Reconceptualizing the Nexus: An

Inquiry into the Interstitial Spaces of

Governance, Digitization
and Administration

Kabyaa Nayak, Rakshita Ranga, Vidushi, Afreen Kapoor

Department of Political Science, Hindu College. University of Delhi, New Delhi, 110007

KEYWORDS ABSTRACT

E-governance The paper is an epistemological enquiry into the paradigmatic advances

Digitization of e-governance traversing the quotidian public affairs and rudimentarily
Good governance hinging on the apodictic models viz. G2G, G2C and G2B. It delves into
Administration the multifaceted realm of e-governance transcending the conventional
Development field of e-administration and concomitantly addressing the emergent
ICT fields of e-finance, e-transaction, e-health and e-education. In light of this,
the publicly acclaimed policies under each field have been categorically
analysed and expatiated on.

To further facilitate the enquiry, a questionnaire-based survey, covering

the urban settings and employing a nuanced quantitative methodology, is
used and provides a detailed analysis of the penetration of e-governance
services offered to the public. It, thereby, assists in critically evaluating
the services put in place through public optics while also giving an insight
into the perception of the concept of e-governance at the grassroots level.

Toward the end, the paper acknowledges the inexorable discrepancies

that had lurked unsolicitedly with the adoption of ICT integrant within
the framework of governance bequeathed from time immemorial.
However, it methodically pursues a solution-oriented approach towards
the deeply entrenched issues of digital divide, data privacy, cybersecurity
and systems bereft of interoperability.

1|Page
INTRODUCTION

Of late, a new paradigm shift was witnessed inference that can be drawn is that E-
in the conventional method of governing governance is an ICT-enabled tool with
the masses which, as a consequence, good governance as a desirable end to it.
assisted in bridging the apparent lacunae in
the dissemination of services offered by the In addition to being ‘electronic’
government. Consequently, this shift governance, e-governance transcends the
disrupted the archaic realm of governance ‘ICT’ space to incorporate, one, integrated
and set off a new governance procedure governance and two, enabled governance.
with enhanced transparency, It is widely viewed as integrated
accountability, efficiency, effectiveness, governance because of its area of operation
and inclusiveness. This new procedure has which encompasses integrating people,
been given the technical term of ‘e- processes, information, and technology to
governance’. But before delving deeper achieve good governance. The focus shifts
into what e-governance entails, it is from automating the government to
indispensable to demystify the concept of connecting it with the larger community in
governance first. the form of e-citizens, e-services, and e-
Governance comes under the ambit of both society.
the government and the non-government It is seen as enabled governance because it
which may extend to the civil society and attempts to deliver unique and enhanced
the private sector alike. The UN defines it services to the citizens while facilitating the
as “the exercise of political and process of governance by leveraging the
administrative authority at all levels to use of ICT. enabling because it facilitates
manage a country's affairs”. the service dissemination
However, the ordinary governance According to UNESCO, e-governance
(entailing procedural complexities, involves “new styles of leadership, new
inefficient & apathetic staff, and absurdly ways of debating and deciding policy and
prolonged service delivery), started investment, new ways of accessing
shedding the character of good governance. education, new ways of listening to
Coupled with the volatility of the new-age citizens, and new ways of organizing and
citizens’ demands, these run-of-the-mill delivering information and services”.
and dormant service delivery mechanisms
regressed the already existing set-up of E-governance is an umbrella concept that
governance to a primaeval level. This was encompasses three concepts, namely e-
the time when the idea of governance business (government to business, G2B); e-
translated into e-Governance to resolve the democracy (government to citizens, G2C);
apparent and conspicuous discrepancies. and e-government (government to
Although to date, there exists no mutually government, G2G). The paper dissects the
agreed definition of e-governance, a idea of E-governance with an emphasis on
common element found in some definitions public administration in India, therefore, in
across the world is ‘ICT’. Therefore, an essence discusses these three models.

2|Page
EVOLUTION

E governance is relatively a new venture for for the state governments were
India. In 1976 the establishment of NIC provided with free hardwares and
(National Informatics Centre), the birth of e softwares. By 1990, all the district
governance took place. NIC is the headquarters started using NICNET. Then
technology partner of the government that 2000, Gyandoot Project in Dhar district,
provides technology driven solutions both Madhya Pradhesh was launched as one of
to central and state government. At the first the first major e governance project. As per
stage it launched the District Information this project kiosks were set up to deliver
System which computerised all district government information and services to the
offices in the country. Today, designs and citizens. Then in 2006 the First National E
develops software for the government and Governance Plan came into being which
provide ITC infrastructure to the aims to integrate various e governance
government. Then in 1986 NICNET was initiative across the countries into a
launched which is a satellite based nation- collective vision, a shared caused. The
wide communication network (a type of vision statement of Nep is “"Make all
Wide Area Network). It facilitated Government services accessible to the
“institutional linkages across all the common man in his locality, through
Ministries /Departments of the Central common service delivery outlets, and
Government, State Governments, Union ensure efficiency, transparency, and
Territories, and District administrations of reliability of such services at affordable
the country.” At the same time frame, costs to realise the basic needs of the
National Informatic Centres District common man" Then in 2015, the
Information System was launched with the introduction of Digital India programme
objective to computerise all district offices was a shot in the arm.

