Governance: Good Governance, E-Governance & Citizen Charter

32 min readSep 11, 2020

‘Governance’ is the process of decision making and the process by which decisions are implemented. Governance can be used in several contexts such as corporate governance, international governance, national governance, and local governance

Governance has been organized, standards and capacities, ceaseless, controlled, and dependable. The level of convention relies upon the interior guidelines of a given association and its colleagues. In this manner, the standard can take a few structures with a range of motivation for various outcomes. For instance, a government can work as a democracy, where the citizen should vote that who will rule and the public good is the goal, while a Non-profit organizationS (NGOs)or a corporation may be governed by a small board of directors and more specific objectives can be followed. Apart from this, different types of external actors can influence the procedure without deciding the power. These include Lobby, tanks, political parties, non-governmental organizations, community, and media.

Governance & its various aspects

Governance is a multi-dimensional concept that has come in vogue in the contemporary world. According to the World Economic Forum “in its purest form, it describes that allow a state, organization, or group of people to conduct affairs. The most obvious among these is the government running your country as well as administrations & groups that ensure its safety efficiency”
In the globalized world, the contours of governance were expanded even more to include various institutions — private as well as multilateral such as institutions if international development, MNCs, Businesses, NGOs, etc.
The concept of ‘governance’ is not new. It is as old as government itself. Both the terms are derived respectively, from the old french word ‘Gouvernance’ & Government, Initially, their meanings were very close, referring to acts or manner of government.
During the 1980s under economic reforms, especially under globalization, the use of the term Governance became popular with its emphasis on the process & manner of governing to the notion of sustainable development.
Meanwhile, an organization such as the IMF, NGOs, the & its agencies, the World Bank & the International media were quick to pick up the term & use it in a variety of ways. Together with its derived Good Governance; the catch-all term governance has since become a buzzword in the vocabulary of polity & administration reforms in developing countries dependent on support from international development agencies.
In the 1992 report entitled “Governance & development”, the World Bank set up its definition of good governance. It defined Good Governance as “the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country’s economic and social resources for development”.
The UNITED NATIONS development program, define governance “the exercise of political, economic & administrative authority in the management of a country’s affairs to all levels. Governance comprises the mechanism, processes & institution through which citizens & groups articulate their interests, exercise their political rights, meet their obligations & meditate their differences.
Good Governance has 8 major characteristics. ‘It is participatory, consensus, oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable, and inclusive & follows the rule of law.
It assures that corruption is minimized, the views of minorities are taken into account, and that the voices of the most vulnerable in societies are heard in decision making.
It is also responsive to the present and future needs of society.
Good Governance signifies a participative manner of governing that functions in a responsible, accountable & transparent manner based on the principle of efficiency, legitimacy & consensus for the purpose of promoting the rights of individual citizen & the public interest, thus indicating the existence of a political will for ensuring the material welfare of society & sustainable development with social justice.
While governance refers to actions carried out within a formal legal setting, governance involves all activities of government along with informal activities even outside a formal governmental setting that are meant to achieve common goals. According to James Roseau, Governance refers to activities backed by shared goals that may not derive from legal & formally prescribed responsibilities that do not necessarily rely on police powers to overcome defiance & attain compliance.

Principle of Good Governance by United Nations (UN)

The United Nations (UN) has given 8 major characteristics of good governance. They are briefly described below:

Participation: An essential foundation of good administration is interest by all segments of society. This incorporates people, weak areas of society, in reverse classes, minorities, and so forth. Agent popular government doesn’t really convert into the portrayal surprisingly. This is the place acceptable administration becomes possibly the most important factor. Interest likewise infers opportunity of affiliation and articulation.
Consensus Oriented: Agreement situated dynamic guarantees that regardless of whether everybody doesn’t accomplish what they need without limit, a typical least can be accomplished by everybody which won’t be impeding to anybody. It intervenes in varying interests to meet the expansive agreement on the eventual benefits of a network.
Accountability: Great administration points towards the improvement of individuals, and this can not happen without the legislature is responsible for the individuals. Legislative foundations, private segments, and common society associations ought to be considered responsible to the general population and institutional partners.
Transparency: Data ought to be open to the general society and ought to be justifiable and observed. It additionally implies free media and access to data to them.
Responsiveness: Foundations and procedures should serve all partners in a sensible timeframe
Effectiveness & Efficiency: Procedures and establishments ought to have the option to deliver results that address the issues of their locale. Assets of the network ought to be utilized successfully for the greatest yield
Equitable & Inclusive: Great administration guarantees a fair society. Individuals ought to have chances to improve or keep up their prosperity.
Follow the rule of law: The lawful structure ought to be authorized unbiasedly, particularly on human rights laws. Without the standard of law, legislative issues will follow the guideline of Matsya Nyaya ie law of fish which implies the solid will beat the feeble.

Principles of Good Governance by the Council of Europe.

