The National Association of Software and Services Companies on Thursday said the e-governance market in the country grew 18 per cent in 2002, touching Rs 1,400 crore (Rs 14 billion) in the process of becoming the fastest growing vertical in the domestic information technology market.
Nasscom President Kiran Karnik said the market was gaining momentum but there were hurdles stalling the progress.
Karnik said, to make e-governance a part of administration, the government must ensure that at least 3 per cent of the Budget was committed for e-governance and rewrite the tendering and bid evaluation process among other things, apart from coming out with a clear roadmap for the sector.
"The recommendations, if implemented, can save up to Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) every year in transaction costs and increase revenues by Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) through better tax enhancement," he said.
According to Karnik, the return on investments from all these measures will allow the government to spend at least Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) per year on e-governance initiatives.
Speaking on the occasion, R Chandrasekher, joint secretary in the department of information technology, said the draft e-governance policy was ready and the final policy could come out anytime after consultations with the concerned parties.
Karnik said the National Institute of Smart Governance should be made operational by the end of 2003 and all Class-1 officers of the government should be given compulsory training in the area of information technology.
The process of tendering and bid evaluation should be rewritten and computerisation of land records should be completed in all states by the end of 2004, he added.
Identification of core national projects that needed to be automated and rollout of national citizen identity cards should also become a reality by 2004, Karnik said.
"By the end of 2005, citizen services should be offered online in all states and 50 per cent of all procurements should take place over the Internet."
© 2025