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title: "Complete Book 0"
book: "MPUB 301 Digital Governance and Emerging Issues in Public Administration"
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According to Latest Syllabus
Read For Sure SuccessIn University Examination
RATAN
TEXT BOOK
DIGITAL GOVERNANCE AND EMERGING ISSUES IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
M.A.Pub.Ad.(Sem-III) Dr. Komal Singh
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CHAPTER 1
Elements, Forms and Concept of Good Governance
Structure

1 .0 LearningObjectives


1.1    Introduction

1.2    Concept and Meaning of Good Governance

1.3    Significance of Good Governance

1.4    Elements and Forms of Good Governance

1.5    Good Governance Initiatives in Indian Context

1.6    Issues and Challenges inGood Governance

1.7    Self-Check Exercise

1.8    Summary

1.9    Glossary

1.10    Answer to Self-Check Exercise

1.11  Suggested Reading

1.12  Terminal Questions

1 .0 LearningObjectives:
Aftergoingthroughthislessonthestudentswillbeabletoknow

•    Trace the origin of Good Governance

•    Analyse the concept of Good Governance

•    Provide difference between Governance from Good Governance

•    Highlight the type and key characteristics of Good Governance

•    Enlisted Governance initiatives in the Indian context

1.1    Introduction
Governance is a buzzword now days and you might be listening and reading this word in daily life. People might be talking about the good governance in the southern Indian states leading to better performance in various areas of development, as compared to some other states. Former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan said “good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development”. Therefore, knowing about the meaning of governance has become important in studying development.Governance is characterized mainly by transparency, accountability, participation, rule of law, and efficiency. Good governance would promote and ensure development. It is believed that sound economic policies and democratic institutions that are responsive to people’ s needs are instrumental for sustained economic growth, poverty eradication, and employment generation.
Governments have always been entrusted with the task of governing or managing. The traditional approach to governance was based on the premise that the government was solely responsible for formulating and implementing policy decisions. There has been excessive reliance on bureaucratic forms of organisations, hierarchy, adherence to rules and regulations, notions of permanence and neutrality, and citizens have been treated as passive acceptors of goods and services. But the current notion implies greater participation by the citizens in the affairs of the government to strengthen the quality and effectiveness of policy making and outcomes. There is an increasing realisation that State power is immense and hence to check its abuse, effectiveness and efficiency need to be brought into the State institutions and processes. Governance intends to achieve this objective.
In general, governance is associated with efficient and effective administration in a democratic framework. It involves the exercise of political, economic and administrative powers in managing the country’s affairs, and includes the processes of formulation as well as implementation of decisions.While governance, on the one hand, deals with collaborative partnership, networking which is necessary for policy formulation, and implementation, Good Governance on the other hand, attempts to make this activity not just efficient and effective but also more accountable, democratic and responsive to the public needs.

1.2    Concept and Meaning of Good Governance
The concept of governance, which assumed significance since 1989 with the advocacy by the World Bank, is considered by some as not a new term. Pierre and Peters (2000) consider that the term was first used in France in the 14th century where it meant ‘a seat of government’. The World Bank is said to have reinvented it, in a different context, as a new approach to development. Globalisation has resulted in generation of global pressures exerted by institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), in the form of economic reforms programmes to be adhered to, especially by the developing countries. The aid given to these countries is accompanied by certain market-oriented reforms.
It has been observed that after a certain period of time, the results as expected out of this new thinking have not been forthcoming or the growth has been slower than originally anticipated. The failure of Structural Adjustment Programme, ineffective utilisation of public funds, increasing corruption, the collapse of centrally planned economies, mounting fiscal debt etc. have raised critical questions about governance system. This has actually made the World Bank examine and publish its first major analyses based on the experience of Sub-Saharan Africa in 1989. The Bank published its document entitled “Sub-Saharan Africa: From Crisis to Sustainable Growth”, which brought to light the key factors that thwarted the implementation of successful market-oriented reforms. The major factor was considered to be the failure of public institutions, which has been responsible for weak economic performance. As a result, the need for Good Governance was emphasised. The Bank considered Good Governance as sound development management. It, as per the Bank, has four main dimensions: a) Public Sector Management, b) Accountability, c) Legal Framework for Development; and d) Transparency and Information Accessibility.
For the first time, the concept of ‘Good Governance’ was formulated by the World Bank in 1992. It was defined as the “Manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country’s economic and social resources for development”. In the Report titled ‘Governance and Development’, Good Governance was considered central to creating and sustaining an environment, which fosters strong and equitable development and is an essential component of sound economic policies.

1.3    Significance of Good Governance
Good governance aims at achieving much more than efficient management of economic and financial resources or public services. It is a broad reform strategy to make government more open, responsive, accountable, democratic, as well as strengthen institutions of civil society and regulate private sector. Good Governance is a combination of efficiency concerns of public management and accountability concerns of governance. Good Governance as a prerequisite for promoting people-centred development is assuming importance.
Good Governance aims at:

•    Improving the quality of life of citizens

•    Enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of administration

•    Establishing the legitimacy and credibility of institutions

•    Securing freedom of information and expression

•    Providing citizen-friendly and citizen-caring administration

•    Ensuring accountability

•    Using Information Technology-based services to improve citizen-government interface

•    Improving/enhancing the productivity of employees; and

•    Promoting organisational pluralism – State, market and civil society organisations for governance.
Good Governance, hence, relates to the quality of governance through attributes such as participation, empowerment, accountability, equity and justice. Adherence and promotion of these attributes provides avenues to the citizens, especially the poor and the marginalised to articulate their interests, to exercise their rights and improve their living standards. Good Governance includes the capacity to formulate and implement sound policies by the government with due respect for citizens.Good Governance aims at enhancing the quality of life and entails governing processes which strive for maximum good for the maximum number of people.

1.4    Elements and Forms of Good Governance
In the 1992 report entitled “Governance and Development”, the World Bank set out its definition of Good Governance. It defined Good Governance as “the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country’s economic and social resources for development”. Good governance has 8 major characteristics.It is participatory, consensus-oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law. It assures that corruption is minimized, the views of minorities are taken into account and that the voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard in decisionmaking. It is also responsive to the present and future needs of society.
Participation: This is considered to be the core of Good Governance. Governments aiming to ensure the requisite freedom to the citizens in order to participate in the decision-making process, articulate and represent their interests, which get reflected in policies and programmes.
Rule of Law: Governance does not imply arbitrary use of authority. Any type of governance to be effective needs to be supplemented by a fair legal framework. This should be supported by appropriate enforcement machinery, independent judiciary, which instils confidence in the people.
Transparency: This is based on the premise of free flow of information and its accessibility to those affected by the decisions taken in the governance process. People, especially shall be in a position to understand as well as monitor governmental and other sectors’ activities, on the basis of information that is accessible to them within reasonable limits.
Responsiveness: The earlier governance mechanisms lacked in their approach of bringing all the stakeholders in their ambit. In the present times, the emphasis is more on institutions being responsive to the needs of all those who are going to be affected by their actions.
Equity: Since governance structures and mechanisms aim at participation, they have to promote equity. A society’s well-being and development depends on ensuring that all the members have a stake and role in it and are not excluded from the mainstream activities.
Effectivenessand Efficiency: Good Governance and, NPM need to aim at effectiveness and efficiency in usage of resources in consonance with the societal needs and demands. Resultorientation needs to be the key concern.
Accountability: This occupies a central place in Good Governance. The norm of accountability has to ensure answerability as well as proper enforcement of correct procedure in case of violation of certain laid down norms. Not only the public institutions, but also the private sector and the civil society organisations need to be accountable to the public at large and to the other related institutions and stakeholders.
Governance, with its emphasis on rule of law, human rights, empowerment, and participatory development, attempts to provide a countervailing force to the excessive managerial orientation. The World Bank (1992) observes “Governance is a continuum and not necessarily unidirectional, it does not automatically improve over time. It is a plant that needs constant tending. Citizens need to demand Good Governance. Their ability to do so is enhanced by literacy, education and employment opportunities.

1.5    Good Governance Initiatives in Indian Context
In India, efforts are afoot and have also in some respects gained momentum in the direction of Good Governance reforms. The major administrative reforms in our country during the 1950s and 1960s were basically structural in nature with a view to improving the administrative machinery. With the nature of administration undergoing a change in the 1990s (from traditional bureaucratic to responsive, citizen – oriented), the reforms are also now geared in this direction. Evolving a citizen-centred bureaucracy, ensuring transparency and right to information, streamlining the public grievances machinery, providing for code of ethics, and citizens’ charters are some landmarks in this effort. The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments are important reform measures fostering empowerment and participation of people in the governance process.
Right to Information
As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), India is under an international obligation to effectively guarantee citizens the Right to Information as per Article 19 of the ICCPR. RTI Act, 2005 marks a significant shift in Indian democracy. It gives greater access of the citizen to the information which in turn improves the responsiveness of the government to community needs.The right to information, promotes openness, transparency and accountability in administration by making the government more open to public scrutiny.
Citizen Charter
The concept of Citizens Charters originated in Britain. Citizens Charters are formulated by all those public organisations providing different kinds of services to the people. These Charters are statements that provide information to the general public about the nature of services being provided by that organisation, procedures, costs involved, mechanisms for lodging complaints in case the citizens are not satisfied, time taken for its redressal and so on. Nearly 68 organisations at the Central government level in India have formulated Citizens’ Charters. These are being done by state governments also. Next time you visit any government organisation, including a hospital, municipal body, you can have a look at their Citizens’ Charters.
E-Governance
The National e-Governance Plan envisions to make all government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency & reliability of such services at affordable costs. E-Governance effectively delivers better programming and services in the era of newly emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs), which herald new opportunities for rapid social and economic transformation worldwide. E-Governance has a direct impact on its citizens who derive benefits through direct transactions with the services offered by the government. Programs launched under e-Governance: Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation (PRAGATI), Digital India Program, MCA21 (to improve the speed and certainty in the delivery of the services of Ministry of Company Affairs), Passport Seva Kendra (PSK), online Income tax return, etc.
People’s Participation and Decentralisation
The government is ensuring people’s participation in governance through the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments by which Constitutional status is conferred on rural and urban local bodies. These bodies are given necessary powers and authority to function as institutions of self-government. State governments have passed necessary legislation to this effect by providing for the constitution of these bodies, functions, conduct of elections, devolution of resources, etc.
Good Governance Index
The Good Governance Index Was launched on the occasion of Good Governance Day on 25 December 2019. The Good Governance Index is a uniform tool across States to assess the Status of Governance and impact of various interventions taken up by the State Government and Union Territories. The objectives of Good Governance Index are to provide quantifiable data to compare the state of governance in all states and Union Territories, enable states and Union Territories to formulate and implement suitable strategies for improving governance and shift to result oriented approaches and administration.
These are, in brief, some of the key initiatives taken by Indian government in fostering responsive governance. Any reform measure to be effective has to be sustained in the long run. To fulfil aspirations of citizens the governments both centre and state are inventing and taking several initiatives across the country.

1.6    Issues and Challenges in Good Governance
Governance aims at the maximum welfare of citizens. It involves government, private sector and people's associations or civil society. The important challenge facing the governance process is to build a framework or system that can promote an appropriate balance between these three constituents. The quality of governance is to be improved and sustained.
The important issues and challenges pertaining to governance include:

•    Strengthening the institutions of governance. Parliament is the supreme representative institution in India. The political representative represents the electorate. Many a times concerns are expressed on various fronts about the falling standards in the quality of participation, conduct of proceedings and so on. Hence there is need to develop good practices and procedures of parliamentary functioning and make Parliament a dynamic institution in tune with the changing times.

•    Improving the functioning of civil service and bureaucracy. Ultimately it is the permanent executive that is responsible for policy implementation. It is necessary to develop a responsive civil service that is professional, energetic and caters to people's needs.

•    Reassuring the citizens with establishing an independent and accountable judiciary. The
judiciary is to be seen as an effective instrument of maintenance of rule of law and upholding of social justice.

•    Making the private sector accountable through adopting sound business practices, adhering to rules and regulations and protecting the interests of consumers. Educating the citizens about their rights and obligations, and making them partners in all development activities.

•    The issues and challenges that confront governance require effective functioning of three wings of government namely executive, legislature and judiciary and building appropriate linkages amongst the organs. Governance has to strike a suitable balance between parliamentary supremacy and judicial independence. As the state, private sector and civil society have an important role in governance process, there is a need to assign clear cut roles and responsibilities to these components to enable them to work towards genuine people-oriented development activities.

1.7    Self-Check Exercise

a.    Concept of Good Governance

b.    Forms of Good Governance

c.    Initiatives in Indian Context

1.8    Summary
The concept and practice of governance, with several interpretations including Good Governance has gained prominence over the past decade. While, in a narrow sense, it focuses on improving public administration structures, processes, institutional development, broadly speaking, it places emphasis on qualitative improvements in the administration. Hence, principles such as accountability, transparency, participation, and empowerment are emphasised to make governance good or effective, to enable the development move towards new and productive directions. Good Governance, as we have observed, is bringing about creative intervention, and participation by not just a sole actor, but by various key players to enhance the legitimacy of public realm. Good Governance emphasises the involvement of institutions, actors from and beyond government, encouraging flexibility in public service provisions and cost-effective policy outcomes.

1.9    Glossary
Civil Society: It refers to self-organisation of citizens. It is the collective ofsocial organisations that enjoy autonomy from the state. Civil society includes financial, charitable, social service, development and professional organisations.
Market: An institution which represents the interests of private players in the economy. Over the years, some people claim that it has emerged as the alternative to the state.
Rule of Law: It refers to a legal system in which the rules are clear and fairly enforced and everyone is equal before the law.
State: This is the basic actor in today’s world, representing a definite population, having a definite territory, a government, and sovereignty (the ultimate authority in handling its affairs).

1.10    Answers to Self-check exercise

a. 1.2              b. 1.4           c. 1.5

1.11    Suggested Readings
Bhattacharya, Mohit, 2001, New Horizons of Public Administration, Jawahar, New Delhi.
UNDP Report, 1994, Good Governance and Sustainable Human Development, Oxford University, New York
World Bank, 1992, Governance and Development, Washington.

1.12    Terminal Questions

1 . Explain the Concept and Parameters of Good Governance.

2    Enumerate the initiatives taken by Indian Government for implementing Good Governance and Discuss challenges faced.

CHAPTER 2
Kautilya and Good Governance
Structure

2.0 LearningObjectives

2.1    Introduction

2.2    About Kautilya and Arthashastra

2.3    Origins of Kautilya and its Arthashastra

2.4    Principles of Good Governance in Kautilya Times

2.5    Kautilya View on State

2.6    Self-Check Exercise

2.7    Summary

2.8    Glossary

2.9    Answer to Self-Check Exercise

2.10    Suggested Reading

2.11    Terminal Questions
2.0LearningObjectives:
Aftergoingthroughthislessonthestudentswillbeabletoknow

•    Able to comprehend governance through Arthashastra

•    Analyse the concept of Good Governance in Kautilya’s times

•    Kautilya’ s View on State and Kingship

•    learn about the role of saptanga theory of kautilya

2.1    Introduction
Kautilya, ancient Indian political thinker was a multi-dimensional personality whose famous work, Arthashastra, is studied across disciplines like political science, international relations, diplomacy, security studies, economics, management and public administration. He is considered as one of the finest ministers and politicians in India. Arthashastra is the oldest treatise on the composite governmental affairs. The book has been described as a masterpiece, which covers a wide range of topics like Statecraft and the issues of public administration encompassing politics, economics, and administration. The principles of governance and statecraft evolved and established in Arthashastra were followed by various rulers of India like Ashoka and Shivaji. The greatness of Kautilya, as has been observed by many scholars, is that he made the principles contained in his Arthashastra so applicable that even today they find pertinence and utility.

2.2    About Kautilya and Arthashastra
Kautilya also known as Chanakya as well as Vishnugupta, has attracted the attention of a number of scholars from political science, economics, management, public administration, psychology, defence studies and strategic sciences. He is known for his seminal work called the Arthashastra. He had written this great thesis at a time when monarchy was the form of government and Kings were expected not only to defend their territories, but also pursue the expansion of the boundaries by way of waging wars and winning wars. In the process of his analysis of the state and its machinery, Kautilya focused on several dimensions of running a State/government. He favoured the idea of a strong state, which could be possible only if the ruler or the king, was strong. Kautilya assigned high value to the financial health of the state. He was of the firm view that the power of the State rested in the strength of the treasury. That is why he pays special attention to the management and administration of treasury along with the issues of collection of taxes and enhancement of resources of the State. The other area relating to finance that attracted the attention of Kautilya were Budget, Agricultural taxation, Audit and Accounts.
Before understanding Kautilya’sArthashastra, one should know the concept of four Purusharthas which are goals of human life or aims and objectives of a soul. They are dharma (duty), artha (wealth), kama (desire) and moksha (emancipation of soul). The times before Kautilya were dominated by dharma (promoted by religion) and regulated by Dharmashastra.
Pursuit of dharma was superior to three other goals of life. However, withArthashastra, pursuit of arthabecame an end in itself while other three aims of life were subservient to it.In Kautilya’sArthashastra (2nd-3rd century BC), the welfare of people was considered paramount in the role of King. His book, Arthashastra, has 15 parts (or books), 180 divisions, 150 chapters and approximately 6,000 verses or shlokas.

2.3    Origins of Kautilya and its Arthashastra
There is no clear consensus about Kautilya’s life and the times in which he lived. He is also known by the name Chanakya, based on his father’s name Rishi (Sage) Chanak, who was a Brahmin. Another name given to Kautilya is Vishnugupta since he is believed to be a follower of Lord Vishnu. The name, Kautilya, comes from his ‘kutil’ gotra, which means shrewd and cunning. He lived at the turn of the fourth to third century BC and thus, was a near contemporary of Aristotle and Alexander the Great. The place of his birth is also disputed as according to different sources, Kautilya was born in Takshashila, Gola district in South India or Patliputra in Magadha. Kautilya played the central role in establishment of the Maurya Empire under Chandra Gupta (321-297 BCE) – the first pan-Indian state extending over most of the Indian subcontinent. Chandra Gupta was a student of Kautilya who overthrew the Nanda dynasty on the wise counsel of his guru, Chanakya who became Prime Minister in his court.
There is a widely held belief that the text of Arthashastra was not available till it was discovered by Sanskrit scholar Dr R Shamasastry. He found the 17th century writing on a bundle of palm leaves from a pandit in Tanjore in 1904. He published the text in 1909 and its translation in 1915. However, Subrata K Mitra and Michael Liebig in their 2017 work have argued that there has been a continuous oral and written transmission of the Arthashastra across time as well as a lasting influence of Kautilyan thought on the politics in South Asia throughout the pre-modern duration. Max Weber, one of the foundational thinkers of modern social sciences was the first Western social scientist to recognise the significance of Kautilya in his works, Politics as a Vocation and in his sociology of religion studies on Hinduism. Apart from Dr Shamasastry, another Indian scholar who devoted his research career to Kautilya is Dr R P Kangle whose three volume edition of Arthashastra was published between 1960 and 1965. Another important translation of Kautilya has been done by L N Rangarajan (1992) which is a simpler and rearranged version of the original work. Sanskrit
philologists and Indologists have extensively engaged with Kautilya’s work. However, their focus clearly differs from the research approach of political science. It should be mentioned that Kautilya himself states in the very first paragraph of Arthashastra that his work is a treatise on science of politics.

2.4    Principles of Good Governance in Kautilya Times
It is clearly stated that Kautilya did not discuss any principles of administration separately in any of his books forming part of Arthashastra. Further, we will discuss the principles that were implemented by Kautilya while running the administration.
Division of Work: This is also known as division of labour is one of the principles that has a bearing on the efficiency and effectiveness of an organisation. Kautilya also divides the work into several departments denoting the importance of assigning different roles to different persons according to their specialisation and knowledge.
Hierarchy: The administrative structure in Arthashastra depicts a bureaucratic type of administration that is hierarchical in character. On the apex of the organisational pyramid was the King who was the repository of all authority. The subordinate levels were anned by the officers known as Mahamatya, Amatyas, Adhyakshas or superitendents. However, the system of hierarchy within the subordinates has not been very clearly discussed or mentioned in the Book.
Unity of Command: All the employees of the empire were to seek orders only from one authority, the King. There was no confusion at any level of the government that the king alone had the power to issue orders to the subordinates working in any department or in any position.
Centralisation:Generally, all powers (legislative, executive and judicial) were vested in the office of the King. Centralisation was indeed the organising principle of administration. However, for the purpose of smooth execution of the policies and decisions framed at the centre, the administration was also organised under close supervision of the centre at the grassroots.
Discipline: This is the prerequisite for any organisation, State being no exception, to work with a sense of unity of goals if it has to be successful. Arthashastra attaches great importance when it refers to the need for strict observance and compliance to the orders and rules issued and
enacted by the King. Any laxity on the part of any employee on that point was to invite punishment.
Authority and Accountability:Authority and responsibility go hand in hand. That seems to be the reason why the king is not only vested with all powers of the State, he is also made responsible for the progress and happiness of the subjects. He is supposed to pursue the goal with appropriate use of authority. Kautilya believed in a system of authority and prescribed a number of punishments for a number of offences on the part of the people as well as of government servants.
Leadership:The execution of the direction too is quite often dependent on the qualities of te leader who issues directions. This becomes evident when one notes the traits which kautilya ascribed to a good leader. He believed in ‘like King, like citizenry’. A good leader is one who keeps the interests of the people and the kingdom above personal interests.
Value based Administration: Kautilya brought in the concept of value-based management and administration, when he identified a number of values in a leader (administrator) and observed that in order to achieve the primary goal of the organisation, a leader should be virtous, truthful and free from vices. He should also invoke reliability, gratefulness, liberality, promptness and long-term vision, with the advice of the elders.

2.5    Kautilya view on State
Kautilya’s views on state are similar to what later came to be known as the social contract theory of origin of state. He had argued that Matsya Nyaya, which is the law of nature, needs to be eradicated. Matsya Nyaya means a bigger fish always swallows the smaller fish. It can be seen as a state of anarchy where the powerful dominate the weak. Similar views were later expressed by Thomas Hobbes. Kautilya said that people want security and peace and that is why; they chose Manu, as their king under the system of kingship. People agreed to pay onesixth of their food grains and one-tenth of other goods including gold as tax to the king in return for a guarantee for their security. The king is duty bound to protect his subjects and ensure their well-being. The king has the power to inflict danda(punishment) to ensure order and stability in the society. The theory of state in ancient India before Kautilya argued that the state has to uphold the laws of Varnashram i.e. social laws based on traditions and customs. State had a minimalist function to intervene in situations where these laws were not obeyed.
However, with Arthashstra, Kautilya broke this tradition and advocated that the state could make laws of its own. If there is conflict between Dharamnayay of state and Dharamshastra, the earlier would prevail.Kautilya described structure of the state in his Saptanga theory or seven organs/elements of state or seven prakriti.
Swami or the King: The ruler is equivalent to the head in a human body. Kautilya did not believe in divine origin of kinsgship. He believed it to be a human institution. An ideal king, according to Kautilya is one who has the highest qualities of leadership, intellect, energy and personal attributes. The leadership qualities a king should have in order to attract followers include birth in a noble family, truthful, prowess, intellect, righteous, disciplines, enthusiastic, being stronger than neighbouring kings and having ministers of high quality. A king’s intellectual qualities are reflected by desire to learn and to listen to others, grasping and retaining truthful views and rejecting the false claims. As far as personal attributes are concerned, a king should be eloquent and have a kind mind with sharp intellect.
Amatya or the Minister: Amatya represents eyes of the state. Kautilya argued that the minister with the highest rank should be born in a high family and should be a native of the state. He should be under the control of the king. Further, he must be trained in all the arts and should be far sighted. He should be firmly loyal and endure adversaries through qualities like boldness, bravery, intelligence and should be energetic.
Janpada or the People: Janpada represents the legs of the state and includes both, territory and population of the state. The people should be prosperous while the territory should have fertile lands, mines, forests and water bodies etc. The demographic and economic base of the Kautilyan state is the rural population.
Durga or the Fort: Durga represents the arms of a state. Security of treasury and army would depend on fortification of the state. Kautilya says that on the frontiers of the country, every quarter will have a fort well equipped to defend against the enemies. In total, four forts shall be constructed in places that are naturally suited for defence. A land fort is the easiest to capture while a river fort is more difficult. A fort situated on a mountain is most difficult to capture.
Kosha or Treasury: Kosha is considered as the mouth of the state. Kautilya opined that the wealth of the state shall be acquired lawfully, either by inheritance or by king’s own efforts consisting of gold, gems and silver. The wealth should be enough to allow the country to withstand a calamity, even if the calamity is of longer duration in which there is no income
generated. Treasury is located in the fortified capital which is used to finance the army, the royal court and the state apparatus.
Danda or Sena: Sena is equivalent to brain in a human body. The soldiers should be strong, obedient, not averse to long expeditions, with powers of endurance, skill inhandling all weapons and experience of many battles.They should have no interest other than that of the king and should share his prosperity and adversity. A strong army is required toward off internal and external threats to a country.
Mitra or Ally/Friend: A mitra represents ears of a state. According to Kautilya, an ideal ally is one who is a friend of the family for a long time, constant and powerful in support, amenable to control, shares a common interest, can mobilise his army quickly and is not someone who would double cross his friends. Kautilya says that the king should focus on strengthening first six elements of the state.

