A Critique Of Indian Perspective

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Socio-political changes around the globe have stirred reflection on questions of exclusion of marginalized groups and ways of redressing this imbalance through public policies. Quest for understanding patterns of social representation and strategies for inclusive public policies has massively exploded both in India and around the world. During last one decade we have witnessed an upsurge of interest in strategies of inclusion ranging from different kind affirmative actions to firm provision for representations. This has led to awareness that creating a institutionalized mechanism that addresses the needs of various marginalized groups on the basis of race, religion and ethnic background is necessary for equity, justice and social cohesion.

According to Zoya Hasan (Hasan, 2009) India is one of the few countries in the post colonial world that took up the challenge of building an inclusive democracy in a highly diverse, multicultural, multilingual and multi-religious society. In a society overwhelmed by patriarchic and hierarchical values like India, coupled with unprecedented social inequality, deprivation and oppression , the establishment of democracy was undoubtedly a revolutionary principle .Nearly sixty years after independence, India remains a major success story in respect of democracy and social inclusion due to the primacy given to equality and social justice as the cardinal principals. "The policy of providing benefits to historically disadvantaged caste groups, which was established through several provisions in the constitution played an important role in advancing this agenda. There are several policies aimed at the accommodation of cultural diversity, specially in the identity concerns of religious minorities" (Hasan, 2009)

However, despite impressive economic growth, India largely remains one of the world’s the most unequal societies which largely revolve around the axes of class, caste, tribal status , religion and gender. Across the social groups , disparities are sharply marked, with major contrast of social conditions and chances of sharing in society’s material and cultural resources-that is , income, employment, education, health and so on. These deep rooted inequalities are based upon in the caste system, property, income, wealth and employment relations causing a large scale convergence between social and material inequalities , sort of an overlap between the inherited symbolic or social disadvantages of caste, on the one hand, and of socio-economic deprivation and disadvantage on the other. "Low caste status is often accompanied by the deprivation, and traditional and historical forms of social inequality thus coexist with, and are reinforced by, inequalities arising out of sphere of production and economic activity.. This is true of large sections of India minorities as well". (Hasan, 2009)

According to Zoya Hasan (Hasan, 2009) it is being observed that democracy and formal equality are not enough to bring about substantive outcomes in terms of empowerment, justice and equality. The Idea that India has succeeded in creating public spaces that are equally shared by members of diverse communities, or that various disadvantaged and deprived groups have access to and can actively participate in governance, is a distant one because trend towards inclusion and empowerment does not embrace all groups equally. Policies aiming to promote equality of opportunity and access to public institutions are not applicable to all but confined to some particular social groups. "The evidence suggest that there are unjustifiable disparities prevailing among different groups as a result of discrimination, lack of equal opportunities and lack of affirmative action for some groups". (Hasan, 2009)

According to a report , Regional Geography of South Asia and the Himalayas Inequality and Poverty in India, after 64 years of Independence, India has made great progress. Significant industrial and economic development has been made, and the country is now much closer to self-sufficiency than ever before. India has a rapidly expanding middle class, with unprecedented access to goods and opportunity. Nevertheless, inequality is still very much a fact of life in India, largely a result of deep-rooted social and economic structures that perpetuate privilege and limit opportunities for the poor. Despite the radical programs of land reforms and preferential treatment of the socially and economically backward castes, those in power have proved unwilling to transfer wealth or opportunity at their own expense.

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~dib2/asia/inequality.html

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/images/pixel.gif

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/images/pixel.gif

The findings of 68th National Sample Survey Organization's (NSSO) 201 , the highest official surveyor of government of India, seem to reaffirm that the benefits from this boost in the economy have been cornered by the upper crust, while the poorest continue to languish in near destitution.

According to survey report , compared with the previous survey, which was conducted in 2009-10, the monthly expenditure of the poorest 10% population in rural India has risen by only 11.5%, while that of the richest 10% has gone up by 38% in the two years. A similar widening of gap is witnessed in urban India as well. While the monthly expenditure of the poorest 10% of urban population has risen by 17.2%, that of the richest 10% is up by 30.5%.

The poorest 10% living in rural India spend on an average only Rs 16.8 per day to survive, and half the rural population in India spends less than Rs 35 per day, says the provisional results of 68th round of the NSSO conducted in 2011-12 to find out the monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE).

