E-governance: Hip & Happening

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in IT that is important, but the re-engineering of the processes behind the screen that actually deliver the services. Bhoomi was successful because Rajiv Chawla spent time with the village accountants and was not merely evaluating the merits of Intel Vs AMD or IBM Vs HP or Windows Vs Linux.

E-governance is everyday governance. It is easy to “demo” an interesting idea but for sustenance in government, it must run day in and day out for years, that too not just in air-conditioned, city environments, but even in remote rural areas, a key success factor for Bhoomi.

E-governance must be economic. A number of e-governance projects are criticised for the excessive implementation costs. Unless the project is affordable, it is unlikely to succeed. Bhoomi charges Rs 20, which is higher than Rs 2 in the manual system but much lower than the “real cost”. That is the secret of its success.

E-governance must embrace and not be exclusive. Many e-governance projects across the globe have failed because they addressed exclusive needs of ministers, bureaucrats or industrialists. Such exclusiveness attracts so much criticism that they are doomed to fail. Bhoomi was successful because it addressed the needs of the “common man” leading to a groundswell of goodwill among the public.

I have used the example of Bhoomi because I am familiar with it. What is important is not to forget such elementary principles in our enthusiasm to launch one more e-governance project. The e-commerce boom and bust taught us that “e” is only an enabler; the same is true for e-governance too.