The Cabinet of India will take up the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) Phase I for approval. The multi-million dollar project partly funded by the World Bank, would pave the way for implementation of mission mode projects for radically improving the efficiency of governance in the country through the adoption of information technology tools, if approved.
An exhaustive survey on the capabilities of e-Governance made in 191 countries has found its existence almost nil in most of the African and Middle East countries.
The Indian City, Chennai launched a comprehensive online portal to enable e-Filing under the MCA-21 project. MCA-21 was the largest full-scale deployment of IT, in the shortest possible time frame.
The department of treasuries in the Indian state Karnataka, which ushered in an accountable system of financial transactions by starting an online project in November 2002, added another feather to its cap recently. Three years ago it took 45 to 60 days for the government to complete compilation of accounts. But today it takes not more than three days with this e-Governance initiative ‘Khajane’.
The government in the Indian state Goa would formulate a plan for e-Governance in the state through public-private-partnership.
The three-day ninth National e-Governance Conference last week recommended higher adoption of public private partnerships (PPP) and amendment to the sections on e-Governance in the Information Technology Act. The conference, attended by heads of State IT departments and representatives from IT majors, also wanted legislative changes to boost the PPPs, besides urging the Government to evolve a policy on user charges.
The Government of India is actively considering a Rs 6000 crore scheme to set up Information Technology-driven ‘rural service delivery centres’ in 100,000 villages.
The simple, moral, accountable, responsive and transparent (SMART) objective of e-Governance in the Indian state Orissa is yet to be flfilled although the State Government is claimed to have computerised tehsils and block-level administration and has initiated the process of computerisation of land records.
The Bangladeshi National Planning Commission will follow Sri Lanka’s national e-Governance strategy as both countries have faced similar challenges in the field of e-Government implementation.
Of the several e-Governance projects that Reliance Infocomm has undertaken with various state governments, three are expected to be over by next March.
