e-Gram

An Information Communication
Technology Project





Date: September 22, 2014

Institute of Rural Management Anand






Submitted By:
Anu Dutt (34010)
Aseem Acharya (34017)
Nabamallika Dehingia (34080)
Nisarg Dave (34085)
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Table of Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1
E-Gram-A supply driven initiative ................................................................................................. 2
Social Embeddedness and Disruptive technology .......................................................................... 2
E-Readiness..................................................................................................................................... 4
Infrastructure ................................................................................................................................... 5
Digital Divide.................................................................................................................................. 6
S-curve for E-Gram......................................................................................................................... 7
E-gram-an E-Governance project ................................................................................................... 8
E-gram project and Parameters for Measurement ........................................................................ 10
Appendix 1: .................................................................................................................................... iii


1

Introduction
E-Gram is a government of Gujarat initiative started in 2003 under the aegis of Department of
Science and Technology in 2003 with the motto, while the world becomes global village, e-
Gram Panchayat turns villages global. This was started with the view to digitising all the
Panchayat records of the villages of Gujarat. The main objectives of the e-gram project centre on
developing the gram panchayat as the delivery point of e-services by various government
departments for enhancing efficiency and effectiveness in governance, while simultaneously
improving access of rural villages to communication and commercial services that are dependent
on a computer connectivity backbone. Through the provision of basic ICT infrastructure, the
gram panchayat acts as a telecentre, or an e-gram centre. Its reach encompasses 13693 Village
Panchayats, 225 Talukas and 25 Districts of Gujarat. Apart from issuing certificates of
birth,death, caste, income, ROR etc, E-Gram, in few districts, has increased the basket of
services to include additional services such as issuing of tax collection receipts, application
forms for various development schemes, e-ticketing of railways, GSRTC, airlines, utility bill
payments (electricity, telephone, mobile etc.), licenses, permits, NOC, insurance selling,
employment forms, computer education, documentation service for various schemes,
telemedicine, market linkages for agricultural commodities, RTO licenses, property cards etc. A
Village Computer Entrepreneur is appointed who issues the certificates and charges a nominal
fee for the same. The revenue collected is shared between the VCE and Panchayat in the ratio of
80:20. This arrangement helps in bringning about greater transparency in terms of management
of earnings since a single person is not recieving it.
The motivation behind this initiative was the attempt by the government og Gujarat to infuse the
5 Es in local governance: Ease, Economy, Efficiency, Effectiveness and Ethics. Provision of
important documents such as birth certificates, ROR, death certificates etc. and more
importantly, the digitization of Panchayat records would definitely make the local government
system more efficient and transparent.
To let the rural citizens enjoy the advantages of technological innovations, it is important to
bridge the existing digital divide between rural and urban areas. This again, is one of the major
objectives of E-Gram.
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E-Gram is an ICT for consumption project. ICT is consumed by the beneficiaries in the given
case and is in the lines of NeGP policy of the central government. E Gram is a state mission
mode project. If we look at the Millenium Development Goals, E Gram helps in addressing three
of them, i.e., eradication of poverty, reducing child mortality and improve maternal health. E
Gram has provided computer training and employment opportunities to around 12000 youth
since its inception, by appointing them as the Village Computer Entrepreneur. Moreover, with
digitisation of birth, death and other village information records, E Gram would directly assist
various other welfare schemes, especially those related to health. It is needless to say that a lot of
our health schemes have been a failure due to discrepancies in collection of primary village data
related to mortality rate, child birth rate etc.

E-Gram-A supply driven initiative
E Gram is definitely a supply driven initiative due to the fact that it was not necessarily
addressing a need based activity. Rural citizens issued the important certificates from the district
offices before the setting up of this ICT infrastructure. However one needs to understand the
transaction costs in terms of communiting and number of labour hours wasted for an individual
while doing so. This is probably one reason for the increased usage of this service. It makes the
system more efficient and easy for the beneficiary. With the increase in basket of services as
well, there is a high probability of EGram becoming a demand driven project. We would
elaborate on this in the later sections.