According to survey , this socio-economic inequality is not confined to different communities but extend further to rural-urban population across the groups . In urban India, the poorest 10% spend Rs 23.4 per day on an average in stark contrast to the richest 10%, who spend Rs 255.1. As per survey, even the affluent in rural India are no match for the rich in urban centres. The monthly expenditure of the creamy layers in urban India (the top 10% population) is 221% that of the rich in rural India. The affluent urban Indians' (the top 10% population) average monthly expenditure is Rs 7,651.68, and the expenses of their rural counterparts are Rs 3,459.77.

According to yet another report by Nitin Sethi, , Inequality rising in India, data on spending shows the economic divide, irrespective of the massive surge in economic activity over the past several years, is persisting as revealed by the starting figures, where 90% of rural Indians spend less than Rs 68.47 per day per person and 90% of urban Indians spend less than Rs 142.70 to survive in cities, where costs of living are exponentially higher. Two years ago, the NSSO report had revealed that 90% of rural Indians were spending less than Rs 55 per day per person, while 90% of urban Indians had expended less than Rs 122. Considering the average inflation levels prevalent over the last two years, the comparison suggests a majority continue to live with stagnant or reduced spending power.

The numbers also show that the gap between the poorest in villages and the richest in cities is rising at a fast clip. The poorest 10% living in villages spends on an average 15 times less than the top 10% living in cities. And, the gap between the two segments has increased with successive surveys.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-08-02/india/33000189_1_mpce-urban-population-rural-population

According to recent World Bank report, social exclusion has its roots in India’s historical divisions along lines of caste, tribe, and the excluded sex, that is, women. These inequalities are more structural in nature and have kept entire groups trapped, unable to take advantage of opportunities that economic growth offers. "Culturally rooted systems perpetuate inequality, and, rather than a culture of poverty that afflicts disadvantaged groups, it is, in fact, these inequality traps that prevent these groups from breaking out". (http://elibrary.worldbank.org/content/book/9780821386903)

Corruption and Social Exclusion

In addition to poverty and inequality, corruption is another malaise which is eating into India’s social cohesion as it is resulting into more inequality and exclusion.

India's image on tackling corruption has not improved with Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) placing it at 94th rank out of 176 nations in year 2012 . India is ranked below neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka and China, while Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh fared much worse than India when it came to corruption in public sector undertakings. (http://www.indianexpress.com/news/india-ranked-94th-in-corruption-perception-index-ratings-says-transparency-international/1040857)

A recent study by Neela Mukherjee Political corruption in India's below the poverty line exercise: grassroots perspectives on BPL in perpetuating poverty and social exclusion, argues that there is widespread corruption and manipulation accompanying India's below the poverty line (BPL) exercises. It suggests that "such exercises have contributed to the perpetuation of poverty and social exclusion with both mis-targeting and non-targeting of poor households essentially due to weaknesses of the governance in practice ".

(http://www.eldis.org/go/home&id=21738&type=Document#.UT16PNZHJ5o)

 E-Governance: A Gateway to Social Inclusion and Transparency

In the face of wide spread economic inequalities and widening social gaps , it befalls the state to creative political ,legal, economic and social conditions for the growth of citizens. Governance is prerequisite for the human well being and development. Good governance manifests itself in creating conditions for upliftment of all concerned particularly the weaker sections of the society by improving bureaucratic and political accountability and promoting people’s participation

According to Citizens' Report on Governance and Development 2010, there is an urgent need to make the policy process participatory starting from formulation right upto the implementation. "The state has to reorient its policy direction in order to fulfill the aspirations of a large number of deprived sections of the society".

The process of development and governance has to intertwined and widened to percolate down to every nook and corner of the country by providing space to citizens in the decision making process " This poses a daunting challenge to the institutions of governance to work out a viable and satisfactory agenda of governance which is both transparent and collaborative.

http://socialwatchindia.net/publications/citizens-report/citizens-report-on-governance-and-development-2010-executive-summary

A critical examination of contours of public policy provides a unique view to evaluate the administrative capacity of the state to effectively carry out the policy repositioning in terms of outreach and delivery. Awareness about various government programmes emerges to be an important issue together with proper communication linkages between the poor, local governance and the line departments concerned.

E-Governance initiatives provide a gate way to inclusion when traditional governance channels perpetuate exclusiveness and elitism. In recent years India has launched major initiatives in this direction.

