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HYDERABAD: E-governance is touted by many as the next great Indian revolution. Beyond the hype, however, is a growing movement in India and other Asian countries to experiment with governance-thru-Internet.

Among the states offering e-governing solutions within India, perhaps Andhra Pradesh would be perceived as a front-runner. Powered by Sun Microsystems, the AP government has deployed a project ‘e-COPS’, which provides an interface between the citizen and the police department. eCOPS is up and running in all the four pilot locations i.e. Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam District.

The project would be implemented initially in 279 locations as a pilot project, covering three Commissionerates of Police (Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam), Srikakulam District, one Andhra Pradesh special police battalion, one police training college and office of director general of police.

Sun has also provided AP State police with multiple E450 Sun servers to run this project across the state. Criminals trying to hoodwink the police beware, because AP police are now armed with a computerized databank of criminals. The AP police is developing a databank of listed offenders in all criminal cases reported in Hyderabad, Vijaywada, Vishakapatnam cities and Srikakulam district. During the last six months, the department has generated information on 11,000 people accused in various cases in Hyderabad alone, while it collected data on 4,000 other offenders listed in Vijaywada, Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam.

"Once e-cops is extended to other districts, the department is hoping to have the largest database available. Access to database is being provided to the police stations to assist in their investigations. They could use the facility for interrogation of the persons. A user friendly software is developed for this that can be handled even at the constable level to operate the software and cull out the necessary details," said, SV Ramana Murthy, IGP (Police Computer Services).

This software is being integrated with the existing computerized fingerprint database of listed criminals. The police computer services have the largest computerized fingerprints of 2.64 lakh criminals, which is enabling the state police to solve crimes effectively.

The Traffic Police at Kolkata have introduced a novel SMS service to facilitate better interaction between citizens. "If anybody wants to report anything to us, all they need to do is to key in the message and SMS it to us and we will take care of the matter. So far, this solution has helped us a lot in bridging the divide between the police and the public. Anyone can dial 9830098100 to make complaint. On an average, we get more than 20 complaints everyday." said, MK Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police at Kolkata.

Developed by Kolkata based SMS Infosys, the system allows users to send in their SMS at the police headquarter based servers. "The SMS arrives at the control-room of police HQ at Kolkata, gets processed automatically through my program and maintains a database, sends a receipts to the respected user and prints out a pre-formatted page from a laser printer. More importantly no manpower is required to run this service. The officer-in-charge just collects the printed page from the printer and does his job. When the case is solved, police will send a SMS saying ‘thank you’ your case is solved," informed, Imtiaz Ahmed, CEO at SMS Infosys.

Moving forward, to augment dissemination of information related to traffic condition in the city, the Kolkata Police is going to adopt some immediate measures. "We are going to introduce Interactive Voice Response System on our website. We are also looking for a SMS solution to inform people on Mobile through SMS on "TRAFFIC 123". If there is any sudden traffic disruption, those messages will be sent as "FLASH MESSAGE"," Singh added.

High-priced technologies generally add unnecessary costs to organizations that are poorly managed. Before you can get e-governance right, you need to first get governance right. Computer and Internet access cannot undo corrupt, bloated bureaucracies or ineffective public institutions.

But e-governance threatens the political status quo. Political elite and entrenched bureaucrats–particularly in places where government jobs have high profit margins–may resist.

Disturbing scenarios arise when we consider how non-democratic governments would adopt, or co-opt, information technologies. Such regimes treat control of information as political bedrock. Access to information is constrained or rationed by those in power. Ultimately, information access is less an issue of too few telephones and computers. Rather, education and a "culture of information" are the foundations for enriching the information-poor and building e-governments.

Investors would increasingly factor in the e-government environment–meaning less red tape, more transparent regulations, easier payment of fees–into business decision making. A country's or city's future competitiveness would rest on how it positions itself in the race for investment. Governments, especially in smaller countries and localities that are not prepared to reform, would watch businesses migrate elsewhere, or never invest at all.

None of this diminishes the democratizing potential of the e-government. Unraveling the complexities of online government requires sustained political commitment and a measure of techno-literacy among leaders. What has been started by the South indian states is catching on very fast all over India and that's the reason we hear even the not-so-IT-savvy states like UP talking high on e-governance.
Privacy and security concerns must be addressed. Yet, the operative issue for e-government is the readiness of governments to democratize access to information. Are they ready to replace command-and-control with click-and-connect? For the moment, the digital divide applies equally to all levels of government. Yet, to the extent that citizen-oriented approaches are adopted, e-government may signal a step toward e-Pluribus Unum.