E-GOVERNANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT

As is true all over the world, government in which provide three basic change potentials
the developing nations costs too much, for good governance for development:
delivers too little, and is not sufficiently
Automation: replacing current human-
responsive or accountable.
executed processes which involve
Good governance reforms aim to address
accepting, storing, processing, outputting
these shortcomings. Yet progress - after
or transmitting information.
many years of effort in implementing such
Informatisation: supporting current human-
reforms - has been much more limited than
executed information processes.
expected. E -Governance offers a new way
Transformation: creating new ICT-
forward, helping improve government
executed information processes or
processes, connect citizens, and build
supporting new human-executed
interactions with and within civil society.
information processes.
What exactly has e-governance got to
offer? At root, it has the power of ICTs,
3|Page
These change potentials, in turn, can bring use of ICTs by government can bring
singly or in combination- five main benefits benefits both internally and externally:
to governance for development: SInternally, providing benefits such as
better staff motivation or greater political
Efficiency gains: Governance that is
control or an improved public image.
cheaper: producing the same outputs at
Externally, by delivering cheaper, better
lower total cost.
services to those who depend on
Effectiveness gains: government. Indirectly by demonstrating
Governance that is innovative: producing the benefits of ICTs to the wider
new outputs. population; by catalysing the local IT
These are the direct and objective benefits. industry; and by encouraging foreign
ICTs can bring many others. For example, investment.

E-HEALTH

E-Health plays a crucial role in India by related information and services during the
improving healthcare accessibility, cost- pandemic.
effectiveness, disease management, health The key features of Aarogya Setu include:
awareness, and data management. By
- Automatic contact tracing
leveraging technology, India can address
- Self-Assessment test based on
the challenges of its healthcare system and
ICMR guidelines
provide better healthcare services to its vast
- Risk Status of User
population. In our survey, we have
- Updates, advisory and best practices
collected data about the usage of 2 major
related to COVID-19
apps used during the time of COVID-19-the
- Geo-location based COVID-19
worst health crisis of this century.
statistics
- Nationwide COVID-19 statistics
Aarogya Setu
- Emergency COVID-19 Helpline
Aarogya Setu is a digital service, primarily contacts
a mobile application, developed by the - List of ICMR approved Labs with
Government of India and is aimed at COVID-19 testing facilities
protecting the citizens during COVID-19. It - e-Pass integration
is designed to augment the initiatives of the - Support for 12 Languages
Government of India by informing the
people of their potential risk of COVID-19 CoWIN
infection and the best practices to be
COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network
followed to stay healthy, as well as
(CoWIN) system is a comprehensive cloud-
providing them relevant and curated
based IT solution for planning,
medical advisories, as per MoHFW and
implementation, monitoring, and
ICMR guidelines, pertaining to the
evaluation of COVID-19 vaccination in
COVID-19 pandemic. Aarogya Setu
India. It provides real time information of
primarily serves as a G2C platform,
vaccine stocks, their storage temperature
providing citizens with essential health-

4|Page
and individualized tracking of beneficiaries only Aarogya. 6.7% of middle class and
of the COVID-19 vaccine. This platform 37.5% of lower class were not using the
assists the program managers across all apps. 25% of lower class are not aware of
levels through automated session allocation the apps.
for pre-registered beneficiaries, their
verification and for generating a digital Criticism
certificate upon successful completion of
A huge trade-off in between information
the vaccine schedule. Co-WIN platform has
along with privacy in context to GPS and
been repurposed from the e-VIN platform.
bluetooth-based applications like Arogya
Setu is going on. Privacy is one of the major
In the survey we carried out, we asked the
concerns in the applications that use
people whether they used these 2 apps
Bluetooth. It uses it to provide geographical
during the pandemic.
information and gives actions information
on the movement of people, which is a
major aspect of contract tracing. The
privacy of the application is also not strong
enough to protect this information and thus
it has become a major concern.
There were various issues with people’s
privacy in the Arogya Setu app. There was
various information that was collected but
had no direct relationship with the usage of
40.6% of females and 41.9% of males used the application. Also, the data should be
both Aarogya and Cowin, 35.5% of males deleted once used, but there is nothing
and 37.5% of females used Aarogya Setu, explained in that term, and thus the
12.5% of females and 9.7% of males used government can keep this data for an
Co-Win, 3.1% of females and 12.9% of infinite period. All of these aspects created
males didn’t use any and 6.3% of females a huge concern and even the government
were not aware about the apps. made it compulsory for the individual to
have this app in their smartphones which
also gave birth to a lot of criticism.
The compulsory installation of the Arogya
Setu app is a major concern when the
privacy concern takes place. It is said that
the compulsory use of this app is
intervening in legitimate public health
information. The huge critical information
that is taken by Arogya Setu app has led to
Similarly, 46.7% of Middle Class and the rise of risk of this information for the
12.5% of lower class used both Aarogya public even though it is used for the
and Cowin. 60% of upper class used only national level still there is a lot of risks
Cowin. 46.7% of middle class and 25% of involved with it.
lower class and 40% of upper class used

5|Page
The data access and knowledge sharing question of the responsibility arises. The
protocol was issued in which the principles usage of these applications was surely done
have mentioned the processing and for the betterment and for the fight against
collection of data, but opinion was not in covid but the method and technique being
favor of having fully secured data of the used for the fight will eventually give birth
customers. The government has itself to the other issue if not being handled in the
denied the security of the data and thus the right manner.

E-FINANCE

Governments globally are embracing Online Income Tax Returns Filing

digitalization to engage more deeply with
The advancement of technology and the use
citizens and to improve people’s access to
of the internet in financial and fiscal affairs
public services. Governments are also
globally has necessitated the e-filing of
improving their accountability and earning
Income Tax in India also. Introduced back
trust by moving towards collaborative
in 2004, E-filing is the process of filling
systems and reshaping how they engage
your tax documents through the Internet
with citizens and businesses. Estonia, for
with the help of software or by registering
example, has long led the way when it
yourself on the income tax website. E-filing
comes to digital governance. The Baltic
resonates with various goals of good
state launched e-signatures and digital
governance, be it accountability,
identity cards for residents as early as 2002,
transparency, effective & efficiency,
laying the foundations for a digital society
besides reducing red-tapism that the
and stimulating data sharing across its
traditional ITR filing system was plagued
public sector. Since then, other European
with.
countries, including Finland, Norway and
Denmark, have also taken steps towards a
digital future. Incidentally, CoVID-19
accelerated the uptake of digital systems
like never before, as companies worldwide
raced to pivot towards online commerce
almost overnight. Many government
services followed suit.
Through the provision of digital
infrastructure for its transactions with
businesses, governments are able to spur
digitalization among the enterprises
themselves; access to well-designed, user-
friendly digital services for citizens can
help build digital skills among the
population; and public-private
collaboration can lead to new innovative
digital solutions that serve citizens and
customers.