What is E-Governance

The emergence of information and communication technologies as a highly leveraged enabling tool for delivery of services in the public and private sector has now universally been recognized, redefining the fundamental concept of governance with a potential to change both institutions and delivery mechanism of services for betterment of people. E-governance essentially comprises of processes and structures involved in deliverance of electronic services to citizens. It entails enabling the general public to interact with government through electronic means for getting the desired services. The aim, essentially is to simplify and improve governance and enable people’s participation in governance through information and communication technologies. A clear objective of E-governance is cutting the cost of governance and minimizing the complexities of procedures by direct access. The concomitant benefit is empowerment of marginalised people through disintermediation ie eliminating the middleman.

The online governance system will reduce contact with mediating officials, thereby reducing the possibility of malpractice. "Gradually this e-interaction of the public with the government leads to organizational transformation, transparency of public services, speed of service performance, increased citizen participation in the government and thereby greater facilitation of participative democracy and empowerment". (Prabhu, 2009) Prabhu, CSR .E-Governance: Concept and Case Studies. 2009,PHI, New Delhi.

E-Governance:

E-Governance in India, was conceptualized with the launching of NICNET in 1987 – the national satellite-based computer network, followed by the launch of the District Information System of the National Informatics Centre (DISNIC) programme to computerise all district offices in the country for which free hardware and software was offered to the State Governments. NICNET was expanded via the State capitals to all district headquarters by 1990. In subsequent years, with increasing computerization, teleconnectivity and internet connectivity established a large number of e-Governance initiatives, both at the Union and State levels.

As lynchpin of E-Governance concept. the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) has been formulated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY) and Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG). The Union Government approved the NeGP, comprising of 27 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) and 10 components on May 18, 2006.

The NeGP aims at improving delivery of Government services to citizens and businesses with the following vision:

"Make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency & reliability of such services at affordable costs to realise the basic needs of the common man."

http://india.gov.in/e-governance/national-e-governance-plan

Implementation Strategy, Approach and Methodology of NeGP

Due to its being a highly complex process and requiring availability of hardware & software, networking, process re-engineering and change management, E-Governance , the approach and methodology adopted for NeGP contains the following elements:

i. Common Support Infrastructure: NeGP implementation involves setting up of common and support IT infrastructure such as: State Wide Area Networks (SWANs), State Data Centres (SDCs), Common Services Centres (CSCs) and Electronic Service Delivery Gateways.

ii. Governance: Suitable arrangements for monitoring and coordinating the implementation of NeGP under the direction of the competent authorities have also been substantially put in place..

iii. Centralised Initiative, Decentralised Implementation: e-Governance is being promoted through a centralised initiative to the extent necessary to ensure citizen-centric orientation, to realise the objective of inter-operability of various e-Governance applications and to ensure optimal utilisation of ICT infrastructure and resources while allowing for a decentralised implementation model. It also aims at identifying successful projects and replicating them with required customisation wherever needed.

iv. Public-Private Partnerships (PPP): PPP model is to be adopted wherever feasible to enlarge the resource pool without compromising on the security aspects.

v. Integrative Elements: Adoption of unique identification codes for citizens, businesses and property is to be promoted to facilitate integration and avoid ambiguity.

vi. Ownership of Ministries: Under the NeGP, various Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) are owned and spearheaded by the concerned line Ministries. In case there are any ongoing projects which fall in the MMP category, they would be suitably enhanced to align them with the objectives of NeGP. For major projects like Bharat Nirman, Rural Employment Guarantee Schemes, etc. the line ministries concerned are advised to make use of e-Governance as also automation techniques from the inception stage.

Some Important Initiatives:

e-Governance in India has steadily evolved from computerization of Government Departments to initiatives that encapsulate the finer points of Governance, such as citizen centricity, service orientation and transparency. The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), takes a holistic view of e-Governance initiatives across the country, integrating them into a collective vision and a shared cause. Some of the initiatives in this direction are described below:

Central Excise

The Central Board for Excise and Customs (CBEC) has brought about a major change in the way the Central Excise and Service Tax formations conduct their regular business vis- Ã -vis the trade & Industry, by developing and deploying a software application called Automation of Central Excise and Service Tax (ACES). ACES aims at improving tax-payer services, transparency, accountability and efficiency in the indirect tax administration in India. This application has automated all major processes in Central Excise and Service Tax through a web-based and workflow-based system. www.cbec.gov.in

e-office

e-office is an initiative to modernize the Central Government offices through the introduction of Information and Communications Technology. The project has been taken up by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DAR&PG) in order to improve efficiency in government processes and is aimed at increasing the usage of work flow and rule based file routing, quick search and retrieval of files and office orders, digital signatures for authentication, forms and reporting components.

e-Office framework presently consists of e-File, e-Leave, e-Tout, Knowledge Management System , Personnel Information System, Collaboration & Messaging Systems.

