E-Governance in Kerala: an exploratory Study Rahmath Safeena 1, Hema Date2, Abdullah K Muhammad3 1,3 Research Scholar, 2Associate Professor 1, 2, 3 National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai Abstract Revolutionary developments in ICT have impacted business as well as government in a profound manner and Egovernance in one of such development. Governments today are increasingly exploiting the enormous opportunities provided by ICT to deliver services in a more efficient and effective manner, which provides a more citizen-centric government and reduces the operational cost. The prowess achieved through this revolution has led to exploitation of ICT by Kerala for better governance and rural development. This study deals with the assessment of e-governance projects of Kerala. Keywords: e-governance, ICT, Kerala
Introduction ICT is a key element of reform efforts that can help dramatically reshape government to improve performance and reduce costs. Governments today are increasingly exploiting the tremendous opportunities provided by ICT to deliver services in a more efficient and effective manner, and mostly at lower costs than earlier. The realization of these opportunities, however, depends on the effective management and integration of the service delivery infrastructure. In particular, the government business processes, information resources, and integrated manner. The idea of electronic governance (e-governance) addresses the application of electronic technologies in the areas of public action in a democracy, particularly those affecting relations and interaction between public authorities and citizens in the provision and access of public services or e-governance simply means the use of ICT by government to deliver their service to the customers (citizen, business or government entity). The development of e-government also means increased electronic co-operation within and among public organizations which even puts demands on development that is not technology oriented. The development towards e-government involves social changes of work roles, attitudes and new competence needs (Grundén, 2009). The Government of Kerala recognizes the significance of Information Technology for State‟s overall development and employs IT as a tool for both economic development and for increasing productivity, speed and transparency in governance and improved quality of life for the common man. Kerala has embarked on several citizen centric ventures in all the major government departments to improve the quality and access of service delivery. The advantages of this mechanism is obvious for Government to Citizen (G2C), government to Business (G2B) and Government to Government (inter department; G2G) transactions. The success of the efforts in the past few years has already started showing the results. However, the actual results of the egovernance activities will gain more visibility as well as citizen focus only if many of the stand alone systems created are properly networked and integrated. The successful Departments have a more efficient/transparent delivery mechanism and an updated information at all levels for monitoring and planning. While this is applicable for all departments in the state, the advantages to departments having a high degree of citizen interaction like the Revenue, Registration, Rural Development, Civil Supplies, Police etc. and revenue augmentation departments like the Taxes, Treasury, etc. will be tremendous. With a view to strengthen the requirements as well as provide a common base for all departments in Government, the state government implemented a State Wide Area Network (SWAN). Centralized infrastructure at the state level, viz., State Information Infrastructure (SII) which is a critical infrastructure for the larger network has already been separately completed and commissioned. E-governance meaning electronic governance has evolved as an information age –model of governance that seeks to realize processes and structures for harnessing the potentialities of ICTs at various levels of government and public sector and beyond for the purpose of enhancing good governance (Bedi, Singh, & Srivastava, 2001; Holmes, 2001; Okot-Uma, 2000; Saxena, 2005). The term e-governance refers to the process of using ICT for automating both the internal operations within the government and its external interactions with citizens, businesses and other governments. Automation of internal operations reduces operating cost, improves response time, optimizes resource utilization and at the same time allows government processes to be more elaborate and effective to citizens thus identifying deficiencies sooner than later (Ray & Mukherjee, 2007). (Zwahr, Finger, & Corresponding Author :
[email protected]
