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.

My New Book Title Resettlement and Rehabilitation Policy for Mass Entitlements

My new book on "Resettlement and Rehabilitation Policy for Mass Entitlements" is available on
http://www.amazon.com/Resettlement-Rehabilitation-Policy-Mass-Entitlements/dp/3639073797/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219929393&sr=1-1
Summary
Resettlement and rehabilitation of the dam displaced people is one of the great concerns for the policy makers to provide the sustainable entitlements to this vulnerable group. The vulnerability is generated on the cost of benefits to other. Though many agencies, institutes, organizations, states and countries are still trying to provide such suitable policy frame work in which the security for the entitlements of these vulnerable groups must be maximum. The two hydroelectric projects viz., Narmada and Tehri hydroelectric project's affected population and the resettlement and rehabilitation policy for these two vulnerable groups provide some scope to implement and add new paradigm for the resettlement and rehabilitation policy for these vulnerable groups. This book is made to achieve the goal of acceptable plan for people.

Brother

The love which begin after your birth
The affection which start after your birth
The fight evolved after your birth
Who are you?
You are only and only
My dear and dear brother
The love which I shared with you
The affection which I developed with you
The fight which I played with you
The friendship which I found with you
Who are you?
You are only and only
My dear and dear brother
The day I remember
Your arrival in our family
The day I remember
Being part of our family
The day I remember
When I found a compatriot
Who are you?
You are only and only My dear and dear brother

Mother

Some time I think
Am I part of my mother
Or my mother is part of my life
What is this thing?
Which makes me so much cherish
What is this thing?
Which makes me so much sensitive
Some time I think
Am I part of my mother
Or my mother is part of my life
The birth she gave to me
The knowledge she gave to me
Everything of life she gave to me
What the things I return to her
What the pain I return to her
Some time I think
Am I part of my mother
Or my mother is part of my life
Mother’s love and affection
Mother’s sacrifice and work
Always make me debtor of my mother
Some time I think
Am I part of my mother
Or my mother is part of my life

