Strategic framework for effective e-governance

E-governance is not about IT. It is about bettering the process of governance using IT as a medium

Thursday, February 10, 2005

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Let me make a confession right at the beginning. This story is unlike any other that PCQuest has done so far. Unlike in our regular stories, here we talk more of strategy than of technology or implementation.

Truth be told, this is not what we had originally set out to do. Our original aim was to evolve a robust technology framework for e-governance, and to highlight implementation issues and possible solutions. But the more we got immersed in the topic, the more we realized that e-governance has less and less to do with IT and more and more with governance. E-governance is like the Internet-it is the medium, not the message or the method.

	Pre-requisites for a Good System Good governance does not happen just by itself. Intent is just the starting point. Many elements go into good governance. E-governance systems are no different E-Governance and Rural India  Governments across the country are attempting initiatives to benefit the rural population  Handling IPR Issues Before awarding a project, the IPR ownership should be clearly established Enable Elected Representatives Our elected representatives are mandated to intervene with the bureaucracy and government on our behalf. E-governance systems have to enable and enhance this role Tech Building Blocks Four pillars of technology required to build a good, stable egovernance project Lessons from IRCTC India's most successful B2C site is run by the government. What lessons can other projects learn from it

And e-governenace is not about computerization, but about processes. It is about smoothening the process of governance using the tools of IT, but it is not governance itself. Thus, while IT can be a great enabler of governance, by itself it is neutral.

For example, you can use IT to reduce the latency and inertia in the system, or to remove middlemen or to remove corruption. But it is not IT that is doing it. IT is just providing a platform; the will and drive to achieve all this must come from elsewhere-the people, the politicians and the bureaucrats -else the same systems could end up increasing the ills of the system.

It is this realization that made us change our story, to look at strategies rather than technologies. Technologies change with time, governance has to outlive these changes, and so the strategies used in e-enabling governance have to be able to outlive the changes in technology.

That is not the only way this story is different. We have tried to bring in lessons from the private sector and from other government projects to get insights into how to conceptualize and rollout an e-governance project. Instead of largish case studies, we have used smaller snippets to highlight key points that need to be kept in mind when planning and implementing new projects.

But the biggest difference is that one of the concepts that we were able to develop as part of this story is going to be field tested, even as we are writing these pages. Read the piece on Elected Representatives for more on that.

Normally, when one talks of the bureaucracy or the politicians, there is a fair tinge of the negative associated with those very words, arising mostly because of the perceived inabilities of both to perform the duties expected of them. E-governance is nothing but using IT to help the politician and the bureaucrat deliver the goods-good governance-that is expected of them in a far more effective and efficient manner.

Krishna Kumar

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