Mueller, 2005) defines e-governance as shift in state„s governance mechanisms that are induced by ICT along three major functions of state, namely – policy making, regulations and service delivery (Suri, 2005). EGovernance is the application of electronic means of interaction between government, citizens and business, as well as the internal government operations to provide an effective and efficient framework for collective problem solving .i.e. one-stop, non-stop, efficient, effective, responsive, transparent governance through the use of information technology (Okoronkwo, 2010). In spite of the worldwide diffusion of e-government initiatives, getting the aimed benefits of e-governance has not been so easy for various reasons. Key challenges faced during the implementation of e-governance project is defined as the e-readiness and closing of design-reality gaps for steering e-governance projects from failure to success (Heeks, 2003). Besides technological issues, there are social, political, economic issues in e-governance implementation.. Challenges involved in egovernance have been summarized as citizen relationship management, security aspects, legal issues, process reengineering, system architecture, change management, organizational structure, partnerships and interdepartment co-ordination. Other issues are digital divide, interoperability (Suri, 2005). (Kumar, Sushil, & Gupta, 2004)have argued that effectiveness parameters of e-governance programmes need to be predefined and factors of change need to be managed carefully to give real benefits of different stakeholders involved in such programmes. Factors of effectiveness have been identified as new value proposition, innovative use of technology to deliver services, funding from outside sources, design of projects, functionality, participation of citizens/stakeholders, role of political leadership and legal issues. Factors responsible for effective change management have been identified as organizational changes, people related changes, process level changes and changes at interface in partner agencies. Success factors for e-governance have been identified as proactive government, commitment, literate computer savvy population, framework for security, IT architecture, administrative reforms, connectivity through liberalization and abounding IT skills of private sector (Gupta, Kumar, & Jaijit, 2004). According to (Okot-Uma, 2004) e-governance implementation should comprise stakeholder statement of requirements, baseline assessment, blue print for e-governance and implementation (Suri, 2005). According to (Abdul Kalam, 2003)e-governance is the transparent, smart, seamless access, secure and authentic flow of information crossing the inter-departmental barriers and providing a fair and unbiased service to the citizen
Methodology Grounded theory approach has been adopted for this study. Grounded theory is a method that has been used extensively across a variety of social science disciplines. The basic tenet of this approach is that a pattern must emerge from the data. Study of different e-governance projects in Kerala has been done using the literatures and data collected from secondary sources like websites, reports etc.
Why Kerala “Though Kerala is mostly a land of paddy-covered plains, statistically Kerala stands out as the Mount Everest of social development; there's truly no place like it” (McKibben, 2010). State of Kerala is always in the forefront to imbibe new generation knowledge to make the life and environment hassle free. Kerala continues to be the focus of attention in the Indian and international level as a region in the developing world with a unique pattern of development (Palackal et al., 2007). Table 1: Kerala unique; Adopted from (NPI,2010 ; Santhosh, 2010; Chandran, 1994. Vidyasagar, 2004)) Category Milestones State having the highest Literacy rate Literacy and First Indian State to achieve Total literacy Rate in the year 1990 Education First state to implement education reform bills State with lowest Birth Rate State with lowest Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) Health Only State with Hospital Facility in every Village State with maximum life expectancy Land Reforms First state to implement land reform bills India‟s most advanced data-com and telecom infrastructure 100% digital exchanges - 988 exchanges Information Communication Universal OFC connectivity across state Technology Highest telecom density, SEA-ME-WE-3 & SAFE cable landings – abundant bandwidth. State in which the Communication Infrastructure is the Highest India's first e-district- (Malappuram)_
Blessed with nature's bounty, nurtured by diverse religious and cultural traditions, tiny Kerala has made huge contributions in diverse areas and is today India's most progressive state (Prabhath, 2010). A state with 100% literacy, world standards of health, and a hard working, determined, dedicated population is always setting standards in all most all the spheres of its activity. In more modern times the Keralites have migrated in large numbers in search of employment to several foreign countries like United States, Malaysia and Singapore in South East Asia as well as to several countries of Africa and West Asia. The professionals of Kerala are among the most wanted experts in the fields of medicine, Information Technology etc. Kerala is the state with highest literacy rate (90.92%) in India. All the villages in Kerala are almost 100% broadband connected, has highest tele-density with increase in mobile users and has 100% digital exchanges. Kerala is ranked best in India in terms of Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) with highest density of science and technology personnel (Santhosh, 2010). Having achieved high physical quality of life index and social infrastructure development, Kerala is ideally positioned to use ICT as a catalyst for the all-round economic prosperity and social uplift of its people. Table 1, below shows the uniqueness that makes Kerala stand apart from other states in India.
