Knowledge Enabling e-Governance

Everybody is talking about IT now, and when we discuss IT the picture that comes to mind is that of flowing investments by big IT companies, thousands of jobs, high Internet penetration, etc. Even Nasscom has forecasted a robust software export growth peaking $60 bn by 2010 for India. Though this is a very bright picture, I feel, at the same time, that the people in the slums and in the villages are totally alien to this development.

I was elected as an MLA from a very poor constituency, may be the poorest in Kolkata. These people are alienated, and unless IT can deliver to them, they will not understand what this progress means.

As so many companies come to India, and we grow in software exports, we spend only a part of it on taking IT to the people. This is needed for the overall growth of the country. We cannot go too far without taking all those people along. So, in that sense, e-Governance is very much needed. The National Human Rights Commission has also stated last year that to have human rights for all, we need good governance, and by good governance we obviously mean e-Governance. The President of India also highlighted last year, speaking at an event, that good governance cannot be ensured without e-Governance. So what is important is whether we can guarantee this, whether we can do this for the people. This century, as many people are predicting, will be based on the knowledge economy.

A 'knowledged' society will have more prosperity. But, what do we mean by that? In literal terms: If you go to any village in West Bengal and ask the people what they want, the first thing they will say is electricity. They can relate basic necessities like electricity, roads, etc but something, which they don't know about, like the role of broadband-that if we can give them broadband, we could enable a modern life, and also be able to take them to roads of knowledge, roads of more information, give access to a modern city, and to the world-they'll have to be taught.

Implementing e-Governance projects is not very easy. We must think earlier what we have to do. What are the features we want? What is it that we want to serve to the people? Decide first and then proceed, and in that way there should be proper planning to implement these e-Governance projects more efficiently. Otherwise there is a chance of failure.

Urvashi Kaul
urvashik@cybermedia.co.in

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