Learner’s Submission: Online Public Services in India

“I have used several online Services like Passport Seva Portal (www. passportindia.gov.in), MCA 21(http://www.mca.gov.in/MCA21/), RTI Online (http://rtionline.gov.in/), Income Tax E-Filing (https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/), Employment Bank (http://employmentbankwb.gov.in/), National Employment Service (http://www.employmentservice.nic.in/), etc.

In India e- Governance was initiated by National e-Governance Plan of Indian Government which was take on May 18, 2006. Several Central Government/ State Governments have/ had installed online public services. Those services are categorized as Citizens Services, Business Services and Government Services
The e-Governance Standards have been divided into categories like – Policy or Frameworks, Standards, Guidelines. Various Expert Committees have been setup in priority areas, like Metadata and Data Standards (MDDS), Biometrics, Localization, Security, Mobile Governance, Interoperability Framework for e-Governance in India (IFEG), Digital Signature, etc. to formulate standards.
This e-Governance Standards portal provides a platform for sharing of ideas, knowledge, and draft documents among the members of various committees involved in standards formulation process. It also has a provision for web publication of draft documents for review comments by the Closed User Group and the Public. The duly approved standards by Government’s Apex body consisting of Senior Strategic members from: Deity, NIC, NASSCOM, BIS, CDAC, Planning Commission etc. would be released on this portal for free download and usage.
Key projects and enterprises of public welfare and governance get stalled due to lack of consensus among the stakeholders and later results into implementation interruptions and over budgeting.

In spite of such challenges, India has seen some of the biggest e-Governance initiatives in recent times including the establishment of common and support IT infrastructure such as State Wide Area Networks (SWANs), State Data Centers (SDCs), Common Services Centers (CSCs) and Electronic Service Delivery Gateways.
This initiative has provided a solid framework across the nation to figure and roll out, a wide range of e-Governance programs by numerous government bodies and ministries. For instance, the passport seva kendras, digitization of postal department, online income and sales tax collections, implementation of a single core banking platform across all 14 nationalized banks, voter identity cards (IDs) and permanent account number (PAN) cards for income tax are some of the nationwide e-Governance initiatives. In various public support sites like MCA21, Income Tax site, Passport Portal, Identity can be verified by PAN Number is automatically when filing documents.
Among the most determined and politically debated e-Governance initiative of India is the Unique Identification Authentication (UID) or the Aadhaar card project. Its objective is to empower residents of India with a unique identity and a digital platform to authenticate. Various services are getting authenticated by it like, Passport Application, Getting Government Subsidies in gas; it will also authenticate bank accounts.” – Rupak Ghosh – West Bengal, India

Learner’s Submission: National e-Governance Plan in India

“On May 18, 2006, Central Government approved the National e-Governance Plan, comprising of 27 Mission Mode Projects and 10 components. The National e-Governance Plan was designed by the DEITY (Department of Electronics and Information Technology) and DARPG (Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances).

National e-Governance Plan have the following vision:
“Make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency & reliability of such services at affordable costs to realise the basic needs of the common man.”

Application of e-Governance is a complex process requiring facility of hardware & software, networking, process re-engineering and change management. National e-Governance Plan have following elements:
a) Common Support Infrastructure: – Common IT infrastructures like, State Wide Area Networks, State Data Centres, Electronic Service Delivery Gateways, Common Services Centres etc
b) Governance: Department of Electronics and Information Technology do the work of coordinating and monitoring. Institutions like NIC, STQC, CDAC, NISG helps the department in this work.
c) Centralised Initiative, Decentralised Implementation: Its required to develop citizen-centric models
d) Public-Private Partnerships: PPP is used for better and faster implementation
e) Integrative Elements: Adoption of unique identification codes for citizens, businesses and property like Permanent Account Number (PAN), Aadhaar Number of The Unique Identification Authority of India has been initiated.
f) Involvement of the National and State levels: Various Government Departments of Union Government and State Governments are involve for better and effective implementations in a holistic manner.
g) Facilitator role of Department of Electronics and Information Technology: various Ministries and State Governments and also provides technical assistance and DEITY taken the role of facilitator to coordinate all efforts.