E-governance in Kerala Information Technology today is recognized as an effective tool for turning the economic activity in efficient governance and in developing human resource. As the era of Digital Economy evolves, the concept of good Governance assumes a greater significance. So the Kerala government has come up with several e-governance projects for better performance of the government. It is expected that in this context the E-Governance will result in improved transparency, speedy information dissemination, and higher administrative efficiency. The efforts of the government have started showing results. The dream of digitization in Kerala has come into existence with the functioning of Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) together with National Informatics Centre (NIC), Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (CDIT), Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IIITM-K) etc. These centers have actively involved in most of the IT enabled applications and have changed the mindset of the working community in the Government to make use of the latest state of the art technology in their day to day activities. In keeping with her position as one of India‟s best „connected‟ states, Kerala boasts a large number of websites and portals which enables her own citizens as well as interested users worldwide to access information about the state, swiftly, easily. The main one is the official website of Kerala government (www.kerala.gov.in). This site provides access to government services by providing online application forms for services from various departments like the electricity board, revenue department, corporations, public distribution system. Besides facilitating online application for grievance redressal, the site carries information of government machinery, contact details of elected representatives and a discussion forum. It also provides links to various govt., NGOs and educational institutions. Each department / ministry has their own portals with different projects for citizen welfare. In keeping with aspects of standardization, almost all e-Governance projects of Kerala are based on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), in line with the official policy of promoting free software. The Government of Kerala has taken a lead in setting up three major e-Governance ICT infrastructure projects: the State Data Center (SDC), the Kerala State Wide Area Network (KSWAN), and a network of Common Service Centers (CSC) or State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG). As part of the other ICT infrastructure, the government has set up facilities including video-conferencing facility, citizen‟s call centre, official email facility, e-Procurement, state spatial data infrastructure (SSDI-using GIS), public key infrastructure (PKI-for security and legal sanctity) and mobile infrastructure. The government is digitalizing all its written documents of various departments which has yielded good results and paved way for good governance. Figure 1 shows the structure of E-Governance projects in Kerala under various Ministries. KSITM (Kerala State Information Technology Mission) is an autonomous nodal IT implementation agency of Kerala Government which provides technology and managerial support to various initiatives of the ministries. As the nodal agency for all IT-related initiatives in the state, KSITM has a key role as a single point of contact for all stakeholders, beneficiaries, entrepreneurs and citizens. Its portal has evolved since 2001, to one of the most comprehensive resources about IT in Kerala. Some of major e-governance initiatives in Kerala are discussed in the coming section. Table 2 points out the beneficiaries of E-Governance projects in Kerala.
Major e-governance initiative of Kerala Akshaya- e-Kendra An e-literate citizenry is a key component of a successful e-governance strategy. The first step in taking ICT to the masses has been rolled-out in Kerala. As a part of this initiative, at least one person in each of the 65 lakh families in the State will be made IT-literate. This project, piloted in one of the backward districts - Malappuram - has evolved into one of the most dynamic interventions in public-private-partnerships in the State. Services include in this initiatives are a) Agriculture Information System; b) Implementation of Health Data Acquisition
System; c) Government Services; d) E-Education; e) E-payment; f) E-ticketing; g) Merit Exam conducted and certificate issued by Computer Society of India; h) Communication Centres- With the availability of broad band connectivity at Akshaya e-kendras, opportunities for communication using internet, net chat, voice chat, e-mail etc. are opened up for the common man FRIENDS (Fast, Reliable, Instant, Effective Network for Disbursement of Services) “Friends” is a single window „no queue‟ integrated remittance centre where the citizens have the opportunity to pay all taxes and other dues to the Government under one roof at no extra cost. Offering a comfortable ambience, each FRIENDS centre accept payments of the Kerala University, Local body, Electricity Board, Water Authority, Land Revenue, Civil Supplies, Motor Vehicles, BSNL and Electrical Inspectorate. Each of the counters follows a „token management‟ system which eliminates the need for queues and inordinate delays in making remittances. Government of Kerala KSITM
MINISTRIES
Others
Home Finance
Local Self Govt.