2.6    Self-Check Exercise

a.    Kautilya and Arthashastra

b.    Kautilya View on State

2.7    Summary
Kautilya works have not been given due importance and analysis not only in India, but also outside India as well. Ancient Greek philosophers, continue to dominate classical thought while Kautilya remains on the fringes reflecting Eurocentrism international relations. Long before the West witnessed separation of state and church under modernity in 16th century, Kautilya had already advocated independent status of polity away from religion. His saptanga theory is a systematic and coherent theory of state power. He may not have advocated democracy, but Kautilya said that the welfare of the people was central to stability and security of a kingdom. Kautilya’s figure stands tallest amongst the community of Indian theorists and there is a need to further analyse his works in contemporary context.Kautilya visualised the importance of the values and attitudes, merits and qualities of the people engaged in the organisational task for an efficient, effective and people centric performance of their organisation. Kautilya is no exception, is influenced by the environment of his times. Yet it can be safely stated that kautilya in many ways outpassed his time for having looked into the administrative needs of the future societies and the states.

2.8    Glossary
Accountability: It means answerability as well as proper enforcement for violating certain laid down norms. It involves making politicians, administrators, governmental, nongovernmental and private sector organisations accountable for their activities.
Amatya: Mantri
Dharma: Ethics and Duty
Nyaya: Justice
State: This is the basic actor in today’s world, representing a definite population, having a definite territory, a government, and sovereignty (the ultimate authority in handling its affairs).

2.9    Answers to Self-check exercise
To see         a. 1.2, 1.3             b. 1.5

2.10    Suggested Readings
Mitra, Subrata K & Michael Liebig. (2017). Kautilya’sArthashastra: An Intellectual Portrait – The Classical Roots of Modern Politics in India. New Delhi:Rupa Publishing India Pvt Ltd.
Sil, Narasingha P. (1985). Kautilya’sArthashastra: A Comparative Study. New Delhi: Academic Publishers.

2.11    Terminal Questions

1.    Briefly explain the origin of ideas of Kautilya idea given in his book Arthashastra.

2.    Discuss the role of administration with king being the head of state for the welfare of people.

CHAPTER 3
Theories and Concept of Good Governance
Structure

3.0 LearningObjectives

3.1    Introduction

3.2    Theories of Good Governance

3.3    Precondition forGood Governance

3.4    Features of Good Governance

3.5    Good Governance Initiatives taken globally

3.6    Constraints inGood Governance

3.7    Self-Check Exercise

3.8    Summary

3.9    Glossary

3.10    Answer to Self-Check Exercise

3.11    Suggested Reading

3.12    Terminal Questions
3.0LearningObjectives:
Aftergoingthroughthislessonthestudentswillbeabletoknow

•    Evolution of Good Governance

•    Analyse the features of Good Governance

•    Provide difference between global and regional scenario

•    Depicts the features of Good Governance

•    Enlisted Governance initiatives in the global context

3.1    Introduction
Ever since the term ‘governance’ has become the cynosure of all actors, both State and nonstate, there has been a trend to engage, educate, and empower people in a peaceful way for a wide array of missions, such as, economic welfare, child wellbeing, mainstreaming gender, environmental protection, and cultural promotion. The challenge for all societies is to create a system of governance that promotes supports and sustains human development - especially for the poorest and most marginal. But the search for a clearly articulated concept of governance has just begun. Good governance is, among other things, participatory, transparent and accountable. It is also effective and equitable. And it promotes the rule of law. Good governance ensures that political, social and economic priorities are based on broad consensus in society and that the voices of the poorest and the most vulnerable are heard in decision-making over the allocation of development resources.

3.2    Theory of Good Governance
The concept of governance, which assumed significance since 1989 with the advocacy by the World Bank, is considered by some as not a new term. Pierre and Peters (2000) consider that the term was first used in France in the 14th century where it meant ‘a seat of government’. The World Bank is said to have reinvented it, in a different context, as a new approach to development. Globalisation has resulted in generation of global pressures exerted by institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), in the form of economic reforms programmes to be adhered to, especially by the developing countries. The aid given to these countries is accompanied by certain market-oriented reforms.
From Government to Governance The idea of governance is as old as the human civilisation itself, but the term governance was not heard frequently within the development community until the late 1980s. The rise in the popularity of the term ‘governance’ is closely linked with the redefinition of the role of the government towards development enterprises and managing the economy of a state in an efficient and effective manner. The term came into existence in the 1980s with the initial efforts of international economic and financial organisations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, United Nations Development Programme and International Development Assistance. Notion about the competence of the structure of Government framed post-world war II began changing in the 1980s, and the process of
transformation from government to governance was triggered. Following were the factors contributed to it:

•    Government was found ineffective and inefficient in delivering the policy objectives relating to the progress and well-being of the common people in the developing countries.

•    This period also witnessed the expansion of the term development and prosperity of the people and began encompassing health, education, happiness, human rights, and freedom and participation of the stakeholders in the decision-making procedures.

•    The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war, proved the authoritarian model of government, a failure.

•    The term governance came to be used to define the reinventing of public administration, particularly in the developing countries, to make it more receptive to the needs of citizens
After decolonisation, developmental activities of all the Third World countries had been dependent on foreign financial and technological assistance and long-term loans from the various international economic and financial agencies. Till the late 1970s,’ it was the general perception world over that the state should be the engine of economic growth and public welfare, but shortly this perception was under question. The disappointing development outcomes in the aid recipient countries sparked serious debate on aid effectiveness because, despite all the money given, a large number of recipients remained gripped in chronic poverty. The search for the underlying reasons for these development failures led the donor agencies to focus on the quality of governance in the recipient countries. All this led to the proposal by the International aid donors that aid should be allocated not only on the basis of poverty and underdevelopment but also on the basis of good governance within the aid-seeking countries In 1998 the World Bank’s annual report Governance in Asia: From crisis to Opportunity, presented a more cogent concept of good governance.

3.3    Preconditions for Good Governance
An analysis of the barriers to good governance reveals that there are several preconditions which must be fulfilled in order to make governance citizen-centric. Some of the preconditions are:

•    Sound legal framework.

•    Robust institutional mechanism for proper implementation of the laws and their effective functioning.

•    Competent personnel staffing these institutions; and sound personnel management policies.

•    Right policies for decentralization, delegation and accountability.
In Governance, there are networks of institutions involved in all stages of the policy process viz; policy formulation, implementation, evaluation and feedback. Some of the examples of such networks are as follows: Policy network policy networks are sets of formal institutional and informal linkages between governmental and other actors structured around shared if endlessly negotiated beliefs and interests in public policymaking and implementation. These actors are interdependent and policy emerges from the interactions between them. Governments have instituted advisory bodies and various kinds of Councils where representatives of government and other two actors – business and civil society are members.

3.4    Features of Good Governance
Good governance has 8 major characteristics. It is participatory, consensus-oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law. It assures that corruption is minimized, the views of minorities are taken into account and that the voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard in decisionmaking. It is also responsive to the present and future needs of society.
Participation is the political dimension of good governance. The active participation of all the stakeholders in the process of development in a society is an indispensable condition of good governance. Participation could be either direct or through legitimate intermediate institutions or representatives. Participation needs to be informed and organized. This means freedom of association and expression on the one hand and an organized civil society on the other hand.
All men and women, inclusive of physically challenged ones, should have a voice in decisionmaking, either directly or through legitimate intermediate institutions that represent their interests. The Panchayati Raj System or local self-governance (municipal councils) in towns and cities in India are the expressions of active participation of people in developmental activities meant for them.
Rule of law Good governance requires fair legal frameworks that are enforced impartially. It also requires full protection of human rights, particularly those of minorities. The rule of law is the cornerstone of a democratic and egalitarian society. It means that everybody in a society is equal before the laws, and the laws are implemented in an impartial manner. Impartial enforcement of laws requires an independent judiciary and an impartial and incorruptible police force. To implement the rule of law, appropriate reforms in policing (police reforms) and the criminal justice system (judicial reforms) have been attempted in India.
Transparency means that decisions taken and their enforcement are done in a manner that follows rules and regulations. It also means that information is freely available and directly accessible to those who will be affected by such decisions and their enforcement. It also means that information is provided in easily understandable forms and media. Lack of transparency in governance creates a conducive environment for various kinds of corruption in governance which are detrimental to the progress and well-being of the common people of the society. To ensure transparency and free flow of information, the Government of India has provision for the right to information to every citizen of the country by enacting the Right to Information Act, 2005.
Responsiveness Good governance requires that institutions and processes try to serve all stakeholders within a reasonable timeframe. The deliberate unnecessary delay on the part of the service providers in performing their duties towards the people must be avoided at any cost. It must be ensured that service delivery systems must have a provision of the time and period clause to accomplish their duties within a predictable time frame.
Consensus oriented There are several actors and as many viewpoints in a given society. Good governance requires mediation of the different interests in society to reach a broad consensus on what is in the best interest of the whole community and how this can be achieved. It also requires a broad and long-term perspective on what is needed for sustainable human development and how to achieve the goals of such development. This can only result from an
understanding of the historical, cultural and social contexts of a given society or community.
Consensus usually involves collaboration, rather than compromise.
Equity and InclusivenessA society’s well-being depends on ensuring that all its members feel that they have a stake in it and do not feel excluded from the mainstream of society. Inclusiveness requires that interests, aspirations and opinions of all individuals and groups living in a society must be taken into consideration while formulating certain policies and programmes meant for the society. This requires all groups, but particularly the most vulnerable, have opportunities to improve or maintain their well-being.
Effectiveness and Efficiency Good governance means that processes and institutions produce results that meet the needs of society while making the best use of resources at their disposal. The concept of efficiency in the context of good governance also covers the sustainable use of natural resources and the protection of the environment.
Accountability is a key requirement of good governance. Not only government institutions but also the private sector and civil society organisations must be accountable to the public and to their institutional stakeholders. Who is accountable to whom varies depending on whether decisions or actions taken are internal or external to an organisation or institution, In general, an organisation or an institution is accountable to those who will be affected by its decisions or actions. Accountability cannot be enforced without transparency and the rule of law. Central to the principle of accountability is information sharing and transparency which should be promoted by governance structures.

3.5    Good Governance Initiatives taken globally
Need for global good governance: emerging issues such as humanitarian crises, military conflicts between and within states, climate change and economic volatility pose serious threats to human security in all societies and they have become ‘global’ beyond the capacity for state governments alone to address such issues. Mechanism for global good governance could be:

•    International Governmental Organizations (IGOs): World Trade Organization and the UN systemare examples of existing state-centered governance mechanisms. They utilize partnerships with non-state actors that have expertise and resources.

•    SDGs and MDGs: Sustainable development goals and Millennium development goals gives the vision to the government around the world for the conservation of planet earth.

•    Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs): UN Global Compact is anexample of an international PPP. UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) utilize the PPP strategy across all aspects of implementation of the SDGs.

•    Private governance: They set sector-specific standards. Eg: Moody’s Investors Service and Standard and Poor’s Rating Groups sets international accounting standards.

•    Tripartite governance mechanisms: It includes involvement of state, private and civil society actors. For example Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, publish What You Pay and the African Peer Review Mechanism, thus helping in categorizing PPPs.

3.6    Constraints in Good Governance
As per the 2nd ARC report, following are the Barriers to Good Governance:
Attitudinal Problems of the Civil Servants: There is a growing concern that the Civil Services and administration in general, have become wooden, inflexible, self-perpetuating and inward-looking. Consequently, their attitude is one of indifference and insensitivity to the needs of citizens.
Lack of Accountability: A common reason usually cited for inefficiency in governance is the inability within the system to hold the Civil Services accountable for their actions. Seldom are disciplinary proceedings initiated against delinquent government servants and imposition of penalties is even rarer.
Red Tapism: Bureaucracies the world over are expected to adhere to rules and procedures which are, of course, important for good governance. However, at times, these rules and procedures are ab-initio ill-conceived and cumbersome and, therefore, do not serve their purpose.
Low levels of Awareness of the Rights and Duties of Citizens: Inadequate awareness about their rights prevents citizens from holding erring government servants to account. Similarly, low levels of compliance of Rules by the citizens also acts as an impediment to good governance.
Ineffective Implementation of Laws and Rules: There is a large body of laws in the country, each legislated with diff event objectives – maintaining public order and safety, maintaining sanitation and hygiene, protecting the rights of citizens, giving special protection to the vulnerable sections etc. weak implementation of these issues can cause a great deal of hardship to citizens and even erode the faith of the citizenry in the government machinery.
Others constraints
Women Empowerment: According to Swami Vivekananda “it is impossible to think about the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved. It is impossible for a bird to fly on only one wing.” 108th Constitution Amendment Bill, promising 33 per cent reservation to women in Parliament and the state assemblies have not been considered by the government yet.
Caste and religion-based politics: Equity and inclusiveness is one of the principles of good governance but some of the features of the present politics in India are use of caste and religion to influence the population. These aspects work against the principle of equity and can be used as a tool to incite violence against a particular section of society.
Corruption: The high level of corruption in India has been widely perceived as a major obstacle in improving the quality of governance. The government implemented different welfare policies like PDS, NRHM, MGNREGA, Prime Minister’s Jan DhanYojana, etc. which are very influential for good governance. But because of corruption practise among our bureaucrats our Government cannot achieve success in the implementation of these programmes.
Delay in justice: Overall, the pendency of cases has increased significantly at every level of the judicial hierarchy in the last decade. Between 2006 and now, there has been an overall increase of 22% (64 lakh cases) in the pendency of cases across all courts. As of August 2019, there are over 3.5 crore cases pending across the Supreme Court, the High Courts, and the subordinate courts. The primary reason for growing pendency of cases is that the number of new cases filed every year has outpaced the number of disposed of cases. This has resulted in a growing backlog of cases.
Criminalisation of Politics: - The criminalisation of the political process and the unholy nexus between politicians, civil servants, and business houses are having a baneful influence on public policy formulation and governance.

3.7    Self-Check Exercise

a.    Theories and Preconditions of Good Governance

b.    Features of Good Governance

c.    Constraints of Good Governance

3.8    Summary
Good governance is a qualitative term which gets strengthened with people's participation, with transparent and accountable mechanism. The rule of law also plays a definitive role towards ensuring good governance. This process is, now, being strengthened by the application of science and technology, which has revolutionized governance, and plays an important role in bringing people closer to the process of governance. Governance plays an important role in development. Good governance stresses on transparency, accountability, participation of stakeholders in the process of governance, providing voice to the powerless against deprivation, giving choice and interest to the people to grow. By looking at the good governance principles, the human development and people centred approaches of development foster inclusive development.

3.9    Glossary
Civil Society: It refers to self-organisation of citizens. It is the collective ofsocial organisations that enjoy autonomy from the state. Civil society includes financial, charitable, social service, development and professional organisations.
PPPs (Public Private Partnership): Collaborations between public and private sector to manage the various projects across the country.
State: This is the basic actor in today’s world, representing a definite population, having a definite territory, a government, and sovereignty (the ultimate authority in handling its affairs).

3.10    Answers to Self-check exercise
To see          a. 1.2, 1.3      b. 1.4           c. 1.6

3.11    Suggested Readings
Bhattacharya, Mohit, 2001, New Horizons of Public Administration, Jawahar, New Delhi.
Mathur, Kuldeep (2009), From Government to Governance, National Book Governance: An OverviewTrust, New Delhi.
UNDP Report, 1994, Good Governance and Sustainable Human Development, Oxford
University, New York
World Bank (1 989), Sub-Saharan Africa: From Crisis to Sustainable Growth, World Bank, Washington DC.

3.12    Terminal Questions

1.    Explain the theoretical foundation of Good Governance.

2.    What are the main features of Good Governance? Explain in brief.

CHAPTER 4
World Bank and UNDP
Structure

4.0 LearningObjectives

4.1    Introduction

4.2    World Bank and its components

4.3    United Nations and UNDP

4.4    Aim and Projects of World Bank

4.5    Issues with United Nations Programmes

4.6    Self-Check Exercise

4.7    Summary

4.8 Glossary

4.9    Answer to Self-Check Exercise

4.10    Suggested Reading

4.11    Terminal Questions
4.0LearningObjectives:
Aftergoingthroughthislessonthestudentswillbeabletoknow

•    World Banks and its parts

•    Analyse the importance of United Nations

•    Understand the emerging institutions in multipolar world

•    Role of International Institutions in global governance

4.1    Introduction
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), often referred to as the World Bank, was set up as a sister organisation of the International Monetary Fund. The decision to create IBRD was taken at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. The World Bank started its operations in 1946. Its main purpose was to promote the long-term foreign investment to help in transforming War devastated economies and to encourage less developed economies to accelerate the pace of their development. Obviously the activities of the World Bank were to remain confined to assisting only the member countries.
The United Nations was officially formed on the 24th October, 1945. Its forerunner, the League of Nations was conceived of in similar post-war circumstances in 1919. The League of Nations was meant to promote international cooperation and to achieve peace and security. Its demise happened due to its failure to prevent the Second World War. The term United Nations was first coined by the U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was first used as a collective pledge of representatives of 26 nations on the 1st January, 1942, as a commitment to continue to fight against the Axis Powers.On October 24th, 1945, as many as 51 countries signed the United Nations Charter in South Africa. The charter was worked out based on the proposals drafted by the representatives of China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States. The central role of the United Nations was the promotion of peace and security, development and human rights.At present, there are 191 sovereign states who are members of the United Nations, which are virtually all nation-states. The United Nations is based on the principle of sovereign equality of each nation state.

4.2    World Bank and its Components
World Bank, in full World Bank Group, international organization affiliated with the United Nations (UN) and designed to finance projects that enhance the economic development of member states. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the bank is the largest source of financial assistance to developing countries. It also provides technical assistance and policy advice and supervises on behalf of international creditors the implementation of free-market reforms. Together with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization, it plays a central role in overseeing economic policy and reforming public institutions in developing countries and defining the global macroeconomic agenda.
The World Bank Group consists of:

•    The International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), established in 1945, which provides debt financing on the basis of sovereign guarantees;

•    The International Financial Corporation (IFC), established in 1956, which provides various forms of financing of without sovereign guarantees, primarily to the private sector;

•    The International Development Association (IDA), established in 1960, which provides concessional financing (interest-free loans or grants), usually with sovereign guarantees;

•    The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), established in 1988, which provides insurance against certain types of risks, including political risk, primarily to the private sector; and,

•    The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), established in 1966, which works with governments to reduce investment risk.
The term “World Bank” generally refers to the IBRD and IDA, whereas the World Bank Group is used to refer to the institutions collectively.

4.3    United Nations and UNDP
The United Nations consists of six main organs - the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, the Secretariat and the Trusteeship Council. Second, there are a number of United Nations programmes and funds such as the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UN Development Programme (UNDP), and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) etc. These programmes and funds fall under the Economic and Social Council of the UN but are also reported to the General Assembly. The third set of actors within the UN is the specialised agencies and analogous bodies working in diverse areas such as agriculture, health, labour and meteorology. Well known among these bodies are UNESCO, ILO, FAO and the World Bank set of institutions.The UN system has a vast array of responsibilities. These responsibilities include peacekeeping, disaster management, health, natural resource management and even lending of money. In that sense, the scope of the UN mandate is aimed at providing a more stable and secure world withenhanced opportunities for all across the globe.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provides expert advice, training and grants support to developing countries, with an increasing emphasis on assistance to the least developed countries. It promotes technical and investment cooperation among nations.

•    The UNDP Executive Board is made up of representatives from 36 countries around the world who serve on a rotating basis.

•    It is funded entirely by voluntary contributions from member nations.

•    UNDP is central to the United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG), a network that spans almost 170 countries and unites the 40 UN funds, programmes, specialized agencies and other bodies working to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

•    The UNDP is considered an executive board within the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

•    It is headed by an Administrator.
The Human Development Report (HDR) is an annual report published by the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. A country scores a higher HDI when the lifespan is higher, the education level is higher, and the Gross National Income GNI (PPP) per capita is higher.
India and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have worked since 1951 on various issues related to human development involving sustainable livelihoods, environment, literacy, institutional strengthening, sustainable energy and resilience. The Government of India aligned with UNDP to work on the India 2030 National Development Mission and build further Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The three major areas of focus for UNDP India’s country programme for 2018-2022 are:

•    Inclusive Growth

•    Environment & Energy

•    Strengthening Systems & Institutions
The nodal agency for all matters related to UNDP in India is the Department of Economic Affairs, Finance Ministry, GOI. The UNDP has offices in 6 locations in India.

4.4    Aim and Projects of World Bank
World Bank was initially established with the following objectives:

•    Financing reconstruction of the war devastated economies: During World War II many countries of Europe had suffered heavily in terms of the destruction of their infrastructure and industries. The economies of these countries were in bad shape and could not generate adequate resources internally for the reconstruction work.

•    Financing development of economically backward countries: By the time the Bretton Woods Conference was held, it had become clear that in the post-World War II period economically backward countries having inadequate domestic resources would need considerable amount of private foreign capital as well as foreign aid to tread on the path of economic development. Given the requirements of resources of these countries both these sources of external finance were likely to be inadequate and uncertain. The World Bank was thus expected to provide long-term financial help for development projects in underdeveloped countries.

•    Promotion of long-term balanced growth of international trade: It is generally agreed that international trade is beneficial to all the participants in it. Therefore, a balanced growth of international trade should be encouraged.
The World Bank is a provider of financial and technical assistance to individual countries around the globe. The bank considers itself a unique financial institution that sets up partnerships to reduce poverty and support economic development.The World Bank supplies qualifying governments with low-interest loans, zero-interest credits, and grants, all to support the development of individual economies. Debt borrowings and cash infusions help with global education, healthcare, public administration, infrastructure, and private-sector development. The World Bank also shares information with various entities through policy advice, research and analysis, and technical assistance. It offers advice and training for both the public and private sectors. The World Bank provides financing, advice, and other resources to developing countries in the areas of education, public safety, health, and other areas of need. Often, nations, organizations, and other institutions partner with the World Bank to sponsor development projects.

•    In 2017, the World Bank created the Human Capital Project, which seeks to help countries invest in and develop their people to be productive citizens and active contributors to their economy. World leaders are urged to prioritize investments in education, healthcare, and social protections, and, in return, they will realize a stronger economy full of healthy, thriving adults.

•    In April 2016, the World Bank approved the National Immunization Support Project for Pakistan. This project, costing an estimated $377.41 million, aims to increase the equitable distribution of vaccines to children ages 0 to 23 months.

•    The Learning for the Future project was created to enhance children's readiness for school and the effectiveness of secondary instruction in specific Kyrgyz Republic communities. The project consists of two components: increasing the equitable access of early childhood education and improving the effectiveness of instruction in secondary education

4.5    Issues with United Nations Programmes
Since its inception 75 years ago, the UN has remained the world’s most important multilateral forum. Today, the world faces global threats, both coventional (violent conflict, nuclear proliferation, and infectious disease) and non-conevtional (climate change, terrorism, and cyberwar, among others). However, the UN system is enmeshed in serious budgetary difficulties and subject to endless reforms. These lacunae can be reflected in the following:

•    UNGA has no control over veto power exercised by UNSC and it cannot take any decisive action against permanent members of UNSC.The 15-member Security Council is by far the most powerful arm of the United Nations. It can impose sanctions, as it did against Iran over its nuclear program, and authorize military intervention, as it did against Libya in 2011.However, the veto power is used by permanent five countries to serve the strategic interest of themselves and their allies.

•    The UN charter is vague in defining the duties of the secretary general, the United Nations’ top official. It is expected to show no favoritism to any particular country, but as the office is largely dependent on the funding and the good will of the most powerful nations, it hampers the working of the said office.

•    The World Trade Organization is mandated to expand the free trade agenda and a standard bearer for open and efficient global markets.However, the advanced countries are determined to promote the kind of corporate-friendly rules that align with their own economic interests and are indifferent to the Doha Development Agenda.

•    WHO was mandated to control the spread of contagious diseases, backstop public health programmes, formulate standards on nutrition and hygiene and establish a centre for comparative health data.However, recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been criticised by the US on account of mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequently suspended its financial contribution to WHO.

4.6    Self-Check Exercise

a.    World Bank and its Components

b.    UNDP

c.    Issues with United Nations

4.7    Summary
In order to realise the mandated objectives, the World Bank performs a number of functions which can be classified broadly under three heads: i) lending and guaranteeing private foreign loans; ii) providing technical assistance; and iii) stimulating private investments. Countries with persistent deficits in their balance of payments can get structural adjustment loans from the World Bank to finance projects which will bring about such structural changes in their economies that their balance of payments position improves. However, these loans carry with them stringent terms and conditions.
UNDP stands for United Nations Development Programme. It provides expert advice training and grants support to developing countries, with an increasing emphasis on assistance to the least developed countries. Its overall goal is to contribute to sustainable human development. UNDP has 4 focus areas in its mandate: poverty reduction, democratic governance, environment and energy and crisis prevention and recovery. It’s headquarter is located in New York city. It provides experts to help build legal and political institutions and expand the private sector. UNDP is governed by a 36 member Executive Board overseen by an
administrator, who is the third highest ranking unofficial after the secretary-general and the deputy-Secretary General. The UNDP operates in 170 countries and is funded entirely by voluntary contributions from the UN member states.

4.8    Glossary
Bretton woods Institutions: The Brettonwoods Institutions are the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. They were set up in July 1944 at a meeting of 43 Countries in Brettonwoods, New Hampshire, USA. Their aim was to help rebuild the sheltered post- war economy and to promote international economic cooperation.
Intellectual Property: It is a category of property that refers to intangible creations of human intellect. It includes copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets etc.
World Trade Organisation: It is a global international organisation dealing with (WTO) the rules of trade between nations. Its goal is to help producers of goods and service, exporters and importers conduct their business. Its headquarters is located at Geneva, Switzerland.

