Computers are fast, can't be corrupted, are immune to nepotistic tendencies, and treat all users the same. That's a chorus India's e-governance brigade has adopted as its own. It is also a fairly accurate statement: the efficiency and transparency promised by e-governance present a sharp contrast to the bureaucratic morass governance in India has come to be.

Not all e-governance initiatives have worked. Many remain on paper. India's politicos, it would appear, are no different from entrepreneurs who believed merely appending dotcom to the names of their businesses would make their fortunes. Some initiatives work, but with key modules offline, the purpose of the exercise is lost. And still others work and live up to the promised levels of efficiency and transparency, but the objective is inconsequential enough to be dismissed outright.

This isn't a survey of India's best e-governed state. Nor is it one of those touchy-feely articles on e-governance one has come to expect to see in the country's magazines and newspapers-compositions written in the expectation of things to come, in the hope that ambitious blueprints drafted by laptop-toting chief ministers and their willing corporate advisors will, one day, result in some real activity on the ground.

This article is a compilation of experiences. Our correspondents sampled, first hand, the e-governance efforts of six states: Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gurgaon, Delhi, and Maharashtra. In each case, they tried to accomplish something online-even if it were something as mundane as renewing a driving licence or acquiring a certificate of domicile. Maybe, just maybe, e-governance is actually about such things than lofty vision statements and loaded-with-irrelevant-information government websites.

A SETU touch-screen: Watch your files

Maharashtra
The Box Rules

E-GOVERNANCE SNAPSHOT: The I-SETU project; the Koshwahini project linking 33 government treasuries and 292 sub-treasuries to handle annual transactions of around Rs 70,000 crore; computerisation of land records and municipal corporations

FIRST E-GOVERNANCE INITIATIVE: SARITA (Stamp Duty and Registration with IT Application) in August 2000

I meet a surprised-looking Mukesh M. Barve at the Thane District Collectorate's SETU (Society for Promotion of Excellence and Transparency in Public Administration for Better Understanding of Requirements of Citizens in Their Interface With Government-phew!) centre. He is clutching a domicile certificate in his son's name-the boy is appearing for an entrance test to the state's medical colleges and he needs the document. Barve is a doctor himself, and still remembers the day in 1976 he visited a government office to obtain a similar certificate. It had taken him a month and a bribe of the then princely amount of Rs 10 to effect the transaction. Now, it had taken him a little over two hours-the required data had been keyed in earlier that morning after he filled out a form, the tehsildar had cleared the file online, he had been able to monitor the progress of his document online through a touch-screen, and here he was, 135 minutes later, with the certificate in his hands. "Check out the other Tehsildar's office near by," whispers Barve. I do; it isn't computerised, and there is no one there. But in most districts of Maharashtra, it is possible to obtain basic certificates related to birth, death, marriage, domicile, solvency, and income from SETU centres. The Thane Collector's office has issued some 30,000 such certificates in the past 18 months. Watch out for the I-SETU network, linking individual centres, the state's it Secretary Mukesh Kulla tells me, and watch out for the 50 centres that Mumbai itself will soon have. "The intent," he says, "is to enable delivery of services to citizens anytime, anywhere, and anyhow."

-Dipayan Baishya

The Khannas : Real-world match, online registration

Delhi
Not just yet

E-GOVERNANCE SNAPSHOT: Downloading forms for the issue of ration cards, certificates and licences; online grievance submission facility

FIRST E-GOVERNANCE INITIATIVE: Computerisation of the issue of driving licences in 1994

I am looking forward to experiencing Delhi's e-governance efforts from the air-conditioned comfort of our office. Colleagues in Hyderabad and Bangalore had been forced to visit e-kiosks to experience their state's e-efforts, but surely, I think, www.delhigovt.nic.in will save me a similar fate. The site is replete with information of the how-to sort concerning applications for certificates (birth, death, marriage), and the forms can be downloaded, but I find out that I have to present myself at the specified office to complete the transaction. Concerned, I speak to a government executive and he tells me that by visiting dcwestrev.delhigovt.nic.in, I can submit a request for marriage registration online (now, how will the average citizen get to this page?). "Don't worry," my informant tells me, "you can submit other forms online in a fortnight." Being single, I decide to speak to someone who has recently done the registration thing online-five marriages have been registered online thus far. I manage to meet with Rajesh Khanna, a social scientist who managed a marriage registration certificate on March 31, four days after his application. Only, he had to lug along a gazetted officer and a ton of documents to the centre. At the centre, a tout tells me he can have a certificate home-delivered for Rs 5,000, no questions asked.

-Vandana Gombar

A Bhoomi beneficiary: Look, Mom, my own land record

Karnataka
The Bhoomi Story

E-GOVERNANCE SNAPSHOT: Computerising admission to colleges; the Khajane project linking treasuries of 27 districts; and computerisation of rural land records (Bhoomi)

FIRST E-GOVERNANCE INITIATIVE: CET (Common Entrance Test) computerisation in 1994

