Management Dynamics Management Dynamics

India suffers from slow economic growth with less technology penetration. Government is using Internet and Communication Technology (ICT) as an opportunity to improve transparency and responsiveness towards delivery of services to its major stakeholder i.e. citizens. For future sustainability of e-governance projects, assessment of impact of these citizen centric services is important and should not be a onetime affair. The present study attempts to conduct an impact assessment of a G2C service called e-mitra in Rajasthan in comparison with manual delivery system. Results show that e-delivery system increases the responsiveness and transparency in system with low level of corruption but citizen rate e-mitra service low in the dimension of data security and complaints-handling mechanism. Citizen has negative perception towards scope of e-govemance service but desire more investment in e-govemance services. Research findings assist Government to diversify and simplify the process of delivery and provide insight in terms of impact, sustainability and scalability of project.


INTRODUCTION
India is known for its diversity with people from different cultures, traditions, languages and economic conditions.But a majority of population is below the minimal socio-economic benchmark and suffers a low penetration of telephone, PC, Internet and also with unreliable electric power supply particularly in rural Indian government has formulated an ambitious National e-govemance Plan (NeGP) in year 2006 to cover all the important areas relating to e-Govemance (e-Gov) like Policy, Infrastructure, Finances, Government Process Reengineering and Capacity Building across the Central and State Governments.NeGP is aimed at introducing e-Govemance systematically through 27 Mission Mode projects, which would touch the lives ofbillions of people.But the lack ofbackend computerization of government department becomes the major challenge to integrate these heterogeneous computer systems working with different technical standards and architecture (Charag & Ahmed, 2013).Project that stresses on mere electronic presentation of content rather than on solving the governance issues become cumbersome.Keeping the complicated procedures unchanged will increase the citizen dependency on other intermediaries like computer operators.Localization of e-Gov initiatives is one on the prominent hurdle in mass adoption.Moreover computerization of inefiBcient processes can lead to higher levels of ineflBciency and cost (Bhatnagar et al, 2008).
In context of project evaluation, many times project objectives are defined in ICT terms like computers, network rather than ultimate business process outcomes for end users like citizens, which make the post implementation evaluation more difficult.
The key mantra for success in citizen centric e-govemance projects is 'citizen first'.So it become vital to assess the nature and quantum of impact on users to create a virtual feedback cycle by which the fmdings are sent back into the project conceptualization (Chandrashekar, 2008).
For the current study author use a case approach has been used and a G2C service in state of Rajasthan called e-mitra has been selected.The research identifies the e-Govemance impact on its major stakeholder i.e. the citizens (clients) on key dimensions like cost of availing, quality of governance and service.The study explains the nature and degree of impact through contextual factors.The responses fi-om clients are encapsulated by survey on the use of computerized system as well as the manual system (state government office).The study also analyzes thecitizen perception towards e-govemance initiatives.The outcome of impact assessment study aims to present a benchmark guideline for service delivery for future projects.

About e-Mitra
e-Mitra project is an integral part of Rajasthan state e-govemance fi-amework which aims to provide a unified platform bringing government closer to citizens in a 'multiservice' to 'single-window' mode to offer all possible government information and services to mral and urban masses through e-enabled centers and kiosks implemented on PPP (public-private-partnership) model.Apart fi-om increasing transparency and responsiveness, this model provide an integrated information approach for keeping all information at one place in an electronic form.This information base of e-Govemance helps planners and decision makers to perform extensive analysis of stored data to provide answers to the queries of administrative cadre; which in turn helps them to formulate more effective strategies policies for citizen facilitation (Singhal, 2013).
There are two major components of the e-Mitra project.One is Back Office processing and the other is Service Counters.Back office includes computerization of participating departments and district level data centre.Service counters or kiosks are placed where citizen avail the services related to multiple departments right from deposition of application to financial transaction to final deliverable collection.These counters are managed by private partners called Local Service Provider (LSP).For services that any government department wants to avail of, like bill/taxes collection and awareness generation, the payment of service charges will be made by the concerned department.While in case of services which are rendered on citizen's demand, e.g., Caste Certificate, Death/Birth Certificate etc. the payment will be made by the citizen himself Beside government services, LSP are encouraged to offer private service like sale of insurance services, Internet cafe.Fax, mobile bill payment etc.Major stakeholders of this project are as given below in Table 1.Major role players in e-Mitra projects are citizens.Presently there are six LSPs (private partners) operating 425 kiosks in all 33 districts of Rajasthan (e-Mitra.gov.in).

