Situating Digital India Mission in Pursuit of Good Governance: A Study of Electronic Governance Initiatives in the Indian Province of Odisha
| Author | Sangita Dhal |
| Published date | 01 March 2020 |
| Date | 01 March 2020 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0019556120904034 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Situating Digital India
Mission in Pursuit of
Good Governance: A
Study of Electronic
Governance Initiatives
in the Indian Province
of Odisha*
Sangita Dhal1
Abstract
Contemporary states act as facilitators and this facilitation can be result oriented
and successful only when effective governance is ensured. In the era of globalisa-
tion, greater emphasis is being laid today on good governance because of the
critical link between the state and the global community. The nation states need
to reinvent themselves and reframe their development strategy, which requires
a thorough revision of their existing approach to international relations and
internal governance. As a part of the ongoing administrative reform process,
e-governance envisages a structural change in the bureaucracy and is perceived
as a key to a more flexible and proactive governance in tune with the concerns
of citizen-friendly administration.
The present article explores the challenges and prospects of e-governance and
tries to delve into the complex socio-cultural dynamics alongside political-bureau-
cratic initiatives that are crucial factors for the successful transition from traditional
governance to the electronic governance. It attempts to situate the ongoing Digital
India Mission in the larger context of good governance by examining the case study
of the Indian Province of Odisha, where a silent but stunning revolution is taking
shape.
Article
Indian Journal of Public
Administration
66(1) 110–126, 2020
© 2020 IIPA
Reprints and permissions:
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DOI: 10.1177/0019556120904034
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* Paper presented in the seventh International Conference on Public Administration in the 21st Century:
Opportunities and Challenges by the Center for Chinese Public Administration Research at Sun Yat-Sen
University, University of Macau and the Macau Foundation, 27–28 October 2016.
1 Kalindi College, University of Delhi, East Patel Nagar, Delhi, India.
Corresponding author:
Sangita Dhal, Kalindi College, University of Delhi, East Patel Nagar, Delhi 110008, India.
E-mail: sangitadhal@hotmail.com
Dhal 111
Keywords
Globalisation, administrative reforms, electronic governance, Digital India,
Common Service Centres, citizen participation
Introduction
Every phase of history is an improvement upon the previous one in terms of
human progress based on knowledge, information and innovation. The globalised
world today is increasingly getting integrated through shared ideas, values, prin-
ciples and vision of common destiny jointly achieved by nation states.
Technology and information are the two enabling instruments, which are com-
plimenting and supplementing this objective and are providing solutions to the
problems of the human race. The internet is a core pillar of the modern infor-
mation society. It was on 12 March 1989 that the idea of the modern internet
came into existence when CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research)
researcher Berners-Lee laid out his vision of an internet network. As a result, the
number of internet users increased from 15 million in 2005 to 4.4 billion internet
users in April 2019.1 This goes to prove beyond doubt that internet as a significant
enabler is proving to be relevant to the citizens’ everyday lives and addresses their
personal needs. The use of Information Technology (IT) applications (internet,
wide area network [WAN], mobile phones and social media) for sharing infor-
mation and delivery of services by the government agencies seek to transform
relations with citizens and business (Sharma, 2004).
In the present era, the global community re-organises the political and eco-
nomic relationships among nation states based on the principles of democracy
and neo-liberalism. It is a system of getting nation states and their economies
integrated through commonly agreed principles of global trade, commerce and
services. Globalisation today is seen to be the only way forward to negotiate
with the challenges of poverty and underdevelopment, which are responsible for
other critical issues such as hunger, illiteracy, unemployment, malnutrition and
high mortality rate. The nation states have reinvented their role to facilitate a
new global environment of good governance, free trade, commerce and collab-
orative ventures (Santiso, 2001; World Bank Report, 1992). The pursuit of good
governance through the application of technology and speedy dissemination of
information to the people is today considered to be the most effective and result-
oriented approach to development. It further aims to transform public administra-
tion by providing various services to citizens without the interface of government
offices (Holmes, 2001).The issues and challenges of governance thus occupy the
centre stage of political and academic discourse in the contemporary world. India,
one of the fastest-growing economies in the world today, offers a classic example
of how rapid economic transformations can be affected through the application of
modern technology (Chakrabarty & Bhattacharya, 2008).
This present article contextualises the Digital India Mission as an enabling
futuristic goal to achieve success in mitigating the challenges of development.
It also locates electronic governance as an enabling and technologically driven
instrument to improve governance in Odisha, a relatively underdeveloped state
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