Food and agriculture
Akshaya FRIENDS FREES Ente Gramam INSIGHT CCC E-District CAPS LIMS
AIMS E-Krishi KISSAN AGRISNET AHEAD FISHNET TETRAPDS ABACUS
Health
Education
HIS Dr.SMS Telemedicine E-Dhanawanthari OncoNet
CAP EMS KIF Thozhil MC E-book facility Digital library
General Administration
Ruralsoft MESSAGE SPARK DC Suite LRIS IDEAS PEARL PGMS TREND Aasthi SWIFT SPMS Sutharyakeralam IGSG
BOUGETTE EMLI E-Stamping TIS TRIM
FABNet HFIS FMIS SmartMove FAST Licensing Software
E-Governance Projects
Figure 1: Structure of E-Governance Projects in Kerala FREES (FRIENDS Re-engineered and Enterprise Enabled Software) FREES is a "single window scheme" where citizens have the opportunity to pay all the taxes and other dues to Government. One of its major feature is “Anywhere any payment”. With this feature citizen can pay various utility payments and other fees/Tax at any FRIENDS or Akshaya centre using a single collection module which support all the services, transactions and associated transactions. INSIGHT Insight is a project of the Kerala Government, which aims to use ICT for the development of the differently abled in Kerala. It was initiated as part of the new ICT Policy (2007) which aims to convert Kerala into an
Inclusive Knowledge Society. Using the possibilities offered by ICT, Insight makes people with diverse ability active participants in the Knowledge society. In order to achieve its aim, Insight is developing technology, providing training and sharing knowledge. Table 2: E-Governance Projects and Beneficiaries No Department Project 1. Agriculture AIMS ; e-Krishi; KISSAN; AGRISNET 2. Animal husbandry AHEAD 3. Education/ Labor CAP-HSCAP; EMS; Thozhil; Malayalam computing 4. Water authority ABACUS 5. Civil supplies TETRAPDS 6. Finance BOUGETTE; EMLI; e-Stamping 7. Health HIS; Dr. SMS; Telemedicine; e-Dhanawanthari 8. Revenue SWIFT; LRIS 9. Motor vehicle Smart-Move; FAST 10. Rural Development Ruralsoft 11. Registration PEARL 12. Fisheries FISHNET 13. IT for masses Akshaya; FRIENDS; FREES; INSIGHT; CCC 14. Kerala Sahithya Academy E-book facility; Digital library 15. Election Department TREND 16. Forests & wildlife FMIS 17. General Administration PGMS; IDEAS 18. Home Department CAPS 19. Factories & Boilers FAB Net Licensing Software; HFIS 20. Law LIMS
Beneficiaries Farmers Animal Husbandry Students Public/citizen Public/citizen Government Public/citizen Public/citizen Public/citizen Public/citizen Public/citizen fisherman Public/citizen Public/citizen Public/citizen Department Department Police Industrialists Judiciary
DC-Suite (District Collectorate Suite) DC Suite is an integrated suite of applications based on an integrated solution architecture covering all functional areas and activities in the Collectorate. The functional areas identified includes Workflow based File Management System, Public Grievances Monitoring System, and Revenue Recovery Management etc. In addition, there are add-on optional modules for Knowledge Management, District Portals etc. Citizen services delivery through KIOSK, SMS, and Internet are primary objectives set for the project. The applications, which are of public interest, will be given access through INTERNET, SMS and Touch Screens based Kiosks using standard software and web interfaces. SPARK (SERVICE AND PAYROLL ADMINISTRATIVE REPOSITORY FOR KERALA) SPARK is a web based G2E integrated solution for Service and Payroll Management is an attempt to bring the payroll and finance related activities of these employees within a single application. SPARK has the provision as such in the Service book to trace service history, track record, bills/ reports/orders etc. This system allots Permanent Employee Number (PEN) on registering the Service Book of the employee Thereafter PEN will be the important code to identify the employee in the SPARK database. It will also capture the details of Loans, Advances and other subscriptions like LIC, SLI, GIS, and FBS etc. TETRAPDS (Targeted Efficient Transparent Rationing and Allocation Public Distribution System) TETRAPDS is a comprehensive package for automating the activities of the offices of Civil Supplies. The main applications of TETRAPDS are Tetrapds 2.2, Ration Card Management System (RCMS), Allocation of Food Grains and Civil Supplies portal. Tetrapds 2.2 is used for ration card digitization and renewal of ration cards. It is implemented in all 69 Taluk Supply Offices/City Rationing Offices in the State. RCMS is a work flow based solution for all citizen services which include issue of new ration cards, issue of surrender and reduction certificates, addition and deletion of members in the card, splitting of ration cards etc. Allocation of commodities is a workflow-based solution for allocating food grains from the Taluk Supply Offices based on the theoretical requirement of the dealers. E-Government and Citizen Services are provided through the civil supplies portal. Some of the important services of TETRAPADS are a) District wise monthly allotment of food grains; b) State level/district level/Taluk level stock details of Retail and Wholesale dealers; c) Monthly Ration Card Statistics d) Forms for downloading; e) Acts and Rules.
