The author, through a comprehensive research study of e-Governance initiatives in India, brings a marvelous research contribution which suggests a framework for successfully deploying people and processes across e-Government projects. Read Ahead…
Title - E-Governance: A Comprehensive Framework Author - D.N. Gupta Publisher - New Century The objective of this book “E-Governance: A Comprehensive Framework” is to assist policy makers, academicians, researchers, and consultants to understand the essence of inter-dependence of technology, people, and processes and how to deploy e-Governance operations successfully. Some of the specific concerns addressed in this book include how e-Governance has helped citizens in accessing the services; whether the delivery system has adequate capacity to deliver services efficiently; and the measures necessary to strengthen e-Governance system for providing good governance. The scholar uses various diagnostic tools and techniques to study the performance of some selected e-Governance projects in India viz., Janmitra, e-Bhoomi, and RDS in Karnatka, Gyandoot in Madhya Pradesh and OLTP in Andhra Pradesh. The study covered four aspects viz. (a) service delivery, (b) performance of kiosk owners, (c) performance of service provider and (d) the delivery system. The book is divided into five chapters. The first chapter “E-Governance: An Introduction”, introduces the reader with the basic concepts of e-Governance and the need of conducting a comprehensive study in India to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of e-Governance operations. Second chapter, “E-Governance: Evaluation Framework”, depicts various approaches for designing evaluation framework for good governance. Some of the evaluation approaches used in the study and discussed in this chapter include a participatory approach to governance evaluation; people, process and technology models; and factors affecting quality of services using SERVQUAL and Growth Stage models. The third chapter “E-Governance Projects in India: An Evaluation” deals with the detailed analysis of field study; factors affecting usage and quality of e-Governance services; performance indicators; and behavioral issues. The critical findings of the analysis are: e-Governance is more than IT connectivity; citizens lack awareness; there is a dearth of enabling environment and working conductions; processes are obsolete and cumbersome; little focus is on HRD issues; there is a requirement of change management in most of the projects; and capacity and conducive work culture needs to be created for good e-Governance. The chapter also discusses some of the selected case studies of e-Governance projects and illustrates their findings using SWOT analysis, SERVQUAL and Growth Stage models. The most important aspects of the study are illustrated in the fourth chapter “System Design: Process Reengineering and Organization Development.” The chapter suggests a citizen-centric e-Governance system design framework based on process reengineering and organization development. The last contribution of the book, chapter five “Lessons Learnt and Way Ahead” brings salient concerns related to behavioral dimensions, prerequisites, challenges, future strategy needed to be deployed and important implications. The book is a wonderful contribution from an eminent e-Government researcher. It has been written in a simple and non-technical language, which keeps the reader involved throughout the book. The book is a constantly up-to-date tool necessary for understanding and implementing e-Governance projects successfully for policy makers, researchers, scholars, and consultants worldwide.