West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corpor-ation (Webel), the West Bengal government’s nodal IT body, proposes to join hands with software company Oracle India to promote e-governance in the state. S K Mitra, managing director of Webel said, “The state has identified four thrust areas for successful implementation of e-governance—achieving connectivity, automation of internal processes, delivering public service utilities and educating citizens.”

Adds Shekhar Dasgupta, managing director of Oracle, “E-governance should be a good communication mechanism between the government and the citizen and help in improving public interaction. The focus should be on providing utilities to citizens rather than reducing government costs, which take place in the long run.”

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) the application software provider for the e-governance project is presently conducting a system study of 14 government departments.

Oracle is currently involved in e-governance projects in 13 states. Also, West Bengal government’s treasury management services, passport office and the directorate of the commercial taxes run on its database. “We see our role as an enabler when working with governments,” said Dasgupta.

The government is also planning to set up citizen-centric kiosks across the state to provide access to various utility services in districts and villages.

“We have not yet identified the areas of co-operation with Oracle. But we have held initial talks and will reach a decision soon,” said Manabendra Mukherjee, West Bengal’s IT minister.

“Several state governments have realised the importance of e-governance for providing effective solutions to solve citizens’ problems. The critical factors essential for the success of e-government projects worldwide include strong leadership. And also, choosing a centralised architecture, acquiring capability for e-governance and setting up key measurement criteria for rollout of services, Dasgupta said.