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Cover Story
The National e-Governance Plan
e-Governance in India is graduating from pilots to Mission
Mode projects, says Faiz Askari
 The
concept of e-governance is now a reality for Indian citizens. We are graduating
from pilot e-governance projects to bigger Mission Mode projects. In this, the
core strategy is to move ahead in a systematic manner, and the approach is to
achieve success step by step. We are learning from e-governance examples worldwide;
we also have our own experience in completing pilot projects successfully.
In 2005, the World Bank signalled its willingness to increase
funding further (if required) for a range of e-governance initiatives in India
as part of the first phase of the country’s National e-Governance Plan
(NeGP). This could, in principle, lead to a contemplated $500 million financing
over the next four years. The plan will cover 10 main areas—including land
records, property registration, and transport and revenue collection—across
25 separate projects. Of these projects, 10 are state-focussed, eight are central
government-focussed, and the rest are cross-tier government projects.
The NeGP has identified 22 projects which are to be implemented
in a phased manner over the next 3-4 years by line ministries at the central
and state level. State-based WANs have been identified as part of the core infrastructure
for supporting these e-governance initiatives, and the Department of IT (DIT)
has earmarked Rs 3,334 crore for supporting this activity. The DIT will cover
the entire cost of the establishment, operation and maintenance of state-based
WANs for five years on a 100 percent grant basis.
The ICT kiosks project is at an advanced stage. The conceptualisation
of this project has been successfully completed. All the preparations have
been done, now formal approval by the ministry is awaited.
“In this project, our goal is to establish 100,000 ICT kiosks across
India, with rural areas given higher consideration. One out of every six
villages will have an ICT kiosk,” comments Chandrashekhar.
The implementation strategy of this initiative will be completely dependent
on public-private partnership. “We plan to take on this project via
block-wise coverage,” adds Chandrashekhar. |
Says R Chandrashekhar, Joint Secretary in the DIT, “e-governance
projects in India are rapidly advancing towards service delivery projects. But
we need to strengthen our capacity-building aspect. To achieve this, we not
only need to implement a strategic approach, but also need to be in touch with
what’s going on around the world in the field of e-governance.”
Considerable progress been made on the e-procurement
initiative. “It will be a unique project as it will require a great
amount of participation and the involvement of different ministries and
departments,” says Chandrashekhar. The Central Vigilance Committee
(CVC) has recommended this project for bigger organisations and PSUs. Online
tenders are now a reality. “Soon, entire government tenders will be
available online,” states Chandrashekhar.
Data centres are among three pillars of NeGP. Some projects have commenced
with the Government of Karnataka and NIC that have a data centre. The concept
of a data centre requires huge infrastructure-related issues like redundant
power supply. But the way it is been moving up, this trend will catch up
very soon.
Developing standards is certainly a key aspect in any continued success.
Lots of integration and involvement of different bodies is required to design
these standards. The government is aggressively working on this, and has
already formed five groups to develop these standards. An apex committee
has also been formed at DIT. But there is a long road ahead. All the projects
have different concerns and focuses. For example, some e-governance projects
have been initiated where storage is the top priority; others have security
as a major concern to address, so each and every project is going to have
its own strategy. |
The Indian situation is a little different as each project has its own priorities.
For example, some have a core focus of revenue collection, others have massive
storage requirements, and in some places the utmost importance is placed on
security. The common aspect is service deliverability. “Earlier, when we
were doing these projects on a pilot basis, the service deliverability aspect
was lacking. At that time, the focus was on issues such as record keeping, revenue
collection and data storage,” recalls Chandrashekhar.
e-governance has advanced to a higher stage, and the focus is increasingly on
delivering services. In certain areas, the government welcomes participation
from NGOs and private organisations. More participation of such kind will be
appreciated by the people who are the users or consumers of e-governance. “This
participation can only happen on the front-end level. All the back-end work
will be handled by the government. For example, in the case of ICT kiosks, setting
up of a kiosk can be done by any private party, but to run that kiosk all support
will be provided by the government,” informs Chandrashekhar.