6|Page
Our survey on E-filing of ITR is dissected As the 5th largest economy in the world in
and analysed on gender and income terms of GDP (PPP), India strives to take
parameters. The male predominance in bigger economic leaps through the medium
filing ITR over females resonates with the of digitization. We have been harnessing
gendered employment pattern we have. the “data revolution” to create an
Moreover, the upper class with an annual atmosphere where civil society
income of more than $ 1035 is more organizations and individual citizens
enthusiastic about ITR filing than the rest engage with and improve government
classes. accountability. Essentially, the adoption of
digital technologies improves citizens’
Aaykar Setu Mobile Application
quality of life. It allows governments to
Launched in July 2017 by the then finance serve people better, makes transactions
minister, Arun Jaitley. The app is a part of easier and cheaper, and provides businesses
the Digital India initiative. It facilitates and society with more ways to engage with
taxpayers to understand taxation and the government. While digitalization
provides solutions to many of their queries. reduces friction in accessing public services
Moreover, the app enables taxpayers to and makes transactions easier, it also raises
understand the process, know the utilities the question of accountability. As
available at the income tax website and file governments collect more data and
taxes for themselves instead of relying on information about citizens through digital
others for help. Also, the app is simple to platforms, they have a responsibility to use
use for the convenience of taxpayers of all that data well and to keep it secure.
classes and ages. However, if done correctly, digitalization
goes hand-in-hand with good governance.

E-ADMINISTRATION
IDs, payment networks, and data. This
As India becomes the growth market digital infrastructure is interoperable and
darling of the world, with a digital economy “stacked” together — meaning that private
crossing a $1tn valuation in 2022, companies can build apps integrated with
implementing strong user privacy state services to provide consumers with
protection is more crucial than ever before. seamless access to everything from welfare
Geopolitically, India’s public digital payments to loan applications. It is argued
infrastructure has become a core part of that with this, India has found a world-
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to beating solution for building out and
present India as a nascent economic regulating the online commons that is more
superpower, alternative investment equitable than the US’s laissez-faire
destination to China, and leading voice of approach, more innovative than the EU’s
the global south. At the heart of this effort regulation-heavy model, and more
is the so-called India Stack: government- transparent than China’s totalitarian
backed APIs, or application programming template.
interfaces, upon which third parties can
build software with access to government

7|Page
 'Digital Empowerment' of citizens by
providing access to authentic digital
documents to citizens' digital document
wallets. Moreover, it is a secure cloud-
based platform for the storage, sharing, and
verification of documents & certificates.
Driven by blockchain technology, it
involves a distributed database or ledger
Digilocker that is shared among the nodes of a
computer network, storing data
It is a flagship initiative of the Ministry of
electronically thereby providing protection
Electronics & IT (MeitY) under the Digital
against fidelity and generating trust without
India program. DigiLocker aims at the
the need for third party involvement.

E-EDUCATION
E-Paathsala cardinal features of educational policy viz,
access, equity and quality. It hosts various
E pathshala, a joint initiative of Ministry of
courses that can be accessed by the students
Human Resources and NCERT, was
from 9th class onwards till the PG as per the
launched in 2015. It helps the students and
eligibility criteria. The courses are divided
teachers (educators) e-textbooks,
into 4 quadrants- (1) video lecture, (2)
supplementary books, e resources like
specially prepared reading material that can
audios, videos, interactive images, maps
be downloaded/printed (3) self-assessment
and question banks. The NCERT books
tests through tests and quizzes and (4) an
have many QRs which when scanned gives
online discussion forum for clearing the
various resources related to chapter.
doubts
Besides it helps the teachers with teaching
The courses are interactive and free of cost,
instructions and to access periodicals and
however to get a certificate and earn credits,
journals. Further E PG pathshala has also
one has to register for proctored exams at
been introduced to help the PG students.
an exam centre by paying a certain amount
This includes E-Adhyan which provides
of fee. The eligibility for certificate is
700+ books of PG courses along with some
announced in the course description and the
video content. E-pathshala can be used
credits thereby earned can be transferred to
both as web version and mobile person.”
the academic record of the student.
The platform supports text-to-speech
functionality, sign language content, and
multilingual support in various regional
languages.”

SWAYAM

SWAYAM is another initiative by the

government that aims to bridge the gap of
digital divide. It is designed to achieve 3

8|Page
 superficial knowledge and lack of proper
awareness regarding these educational
platforms. The 2nd graph concerns itself
with the income groups. It seen that both in
upper class and lower-class income
categories a large number of respondents
are not aware of educational platforms. For
the former it maybe because they have other
resources and do not feel necessary to use
these free services, whereas for the latter
From the survey it can be inferred that the it’s lack of proper awareness. This shows
male respondents are mostly not aware the the very objective of the government to
e-educational platforms. Further women bridge the educational gap between
though being aware are not utilising the different income groups has a long way to
benefits of such platforms which is matter go.
of concern. It may be possibly due to

E-TRANSACTIONS

In the union budget 2019, the Government directly into their bank accounts. In
of India aspired to make India a 5 trillion- addition to this, the very fundamental
dollar economy by 2024-25 wherein one motive of government is welfare and not
agenda was to transform the predominately profit maximization, so, it supports those
cash-based economy to a cashless digital banks that have not yet developed any UPI
economy. Bearing this in mind, the app
National Payments Corporation of India Over the top, the hallmark of BHIM UPI is
(NPCI) was entrusted with developing and the *99# initiative which offers the same
launching a Unified Payment Interface BHIM experience but offline.
(UPI) platform for making it possible to However, it is marred with certain flaws
undertake electronic financial transactions which may include the frequent technical
through mobile phones. glitches in the app and the *99# USSD.
The BHIM app has advantages that Nevertheless, it is one of the most
transcend the conventional method of indispensable initiatives of the government
transactions which is extremely scattered. It given the deeply entrenched digital divide
mainly falls under the ambit of G2C model in the country.
addressing the needs of the people and to
avoid the hassle of visiting banks for
everyday transactions. Firstly, it is simple
and easy to use even for an unlettered
person, and ensures secure user onboarding
since it carries the government's name with
it, which of course inspires more trust than
a private firm. Secondly, it is a boon for
merchants who can now accept payments

9|Page
 increasingly financially inclusive nation
and a digitally empowered society.

