E-government in the making: socio-economic development in the Akshaya project

This paper discusses the Akshaya E-Government project. The paper uses general concepts borrowed from actor network theory to discuss the ongoing negotiation that shapes E-Government projects. We aim at shedding light on the importance of the dynamic interactions that shape the impact of ICT on government polices. In particular, we show that the nature of the service delivered and the socioeconomical development supported by the project are constantly shaped by the negotiation that occurs among the different actors involved and the consequent changes the project itself experiences. We therefore suggest to study e-Government in its making and not as results of planned action and sequential evolutionary phases

Status of Common Service Center Program in India: Issues, Challenges and Emerging Practices for Rollout

The Common Service Centre is a 1.2 billion USD initiative by the Government of India. It is an integral pillar of the Government’s National e-governance Plan. The project was started in the year 2004 with the vision to develop these centres as the front-end delivery points for government, private and social sector services to rural citizens of India in an integrated manner. However as on 31st May, 2010, six years after the initiation of the project, only about 50 percent of the States had reported success in achieving 70 percent rollout status of these centres. Even the successful States were being plagued by issues which were hindering the operation and threatening the sustainability of these centres. In this paper we have discussed the current status of implementation of the CSCs across the nation and the pertinent issues that are being faced by the various stakeholders in the project. It was interesting to find out that though the country wise rollout had not yet reached the cent percent mark there were some states that were doing well, compared to others, despite the fact that some of these failing states were the first to initiate the exercise.We have also conducted field studies in the states of Jharkhand,Uttar Pradesh and Meghalaya in order to understand the ground level issues and challenges hampering the implementation of these centres. This paper is an attempt to understand the various challenges and bottlenecks that are being faced in making these common service centres sustainable. Given that the CSCs are designed to provide the last mile linkage to G2C and B2C services, the importance and impact of these centres are immense and the program has the potential to overturn the issues related to accessibility that pulls back the sizeable percentage of the populace. It is however, noteworthy that these perceived benefits to the citizens from this project can only be accrued when these centres are operational. Thus it becomes imperative to study the factors that are hindering the setting up and the functioning of these centres. The study also reveals that there was lack of fool-proof planning at the government’s end in terms of having no structured framework for roll out and no risk mitigation plan in place for a project of this dimension. Moreover, the study shows that there has been a substantial evolution in the business model (based on PPP) that was being used initially across various states in the country to a business model (based on PPP) that is emerging to be more successful and sustainable than what was initially planned for.

Transforming state-citizen relations in food security schemes : the computerized ration card management system in Kerala

In this paper we look at the application of ICTs to the improvement of state-citizen relations in a developing country context. Our argument is that, to maximise responsiveness of the government, ICTs need to target the structural problems in state-citizen relations, from which unresponsiveness of the state to citizens is generated. Failure, as portrayed here, arises from the fact that ICTs, rather than being used for tackling the causes of issues in government responsiveness, tend to be conceived and utilised primarily as a means for acquiring political consensus. This argument is illustrated through a case study of computerisation of the ration card procedure in the southern Indian state of Kerala, where a typical problem of state unresponsiveness – mirrored by a burgeoning amount of unattended ration card applications – is matched by a typical e-government solution, i.e. digitalisation of the process of document release. Our case study reveals that, while the structural problems of the process of ration card delivery in Kerala lie within two crucial nodes, namely poverty status determination and verification of applications, the digital solution devised by the government addresses predominantly the front-end, politically appealing node constituted by citizen application for a ration card. This strategy, which leaves untouched the crucial nodes of state unresponsiveness, turns out in citizen dissatisfaction on the long run. Implications are both theoretical, as a cause for failure is identified and deconstructed in the domain of ICT4D, and practical, as an orientation to structural problems is recommended for policymakers that engage in ICT-based government reform. Keywords: e-governance; food security; public distribution system; ration card; computerization; Kerala JEl Classification: O20, O33; O3

Developing a Framework for Sustainable Information and Communication Technology Platforms for Resource Scarce Rural Communities

In attempting to bridge the digital divide and provide access to ICTs the South Africa government deployed telecentres to rural areas. The purpose of this paper is to provide some insights into what makes telecentres sustainable. The ICT Platform project (Platform) is the initiative between the South African government and the CSIR.  For this study the Technology Acceptance Model is utilised. The main research methodology will be qualitative multiple case study research with interpretivism as philosophy. The results show the importance of community leaders, project champions and users in the adoption and use and in ensuring the financially, socially and politically sustainability of ICT Platforms.