4.9    Answers to Self-check exercise
To see         a. 1.2          b. 1.3          c. 1.5

4.10    Suggested Readings
Misxa, S.K. 1990. Money, lncome and Financial Institutions, Pragati Publications: Delhi (Chapters 24 and 25).
The World Bank, 1985. World Development Report, 1985, Oxford University Press: New Yorlc (Chapter 10).
United Nations.(2017). Basic Facts about the United Nations, 42nd edition. New York: United Nations Department of Public Information

4.11    Terminal Questions

1.    What are World Bank Group and its relevance in today’ s times?

2.    What is United Nations? Explain the implementation of UNDP?

CHAPTER 5
Digital Governance: Concepts, Scope and Significance
Structure

5.0 LearningObjectives

5.1    Introduction

5.2    Concept of Digital Governance

5.3    Scope of Digital Governance

5.4    Significance of Digital Governance

5.5    Future Technologies and Challenges

5.6    Self-Check Exercise

5.7    Summary

5.8 Glossary

5.9    Answer to Self-Check Exercise

5.10    Suggested Reading

5.11    Terminal Questions
5.0LearningObjectives:
Aftergoingthroughthislessonthestudentswillbeabletoknow

•    The Concept of Digital Governance

•    Scope of Digital Governance

•    Upcoming Technologies in the World

5.1    Introduction
Digital governance is about creating a work environment that allows all digital stakeholders to have access to information and participate in the development of the organization’s digital
strategy. There is also a need to establish accountability. This means that the framework must be designed to limit threats and maximize potential gains.
The emerging area of digital era governance focuses on dynamically changing societal contexts. It aims to identify and explore complex scenarios for future policies, based on current trends and informed speculation. This study uses evidence-informed social foresight to explore how citizens and public service organizations can respond to these scenarios.
One of the key components of digital governance is defining decision-making authority. A well-designed framework identifies the decision-making authority of different digital teams and combines them with other important aspects such as accountability, transparency, and collaboration. The best way to implement a good governance framework is to start by designing an operating model for your digital activities. This should include a clear statement of the objectives, performance measures, and tactics to meet these objectives.

5.2    Concept of Digital Governance
Digital governance is a framework for establishing accountability, roles, and decision-making authority for an organization’s digital presence which means its websites, mobile sites, social channels, and any other Internet and Web-enabled products and services. Having a well-designed digital governance framework minimizes the number of tactical debates regarding the nature and management of an organization’s digital presence by making clear that on your digital team has decision-making authority for these areas. Also, it is a term used to describe a set of strategies that a company uses to ensure that its content is managed across the entire digital landscape. It includes a variety of activities including developing a digital governance framework, determining the authority to make decisions, and ensuring the quality of data.When these questions are answered and your digital governance framework is well implemented by leadership, your organization can look forward to a more productive work environment for all digital stakeholders and a higher-quality, more effective digital presence.
Digital governance is important because it helps to ensure that digital technologies are used in a responsible and ethical manner, and that they are aligned with the values and goals of the organization or community. It can also help to protect against risks and vulnerabilities, such as data breaches and cyber-attacks. Digital governance can be implemented through a variety of mechanisms, including policies, guidelines, training programs, and governance structures. It is
an evolving field that requires ongoing attention and adaptation in order to keep pace with the rapid changes in digital technologies.

5.3    Scope of Digital Governance
The term scope signifies the length and breadth of the applications where digital technologies can be used in the governance of the country. A variety of stakeholders are involved in the effective functioning of government. The term consists of the digital interactions between:
G2C – This allows the citizens to benefit from the efficient delivery of a wide range of public services thereby improving the quality of services. In this mode of delivery a government directly make citizens aware and provide required services in transparent manner.
G2B – Business community interact with the government using effective governing tools when dealing with services such as permits, licensing, procurement and revenue collection. Digital revolution tries to facilitate ease of doing business within the country.
G2G – This involves interaction between various departments within the government or between union and state governments or between state government to increase efficiency, performance and output.
G2E – ICT tools increase the speed and efficiency of interaction between the government and its employees faster.Employees feels better informed while taking decisions and could able to convey their work to above authorities in real time manner.

5.4    Significance of Digital Governance
The technological advancements in every field have led to governments adopting modern age practices to reach to the masses. To bring transparency and allow people to take active participation in governance, the governments all over the world are taking the help of the technology.
For government

•    It saves the cost of physical monitoring and administration and thus leads to cost saving for the government. Now there will be efficient usage of public funds as they will be less prone to neglect and waste expenses.

•    It will remove the barriers and make the government better at administration and thus
result in better governance.

•    It will increase the data collection and thus will help the administration in better evaluation, implementation, and better scheme outcomes.

•    Public policies result in better outcomes and hence public trust in administration will also increase with the reduced gap because of minimum government and maximum governance.

•    Increased accountability, coordination, and communication will arise from efficient file transfers and work delegation.

•    It will lead to better accessibility as the online resources are easier to find and thus the issues of loss and duplication will be reduced.
For Citizens

•    It will empower the citizens to hold the government accountable for their work and policies, and thus increased transparency will lead to an empowered citizenry, as the digital services due to their inclusivity goes beyond the geographical barriers and thus increases the scope of governance.

•    E-Governance leads to speedy justice delivery and resolves grievances faster and thus increasing the public trust and faith in the governance system.

•    E-Governance reduces the gap between the citizens and the government to a large extent, especially those who are vulnerable and historically lacked access like women, Dalits, and tribals.

•    Women-centric schemes are better implemented and the data collection, on the implementation of schemes, crimes prevailing, trends followed, etc are better gathered through e governance, same is true for other sections of society.
For Business

•    It helps in ease of doing business by making the compliance and performance better. With digital resources the businesses can now expand their market and client base beyond the geographical barriers and thus leading to the country’s growth and
development and balance of trade.

•    With a paperless economy and fewer physical requirements the process of setting, maintaining, and coordinating businesses has become better and faster and thus results in reduced delays.
Others
Post COVID era: The government stressed the need for right and optimum use of egovernance initiatives especially in the post COVID era. It has provided flexible timings and helped people especially employees during COVID pandemic.
Ease of life: The purpose of e- governance is to bring ease of life for common citizens.
One nation-one portal: Over grievances and redressal, the linking of the Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System with that of the states is almost done realizing Prime Minister’s vision for one nation-one portal.
Simplification: To support and simplify governance for government, citizens, and businesses.
Transparent and accountable: To make government administration more transparent and accountable while addressing the society’s needs and expectations through efficient public services and effective interaction between the people, businesses, and government.
Corruption: To reduce corruption in the government.
Speedy delivery: To ensure speedy administration of services and information.
To reduce difficulties: for business, provide immediate information and enable digital communication by e-business.

5.5    Future Technologies and Challenges
Frontier technologies are defined as potentially disruptive technologies that can address large-scale challenges or opportunities. Frontier technology is the next phase in the evolution of modern technology. It is the intersection where radical forward-thinking and real-world implementation meet. For example AI, robotics, 3D printing, and the Internet of Things, etc.Frontier technologies have unlocked new routes to prosperity through agriculture,
manufacturing, trade in services, the linking of informal and formal sectors, and domestic interconnectivity.They have enormous potential to improve government administration and the delivery of public services.
Quantum computing relates to computing made by a quantum computer. Compared to traditional computing done by a classical computer, a quantum computer should be able to store much more information and operate with more efficient algorithms. This translates to solving extremely complex tasks faster.
Associated Challenges
Digital Exclusion: As Information and Communication Technology infrastructure is the backbone of many frontier technologies, there is a risk of its triggering a new frontier technology divide, compounding an already existing digital divide. An estimated three billion people could still lack internet access by 2023, and many more will have little or no opportunity to reap the benefits of digital technologies. There is a danger that gains associated with frontier technologies will not reach the world’s poorest people.
Uncertain Future of Work: In the coming decades, the jobs of 785 million workers, that’s equivalent to over 50 % of total employment in the Asia-Pacific region could be automated.
Trust and Ethical Questions: Frontier Technology per se is not the problem, but there are ethical issues surrounding privacy, ownership and transparency. With the world’s population projected to reach ten billion by mid-century, global governance will become even more complex than it is today.
Developing countries, in particular, are starting from a difficult position, because they are already grappling with the challenges of low human capital, ineffective institutions, and a difficult business environment.
Issues in Implementation
Lack of computer literacy: India is still a developing country and a vast majority of the citizens lack computer literacy which hinders the effectiveness of e-governance.
Lack of accessibility: to the internet or even computers in some parts of the country is a disadvantage to e-governance.
E-Governance results in a loss of human interaction: As the system becomes more mechanized, lesser interaction takes place among people.
Risk: It gives rise to the risk of personal data theft and leakage.
E-Governance leads to a lax administration: The service provider can easily provide excuses for not providing the service on technical grounds such as “server is down” or “internet is not working”, etc.

5.6    Self-Check Exercise

a.    Digital Governance

b.    Significance of Digital Governance

c.    Challenges in Implementation

5.7    Summary
The digital governance has given a fillip to the overall re-engineering process in the governance structure of the country with strong political and administrative desire to redefine the existing work culture, rules and procedures. However, for digital governance to actually lead to empowerment of citizens, the focus needs to be on multi-level institutional change, which would create opportunities for the people to utilise the associated benefits. Digital governance applications should be widespread to cover the rural and remote areas of the country so that the rural population can access internet for information that is useful to them. It has been observed that most of the projects make use of business models, public–private partnership models, localisation, appropriate technology and interface with smart government.
| 5.8 Glossary |
|---|
| AI: | Artificial Intelligence |
| ICT: | Information and Communication Technology |
| IoT: | Internet of Things |
| 3D Printing: | Three Dimensional Printing |



5.9    Answers to Self-check exercise
To see         a. 1.2          b. 1.4          c. 1.5

5.10    Suggested Readings
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357398959_DIGITAL_GOVERNANCE_EMERGE NCE_AND_IMPORTANCE
Peng, B. (2022). Digital leadership: State governance in the era of digital technology. Cultures of Science, 5(4), 210–225. https://doi.org/10.1177/2096608321989835

5.11    Terminal Questions

1.    Explain the concept of digital governance and outline its scope?

2.    Brief about the scope and significance of digital governance

CHAPTER 6
Issues and Challenges: Digital Divide, Privacy and Cyber Security, Capacity Building
Structure

6.0 LearningObjectives

6.1    Introduction

6.2    Issues and Challenges of Digital Governance

6.3    Digital Divide

6.4    Privacy and Cyber Security

6.5    Capacity Building

6.6    Self-Check Exercise

6.7    Summary

6.8 Glossary

6.9    Answer to Self-Check Exercise

6.10    Suggested Reading

6.11    Terminal Questions
6.0LearningObjectives:
Aftergoingthroughthislessonthestudentswillbeabletoknow

•    The Concept of Digital Divide

•    The importance of Privacy and Security

•    Requirement of Capacity Building for stakeholders

6.1    Introduction
Around the world, Governments and public sector organizations are facing to reform their public administration organizations and deliver more efficient and cost effective services, as well as better knowledge and information to their stakeholders. The emergence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has provided means for faster and better communication, retrieval of data and utilization of information to its users. The enabling role of the ICT in the delivery of services in the public and government sector has gained acceptance. E-governance has become the key to good-governance in a developing country like India. Cooperation from government officials and staff will be crucial in realizing the goals of modernizing this nation through E-Governance. To be at par with developed countries, the Indian Government has made out a plan to use Information Technology extensively in its operation to make more efficient and effective and also to bring transparency and accountability. Development of any country can be judged by the scope of E-Governance in that country.

6.2    Issues and Challenges of Digital Governance
Modern era poses different and difficult issues. Many of those can be dealt with the help of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). But the use of ICT itself put forward variety of concerns and issues which are as follows:
Technical Issues
Information Technology infrastructure is the backbone of E-governance.Interoperability with existing software and hardware platforms is a key success factor. Finally, some legal aspect, like security and privacy, must be considered, as personal data are processed and stored, and financial transitions must be executed.
Social Issues
Acceptance and usability by a large variety of people make e-governance successful. The interface must be usable by rich or poor, disabled or elderly people, understandable by low literacy or non-native language people.
Infrastructure
Social, geographical and economic disparity issues have to be removed and proper infrastructure is required to establish e-governance.The ICT facilities need to be developed and should be available to one and all citizens. Internet connection through satellite, phone lines or through cable or Television should be accessible for all especially to the people in rural areas.
Accessibility
Any service should be accessible by anybody from anywhere at any time. Even if Internet population is exponentially growing in India, still there is a significant portion of the people who may not be able to access services for various reasons like limited access to ICT technologies and devices, low literacy, or phobia for Computer etc. Therefore, universal access is still a mirage.
Usability & Acceptance
People especially in rural areas are often not expert users and need guidance and support for their transaction. Governmental websites must be user friendly, to be effective. A reconceptualization of government services is mandatory for successful implementation and to get social acceptance.
Political will power & Economic issues
E-governance means less interaction with government servants, it will be helpful in reducing bribery issues. Economic issues are mainly concerned with return of investment and safeguard of the previous ones. Cost of implementation, operational and evolutionary maintenance must be low enough to guarantee a good cost/benefit ratio.
Legal issues
Strong and effective rules related with IT has to be formulated and strongly implemented. This presupposes the adoption and use of security measures more particularly empowering and training judiciary and law enforcement manpower with the knowledge and use of cyber forensics and digital evidencing.
Other issues
Underutilization of existing ICT infrastructure.Attitude of Government Departments and governmentofficers need a proper counselling. Many officersperceive their department as most important and disregard other department’s needs. Lack of coordination between Govt. Department and Solution developers.Resistance to re-engineering of departmental processes is also a challenge, but this approach is changing now.

6.3    Digital Divide
It refers to the gap between those with regular, effective access to digital technology and the internet, and those without this access. The Digital Divide, also called the digital split, is a social issue referring to the gap that exists between individuals who have access to modern information and communication technology and those who lack the access. It represents the disparities between demographics and regions at different social, economic levels or other categories over the use of Internet and communication technologies. The digital divide can exist between those living in rural areas and those living in urban areas, between the educated and uneducated, between economic classes, and on a global scale between more and less industrially developed nations.
Digital Divide - Types
Gender Divide - the internet gender gap is striking especially in developing countries. Though mobile connectivity is spreading drastically, it is not spreading equally. Women are still lagging. Studies indicate that Indian women are around 15% less likely to own a mobile phone than men. Even among women owning mobile phones, most have no access to internet connectivity.
Social Digital Divide - Internet access creates relationships and social circles among people with shared interests. Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, etc. create online peer groups based on similar interests. Internet usage has created social stratification which is evident among those that are connected to the internet and those that are not. Non-connected groups are side-lined since they don’t share the benefits enjoyed by the groups connected on the internet.
Access Digital Divide - The main barriers under this point are lack of telecommunication infrastructure with sufficient reliable bandwidth, the high cost and the inability to purchase or rent the necessary equipment. This results in lack of access to technology.
The Urban-Rural divide- the digital divide between India’s rural and urban areas during the lockdown was highlighted not just in the education sector, but was evident everywhere, be it telemedicine, e-commerce, banking, e-governance all of which became accessible only through the internet during the lockdown. Services such as online classrooms, financial transactions and e-governance require access to the internet as well as the ability to operate internet-enabled devices like phones, tablets and computers.
Regional Digital Divide and Intra-State Digital inequality - In terms of people that have access to computers or the know-how to use the internet, States too greatly differ in the matrices. Southern states are more digitally literate than Northern counterparts. Kerala is the state where the difference between rural and urban areas is the least.
Other Digital Divide - This includes inequality in the usage of digital technologies due to lack of ICTs skill or support, physical disability or cultural and behavioural attitudes towards technology.

6.4    Privacy and Cyber Security
The Puttaswamy judgement holds that the right to privacy is protected as a fundamental constitutional right under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India.Concerns about surveillance all across the globe due to Cambridge analytical and other scandals. Privacy has been defined by the US judiciary as the right to be let alone. This concept is now being deemed by experts as insufficient in a large interconnected world. The Supreme Court of India opined (in Ram Jethmalani vs Union of India case.) that “it is important that human beings should be allowed domains of freedom that are free of public scrutiny unless they act in an unlawful manner.” Privacy ensures that freedom of speech and expression survives. This is because once we are put under surveillance we will start to censor ourselves for fear of state action. Democratic ideals of Pluralism and diversity start in the mind. And only an unfettered mind free from fear can appreciate and revel in these ideals. Recently the use of private data for election campaigning brought out the controversy regarding large scale storage of public data.
Facebook, Equifax, etc. were also under fire for violating user privacy and using unethical means to track users’ lifestyle and movements. Repressive regimes like Saudi Arabia and China also extensively use data mining technology to monitor and surveil citizens. They use coercive methods to suppress dissent and censor free speech. India also had plans to initiate a mass surveillance programme but had to put it on hold after receiving widespread criticism.
Concerns with respect to privacy: Having no privacy is like having a perpetual warrant in your name. If you feel you are under constant surveillance you will never enjoy freedom and liberty which are your fundamental rights. Unregulated access to data can lead to the suppression of dissent and censorship. Journalists, Human Rights Activists etc. can be put under an invisible prison of surveillance. People who are leading a lifestyle which is deemed a taboo by a certain section of the society might be vilified or targeted. E.g. homosexuals.Surveillance by Police also causes a concentration of power and puts civil liberties at serious risk. Law enforcement officials across the world are also accused of unauthorised data collection, data mining to predict travel plans etc. to put citizen’s reputation at risk.
Cyber Security is protecting cyber space including critical information infrastructure from attack, damage, misuse and economic espionage.
Cyber Space: A global domain within the information environment consisting of the interdependent network of information technology infrastructures, including the Internet, telecommunications networks, computer systems, and embedded processors and controllers.
Critical Information Infrastructure (CII): According to Section 70(1) of the Information Technology Act, CII is defined as a “computer resource, the incapacitation or destruction of which, shall have debilitating impact on national security, economy, public health or safety”.
Cyber Attack: It is a malicious and deliberate attempt by an individual or organization to breach the information system of another individual or organization.
Types of Cyber Attacks
Malware, short for malicious software refers to any kind of software that is designed to cause damage to a single computer, server, or computer network. Ransomware, Spy ware, Worms, viruses, and Trojans are all varieties of malware.
Phishing: It is the method of trying to gather personal information using deceptive e-mails and websites.
Denial of Service attacks: A Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack is an attack meant to shut down a machine or network, making it inaccessible to its intended users. DoS attacks accomplish this by flooding the target with traffic, or sending it information that triggers a crash.
Man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks, also known as eavesdropping attacks, occur when attackers insert themselves into a two-party transaction. Once the attackers interrupt the traffic, they can filter and steal data.
Need for Cyber Security
For Individuals: Photos, videos and other personal information shared by an individual on social networking sites can be inappropriately used by others, leading to serious and even lifethreatening incidents.
For Business Organizations: Companies have a lot of data and information on their systems. A cyber-attack may lead to loss of competitive information (such as patents or original work), loss of employees/customers private data resulting into complete loss of public trust on the integrity of the organization.
For Government: A local, state or central government maintains huge amount of confidential data related to country (geographical, military strategic assets etc.) and citizens. Unauthorized access to the data can lead to serious threats on a country.
International Mechanisms:
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a specialized agency within the United Nations which plays a leading role in the standardization and development of telecommunications and cyber security issues.
Budapest Convention on Cybercrime: It is an international treaty that seeks to address Internet and computer crime (cybercrime) by harmonizing national laws, improving investigative techniques, and increasing cooperation among nations. It came into force on 1 July 2004. India is not a signatory to this convention.
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN): It is a non-profit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces and numerical spaces of the Internet, ensuring the network's stable and secure operation. It has its headquarters in Los Angeles, U.S.A.

6.5    Capacity Building
Capacity building is the process of developing and strengthening the skills, abilities, processes and resources that organizations and communities need to survive, adapt, and thrive. It involves improving the facility or capabilities of an individual or an organisation to produce perform and deploy something. Capacity building can include any activity that is used to increase the amount of productive ability that an organisation has.
The consensus approach of the international community for the components of capacity building as established by the World Bank, United Nations and European Commission consists of five areas: a clear policy framework, institutional development and legal framework, citizen participation and oversight, human resources improvements including education and training, and sustainability.
Capacity Building scheme under Digital India programme envisions building adequate and relevant capacities at all levels in the Government. The objective is to develop a holistic understanding on visualising, conceiving and delivering projects.

6.6    Self-Check Exercise

a. Digital Divide b. Privacy and Cyber Security

6.7    Summary
E-governance is getting momentous in India. E-governance has had great role in each sphere of the economy over number of years. India economy has been progressive one on account of good governance. Conventionally, govt. used to struggle to provide services to its citizens before initiatives of e-governance. When government started launching many initiatives for egovernance; it has become one of the emerging economies due to its potentiality of ICT. Till now, govt. has implemented various initiatives with different projects (Digital India, e-kranti, etc.).
However, it still has some hurdles regarding e-governance, such as: digital divide between urban and rural, poverty, illiteracy, security and cost of implementation, etc. Each of these issues and challenges are posing serious concern to government. Meanwhile, previous and current govt. launched multiple initiatives by overcoming the above issues and challenges. Under twelve five year plan, some of the future prospects outlined and partly achieved by every
government. However, govt. should spend more on this initiative to make it transparent, convenient, and safer and citizen friendly in order to enhance people confidence in to good democratic e-governance.

6.8    Glossary
CII:                 Critical Information Infrastructure
ICT:              Information and Communication Technology
IoT:                Internet of Things

6.9    Answers to Self-check exercise
To see         a. 1.3          b. 1.4

6.10    Suggested Readings
Annual Report. (2015) – “e-Governance Policy Initiatives under Digital India”, Dept. of Electronics and Information Technology,Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Govt. of India.
Beniwal, V.S., and Sikka, Kapil. (2013) -“e-Governance in India: prospects and challenges, International Journal of Computer & Communication Technology, issn: 0975-7449, volume-4, issue.3
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/quality-framework/technical-notes/concept-of-governance/

6.11    Terminal Questions

1.    What are the issues and challenges in digital governance?

2.    Brief about the digital divide and cyber security?

CHAPTER 7
Democracy, Information, Social Media Platforms, Drivers and Barriers of Open Digital Governance
Structure

7.0 LearningObjectives

7.1    Introduction

7.2    Democracy and Information

7.3    Social Media Platforms

7.4    Drivers and Barriers of Open Digital Governance

7.5    Role of Digital Governance in Democracy

7.6    Self-Check Exercise

7.7    Summary

7.8 Glossary

7.9    Answer to Self-Check Exercise

7.10    Suggested Reading

7.11    Terminal Questions
7.0LearningObjectives:
Aftergoingthroughthislessonthestudentswillbeabletoknow

•    The role of Social Media Platforms

•    The drivers and barriers of Open Digital Governance

•    Role of Social media and Digital Governance in a Democracy

7.1    Introduction
Over the past decade, digital governance has evolved from providing static content and services to integrating user generated content and social media technologies. This allows citizens to participate and provide regular feedback on policies and programs, both of which promote public value through e-democracy.
Along with e-government and e-democracy, the concepts of open government and transparency are new paradigms which emphasize access to data and its reuse, and thereby promote interoperability and innovation. The recent developments in wireless technologies have introduced new means and directions of communication. Millions of people all over the world are now engaged in political, economic, cultural, and educational discourses due to the vast expansion of the World Wide Web. Indeed, open digital governance and social media has transformed people’ s lifestyles and has introduced a new pattern of social interaction.

7.2    Democracy and Information
Access to information is one of the keys to democracy. Allowing people to seek and receive public documents serves as a critical tool for fighting corruption, enabling citizens to more fully participate in public life, making governments more efficient, encouraging investment, and helping persons exercise their fundamental human rights. Many governments are confronted with the urgent need to improve their economy, reform their constitution, strengthen institutions, modernize the public administration, fight corruption, and address civil unrest. For these governments, access to information can be used to achieve all of these objectives. With an access to information law, governments must establish record keeping and archiving systems, which serves to make them more efficient, reduce discretion and allow them to make better decisions based on factual information. Moreover, greater transparency can help re-establish trust between government and its citizens.
It is critical to work with both government and civil society. There is co-responsibility in the development of a vibrant access to information program. The government must pass a good law and implement the necessary procedures and processes, while civil society has the responsibility of using the law and monitoring government’s efforts. In India, documents obtained through access to information requests uncovered the fact that money for infrastructure projects, such as a canal for clean water, was being stolen by the contractor and
the paperwork forged. In Thailand, a single mother used her right to information to demonstrate that her daughter was denied a place in the best public schools not because she had failed the entrance exam, as the school directors claimed, but simply because she was poor and could not pay the bribes. So, access to information is one of the keys to democracy, as it allows people to fight corruption, engage in public life and exercise human rights.