LITERATURE REVIEW
The domain of electronic governance has received increased prominence and attention over the last few years.Even though many avenues in the area of e-Govemance remain unexplored and one such area is the comprehensive assessment of projects.A large body of literature defended that 'ICT for development' and 'Bridging the digital divide' are the central driver for development in e-govemance (Wade, 2002;Catells, 1998, Chiborra, 2002).ICTs in general and e-govemance in particular offer tremendous opportunities for improving demand driven transparent and accountable service delivery targeting the underprivileged rural India (Kaur, S. and Mathiyalagan, N. ,2010).Reliey ( 2001) defined e-govemance as a commitment to utilize appropriate technologies to enhance govemmental relationships, both intemal and extemal, support economic development and encourage the fair and efficient delivery of services.The term e-govemance is primarily used to refer to the usage of IT to improve administrative efficiency, transparency, accountability of government processes and reduce corruption (Gasco, 2003, Proskuryakova, et al., 2013).Recently, Elsa Estevez etal.(2013) proposed a framework for sustainable development with electronic governance.
The major challenge for a citizen centric solution is offering a hassle fee, easy-touse, round-the-clock services to customers.Some researchers also analyzed that despite initial success of e-govemment projects often fail either totally or partially in achieving their objectives (Heeks, 2002(Heeks, ,2003a)).In a study of a rural e-govemment project in India, Cecchini and Raina (2003) found that though service satisfaction was high but usage over time was low and the poorest people were not using the services.In another study of e-Gov in India, Subhash Bhatnagar (2008) reveals that awareness about the project can only help in bringing users to that service delivery channel once but it cannot guarantee sustained use of the system unless it is designed to encourage the use.Kolsaker et. al (2008) emphasized on the need of greater participation of common citizens in the decision making process in-order to ensure more transparency and efficiency e-Govemance projects.He also emphasized on redesign of intemal operations of government with developed e-Govemance projects.
The design, acceptability and performance of any service delivery model is largely influenced by end user requirement and user feedback.Impact assessments conducted in a scientific manner do provide invaluable result for further refining the design of the subsequent e-govemance projects and those results should be compared with the target set.With the increase of e-govemance services and ICT based service initiatives by private sector and government makes the end user consultation easier (Kumar, 2008).Baseline surveys can help agencies understand the attributes on which project importance varies around states (Bhatnagar, 2008).User satisfaction level should also be measured on a year-to-year basis to maintain minimum service levels (Kumar, 2008).A number of empirical studies focus on ICT impact in improving the performance but majority of study use a heterogeneous framework to rate the success or faOure of projects.So, it was difficult to compare the outcome for a project with other projects.Some studies focus on implementation success, some looked at long term sustainability and replicabihty of the project, some measured the benefits delivered to agencies but there are few studies that have focus on the benefits to clients.

RESULTS & ANALYSIS
This section deals with the testing of hypotheses by using appropriate statistical tools.SPSS-19 software has been used for the purpose of analyzing responses gathered.

Testing of HI
HI: There is no difference in cost of availing the services at e-mitra centers and manual system In order to test this hypothesis, a questionnaire gathered the average waiting time for the service.Mathematical statement of null hypothesis on the dimension of average waiting time is as foUows: Dr. Shubham Goswami H^ Hg = Where, and ji^ are the hypothesized mean for e-mitra and manual system services respectively.

M
The statistical significance of the data has been tested using Student's paired sample "t" test at 95% confidence level.It was found that gap is statistically significant (t, average_waitTime = -11.344,p = .000< .05).Since our Paired Samples Statistics box revealed that the Mean wait time for manual system is greater than the Mean for emitra center, we can conclude that average waiting time of manual system is higher than e-mitra systems.The sample statistics reveal that the level of corruption is comparatively more in manual system than e-delivery model.Moreover, citizen believes that suggestions are adequately implemented in e-mitra centre compared to the manual setup.It has also been found that 82 percent of citizen provides feedback to officials of e-mitra centers in contrast to 38 percent for manual setup.

Testing of H3
H3: There is no difference in Quality of service for e-mitra and manual system Quality of service is tested on the dimensions including Work timings, Responsiveness of staff.Data security.Location of service center.Functionaries courteousness and friendliness.Timeliness of response.Satisfaction with complaint handling mechanism.Dimensions are measured in 5-point scale.Mathematically, Hg. ^ig = Where, [i^ and (i^ are the hypothesized mean for e-mitra and manual system services respectively.It is clearly inferred from the above statistics that citizen are still worried about their data security and confidentiality in computerized service centers.There seems to be no difference in time taken to respond to a query or service in both manual and computerized setup.Moreover, citizens reported same attitude towards complain handling mechanism in both the systems.These findings can significantly damage the credibility of e-mitra centre, as their primary objectives include timely and accurate delivery of e-govemance services along with assurance of security and confidentiality of citizen data.

