misra, d.c.(2007) e government the indian experience sixty years of e governance in india (1947...

Indian Institute of Applied Manpower Research

International Programme on

Human Resource Planning

and Development (July 16-

September 10, 2007)

E-governance: The Indian Experience(1947-2007) © Dr D.C.Misra 2007 2

E-governance: The Indian Experience

A Presentation by

Dr D.C.MISRAE-government Consultant

New Delhi

Thursday, September 6, 2007, 12 p.m.


E-government: The Indian ExperienceSixty Years of E-governance in India (1947-2007):

Are there lessons for other developing countries? by

Dr D.C.Misra, I.A.S.(Retd.)Independent E-government Consultant, New Delhi,

Formerly Chief Knowledge Officer, Government of Mauritius, Port Louis under Commonwealth Secretariat, London and

Chairman, Task Force for IT Policy for Government of NCT of Delhi

• Address: C-183 Madhuvan, Madhuvan Marg, New Delhi-110092

• Tel: 91-11-22452431 Fax: 91-11-42445183 Cell: 0-9010891700

• Web: http://in.geocities.com/drdcmisra/mypage.html

• Blog: http://egov-india.blogspot.com/ http://knowledgecommission.blogspot.com/

• Email: [email protected]


What is proposed to be covered? I Introduction:

(a) Computer: From Man to Machine

(b) Internet

(c) World Wide Web

(d) E-government, Government and Society

(e) E-government as Cumulative Experience

(f) Who owns E-government?

II A Hundred Year Background (1880-1980) for E-government

in India

(a) Some of India’s Earlier Computers (1950-59)


What is proposed to be covered?

III Three Phases of E-government in India 1947-2007

(i) 1947-1984 Informatics-based E-government

(ii) 1984-1995 Personal Computer (PC)-based E-government

(iii) 1995-2007 World Wide Web (WWW)-based E-government

IV Phase I: 1947-1984 Informatics-based E-government

1. Use of computer in Indian planning (1954)

(a) What is informatics?

(b) Computer and Indian Planning

(c) Data for Planning and Decision-Making- Population Census (1891), National Sample Surveys (1950), Annual Survey of Industries (1953), Agricultural Census (1971-72) and Input Surveys, Statutory and Non-Statutory Provisions

2. Setting up of the Department of Electronics (DOE) (1970), and

3. Setting up of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) (1977)



V Phase II: 1984-1995 Personal Computer (PC)-based

E-government(a) New Computer Policy (1984)

(b) Policy on Computer Software Export, Software Development, and Training (1986)

(c) NICNET (1987) and DISNIC (1987)

(d) Hostility to Computerisation.

(e) Parliamentary Committee on Automation puts brake on automation

(f) A sea-change in people’s attitudes to computerisation now (Late 1990s)

(g) Now every body wants computers and e- government! (Early 21st Century)



VI Phase III: 1995-2007 World Wide Web (WWW)-based E-

government

(a) Internet made available to public in India on August 14,

1995

(b) Setting up of National Task Force on Information

Technology (IT) and Software Development (SD) (1998)

(c) Creation of Ministry of Information Technology (1999)

(d) Launching of National E-governance Plan (NEGP) (2003)

(e) 2,568 “.gov.in” domains stood registered (as on 3.9.2007)

(f) A comparison of software success and e-governance

(g) National Knowledge Commission (NKC) and Second

Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC)


Overview

Figure 1 II 1880-1980

I. IntroductionIII 3 Phases of Egov

IV Informatics-based Egov V PC-based Egov VI Web-based Egov

VII Software and EgovVIII Telecom Sector

IX Lessons

X. Sum Up


E-governance: The Indian Experience

I. INTRODUCTION


(a) Computer: From Man to Machine

► In Victorian period (1837-1901), even the World War II (1939-45) era,

► Computer was an occupation and computer a human being

(a person employed to make calculations)!

► The first attempt to organize information processing on a large scale using human computers was for the production of mathematical tables, such as logarithmic and trigonometric tables (Campbell-Kelly and Aspray 1996).

► Then came mechanical machines like typewriters and calculators

► Followed by a number of electronic computers, mainframe computers, minicomputers, and supercomputers.

