Moving toward E-Governance "An engineering approach" Joga Singh Lecturer Computer Science M M Modi College Patiala, 9872764641 E-mail: ...

Moving toward E-Governance

                    “An engineering approach”
                            Joga Singh
  Lecturer Computer Science M M Modi College Patiala, 9872764641
                  E-mail: jssahouli@gmail.com

Abstract
E-governance is now become the most talked word around the world. E-Governance
refers to the process of using information communication technology (ICTs) for
automating both the internal operations of the government and its external interactions
with citizens and other businesses. Automation of interactions with citizens reduces the
overhead for both the government and the citizens. In this paper Emphases is given on
strong software engineering approach to design the national standards because E-
Government project is very complex which will give single window information to
citizens and businesses. This paper also discuss other issues like how to transform
Government to E-Government , the benefits, major areas of implementation of e
governance, the challenges and how to disperse awareness among people to use modern
technology to access Government at door step.

Why e-Government?

I recalled my experience in Patiala district transport office where I visited the office for
my driving license. I saw the office with disorganized queues at various counters and I
had to go to each counter to find out the right one catering to my driving license. When I
finally discovered the right counter I was told that I needed to fill 3 forms but these were
not available in the office, instead these were available outside in private shops. I so
amazed that the license forms are not in the very public office that deals specifically with
this work. Working citizen in Punjab would at a minimum need to apply for two days of
leave to get his driving license. He would need one day to submit the form and another to
collect the license and perhaps another additional day to buy the forms and get the
medical certificate. To submit a new license you need to spent a day interacting with a
minimum of 3 staff in the office (one for an initial of your forms, another at the cashier
and yet another to submit the form) and another two (medical and private vendor) outside
the public department. And you have to waste time in queuing up 3 times. Most of us
accept the fact that forms are not available at the public office but easily available for a
fee at private shops. Which results to corruption so we need a public services process
very citizen friendly by which one can make his work done at his office or home?

E-Government is a way for governments to use the new technologies to provide people
with more convenient access to government information and services, to improve the
quality of the services and to provide greater opportunities to participate in our
democratic institutions and processes. E-Government provides with some tremendous
opportunities to move forward in the 21st century with better quality, cost-effective,
government services and a better relationship between citizens and their government.

Imagine a situation in which all interaction with government can be done through one
counter 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, without waiting in lines. In the near future this
will be possible if governments are willing to decentralize responsibilities and processes,
and if they start to use electronic means such as the Internet. Each citizen can then
contact the government through a website where all forms, legislation, news and other
information will be available

What is e-governance?

A government is a body that has the authority to make and the power to enforce rules
and laws within a civil, corporate, religious, academic, or other organization or group. In
its broadest sense, "to govern" means to administer over a state, a set group of people.

 E-government is a form of e-business in governance and refers to the processes and
structures pertinent to the delivery of electronic services to the public and businesses,
collaborating with business partners and conducting electronic transactions within an
organizational entity.

E-governance is more than just a government or E-government. It is the application of
electronic means of the interaction between government and citizens and government and
businesses as well as in internal government operations with the use of ICT (information
and communication technology) and will improves transparency at the government level.

E-government or Electronic government is the use of information technology, more
specifically the internet, to deliver public services in a much more convenient, customer
oriented, cost effective and altogether different and better way. It serves 3 main purposes;
firstly cost containment and operational efficiency, secondly to improve citizens
relationships by meeting their expectations and thirdly to foster and facilitate rapid
economic development.

