National Workshop on
E-Governance in India: A Tool for Peoples’ Empowerment
March 19-20, 2013
(Concept Note)
In a democratic societymaintaining the trust and confidence of people through deliberation and inclusiveness is very important. Postcolonial India is passing through a transitional phase where it has been maintained that we have survived somehow the test of democracy, however trust deficit is writ large everywhere, which perhaps is due to poor governance. In order to overcome this, the issue of governance has becomethe focus of our polity and society. Being an amorphous concept, it is difficult to precisely define governance, therefore scholars and institutions talk of applying indicators for the same. The application of Information Communication Technology (ICT), broadly covered under the garb of electronic governance has added to the emerging dimensions of governance that calls for opening of interface between various state and non-state actors.
In developing countries like India, e-governance evolved as a conditionality of International Organizations like-World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and United States International Aid Agency. They called for good governance for the proper management of resources. There was lackof transparency, accountability, participation, responsiveness and inclusiveness from the state, which resulted in huge losses of life, property and badly affected the process of development. Such organizations, in turn forced the governments to accept poor governance as the root cause of all the problems. The application of ICT was seen as a useful tool in overcoming this trust deficit. .
Though, the foundation of e-governance in India was laid down in the mid-1980s, but it truly emerged with the inception of new troika of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization in the 1990s. With the successful implementation of Passenger Reservation System, computerization of land records, online transactions pertaining to various direct and indirect taxes and now the Aadhaar based cash transfers; there has been a spurt in the usage of ICT in day-to-day life of people. All this has been confined to certain areas where some success has been achieved and mostly revolves around Government to Citizen (G2C) mode. Recently, e-governance has shown immense potential through social networking in championing the causes of the needy, downtrodden and in the creation of conditions of democracy. At the same its negative side with glaring implications pertaining to right to privacy, tendency of centralization, creation of new ‘knowledge elites’, also has posed challenges. In a country where there is a huge backlog of basic amenities, squalor, illiteracy, and poor infrastructure, questions have been raised about the efficacy of such a measure. A large section of our population has remained alienated from the impact of e-governance. In such a situation the basic question that needs to be asked is: whether e-governance in India has led to the empowerment of people or it has turned out to be rhetoric only. Has it led to preservation, protection and promotion of rights of the people? How far it has impacted the lives of the people in terms of service delivery and other citizenry benefits? Has its adoption made any impact in dealing with corruption in India? What are the emerging problems and challenges?
Keeping this in view, we thought it opportune toorganize a two day National workshop where a group of scholars, practitioners, e-governance experts and members of civil societycould throw light on this very important measure. The workshop shall try to ponder over some of the following issues, problems and challenges:
- The Socio-Political Implications of the E-governance in India;
- E-governance as a tool for empowerment or State rhetoric.
- The Role of the State and Non-State Actors in e-governance in India;
- The constraints of e-governance as a tool for peoples’ empowerment.
The above sub-themes are broadly sketchy and suggestive. One may choose the topic from his/her specialization and interest. It is our pleasure in inviting you to participate in this National workshop. We request you to kindly send your acceptance and a brief abstract (about 300 words in MS Word, 2003, Times New Roman 12 font (and Kruti Dev 14 font) so as to reach us by, February 28, 2013 to the address given below. The Research Scholars who are interested in participating will have to get themselves registered by March15, 2013. The registration fee is Rs. 700/- (seven hundred only). In case of outstation Research Scholars, they have to bear their T.A., D.A. and accommodation expenses on their own.
Please use the following address for correspondence:
Dr. Abhinav Sharma
Organizing Secretary
Department of Political Science
Faculty of Social Sciences
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi – 221 005.
9335015046; 0542-6703118(off.)
Looking forward to hearing from you at an early date. With regards and best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2013.
Yours Sincerely,
(Prof. Rajani Ranjan Jha)(Prof. Ram Pravesh Pathak)
Seminar CoordinatorHead & Seminar Director
+91-9415780888+91- 9936523033
+91-542-6703118(off.)+91-542-6703118 (off.)
Organising Committee
Prof. Chandrakala PadiaProf. Amarnath Mohanty
Prof. Anjoo Sharan UpadhyayaProf. Sanjay Srivastava
Prof. Kaushal Kishore MishraProf. Tej Pratap Singh
Prof. Dewan Ghufran Ahmad KhanDr. Sonali Singh
Prof. Shubha RaoDr. Hemant Kumar Malviya
Prof. Raghvendra Pratap Singh
Prof. Ashok Kumar Upadhyaya
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