► It has also been suggested that computers could be like humans in every respect (Jeffrey 1999).


Computer: From Man to Machine

► As recently as 1967, a state-of-the-art IBM costing $167,500 could hold a mere thirteen pages of text (Cairncross 1997).

► The release of personal computer (PC) (with MS-DOS operating system) by IBM in 1981 brought the computer within the reach of individuals.

► Ever alive to the needs of computing, India joined the select club of U.S., Japan, Israel and China when it launched Param Padma series of supercomputers on January 1, 2003, indigenously developed by its Pune-based Centre for Advanced Computing (C-DAC).

► C-DAC incidentally is also developing important regional language e-governance applications.


(b) Internet

Fast and reliable means of communication connecting distant places have always been important to governments worldwide.

The once ubiquitous and now-forgotten telegraph, a nineteenth century technology wonder, and called Victorian Internet recently (Standage 1999)

It was the mainstay of governance in India in its own time, quite significantly in sending daily sitreps (situation reports)

The cost of a three-minute telephone call from New York to London fell from $350 in 1930 to about 40 cents in 1999, and it is now approaching zero for voice-over-Internet telephony (Ghemawat 2007).


Internet The Internet, the global interconnected network of

computer networks, was invented as the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) in the U.S. in 1969.

It ceased to exist in 1990, when its remaining functions were handed over to the U.S. National Science Foundation Network (NSFNet), established in 1986.

India was connected to NSFNET in 1990. NSFNet itself was dissolved on April 30, 1995 when the

Internet was handed over to commercial networks. Internet was made available to public in India on August

14, 1995 The Net promised to be to the twenty-first century what

the telephone had been to the twentieth (Hafner and Lyon 1996)


Internet 2 and IPN

Internet2, an improved version of Internet, was launched in Chicago on October 1, 1996.

It is a consortium of more than 200 U.S. universities, 70 corporations, 45 government agencies, laboratories and other institutions of higher learning as well as over 50 international partner organizations.

Additionally, an Inter-Planetary Network (IPN) is under design.


(c) World Wide Web The World Wide Web, essentially the hyper-linked

content over the Internet, invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990.

The WWW is indeed perhaps the only spin-off with significant social impact to have come out of 50 years of particle physics! (Hughes 2003)

The arrival of the Web in 1990 was to the Internet like the arrival of the internal combustion engine to the country lane (Gillies, and Cailliau 2000)

Berners-Lee is currently engaged in guiding the development of Semantic Web, often called the next generation web. Once successful, semantic web will revolutionise e-government

We have Web-based e-government to-day.


(d) E-government, Government and Society

E-government is changing the way in which citizens and their organizations relate to government and the government relates to them.

Technological determinism is defined as “belief that changes in technology cause social changes in society” (Rogers 1997)

Its critics claim that technology is embedded in a social system. E-government is radically changing the internal processes of

government. Office automation was the ruling standard in e-government

before the emergence of Web-based e-government. Viewing e-government in an historical perspective reveals both

the aspects of governance: Improvement of internal processes and Improved public service delivery.


(e) E-government as Cumulative Exercise

An achievement is usually a culmination of past efforts. The proposition can be illustrated by two examples.

Example 1: India’s Community Development (CD) Programme (1952) and National Extension Service (NES) (1953)

Example 2: Computerisation of India’s Land Records Programme (1988-89)


(f) Who owns E-government? As e-government gains increasing prominence, many

disciplines have started claiming exclusive ownership over it.

A political scientist claims e-government to be his domain as, in the ultimate analysis, e-government is about good governance and not electronics (he is right).

A legal expert claims e-government to be his domain as, he says, you cannot have any e-government unless proper cyber laws are in place (he is right).

A computer scientist says e-government is his as you cannot have e-government without appropriate software (he is right).

An electronics engineer rushes in to stake his claim asserting that you cannot have e-government without appropriate hardware (he is right).


Who owns E-government?Every body

A journalist barges in saying, look you cannot have any e-government without my explaining it to common man what e-government is all about (he is right).

