The Hype about E Governance in India

A lot of hype is being generated about E Governance in India, and a lot of officers are being trained for it. Other than at the very top levels, the benefits of E Governance is not very evident lower down in the scheme of things. I feel we are going about it the wrong way. Let us just try to face a few facts first of all about it.

Firstly, what’s the use of talking about E Governance if there is no E government to talk of? In most offices this is the case. You know, first the machinery has to be in place and functioning to think about Governing with it, only then comes the training part. As it is, it’s going to be an uphill task training those in service now in E government even. There is lack of awareness and lack of interest in the subject.

This is not to be wondered at. They are the products of a foregone era. They might still like to punch a few keys; just to get a hang of the computers, but there ends their enthusiasm for it. And what is happening now with office automation is the replacement of files with more such files in computers. This is not the way to go at all. Why go to all this trouble of digitizing everything if it doesn’t bring in any changes in the style of processing data and does not serve speedy delivery of service?

You see, instead of paperless office (paperless only in the ideational sense of course, paper can’t be completely replaced like that, but its use can be drastically reduced by the digital revolution), the use of paper is steeply going up now. It is easier to print out documents and produce any number of them with the new machinery! This defeats the whole purpose of the revolution. What is required is a change in mind set.

But unfortunately there are no special switches in our brain to transform us into something we are not, in life. Here you are dealing with individuals with a formed outlook on life and those views are set very firm by repeated affirmation. Even the more progressive amongst them would find it hard to cope with the changing environment and this has little to do with their lack of desire to do it. It’s more primary than that.

This could be the reason why they show a strange desire to denigrate the changes and are mostly not worried by their lack of knowledge on the subject. To them, the new technology is just a marginally better way to produce paperwork. Instead of trying to learn what it actually is they often try to adapt it to their way of thinking, and this becomes possible only because of the fellow feeling shown by their superiors who are mostly in the same boat. Even the comparatively young who are selected to run the administration in India find themselves against a concerted opposition and mostly let it be for the sake of their peace of mind.

What all this amounts to is that nothing will ever move forward and we would be still conducting cattle races while the rest of the world is going elsewhere. In the case of the fouling up of the digital revolution in this land the fault entirely lays with the mentality and not with the availability of funds, or proper authentication or anything else.

As a back ground let us remember that the UN has been promoting all aspects of E Governance for some time now. They have even instituted a grading system to monitor the progress in the area. Sadly we haven’t even made it to the first 50 in it, that is, if we are anywhere in the list at all!

There is no lack of support from outside agencies as well. If we lack funds the World Bank is ready to supply it and the central government has been trying to seriously promote E Governance from 2003 onwards with their assistance. The states have also put aside funds for the purpose. So in fact, there is an abundance of funds and not the lack of it. Ever since the era of globalization, modernization and computerization is vigorously pursued by governments. Yet the case is that, other than perhaps Karnataka none of the other states have made much progress in the sector.

To my mind, if governments are really serious about it they need to re- think the strategy of implementation. It is useless to try to bring in changes in the attitudes of the well entrenched officials over-night. Resistance to change within the organization is an accepted fact among policy makers. This factor has brought down many well meaning reform movements in the past.

New technology brings with it a new world view. There would be fierce opposition to it from those who don’t share the view. All views are formed mostly early in life. That’s where the saying “catch them young” turns out to be true. We follow what we are taught when young all through our life. That’s why the younger generation is comfortable with the fast and feverish pace of change that’s happening all over the world, while we are not. They are brought up on it and unlike the older breed, take to it like a fish takes to water.

So bring such people in. Unlike the old and world-weary blokes these youngsters would be serious about it and would not look down upon it. It’s not of replacing the existing system with technocracy that is suggested, but a sensible introduction of such youngsters at different levels in government would go a long way in educating the rest on the benefits of the process and speeding up E Governance.