Making life simple through e-governance

Shekhar Dasgupta

One of the best demonstrations of a successful e-governance project at work is what happened in New York City on September 11, 2001. As the twin towers of the World Trade Center came crashing down, 290 hospitals in and around New York City logged into a network called LEADERS.

With the help of LEADERS all 290 hospitals could track, accept and 'load balance' causalities to ensure no injured person went without immediate medical attention. LEADERS is Lightweight Epidemiology Advanced Detection and Emergency Response System created by Oracle and some other partners. And it saved lives!

Recently, I read that the government of India has committed to spend Rs 28-30 crore (Rs 280-300 million) in creating one model eGoverned district in each Indian state.

It's a small beginning, but a commendable one. As most of the 28 Indian States announce their intention to use information technology to provide better governance to their people it is perhaps the right time to ask a few basic questions.

What are the key requirements for e-governance and what can e-governance do?

E-governance is definitely not about just PC deployment in government departments. At best, it is the first step towards organizing vital information in a manner in which it can be easily retrieved and processed further.

E-governance is about simplifying citizen services so that the common man does not have to spend more than a minimum amount of time in processing complaints, inquiries, bills or information requests with any government department.

Today, people in Hyderabad can pay their utility bills through Andhra Pradesh 's eSeva project. eCop, another AP Government initiative, is making crime control, law and order monitoring and administration of various support services easier.

With computerization at the Commercial Tax department at Madhya Pradesh, the government is successfully administering Value Added Tax, making the government machinery more effective even while making life easier for industry.

The vision

Oracle's 25 years of experience in working with governments around the world, shows that the key requirement for a successful e-governance programme is a strong political vision and will.

The senior most bureaucrats and legislators in the country or state need to be convinced that they want to give their people an easy and effective way of transacting with the government. There should also be a strong desire and commitment to make a paradigm shift in the way the government deals with its people.

A strong commitment to making life easier for the common man is the first step towards an eGoverned state. The second step, of course, is the creation of knowledge workers within the government departments.

These knowledge workers are people who understand the requirement of citizens and know how to harness IT to meet these demands. The deployment of the right IT infrastructure is perhaps the last requirement.

Issues

One issue that nags most leaders of eGovernance projects is the security of the system and the data. However, with eGovernance becoming a priority for governments and administrators around the world, checks and evaluation systems today ensure a 100 per cent foolproof, tamper proof system. Oracle, for instance, has 14 independent security evaluations for various aspects of data security in its eGovernance projects.

E-governance is not always equal to cost saving

People sometimes think eGovernance is equal to cost saving. Cost saving is incidental to eGovernance. In the long-run, governments do save large amounts of money due to better and more efficient process of transacting business.

Keep it simple

The best use of technology is in its making human life simple and easy. The same is applicable in all eGovernance projects. The challenge is to make the complex issues simple.

Shekhar Dasgupta is managing director, Oracle India.

2002: The Year That Was