The Government of India has approved the NeGP for implementation
till 2007. The plan seeks to lay the foundation and provide the impetus for
long-term growth of e-governance within the country. It is seeking to create
the right governance and institutional mechanisms, set up the core infrastructure
and policies, and then implement a number of Mission Mode Projects at the centre,
state and integrated service levels to create a citizen-centric and business-centric
environment for governance.
Sudhir Narang, Senior Vice-president, Government
Business & Service Providers, Cisco Systems India & SAARC
“Cisco India is always committed to NeGP’s initiatives. John Chambers,
President & CEO of Cisco Systems, during his visit to India in 2005,
committed to invest US $5 million to support the NeGP. Cisco has also committed
to establish Common Service Centres (CSC) in up to 100 villages in India;
these will provide citizens online access to government services in rural
areas. The company will provide networking equipment necessary for the CSCs.
Apart from this, Cisco will also conduct a year-long series of activities
including senior-level workshops, research, and reference visits to train
government officials in this regard. We are also working with state governments
to set up State Wide Area Networks (SWANs), and Cisco is deploying Secretariat
LAN deployments for state governments. There are so many other projects
in which we are actively involved with the government for implementation
of various e-governance initiatives.”
Rohit Kumar, Country Head, Public Sector, Microsoft
“Like every other responsible technology company, Microsoft is also
considering this sector as its priority area. We have a fairly good amount
of experience in e-governance projects, and are looking forward to continue
our good experience in delivering great work for the citizens of India.
Projects like Bhoomi, Nayi Disha, Citizen Service Programme and several
state-run projects like AP Online are some of our e-governance initiatives.
I think that a public-private partnership is a vital component in getting
these e-governance projects implemented on a larger scale.
“The main issue in today’s e-governance scenario is to find
out how we can replicate the projects which have already been implemented
successfully by other states; this is possible through knowledge sharing
and co-operation. Another issue is that corporates also need to rethink
their strategy and focus on the government in an exclusive way.”
Satish Kaushal, Country Manager, Government (SWG), IBM
“The government is of course the biggest market, plus it is rapidly
growing. IBM is geared to tap this potential. We have gathered lot of
experience in e-governance initiatives. I foresee immense potential in
the future in this sector.”
Ajai Chowdhry, Chairman & CEO, HCL
“HCL has always taken active participation in the government’s
initiatives for rural development through e-governance. We are closely
working with the government’s PC penetration programme, and are making
efforts to make a PC more affordable and accessible for the maximum number
of people. There are several issues involved in this, but as far as affordability
is concerned, we have good amount of success in bringing out an affordable
PC for the masses.”
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NeGP is an ambitious programme aimed at improving the quality, accessibility
and effectiveness of government services to citizens and businesses with the
help of information technology. It has enabled convenient and transparent access
to the government and private services while providing equitable opportunities
to all. It is also been used as an effective tool to drive administrative reforms
within the government, and can change the perception of people about the government.
In addition, it has created a national IT backbone for fast, reliable and efficient
connectivity, data storage and access. There would also be integrated service
centres for delivery of citizen services.
The focus of NeGP is on the following.
- Adequate weightage must be given for quality and speed
of implementation in procurement procedures for IT services.
- Incorporation of a suitable system of incentivisation
of states to encourage adoption.
- The trend of delivery of services through common service
centres should be encouraged and promoted.
- Wherever possible, services should be outsourced.
- The full potential for private sector investment should
be exploited.
- Connectivity should be extended up to block level through
NICNET/ SWANs.
- NeGP also envisages significant investments in areas such
as government process re-engineering, capacity building, training, assessment
and awareness. The plan is to be executed over a four-year period. An apex
committee under the Cabinet Secretary is already in place for providing the
strategic direction and management oversight.
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