Role of E-Governance in Citizen Centric E-Government

Recent World Bank study shows that a 10% increase in mobile phone subscribers is associated with a 0.8% increase in economic growth while 10% increase in high speed Internet connections is related to a 1.3% increase in economic growth. Development of ICT infrastructure attracts foreign direct investment, generates fiscal revenues and creates employment opportunities especially for youth and women. Political, Cultural, Socio-economic developmental and behavioral decisions today rests on the ability to access, gather, analyze and utilize information. These remarkable advancements in technology and understanding of how it affects growth highlight a strategic shift in the way ICT can influence development. The distribution of this tool of wealth creation and knowledge are highly unequal amongst countries of the Globe. At the current rate of technological advancement, such disparities in access to ICT related developments are large and likely to become larger in adoption amongst the countries around the Globe. As more of the services in an economy come online, those without access to this technological advancement will be marginalized. The ubiquitous presence of Internet has penetrated every aspect of daily life. This chapter discusses the role of e-Governance in citizen centric e-Government as well as the various issues and challenges of implementation of e-Governance in general. The last part of the chapter is about the e-Governance in Indian context. This chapter is likely to give the reader an overview of e-Governance and the related issues.