e-Governance in India accelerating, but roadblocks exist, says NASSCOM

["Irfan Khan" <khania2@super.net.pk>]

e-Governance in India accelerating, but roadblocks exist, says 
NASSCOM 

Thursday, January 16, 2003  
 
NASSCOM, the apex industry association of software and service 
companies in India, sharing findings of its e-Governance study, said 
today that the e-Governance market in India is gaining traction but 
there are challenges which are stalling its progress. According to 
NASSCOM, the e-Governance market is witnessing year-on-year growth 
and is estimated to be Rs. 1400 crores in size in 2001-02. The e-
Governance market grew by 18% last year and is the highest growing 
vertical in the domestic IT market. 

NASSCOM’s analysis of e-Governance implementation undertaken in 10 
key States revealed that the southern States of Andhra Pradesh, 
Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu are leading in terms of implementing 
projects at different citizen - Government interface points. Others 
like Kerela, Gujarat, Maharashtra, MP, West Bengal and Rajasthan, are 
catching up fast. 

But, despite the islands of excellence, e-Governance has not been 
able to make rapid progress due to several operational, economic, 
personnel, planning & implementation issues. E-Governance in India 
has also focused heavily towards investing in hardware and very 
little on developing software and services, which could maximize 
hardware investments. 

Hurdles in E-Governance 
Operational hurdles 
No clear revenue stream for the private sector 
Lack of coherent government policies 
Inappropriate processes for tendering, 
RFPs and bid assessment 

Economic
Governments unwilling to commit funding 
No above-the-line treatment of IT spend
Viability of Public Private Partnership uncertain 

Planning & Implementation 
No clear roadmap with measurable milestones 
Focus on computerization and hardware spend
Low emphasis on process re-engineering 

Personnel 
No champion identified for e-Governance
Lack of ownership of projects and frequency of personnel transfers 
high


Addressing the media, Mr. Arun Kumar, Chairman, NASSCOM, said, "“We 
have seen implementation of some excellent e-Governance projects in 
few States which have won international awards and are benchmarked 
globally. The efforts should be to replicate these in other parts of 
the country to benefits the citizens. The NASSCOM study is aimed 
towards clearly identifying the issues faced by this sector and 
defining the roadmap for e-Governance adoption in the country." 

In addition to macro issues, NASSCOM’s study has identified industry 
level issues, which are inhibiting private participation in e-
Governance projects. This includes the absence of a clear revenue 
stream offered by the government to the private sector, which is 
restricting private, sector investment in e-Governance. There is also 
inadequate awareness among government officials at all levels with 
respect to appropriate tendering, raising RFPs, software pricing, bid 
assessment and IPR. 

The NASSCOM study has stressed that the government should first focus 
on bringing efficiency in governance through better use of 
technology. Some key imperatives for the government identified by the 
study include ensuring 3 per cent of the budget is committed towards 
e-Governance and the amount be spent in the ratio of 40:30:30 on 
hardware, software and services respectively. The government should 
also identify project champions who can push e-Governance in 
government departments and States and also rewrite tendering and bid 
evaluation procedures to encourage private participation. The study 
suggests the government to clearly define an e-Governance strategy 
and a roadmap with measurable timelines which are currently not 
present. 

NASSCOM Recommendations 
Phase I: By the end of 2003 
IT training should be mandatory for all Class I govt. personnel
Tendering and bid evaluation procedures should be rewritten
Fully operational NISG
NIC role should be clearly defined
Clear tenures for IT champions in Central and State levels

Phase II: By the end of 2004 
Build state wide area networks
Ratio of PC: personnel to be 1:4 in all departments
Identify core national projects that need to be automated
Rollout national citizen ID cards 
Computerization of land records in all states
State funding from Centre to be linked to e-gov spending

Phase III: By the end of 2005 
Citizen services offered online in all states
50 percent of all government procurement should be online
Focus on developing applications for primary health, disaster mgt and 
education
Accelerate Public Private Partnership when core infrastructure and 
procedures in place
Secure multilateral funding to accelerate e-gov spending


Mr. Kiran Karnik said, "If the recommendations made in the study are 
implemented by the government, it could save upto Rs. 500 crores in 
transaction process costs per year and increase its revenues by Rs. 
2000 crores through better tax enhancement annually. Further, these 
measures will increase transparency, efficiency and accountability 
within the government." 

"ROI from all these measures will allow the government to spend at 
least Rs. 10,000 crores per year on e-Governance. However the 
government must give special impetus to e-Governance. At present, it 
is accelerating, but has the other brakes on," he added. 
 
source: http://www.nasscom.org/artdisplay.asp?Art_id=1572