NEW DELHI, INDIA: The South Indian States of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have emerged among the top 5 e-governed states in India in 2008-09 as per findings of the 5th IDC India study conducted for CyberMedia's flagship fortnightly Dataquest.

Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have climbed three spots each over last year's ranking, to emerge as the No 1 and No. 5 respectively, said a press release. Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana have secured No 2, 3 and 4 positions respectively.

Delhi has slipped two ranks from No. 1 last year and Himachal Pradesh and Haryana have climbed up 5 and 14 places respectively.

The results of the survey to be published in the December 15 issue of Dataquest are based on a two-level survey that assesses every State's IT vision, implementation plan and ease of use of services. It also takes into consideration IT allocation for new projects in 2007-08, implementation of new projects, and user satisfaction among 3,150 citizens and businesses.

While the usual probables like Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi continued to feature in the top 10, it was the performance of Haryana that requires special mention, said the release.

The state government seems to have taken the e-governance agenda seriously as the state is ranked high on the e-readiness index indicating that citizens are ready to enter the e-governance era.

Like previous years, this year too the top performing states of last year saw a dip in rankings confirming that continuous retention of Service Quality and Ease of Interaction are the two vital factors behind satisfaction of e-governance initiatives in certain states.

Commenting on the findings of the 5th Dataquest-IDC best e-Governed states survey2008-09, Prasanto K Roy, chief editor, Dataquest said, "E-gov has a long way to go in India. There are good projects, but there's too much duplication of good work in the Government."

He opined that Central departments are duplicating work by building multiple citizen databases - Census, Voter IDs, PAN records, Food & Civil Supplies - and wasting thousands of crore. "And yet they cannot tap on to a common view of the 'customer', the citizen," he said.

The IDC-Dataquest study notes that despite all efforts to ensure that government services reach the common man, there has been a marginal decline in citizen satisfaction across categories. While the overall citizen satisfaction declined from 64.8 to 63.6, individual services like Employment Exchange and Police and Security showed a decline of 10 per cent and 9 per cent respectively.

In terms of overall citizen satisfaction, Tamil Nadu emerged as the front-runner, closely followed by Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. However, Delhi at # 4 is surprising, as the state has accomplished full score in the e-readiness index.

The study added that in Delhi, the sky-high expectations of the people are a cause of concern. But Haryana has taken a lead over other states when it comes to satisfying its citizens as the survey has revealed that citizens of Haryana are the most satisfied across all parameters.

One cannot ignore the sterling performance of Chhattisgarh across various parameters, particularly education, where it has been ranked # 1 even surging ahead of Delhi, said the release.

The citizens of Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Assam are the most satisfied with Transport/RTO services. The people of Haryana also seem to be contented with the quality of services being offered as the state scores high in categories like Income Tax, Healthcare, Education and, of course, employment exchange.

And the state has been ranked #3 in terms of e-readiness. In terms of IT spending per capita the state ranks #5 much above the so-called IT savvy states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar make up for the worst 3 in terms of e-Governance, the survey said.