IN PERSON
M N Vidyashankar
Principal Secretary, e-Governance, Government of Karnataka
Taking stock of e-governance
in Karnataka
K
arnataka is perhaps the only government in the country to have a separate Department for e-Governance. What is the idea behind setting up of a separate Department? How is its mandate different from the Department of IT?
M N Vidyashankar is a man who wears many hats. Apart from his primary responsibility as Principal Secretary, e-Governance, Mr Vidyashankar also holds charge of Departments of Information Technology, Bio-Technology and Science and Technology. One of the pioneers of e-Governance initiatives in the country, he has driven a number of path breaking projects which have earned national and international acclaim. In an e-mail interview with Anand Agarwal and Puneet Kathait, he talks of the vision behind e-Governance in Karnataka and gives an overview of new initiatives in the offing
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egov / www.egovonline.net / February 2012
The importance given to the e-Governance can be ascertained by the fact that a separate Department for e-Governance was created in 2003, within the Department of Personnel and Administrative reforms (DPAR). The idea is to plan and leverage the ICT for the benefit of common man. Creation of this Department as part of administrative reforms stems from the strong conviction of the State that e-Governance is a necessary tool to bring about administrative reforms. The mandate of the Department is to create a policy framework, setting the vision and guidelines for e-Governance projects. It is also tasked with the creation of administrative framework for approval of e-Governance Projects of the entire Department; technical assistance to Departments for taking up e-Governance projects; creation and maintenance of core e-infrastructure that can be used by Departments for planning and implementing e-Governance initiatives and development and promotion of common standards in designing of e-Governance projects.
In your view, what are the major factors that stand between success and failure of any e-Governance project? I am of the view that specific, measurable goals and time frames for each e-Government project need to be clearly identified before