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30 Minute Interview
m-Governance’s prospects in India
Vijay Shukla, Co-founder and Country Head, ValueFirst
talked to Pratap Vikram Singh about m-Governance and its prospects in India
Vijay Shukla |
m-Governance and its status abroad
It is one of the easiest and quickest forms of governance.
Mobile-Governance or m-governance is the use of mobile technology and mobile
services as a communication platform to improve the efficiency and effectiveness
of governance. This is largely used as a two-way communication services channel
between the government and citizens or an organization and the public.
Though there are countries like Canada and USA where e-Governance is quite popular,
some European and Middle East countries like UK and UAE, respectively, and East
Asian countries such as Singapore that are using m-Governance at the local level
and it has gained popularity in these nations.
Prospects of m-Governance in developing countries
Since Internet penetration is low in Afro-Asian countries, they do have great
potential for m-Governance, noting the comparative high cost of infrastructure
needed for increasing PCs and Internet use.
In India, it is in a nascent stage. In Mysore, early this year, municipal authorities
have given some mobile numbers on which the citizens can ‘SMS’ their
grievances related to public utility services. After the officials receive a
message on the given cell number, an acknowledgment is sent back to the concerned
person using SMS in which the name of the official is mentioned along with the
duration in which the problem is expected to be sorted out.
A few companies are using messaging services to communicate with both employees
and consumers.
The critical factors considered for the prospects of m-Governance are mobile
penetration, Internet penetration and readiness of the government (digitization
of content).
Barriers to the spread of m-Governance in India
The key challenges are the lack of digitized data or content, unwillingness
of the various government departments as it brings about transparency, low literacy
levels in India and the high cost of a transaction for the citizen (as compared
to the Internet).
ValueFirst’s revenue streams
ValueFirst revenue streams are software licenses ranging from Rs 3,000-300,000,
monthly rentals ranging from Rs 500-5,000, support charges ranging from Rs 500-20,000
and usage charges as per consumption of contracted services like SMS etc.
3G services on the anvil
We have plans to roll out data-centric services utilizing
the 3G network when the mobile networks in India are ready. The applications
are limited to B2B usage as we feel that the businesses will be ready to pay
higher data usage charges using the 3G network for access services. ValueFirst
also provides services to both the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament to fulfill
their communication and connectivity needs keeping in mind the requirements
of the members of both houses. The solution will help Parliament bridge the
communication gap during “no session period” between the members of
both houses and it will empower routine communications from the Secretariat
to Members as well as from the Secretariat to the general public. The lower
house (Lok Sabha) of parliament is using our service for:
- Internal Communication: The Lok Sabha secretariat
can now directly contact the members of the house by sending a SMS to their
mobile phones. This is the fastest way to communicate following a one-to-many
communication model.
- Public Communication: The Lok Sabha secretariat
can send general information to the public by sending a SMS to their mobile
phones. In cases where this is not possible directly, the LS Secretariat can
communicate with the Media who then pass on the information through their
various publications. E.g. The Speaker wants to make a statement. The traditional
way would be through press statement for which he needs to invite the media.
The press invitation is now sent on to a journalist’s mobile. Even, the
official statement is also being sent as an SMS so that there is no misinterpretation
or wrong presentation.
- Critical Communication: The Lok Sabha secretariat
can also send critical information to the general public by sending SMS to
their mobile phones in case of national emergencies, policy matters etc.
Working with political parties
ValueFirst is a leading provider of enterprise mobile messaging services to
more than 850 enterprises. It has been selected by the BJP IT Cell to develop
an extensive SMS-based communications network for registered members of the
BJP across their district/state office network in the country. The popular opinion
is that IT has no room in Indian politics because of the expenses involved,
the skepticism of its RoI in terms of conversions to actual votes and thirdly
for its sheer disconnect with the traditional image of Indian politics.
The BJP has an independent IT cell and it is of the opinion that technological
innovation can only help better governance in a country like India with a population
of 1.3 billion spread over 32,87,263 sq km. The effective use of IT has in fact
reaped remarkable results across the globe in countries like Australia, USA,
UK and Germany to name a few. If implemented effectively not only can IT help
improve governance for political parties but also help extend the appeal of
their election campaigns. We are currently in talks with at least two other
national parties for SMS-based services.
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