India, the world’s IT services backyard, figures quite low in a global e-governance ranking

RELATED ARTICLES India gets 46th spot in global trade logistics performance: WB India decides to cut crude oil import from Iran by over 11% US not impressed with India's efforts to cut Iran oil buys As funds flee, India's pain is southeast Asia's gain Telenor, Vodafone among six cos that sent notices to India

with a per capita IT spend of just $1.29, a new study says.

Country’s largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which has authored the study, said that New Delhi has to catalyse policy decisions to improve e-governance.

India’s per capita public sector IT spend is just $1.29, compared to $199 in New Zealand and $153 in Singapore.

“According to the WEF Global Information Technology Report, India ranks 44th out of 122 countries analysed and ahead of us are countries like Barbados, Latvia, Tunisia, Thailand and the Slovak Republic.

“Therefore, there is tremendous potential for e-Governance to benefit citizens exponentially and maximise return on government investments,” TCS CEO and managing director S Ramadorai said.

If implemented properly, e-governance can be an asset for the unserved and under-served areas in India and drive new efficiency gains nationwide. While Indian IT is associated with some of the most advanced and complex IT projects globally, India has not fully leveraged its potential of IT and the expertise of Indian IT industry, the study said.

The white paper is an attempt by TCS to use its experience in e-governance projects to define a road-map for India and highlight current impediments like a silo-based approach that is limiting the benefits of technology use.

On the back of the findings, TCS has come up with a five-point plan towards building an ideal e-governance framework in India.

It advocated “a nationwide mandate to allocate a fixed percentage of the annual budget for e-governance projects, the need to adopt an integrated and holistic approach focused on services, national level oversight of any e-governance programme and thereby move from individualised to institutionalised e-governance.

The IT firm also suggested setting up of a government standing committee to oversee national e-governance programmes.