Introduction The concept of citizen-centric administration has concurrence with the emergence of the concept of welfare democratic state across the world. This philosophy advocates that administration should keep the citizens at the centre with the aim of promoting their welfare to the maximum level. In developing countries, this concept gained momentum only after their independence from colonial rule and the adoption of the philosophy of welfare state after the Second World War. However, due to the poor socio-economic conditions and technological backwardness of these newly emerged countries, this concept of administration could not become a practical reality. However, in the recent past, the improvement in their socio-economic and technological environment paved the way for citizen-centric administration (CCA) in these countries. Furthermore, the exposure of common masses to the quality services as rendered by the private sector in the wake of new liberal philosophy of state, which advocates institutional pluralism and public choice approach in public administration, has succeeded in increasing the demand of citizen-oriented administration in these countries. The said philosophy is also stressed by international funding agencies including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) through their aid conditionalties specifically upon the Afro-Asian aid-receiving countries including India in the last two decades. Consequently, these countries have the least option but to adopt the ‘new public management model of governance’. This model advocates for re-inventing the government in tune with accountability, transparency, responsiveness and citizen orientation. It also visualizes citizens as vibrant and rational consumers of public utilities rather than as passive beneficiaries of state services. The whole scenario has led to the generation of a drastic and qualitative change in the public perceptions, aspirations and expectations with regard to efficient and effective delivery of services. Consequently, public administration in almost all these countries is experiencing a compelling force to ensure citizen centricity in administrative affairs not only to serve better but also holding administration accountable to the needs and desires of the common masses. |
The important issue in contemporary public discourse is how to realise the dream of CCA in reality. The road map in this regard has been specified in the report of the 2nd Administrative Reform Commission of India on citizen-centric governance. It has pointed out its certain pre-requisites1, principles2 and the strategies to render governance as citizen centric. Prominent strategies suggested by the Commission include reengineering processes, adoption of appropriate modern technology, right to information, citizens’ charters and active citizens’ participation. It needs to be added here that no governance can be citizen centric without instituting corresponding changes in its administrative functioning, which is a vital and integral component of governance. As evident from above, the use of modern technology could serve as an important strategy to institutionalise such reform in the administrative system to make it more citizen centric. It could facilitate the re-engineering of processes, involvement of citizens in decision-making, enforcement of public accountability and transparency, which ultimately will lead to the delivery of quality services effectively and efficiently to common citizens. One of the important aspects of modern technology, which is concerned with the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in various governance processes in efficient and effective delivery of public utilities, is termed as e-governance. In fact, it is a paperless government and does away with dusty files. It has emerged as an outcome of ‘digital revolution’, which has resultantly transformed the citizen–administration interface. “At the most fundamental level e-governance would mean facilitating government citizen interface by making it not just efficient but transparent too.”3 In fact, it is an important means of empowering the citizens to enable them to interact with the government. While commenting on the motive of e-governance, the chairman of the second Administrative Reform Commission has expressed that the very purpose of ensuring e-governance is “… to achieve better delivery to citizens, ushering in transparency and accountability, empowering people through information, improved efficiency within governments and improved interface with business and industry”.4 The Commission has asked the centre to prepare a clear road map with a set of milestones to transform the citizen–government interaction at all levels through the e-governance mode by 2020. It has also asked all organisations and departments of the union and state governments to identify e-governance initiatives, which could be undertaken within their functional area, keeping the needs of citizens in mind. The commission also suggested that governmental forms, processes and structures should be re-designed to make them adaptable to e-governance, backed by procedural, institutional and legal changes.5 |
In this study, an effort has been made to examine the role of e-governance initiatives to make administration increasingly citizen centric by exploring incidents from Indian and global experiences. |
