[This report has been compiled by the team at the Centre for e-Governance, IIM Ahmedabad, which was responsible for organizing the workshop jointly with the Department of Information Technology, Government of India.]

Introduction

The Workshop on Impact Assessment of e-Governance Projects was jointly organized by the Department of Information Technology (DIT) and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) with the objective of sharing the findings and learning from an impact assessment study of three national and 36 state-level e-government projects. The two-day workshop was held on November 19 and 20, 2008 at IIMA, and was attended by 68 participants. These included senior officials from state governments and the Government of India, academicians, and representatives of market research agencies that had been involved in the impact assessment study.

Background  

In view of the proposed rollout of the ambitious National e-Governance Program (NeGP), the Government of India was keen to understand the nature and quantum of impact created by e-Government projects that had already been implemented by state and central agencies. The DIT, as the coordinating agency for the NeGP, therefore decided to carry out an impact assessment study of mature e-government projects that have been implemented in India. In the first phase, three state-level e-government projects – vehicle registration, property registration and land records were selected for assessment in twelve states across India. At the national level, projects implemented by the Income Tax department, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, and Regional Passport Offices were assessed. These studies were carried out by eleven established market research agencies under the guidance and supervision of IIM, Ahmedabad.

Proceedings of the Workshop

Day 1 of the Workshop

The inaugural session commenced with a welcome speech by Prof. Samir Barua, Director of IIM, Ahmedabad. Prof. Subhash Bhatnagar then briefed the participants on the impact assessment study, its purpose and objectives. Mr. R. Chandrashekhar, Special Secretary (DIT), Government of India released the overall report drafted by IIMA for all state and national projects covered in the study.

Release of the ‘Impact Assessment of e-Governance Projects’ Report

From left to right: Prof. T.P. Rama Rao, IIMA; Prof. Subhash Bhatnagar, IIMA; Mr. R. Chandrashekhar, DIT; Prof. Samir Barua, IIMA; Mr. Ashis Sanyal, DIT

In the second session, Prof. Bhatnagar presented the findings of and the learning from the study. The study revealed that electronically enabled service delivery in India has a long way to go in terms of coverage of services/states. Currently, the number of mature e-government projects is very limited and most such projects are at a preliminary stage of evolution. Despite this, almost all the assessed projects had delivered some benefits to citizens. The number of trips that users need to make to government offices reduced significantly (by 1-2 trips) after computerization. Waiting time has been reduced by 20-40% after computerization. Direct cost savings to citizens averaged from rupees 60 to 110 in the three projects across all states. Perceptions on quality of service and governance show an improvement in all projects. The fact that even basic computerization has succeeded in delivering significant benefits to the citizen highlights the importance of pushing ahead on the e-Governance agenda. However, this would require strengthening of capacity to conceptualize and implement e-government projects.

Large variations in the performance of computerized systems were noticed across projects and states. For example, impact on bribes is uneven across states and projects. In land record computerization, reduction in proportion paying bribes is significant. In property registration and transport, there is hardly any impact on bribery and a large number of users continue to go through agents to get the service. This suggests that greater emphasis on process reform is needed, and there is a need to learn from best practices elsewhere.

The scope of the first phase of impact assessment was limited to understanding and establishing the extent of impact of the selected e-government projects. However, participants felt that in the next phase of assessment, an attempt should be made to understand the reasons for impact or non-impact of these projects. This understanding would help to conceptualize and design future projects in such a way as to harness the full potential of technology, process reform and integration of data across concerned agencies.

The post-lunch session involved group work to conceptualize the design of next generation projects in terms of services delivered, modes of delivery, making the systems user-centric, and integration between departments/agencies that can have a bearing on the service. Participants were divided into two groups to discuss the national-level and state-level projects respectively. Each group had a mix of project-domain officers, market research agency representatives and nodal officers. The groups deliberated on the impact on citizens and the reasons for large variations on key dimensions of impact across projects and states. They also suggested reforms that could improve performance on these key dimensions in next generation projects.

Discussion on State-level Projects: Mr. Chinmay Basu from the Department of Land Resources, Government of India began by briefing the participants on the current status of computerization being undertaken by the department across states. He also spoke about the National Land Resource Management Programme (NRLMP) under which horizontal integration of the following is being undertaken across states: Revenue Department where land records are maintained; Survey department where maps of land parcels are maintained; and Registration department where deeds of sale/purchase of land are registered and maintained. When registration of a property-related transaction takes place, it is required that a mutation notice be generated and communicated to the Land Records office for the mutation to be effected. However, the current lack of integration between the three departments makes it difficult for this process to work the way it should. Participants felt that creation of a common database that could be used by the three departments should be treated as top priority under the NRLMP, and that the centralized integration should take into consideration best practices from implementations in individual states.

Dr. Nitin Kareer, Divisional Commissioner of Pune in the state of Maharashtra spoke about the SARITA (e-Registration) initiative undertaken by the Revenue Department in Maharashtra, its impact on citizens and the next-generation reforms undertaken by the department that have lead to automatic mutations and cadastral measurements. The department has restructured its processes significantly, and is currently working on integration of its three wings of land records, survey and registration at the field level. He described the process by which the mutation transaction is now captured at the time of registration itself, after which the mutation notice along with the notices for land measurement and demarcation are automatically generated, and issued to all concerned parties (whose names are included in the Record of Right). This reengineering has been achieved without requiring any change in legislation, and has succeeded in delivering significant benefits to both citizens and the agency.

