E-Governance in India: A Case Study of Haryana

Sanjay Kumar Pradhan and Puneet Kumar*

Introduction goal of participatory democracy in a

Global shifts towards deployment vibrant nation like India. E-governance
of information and technology by is not e-government although both are
governments, increase in internet closely integrated and inter dependent.
and mobile connections and E-governance can be defined as a
demand for participatory government system which is efficient,
democracy have steered the effective and is duly controlled by
government of India and state citizens whereas, e-government means
governments to exploit their new exploiting the power of information and
mode of access in wide ranging communications technology to help
ways and areas for better, transform accessibility, quality and cost-
effective and successful effectiveness of public services. While
administration. Citizens have the former is citizen-centric, the latter is
started expecting more and more government oriented. E-government and
information and services online e-governance have become increasingly
from governments and corporate acknowledged over the last few years,
organizations to further their
and many governments desire for online
civic, professional and personal
services. The use of Information &
lives, thus creating abundant
Communication Technology (ICT) has
evidence that the “e-citizenship”
reduced the role of local authorities and
is taking hold in the broad vision
empowered citizens, and set the link
of e-governance. E-governance is a
between the internet, governance and
tool which can be used to sustain the
society. E-governance is an attempt of
important elements of responsibility and
government to harness information
accountability that a liberal democratic
technology to improve the efficiency and
order requires. To increase
effectiveness of the executive functions
accountability of government and
of the government including the delivery
empowerment of common men, the use
of public services. It can be defined as
of e-governance is vital to achieve the
the application of electronic means in the

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* Assistant Professor, FASC, Mody Institute of Technology & Science
interaction between government services
to citizens (G2C), government services
to business (G2B) and government
services to government (G2G)
simplify and improve democratic aspects
of a political system. From being just
looked upon as a drive to ensure
computerization of government
departments, e-governance has now
become a top priority for the union
government and most of the state
governments including traditional
laggards. Haryana, one of the emerging
but best e-governed states and successful
state in India deserves the attention of
the policy makers and governments to
follow it in their strategies and policy
implementation to make e-governance a
reality and success.
Origin and spread of
governance in India
The concept of e-governance has its
origins in India during the seventies with
a focus on development of in- house
government applications in the areas of
defense, economic monitoring, planning
and the deployment of Information
Technology to manage data intensive
functions related to elections, census, tax
administration etc. The efforts of the
National Informatics Center (NIC) to
* Assistant Professor, FASC, Mody Institute of Technology & Science
connect all the district headquarters
during the eighties was a very significant
development. From the early nineties,
to Information & Technologies (IT) have
been supplemented by ICT technologies
to extend its use for wider sectoral
applications with policy emphasis on
reaching out to rural areas and taking in
greater inputs from NGOs and private
sectors. While the emphasis has been
primarily on automation and
computerization, state governments have
also endeavored to use ICT tools into
connectivity, networking, setting up
systems for processing information and
delivering services. At a micro level, this
has ranged from IT automation in
individual departments, electronic file
handling and workflow systems, access
e- to entitlements, public grievance
systems, service delivery in the form of
payment of bills, tax dues and meeting
the targets of poverty alleviation
programmes at the macro level. The
thrust areas of e-governance have been
varied across states such as some states
have focused on citizen-state interface
for various government services and
others for alleviation of poverty and
better livelihoods. Every state govt. has
taken the initiative to form an IT task
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force to outline IT policy document for Kerala- FRIENDS (Fast,
the state and the citizen charters have Reliable,Instant, Effiecient Network for
started appearing on govt. websites. In Disbursement of Services)
the process, there has been an increasing Rajasthan-Janmitra, Lok Mitra and
involvement of international donor RajNIDHI
agencies under the framework of e- Tamil Nadu- Rasi Maiyams-
governance to catalyze the development Kanchipuram, Tamil Nilam, Rural
of e-governance and e-technologies in Delivery System
India. Uttaranchal: Aarohi, Croun
Different projects have been enunciated State plans and programmes are assisted
by the state governments in India to and inspired by the national plans and
augment the process of e-governance. programmes such as Kissan Call Centres
Important among them are: and Agmarketnet. The Union
Andhra Pradesh: e-Seva, AP One –Stop- government has established one lakh
Shop, Online-Transaction Process (OTP) Citizen Service Centres (CSCs) and
Assam: Citizen Information Centre SWANs across states. A new scheme
(CIC), Tax Information Management State Data Centres was announced by
System (TIMS) the government in Budget 2008-09. The
Bihar, Sales Tax Administration government is also planning to establish
Management Information, e-governance standards for application
Chhatisgarh, Chhatisgarh Infotech integration and avoid technology lock-in.
Promotion Society, e-linking Project
Delhi- Automatic Vehicle Tracking Progress of e- governance in
System, Electronic Clearance System Haryana
Goa- Dharani Project
Haryana is one of the best e-governed
Gujarat-Census online, Mahit Shakti,
states in India. In 2006, it achieved
Request for Government Document
fourth position in e-Governance
Online
Readiness Index, having progressed
Haryana- Nai Disha
from 15th position in 2003. In the e-
Himachal Pradesh- Lok Mitra
Readiness Report of the Union
Karnataka- Bhoomi, Khajane, Kaveri
government, Haryana won the "Best e-