Social Embeddedness and Disruptive technology
E Gram uses disruptive technology such as computers, printers etc. It is a disruptive technology
since it disrupts the use of the traditional manual collection or provision of the certificates from
the district offices.
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E Gram is used in the local language hence increasing its ease of use. Moreover, it is easy to use
for the beneficiaries since there is a Village Computer Entrepreneur to assist them and is located
within the Panchayat itself. The Egram, unlike the CSC kiosks which have been set up all over
the country, are not stand alone ICT infrastructure. They have been embedded within the existing
structure of the Panchayat so that the rural citizens become more open to its use. The VCE also
works in close co-operation with the Gram Mitras, who are the information disseminators of the
village thus bringing in synergy between the existing and new structures. Here is a brief
depiction of the way in which E Gram has been set up, not as a mere add-on, but after the
creation and infusion of the required infrastructure (electricity, strong Panchayat structure etc.)
which is essential for the success of any ICT intervention.
Usefulness
Access to basic
services(Birth
Death certificates
etc.)
Ease of Use
VCE facilitate
Located in
panchayat
Actual use
Increasing
acceptance by
people
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If we look at the actual usage data, we see that there has been an increase in the issuing of RORs,
birth and death certificates over the years through E-gram.
E-gram, with its increased acceptance is socially embedded to a certain extent because of it being
a useful service in the local context. Villages with the adequate infrastructure, support of the
Panchayat and efficient VCEs, can go a long mile in serving the beneficiaries with efficient and
important services. With increasing dependence on E-gram, it would grow to be more and more
useful in the local context, thus making it socially embedded.

E-Readiness
E-readiness, ascertains how ready government is in employing the opportunities offered by ICT
to improve the access to, and the use of, ICT in providing basic social services. According to the
recent assessment, Gujarat is among the states having highest tele-density in the country. Thus it
shows considerable interest of people, in Gujarat, towards ICT. People in rural areas of Gujarat
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are willing and are ready to use the services of E-Gram. This has been seen from the increasing
number of users, a total of 13,684 unique logins were done in the year 2013.
E-readiness helps in achieving the development, through three aspects: Social Empowerment,
Economic Empowerment and Political Empowerment. e-Gram services helps in curbing the
social divide, by providing equal opportunities for the use of services. Services of e-Gram are
economically beneficial to the rural citizen. Earlier people have to go to block level or district
level office to procure various official information and forms. With some districts like Kutch,
which have a vast geographical spread it was not economically feasible for the rural citizen to
access various G2C services, which can now be easily availed at their doorstep.

Infrastructure
ICT infrastructure is layered and constitutes a critical component.
Network Layer: E-gram is funded by Gujarat government and basically forms all the policies
regarding the services. The governing body is headed by honble minister of Science &
Technology. The executive committee is headed by Principal Secretary (PRHRD).
Distribution Layer: At the district level, the District Development Officer (DDO) plays an
important role in the e-Gram scheme, while the actual implementation occurs through the
District Statistical Officer (DSO), who is responsible for all aspects of the project. In each
district, District Development Officer taking lead and implementing Project in their districts and
separate e-Gram unit is there for Project day to day monitoring. E-Gram Nodal Officer is
appointed for day to day monitoring of Project. Each District Level Executive and Taluka Level
Executive of TSTSP Team is reporting to the DDOs. At the district level, the DSO reinforces
the bottom-up and inclusive conceptualisation of every individual e-Gram centre as it is placed
within the larger development vision of the states development policies.
Access Layer: The front end of this system is the e-Gram enabled panchayat office at the village
level. Each centre is operated by a village computer entrepreneur (VCE) who is selected by a
committee consisting inter alia of the sarpanch (the elected head of the gram panchayat) and the
talati (the village level administrative officer). e-Gram software is used for issuing a certificate.
Twenty percent of the VCEs total earnings are reverted back to the gram panchayat in exchange
for the free space and electricity infrastructure
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Infrastructure Management: e-Gram is moving from effective management to responsive
management. As the processes of services delivery and technologies have already been
implemented, integration is not the issue any more. Each e-gram centre is equipped with
computer, printer, scanner & UPS. In Panchayat Area Wide Area Network (PAWAN) all e-Gram
gets connected with districts as well as State Capital. Emphasis is now given on the process
automation and auditing is the main agenda, thus the management is shifting to responsive phase.

Digital Divide
Digital divide is one of the major hindrances in using ICT for development. Digital divide is not
only restricted to technological divide but has three major aspects. These aspects are also the
parameters to evaluate the extent of digital divide. These parameters are
1. Social divide people from any caste and class can access the services offered by e-gram
without any discrimination. Also e-gram provides services at village level reducing urban and
rural divide. It removes stratification among people availing its services.
2. Economic divide services provided by e-gram are not free of cost and it charges a minimal
amount of INR 7 from every villager. There is no preference given to anybody on the basis of
their economic status. E-gram also improves the quality of life of villagers as they do not have
to incur additional cost of going to Taluka and saves their time. E-gram provides with a
variety of services in return of a minimal cost.
3. Technological divide e-gram has reduced the technological divide between urban and rural
area to a large extent by providing access to internet to the villagers. They can use internet to
see results of various exams and have access to various forms. Computerization has been done
under e-gram which also bridges the gap. E-gram provides transparency in records and these
records can be accessed from anywhere by anybody. It is also a more efficient method than
the traditional one and provides timeliness in services provided. More and more people are
shifting to e-gram increasing its productivity and with the wide range of services provided it is
becoming highly adaptive.