A similar illustration was provided by Mr. Rajeev Chawla, Commissioner of the Land Records & Survey Department in the Government of Karnataka. A minor amendment was made to the Karnataka Land Revenue Act in order to ensure integration of the land records and survey databases in Karnataka. The change in legislation stipulated that land being registered should be measured and a pre-mutation sketch prepared prior to registration. In case this was not done, the registration would be deferred. Licensed surveyors conduct the field survey to measure the property, and prepare its sketch on the request of only the owner (as recorded in the Bhoomi land records system). The Sub Registrar forwards the sketch bearing the signature of the owner to the Bhoomi office, after which the mutation process is initiated. The spatial and non-spatial data is then updated in the integrated Bhoomi system, thus ensuring that both are synchronized at all times. Access to the land records data through the Bhoomi website makes information on current ownership of land easily available to farmers. Village Accountants have been authorized to digitally sign land records, copies of which can be obtained by farmers through about 1,000 village telecenters across the state.

Participants from transport departments of various states once again stressed the need for a common database that could be shared by the concerned agencies, which in this case are the police department, the traffic department and courts handling traffic-related cases. They also cited certain limitations of the existing software applications being used by state transport departments. For instance, the vehicle registration software does not allow the colour of a vehicle to be specified at the time of its registration, which often leads to discrepancies between the registration number and the physical identity of the vehicle.

Discussion on National-level Projects: Participants agreed that the current levels of computerization that have been achieved in the assessed national-level projects are not adequate enough for realizing tangible and significant results. Attention should be paid to scalability and robustness of the supporting infrastructure, and to the capacity and ability of department employees deployed to handle these services and functions. For instance, it was felt that the current (heavy) workload of employees was to a certain extent responsible for the large processing time required for service delivery. Increasing the number of counters at service delivery centers to cater to the large volume of clients was suggested as a practicable solution to this problem. Other suggestions for implementation and assessment of e-government projects in the future were:

§         Sharing of data or access to a common database by different government agencies must be enabled in order for the agencies to be able to provide integrated services.

§         Website content should be monitored to maintain consistency of information across sub-portals that are specific to a region/state (for instance, the websites of individual regional passport offices).

§        Cost of digital signatures should be reduced to enable end-to-end online access to services by individuals. For example, individual income tax filers who do not possess digital signatures are required to visit the Income Tax department office in order to deposit paper copies of the acknowledgement forms generated after e-filing their returns. The time and effort required for this negates the benefits of e-filing.

§         The performance of e-governance service delivery should be measured against a standard, any aberrations should be identified, and reasons for these should be understood. For instance, if the procedure for getting a driver’s license issued requires only one trip, then the reasons for high number of trips should be examined.

§         Future evaluations should capture qualitative data to provide more insightful explanations for performance levels.

The session concluded with the two groups presenting their viewpoints on the design of projects being implemented or planned for implementation under the NeGP.

Day 2 of the Workshop

Sessions on the second day of workshop revolved around identification of projects that could be assessed in phase II of the assessment study, and planning for their assessment. Participants suggested names of projects that have been rolled out across various states and can be considered mature enough for an impact evaluation. Projects identified for assessment include central MMPs[i] such as the computerization of the Central Excise department, and the grievance handling system for pensioners launched by the Department of Administrative Reform and Public Grievances. These projects have been operational for at least a year, and have considerable scope in terms of services delivered through electronic means, and coverage with respect to the number of people impacted or geographical scale. It was also suggested that pilot projects be assessed to evaluate if a further rollout would be feasible and sustainable. In addition, projects that are about to be initiated could be taken up for baseline assessment. Follow up studies of a few successful and not-so-successful projects (identified on the basis of results of the first phase of impact assessment) could be carried out to enhance understanding of key determinants of impact on citizens.

Discussions related to the second phase of the assessment study brought forth suggestions on the scope of the second phase, and defined the roles and responsibilities of the various parties likely to be involved in the assessment - the market research agencies, IIMA and the DIT. The framework used for the first phase of the impact assessment study had been defined by IIMA. It was felt that market research agencies should be given more flexibility in terms of defining the scope of the survey. At the same time, they should attempt to extend the scope of the study in the context of the project and its users. It was therefore decided that in the next phase, market research agencies would themselves propose the assessment framework (based on certain broad dimensions defined by the DIT and IIMA) and the sampling methodology to be used for the study, and design the survey instrument.

Participants suggested certain enhancements to the questionnaire like: inclusion of more elements of qualitative assessment that could help provide insights into the results of the study; and questions to measure performance of and bottlenecks in individual processes involved in the delivery of complex services (for example, registration of a property sale). It was suggested that service levels that have been defined for the MMPs could be used as benchmarks for assessing their performance. It was also felt that any future assessment should take into consideration issues arising out of service integration between agencies since integration is a key focus area of most next generation e-government projects.