Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani said that the foreign companies could not afford to stop outsourcing work to the Indian companies because it is cost effective.

"There have been demands in the foreign countries for banning outsourcing work to the Indian companies because it affects the job prospects of their own citizens. These foreign companies outsource work to the Indian companies because it is financially beneficial to them and the quality of the work is good," he said.

Delivering the keynote address at the seventh conference on e-governance, Advani said e-governance has become indispensable for good governance.

"E-governance will succeed only when there is a commitment to good governance just as good governance becomes easier with the introduction of e-governance," he said.

Advani said that unless the technology is backed by administrative reforms in processes, procedures and systems of governance, such initiatives tend to end up as mere computerisation of activities with no tangible benefit to the people.

Hence an attitudinal change in the government at all levels to accept all the responsibilities and obligations of good governance is necessary, he added.

Advani, who is the chairman of the sub-committee of the National Development Council on Governance Reforms with special reference to e-governance set up by the Planning Commission in March this year, said that the Union Cabinet would soon take a decision on the recommendations made by the sub-committee.

"A significant step taken by the government of India to promote and facilitate implementation of various e-governance initiatives is the setting up of the National Institute of Smart Government on the basis of the recommendations made by the national task force on information technology and software development constituted in 1988," he said.

J Jayalalithaa, chief minister of Tamil Nadu, said that despite stiff competition from other states, Tamil Nadu has emerged as a clear winner. She said the 'Rasi' project on e-governance started by the state government in various sphere of administration has been a roaring success.