Services provided by e-Governance can be categorized by following manners:
i. Services for Citizens
ii. Services for Business
iii. Services for Government

Services for Citizens:
We can access various citizen services such as agriculture services, registration of documents, learner’s licence, vehicle life tax collection, birth certificate, etc. Information about service name, category, degree of enablement, outreach, etc. is available. Some important Services are:

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, Online Passenger Reservation System: Indian Railway is an Indian state-owned enterprise providing Railways Transport system which is a major transport system in India. Through IRCTC Portal (https://www.irctc.co.in/) citizen can book railways Tickets, check availability of Tickets, Trains to their destinations. It’s a major initiative and helps us to get those services online.

Passport Seva Portal (www. passportindia.gov.in): Through it Passport Services become easy. Users can apply for fresh passport. Information on reissue of passport is obtainable. Information on passport requirements and suitability is available. Users can locate passport cell, Passport Seva Kendra, and also calculate fee. Applications status can also be tracked online. Through Downloadable e-forms passport application are made, checking status of it become easily available.

Birth and Death Registration and Issue of Certificate: Those Services are provided by various Municipalities (Local Governments). That is a major example of centralized initiative and decentralized implementation of e-Governance Project. Municipalities are providing online registrations of birth and death and are issue of certificate. Application Download, Online Application, Online Payment of fee/charges are the major features of it. According to Census 2011 lists there are 7,935 towns in India and 31.16% of the total populations are staying there. Cities and Major Municipalities are providing those services through their own website.

Online Employment Service: Both Central Government as well as the State Governments are providing Online Employment Service through their respective portal. Where Job seekers can register their details, those are available to the registered Employers. Physical verifications and validations of information’s are made by the District Employment Exchanges. http://www.employmentservice.nic.in/ is the portal of National Employment Service; it’s the portal of Central Government. Employment bank (http://employmentbankwb.gov.in/) is the portal of Government of West Bengal that is of a State Government.

Services for Business
E-governance services for business are important aspect such as online Registration, VAT/TOT Collection, Tax Payments etc

MCA 21(http://www.mca.gov.in/MCA21/): MCA21 Project, the e-Governance initiative of the Ministry of Company Affairs (MCA). MCA21 is an innovative eGovernance initiative that aims at continuously repositioning Ministry of Company Affairs (MCA) as an organization proficient of fulfilling the aspirations of its stakeholders in the 21st century. For any program to be outcome-based, a paradigm shift in the service delivery is inevitable. A Service Centric Approach by the Government is the principal driving factor to the transformation.

Income Tax E-Filing (https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/): Income Tax e-filing can be done online through the Income Tax Website.

Services for Government:

E-Governance is helping the governments for better governance. It is enhancing internal communications. Like e-Governance in Police departments enable them to exchange crime record in faster and smarter way. Those are important for prevention of Crime.” – Rupak Ghosh – West Bengal, India

Learners’ Submission: E-Governance in India

“E-governance has been considered as the best way for good governance. Communication and internet Technology has brought world near and has great impact on the life styles of people. The mode of obtaining services and its delivery has undergone tremendous changes with the improvement of technology that covered almost all types of services whether banking, insurance, other financial services or services from local corporations and government bodies. The relationship of service provider to that of service taker has also changed and has brought changes in quality of the service and its timely delivery.

Indian government has planned for e-Governance and initiated actions to improve delivery of Government services to citizens and businesses with the vision to make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency & reliability of such services at affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common man. Government of India decided to promote e-Governance through a centralized initiative to ensure citizen-centric orientation with decentralized implementation model. It will help realize the objective of inter-operability of various e-Governance applications and ensure optimal utilization of ICT infrastructure and resources. It also aims at identifying successful projects and replicating them with required customization wherever needed.

Accordingly the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) has been formulated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY) and Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG). The Union Government approved the NeGP, comprising of 31 (originally 27) Mission Mode Projects (MMPs). Various Indian Union Ministries/Departments and State Governments are involved in Implementation of the e-Governance plan and the need for overall aggregation and integration at the national level was important.

NeGP comprises 31 mission mode projects (MMPs), which are further classified as state, central or integrated projects. Each state government can also define five MMPs specific to its individual needs.

e-Governance in India has steadily evolved from computerization of Government Departments to initiatives that encapsulate the finer points of Governance, such as citizen centricity, service orientation and transparency. The projects are expected to reduce number of trips of service users to service provider as also the waiting period apart from reducing the corruption and providing quality service.

I am describing the e-Governance in Urban Local Bodies:

“e-Governance in Urban Local Bodies” is a unique initiative of the Government of India conceptualized under the umbrella of the overall National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) and the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) aimed at improving operational efficiencies within Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).