This study also deals with problems and challenges in the context of e-governance initiatives particularly in India and suggesting the strategies to be adopted in India by learning from the national and global experiences. |
Top Role of E-Governance The role of e-governance in promoting citizen-centric governance can be discussed under the following four categories:
Enforcing public accountability Efficient delivery of public utilities Ensuring transparency in administrative affairs Ensuring citizen participation
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Enforcing Public Accountability One of the inevitable elements of citizen-centric administration is ‘public accountability’, which simply means the public officials must be accountable to the citizens for the deeds discharged by them in their official capacity. This can be performed by improving organisational communication, electronic feedback and reporting from stakeholders, automation and mechanisation of procedures, minimising official discretion and arbitrary use of authority by public functionaries. It requires the usages of e-governance system by strengthening the electronic monitoring processes of the government. Apart from improving organisational communication, electronic feedback also would be helpful in exercising a check on the activities of the administrative officials, leaving the least scope for subjective manipulations. The following prominent ways can be adopted by the government for ensuring public accountability:
Automation of Processes: The automation and mechanisation of processes eliminate the possibility of official discretion and arbitrary use of authority by public functionaries. ICT will ultimately re-engineer government processes and transform governance. It is not enough to deliver services efficiently and effectively by compressing the steps required to accomplish certain procedural requirements. It simplifies the government processes altogether, thereby transforming the relationship between government and citizens.6 The initiative of Andhra Pradesh government to launch SMART (simple, moral, accountable, responsive and transparent) governance at the secretariat level can be cited as an example. “In Smartgov, on receipt of a document, it is scanned to generate a number for the file and is emailed to the concerned officer. The official nothings are done electronically.”7 This project succeeded in introducing paperless file processing systems in the Andhra Pradesh secretariat. This automation of processes succeeded in enforcing the desired checks and balances in the secretariat. Besides curbing corruption prevailing in the secretariat, it helped in reducing the time involved in processing the files and thus proved significant in improving the quality of decision making.8 “This project resulted in an automatic workflow in the secretariat and ensured not only internal efficiency but also provided an effective tool for performance evaluation.”9 The introduction of computerised inter-state check posts in Gujarat led to automatic computerised checking of road taxes paid, validity of vehicle's documents, overloading of vehicle and other aspects related to the fitness of vehicles. Apart from 100% checking of all the vehicles, it reduces the average checking time from 29.66 min to 20.73 min.10. This experiment was a serious blow on the arbitrary use of authority by the RTOs in the state and led to an increase in the level of revenue ten times within 6 months. e-Payment: The traditional system of payment through either cash or cheques is more vulnerable to manipulations. There is a need to switch over from this traditional system to a new mode of electronic payment to root out the possibilities of all such manipulations. To this end, all payments to various stakeholders including the persons claiming refunds/claims from various departments such as income tax, wage payment to beneficiaries of various schemes such as MNREGA, pensions to different disadvantaged people like widows, physically challenged, old age, and so on are to be made electronically. Thus, accountability of the drawing and disbursement officers can be ensured by mandating the payments through electronic means to the legitimate and authentic payee accounts. It would further be helpful in curbing financial frauds. For instance, the state of Himachal Pradesh has recently started an automated pension disbursement system after undergoing certain process reforms. Now, pensioners enjoy the opportunity to check whether their pensions have been credited to their bank account or not through a web interface.11 e-Surveillance: Public accountability can further be ensured through e-surveillance of both internal and external aspects of administration. It can be carried out through the installation of CCTV camera and satellite based monitoring system. The installation of CCTV in various government offices and public places not only ensures the presence, punctuality, discipline and the time spent by the employees at their work place but also manifest the way the public officials interact with various stakeholders. This technology further helps in dealing with the problem of “ghost employees”12. For instance “… the organisation Twaweza based in Tanzania attempts tracking teacher and pupil attendance and absenteeism in Ugandan primary schools …”13 There is a great need for installation of such cameras in agencies accused of human rights violations such as police stations, prisons, orphanage, nari-niketans and mental hospitals. Besides, the satellite-based monitoring system is capable of monitoring the actual state of affair by preventing the possibility of any sort of manipulation or fraud by implementing agencies regarding the ongoing public works such as construction of buildings, roads, and digging of wells, ponds and channels. Apart from ensuring public accountability, e-surveillance could prove significant in crime prevention and crime detection. The high courts of Punjab and Haryana favoured laser locking and e-surveillance for improving jail security after the recent Sonipat Jail break case.14
