Efficiency of electronic public service delivery in India

Abstract

The dynamics of public administration in India have altered drastically with the introduction of e-governance as a guiding concept in the late 1980s. Citizens, the world over, have been demanding smaller, effective and responsive governments, obviously inspired by the unprecedented and rapid success of finance capital in the global market. Consequently, policy makers began the search for smaller and efficient governments. On an evolutionary plane, reengineering of service systems, performance management, transparency in government operations, down sizing or right sizing the government workforce, emphasis on delivery of reliable public services and ultimately citizen satisfaction came to be considered as benchmarks by most of the administrators. Quick decision-making, data-based planning, effective implementation through quantitative techniques seemed to have clinched the issue. This reformative pattern was no different in the Indian context, where the governments at the federal and state levels were in search of new techniques and technologies.Information technology has been found to be very useful in reinvigorating the government administrative systems by enhancing their capacity and efficiency. The potential and scope for application of IT in governing processes and transactions are enormous. E-government can transform traditional administrative systems through employment of information and communication technologies. A governance system that is committed to working with civil society, and by extension, private industry in a transparent and accountable way to reduce poverty, redress imbalances in access to resources, foster security and uphold social, economic, cultural, civil and political rights is the ultimate objective of e-governance theory. In practice, much depends on the collaboration patterns that the governments seek to establish.E-governance practices in India emerged and evolved mainly from native intuition, but under prescription for lesser and transparent government by international financial institutions, mainly the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. However, the range of success of e-governance initiatives has not been uniform. The bottom-up demand for delivery of electronic services was bleak initially, but the change in public perception was for the better with the governments roping in private industry and service-oriented organizations gradually.The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model as is construed normally in a world that is fast witnessing globalization of all businesses and administrative trends, especially in the realm of e-governance, involves features such lesser government investment in electronic delivery of public services, collaboration in conceptualizing, designing and implementing the e-governance projects besides increased participation of stakeholders -- both private and public -- to saturate the levels and the reach of such projects. India is no exception to the general rule dictating PPP mode in e-governance.The unprecedented success of the PPP modules in e-governance in India can be rightly established with two path-breaking e-governance models - e-Seva in the state of Andhra Pradesh and Bhoomi in Karnataka. These projects not only caused a jump in revenue collections of the two state governments, but also timely payment by the citizens. Time and costs for availing public services have come down drastically bringing in a positive change in peoples' perception of e-governance theory and practice. This holds equally true for both the rural and urban populace. The result of all these radical changes in public administration systems is the enhanced satisfaction level of the citizenry on delivery of public services and simplification of governmental procedures. The above mentioned e-government projects can serve as models for all the developing societies.