The Council of Europe in 2008 compiled 12 principles of Good Governance. These are:

Fair conduct of Elections, Representation & Participation — Local elections are conducted freely & fairly, according to international standards & National legislation. Citizens including marginalized sections of society are at the center of public activity.
Responsiveness — Objectiveness, rules, structures & procedures are adapted to legitimate exceptions & needs of citizens.
Efficiency & Effectiveness — Information on decisions, implementation in policies & results is made available to the public in such a way as to enable it to effectively follow & contribute to the work of local authority.
Openness & Transparency — Information on decisions, implementation of policies & results is made available to the public in such a way as to enable it to effectively follow & contribute to the work of local authority.
Rule of Law — Rules, and regulations are adopted in accordance with the procedure provided for by law & are enforced imparity.
Ethical Conduct — The public goods are placed before individual interest & there are effective ways to combine corruption & other such issues.
Competence & capacity — The professional skills at those who deliver governance, i.e public servants are continuously maintained & strengthened in order to improve their output & impact.
Innovation & openness to change — New efficient solutions to problems are sought & advantage is taken to the modern method of service provision.
Sustainability & long term orientation — There is a broad & long term perspective on the future of the local community along with a sense of what is needed for such development.
Sound financial management — Prudence & participation is observed in financial management, including in the contracting & use of loans, in the estimation of resources, revenue & reserves, and in the use of exceptional revenue.
Human rights, cultural diversity & social cohesion — Human rights are respected & protected. Cultural diversity is treated as an asset, and continuous efforts are made to ensure that all have a stake in the local community.
Accountability — There are effective remedies against maladministration & against actions of local authorities which infringe civil rights.

Good Governance & India

The idea of Good Governance has antecedents in Indian civilization as well. The rulers were bound by Dharma, popularly called ‘Raj Dharma’, ensuring good governance to the people. It means those who are involved in governance must adhere to righteousness and do justice to the public. It has an inseparable link to social welfare & inclusive development.
Bhagwad Gita provides numerous cues for good governance, leadership, dutifulness, and self-realization which are re-interpreted in the modern context.
The idea can be found in various texts such as Jataka tales, Shanti Parva- Anushasanparva of Mahabharat, Sukracharya’s Nitsar, Panini’s Ashtadhyayi, Aitraya Brahma, Valmiki’s Ramayana & especially in Kautilya’s Arthashastra or even the Ashokan pillars.
In Kautilya’s Arthshastra (2nd — 3rd Century BC), the welfare of people was considered paramount in the role of King. Mahatma Gandhi emphasized “su-raj” which essentially means good governance.
The importance of governance is clearly inscribed in the Indian Constitution which is built on-premise of the sovereign, socialist, secular, and the Democratic Republic committing itself to democracy, rule of law and welfare of people.
When during the 1990s, World Bank raised the issue of governance, this immediately, became the issue of concern in India. The document of the Ninth Five-year plan raised in 1999 decided to look into the loopholes that existed in this regard in India. The issue decentralization in developing, planning, accountability of implementing agencies, and monitoring & evaluation of programs were raised.
The issue of governance was dealt with in greater detail in the chapter titled “Governance & implementation” in the Tenth Five-year plan. It looked at overlapping spheres of social, political & economic encompassing not merely the state but also civil society & market.
The same was sought to be analyzed during the 11th & 12th five-year plan as well. The twelfth five-year plan (2012–2017) defines good governance as an essential element of any well functioning society. It ensures effective use of resources & deliverance of services to citizens & also provides social legitimacy to the system.

Measures Adopted to ensure Good Governance in India

Various measures have been adopted to ensure good governance in India keeping in mind the contours of the same. The introduction of democracy in free India made it imperative for the country to provide for a system of democracy at the grass-root level. It was sought to be achieved by the introduction of local self-government in rural & urban areas of the country. The local government has been in operation since the early years of independence yet during the 1990s an attempt was made by the 73rd & 74th amendments to give a wider representative base and more power to these institutions.

Right to Information

Right to Information (RTI) Act was passed by the parliament on June 15, 2005, which come into full force at midnight of 12th & 13th October 2005. The original constitution does not provide explicitly a right to information. However, the supreme court has held in several cases that the right to information is implicit in the constitutionally enshrined rights to freedom of speech and expression Article 19 (1) (a) & right to life & liberty Article 21. The main thrust of the act opaque bureaucracy & bring transparency & accountability.

As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), India is under an international obligation to effectively guarantee citizens the right to information as per Article 19 of the ICCPR.

Right to Information (RTI) refers to the right of every citizen to access information held by or under the control of public authorities. Information is crucial fo good governance as it reflects & captures government activities & processes. It is said that information is the oxygen of democracy.

RTI Act, 2005 marks a significant shift in Indian democracy. It gives greater access to the citizen to the information which in turn improves the responsiveness of the government to the community needs.

The right to information promotes openness, transparency, and accountability in administration by making the government more open to public scrutiny.

Legal Reform

The central government has scrapped nearly 1,500 obsolete rules & laws with an aim to bring about transparency and improve efficiency.

Reform criminal justice and procedural laws with a focus on pre-institutional mediation.