Dr. SMS (Health Information System for Kerala) DR.SMS is a mobile health application system which enables the citizens to use mobile phones to get information on health resources. It provides the user with a comprehensive list of medical facilities available in their locality, like doctors or hospitals having expertise in various medical disciplines. A web portal catering to the internet users is also available .A Geographical Information System based Location Mapping is also available in the portal. FISHNET FISHNET is an e-governance Portal-cum-web based work flow based application developed by NIC for the Fisheries Department. It provides G2C, G2G and G2E services. The project components include knowledge based portal, application system for registration & license activities. Some of the features of this software are a) purely work flow based; b) Automated process - generation of Registration & License certificates, Identification Number, fee structure; c) Bilingual Language selection; d) Security features; f) Approval of application at various level (directorate, district, zonal); g) Role Based Menu mapping; h) Alert message to officers about expiry of license, vessel impounding etc; i) Barcode mechanism for instant verification and ease of use; j)SMS service CAP (Central Allotment Process) CAP is the online centralized seat allotment process developed by NIC for professional course. There are online processes for other course too like HSCAP meant for the Higher Secondary Courses. EMS (Examination management System) The software handles all activities including candidate registration, register number allocation, question paper estimation and distribution statement, examiner‟s posting, tabulation, result processing certificate printing etc. Nominal roll and admission tickets with photo of the candidates are made available for download to schools. A formatted file for uploading result on the Internet is generated. IT @ School The project aims at imparting computer education to the high school students for the qualitative improvement in the conventional learning systems and also to equip teachers to use computers as an educational tool. Stake holders are the school management, teachers, students and the local community Malayalam Computing Training to common man on how to enable and use Malayalam in computers. The primary objective is to help the common man benefit from various Internet services like e-mail, chat and blog. Thozhil It is developed as a part of the total computerization of Employment Exchanges of Kerala, which covers the registration process as well as the selection process in the Employment Exchanges. It is time saving, userfriendly and transparent. It eases the work of citizen, customer (employer who want list of candidate) and user department. AIMS (Agriculture Information and Management System) “AIMS” is automated application software through which all the available agricultural resources are streamlined by the department and made available to the citizens or farmers• Farmers will have access to the database in Krishi Bhavan. Detail of government schemes, ground level information like land pattern, land holdings and crop pattern will be available to farmers. Agriculture portal KISSAN is available to the farmers through this software. E-Krishi, The market driven agricultural initiative through IT enabled agri-business centers in Kerala state addresses the existing gap in agriculture information flow and transaction management. The vision of the project is to establish a well connected farmer„s community throughout Kerala who have access to information on market demand, price, good agricultural practices, quality agricultural inputs supported by a technology enabled robust transaction platform that facilitates all their offline activities. The project is piggybacked on the existing resources of Akshaya e-kendras for providing the services. The project is operational with the help of Department of Agriculture and Local Self Government Institutions. Here Sellers (farmers) and buyers (merchants) register through nearest Akshaya Centre or log on to www.e-krishi.org and post the materials for selling/buying, post and view advertisements. Virtual meeting of buyer and sellers occur through the web and
effect transaction. There are Toll Free Call Centre managed by qualified agricultural specialists, which help farmers and buyers in solving trade related doubts, provides details on good agricultural practices including local weather. KISSAN (Karshaka Information Systems Services and Networking) - is an integrated, multi-modal delivery of agricultural information system, which provides several dynamic and useful information and advisory services for the farming community across Kerala developed by IIITM-K. The basic objective of this project is to provide "Right Information to the Right Person(s) at the Right Time in the Right Place(s) and in the Right Context" dynamically using a combination of advanced technology like Web Technology, Television based mass media programs, Telephone based advisory, Mobile SMS based advisory and broadcast service, dedicated online Agri video channel provides video on demand service etc, which, involves effective collaboration of experts from key organizations for effective information delivery and knowledge empowerment on demand seamlessly to all farmers across Kerala. MESSAGE (Modern Electronic Systems and Services for Agility and Governance in Enterprises) MESSAGE is an "Integrated File-Flow Management System" implemented as an intranet based centralized application for the internal use of offices and internet based application for the citizen