The e-government manager smiles. Hey, over there, bring e-government to me. It is I who decides what is e-government and how to go about it (and he too is right).

What do these disciplinary squabbles mean? That e-government is an inter-disciplinary exercise

and no discipline, young or old, developed or developing, has any exclusive claim over it.


II A Hundred Year Background (1880-1980) for E-government in India

Subramanian (2005/2006) views development of e-governance in India from a historical perspective of 100 years from 1880 to 1980.

It includes the concept of nationhood, technological self-reliance and information technology (IT)-supported systems for policy formulation and development.

From his analysis three main streams emerge whose convergence contributed to the development of e-governance in this 100-year (1880-1980) period (Figure 1).

The current surge in the software development and e-governance in India, notes Subramanian, is not just a “spurt” phenomena but a gradual evolution guided and engineered by the government, with the help of scientists, technologists, academics and entrepreneurs over the century spanning 1880 and 1980 [ibid.].


A Hundred Year Background (1880-1980) for

E-government in IndiaFigure 2 Contribution of Three Main Streams of Educational

Institutions, National

Laboratories and Indian Planning to E-governance (1880-

1980)

E-governance

Data Processing Needs of India Planning

CSIR, National Labs

Educational Institutions- IITs, IIMs, etc.


Some of India’s Earlier Computers (1950-59)

Table 1 Some of India’s Earlier Computers (1950-59)

S.N. Year Comput

er

Remarks

1 1950 Analog

Comput

er

First Analog Computer at the Indian Statistical

Institute (ISI), Kolkata (now Kolkata)

2 1953 Analog

Comput

er

Indigenously built installed at Indian Statistical

Institute, Calcutta (now Kolkata)

3 1956 HEC-2M Hollerith Electronic Computer, a digital computer,

from England, installed at Indian Statistical Institute,

Calcutta (now Kolkata)

4 1958 URAL Russian computer, under United Nations grant,

installed at Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta (now

Kolkata)

5 1959 TIFRAC Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Automatic

Calculator (TIFRAC) operational, used extensively

between 1960-64 .


III. Three Phases of E-government in India 1947-2007

Table 2 Three Phases of E-government in India 1947-2007

Phas

e

Time

Period

Type of E-

governmen

t

Need for E-

governmen

t

Dominant

Technology

I 1947-

1984

Informatics

-based

Economic

Planning

Mainframe/Mini

Computers

II 1984-

1995

Personal

Computer

(PC)-based

Office

Automation

Personal Computers

(PCs)/Workstations

III 1995-

2007

World Wide

Web-based

Governmen

t Online

Internet/

World Wide Web


IV. Phase I

1947-1984

INFORMATICS-BASED E-GOVERNMENT


Phase I: Informatics-based Government (1947-84)

1. Use of computer in Indian

planning (1954)

2. Setting up of the Department

of Electronics (DOE) (1970),

and

3. Setting up of the National

Informatics Centre (NIC) (1977)


Phase I: Informatics-based Government (1947-84)

(a) What is informatics? The term has been in use in Europe since the 1960s Recently it entered the general vocabulary in the

U.S. Informatics is use of computer for processing

information using statistical methods Recent developments in computing have given rise

to new fields like bioinformatics, geoinformatics, etc.

These are based on application of information technology (IT) to specific domains like biology, geography, etc.


Informatics-based Government (1947-84)

What is informatics?

1. Computer

3. Statistical Methods2.InformationFigure 3


What is bioinformatics?

Figure 4 A Bridge between IT and Domain

IT Biology

Bioinformatics


1. Computer in Indian Planning (1954)

(b) Computer and Indian Planning

Prof P.C. Mahalanobis, Director, Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) appointed as Honorary Statistical Adviser to the Cabinet (1949)

Preparation of the draft India’s Second Five-Year Plan (1957-62) to Prof Mahalanobis, Director, ISI (1954)

This was dawn of centralised planing in India The roots of e-government in India thus go back to

statistics, mathematical statistics and econometrics in 1950s when a computer was needed and used for economic planning.


