Centre for Internet and Society

E-governance hopes rise as India crosses 1 billion transactions

praskrishna — 2013-10-29T04:48:58Z

Government agencies and departments, regarded as bywords for inefficiency and red tape, have recorded over a billion e-governance transactions so far this year, watershed for the world's largest democracy that is betting on technology to cure its ills.

The article by J Srikant was published in the Economic Times on October 29, 2013. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

"It is an important milestone for India's e-governance initiative," said J Satyanarayana, secretary in the department of electronics and information technology. "With better accessibility and more projects getting completed, this number should keep rising."

Among states, Gujarat topped the list with around 389 million transactions while online payment for utility and government services was the most used government service with about 258 million transactions clocked in the year.

India is in the middle of implementing a large-scale e-governance programme which includes a vast information technology network to facilitate speedy delivery of public services. The most important of these are 31 'mission mode' projects being implemented by the central governments and states. Technology researcher Gartner estimates that government will spend Rs 36,800 crore on IT products and services in 2013. The most high-profile e-governance scheme is the unique identity project Aadhaar being implemented by former InfosysBSE -0.04 % CEO Nandan Nilekani. The biometric-linked scheme is targeting to enroll 600 million people by 2014.

A year ago, the country successfully commissioned an e-passport project where digitisation of applications and internal files vastly improved the time taken to issue new passports.

"Reaching a billion transactions with just about 100 million internet users is a commendable achievement and we should celebrate it," said Sunil Abraham, executive director of Centre for Internet and Society. "E-governance is a tough area to work in, not just in India but across the globe. So this performance should make us positive."

With more parts of the country getting connected through the National Optic Fibre Network, industry watchers expect more citizens to be accessing government services over the internet. The project aims to connect 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. The network has been launched in pockets of Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Tripura, with some 80,500 transactions already recorded.

"This number (one billion) is a reflection of the increasing access of internet in the country and the acceptance of technology change happening," said Sanjoy Sen, senior director at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India. "E-governance helps in reducing cost and bottlenecks for the user and also brings down the time to get the work done. It is an important factor in today's economy."

Experts said that although it is working well for India, there are still certain steps that government needs to take to maintain the pace of expansion.

"Government should look at financially incentivising setting up of cyber cafes in rural India as these are an important aspect of improving the accessibility," said Abraham.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/economic-times-october-29-2013-j-srikant-e-governance-hopes-rise-as-india-crosses-1-billion-transactions

e-DIRAP Google+ Hangout on Open Government

praskrishna — 2013-08-08T04:20:31Z

The e-DIRAP Hangout on Open Government was held on Thursday, July 25, 2013. The Hangout brought together nine professionals from Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines to discuss open government initiatives in their respective countries, the challenges they face, and open source tools for open government.

Watch the Video below

The following panelists participated in the hangout. Sunil Abraham was one of them:

Danny Butt, Research Fellow in Participatory Public Space, University of Melbourne, Australia
Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, Centre for Internet and Society, India
Venkatesh Hariharan, Director, Knowledge Commons, India (previously, Head of Public Policy at Google India)
Maryati Abdullah, National Coordinator, Publish What You Pay, Indonesia (also Steering Committee Member of Open Government Partnership)
Yanuar Nugroho, Director and Expert Adviser to the Head of the President's Delivery Unit for Development Monitoring and Oversight (UKP4), Indonesia -- to be confirmed
Tomoaki Watanabe, Executive Research Fellow, Centre for Global Communications, International University of Japan (also Executive Director of Common Sphere - the host of Creative Commons Japan, and Co-founder of Open Knowledge Foundation Japan)
Shita Laksmi, Program Manager, Southeast Asia Technology and Transparency Initiative, Hivos Regional Office Southeast Asia
Alvin B. Marcelo, Co-chair, Asia eHealth Information Network

Moderator: Khairil Yusof, Co-founder, Sinar Project, Malaysia (also e-DIRAP team member)
e-DIRAP Hangout Coordinator: Christine Apikul

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/e-dirap-google-hangout-on-open-government

E-Consultation on Cyber Security, Justice, and Governance Begins!

praskrishna — 2014-12-04T23:36:27Z

Sunil Abraham facilitated the e-consultation on "Internet access, the freedom of expression online, and development in the Global South" at the event organized by the Hague Institute for Global Justice.

This was originally published on the website of the Hague Institute for Global Justice on November 4, 2014.

On 3 November 2014, The Hague Institute launched its first e-consultation, which seeks to contribute to the work of the Commission on Global Security, Justice, and Governance. This is the first of a series of e-consultations on topics relevant to the research and policy agenda of the Commission.

This consultation brings together over 75 international cyber security and cyber governance experts and seeks to build on the high-level Expert Consultation on Cyber Security, Justice, and Governance hosted by The Hague Institute, The Stimson Center and the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi on 18 October 2014 following the conclusion of the India Conference on Cyber Security and Cyber Governance.

The consultation was chaired by Dr. Jane Holl Lute – a Commissioner, and President and CEO of the Council on Cyber Security and Former U.S. Deputy-Secretary for Homeland Security. Speakers included former Deputy National Security Advisor of India, Ambassador Latha Reddy and Executive Director of the Centre for Internet and Society, Mr. Sunil Abraham.

A summary of the expert discussion can be read here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hague-institute-for-global-justice-november-4-2014-e-consultation-on-cyber-security-justice-and-governance-begins

e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities - Daisy

praskrishna — 2011-08-22T12:46:42Z

the daisy zip file

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/publications/e-accessibility-daisy

e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities (Russian Version)

praskrishna — 2012-04-26T10:04:08Z

The e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities is based upon the online ITU-G3ict e-Accessibility Policy Toolkit for Persons with Disabilities (www.e-accessibilitytoolkit.org) which was released in February 2010. This is the Russian translation of the same.

The Toolkit and its companion handbook have contributions from more than 60 experts around the world on ICT accessibility and is a most valuable addition to policy makers and regulators, advocacy and research organisations and persons with disabilities on the implementation of the ICT dispositions of the CRPD.

The handbook is a joint publication of ITU, G3ict and the Centre for Internet and Society, in cooperation with The Hans Foundation. The book is compiled and edited by Nirmita Narasimhan. Preface by Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure, Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union. Introduction by Dr. Sami Al-Basheer, Director, ITU-D. Foreword by Axel Leblois, Executive Director, G3ict.

UNIC Moscow (United Nations Information Centre - Moscow) has translated the English version of the kit to Russian. For more information on the translation initiative by UNIC Moscow, click here.

Download the Russian version here (PDF, 1045 kb)

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/e-accessibility-kit-in-russian