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MAKING GOVERNMENT INTELLIGENT

IF A MASSIVE infusion of funds is the magical solution quickly to transform India into a networked nation offering efficient citizen services through e-government, it can hope to work that unlikely miracle now. The World Bank has recently granted approval to the National E-Governance Action Plan (NEGAP) and sanctioned half a billion dollars (about Rs.2,200 crore), to be spent over four years, for projects in `mission mode' covering services for citizens and businesses. In such a dispensation, processing of passports, land, property and municipal records, driving licences, and transactions with customs, excise, and commercial tax departments will be done electronically and therefore speedily and transparently. Yet experience shows that mere availability of funds does not translate into e-government. The ambitious roadmap now under consideration calls for a first order commitment of political will, with funding coming an important second. Indeed a number of studies of e-government initiatives, including those by the World Bank, show that putting up hardware and software systems is no answer to bad basic governance. Equally important, e-government is incompatible with states that are not ready to be transparent in their working.

E-government is an enabler in the effort to bring about better processes, improve transparency, and reduce corruption. Yet few States are really prepared to roll out service delivery systems. Karnataka, one of the early movers, presents a classic case of initial hopes not being realised. It has attempted to build on its good start with `Bhoomi,' a project that computerised millions of land records and served seven million rural citizens, through scaled up e-government projects. What it has discovered should serve as a good case study for other States: in the absence of institutionalised procedures, many key departments have no concrete plans to introduce intelligent government; some are even apprehensive about participating in strategy meetings convened by the State e-governance secretariat because they have no mandate to do so. Technical expertise is another area of concern. Some experts from reputed institutions, including leading management institutes serving on technical advisory panels in the State, are unable to suggest electronic alternatives to complex processes followed in government. If NEGAP is to make a breakthrough, it must insist on the re-engineering of government processes everywhere. Genuine restructuring will also require that States shed their tendency to showcase computerisation programmes — such as payment counters for bills — as examples of smart government. They must focus more on the largely unattended `back end' where databases of entire classes of citizens have to be created; pensioners, welfare beneficiaries, traders, applicants for licences, and agriculturists must be able to conduct e-enabled transactions without encountering rent-seeking officials.

The national programme for e-government being supported by the World Bank is oriented towards key areas such as empowerment of rural citizens, improved government effectiveness, and promotion of private sector growth. These basic objectives cannot be realised without a firm commitment to the philosophy that e-government seeks to provide a better deal to citizens, especially in rural India, who have been unable to enjoy their entitlements on account of multiple deprivations, particularly income poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, and absence of health care, and a largely corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy. It will be inappropriate, therefore, to apply a simple cost-benefit formula in economic terms to assess the outcomes of e-government. The policy must also ensure that user charges are the exception rather than the rule and, where they must be levied, are highly affordable. Red tape and bribery cost the poor and the disadvantaged as well as society much more.

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