E-governance for development: a focus on rural India

This book on e-governance for development focuses more on “the governance and development aspects rather than the e. ” This, as the author clarifies, is not accidental but rather an attempt to illustrate and bring to focus the social context that plays a major role in the success of any kind of innovation. Going by the title of the book and its setting in the Indian context, it may appear that the book is about the National eGovernance Program (NeGP) and its impact on human development in India. The vision of NeGP is that all Government services should become accessible to common citizens in their locality through a one-stop-shop ensuring efficiency, transparency and reliability at affordable costs. Early experience indicates a focus on regulatory services, rather than the services that can have a high developmental impact. However, the author has used a broad definition of e-governance to include ICT-enabled back-end support activities for planning and monitoring of developmental programs. In that respect, the book will be useful for an audience who is interested in the broader topic of ICT for development and not just e-governance. The first half of the book contains a comprehensive literature review on development and governance, and linkages between the two. The first few chapters quickly acquaint the reader with the history of governance and development research in India. The book then goes on to discuss e-governance in the Indian context. While this half of the book made for an interesting read, we were eagerly waiting for what we considered the meat of the book – the three in-depth case studies on rural e-governance projects, from three different states in India. The first is the study of MIS for SHG (self-help group) projects in Gujarat, the second a study of the Akshaya telecenter project in Kerala and the third case analyzes the reporting system for healthcare projects in rural Karnataka. Each case is from a different sector and while the Akshaya project deals with e-services, the other two are e-administrative projects. It is obvious that the author has spent considerable time in the field studying the three projects – they are detailed and reflect findings at the grassroots level, captured over a span of several months. The case studies reveal important learnings – such as the significance of the role of the state to ensure that the social goals of a project are met along with the economic objectives, and the importance of the field worker to ensure that the project remains locally relevant. While these leanings are significant, many of them apply to any development project and are not specific to an e-governance project. This may not necessarily be a limitation but somewhere along the way, we felt a little short-changed as we were looking for the “e” aspect to have played a greater role in this book – given that the title of the book promised e-governance. The book has a strong focus on exploring the role played by society for successful project implementation and states that “improving systems of governance is a social and not a technological activity. ” While the importance of social factors in the success of any ICT4D project cannot be overemphasized, surely the role of technology cannot be disregarded. It is fairly well established by now that considering only the “tech” aspect while ignoring the social aspects in an ICT4D project spells disaster, but the book could have perhaps made an important contribution by elucidating why this happens in most ICT4D projects. The book tries to bridge multiple disciplines and this is a difficult path where few have succeeded. It provides a refreshing perspective on how to evaluate a development project and