E-GOVERNANCE USES AND CHALLENGES

Introduction

The ‘E’ in E-governance stands for ‘electronic’. Thus, E-Governance can be defined as the application of information and communication technology for providing government services, exchange of information, transactions, integration of previously existing services and information portals.

Electronic Governance is a government initiative to provide platforms that help citizens connect directly with the government. It promotes government schemes, integrity, transparency, flexibility, security, good governance and empowerment.

While Governance relates to safeguarding the legal rights of all citizens, an equally important aspect is concerned with ensuring equitable access to public services and the benefits of economic growth to all. It ensures government to be transparent in its dealings, accountable for its activities and faster in its responses as part of good governance.

Origin

E-Governance originated in India during the 1970s with a focus on in-house government applications in the areas of defense, economic monitoring, planning and deployment of ICT to manage data intensive functions related to elections, census, tax, administration etc.

Objectives

• Better services delivery to citizens
• Ushering in transparency and accountability
• Empowering people through information
• Improve efficiency within government i.e., between Centre-state or inter-state  
• Improve interface with business and industry

Pillars of E-Governance

• People
• Process
• Technology
• Resources

Uses of E-Governance

The main uses of E-Governance can be listed down as given below:

• To support and simplify governance for government, citizens and businesses.
• To make government administration more transparent and accountable more transparent and accountable while addressing the society’s needs and expectations through efficient interaction between the people, businesses and government.
• To reduce corruption in the government.
• To ensure speedy administration of services and information.
• To reduce difficulty for business, provide immediate information and enable digital communication by e-business.
• To reduce cost of expenditure on stationaries like papers, printers etc.
• To make governing process transparent.

Interaction in E-Government

There are 4 types of interactions in e-governance:

1. G2C- Government to Citizens: This enables citizens to benefit from the efficient delivery of large range of public services. The primary aim of this interaction is to make the government-citizen friendly.
2. G2B- Government to Business: This enables the business community to interact with government by using e-governance tools. The objective is to cut red-tapism which will save time and reduce operational costs and also create a more transparent business environment.
3. G2G- Government to Government: This kind of interaction can be between various departments and agencies within government or between two governments like the union and state governments or between state governments. The primary aim is to increase efficiency, performance and output. 
4. G2E- Government to Employees: This kind of interaction is between the government and its employees and ICT tools help in making these interactions fast and efficient and thus increase the satisfaction levels of the employees.

Advantages of E-governance

• Improves delivery and efficiency of government services.
• Improved government interactions with business and industry.
• Access of information to everyone results citizen empowerment.
• More efficient government management.
• Less corruption in the administration.
• Increased transparency in the administration.
• Greater convenience to citizens and businesses.
• Cost reduction and revenue growth.
• Increased legitimacy of government.
• Flattens organizational structure (Less hierarchy).
• Reduces paperwork and red-tapism in the administrative process which results in better planning and coordination between different levels of government.
• Improved relations between the public authorities and civil society
• Re-structuring of administrative process.

Challenges to E-Governance

• Technical Issues
• Security: Internet transactions are the major concern due to lack of security. Insurance, banking and utility bill payments are all handled by e-government platforms. Loopholes in the system provide a poor experience to the individual.
• Privacy: Misuse of personal data is another aspect that has proved challenging.
• Interoperability: Coordination between the ministries, communication gaps, and data transfer limitations are also some issues in e-governance.
• Economic issues
• Cost: Implementing e-governance operation and maintaining services are very costly.
• Reusability: Any government-developed model must be reusable. E-Governance is a nationwide plan that should include software or programs that government agencies can use.
• Maintenance: The government needs to constantly maintain such platforms and introduce new software to meet citizens’ current demands.
• Portability: Providing technologies independent of heavy immovable hardware.
• Social Issues
• Accessibility: Many people in rural areas cannot access such portals due to language barriers, insufficient infrastructure etc.
• Illiteracy: Illiteracy is a major factor that renders such platforms useless.
• Language: A major chunk of the population cannot understand the languages other than their native languages. The government must meet the gap and add different languages to their portals.
• Awareness: Informed citizens, concerned institutions and government departments should take it as a responsibility to spread the information and promote e-services.

There are some other major issues which are also responsible for causing problems with E-Governance, such as;

1. Trust: Increasing cybercrimes such as spoofing, data tampering, data leaking, transactional frauds etc., are posing problems for e-governance. Such activities create trust issues for citizens and limit the use of such platforms.
2. Inequality: The unequal distribution of technology limits the users and bars people from availing the perks under schemes of e-governance.
3. Security: There is a lack of security maintenance in the government portals. To protect citizens’ information, government needs to have a high level of protection.
4. Infrastructure: Better infrastructure can provide better connectivity to remote areas and help overall development.

Conclusion

E-Governance is one important initiative taken by governments worldwide, enabling them to handle and carry out their duties. E-governance aims to provide services so that everyone can benefit from them. The boom in the IT sector helped enhance the working of e-governance. While working towards citizen welfare, these platforms face various technical, social and economic challenges, such as increasing cybercrimes, expensive maintenance, lack of infrastructure, illiteracy etc. The government must address these issues and provide a better service to the people.

The government must ensure proper infrastructure and awareness programs are put into place. These measures can help people from the fringes of the society benefit from the various e-governance schemes.