Testing of H4 H4: Citizens have favorable perception towards e-govemance services
To test this hypothesis, a questionnaire was developed using five point Likert Scale (1 for strongly disagree and 5 for strongly agree) on attributes explaining perception of citizen towards e-govemance services.These attributes include dimensions like whether e-govemance project improve the government image among citizens; government should make more investments on e-govemance initiatives and whether the scope of e-Govemment services is limited to rich, influential virban citizens.The statistical significance of the data has been tested using student't' test at 95% confidence level.

Ho: ^ = 4 H,:
Where 4 is the scale value corresponds to "agree" category.Responses greater and equal to 4 reflect a positive and favorable citizen perception towards e-govemance services.The statistical difference between the actual mean value of each dimension and test value i.e. 4 is tested by using one sample t-test.

CONCLUSION
India views e-Govemance as a strategic tool for transforming Govemance and improving the quality of services provided by the government to its people(Kumar R., 2012).But a vast majority of e-govemance evaluation guidelines tend to focus on the supply-side benefits of ICT infrastmcture and on the identification of constraints within the stracture of institution(Madon, 2004).Heek (2001) based his analysis on preconditions needed at strategic and tactic level for egovernance in developing countries.Unnithan (2002) evaluate e-govemance initiatives in south India which focus on the extent of network coverage and establishment of ICT infi-astmcture.Researcher also presented a three-dimensional framework including maturity level, stakeholders, and different assessment levels for assessing initiatives post-implementation effects (Jose Esteves et al.,2008).Some studies discussed the impact of Indian e-govemance projects on administrative reform and on changes in trust relation between government and citizens (Mandon, 2003; Charag, 2013).But there have been few data-driven studies focused on the impacts of projects over relatively long periods of time (Heeks, 2003a).
An impact measurement framework was developed after literature review and based on 'then' and 'now' comparison on selected parameters.A major part has been adopted from the existing framework that was used in earlier assessment study of eight projects encompassing service delivery to citizens (G2C), businesses (G2B) and internal staffs (G2G) in three states include Andhra Pradesh, Kamataka and Gujarat in 2008.The study was carried out by Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) and was sponsored by the World Bank, Department of Information Technology (DIT), Govt, of India(Subhash Batnagar et al, 2007).Indicators on which qualitative impact can be measured are also used in the present studyThe proposed framework (table 2) aims to measure the impact on qualitative and quantitative factors.Study also attempts to understand the citizen perception towards e-govemance.Framework includes key areas of direct and indirect impact on citizens and some indicators on which qualitative impact can be measured.The study not only evaluates the functioning of the computerized system but also efforts to assess the difference made by use of ICT in manual and computerized delivery system.
Computerization of service delivery in India is in the early stages of evolution.Most government department is still struggling to digitize their data and service counters.Citizen satisfaction and perspective has been always a critical success factors for a citizen centric e-govemance projects.It becomes important to assess the quantum of impact on end users for such e-delivery services.Moreover, the impact assessments are not going to be one time affair and the project may be measured again and again in definite interval.Clear guidelines should be provided to encourage the end users and reduce users' dependence on intermediaries.The present study attempts to measure this impact on various qualitative and quantitative factors for the chosen case of e-mitra.The degree of impact has been gauge on the key dimensions of cost of availing services, quality of governance and quality of service.The responses are captured for both computerized and manual delivery systems.Citizen seems to be satisfied with e-mitra centers in terms of cost saving dimensions, like access, number of trips to service centers, waiting time, less documentation errors along with working hours, fi-iendliness of fiinctionaries and low level of corruption.But these services face limitations in context of response time, citizen data security and confidentiality and indolent complain handling mechanism.These issues defeat the basic motive of these e-services to increase the responsiveness and transparency in delivery system and can considerably damage the credibility and

Table 2 : Research Framework
Source: Adopted from Report on 'Impact Assessment of e-Govemance Projects', Department of Information Technology Ministry of Communications and Information Technology Government of Jaipuria Institute of Management Management Dynamics, Volume 14, Number 1 (2014)

20000 11.96764 1.69248 -22.60117 -15.79883 -11.344 179 .000 Values for other scale items for measuring cost of availing are captured as Boolean variables of yes/no. Results summarized in table 5 and figure 1, shows that large section of sample is able to finish their job in one trip with less documentation errors and by paying less service charge and bribe. Table 5: Responses on the various attributes, n=180
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The output of't' test (2-stailed) in table 8 reveals that no significant gap exists between the hypothesized test values with the calculated sample mean statistics for only one dimension of 'more investment' (t^^^ . Thus, the perception of the citizen towards e-govemance corresponds to remaining attributes tend to be unfavorable and dichotomous. Service usage pattern Table 9 below provides details about the most availed service at e-mitra service counters. Almost all respondent reported that their most frequently used service include payment of electric and water bill, Payment of mobile bill. Services like issue of caste certificate, dish TV recharge, payment of exam fees and installment deposits of life insurance are less popular and availed services. But it is significant to find that majority of services are not citizens.
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