(c) Data for Planning and Decision-Making

1. Population Census since 1891 every 10 years

2. Indian National Sample Survey since 1950-51

3. Annual Survey of Industry (ASI) since 1953

4. Agricultural Census and Input Surveys (since 1971-72, every five years

5. Statutory and Non-Statutory Provisions for collection of statistics


2. Department of Electronics (DOE)(1970)

Overseas Communications Service (OCS) (1947) Electronics Committee Report (1966) Working Group Report on Computers (1968)

called for a national effort to attain self-sufficiency within 10 years in small and medium computers

National Conference on Electronics (1968) Department of Electronics (DOE) set up CMC Ltd, as a public sector undertaking, set up

(1975) National Informatics Centre (NIC) set up (1977)


3. National Informatics Centre (NIC)

National Informatics Centre (NIC) was conceived in 1975 as a plan project and set up with the assistance of UNDP (1977).

Created in the newly created Department of Electronics (DOE).

Initially created to cater to the needs of the central government

NIC extended its informatics support services to state governments (1985-86).


V. Phase II

1984-95

Personal Computer (PC)-based E-government



(a) New Computer Policy (1984)

(b) Policy on Computer Software Export,

Software Development, and Training (1986)

(c) NICNET (1987) and DISNIC (1987)

NICNET now has gateway nodes at about 55 Central

Government Departments, 35 State/UT

Secretariats, and 550 District Collectorates for IT

services.

Electronic Mail from Mumbai (1991)



(d) Public personnel hostile to computerisation fearing

large-scale retrenchment and loss of jobs.

(e) A Parliamentary Committee on Automation

suggests brake on automation

(f) A sea-change in people’s attitudes to

computerisation now (late 1990s)

(g) Now every body wants computers and

e- government! (Early 21st Century)


VI Phase III

1995-2007

Web-based E-government



Internet made available to public in India on August 14, 1995

Ministries/Departments started going online,

First offering information (in itself a big achievement)

Subsequently limited services to citizens.

On January 1, 2005, registration of .gov.in domain was launched.

As many as 2,568 “.gov.in” domains stood registered on September 3, 2007.



Three Important Milestones

• 1. Setting up of National Task Force on Information Technology (IT) and Software Development (SD) (1998)

• 2. Creation of Ministry of Information Technology (1999) and

• 3. Launching of National E-governance Plan (NEGP) (2003).


1. National Task Force on Information Technology (IT) and Software Development

(SD) (1998)

Set up: May 22, 1998, Submits report to Prime Minister on July 4, 1998.

Mandated to formulate the draft of a National Informatics Policy.

Three basic background reports (June 9, 1998, August 8, 1998 and March 18,1999),

Three Action Plans (Part I-Software, Part II-Hardware, and Part III- Long Term National IT Policy) and a IT Hardware Report.

The Action Plan Part I, with more than 1,500 man-hours of input, made 108 recommendations.

The States quickly followed suit by framing their own information technology (IT) policies.

http://it-taskforce.nic.in/bg.htm










2. Ministry of Information Technology (MIT) created

(1999)Ministry of Information Technology (MIT) created (1999)

Passenger Railway System (PRS) in Indian Railways becomes

operational (1999)

Information Technology (IT) Act comes into force, October 17,

2000 giving legal backing to e-commerce

Department of Information Technology (DIT) created (2001)

Media Lab Asia (MLA) launched (2001)

CMC Ltd., a public sector undertaking incorporated in 1975, in

the wake of IBM quitting India, privatised on October 16, 2001

National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) incorporated

in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh on May 28,2002


3. National E-governance Plan (NEGP)

(2003-2007)National E-governance Plan (NEGP) (2003-2007) approved on November 6,2003.