Goals of e -governance

The goals of e-governance are to support and simplify governance for all parties;
government, citizens and businesses. The use of ICTs can connect all three parties and

support processes and activities. In other words, in e-governance electronic means
support and stimulate good governance. Therefore the objectives of e-governance are
similar to the objectives of good governance.
Good governance can be seen as an exercise of economic, political, and administrative
authority to better manage affairs of a country at all levels. E-Governance offers a new
way forward, helping improve government processes, connect citizens, and build
interactions with and within a civil society. What reform has e-Governance in store?
According to one school of thought, at root it provides following basic change potentials
for good governance for development:

1. To provide citizen access to information and knowledge about the political process,
about services and about choices available
2. To enable the transition from passive information access to active citizen participation
by:
    • Informing the citizen
    • presenting the citizen
    • Encouraging the citizen to vote
    • consulting the citizen
    • Involving the citizen

3. The external objective of e-government is to fulfill the public’s needs and expectations
satisfactory on the front-office side, by simplifying the interaction with various online
services. The use of ICT in government operations facilitates speedy, transparent,
accountable, efficient and effective interaction with the public, citizens, business and
other agencies.
4. In the back-office, the internal objective of e-government in government operations is
to facilitate a speedy, transparent, accountable, efficient and effective process for
performing Government administration activities. Significant cost savings(per
transaction) in government operations can be the result.

5. Automation: Replacing current human-executed processes, which involve accepting,
storing, processing, outputting or transmitting information. For example, the automation
of existing clerical functions.
6. Informatisation: Supporting current human-executed information processes. For
example, supporting current processes of decision-making, communication, and decision
implementation.
7. Transformation: Supporting new human-executed information processes. For example,
creating new methods of public service delivery.
8. Improve quality of service delivery
9. Raise efficiency levels through cost management and process improvements.
10. Promote economic development and poverty alleviation
11. Elaborate a strategic plan for Networking Government departments and automate
services
12. Encourage utilization of electronic communication between Public sector and citizens
13. Provide ICT training incentives for public workers

14. Establish information management standards in the public sector
15. Pass legislation to safeguard individual privacy and protect the public against abuse
of ICTs
 16. Stimulate and support the growth of electronic commerce to improve government
procurement

These change potentials, in turn, can bring – singly or in combination, five main benefits
to governance for development:
    • Governance that is cheaper: Producing the same outputs at lower total cost.
    • Governance that does more: Producing more outputs at the same total cost.
    • Governance that is quicker: Producing the same outputs at the same total cost in
       less time.
    • Governance that works better: Producing the same outputs at the same total
       cost in the same time, but to a higher quality standard.
    • Governance that is innovative: Producing new outputs.

Major areas of Implementation

Identifying major areas of implementation is one of the huddles. Here I am suggesting
some of the area on the priority bases which can be covered under e governance program
following are the government department with maximum citizens interface which have
maximum public interface

1. Public Grievances: Electricity, Water, Telephone, Ration Card, Sanitation, Public
Transport, Police

2. Rural Services: Land Records, Below Poverty Line (BPL) Families , Civil supplies,
Old Age Pension, Widow Pension, Handicapped Pension / Services, Ex Gratia Payment

3. Police: FIR Registration, Lost and Found, Valuables, Persons, Dead Bodies

4. Social Services: Pension Old Age, Widows, Acquisition / Rehabilitation &
Compensation, Registration of Licenses and Certificates ,Ration Cards, Birth Certificates,
Death Certificate, Domicile Certificate, Caste / Tribe Certificate, Arms Renewal,
Registration of Documents, School Registration, University Registration, Motor Vehicle
Registration, Driving License

5. Public Information: Employment Exchange Registration, Employment Opportunities,
Examination Results, Hospitals / Beds Availability / Services, Railway Time Tables,
Airline Time Tables, Road Transport Time Tables, Charitable Trusts, Government
Notifications, Government Forms, Government Schemes

6. Agriculture Sector: Speeds Information, Pesticides, Fertilizers, Crop disease, Weather
Forecast - short range / District wise, Market Price

7. Utility Payments / Billing: Electricity, Water, Telephone

8. Commercial: Taxation & Return Filing, Income Tax, Corporate Tax, Custom Duty,
Central / State Excise Duty, Sales Tax, House Tax, Property Tax, Octroi, Road Tax,
Company Returns

