Business Accent

Where to use eGovernance

Yugal Joshi argues that the technology is better deployed at the back end rather than forcing consumers to adopt it

Yugal Joshi

The implementation of software systems to make Government process faster and transparent suffers from a general lack of understanding of where to actually implement the system. eGovernance literature is full of analysis regarding the sorry state of ICT infrastructure in the country. These reports point out towards abysmal Internet penetration, literacy rates, poverty etc as main impediments towards adoption of eGovernance. However the need is to differentiate between access and ownership. Indians may have problems of owning the technology infrastructure, but considering the proliferation of Internet Kiosks and mobile phones there is a vast access pool for eGovernance.

Lets begin with the lower penetration of PCs, Internet etc. This impediment is a hurdle if our solutions attempt to deliver a user input intensive paradigm. However the agencies can take the ICT infrastructure as given and then design their offerings around it. This would imply that rather than asking users to take initiatives and develop needed technology usage skills the Government should make back ends and leverage ICT to deliver an eGovernance platform. Therefore, rather than designing a behemoth eGovernance solution having a user front end to eliminate the physical interaction between the user and the Government, the solution could ask users to perform their part manually and then the eGovernance solution could take over. This essentially means changing the point of accessibility of the solution. This would take care of the Internet access and literacy issues. For example, rather than putting forms online and then asking users to fill them up, the Income Tax office can ask these users to fill manual forms and bring them to the office. There onwards the processing of these forms can be done leveraging the power of eGovernance and hence the issues of accessing these solutions from a user’s perspective are more or less obviated.

This approach makes sense as the return on investment on these eGovernance initiatives is relatively less due to the perceived complexity and access issues. Due to these issues usage is reduced and the Government does not have any impetus to further evolve the system or design newer ones. Therefore it becomes a ‘chicken and egg’ problem where initiative has to be taken at one end.

Currently the systems implemented are bicameral. When the user leverages power of the Internet the forms are processed seamlessly by the back end systems. However when a user brings the filled form to Government office the process undertaken is largely manual despite the fact that both have same objective to accomplish. More so, the eGovernance generally stops at the window dressing stage and the actual processing is still largely a manual process. This is understood as when a status quo and level of competence is challenged by newer technologies, people try to resist it. They would have to undergo a learning curve for this new system, change their way of working and would lose the “power” they used to wield in the older tax system. However for the end user, lesser interaction generally means lesser corruption and better execution.

An ideal example would be ITC eChaupal which does not require high technology propensity on farmer’s part but serves as a service front end for various farm produces. Had ITC thought of using ICT on everything in their ‘rural retail’ initiative, eChaupal would not have had materialized. Therefore ITC realized that rather than asking the farmers to develop competencies in using technology they may use technology where their learning curve is minimal.

The eGovernance solutions can also be leveraged for a better collaboration between Government departments. Already initiatives are being taken to replace the plethora of identities that citizens have (like the Voter’s card, Passport, Ration Card, License etc) with a common denominator, a number that uniquely identifies an Indian citizen. Therefore rather than using PAN, License Number, Voter’s ID, MAPIN etc a common number can be used. This number would be of tremendous use not only for reducing identity thefts but also helping in designing better eGovernance solutions.

A collaborative process of different Government departments can reduce the time taken to process a form as well as remove the intermediaries and reduce the level of corruption and provide faster response. How difficult would it be to make that kind of a backend? It seems that the problem is we try to tackle problems for the entire Government organization at a go. Therefore most software solutions are targeted at the ministry level. It would make more sense to modularize our approach and give each department the freedom to implement systems which are in its interest. However open and shared standards should be utilized so that integration over a period of time is simpler.

There is one more problem of evaluating the competing standards developed by the industry. The Government wants to have an open source standard because that looks better on paper and can easily be defended. It’s very easy to get seduced by the ‘fairness’ of open source but it may not be appropriate all the time. The point is that the Government needs to develop competencies to evaluate these competing standards not only for the near future but also to have an in-house pool of talent. This pool would not replace the external party support the Government needs but it would ensure that these third parties are held accountable.

Therefore to make an effective eGovernance solution the Government needs to provide value rather than cold technology. We can argue about developing infrastructure and the lack of it, however to initiate this noble cause the Government can take the technology part away from the consumer which burdens their cognitive abilities to learn. Therefore the solution developers need to take care of the overall business process associated with eGovernance rather than getting infatuated with technologically enhancing the experience of consumers.

Yugal is doing his Post-Graduation in Management from IIM Ahmadabad and is interested in business strategies of organization, competence development and growth opportunities for various businesses 6yugalj@iimahd.ernet.in