Assuring and Securing e-Governance

Assuring and securing e-Governance projects

In a democratic state, citizens have a right to transparent, responsive and accountable governance, which in the age of information technology implies access to real-time information and robust monitoring mechanisms to ensure that systems are not abused. By Pujya Trivedi

K Subramanian, DDG (NIC), Ministry of Communications and IT and Adviser (IT) to CAG of India

Having taken adequate measures with regard to the computerization of the administrative machinery, the Indian government has laid special stress on networking and security.

K Subramanian, DDG (NIC), Ministry of Communications and IT and Adviser (IT) to CAG of India said, “Once you declare information as an asset to the citizen and to the nation, it becomes important to safeguard it.”

Currently the government and ICT organizations are loosely coupled, that is, departments have access to their own funds and infrastructure preventing the rollout of common or shared services across the country. Variations based on environmental, cultural, structural and architectural constraints of systems, departmental and national politics, as well as management decisions are a fact. In a scenario where each department has its own environment, solution and infrastructure there is a pressing need to cobble all departments into a single entity. Currently the multiplicity of solutions has also led to different vendors and service providers implementing and supporting these systems and naturally, these players adhere to various standards and solutions. A standard framework is needed.

Decision making powers lie at many levels delaying projects. The power to sign off on a project should lie with a single stakeholder. Once that becomes the case, more time can be spent on finding the right solution and technology, which is acceptable, sustainable, appropriate and affordable. Subramanian said, “Currently we do not follow this structure in our system. We must follow it, however, in order to ensure the success of every project. We need to find the right technology that fits our budgets and is widely accepted by the system and can be sustained.” Moreover, financial decisions should not be delayed, something that is possible only when departments do their homework rigorously.

For effective governance, its benefits must percolate to even the remotest parts of the country. This can only be achieved if processes are automated and transformed. The four dimensions of successful integration are processes, people, technology and resources. Governance is not limited to politicians and bureaucrats. It is as much or more about the citizens. There are many stakeholders involved in successful e-Governance—babus, citizens and even vendors and system integrators who help put together and later support a solution. Even within babudom, there is a need to integrate managerial, administrative and operational functions.

People using the systems have different work cultures. For this reason, seamless cultural and societal Integration is necessary if a system is to be accepted, without which success is a pipedream. Projects fail because of lack of user involvement more than any other reason. Successful transformation cannot take place without users being informed, involved and incentivized. More often than not, change leads to resistance from employees; those spearheading a project must design an appropriate change management strategy. Capacity building should be done at all levels—policy, management and operational level.

With regard to technology, one must prescribe and follow Open Standards and adopt open technologies. In this manner, we can be competitive, sustain our efforts and reduce TCO. Systems have to be designed and architected for scalability, reliability and security.

When it comes to resource management, sustainability is the key concern. Several projects cannot be implemented simply because they are not sustainable. It is important to design a model that is financially, legally, and technologically sustainable. Service level agreements (SLAs) are effective in measuring the Quality of Service that is delivered by service providers. There are always going to be risks involved in any system; for a successful deployment, you need to allocate risks judiciously to the party that is able to bear it the best.

The Governance Maturity Model has five parameters namely presence, interaction, transaction, transformation and outsourcing. Using this model, comparisons can be made with what others are doing, if the data for making such a comparison is available. By doing this, an organization can determine where emerging international standards and industry best practices are pointing for the effective management of security and controls. All of which helps in analyzing the state of the projects and fine-tuning them.

The functional owners in Government are starting to use e-Governance as an instrument of transformation to enrich the quality of their interactions with citizens. The public, in turn, needs to dictate what e-Governance can and should deliver. Innovative and value-added services can be developed for users; the wheel is already rolling in this regard. If Government agencies are to collaborate, things can only get better. Security today is not a part of the architecture, so it become difficult to integrate security solutions once a project has been completed. It also adds to the delays in the functioning of a system. To prevent the sustainability of IT systems from becoming an issue, the program design should be holistic and should include efforts to promote its usage. Plans, programs, budgets, and scheme management must converge. To this end, the government is funding NGOs. This goal is being accomplished by means of integrating, interacting and online monitoring for better scheme management.

pujya.trivedi@expressindia.com