E-Governance: Right Synergy between Public and Private sectors can yield Good Results
Once Abraham Lincoln had said that democracy is for the people, by the people, and of the people. It should stand valid in every democracy irrespective of countries or continents. But, the piety is some of the countries, which are laden with so much of pressure from various fronts including, poverty, illiteracy, population explosion etc. can not sustain to the core value of democracy. A country like India, it stands absolutely value less because there is big gap between the government mechanism and the citizens. The mechanism is more an individual driven body than a system driven body, which effects in the widening gap between the government bodies and the citizens. So, the lay man can not get the ultimate benefits. The schemes launched for the welfare of the grassroot-level people can not become successful. However, we cannot allow it to happen for a log time otherwise, there will be anarchy all across. We require a mechanism, which can provide us a single point platform which gives clarity of the system; it helps the citizens improve their quality of life and they also can take part in the nation building activities. Today, when information technology has influenced all walks of life, why cannot it be utilized effectively towards the national cause. So, governance through IT or Electronic Governance (e-Governance) is an ideal step towards giving government and citizens a common window of discussion.
E -Governance is the delivery mechanism of government services and information to the public using IT. It allows citizens to communicate with government, participate in the governments' policy-making and reflect their true needs and welfare by utilizing e-Government as a tool. Today, the citizen has become more aware about their rights. On the other hand, the government has become more aware that until unless its citizens are not developed the country's economy cannot also improve. It also cannot be able to attract investment in the country. It being a vast country, India cannot also afford to remain underdeveloped for ever. So from the citizens perspective, the government has to be more accountable, reliable, assessable and transparent. And, e-Governance is the only means through which supervision power, working efficiency and public service standard of government can be aggrandized. India has emerged a country where a number of experiments of e-Governance are taking place. India is countering a unique challenge in e-Governance space because of several reasons ranging from awareness, basic infrastructure, bandwidth issues, multilingual and cultural issues and geographic inconsistency. In spite of having all the resources in place in terms of Data Systems Infrastructure, Legal Infrastructure, Institutional Infrastructure and Human Infrastructure, the government has remained botched in implementation of e-Governance projects. And the factors that are affecting these projects are poor planning, political interference, inconsistency in policy implementation and bureaucratic bunglingness. Although many states in India have been successful in implementing e-Governance projects in their respective states, yet there are still some states who had even not thought of implementing or planning for empowering the citizen. Visualizing the issues that are generating in e-Governance space, VARIndia, the Frontline IT Magazine of the country, recently Organized IT forum for the third consecutive years on 4th May, 2005 at Hotel Le Meridian, New Delhi. With the theme e-Governance: vision and direction, it was held with the partnership of Orissa government when the partnering vendors were Microsoft, Maxtor, Intel, APC, Sahara, Apcom and Intransa . Some of the big names who attended the event include, Surjya Narayana Patra, Minister of IT, Government of Orissa, Mr. R. Chandrasekhar, Joint Secretary - e-Governance, department of IT, Government of India, Mr. S. K Tripathy, DGM, OCAC, Government of Orissa, Mr. Jatish Mohanty, Secretary - IT and Principal Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Abhijit Das, Manager Platform Strategy, Microsoft Corporation India, Mr. Pulkit Trivedi, Branch Manager, Government Vertical, Intel Technology India Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Yogesh Kamat, Country Manager, Indian Subcontinent, Maxtor Corporation, Mrs. Subhasini Prabhakar, Chief Technology Manager, APCOM, Mr. Dinesh Kapoor, Regional Manager, North and East, APC India Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Chandrasekhar B, Director, International Marketing, Intransa India.
Apart from this more than 300 people including many dignitaries of the Industry, Government, BFSI and PSUs attended the forum. The key issue discussed at the forum was on standardization, security, storage, localization availability, and transparency in e-Governance and Public-private participation. Taking this opportunity, corporate like Microsoft, Intel, Apcom, APC, Maxtor and Intransa had given presentations on their preparedness for meeting e-Governance requirements. The Government of Orissa as well as HP, Maxtor, Intransa and BPE had put up their stalls.
