E-governance in India has by and large a failure. This is because of the poor policy decisions taken by Indian government. There is too much stress upon procurement as opposed to management. India has to accept that computerization of traditional governmental and public functions are not e-governance. We have to empower the citizens with the power of ICT.Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become an indispensable part of our daily life. It has the potential to streamline procedures, inculcate discipline among workforce, and bring transparency and accountability and reduction of costs. The benefits are tremendous provided we have the will, insight and knowledge to use it.
E-governance in India is in its infancy stage. The National E-Governance Plan (NEGP) is the umbrella under which all e-governance initiatives are taking place. However, there are very few successful and completed e-governance initiatives like MCA21 in India. Whether it is e-courts, e-readiness, legal enablement of ICT systems, e-gazette, e-commerce etc none are even close to success. So where lies the problem?
Firstly, there seems to be lack of insight among the policy-makers. The ICT polices and strategies of India are not covering the e-governance aspects at the national level. No political party ever considers e-governance as an important part of their political agenda before elections. Even commodities like onion and potatoes find place in national debates but not e-governance.
Secondly, there is too much stress upon procurement as opposed to management. India has to accept that computeristion of traditional governmental and public functions are not e-governance. We have to empower the citizens with the power of ICT. We have to make the governmental services user-friendly as well as productive and easy.
Thirdly, there is lack of transparency in governmental dealing and in the absence of the same e-governance is just paperwork. In India, we have the Right to Information Act, 2005 but the same has been a failure in India. The public information officers keep on denying the relevant information on flimsy grounds.
In exceptional cases, citizens may get some information but by and large very few people get the information.
Fourthly, accountability among governmental officers is missing. There is no mechanism through which we can punish a wrong doer for his violations and negligence. This results in a casual attitude towards public good and e-governance. If we fix accountability and time-bound progress requirements then a lot of problems can be solved.
Fifthly, public participation in both policy making and governmental decisions is missing. If we get the opinion of those who are somehow surviving at the grassroots level we can solve the majority of our problems. However, the fact is that grassroots level problems are never solved.
The induction of information technology into governance, especially at the rural level, is not an easy task due to unstructured nature of rural development, low literacy levels and reluctance to adopt information technology. Regional disparities which were already glaring in poverty, employment generation, literacy are widening further. E-governance will be successful only if we start to undertake due efforts to implement it in all blocks and districts and spread it to the grass root level.
Being the largest democratic country, India must show an example to other in this context. But in last many years we have not seen the efficiency of public servants, who are supposed to be the some of the best brain of India. For attaining developed status our public service system must work in a better way. Citizen must participate in various activities, if we really want to see India as a developed nation. Public service must be strengthened in India in true spirit, if we want to become to become a developed nation in near future.
