e-governance, as a critical tool of governance, has ushered in effectiveness, transparency and…

Question

e-governance, as a critical tool of governance, has ushered in effectiveness, transparency and accountability in governments. What inadequacies hamper the enhancement of these features?

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Gaps in digital access, staff capacity, process re-engineering, data quality, database integration and legal safeguards stop e-governance's gains in effectiveness, transparency and accountability from becoming system-wide. Erroneous beneficiary records alone inflate welfare outlays by an estimated 4-7% a year, according to NITI Aayog (2025).

**Introduction**

e-governance has delivered gains: cleaning records removed 17.1 million ineligible PM-Kisan names and saved about ₹9,000 crore in FY 2024 (NITI Aayog, 2025). Yet several inadequacies limit its effectiveness, transparency and accountability.

**Inadequacies of Access and Capacity**

SKETCH: fishbone | Why e-Governance Underdelivers
effect: Limited effectiveness, transparency, accountability
- Digital divide
- Thin staff capacity
- Unreformed processes
- Poor data quality
- Siloed back-ends
- Weak safeguards

1. **Digital divide**: Only 33.3% of women had ever used the internet (NFHS-5, 2019-21), so portals that assume access miss those who need services most.
2. **Thin human capacity**: The Expert Committee on HR Policy for e-Governance (2013) found departments short of skilled staff, leaving projects to outsourced vendors whom no citizen can hold to account.
3. **Last-mile gaps**: BharatNet reaches over 2.15 lakh gram panchayats (PIB, 2026), but a fibre link at the panchayat office is not yet working access in every home.

**Inadequacies of Design, Data and Law**

1. **Digitised red tape**: The 2nd ARC (2008) warned that computerising without process re-engineering only automates delay, and many services still demand physical copies after online filing.
2. **Poor data quality**: Erroneous beneficiary records inflate welfare outlays by an estimated 4-7% a year (NITI Aayog, 2025), and wrong data cannot yield real transparency.
3. **Siloed back-ends**: Databases that do not talk to each other make citizens re-submit documents and diffuse accountability.
4. **Weak safeguards**: Biometric failures in Jharkhand's PDS denied rations without quick remedy, and the DPDP Act, 2023 widened the RTI Act's personal-information exemption.

**Conclusion**

e-governance has made the state faster and more visible, but gaps in access, capacity, data and safeguards cap its reach. Citizen-centric design, as the 2nd ARC urged, will turn it into SMART governance.

e-governance, as a critical tool of governance, has ushered in effectiveness, transparency and accountability in governments. What inadequacies hamper the enhancement of these features?

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