Ease of Doing Business

Steps were taken by the government to improve business conditions including legislation meant to improve the country’s business environment and policy ecosystems (such as the Bankruptcy Code, the Goods and service tax or GST, and the anti-money laundering law).

The government has launched the ‘Make in India initiative’.

Good Governance Index

The Good Governance Index was launched on the occasion of Good governance day on 25 December 2019. The good governance index is a uniform tool across states to assess the status of governance and the impact of various interventions taken up by the state government & union territories.

The objective of the Good Governance index is to provide quantifiable data to compare the state of governance in all states and union territories, enable states and union territories to formulate and implement suitable strategies for improving governance and shift to result-oriented approaches and administration.

Police Reforms

Modernizing police forces and implementing the Model police act of 2015. Reform of the First Information Report (FIR) lodging mechanism, including introducing filing e-FIRs for minor offenses.

Lunch a common nation-wide emergency number to attend to the emergency security needs of citizens.

Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP)

The ADP launched in January 2018to transform the lives of people in the under-developed areas of the country in a time-bound manner.

Anchored in NITI Aayog, the programme is aimed at transforming 115 most backward districts with focused interventions in the field of health and nutrition, education, agriculture, and water management, financial inclusion, and skill development.

E-Governance

E-Governance effectively delivers better programming and services in the era of newly emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs), which herald new opportunities for rapid social and economic transformation worldwide.

E-Governance has a direct impact on its citizens who derive benefits through transactions with the services offered by the government.

Programs launched under e-governance: Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation (PRAGATI), Digital India program, MCA21 (to improve the speed and certainty in the delivery of the services of corporate affairs), Passport Seva Kendra (PSK), online income tax returns, etc. Focus on ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’.

Lokpal & Lokayukta act

The historic Lokpal & Lokayukta Act 2013 (Lokpal Of India) was passed by the Indian parliament giving the way of the establishment of a Lokpal (Ombudsman) to fight corruption in public offices & ensure accountability on the part of public officials, including the Prime Minister, but with some safeguards. All entities (NGOs) receiving donations from foreign source in the context of the foreign contribution regulation act (FCRA) in excess of RD 10 lakh per year are under the jurisdiction of Lokpal.

Right to Education (RTE)

Illiteracy is the major hurdle in the way of Good Governance. In this respect, the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009 may be legitimately hailed as one of the major landmark legislations that have been enacted by Parliament in the 21st century with a view to achieving the objectives of Good Governance.

Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme

The direct benefit transfer scheme, launched in 2013, leverages the Aadhar System to usher in greater transparency & improve targeting, climate wastage & enhance efficiency. Good Governance & E-Governance.

Challenges of Good Governance

Criminalization of Politics

According to the Association of Democratic Reforms, 43% of Members of Parliaments of Lok Sabha 2019 are facing criminal charges. It is a 26% increase as compared to 2014.
The criminalization of the political process and the unholy nexus between politicians, civil servants, and business houses are having a baneful influence on public policy formulation and governance.
The political class as such is losing respect. Therefore, it is necessary to amend Section 8 of the Representation of the People’s Act 1951 to disqualify a person against whom the criminal charges that relate to the grave and heinous offenses and corruption are pending.

Corruption

Corruption is a major obstacle in improving the quality of governance. While human greed is obviously a driver of corruption, it is the structural incentives and poor enforcement system to punish the corrupt that have contributed to the rising curve of graft in India.
According to the Corruption Perception Index — 2019 (released by Transparency International, India’s ranking has slipped from 78 to 80.

Gender Disparity

According to Swami Vivekananda, “it is impossible to think about the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved. It is impossible for a bird to fly on only one wing”.
One way to assess the state of the nation is to study the status of its women. As women comprise almost 50% of the population it is unfair that they are not adequately represented in government institutions and other allied sectors.
Therefore, in order to ensure good governance, it is essential to ensure the empowerment of women.

Growing incidence of violence

Resorting to illegal force is considered to be a law and order problem. But when one looks at it from the point of view of the principles of Good Governance, it becomes clear that peace and order is the first step to development.

Delay in Justice

A citizen has the right to avail timely justice, but there are several factors, because of that a common man doesn’t get timely justice.

Centralization of Administrative System

Governments at lower levels can only function efficiently if they are empowered to do so. This is particularly relevant for the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), which currently suffer from inadequate devolution of funds as well as functionaries to carry out the functions constitutionally assigned to them.

The marginalization of Socially and Economically Backward People

The socially and economically backward sections of the society have always been marginalized in the process of development. Although there are constitutional provisions for their upliftment in practice, they are lagging behind in so many areas like education, economic well being, etc.

