The Hindu Business Line : `e-Gov is a process, and often a struggle'

Bhoomi kiosks in Karnataka allow nearly 7 million clients to access computerised land records, be they of rights, tenancy or cultivation. As you are aware, land records are key for obtaining loans and transferring ownership. The earlier system was manual and paper-based, and to get a record of land rights from that system, people had to wait for months. Now, Bhoomi offers them the service in a few minutes, for a fee of Rs 15. According to one estimate, Bhoomi saves farmers more than 1.32 million days in waiting time!

This is only one of the many examples of `e-Governance' in the country. MCA21 is a recent initiative, in the realm of company law. The site http://informatics.nic.in, which hosts the e-Governance bulletin of NIC (National Informatics Centre), speaks of many projects such as the Gram Panchayat Management & Accounting System (GPMAS) at West Bengal, Jan Suvidha Kendra Programme at Madhya Pradesh, Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) for ICT at Department of Drinking Water Supply, SUWIDHA Centre at Jalandhar and so on.

For starters, the word stands for `electronic governance' or the use of ICT (information and communication technology) to improve the delivery of government services to citizens (G2C), businesses (G2B) and other government agencies (G2G).

Neel Ratan is an Executive Director with PricewaterhouseCoopers in India and has more than 17 years of experience in the design and implementation of e-Governance and IT projects. He leads the e-Governance Practice — a practice which in the last three years has established itself in the e-Governance space in the region. With a team of over 100, he is currently working with numerous central Government ministries and 14 States in the country for e-Governance initiatives.

"The concept of e-Governance is now a reality for Indian citizens," says Ratan, in an interaction with eWorld. "We are graduating from pilot e-governance projects to bigger mission mode projects (state-wide area networks, common service centres, etc.). The core strategy is to move ahead in a systematic manner, and the approach is to achieve success step-by-step. We are learning from e-governance examples worldwide; we also have our own experience in completing pilot projects successfully." Excerpts from the interview:

Is e-Governance the computerisation of records?

No, it goes far beyond mere computerisation of standalone back office operations. E-governance is a system that efficiently and effectively streamlines internal government processes, operations, and simplifies and improves democratic government and business aspects of governance with citizens.

A replacement for good governance?

E-governance can help in integrating and simplifying government services, reducing the time citizens and businesses spend obtaining/submitting information from/to the government, increasing government transparency by cutting down corruption, improving government finances through enhanced revenue collection and cost reduction, and improving the business environment in the country for private sector development and to enhance foreign direct investment.

E-governance is a tool for achieving good governance and is not an end in itself. In good governance, public processes and institutions produce results that meet the needs of society while making the best use of resources at their disposal. It also requires that the institutions and processes try to serve all stakeholders within a reasonable timeframe. And e-Governance is what helps the government to achieve this goal. It allows citizens to communicate with the government, participate in the government's policy-making and reflect their true needs.

What challenges do e-governance initiatives face?

E-governance cannot transform the government immediately or forever. It is a process, and often a struggle that presents costs and risks — both financial and political. Achieving e-Governance will require a change management process that builds awareness, understanding, trust, common purpose and a genuine willingness to change if it is to move from an idea to reality. It presents enormous challenges - challenges that are not technical but cultural.

When can the initiative fail?

The scale and complexity of any e-governance initiative involving many stakeholders such as the central government, state governments, regulators, private sector, citizens, etc, is huge. So, different standards and architectures need to be developed for different projects. If not well conceived and implemented, e-Governance initiatives can waste resources, fail in their promise to deliver useful services and increase public frustration with the government.

What can be the right strategy for e-governance?

The first and foremost effective strategy should be to avoid large mega projects. In fact, big projects should be divided into modules, with clearly identified goals and quantifiable benefits. The project should start with a pilot and subsequently, on successful completion, should be up scaled into a live project. An effective e-Governance strategy should minimise the risk of disruption, demonstrate proof of concepts, answer frequently asked questions, and finally get something up and running upon which an application can be build. And, third party independent audit against measurable benchmarks is a must.

Don't we have to popularise e-governance in the country?

