Information Society Watch

January 21, 2008, E-Gov

In its recommendations submitted to the minister, the Expert Committee on Information Technology for Local Government in India has highlighted the key role of ICTs in multi-mode training and capacity building. This has to be read in the context of India venturing into an ambitious e-Governance programme with around Rs. 5,400 crores is going to be spent over the next three years on the computerisation of 2,50,000 local government bodies alone.

2005, Rahul De, Indian Institute of Management- Bangalore

With the widespread deployment of e-government systems in developing countries, and also their high failure rates, it is important to understand the complex processes that underlie successful implementations of large-scale information systems. This paper develops a framework for stakeholder groups and uses this to analyse conflict and resistance in four case examples of implemented e-government systems in India.

13 Nov, 2007, Sunil Raman, BBC News

India, which is home to more than 500,000 villages has embarked on an ambitious programme to collect data about these villages. This exercise, when completed, will result in the social and economic data about this vast section of the population stored in a centralised database which will be easily accessible.

December 5, 2007, EFY News Network

The CSI-Nihilent e-Governance awards have been instituted with aim of identifying states and organisations who have successfully utilised ICT in discharging their functions. The article lists the awardees for the current year among whom the standout performer is Gujarat which emerged as the best E-Governed state.

December 26, 2007, Saumitra Mohan, Deccan Herald

The RTI Act in India was regarded as a watershed in area of increasing transparency in government. The article reviews how the RTI facility is faring two years after it had been introduced. While it is undeniable that the act has empowered the Indian citizen to gain insight into government activities and projects affecting them, the pace of RTI implementation across all government agencies still leaves a lot to be desired.

2006, Rahul De, eGov

E-governance has gained in considerable importance in recent years and is touted as a panacea for a host of ills in the present system. In this light, proper evaluation of such systems are essential to assess the true impact of the projects. The paper contends that current evaluation concentrates primarily on the project design and implementation, thus ignoring the larger context of development and related issues.

November 27, 2007, Press Trust of India

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has recommended to the Supreme Court that all records should be computerised, as under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. This recommendation follows from a suggestion to furnish records in electronic form, which was made in an information plea from an RTI applicant requesting details of a petition filed with the court.

August 2007, Rajeev Chawla, et al, id4

Conducted by the key visionaries of e-governance projects, this review of the Common Services Centres (CSCs) programme reports on implementation details, services provided and future plans. The review concludes that it is too early to determine if these CSCs have improved the provision of government services, and in these stages it is more important to analyse the gaps between perceived benefits and real services.

August 05, 2007, I4d Online

This is an interview with the Joint Secretary of West Bengal State Rural Development Agency. He talks about challenges and implementation plans, while highlighting that the village panchayat is in charge of implementing the Common Service Centres (CSC) scheme in the state and not the IT department. This is significant, since implementation of e-governance projects by the IT department is seen to be the primary reason of failure of these projects.

Empowering the poor: Information and Communications Technology for governance and poverty reduction - A study of rural development projects in India

2006, UNDP-APDIP

It is widely believed that Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) are effective tools in the fight against poverty, if used appropriately. As India’s poverty is deepening and its ICT industry booming, there are many projects underway that are using ICT to reduce poverty and promote good governance.This publication systematically analyses 18 projects in India that use ICT for the benefit of poor people, and provides recommendations on how ICT can be applied to the massive, widespread and seemingly intractable problems of poverty.