As a result of implementation of e-Office, the common citizen will get much better services from the Government Departments, and will substantially improve the movement of papers and files will be greatly reduced..

Income Tax

The Income Tax Department of India is implementing a plan for setting up a comprehensive service that enables citizens to transact all businesses with the Department on an anywhere, anytime basis. Return of income for companies, has to be filed compulsorily online every year.

The objective of the is to enable all taxpayers to fulfill their statutory obligation of filing their Income Tax Return electronically- 'Anytime', 'Anywhere', securely and conveniently using the Internet., deliver more than 18 e-services to the taxpayers through digitization of all processes, filing of forms/applications, digitization of tax payments, authentications, tax credit verifications and refund processing.

www.incometaxindia.gov.in/

Insurance

Insurance is perceived to be a big opportunity business in India today. The huge population base and largely untapped market areas have provided a strong growth to this business in the last few years.

The Mission of the Insurance MMP is to facilitate customer service through education, information, speedy processing of claims and online issuance of policies on web,provide automated grievance reporting and redressal facility to customers; and to Integrate insurance database(s) with other government database(s) to analyze social security aspects and facilitate service delivery.

http://deity.gov.in/content/insurance.

Immigration, Visa and Foreigner’s Registration & Tracking (IVFRT)

The project for modernization and up-gradation of Immigration services is identified and included as one of the MMPs to be undertaken by the Ministry of Home Affairs under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). Its objective is to develop a secure, integrated service delivery framework to enhance security and facilitation in the Visa issuance process, and the Immigration function besides fortifying the Foreigners registration processes for effective tracking of foreigners.

The project is being implemented across 169 Missions, 77 ICPs (Immigration Check Posts), 5 FRROs (Foreigners Regional Registration Offices), and FROs (Foreigners Registration Offices) in the State/District Headquarters.

http://negp.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=133&Itemid=761

Ministry of Corporate Affairs -MCA21

The vision of the MCA21 project implemented by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), Government of India, is "to introduce a service-oriented approach in the design and delivery of Government services".

The project will be integrated with the National e-Governance Services Delivery Gateway (NSDG),which will help extend MCA services to businesses via multiple front-end delivery channels, and which will also help provide other value-added services over and above the base services offered by MCA21.

http://www.mca.gov.in

UID and National Population Register

The unique identification project and National Population Register were conceived as initiative s that would provide identification for each resident across the country and would be used primarily as the basis for efficient delivery of welfare services. It would also act as a tool for effective monitoring of various programs and schemes of the government.

After several rounds of discussions by various stakeholders and on the recommendation of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) for collation of the two schemes - the National Population Register (NPR)/MNIC under the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the Unique Identification Number (UID) of the Department of Electronics & Information Technology, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was constituted and notified by the Planning Commission on 28th January, 2009 .

Passport

The Consular, Passport and Visa (CPV) Division of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) provides passport and consular services to Indian citizens through the Central Passport Organization (CPO), and consular and visa services to foreign nationals and Indians residing overseas through the passport, visa and consular wings of over 160 Missions and Posts abroad.

The Passport MMP is an attempt by the Central Passport Organization to keep pace with such phenomenal increase in the workload, by innovative measures involving change in processes and infusion of technology.

http://negp.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=121&Itemid=749

Posts

The Apex Committee for the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) chaired by Cabinet Secretary has approved the inclusion of Posts as a Mission Mode Project (MMP) under the NeGP.

Modernisation of Postal Services has been undertaken by the Department of Posts through computerization and networking of all post offices using a central server-based system, and setting up of computerised registration centres (CRCs).

http://indiapost.gov.in

The pensions MMP is primarily aimed at making the pension/ retirement related information, services and grievances handling mechanism accessible online to the needy pensioners, through a combination of interactive and non-interactive components, and thus, help bridge the gap between the pensioners and the government.

The pensioner's portal operates at three levels, which are interlinked:

Pensioner's Association level (at State Headquarters initially)/ Pensioners Level

Central Ministry/Department level

Central level (Nodal) - Department of Pension & Pensioners' Welfare

 http://pensionersportal.gov.in/pensionmmp.asp

Banking

The Banking MMP is yet another step towards improving operational efficiency and reducing the delays and efforts involved in handling and settling transactions. The MMP which is being implemented by the banking industry aims at streamlining various e-services initiatives undertaken by individual banks. Implementation is being done by the banks concerned, with the banking Department providing a broad framework and guidance.

http://deity.gov.in/content/banking

Employment Exchange

Ministry of Labour & Employment is in the process of conceptualising this MMP. It is expected that the MMP will help match the requirements of employers against employee database. It is also expected that the MMP will have mechanisms to provide valuable guidance and career counseling to the unemployed, and facilitate online registration of vacancies by employers.