9. Government: Electronic Procurement, Education University Model for E-Governance

Challenges of e-Governance
Indian citizens are forced to move from one department to another, from one table to
another in order to get their work done. While initiatives for e-Governance have been
emanating from various directions, they are often at cross-purposes and so repetitive and
wasteful. The National Task Force has also made several recommendations in this regard.
The fundamental strategic challenge faced is e-Readiness for e-Governance. This is a
multifold challenge posing basic questions such as:
    • Is the Data Systems Infrastructure Ready?
    • Is the Legal Infrastructure Ready?
    • Is the Institutional Infrastructure Ready?
    • Is the Human Infrastructure Ready?
    • Is the Technological Infrastructure Ready?
    • Is the Leadership and Strategic Thinking Ready?
There are other multifaceted challenges in implementing any e-Governance solution:
1. The Human Challenge
Quite often e-Governance initiatives would lead to mandatory organizational and
institutional changes affecting both people and methods at all interfaces of the Delivery
Chain For this, acceptance of this Change Processes would have to be properly
understood, accepted, internalized, adopted and improved to enable full advantages of the
technology being adopted in the first part of Smart Governance.” The data should move
not the citizen”
2. Lack Standards
There is chance that each government organization is taking independent decisions of
acquiring hardware and software. Many time, these hardware and software “do not talk”
with each other thereby making it difficult to implement a unified e-Governance policy.
Moreover since there is not much coordination between different departments, each
department is spending individually for the similar tasks. For example each department
shall call different vendors for development of their websites with altogether different
prices. This also leads to inconsistency in the functionalities of different sites. Millions of
rupees are wasted each year due to this duplication of efforts.

3. Political aspects related to e-governance include strategies and policies, laws and
legislation, leadership, decision making processes, funding issues, international affairs,
and political stability.

4. Social aspects Examples of some social aspects related to e-governance are people,
(level of) education, employment, income, digital divide, rural areas vs. cities, rich vs.
poor, literacy, IT skills.

5. Economic aspects related to e-governance are funding, cost savings, business models,
e-commerce, spin-offs of e governance.

6. Technological aspects involve software, hardware, infrastructure, telecom, IT skilled
people, and maintenance, safety and security issues.

Developing standards and awareness to Implementing e-governance

Transformation from governance to E governance is not a simple task it has to go throw
from various phases. The common perception is that e-governance projects in India are
erratic and depend upon their continuance on the administrative officer immediately in
charge. And that different departments use different standards and technologies that
cannot interface. If not followed like other professional software project it may also laps.
One has to follow strong software engineering concepts. Developing e governance
standards should be at priority. India is country of vast geographical area with different
language scripts used by different part of the country. It requires the ministerial level
department to handle whole process of standard formation which should be delegate up to
root level.

Very few people in India are aware about the use of ICT and its application. number of
reason are English illiteracy rate, because most the ICT devices are using English
language. This is the responsibility of government to develop the local language
standards so that common man can also participate in the e governance transformation.

The following factors have to be taken into account when examining the risk of
implementing e-governance solutions.
   • Political stability (democracy or dictatorial regime)
   • Level of trust in government (perception of service levels)
   • the importance of government identity (fragmentation or integration)
   • Economic structure (education, agriculture, industry or service)
   • Government structure (centralized or decentralized)
   • Different levels of maturity (weakest part of the chain determines speed)
   • Constituent demand (pushes or pulls)

Conclusion

Over the last decade, e-Governance has made tremendous progress. It is visible not only
in urban areas but also in rural areas. Some of the major applications of e-Governance
are: Land Records System; Registration; Rural Development; Municipalities;
Commercial Taxes/VAT; Driving License/Vehicle Registration; Passports; Immigration;
Visa and Judiciary. Each of these applications, over the last three decades, has really
made tremendous impact on the citizen and has created transparency in Governance. In
the initial stages, the use of IT for Governance did differentiate between the English-
educated and the non-English educated. This is mainly because the old application
systems were developed in English. But we were able to create a user-friendly access by
which even people who does not know English could access the system from any kiosk. I
would say, in fact, during the last four years, IT solutions have been able to bridge the
gap between the rural and urban population because they can be applied using the local
language. Such technology will cater to multi language and multi-culture citizens.