How E-Governance Through Technology Can Accelerate the Vision of a Digital India

The world has truly gone "E" way: The Electronic way. India is not an exception to this. Starting from very basic e-mail, we are progressing fast and have already made our mark in fields like e-commerce, e-learning, and so-on.
The new and most important electronic media for India today is “E-Governance”.
E-Governance aka Electronic Governance implies to using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to deliver various government services. The government services itself is a broad term which might include country, state, region, institution or even individuals.
On a broad spectrum, there are four models towards E-Governance:

1. Government to Government
2. Government to Citizen/Customer
3. Government to Employees
4. Government to Business

The electronic media undoubtedly directs our attention to very much related project called – Digital India: A programme to transform India into digital empowered society and knowledge economy.
The Digital India basically aims at integrating various government services with the power of internet thus reducing paperwork, connecting rural areas with technology and many more.
While all technical and digital stuff sounds very pleasant to ears, the thousands of crores rupees project Digital India has its own set of challenges:
1. Cyber Security: None is unaware about the state of cyber security in India. We are progressing fast, but the fact that we need to increase our pace is also true.
2. Legal Hurdles: There are many loopholes in privacy and data protection laws in India and a lot are still missing.
3. E-waste management: With the amount of technical updates, the devices etc are definitely going to be discarded and replaced with updated ones. Thus e-waste can definitely be expected to come in huge quantity. E-Governance cannot be applied and Digital India plan would be a complete waste in itself without effective and productive E-waste management.
Image source
One need not mention the role of technology in executing the most looked upon plans by our country India. Below are some ways the technology combined with E-Governance and Digital India project can make the pace much faster:-
1. Curb The Obstacles
Looking at the challenges faced by Digital India, better and more advanced technology is one solution which directly emerges out. The invention and use of better technologies is definitely the only solution to first and biggest obstacle to E-Governance through DI – Cyber Security.
2. User Friendly Applications
The kind of services being planned by E-Governance mostly caters to common people of India. One cannot expect the mango man to be tech-savy and thus the need for user friendly applications and services is much evident. The current and upcoming technological advances offer great features that can be incorporated with proper planning
3. Save Precious Time
Time is money. In the present era when everyone has multiple tasks to do simultaneously, the technology is definitely playing a vital role in saving the precious gem. Imagine a villager to commute to city utilizing his/her whole full day for just an appointment of passport application. The passport seva website is just a small example. The Government has already launched several services which definitely saves time.
4. Better Accessibility
The internet connectivity and network issues to remote areas are still a matter of concern when we talk about Digital India. E-Governance clubbed with latest technological methods can play an important role in this aspect. The latest technological advances also allow the users to work in offline mode. This is just the beginning.
5. Save Environment
All said and done, the responsibility towards environment is one of the key factors for any nation. While the Digital India project would definitely prevent lot of paperwork, it would also lead to e-waste. Thus, better the technology and it’s compatibility with previous versions, more the social contribution towards environment.
Talk technology and Intel is one name which cannot be ignored.  While Intel is known as the chip maker, the technology expert is making its own contribution towards #DigitalIndia through its programs like the "Digital Skills For India" application and "Innovate For India" initiatives.
Information sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Governance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_India
http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/Digital%20India.pdf