i4donline: November - December 2003 issue: e-Governance in India: Implementation issues

Introduction
Gone are the days when the most unfortunate part of India's population living in villages was just unreachable and uninformed on every new development-taking place in the urban areas. For every petty work they used to go to the district headquarters resulting in long queues, travel expenses and corrupt middlemen, which used to take away further a reasonable proportion of their earnings. This could be attributed to the lack of information, as uninformed and illiterate villagers just believed in what they were told by the agents roaming outside the government offices. For hundreds of years, farmers in central India were locked in a battle against three seemingly invincible foes: drought, poverty, and corrupt middlemen. Now, thanks to a new computer network, they are on their way to minimizing the third evil - and they are better equipped to combat the other two. The new information and communication technology developments in different states of India and the world have changed the way government offices used to work and also the life style of the villagers and other citizens. The new ICT revolution has connected the villages to networks that are accessible from any specified location and need not move every now and then to district headquarters for getting things done.