On this occasion, vendors like Sony India, Logitech, TVS-E and Interra IT were felicitated for their performance in various products and services categories with most trusted company award. Where as the government of Orissa was given an award for its aggressively implementing e-Governance in the state.
The forum started with the welcoming speech of Mr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, President & Director, Kalinga Digital Media, while Mr. Sanjay Mohapatra, Editor, VARIndia, gave vote of thanks.
Issues in e-Governance
E-governance can be portrayed as the panacea for all of the inefficiencies plaguing Indian public life. But this is only possible when government put emphasis on providing connectivity, networking, technology up-gradation, selective delivery systems for information and services and a package of software solutions. Therefore, it is necessary for an e-Governance system to persist in principles of opening and standardization. Speaking at the forum Mr. Pulkit Trivedi, Branch Manager, Government Vertical, Intel Technology India Pvt. Ltd., said,
"In order to establish an effective e-Governance, it is necessary to identify a scalable standard to modernize the existing infrastructure. Only a system insisting on standardization can protect investment." By adopting standardization of the multi-dimensional activity the government can set the e-Governance projects in proper and organized manner and in the same time it would be able to help the citizen in getting instant information.
Security is another factor that is increasingly affecting e-Governance projects. But, lack of proper security such as effective firewalls, proxy servers etc. may cause the Intranet of the organization to be hacked by unauthorized individuals. While accessing government-enabled services, the citizens generates lot of data like filing taxes, submitting tenders, getting permissions and licenses of various kinds. So protection of these data is imperative and mandatory for the government. So it's become necessary for the Government to adopt IT based solutions with enabled security features, which will not only seamlessly provide effective medium of communication but also helps in maintaining transparency, efficiency, and effectiveness in functioning of government. Mr. Abhijit Das, Manager Platform Strategy, Microsoft Corporation India, says, "We have been working to make our product more and more secure. We keep on innovating and make sure that our products are secure by design, secure by deployment and secure by communication."
The third things the government should concentrate on interconnectivity and storage." 'Empower the people' is often a repeated phrase in any democratic country. Perhaps the most dominating tool for empowering citizen is information dissemination. Unlike many business organizations, government has huge storehouses of information. So it is indispensable to manage it effectively. But the absence of proper interconnectivity with the main data center will hamper the data to be accessed effectively. So presence of well-equipped infrastructure, applications and networks is the prerequisite of any organization to deliver it service effectively and efficiently. Speaking on e-governance, Mr. Dinesh Kapoor, Regional Manager, North and East, APC India Pvt. says that power protection is an essential part of e-Governance projects. Under the absence proper power protection all the initiatives will be in vain. He further emphasized on IT infrastructure. He says "IT infrastructure consists of two parts. One is IT computing equipment under which server, PCs, storage devices, routers, switches etc. And, second one is NCPI (Network Critical Physical Infrastructure). This is the infrastructure where you boost up your IT computing equipment. The entire backbone of infrastructure is NCPI."
Language barrier is another major impeding, which is hampering the citizen in receiving the tangible benefit of e-Governance. Though India carries a vast pool of intellectuals, the English-speaking population constitutes about five per cent of the whole population. So there is a need of localization of the user interface applications. There is a huge untapped potential that needs to be explored by the government and the private to ensure successful use of local language computing applications. There is no dearth of availability of application to abridge the existing Digital Divide. Mr. Abhijit Das, says, "We have already announced the availability of Windows and Microsoft office available in 14 different Indian languages. And, I believe that this initiative can break the digital divide and penetrate the IT for those people who are unable to speak English. Our products are available through more than four thousand partners across the country." Mrs. Subhasini Prabhakar, Chief Technology Manager, APCOM believes that younger generation are the backbone of our society and so the e-Governance initiatives should be more projected towards the general welfare of these generations.