The origins of failure: seeking the causes of design–reality gaps

The theory of design–reality gaps is an extant framework to explain failure of information systems in developing nations. This paper problematizes the nature of failure, with a particular focus on situations in which well-implemented systems, apparently corresponding to users’ views of reality, still fail to meet the expectations of their key stakeholders. To extend existing theory on this phenomenon, I advance a diagnostic model to identify the root causes of design–reality gaps. The model is illustrated through a case study of the Ration Card Management System in Kerala, South India: by capturing the causal chains underlying design–reality gaps, the model sets to trace the origins of failure, and the processes through which it is ultimately determined. The model I propose is both explanatory and normative, as it elicits causes of failure and serves as a basis to combat them

Redesigning the Indian food security system through e-governance: the case of Kerala

The link between e-governance and development has been widely leveraged for policy formulation in India, however, little is known about its application to food security. This paper fills the gap with a study of Kerala, where the Public Distribution System (PDS), the main national food security program, has been digitalized in its main functions. Findings reveal that the digital program has been purposefully devised to combat the problem of diversion ("rice mafia") of PDS goods to the market: however, issues of partial coverage and mistargeting remain. Lessons are drawn for other states computerizing the PDS and their social safety nets

Imagining the state through digital technologies: a case of state-level computerization in the Indian public distribution system

The study of e-governance in developing nations is informed by the idea that new technologies, reshaping the very nature of public services, can generate better outcomes in their provision. Beyond objective changes in governance infrastructures, the subjective perception of the state, as it is constructed by service recipients, is exposed to a parallel process of change, whose study has generated a novel research domain in the field of egovernance for development. With a view of contributing to this domain, this thesis studies the role of ICTs in processes of image formation on the state, as experienced by citizens in a developing country context. The theory on which the thesis is developed views technology as embedded in its sociopolitical context, and conceives e-governance as implicated in the reconstruction of images of the state. This vision is applied to the computerization of the main food security programme in India, the Public Distribution System (PDS), as it has been devised and implemented in the state of Kerala. Through an interpretive case study of the object at the core of computerization, known as the Electronic Public Distribution System or e-PDS, the thesis investigates the ICT-led processes of image construction by the state, and the ways in which citizens, confronted with new images, structure their perception of these. Through inclusion of front-end PDS services in existing infrastructure, and through the inscription of a clear problem-solution nexus in e-PDS, the state is found, as expected, to be using e-governance as a means to reconstruct its own image. At the same time, though, the loci of image formation that are found in citizens (direct experience, social networks, and political circuits) systematically escape control by governmental action, and seem to be, in fact, only marginally touched by the ICT-induced reinvention of governance. The thesis results, therefore, in an extension of existing theory in this respect: the capability of the state to reconstruct its image, through the usage of new technologies, is limited by the spaces of image formation which citizens experience in their daily lives

The role of stakeholders and their relationships in the sustainability of telecentres

Purpose This paper aims to examine the role of stakeholders and their relationships in the sustainability of telecentres in Vietnam through the lens of stakeholder theory. Design/methodology/approach This study methodologically adopted a qualitative case study to identify stakeholders that have been involved in telecentres in Vietnam. It then categorizes those stakeholders’ salience through the lens of stakeholder identification and salience theory. Secondary data and interviews were used as data sources for the present paper. Findings The authors identify six main stakeholders that have been involved in telecentres, including the government, entrepreneurs, international donors, telecommunications providers, civil society organisations and individual community members/users. Among these stakeholders, the government, entrepreneurs and users belong to definitive stakeholders, which have the greatest impact on the sustainability of telecentres in comparison to other groups of stakeholders (e.g. dominant, dependent and dormant stakeholders). Moreover, the authors propose a model to identify the relationships of stakeholders towards the sustainability of telecentres. In particular, the authors indicate that each group of stakeholders has its own role in contributing to sustainable telecentres and they also influence others in either direct or indirect ways. Originality/value This study provides an additional approach for managers to make judgments in prioritizing the interests of some of their stakeholders while still maintaining a level of satisfaction among other stakeholders. For example, stakeholders that should be of the highest concern to the sustainability of telecentres are the government, entrepreneurs and users, while civil society organisations can be maintained in lower priority to other stakeholders. In addition, we propose the model of interactions and relationships of stakeholders, which can be seen as a starting point for a study on the roles of stakeholders in sustainability not only in telecentres, but also in other fields, such as digital transformation, cyber security and e-government.©2023 Emerald Publishing Limited. This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY–NC 4.0) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Discourses on ICT and development.

Research on ICT and development (ICTD) involves assumptions on the nature of ICT innovation and on the way such innovation contributes to development. In this article I review the multidisciplinary literature on ICTD and identify two perspectives regarding the nature of the ICT innovation process in developing countries - as transfer and diffusion and as socially embedded action - and two perspectives on the development transformation towards which ICT is understood to contribute - progressive transformation and disruptive transformation. I then discuss the four discourses formed by combining the perspectives on the nature of IS innovation and on the development transformation. My review suggests that ICTD research, despite its remarkable theoretical capabilities to study technology innovation in relation to socio-economic context, remains weak in forming convincing arguments on IT-enabled socio-economic development.

Digital governance and the reconstruction of the Indian anti-poverty system

On a global scale, programmes of social protection for the poor are becoming increasingly computerised, and architectures of biometric recognition are being widely used in this respect. I research how these architectures, adopted in anti-poverty systems, structure ways to ‘see the state’ for citizens living in poverty. To do so I study India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) in Kerala, which is augmenting its main food security scheme with the computerised recognition of its users. In the government’s narrative, biometric technology is depicted as an optimal solution to the illicit diversion of PDS goods on the market. Nevertheless, according to the multiple narratives collected across the state, beneficiaries dispute this view in different ways because of the mixed effects of the new technology on their entitlements under the PDS. The government’s capability to reconstruct its image through digital innovation is thus found to be constrained by citizens’ perceptions derived from their encounters with the new technology of governance