation could be traced to various factors in government
functioning such as conservatism, resistance to change, and rigidity of legislation which
impedes the amendment of rules and procedures.

As a result, ICT based management methodologies such as Business Process Reengineering,

Supply Chain Management, Just In Time (JIT) methodologies, which has salutary effects in
business and industry had left the government system practically untouched. The scope and
extent of e-governance have been largely limited to simple applications with the maximum or
computerized MIS and database management within the government departments along with
gradually enhanced usage of simple ICT technologies such as e-mail, and limited usage of
Internet and video-conferencing for government functions.

In addition to potentially delivering significant improvements in government services, ICT has

been visualized by some as having much deeper and wider impact on society and even capable
of affecting the quality of life and nature of democracy.

However, the significant issues that has become highly relevant for large scale implementation
of ICT in governance are the issues of security, privacy, vulnerability of public ICT infrastructure
to crime, potential for abuse, terrorism, and general crime, in addition to issues related to
social cohesion, and social exclusion following what is popularly known as the digital divide.

Notwithstanding the issue of digital divide which basically refer to lack of access of poor
people and rural people to Internet, the indirect benefits to all citizens from computerization
and ICT in the government machinery will go a long way in improving the quality of life of
people.

Thus, the scope of ICT implementation in government machinery can result in

improvement of efficiency and effectiveness of the executive functions of the

government, including delivery of public services;
greater transparency of government to citizens and business, permitting greater access
to the information generated or collated by the government;
fundamental changes and improvement in relation between citizen and the state
thereby improving the democratic process; and
better interactions and relationships amongst different
o wings of the same government
o state of local governments within a country,
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o countries whose governments are web-enabled.

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Any e-governance activity/project involves appropriate

hardware and corresponding system software,

networking of the hardware identified above—both the Internet and Intranet
environment, and
application software along with appropriate database management software

Present Global Trends of Growth in E-Governance

Press reports (during the end of 2002) indicate a trend of global growth in e-governance
utilization by people in different categories. They indicate the following: The proportion of
adults worldwide using the Internet to access government services or products during the past
12 months has increased by around 15 percent, according to the findings of the second
Government Online Study published by Taylor Nelson Sofres. Three out of ten citizens (30
percent) globally said that they had accessed government services online compared with only
(26 per cent) questioned a year ago.

Government online services are most commonly used to search for information (24 per cent
users) and to download information (11 per cent of the users). The increased use of
government online services is primarily due to rise in the proportion of people searching for
information (from 20 to 24 per cent during the period from September 2001 to September
2002). Globally, online government transactions increased from just 6 percent to 7 percent
during this period and the percentage of those providing personal details to government
increased from 7 per cent to 8 per cent.

In some countries, percentage increase has been significantly higher than in others. Among
the most significant increases in the use of government services online are Australia (from 31
per cent to 46 per cent), Turkey (from 3 per cent to 13 per cent), the Netherlands (from 31 per
cent to 41 per cent), and the US (from 34 per cent to 43 per cent). In contrast, in Japan,
however, government online usage fell by 4 per cent (17 per cent to 13 per cent of the
citizens) between 2001 and 2002.

While security issues about accessing government services online were the main concern for
many countries during 2001, perceptions of safety improved globally during 2002. When 23
per cent of citizens worldwide said that they feel safe disclosing personal information such as
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credit card and bank account numbers online compared to just 14 per cent of citizens in 2001,
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representing thus an increase of almost two-thirds (64 per cent). As for the use of government
online, the Scandinavian markets (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden), together with
some South East Asian markets (Singapore and Hong Kong), have perceived the highest levels
of safety (around one-third of users), in the system. In contrast, the greatest safety concerns
were expressed by citizens in Japan (90 per cent said they felt accessing government service
online was "unsafe"), Germany (82 per cent) and France (76 per cent).

Other Key Findings

Globally, government online use is more prevalent among men (33 per cent) than women (26
per cent), and among those aged under 35 compared with other age groups.

During the past 12 months substantial increases in government online use have taken place
among 35-44 years-olds (from 22 per cent to 36 per cent) and 55-64 years-olds (from 2 per
cent to 18 per cent). In contrast, use among those aged 65 and above decreased (from 7 per
cent in 2001 to 5 per cent in 2002).

Globally, the proportion of Internet users who have made transactions using government
services online is equal to the proportion of users who made online shopping transactions.
Fifteen per cent of Internet users have made an online government transaction and in addition
15 per cent have made an online purchase at least once during the past 12 months.

The percentage of Internet users who access government online services varies considerably
across different countries from 16 per cent in Hungary to 81 per cent in Norway.

Wendy Mellor, Director, Taylor Nelson Sofres commented: The increase in the use of
government online services at a global level suggests that the public see the Internet as a more
acceptable means of getting involved in the government activity at both national and local
levels. However, significant differences exist between countries, may be due to, awareness of
services, perceptions of safety, relevance of the site to users, and access to the Internet,
among others.

In countries such as Singapore, Norway and Sweden, where the use of government services
online is high, it is likely that a significant proportion of citizens feel comfortable with this
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approach of dealing with government. Yet in countries such as Britain, New Zealand and South
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Korea, where usage lags behind general Internet use, more needs to be done to assess why
uptake of online services is slow and what steps need to be taken to address this.

All the above statistics on usage is time bound. Over the years there has been a definite rise in
the usage of e-governance all over the world.

Conclusion
While the growth in the use of e-governance is encouraging, our research shows that the
majority of this growth is from citizens searching for information online rather than making
transactions or providing personal information to government. This may be due to perceived
security risks but if the use of these services is to increase, messages about the safety of
government online services need to be communicated effectively.

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