Good Governance & E-Governance

E-Governance is a powerful tool of good governance. The national e-governance plan has the vision to “make all government service accessible to the common man in his locality through common service outlets & ensure efficiency, transparency & reliability of such services at an affordable cost to realize the basic needs of the common man.
The 11th report of Second ARC talks about the need to promote e-governance & related initiatives. India being the largest democracy in the world has much to gain from e-governance, especially when citizen participation in governance is one of the features of the fully evolved stage of e-governance
Analogous to e-commerce, which allows a business to transact with each other more efficiently (business to business) & bring the customer closer to business (business to customer), e-government aims to make transaction between government & citizens (G2C), Government & business enterprises (G2B) & inter-agency relationship (G2G) more convenient transparent & inexpensive.
The goals of e-governance are –
(a) better service delivery to citizens.
(b) sharing in transparent & accountability
© empowering people through information
(d) improve interference with business & industry.
Recognizing the increasing importance of electronics, the government of India established the department of electronics in 1970. The subsequent establishment of the National Informatics Center (NIC) in 1977 was the first major step towards e-governance.
In the ensuing years, with ongoing computerization, Tele connectivity & interest connectivity, came a large number of e-governance initiatives, both at the union & state levels. A national task force on information technology & software development in May 1998.
The other significant initiatives include the creation of a union ministry of information & technology in 1999, identification of a 12 points minimum agenda of e-governance by the government of India for implementation in all union government ministries & department by 2000 & the national e-governance plan (NeGP) established in 2006 which set out an impressive agenda for developing e-government services.
‘eKranti’ or NeGP 2.0 was also conceptualized with a focus on the electronic delivery of services. Later digital India which was launched on 1 July 2015 is an initiative to ensure that government services are made available to citizens electronically by improving online infrastructure & by increasing internet connectivity. According to an administrative reforms commission report, e-governance initiatives implemented in the last 10 to 15 years can be categorized into the following: (1) Government to citizen (G2C), (2) Government to business (G2B) initiatives, (3) Government to Government (G2G).
Government to Citizen (G2C) has witnessed numerous initiatives like computerization of land records (dept. of land resources, govt. of India), Bhoomi project is seen as one of the major elements providing for the smoothening of G2C services in the country. The 12 digits individual identification number on the Aadhar card is used to get an LPG subsidy amount directly in the bank account. This DBTL scheme is named as PAHAL. It is also a major requirement in the PMJDY. Linking of votes, pension & PFs to Aadhar is also a major step.
The government of India has launched a digital locker (Digi locker) system for everyone for storing all personal documents on the government’s server. E-gov service online is crucial for e-governance under the National e-governance plan (NeGP). Under this scheme, citizens do have to come to the government offices for many of these services. They can avail of these sitting in their offices or in the comfort of their or in the comfort of their homes. Various G2B initiatives have been launched as well. Under this NeGP, the m/o corporate affairs, under the government of India has facilitated e-filling of taxes, online incorporation of company & other related facilities.
Aaykar Setu is an effort by the Income-tax Department to directly communicate with the taxpayers, on a range of multiple informative & useful tax services aimed at providing tax information at their fingertips. My Visit is an initiative by the government of India to enable the citizens to have a smooth & simple process of making an appointment to meet a government officer, hassle-free. It will bridge the gap between the government & the common man & will enhance the opportunity of the common man to meet government officials.
Various Government to Business (G2B) initiatives have been launched as well. Under the NeGP, the ministry of corporate affairs, under the government of India, has facilitated e-filling of taxes, online incorporation of company & other related facilities.
E-Market tools have been launched for the daily market rate of Agri commodities (food grains, fruits & vegetables), horticulture crops, etc covering major markets in the country.
The e-procurement project was introduced in 2003, the benefits of the new system are as follows ere reduction in tender cycle time, reduction in opportunities for corrupt practices, cost savings, a substantial reduction in the advertisement costs in the press media, transparency in the bidding process.
Government to Government (G2G) is an initiative that deals with large scale processing of information & decision making within government systems. This initiative has been taken to help in making the internal government processes more efficient. Some of the projects are the Khajane project in Karnataka for computerization of entire treasury related activities, smart gov (Andhra Pradesh), etc.
The processing of information in the government is predominantly a workflow initiative. Information moves in the form of paper files from one office to another for seeking opinions, comments. Smart Gov was developed to streamline operations, enhance efficiency through workflow automation & knowledge management.
The solution automates the functioning of all the levels of government entities & provides a well-defined mechanism for transforming the ‘hard copy’ environmental to ‘digital environment’. It enhances productivity through the use of IT as a tool.
E-Sansad & E-Vidhan are projects under digital India that plan to digitize all parliament documents union m/o parliamentary affairs is the nodal ministry for implementation of both the projects. This is also in consonance with the Go Green initiative, which will further limit the cutting of trees for paper, keeping in mind the commitments towards the Paris climate agreement & sustainable development goals.
The Survey of India is planning on an integrated G2G platform for sharing data generated by a survey of India for various government agencies. This is in accordance with the government’s data sharing policy. This will benefit all government agencies since it will be accessible to all user departments. It helps to upgrade the maps at 1:25,000 scale with updated content within the framework of all national policies.
India ranked 98th position in the UN E-Governance Index 2019. Jumping 22 places from 2014. Major issues with regard to e-governance in India are discussed below:
Funding: funding is the foremost issue with regard to initiatives & lacuna therein.
Management of change: the delivery of government services through electronic media including EDI, internet & other IT-based technologies would necessitate procedural & legal changes in the decision & delivery making process.
Privacy: whenever a citizen gets into any transaction with a government agency, he shells out a lot of personal information that can be misused. Thus, the citizen should be ensured that the information flow would pass through a reliable channel & seamless network.
Authentication: secured ways of the transaction for the government services are another issue of concern. The identity of citizens requesting services needs o to be verified before they access or use the services.
Interoperability: In fact, the interoperation of various state governments, the various ministries within a state government is a critical issue.
Standardization: The standards need to be worked out not only for the technologies involved but also for issues like the naming of the website to creating an email address.
Technology issues: The e-governance initiative would have to address the technological issues/objectives by identifying the appropriate hardware platforms & software appreciation packages for cost-effective delivery of public services.
Use of local language: The access of Information must be permitted in the language most comfortable to the public user, generally the local language. There do already exist technologies such as GIST & language software by which translation from English into another language can be made.

