India ranks 87 in e-governance readiness

Kavitha Alexis

BANGALORE: India slipped one point and is ranked 87 in the global e-government readiness rankings 2005.

According to the 'UN Global E-government Readiness Report 2005: From E-government to E-Inclusion', India's e-government readiness is 0.4001, compared with the world average of 0.4267 in 2005.

North American countries (0.8744) and Europe (0.6012) retained their leadership position in the world in e-government readiness.

E-government readiness of countries is assessed based on a composite index comprising web measure, infrastructure and human capital assessment.

The US leads the 2005 global e-government readiness rankings, as it did in the previous years, with the highest index of 0.9062 followed by Denmark (0.9058), Sweden (0.8983) and United Kingdom (0.8777).

Among the developing countries, the Republic of Korea (0.8727) leads with Singapore (0.8503), Estonia (0.7347), Malta (0.7012) and Chile (0.6963) close behind. As a region, Europe follows North America while South-Central Asia and Africa bring up the last.

In the web measure index, India ranks 33 with an index of 0.5827. Web measure index assesses the websites of the governments to determine if they are employing e-government to the fullest. The web measure rankings are different to the e-government readiness rankings.

According to the report, though India slipped one point in the relative ranking in 2005, it nevertheless reinforced its offerings. The report mentions about India's notable contributions in promoting online participation, like the portal on government policies.

“India has added a Portal on Government Policies, where agencies and departments are able to publish their policies for the public to view. Along with the downloadable policy document itself, contact information for the individual responsible for each policy is listed, so that potentially affected parties can make comments, suggestions, or give other input related to the subject of the policy, usually by calling or e-mailing the responsible individual, or by using the online comment form provided,” the report said.

Another government site, which got a mention in the report was of the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances within India's Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions.

The Online Public Grievance Lodging and Monitoring site, enables users to lodge a complaint about an issue that was not resolved through the regular administrative procedure of the agency in question and to track the status of grievances lodged.

“Through these two online mechanisms, India is increasing its citizens' access and soliciting their views to help shape how government fulfills its mandates in a more efficient manner”, the report says.

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