Efficient Delivery of Public Utilities Another important aspect of citizen-centric administration pertains to the hassle-free delivery of public utilities within the due course of time. The prevalence of excessive formalism in the public affairs and the officious attitude of the public functionaries is an important cause of unnecessary delay in the delivery of even essential services to the citizens in India. Besides, there is no prescribed time limit to discharge the public services, which aggravates the problem further and provides an opportunity to officials for asking ‘speed money’. As a result, the common citizen, specifically the rural population, is at a great disadvantage and has to spend a lot of time and money to access governmental services. In this regard, the usage of e-governance may prove significant in providing online delivery of public goods and services to citizens accompanied by quick government response with minimal direct intervention by a public official. Online delivery of services is beneficial, specifically in two respects: first, in mitigating the possibility of deliberate delay caused for seeking bribe and, second, in minimising the public–official interface. Various public services such as issuing of passports, ration cards, driving licenses, payment of public utility bills, reservation of tickets and registration of FIRs could be delivered in the shortest possible time and with least intervention to the common citizens through electronic means. In this regard, the 2nd ARC has observed that “computerisation and access to information have made many services from railway reservation to issuing of driving licenses increasingly free from corruption15,”. It can be substantiated with the help of the following examples: Singaporeans are able to access about 1,600 e-services pertaining to business, health, education, recreation, employment and family through Singapore's e-citizen portal. Of this, 1,300 e-services are completely transacted by citizens with the government online.”16 The e-Seva service of Andhra Pradesh state is significant in extending a wide spectrum of services to the citizens. It consists of 28 e-Seva centres all over the state where citizens can pay taxes and utility bills, register births. and deaths and apply for drivers’ licenses and passports (a total of 66 services) among other transactions with the government. The goal was to eliminate the multiple offices and timings that citizens had to go through to pay their bills and obtain other government services.17 The initiative taken by the Madhya Pradesh government with regard to the imposition of a time limit of 3 days for the online delivery of 25 specified state services such as issuing of domical certificate is monitored electronically and any delay on the part of the defaulting officer would invite a fine of Rs. 250 per day18 is appreciable. The Chandigarh Administration succeeded in initiating an e-governance-based project ‘Sampark’ to ensure better quality of services to its citizens by establishing electronic service centres called ‘Sampark Centres’ at the various locations in the city. These centres allow payment of utility bills (i.e., water, electricity and sewerage), payment of taxes and challans, issue of births and deaths certificates, issue of senior citizen cards, tenants’ registration, domestic servants’ registrations, passport applications, and so on under a single roof. It proved significant in saving the time, effort and energy of the citizens and relieving them from the botheration of visiting various offices of different departments.19 This system of delivery of services can be adopted across the length and breadth of the nation. In most of the developing countries, there is a consistent demand for m-government (mobile government), that is providing public services/information through short messaging services (SMS). At present, a number of services including railway reservation status, results of examinations and bank account information are being provided through SMS. Ensuring Transparency in Administrative Affairs Transparency and openness in the administrative affairs have a direct bearing on citizen-centric administration as the unnecessary secrecy maintained while discharging public functions often works against public interest. There remained a long demand for ensuring transparency in the administrative affairs. Of late, this demand was realised in India with the enactment of the Right to Information Act, 2005, which succeeded in removing the unnecessary cover of secrecy available to the public functionaries. This is an effort to empower citizens to enquire about any information (with some exceptions) relating to public affairs. The effective implementation of this act lies in the fact how information can be delivered speedily to the large information seekers across the huge geographical stretch. These critical factors could be well managed using electronic storage, retrieval and dissemination through electronic governance, which provide a foundation in promoting a tradition of transparency and good governance. An increased access to information in government processes leads to greater accountability, transparency and removal of discretion of government officials. The following ways could help in ensuring transparency in public affairs for rendering administration citizen centric:
