Content analysis of e-Government site mygov.in: Sociological perspective

Abstract

E-governance is understood as good governance as it provides accountability, transparency, and representativeness. National e-Governance Plan was an initiative started by UPA-2 for providing efficient government services to its citizens but due to lack of technological support and implementation time frame was in limbo. With a view to provide transparent governance and greater accountability, NDA government after assuming office in 2014 revived the initiative and launched e-governance website mygov.in in July 2014. The major aim of the platform is inclusive planning that includes general public in its formulation. Platform provides different discussion forums on various policy issues. Present research attempts to provide a sociological analysis of platform that discussed “e-services to rural India under Digital India Initiative”. Content analysis of postings made on this website from October 2014 to March 2015 was undertaken. From a total of 11, 974 submissions, 1520 comments were shortlisted for comprehensive understanding. The study was restricted to only 45.5% because of language limitations. Only clearly discernable comments mostly written in English language were selected. Objective of the study was to comprehend barriers to the outreach programme of Digital India and how the government was responding to these barriers. Results suggest that these initiatives have not reached remote corners of rural India because of lack of Internet connectivity, technological literacy, availability of cheaper smartphones as well as Government apps and websites.