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S-curve for E-Gram
E-gram has crossed the readiness stage and is currently in the availability stage of system
deployment. It covers all the 3 factors of readiness stage ie
Awareness there is awareness among people using e-gram about the various services
currently offered and the services going to be included. People are shifting to e-gram
from the traditional methods for generation of birth and death certificates, land records
and other services like e-ticketing, bill payment etc.

Services (duration) Total
Electricity bill collection (2010-14) 22795893
No of land RoR certificate issued (2009-
14)
43627989
E-ration card coupon issued (2011-14) 223165793
Gas bill collected (September 2013) 140741

This data shows the increasing dependence of people on e-gram. E-gram has extended its
services as it aims to become demand driven in future. Awareness is being complimented
by the transparency in the information that is accessible to anyone on the website.
Infrastructure in terms of infrastructure, e-gram has moved from effective to responsive
management as integration among various services can be seen. Database containing
data about birth, death certificates, old age pension records, bill payment avoid over
usage of resources and reduces the discrepancies making the process transparent. From
state to district connectivity is being provided by GSWAN and from block to panchayat
level it is being done via VSAT. The first step undertaken was creation of panchayat
buildings. The second step in infrastructure development was Jyotigram Yojana for 24
hour power supply to the villages. The third step included computerization in form of
computer, printer, scanner and UPS followed by e-connectivity of panchayats as the
fourth step through GSWAN and VSAT. The fifth step included provision of various
services by e-gram. Infrastructure created by government tackles the uneven growth of
internet by providing broadband connectivity at every e-gram center. The Panchayat Area
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Wide Area Network (PAWAN) connects each e-gram to district as well as state capital.
Auditing is being done by monthly visit to every e-gram with a purpose of technical
support to e-gram and training to VCE. Monitoring of proper roll out of G2C and B2C
services by monthly MIS reporting.
Digital divide e-gram addresses all the 3 components of digital divide vis--vis social,
economic and technological divide. E-gram is accessible to people from all caste and
class and no discrimination is done on that basis. It charges a minimal fee for its services
and is not free for a particular group. It reduces the technological divide by providing
proper infrastructure to rural parts of Gujarat for example computers and internet with 24
hour electricity.
In the availability stage of system deployment, it is supply driven and not demand driven. People
are using e-gram because it exists and not because there is an immediate need for it. But with the
increment in services provided by the government and private players, the dependence of people
is increasing to some extent. But it will still take some time to become demand driven if it at all
happens.
Initially the services provided by e-gram were limited to birth, death certificate and land records.
So there were questions about its sustainability as a person needs birth and death certificates only
once in a lifetime. But e-gram has now expanded the services being provided to bill payment, e-
ticketing, employment forms, MGNREGA registration, e-recharge and many more which are
recurring activities. These activities are not available in villages and people usually go to the
block level for these services. There is also an ease of use as e-gram is in local language
increasing its transparency. By providing these services which makes life of the villagers a little
easy, e-gram seems to be moving towards sustainability. Judicious use of the available resources
is a question which is hard to answer. But e-gram is helping in creating a central database which
can be easily accessed by anyone. This database can be used in implementation of other
developmental schemes and can help in convergence of these schemes.
E-gram-an E-Governance project
E-gram Vishwagram, a state level mission mode project implemented by the department of
science and technology under the e-panchayat National e-governance plan (NeGP) was launched
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by the CM of Gujarat with an aim of leveraging ICT for effective and efficient delivery of public
services. By connecting the 13685 village panchayats of the state through broadband
connectivity, the project is a new way of transcending inept and inefficient bureaucratic systems
in the rural setting. With continuous expansion in the ambit of services, the project is not only
bridging the digital divide and increasing ICT consumption, but is also providing gainful
employment to VCEs and useful information dissemination that helps the rural people in making
decisions that affect their lives. With active participation of the people and with new tie-ups with
private players such as ILFS in skill development initiatives for the villagers, this project is
proving worthy of an e-governance case. Apart from Gram panchayat being increasingly used a
telecentre supported by ICT infrastructure, some villages are capitalizing on the available
broadband connectivity to pilot tele-health, tele-veterinary and tele-agriculture initiatives in
conjunction with the district level departments. This combination of offline e-gram modules
along with online pilots presents the possibility for the achievement of the e-governance
objectives of the e-gram project. Appointment of VCE and Gram Mitra involve participation of
the headman of the village which is a deviation from usual provision of public services by the
government. The mandate of the e-gram project extends beyond the village to include the taluka
panchayat (TP) and district panchayat (DP) for improving service delivery. This is a significant
