E-Government Initiatives in India

Paramjeet Walia
University of Delhi, India
pkwalia2002@yahoo.co.in

Abstract: In democratic states information about government activities is of crucial importance to all citizens,
who need to make judgments regarding public policy. Government of India has emerged as a vital group
engaged in generating, collecting and disseminating information in the country which is essential to the public for
understanding of the national issues. National Informatics Center (NIC) has developed government websites in
which one can get an overview of the functioning of government bodies. Now, there has been greater emphasis
on free flow of information from government to public as it is considered to be an indicator of good governance.
E-governance contributes to the functioning of democracy by online provision of government information and
services to the public, leading to increasing transparency, greater efficiency and productivity. This paper focuses
on innovative applications of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in support of e-government
initiatives in India in various sectors viz. rural development, agriculture and administration etc. The study also
tries to look at the various benefits of e-government initiatives in Indian context. It also briefly discusses the
National e-governance Plan (NeGP) and other planning initiatives undertaken by the Government of India (GOI)
to develop a single coherent policy for implementation of mission mode e-governance projects. It highlights the
salient features of government websites in India followed by analyses of three websites selected as case studies.
The major finding of this study is that the e-governance initiatives have been partially successful in India and it
has limited impact due to low e-literacy and infrastructure limitations.
Keywords: e-Government; e-governance; Government websites

1. Introduction
The application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has caused significant
changes in various sectors and it has become the driving force in the growth of economies worldwide.
The advent of Internet, web portals, digital information and wireless networks has completely
revolutionized the world of communication. Governments all over the world have realized the fact that
ICT can contribute in an effective way to socio-economic development and sustainable growth in all
areas. The impact of ICT has also touched the way government functions at various levels. Egovernance is one such significant initiative that allows the government to make information easily
available, transparent and also in an interactive form. Like governments in other parts of the world,
Government of India and a number of state governments too have been introducing measures to
improve standards of governance in their designated areas of influence.
India is one of the oldest civilizations in the world with a kaleidoscopic variety and rich cultural
heritage. It has achieved all round socio-economic progress during the last 60 years of its
independence. India, a Union of States, is comprises of 28 states and 7 Union Territories (MIB, 2009:
25). Indias population as on 1 March 2001 stood at 1,028 million. Out of this, 76.79 percent of
population is from rural India and only 23.3 percent resides in urban areas. The literacy rate in the
country is 64.84 percent (MIB, 2009: 6).

2. e- Government and e-governance

The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology , Government of India
defines Egovernance as the application of information technology to processes of government functioning to
bring about simple, moral, accountable, responsive and transparent governance (i.e. SMART
Governance (Majumdar, 2004: 28). Very often the terms e-government and e-governance are used
synonymously, however these two terms connotes different meanings. E-governance is not only the
application of ICT in the operations of government. Keohane and Nye (in Saxena 2005: 19). state
that governance need not necessarily be conducted exclusively by governments. Private firms,
associations of firms, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and associations of NGOs all engage
in it, often in association with governmental bodies, to create governance; sometimes without
governmental authority).
On the other hand according to the World Bank (2009) E-government refers to the use by
government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Network, the Internet, and
mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other
arms of government(the World Bank ,2009). These technologies can serve a variety of different ends

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such as better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and
industry, citizen empowerment through access to information, or more efficient government
management. The resulting benefits can be less corruption, increased transparency, greater
convenience, revenue growth, and cost reductions.

3. Relevance of e-governance to India

India is a land of diversity. This diversity spans across culture, language, geography and the
economic condition of the people. There are significant numbers of people who are below the minimal
socio-economic benchmarks. This section of the Indian society is not only deprived of basic
necessities but also lack skills and elementary education. Their social development is far worse i.e.
health, education, sanitation and availability of drinking water. The quality of life of these people is far
below satisfactory levels thereby making the task of improving their standard of living and sustain the
same is daunting. Government of India recognizes that e-governance, in the context of developing
countries, provides an excellent opportunity for improving the quality of life of these sections of society
and moreover it could actually provide them more equitable access to economic opportunities. Indias
experience in e-governance initiatives has demonstrated significant success in improving
accessibility, cutting down costs, reducing corruption and increased access to un-served groups.

