The impact of e-commerce more on a global economy is well recognized. The main beneficiaries are Europe and United States, with countries such as India and China. Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce in fact the big players are pouring their associates into this model. Governments and inter-government agencies are functioning hard to facilitate the expansion of such transactions. The main aim of the research is how far the government is successful in the e-government process and whether the e-commerce applications to the citizens and use of the e-government website are useful and what level they can be helpful in the future.
2. Introduction
Science & Technology has for all time prejudiced modes, practices and procedures of business buy and sell. Of late, a never before phenomenon has been witnessed in the ground of Science & Technology more above all in electronics and internet. This fast shift in information technology and convergence of different communication technologies has almost taken the business practices by storm. E-commerce is the appropriate key to success Graham and Aurigi, (1997). The usage of internet has made the world small and through it business transactions are conducted globally at a more rapid pace. The age of connectivity has condensed distances which brought people closer. This is able to directly attribute to the development of electronics and communication technology. Some economists' say that the lately emerged economy is an extremely appropriate one called as the "transparent economy" because the Internet makes has finished it more open and exposed Martin and Byrne (2003),. The allegation of e-commerce encompasses a choice of important issues like economic, legislative, technological and social. At present all countries are working to attain structural reforms in society under the key paradigms of liberalization and globalization. The nation's competitive authority will decide the trade and the nation's strength in science and technology can play an important role to control the trade. All organizations are manufacturing the best use of digitalization and use of the Internet to achieve the required goal. Computers and the Internet are now ever more widely used to function as part of the business Fang (2002). Transactions conducted through the Internet will have vast implications on the international competitiveness of every nation, increase to new and exciting opportunities in both the domestic and international field to industries and moreover the governments exists be a part of the global economic system.
3. Research Objective
The main objective of this research is how far the government is successful in the e-government process and whether the e- commerce applications to the citizens and use of the e-government website are useful and what extent they can be helpful in the future both for the employees and as well as citizens. It also gives implications for the government whether the government is ready for e-readiness and does the employees really quite comfortable in change from the government. My area of interest is to find out the effectiveness of the e-government in India
4. Literature review
4.1) Defining e-Government
E-Government varies different things for different people. Some simply define it as digital governmental information or a way of winning in digital transactions through customers. For others e-Government only consists of the creation of a web site where information on political and governmental issues is offered. These slight ways of defining and conceptualizing e-Government edge the range of opportunities it offers. One of the reasons why plenty of e-Government initiatives fail are related to the narrow definition and poor perceptive of the e-Government concept, processes and functions. E-Government is a multidimensional and complex concept, which requires a broad definition and understanding, in order to be able to design and implement a successful strategy.
The crucial element of all these definitions is the use of ICT tools to reinvent the
public sector by transforming its internal and external way of doing things and its
interrelationships with customers and the business community. The analysis of these
definitions allows us to individuate the main issues and components that characterize an
e-Government framework, such as:
e-Government application domains (e-services, e-democracy, e-administration)
Users, customers, actors and their interrelationships (citizens, businesses, government
Organizations, employees);
3. Transformation areas (relational, internal, external,);
4.2) Definitions for e-Government
Transformation Areas
The above definitions encompass three critical transformation areas of e-Government Hirst
and Norton, (1998):
Relational - ICT implementation may allow fundamental change in the relationships among the citizens and the state, and between nation states, with implications for the democratic process and structures of government. Vertical and horizontal integration of services can be realized, enabling the integration of information and services from different government agencies to help citizens and other stakeholders get faultless services. Fountain (2001) uses the concept of the "virtual state" that is a governmental body organized with "virtual agencies, cross agencies, public- private networks whose structures and capacity depend on the Internet and web".
Internal - which refers apply of ICT to advance the efficiency and usefulness of internal functions and processes of government by interrelating different departments and agencies. Thus, information can flow much faster and other simply between changed
governmental departments, reducing processing time, paperwork bottlenecks, and eliminating long, bureaucratic and inefficient approval procedures. Internetworking between different governmental departments improves internal efficiency by enabling time reductions for using, storing and collecting data, reduction of labor costs and information handling costs, as well as the speed and accuracy of task processing.
External - ICT opens up new potential for governments to exist more transparent to
citizens and businesses, giving right to use to a better range of information collected and generated by government. ICT also create opportunities for partnership and collaboration
between different governmental institutions Allen et al.,(2001). Electronic government blurs
the lines not just within government agencies, but also among government and those to touch it Tapscott, (1996).
