Sixty years of development of e-governance in India (1947-2007)

Abstract

This paper attempts to trace the development of e-governance in India during last sixty years from 1947 to 2007. It conceives the development of e-governance, defined here as use of information and communication technology (ICT) in governance, in three phases: Phase I (1947--1984): Informatics-based E-government, 2. Phase II (1984--1995): Personal Computer (PC)-based E-government, and 3. Phase III (1995--2007): Web-based E-government. The development of e-governance is assessed to find if the Indian experience in e-governance has lessons for developing countries. Five lessons are drawn. First, is the adoption of the strategy of self-reliance. Second is the investment in human resource development. Third is the creation of necessary information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure for e-government. Fourth is the redefinition of e-government to make it citizen-centric and not organization-centric. Lastly, providing a set of services to citizens at one e-government portal.