Our survey has a lot to say about its actual

usage. Surprisingly, the use of BHIM UPI
has been applaudable in all three income
groups. However, there is a substantial gap
between males and females. But it is
important to note that women are more
From the perspective of e-governance, this
aware about these apps than males
has facilitated the development of an

CASE STUDY

E-Sampark, Chandigarh

To provide a little background to the case, an initiative that aimed at helping

Chandigarh, better known for its epithet, Chandigarh develop different “e-
‘the city beautiful’, is the capital of two governance” applications in the projects
burgeoning northern states of India, undertaken by the Society for Promotion of
Haryana and Punjab. Divided into 58 IT (SPIC). In addition to this, the IBM deal
administrative units, called ‘sectors’, it aimed at:
offers a perfect design which houses and
integrates core infrastructure, thereby, - setting up a system to promote
acting as a major facilitator of service affordable and open standards-
delivery to all of its citizens. Apart from based computing while reducing
being renowned for its impeccable cost
architecture and planning, it has been - training students and professionals
regarded as one of the most digitally of Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana on
forward cities in India. Its active and alert Linux and IBM software
citizens are a big boon and their - providing the Chandigarh
participation in policy and decision-making Administration, a proven platform
processes is substantial. Besides, the city to reduce the development time of
has achieved 100% Adhaar coverage which building applications
comes as an added advantage in
As the then IT Secretary claimed, it was a
administering the city.
baby step toward an IT revolution in India.
The seed of e-governance was first sown in
One such e-governance application (after
the year 2004 when the Chandigarh
signing the MoU) was launched in 2004
Administration and the IT giant IBM India
under the information technology-enabled
signed a Memorandum of Understanding
services (ITES), known as the Project e-
(MoU). Under the MoU, IBM set up an
Sampark.
‘IBM e-governance solution centre for
Linux’ for the Chandigarh Administration,

10 | P a g e
Project e-Sampark was initiated to bring not available at Mini-Sampark and
together the services of all the departments Extension Sampark Centres. The table
under one single umbrella and give citizens shows the type of sampark sectors and their
of Chandigarh a “multi-service”-“single- location in Chandigarh and the rural areas
window” experience apart from eradicating in its proximity:
the undue harassment met by the citizens
due to lack of transparency. Twelve departments of UT
(https://chdit.gov.in/sampark) administration/corporation/ boards and few
private companies have collaborated with
The vision for this project was to create a department of IT to make citizen services
knowledge-based society through extensive available through centres of Project e-
use of I.T. as a medium for effective Sampark wherein 3 models of e-governance
interaction between the administration and are at work:
the public so that exchange of information
and access to government departments is
speedy and trouble-free, thereby ensuring a
better quality of life for the residents of
Chandigarh. The e-Sampark website lists
the following objectives of this project:

- Provide hassle free one-stop The Sampark project has been able to
solution to the citizen provide one stop-shop services for more
- Minimize multiple interaction than 58 services. The myriad of services
points for the citizen offered under these models at Sampark
- Provide better turn-around time in Centres can be differentiated based on the
receipt, processing and issue of departments they fall under:
services
- Transparency in the delivery of The table shows the majority of the services
services are a part of G2C model. This points toward
a significant observation that is there has
The Sampark centres were earlier classified been a visible shift wherein the designing of
as e-Sampark Centres, Gram-Sampark programmes is from the perspective of the
Centres and Jan-Sampark Kiosks but service recipients (mainly citizens) and not
recently in December 2022, they have been the service providers which was a
reclassified as Sampark, Mini-Sampark and predominant system in the past. Here,
Extension Sampark Centres ostensibly on instead of asking what services government
the basis of the facilities available there agencies can provide, they start with what
such as: the citizens really need.

- size of the centre, To reiterate, there has been a distinct shift

- number of facilitation counters, from an ‘agency centric’ model to a ‘citizen
- infrastructure available centric’ model.

However, in reality, the major difference

lies in the facility of e-stamp papers that is

11 | P a g e
12 | P a g e
All the services offered at Sampark Centres The so called “IT Revolution in
follow a general process have a fixed Chandigarh” after the launch of Sampark
hierarchy as depicted in the figures below. centres was witnessed within 3 to 4 years of
Both these remain constant throughout the its launch. Its success can be traced based
45 Sampark centres. on two factors:

- Massive Revenue Generation (for

the government)
- Good Governance (for the citizens)

This fiscal's revenue at the e-Sampark

centres has been deemed a “record” just
after its operations began. Within 4 years of
its inception, Rs 408 crores of government
revenue was collected in 19.26 lakh
transactions. Today, the numbers have
swollen even more and it has evidently
proved as a systemized source of revenue
generation for the government.