Governance and Emergency Preparedness

Disaster can be defined as the onset of an extreme event causing profound damage or loss as perceived by the afflicted people. Disaster management involves three phases predisaster, during the disaster, and postdisaster. The predisaster phase consists of risk identification, mitigation, and preparedness. During the disaster, emergency response takes place, and in the postdisaster phase, rehabilitation and reconstruction are applied. The actions create a cycle in time. In the predisaster phase to identify risk, hazard, risk, and vulnerability assessments are performed. Hazard can be defined as an interaction between humans and an extreme natural event with respect to cultural perceptions and value systems. The term risk includes probability and could, therefore, be defined as the actual exposure of something of human value to a hazard and is often regarded as the combination of probability and loss. These assessments help identify the characteristics of a hazard such as its frequency, magnitude, and location. Elements at risk are the population and assets exposed in a vulnerability assessment. Since risk is identified using vulnerability and probability of hazard, therefore
Risk = Hazard x Vulnerability
Building disaster resilient communities by promoting increased awareness of the importance of disaster reduction as an integral component of sustainable development, with the goal of reducing human, social, economic and environmental losses due to natural hazards and related technological and environmental disasters.
Increase public awareness to understand risk, vulnerability and disaster reduction globally
– The more people, regional organizations, governments, non-governmental organizations, United Nations entities, representatives of civil society and others know about risk, vulnerability and how to manage the impacts of natural hazards, the more disaster reduction measures will be implemented in all sectors of society. Prevention begins with information.
Obtain commitment from public authorities to implement disaster reduction policies and actions
– The more decision-makers at all levels commit themselves to disaster reduction policies and actions, the sooner communities vulnerable to natural disasters will benefit from applied disaster reduction policies and actions. This requires, in part, a grassroots approach whereby communities at risk are fully informed and participate in risk management initiatives.
Stimulate interdisciplinary and intersectoral partnerships, including the expansion of risk reduction networks
– The more entities active in disaster reduction share information on their research and practices, the more useful the global body of knowledge and experience will progress. By sharing a common purpose and through collaborative efforts we can ensure a world that is more resilient to the impact of natural hazards.
Improve scientific knowledge about disaster reduction
– The more we know about the causes and consequences of natural hazards and related technological and environmental disasters on societies, the more we are able to be better prepared to reduce risks. Bringing the scientific community and policy makers together allows them to contribute to and complement each other's work.
“On services, such as e-health, e-participation, e-voting, e-environment or e-weather, for example, serves as a guide to the wider subject matter of e-governance that can, in time, be imprinted on the public for disaster management. The result of the risk assessment provides a function of hazard probability and vulnerability. Hazard monitoring and forecasting use GIS, mapping, and scenario building. At the end of this phase, risk is identified and mitigated. Land-use planning and building codes related to the risk can be updated and enforced in the community. The public could be educated about risks and trained in prevention. In emergency preparedness, early warning systems, communication systems, networks of emergency responders, shelter facilities, and evacuation plan are key elements. During the disaster phase, existing early warning systems could be used. In emergency response, humanitarian assistance, cleanup, temporary repairs, restoration of services, and damage assessment are the basic steps. After this phase, rehabilitation and reconstruction activities take place. Damaged critical infrastructure is reconstructed; budget and macroeconomic management issues are addressed; revitalization of affected sectors begins; and tourism, exports, and agriculture are managed.
A moving away from definitions of what government is doing in the "e" world only leads to a lessening of accountability of the activities in which any government is engaged. In society, it is the identifying of concepts through words and phrases that leads to cohesion and order. Subject matters create an ambience between stakeholders throughout the society. Disasters or hazards are not limited to tsunamis. Others include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, drought, famine, epidemics, floods, landslides, storms, hurricanes, avalanches, and fires. The list could be extended to include technological and man-made hazards such as pollution and land contamination. Any of these hazards could be controlled and mitigated by effective disaster management. In general, these activities can be distinguished into three areas viz., Social activities (relief work, food, shelter, etc.) Scientific activities that could support social activities and scientific activities that support research .Scientific and social constrains played very crucial role in managing any disaster.
Following are scientific constrains for preparedness of emergency plan-
1. Lack of data,
2. Inadequate data sharing,
3. Poor communication of data and
4. Duplication of data

Following are social constrains for preparedness of emergency plan-
1. Political problems,
2. Government structure,
3. Relocation of people and
4. Inequity

Disaster management is a cycle in time, and the objective is to save lives and property. Thus, the goal is to be prepared for the next disaster. Hazards are region based, and this generally means that they will repeat themselves sooner or later. To be better prepared for the next one, the steps that should be taken are
· Assessment of risk
· Mapping the extent of the disaster
· Helping communities prepare
· Allocating resources
· Deploying personnel
· Monitoring emergencies in real time
· Saving lives
· Protecting property

For ICT project proper preparedness vulnerability mapping and comprehensive risk assessment is very essential but this important component is missing due to following reasons-
· Minimal field assessments to date mainly restricted to areas of high population density
· Lack of historic environmental baseline data
· Putting the "e the lack of environmental quality assessments and data on toxic and hazardous wastes that may be mixed with other debris
· The lack of environmental guidelines in national disaster plans (some times)

The information gathered from the Internet, interviews, and discussions was used to measure the results of emergency management and GIS usage. Emergency preparedness following things are required; Critical infrastructure data, up-to-date image data bank, Metadata, data interoperability, predefined emergency response database model and data sharing with media for coordination in allocating resources, preventing the duplication of data, awareness of ongoing international/national GIS projects, upgrading to high-tech GIS system, mobile mapping capabilities and monitoring emergencies in real time. In general, most of the coordination efforts failed because of the diversity of the levels of information in the countries impacted by the disaster. In general, the affected countries did not have the base data or technology to address their needs. Lack of information was not the only factor responsible for impeding humanitarian efforts; political, social, and economic issues were also major obstacles. Because of these obstacles, officials responsible for creating and implementing programs and policies should be sensitive to the diversity of the people in the region and enlist the help of sociologists, psychologists, and anthropologists. On an international level, the coordination of agencies responding to the disaster was inefficient. To better respond to future disasters, countries need to work together at the regional and international levels ahead of time. The use of GIS technology for these applications will enable the agencies involved to save time and improve efficiency.

