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Varied services are being aided by IT, but the satisfaction of the citizens
and businesses with regard to the ease of interaction, availability and quality
of these services differ greatly from state to state. As compared to last year,
this year saw major reshuffling in the ranks. Also the states were measured on
the basis of how satisfied their users were, and the overall e-readiness of the
governments.
While Delhi, Goa, Chhatisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala top the list, in that
order, there are a few lessons for UP, West Bengal, Haryana, Gujarat and
Jharkhand as far as leveraging technology for improving the service delivery
mechanism goes. These states are lagging behind on many fronts.
The high performing states in previous years havent necessarily continued to
stay at the top either, which shows that continuous retention of service quality
and ease of interaction are the key success factors behind satisfaction on
e-governance initiatives for a certain state.
Having said that, political turmoil and elections have adversely affected a
few states like Goa, Karnataka, Gujarat and Uttarakhand where the e-governance
scores have decreased drastically as compared to last year: a clear indicator
that political stability is crucial to the success of e-governance initiatives
launched by a state. In the near future, with assembly elections due in some
states, followed by general elections in 2009 across the country, a high chance
of disruption on the e-governance front for each of the states cannot be ruled
out.
The biggest gainers from the past year have been Himachal Pradesh, Uttar
Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, all gaining by more than 25% mainly because
user satisfaction with the ease of interaction in government services has
increased as compared to last year. Most of them are in the phase of
implementing, Himachal Pradesh already having launched HIMSWAN early this month.
On the other hand Gujarat, Karnataka, Haryana and Uttarakhand lost big time
mainly due to a decrease in satisfaction with the quality of government
services. Most of these states will be implementing projects like setting up an
e-procurement platform, setting up several kiosks across the states (CSCs) and
computerization of police departments.
Among the top five states, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have jumped up
significantly compared to the previous year. Chhattisgarh, which, for the first
time, made its way into the Top 5. Not only has the user satisfaction increased
tremendously, but e-readiness of the government in deployment projects has also
increased by more than 4.7% in 2008.Punjab and Rajasthan too have taken a jump
of over 8 ranks to come at #10 and #11 respectively this year.
On the overall citizen satisfaction score, Delhi, no surprises here, tops the
e-readiness score and also lands the #1 position, topping in many citizen
services. The other three in the Top 5 of overall citizen satisfaction include
Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.
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| Delhis judicial system is a
massive hit with businesses scoring a perfect 100, while Chhattisgarhs
riding high on both supplies and provisions as well as on the government
tenders and contracts fronts. Looks like efforts to modernize local courts
in Delhi have started paying off, while other smaller states seeking
investments can take a leaf out of Chhattisgarhs book. Unfortunately,
nearly two decades after liberalization, licenses and permits along with
business registration and small business assistance still remain some of the
biggest bottlenecks in states like Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and
Rajasthan. |
In the overall satisfaction levels for e-governance services for businesses,
Tamil Nadu tops the list by scoring 81.6. However, Chhattisgarhs score of 80.2
gives it a tough fight at #2. The others that follow are Delhi, Maharashtra and
Kerala. Goa, at #9 though, has a long way to go it seems as far as business
services are concerned.
However, it is disappointing to see Karnataka going down to #11 from last
years #1 rank and also Gujarat to #16 from last years #3. In fact, there has
been major swapping of positions this year as far as e-governance services for
businesses go. None of the Top 5 players this year were in last years Top 5
list. The overall #1 state in this category, Tamil Nadu, has risen from #10 last
year. Chhattisgarh is #2, up from #16 last year.
From the Eyes of Citizens and Businesses
If theres any one state which has done extremely well on the satisfaction
levels on the citizen front, it has to be Delhi. The state is at the top in nine
parameters out of a total of fourteen. However, what one obviously cannot ignore
is the remarkable performance of Chhatisgarh in the education department. It has
a score as high as 91.4. Delhi is way below at 78.8. While Gujarat hasnt been
too impressive on other parameters, it has done well in the Income Tax
Department for citizens with a score of 81.4.
However, at the same time, surprisingly, it has a low score of 50 in the same
parameter for services for businesses. In fact, Gujarat is one of the states
which has low scores in many parameters in both e-governance services for
citizens and businesses. The other state which has put up an equally bad show is
Jharkhand. The state has scored lowest in state transport services, at 39, and
employment exchange, at 41.2.
In the satisfaction level of e-governance services in businesses,
Chhattisgarh performs extremely well, by scoring the highest in seven out of
seventeen services. It has the highest score in supplies provisions, 93.1; and
government tenders and contracts, 92; sales tax/service taxcommercial tax,
86.8; power utility, 88.8; water utility, 86.6; amongst others.
