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Chennai , Nov. 13

THE Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, regretted that the country lagged behind in its overall electronic governance performance.

In the e-governance index of 133 countries, India's score is 1.29 as against the global average of 1.62. India is ranked at 77 and the country's performance is categorised as `minimal.'

``It is paradoxical. Globally India is recognised as one of the leading providers of information technology. Yet, we are way behind in introducing IT for e-governance," Mr Advani said inaugurating the 7th National e-Gov Conference hereon Thursday.

The three-day conference is being organised by the Tamil Nadu Government and the Central Department of Administrative Reforms and Personnel. It deals with integrating efforts of IT and governance.

"E-governance will succeed only when there is a commitment to G-governance (good governance) just as G-governance becomes easier with the introduction of e-governance," he said. Unless e-governance is backed by administrative reforms in process, procedures and systems of governance, such initiatives tend to end up as mere computerisation with no tangible benefit to the citizens, Mr Advani said.

As part of the police modernisation grants, the Centre has sanctioned over Rs 100 crore to various State Governments to purchase computers. The Centre is targeting in the next couple of years all the 12,367 police stations and about 7,000 offices in the country would be computerised/networked, Mr Advani said.

The Chief Minister, Ms J. Jayalalithaa, said the "one size fits all (blueprint approach)" will not work and local adaptations and modifications will have to be made according to ground realities.

The Centre must constitute an e-governance core group with adequate regional representation. The group should meet regularly to monitor and follow up action for sustainability and implementation.

As immense resources and drive have been put into achieving road connectivity throughout the country, the Centre should earmark resources for extending and establishing virtual connectivity through optical fibre cables particularly in far-flung and remote areas, she said. It is a matter of some concern that there are a large number of States at the bottom of the pyramid (in IT and e-governance) raising some disturbing questions.

It is apparent that States with higher literacy, better infant and maternal mortality rates, higher performance parameters on education, health and social infrastructure are also leaders in e-readiness, she said.

The conference must consider issues such as whether government can be done in isolation and whether States have to take a holistic approach for the development of e-governance, Ms Jayalalithaa said.

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