Yes, marketing and publicity are integral parts of successful electronic governance initiatives. Marketing efforts should focus on creating brand awareness of the online presence. Using traditional media methods and outlets to create the right image for this new delivery channel can accomplish this kind of branding. The customer should learn to identify a particular slogan or message with e-governance activities.

Another important strategy is for agencies across the enterprise to present a unified front. All collateral materials sent to `traditional' customers should stipulate the source and location of the alternative electronic way of doing business. For example, on a tax form there should be the location of its source, such as a Web site address. Agencies should encourage front-line employees to promote to customers going online next time they wish to transact business. Community outreach programmes, including seminars, educational programmes and speakers' bureaus, offer other potential channels to reach the public.

On financing e-governance...

Funding is the foremost issue in e-Governance initiatives. The projects that are part of the e-governance initiatives need to be funded either through the government sector or through the private sector. The projects can be built either on BOO (Build Own Operate) or BOOT (Build Own Operate Transfer) basis.

The main revenue model of implementing an integrated platform, joining all the functions of government, exists in terms of saving immense costs, which are involved in maintaining existing channels of functioning of government, and in distribution of information. It would drastically cut down the costs incurred on manual transfer of information, administrative costs, etc.

Revenue could be generated from advertising revenues through the portal, making additional services available at a premium. Also increase in overall awareness amongst people would help generate self-employment that will create revenues for the government.

Whose responsibility is it to make e-Governance a success? The government's?

Achieving success in e-Governance requires active partnerships between government, citizens and the private sector. The e-governance process needs continuous input and feedback from the `customers'— the citizens, resident, businesses and officials who use electronic public services. Their voices and ideas are essential to making e-Governance work. Hence e-governance has to be a shared vision with all the stakeholders - government and non-government - participating in defining this vision.

For e-governance initiatives, the three Ps - public-private partnership (PPP) are a must. The PPP model of development focuses on collaboration between the public and the private sector. It recognises the importance of the private sector in reaching development goals by promoting business, creating income, providing jobs as well as developing a sense of corporate social responsibility. The public and the private sector recognise overlaps of their goals, see the opportunities for cooperation, and work side by side in mutual projects.

But we need to introduce thrust in the capacity building area. To achieve this, we not only need to implement a strategic approach, but also need to be in touch with what's going on around the world in the field of e-Governance.

Experience in e-governance

Neel Ratan has advised the Government of India in the design and implementation of National e-Governance Plan, a $4-billion initiative. He has advised on a number of Mission Mode projects under the National e-governance plan, including passport, land records, MCA 21, SWAN, CSC, municipalities, etc.

He has been a member of number of task forces, boards and committees of the Government and the industry associations, which include: National Advisory Panel on E-Government Services Gateway; E- gov Standards (chairing the committee on Enterprise architecture); Editorial Advisory Board, CIO Magazine; Member - National Advisory Board on Information Security, Nasscom; Member, E-Business Task Force, Federation Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry; Member, National Committee on Information Technology & Ecommerce; etc. The eGovernance Practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers is perhaps the largest consulting firm in the country dedicated towards providing eGovernance advisory. It provides advisory services across sector in areas such as Development of eGovernment Roadmap and Strategic IT Plans, Government Process Reform, Assistance in Bid Process Management, Project and Program Management and independent evaluation of outcomes.

The practice is currently engaged in some extremely large and important assignments that showcase the impact of eGovernance for the benefit of the common man. These include:

Redesign of the Passport Issuance System in India with the aim of reducing time taken to issue passports and bring them in line with International Best Practices

Program Management of the implementation of the State Wide Area Network program of the GoI that would enable delivery of Government Service right upto block and village level

E-Readiness assessment of 35 States/UTs for the purpose of establishing 100,000 + Common Service Centres in the country that would serve as a single citizen touch point for seeking multiple services of the Government

Project envision of the Ministry of Environment and Forest aimed at redesign of major processes and systems of the ministry to make them customer centric

Design of the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for the National eGovernance Plan

Program Management of the MCA21 project along with NISG , currently being implemented by TCS

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