7.3    Social Media Platforms
The introduction of the printing press in 15th century Europe revolutionised the social landscape, helping information spread further and faster than ever before. This had a deep link with the spread idea of democracy all over the world. In the present era, social media represents a similar paradigm shift. Today, social media plays a crucial role in facilitating and distributing content related to all the matters that have a larger influence on public opinion and subsequently on democracy. Although social media helps in the deepening of democracy, it also tends to weaken the concept of democracy and the emergence of anarchy, because of its unregulated nature and its role in the spread of fake news.
Benefits of Social Media
Democratisation of Information
Social media is allowing the democratisation of knowledge and broader communication. Billions of netizens around the world now feel empowered to bypass traditional curators of information. They have also become creators and disseminators of content, not just consumers of it.
New Opportunities
The rise of the virtual world provides voiceless people unprecedented opportunities to assert themselves and experience a sense of belongingness.The rise of several YouTubers as a medium of profession is a testimony of the phenomenon.
Wider and Heterogeneous Communities
Online communities are, geographically, much wider and more heterogeneous than physical communities.In the past, many communities in India were not allowed to participate in public
discourses, organise themselves and advance their thoughts and ideas.Their concerns, ideas, experiences, ambitions and demands largely went unheard.
Cheap and Easy
Today, creating content needs less investment than the brick and mortar or any other Physical set up.It is more often soft-skill driven.With the assistance of technology, anyone can create competent, authentic, effective and fresh online content.
Countering the Hegemony
Social Media has also evolved as a tool to counter the hegemony or narrative of traditional players.It has provided an alternate source of Knowledge in a world where mainstream media has come under severe public criticism for fake news and propaganda.
Closing the Distance
Social Media has also bridged the distance.Friends and Family are now connected over WhatsApp and other Apps despite being far away in distance.
Direct Interaction with Government
Today Social Media has empowered common people to directly interact with the government and avail government services directly.Common people tagging Railway and other ministries and the agencies responding to them are common news these days.
Challenges
Hate speech and Rumours
Hate speech and rumours in India have been responsible for acts of violence and deaths in many of the cases for quite some time now.The most recent being the case when two sadhus and their driver were lynched in Gadchinchale village in Palghar, Maharashtra this year.The incident was fuelled by WhatsApp rumours about thieves operating in the area and the group of villagers had mistaken the three passengers as thieves and killed them. Several policemen who intervened were also attacked and injured.Similarly Hate Speech on Social Media had a big role in the Delhi Riots of 2020.
Fake News
A 2019 Microsoft study found that over 64% of Indians encounter fake news online, the highest reported amongst the 22 countries surveyed. There are a staggering number of edited images, manipulated videos and fake text messages spreading through social media platforms and messaging services like WhatsApp making it harder to distinguish between misinformation and credible facts.
Online Trolling
Trolling is the new bi product of Social Media.Vigilantes take law in their own hand and start trolling and threatening those who don’t agree with their views or narratives.It has led to anonymous trolls who attack the reputation of an individual.
Women Safety
Women face cyber rape and threats that affect their dignity severely.Sometimes their pictures and videos are leaked with and are forced to cyber bullying.

7.4    Drivers and Barriers of Open Digital Governance
Drivers for the promotion of Open Digital Governance throughout the world can be summed up in the below mentioned points:

•    Financial scrutiny and oversight: digital technologies provide right direction of financial scrutiny and monitoring while implementation of schemes is going on.

•    Accountability for performance: In order to hold administration accountable towards the required task, digital platform can play required roles.

•    Risk management that provides effective oversight: Availability and accessibility of data through digital technologies help in decision making.

•    Managing change well: Real time changes are happening all the time around any system. Information technological applications help to cope up with the spontaneous changes and managing the resources well.

•    Effective assurance that systems are robust and reliable: Digital technologies are robust and reliable which assure for the smooth functioning of government processes.

•    Stakeholders - The organization has to place in the right people to assess and make decisions about the impact of implementing new digital technologies and the use of information or data about its key stakeholders. Key stakeholders may include the individuals your organisation sets out to deliver a service to, your staff and key strategic partners.

•    Delivering ESG – digital technologies will support it in meeting its environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals or targets, for example in relation to corruption reduction measures.
Barriers in the expansion of Open Digital Governance:
Different Language: India is a country where people with different cultures and different religions live. People belonging to different states speak different languages. The diversity of people in context of language is a huge challenge for implementing e-Governance projects as e-Governance applications are written in English language. And also, English may not be understandable by most of the people.
Low Literacy: Literacy can be defined as the ability to read and write with understanding in any language. A person who can merely read but cannot write cannot be considered as literate. Any formal education or minimum educational standard is not necessary to be considered literate. Literacy level of India is very low which is a huge obstacle in implementation of e-Governance projects.
User friendliness of government websites: Users of e-Governance applications are often non-expert users who may not be able to use the applications in a right manner. Such users need guidance to find the right way to perform their transactions.
Cost: In developing countries like India, cost is one of the most important obstacles in the path of implementation of e-Governance where major part of the population is living below poverty line. Even the politicians do not have interest in implementing e-Governance. A huge amount of money is involved in implementation, operational and evolutionary maintenance tasks.
Interoperability: Interoperability is the ability of systems and organizations of different qualities to work together. The e-Governance applications must have this characteristic so that the newly developed and existing applications can be implemented together.
Privacy and Security: A critical obstacle in implementing e-Governance is the privacy and security of an individual's personal data that he/she provides to obtain government services.
Geographical problems: Corporate networks reside on reliable and controlled networks. Government networks have to go into all areas which are even unfriendly to live. It is, however, costly to wire up all the villages in the country. So, e-Governance systems must have to use the wireless networks like existing cellular networks to reach the applications into remote areas irrespective of the geographical issues.
Data Localisation: In case of India, the social media giants have their servers outside the territory of country. For safety concerns it is recommended to store that data within the premises of Indian Territory.

7.5    Role of Digital Governance in Democracy
A vibrant democracy needs effective exchange of ideas between the government and the citizens. Digital technological platforms provides real time medium for the exchange of information. It helps in spontaneous exchange of ideas which are beneficial for each stakeholder in a democratic setup. Some of the important roles played mentioned below:
Data Driven Governance: Technology facilitates communication. The Internet and smartphones have enabled instant transmission of high volumes of data that acts as a fodder for effective governance.
Costs Saving: A lot of Government expenditure goes towards the cost of buying stationery for official purposes. Letters and written records consume a lot of stationery. However, replacing them with smartphones and the internet can save crores of money in expenses every year.
Transparency: The use of e-governance helps make all functions of the business transparent. All official information can be uploaded onto the internet. The citizens specifically access whichever information they want, whenever they want it, at their convenience.
Accountability: Transparency directly links to accountability. Once the functions and information of the governance is available to the citizens, the government is more accountable to its actions.
Land Record Monitoring: A vast developing country like India, with its diverse land tenure system requires effective land monitoring. In order to ensure that transactions related to properties are not fraudulent, along with physical transactions, online record maintenance is a key feature of e-governance in India.

7.6    Self-Check Exercise

a.    Democracy and Information

b.    Social Media Platforms

c.    Drivers and Barriers of Open Digital Governance

7.7    Summary
If there’s one fundamental truth about social media’s impact on democracy it’s that it amplifies human intent - both good and bad. At its best, it allows us to express ourselves and take action. At its worst, it allows people to spread misinformation and corrode democracy.The Covid-19 pandemic has shown how social media can help average citizens and complement the efforts of the modern governments in dealing with the crisis. Around the world, social media is making it easier for people to have a voice in government - to discuss issues, organize around causes, and hold leaders accountable. However, due to its unregulated nature and its role in the spread of fake news, social media leads to spread of propaganda, targets minorities, destabilizes the elected governments, which all in turn compromises the spirit of democracy.

7.8    Glossary
ESG:              Environment Social Governance
ICT:               Information and Communication Technology
WWW:         World Wide Web

7.9    Answers to Self-check exercise

To see         a. 1.2


b. 1.3


c. 1.4


7.10    Suggested Readings
Berg, S., & Hofmann, J. (2021).Digital democracy.Internet Policy Review, 10(4).
https://frontline.thehindu.com/books/article31843030.ece
Jha, C. K., &Kodila-Tedika, O. (2020).Does social media promote democracy? Some empirical evidence. Journal of Policy Modeling, 42(2), 271-290.
Margetts, H. (2018). Rethinking democracy with social media.Political Quarterly, 90(S1).

7.11    Terminal Questions

1.    Explain the role of social media platforms for democratic setup?

2.    What are the drivers and barriers in digital governance?

CHAPTER 8
Social Media Platforms: Problems of Control and Misinformation
Structure

8.0 LearningObjectives

8.1    Introduction

8.2    Evolution of Social Media Platforms

8.3    Why Regulations needed

8.4    Instances of Misinformation

8.5    Recent Steps around world to Control Fake news

8.6    Self-Check Exercise

8.7    Summary

8.8 Glossary

8.9    Answer to Self-Check Exercise

8.10    Suggested Reading

8.11    Terminal Questions
8.0LearningObjectives:
Aftergoingthroughthislessonthestudentswillbeabletoknow

•    The evolution of Social Media Platforms

•    The need to regulate the social media

•    Steps taken by various governments

8.1    Introduction
Social media is a tool that is becoming quite popular these days because of its user-friendly features. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and more are giving people a chance to connect with each other across distances. In other words, the whole world is at our fingertips all thanks to social media. The youth is especially one of the most dominant users of social media. All this makes you wonder that something so powerful and with such a massive reach cannot be all good. Like how there are always two sides to a coin, the same goes for social media. Subsequently, different people have different opinions on this debatable topic.Social media is the common interaction among people in which they create, share or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities. It has become the basic need and quality of human beings to be social. The spectacular developments in communications and innovative and astonishing entertainment have given access to information and the ability to provide a voice for people who would never have been heard. The current generation is fortunate enough to witness some of the most amazing technological developments ever in history. It has become the rage of this age.

8.2    Evolution of Social Media Platforms
The evolution of social media has been fuelled by the human impulse to communicate and by advances in digital technology. It is a story about establishing and nurturing personal connections at scale. In less than a generation, social media has evolved from direct electronic information exchange, to virtual gathering place, to retail platform, to vital 21st-century marketing tool.
While the roots of digital communication run deep, most contemporary accounts of the modern origins of today’s internet and social media point to the emergence in 1969 of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network — the ARPANET. This early digital network, created by the United States Department of Defence, allowed scientists at four interconnected universities to share software, hardware, and other data. In 1987, the direct precursor to today’ s internet came into being when the National Science Foundation launched a more robust, nationwide digital network known as the NSFNET. A decade later, in 1997, the first true social media platform was launched.
In the 1980s and ’90s, according to “The History of Social Networking” on the technology news site Digital Trends, the internet’s growth enabled the introduction of online communication services such as CompuServe, America Online, and Prodigy. They introduced
users to digital communication through email, bulletin board messaging, and real-time online chatting. This gave rise to the earliest social media networks, beginning with the short-lived Six Degrees profile uploading service in 1997.
In 2002, LinkedIn was founded as a networking site for career-minded professionals. By 2020, it had grown to more than 675 million users worldwide. It remains the social media site of choice for job seekers as well as human resources managers searching for qualified candidates. Two other major forays into social media collapsed after a burst of initial success. In 2003, Myspace launched. By 2006, it was the most visited website on the planet, spurred by users’ ability to share new music directly on their profile pages. By 2008, it was eclipsed by Facebook. In 2011, Myspace was purchased by musician Justin Timberlake for $35 million, but it has since become a social media afterthought. Google’s attempt to elbow its way into the social media landscape, Google+, launched in 2012. A rocky existence came to an end in 2018, after the private information of nearly 500,000 Google+ users was compromised by a data security breach.

8.3    Why Regulations Needed
International technology firms, for instance, Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc. constitute the digital infrastructure in almost the entire world. They are rarely regulated and are barely accountable, yet these corporations are playing a significant role in totally transforming the social world. Even if these platforms offer new ways to interact and communicate with people from all over the world. They also end up creating security vulnerabilities and a platform for criminal elements that want to circulate misinformation or encourage terrorist activities and cyber-attacks, participate in online sexual harassment and bullying, destroy or steal sensitive data and personal information and suppress free speech.As more people in this virtual world, regardless of their age and gender, are signing up for online social networking accounts to communicate and connect with one another.The possibility of such attacks leads to only one solution, that is, the era of social media without any regulations governing it should come to an immediate end.
Defamation and Hate Speech
The most often documented and observed crimes occurring on social networking sites include people making anonymous threats, bullying, harassing, and stalking others. Most of these types of crimes go unpunished and are therefore not treated very seriously. Defamation on Social
media may be defined as representing someone by hacking their social media accounts and sending indecent or inappropriate messages to the friends and followers of the individual, consisting of vulgar language and obscene content or by uploading such content through that individual’s account on social networking sites.
Hate speech is described as a speech of aggressive nature containing statements of inferiority and messages expressing prejudice against an individual or community based on certain features. These features may include ethnicity, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, caste, national origin, sex, race, gender, and severe disability or illness.
Online harassment and cyber stalking
Cyberstalking is described as a crime in which the stalkers need the Internet and any other electronic device to stalk anyone. Online abuse, bullying, and harassment on social networking sites are synonymous with cyber-stalking. It usually includes the conduct of repeated harassment or threats done towards an individual. Cyberbullying and harassment can include threatening or harassing email messages, text messages, or uploading information online. It aims at a particular individual either through attempting to contact them directly or by distributing their private and sensitive information, to cause distress, fear, and anger.
The primary advantage of cyber stalker is that they depend on the anonymity offered by social media or the internet which allows them to keep a track of their victim’s activities without the fear of anybody detecting their identity. There can be numerous psychological factors behind stalking, such as extreme narcissism, hate, anger, revenge, jealousy, fixation, mental illness, the need for power and control, perverted sexual desires, sexual deviance etc.
Privacy and social media
The privacy of an individual is a basic human right, whether it is on social media or in the physical world, depriving a person of his right to privacy is similar to snatching away a person’s dignity and his liberty. The Supreme Court held in the case of Justice K.S.Puttaswamy v. Union of India that any invasion of the privacy of any individual by the government should be sanctioned by law and should be for fulfilment of essential state objectives.

8.4    Instances of Misinformation
Misinformation is untrue or inaccurate information. This has several common varieties as follows:

•    Misuse of Statistics that are meaningless because they do not follow a proper mathematical or scientific methodology.

•    Misinterpretation of something that has some basis in truth such as the findings of a scientific study.

•    Fallacies are errors in logic. These are frequently communicated and spread by media, social media and word of mouth.

•    Cherry picking is a particularly common fallacy whereby evidence is ignored if it doesn't align to your argument or ideology.

•    Information that is presented without context. For example, a 20 second video clip that tells one story where a longer 3 minute clips of the same event tells a completely different story.

•    Disinformation is misinformation that is intentionally spread. For example, an intentional false rumor that is designed to discredit an adversary.

•    The term propaganda indicates a sophisticated disinformation campaigned sponsored by a government,political party, industry or organization.

•    Information that spreads by word of mouth, often changing and becoming further from the truth with each retelling. Due to the nature of rumors it is difficult to determine where they began.

•    Nuances are small details and grey areas that are important to understanding information. For example, a person's tone of voice and facial expression when they say something may indicate elements of communication such as humor, metaphor and sarcasm.
A false claim about widespread child trafficking and harvesting of organs circulated widely through WhatsApp resulted in mob violence and more than three dozen deadly lynchings in 2017 and 2018.
Social media platform TikTok belonging to the parent company Byte Dance the application was also banned for a short span of time as the content it hosted was deemed inappropriate by the Madras High Court, especially with respect to the minor children who were getting
subjected to obscene content depicting pornography, due to which India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology ordered for the app to be removed from the app stores.

8.5    Recent Steps around world to Control Fake News
A While the government appreciated the technology that would contribute towards economic growth and development, it also expressed concerns about the unprecedented increase in the use of hate speech, false and misleading news, danger to public order, anti-national behaviours, defamatory and offensive posts and other criminal activities on such social media websites. The Internet has developed into a powerful way to undermine the democratic political system unimaginably because of uncontrolled content circulating in social media. The Ministry of Information Technology (IT) also believed that the current rules for effective intermediary regulation must be revised in view of growing risks to the integrity, sovereignty, and protection of individual rights and the country.

•    Under Indian laws the crimes done on social media are governed under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and Indian Penal Code, 1860

•    In a bid to combat fake news, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) has set up a factchecking unit to verify news related to the government's ministries, departments and schemes.

•    The social networking websites such as Facebook and its sister sites namely WhatsApp and Instagram and other similar platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, etc.to store their records for at least 180 days and to locate the source of any content uploaded on their platforms and to share the same with the authorities within 72 hours from when the demand is made.

•    The Personal Data Protection Bill was tabled in the Lok Sabha in December 2019. The Bill tabled differed considerably than the one recommended by the Justice Srikrishna Committee. The bill introduced the concept of “Social Media Intermediary” and proposed that certain social media platforms would be required to provide its users with the option to verify their accounts willingly, allowing much more transparency. Section 26 of the bill describes the term “Social Media Intermediary” a mechanism to support and facilitate the online contact between users on social media. The bill allows the intermediaries to offer the users the option of getting their accounts verified.

•    Germany's NetzDG law came into effect at the beginning of 2018, applying to
companies with more than two million registered users in the country. They were forced to set up procedures to review complaints about content they were hosting, remove anything that was clearly illegal within 24 hours and publish updates every six months about how they were doing.

•    The EU also introduced the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which set rules on how companies, including social media platforms, store and use people's data.

•    Australia passed the Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material Act in 2019, introducing criminal penalties for social media companies, possible jail sentences for tech executives for up to three years and financial penalties worth up to 10% of a company's global turnover.

•    Russia's data laws from 2015 required social media companies to store any data about Russians on servers within the country.

•    Sites such as Twitter, Google and WhatsApp are blocked in China. Their services are provided instead by Chinese providers such as Weibo, Baidu and WeChat. china has hundreds of thousands of cyber-police, who monitor social media platforms and screen messages that are deemed to be politically sensitive.

•    Self-Regulations: Every Social media platforms claim to give self-regulatory check for the information which it is sharing.

8.6    Self-Check Exercise

a.    Evolution of Social Media

b.    Need for Regulations on Social Media

8.7    Summary
Social media is a revolution in the history of communication that enables us to communicate and socialise locally and globally. It has benefits and drawbacks for the society. Some of the benefits are connecting with people, sharing information, raising awareness and enhancing education. Some of the drawbacks are cyberbullying, privacy issues, addiction and misinformation. Social media has significant impact on the society and its users.
In short, certainly social media has both gains and losses. But, it all depends on the user at the end. The youth must especially create stability between their academic fulfilment, physical exercises, and social media. Excess use of anything is dangerous and the same applies to the
use of social media. Accordingly, we must attempt to live a pleasing life with the appropriate balance.

8.8    Glossary
EU:              European Union
OTT:             Over the Top
PIB:               Press Information Bureau

8.9    Answers to Self-check exercise
To see         a. 1.2          b.1.3

8.10    Suggested Readings
Aichner, T., Grünfelder, M., Maurer, O., &Jegeni, D. (2021). Twenty-five years of social media: a review of social media applications and definitions from 1994 to 2019. Cyberpsychology, behavior, and social networking, 24(4), 215-222.
https://meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/Personal_Data_Protection_Bill%2C2018_0.pdf
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47135058
O'Keeffe, G. S., & Clarke-Pearson, K. (2011).The impact of social media on children, adolescents, and families.Pediatrics, 127(4), 800-804.

8.11    Terminal Questions

1.    Explain briefly the evolution of Social Media Platforms?

2.    Enumerate some examples of regulations around the world for Social Media?

CHAPTER 9
Introduction to Disaster and Types of Disaster
Structure

9.0 LearningObjectives

9.1    Introduction

9.2    Classification of Disasters

9.3    Causes for Occurrence of the Disasters

9.4    Impacts of Disasters and Recent Examples

9.5    Disaster Management

9.6    Self-Check Exercise

9.7    Summary

9.8 Glossary

9.9    Answer to Self-Check Exercise

9.10    Suggested Reading

9.11    Terminal Questions
9.0LearningObjectives:
Aftergoingthroughthislessonthestudentswillbeabletoknow

•    Types of Disasters

•    Reasons and Occurrences of Disasters

•    Major impacts on the lives of People

•    Response to the Disaster

9.1    Introduction
Natural disasters and crises have been an integral part of human history right from the dawn of civilization. The rise and fall of the Indus Valley and Babylonian civilizations are a testimony to this. In the early days, individuals and communities would lead the response to disasters. However, with the emergence of the modern welfare state and the 20th century trends of globalization, urbanization, large-scale migrations of human population and climate changes, the nature of crises facing nations has increased both in magnitude and complexity. For example, while the frequency of calamities may have remained unchanged, increasing population densities and urbanization have resulted in greater impact on human lives and property. In the field of public health, while science has secured a major victory over epidemics, new strains of viruses and drug resistant micro-organisms have emerged raising the sceptre of global pandemics of new and more deadly diseases. Similarly, while frequency of wars has declined, modern weapons and mass urbanization have increased manifold the human crisis caused by such conflicts. The scourge of terrorism has created new types of disaster and increasing dependence on communications and computer networks have increased the threat of newer emergencies in case these are disabled by accident or design. Further, phenomena like modernization, information explosion, transnational migrations, and the economic interdependence among nations have all contributed to extending the impact of crisis situations over larger areas.
The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) of the United Nations (U.N.) defines a hazard as “a potentially damaging physical event, phenomenon or human activity that may cause the loss of life or injury, property damage, social and economic disruption or environmental degradation.” Hazards could be, natural (geological, hydrometeorological and biological) or induced by human processes (environmental degradation and technological hazards). Hazards can be single, sequential or combined in their origin and effects. Accordingly, Hazard Analysis entails the identification, study and monitoring of a hazard to determine its potential, origin and characteristics. A disaster is a result of natural or manmade causes that leads to sudden disruption of normal life, causing severe damage to life and property to an extent those available social and economic protection mechanisms are inadequate to cope. Even at the outset, the conceptual distinction between ‘hazards’ and ‘disasters’ needs to be brought out clearly.Floods, Cyclones, et al are events in nature until a configuration of factors, which could be man-made or natural or both, cause the hazard to turn to a disaster. Disaster is the actual occurrence of the apprehended catastrophe.

9.2    Classification of Disasters
Disasters are classified as per origin, into natural and man-made disasters. As per severity, disasters are classified as minor or major (in impact). Natural disasters are sudden ecological disruptions or threats that exceed the adjustment capacity of the affected community and require external assistance. Natural disasters can be broadly classified into categories including geophysical such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions; hydrological such as floods; meteorological such as hurricanes; climatological such as heat and cold waves and droughts; and biological such as epidemics. Man-made disasters can include hazardous material spills, fires, groundwater contamination, transportation accidents, structure failures, mining accidents, explosions and acts of terrorism.
Disasters can be classified into the following categories:

•    Water and Climate Disaster: Flood, hail storms, cloudburst, cyclones, heat waves, cold waves, droughts, hurricanes.

•    Geological Disaster: Landslides, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes

•    Biological Disaster: Viral epidemics, pest attacks, cattle epidemic, and locust plagues

•    Industrial Disaster: Chemical and industrial accidents, mine shaft fires, oil spills,

•    Nuclear Disasters: Nuclear core meltdowns, radiation poisoning

•    Man-made disasters: Urban and forest fires, oil spill, the collapse of huge building structures
There is also increasing understanding of man-made causes behind most natural disasters, which calls for, and has, in fact, affected renewed understanding/perception of disasters. For both natural and man-made disasters, there is increasing evidence to suggest that both are in fact ‘policy disasters’ rather than the results of nature’s vagaries or designs of fate. Increasing evidence suggests that human fallacies, such as inadequate legal framework to regulate hazardous units, have resulted in tragedies like the Bhopal tragedy and the inhouseVizag steel accidents where minor fires and deaths of employees due to mishaps have been reported. Unrestricted felling of forests, serious damage to mountain ecology, overuse of groundwater, changing patterns of cultivation, etc., has precipitated recurring floods and droughts. The spate of landslides in the Himalayas in recent years can be directly related to unchecked exploitation of forests and mountain vegetation and networksof roads that have been indiscriminately laid in the name of development.

9.3    Causes for Occurrence of Disasters
Broadly we can categorise the reasons for occurrence of disasters as follows:
Environmental degradation: Removal of trees and forest cover from a watershed area have caused, soil erosion, expansion of flood plain area in upper and middle course of rivers and groundwater depletion.
Developmental process: Exploitation of land use, development of infrastructure, rapid urbanization and technological development have caused increasing pressure over the natural resources.
Political issues: War, nuclear power aspirations, fight between countries to become super power and conquering land, sea and skies. These have resulted into wide range of disaster events such as Hiroshima nuclear explosion, Syrian civil war, growing militarisation of oceans and outer space.
Industrialization: This has resulted into warming of earth and frequency of extreme weather events has also increased.

9.4    Impact of Disaster and Recent Examples
Disaster, natural or human induced, is an unwelcome guest and leaves a permanent impression of its visit on the victims. Disaster plays havoc with the lives of people. They cause excessive losses to the humanity and infrastructure. Due to disaster, the normal life is thrown out of gear and the existing patterns of regulatory and development administration suffers heavily. The economic, social and psychological dimensions of the wrath of disaster adversely affect the environment around. Frequencies as well as intensity of natural disasters are increasing globally including India. Disaster impacts are felt more in developing countries due to borderline economic status of the vulnerable population, which have inadequate adjustment capacity. Below mentioned are the major impacts seen after disaster:

•    Disaster impacts individuals physically (through loss of life, injury, health, disability) as well as psychologically.

•    Disaster results in huge economic loss due to destruction of property, human settlements and infrastructure etc.

•    Disaster can alter the natural environment, loss of habitat to many plants and animals and cause ecological stress that can result in biodiversity loss.

•    After natural disasters, food and other natural resources like water often becomes scarce resulting into food and water scarcity.

•    The disaster results in displacement of people, and displaced population often face several challenges in new settlements, in this process poorer becomes more poor.

•    Disaster increases the level of vulnerability and hence multiplies the effects of disaster.
Some Worst Disaster occurred in India

•    Kashmir Floods (2014) affected Srinagar, Bandipur, Rajouri etc. areas of J&K have resulted into death of more than 500 people.