4. e-Government Initiatives in India

The E-government initiatives launched by Government of India have mostly been implemented by
National Informatics Centre (NIC, 2006). NIC is the premier institute of information technology in India
and was set up by the Government of India in 1976. It assists in implementing ICT projects, in close
collaboration with Central and State Governments, in the areas of:

Centrally sponsored schemes and central sector schemes;

State sector and state sponsored projects; and

District administration sponsored projects.

4.1 National e-Governance Plan (NeGP)

India as a nation has graduated from pilot e-governance projects to bigger mission mode projects.
The primary emphasis is now to move ahead in a systematic manner by developing a coherent
planning policy on e-governance and to successfully implement these policy initiatives by making the
e-governance projects user friendly and content rich. The Government of India initiated the NeGP
which seeks to lay the foundation and provide the impetus for long term growth of e-governance with
in the country. NeGP is aimed at introducing e-governance systematically through various mission
mode projects which would touch the lives of more than 1 billion people. The vision of the NeGP as
stated on its portal is All Government Services be made accessible to the common man in his locality
through a one-stop-shop integrated service delivery ensuring convenience, efficiency, transparency
and reliability. The NeGP philosophy of Think Big, Start Small and Scale Fast is to be achieved
through centralized initiatives and decentralized implementation of e-governance projects. The plan
envisages creation of right environments to implement Government to Government (G2G),
Government to Business (G2B), Government to Employee (G2E), and Government to Citizen (G2C)
services (E-governance standards, 2009)

4.2 Implementation of e-governance projects

Government of India e-governance initiatives have resulted in improving core infrastructure and
providing better services to citizens. The impact of government initiatives has been observed in all
sectors i.e. agriculture, rural development, administration, land records and property registration,
finance, judiciary, health, industry etc.
4.2.1 Agriculture
Many e-governance projects were taken up to provide relevant agricultural information in rural areas
helping farmers to improve their labor productivity, increase their yields and realize a better price for
the produce. Some of the major e-governance projects aimed at agriculture development are:
AGMARKNET

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AGMARKET (2009) aims at connecting agricultural produce wholesale markets in the country for
sharing market information. Its portal has been evolved to strengthen interfaces among agricultural
marketing related government and non-government organizations, farmers, traders, exporters, policy
makers, academic institutions etc.
Kisan Call Centres
It is a G2C project aimed at helping the farmers to use the expertise of agricultural experts for finding
the latest information with regard to crops, fertilizers and irrigation techniques. Data bases have been
created for storing information about the types of soils, the crops grown, water salinity, pest control
and fertilizer etc. (DAC, 2005)
4.2.2 IT for masses
The Government of India has taken the benefits of using IT in governance at the doorstep of the
general public, especially those living in distant remote areas. The following projects have been
initiated for the welfare of common people:
Ration Card System
It is an identity proof issued to families living in rural and urban areas for buying food grains like
wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene oil at subsidized rates from the public distribution shops. This system
helps the Department to computerize the Ration Card related activities. This system helps the citizens
to avoid the inordinate delay in issue of ration cards and alteration of existing cards (NIC, 2005: 28).
E-Mitra
E-Mitra (2007) is an initiative of State Government of Rajasthan. It has been implemented using a
PPP (Public Private Partnership) model. It provides G2Cservices which are as follows:

Payment of electricity, water, telephone bills;

Payment of taxes;

Ticket reservations;

Filling of Passport applications;

Registration of birth and death;

Payment by cash/cheque/credit card

4.2.3 Rural development

Since time immemorial, India has been a land of village communities. With more than 75 percent
people living in rural areas, no development can be justified unless it focuses on rural people.
BPL Survey Computerization
BPL Survey is conducted every five years to capture the information regarding families below poverty
line. The survey data captured through BPL Survey Software is used by government and rural poor
below poverty line to find out if they are part of the BPL list and hence eligible for various benefits
offered by the government at various levels (NIC, 2005: 32).
Gyandoot
This is an Intranet in Tribal District of Dhar (in the State of Madhya Pradesh) connecting cybercafs
catering to the everyday needs of the masses. It offers e-governance services including online
registration
of applications, rural e-mail facility, and village auction site etc. It also provides
services such as Information on Mandi (Farm Products market rates) rates, caste and income
certificates (NIC, 2005: 34)
The above cases of e-governance are only illustrative. Several e-governance projects in various
sectors have been implemented by Central Government and State Governments.