It has 25 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs):

(a) Central Government: 1. Income Tax, 2. Passport Visa & Immigration Project, 3. DCA21, 4. Insurance, 5. National Citizen Database, 6. Central Excise, 7. Pensions, 8. Banking

State Government (tentative, to be finalized in consultation with the States): 1. Land Records, 2. Road Transport, 3. Property Registration, 4. Agriculture, 5. Treasuries, 6. Municipalities, 7. Gram Panchayats, 8. Commercial Taxes 9. Police (UTs initially) 10. Employment Exchange*

Integrated Services: 1. EDI (E-Commerce ), 2. E-Biz 3. Common Service Centres 4. India Portal 5. EG Gateway 6. E-Courts* 7. E-Procurement* (*Addition proposed)


National E-governance Plan (NEGP)

(2003-2007)The National E-governance Plan (NEGP) is a well conceived, well started, strategic plan

It attempts to take e-governance to the door steps of the people, where e-governance matters most. Its four pillars are:

(i) State-Wide Area Network (SWAN)

(ii) State Data Centre (SDC)

(iii) Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) and

(iv) Common Service Centres (CSCs) (Figure).

Its success will be measured by the extent by which it delivers e-government to the people.



(2003-2007)Figure 5 Four Pillars of NEGP (2003-2007)

Mis

sio

n M

od

e P

roje

cts

Sta

te W

ide

Are

a

Ne

two

rk

Sta

te D

ata

Ce

ntre

Community Service Centres

NationalE-governance Plan



(2003-2007)E-Readiness assessment for the Centre

and States launched April 13, 2004

Bangalore One(B1) launched with 14

service centers providing 24 different

services to citizens of Bangalore on

April 2, 2004

www.bangaloreone.gov.in)

http://www.nisg.org/projects/project_bangaloreone/www.bangaloreone.gov.in



(2003-2007)“.in” Domain including co.in, .net.in, .firm.in, .ind.in, and .org.in registration opened on January 1, 2005

The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 came into force on June 15, 2005.

National Portal of India (http://india.gov.in/) launched on November 10, 2005

National Knowledge Commission (NKC), appointed March 2005, makes its recommendation on e-governance to Prime Minister on January 26, 2006

http://india.gov.in/



(2003-2007)National Summit on E-forms for E-governance held on June 12-13, 2006 in New Delhi

Union Cabinet approves setting up of 100,000 rural Common Services Centers (CSCs) in September 2006

10th National Conference on E-governance held on February 2-3 at Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh)

Recommendations of Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) on E-governance appointed in 2005, awaited as in September 2007


VII Software Success and E-governance

Indian success in software industry has raised worldwide interest.

India’s software revenues, for example, grew at over 30 percent per annum over the last decade, and the industry went from being practically non-existent in the 1980s to accounting for 3 percent of India’s GDP, a fifth of its exports, and employing about 230,000 Indians by 2003 (Arora and Gambardella 2006).

Economists have even started to ask the question whether the success of software industry in 3Is (India, Israel and Ireland) and China, Brazil and South Korea could be a new model for economic development (ibid.).

Why has e-governance in India not succeeded to the extent of the success of its software industry? A comparison of the two against half a dozen parameters brings out the sharp contrast between e-governance and software industry in India during the last decade (1997-2007) (Table ).

In essence the comparison highlights the static nature of e-governance and the dynamic nature of software industry.

A separate approach for performance improvement in e-governance is required starting from its redefinition (Misra 2007b).


A Comparison of Performance of E-governance and Software Industry in

India, 1997-2007

Table 3 A Comparison of Performance of E-governance and

Software Industry in India, 1997-2007

SN Parameter E-governance Software Industry

1 Organisation Bureaucracy Firm

2 Motivation Service to

Citizens

Profit

3 Stimulus Internal External (notably the U.S.)

4 Leadership Political Business

5 Resources Limited Available if business plan is

sound

6 Working Entrepreneuri

al (risk-

taking)

Procedural

(risk-averse)


VIII Developments in Telecom Sector

Table 4 Select Milestones in Telecom Sector in India

1992-2006

S

N

Year Milestone Remarks

1 199

2

Telecom services to private

operators

Opened

2 199

4

New Telecom Policy in May Announced

3 199

5

Private company Airtel Launched

4 199

9

New Telecom Policy Announced

5 200

4

Broadband Policy Announced

6 200

6

Next Generation Network (NGN)

Study Paper in July

Released


IX Lessons for other Developing Countries

Are there any lessons from the

Indian Experience in E-governance

for other developing countries?

__ Yes, there are.

--- Five can be mentioned here.


Lessons for other Developing Countries

Lesson 1: Databases are at the heart

of governance. Strengthen them.