•  Uttarakhand Flash Floods (2013) affected Govindghat, Kedar Dome, Rudraprayag
district of Uttarakhand and resulted into death of more than 5,000 people.

•  The Indian Ocean Tsunami (2004) affected parts of southern India and Andaman
Nicobar Islands, Sri Lanka, Indonesia etc., and resulted in the death of more than 2 lakh people.

•    Gujarat Earthquake (2001) affected Bhuj, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Kutch, Surat, Surendranagar, Rajkot district, Jamnagar and Jodia districts of Gujarat and resulted in death of more than 20,000 people.

•    Odisha Super Cyclone or Paradip cyclone (1999) affected the coastal districts of Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Balasore, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Ganjam etc., and resulted into death of more than 10,000 people.

•    The Great Famine (1876-1878) affected Madras, Mysore, Hyderabad, and Bombay and resulted into death of around 3 crore people. Even today, it is considered as one of the worst natural calamities in India of all time.

•    Coringa Cyclone (1839) that affected Coringa district of Andhra Pradesh and Calcutta Cyclone (1737) are some other instances of natural calamities faced by the country in the past.

•    The Bengal Famine in the years 1770 and 1943 affected Bengal, Odisha, Bihar very badly and resulted into death of nearly 1 crore people.

•    Bhopal Gas tragedy (December, 1984) is one of the worst chemical disasters globally that resulted in over 10,000 losing their lives (the actual number remains disputed) and over 5.5 lakh persons affected and suffering from agonizing injuries.
In recent times, there have been cases of railway accidents, fire accidents in hospitals, coaching centres due to negligence and non-implementation of existing mandatory fire safety norms, collapse of various infrastructure constructs like flyovers, metro tracks and residential buildings due to poor quality of construction, illegal addition of floors and recurring floods. Stampede at large public gathering like KumbhMela caused by poor people management and lack of adequate infrastructure to monitor and manage large crowd gathering.

9.5    Disaster Management
Disaster Management efforts are geared towards disaster risk management. Disaster Risk Management implies the systematic process of using administrative decisions, organisation, operational skills, and capacities to implement policies, strategies and coping capacities of the society and communities to lessen the impact of natural hazards and related environmental and technological disasters. These comprise all forms all activities including structural and non-structural measures to avoid (prevention) or to limit (mitigation and preparedness) adverse effects of hazards.
There are three key stages of activities in disaster management:
Before a disaster: to reduce the potential for human, material, or environmental losses caused by hazards and to ensure that these losses are minimised when disaster strikes;
During a disaster: to ensure that the needs and provisions of victims are met to alleviate and minimise suffering; and
After a disaster: to achieve rapid and durable recovery which does not reproduce the original vulnerable conditions.
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Disaster risk reduction is the concept and practice of reducing disaster risks through systematic efforts to analyse and reduce the causal factors of disasters.
Pre-Disaster risk reduction includes-
Mitigation: To eliminate or reduce the impacts and risks of hazards through proactive measures taken before an emergency or disaster occurs.
Preparedness: To take steps to prepare and reduce the effects of disasters.
Post-Disaster risk reduction includes-
Rescue: Providing warning, evacuation, search, rescue, providing immediate assistance.
Relief: To respond to communities who become victims of disaster, providing relief measures such as food packets, water, medicines, temporary accommodation, relief camps etc.
Recovery: This stage emphasises upon recovery of victims of disaster, recovery of damaged infrastructure and repair of the damages caused.
Major challenges faced during disaster management:

•    There are insufficient levels of implementation for each monitored activity. For example, Disaster risk management plans or a risk sensitive building codes exist but they are not enforced because of a lack of government capacity or public awareness.

•    There is lack of local capacities to implement disaster risk management. Weak capacity at the local levels undermines the implementation Disaster preparedness plans.

•    Absence of integration of climate change into Disaster risk management plans.

•    There is divergence of obtaining political and economic commitments due to other competing needs and priorities such as poverty reduction, social welfare, education etc. require greater attention and funding.

•    Due to poor coordination between stakeholders, there is inadequate access with respect to risk assessment, monitoring, early warning, disaster response and other Disaster related activities.

•    Insufficient investment in building disaster resilient strategies, also private sector are least contributors in the share of investment

9.6    Self-Check Exercise

a.    Classification of Disaster

b.    Impact of Disasters

c.    Disaster Management

9.7    Summary
Disaster is an unwelcome guest. It disrupts normal life and puts the developmental targets out of gear. Disasters can result from natural or man-made causes or a combined effect of both. The impact of disasters are felt more strongly when the affected community is more vulnerable, either in terms of physical exposure or vulnerable socio-economic conditions. Therefore, disaster management is a public administration issue, since disaster mitigation has to be achieved in time through public policy. In line with postmodernism, sustainability of progress/ development is being accorded primacy, currently. It could be termed as coming full circle in some ways. Thus development, as is the perception now, in itself may not be sustainable if it runs counter to environmental concerns. Environmental concerns are therefore gaining importance, since environmental factors are increasingly having the adverse impact of the frequency and intensity of disastrous events. Sustainable development is being considered largely in terms of sustainable city growth. More than rural development, it is urban development that has to be stabilised/regulated through well-meaning/planned policies. Rural development partakes by way of spin-off effects from public good externalities from nearby/surrounding urban areas, as rightly pointed out in the Tenth Plan. Areas of concern are urban risks, since the concentration of populations in urban areas is constantly increasing with inadequate corresponding investment in safety measures. Disaster management needs to be seen in a developmental context and pre-emptive action needs to be taken to reduce the impact of disasters.

9.8    Glossary
Environmental risks: Release of industrial effluents in rivers, green house gases in the atmosphere, et al pose environmental risks like release of harmful chemicals in water bodies that harm aquatic life, contaminate drinking water, disturb the PH balance of soil et al. Excess of Greenhouse gases lead to global warming that is manifest and increasingly being talked about now.
Hazard: A precise definition of hazard is difficult. The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) has defined hazard as a potentially damaging physical event, phenomenon or
human activity that may cause loss of life or injury, property damage, social and economic disruption or environmental degradation. Hazards have both natural and human components. For example, flood problems may be exacerbated by fluctuations in climate, such as increased storm frequency, and also by certain human activities, such as land drainage and deforestation.
Man-made disasters: Accidents, chemical spills nuclear disasters are manmade disasters since they are caused by human activity.
Natural disasters: Floods, Cyclones, Earthquakes, etc. are natural disasters since they originate in natural phenomenon/processes.
Urban risks: Risks created due to specific conditions in the urban environment are termed urban risks. For example, threat of fire outbreaks, epidemics due to congestion and poor drainage in slums are urban risks.

9.9    Answers to Self-check exercise
To see         a. 1.2          b. 1.4          c. 1.5

9.10    Suggested Readings
GoI, Economic Survey, 2004-05, GoI, Tenth Plan, 2002-07, Chapter 7, “Disaster Management: The Development Perspective”.
Second ARC, Third Report of Crisis Management
“South Asian Floods (SAF, 2005), Regional Cooperation for Flood Information Exchange in the Hindukush -Himalayan Region”, at http://www. southasianfloods.org/members.php
Website of the National Disaster Management Division, Ministry of Home Affairs,Government of India at http:// www.ndmindia.nic.in

9.11    Terminal Questions

1.    What is disaster and define its types?

2.    Explain the impact of disaster on lives of people with some examples?
CHAPTER 10
|  | Disaster Management Act, 2005 |
|---|---|


Structure
| 10.0 | Learning Objectives |
|---|---|
| 10.1 | Introduction |
| 10.2 | Disaster Management Act 2005 |
| 10.3 | Institutional Framework |
| 10.4 | Role of Government |
| 10.5 | Challenges in Implementation |


10.6 Self-Check Exercise
| 10.7 | Summary |
|---|---|
| 10.8 | Glossary |


10.9 Answer to Self-Check Exercise
| 10.10 | Suggested Reading |
|---|---|
| 10.11 | Terminal Questions |


10.0 LearningObjectives:
Aftergoingthroughthislessonthestudentswillbeabletoknow

•    Why need of Disaster Management Act

•    Features of the Act

•    Role of Centre and State government

•    Implementation of the Act

10.1    Introduction
A disaster is not an event that would allow you to prepare yourself for it before its arrival. Recovering from its aftermath can take weeks, months, years, and in some rare cases, decades. From a volcano to a gas chamber leak, the range of disasters lurking in the environment is more than you can count. However, that doesn’t mean that you would give up and accept defeat. As someone rightfully said, “precaution is better than cure”, the only way to survive these disasters is to learn how to manage them.
Disaster management can be defined as the organisation and management of resources and responsibilities for dealing with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies, in particular preparedness, response and recovery in order to lessen the impact of disasters. The institutional arrangements for disaster management in India can be understood through the various steps initiated in the country for managing disasters effectively.
Disaster management is a process of effectively preparing for and responding to disasters. It involves strategically organizing resources to lessen the harm that disasters cause. It also involves a systematic approach to managing the responsibilities of disaster prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery.

10.2    Disaster Management Act, 2005
The DM Act was passed by the government of India in 2005 for the ‘efficient management of disasters and other matters connected to it. However it came into force in January 2006.
Objective is to manage disasters, including preparation of mitigation strategies, capacitybuilding and more. Definition of a “disaster” in Section 2 (d) of the DM Act states that a disaster means a “catastrophe, mishap, calamity or grave occurrence in any area, arising from natural or man-made causes. The Act extends to the whole of India. The Act provides for “the effective management of disasters and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto”. The Disaster Management Act, enacted in 2005, has a new multidisciplinary focus on disaster prevention and risk reduction and a move away from a relief-centric regime.

•    The institutional framework under the Act mandated the creation of the NationalDisaster Management Authority (NDMA) and State Disaster ManagementAuthorities (SDMAs) as the bodies responsible for disaster preparednessand risk reduction at the respective levels.

•    The Disaster Management Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs
retainedresponsibility for overall steering of the national disaster response.

•    It mandated the concerned Ministries and Departments to draw up their ownplans in accordance with the National Plan.

•    The Act further contains the provisions for financial mechanisms such as thecreation of funds for the response, National Disaster Mitigation Fund andsimilar funds at the state and district levels.

10.3    Institutional Framework
Nodal Agency: The Act designates the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) as the nodal ministry for steering the overall national disaster management. Institutional Structure wise it puts into place a systematic structure of institutions at the national, state and district levels.
National Level Important Entities:
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA): It is tasked with laying down disaster management policies and ensuring timely and effective response mechanisms.
The National Executive Committee (NEC): It is constituted under Section 8 of the DM Act to assist the National Disaster Management Authority in the performance of its functions. The NEC is responsible for the preparation of the National Disaster Management Plan for the whole country and to ensure that it is “reviewed and updated annually.
The National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM): It is an institute for training and capacity development programs for managing natural calamities.
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF): It refers to trained professional units that are called upon for specialized response to disasters
State and District level: The Act also provides for state and district level authorities responsible for, among other things, drawing plans for implementation of national plans and preparing local plans.

•    State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA): All State Governments are mandated under Section 14 of the Act to establish a State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) in their States. The SDMA consists of the Chief Minister of the State as the Chairperson, and not more than eight members appointed by the Chief Minister. State Executive Committee is responsible (Section 22) for drawing up the State Disaster
Management Plan (SDMP), and implementing the National Plan. The SDMA is mandated under section 28 to ensure that all the departments of the State prepare disaster management plans as prescribed by the National and State Authorities.

•    District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA): The Chairperson of District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) is the Collector or District Magistrate or Deputy Commissioner of the district. The elected representative of the area is an ex officio coChairperson.
Finance: It contains the provisions for financial mechanisms such as the creation of funds for emergency response, National Disaster Response Fund and similar funds at the state and district levels.
Civil and Criminal Liabilities: The Act also devotes several sections various civil and criminal liabilities resulting from violation of provisions of the act. Under Section 51 of the Act, anyone refusing to comply with orders is liable for punishment with imprisonment up to one year, or fine, or both. In case this refusal leads to death of people, the person liable shall be punished with imprisonment up to two years.

10.4    Role of Governments
The Central Ministries and Departments will take into consideration the recommendations of the State Governments while deciding upon the various pre-disaster requirements and for deciding upon the measures for the prevention and mitigation of disasters. It will ensure that the Central Ministries and departments integrate measures for the prevention and mitigation of disasters into their developmental plans and projects, make appropriate allocation of funds for pre-disaster requirements and take necessary measures for preparedness and to effectively respond to any disaster situation or disaster. It will have the power to issue directions to NEC, State Governments/SDMAs, SECs or any of their officers or employees, to facilitate or assist in disaster management, and these bodies and officials will be bound to comply with such directions.
Role of Central Ministries and Departments
As disaster management is a multi-disciplinary process, all Central Ministries and departments will have a key role in the field of disaster management. The Secretaries of the Nodal Ministries and Departments of Government of India, that is, the Ministries of Home Affairs (MHA). Agriculture, Civil Aviation, Environment and Forests, Health, Atomic Energy, Space,
Earth Sciences, Water Resources, Mines, Railways, etc., are all members of the NEC and will continue to function as nodal agencies for specific disasters based on their core competencies or as assigned to them.
National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) comprising high level officials of the Government of India headed by the Cabinet Secretary, will continue to deal with major crises which have serious ramifications. It will be supported by the Crisis Management Groups (CMG) of the Central Nodal Ministries and assisted by NEC as may be necessary. The Secretary, NDMA, will be a permanent invitee to this Committee.
State Governments
The primary responsibility for disaster management rests with the States. The institutional mechanisms put in place at the Centre, State and District levels will help the States manage disasters in an effective manner. The Disaster Management Act, 2005, mandates the State Governments, inter alia, to take measures for preparation of state disaster management plans, integration of measures for prevention of disasters or mitigation into state development plans, allocation of funds, establishment of early warning systems and to assist the Central Government and other agencies in various aspects of disaster management.
District Administration
At the District level, DDMAs will act as the planning, coordinating and implementing body for disaster management and will take all measures for the purposes of disaster management in the respective Districts in accordance with the Guidelines laid down by NDMA and the concerned SDMA.
Armed Forces
Traditionally, the Armed Forces are called upon to assist the civil administration only when the situation is beyond their coping capacity. In practice, however, theArmed Forces are immediate responders in all serious disaster situations. As a result of their training, vast experience, risk taking mentality, swiftness and enormous resources at their disposal, the Armed Forces have historically played a major role in emergency support functions.

10.5    Challenges in the implementation
Absence of Disaster Prone Zones: One of the most glaring inadequacies in the Act is the absence of a provision for declaration of ‘disaster- prone zones’. Almost all disaster related
legislations in the world have mapped out disaster- prone zones within their respective jurisdictions. The state cannot be expected to play a pro- active role unless an area is declared ‘disaster- prone’. Classification helps in determining the extent of damages as well.
Neglects Progressive Behaviour of Disasters: The Act portrays every disaster as a sudden occurrence and completely fails to take into account that disasters can be progressive in nature as well. In 2006, over 3,500 people were affected by dengue, a disease with a history of outbreaks in India, yet no effective mechanism has been put in place to check such an ordeal. Tuberculosis is known to kill thousands of people in the country each year but since its occurrence is not sudden or at once, it has not found a place in the Act.
Overlapping Functions: The Act calls for establishment of multiple- national level bodies, the functions of which seem to be overlapping, making coordination between them cumbersome.The local authorities, who have a very valuable role to play in the wake of any disaster as first responders, barely find a mention at all. There are no substantive provisions to guide them, merely a minor reference to taking ‘necessary measures’.
Procedural Delays and Inadequate Technology: Added to that, delayed response, inappropriate implementation of the plans and policies, and procedural lags plague the disaster management scheme in India. Inadequate technological capacity for accurate prediction and measurement of the disaster result in large scale damage.
Although the DM Act has undoubtedly filled a huge gap in the scheme of governmental actions towards dealing with disasters. Laying down elaborate plans on paper doesn’t serve the purpose unless they are translated into effective implementation. Civil society, private enterprises and Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) can play a valuable role towards building a safer India.

10.6    Self-Check Exercise

a.    Disaster Management Act 2005

b.    Institutional Framework

c.    Challenges in Implementation

10.7    Summary
There had been great loss of lives and property after major disasters like the Super Cyclone in 1999 and the Earthquake in 2001. As a result of the large scale devastation, there were measures initiated in India towards making institutional arrangement for disaster management. Major initiatives such as the Disaster Management Act, Disaster Management Policy and agencies for disaster management at the Central, State and District levels have been discussed at length in this Unit. Success Stories such as the Indian government’s “zero casualty” policy for cyclones and the pinpoint accuracy of the India Meteorological Department's (IMD) early warning system has helped reduce the possibility of deaths from cyclone Fani in Odisha. India's policy of minimising fatalities from cyclones has been proven by past performances as in cyclone Phailin in 2013, when famously the casualty rate was kept to as low as 45 despite the intensity of the storm. In August 2010 during the flash floods due to cloudburst in Leh in Ladakh region by the Indian Army. The Army's immediate search, rescue, and relief operations and mass casualty management effectively and efficiently mitigated the impact of flash floods, and restored normal life.Disasters are no longer to be considered as occurrences that are to be managed through emergency response services. So, there is a need to foster a culture of prevention and identification of the key issues to be addressed especially in the development process. The path ahead for managing disasters is to bring in a people-centred development strategy.Educating people in Disaster Risk Reduction is the need of the hour and it can be done through decentralised planning, implementation and monitoring and control.

10.8    Glossary
Development: The act or process of creating something over a period of time.
Disaster: Sudden event that causes a lot of damage.
Disaster Management Act, 2005: The Disaster Management Act, 2005, (23 December 2005) received the assent of The President of India on 9 January 2006. The Act extends to the whole of India. The Act provides for “the effective management of disasters and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto”.
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA): The NDMA is responsible for “laying down the policies, plans and guidelines for disaster management” and to ensure “timely and effective response to disaster”. It is responsible for laying “down guidelines to be followed by the State Authorities in drawing up the State Plans”.
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF): The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is a specialised force constituted “for the purpose of specialist response to a threatening disaster situation or disaster” under the Disaster Management Act, 2005: section 44-45. When ‘calamities of severe nature’ occur, the Central Government is responsible for providing aid and assistance to the affected state, including deploying, at the State’s request, of Armed Forces, Central Paramilitary Forces, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and such communication, air and other assets, as are available and needed. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is under the National Disaster Management Authority.
National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM):The NIDM has been mandated by the Government of India to be a deemed University and institute of excellence of higher learning and capacity building. UGC has worked out with NIDM and developed a model curriculum for strengthening disaster management in higher education and research.
Preparedness: Preparedness is explained as a state of readiness of the administrative apparatus to respond to a disaster quickly and in a way that minimises the loss of life and property that could accrue, implying, minimum time lag and maximum effectiveness
Vulnerability: Susceptibility to physical attack

10.9    Answers to Self-check exercise
To see         a. 1.2          b. 1.3          c. 1.5

10.10    Suggested Readings
Carter, W. Nick, 1991, Disaster Management: A Disaster Manager’s Handbook, Asian Development Bank, Manila.
GoI, Tenth Plan, “Disaster Management”, 2002-07.
Gupta, Harsh K., 2003, Disaster Management, University Press, Hyderabad.
“The Twelfth Finance Commission Report”, Economic Survey, 2004-05

10.11    Terminal Questions

1.    Explain briefly the features of Disaster Management Act 2005?

2.    Describe the role of governments and challenges in implementation faced?

CHAPTER 11
Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030
Structure

11. 0 LearningObjectives

11.1    Introduction

11.2       Sendai Framework 2015-2030

11.3         Expected Role of International Organization

11.4        Expected Role of Stakeholders

11.5        Suggestions for Implementation

11.6        Self-Check Exercise

11.7       Summary

11.8        Glossary

11.9        Answer to Self-Check Exercise

11.10      Suggested Reading

11.11       Terminal Questions

11.0 LearningObjectives:
Aftergoingthroughthislessonthestudentswillbeabletoknow

•    Evolution of Sendai Framework

•    Role of International Organisations

•    Priorities of Disaster Risk Reduction

•    Role of involved Stakeholders

11.1    Introduction
Disasters, whether from natural hazards or man-made, cost lives and livelihoods. The immediate spending needed for response and reconstruction is compounded by a weakened economy, damaged infrastructure, destroyed businesses, reduced tax revenues and a rise in poverty levels. The poorer a community is, the more vulnerable it is to natural hazards and climate change. Disasters do not have an equal effect on everyone. Children, women and girls, elderly people, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, and other marginalized communities especially in lower-income countries are often disproportionately affected by disasters. While we have witnessed substantial progress, improving disaster preparedness at the same time as enabling better disaster prevention and climate adaptation remain as key challenges for sustainable development. Mainstreaming disaster risk management into development planning can reverse the current trend of rising disaster impact. Furthermore, when countries rebuild stronger, faster, and more inclusively after disasters, they can reduce the impact on people’s livelihoods and well-being by as much as 31%, potentially cutting global average losses. To guide the multi hazard management of disaster risk in development at all levels as well as within and across all sectors a global disaster risk reduction framework needed.

11.2    Sendai Framework 2015-2030
In 1994 the World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction was held in Yokohama, Japan. The conference adopted the Yokohama strategy and declared the decade 1990-2000 as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR).
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) is the successor to the secretariat of IDNDR and was created in 1999 to implement UN Disaster Risk Reduction strategy.
The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) is a 10-year plan (2005-2015) to make the world safer from natural hazards. Priorities such as, Disaster risk reduction, identification, assessment through legal and policy frameworks, disaster preparedness and use of innovation were adopted.The World Conference on Disaster Reduction, held in the city of Kobe in the Hyogo region of Japan in 2005, brought the global disaster management community together once again to review the progress on the Yokohama strategy, and to plan a framework of action for the subsequent ten years. The result of the conference, the Hyogo Frameworkfor Action, highlighted the following action agenda for the decade 2005-15:

•    Ensure that disaster risk reduction is a national and a local priority with a stronginstitutional basis for implementation

•    Identify, assess and monitor disaster risks and enhance early warning systems

•    Use knowledge, innovation and education to build a culture of safety and resilienceat all levels

•    Reduce the underlying risk factors

•    Strengthen disaster preparedness for effective response at all levels
The process started by the Yokohama Strategy and the Hyogo Framework for Action is the basis for a global shift in disaster management approach from response towards preparedness
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, is the successor instrument to the Hyogo Framework.It is a non-binding agreement, which the signatory nations, including India, will attempt to comply with on a voluntary basis.
There are three international agreements within the context of the post- 2015 development agenda. These are:

•  The Sendai Framework.

•  Sustainable Development Goals 2015-2030

•    The Paris agreement (COP 21) on Climate Change.
These three agreements recognize the desired outcomes in Disaster Risk Reduction as a product of interconnected social and economic processes, which overlap across the agendas of the three agreements.
The Seven Global Targets: To support the assessment of global progress in achieving the outcome and goal of the present Framework, seven global targets have been agreed. These targets will be measured at the global level. The seven global targets are:
Target 1 to reduce mortality: First target aim to substantially reduce global disaster mortality by 2030, with an aim to lower average per 100,000 global mortality rate in the decade 20202030 compared to the period 2005-2015.
Target 2 to reduce the number of affected people: Second target aim to reduce the number of affected people globally by 2030, with target to lower the average global figure per 100,000 in the decade 2020 -2030 compared to the period 2005-2015.
Target 3 to reduce direct disaster economic loss: It target to reduce loss in global gross domestic product (GDP) due to disaster by 2030.
Target 4 to substantially reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services: This include reducing damage to health and educational facilities through developing their resilience by 2030.
Target 5 to spread disaster risk efforts: It envisagetosubstantially increase the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies by 2020.
Target 6 to increase cooperation and support: It aim to enhance international cooperation to developing countries through adequate and sustainable support to complement their national actions for implementation of this Framework by 2030.
Target 7 to increase accessibility: It target to substantially increase the availability and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to the people by 2030.
There are four specific priority areas of Sendai Framework:
Understanding Disaster Risk: To promote the collection, analysis, management and use of relevant data and practical information and ensure its dissemination, taking into account the needs of different categories of users, as appropriate. To systematically evaluate, record, share and publicly account for disaster losses and understand the economic, social, health, education, environmental and cultural heritage impacts. To build the knowledge of government officials at all levels, civil society, communities and volunteers, as well as the private sector, through sharing experiences, lessons learned, good practices and training and education on disaster risk reduction. To ensure the use of traditional, indigenous and local knowledge and practices, as appropriate, to complement scientific knowledge in disaster risk assessment and the development and implementation of policies.To promote and enhance, through international cooperation, including technology transfer, access to and the sharing and use of non-sensitive data and information for supporting national measures for successful disaster risk communication.
Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk: To carry out an assessment of the technical, financial and administrative disaster risk management capacity to deal with the identified risks at the local and national levels. To encourage the establishment of necessary
mechanisms and incentives to ensure high level of compliance with the existing safetyenhancing provisions of sectoral laws and regulations, including those addressing land use and urban planning, building codes, environmental and resource management and health and safety standards.To establish and strengthen government coordination forums composed of relevant stakeholders at the national and local levels, such as national and local platforms for disaster risk reduction, and a designated national focal point for implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030. To promote the development of quality standards, such as certifications and awards for disaster risk management, with the participation of the private sector, civil society, professional associations, scientific organizations and the United Nations, including technology transfer, access to and the sharing and use of non-sensitive data and information for supporting national measures for successful disaster risk communication.
Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience: To allocate the necessary resources, including finance and logistics, as appropriate, at all levels of administration for the development and the implementation of disaster risk reduction strategies, policies, plans, laws and regulations in all relevant sectors.To promote mechanisms for disaster risk transfer and insurance, risk-sharing and retention and financial protection, as appropriate, for both public and private investment in order to reduce the financial impact of disasters on Governments and societies, in urban and rural areas. To promote the mainstreaming of disaster risk assessment, mapping and management into rural development planning and management of, inter alia, mountains, rivers, coastal floodplain areas and all other areas prone to droughts and flooding. To increase resilience of country’s critical infrastructure.To strengthen and broaden international efforts aimed at eradicating hunger and poverty through disaster risk reduction.
Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to “Build Back Better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction: To establish community centres for the promotion of public awareness and the stockpiling of necessary materials to implement rescue and relief activities. To train the existing workforce and voluntary workers in disaster response and strengthen technical and logistical capacities to ensure better response in emergencies.To promote the cooperation of diverse institutions, multiple authorities and related stakeholders at all levels, including affected communities and business, in view of the complex and costly nature of post-disaster reconstruction, under the coordination of national authorities. To develop guidance for preparedness for disaster reconstruction.To establish a mechanism of case registry and a database of mortality caused by disaster in order to improve the prevention of
morbidity and mortality.To enhance recovery schemes to provide psychosocial support and mental health services for all people in need.