Digital India

The digital India initiative was launched on July 3, 2015, with a vision to digitally empower each & every citizen of the country. The digital India framework underlines the idea of ‘9 — The power of empowering’. The 9 pillars consist of –

Broadband Highways: Bharat Net — Rural 2,50,000 village panchayats to be covered under the national optical fiber network (NOFN). National information infrastructure would integrate the network & cloud infrastructure in the country to provide high-speed connectivity & cloud platform to various government departments up to the panchayat level. National knowledge network hopes to promote collaboration & exchange of knowledge among educational & research institutes.

Universal Access to phones: to provide mobile coverage in a phased manner to the remaining 55,619 villages in the country.

Public interest access program: It consists of common service centers (CSCs) that would be strengthened & increased from the current 13500 to 250000 CSCs — one in each gram panchayat would be made viable & multi-functional endpoints for delivery for government services. Further, post offices are being revamped as multi-services centers with 15000 post offices to be converted into multi-service centers.

E-Governance: Online applications and tracking from simplification & field reduction as well as online repositories eg. for certification educational degrees, identity documents, etc so that citizens are not required to submit these documents in physical form constitute e-governance.

E-Kranti — Transforming E-Governance & Transforming Governance: It is the biggest program within digital India & focuses on a mobile-first approach. It works on the integration of services & platform eg — Aadhar platform of Unique Aadhar Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) payment gateway mobile server platform etc. There is 44 mission mode project under e-Kranti, which are at various stages of implementation. These projects include — e-education, free wifi in all schools, and providing massive online open courses (MOOCs). E-Healthcare: online medical consultation, online medical records, online medical supply, Pan-India exchange for patient information, etc; Technology for farmers: real-time price information, online ordering of inputs & online cash, loan & relief payment with mobile banking; Technology for security- mobile-based emergency services & disaster-related services on real-time basis technology; National cybersecurity coordination would be set up to ensure safe secure cyberspace within the country; Technology for financial inclusion: through use of mobile banking, micro — ATM program & CSCs/Post offices; Technology for the judiciary: e-courts, e-police, e-prosecution, etc

Information to all: It centers around developing an open data platform https://data.gov.in/ that facilitates the proactive release of data sets in open format by the ministries/departments of use, reuse & redistribution & provide open and easy access to information for citizens. Pro-actively engage through social and web-based platforms to inform & interact with citizens. https://www.mygov.in/ — this website crowdsource ideas from the public for the design of programs such as better traffic management, using big data for making cities smarter, etc

Electronics Manufacturer: This pillar focuses on promoting electronics manufacturing in the country with the targeting of NET ZERO imports by 2020 as a striking demonstration of intent.

IT for Jobs: This pillar focuses on providing training to the youth in the skills required for availing employment opportunities in the IT/ITES sector. Components of this pillar include Train 10 million students from smaller towns & villages for IT sector jobs over 5 years; Setting up BPOs in very Nort-Eastern state to facilitate ICT enabled growth in these states; Training 30,00,00 service delivery agents as part of skill development to run viable businesses delivering IT SERVICES. Training 5,00,000 rural workforce on telecom & telecom related services.

Early harvest Programmes: It is an IT platform for sending messages. There is also an E-Greetings postal on https://www.mygov.in/, Biometric attendance, wifi all universities, secure email for government officials, Standardized government email design, Public wifi spot in all cities with 1 million population & at tourist hubs, School books to be ebooks, SMS-based weather information & disaster alerts, National portal for lost & found children http://khoyapaya.gov.in/mpp/home

Ravishankar Prasad in Yojana Article writes that “India’s digital story is one of the digital empowerment & digital inclusion to digital transformation. Various initiatives such as Meghraj, GI cloud, hopes to provide towards the same, Meghraj hopes to use cloud computing to accelerate the delivery of e-services in the country to ensure optimal utilization of infrastructure & speed up the deployment of e-gov apps.

The Jandhan-Aadhar-Mobile (JAM) trinity for direct benefit transfer (DBT) hopes to curb leakages & corruption in delivery of benefits to the needy.