e-Official Records: Digitalisation of official records has become an inevitable necessity of modern times. It is mainly because handling of official records manually is a more time-consuming exercise. Moreover, the information stored in paper form is difficult to search, which ultimately results in delay in dissemination of information to information seekers. To overcome this problem, digitalisation of official records has emerged as an alternative way of maintaining records. The data so stored can not only be searched quickly but also be made available online. Such a digitalisation of official information acts as a foundation to promote transparency and efficiency by making information available to the masses as and when required. The utility of digitisation of data could be reflected from the following instances: Digitalisation of 20 million land records of 6.7 million farmers under the ‘Bhoomi Project’ of Karnataka government succeeded in providing online information regarding land records on a nominal fee of Rs. 15 within a short span of time (i.e., less than 10 min).20 In Philippines, jobseekers and passport and visa applicants have to take clearance from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to ensure that they do not have any criminal records. This clearance used to take at least three complete days and at a given time as many as 30,000 citizens used to wait in queue. The digitisation of record of NBI has resulted in providing this clearance in 5 min from an NBI kiosk. Now the NBI clearance renewal kiosks can issue more than 30,000 clearances every day. Moreover, this arrangement succeeded in reducing the applicant's queue from 30,000 a day to 4,000 a day.21 e-Procurement and e-Tendering: ‘Economy’ and ‘efficiency’ are the prime watchwords, particularly in making procurement of goods and hiring of services by inviting tenders and bids by the public and private sectors. Traditional system of manual procurement and tendering provides opportunities of manipulations for financial gains. For instance, recently the Haryana Seed Development Board put an additional burden of Rs. 44.52 lakhs on the public exchequer in the procurement of 7 lakh seed-packaging bags. Without confirming the rates in the market, the Board paid Rs. 636 more per 100 bags22. This problem can easily be handled through e-procurement and e-tendering, which is instrumental in promoting greater transparency, thus reducing the scope of corruption. To this end, software can be developed with regard to procurement with in-built features for making inter-unit/inter-office comparisons of rates and consumption patterns. E-procurement and e-tendering could weed out “… contractor–engineer–political nexus … and … cut down delays and eliminate back door manipulations”23. Some of the state governments such as Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka as well as some Public Sector Undertakings such as SAIL are already making use of e-procurement. Chile's e-procurement system is often cited as a success. “It is credited with making government procurement more transparent, reducing businesses transaction costs, reducing opportunities for corruption.”24 The web-based e-procurement system, i.e. GeBiz (Government Electronic Business Centre), has simplified government procurement and tender activities in Singapore. It has proved significant to the suppliers and tender bidders in providing broad access to government tenders and quotations. Public sector agencies in Singapore have also succeeded in enjoying the benefit of making electronic purchases of commonly used items from shared period contracts.25
Ensuring Citizen Participation Another important ingredient of citizen-centric administration is allowing citizens to participate actively in administrative affairs by providing requisite feedback about implementation of various developmental programmes, helping the administration in effective policy formulation by providing policy inputs in the form of their needs, demands and problems faced by common citizens. The citizens also contribute to having a constant vigil over the implementation of various public works and can inform accordingly to the concerned authorities. The problem of citizen participation is very acute, specifically in the third world countries including India where majority of the development programmes have been rendered ineffective due to the lack of citizens’ participation in terms of their acceptance and constructive support. This problem can be attributed to the incapacity of the administrative system to accommodate the large number of citizens spread over a vast geographical area. These constraints in the area of citizen participation could be sorted out with the adoption of information and communication technologies, which have a great potential to enable administration to disseminate, communicate and transact with citizens directly with minimal time and space constraints. The e-governance initiatives facilitate citizens’ involvement in administrative affairs through on-line dissemination of public information, participation, consultation and feedback.