services. It is a network based system to monitor the flow of Files & Petitions in Government Secretariat and can be instantiated for multiple offices from the same intranet database. It is a web based workflow management system driven by core ICT technologies to make all services accessible to the citizens. There are add-on optional modules for Knowledge Management, District Portals etc. Ruralsoft Rural Soft‟ is a web enabled e-governance application for the Rural Development Department of Kerala. This IT tool helps the officials at the District, State and Centre in monitoring the achievements of the village more efficiently and with more transparency. It enables citizens to monitor various schemes implemented at the Grama Panchayats and Block Panchayats (G2C). Also helps government to make a comparative study of different villages and know about the developments in villages. SWIFT [Single Window Interface for Taluks] Computerization of Taluk offices for minimizing the common man's travails in getting different certificates from Taluk office. Application forms are available in local language and in English. Once the data is entered, the system can generate all the certificates required for the particular purpose. Provision for data backup and data security is available. It is under revenue department. LRIS (Land Records Information System) LRIS Provides a consistent and integral view for effective and efficient land revenue administration with the prime objective to issue the Record of Rights to citizens without delay and generation of Accounts Register from the database. Software successfully developed and pilot work has been successfully completed. Smart-Move Computerization of all functionalities under motor vehicle department for better service to the citizens. This is the workflow management software and part of FAST project for updating all the RTOs in the state. BOUGETTE Finance department Kerala has implemented the package BOUGETTE for the computerization of Pre-Budget and Post-Budget activities of Budget preparation. ABACUS (Advanced Billing, Accounting, Collection and Utility Services) The ABACUS computerized system has been evolved as full-fledged workable online software covering almost all functions of Consumer Billing (Bimonthly) and Revenue Collection of Kerala Water Authority (KWA).
PEARL (Package for Effective Administration of Registration Laws) It takes care of all activities of a typical Sub Registrar Office. Registration of all types of documents, Issue of Encumbrance Certificates, Certified copies, Registration of marriages and other certificates etc is done by this. It provides Publicity to transactions, Prevent fraud, security of title deeds etc. Its features are Transparency/ speedy delivery and work load of department will be reduced.
TIS (Treasury Information System) Treasury online takes care of all the activities of the District Treasury. The Treasury Information Management (TRIM) is a computer based system to provide various services to Government Departments and Public. The G2G and G2C services offered are provided. Information required for the public who transact with Treasuries is provided. All the Treasury bill forms can be downloaded from the site. The public can get information on any of the Treasuries in Kerala. IDEAS: Information and Data Exchange Advanced System File Tracking System for State Government Offices. The system makes the government more transparent and approachable for the citizens, bringing benefits in its overall governance. E-District Proposes integrated, seamless, and online delivery of citizen services at the district level through automation of workflow, backend digitization, integration and process redesign. The services have been shortlisted keeping the citizens needs as primary service objective. The major service categories include G2C services like issue of Certificates, Filing of RTI & Public Grievance, and Request for new ration card etc. This project will also provide G2E/G services like revenue cases, Government dues and recovery etc. IGSG (Integrated Government Service Gateway) IGSG is a FOSS based geographical information Portal, which serves as a ready reckoner of all the Government offices, tourist destinations, and other places of historical significance in Kerala. It provides details of location, how to reach and the services offered, etc. to the citizens. It helps the public to easily gather information through this Web-GIS Application without any time delay. It‟s like Wiki Model where users can add location. KIF (Kerala Innovation Foundation) KIF provide an institutional platform for the knowledge rich, economically poor people which make Kerala innovative by documenting, adding value, protecting Intellectual Property Rights of the contemporary unaided technological innovations , students' innovations as well as outstanding examples of traditional knowledge. It motivates a culture of creativity and innovation in society. Sutharyakeralam It helps to bring the complaints and grievances of citizens directly to the notice of the Chief Minister, thereby ensuring transparency and efficiency in the functions of the Government. This is achieved through the automation of Chief Minister's Grievance Redressal Cell and convergence of all the available forms of communication to redress the grievances of the citizens. It is achieved through CCC and video conferencing. Aasthi (Asset Management System) Automated e-Inventory management of computers and other IT related equipments. It helps in creating and managing a data repository of the inventory pertaining to the hardware and software of IT resources in an organization.