11.3    Expected Role of International Organization
The United Nations and other international and regional organizations, engaged in disaster risk reduction are expected to enhance the coordination of their strategies in this regard.The entities of the United Nations system through the UN Plan of Action on Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience, UN Development Assistance Frameworks and country programmes need to promote the optimum use of resources and to support developing countries, at their request, in the implementation of the present Framework. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction is expected to support the implementation, follow-up and review of the present Framework.
International financial institutions, such as the World Bank and regional development banks are expected to consider the priorities of the present Framework for providing financial support and loans for integrated disaster risk reduction to developing countries.
The United Nations Global Compact, as the main United Nations initiative for engagement with the private sector and business, needs to further engage with and promote the critical importance of disaster risk reduction for sustainable development and resilience.
The Inter-Parliamentary Union and other relevant regional bodies and mechanisms for parliamentarians, as appropriate, to continue supporting and advocating disaster risk reduction and the strengthening of national legal frameworks.
The United Cities and Local Government organization and other relevant bodies of local governments to continue supporting cooperation and mutual learning among local governments for disaster risk reduction and the implementation of the present Framework.

11.4    Expected role of Stakeholders
Women and their participation is critical for effectively managing disaster risk and designing, resourcing and implementing gender-sensitive disaster risk reduction policies, plans and programmes.
Children and youth are agents of change and should be given the space and modalities to contribute to disaster risk reduction.
Older persons have years of knowledge, skills and wisdom, which are invaluable assets to reduce disaster risk, and they should be included in the design of policies, plans and mechanisms, including for early warning.
Indigenous peoples, through their experience and traditional knowledge, provide an important contribution to the development and implementation of plans and mechanisms, including for early warning.
Academia, scientific and research entities and networks need to focus on the disaster risk factors and scenarios.
Business, professional associations and private sector financial institutions as well as philanthropic foundations need to integrate disaster risk management into business models and practices through disaster-risk-informed investments.
Media need to take an active and inclusive role at the local, national, regional and global levels in contributing to the raising of public awareness and understanding and disseminate accurate and non-sensitive disaster risk, hazard and disaster information, including on small-scale disasters.

11.5    Suggestions for the implementation
It is urgent to anticipate, plan for and reduce disaster risk in order to more effectively protect persons, communities and countries.Enhanced work to reduce exposure and vulnerability, thus preventing the creation of new disaster risks, and accountability for disaster risk creation are needed at all levels.
It is necessary to continue strengthening good governance in disaster risk reduction strategies at the national, regional and global levels and improving preparedness and national coordination for disaster response, rehabilitation and reconstruction.Disaster risk reduction practices need to be multi-hazard and multi sectoral, inclusive and accessible in order to be efficient and effective.
Developing countries need special attention and support to augment domestic resources and capabilities through bilateral and multilateral channels in order to ensure adequate, sustainable, and timely means of implementation in capacity-building i.e. financial and technical assistance in accordance with international commitments.
As per the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, held in 2012, entitled “The future we want”, the building of resilience to disasters needs to be addressed with a renewed sense of urgency in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication and, as appropriate, to be integrated at all levels.

11.6    Self-Check Exercise

a.    Sendai Framework

b.    International Organisation

c.    Role of Stakeholders

11.7    Summary
As per the Sendai Framework, in order to reduce disaster risk, there is a need to address existing challenges and prepare for future ones by focusing on monitoring, assessing, and understanding disaster risk and sharing such information. The Sendai Framework notes that it is “urgent and critical to anticipate, plan for and reduce disaster risk” to cope with disaster.Sendai framework stress on shared responsibilityof each State, authority, sector and various stakeholders to prevent and reduce disaster risk through international, regional and bilateral cooperation. It rightly emphasise that disaster risk reduction requires an all-of-society engagement and partnership.

11.8    Glossary
Development: The act or process of creating something over a period of time.
Disaster: Sudden event that causes a lot of damage.
Man-made disasters: Accidents, chemical spills nuclear disasters are manmade disasters since they are caused by human activity
Preparedness: Preparedness is explained as a state of readiness of the administrative apparatus to respond to a disaster quickly and in a way that minimises the loss of life and property that could accrue, implying, minimum time lag and maximum effectiveness
Vulnerability: Susceptibility to physical attack

11.9    Answers to Self-check exercise
To see a. 1.2         b. 1.3          c. 1.4

11.10    Suggested Readings
Kelman, I. (2015). Climate change and the Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 6, 117-127.
Pearson, L., &Pelling, M. (2015). The UN Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction 2015– 2030: Negotiation process and prospects for science and practice. Journal of Extreme Events, 2(01), 1571001.
Sriram, D., Dorasamy, N., &Vipul, N. (2022). Disaster management in India: need for an integrated approach. Disaster Advances; Vol. 15, Issue 8.

11.11    Terminal Questions

1.    What is Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction 2015-2030?

2.    Describe the role of International agencies and stakeholders involved?

CHAPTER 12
Management of Disasters in India with special reference to COVID-19
Structure

12.0 LearningObjectives

12.1    Introduction

12.2        Stages in Disaster Management

12.3        Shift to Mitigation and Preparedness Planning in India

12.4       Covid-19 Management

12.5         Suggestions

12.6        Self-Check Exercise

12.7       Summary

12.8        Glossary

12.9        Answer to Self-Check Exercise

12.10      Suggested Reading

12.11       Terminal Questions

1 2.0 LearningObjectives
Aftergoingthroughthislessonthestudentswillbeabletoknow

•    Stages in Disaster Management

•    Shift in India Strategy

•    About Covid-19 Management

•    Challenges in management

12.1    Introduction
The concept of Disaster Management Cycle has entered disaster management efforts over the past few years, especially since the Yokohama Conference (1994). Hitherto, disaster management had been perceived as a short-term relief undertaking, which lasted till sometime after a disaster. Other purposive activities undertaken in the pre or post-disaster stages on the part of civil society or the government towards mitigating the impact of disasters or tackling long -term vulnerabilities and dealing with newer threats in the wake/aftermath of a disaster were not included in disaster management activities. They were rather classified, developmental activities or ‘social action’ on the part of civil society actors(s), motivated by philanthropic concerns. The concept of Disaster Management Cycle integrates isolated attempts on the part of different actors, government and non-government, towards vulnerability reduction or disaster mitigation, within the enveloping domain of disaster management, as phases occurring in different time periods in disaster management continuum, though essentially relating to/comprising disaster management.This has facilitated a planned approach to disaster management in that post- disaster recovery and pre -disaster mitigation planning are perceived as integrated/related activities and not separate. Thus, prevention, mitigation and preparedness form pre-disaster activities in the Disaster Management Cycle and, response, comprising relief, recovery and rehabilitation are post-disaster activities. Whilst emergency relief and rehabilitation are vital activities, successful disaster management planning must encompass the complete realm of activities and situations that occur before, during and after disasters. These phases can best be represented as a cycle, which if followed through public policy can obstruct future development of disasters by impeding the vicious cycle of cause and effect. These activities are implemented at specific times, the length of any one phase depending on the type of disaster, its breadth and scale. Therefore, one of the key issues in disaster management planning is the allocation of resources at all stages of the disaster cycle, which optimises the total effectiveness of risk reduction activity and maximises the overall impact of disaster management

12.2    Stages in Disaster Management
Disaster Management efforts are geared towards disaster risk management. Disaster Risk Management “implies the systematic process of using administrative decisions, organisation, operational skills, and capacities to implement policies, strategies and coping capacities of the
society and communities to lessen the impact of natural hazards and related environmental and technological disasters. These comprise all forms all activities including structural and non-structural measures to avoid (prevention) or to limit (mitigation and preparedness) adverse effects to hazards” (UNISDR, 2004).
There are three key stages of activities in disaster management:

•    Before a disaster: to reduce the potential for human, material, or environmental losses caused by hazards and to ensure that these losses are minimised when disaster strikes;

•    During a disaster: to ensure that the needs and provisions of victims are met to alleviate and minimise suffering; and

•    After a disaster: to achieve rapid and durable recovery which does not reproduce the original vulnerable conditions
Common perception of disaster management, as explained earlier, is limited to emergency relief and post- disaster rehabilitation. This is so because these two elements are by far the strongest in terms of high profile visibility, political support and funding provision. Instead of allocating funds before an event to reduce future disasters, action normally only takes place after an event has occurred. The situation is similar to that of preventive health care where curative medicine is relatively well funded whilst preventive medicine is not.
The focus on emergency relief also depends on risk perception; that is, whether there is belief that disaster could be avoided. If disasters were believed to be of such a scale that it is believed, nothing could be done to reduce either the phenomenon or the risk involved, and risk mitigation would not be pressed for/attempted. However, once belief develops that disaster losses are exacerbated by human agency, and could be curbed thereby, disaster risk mitigation would be attempted.

12.3    Response Mechanisms in India
In India, there is integrated administrative machinery for management of disasters at the National, State, District and sub-District levels. The primary responsibility of undertakingrescue, relief and rehabilitation measures is that of the State governments. The Central government supplements the efforts of the state governments by way of physical and financial resources, if need arises. The extent/necessity of Central response/assistance depends
on the severity and scale of the calamity and the requirements of Central assistance for augmenting the financial resources at the disposal of the State Government. The effort is more in the nature of support to the state governments. Drawing from the Ministry of Home Affairs’, official document, “National Policy”, Union government’ s response could be in two ways:

•    Policy Response, provided by the Prime Minister, Cabinet Committees, and the Home Affairs and/or Agriculture Minister; and

•    Administrative Response
The Central response can be:

i)    Policy response, keeping in view the short and long term policy objectives of the government

ii)    Administrative response, broadly relating to:

a)    Operational requirements

b)    Provision of Central assistance as per existing policy.
Central initiatives are in the form of:

i)    Visits of the calamity affected areas by President, Prime Minister and other dignitaries;

ii)    Activating the administrative machinery for assisting in relief measures; and

iii)    Setting up machinery for implementing, reviewing and monitoring of relief measures.
The operational aspects of the administrative response could, further, be classified into:

i)    Primary relief functions, and

ii)    Secondary relief functions.
The primary relief functions of the Central Government relate to:

i)    Forecasting and operation of warning system

ii)    Maintenance of uninterrupted communication

iii)    Wide publicity to warnings of impending calamity, disaster preparedness and relief measures through TV, AIR and Newspapers

iv)    Transport with particular reference to evacuation and movement of essential commodities and petroleum products

v)    Ensuring availability of essential commodities at reasonable prices particularly the commodities through the Public Distribution System

vi)    Ensuring availability of medicines, vaccine and drugs

vii)    Preservation and restoration of physical communication links
viii) Investments in infrastructure; and

ix) Mobilisation of financial resources.
The secondary functions of the Central Government which supplement the States relief efforts, would relate to:

i)    Flood/inflow forecasts from the Central Water Commission

ii)    Relief, rehabilitation and restoration through military aid to civil authorities

iii)    Contingency plans for crops, cattle preservation nutrition and health measures

iv)    Technical and technological inputs for provision of drinking water

v)    Technical assistance in the water budgeting and water management for various uses; and Coordination of the activities of the State agencies and voluntary agencies.
Energising Local Government Since, efforts at controlling disasters are concentrated at the local level, and much depends on the initiative at that level, particularly by local people, institutionalising inherentsocial capital in panchayat raj institutions and local volunteer groups (civil society) inter se could strengthen administrative preparedness for disaster response. Following the 73rdand 74th constitutional amendments, development planning at the local level is expected to incorporate disaster mitigation, which would make planning and implementation for/of the same more targeted and cost-effective. Efforts would be made to organise civil society activity to make it operate in tandem with the state apparatus under the aegis of the local institutions of self-government (Tenth Plan). Civil society actors at the local level are now proposed to be trained through mainstream administrative organisations like the Police, for better, more educated effort in various aspects of disaster management. As articulated in the Tenth Plan, their participation would be better institutionalised in close cooperation with
government agencies. Presently, as evidenced during the recent Muzaffarabad quake, and also cited earlier, effort is a little scattered in that it is ill-organised and inconsistent. Efforts are in order through state initiative for better organisation of effort on the part of these agencies.
Stakeholder Involvement
Apart from national, state, district and local levels, there are various institutional stakeholders, who are involved in disaster management at various levels in the country. These include the police and paramilitary forces, civil defence and home guards, fire services, ex-servicemen, non-government organisations, public and private sector enterprises and the media, all of who have important roles to play. The Government of India GoI-UNDP Disaster Risk Management Programme envisages active association and involvement of all stakeholders in various disaster prevention, mitigation and preparedness measures. Recognising the potential of the private corporate sector in contributing to disaster management, it envisages, sensitisation, training, and co-option of the private corporate sector and their nodal bodies and organisations in disaster planning process and response mechanisms. The Ministry of Home Affairs has outlined areas for substantial involvement of the corporate sector; some of the more pertinent of which are:

•    Organization of sensitization programmes for building the knowledge, attitude and skills of the industries in adopting and implementing disaster risk reduction measures to make the industrial structures and infrastructures, disasters resistant.

•    Development of onsite and offsite disaster management (DM) plans by the industries. The process of developing DM plans is being explained to the industries duringsensitizationprogrammes.

•    Training of industrial personnel in various facets of disaster management and response;viz. first aid, search and rescue, evacuation, etc.
The objectives of the work plan area to mainstream private sector participation in disaster management; create linkages between the community and the private corporate sector to strengthen/facilitate cooperation between some of the major stakeholders in disaster management (that is, the corporate sector, local authorities and the community).

12.4    Covid-19 Management
COVID-19 has impacted nations across the world, disrupting lives, economies, and societies. The pandemic has significantly redefined the humanitarian emergency paradigm and changed
the understanding of disaster management in several ways. India, like the rest of the world, is in the midst of the pandemic. Every nation embroiled in the clutches of the COVID-19 pandemic has adopted different legal instruments at their disposal to cope up with such an unprecedented crisis. To combat the spread of the virus, India has invokedthe Disaster Management Act of 2005 as the overarching legal tool along with the Epidemic Act of 1897.
Accordingly, India has declared the pandemic as a ‘notified disaster’. India is one of the most populous countries in the world with a relatively fragile health infrastructure.COVID-19 is the first pan India biological disaster being handled by the legal and constitutional institutions of the country. The lockdown imposed was under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 (DM Act). The legislative intent of the DM Act was to, “provide for the effective management of disasters”. Though the Constitution of India is silent on the subject of ‘disaster’, the legal basis of the DM Act, is Entry 23, Concurrent List of the Constitution “Social security and social insurance”. Entry 29, Concurrent List “Prevention of the extension from one State to another of infectious or contagious diseases or pests affecting men, animals or plants,” can also be used for specific law making.
COVID-19 has changed the perspective for disaster management?
Not geographically contained: The crisis is not limited by a geographic area or a cluster or physically defined areas in which the disaster occurred — as in an earthquake, flood, or cyclone.
Microscopic effects: Effects of the disaster are so microscopic and invisible that one can easily underestimate its virulence or potency, as it happened in the early days of the pandemic.
Earlier epidemics like SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and those due to bird flu and Ebola had a relatively lower geographical influence, but the speed of transmission and virulence of COVID-19 has posed an entirely new challenge.
In countries like India, high population densities, coupled with the impossibility of physical distancing in small housing units, lack of running water and toilets, shortage of hygiene materials, and personal protective equipment have exacerbated the infection rates. Treating a health crisis as a ‘disaster’ has some deep-rooted definitional as well as instrumental ramifications shaping India’s response to the pandemic.
Externalisation of the disease: It has led to the ‘externalization’ of the disease. A disaster is usually perceived to be caused due to a force that is alien to our lives and usually intrudes into our internal space to create havoc.
Repression as Regulation: Another outcome of labelling this health pandemic as a disaster has been the normalization of the controlling measures by the state in order to curb the spread of the virus.
The Indian Government first issued a circular concerning the outbreak of COVID-19 and necessary measures to contain it in March 2020. Further advisory from the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare comprises extension of the following containment measures.

•  Mandatorily covering one’s face in public places, transport vehicles, and workplaces.

•  Maintaining a physical distance of at least 6 feet among customers in shops, workers,
and individuals in public places.

•    Practising work from home (WFH) as far as possible.

•    Following modified business or working hours in commercial and industrial organisations, shops, workplaces, and markets, to contain the disease’s spread.

•    Sanitising entire workplace frequently, especially areas that commonly come into human contact, such as door handles.

•    Ensuring provisions for sanitizers, hand wash, and thermal screening in common areas, and entry and exit points.
Additionally, the authorities undertook the following steps to bring down COVID-19 cases:

•    Tracking all RT-PCR tests and subsequent COVID-positive individuals real-time via contact number.

•    Following MoHFW and ICMR guidelines while conducting tests and ensuring all comorbid individuals are tested.

•    Tracing all international passengers via the “AIR SUVIDHA” website that DSOs and SSOs have access to.

•    Reducing mob capacity in large gatherings, such as that in workplaces, transport vehicles, rallies, funerals, marriages, and other social events.

•    Implementing night curfew and updating status of “Buffer Zones” and “Containment Zones” real-time based on new COVID-positive cases.

•    Accelerating complete vaccination among the remaining population and enhancing doorstep vaccination campaign.

•    The increasing availability of medical equipments, such as oxygen, ambulances, necessary drugs by utilising the Centre’s ECRP-II funds, and enhancing bed capacity.

•    Enforcing home isolation and curtailing circulation of misinformation.
Hence, it can be seen that the COVID management in India has been both clear and rigorous. The rules were laid out so that health care professionals knew what the course of treatment ought to be.

12.5    Suggestions

•    Collaboration: There is a need for strengthening collaboration, command, control, and communication systems for efficient, prompt, and graded response and recovery.

•    Infusing technology: Technology cannot replace or make up for other public policy measures, but it does have an increasingly critical role to play in emergency responses. Covid-19 presents an excellent opportunity to reflect on the legal plausibility, ethical soundness, and effectiveness to use emerging technologies to inform evidence-based public health interventions.

•  Strong technology infrastructure: Access to a robust, resilient, and secure ICT
infrastructure worldwide is critical in a pandemic, and any kind of disaster.

•  Community-based public health emergency preparedness: There is a need for
prioritizing the COVID-19 prevention and control in informal settlements, to assess the community risk perception, and thought process to enable community-based public health emergency preparedness and risk-informed policymaking in the future.

•    Multi-hazard preparedness: Multi-hazard preparedness with a focus on the health needs to be integrated across sectors. Risk assessments and risk preparedness should emerge as a culture for the next generations to enable better management of disasters and public health emergencies.

•    Responsible administration: Good governance, responsive administration, and active coordination should be non-negotiable features of a dynamic process that is driven by
transparency and accountability on the part of public officials.

•    Advanced preparedness strategies: Documentation of best practices, creating a knowledge platform for lessons-learning will promote inclusive, participatory, and well-informed preparedness strategies.

12.6    Self-Check Exercise

a.    Stages of Disaster Management

b.    Mitigation and Preparedness

c.    COVID-19 Management

12.7    Summary
India faced a clear danger from the spreading of COVID-19. The central, state, and local governments synchronized their actions to identify and isolate potential cases as in the case of the Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala. Key institutions identified as resource centres and to act as nodal points for contact tracing, testing, communications, and case management. Special focus laid on point of entry screening. The use of technology like the Chinese example, but without authoritarian measures, helped immenslyin the fight against the virus.Further, in the long-term perspective, a well-researched pandemic/epidemic management strategy delineating the roles of different authorities and action points at various stages needs to be formulated.

12.8    Glossary
Hazard: Hazard is a phenomenon that poses a threat to people, structures or economic assets and which may cause a disaster. It could be either manmade or naturally occurring in our environment.
Threat: Threat is different from Risk.Threat is a more general concept, while Risk is specific in that a threat, such as terrorism, has to be broken down into specific risks and communicated to policy makers for policy in this regard, mitigation or preparedness. Threat is simply an apprehension, which will not give policy guidelines.
Prevention: Disaster Prevention entails measures to pre-empt a disaster by controlling a potentially threatening hazard. For example, water harvesting can prevent droughts. To that end, it entails advance planning to forestall a disaster.

12.9    Answers to Self-check exercise

To see


a. 1.2


b. 1.3


c. 1.4


12.10    Suggested Readings
Behera, B. C. (2021). Challenges in handling COVID-19 waste and its management mechanism: A Review. Environmental nanotechnology, monitoring & management, 15, 100432.
Kumar, V. M., Pandi-Perumal, S. R., Trakht, I., &Thyagarajan, S. P. (2021). Strategy for COVID-19 vaccination in India: the country with the second highest population and number of cases. npj Vaccines, 6(1), 60.
Ministry          of          Health          and          Family          Welfare
https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/GuidelinesonClinicalManagementofCOVID1912020.pdf

12.11    Terminal Questions

1.    What are the general stages in disaster management?

2.    Describe the role of Indian Governments in the management of Covid-19 pandemic?

CHAPTER 13
E-Governance Initiatives in Indian Administration
Structure

13.0 LearningObjectives

13.1    Introduction

13.2       What is E-Governance

13.3        Evolution of E-Governance in India

13.4         Initiatives in Indian Administration

13.5        Lacunae’s in Implementation

13.6        Self-Check Exercise

13.7       Summary

13.8        Glossary

13.9        Answer to Self-Check Exercise

13.10      Suggested Reading

13.11       Terminal Questions

13.0 LearningObjectives:
Aftergoingthroughthislessonthestudentswillbeabletoknow

•    E-governance evolution

•    Initiatives in Indian Administration

•    Features of E-Governance

•    Help in Citizen Centric Administration

13.1    Introduction
Rapid strides made in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have facilitated the reinvention of governments and prepared them to serve the needs of a diverse society. In other words, the information age has redefined the fundamentals and transformed the institutions and mechanisms of service delivery forever. The vision is the articulation of a desire to transform the way government functions and the way it relates to its constituents. The concept of electronic governance, popularly called e-governance, is derived from this concern. Democracies in the world share a vision of the day when e-governance will become a way of life.India has been at the forefront of the IT revolution and has had its effect on the public administration systems, as we would see later in this Unit. In fact, if the potential of ICTs are harnessed properly, it has a lot of opportunities, especially, in the social and economic growth of the developing world.
Global shifts towards increased deployment of IT by governments emerged in the nineties, with the advent of the World Wide Web. What this powerful means to publish multimedia, support hyperlinked information and interactive information meant was a clearer avenue for G to C interactions and the promise of the attainment of the goals of good governance. Governments weighed down by the rising expectations and demands of a highly aware citizenry suddenly began to believe that there can be a new definition of public governance characterized by enhanced efficiency, transparency, accountability and a citizen-orientation in the adoption of IT enabled governance.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is then about use of technology in information processing and communication. In particular, it deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit and retrieve information. ICT may be discussed in terms of all the uses of digital technology that already exist to help individuals, businesses and organizations use information. ICT covers any product that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit or receive information electronically in a digital form. For example, personal computers, radio, ham, telephone,broadband, digital television, email, robots etc. are all equipment, which can be classified as ICTs. Importantly, it is also concerned with the way these different uses can work together with each other.

13.2    What is E-Governance
E-governance is the application of ICT to the processes of government functioning for good governance. In other words, e-governance is the public sector’s use of ICTs with the aim to improve information and service delivery, encourage citizen participation in decision-making and make government more accountable, transparent and efficient. The Ministry of Information and Technology states that e-governance goes far beyond mere computerisation of standalone back office operations. It implies fundamental changes in government operations; and new set of responsibilities for the legislature, executive, judiciary and citizens.
According to the Comptroller and Auditor General, UK, e-governance means providing public access to information via the internet by government departments and their agencies. So in essence, e-governance is the application of ICT in government functioning to bring in SMART governance implying: simple, moral, accountable, responsive and transparent.
Simple meaning simplification of rules, regulations and processes of government through the use of ICTs and thereby providing for a user-friendly government
Moral connoting emergence of an entirely new system of ethical values in the political and administrative machinery.Technology interventions improve the efficiency of anti-corruption agencies, police, and judiciary.
Accountablefacilitating design, development and implementation of effective Management Information System and performance measurement mechanisms and thereby ensuring accountability of public service functionaries.
Responsive streamlining the processes to speed up service delivery.
Transparentbringing information hitherto confined in the government documents to the public domain and making processes and functions transparent, which in turn would bring equity and rule of law in responses of the administrative agencies.
There are 4 kinds of interactions in e-governance:
G2C (Government to Citizens): Interaction between the government and the citizens.This enables citizens to benefit from the efficient delivery of a large range of public services. Expands the accessibility and availability of government services and also improves the quality of services.The primary aim is to make the government citizen-friendly.
G2B (Government to Business): It enables the business community to interact with the government by using e-governance tools. The objective is to cut red-tapism which will save time and reduce operational costs. This will also create a more transparent business environment when dealing with the government. The G2B initiatives help in services such as licensing, procurement, permits and revenue collection.
G2G (Government to Government): Enables seamless interaction between various government entities. This kind of interaction can be between various departments and agencies within government or between two governments like the union and state governments or between state governments. The primary aim is to increase efficiency, performance and output.
G2E (Government to Employees): This kind of interaction is between the government and its employees. ICT tools help in making these interactions fast and efficient and thus increases the satisfaction levels of employees.