According to these three transformational areas it is clear that an e-Government proposal does not consist of a simple business process reengineering. Indeed, as Tapscott (1996)
1. Abramson and Means, 2001 - e-Government can be defined as - the electronic interaction (transaction and information exchange) between the government, the public (citizens and businesses) and employees.
2. World Bank, 2001 - e-Government is the government owned or operated systems of
information and communication technologies that transform relations with citizens, the
private sector and/or other government agencies so as to promote citizens' empowerment,
improve service delivery, strengthen accountability, increase transparency, or improve
government efficiency.
3. Fraga, 2001 - e-Government is the transformation of public sector internal and external
relationships through net-enabled operations, IT and communications, in order to improve:
Government service delivery; Constituency participation; Society.
4. Tapscott, 1996 - e-Government is an Internet-worked government which links new
technology with legal systems internally and in turn links such government information
infrastructure externally with everything digital and with everybody - the tax payer, suppliers, business customers, voters and every other institution in the society.
5. UNPA & ASPA, 2001 - e-Governance is the public sector's use of the most innovative
information and communication technologies, like the Internet, to deliver to all citizens
improved services, reliable information and greater knowledge in order to facilitate access to the governing process and encourage deeper citizen participation.
5. E-Commerce in India
The most talked with well-endorsed feature of e-commerce is its global flavour. Obviously, e-commerce has also started to show its true potential in India. While on other hand, India's e-commerce solutions are suitable a wanted behind commodity around the world, even e-commerce based businesses are going their separate marks of technology competitiveness, feasible business model and entrepreneurship-business be able to certainly appear as a key opportunity for India e-commerce (2001). This acquire twin connotations of e-commerce and e-business transactions on or after local businesses and a huge opportunity for software exports to different nations with quickly joining the e-business bandwagon. India's double possessions the software industry quickly restructuring industry sector which have be engaged keen on consideration.
As per Mahapatra and Sinnakkrishnan (2003) below are the facts covering Indian computer literacy.
• As of September 2002, readily available was a PC base of 7.5 million PCs.
• Additional 80 per cent of standalone PCs sold throughout last two years be driven with need to access the Internet.
• 91% of India's corporate web sites are located abroad.
• Internet access continues in widespread between the 18-24 year age group. On the other hand, all age groups contain increas in access over the last 18 months. A major development is that almost 11 per cent of people over the age of 40 now access the Internet.
• Males continue to dominate females in accessing the Internet at 77 per cent compared to 23 per cent. This has however increased from the ratio of 82:18 in June 1999.
• The Internet and e-commerce industry employ 82,000 people approximately. Which includes web developers, web designers, system analysts, ISP infrastructure providers, marketing staff, e-software professionals, etc? It is projected that by March 2006, the Internet and e-commerce industry would employ over 400,000 people.
• India has about 1.6 million households linked to the Internet.
• Internet users on an average are estimated to be accessing the Internet for 6 hours a week.
The profile of Internet users in India is dominated by: Bhatnagar and Vyas, (2001).
• The professional/corporate segment, which accounts for around 43 per cent of Internet usage.
• Inching close behind is the student community represented by school and college goers. This segment contributes close to 38 per cent of Internet surfers.
• Over half (59.2 per cent) use the Internet as an information resource, 11.3 per cent use it as an educational tool and just fewer than 8.2 per cent use it for entertainment.
• When asked what the most frequently used services are online, 73.4 per cent answered e-mail, 77 per cent answered search engines and 23 per cent said they use it for downloading/ uploading software.
• Of the total Internet users, around 20 per cent own credit cards and around 14 per cent own mobile phones. According to the NASSCOM (2001) survey, allowing for the notice to Government is captivating in the growth of the market; e-commerce in India will observe a significant jump over the next three years.
• Based on these preliminary findings, experts have concluded that saturation of Internet and e-commerce transactions in India will boost by leap and limits. It is being stated that in the case of business-to-business transactions, the Indian industry will reach online penetration of 5% by 2003.
• Revenue streams would ever more be aligned among the emerging global model, it is being anticipated. This would mean so as to the majority of the revenues would approach from transactions, while a lesser amount would be realized as of advertising revenues would come from transactions, while a minor amount would be realized from advertising revenues. It is expected that by 2003, more than 75 per cent of revenues of Internet business-to-consumer business would come from transactions. The advertisement revenues would amount to about 8 per cent of total add spend by the companies.