design choice on behalf of the E-gram Vishwagram society (agency looking after operations of
the project) since e-governance should necessarily encompass all levels of administration, and
cannot succeed as single point interventions in the governance systems. Centres are set up at the
DP and TP levels, with services similar to those at the e-gram. The DP has also tele-conferencing
facilities that are used to relay programmes to select village e-gram centres. With District
Development officer (DDO) as the chief functionary at the district level and the actual
implementation of the project through the District statistical officer (DSO), e-gram project is
essentially a local development project operationalised through decentralized governance
systems. The e-gram project is perhaps unique amongst the telecentre-based e-governance
approaches in India in being scaffolded within local public Institutions. Rather than placing the
ICT infrastructure as an add-on to pre-existing systems, the government re-designed the
community extension model in the form of the gram mitra programme and created potentialities
for true synergies between the re-shaped public systems and newly introduced ICT systems.
E-gram exists as e-governance in two variants for the provisioning of services.
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G2C services:
Birth & Date Certificate
Caste & Income Certificate
Tax Collection Receipts
Land Right Records services
Application form of various development schemes
ITI Application form
Data entry work for government departments like Health, Sports, Gram sabha etc.
Electricity Bill collection work
E ration card Coupon launched at 207 eGram centres as pilot
B2C services rolled out by VCE through entrepreneurship model:
E-ticketing of Railways
Utility Bill payments (Telephone, Mobile, DTH etc.)
DTP work
Apart from the above existing services, services like appointment of VCEs as Business
correspondent of SBI as a part of Financial Inclusion, starting of PAN card service, skill
development programs delivered online through PPP model are envisaged in the near future.
With the state departments converging for the provision of public services and the contents being
delivered on demand basis, the e-gram project fits the Critical Flow Model of e-governance.
The notion of time and distance is made redundant by this model of e-governance as
beneficiaries now do not have to travel long distance to avail the public services and they benefit
from the increased transparency due to digitized processes.
E-gram project and Parameters for Measurement
There are three main components of a project. First is scope or objectives of the project, second
is the budget associated with it and third is the time to complete the project. E-gram was
introduced as a project by government of Gujarat with the following objectives
1. Development of panchayats as the delivery point of the different government services
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2. Infusion of five Es of governance ie ease, economy, effectiveness, ethics and efficiency
3. Bridging of technological gap between urban and rural sector
4. Provision of other commercial services
Budget was also fixed at around INR 1.15 lakh per village for computerization and connectivity.
The project had no exact time limit associated with it to achieve full coverage.
Following parameters can be taken into consideration for evaluating e-gram
1. Timeliness e-gram provides easy access to villagers and those services which used to
take a lot of time before e-gram can now be accessed faster. For a birth certificate or for
payment of bill, a villager had to travel to taluka or block which was a time taking
process. Now these and many more services are available at local level through e-gram
and are less time consuming.
2. Quality of service services being provided under e-gram have increased to a large
extent and availability of a VCE helps in improving the quality of service as VCEs are
trained people. It also makes it a less time taking process. But on the other hand it raises a
big question on the social embeddedness of e-gram as it does not remain citizen
chartered.
3. Usage of the services there has been an upward trend in the number of people using
these services but it is still not a demand driven process.
Conclusion
With the increasing penetration of ICT for increased community participation and collaboration
among various the public, private and civil society entities for acheiving sustainable and
equitable development, E-gram vishwagram project of the Govt. of Gujarat is a step in right
direction for bridging the digital divide through information dissemination and diffusion of
knowledge. Started as supply driven initiative supported by State-wide ICT backbone
infrastructure, the project has started gaining wide acceptance among people and showing
increasing trend of usage by the people for its wide ambit of services. However, the project does
not fully fit into socially embedded paradigm of ICT for development as the access layer
beneficiaries are the not the direct consumers of ICT services. However the increased
transparency and improved process efficiency promises increased uptake of this telecentre based
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ICT based model of development as is evident from its actual usage numbers. Diversification of
telecentre into rural telehealth and tele-agriculture centres apart from its offerings in G2C and
B2C services segment is paving the way for projects sustainability. Though this case might not
be directly fit example of ICT backed development through direct ICT consumption scenario,
however it does leverage ICT for development through employment generation for VCEs,
reduced information symmetry and evolving collaborative models which helps in reducing rural-
urban divide and increasing prosperity of villagers. With changing notions of development and
fast changing trends in ICT, it remains to be seen, whether this model will cease to exist or will
act as model for development prompting replicability across states.
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Appendix 1: