Industry Fact : Tamil Nadu Is India's Best e-Governed State

Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh emerged among the top five e-governed states in
India in 2008-09 as per the fifth IDC India study conducted for CyberMedia's
fortnightly Dataquest.

Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have climbed three spots each over last year's
ranking, to emerge at first and fifth position, respectively. Himachal Pradesh,
Delhi and Haryana have secured second, third and fourth positions respectively.
Delhi has slipped two ranks from last year, while Himachal Pradesh and Haryana
have climbed up five and 14 places, respectively.

The results of the survey to be published in the December 15 issue of
Dataquest are based on a two-level survey that assesses every state's IT vision,
implementation plan and ease of use of services. It also takes into
consideration IT allocation for new projects in 2007-08, implementation of new
projects, and user satisfaction among 3,150 citizens and businesses. Indian
states are lining up ambitious e-governance projects for taking governance to
citizens' doorsteps. From being one among many government programs, e-governance
has now become a top priority for the government. The Union Budget for 2008-09
increased the allocation to the department of Information Technology to Rs 1,680
crore, an increase of nearly 12 percent over the previous year's, Dataquest-IDC
study reports.

The scheme for establishing 100,000 Citizen Service Centers (CSCs) and
setting up SWANs across states is in progress.

The government allocated Rs 450 crore for setting up SWANs, Rs 275 crore for
setting up State Data Centers, and Rs 75 crore for establishing CSCs.

SWANs have been imple­men­ted in five states-Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil
Nadu, Chandigarh and Delhi. Imple­mentation is under way in nine states, and the
bidding process is on in another four states. The Andamans and Goa have opted
out of the scheme.

By October 2008, 20,558 CSCs have been rolled out. In 14 states, MSA and
Service Center Agency selection process covering 1,02,827 CSCs has been
completed. The highlight how­ever is the government planning to set-up
e-governance stan­dards for ensuring stan­dards-based interoperability and
integration of applications across departments and avoiding any technology

lock-ins. The e-governance standards are being developed for Network and
Information Security, Local Language, Meta Data, and Data Standards for
application domains and quality. A draft interoperability framework for
e-governance and a draft for e-governance Information Security Standard have
also been prepared. To ensure quality, Conformity Assessment Framework
guide­lines have been prepared by DIT.

DQC News Bureau