Barun Roy: A tale of two attitudes

ASIA FILE

Here's where India stands in terms of e-governance at this point in time, 15 years before 2020, when it is supposed to occupy its place among the world's developed nations:

A group of Kolkata housewives, offering their love's labour to poor and helpless women, decided to apply to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, for permission to accept foreign donations to support their expanding activities.

They had to do it through prescribed forms, and quite naturally, they were happy to find that these forms could be downloaded from the home ministry's website on the Internet. Wow! Hadn't India progressed from the days of the bullock cart!

But the progress had its limit. Form FC-3, in which the group had to submit its application, specifies that all documentation must be sent by snail mail, that too by registered post. Courier won't do. Not even Speed Post.

And who doesn't know that registered mail takes longer to reach than ordinary mail? But a rule is a rule and off the letter went by registered mail, unaccompanied even by an Acknowledgement Due (A/D) certificate since A/D forms are hardly available these days.

Three months later, several communications were received. One asked for more information and had on it the initials of half a dozen people, signifying that it had passed through at least half a dozen offices. Another curtly informed that the permission couldn't be granted.

Then, by Speed Post, mercifully, came a third, dated a week after the rejection and signed by a different officer, asking for some clarification, which, it was mentioned, could be sent by either as a registered mail or through Speed Post. Hallelujah!

Meanwhile, the group had to submit another set of documents to the district magistrate concerned in West Bengal for him to issue a certificate to support its application to New Delhi.

The district magistrate asked for a police investigation, then referred the matter to the sub-divisional officer, who passed it on to the social welfare officer concerned, who has asked for more documents and another round of police verification before he can formulate his opinion.

That's where the matter lies for now, waiting to retrace its journey back to the district magistrate for his assent or his refusal. If the magistrate signs the recommendation, the group will have to collect and mail it, by registered post, to New Delhi, where it will embark on another journey through the desks of home ministry officials.

That's us. The levels of governance, and the attitudes that govern governance, remain where they used to be 50 years ago, frozen in their suspicions of the governed and helplessly buried under layers upon layers of bureaucracy.

And here's Singapore, hailed as one of the world's three biggest innovators of e-governance along with Canada and the US.

The island republic has developed a public services infrastructure that's government-wide, truly one-stop and provides services on demand to both private citizens and corporate entities.

The common platform unites disparate systems and applications electronically and allows different government agencies to share components such as payment gateways, electronic data exchange, authentication, and other security features.

It means files are read, shared, cross checked and cleared electronically, without unnecessary paperwork and loss of time.

Already, more than 600 government services, ranging from e-filing of income taxes to business registration to the renewal of driving licences, have been put online.

One simply has to log on to an appropriate government portal, submit the necessary information, and make the required payments. The system does the rest.

Today, an application for the approval of a company name in Singapore is processed within 15 minutes of payment, or a maximum of 14 working days in case the matter needs to be referred to another government authority for comments. A foreign company can get itself registered online, also within 15 minutes of payment.

Business licences can be obtained online, too. All one needs to do is fill out an integrated electronic form, identify the industry or industries for which the licence or licences are required, and pay all fees using a consolidated payment mechanism. There are one-stop, personalised portals for tax returns and a special portal for payments.

The objective is to remove the divide between the governor and the governed and use e-governance as a business tool to improve relationship. For, governance is a business, too.

This is what most countries seeking to climb up the e-governance ladder don't understand. The real digital divide is in the attitudes, the "ruler"-versus-the-"ruled" mindset of the colonial administrator.

E-governance is not just a matter of people being able to read and download government information from the Internet. It's a matter of how well and effectively can they use it as a mechanism to interact with the government, saving time, costs and hassle.