Later, towards these ends, UMANG is a single mobile app offering over 300 government services with a target to provide 1200 digital services. It provides unified access to various services in nearly 13 local languages.

Challenges of E-Governance

Interoperability of Solutions — It is one of the critical issues of e-governance. Interoperation among ministries & departments is difficult, and it became a hurdle for processing & sharing data. In other words, web-based data on how to be captured & in which format these seem to be a major issue how to capture the data in web-based form & how to transfer it in a common format for processing & sharing the information.

Privacy — Privacy of any transaction or information provided by the citizen to the government agency must be ensured otherwise the information can be misused by the private sector or competitors & the users may be reluctant to access the service provided. Astringent data protection law is urgently needed in India to address the mounting concerns over the privacy of citizens. Data theft issues have come with the cases of Facebook & Cambridge Analytica. BN Srikrishna committee was appointed to look into the issue for data protection. The submitted report consists of recommendations like –

the law will have jurisdiction over protection over the processing of personal data if such data has been used, shared, disclosed, collected, or otherwise provided in India.
Additionally, personal data collected, used, shared, disclosed, or otherwise processed by companies incorporated under Indian law will be covered, irrespective of where it is actually processed in India.
The data protection law will set up a DPA which will be an independent regulatory body responsible for the enforcement & effective implementation of the law.
The law will cover the processing of personal data by both public & private entities.

Security — Transaction security is a major problem in e-governance. The tax, fine & bill payment must be secured & the system design should be full-proof.

Authentication — The authentication of citizens of requesting needs to be verified before they access or use the service. The digital signature plays an important role in providing the authenticity but this is expensive & requires frequent maintenance

Economic Issues –

Cost — Implementation, operation & maintenance cost of service provided should be low enough for high cost-benefit relation.
Maintainability — It has been continuously evolving & software is frequently upgraded. Thus the system must be compatible & maintainable for easy fulfillment of emerging needs.
Reusability — E-Governance should be considered as a nationwide plan & the implemented modules must be reusable by other administrations.

Portability — The primary requisite for portable applications is the independence of components from hardware or software platforms, to help in possible reuse by other administrations.

Social Issues –

Accessibility: E-Governance service should be accessible for anybody from anywhere at any time. Even if the internet population is growing exponentially, there is a very big portion of the population who may not able to access e-governance for various reasons.
Usability: All the users may not be an expert in ICT transactions or the technology used for e-governance. Therefore the service provided must be useable for user friendly. To make the system usable, the guidance of operation may be provided to the users.
Acceptance: E-Governance requires reconfiguration of the internal & external structure of public sectors. The main aim to improve the system effectively & to provide high-quality services to the citizens. E-Governance is for the citizen. convenience. Instead of the convenience of the government, the power conflict over the departmental & functional boundaries became more prominent in the integration process.
Local Language: The access of information must be permitted in local language software or some other technologies to translate the information from English to local languages.
Awareness in Rural Areas: In India, there is a very high percentage of villages where awareness & e-governance is required since a large portion of rural populations are not aware of new technologies & computer educations.
Digital Divide: The digital divide refers to the separation that exists between communities & businesses that have access to information technology & those that do not have such access.
Economic poverty is closely related to limited information technology resources.
Technical illiteracy not only among masses but also among public officials is a huge issue plaguing the task of e-governance.
Most of the e-governance projects are given unachievable timelines. Most of the time ministers or leaders make announcements & deadlines, and then quality becomes the key challenge in project implementation.

For the success of an e-governance & superior service delivery, it is imperative that the government agency focuses on the whole citizen experience:

Create literacy & commitment to e-governance at a high level — The most important requirement in e-governance is training programmed needs to be focused according to the requirement of the policymakers at the top.
Conduct usability surveys for assessments of existing e-governance projects.
The E-Governance architecture needs to ensure that the components are sealable & adaptable to future requirements. It has also to ensure that the local architect fits into the state level and the same into national and global architecture. Interoperability is a major criterion while defining architecture.
Manage and update on government websites efficiently & regularly.
A secure delivery framework by means of a virtual private network connecting across the state & the central government departments.
Data centers in the state & the central government to handle the departmental workflow automation, collaboration, interaction, exchange to information with automation.

The Curious Case of Aadhar

Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identification number issued by the Indian government to each individual occupant of India. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UDAI), which functions under the Planning Commission of India, is liable for overseeing Aadhaar numbers and Aadhaar identification proof cards.

The Aadhaar project was started as an endeavor towards having a solitary, extraordinary recognizable proof report or number that would catch all the subtleties, including segment and biometric data, of each inhabitant Indian person. Right now there are plenty of character reports in India including travel papers, changeless record numbers (PANs), driving licenses, and proportion cards. The Aadhaar card/UID won’t supplant these recognizable proof reports however can be utilized as the sole distinguishing proof-verification while applying for different things. It will likewise fill in as the reason for Know Your Customer (KYC) standards utilized by banks, monetary foundations, telecom firms, and different organizations that keep up client profiles. Aadhaar numbers will, in the long run, fill in as the reason for a database with which distraught Indian inhabitants can get to administrations that have been denied to them because of the absence of distinguishing proof archives.

