4. The contribution of NeGP to e-service delivery

This section is a review of the impacts of the NeGP in its entirety. In 2011, the Prime Minister’s Committee on NeGP (the highest policy decision making body on the NeGP) constituted an expert group to review the NeGP, under the chairmanship of Dr. Sam Pitroda52 and an expert committee on HR policy in e-governance under the chairmanship of Mr. Nandan Nilekani.53 In 2013, both groups submitted their reports. A SWOT analysis of the NeGP drawing upon the reports of both the expert groups, conducted by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, revealed that the NeGP succeeded in creating a climate in which central and state government, and other governmental agencies, expanded their forays in e-service delivery:54

“The environment created by NeGP has spawned a very large number of eGov projects, though outside NeGP, thus expanding the portfolio of services available online. 24 out of 31 MMPs have gone live and produce(d) over 11 crore (110 million) transactions p.m. Basic ICT infrastructure is available in all States”.

Two such innovations designed outside the framework of the Mission Mode Projects in the area of women-directed service delivery are detailed in Box 1.

BOX 1
TWO PROJECTS IN THE AREA OF WOMENDIRECTED PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY, OUTSIDE THE MMP FRAMEWORK

  1. Mission Convergence was launched by the state government of Delhi in 2008, as an effort at creating a government-NGO partnership for gender-inclusive service delivery at the last mile.

    The key innovations deployed in the project are detailed below:

    • Developing a digitalized inter-departmental database of beneficiaries for enabling the back-end convergence of over 40 different schemes spread across 9 departments. This beneficiary identification process was based on a vulnerability index that took into account not just income poverty but other significant factors of marginalization such as social identity and location of residence.55
    • Using a pre-existing network of Gender Resource Centres that had been set up in partnership with NGOs, under an earlier governmental programme, in slum pockets and other marginalized urban neighbourhoods in Delhi, as last-mile service delivery points for interfacing with citizens. The rationale guiding this decision was that the NGOs operating the Gender Resource Centres were already sensitive to the local context and attuned to the nuances of gender discrimination – and hence would adopt more inclusive practices of service delivery.
    • Setting up a monitoring system sensitive to the ‘NGO’ mode of functioning, through the establishment of District Management Units, comprising representatives from civil society organizations (with the exception of those running the Gender Resource Centres) and retired government servants, and housed in the office of the apex official of the district.

    Mission Convergence has been the subject of case study research that have focused on documenting good practices in the area of building a gender-inclusive service delivery model on scale.56 However, studies have highlighted that political pressure from local Municipal Councilors has interfered with the effective functioning of Mission Convergence – and that building a ‘tamperproof’ digitalized beneficiary database in and of itself, does not lead to greater effectiveness in last-mile service delivery.57

  2. Another pilot initiative is the Poorna Shakti Kendra programme of the National Mission for Empowerment of Women, Government of India that has attempted to build focal points for the convergent delivery of all services directed at women, in select villages.

    This rapid increase of supply-side innovation that the NeGP triggered, did not automatically add up to a robust e-service delivery system at the grassroots, as the 2014 SWOT analysis of the NeGP by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology has also noted:58

    “...NeGP has not become a national movement and could not produce the expected impact on the common man, especially in the rural areas. Emphasis on Standards and interoperability is weak. The degree of process engineering is quite low. Problems of connectivity in rural areas continue to plague the program. Adoption of PPP model has not been adequate. Monitoring and Evaluation systems are weak. There is no accountability for producing timely implementation and for producing qualitative outcomes. Allowing NeGP to proceed along the current direction and at the current pace may result in mass scale disillusion leading to e-governance losing its appeal for transformation of the public sector”.

The transition to digitalized service delivery systems without adequate attention to process re-engineering and standards can, as detailed in Box 2, impact quality and effectiveness of service delivery in many ways.

BOX 2
THE DIFFICULTIES OF PPP MANAGEMENT IN DIGITALIZED SERVICE DELIVERY SYSTEMS: THE CASE OF THE NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME MIS, ANDHRA PRADESH

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme guarantees 100 days of work to all rural households on demand, or an unemployment allowance if such work cannot be provided. Under the scheme, the village local government/ Panchayat assesses the demand for work in a particular year and initiates a process of community planning to identify key public works that can be undertaken, to generate wage-work opportunities for schemeapplicants. This Scheme has been a game-changer for poor women, and there is strong evidence of it enhancing women’s economic empowerment, control over financial resources and autonomy.59

However, subversion and manipulation of funds committed to the programme has been noted. The Government of Andhra Pradesh set up a Directorate of Social Audit to put in place annual social audits of the scheme in all the districts of the state as a step towards greater accountability, and developed a comprehensive digital backbone for the scheme implementation.

This Management Information System, with wage records and muster rolls, has instituted an electronic wage payment system using biometric authentication. It provides district-wide data of scheme implementation. The MIS was the product of a PPP and has been appreciated for supporting the community audit process. A key informant60 interviewed for the research flagged that there are frictions between the state and the private sector agency managing the MIS, as the private sector partners were not prompt in responding to requests from the government agency for wage payment transaction records, and there were instances of inaccurate data. Without clear rules about data management underpinning the partnership, de facto control of the data is vested in the private partner. The state agency finds itself in a position of dependency vis-a-vis the private partner, lacking bargaining power in the PPP.

As part of a longer-term strategy to address the current inadequacies in the management of e-service delivery projects by state agencies, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology launched an upgraded version of NeGP – ‘NeGP 2.0’ which it rechristened e-Kranti (literally e-revolution), in 2014.

 

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Pitroda , Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nandan_Nilekani , Retrieved 20 November 2015
  3. Department of Electronics and Information Technology (2014 circa), e-Kranti: National e-governance Plan 2.0, Draft Detailed Project Report, http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/DPR_on_e-Kranti.pdf, Retrieved 20 November 2015, pp 5.
  4. Menon-Sen,K. (2015), op.cit.
  5. NISG (2014), Mission Convergence – Government of National Capital Territory, http://nisg.org/files/documents/UP1418304587.pdf, Retrieved 20 November 2015 and Singh, P.J., Gurumurthy, A. and Nandini, C. (2012), Exploring an institutional model for community knowledge centres – A research study for the Karnataka Knowledge Commission, op.cit.
  6. Menon-Sen, K. (2015), op.cit.
  7. Department of Electronics and Information Technology (2014 circa), e-Kranti: National e-governance Plan 2.0, Draft Detailed Project Report, http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/DPR_on_e-Kranti.pdf, Retrieved 20 November 2015, pp 5.
  8. Rukmini,S. (2015), MGNREGS reduced poverty, empowered women, http://www.thehindu.com/data/mgnrega-reduced-poverty-empowered-women-ncaer/article7530923.ece, Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  9. Discussion with Ms. Sowmya Kidambi, Director, Society for Social Audit, Accountability and Transparency, Department of Rural Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh, September 2014.