That’s just the tip of the iceberg however and if you look at the way the government is using IT to benefit the masses, there’s a lot more going on. This year’s edition of the Technology Sabha that is chronicled in the pages of this issue was a meeting ground for like minded bureaucrats who want to leverage IT to transform the nation.
The National e-governance Plan’s ripples are being felt with states implementing state-wide area networks (SWAN) and using the same to offer a wide variety of services that were hitherto only available to the private sector. Take the case of Gujarat where video-conferencing has reduced the need for District Collectors to visit Gandhinagar for routine meetings.
Looking at the e-governance scenario, one thing is clear. While there are many great initiatives, many successful projects out there, nothing much has been done to compile the best practices from each of these to create a blueprint that can be applied by other states or organizations. Basically we are reinventing the wheel every single time.
The ministry of IT is attempting to coordinate things and ensure that projects like the setting up of state data centres are undertaken in a coordinated manner but as Sunil Chandiramani of Ernst & Young pointed out at the Sabha much remains to be done. Something as basic as a unique national ID does not exist.
Then there is the matter of projects being taken up willy-nilly to keep politicians happy without any kind of preliminary spadework being undertaken. Or the way in which officers who are in-charge of a project get transferred and their successors do not have the same enthusiasm for the initiative.
Project management is often ignored or given lip service which is a pity as it can be a very effective tool as is evinced by the turnaround at KSPHC. Another activity that needs to be focused upon is change management. All too often the clerical staff that have to use the new systems have no idea about computers and are, if anything, hostile to the idea of computerisation. At the upper levels it is lack of information and impartial advisors who can help officers weed out the chaff and pick the technologies that they need rather than what are foisted upon them.
All in all, we have come a long way though much remains to be done. What is needed is perhaps a governing body that can tie together the diverse threads of e-governance projects into a knitted whole so that the benefits of IT can be uniformly imparted to everybody in the country and not isolated pockets as is the case today.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Prashant Rao
Quelle/Source: Express Computers, 09.07.2007