An inhabitant Indian can apply for the Aadhaar number and card by presenting the current confirmation of character (identification, PAN card, driving permit, and so forth.) and evidence of address (telephone/power charge, bank explanations, and so on.) and by experiencing biometric profiling (fingerprints and iris check) at any Aadhaar focus.

The Case

Aadhar card is being seen as a revolutionary step towards ensuring good governance. However, the tug of war between efficiency & privacy came at the doorstep of the Supreme Court.
The five-Judge bench delivered a four-to-one verdict that Aadhar granted the poor & the marginalized identity & dignity. The court said Aadhar cannot be made mandatory & was by nature voluntary people can only be enrolled for the scheme with their informed consent. Those who gave consent in absence of a law authorizing Aadhar, the gave court said, can withdraw consent & the existing scheme.
Only those who wish to avail of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes of the government — Cooking gas, Public distribution system, the rural jobs programme & so on — would have to enroll for Aadhar or if authentication fails, the court said. Alternate identity proof can be used to claim benefits in such instances, the court said.
The children can be enrolled with the consent of parents & will have Aadhar can’t be linked with admissions or entrance tests The option of withdrawing once they became adults. The court struck down section 57 of the act which allowed corporate entities or even individuals to demand Aadhar for their goods or services.
The court asked the government to change the law to prevent the collection& storage of metadata, Authentication data cannot be stored for more than six months as opposed to five years now. The courts also asked the government to come up with a robust data protection law based on the recommendations of the B.N Srikrishna committee report.
While criticizing Aadhar, development economist Reetika Khera, a strong advocate of data privacy, Aadhar has no role in plugging leakages or in the identifications of legitimate beneficiaries. Instead, it has created an ecosystem of exclusion.
Khera, in fact, argues that the primary purpose of Aadhar was never to improve financial inclusion or welfare administration as projected. “Welfare was just the sugar-coating to facilitate an essentially commercial project. These commercial activities required a digital ID infrastructure such as Aadhar, which was built using public money”.
Economist Jean Dreze says the court verdict does little to curtail the powers Aadhar gives to the government to link multiple databases & build an infrastructure of surveillance. The architecture of the Aadhar project consists of a central Identities Data Repository (CIDR), which stores & maintains authentications transaction data.
The Supreme Court also struck down Section 33 (2) of the Aadhar Act, which allowed sharing of data with security agencies on the ground of National Security Section 47 of this Act which allowed only the government to complain in case of theft of Aadhar data, was also revoked.
Justice B.N Srikrishna Committee recognizes the dangers of state surveillance & has recommended that the government passed the law on judicial supervision of executive action for surveillance.

M-Governance: Its Relevance & Benefits

M-Governance is a sub-domain of E-Governance. It ensures that electronic service is available to people via mobile technologies using devices such as mobile phones. These services bypass the need for traditional physical networks for communication & collaboration. Mobile services are also cheaper as well as accessible in most of the rural areas in India.

Relevance of M-Governance

M-Governance aims at providing fast & easy access to public services to the citizen through mobile devices. Mobile services are quickly emerging as the new frontier in transforming government and making it even more accessible & citizen-centric by extending the benefits of remote delivery of government service & information.
Delivering timely & accurate information to citizens & an established system of two-way communication between the government & people is one of the keys to strengthening democracy facilitating enhanced utilization of public services, participation, & empowerment of citizens.
Businesses too have woken its popularity of mobile phones & are introducing services, especially in the banking sector, mobile banking is the future because of its cost-effectiveness & ability to reach out to customers in remote areas.
To ensure adoption & implementation of the framework in a time-bound manner the government developed the mobile services delivery gateway (MSDG) that is the core infrastructure for enabling the availability of public services through mobile devices. The government is further adopting ‘the web approach’ to make all government website compliant with mobile devices.

Benefits of M-Governance

Cost Saving: With services being just a click away, m-governance helps in cutting down costs of both the provider and customer of the service by eliminating the need for physical interaction & thereby the components involved such as forms traveling to centers, etc.
Proficiency: It also increases proficiency as the various services can be easily accessed as well as keep a tab on with all the information available first hand, it helps customers make informed choices.
Transforming/Modernization of public sector organizations — It helps PSU’s modernize & adopt innovative technological solutions helping them cut fat & become more efficient.
Added convenience & flexibility: The idea of services being available anywhere, anytime adds both convenience & flexibility especially for citizens in remote areas or for those who are working & often don’t have time to physically go avail services.
Better services to citizens: As the citizen will get their work done sitting at their workplace or home through their mobile phone so it will provide better service to the citizen.
Easy Interaction: M-Governance streamlines services & cuts down corruption & indolences of PSU’s by making services easy to access and suspend. like https://www.mygov.in/ and https://www.pib.gov.in/indexd.aspx web portal gives all-round information for citizens about the policies, citizens rights, and other relevant information
Despite numerous benefits, challenges such as connectivity issues, the paucity of smartphones, digital illiteracy, fear of loss of data & privacy challenges. M-Governance however, undoubtedly the massive reach of mobile phones can aid harnessing the potential of mobile applications to enable easy & round-the-clock access to public services to ensure the ecosystem for M-Governance in the country.

