For Success of e Governance

e voting is very good method for casting the vote but in my country where the population is more than 1 billion and it is not possible to provide all people the internet and computer. The literacy level is very low. The citizenship card is also not available for 1 billion populations. Government of India started voter ID cards but it is long to go. India is the country which has very good system of keeping population record since 1800 and many other institutes like, Forest Survey of India, Geological Survey of India and Indian Statistical Department etc. but very limited information is available on internet for public. Presently several projects are running and most of records now available in digitise form.

Remarkable development in the building up an efficient network of modern information and telecommunications technologies (ICTs) for the Information Society at Estonia is great achievement. ICT development by the government and people interest is main motivational force. The following are advantages:

Û Common agreement among main stakeholder in Estonian society
Û Commitment of political influential
Û Dynamic eagerness of government
Û Active involvement of citizen initiative
Û Opportunistic project based development
Û Limited resources – it drives innovation!
Û Un-established bureaucracy makes it easier!
Û Strong media & public support

India could adopt experience from the Estonian e governance projects. Estonia has adopted GIS applications and tools in areas such as:

· State land informational system (LIS)
· State buildings and constructions register
· Municipal planning register
· Positioning and tracking
· Object guarding and surveillance
GIS projects are being adopted in India in various areas but the way Estonian government has put into use is remarkable. A number of other benefits are generally attributed to GIS. They include:
· Improved productivity in providing public information.
· Improved efficiency in updating maps.
· The ability to track and monitor growth and development over time.
· Improved ability to aggregate data for specific sub-areas.
· Ability to perform and display different types of professional analysis that are too cumbersome or time consuming using manual methods, and
· Improved policy formulation
India is doing some projects at Forest Survey of India, Geological Survey of India, Indian Remote Sensing Agency etc which have adopted GIS inventory and resources and setting up the goals, planning for a transition process, India have very good laws related to Forest Conservation Act 1980, Land Acquisition 1865, Environment Conservation Act 1988 laws, IT policy 2000, etc which are giving guidance for infrastructure, organization and technology in place and exercising standardization.
The other Estonian ID Card project can adopt but it will take long time due to large size of Indian population. Big Estonian population today use the ID card to do e-banking, perform e-Government services, mobile parking, mobile payment, participate in i-voting and file their taxes etc. same initiatives are started in India as well but following reasons explain the Estonian e governance cannot be replicated in India shortly:
Û India comprises federal and state government with more then 3000 elected members from different houses from 29 states and 6 union territories while Estonia have 15 counties which is smaller than any Indian metro city.
Û The population of India is more than 1 billion whereas Estonia’s population is 1.4 million.
Û Internet penetration and usage in India is about 10% whereas in Estonia it is 64%.
Û In India more than 100 political parties are there who have different agenda and don’t think to promote e governance whereas Estonian has only few parties which support e governance.
Û To achieve United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals India need to achieve literacy, clean water food and environment conservation whereas Estonia as already achieved Millennium Development Goals so spending good budget on e governance.
Û In India Judiciary kept eye on the security and people believe in this system not encouraging them for using online facilities though Estonia’s 88% rating for Internet banking is very impressive when compared to India. In India most of the population still prefers to perform banking activities in person, the reasons being security issues, absence of reliable internet infrastructure and lack of PC operating skills.
Û India still has issues related to having a standardized and widely adopted national ID. Though Estonia has made it compulsory for its citizens to use and get a national ID card, because most of the services offered are online; India still has to go a long way to adopt such measures. Reason being a legacy system which is tough to replace; a large population base which is based in the rural area, low literacy rate, lack of ICT infrastructure in most parts of the country and last but not least lack of initiation from the govt. and lack of determination within the citizens themselves.Lack of funds to implement such a large scale project on a national scale.