13.3    Evolution of E-Governance in India
E-Governance in India has steadily evolved from computerization of Government Departments to initiatives that encapsulate the finer points of Governance, such as citizen centricity, service orientation and transparency.
Initial steps taken:

•    The first step towards electronics governance in India was marked by the formation of the Department of Electronics in 1970.

•    With the motive to computerise all district offices in the country, the District Information System program was launched by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) which was established in 1977.

•    The launch of NICNET the national satellite-based computer network in 1987 provided the push for e-governance.

•    There was a setting up of a National Task Force on Information Technology and Software Development in 1998.

•    The creation of the Ministry of Information Technology happened at the Centre in 1999.

•    The National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) was set-up at Hyderabad in the year 2002.

•    A National Policy on Open Standards for e-Governance was notified in November 2010.

•    The National Policy on Information Technology (NPIT) was approved in 2012.
Stages of E-Governance: United Nations E-Readiness Survey defined below mentioned stages of E-governance:
Emerging Presence: The focus in this stage is at the online presence of basic & limited information which contains an official website along with a few web pages. There is not much clarity on the availability of the links to various ministries and departments.
Enhanced Presence: The public information like reports, newsletters, laws and policies is shared largely by the Government and it is also possible for the users to navigate within the records. The only limitation that lies is that of one-way communication as the information transfer is only from Government to citizens and not the other way round.
Interactive Presence: This marks the introduction of interactivity in the Government websites in the form of making downloadable forms available & applications for payment of bills, taxes, and licence renewal.
Transactional Presence: The provisions such as applying for ID cards, licence renewals, birth certificates, passports, and allowing the citizen to submit forms and applications online in a never-ending manner makes the ideal functioning of twoway interaction between the Government and citizens very much possible.
Networked Presence: It is interpreted by an amalgamation of G2C, G2G, and G2B interactions. The citizen participation is encouraged to realise online participatory decisionmaking with the Government which helps in establishing a two-way open dialogue within the society.
E-Governance four stage evolution:
Computerization: Personal computers were available in many government offices. Many departments of government started using personal computers and programmes like word processing, data processing, etc.
Networking: In this stage, many government offices were interconnected through a network. This facilitated the inter-departmental network for information sharing and flow of data.
Online presence: With the increasing network capabilities of government offices, the need was felt to have an online presence of government departments. Websites of government departments came into existence. These websites provided basic information to the citizens such as reports, surveys, schemes, etc.
Online interactivity: The two-way communication was established in this stage where people could send their feedback to the government through an online portal. This changed the role of citizens merely from the recipient of services to the active involvement of citizens in governance.
Different Connotations of e-Governance
E-Administration: The use of ICTs to modernize the state; the creation of data repositories for Management Information System (MIS) and computerization of records (land, health etc.).
E-Services: The emphasis here is to bring the state closer to the citizens. For Examples: Provision of online services.
E-administration and e-services together constitute what is largely termed as e-government.
E-Governance: The use of IT to improve the ability of the government to address the needs of society. It includes the publishing of policy and program-related information to transact with citizens. It extends beyond the provision of online services and covers the use of IT for strategic planning and reaching the development goals of the government.
E-Democracy: The use of IT to facilitate the ability of all sections of society to participate in the governance of the state. Emphasis is on bringing transparency, accountability, and participation of people. It includes online disclosures of policies, online grievance redressal, ereferendums etc.

13.4    Initiatives in Indian Administration
Bhoomi Project (Karnataka): Online Delivery of Land Records Bhoomi is a self-sustainable eGovernance project for the computerized delivery of 20 million rural land records to 6.7 million farmers of Karnataka.
Khajane (Karnataka): End-to-end automation of Government Treasury System ‘Government-to-Government (G2G) e-Governance initiative of the Karnataka State Government. It has been implemented mainly to eliminate systemic deficiencies in the manual treasury system and for the efficient management of state finances.
E-Seva (Andhra Pradesh): designed to provide ‘Government to Citizen’ and ‘e-Business to Citizen’ services. All the services are delivered online to consumers /citizens by connecting them to the respective government departments and providing online information at the point of service delivery. The project has become very popular among the citizens especially for the payment of utility bills.
E-Courts Launched by the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice. The Mission Mode Project (MMP) aims at utilizing technology for improved provisioning of judicial services to citizens.
E-District Launched by the Department of Information Technology. The MMP aims at delivery of high volume, citizen-centric services at the District level such as the issue of birth/death certificate, income and caste certificates, old age and widow pension, etc.
MCA21 launched by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. The project aims to provide electronic services to the Companies registered under the Companies Act. Various online facilities offered includes allocation and change of name, incorporation, online payment of registration charges, change in address of registered office, viewing of public records and other related services.
E-Office Launched by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances. The MMP aims at significantly improving the operational efficiency of the Government by transitioning to a "Less Paper Office".
MyGov: It aims to establish a link between Government and Citizens towards meeting the goal of good governance. It encourages citizens as well as people abroad to participate in various activities i.e. 'Do', 'Discuss', 'Poll', 'Talk', ‘Blog’, etc.
DigiLocker: It serves as a platform to enable citizens to securely store and share their documents with service providers who can directly access them electronically.
E-Hospital-Online Registration Framework (ORF): It is an initiative to facilitate the patients to take online OPD appointments with government hospitals. This framework also covers patient care, laboratory services and medical record management.
National Scholarships Portal (NSP): It provides a centralized platform for application and disbursement of scholarship to students under any scholarship scheme.
DARPAN: It is an online tool that can be used to monitor and analyze the implementation of critical and high priority projects of the State. It facilitates presentation of real time data on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of selected schemes/projects to the senior functionaries of the State Government as well as district administration.
PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation): It has been aimed at starting a culture of Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation. It is also a robust system for bringing e-transparency and e-accountability with real-time presence and exchange among the key stakeholders. It was launched in 2015.
Common Services Centres 2.0 (CSC 2.0): It is being implemented to develop and provide support to the use of information technology in rural areas of the country. The CSCs are Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabled kiosks with broadband connectivity to provide various Governments, private and social services at the doorstep of the citizen.
Mobile Seva: It provides government services to the people through mobile phones and tablets.
JeevanPramaan: It is an Aadhaar based Biometric Authentication System for Pensioners. The system provides authenticity to Digital Life Certificate without the necessity of the pensioner being present in person before his/ her Pension Dispensing Authority (PDA).
National Centre of Geo-informatics (NCoG): Under this project, Geographic Information System (GIS) platform for sharing, collaboration, location based analytics and decision support system for Departments has been developed.
National e-Governance Plan (NeGP): It takes a holistic view of e-Governance initiatives across the country, integrating them into a collective vision and a shared cause. It comprises of 31 Mission Mode Projects, approved in 2006, but later it was integrated into Digital India Program.

13.5    Lacunae’s in Implementation
Infrastructure: Lack of basic infrastructural facilities like electricity, internet, etc. Initiatives like BharatNet and Saubhagya are steps taken in this regard.
Cost: e-Governance measures are costly affairs and require huge public expenditure. In developing countries like India, the cost of projects is one of the major impediments in the implementation of e-Governance initiatives.
Privacy and Security: Recent spark in data leak cases has threatened the peoples’ faith in egovernance. Therefore, the implementation of e-governance projects must have security standards and protocols for safeguarding the interest of all classes of masses.
Digital Divide: Huge gap between users and non-users of e-govt. services. The digital divide takes form in rich-poor, male-female, urban-rural etc. segments of the population. The gap needs to be narrowed down, and then only the benefits of e-governance would be utilized equally.

13.6    Self-Check Exercise

a.    E-Governance

b.    Evolution of E-Governance

c.    Initiatives in Indian Administration

13.7    Summary
E-Governance is getting momentum in India, but public awareness and the digital divide are important issues to be addressed. The success of e-Governance measures largely depends on the availability of high-speed internet, and the nation-wide roll-out of 5G technology in the near future will strengthen our resolve. 2nd ARC has also recommended that the state should create suitable opportunities for e-governance initiatives, public-private partnerships, re-engineering of the governance mechanisms and skill development for creating, maintaining, and monitoring to ensure the best outcomes. Former Indian President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam defined eGovernance in the Indian context as transparent smart Governance with seamless access, secure and authentic flow of information crossing the interdepartmental barrier and providing a fair and unbiased service to the citizen.

13.8    Glossary
E- governance: use of technology to enhance the access to and delivery of government services to benefit citizens, business partners and employees.
ICTs: are the information and communication technologies such as, radio, computers, Internet, Intranet, Websites, and satellites; providing database, knowledge database, expert systems, Geographic Information System, Management Information System, video and audio teleconferencing.
National E-governance Plan: seeks to implement 25 Mission Mode Projects at the Centre, State and integrated service levels so as to create a citizen-centric and business-centric environment for governance, create governance and institutional mechanisms, set up core infrastructure, formulate key policies and channelise private sector technical and financial resources into the national e-governance efforts.

13.9    Answers to Self-check exercise
To see         a. 1.2          b. 1.3          c. 1.4

13.10    Suggested Readings
Annual Report, 2004-05, Department of Information Technology, Government of India.
Dror, Y., 1990, Democratic Reformcraft, Working Paper, European Institute of Public
Administration, Maastricht, Netherlands.
Planning Commission of India, 2001, Report of the Working Group on Convergence and Egovernance 2002-07 for Tenth Five-Year Plan.
Saxena, K. B. C. (2005). Towards excellence in e‐governance. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 18(6), 498-513.

13.11    Terminal Questions

1.    What is E-Governance and how it evolved in India?

2.    Write some of the e- governance initiatives in Indian Administration?

CHAPTER 14
E-Governance Issues Challenges and Strategies
Structure

14.0 LearningObjectives

14.1    Introduction

14.2        Priorities in e-governance implementation

14.3       Advantages of E-Governance

14.4         Issues and Challenges

14.5        Suggestion

14.6        Self-Check Exercise

14.7       Summary

14.8        Glossary

14.9        Answer to Self-Check Exercise

14.10      Suggested Reading

14.11       Terminal Questions

14.0 LearningObjectives:
Aftergoingthroughthislessonthestudentswillbeabletoknow

•    E-governance implementation strategies

•    Issues and Challenges in E-Governance

•    Future Suggestions for effective implementation.

14.1    Introduction
Technology is transforming governments, especially, in the performance of their functions. This is the sole reason for governments all over the world embracing technology and becoming electronically viable. ICT enables and facilitates good governance agenda of transparency,
accountability, empowerment, decentralisation and fiscal reforms. It is this agenda that governments of today are aspiring to achieve. Governments are using ICTs in restructuring their traditional organisational set up, re-engineering the work processes, interacting with citizens and stakeholders, rendering services and information, and efficient human resources management, financial management and decision-making.
Hence, ICTs are playing a significant role in enabling governments to pursue the agenda of good governance. However, skilled manpower, ICT infrastructure, ICT architecture, resources, political leadership, committed bureaucracy, and citizen awareness are required to enable ICTs to perform this role. But lack of human resources, organisational and technological infrastructure, etc. has posed hindrances to the effective implementation of ICT in governance. This has resulted in its minimal use. Many of the ICT-based projects have, therefore, resulted in wasteful expenditure and ineffective service delivery. The challenge is to overcome these hindrances and provide for an optimal exploitation of ICT in governance.
In this Unit, we are going to discuss the issues that pose a challenge to the optimal use and implementation of ICT in governance. We will also be dealing with measures, which help in addressing these issues and challenges effectively. However, for information of our students, we have used the words ‘e-governance’, ‘e-government’ and ‘ICT-based projects’ interchangeably, even though they mean different and are distinct.

14.2    Priorities in E-governance implementation
We suffer from the lack of clear vision and priorities when it comes to e-governance. In the words of Anathakrishnan, ‘in the absence of a national mission to evolve technical standards and share resources, citizens have ended up funding costly piecemeal programmes with few tangible results. There is no consensus on interoperable standards that will enable exchange of data, no sharing of best practices and no realistic vision on how to effect change.’ Our vision is not broad and does not involve the interests of various groups in the society. Vision for egovernance should emanate from societal concerns of multi-stakeholders.
These concerns will become the bases for drawing up and designing the priority areas for egovernance. E-government plan/project should be open and collaborative based on multistakeholders’ participation. Public meetings, opinion polls, participation in committees, etc. should be the basis of drawing the vision and securing vital inputs of different sectors.
Re-engineering: E-government applications should be preceded with re-engineering of the administrative processes in the government departments or organisations. Most often, egovernment applications are implemented in a ‘quick time frame’ without adequate reengineering of the existing organisational structure and work procedures. If ICT has to enable efficiency in governmental functioning, it is necessary that the departments carry out a rearrangement and reorganisation of their administrative structure and work processes. If egovernment application is implemented without re-engineering, it becomes difficult to make subsequent changes in the work processes once the e-government application is implemented. Hence e-government may not work and the resources may get wasted. Therefore, the complex work processes and procedures have to be simplified before initiating ICT projects or programmes.
Citizen-Centeredness: E-governance projects must be citizen-centric. Such projects should provide for improved service delivery, public participation, accessibility to comprehensive and qualitative information, and improved quality of life for large number of citizens. They should focus on how citizens use and process increasing amounts of information in their everyday life. Websites should be designed to give complete information so that an individual may not have to follow up it with a visit or call. Projects facilitating citizen services should be based on the needs of the people and how they can be best delivered electronically. This will enable projects to address to specific needs of identified communities and gain public trust and wider usability.
Communication Strategy: The benefits of e-government projects must be properly communicated to the beneficiaries through an effective communication strategy using media. This has to be taken into account most significantly, as the best use of projects can be made possible when it reaches the larger target groups or clientele. Usually, people are not aware of the same and/or are not even mobilised. E-government projects usually fail to become an additional channel to deliver services owing to a limited proportion of citizens using them. Without a critical mass using the e-government applications, the cost recovery does not seem promising. Public should be made aware of the changes and benefits that eprojects and programmes can accrue for them. Equally, the government should also explain the reasons when benchmarks are not met.
Political Will and Leadership is a needed for initiation, successful implementation and sustenance of e-government programmes and projects. Political support and commitment to ICT projects can really bring in the desired change in governance. Political leaders need to have
the will, resolve and leadership to take on risks, overcome resistance, secure funds and publicly subscribe, uphold and support e-government. Rather, the political leaders must be made eliterate that can help them to understand the benefits accruing of such projects, and motivate them to employ ICT in their departments and deliver effective public services to the people.
Resistance to Change: The fast and smooth implementation of e-government gets hampered by the officials’ resistance to it. If the government is to excel in a corporate way, officials’ readiness to bring about this corporate culture within government is essential. ‘The level of resistance to change and level of involvement by officials in setting policies and practices will greatly impact how fast or smooth the implementation of e-government will be’ (Working Group). Bureaucracy, that is, officials and employees at all levels, resist to egovernment initiatives due to reasons, such as fear of losing jobs, losing power, unfamiliarity with technology, increased work, losing unofficial payments, having no monetary and professional gains, etc.

14.3    Advantages of E-Governance
Speed: Technology makes communication speedier. Internet, Phones, Cell Phones have reduced the time taken in normal communication.
Cost Reduction: Most of the Government expenditure is appropriated towards the cost of stationary. Paper-based communication needs lots of stationary, printers, computers, etc. which calls for continuous heavy expenditure. Internet and Phones makes communication cheaper saving valuable money for the Government.
Transparency: Use of ICT makes governing profess transparent. All the information of the Government would be made available on the internet. The citizens can see the information whenever they want to see. But this is only possible when every piece of information of the Government is uploaded on the internet and is available for the public to peruse. Current governing process leaves many ways to conceal the information from all the people. ICT helps make the information available online eliminating all the possibilities of concealing of information.
Accountability: Once the governing process is made transparent the Government is automatically made accountable. Accountability is answerability of the Government to the people. It is the answerability for the deeds of the Government. An accountable Government is a responsible Government.
Convenience: E-Government brings public services to citizens on their schedule and their
venue.
Improved Customer Service: E-Government allows to redeploy resources from back-end processing to the front line of customer service.
Increased access to information: E-Government improves the accessibility of government information to citizens allowing it become an important resource in the making the decisions that affect daily life and so it helps in empowerment of citizens.

14.4    Issues and Challenges
Issues of e-Governance
Technical Issues
Interoperability: It is one of the critical issues of e-governance. Interoperation among ministries and departments is difficult, and it became hurdle for processing and sharing data. In other words, web based data how to be captured and in which format these seem to be major issues of e-governance.
Security: Now days, security of online transaction is becoming big issue; insurance, banking, utility bill payments, all these services done by e-governance. In fact, there is still discontent to citizens on availing government services due to lack of security.
Privacy: This is another key issues of e-governance.Any information provided by citizens should be ensured by govt. otherwise, any person or institution may misuse the valuable information.
Authentication: It is very important to know the right user of the services or it may be misused by private competitors. Meanwhile, the digital signature plays major role in providing authenticity. In fact, it is expensive and causes for frequent maintenance.
Economic issues
Cost: It is one of the economic issues, implementation of e-governance operations and maintenance of services fetch huge cost to govt.
Reusability: Any models developed by government, must be reusability. E-governance is being national plan, what it incorporates any software or modules should be used by other administrations.
Maintainability: Maintenance should be given due importance. Because, IT ministry has been continuously developing new soft ware’s in order to fill the current needs of citizens. Consequently, govt. launched new projects for example, digital India.
Portability: The primary requisite for portable applications is independence of components from hardware and software platforms in order to help in possible reuse by administrations.
Social issues
Accessibility: In the era of technology, mostly number of people using internet via computers and mobile phones. In the context of India, there is still gap arising between users and nonusers; it is because of language barrier, inadequate infrastructure in rural areas, etc.
Usability: Users of e-governance may be literate or illiterate. Any technology or software to be used as user friendly to greater extent, only then, citizens could use it as smoothly as possible.
Use of local languages: India’s population is second next to china, over 65 % only literate citizens are there; rest of population cannot understand the English language. Therefore, govt. should make it more comfort by translating this language into their regional languages for the sake of benefit of e-services.
Awareness about e-governance: Number of people in the country has not been aware of it, on account of illiteracy, non-accessibility of internet in rural areas, lack of will using internet services, etc. Therefore, educated citizens, concerned institution and dept. should come forward to get rural people benefited by e-services.
Electronic governments also consist on certain disadvantage. The main disadvantage of an electronic government is to move the government services into an electronic based system. This system loses the person to person interaction which is valued by a lot of people. In addition, the implementation of an e-government service is that, with many technology based services, it is often easy to make the excuse (e.g. the server has gone down) that problems with the service provided are because of the technology. The implementation of an e government does have certain constraints. Literacy of the users and the ability to use the computer, users who do not know how to read and write would need assistance. An example would be the senior citizens.
In general, senior citizens do not have much computer education and they would have to approach a customer service officer for assistance. And also in case of rural people, it gives scope for middle man, who distorts the information. Studies have shown that there is potential for a reduction in the usability of government online due to factors such as the access to Internet technology and usability of services and the ability to access to computers
Even though the level of confidence in the security offered by government web sites are high, the public are still concerned over security, fear of spam from providing email addresses, and government retention of transaction or interaction history. There has been growing concern about the privacy of data being collected as part of UID project. The security of cyber space and misuse of data is still holding back the citizens to full adaptation of Aadhar card.
Challenges in e-governance
There are large numbers of potential barriers in the implementation of e-Governance. Some hindrance in the path of implementation, like security, unequal access to the computer technology by the citizen, high initial cost for setting up the e government solutions and resistance to change. Challenges identified as trust, resistance to change, digital divide, cost and privacy and security concerns.
Trust can be defined along two dimensions: as an assessment of a current situation, or as an innate personality traitor predisposition. The implementation of public administration functions via e-government requires the presence of two levels of trust. The first is that the user must be confident, comfortable and trusting of the tool or technology with which they will interact. The second dimension of trust pertains to trust of the government.There has to be a balance between ensuring that a system prevents fraudulent transactions and the burden that extensive checks can take place on people who are honest. Recently, confidential information on military veterans was compromised when a computer containing their personal information was lost. This type of incident can erode trust and user confidence in government systems. Trust, along with financial security, are two critical factors limiting the adoption of e-government services.
Resistance to change: The innovation diffusion theory states that over time an innovation will diffuse through a population, and the rate of adoption will vary between those who adopt early, referred to as early adopters and to those who adopt the innovation much later, referred to as laggards. The resistant to change phenomenon can explain much of the hesitation that occurs on the part of constituents in moving from a paper based to a Web-based system for interacting
with government. Citizens, employees and businesses can all have their biases with respect to how transactions should be processed. However, government entities and public policy administrators cannot ignore the changes that occur as a result of the implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) Education about the value of the new systems is one step toward reducing some of the existing resistance. It can also be particularly useful for a leader or manager, to buy into the new system at an early stage in the adoption process
Digital Divide: The digital divide refers to the separation that exists between individuals, communities, and businesses that have access to information technology and those that do not have such access. Social, economic, infrastructural and ethno-linguistic indicators provide explanations for the presence of the digital divide. Economic poverty is closely related to limited information technology resources. An individual living below poverty line does not afford a computer for him to harness the benefits of e-government and other online services. As the digital divide narrows, broader adoption of e-government in the public domain becomes possible. Economic poverty is not the only cause of digital divide. It can also be caused by the lack of awareness among the people. Even some of the economic stable people don’t know about the scope of e -governance. Awareness can only help to bring users to that service delivery channel once. It cannot guarantee sustained use of the system unless the system is also designed in such a way as to deliver satisfactory outcome. Procedures need to be simplified to deliver concrete benefits and clear guidelines provided to encourage their use by the actual end users and reduce user’s dependence on middlemen/intermediaries
Cost is one of the most important prohibiting factor that comes in the path of e-governance implementation particularly in the developing countries like India where most of the people living below the poverty line. Elected officers and politician don’t seem to be interested in implementing e-governance
Privacy and Security: There will be three basic levels of access exists for e-government stakeholders: no access to a Web service; limited access to a Web-service or full-access to a Web service, however when personal sensitive data exists the formation of the security access policy is a much more complex process with legal consideration. With the implementation of egovernment projects, effective measures must be taken to protect sensitive personal information. A lack of clear security standards and protocols can limit the development of projects that contain sensitive information such as income, medical history.

14.5    Suggestions
A hybrid approach needs to be adopted for enhancing interoperability among e-governance applications which will encompass a centralized approach for document management, knowledge management, file management, grievance management etc. The e-governance initiatives in rural areas should be taken by identifying and analysing the grassroots realities.
The government should also focus on devising appropriate, feasible, distinct and effective capacity building mechanisms for various stakeholders viz bureaucrats, rural masses, urban masses, elected representatives, etc.
Cloud computing is also becoming a big force to enhance the delivery of services related to egovernance. Cloud computing is not only a tool for cost reduction but also helps in enabling new services, improving the education system and creating new jobs/ opportunities.Meghraj-GI Cloud is a step in the right direction. The focus of this initiative is to accelerate the delivery of e-services in the country while optimizing ICT spending of the Government. E-Governance through regional languages is appreciable for the nations like India where people from several linguistic backgrounds are the participants.

14.6    Self-Check Exercise

a.    Advantages of E-Governance

b.    Issues and Challenges

14.7    Summary
We have seen how the concept of e-governance and m-governance has evolved in Indian scenario and how much it is required for transparency and accountability on the part of government and at the same time it is also a toll to increase the participation of people in policy making by empowering them with the right information at right time. The penetration of internet, telecommunication services in India has increased in the last decade and this gives a ray of hope to the citizens of India to fight with the long persisting problems of poverty, corruption, regional disparity and unemployment. But at the same time, due to slow pace of project completion, red-tape and resistance from the side of government employees and citizens too has not given the desired result.

14.8    Glossary
Cloud computing: the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.
ICTs: are the information and communication technologies such as, radio, computers, Internet, Intranet, Websites, and satellites; providing database, knowledge database, expert systems, Geographic Information System, Management Information System, video and audio teleconferencing.
M-Governance: M-governance is a sub-domain of e-governance. It ensures that electronic services are available to people via mobile technologies using devices such as mobile phones. These services bypass the need for traditional physical networks for communications and collaboration.

14.9    Answers to Self-check exercise
To see       a. 1.3          b. 1.4

14.10    Suggested Readings
Bhatnagar, Subhash, 2004, E-government: From Vision to Implementation A Practical Guide with Case Studies, Sage, New Delhi
http://vikaspedia.in/e-governance/national-e-governance-plan/concept-of-e-governance
http://indiaegovernance.blogspot.in/2008/03/e-governance-what-does-it-mean.html
Malik, Poonam, Dhillan, Priyanka and Verma, Poonam. (July, 2014) -“Challenges and future prospects for E-governance in india”, International Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology Research, volume-3, issue:7.

