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111 PART 2: COLLABORATIVE URBAN POLICYMAKING
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Introduction
Organization of this chapter is as follows: In the following section
Globally, e-governance efforts are concentrated on citizen-centred
various frameworks are discussed on transformation of services through
services. The advent of web 2.0 technologies has paved the way for enhancing citizen engagements and fostering innovations in information
e-governance, evolution of e-governance in a national context and the rural-urban continuum, and role of e-governance. Based on these
and communication technology-enabled services. E-governance efforts
frameworks, the next section includes discussions on the e-Governance
today are focussed on convergence among entities including business, civil society, government and citizens. Evidently, the contributions of web
Plan and its deliveries. In the next section opportunities and challenges faced by Plan are discussed. The following section focuses discussions on
2.0 and service-orientated architectures have shown effective methods to
the Plan and its contributions to the rural-urban continuum. In the next
bind people, process and technology for better participation, interaction and user orientation. With its main focus on citizen-centric services
section, the case of the Sahaj e-Village Limited is discussed. This case refers to the e-Governance Plan’s mandates and the process SeVL has
and providing backbones for demand-driven citizen engagements
adopted in implementing those mandates. This case-based discussion
with the government, e-governance has the potential to embrace web
aims to assess the way the Plan’s services are oriented and the scope for
2.0 enabled technologies, tools and services and service-orientated architectures.
their support to promote web 2.0 and service-orientated architecturebased amenities. The next section concludes with recommendations and future research direction.
The Millennium Development Goals hold that e-governance, through its efforts to foster e-collaboration and e-participation, has the potential to engage citizens in managing their own development and the society at large (Misra, 2013). In the Indian context, this approach is essential
Frameworks for the study
though the situation is quite complex because of overarching effects of the digital divide. Despite continued efforts of the national and state
e-governance in a national context; and (3) the rural-urban continuum and role of e-governance.
governments under the National e-Governance Plan and citizen-centric information technology policies, there are various challenges in their implementation (DIT, 2011). Like any other developing country with
Framework for Transformation of E-Governance Services
an emerging economy, India faces the challenge of the rural-urban continuum. This challenge creates greater scope for the e-Governance
This suggested framework argues that e-government is expected to pursue the best practices and engage with the constituents of
Plan to innovate and render seamless services for citizens while embracing best practices in governance. The effort of Sahaj e-Village Limited, one of the state agencies under the e-Governance Plan, is
e-governance stakeholders as a support structure. E-governance on the other hand, is expected to formulate policies and enact the engagements so that governments are transformed to e-governments. However,
noteworthy. The former has innovated services in an attempt to engage citizens in acquiring e-skills, orchestrates e-government services and meets the demand of citizens.
basic tenets of governance need to be the prime influencers for such transformation (Mehdi, 2005). As mentioned earlier, digital divides do reflect on the distinguishing behaviour of e-governance in different
this section includes discussions on topics based on two frameworks: (1) transformation of services through e-governance; (2) evolution of
Figure 1. Framework for Service Transformation in e-Governance E-GOVERNAMCE
Citizen Representatives
International
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National
Citizen Elected with Upper Houses
Regional
Citizen Elected with Lower/Regional Houses
Local
Citizen Elected Government Municipalities etc.
CITIZEN
e-Government
Access to Bureaucratic Machinery
Layers
Service Layers
Network
Distribution Access
e-Business/ e-Development
Access to Business Environment
GOVERNANCE