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5. Government websites and government information

Developing a successful presence on the web takes a combination of quality content, dynamic
programming, powerful graphics and a carefully planned promotion strategy. National Informatics
Centre has been playing a pioneer role in web design and development, web hosting, value added
web services, promotion enhancement and redesign of websites of Government Ministries and other
Departments.

5.1 India Image Portal and overnment of India (GOI) directory

The India Image Portal (2006) is the official Government of India Portal developed with an aim to
provide comprehensive, accurate, and reliable and one stop source of information about India and its
various facets including its Government, heritage, economy, news, and online citizen services etc.
GOI Directory (2009) is a comprehensive directory providing information about websites of Central
Government including all its organs such as Ministries/ Departments and State Government etc
It contains thousands of websites and millions of WebPages hosted on a variety of services. It serves
as a single window for all e-information of Indian Government. The total number of websites of various
government agencies at various levels is 5149.
Table 1: Government websites in India
Government Websites
Central Government
- Executive
- Legislative
- Judiciary
States (include districts)
- Districts
COMMITTEES/DOCUMENTS
-Committees, Commissions etc.
-Documents, Reports, Surveys etc.
Total

Number of
Websites
1315
21
70
3059
553
92
39
5149

Source: http://goidirectory.nic.in/statistics.asp

5.2 Evaluation of government websites

Evaluation is an essential and ongoing process used by information managers for the improvement of
any information system. Bertot et. al. (1997: 37) state that as government bodies allocate additional
resources to the development and maintenance of e-service, they should continuously consider what
problems users encounter during their sessions on a website.
In this study three government websites were assessed for content as well as for usability. On the
basis of previous studies conducted by Lone and Feather (1998:4) and Battleson et.al.(2001:14) on
evaluation of websites a detailed checklist was prepared specially for this purpose and data was
collected through a user survey to find out the usability of the selected government Websites. The
data was analyzed on various parameters such as : Purpose of the website, content and text, Design
and Stability, Organisation and Navigation, References and Usefulness of Online E-Services. For
each government website 10 users each were selected for evaluation. Selection of the population was
done on the basis of users familiarity with Internet.
Total number of Government of India websites of Ministries/ Departments at the Central level is 1406.
In order to find out the type of online information provided on various government websites the
following e-governance websites are selected for evaluation purposes as case studies:

Indian Passport System (http://passport.gov.in) [Accessed on 29 March 2009]

RTI (Right to Information) Complaint & Appeal (http://rti.india.gov.in/)

2009]

Indian Railway (http://www.indianrail.gov.in) [Accessed on 29 March 2009]

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Paramjeet Walia
The Criteria on the basis of which the three websites have been selected is that the websites cater to
a large group of Indian population and these are part of e-governance initiatives which are most
frequently used and are extremely popular.
5.2.1 Indian passport system (http://passport.nic.in)
The Ministry of External Affairs of Government of India and the National Informatics Centre have
designed a website for providing online services related to issuing of passports. The online passport
services have helped in reducing the time required for a citizen to get a passport issued. Moreover it
has helped to increase the transparency of the process and thus has been a very effective tool for
reducing corruption in the passport issuing system. It is probably one of the most successful egovernance initiatives in India. The analysis of data is as follows:
Purpose
A large percentage i.e.55% of users stated that the website does not actually state the focus or intent
but the user can very well get the purpose of the site because of its designing (image etc)
Content
Majority of the visitors on the website find the coverage of the content on the website quite extensive.
All the information required by them was available on the website. The feedback to the author is also
available. The last updating date is not mentioned but the website looks up-to-date. The skills required
for using the website are not challenging for the intended audience as navigation to all pages is
clearly mentioned.
Text
All the users of the website felt that links to all necessary forms are available on the website. The
website is available in Hindi also.
Design and Stability
Majority of the users i.e. 76% felt that the design of the site is not appealing enough for the ntended
audience and can be improved further. However the information is easy to find and the page loads in
a reasonable amount of time.
Organization and Navigation
The users of the website stated that the website has a FAQ section which is very helpful but it does
not have a site map and a search facility. The users suggested that a search engine would further
increase the utility of the website and make it more users friendly.
Reference
All the users felt that each unique document available for download gives a distinct Uniform Resource
Locator or some other unique identifier which helps in retrieving the document from the websites
database.
Usefulness of Online E-Services
The users felt that the web site proved helpful in getting the job completed because through this web
site one can get the form easily by printing it, can get the how to fill the form instructions, where to
submit, the fees and can also keep the track of the status of the passport. All this can be done online
except for submitting the form. All the users felt that with the use of the website, the travel time has
been reduced drastically. One has to go to the passport office only for submitting the form. The
website has reduced the role of intermediate agents but very marginally in the metropolitan cities of
Delhi and Mumbai and not at all at the other regional passport centers. However, the users felt that
the website has not been able to reduce the amount of bribes because the inspector that comes for
validation of the details still asks for bribe and one has to pay them otherwise they dont cooperate.
Also, 50% of the users are of the opinion that except for travel time to passport office, there has not