• Analysts also consider that one of each four non-resident Indians (NRIs) would make a quantity of form of purchase from India-based web sites by year 2003.
6. E-Government Web of Interrelationships
The aim of e-Government encompasses four main groups: citizens, businesses, governments other governments and public agencies and employees. The electronic transactions and connections among government and each group constitute the e-Government mesh of relationships and the own four main blocks of e-Government, which are:
6.1. Government to Citizens (G2C)
6.2. Government to Business (G2B)
6.3. Government to Government (G2G)
6.4. Government to Employees (G2E)
The majority researchers and academics transfer only to the first three blocks, without considering the fourth or simply including it as part of 'government to government' block. The associations, interactions and transactions among government and employees in detail represent another large e-Government block, which require a separate and very careful treatment. Most people today transfer to employees as internal customers and as an effect, in order for an e-Government initiative to be customer oriented and centric, it has to get into account needs and requirements of this group as well. More specifically, these e-Government blocks can be characterised as follows:
6.1. Government to Citizen: the relationship between government and citizens. E-Government allows government agencies to talk, listen, tell and constantly communicate with its citizens, following, in this way, accountability, democracy and improvements to public services. A broad range of connections can be developed ranging from the release of services and the provision of welfare and health benefits to regulatory and compliance oriented licensing Riley,(2001). Customers are allowed to government information and services instantly, conveniently, from everywhere, by use of multiple channels PC, TV, mobile phone or wireless device in G2C. This also enables and reinforces their contribution in local community life (send an email or contribute to an online discussion forum).
6.2. Government to Business: this consists of electronic communications between government agencies and private businesses. It also allows e-transaction initiative such as e-procurement and the development of an electronic marketplace for government Fang, (2002). Companies all over the place are conducting business-to-business e-commerce in command to lower their costs and pick up inventory control. The chance to conduct online transactions with government reduces paperwork and simplifies regulatory processes, so helping businesses to turn into more competitive. The delivery of integrated, single-source public services create opportunities for businesses and government to partner as one for establishing a web presence quicker and cheaper.
6.3. Government to Government: G-G the relationship between governmental organizations, as for instance national, regional and local governmental organizations, or with other foreign government organizations. Governments depend on top of other level of government inside the state to efficiently deliver services and assign responsibilities Riley, (2001). So as to understand a single access point, collaboration and cooperation among other governmental departments and agencies is required. Online communication and cooperation allow government agencies and departments to share databases, resources, pool skills and capabilities, enhancing the efficiency and effectively of processes.
6.4. Government to Employees: refers to the relationship between government and its employees. G2E is an effective way to provide e-learning, bring employees together and to promote knowledge sharing among them. It gives employees the possibility of accessing relevant information regarding: compensation and benefit policies, training and learning opportunities, civil rights laws, etc. G2E refers also to strategic and tactical mechanisms for encouraging the implementation of government goals and programs as well as human resource management, budgeting and accounting Riley, (2001). The full exploitation and implementation of these complex webs of inter-relationships requires three main application domains for e-Government Heeks, (2001)
e-Administration - for automation and computerization of administrative tasks and for understanding of strategic connections between internal processes, departments and functions.
e-Citizens and e-Services - to realize connections and interrelationships among governments and citizens and to deliver automated services.
e-Society - to allow relationships and interactions outside boundaries, with public agencies, private sector and civil community in general.
These three application domains should be considered as overlap and e-Government is able to be establishing in the overlapping region of these three application domains, representing the complexities and heterogeneities needed to be handle for assuring its success.
7. E-Governance projects in India
7.1) E-SEVA
E-seva is an expansion and renamed version of "Twin Cities Network Services Project" (TWINS), which was launched in November 1999 to focus on the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. The addition is intended to cover other smaller towns and municipalities of Andhra Pradesh. Information about E-seva is available at http://www.ap-it.com/eseva.html
E-seva, being conceptually innovative, has been able to draw the interest of customers and suppliers of services. Several public sector ICICI Bank, housing finance company HDFC and UTI and private organizations have tied up with e-seva in providing services through e-seva centers. Other services of E-seva applications include payment of property tax, registration, electricity and other utility bills.
