E-governance

Also called: digital governance · Topic: Human Capital: Education, Health and Demographic Dividend · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 7 "Physical Infrastructure"; Class 11, Ch 4 "Human Capital Formation in India"

Meaning

E-governance (also called digital governance) means the government uses information technology (IT) to deliver its services and information to people. Examples are online certificates, online payments and digital records.

It matters because it can make services faster, cheaper and easier to reach. NCERT calls e-governance "the way of the future". But NCERT also warns that its benefits depend on how developed the economy already is.

Explanation

How it works

• Service goes online instead of across a counter.
• A citizen applies, pays or downloads a document on a website or app.

• Fewer office visits → less time lost, lower cost and fewer middlemen.

• Typical services:

• Online certificates (for example, birth, income or caste).
• Online payments to the government, such as fees, bills and taxes.

• Digital records, such as land records and stored documents.

• Three delivery routes in India:

• Storage: DigiLocker keeps official documents digitally.
• Single window: UMANG is one app that gives access to many government services.
• Assisted access: Common Service Centres (CSCs) are village-level centres. They deliver digital services to people who have no phone, computer or internet of their own.

Link to human capital and the knowledge economy

• Knowledge economy: an economy where growth comes mainly from creating, spreading and using knowledge and IT, more than from land, raw materials or unskilled labour.
• India's software industry is the clearest example.

• E-governance is the government's part of this shift.

• It needs human capital to work. Human capital means the skills, knowledge and health that make people productive.

• An illiterate person cannot easily fill in an online form or read a digital record.

• So e-governance helps most where literacy and digital skills are already high.

• It can also build human capital. Job-market information is one source of human capital, and online portals spread it faster.

• Knowing where jobs are and what they pay helps people move out of low-paid work.

What makes it succeed or fail (NCERT Box 4.2)

• NCERT's warning: the value of IT depends on the existing level of economic development.
• Three preconditions:
• Literacy: to read and use the service.
• Electricity: to run the devices.

• Connectivity: internet access that reaches villages.

• If these are missing:

• Better-off people use the online services and gain.
• Poorer people cannot use them and fall further behind.

• This widens the digital divide, the gap between people who can use digital technology and people who cannot.

• Worked example: the reach problem

• Only 20% of Indians used the internet in 2018 [2].
• So in 2018, about 80 out of every 100 Indians could not reach a service that was offered only online.
• Other groups did better. Internet use was 28% across South Asia and 34% across lower-middle-income countries (2018) [2].
• Assisted channels like CSCs exist to reach this group.

In India

• Policy timeline:
• National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), 2006: the first national plan to take government services online.

• Digital India, 2015: the larger programme that followed it.

• Main platforms:

• DigiLocker: digital storage of official documents.
• UMANG: one app for many government services.

• Common Service Centres (CSCs): village-level centres for people without their own digital access.

• Latest figure on reach: internet use was 20% (2018), below the South Asia average of 28% and the lower-middle-income average of 34% [2].

• Base conditions: literacy rose from 16.67% (1951) to 78% (2018-22). This has widened the pool of people who can use e-services.
• In NCERT: Class 11, Human Capital Formation in India, Box 4.2. The box credits the software industry and the use of e-mail in some villages, and calls e-governance "the way of the future". It then warns about the digital divide.
• The physical infrastructure behind these services, such as power and telecom, is covered in the infrastructure topic.

Don't confuse with

• Digital divide: e-governance is the service. The digital divide is the gap in people's ability to use it, and badly planned e-governance can widen that gap.
• Knowledge economy: this is the whole economy growing through knowledge and IT, such as the software industry. E-governance is only the government's use of IT to deliver services.
• NeGP vs Digital India: NeGP (2006) came first. Digital India (2015) came later. Exams test this order.
• DigiLocker vs UMANG vs CSC: DigiLocker stores documents. UMANG is one app for many services. A CSC is a physical village centre for people without their own access.

Prelims Hooks

• E-governance means delivering government services and information through IT, such as online certificates, payments and records.
• Sequence: NeGP (2006) → Digital India (2015).
• Common Service Centres are village-level centres that deliver digital services to people without their own access. They are not an online document store (that is DigiLocker).
• NCERT (Class 11, Box 4.2) calls e-governance "the way of the future". It warns that the value of IT depends on the existing level of economic development.
• Only 20% of Indians used the internet (2018). This was below both the South Asia average (28%) and the lower-middle-income average (34%) [2].
• Trap: IT does not close gaps by itself. Without literacy, electricity and connectivity it helps those already better off and widens the digital divide.

Mains Points

• Leapfrogging vs exclusion:
• E-governance (NeGP to Digital India) can make services faster and more transparent and cut the need for office visits and middlemen.
• But with internet use at 20% in 2018 [2], online-only services can leave out the poor, rural people and the less literate.

• Assisted channels like CSCs and offline options are needed alongside online services.

• Human capital comes first:

• NCERT's point is that IT gains follow existing development.
• Spending on literacy, electricity and connectivity is what turns e-governance from a benefit for the few into a gain for the whole economy.

• This links to the quantity-vs-quality debate in education. Digital skills need real learning, not just enrolment.

• Knowledge economy and governance (GS-II and GS-III link):

• E-governance is the public-sector side of India's move to a knowledge economy.
• Its success depends on the same human capital (skilled, literate citizens) that drives growth in the software sector.

Related concepts

• Human capital and economic growth
• Knowledge economy

Read more

• Human capital and economic growth; the knowledge economy