Article tools
 | Print this page | Download a pdf version of this article

 

Table of Contents
Features
Transforming Rural India
Rajesh Jain
ICTs for poverty reduction
Richard Gerster, Sonja Zimmerman
Administration in the digital age
Sanjay Jaju
Computers to schools
Fredrick Noronha
Rendezvous
ICTs for development
Leading the movement
Information empowers women
The WiFI opportunity
Columns
Awards, Insight, What's on, In Fact
 

A Nation Online

Administration in the digital age

 
Sanjay Jaju  

 

If we have to improve the administration of governments anywhere, we would have to do some serious introspection, do a system analysis and figure out where the rub lies.

Everyday, when I see many faceless citizens approaching me for many of our acts and non-acts, I can’t help asking myself a question whether it is possible for me to live up to their expectations. The expectations that are huge while the resources I have at my disposal are thin. To make matters worse, the systems to administer these resources are primitive and inefficient. Nonetheless, I would also be unsure as to how many of them are in a position to approach me and how many would feel positively about the prospects of their case if they could do so.

I know my own constraints; sometimes I have lack of resources while sometimes the manpower, sometimes there are vested interests not allowing it to be done in a particular way while on few occasions the general lethargy and casualness that has crept into our system is the major impediment.

The vast apparatus of governance that we have, has come to a state where it does not move without getting a push. The unfortunate thing is that many of us don’t have the capacity or the wherewithal to give that push. The systems of governance are controlled by the powerful and influential; this needs to be transformed to serve the requirements of all, whoever they may be.

This rhetoric might sound a bit clichéd, after all there are so many who have been talking of this. What remains unaddressed however, is that many of these issues have been getting swept below the carpet without any visible change. Nobody is able to tell us where the real action and the solution is. One thing is certain; the solution does not lie in the talk and cannot be in pronouncements. If we have to improve the administration of governments anywhere, we would have to do some serious introspection, do a system analysis and figure out where the rub lies.

Interested? Read the complete article here.