Effectiveness of e-Governance Initiatives in India: A Study of Telangana Palle Samagra Seva Kendralu
| Published date | 01 December 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00195561231196179 |
| Author | V. V. Mallika |
| Date | 01 December 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Effectiveness of
e-Governance
Initiatives in India:
A Study of
Telangana
Palle Samagra
Seva Kendralu
V. V. Mallika1
Abstract
Governments worldwide are compelled to transform government systems to
ensure citizen-centric service delivery through innovative information and com-
munication technologies. Use of e-governance has become a key weapon to
combat the evils of mismanagement and corruption. India has witnessed more
than two decades of ushering of e-governance initiatives. The present study is set
in the context of the growing significance of governance, public service delivery
and e-governance which highlight various issues like awareness, efficiency, trans-
parency, responsiveness, participation and accountability. The study particularly
examines the critical e-Governance parameters of Telangana Palle Samagra Seva
Kendralu initiative in rural areas. Based on the study results, important policy sug-
gestions have been provided.
Keywords
e-Governance, good governance, participation, responsiveness, service delivery
Introduction
The term ‘governance’ is being very widely used in the present administrative and
academic contexts. Researchers, policymakers and development theorists all over
the world are earnestly deliberating on this issue, and it has become a driving
wheel on the development path. It is true that the roots of discourse on governance
Article
Indian Journal of Public
Administration
69(4) 815–831, 2023
© 2023 IIPA
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DOI: 10.1177/00195561231196179
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1 Department of Public Administration, Babu Jagjivan Ram Government Degree College, Hyderabad,
Telangana, India.
Corresponding author:
V. V. Mallika, Department of Public Administration, Babu Jagjivan Ram Government Degree College,
Hyderabad, Telangana 500020, India.
E-mail: mallikavvdl@gmail.com
816 Indian Journal of Public Administration 69(4)
lie deep in the past, and both the oriental thinkers like Kautilya, Gandhi and
Ambedkar and occidental thinkers like Plato and Aristotle attempted to formulate
theories on the subject. While the discussion on governance has always occupied
the centre stage of the academic arena, all of these words—governance, good
governance and e-governance—are growing in popularity in development litera-
ture (Bala & Verma, 2018).
Governance: Models of Public Administration and
Approaches to Public Sector Reform
Public administration is at once a concept, a structure, practice and a paradigm. As
a structure, it discharges its functions in consonance with the legal framework of
the land it is ordained to serve. Public administration, as a machinery, is indispen-
sable to accomplish the multifarious functions of the state. As it serves many, it
attracts many and becomes the focal point for many (World Public Sector Report,
2015). Multiple academic exercises have been undertaken to study divergent
approaches to public administration, and the one approach that has received much
attention is the shift from ‘Old Public Administration’ to ‘New Public Management’
that took place in the 1980s and 1990s. Subsequently, the new millennium wit-
nessed a major paradigm shift in the study of public administration that has been
described with different but related names—‘New Public Service’, ‘New Public
Governance’ or ‘Post-New Public Management’ (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2000;
Dunleavy & Hood, 1994; Osborne, 2006).
Each one of the above approaches is credited with a unique ideology, and thus
the traditional or old model of public administration draws its core principles from
Max Weber’s ideas of bureaucracy. The dening features of the Weberian model
are hierarchy and meritocracy, centralised authority, conformity to rules and regu-
lations (Osborne, 2006). It is criticised on the grounds that it gives primacy to
rules rather than results, it is not open to change, innovation and experiment and
that it procrastinates decision and thus causes undue delay.
The traditional model could not meet the fast-changing requirements of a
market-driven economy and yielded a different approach called new public man-
agement (NPM—competitive and minimalist). Application of perceived or really
successful principles of private enterprises like competition, cost-reduction, ef-
cient and quicker disposal of pleas to the government sector remains the core part
of the NPM model. The protagonists of this approach put forward the idea of
downsizing the state (Osborne, 2006).
However, the adoption of market principles to government organisations has
not yielded people-oriented results. It is in this background that a call was given
for a paradigm shift and a fresh approach that caters to the democratic urges of
people, thus emerged the concept of governance in place of government.
The distinguishing feature of the new public governance (plural and pluralist)
advocated by Osborne (2006, 2010) is that it gives primacy to citizen rather than
to the government. Citizen is placed at the heart of things, the citizen is the end
and governance is the means. In accomplishing the democratic urges of people,
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