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* Assistant Professor, FASC, Mody Institute of Technology & Science
Governed State Government" Telecomm
India Excellence Award 2007. The state
government has laid special emphasis on
implementing mission mode
governance projects, identified under the
National e-Governance Plan (NeGP),
having successfully organised the 11th
National e-Governance Conference in
February 2008 at Panchkula.
recently published report "Best
Governed States, 2008-09" of the Data
Quest-IDC, 2008 revealed the fact that
Tamil Nadu ranks at the top followed by
Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana,
Andhra Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Rajsthan,
Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Assam,
Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa,
Karnatak, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh,
Kerala, West Bengal, Jharkhand and
Bihar in the list. The most significant
revelation of the report is that the state
Haryana has made a tremendous and
extraordinary progress in comparison to
other states to achieve fourth position in
the list by surpassing its earlier position
of fourteen in 2007-08. Significantly the
state is spending 41.31 per capita for IT
services in comparison to 8.31 of Tamil
Nadu and 26.48 of Delhi- the first and
third ranking best e-governed states in
India. In this perspective it is imperative
to analyse the plans and programmes
formulated and implemented by the
government of Haryana in cooperation
e- with the citizens and union government
and their assessment.
Web portals related to e-governance in
Haryana are true examples to make life
easy for the common man. These are the
The sources for downloading and submission
e- of information, procedures and
application forms used in various citizen
services being provided by different
Departments or Boards and Corporations
of the Government to its residents. The
‘Electronic Governance’ in the
Secretariat aims at IT driven system of
Governance that works better, costs less
and is capable of servicing the decision
making machinery and citizens’ needs as
never before. The websites have been
designed and hosted by the NIC Haryana
State Unit and is proving immensely
popular with the citizens who no longer
need to queue up at the government
offices for information. In its quest for
getting ahead in the race of e-
governance, Haryana Government has
recently launched an exclusive website
to provide online land records to the
people. In the first phase, data of
Panchkula Tehsil has been placed on