In terms of transactions recorded, E-seva has revealed outstanding growth rate. By September 2001, more than 500,000 citizens were served through E-seva centers. Before September 2001, Rs 5 (about 10 cents) was being charged for availing each service. The services were made free after this date, which has helped in significantly expanding the user base.
7.2) FRIENDS
State of Kerala in South India, FRIENDS (Fast, Reliable, Instant, Efficient Network for Disbursement of Services) centers provide a one-stop, front-end, IT-enabled payment counter facility for the government payments to be made by citizens. Information about friends available from http://www.apdip.net/resources/case/in08/view
FRIENDS is a front-end solution it is a counter automation as opposed to a process upgrading project, since the back-end computerization is so far to be finished. The counters are up to handle approximately 1,000 types of payments due to public sector departments/agencies viz., utility payments for electricity and water, revenue taxes, license fees, motor vehicle taxes, university fees, etc. The project considered successful, allowing for the direct and indirect benefits and win-win situation provide to both government and citizens. The front-end first approach has been established as a system of providing the services to citizens with no waiting for the complete chain to be full.
7.3) GYANDOOT
The first such project to gain fame is Gyandoot in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Gyandoot, perhaps, has more services under its range than any other projects Gyandoot is an intranet connecting rural cyber cafes catering to the needs of citizens. The website referred here is an addition of Gyandoot intranet, for giving global access Bhatnagar and Vyas (2001).
The explanation on the intranet (http://gyandoot.nic.in/gyandoot/intranet.html) shows that there is scope of the project is limited to land records and the immediate requirements of the citizens to be fulfilled at local government level.
Most of the transactions in India are carried out in English language, which is alien to the rural population (constituting 70% of the Indian population). The government officials take advantage of this language barrier thus giving a sense of opacity. The procedural opacity and legislations like official secrets act provide the shield to the officials indulging in corruption as illustrated in
Lack of diligence in following the procedures adds to the problem. In addition, the government officials feel that "Administration is knowledge. Knowledge is Power. Administration is Power"
Opportunities for e-government:
Benefits assured by use and application of e-Government in developing countries are the same as those in developed countries. The differences between these two groups could result from the fact that many potential benefits of e-Government are not reaped by developing countries as consequence of their limited use of e-Government. The main opportunities e-Government has triggered in our analyzed cases in the main paper.
1. Improve the quality of decision making
2. Cost reduction and efficiency gains
3. Quality of service delivery to businesses and customers
4. Transparency, anticorruption, accountability
5. Network and community creation
6. Increase the capacity of government
7. Promote use of ICT in other sectors of the society
8. Research methodology
The data required for the research can be obtained from various sources and review charts. Basically research methodology is divided between primary and secondary data. The primary research method includes field research studies of e- commerce in e-government related to in Indian states while the observation methods includes observations of all participants and non-participants, observing processes, physical observations and also by observing participants of the research. The information on data collecting, limitations, scope and means to collect the data is been provided in primary data. By the nature of research it is also believed that statistical data would be an appropriate research method to conduct the research. Most of the research or statistical data can also be collected from websites like Google, Emerald and Nexus are the secondary research. Secondary data is the old data generated from the original research questions with better statistical techniques. With secondary data it's far more difficult to analyze the accuracy because the secondary source of information generally does not explain the data collection methods used. Although data collection was done mainly through semi-structured interviewing, questionnaire gathering additional data was obtained through participant observation, study of press reports, study of websites, and various other secondary sources. The duration of the interviews will range from a few minutes to an hour interviewing the citizens of the state and public employees who uses the software applications with invariably constant by phone calls.
Secondary data can be gathered from the literature of various authors. The published data, information available from a company like its annual reports, strategic positions, testing results, technology updates and also information available from the media or magazines and publications, journals which are used by the organization to communicate with their employees or customers and all these are internal data. All these mentioned tools collectively help to gather secondary information in order to carry out research. The research, we focus on evaluating the impact of e-governance projects in India from the perspective of capabilities. The selection of the study site for the current research was influenced by the fact that the southern states in India have been first in launching e-governance activity the author has been involved in studying how employees of public sector and the citizens of India were being used to improve the delivery of routine services to citizens in India and for promoting socio-economic development among e-government projects in India. As i studied on the three projects what government initiated is really reaching the purpose of establishment.