e-Communication: One of the important prerequisites of citizen participation is the availability of information regarding public affairs with citizens. The same may be ensured by online dissemination of information with the help of various governmental websites and portals. The dissemination of governmental information may prove significant in raising the awareness level of citizens and thus empower them in the real sense. The information disseminated in such a way could be utilised for various purposes including availing information for personal use, using it for endorsing rights or unearthing corrupt practices. The importance of the Gyandoot project of the Madhya Pradesh government and the Lokwani project of the Uttar Pradesh government can be cited as examples. Gyandoot was aimed at dissemination of a lot of information relating to agricultural produce rates, land records and grievance services.26 This project is instrumental in establishing a link between government and the local population residing in remote villages. Likewise, Lokvani is meant to provide access to the citizens to information relating to the government programmes of Sitapur district on land records and with a facility to file online grievances. Encouraged with the success of this project, in November 2005, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh declared that the services of Lokvani would be made state-wide.27 To overcome the problem of corruption and enforce accountability at the highest level in the Municipal Government of Seoul, an anti-corruption web portal known as OPEN (Online Procedures Enhancement for civil applications) system was designed which “… provide citizens with a wide range of relevant information, including the overall goals of the anti-corruption drive and an explanation of the rules and procedures for permit/license application and processing.”28 Feedback from the citizen is that OPEN succeeded in mitigating the problem of bribery to a great extent. e- Participation: e-Participation is a tool to amass citizens’ views so that their interests and needs can be better represented in governmental programmes. It involves various means like online surveys and polls, electronic newsletters, emails and feedback forms so that citizens’ opinions can be easily sought. “e-Participation applications may have a publish feature, presenting relevant background information, decisions and other materials to help citizens …”29 in understanding certain public policies. Feedback or comment forms may help mitigate corruption. The Philippines Civil Service Commission enables citizens to send SMS to the concerned authorities against government officials and police regarding corrupt practices.30 Anna Hazzare's movement against corruption was supported by people across India through e-participation by sending SMS in support of this movement. e-Consultation: e-Consultation is one step ahead of e-participation; it takes online comment on a specific policy from the concerned citizens. Its resources may include “…publish elements, providing online access to government proposals and other key documents, written filings of stakeholders, and audio and visual recording of public meetings.”31 It is an important tool that can reach a vast number of stakeholders, thus proving significant in making the consultative process transparent. “Canada's government has created a useful site giving citizens access to all ongoing e-consultation (as of 10 April 2006 there were 14). Singapore also has a site for e-consultation.”32 e-Feedback: Electronic feedback is essential to ensure citizen's participation in development. e-Feedback enables common citizens to express their views, comments, observations and suggestions about an on-going programme/scheme to the concerned department. For the effective implementation of various development programmes, the government is required to provide online feedback forms and web forums where citizens can express their opinion regarding the implementation of a programme. This feedback is Crucial for evaluating performance and reviewing the ongoing programme. It would be beneficial in not only suggesting reforms in the existing programme but also providing a foundation for programme formulation in the future.
