Evaluating the Developmental Impact of E‐governance Initiatives: An Exploratory Framework

TLDR

India faces typical developing‑country challenges, and the government has long promoted ICT in the public sector to improve planning, monitoring, cost savings, and service delivery, leading to widespread e‑governance projects across the country. The study applies Sen’s capability approach as an evaluative framework for assessing e‑governance. Evaluation is conducted using the FRIENDS and AKSHAYA e‑governance projects in Kerala.

Abstract

Abstract India is faced with a large number of challenges that are typical of developing countries. The Indian government has for the past 3 decades widely acknowledged that expanded use of ICT in the public sector can offer important benefits such as improved planning and monitoring mechanisms, cost savings through rationalisation, and more effective administration and delivery of certain public services. Today, wide ranges of e‐governance projects are being implemented in different parts of the country including projects aimed at reaching areas and people that had traditionally not been connected to the outside world. This paper uses Sen's notion of capabilities as an evaluative space for e‐governance assessment. Such an emphasis demands a change in the way e‐governance is assessed. The capabilities framework allows us to focus on the developmental impact of such projects. We base our evaluation on the FRIENDS and AKSHAYA e‐governance projects in the South Indian state of Kerala.