Public-private participation
The task of e-Governance cannot be fulfilled until and unless a good synergy is being established between public and private sectors. A good collaboration with experts in the IT industry can revolutionize and re-organize the governance style and accomplish the most cherished dream of SMART (simple, moral, accountable, responsive, and transparent) government, e-governance, government to public type e-commerce etc.
Speaking about Public-private participation, Mr. Pulkit Trivedi, Branch Manager, Government Vertical, Intel Technology India Pvt. Ltd. Says, “To abridge the digital divide and increase social security, it is necessary that public and private corporate should work closely.” Speaking on the occasion, Shri Surjya Narayan Patra, Minister of Information Technology, Government of Orissa, elucidated that the state government of Orissa is working with open mind for nurturing collaboration with the private sectors in implementation of e-Governance. He said that the State Government had taken several steps for e-Panchayat initiatives to inform, interact and transact business on the Internet. The Panchayats in the State are interlinked electronically with the Directorate and Secretariat with automated fund flow, financial accounting and monitoring. Mr. S. K Tripathy, DGM, OCAC, Government of Orissa says,” "Orissa government is moving in the direction to provide tangible benefit to the citizens. We are ready to provide platform and infrastructure to the players who are going to invest in Orissa. We have got wide IT infrastructure in the state and we are planning to develop IT parks with the help of private and public partnership." He further added He said that IBM, Tata Consultancy Services, Oracle, Wipro Infotech, Intel Solutions, HP India, Newgen Software and others had shown keen interest in putting up their projects in the State and some had already acquired land and space and these would become operational soon, thus making Orissa an IT hub of the country.
Speaking at the Forum, Mr. R. Chandershekhar, Joint Secretary (e-Governance), Department of Information Technology, Government of India, figured out the various challenges faced in implementation of e-Governance. He gave stress on making governance more accountable, reliable, transparent and accessible. He said that, today, India lacks proper infrastructure; clear road map and adoption of technology by citizen are very low. He said that for successful implementation of National e-Governance Action Plan (NEGAP), the role of private sector was equally important. The government services including birth and death certificates, various bill payments, taxes, online submission of applications, land and revenue records can be accessed from a small STD booth or photocopying shop.
Mr. Abhijit Das, Manager Platform Strategy, Microsoft Corporation India, said that Microsoft is ready to support on all front in implementation of e-Governance. He further added that if any one is looking for technical solution then Microsoft could help in developing application through the help of its 200 software vendors who can develop application based on Microsoft tools and technology.
Chandrasekhar B, Director, International Marketing, Intransa India laid stress on the manageability of data. In order to run e-Governance projects successfully it is quintessential to manage the data from a central place. He added that Intrasa can provide best possible means through which data can be managed and monitored. Yogesh Kamat, Country Manager, Indian Subcontinent, Maxtor Corporation said that the Internet has broken the all the barrier and lessens the digital divide. It has broken the cultural barriers, which we previously the citizens were confronted. The need of the hour is that the private players and the policy makers should work together for the betterment of the entire posterity.
Last but not the least
It should be noted that the aim of the e-Governance is just not to providing “right information at right time” but many other services for which the citizens expect from their respective government. Good Governance is a part of a development process which should be participatory, transparent and accountable in characteristic where processes and structures should guide political and socio-economic relationships, and the voices of the poorest and most vulnerable are heard in the decision-making processes regarding the allocation of resources.
Today the Government of India and various State Governments are poised on how their efforts can sustain momentum and meet the load of increasing expectations and demand from the citizens. Before assessing the reason behind the failure of various projects of e-Governance, the Government officials should put some key issues before themselves, like: Has the goal been clearly laid out? If yes, then is there any clear road map and fix time to achieve that goal? Has the project management has been mapped out properly? Is the architecture components are extensible and scalable to adapt to the changing environments?
We have to firstly meet these prerequisite then only we will be able to establish transparent and accountable government.