Citizen’s Charter

Citizen’s charter has been recognized the world over Good Governance is essential for sustainable development, both economic & social. The three essential aspects emphasized in good governance are- Transparency, Accountability, and Responsiveness of the administration. “Citizen charters initiative is a response to the quest for solving problems which a citizen encounters day in and out while dealing with the organization providing public services”.

The concept of citizen charter enshrines the trust between the service provider & its users. The concept was first articulated and implemented in the United Kingdom by the conservative government of John Major in 1991 as a National Programme with a simple aim: to continuously improve the quality of public services for the people of the country so that these services respond to the needs & wishes of the users.

Basic Objective of ‘Citizen Charter’

To empower the citizen in relation to public service delivery. Six Principles of citizen’s charter as originally framed were –

Qualify: improving the quality of services.
Choice: whenever possible
Standards: specify what to expect & how to act.
Value: for taxpayers money
Accountability: Individuals & organizations.
Transparency: Rules/procedural/schemes/grievances.

In India, a conference of chief secretaries was held in 1996 in New Delhi to develop ‘An Agenda for effective & responsive administration’. The major recommendations emerging from the conference were the following:

Public Accountability should be interpreted in a broader sense to include public satisfaction & responsive delivery of public services.
The citizen’s charters should be introduced phase-wise for as many service institutions as possible and
The citizen’s charter should be introduced in the departments of the central & state government starting with those with a large public interface.

Department of Administration Reforms & Public Grievance in Government of India (DARPG) initiated the task of coordinating, formulating & operationalizing citizens charters. Guidelines of Do’s & Don’ts were communicated to various government departments organizations to enable them to bring out focused & effective charter.

The charter is expected to incorporate the following elements:

vision & mission statement.
details of business transacted by the organization.
details of clients.
details of services provided to each client group.
details of grievance redress mechanism & how to access it.
expectations from the clients.

With the introduction of the Right to information & Right to public service delivery in certain states, the Right of citizens has found a way. The introduction of the citizen’s charter underlines this importance.
According to Meena Nair (in Yojana Feb 2018) the DARPG defines the “citizen’s charter is a document which represents a systematic effort to focus on the commitment of the organization toward its citizens in respect on the standard of services”
The Second ARC remarks that citizen’s charter is based on the premise that the citizen is “king & government organization not to rule but to serve the citizens.

An independent review of citizen’s charter in India was carried out by the public affairs center Bangalore (2007) & the results have published in a report entitled ‘India citizen’s charter — A decade experience’:

Poor design & content: Most organizations do not have adequate capabilities to draft meaningful & succinct citizen’s charter drafted by government agencies that are not designed well. Critical information that end-users need to hold agencies accountable are simply missing from a large number of the charter.

Lack of public awareness: while a large number of public service providers have implemented citizen’s charter only a small percentage of end-users are aware of the commitments made in citizen charter.

Inadequate groundwork: Government agencies often formulate citizens charter without undertaking adequate groundwork in terms of assessing & reforming its processes to deliver the promises made in the charter.

Charters was rarely updated: charters reviewed for this report rarely showed signs of being updated even though some documents dating back from the inception of the citizen charter programme nearly a decade ago.

End-users & NGOs are not consulted: when charters are drafted civil society organizations and end-users are generally not consulted with charter are being formulated.

Resistance to change: The new practices demand significant changes in the behavior & attitude of the agency & its staff towards the citizen. At times, vested interests work for stalling the citizens charter altogether or in making it toothless.

Citizen charters despite their significance remain voluntary in nature. There is recently Public interest litigation (PIL) in the supreme court which as turned down by the court. The plea sought a direction to the center to provide a citizen charter & appoint a grievance redressal officer in every department to ensure smooth delivery of service & good to the people.

The plea further added that “the right to time-bound service, goods & redressal of grievances” was an integral part of life guaranteed under Article 21 of the constitution. However, the court refused to impose any such direction to the center by turning down the PIL. Thus while citizen charter is an important step in ensuring transparency & accountability in governance, their implementation remains a matter of contention
Violation of the citizen’s charter (if an officer does not do a citizen) by an officer; should be penalized & deemed as corrupt.
Inefficient delivery of services can be because of corruption but not necessarily so, grievance redressal should be through separate legislation & should not be included in the anti-corruption mechanism of Lokpal.
there is a strong need to have a balance between demand & supply, any amount of development efforts is bound to fall where demand is far in excess of supply as the pressure on service agencies increases. A true long term remedy lies in augmenting the supply & utilization of full capacities.
The existence of strong public opinion is a prerequisite of citizen charter’s effectiveness.

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