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* Assistant Professor, FASC, Mody Institute of Technology & Science
Web. Soon more districts will be added
to this database. Public can see their
Records of Right through this web site in
Hindi. For the first time ever, Land
Records Data has been placed on web
using UNICODE for Hindi solutions.
This project is expected to bring
transparency in the function of Revenue
Offices. Apart from this, knowledge base
has been placed on web so that people
can know about complex terminology
and documents. Bhupinder Singh Hooda
, the chief minister of Haryana, at the
11th National Conference on
Governance, Panchkula, Haryana called
for change from governance to e-
Governance and further to
Governance", where 'i' stands
integrated services to the citizens and
will be a government that works as one
complex.
Haryana is the first state in India which
introduced website for the villages. A
village in Jind district of Haryana today
became the first one in the country to log
on to the information superhighway with
the launch of a website named
www.smartvillages.org, containing its
history, legislative, education, health and
other parameters. The website of the
First Model Internet Village presents a
* Assistant Professor, FASC, Mody Institute of Technology & Science
holistic picture of the habitaion with
detailed statistics on varied areas ranging
from government setup, village
panchayat, infrastructure on basic
amenities, electricity, water, roads,
irrigation, house number, names of the
villagers, father name, sex, education
and so other things. The information
would be of imense help for the officers
and the government in formulating plans
for the development of that area. As
Haryana is emerging as a model state in
the country with speedy industrialisation
e- and highest per capita income, this type
of data from the grassroot level would
further boost the development process.
'i'- With the launching of this website, the
for vision of the Haryana Government to
take IT to the villages has been
accomplished.
In view of the importance of Information
Technology in the globalisation process
throughout the world, the state
government has formulated an IT Policy
which provides several incentives for IT
industry. Haryana government not only
aspires to attain leadership position but
also is going ahead with e-Governance
initiatives by establishing State Wide
Area Network (SWAN). The SWAN is
being set up connecting the State
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Headquarters and District Headquarters e-Disha Ekal Seva Kendras that will
and all Block Headquarters to respective facilitate e-governance. The government
District Headquarters. SWAN also is actively considering setting up a
envisages village connectivity through Centre for Good Governance in the
wireless. This shall enable transparency, Haryana Institute of Public
efficiency and accountability in Administration (HIPA) complex at
governance that shall throw up Gurgaon for switching over the State to
opportunities and provide access to the e-governance. The State Government
citizen-centric services. E-Disha, a recently emphasisd on implementing
single point multi-service delivery Mission Mode e-Governance projects,
system for providing citizen-centric identified under the National e-
services has been launched in 5 districts Governance Plan (NeGP). The State
and is being launched in other districts of Sector Mission Mode e–Governance
the State. The Local Area Networks projects namely Online Treasuries
(LAN) have been established at major Information System, Haryana
buildings and a number of departments Registration Information System,
at State and District level. The Haryana Haryana Land Records Information
State Data Centre has been established System, Road Transport Regulatory
with the assistance of NIC with 1000 GB Functions (Driving Licence and Vehicle
storage capacity. Under the Computer Registration systems), Haryana Pensions
Training Programme, more than 15000 Processing and Information System,
government Employees have been e.Health.Net project of the Health
trained. Haryana is the first State in the Department, and the VAT Monitoring
country to introduce an online off- Assessment and Collection System have
campus counselling system and online already been implemented.
entrance examination system for Computerised monitoring of PWD (B
admission to technical and professional and R) and PWD (Water Supply and
courses. Sanitation) activities have also been
The Haryana government has entered operationalised.
into a master service agreement (MSA) The e-governance intitiatives and
with three private operators for running projects of Haryana gets boost from the

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* Assistant Professor, FASC, Mody Institute of Technology & Science
financial and technical assistance of the sanctioned a pilot project named
Union government and its cooperation. IntraGov Haryana Portal.
The Union goverment has approved an
ambitious Rs 103 crore proposal for e- Conclusion
governance system for Haryana to E-governance is the application of
enable transparent, efficient and information & communication
accountable governance. The IT technologies to transform the efficiency,
department of the Union government effectiveness, transparency and
will provide Rs 63 crore for this purpose accountability of the government to
and the remaining about Rs 40 crore will empower citizens through access & use
be spent by the state government, a of information. It facilitates more
report presented by the spokesperson of accessible government services, allow
Haryana Information Technology greater public access to information and
Department in December 2007. Haryana establish welfare state. E-governance is
not only hope to achieve a leading not good governance but a tool for the
position in the field of information latter. It is ideal in nature and functional
technology, but is also going forward in requirement; a common man's
with the e-governance initiatives by reaction to red-tapism and experts;
establishing SWAN and AADHAR like democracy at the door's step and direct
modern systems of e-governance with interface with citizens and consumers.
financial aids from the centre. The India since 1990s has made tremendous
network prepared through these progress in e-governance but at the same
proposals would be utilised for inter- time the country and the states are facing
departmental connectivity, multi-use and the problems which have turned as
multi-service facilities, video stumbling blocks in the path of
conferencing, file transfer facility, e- revolutionary progress of e-governance.
mail, on-line application processing and Lack of IT literacy and awareness
query and response systems. The Union regarding benefits of e-governance,
Government has selected Haryana for underutilization of existing ICT
implementation of the smart card-based infrastructure, lack of coordination
PDS and ration card system, and also between government department and

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* Assistant Professor, FASC, Mody Institute of Technology & Science
solution developers, resistance to re-
engineering of departmental processes,
lack of Infrastructure for sustaining e-
governance projects are major
challenges India facing today. Still most
of the states in India are lagging far
behind from the successful states. Yet
there should be no desperation. Much to
be learnt from the successful and best e-
governed states in India. Strong political
and bureaucratic will along with citizen
support have taken e-governance to a
higher trajectory in an aspiring state like
Haryana. If Haryana could make a giant
leap, why not other states? It is time for
introspection and moment for the poor
performing states to follow Haryana as a
role model of e-governance with the
hope: strategies for today; vision
for future.

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* Assistant Professor, FASC, Mody Institute of Technology & Science