It has been observed that

• Presently there is very limited or no computerization across ULBs in different States.
• There is very limited or non-existent staff with IT know-how
• There is lack of standardization of processes; and
• The processes are primarily operated in a manual mode

There are following services which should be provided under this MMP:

I. Citizen Services (G2C)

1. Birth & Death Registration – Information, Application download, online application, payment and printing of certificates with Digital signature
2. Trade Licensing –Accreditation of vendors, Licensed shop owners and technical/professional, online submission and receipts (including renewal etc.) of licenses and printing with digital signature
3. Building Plan – Single window based – Online submission through accredited/licensed Architects, online check and permission, Field check through Handheld device (GPRS & GPS based photos and measurement device) and authentication. NOC from Various dept. would be obtained through SLA based Input screen and secured VPN links.
4. Tax and Fees & Fine/Penalty Payment – Enquiry – GIS based system – Self calculation, payment through secured payment gateway, Printing of secured digital receipts
5. RTI – Online application, application status tracking, pendency tracking
6. Grievance /Service request/Feedback – Online application, application status tracking, pendency tracking.
7. Helpdesk – ULB –wide – single helpline no

II. Employee Service:

1. HRMS with Employee Self-service incl. leave, Personal HR (PIS) , parks and Payroll linked
2. Smartcard/ Biometric based access system linked with HRMS

III. Shared Service /Backend Departmental Services:

1. Double Entry Accrual based Accounting System
2. E-Tendering
3. HRMS with Payroll integrated with attendance system, Recruitment , Training, Assessment/Performance Management Module
4. Inventory/Asset Management including vehicles
5. Project Management with Field Monitoring support and Field service support
6. Enterprise GIS  with Property Tax, Solid Waste Management  Vehicle /Fleet Management
7. GPS/GPRS based Fleet Management
8. Backend Intra and Inter departmental workflow, with communication, document Management, K-Bank and Portal and Information/Content Management
9. Operational & Tactical/Mayors Dashboard” – Sachin Murari Patrikar – Maharashtra, India

Learner’s Submission: Online Public Service in India

“E-government has been a bipartisan effort, today it becomes bicameral as well, … The era of big government is over; we are committed to a smaller, smarter government. New information technologies are tools to help us achieve these goals.” – Joseph Isadore Lieberman

“I have used online public service to apply for fresh passport, reservation of public transport system, online education and for paying utility bills.

Here, I’d like to throw some light on the Infusion of passport seva project by the government. Passport seva provides passport services to the citizens of India. Every citizen of Republic Of India can submit online passport application through “passport seva” website for fresh as well as re-issue of passport. This passport seva will also cater to other needs of the applicants like obtaining police clearance certificate, fee calculators, affidavits, application tracker to know the application status and providing feedback and grievances.

This is user-friendly and the passport seva project team will continuously monitor for the required changes to be made to render faster and quality service delivery to the citizens online. This is the fastest and most convenient way to get passport compared to the traditional methods wherein citizens used to wait for 60-90 days process to get the passport on hand. Now, it’s possible to get it in 30 calendar days normally.

Passport can be obtained through the channel of Passport Seva Kendra (PSK). These are set up in all the major cities and towns of the country. These centers facilitate in the online passport issuance process. Every eligible citizen is requested to avail the passport service at PSK under the jurisdiction of where they reside.

In order to apply online, every citizen has to register an account on the website. Fill in all the details and upload the scanned legally required self-attested documents. Once this is done, you are required to be present at the PSK. It is better to schedule an appointment in order to reduce the waiting time. Here, the applicant provides all the required original documents to the officer to verify the validity. All the activities such getting photograph, capturing of fingerprints, eye scan, fee payment etc. takes place. This is followed by police verification before the issuance of passport.

The e-governance in our country has saved time and money to both citizens and the government. It has also helped in tackling corruption to a certain extent. However, this e-government strategy has posed certain challenges in terms of usage of ICT (Information and Communications Technology), particularly the use of internet to avail the services. Not all citizens of India are computer friendly (Computer Literacy). Still most of the workforce is computer illiterate. They need to depend on someone else to get the job done. Hence, both traditional and modern way of applying for passport online has been kept in practice by the government. Efforts are made by the government to bridge this gap with effective computer technology training at all department levels and at educational institutions.

To conclude, e-governance has played a vital role in India with development perspective cutting red-tapism and reaching the citizens directly. This has to still go a long way in implementing it across all states and departments.” – Machane Daniel Isaac – Mysore, India.