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been any decrease in the amount of time required to get the job done. This is essentially due to the
fact that the passport processes has only been partially automated and except for the online
submission of forms and an online status track checker rest of the procedures are still done manually.
5.2.2 RTI (Right to Information) complaint and appeal
RTI sands for Right To Information and has been given the status of a fundamental right under Article
19(1) of the Constitution Article 19(1) (MLJ, 2005:1-6) under which every citizen has freedom of
speech and expression and have the right to know how the government works, what role does it play,
what are its functions.
Purpose
54% of the users felt that the website clearly states the intent of the website. There is About RTI
Portal which explains the intent of the website. However, the rest of the users could not locate the
intent of the website.
Content
Majority of the visitors on the website find the coverage on the website extensive. However, 22% of
users felt that lot more information required by them was not available on the website. 53% of the
users felt that the feedback to the author is available and the rest could not locate such a feature on
the website. Most of the users felt that the information provided is current and correct in nature. The
last updating date is not mentioned, but the website seems up-to-date to majority of users. For
example, information about the filing of RTI returns for the current year is given. 75% of the users felt
that the skills required for using the website are not challenging for the intended audience as all the
content is mentioned in an appropriate manner.
Text
All the users of the website felt that the website provides important documents connected with its
various applications. For example, Articles are there which open on the same webpage. However,
100% of the users felt that the website should be available in Hindi also. It does not have any large
sized documents which require more time for downloading.
Design and Stability
Majority of the users felt that the design of the site is quite appealing for the intended audience and
there are active applets which make the website very appealing. The information is easy to find and
the page loads in a reasonable amount of time. Also, the website is compatible to various browsers
like Mozilla Firefox, IE and Opera etc.
Organization & Navigation
All the users of the website felt that the website has a FAQ section which is very helpful but it does not
have a site map. 83% users could locate the search engine on the website whereas the others could
not.
Reference
All the users felt that each unique document available for download gives a distinct Uniform Resource
Locator or some other unique identifier which helps in retrieving the document from the websites
database. 51% of the users felt that the website provides historical data in addition to the current
information in form of various related articles listed on the website. However, the rest feel that there is
no need of such information and hence historical data is not provided.
Usefulness of the Online E-Services
Majority of the users felt that the website enables users to get the information under RTI Act. Also the
users can see the status of there RTI query. The website provides useful information and links to

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some important websites. However 28% of the users felt that the utility of the website was just
satisfactory.
All the users felt that with the use of the website, the travel time has been reduced drastically as they
can get these things done online.
The website has reduced the role of intermediate agents to almost nil. 54% of the users stated that
the website decreases the time to get hold of information which otherwise would have been difficult to
find. The rest feel that online application of RTI query reduces the travel time but for getting the RTI
query processed requires the same amount of time as it was done manually.
5.2.3 Indian railway passenger reservation enquiry system
It is one of the successful e-governance ventures of Government of India. It is designed and
developed by Centre Railway Information System (CRIS). One of the unique features of this system is
that it tries to earn revenues through advertisement on its websites. The analysis of data on the basis
of various check points is given below:
Purpose
Majority of the users felt that the website states the focus or intent. Others felt that the user can very
well judge the focus of the website because of design (images, links etc).
Content
Majority of the visitors on the website find the coverage on the website extensive. All the information
required by them was available on the website. Although, there is a link which leads to the feedback
page where suggestions relating to improvement of the website and grievances can be sent but 68%
of the visitors could not locate it. The website is being regularly updated regarding train schedule,
fares, timings etc. Hence all the users have concluded that the website is up-to-date even though
there is no update date available.
Text
All the users of the website stated that the links which the website provides for important documents
connected with its various applications open in PDF format. The website is available in Hindi also and
it does not have any large sized documents which require more time for downloading.
Design and Stability
A large number of users i.e. 77% felt that the design of the site is appealing enough for the intended
audience as it has a very basic design because of which it gets very easy to find the information. Also,
there are some applets running on the website running some advertisements. Although the website is
compatible to various browsers like Mozilla etc. but it also mentions Best viewed at 1024 x 768
resolution with Internet Explorer 5.0 or Netscape Navigator 5.0 and higher.
Organization & Navigation
All the users of the website felt that the website has a FAQ section which is very helpful. The website
does not have a site map but it has a link to the Centre for Railway Information Systems which has a
site map but 91% of the users could not locate it. There is a search engine on the website which also
provides a link to Google search but 75% of the users could not locate it. 25% of the users who could
find the search engine felt that most of the query pages like search for trains between important
stations, PNR enquiry etc. take a lot of time. However this is due to the fact the queries are data
intensive. The skills required for using the website are not difficult for the intended audience as
navigation to all pages is clearly mentioned.
Reference