14.11    Terminal Questions

1.    What are the advantages of E-Governance for any country?

2.    What are the challenges in implementation of E-governance?

CHAPTER 15

I .T Policy of Himachal Pradesh & its Role in Governance
Structure
15.0 LearningObjectives
| 15.1 | Introduction |
|---|---|
| 15.2 | Governance Models |
| 15.3 | Information Technology Policy of Himachal Pradesh |
| 15.4 | IT initiatives in Himachal Pradesh |
| 15.5 | Challenges |
| 15.6 | Self-Check Exercise |
| 15.7 | Summary |
| 15.8 | Glossary |
| 15.9 | Answer to Self-Check Exercise |
| 15.10 | Suggested Reading |
| 15.11 | Terminal Questions |



15.0 LearningObjectives:
Aftergoingthroughthislessonthestudentswillbeabletoknow

•    I.T Policy of H.P

•    Initiatives taken in ICT sector

•    Benefits of technological initiatives

•    Future challenges in implementation

15.1    Introduction
Information Technology (IT) has undoubtedly emerged as an important driving force in today’s global economy. IT has completely transformed the way of human life. The relative position of
a country’s economy and state of its governance are gradually becoming synonymous with its ability to participate in the IT industry and to apply IT tools in administration and extension of citizen services. Industrialized and developing countries alike are formulating policies and programs to accelerate IT development and dissemination. Information Technology is increasingly regarded as a key technology. It is regarded as generic, strategic and critical core area. All OECD and other developed countries have since recognized the importance of IT and use a variety of policies and joint public-private programs to increase IT proliferation. In developing countries also it has been established that Information Technology has the potential to enhance competitiveness of key industries, modernize basic infrastructure and services, alleviate information poverty and reduce transaction costs throughout the economy.
Most industrialized countries and an increasing number of newly industrialized countries use new Information Technology in key areas like macro-economic planning and decision making, public administration, education, health-care, manufacturing, finance and banking, transportation, commerce, publishing, energy conservation and environmental management. Some economic historians assert that the impact of information technology on society tantamount to a second industrial revolution as momentous or even more in its implications compared to the first.

15.2    Governance Models
E-Governance can be defined as the application of information and communication technology (ICT) for providing government services, exchange of information, transactions, integration of previously existing services and information portals. There are four types of interactions in eGovernance viz., government to citizens (G2C), government to business (G2B), government to government, that is, inter-agency relationships (G2G), and government to employees (G2E).

•    G2C (Government to Citizens): In this case, an interface is created between the government and citizens who enables citizens to benefit from efficient delivery of a large range of public services. It gives citizens the choice of when to interact with the government (being available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week), from where to interact with the government (e.g., service centre, unattended kiosk, or from one’s home/workplace) and how to interact with the government (e.g., through the internet, fax, telephone, email, face-to-face, etc). The primary purpose is to make the government, citizen-friendly.

•    G2B (Government to Business): Here, e-Governance tools are used to aid the business
community to seamlessly interact with the government. The objective is to cut red tape, save time, reduce operational costs, and to create a more transparent business environment when dealing with the government. These measures help to provide a congenial environment to businesses to enable them to perform more efficiently.

•    G2G (Government to Government): In this case, Information and Communications Technology is used not only to restructure the government processes involved in the functioning of government entities but also to increase the flow of information and services within and between different entities. This kind of interaction is, between different government agencies as well as between national, provincial, and local governments. The primary objective is to increase efficiency, performance, and output.

•    G2E (Government to Employees): The government is by far the biggest employer and like any organisation, it has to interact with its employees regularly. This interaction is a two-way process between the organisation and the employee. The use of ICT tools helps in making these interactions fast and efficient on the one hand and increases satisfaction levels of employees on the other
Recognizing the increasing importance of electronics, the Government of India established the Department of Electronics in 1970. The subsequent establishment of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) in 1977 was the first major step towards e-Governance. With the economic reforms in 1991, the model of e-governance in India gained a fillip due to convergence in the availability of progressive technologies and opportunities in this field. A National Task Force on Information Technology and Software Development was set-up in 1998. The Ministry of Information Technology was created at the Centre in 1999. In the year 2000, a 12-point minimum agenda for e-Governance was identified for implementation in all the central ministries and departments. The Information Technology Act (2000) was enacted. The National Policy on Information Technology (NPIT) was approved in 2012. It focuses on the deployment of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in all sectors of the economy and providing IT-based solutions to address citizen-centric issues. And here we are now, at with ambitious project of Digital India, which will enable us to achieve the motive of “minimum government, maximum governance”.

15.3    Information Technology Policy of Himachal Pradesh
Recognising the enormous potential of IT, the Himachal Pradesh Government has chalked out a multi-pronged strategy to herald the benefits of this technology for its citizens and for the
State as a whole. Accordingly, the State Government has created an IT friendly environment for integrated participation by all in the development process of the new digital economy. This journey into the information age has brought improvement in the quality of every aspect of human life, emergence of a competitive society and a vibrant economy of new age technologies through transparent governing systems, sound infrastructure and skilled human resources. With the above objectives in mind, the State Govt. had engaged NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies) to suggest the IT Vision 2010 for the State for the new millennium. The present policy is largely based on NASSCOM study and the outcome of various deliberations held thereon with Industry, Academia and different Government Departments.
The aspirations of the IT policy of Himachal Pradesh are based on 6 E’s i.e. Education, Employment, Entrepreneurship, Electronic Governance, Economy and Equality. Thus the objectives are as follows:
Investment in IT Sector: To encourage and accelerate the investments and growth in IT hardware, software, training, IT enabled services, telecom, e-commerce and related sectors in the State.
IT in Education: Encourage the use of Information Technology in schools, colleges and educational institutions in the state of Himachal Pradesh, so as to enable students to improve their skills, knowledge and job prospects and enable them to obtain employment in this sunrise industry. (Note: Hundreds of middle, high and senior secondary schools have already been computerised and computer aided learning is being provided besides imparting basic skills in operating computers).
IT in Industry: To use IT effectively in industries especially where the State has competitive advantages, for making such industries more global and help them to generate additional revenues; to diversify the local industries into being web-enabled and attract IT companies from elsewhere in the country and the world.
E-Governance: To use IT in the process of Government functioning to bring about Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent (SMART) governance to its citizens.
IT for Social Equity: To utilize the power of Information Technology in the overall goal of improving healthcare; empowering women, rural & tribal communities as well as economically weaker sections of society. The ultimate aim is to enhance social equity and justice.
IT for Employment: To use Information Technology for generating additional employment for the new digital economy and governance.
IT Infrastructure: To provide adequate infrastructure in the state, so that the IT sector can flourish and also to facilitate citizens of the state to use IT for a better quality of life.
Localization: To facilitate localization of software, so that benefits of IT could percolate not only in the English language, but also in Hindi.
E-Tourism: To use IT for heralding world class E-Tourism in the State.
Venture Capital and Incubation Engine: To unleash the Himachal Pradesh incubation engine thereby promoting entrepreneurship, increasing foreign exchange earnings and increasing IT’s contribution to the State GDP.
IT, ITeS and ESDM Policy - 2019 Himachal Pradesh is the latest policy which drive the working of technological advancements across the state.

15.4    IT initiatives in Himachal Pradesh
DITHP: The Department of Information Technology was set up in 2004 with the mandate to lay a strong foundation for development of Information Technology (IT) in the state. The department strives to encourage investments in IT and IT Enables Services, facilitates the establishment of IT institutes, works for improving the quality of IT education in the state and is at the forefront in promoting usage of IT Tools for ensuring a SMART (Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive & Transparent) Government.
HIMSWAN: Launched on 5th February, 2008, Himachal Pradesh was the first state in the country to establish a State Wide Area Network as an eGovernance initiative to create a Citizen-Government interface which is backed by a dedicated high speed line connecting all sub-division, tehsils, sub-tehsils, blocks and even panchayats. The network in operation is providing dynamic and interactive informationfrom departments like Rural Development, Excise & Taxation, Police and others for a time saving, transparent and better governance processes.
HPSDC: Himachal Pradesh State Data Centre has been identified as one of the important element of the core infrastructure for supporting e-Governance initiatives of National eGovernment Plan (NeGP). Department of Information Technology, Himachal Pradesh (DITHP) has commissioned the Himachal Pradesh State Data Centre (HPSDC) on 30 May,
2016 to host IT applications of various Government Departments for the benefits of citizens, to provide efficient electronic delivery of G2C (Government to Citizens), G2G (Government to Government) and G2B (Government to Business) services and to create common infrastructure for State Government Offices which include (Computing devices-servers in shared mode, Storage, network devices, electrical, air conditioning, network connectivity, UPS, Rack etc.,) installation and integration of IT infrastructure (servers, telecom equipment, integrated portal/ departmental information system, Enterprise and network management system, security, firewalls/IDS, networking components etc.), software and databases.
Himachal Online Seva (e-district) portal: Himachal Online Seva (e-District) Portal aims to provide citizen centric services electronically in an integrated manner. It also envisages automation of workflow, backend computerization, and data digitization across participating departments. Currently there are 140 Services launched and available on the portal which citizen can apply. Himachal Online Seva (e-District) project is also integrated with LokMitraKendras (LMKs) to provide important services through them which will help in reducing the number of citizen visits to Government offices. The Project was awarded Best Public Service Initiative Award during Digital India Summit, 2019.
MukhyaMantriSevaSankalp Helpline @ 1100 is a one stop shop for all public grievances in the State. It covers: Grievance registration, Demands & Suggestions, Information dissemination It includes all sources of grievances like those received at call center through toll free number 1100, through paper trails, emails, CM Sankalp mobile app or the MM SevaSankalp Portal. MMSS Helpline is operated through a Call Centre based at Shimla functional on all days from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm. The Call Centre handles incoming and/or outgoing telephone calls; from /to the citizens and concernedofficials responsible to deliver solutions for various services identified by the Government of Himachal Pradesh.MukhyaMantriSevaSankalp Helpline was inaugurated by Hon’ble Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Sh. Jairam Thakur on 16th September 2019.
HRTC Online Ticket Booking: The Department of IT has developed software for booking HRTC Ticket using Touch Screen Kiosk. Using this facility, passengers can now book ticket of all the long route buses using Credit/ Debit Card or through Internet Banking. Software is implemented in New Bus Stand Shimla. Application has been integrated with PNB Payment Gateway.
E-Procurement: Web based online tool to make the Processes of Procurement and Tendering more efficient, Minimize Procurement Costs and improve Transparency in the official procedure. The tool has been implemented across the State Government departments for all tenders above INR 5 lakhs mandatorily.
LokMitraKendras: LMKs are the front-end delivery points for Government, Private and Social Sector services to rural citizens at their doorsteps, in an integrated manner using Information and Communication Tools and have been set up at GP level.
Wi-Fi Choupal: The project aims to create a rural Internet service delivery platform for the villagers, managed and operated by a local person, thereby transforming the village into a “HiFi Village”. The project shall be rolled out in GPs across the state
Command and Control Centre:To improve the safety of the citizens, a Statelevel hi-tech Command and Control Center would be established to capture high-quality videos, surveillance, vehicle tracking, crowd management, traffic management, crime detection & control activities, disaster management etc.

15.5    Challenges
E-Governance has to be citizen-friendly. The delivery of services to citizens is considered a primary function of the government. It should enable seamless access to information and seamless flow of information across the state and central government in the federal set up. No country has so far implemented an e-Governance system for one billion people. It is a big challenge for us.
Work Plan: The ‘Working Group on E-Government in the Developing World’ considers infrastructure, economic health, education, information policies, etc. as crucial factors for the success of e-governance projects. If these factors are well in place then they can lay down the roadmap for effective e-governance implementation. Each state face problems of low connectivity, technical professionals, finances, and other resources coupled with inappropriate planning. Hence, it becomes difficult to develop specific applications and services.
Different languages: Every country where people with different cultures and different religions live. Governance applications are written in English which may not be understood by most people. Therefore, it becomes a challenge for the government to write e-Governance applications in regional languages, to reach the people.
Low Digital literacy: only 10% of the population is digitally literate. There are efforts like PM Digital SakshartaAbhiyaan going on, but we need to speed up them.
Accessibility: Even though the Internet users are growing there is a major part of the Indian population that does not have access to e-Governance services for a variety of reasons, e.g. some people may not own mobile phones, internet connection, electricity issues, etc. The Digital divide among rural-urban areas, gender-wise is a major challenge.
Limited financial resources: Its implementation in India is a humungous task due to the vast area and population. A huge cost is involved in the implementation, operational and evolutionary maintenance tasks of these activities. Added to it are the differential capacities of states and local governments.
Resistance to change: this issue persists among citizens as well as the people within the administration. Citizens are adapted to paperwork and are apprehensive of online transactions. We need to establish their trust first.
Privacy and Security: there is no data protection law in place; hence privacy is even more of a concern. The Aadhaar Bill met with a lot of resistance due to this. Also, the government's critical infrastructure, websites are under threat of cyber-attacks.
Interoperability among various levels of government centre, state, local; as well as among ministries is another issue.

15.6    Self-Check Exercise

a.    Governance Models

b.    IT policy of Himachal Pradesh

c.    IT Initiatives in Himachal Pradesh

15.7    Summary
The state of Himachal Pradesh has increased the efficiency of administration by building the critical digital infrastructure throughout the state. It tried to bridge the digital divide by providing internet connectivity till the remotest corner of the state. State encouraged the officials involved in the delivery of services to adopt the latest technological model to ensure the citizen centric governance. It started many initiatives across the departments which tries to delivery services in transparent and time bound manner.

15.8    Glossary
ESDM: The Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) Promotion Programme of Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), Government of India seeks to radically change electronics hardware manufacturing in the country by increasing value addition, encouraging technology dev elopement.
ITES: Information Technology Enabled Services is a term that refers to the use of information technology (IT) to deliver a range of services to businesses and organizations. It includes a wide range of activities, such as data processing, customer support, technical support, and consulting.
OECD:   Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an
international, intergovernmental economic organization of 38 countries. OECD was founded in the year 1961 to stimulate world trade and economic progress.

15.9    Answers to Self-check exercise
To see     a. 1.2          b. 1.3          c. 1.4

15.10    Suggested Readings
Second         ARC,         eleventh         report         on         e-governance
https://darpg.gov.in/sites/default/files/promoting_egov11.pdf
https://himachaldit.gov.in/it-policy/
M.P. Gupta, Prabhat K, Jaijit Bhattacharya: Government online, tata Mc. Graw hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi, 2004.

15.11    Terminal Questions

1.    What are the foundations for I.T policy in Himachal Pradesh?

2.    Enumerate the I.T initiatives taken in the state of Himachal Pradesh?
CHAPTER 16
Concept of LokMitraKendras
Structure
16.0 LearningObjectives
16.1 Introduction
| 16.2 | Concept of Common Service Centers |
|---|---|
| 16.3 | LokMitraKendras of Himachal Pradesh |
| 16.4 | Examples of Other States CSCs |
| 16.5 | Bottlenecks in Implementation |
| 16.6 | Self-Check Exercise |
| 16.7 | Summary |
| 16.8 | Glossary |
| 16.9 | Answer to Self-Check Exercise |
| 16.10 | Suggested Reading |
| 16.11 | Terminal Questions |



16.0 LearningObjectives:
Aftergoingthroughthislessonthestudentswillbeabletoknow

•    The concept of Common service centres

•    LokMitraKendras of Himachal Pradesh

•    What more needed for its implementation?

16.1    Introduction
E-Governance is the application of Information-Technology in the processes of Government functioning to ensure the highest standard of services to the citizens by providing instant access to selected Government information, and interfaces for communicating with the various
government functionaries, wherever and whenever they need it. The Government of Himachal Pradesh is committed to provide the general public, especially living in distant rural areas of the State, with the benefits of using Information Technology (IT) in Governance at their doorstep. Since The State has improved its potential of Internet facility and has proved its potential as a powerful and effective means of disseminating information, it is here that the importance of having good government web-enabled interfaces comes into light. The Web-enabled Government-Citizen Interface, named LokMitra Kendra is one such step of the Himachal Pradesh State Government in that direction. The objective of the LokMitraKendras is to provide e-services in the locality of citizens, by creating the physical service delivery infrastructure for accessing various e-services. LMK is envisaged to be a Change Instrument that would provide a structured platform for socially- inclusive community participation for development. It is the community participation and collective action, not ICT alone, which would lead to sustainable socio-economic development and long-term rural prosperity.

16.2    Concept of Common Service Centers
Common Service Centres (CSC) are physical facilities for delivering Government of India eServices to rural and remote locations where availability of computers and Internet was negligible or mostly absent. They are multiple-services-single-point model for providing facilities for multiple transactions at a single geographical location.
CSCs are the access points for delivery of essential public utility services, social welfare schemes, healthcare, financial, education and agriculture services, apart from host of B2C services to citizens in rural and remote areas of the country. It is a pan-India network catering to regional, geographic, linguistic and cultural diversity of the country, thus enabling the Government's mandate of a socially, financially and digitally inclusive society.
The CSC project, which forms a strategic component of the National e-Governance Plan was approved in September 2006. It is also one of the approved projects under the Integrated Mission Mode Projects of the National e-Governance Plan. CSC e-Governance Services India Limited incorporated on 16 July 2009.The implementation of the CSC would be done in a Public–private partnership (PPP) model in a revenue sharing model which will try to empower village level entrepreneur by providing employment at their doorsteps.
Objectives

•    Access to information : all remote/ rural citizens

•    Delivery of public services – G2C & B2C

•    ICT for rural Empowerment of socially disadvantaged people for inclusive growth

•    Access to quality education / skill upgradation

•    Access to cost efficient & quality health services

•    CSC as a change agent - To promote rural entrepreneurship, enable community participation and effect collective action for social improvement
Through a collaborative framework, the objective of CSC is to integrate the twin goals of profit-making and social services, into a sustainable business model for achieving rapid socioeconomic change.
Based on the assessment of CSC scheme, the Government launched the CSC 2.0 scheme in 2015 to expand the outreach of CSCs to all Gram Panchayats across the country. Under CSC 2.0 scheme, at least one CSC will be set up in each of the 2.5 lakh GPs across the country by 2019. CSCs functioning under the existing scheme will also be strengthened and integrated with additional 1.5 lakh CSCs across the country. CSC 2.0 scheme would consolidate service delivery through a universal technology platform, thereby making e-services, particularly G2C services accessible to citizens anywhere in the country.

16.3    LokMitraKendras of Himachal Pradesh
LokMitra Kendra aims to establish self-sustaining network at Gram Panchayat (GP) level under the SITEG(Society for promotion of IT & e-Governance) society with an objective to deliver various citizen centric services. The model of LokMitra Kendra is envisaged as transaction based and service delivery based model, delivering a bouquet of e-services through a single delivery technological platform, which would increase the sustainability of the LokMitraKendras across the state.The project envisages various direct/indirect social as well as economic benefits to the rural masses:

•    Better dissemination of information till the remotest corner, which results better awareness among rural masses regarding various Government Schemes which try to
bring transparency in the delivery of citizen centric services.

•    Saving the time & cost of people visiting District headquarters time and again for getting information, lodging complaints & inquiring their status etc.

•    Employment generation by opening up of LokMitraKendras throughout the State in the private sector.

•    Facilitating the growth of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) throughout the State.
To get the LMK ID, VLE need to submit online request to get LokMitra Kendra (LMK) ID by uploading details on http://lmk.gov.in portal. Following documents are required while applying for LMK ID:

•    Photo ID Proof

•    Address Proof

•    Affidavit

•    NOC from concerned Tehsildar/ NaibTehsildar/ BDO/ Panchayat Pradhan/
Panchayat Secretary (from any of them) may be taken to certify the need to have an LMK and the Applicant belongs to that Gram Panchayat/Ward. After filling in the application on LMK Portal, District Manager verifies the details and submit application to respective District Administration/ DeGS to approve the application. Once application is approved by the District Administration/ DeGS, LMK ID is assigned to the VLE by IT Department.
The Common Service Centres in Himachal Pradesh is branded as LokMitraKendras (LMKs), as per approval of the State Government during the initiation of the Project. In view of the latest guidelines, there will be no distinction between Common Service Centres (CSCs) and LokMitraKendras (LMKs). A local Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE) would be responsible to bear the entire capital and operational expenditure involved in making the CSC operational. VLE is also expected to deliver various services to citizens as per the direction of the State Nodal Department.
Presently around 5500 LMKs are operational and providing services such as:

•  Collection of HPSEB electricity bill.

•  IPH water bill.

•    Issuance of copy of NakalJamabandi (Land Records).

•    HRTC Bus Ticket Booking.

•    E-Aadhaar Printing.

•    Updation of demographic details in Aadhaar.

•    Permanent Enrolment Centres (PECs) for enrolling new Aaadhaar numbers.

•    MC Shimla Water Bill Collection.

•    MC Shimla House Tax Collection.

•    Jail Varta-Prisoner Relative Video Conferencing System.

•    Farmer Portal-Registration,Feedback.
The commission/ service charges will be paid to VLE through online process immediately for each G2C service successfully rendered at a CSC. The revenue sharing will be in the ration of 80:20, wherein 80% will be paid to VLE and remaining 20% will be equally shared between CSC SPV and IT Department. The monitoring at the district level will be undertaken by District Administration/ District eGovernance Society (DeGS) supported by State Level Resources (SLRs) deployed at Districts.

16.4    Examples of Other States CSCs
Chandigarh: E-samparkcenters is a Department of IT (DIT) initiative for the development, integration and maintenance of web-portal for various departments of the Administration for providing 'One-stop-shop' for 45 G2C and 4 B2C services . It not only provides the Online Transaction Processing through its centres and web-enabled portal but also is a major source of information dissemination.
Punjab: SUWIDHA centres (Single User-Friendly Window Disposal and Helpline for Applicants) are aimed to provide citizens with convenience. These SUWIDHA centres provide citizens with services at a single point. No matter if the services might be related to any other department too. It is one of the very early initiatives of E-Governance that aims at Government to citizen services. It is a time bound method where citizens get results in a quick and effective manner.
Andhra Pradesh: MeeSeva In Telugu, the word "MeeSeva" means "At Your Service," i.e., assistance to the public. It is a good governance programme that supports a single entry gateway for the whole range of G2C & G2B services and integrates the National e-Governance Plan's "Public Services Closer to Home" goal.
Rajasthan : E-Mitra project combines the Jan Mitra and LokMitra projects, which offer a single roof under which to house all of the departments. The Jan Mitra has created an integrated e-platform so that rural residents of Rajasthan can access the information they need and services connected to various government agencies right at their door using digital technology. The LokMitra is an urban-focused e-government project that offers public services online.

16.5    Bottlenecks in Implementation
During the initial phase, the project was plagued by many unanticipated challenges and obstacles that made it really hard to keep up with the roll out schedule. There was also a great deal of disparity between the central and state governments communication. There were other challenges that were known yet beyond the control of addressing and handling due to prevailing unavoidable circumstances. The challenges are categorized into technical, administrative, capacity building, aware-ness and sensitization, financial, G2C services, and man power.
Technical
Connectivity: Most of the rural areas are deprived of internet connectivity to the last mile.
Electricity: Infrastructure build up remains dysfunctional due to lack of power supply in most of the areas.
Administrative
Bureaucracy: Even though the CSC is an ambitious and one of the core e-Government initiatives that created history and marked its importance across the country, one of the major challenges involved is dealing with the bureau-cratic system itself.
Government Support: Government support was another major challenge since the attitude of rejection and non-cooperation was working within the system.
Capacity Building: Capacity building at state and project level should have been carried out simultaneously with the project implementation. The implementation could have been phenomenal had the government officials been better trained, well informed, equipped to handle a variety of situations, and able to appreciate the importance of such a massive initiative.
Awareness and Sensitization: The rural population was completely oblivious to the importance of the CSC services and its importance for them. They still believed in the notion of making a trip down to the town for any government services. They had to be educated that those services would be available at CSC right at their doorsteps and only a few clicks away.
Financial :Government is providing subsidy but more is needed to be done to expand the networks of common service centers.

16.6    Self-Check Exercise

a.    Concept of Common Service Centers

b.    LokMitra Kendra’s of Himachal Pradesh

c.    Bottlenecks in Implementation

16.7    Summary
The Common Service Centres, popularly known as the CSCs, are one of the important constituents of the core infrastructure of the NeGP. The main objective of the CSC Scheme is to create a platform that enables government, private and social sector organisations to align their social and commercial goals for the benefit of the rural population in the remotest corners of the country through IT-based services. So, the scheme envisages inclusion of the rural population in the development process, thereby, bringing improvement in their socio-economic conditions. The LokMitraKendras in the state of Himachal Pradesh are playing pivotal role in the delivery of citizen centric services in transparent and time-bound manner.
16.8 Glossary
DIT:         Department of Information Technology
LMK:       LokMitraKendras
| SDA: | State Designated Agency |
|---|---|
| SITEG: | Society for Information Technology and E-Governance |
| VLE: | Village Level Entrepreneur |



16.9    Answers to Self-check exercise
To see     a. 1.2          b. 1.3          c. 1.5

16.10    Suggested Readings
Bhuvana, M., &Vasantha, S. (2020). Assessment of rural citizens satisfaction on the service quality of common service centers (CSCs) of e-governance. Journal of Critical Reviews, 7(5), 302-305.
https://www.meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/CSCFinalReportCIPS.pdf
https://himachaldit.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/LMK-Policy-V1.1.pdf
Sharma, S. K., Metri, B., Dwivedi, Y. K., &Rana, N. P. (2021). Challenges common service centers (CSCs) face in delivering e-government services in rural India. Government Information Quarterly, 38(2), 101573.

16.11    Terminal Questions

3.    What is the concept of common service centers? Give some examples across India?

4.    Explain the functioning of Lokmitrakendras in Himachal Pradesh?
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