More importantly, the reason it has been

rechristened “a success story in e-
governance” is primarily owed to the
positive feedbacks this project has been
getting time and again. The sampark project As perceptible from the above table, the
stands as an epitome of the veritable overall level of satisfaction with service
translation of e-governance into good delivery (i.e. sum of ‘very’ and ‘rather’
governance. “No more scrambling from satisfied respondents) has been quite high
one place to another to pay telephone, water for all the three parameters i.e. time-to-
and electricity bills or even to buy stamp deliver, accessibility and overall quality.
papers and file RTI pleas, thanks to the More than 95% respondents belong to this
Chandigarh administration's 'e-Sampark' category. Close to 50% people are satisfied
centres that provide all these facilities and with the service deliverance time which is a
more under one roof”, states Hindustan visible forte of project Sampark. Only
Times. 0.73% of the people are dissatisfied with
the services which indeed is an
The satisfaction level of the citizens of
achievement.
Chandigarh with this initiative has been
immense and it is evident through a survey Yet, before drawing generalisations in this
conducted by Department of Information regard, it must be noted that raters often
Technology, Chandigarh. display certain biases that colour their
judgments of different traits the survey may
13 | P a g e
be subjected to middle category bias or during the visit entails a ₹100 charge,
extreme response bias which is the inclusive of taxes.
tendency to place responses either in the
middle of the scale or at extreme ends Furthermore, the UT administration also
respectively. In addition to these, social announced new facilitation charges for nine
desirability (the tendency on the part of the services being offered by e-Sampark
respondent to endorse items in a socially centres. The justification by the
desirable manner) and acquiescence (the administration has been attributed to the
tendency of the subject to agree with multi-fold increase in expenses on
items/questions irrespective of their manpower, consumables, hardware and
contents) might have had a serious impact software maintenance. However, for
in having such positive results to the services where facilitation charges are
survey. levied, residents are being provided 50%
rebate on the charge if the payment is made
Nevertheless, the positive feedbacks and online via e-Sampark website or mobile
customer repeat rate at sampark centres is app.
in itself a testimony to the effectiveness of
Sampark centres. However, at the same time, it has been
faced with great repulsion and
Sampark is not a stagnant project, it has dissatisfaction over some of its initiatives
been evolving with time and has fared well which could plausibly be threatening to its
in addressing to the newly erupting issues. existence. A case in point could be levying
additional charges. Senior citizens, retired
One of them being, a decision taken for the people and those who are not tech savvy
convenience of residents in February 2023 and are unable to pay the charges online are
wherein the UT administration decided to burdened more given the rider that comes
keep all 45 Sampark centres open on alongside the decision wherein online
Sunday as well. The decision was so made payments are 50% less expensive.
to reach out to maximum residents of the Secondly, water and electricity bills
city. Earlier, the centres remained open inclusion in the list troubles the common
from Monday to Saturday only. However, man more than the others since they are the
from February 2023, they will also remain ones who usually adopt this system of
open from 9 am to 5 pm on all Sundays payment. Paying bills is unavoidable and
except the gazetted holidays. their inclusion in the list has the greatest
impact in this regard.
In addition to this, in the same month, the
Chandigarh administration had also Charges have come from the city’s
launched doorstep delivery of the 54 residents who have mentioned that the
services offered by these centres so as to administration has surplus budget and
skip the hassle of visiting Sampark centres. should be spent on meeting the facilitation
But the facility comes at a cost. For availing costs.
of any single service at home, residents are
entitled to pay ₹200, inclusive of taxes, and Additionally, citizens have quite often
every subsequent service transaction faced technical glitches on e-sampark
website rendering a visit to e-Sampark

14 | P a g e
centres as the last resort, thereby burning a physical governance has yielded
hole in the pocket of a common man. satisfactory results both for the residents of
Chandigarh and the government.
Despite, the roadblocks faced by the
project, it has fared well. The satisfaction The Union Ministry of Communication and
level of the residents of Chandigarh has IT E-Readiness Assessment Report ranked
been fairly high which is highly indicative Chandigarh as leader in the country in the
of the success of the project. There remains field of e-governance only after a couple of
both apparent and inconspicuous lacunae in years of its launch. Moreover, the project
the system, however, they have thankfully also fetched Chandigarh the Golden Icon
not been big enough to pervert the Award. Therefore, apart from the
conventional functioning of the system. Its recognition at home, e-Sampark project has
service deliverance and a perfect also left its indelible impression all across
amalgamation of electronic governance and the country.

E- Shishu, Odisha

E- shishu is an initiative taken under the - List of children in the village

patronage of Odisha Primary Education remaining out-of-school
Programme Authority by the school and - List of children in Tribal areas for
mass education department, Odisha. getting access
It was designed with the objective to - List of In-school children receiving
achieve the goals of Sarva Sikha Abhiyan- 1. Mid-day meal
→ Access: By tracking the out of school 2. Uniforms
children with their age and reason of being 3. Free Text Books
Out of school & bring them back into the 4. Other Incentives
mainstream education. - Student attendance rate
→ Retention: By tracking the in-school - Teachers absenteeism
children and providing necessary inputs so - Reason wise list of Out of school
that they continue to remain in the school. children
→ Quality of Education: By tracking the - Achievement level of each child
achievement level of children and taking - List of target group of children in
corrective measures for its enhancement village to be admitted into school
“Transparency is the mainstay of effective - Identification of CWSN &
administration and Computerization will Minority children.
help build credibility of the Department - Indicators like Dropout Rate,
before the public.” GER, NER & % of OOSC in
The Odisha Government for better different category.
governance started the E -shishu, first of it’s - Children getting the facility
kind in the country, to realise the spirit through EGS/AIE and other non-
behind Right to Education. formal schools.