Top Major Challenges The use of modern technology for enforcing ethical behaviour among human beings is constrained by the following problems:
Citizens’ Accessibility: Accessibility in a wider sense depends on availability, dissemination and effective access to the relevant government information/services. From the user's perspective, accessibility is defined in terms of the user's ability to obtain government information/services with minimum barriers. Accessibility is affected by a number of constraints because of educational, technological and financial constraints. The question of accessibility to government information/services is critical, specifically in countries facing a digital divide. Digital divide is a term coined for the disparity between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ in the information and technology (IT) revolution. The term IT also describes the discrepancy between those who have the skills, knowledge and the ability to use the technologies and those who do not. “The digital divide can exist between those living in rural areas and those living in urban areas, between the educated and uneducated, between economic classes and on a global scale between more and less industrially developed nations”33. Even today a vast majority of common masses particularly in rural India are devoid of access to modern ICT technologies due to lack of computer literacy, financial constraints and inadequate infrastructure facilities. Given the nature and extent of digital divide in India, the success of technology-intensive solutions, particularly the implementation of e-governance initiatives based on information and communication technologies, is hard to realise. Bureaucratic Resistance and Lack of Political will Indian bureaucrats are not prepared to accommodate e-governance initiatives for many reasons– unwillingness to surrender secrecy and allow transparency for want of evasion of their responsibility. Moreover, they resist automation, which could devoid them from their discretion and arbitrary use of authority. The technology-based e-governance initiatives are considered as a threat to bureaucratic hegemony. For instance, the most successful project of computerisation of inter-state check posts in Gujarat collapsed as “… monitoring mechanisms were not utilised, maintenance and service contracts were not renewed under different pretexts and as a result service provider withdrew his people. This provided the RTO staff an opportunity to misuse the system and revert back to old practices.”34 The existence of strong political will is another critical factor in the promotion of technology-driven reforms in governance. This will is required not only to introduce the ICT initiatives but also to support them for their sustenance. One of the instances of ‘lack of political will’ is reflected by the fact that all the states were supposed to have digitalised all their data and put them on ‘state data centres’ by 2009; however, it is unfortunate that only 15 states have created their data centres. Most of the e-governance projects that were started with much fanfare in various states are finding it difficult to continue due to the change of political leadership in these states. One of the prime reasons of failure of ‘computerised inter-state check post’ in Gujarat was due to the withdrawal of political support that it enjoyed during the first year of implementation because of the change in political leadership35. Likewise, the Gyandoot project,36 which won the prestigious Stockholm Challenge Award in 2000, in the want of necessary support from the government met with the same fate. Today most of the kiosks are not much in use and the project is considered to be a failure.37 Implementation Problems: Online delivery of services requires an effective coordination among various actors and agencies having specific responsibilities. However, usually public authorities face problems in development, operation and maintenance of electronic delivery of services in the want of effective coordination, specifically at the implementation level. It is mainly because online dissemination of public information requires adequate coordination among webmasters (responsible for technical aspects of information provision), content mangers (responsible for creation and management and of content) and record officers (responsible for records management and archival duties as per laws and regulations). Besides, the question whether to impose user charges for retrieving public information for recovering the cost or to earn profit is also very significant here. The imposition of user charges may become more controversial particularly in developing countries like India where a considerable segment of people live below poverty line (BPL). In such a situation, the state exchequer faces considerable financial constraints to fund e-governance initiatives, which is expensive due the high cost of hardware and software. The states already undergoing huge fiscal deficits hardly find political support for expensive e-governance initiatives. In addition, the lifespan of technology is very short as the existing technology gets outdated very soon; moreover, the frequent change in technology would also invite very high cost of upgradation maintenance of technology-driven systems. Misuse of Technology and Security Issues: Another problem in this regard is related to the misuse of technology and other security issues such as unauthorised alteration of content of information and problem of authentication to interact and communicate with the intended person. Sensitive information leak through hacking etc. may be another security issue in this regard. Sensitive information related to tax, entitlements to government benefits (involving interaction between public servants and individual citizens) could be misused by people with vested interests. For instance, leakage of sensitive information relating to defence may endanger national security. Likewise, sensitive information related to economic policies of a state could be used by private interests by taking undue advantage, e.g. hoarding of essential commodities intended to result in price hike.
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Top Suggestions To counter the previously discussed challenges in terms of technology adoption and to benefit from the e-governance initiatives, the following suggestions may prove significant:
Improvement in Citizens’ Accessibility towards E-Governance: To counter the problem of digital divide resulting in inaccessibility to e-government services by a considerable section of the society specifically living in the countryside, the government is required to promote computer literacy by making it compulsory at the school level and creating infrastructure facilities for IT connectivity at the grass-roots level in public–private partnership. Streamlining Bureaucratic Culture: Bureaucratic resistance is posing a serious blow to any e-governance initiative either big or small, due to both lack of intention and capacity. A minimum computer literacy qualification should be prescribed to recruit new entrants. Furthermore, the existing staff needs to be sensitised regarding the necessity and rationale of such initiatives through behavioural modification training sessions. Moreover, their real technical concerns and difficulties in adapting the new technology should be resolved by professional trainers. The officials handling technical e-governance responsibilities need to be paid extra allowances. This would motivate them to adopt a new work culture. Ensuring Political Willingness: Political support is a critical factor for any technology-driven initiative to succeed and to make it sustainable in long run for effecting a long-lasting change. For gaining political support for high cost-bearing e-governance projects, such projects must be included in the agenda of better governance and need to be popularised in public discourses, thus pressurising the political leaders to act accordingly. Strengthening Security Scenario: There is a need to strengthen the security scenario regarding the widespread usage of e-governance initiatives because besides the benefits they bring to the governance processes, they are also prune to the security threats as posed by the seepage of sensitive information, unauthorised use of information, manipulation of the contents with malafied intentions and claiming the entitlements accrued to others by false means through hacking or by any other unauthorised means. For preventing these threats, adequate legislative arrangements with clearly defined various aspects of cybercrimes and their corresponding punishments need to be enacted. Second, proving and tracking of cybercrime and criminals is a difficult task; thus, for sensing and tracking these crimes, adequate technical arrangements in the form of cyber control centres having ultra-sophisticated hardware and software support systems manned by specially trained cybercrime experts need to be developed.
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Top Footnotes Sound legal framework, Robust institutional mechanism, Competent personnel & sound personnel management policies and Right policies for decentralisation, delegation and accountability TopBack Rule of Law, Making institutions vibrant, responsive and accountable, Decentralization, Transparency, Civil Service Reforms, ethics in Governance, Process Reforms and Periodic & independent evaluation of the quality of Governance TopBack Verma, S.P., ed. (2004), Information Technology and Indian Administration, Kanishka Publishers and Distributors, p.13 TopBack http://www.hindu.com/2009/01/25/stories/2009012556000900.htm, retrieved on 03/02/2009 TopBack 11th Report of 2nd ARC entitled “Promoting e-governance: The smart way forward”. TopBack Garg, K., Electronic Government (Information System in Public Administration), Arise Publishers & Distributors, New Delhi, 2011, p18. TopBack Garg, K., op. cit., p 96., TopBack Ibid., TopBack Ibid., TopBack http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/documents/impact-assessment-study-dit.pdf, TopBack Ibid, P39. TopBack The employees present on pay rolls but don't exist in reality i.e. fake employees. TopBack http://www.spidercenter.org/files/ICT4D_corruption.pdf, TopBack The Tribune, New Delhi, February 1, 2012, p3. TopBack “Ethics in Governance”, Fourth Report of Second Administrative Reform Commission, p.3 TopBack Garg, K., op. cit., p11, TopBack Ibid, p80 TopBack http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_e-governance-to-weed-out-corruption_1466322 TopBack Garg, K., op. cit., p 98. TopBack http://www.spidercenter.org/files/ICT4D_corruption.pdf TopBack Garg, K., op. cit., p20. TopBack Dainik Jagaran, Panipat, (Editorial), March 1, 2012, P6., TopBack The Tribune, New Delhi, March,14, 2011, p9, TopBack Garg, K., op. cit., p25., TopBack Ibid, p18 TopBack Ibid, p 84, TopBack Ibid, p109, TopBack Garg, K., op. cit. p22, TopBack Ibid, P29, TopBack Ibid, pp29-30., TopBack Ibid p30, TopBack Ibid p30 TopBack http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/digital_divide.html, TopBack http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/∼subhash/pdfs/CHRIDraftPaper2003.pdf TopBack http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/∼subhash/pdfs/CHRIDraftPaper2003.pdf, TopBack Launched in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh State of India. TopBack Garg, K. op. cit. p107. TopBack |