Determining the sample size
Developing a sample frame for data collection through structured survey of clients,
employees and supervisors. A stratified sample of sub region of the total coverage is useful in maintaining precision of estimates. In case of public organizations, activity levels can influence many parameters of assessment in service quality significantly. Normally, geographical spread of the catchment area, population of the users, and profile of the users would influence in cost of access by users. For the client surveys that is in organizations locations from which sample would be drawn. Stratify the number of service centers according to the above dimensions and select an adequately large number. Determining sample size results can be extrapolated to the entire population with a given level in accuracy and degree of confidence. Generally a sample of 500 -750 clients including public organization employees, citizens using the services of E-governance, may be adequate in assessing impact of a state wide project. Selecting the respondents that used the key services in both the manual and electronic delivery modes randomly from each location. Research is mainly done by giving questionnaire to public employees and citizens and the results obtained are carefully observed to come to a conclusion on how the e-commerce. I prepared a questionnaire to cover all employees and some of the citizens and the answers obtained are very useful for the research and to get the required information about the e-commerce.
Questionnaire to the public employees
Department :
Designation :
How would you categorize the Departments' IT infrastructure capabilities (Please tick the applicable circle)?
No computers
Few standalone computers used for word processing
Few networked computers used only for email and maybe MIS
Fully networked department with applications on central server in departmental data center
Fully networked department with applications on central server in state data center
Is there an IT organization in the Department? If YES, then please provide the details
Yes
No
Are there any IT trained staff (in numbers) there in the Department?
Yes
No
Is the management of the IT infrastructure of the Department outsourced to a third party?
Yes
No
Partly
Does the Department maintain database of citizens in any form?
Yes
No
Partly
Where does the Department conduct its IT training sessions for the employees? List names of training facilities wherever applicable.
How often are the websites of the departments being updated?
Are there any E-Governance initiatives that are currently being planned?
Yes
No
If YES then, list the initiatives -
List the current Computerization and E-Government Initiatives of the Department and the function it performs?
What is the approval process for e-Governance initiatives in the department?
Questionnaire to the citizens
Age
Profession
Education
1. How often do you use visit government websites?
Once in a week b) once in a month c) once in six months d) None ( )
2. Are you satisfied with the performance and usage of government website?
Yes b) No ( )
3. Implementation of e- governance application has helped in improving the image of the government
Yes b) No ( )
4. Do you think Government should make more investments on e-governance?
Yes b) No ( )
5. Do you think Computerisation of Government Departments is a waste of resources for a country like India?
Yes b) No ( )
6. Do you think more government departments/public agencies should be Computerized?
Yes b) No ( )
Data evaluation:
Data entry can be done in a format that can be directly input into a numerical analysis package. Specifically the format after taking a decision on the data analysis package. Data provides adequate range of analytical procedures for analysis of survey data. Following are some for ensuring data quality:
• Random check of data entry problems by comparing data from questionnaires with print out of data files.
• Checking extreme values in the data files for each item and unacceptable values for coded
items.
• Cross checking the data recorded for extreme values in the questionnaire.
• Check for the abnormally high values of standard deviation.
• Code will be provided for missing values, there can be confusion in missing values and a legitimate value of zero. So ensure through check.
• Logical connections between variables such as travel mode and travel time; bribe paid and corruption.
• Poor data quality traced out in specific investigators or locations.
• Completing data validity checks before embarking on analysis.
9. Ethical Issues
All research proposals involving data collection involving human participants to ensure the safety, rights, dignity and well-being of the participant and those of the researcher.
The Participants who participates will be made aware that participation is totally voluntary; that refusal will attract no sanction, and that might not need be required to give reasons for refusal; that if they agree to participate in the study, they are free to leave the study at any time without being required to give reasons for leaving.
It is important wherever possible anonymity and confidentiality should be maintained.
Written information should be supplied to participants making clear that the research is for a student project.
Will be careful enough to take all reasonable steps to ensure that no harm occurs to participants by virtue of their participation in the study.
10. Research Plan
1
Formulate Research Question
2 days
2
Determining Aims and Objectives
5 days
1
3
Getting information key papers on topic
5 days
2
4
Read key papers on methodologies
5 days
2
5
Write literature review
10 days
3,4
6
Determine Research methodology
10 days
1,2
7
Design Survey Instruments
5 days
6
8
Distribute Questionnaires
5 days
7
9
Select interviewees
5 days
7