It took into consideration the following-

15 | P a g e
Further, E-shishu monitors all the 14 children (0-14 years) according to a26 point
interventions of SSA. household forms. Before processed
This project can be divided into 3 important and exported to server, the data from these
components- surveys were transformed into machine
readable forms in english. Around 52000
1- CHILD TRACKING SYSTEM- Child revenue villages were tagged with EMIS
Tracking System or CTS, is a code.
comprehensive web based database system With the help of ABBY’s salient reader
keeping a track or record of all the children capability, functions of scanning,
between the age of 6-14 years of various recognition, validation, verification and
backgrounds .This was a joint venture of export were all completed in a time period
OPEA and Directorate of IT Along with of 4 months.
their names, other parameters like date of Then the data generated were transferred
birth, age, sex, category, religion, mother from the FormReader to the Database
tongue, type of disability if any, and loaded in the State Database Server and
educational status of in-school children , District Servers through VSAT which was
status out of school children and pre-school then made available on the OPEPA website.
children in every village. Educational
status of in- school children include name Before the introduction of CTS, there was
of the school, % of marks scored in last DISE system which was the only source
exam and the attendance rate of the student providing detail information of
are included. Infrastructure, Teacher and Enrollment .
Status of the out-school students includes But this had some drawbacks like:
the reason of being out of school, whether 1- Possibility of over reporting of number
drop out or never enrolled in school, and the of enrolled students due to fake, duplicate ,
present engagement of the child. Pre-school double enrollments in the school records.
status of the children includes the children 2- It did not cover out of school children .
between age 0-6 years and information Even though block wise names of such
about their pre schooling. children of such children were collected
arbitrarily through BRCC/CRCC , it
Along with keeping a track record of the did not specify the number of such children
children it also aims to bring the out of in each village.
school children back to school and prepare 3- It did not provide child wise achievement
well for the pre- schooling of the children. level and attendance rate.
The last step in this direction was 4- Children were not properly divided into
conducting the Child census in 2005. categories.
NETSPIDER INDIA and Abby technology
played an instrumental role too. This Stages Of Development of CTS
mammoth task, in was carried from door to
door household surveys, where 45000 CTS is an evolving system which is updated
personnel collected data from 75000 every year. In 2005, its year of introduction
household, (said to approximately 8 million , the real statistics pertaining to the
survey forms filled out in odia language) elementary schooling was out. Nearly 9
collecting the requisite information about lakh students were enrolled less than the

16 | P a g e
DISE system ruling out the probability of
fake enrolments. Further, 6.03 lakh students
were reported out of school as compared to
1.3 lakh of the DISE system reported
through BRCS and CRCS sources the
previous year. This difference in enrolment
numbers of DISE and CTS led to the CTS
Validation and Updation 2006. In order to
remove the fake, double and duplicate
enrollments and reconcile data of CTS and
DISE, village wise printed data were
verified with the school registers. CTS
database was then made web based. Further
to track the child in the subsequent years a
unique child code was provided. Also, the
% of marks scored by child in the Annual
Exams were collected from the school
registers. This enabled the administration
evaluate the teachers’ performance by
linking his or her performance to that of that
child and focus more on the low achiever Use Of CTS Data by Various Departments
students to help them enhance their
performance. Annual attendance rate was A Core committee is formed of the
collected to calculate the average Secretaries of different departments under
attendance rate. Then CTS data is printed the Chairmanship of the Development
through Village Education registers and Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief
provided to schools and VERs for secretary, Govt. of Odisha for the use of
subsequent updation. the available data in CTS by all the
In 2011, to cater the needs of Right to concerned departments.
Education (RTE, 2009) Data from DISE
and CTS were linked giving instant GIS School Mapping Project
information about the student, teacher, This maps all the infrastructural facilities
school and infrastructure. available in each school along with their
latitude and longitude (GPS).
https://www.esri.in/content/dam/distribut
or-share/esri-
in/pdf/industries/government/state-and-
local-government/opepa-gis-education-
delivery-esri-india.pdf
Esri India helped the OPEPA to implement
a GIS based web system. “Based on the Esri
platform, OPEPA created GIS applications
for the Assets and Facility Mapping of all
primary schools of Odisha, apps for Roads,

17 | P a g e
Rivers, and Forest boundary layers that state level to DPC, D.I. and BDOs at field
were superimposed on school layers. level where the rolls of the employees,
Geotagging of a school’s photographs was teachers/SSs/ EVs are being maintained.
undertaken for monitoring. The GIS All the data are assimilated at the District
solution was linked with the Child Tracking Project Office and then synchronised to the
System and District Information System for state server of OPEPA by V sat. The
Education.” Before the introduction of the teachers are tagged with EMIS code,
GIS based system, the OPEPA faced thereby facilitating the administration to get
difficulty identifying the areas where the on line information of the employees and
service delivery of SSA was not teachers, school wise teacher requirements
conforming to the prescribed standards of with respect to the number of children and
the state. Therefore the OPEPA was not in help in making decisions for teacher
a position to accurately analyse the reach rationalisation and recruitment for support
and quality of education delivered to the to the schools.
students and effectively plan and monitor
the distribution of resources at its disposal E Shishu has revolutionised elementary
in accordance with SSA. With the education in Odisha. The results are
introduction of GIS System, there was commendable. Within a year from 2005,
effective planning and distribution of there was a track record of all the children
resources. It accurately monitored the in school. It greatly helped other
delivery of education within its network government initiatives like MO
and visually analyse the MIS data in school. The status of the children is tracked
geospatial context. Then the generated effectively increasing the efficacies of
report was useful in providing information various schemes like SSA and KGYB. Over
and data required to ensure adherence to time the number of dropouts have reduced
RTE act and various states commissioned dramatically. Tday, the CTS data is updated
policies and programmes. n a monthly basis at Block Data Centres
thus facilitating in identifying dropouts,
3- EPIS- Educatina Personal Information migrant children and long-term absentees.
System (EPIS) helps in keeping a record E Shishu is definitely one of most e
and computerise the personal details of all governance initiative and has become a
teachers employed under School and Mass model for all other states to follow. It has
Education Department along with their received the Prime Minister Award for
monthly payroll/remuneration, details of Excellent Public Administration 2006-2007
service particulars, loans, pending court for its CTS and won the best
cases, etc. It is implemented in each of the government website in 10th E- governance
DDOs, starting from the Directorate of Conference.
Elementary Education and OPEPA at the

HURDLES AND CHALLENGES

In developing countries like India, where people are living below poverty line, it is
literacy level is very low and most of the very much difficult for the government to

18 | P a g e
provide its services to such citizens via for the government to write e-Governance
means of internet. Even the e-Readiness applications which are to be implemented
Rank of India is very low. e-readiness is
defined as the ability to use information and Low Literacy: Literacy can be defined as
communication technologies to develop the ability to read and write with
one‟s economy and welfare. According to understanding in any language. A person
the Global Information Technology Report who can merely read but cannot write
2012, the e-Readiness rank of India is 69 cannot be considered as literate. Any formal
with the score of 3.89 out of 10 that means education or minimum educational
the use of ICTs in India is very low. Many standard is not necessary to be considered
other factors like privacy and security literate. Literacy level of India is very low
related to user‟s personal information, which is a huge obstacle in implementation
digital divide etc. are also huge challenges of e-Governance projects. Illiterate people
for the implementation of e- Governance in are not able to access the e-Governance
India. applications; hence the projects do not get
much success.
There are a large number of obstacles in
implementation of e-Governance in India. Low IT Literacy: Much of the Indian people
These can be categorized under the are not literate and those who are literate,
following titles: Environmental and Social they do not have much knowledge about
Challenges, Economical Challenges and Information Technology (IT). Most of the
Technical Challenges. These challenges are people in India are not aware about the
explained below: usage of Information Technology. So, in
India, having such low level of IT literacy,
Environmental and Social Challenges how can e-Governance projects be
implemented successfully? We can say that
Different Language: India is a country IT illiteracy is a major obstacle in
where people with different cultures and implementation of e-Governance in India.
different religions live. People belonging to So, first of all Indian people must be made
different states speak different languages. aware about the usage of Information
The diversity of people in context of Technology.
language is a huge challenge for
implementing e-Governance projects as e- Recognition of applications: Recognition
Governance applications are written in of the e- Governance facilities by the
English language. And also, English may citizens is another huge challenge. It is a
not be understandable by most of the challenge to have all the citizens well aware
people. Therefore, it becomes a challenge of the
facilities offered by the e-government and to use the applications in a right manner.
have them to trust in it, so that citizens Such users need guidance to find the right
should be ready to accept these facilities. way to perform their transactions.
Therefore, government websites must be
User friendliness of government websites: user friendly so that more and morepeople
Users of e-Governance applications are can use them easily. Hence, these websites
often non-expert users who may not be able can be more effective. If government

19 | P a g e
websites will be designed in an easier platform irrespective of the hardware or
format only then these will be more usable software and from one platform to the other
for the users who are not expert users of IT. platform. Theseapplications may also help
on possible reuse by other administrators.
Services are not accessible easily: The
concept of e-Governance is claiming for Maintenance of electronic devices: As the
increased efficiency and effectiveness of Information Technology changes very fast
the government, but these goals will be and it is very difficult for us to update our
achieved only if the service will be existing systems very fast. Regulations of
available to the 100% of the citizens. So, different devices and their different
every service should be accessible by characteristics may vary and the system in
anybody from anywhere and anytime. Even use must be capable to handle all the
if the users of Internet are growing but still emerging needs. Maintenance is a key
there is a major part of Indian population factor for long living systems in a rapidly
which is not able to access e-Governance changing technical environment.
activities for variety of reasons, e.g. some
people may have limited access to Technical challenges
Information and Communication
Interoperability: Interoperability is the
Technologies and devices. Therefore,
ability of systems and organizations of
government has to provide internet access
different qualities to work together. The e-
through public terminals as a part of their
Governance applications must have this
universal access efforts.
characteristic so that the newly developed
and existing applications can be
Economic Challenges implemented together.

Cost: In developing countries like India, Scale of applications: e- Governance

cost is one of the most important obstacles projects have to be designed to scale from
in the path of implementation of e- the day one. e- Governance is supposed to
Governance where major part of the affect every citizen of the country, so e-
population is living below poverty line. Governance applications must have the
Even the politicians do not have interest in scale to interface with every citizen.
implementing e-Governance. A huge
amount of money is involved in Multimodal Interaction: Multimodal
implementation, operational and interaction provides the user with multiple
evolutionary maintenance tasks. These modes of interfacing with a system. An e-
costs must be low enough so that to Government application can be really
guarantee a good cost/benefit ratio. effective if its users can access it using
different devices.
Applications must be transferrable from
one platform to another: e-governance Privacy and Security: A critical obstacle in
applications must be independent from implementing e-Governance is the privacy
hardware or software platforms. Therefore, and security of an individual‟s personal
these applications can be used at any data that he/she provides to obtain

20 | P a g e
government services. With the
implementation of e-government projects, Scope of applications: The very first step in
some effective measures must be taken to creating a good application is to define its
protect the sensitive personal information scope very well and everything else comes
of the people. Lack of security standards later. The applications which are provided
can limit the development of e- by e-Government, their scope must be
Government projects that contain personal known in advance for the accurate
information such as income, medical implementation of e- Governance projects.
history etc.

CONCLUSION

The evolution of novel technologies is have raised concerns making a strong Data
opening a doorway to a multitude of Protection Act the need of hour. From the
possibilities that are revolutionising the various initiatives and programmes
way governance takes place in our country. described in the paper proves that success
Over the last 7 decades , governance has in this field bridges the gap between the
come a long way transforming from government and citizens as it makes the
governance to good governance . The use of government more accountable and
AI , Cloud Computing, NFTs, and transparent. There is no doubt that India has
Metaverse , having infinite scope in future, joined the race of integrating e-governance
are being incorporated into the governance in its good governance yet it has a long way
of the country. This decade is remarked as to go. The government should encourage
the “TECHADE” Decade of Technology the public-private partnership
and India has to join this race. The Indian for development , research and investment
Government has been increasingly in this direction. In other words, at the
investing in developing e governance present it is the good governance that bears
mechanisms. But lately the leak of personal the connotation of e-governance.
data from various government platforms