For more information, visit http://labour.nic.in/

Education

Education is a Concurrent Subject under Constitution of India and involves an ecosystem that comprises many activities of other Ministries and Departments both at the Centre and in the States. Administration of mid-day meals, administration of hostels, disbursement of scholarships, etc are a few examples of activities that require coordination with other agencies of the government. Several flagship schemes of the GoI – Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, (Education for all) Mid-Day Meal, Rashtriya Madhayamik Shiksha Abhiyan, (National Secondary Education Campaign) etc require ICT for their implementation and monitoring.

MHRD is working on a National Policy on ICT in School Education to provide guidelines to assist the States in optimising the use of ICT in school education.

Department of School Education and Literacy of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has been made the nodal Department for the design and implementation of this MMP.

Keeping in view the federal nature of its implementation, the MMP would be designed on the principle of centralised planning and decentralised implementation.

http://mhrd.gov.in

Agriculture

The Agriculture MMP has been included in NeGP in an effort to consolidate the various learning from the past, integrate all the diverse and disparate efforts currently underway, and upscale them to cover the entire country.

The MMP is to be operationalised by Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC

http://agricoop.nic.in/

Police

This MMP has been included in NeGP in light of the ever-increasing threats of terror attacks and of continually ascending crime graphs. It includes aspects such as creation of- and sharing of- crime-related databases across departments, effective personal management, and efficient inventory control. Given the large variations in these functions across States, the MMP professes a phased approach towards implementation. The first phase broadly targets those functions that are common across States and which are driven by the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

http://mha.nic.in

National Land Records Modernization Programme (NLRMP)

A National Land Records Modernization Programme (NLRMP) has been formulated by merging two Centrally-sponsored schemes CLR and SRA&ULR to usher in the system of conclusive titles as per the 'Torrens System' with title guarantee in the country.

http://rural.nic.in

Road Transport

The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has been facilitating the process of computerization of approximately 1000 Road Transport Offices (RTOs) across the country for the last 5 years. Almost 90% of the RTOs have been computerized and connectivity has been provided to 80% of the RTOs. A committee setup for this purpose, in addition to defining the Smart Card standards, recommended uniform standardized software across the country, which has been designed and developed by NIC. The software namely VAHAN and SARATHI are being implemented across the country.

http://morth.nic.in/ and http://www.mit.gov.in

e-District

e-District is one of the 31 Mission Mode Projects under National e Governance Plan (NeGP) with the DIT, GoI being the nodal ministry. This project aims at providing support to the basic administrative unit i.e. District Administration by undertaking backend computerization to enable electronic delivery of high volume citizen centric government services which would optimally leverage and utilize the three infrastructure pillars of State Wide Area Networks (SWAN), State Data Centers (SDC) and Common Service Centers (CSCs) to deliver services to the citizen at his doorsteps It is proposed to rollout the e-District MMP to cover all the districts in the country.

http://deity.gov.in/content/e-district

Commercial Taxes

The administration of the commercial taxes like VAT, CST etc. involves handling of a large number of dealers, who act on behalf of the State Departments to collect tax from consumers and deposit it in the State treasury. The Commercial Taxes Department of every State registers the dealers and issues registration certificates. The department fixes the periodicity of the returns to be filed by the dealers of the State. The department adds to the revenue of the State by collecting tax through challans and Net Payments. The Department is responsible for assessments, Tax Refunds, Form Issuance (eg. C form), Tax accounting, Recovery and Appeals.

http://dor.gov.in/

Municipalities

e-Governance in Municipalities is a unique initiative of the Government of India conceptualized under the umbrella of the overall National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) and the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (Jnnurm) aimed at improving operational efficiencies within Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).

This initiative envisages covering Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in 35 mission cities identified, from 15 states (~ 80 ULBs), having more than 1 million population as per 2001 census to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of delivery of municipal services to citizens. A minimum of Eight services (citizen centric and ULB centric) have been identified as a part of the program that will be deployed at state level as a centralized application and will subsequently be used by the ULBs of respective states.

http://urbanindia.nic.in/

e-panchayat

The Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) are saddled with the problems of inadequate physical and financial resources, technical capabilities and extremely limited computerization. As a result, the potential of PRIs as the preferred delivery channel for the schemes of State and Centre as well as for citizen services has not been fully realised. While some computerization efforts for PRIs have been made by NIC over the years, the e-Governance revolution sweeping the country has not touched the PRIs yet in significant measure. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India has therefore decided to take up the computerization of PRIs on a mission mode basis.

http://panchayat.nic.in

Health

The Apex Committee for the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) chaired by Cabinet Secretary has approved the inclusion of Health as a Mission Mode Project (MMP) under the NeGP.