The other state that has performed well in enabling healthy business
transactions is Tamil Nadu. It scores highest in five parameters. Assam springs
a surprise in satisfaction level for businesses in the passport services
category with the highest score of 89.4, and also Delhi in the judiciary with a
knock-out 100.
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| The maximum score that any state
achieved in any parameter for overall satisfaction is for the education
department, and the state is Chhattisgarh. Citizens staying in the national
capital seem to satisfied with most services, with Delhi topping the list in
9 categories, especially with high scores in passport services, state
transport services, agriculture and healthcare. However, Delhi topping the
list in police and security is not just ironical, but a severe indictment of
the general police administration across the country. States like Jharkhand
(transport and employment exchange) need to catch up fast; Gujarats low
scores on both police and judiciary fronts prove it might still be carrying
the negative legacy of the 2002 riots |
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Methodology |
Research Objective
The objective of this study was to assess the availability of ICT
infrastructure, the rollout of e-Governance projects of select Indian
states, and evaluate the impact of these projects on the delivery of
government services to common citizens and corporate (trading, services and
industrial business).The third
Dataquest-IDC Satisfaction Index study of Indian States is compiled on the
basis of the methodology decided jointly by IDC India and Dataquest. The IDC
team was led by Shailendra Gupta and assisted by Shakyadev Mitra and Arpan
Gupta.
Research Methodology
This study was conducted in two phases:
Phase-0: Selection of States Since this study is among Indian states, we
have not covered union territories in our survey. After excluding the Indian
states of J&K, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura due to
security reasons, we have sent the invitation to the remaining 23 states.
Out of 23 states, 20 states responded to our survey, and hence we have
concluded our survey taking these 20 states.
Phase I: Survey of state IT
secretaries/heads of state nodal IT agencies and secondary research/IDC data
A survey of the state IT secretaries/heads of state nodal IT agencies of
the 20 states was conducted to get a first-hand information of the
respective states ICT policy/vision and understand their priorities in
terms of rollout/implementation of e-governance projects. This was backed by
extensive secondary research to assess the availability and usage of ICT
infrastructure in each of the 20 selected states.
Twenty states were profiled in terms of the
number and scope of the various e-governance projects in services offered,
number of towns/municipal areas/villages/block panchayats covered or to be
covered, innovative methods used and so on. The states were also assessed on
their IT policies, IT vision and clarity of IT goals. A percentile method
was employed to allocate scores to the states on individual parameters, with
the state reporting the best initiatives being allocated a percentile score
of 100. These factors were together allocated a combined weight of 9% in the
overall assessment.
Each state was also assessed on the per
capita budgetary allocation or planned/actual IT spending on hardware,
software and IT services on recently implemented projects (2006-07) and
planned IT spending on new/ongoing projects (2007-08 and 2008-09). A
percentile method was employed to allocate scores to the states on each
years IT spending, with the state reporting the highest per capita IT
spending being allocated a percentile score of 100. This actual/planned IT
spending was allocated a weightage of 6% in the overall assessment.
Finally, the 20 selected states were rated on
the basis of availability and usage of ICT and social/educational
infrastructure like number of PCs per 1,000 population, estimated per capita
overall IT spending, number of telephones per 100 population, Internet
subscribers per 1000 population and the capacity of the state to produce
technically qualified manpower. States were again ranked using a percentile
method and these factors were allocated a combined weight of 10% in the
overall assessment.
Phase II: Survey of
Citizens and Corporates
This part of the study evaluated the effectiveness of IT
deployment by governments of the 20 major states of India based on a primary
survey of common citizens as well as corporates, regarding the actual
satisfaction with the delivery of government services. Feedback was sought
on all major government services to citizens as well as key government
services to corporates. To make a meaningful and broad-based assessment
3,012 citizen users and business users were covered across the 20 selected
states. On an average, 150 interviews were conducted in each state among
urban citizens, rural citizens, rural and urban professionals (lawyers,
doctors chartered accountants) and administrative/business heads of small,
mid-size and large corporates. To arrive at a 100-point score, a five-point
Satisfaction Rating scale was used to evaluate the feedback on each type
of government service and the average score for each service type multiplied
by a factor of 20. The scores obtained from this survey were allocated a
weightage of 75% in the overall assessment and ranking of the states. Hence,
the individual service-wise and total scores for each state reported in this
survey reflect the extent to which citizens and corporates satisfied with
delivery of government services after/as a result of deployment of
e-governance initiatives. |
Urvashi Kaul & Shikha Das
urvashik@cybermedia.co.in
The
e-Gov Capital
The
Winner from Down Under
Go
Governance!
Eastern
Sunrise
The
Politics of Downfall
Ready,
but Not Satisfied
The Bhagidari
initiative of the Delhi government provided direct interaction with citizens
All the top
10 IT companies are well established in the state, and are in the process of
rapid expansion
Our objective
is to make at least one person in each family in the state IT literate
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