E-governance
Delivering the Benefits ICT will not only act as a strategic device in addressing urban and rural divide but also deliver benefits of e-governance projects to the needful
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n May 18, 2006, the Cabinet gave its go-ahead signal to the key components of National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) proposal, including assigning the role and responsibility to various government entities (DIT, NIC, DAR&PG, line ministries, and state government departments). The components also included formal assigning of tasks of the identified mission mode projects (MMPs) and support components under NeGP to various line ministries and departments.
Realizing the Real Benefit
It’s almost 6 years now after the Cabinet approved NeGP, in a bid to bring justice to the common man (citizens) of the country, when it comes to delivery of the government services and implementation of other socio-economic schemes for the benefit of the masses. Overall, some achievements have been partially realized and some are in the pipeline, but the real gain of NeGP is yet to be realized. It sounds good when citizens talk about governance and demand their rights. NeGP worked as a caveat and awareness tool for the citizens, making them aware of government services at various levels. Under NeGP, connectivity infrastructures like State Wide Area Network (SWAN), data/information accessibility centers like State Data Center (SDC), front-end delivery centers like Common Service Centers (CSCs), etc, have come up well and are still getting expanded. NeGP also recommended applications, which have to be studied, conceptualized, and developed so as to deliver the desired services to the citizens. To focus on these applications, NeGP came with MMPs, so as to implement these applications in a targeted manner. Almost 27 MMPs were defined, out of which some are linked to central line ministries, some are to state government departments, and some of them are integrated applications interfacing both central and state functionaries. Much has been done but the beneficiaries, especially the marginalized section of the society, are yet to realize the outcome of NeGP. Bringing the benefits to the targeted 86 | March 31, 2012
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CO Handbook 2012
people can only bridge the urban and rural divide.
Understanding the Existing Gaps Let’s understand the gaps and how we can expedite the implementation of mission mode e-governance projects. In the last 6 years, the knowledge that I gained as a part of e-governance project enabled me to write about some of these existing gaps. Also, I have concentrated on solutions and ways, which would probably help in smoothly driving egovernance projects. Some of these are illustrated as under: n PPP Route: Realizing that government departments alone can’t tackle these large, complex, and voluminous projects and industry participation would play a pivotal role in up-keeping these projects, NeGP adopted Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) route, which in turn not only helped in private investment but made it possible for long-term sustainability of these projects, both in terms of assured service delivery and commitment. The beauty of PPP came to NeGP in the form of initial investments to be taken care by the PPP partner, apart from service delivery assurance during the terms of the BOOT contract. The outlay which the PPP partner invest in such projects, once the project is implemented, they recover their built-up and operational costs, including profit in the form of service transaction cost. True to my experience, I can very much say that PPP is the best route to take up such e-governance projects. It has worked as a catalyst in resolving the long striving government department’s manpower paucity and also helped in joining hands with private partners in outsourcing the non-sovereign functions to a PPP operator. Secondly, since the PPP operator’s entire revenue model rests in DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication
ICT has become one of the most effective tools in bridging the gaps between urban & rural, rich & poor, and advance & legacy the assured service levels to the citizens, the sustainability of these projects became de facto. However it’s also true that the PPP model has not been adapted by the government departments to its fullest capacity. The champions and head of the departments should take a lead role in changing the mindset of the people within the departments, so that public services can be rendered to the needy citizens of our country in a timely, transparent, and cost-effective manner. Citizens are more than happy to pay the minimum service fee for the services which otherwise they are striving to get, even after paying a heavy cost in terms of time and effort apart from getting dragged into corrupt practices. n Leveraging the Power of ICT: During the conceptualizing of the NeGP, the decision-makers rightfully thought about the power of electronics and ICT. A country like ours having more than 1.2 bn people and other entities involving multiple agencies, stakeholders/units catering to more than 35 languages and 150 dialects, where citizens have started demanding their civil, constitutional, and service rights, just assume the level of field work required, spread over the entire country having an area of 3,166,414 sq km, covering 35 States/Union Territories, 640 districts, 5,924 sub-districts, 7,935 towns, and 640,867 villages. visit www.dqindia.com
