Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Failures Of E-Governance in India

Very few words are more fanciful than the words electronic governance (e-governance). These words have a tendency to portray an image of all advanced Nation or capable manpower. But the bigger question is what is more important; the image or reality? We have to analyse this question in the light of e-governance in India and the efforts of Government of India to achieve the Herculean task of being an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabled and capable Nation.

Let us peep into the mind of those who have a deeper insight of this “India Shining Syndrome” of Indian Government and Bureaucrats. According to Mr. Praveen Dalal, the Leading Techno-Legal ICT, Cyber Law, Cyber Security and Cyber Forensics Specialist of India, “The Government and Indian Bureaucrats need to change their mindset and stress more upon outcomes and services rather than mere ICT procurement. India needs a services-based approach that is not only transparent but also backed by a more efficient and willing Government. Presently the Bureaucrats and Government of India are in a “resistance mode” towards novel and effective e-governance policies and strategies and they are merely computerising traditional official functions only. This is benefiting neither the Government nor the citizens and is resulting in wastage of thousands of crores of public money and UNDP/World Bank grants amount”.

The truth becomes more obscure in the maze of various reports and surveys, most of which are Government or its agencies/partners “sponsored”. The Bureaucratic incompetencies and lack of Governmental will only find support in high profile workshops and seminars where common man has neither an access nor a say. At the International level, however, India’s ranking is falling when it comes to basic prerequisites of e-governance, i.e. e-readiness, public-governmental interaction, public services, etc.

The Governmental will and leadership is missing in India. To worsen the situation the Government of India is concentrating more upon the image rather than upon the end results. The grassroot level action is missing and the benefits of ICT are not reaching to the under privileged and deserving masses due to defective ICT strategies and policies of Indian Government. India is suffering from the “vicious circle” of defective e-governance, as the basic input .i.e. governance itself is poor. India needs a “virtuous circle” of e-governance through good governance that would have multiplication and amplification effect upon e-governance efforts of Indian Government. We neither have a right nor would be we honest and true if we call ourselves an e-governance oriented Nation as even the basic “e-mail communications” with the Government of India, including Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), President, Ministry of Information Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, etc are “NEVER” replied back” says Mr. Praveen Dalal.

It is astonishing to know that the so called “e-governance experts” in the Bureaucratic and Governmental circles of India do not even know when and how to respond back to urgent and pressing public communications (e-mails). What is the benefit of attending and participating in high profile conferences and workshops in a cool and comfortable hotel room environment when the Citizen to Government (C2G) and Government to Citizen (G2C) wings of Indian e-governance are “missing”? The C2G and G2C are the core pillars of not only e-governance but electronic commerce (e-commerce) as well. The problem seems to “lack of accountability” among the Government Departments in India.

It is surprising that despite these “serious problems” the India Shining image is often portrayed when it come to e-governance in India. All these factors have resulted in the failures of e-governance in India.

AUTHOR: KUNAL

SOURCE:
ITVOIR

SQL Attack Resulted In Data Loss Of More Than 100,000 Websites

A popular UK ISP has reportedly fallen victim to a large-scale cyber attack that led to data loss from as many as 100,000 websites through a virtualisation manager solution called HyperVM.

Back on Sunday, hackers broke into the security of Vaserv.com by exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in its virtualisation software, the prominently used HyperVM from LXLabs, thereby allowing hackers to gain system access with root permissions.

SOURCE: ITPROPORTAL

Digital Rights Protection And Management Is Urgently Required In India

Counterfeiting and piracy have always remained a cause of concern for intellectual property rights (IPRs) holders. There are many solutions suggested for curbing the menace of counterfeiting and piracy in India. One of it is “digital rights protection” in India. However, the concept of digital rights has never been understood properly in India.

Experts believe that digital rights must not only be protected but they must also be managed properly. The same must be done in a techno-legal manner. Instead of imposing foreign models, India must formulate its own “techno-legal model” of digital rights protection and management, says Mr. Praveen Dalal, the leading Techno-Legal Expert of India.

Entertainment Industry has always complained about the issues of piracy in India. In the absence of a law pertaining to entertainment industry in India, these concerns would always remain unresolved.

The problem has now starting taking its natural shape. Incidents of stealing signals from satellite have been reported in India. The entertainment industry is wary about these issues as presently there is neither a law nor technology in India to deal with these issues.

SOURCE: ITVOIR