It should be noted that the aim of the e-Governance is just not to providing “right information at right time” but many other services for which the citizens expect from their respective government. Good Governance is a part of a development process which should be participatory, transparent and accountable in characteristic where processes and structures should guide political and socio-economic relationships, and the voices of the poorest and most vulnerable are heard in the decision-making processes regarding the allocation of resources. For More visit Image Gallery - IT Forum 2005The task of e-Governance cannot be fulfilled until and unless a good synergy is being established between public and private sectors. A good collaboration with experts in the IT industry can revolutionize and re-organize the governance style and accomplish the most cherished dream of SMART (simple, moral, accountable, responsive, and transparent) government, e-governance, government to public type e-commerce etc.
Speaking about Public-private participation, Mr. Pulkit Trivedi, Branch Manager, Government Vertical, Intel Technology India Pvt. Ltd. Says, “To abridge the digital divide and increase social security, it is necessary that public and private corporate should work closely.” Speaking on the occasion, Shri Surjya Narayan Patra, Minister of Information Technology, Government of Orissa, elucidated that the state government of Orissa is working with open mind for nurturing collaboration with the private sectors in implementation of e-Governance. He said that the State Government had taken several steps for e-Panchayat initiatives to inform, interact and transact business on the Internet. The Panchayats in the State are interlinked electronically with the Directorate and Secretariat with automated fund flow, financial accounting and monitoring. Mr. S. K Tripathy, DGM, OCAC, Government of Orissa says,””Orissa government is moving in the direction to provide tangible benefit to the citizens. We are ready to provide platform and infrastructure to the players who are going to invest in Orissa. We have got wide IT infrastructure in the state and we are planning to develop IT parks with the help of private and public partnership.” He further added He said that IBM, Tata Consultancy Services, Oracle, Wipro Infotech, Intel Solutions, HP India, Newgen Software and others had shown keen interest in putting up their projects in the State and some had already acquired land and space and these would become operational soon, thus making Orissa an IT hub of the country.
Speaking at the Forum, Mr. R. Chandershekhar, Joint Secretary (e-Governance), Department of Information Technology, Government of India, figured out the various challenges faced in implementation of e-Governance. He gave stress on making governance more accountable, reliable, transparent and accessible. He said that, today, India lacks proper infrastructure; clear road map and adoption of technology by citizen are very low. He said that for successful implementation of National e-Governance Action Plan (NEGAP), the role of private sector was equally important. The government services including birth and death certificates, various bill payments, taxes, online submission of applications, land and revenue records can be accessed from a small STD booth or photocopying shop.
Mr. Abhijit Das, Manager Platform Strategy, Microsoft Corporation India, said that Microsoft is ready to support on all front in implementation of e-Governance. He further added that if any one is looking for technical solution then Microsoft could help in developing application through the help of its 200 software vendors who can develop application based on Microsoft tools and technology.
Chandrasekhar B, Director, International Marketing, Intransa India laid stress on the manageability of data. In order to run e-Governance projects successfully it is quintessential to manage the data from a central place. He added that Intrasa can provide best possible means through which data can be managed and monitored. Yogesh Kamat, Country Manager, Indian Subcontinent, Maxtor Corporation said that the Internet has broken the all the barrier and lessens the digital divide. It has broken the cultural barriers, which we previously the citizens were confronted. The need of the hour is that the private players and the policy makers should work together for the betterment of the entire posterity. Last but not the least
Today the Government of India and various State Governments are poised on how their efforts can sustain momentum and meet the load of increasing expectations and demand from the citizens. Before assessing the reason behind the failure of various projects of e-Governance, the Government officials should put some key issues before themselves, like: Has the goal been clearly laid out? If yes, then is there any clear road map and fix time to achieve that goal? Has the project management has been mapped out properly? Is the architecture components are extensible and scalable to adapt to the changing environments?
We have to firstly meet these prerequisite then only we will be able to establish transparent and accountable government.
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