If, such is the volume and numbers, one can’t imagine handling them manually without the help of ICT and other advanced technologies. Whether we talk about agriculture, health, infrastructure, education, or others, the way forward is to leverage the power of advance management techniques and ICT, which helps us improve decision-making, transparency, accountability, and in overall service delivery. ICT has not only become the essential catalyst to our daily life but also helped us to improve in totality. ICT has become one of the most effective tools in bridging the gaps between urban & rural, rich & poor, and advance & legacy. Government departments must influence the power of ICT in handling the e-governance initiatives within their departments. There are challenges when it comes to adaptability and employees of government departments feel ICT tools as a threat to their sustainability and existence. However the reality is just opposite of their thinking. ICT has not only improved their working condition and decision-making, but has also helped in increasing employment and productivity. Of course, it had brought in transparency and expeditious delivery of services perhaps government employees are not used to. These are the challenges that department heads need to tackle, to change the mindset of the people within their purview, maybe by changing management practices, capacity building, and effective communications. Hence new measures such as giving productivity-linked incentives have to be brought forth. n Integration and Replication: To avoid duplicity of cost and effort, government departments must think of replication and integration. Many a times, it has been found that duplicity of effort and cost is March 31, 2012 | 87
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E-governance wasted due to lack of integration and replication especially when it comes to investment on common ICT infrastructure such as data centers, communication network, and application. Government departments can link and exchange data, solution architecture, application, etc, by using a common ICT infrastructure, but in reality it’s becoming a distinct dream. The call of the day is that all such government departments must talk and discuss with each other, in order to avoid duplicity of effort and cost for expeditious implementation of projects and to deliver public services. For example, we have SWAN, SDC, CSEs, NDCs, etc, which every government departments, be it state departments or central line ministries, should think through, when it comes to utilizing these common platforms. Then comes efforts wasted in development of departmental applications. True that every department has its own business requirements and service delivery mechanism and application architecture may vary, but at the same time we must admit that every state has similar departments. If this is true, then why can’t we replicate an application which is mature and smooth in one state to rest of the states? For example, treasury and VAT application is smoothly running in Gujarat, College Admission Application is smoothly running in Odisha, Vehicle Registration System is smoothly running in Delhi, eSeva is successfully running in Andhra Pradesh, land registration in Karnataka, property registration in Maharashtra, MP-online in MP, etc. Similar is the case when it comes to central line ministries, for example, Passport Seva Project model can be replicated to other line ministries. Projects such as Aadhaar can work as a panacea and an enabler for better governance for many public services as well as developmental initiative aim towards 88 | March 31, 2012
Handbook 2012
ICT has not only improved the working condition and decisionmaking, but has also helped in increasing employment and productivity. It has also brought in transparency and expeditious delivery of services marginalized and disadvantaged section of the society, when it comes to verification of individual’s identity and address proof. But in reality, when it desires to replicate these applications in other states government departments are neither willing nor thinking in those directions. In essence, the same story is being repeated for every new application, ie, DPR, BPR, RFP, Tendering, T1, L1, and finally selecting a new bidder and so on ... be it state departments or central line ministries. n Focused Approach: Implementation of e-governance projects in a time-bound manner as per the desired results not only requires a focused approach but in many a cases it also requires out-of-the-box thinking. Most of the time, it has been observed that the government departments are practicing the same old methods for project implementation. This is resulting and contributing to outcome quality issue and long-term sustainability distress. Time has come, we must think of using Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS) method of bid process management leaving behind mere L1 selection, so that the department uses a competitive process among short-listed bidders. This will take into account the quality of the proposal and the cost visit www.dqindia.com
of the services in the selection of a successful bidder or PPP partner, who is entrusted the job of project implementation and sustainability. Cost as a factor of selection shall be used judiciously. The relative weight to be given to the quality and cost shall be determined for each case depending on the nature of the assignment. It’s also pertinent to note that the key challenge for government departments have been the lack of understanding shown by many service providers (PPP partners), when it comes to IT solution offerings and deployment. Take the example of cloud computing, which has huge potential to address e-governance issues. However service providers are not providing answers that departments are looking for. For successful and smooth take-up of e-governance projects, the service provider should not try to hard sell their solutions without understanding the department’s complex and ageold processes. ICT would act as a boon to the departments provided they address the core issues such as the process of re-engineering, change management, capacity building, etc. We also need to strengthen some of the characteristics of good governance such as rightsizing of government functions; use of ICT and advance management techniques; sound administration that promotes delegation, ethics, collaboration, and participation; ensuring accountability; institutional frameworks; etc, which will not only bring in parity that exists between various sections of society but will also help in delivering improved public services to the citizens of our country. n
GOLOK KUMAR SIMLI
The author is principal consultant and head, technology, PMU, Passport Seva Project, Ministry of External Affairs maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in
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