8 January 2025 : Daily Answer Writing
Q1) E-Governance has emerged as an important pillar in the modernization and efficiency of public administration. Critically analyse the potential of Digital India in ensuring a seamless experience of citizens in accessing public services. (150 Words/10 Marks)
Answer:
E-governance is the process of carrying out the functions of governance using information and communication technologies. Use of real-time data for governance is a technological revolution within the sphere of e-governance.
e-governance is one of the pillars of Digital India – a flagship initiative launched in 2015 to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.
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Digital India and e-Governance – A seamless experience:
1. Direct Benefit Transfer has played a key role in ending pilferage in welfare schemes. Ex: more than 23 lakh rupees has been transferred through DBT to beneficiaries
2. Trio of Jan Dhan, Mobile and Aadhar (JAM trinity) has ensured accuracy in targeting vulnerable sections for welfare schemes
3. CSCs are offering government and business services in digital mode in rural areas through Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs). Over 400 digital services are being offered by these CSCs.
4. Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) – provides government services to citizen through mobile. More than 1668 e-Services and over 20,197 bill payment services are made available at UMANG.
5. MyGov – It is a citizen engagement platform that is developed to facilitate participatory governance. Presently, over 2.76+ crore users are registered with MyGov.
6. Unified Payment Interface (UPI) is the leading digital payment platform. It has onboarded 376 banks and has facilitated 730 crore transactions (by volume) worth Rs 11.9 lakh crore
However, there are certain issues in achieving the full potential Digital India has to offer:
1. Lack of digital literacy and language barriers create exclusion, undermining the effectiveness of e-governance. E.g., elderly people find Jeevan Praman difficult to use
2. Lack of accessibility to internet or a digital device is a disadvantage for real-time data-based e-governance. For example, disruption of electricity and internet during a natural disaster.
3. The risk of personal data theft, leakages and surveillance by ‘the big brother state’ creates distrust in using digital services. For example, on linking Aadhaar with voter ids.
4. Success of UPI in digitalizing payment ecosystem remains limited to urban areas. As per field research by 1Bridge, only 3-7 per cent of rural consumers are actively using UPI.
5. Lack of digital literacy, complexity of use and linguistic barriers have resulted in fewer digital solutions catering to rural masses.
E-Governance can shape effective governance policies through real – time public data for public good. As highlighted by the Economic Survey 2018-19, data ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’ must be the mantra for the government as it addresses issues in data-governance to deliver good governance
For more such UPSC related Mains Answer Writing, Check Out 7 Januray 2025 : Daily Answer Writing