Similarities and the differences between the two modes "tragedy of the commons" and "externality" problem

The tragedy of the Internet commons must be addressed by the stakeholders. At least two such groups are doing so, with differing strategies. First, the major transport service providers are lobbying to turn the single service plane of the Internet into multiple layers: current best effort and something “better.” The network builders are spending a fortune constructing and maintaining the networks that Google intends to ride on with nothing but cheap servers. [Google] is enjoying a free lunch that should, by any rational account, be the lunch of the facilities providers Network externalities exist in markets where 'the utility that a user derives from consumption of a good increases with the number of other agents consuming the good' .Externalities is a direct physical effect of the number of users on the quality of the product or service. The value of a fax machine to one user increases as more fax machines are purchased and used by others. Another source is an indirect effect where the utility of a product increases with the number of users because the quality of the product is higher or there are more complementary products available. A third source of network externalities exists in situations where increasing sales of a durable good produces greater quality and availability of post-purchase services related to the product. The greater the number of people buying a certain brand of washing machine, the greater the likelihood that service for the machines will be provided. AOL and Yahoo have just announced a new “better” email service where companies pay a fraction of a cent to send messages. The fee includes guaranteed delivery to their subscribers and assurance of the message’s true origin. The goal is to limit spam and phishing. Of course, this can be extended to setting up authentication barriers for websites, on-line advertisement, etc. There has been an outcry in the Internet community that this will be the end of the “openness” that fuelled its innovations and growth. That may be true to some extent, but it is the only way to really deal with the tragedy of the commons. AOL and Yahoo are doing is exactly what farmers did. They instituted the notion of private property and fenced their land to keep out the other farmers. It worked for farming and it will work for the Internet. Certifying the source of Web and email traffic can be provided by many organizations. Furthermore, these groups should set up open standards and clearing mechanisms to permit interoperability among the legitimate edge systems. It means that some kid operating out of a bedroom can’t be an ISP, Web host, or email service. We will still have an open market and competition among hundreds of legitimate suppliers of a truly better service. The tragedy of the Internet commons can only be addressed by the edge systems, not by the transport infrastructure. It is natural at this stage of the Internet’s development to have a few strong edge players like Google, Yahoo and AOL lead in this transition. As long as they keep it open and smaller players quickly adopt the mechanisms.

Spam may be described as an "externality" problem

An externality occurs when a decision causes costs or benefits to third party stakeholders, often, although not necessarily, from the use of a public good. In other words, the participants in an economic transaction do not necessarily bear all of the costs or reap all of the benefits of the transaction. For example, manufacturing that causes air pollution imposes costs on others when making use of public air. In a competitive market, this means too much or too little of the good may be produced and consumed in terms of overall cost or benefit to society, depending on incentives at the margin and strategic behavior. In the absence of significant externalities, parties to an economic transaction are assumed to benefit, improving the overall welfare of society. If third parties benefit substantially, such as in areas of education or safety, the good may be under-provided (or under-consumed); if costs to the public exceed costs to the economic decision makers, such as in pollution, the good may be over-provided, in terms of overall benefit or cost to society. e mail and instant messaging (IM) systems represent two communication technologies that are potentially substitutable. A unique feature of e-mail and IM is that their value to an individual user increases as the number of other people adopting the system grows. This is referred to as a positive network externality. This externality makes it difficult for consumers to switch to other systems because of the potential loss of connectivity with network members. Further, as this externality grows, it has unintended negative consequences in the form of spam. Including these three network externality effects positive, cross-impact, and negative. The determinants of electronic communication system use based on an extended Technology Acceptance Model. User perceptions regarding network externalities have a positive impact on use of electronic communication systems while perceptions of problems associated with unsolicited messages and perceived usefulness of alternative systems do not significantly affect system use.