A sudden shower ensures that my colleague, the photographer, and I reach the Karnataka government's land records office in the central Kempe Gowda Road a little wet. This is the setting for Bhoomi, the computerised land records project of the S.M. Krishna government that won a Commonwealth award in 2002 and serves as the Union Government's template for similar projects. For the record, Bhoomi kiosks have mushroomed in 177 administrative blocks of the state and records of 6.7 million farmers have been digitised. At this kiosk, I run into a disorderly queue of farmers, landlords, and the ubiquitous hangers-on. As my colleague whips out his camera, we are recognised as journalists. The counter clerk wants to know which publication we represent, but before I can answer we are mobbed by farmers wishing to be heard. "By computerising these records, the government has helped us obtain land records easily," says Doddathogur Raja (actually, he says, "by putting the computer here", but this is what he must mean) who is here to collect title documents for land he has just divided with his brother. He goes on to describe how the computerised process is quicker and corruption-free. "The Tehsildar and revenue officers used to act like kings," pipes in another farmer. "Now, no one even serves them coffee when they visit our villages." It is clear that Bhoomi has its glitches. Chikkathima, a farmer from Uttarhalli Hobli says his record has a mistake. The clerk says there are some errors that have crept in while transcribing hundreds of thousands of written records and expresses his willingness to rectify this specific mistake. The Krishna government has been accused of focusing on urban issues; it must be hoping the farmer-oriented Bhoomi can ensure some returns at next year's elections.

-Venkatesha Babu

Haryana's e: Mere printouts?

Haryana
Promises

E-GOVERNANCE SNAPSHOT: Computerisation of land records; web-enabled electoral rolls; online passport enquiry

FIRST E-GOVERNANCE INITIATIVE: HARIS (Haryana Registration Information System) in 2000

I was taken in with Haryana's website, www.haryana.nic.in. Its land records site, www.jamabandi.nic.in, for instance informed me that I could obtain a RoR (Record of Rights aka Jamabandi in the vernacular) easily. So, here I was at a land record office in Gurgaon only to find out that the records are being updated. "Don't worry," I was told, "the process will be completed in the next 15 days and free RoRs issued to residents of 10 villages." There are 734 villages in all in the Gurgaon district, and this promise of free, and in the future, set my spider senses tingling. True, several of the Haryana government's departments are 'computerised', but few are linked to each other, and web-enablement seems a distant dream. Still, I found out that I could obtain computer-generated certificates for everything from birth to death to vehicle registration. And yes, I could post my grievances online-perhaps the only thing that can be accomplished without visiting a government office.

-Vandana Gombar

eSeva: Serving citizens Naidu-style

Andhra Pradesh
Over The Counter Heaven

E-GOVERNANCE SNAPSHOT: eSeva centres offering a wide range of services to citizens in parts of Hyderabad and Secunderabad; CARD offering computer-aided registration services; Saukaryam offering online civic services in Vishakhapatnam

FIRST E-GOVERNANCE INITIATIVE: CARD in 1998

I am in the eSeva centre at Greenlands, Hyderabad's central business district. In the room abutting the hall I am in are seven counters symbolising Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's e-governance efforts. Since its launch three years ago, the services offered by the 30 eSeva centres in Hyderabad and Secunderabad have become reasonably popular.

I have two tasks on hand: to renew a driving licence and pay my electricity bill. The second is easy, but my expectations regarding the licence-after all, one was issued within minutes to then US President Bill Clinton during his visit to a eSeva centre in 2000-are soon shattered. "You will have to go to the Banjara Hills centre," I am told. BH, for those who don't know, is the city's most posh borough. I needn't have bothered. "Go to the Khairatabad centre," I am told at BH. Still, is that reason enough for the Comptroller and Auditor General of India's just-released report for 2001-02 that finds the project "suffering from lack of transparency, inefficiency, and ineffective implementation"?

-E. Kumar Sharma

e-gov in Chennai: Registering transactions online

Tamil Nadu
After April 10th

E-GOVERNANCE SNAPSHOT: Computerisation of land records, small-scale industries department for the issue of SSI registration certificates, and Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation for e-procurement of drugs

FIRST E-GOVERNANCE INITIATIVE: Computerisation of Thanjavur district administration in 1997

The it secretary of a state that boasts India's first e-district-Thanjavur in 1997-must be plagued with work. He has no time to meet with me, can't speak on the phone, and when I send him an e-mail (at his request), there is no response.

Thanks to the information-loaded website of the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT), I find out the two most promising subjects for my experiment: the office of the Inspector General of Registration, the oldest department in the state (it was created in 1875); and the Road Transport Office.

I hit the sub-registrar's office at Santhome having decided to try and obtain an encumberance certificate for a property owned by a relative; the office also issues marriage certificates, offers valuation guidelines for property, and registers documents. A clerk takes my filled out form, keys it into a pc and tells me, "You can do this online at your convenience and then follow up with a visit to any sub-registrar's office-all offices are networked." Exactly 24 hours later, a courier hands me the certificate and takes Rs 125 in return. It's efficient, but there don't seem to be too many takers-in the last six months, a mere 306 of the 7,474 certificates handed out in Chennai had their origin online. Maybe that's because of a lack of awareness.

Emboldened by my first experience, I call the RTO in East Coast Road (that's the area I live in) to find out how to renew my driving licence. "Renewals only after the 10th," says a voice at the other end, "but if you want more advice, please come to the office after 4.00 p.m." I go. At the office, confusion reigns supreme. Three of the four computers are not being used. The RTO (Road Transport Officer) steps in to assist; I will need to fill in a couple of forms. And nothing can be done online. "Form-filling and submission has to be done as usual madam," he smiles pityingly at me. "But you will get a printout of your licence from the computer." April 10th, I await thee.

-Nitya Varadarajan