Governance GS Paper II by Abhishiekh Saxena

Model Answer

Question #1. As the world is increasingly coming under the influence of 4th Industrial revolution, the role of E-Governance is bound to get wider. Suggest the opportunities and threats which E-governance will have to deal with and the measures to minimize the threats.

Approach:

• Substantiate with data in the introduction which shows the growing numbers of internet users.
• Explain the opportunities and threats of e-Governance.
• To present the solution, explain how the threats could be minimized.
• Conclude with the examples of upcoming legislations regarding the issue.

The fact that internet users per 100 inhabitants has been more than doubled between 2008 and 2017 globally (according to International Telecommunication Union), which is enough to show the influence 4th Industrial Revolution is having across the globe and the rise of portals like UMANG, VAHAN, PARIVESH etc. and recent shutdown of Delhi’s RTO office (as they went paperless) has established that e-governance is gaining prominence in our country. However such structural change in governance brings its own teething troubles.

Opportunities of e Governance

• the government can provide information and services at lesser costs, in reduced time and with greater convenience
• Dissemination of information through ICT increases transparency, ensures accountability and prevents corruption
• With easy access to the government services, the faith of the citizens in the government increases and they come forward to share their views and feedback.
• E-government can narrow the development gaps of the urban and rural areas
• Spectacular efficiencies have been achieved in countries like Singapore, Malaysia and India, in activities such as on-line transfer of property, payment of tax, licensing of motor transport, electronic vehicle registration system in the state of Arizona.

Threats for E-Governance

• Interoperability: The lack of interoperability due to semantics, lack of standards, different classification systems will influence destructively the effectiveness of the e-government system
• Usability:  The usability challenge is based on the security concern, if the security level is high and consequently, increases the potential of usability.
• Information faking: is the process when the attacker knows the rules of the data in the network, or after they decodes the program information; they could pretend legal users or create false information to cheat other users
• Front-end challengesrelate to user-specific issues such as, high illiteracy levels, non-availability of user friendly interfaces, inadequate power supply in rural areas, low broadband penetration and most importantly, lack of awareness of eGovernance initiatives.
• On the other hand,back-end challenges relate to technical, process or human resource issues within the government. These issues include lack of systems integration within a department, lack of integration across government departments, limited knowledge of using computers at various levels of bureaucracy and deployment of technology without proper process re-engineering
• They hold the potential to generate loss of employment and more inequality and disparity within and between countries.

Measures to minimize threats

• Perceived usefulness: Customers who perceive that e-government services will help them in achieving all these benefits are more likely to adopt e-government services
• Perceived Ease of Use: e-government services perceived ease of use will mean clear interaction and easy to understand service, less mental effort in using service and able to perform tasks according to citizens’ requirements.
• Relative Advantage: citizens who perceive higher relative advantage in online services tend to be more likely to adopt e-government services.
• ICT Infrastructure Availability: In India providing adequate ICT infrastructure to most of the rural locations is still a challenge either due to unstable power supply. Thus, ICT infrastructure availability will positively affect the likelihood of e-government service adoption.
• Awareness: Creating awareness not only about e-government projects but also how to access and use these services is very essential.
• Security: security and privacy are major factors that might prevent them from trusting, and therefore using, e-government services. Hence a robust cyber security infrastructure is necessary.

Conclusion

E-government should be value-driven and not technology-driven. Benefits from e-government do not take place simply by digitizing and placing it online. Instead, the aim is to provide better services to citizens.

Question #2. E-governance can play vital role in environmental governance. Discuss?

Approach: 

• Define the E governance and environmental governance with definition and concept.
• Explain how E-governance plays vital role in environmental governance.
• Challenges in the use of E-Governance in the Environmental Governance.
• Conclusion

Hints

According to international organization, UNESCO, "Governance refers to the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority in the management of a country's affairs, including citizens' articulation of their interests and exercise of their legal rights and obligations. E-Governance may be understood as the performance of this governance via the electronic medium in order to facilitate an efficient, speedy and transparent process of disseminating information to the public, and other agencies, and for performing government administration activities”.

Environmental governance contains the rules, regulations, policies and institutions that shape how humans interact with the environment. In the due process of environmental governance every stakeholder whether it is civil society, government, NGOs is important to achieve a sustainable environment.

Role of e-Governance in the Environmental Governance:

• Technology induced predictions and weather modelling: Satellites like Kalpana and INSAT 3D helps in preparing and gauging the weather and climate change by data gathering and further analysis. This helps in preventing the extreme weather events.
• Use of Sensors Technologies: Use of sensors in forests to know about the soil quality and productivity. Reporting of deforestation and illegal felling of trees through sensors, applications.
• Role of Legislations and Conventions: Laws like Environment Protection Act 1986, CITES, Montreal protocol etc. helps in curbing the illegal trade of flora and fauna. In these use of genome sequencing with the help of ICT is important. Use of RFID collars to protect the fauna from poaching.

Initiatives like e- Green watch, which provides effective and streamlined management of plantation by GIS based monitoring. Likewise, PARIVESH is also a web based workflow application which has been developed for online submission and monitoring of the proposals submitted by the applicants for seeking permission in the Environment, Forest etc. clearances from Central, State and District authorities.

• Effective Solid Waste Management: Management system includes categorisation, recycling, transport, that uses fuel cells, bio fuel operated hybrid engines it also enhances a country to become a low carbon economy.
• Supporting Technology Needs Assessment: Measuring real-time carbon emissions and assessing the ability to curb emissions done through carbon sequestration.
• Use of technology in preventing Disasters and Enhancing the Disaster management system: The early warning, preparedness and response to the disaster from an impending disaster could be done through with ICT.

 Challenges in the Use of E-Governance:

• Connectivity, Availability and Access: Issues with connectivity due to lack of infrastructure in the hinterlands. Due to digital divide the access and availability of e-governance becomes less. 
• Cost of Technology: The technology is very much costly, it makes difficult for the least developed and marginalized nations to implement the agenda.

• Storing and Gathering the Data: For this trained and skilled human resource is needed.

Conclusion

E-governance enables host of opportunities in the field of environmental governance as it saves time and makes the critical task simpler. Therefore, tools and strategies become important in environment sustainability. International community should assist backward nation with technology transfer. Governments should also provide incentives for innovation, research & development in the use of ICT for environment sustainability.