A few years ago the Government of India took an important decision instructing all its arms to invest three per cent of their budget in building information and communication technology capacities. That is an investment of several thousand crore rupees in ICT every year, a level of resources that could have created a useful ICT infrastructure by now. However, what we have on ground today are a multitude of experimental applications, pilots and demonstrations. These are neither an efficient nor scalable basis for the integrated transparent governance structure needed by the citizens of our country.

Too many experiments and pilots
Currently there are a large number of initiatives across the nation to use the power of ICTs to transform the citizen-government interface. These have been started at various levels of governance – in districts by enthusiastic collectors, at departmental levels by interested officers, at the state levels by chief ministers and at the central government by some progressive ministers. These developments have been sporadic and uncoordinated, nurtured by a learning-by-doing culture, have lacked a strategic sense or defining leadership, have not been supported by the requisite experience base and have resulted in a large number of experiments that duplicate and remain at a prototype level accomplishing less than, what may have been possible with a well defined strategic framework.

The large number of experiments being carried out has created an impression that we are well on our path to using ICTs for modern governance, much ahead of other developing countries. International awards and recognition have added to this feeling.

Uncoordinated developments
Development of ICTs in the industrial countries shows that pioneering experiments are an important part of the learning process. They also show that the value of the benefits is commensurate with the level of investments, time and care taken to design and test the systems and the attention devoted to metrics developed to measuring and achieving success. This needs clear roadmaps, organisational structures and an understanding of how these will evolve as the technology changes.

Scattered experience
These experiments have their merits and need to be encouraged and allowed to go on at the individual and pilot levels. They show-case successes and bring the developers of similar applications together to learn from each other and can help create some innovative solutions from time to time. However, it also needs to be recognized that existing experiments and their size and stage of development may not be able to add much value because these are linked at best and not adequately linked to organisational structures capable of translating them into something concrete.

Consolidate
What is needed is to create a national framework to consolidate the gains of these initiatives and to develop a national strategy for e-Governance followed by a roadmap to reach the goals agreed in an acceptable time frame. This process of developing the national strategy and its follow up should be carried out in parallel with all other experiments going on in the country. Adequate funds will have to be made available to make these happen and to strengthen institutional mechanisms to carry the process forward.


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