RECOMMENDATIONS

Drawing from the conclusion and the even if they were developed by widely
discrepancies in the present-day e- different manufacturers in different
governance system, we elucidate on 4 industries). Drawing from the Chandigarh
recommendations so as to ameliorate it and model, a hybrid approach needs to be
circumvent the plausible hurdles. adopted among e-governance applications
which will encompass a centralized
First, a one-stop-shop solution must be put approach for document management,
in place to enhance interoperability (which knowledge management, file management,
refers to the basic ability of computerized grievance management and so on.
two or more systems to connect and
communicate with one another readily,

21 | P a g e
Second, there’s also an apparent need to implies using the resources available on the
look at the problem of data privacy the internet on your computer or devices. Here
World Economic Forum's (WEF's) resources refer to complete infrastructure of
Global Risks Report 2019 noted that the IT (hardware, software, etc) which can be
largest (data breach) was in India, where used remotely through internet, or as Saas
the government ID database, Aadhaar, (Software as a Service) where we can use
reportedly suffered multiple breaches that services through cloud for sometime
potentially compromised the records of all without buying (eg. Microsoft Word,
1.1 billion registered citizens. It was Photoshop), or as PaaS (Platform as a
reported in January 2018 the perpetrators Service) where we can develope softwares
were selling access to the database at Rs. and let others use them. Cloud Computing
500 for 10 minutes, while in March a leak will enable the government agencies to
at a state-owned utility company allowed store manage, and access data and
anyone to download names and ID application. It will reduce the IT labour.
numbers. Though the Government of India, initiated
Project MeghRaj for the development of
cloud computing, more such efforts should
be made in this direction. Quantum
Computing refers to the ability of quantum
computers to perform complex calculations
million times faster. This technology excels
Therefore, to prevent such perilous data at routing, logistics, resources optimisation.
breaches, strong systems of accountability It will help in strengthening national
for governments must be adopted so as to security, help in forecasting weather,
mitigate the risks to individuals from handle disaster in an efficient manner. It is
biometric surveillance. In addition to this, extremely useful in searching from
there is a need to make cyber laws unsorted data. In tax, banking, regulating
available to the public as early as possible and other fields, finding anomalies in
so that the IT systems and information mountains of data. It will also help to find
documents stored in the systems have the fraudulent transactions in realm of
same legal validity as the documents financial.
stored today on paper.
Further, the transliteration of various e-
This is the era of science and technology websites to vernacular is needed to make
and incorporating the advancements in them more user friendly. Certain e-
science in e- governance will ensure websites like e- pathshala are available in
increased efficiency. Developing Cloud regional languages but many other are yet
computing and Quantum computing will to be.
help in this direction. “Could Computing”

22 | P a g e
REFERENCES

[1] Gutpa, Vandana and Ajay Sharma (2012), “E-Governance in India: Prospects, Problems
and Challenges”, Research Journal of Economics & Business Studies, Vol. 1, No. 9, pp. 50-
54.
[2] Jain, R.B. (2000), Bureaucracies in the Third World: A comparative analysis. In R.D. [3]
Sharma (ed.), Administrative systems in developing societies, New Delhi, Mittal.
[3] Layton, T, (2007), Information Security: Design, Implementation, Measurement, and
Compliance, Florida, Auerbach publications.
[4] Maheshwari, S.R. (2000), Major issues and challenges of public administration in the
third World – An Overview, in R.D. Sharma, (ed.), Administrative systems of developing
societies, New Delhi, Mittal.
[5] Mukhopadhyaya, Ashok (2000), “IT and administrative culture”, Indian Journal of Public
Administration, 56 (3), pp. 293-299.
[6] Norris, Pippa (2001) Digital Divide? Civic Engagement, Information Poverty and the
Internet in Democratic Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[7] Schware, Robert (2000), “Information Technology and Public Sector Management in
Developing Countries: Present Status and Future Prospects”, Indian Journal of Public
Administration 46(3): 411–16.
[8] Tapscott, D. (1996), The Digital Economy, New York, McGraw Hill.
[9] Wescott, Clay G. (2003), “E-government supporting public sector reform and poverty
reduction in the Asia-Pacific region”, in Stephen Howes, Ashok K.Lahiri and Nicholas Stern
(eds), State Level Reforms in India: Towards Effective Government, Delhi, Macmillan.
[10] West, D. M. (2004), “E-government and the transformation of service delivery and
citizen attitudes”, Public Administration Review, 64(1), pp. 15-27.
[11] Layton, T. (2007) Information Security: Design, Implementation, Measurement, and
Compliance.
[12] Boca Raton, FL Moon, M. ( 2002) “The evolution of e-government among
municipalities: rhetoric or reality”. Public Administration Review; Volume 62 , No. 4.
[13] Ndou , V. (2004).” E-government for developing countries: opportunities and
challenges”. The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries;
Volume 18 , No.1.
[14] Addison-Wesley Riley, B.T. (2001) “ Electronic Governance and Electronic Democracy:
Living and Working”: Connected World, Volume. 2.
[15] https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/Think%20Pieces/7_governance.pdf
[16] https://m.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040728/cth3.htm

[17] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/chandigarh-scripts-an-e-success-story/story-u6

[18] https://chdit.gov.in/sampark

[19] https://csi-sigegov.org.in/casestudies/23_e_sampark.pdf

[20] https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/chandigarh-news/chandigarh-from-february-

23 | P a g e
[21] https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/chandigarh-news/sampark-centres-in-
chandigarh-

[22] https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/chandigarh/open-house-should-residents-pay

[23] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/90-rise-in-e-sampark-collections-
this

[24] http://opepa.odisha.gov.in/website/e-sishu.aspx

[25] https://osepa.odisha.gov.in/

[26] http://opepa.odisha.gov.in/website/e-sishu1.aspx
[27] https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/
[28] https://www.digilocker.gov.in/
[29] https://cleartax.in/s/aaykar-setu-app-income-tax
[30] https://www.npci.org.in/what-we-do/upi/product-overview

24 | P a g e