ICT for programme management has been undertaken by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare in the Mother and Child Tracking System (MCTS) programme and the Ministry envisages a more comprehensive use of ICT including for Hospital Information Systems, supply chain management for drugs and vaccines, providing ICT tools to ASHA and ANM workers, programme management of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), etc through this MMP.

http://nrhm-mcts.nic.in

Public Distribution System

The Apex Committee for the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) chaired by Cabinet Secretary has approved the inclusion of Public Distribution System (PDS) as a Mission Mode Project (MMP) under the NeGP.

Integrated MMPs

Common Services Centres

The CSC is a strategic cornerstone of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), approved by the Government in May 2006, as part of its commitment in the National Common Minimum Programme to introduce e-governance on a massive scale.

The CSCs would provide high quality and cost-effective video, voice and data content and services, in the areas of e-governance, education, health, telemedicine, entertainment as well as other private services. A highlight of the CSCs is that it will offer web-enabled e-governance services in rural areas, including application forms, certificates, and utility payments such as electricity, telephone and water bills.In addition to the universe of G2C services, the CSC Guidelines envisage a wide variety of content and services.

http://csc.gov.in

Electronic Data interchange (EDI) for e-Trade

The Department of Commerce is the nodal agency for the implementation of the eTrade project. The project is being pursued in trade regulatory and facilitating agencies like Customs, Ports, Airports, Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Banks, respective Container Corporation of India (CONCOR), export promotion organizations etc, who also happen to be the community partners of the project.

http://deity.gov.in/content/electronic-data-interchange-edi-trade-etrade

e-procurement

Therefore efficient practices in procurement of goods and services by government agencies is important from the perspective of lowering cost of procurement of goods and services, optimal delivery of public services, efficient allocation and use of public funds, fair opportunities for suppliers to compete for government contracts, encouraging good governance practices in procuring entities, reducing corruption, providing legal certainty to procurement procedures, ensuring transparency and thereby also attracting foreign investment and partnerships. Ministry of Commerce & Industry (Department of Commerce) has been nominated as the Nodal Ministry for implementation of e-Government Procurement (e-GP) Mission Mode Projects (MMP). The stake holders of e-GP MMP include Central Government Departments, State Government Departments, Public Sector Undertakings of Central and State Government, Autonomous Organizations of Central & State Government and vendors spread across the country and abroad namely, MNCs, SMEs and tiny units.

http://www.commerce.nic.in/

National e-Governance Service Delivery Gateway (NSDG)

The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) of the Govt. of India aims to make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency & reliability of such services at affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common man.

Under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), various e-Governance applications are being implemented in order to provide speedy delivery of government services to the citizens at affordable costs.

e-Biz

The e-Biz Mission Mode Project, being executed by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, was conceptualized with the vision "to transform the business environment in the country by providing efficient, convenient, transparent and integrated electronic services to investors, industries and business throughout the business life cycle".

E-Biz takes e-Governance beyond online transactions to Government transformation.

https://www.ebiz.gov.in/home

e-Courts

The e-Court Mission Mode Project (MMP) was conceptualized with a vision to transform the Indian judiciary by making use of technology. The scope of the project is to develop, deliver, install and implement automated decision making and decision support system in courts all over the country. The e-Courts project entails ensuring of digital interconnectivity between all courts from the taluk level to the apex court.

http://ecourts.nic.in/

India Portal

There are over 7000 websites on the internet of various Indian government entities that include Ministries, Departments, States/Union Territories, district administration, organizations. Citizens have to search and browse several websites to avail a service and each website follows its own architecture, navigation and look and feel making it very difficult for the end user to access the websites. The National Portal of India provides a single window unified interface for over 7000 websites thereby reducing a lot of inconvenience to the citizens. This portal acts as a logical front end to the e-governance initiatives under various central/state/UT government schemes and programmes. The National Portal has a long list of beneficiaries, which besides common citizen also includes government departments, the corporate sector, NRIs, national and international media and the general public across the world ie it caters to G2A ( Government to All).