Enabling e‐Governance in India, an Uphill Task

With the vastness of country and its different geographies, implementing egovernance on a national scale and size is never going to be an easy task.

The e‐Governance environment and related scenario in India has surely come a long way since its origin many years back. Over the past many years, a large number of egovernance related initiatives have been taken by the Union and the State Government

The e‐Governance environment and related scenario in India has surely come a long way since its origin many years back. Over the past many years, a large number of egovernance related initiatives have been taken by the Union and the State Governments that involved different egovernance models related with private and public partnerships. However, there are a number of challenges that lie ahead when it comes to implementing egovernance on a national scale.

Challenges in implementing e‐Governance

As India has a vast geographical landscape, the country comprises of 36 states with population of over one billion. Out of this population, around 60 percent live in rural areas and rest in semi urban and urban areas. Literacy and language are immense challenges, in a multicultural and multilingual country. Following are the major challenges in implementation of e‐Governance, because of which the speed of implementation of e‐ Governance initiatives in India is quite slow. This has negatively affected the use of e‐Governance among the masses as well.

Lack of sufficient and proper planning

Leadership failures resulting in slow and patchy progress of e‐Governance initiatives

Financial inhibitors limiting the flow of investment to e‐Governance projects

Moreover in India, digital divides and choices, where socio‐economic and physical inequalities lead to differences in motivations and competences that constrain and fragment e‐Governance take‐up and fail to address particular user needs.

Keeping in mind the potential of egovernance related applications and its usage among the common masses, Government leaders in India are already starting to realize that e‐governance is the key to drive today's economy with an increased citizen participation. Providing services online is no longer going to remain optional for local and central government as demand for providing services at internet speed from the citizens has increased in the recent years.

However, the question is - How do government agencies overcome the obstacles and build a strategy to facilitate the transition to successful online or "e" service delivery for the common masses? The answer lies in equal participation from the common public. The government must address the issues at the grass-root level in order to gain the egovernance edge. And moving forward this is surely going to be a big area of focus for the egovernence sector.