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All the users felt that each unique document available for download gives a distinct Uniform Resource
Locator or some other unique identifier which helps in retrieving the document from the websites
database.
Usefulness of Online E-Services
The users felt that the web site proved helpful in getting the job completed because the user can very
easily find the trains, their fare, the seat availability PNR status but there is no option for booking the
tickets. However, this option is available at IRCTC website which is essentially an offshoot of this
website and thus can be considered to be a part of the Indian railways official website. The
recommendation of the users is that booking option should also be provided at the URLof this website
itself. (For evaluation we consider the IRCTC website to be a part of the Indian Railway Website
itself.)
Only 20% of the users felt that with the use of the website, the travel time has been reduced.
However, since the website does not provide any option of booking tickets so a lot of time is still
wasted in visiting the railway station for booking the ticket.
Majority of the users believe that this is one of the best websites as it has completely eliminated the
role of intermediate agents and the need to pay bribes for getting tickets.
All the users feel that the website helped in decreasing the overall time required for getting the job
completed because time taken for getting the various details about trains has definitely reduced by an
average of 2-3 hours.

6. Findings
The purpose of this paper is to review the e-government initiatives in India pertaining to e-governance
through which online services and digital government information is provided to citizens. The findings
of the study are as follows:

The e-government initiatives have been taken up in most of the significant sectors such as rural
development, agriculture, administration and finance etc.

It was observed that use of the online services provided by these e-governance initiatives by
citizens have gradually been increasing day by day but use is more in urban areas than rural
areas.

The Internet has made it easier for citizens to locate and download government information.

The system generated is not as efficient as it is in developed countries as most of the websites
are non-interactive.

India has recognized the benefits of e-governance and through it, ushered in a paradigm of
citizen-centric service delivery. There are however various challenges which need attention. India
is a developing country and the economic and social environment is very different compared with
that in a developed country. There are some serious challenges which can create obstacles in the
smooth transition towards e-governance such as low levels of literacy and e-literacy, as well as
poor ICT infrastructure, availability of regular electric power supply particularly in rural and remote
areas. Majority of people are not familiar with the English language. Hence e-governance
initiatives need to be planned and executed with reference to all these ground realities in the
country.

After evaluating the e-governance initiatives of Indian Railway, RTI and Passport as case
studies it can be concluded that there have been some positive impacts of these initiatives which
are:

These e-governance initiatives have helped in reducing the amount of corruption prevalent in our
government institutions by partially removing the involvement of intermediaries in the process.
The passport e- governance initiative is a point in this regard wherein due to online submission
process being made partially computerized, it has reduced the incidence of bribes however since
rest of the back end process is still carried out in the same old fashioned way therefore the impact
of the e-governance becomes marginal.

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The passport service has resulted in every marginal improvement in the quality of services since
only a partial process of passport issuing has been computerized.

7. Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded that even though the e-governance initiatives have been partially successful
in India but they have had limited impact due to low e-literacy and infrastructure limitations.
For National e-governance to succeed, it is critical to create an appropriate central organization with
structures that can operate in mission mode, with full autonomy and accountability. Evaluation of egovernance projects as well as feedback pertaining to utility of these projects is vital. Further research
need to be carried out to assess the usefulness and impact of e-governance initiatives. It is important
thus that government of India should find out whether e-governance initiatives are reaching the people
at grassroots level or not.

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