Benefits E-Governance is concerned about people in government, business and citizens working together for the benefit of all. If properly implemented, the benefits of e-Governance are numerous. Citizens benefit more from these projects by getting speedy, efficient and better service. Some of the benefits of e-governance projects in Kerala are: Better delivery of government services to citizens: the public benefits by getting easy access to the most current information available without having to go directly to government offices to get it. It saves time and energy. Increase in transparency: e-governance projects implemented are mostly transparent and clear and hence easy for the citizen to understand and thus utilize the service. Increase in revenue growth Reduced cost of running government: paperless government paved way for this. Decreased corruption: The e-payment service has paved way for reducing corruption. The citizen does not meet the officials directly for payment.
Challenges The e-governance initiatives in the State further need to be improved for the success of Government. The government faces major managerial and technological challenges during the implementation of these projects. There is also a need to manage the entire programme at the State level in a coherent manner with consistent strategies for cost optimization and integration. For achieving this, the Governments need to provide the overall direction, standardization and consistency across initiatives and at the same time, have the resources and flexibility to drive this plan. Some of the issues and challenges faced during the implementation of e-governance projects can be stated as follows. Resource: Hiring the right mix of personnel for sustaining the project. Lack of programme management skills have to be overcome by choosing qualified administrators to manage the entire e-Governance network efficiently. Availability of staffs to support IT applications in government. Connectivity: Reliable connectivity is also a major challenge. Lack of access to Internet, especially for rural population to reap the benefits of e-Governance. Issue of availability and affordability of broadband connection. Though the government is taking steps to increase the broadband penetration, we still have miles to go before we realize the full potential of e-Governance. This is critical as the success of many e-Governance projects hinges on the availability of Internet. Timeliness of e-Governance projects – timely completion of the project was a main issue. Long delays in implementing e-Governance projects due to technical issues or lack of government agency support. It also occurs due to the lack of coordination between government officials and the solution providers. Establish proper mechanism for monitoring and evaluation of the projects Citizen awareness: citizen should be provided awareness about the new projects. Especially the rural people and the aged citizens. Because of high income inequality there exists a digital divide. There is a serious lack of awareness among the lower classes of society about the technological growth in the area of e-Governance. Diverse language/ Localization of content: This is a great challenge. It lays stress on including local languages in governance. Ensuring e-Governance in local language is a big task to achieve. Then only the common man will be able to use the service. Infrastructure: Lack of infrastructure for sustaining e-Governance projects. Cost of IT hardware / software / networking. A good e-governance application will not benefit anybody in remote areas if there is no supporting infrastructure, such as electricity, computers and connectivity. Providing bandwidth to every gram panchayat in the state is not that easy. Business process re-engineering (BPR): Just bringing in technology is not sufficient. BPR has to be done. The processes have to change at the ground-level. This is the biggest challenge. Issues of privacy, Security of information and data protection are another challenge. Financial challenges: funding becomes problems for some projects of the government.
Milestone achieved
Kerala bagged four CSI (Computer Society of India)- Nihilent awards from 2006 to 2009. KISSAN Kerala bagged e-India 2009 National Award for best ICT enabled Agriculture Initiative. KSITM bags the Second Prize for Best E-Governance Website in 2008. FRIENDS won the e-Governance award 2006 instituted by the CTO Forum FRIENDS also won the award for the Best IT implementation of the Year 2004, by PC Quest. FRIENDS got ISO 9001:2000 certifications for its citizen-friendly services and quality standards. Kerala was Runner Up for the Most Progressive State in e-Governance: India Tech Foundation (2005) IT@School bagged the Skoch Redhat The world is Open award, 2008 in the category of education. Akshaya Project has been selected for the Golden Nica award 2005. Akshaya project won Silver Icon award in Innovative Operations and Best Practices - 2004. Akshaya is selected by PC Quest for Best IT Implementation in 2004.
Conclusion Kerala has adopted ICT in her own, special fashion. E-governance initiatives in the state seem to have shown positive results. The support from government, service providing institutions and literate citizens mainly lead to success of the projects. Local Self Government institutions give all the support for setting up e-centres at the Panchayath /village ward level. Local bodies give prolonged support to sustain the e-Kendra at the grass root
level. These projects have improved the governance as well as life of the common man. There need to be improvements in services like integration of the different services i.e. the portals developed for all the departments must be integrated into one single portal with facilities for sharing cross-domain information and services among the employees of the different departments and also for the policy makers. The aim of egovernance project/service is to save time and cost and also to provide better service to citizens. So the project should be designed in such a way that the services should be available to the citizens themselves online rather than doing the service by contacting any agency or e-kendras.
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