Recollect the Indian Experience of:

--Population Census (1891),

-- National Sample Survey (1950),

-- Annual Survey of Industries(1951),

-- Agricultural Census (1971-72) and Input Surveys, and

now

-- Citizen ID database under NEGP (2003-2007)



Lesson 2: There is no substitute to

self-reliance and indigenous

capability


--A chain of national laboratories in 1950s and 1960s (CSIR)

--IBM quitting India in 1977 and Government responding by

setting up CMC Ltd. in 1975

--US banned sale of supercomputers to India in 1988. India

responds by setting up C-DAC in 1988 which comes out

PARAM 10,000 in 1998 and PARAM PADMA in 2003



Lesson 3: Invest in human resource development (HRD)


-- Setting up of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) starting with IIT,

Kharagpur in 1951 (7 now, 3 more proposed)

-- Setting up of Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) starting with

IIM, Calcutta (now Kolkata) and IIM, Ahmedabad in 1961 (6 now, 1

more proposed in Shillong)

-- Setting up of Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs)

starting with IIITM, Gwalior in 1997 (8 now)



Lesson 4: Prepare National

E-government Plan


-- National E-governance Plan (2003-2007)

-- Mission Mode Projects (MMMs)

--State Wide Area Network (SWAN)

--State Data Centres



Lesson 5: Consider both the Demand and Supply Sides of E-governance.


Demand Side:

--100,000 community service centres (CSCs), cyber café (earlier

public call offices-PCOs), tele centres, broadband policy, etc.

Supply Side:

--Mission Mode Projects (MMPs), State Wide Area Networks

(SWANs), State data Centres (SDCs), etc.



Table 5 Lessons from Indian E-governance Experience

Lesson

1

Databases are at the heart of governance.

Strengthen them.

Lesson

2

There is no substitute to self-reliance and

indigenous capability

Lesson

3

Invest in human resource development

(HRD)

Lesson

4Prepare National E-government Plan

Lesson

5

Consider both the Demand and Supply

Sides of

E- governance.


X. A Summing UpI Introduction

II A Hundred Year Background (1880-1980) for E-government in

India

III Three Phases of E-government in India 1947-2007

IV Phase I: 1947-1984 Informatics-based E-government

1. Use of computer in Indian planning (1954)

2. Setting up of the Department of Electronics (DOE) (1970),

3. Setting up of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) (1977)

V Phase II: 1984-1995 Personal Computer (PC)-based E-government

1. New Computer Policy (1984)

2. Policy on Computer Software Export, Software Development, and Training

(1986)

3. NICNET (1987) and DISNIC (1987)


A Summing UpVI Phase III: 1995-2007 Web-based E-government

1. Setting up of National Task Force on Information Technology (IT) and

Software Development (SD) (1998)

2. Creation of Ministry of Information Technology (1999) and

3. Launching of National E-governance Plan (NEGP) (2003).

VII Lessons for other Developing Countries

Lesson 1: Databases are at the heart of governance. Strengthen them.

Lesson 2: There is no substitute to self-reliance and indigenous capability

Lesson 3: Invest in human resource development (HRD)

Lesson 4: Prepare National E-government Plan (NEGP)

Lesson 5: Consider both the Demand and Supply Sides of E-governance.

VIII A Summing Up

IX Further Reading

X Thank You


Further Reading

• Misra, D.C. (2006): Ten Emerging E-government Challenges Today: The Future May be Sober and Not Hype, December http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UNPAN/UNPAN025339.pdf

• Misra, D.C. (2007a): Ten Guiding Principles for Knowledge Management in E-government, January http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UNPAN/UNPAN025338.pdf

• Misra, D.C. (2007b): Defining E-government: A citizen-centric criteria-based approach, January http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UNPAN/UNPAN025373.pdf

• Misra, D.C. (2007c): Sixty Years of E-governance in India (1947-2007): Does it have lessons for other developing countries? (forthcoming)

http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UNPAN/UNPAN025339.pdf







Thank you for your attention

End of Presentation

--Dr D.C.Misra, September 6, 2007, New Delhi

End of Presentation