Third Party Evaluation of Central Scheme “Electronic Governance” Under Digital India Programme

Third Party Evaluation of Central Scheme "Electronic Governance” Under Digital India Programme

Entrusted by: National e-Governance Division (NeGD), Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India

Implementing Agency: Centre for Innovations in Public Systems (CIPS), Hyderabad

Project Area: Across India

“Digital India” programme is one of the flagship schemes of the Government of India which envisages transforming the country into a digitally empowered society and a knowledge economy. The prime motive of this intervention is to give a facelift to the entire ecosystem of public services through effective usage of information technology. The three key visions of the programme being:

• Digital Infrastructure as a core utility to every citizen
• Governance and services on demand
• Digital Empowerment of citizens

This is an umbrella programme which cuts across multiple Government Ministries/ Departments. A whole lot of ideas and thoughts are woven together with a comprehensive vision so that each one of them can be implemented as a part of a larger goal.
Digital India is intended to provide the much-needed thrust to the 9 pillars of growth areas, they being:

• Broadband Highways
• Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity
• Public Internet Access Programme
• e-Governance–Reforming Government through Technology
• e-Kranti - Electronic Delivery of Services
• Information for All
• Electronics Manufacturing – Target NET ZERO imports
• IT for Jobs
• Early Harvest Programmes

Scope and Objectives of the Study
The scope of the study is fourfold:

• Analyse the overall impact of Electronic Governance Scheme vis-à-vis their output and outcomes and, gap assessment, challenges, suggest the way forward on their continuance.
• Assess the current implementation mechanism, capacity building, IEC activities and areas of improvements
• Formulate sustainability plan and suggest revenue/business model for continuity of proposed projects
• Suggest future roadmap for the Electronic Governance Scheme considering recent initiatives of MeitY such as ‘A Trillion Dollar Digital Opportunity’, ‘Agile India Enterprise Architecture’, ‘India API Platform’, and Emerging Technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Drone, Robotics, Big Data Analytics etc.

The study will be carried out with the following objectives:

• Outline each of the e-governance scheme interventions
• Collect quantitative data on the impact of the interventions on the beneficiaries
• Gather qualitative information on the community benefits
• Record impact of the implementation mechanism, issues & challenges etc.
• Document the present status of the e-governance interventions
• Record impact of community mobilization techniques, stakeholders analysis, capacity building efforts

In view of the proposed impact assessment of the e-Governance schemes under Ambitious Digital India programme, CIPS is keen to undertake an exercise which facilitates NeGD to understand the nature and quantum of impact created by e-Government projects that had already been implemented by state and national agencies.
As a part of this study, 42 e-Governance schemes have been selected for assessment in 12 States across India. The assessment is to focus on the nature and quantum of impact on users (citizens and businesses). Assessment of impact on other stakeholders such as the Ministries/Departments/Divisions implementing the project has also been taken up. It is hoped that the study would help in rating the overall success of these projects so that a few projects with varying level of success could be studied in depth in follow up studies to identify key determinants of impact.
Keeping this in view, CIPS would undertake a comprehensive evaluation through various activities including but not limited to the following:

• Data collection (primary data sources – from service providers and beneficiaries & secondary data sources – ministry website and other reputed online sites).
• Data Analysis (Financial data on allocation and expenditures of the scheme, Available evaluation reports etc.)
• Understand project requirements in consultation with the Ministry/Division
• Develop an approach document to make all possible assessment activities