E-governance project in India is still into murk

BANGALORE, INDIA: the IT Industry faces a trust deficit in the form of unlimited accountability, unfavorable payment terms, unreasonable legal frameworks, fall clause, obscure SLAs and lack of clarity in e-Governance projects in India.

Deliberating on the above to provide the much needed impetus to the IT industry, MAIT in partnership with DeitY, with Accenture as its knowledge partner, organized a sensitization workshop on Model RFPs (Request for Proposal), prepared by DeitY for selection on consultants, system integrators and PPP operators for e-Governance projects. This workshop was inaugurated by MN Vidyashankar, IAS., Addl. Chief Secretary (Retd.), Govt. of Karnataka.

The workshop saw the participation of southern states in the form of their IT Secretaries and IT departments and heads of leading technology companies. MN Vidyashankar said: "Karnataka being the only state to have an integrated e-procurement based on deliverables and outcomes has the potential to lead the country in e-governance. Such workshops help in arriving at cohesive solutions that enable improvements in procurement processes and complimented MAIT for leading these."

They suggested policy altercations which if implemented would foster an equitable partnership between industry, government and the beneficiaries of e-Governance projects.

Venkat Kedlaya, Southern Region chairman, MAIT, said: "This workshop threw light on how decision making is a challenge in our country - efficiency and transparency is our clarion call to e-Governance projects and MAIT will be rolling out a ‘White Paper' detailing concrete actionables for streamlining IT projects."

DK Das, National Business Head, Government Industrial Solutions, Tata Consultancy Services, commented: "Ease of payment terms, rationalization of legal terms and Service Level Agreement (SLA) can boost confidence thereby enabling Tier 1 firms to actively participate in e-Governance projects in India."

Vivek Sharma, GM and Business Head - Government and Defense Vertical, Wipro, said that RFPs are often one-sided. "Two-way accountability would co-create better linkages and synergies in e-Governance and procurement."

Ramendra Verma, partner, Health& Public Services, National Delivery Lead, Accenture, commented: "Payment terms should be reasonable so as to help companies meet their cash flow requirements. The industry and government both stand to benefit if payment processes are streamlined."

MAIT, with the given maturity of industry, urged the government to respond to the changing dynamics. CT Bhadran, chairman, System Integration, MAIT, mentioned, "The terms of RFP should be practical and reasonable, yet adhering to the legal framework. The scope of the project in the RFP should be elucidated so as to ensure that companies know what they are getting into."