governance: transparency and accountability; e-governance

Question 1

PRAGATI platform uniquely bundles three latest technologies?

Answer 1

Digital data management, video-conferencing and geo-spatial technology

Question 2

PRAGATI: features?

Answer 2

1. It is a three-tier system (PMO, Union Government Secretaries, and Chief Secretaries of the States)
2. Thus, cooperative Fedralism
3. an innovative project in e-governance and good governance

Question 3

e-Governance: write-up?

Answer 3

• e-Governance can be defined as the application of information and communication technology (ICT) for providing government services, exchange of information, transactions, integration of previously existing services and information portals.

The Council of Europe referred to e-Governance as:

• The use of electronic technologies in three areas of public action:
  • relations between the public authorities and civil society
  • the functioning of the public authorities at all stages of the democratic process (electronic democracy)
  • the provision of public services (electronic public services)

Different Connotations of e-Governance

• e-Administration: The use of ICTs to modernize the state; the creation of data repositories for Management Information System (MIS) and computerization of records (land, health etc).
• e-Services: The emphasis here is to bring the state closer to the citizens.
  • For Examples: Provision of online services.
  • e-administration and e-services together constitute what is largely termed as e-government.
• e-Governance: The use of IT to improve the ability of the government to address the needs of society.
  • It includes the publishing of policy and program-related information to transact with citizens.
  • It extends beyond the provision of online services and covers the use of IT for strategic planning and reaching the development goals of the government.
• e-Democracy: The use of IT to facilitate the ability of all sections of society to participate in the governance of the state.
  • Emphasis is on bringing transparency, accountability, and participation of people.
  • It includes online disclosures of policies, online grievance redressal, e-referendums etc.

Pillars of e-Governance

• People
• Process
• Technology
• Resources

Types of Interaction in e-Governance

• G2G i.e. Government to Government
• G2C i.e. Government to Citizen
• G2B i.e. Government to Business
• G2E i.e. Government to Employees

Question 4

e-Governance: origin in India?

Answer 4

• The establishment of the Department of Electronics in 1970 was the first major step towards e-governance in India as it brought ‘information’ and its communication to focus.
• National Informatics Centre (NIC) established in 1977, launched the District Information System program to computerize all district offices in the country
• The main thrust for e-governance was provided by the launching of NICNET in 1987 – the national satellite-based computer network.

Objectives

• Better service delivery to citizens.
• Ushering in transparency and accountability.
• Empowering people through information.
• Improve efficiency within Government i.e between centre-state or inter-states.
• Improve interface with business and industry.

Question 5

e-Governance: initiatives in India by SGs?

Answer 5

by SGs

1. Bhoomi Project: Online Delivery of Land Records in KN
2. KHAJANE: ‘Government-to-Government (G2G) e-Governance initiative of the Karnataka SG for End-to-end automation of Government Treasury System
3. e-Seva by Andhra Govt: Designed to provide ‘Government to Citizen’ and ‘e-Business to Citizen’ services. The project has become very popular among the citizens especially for the payment of utility bills.

Question 6

e-Governance: initiatives by GoI?

Answer 6

1. e-Courts: Launched by the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, it aims at utilizing technology for improved provisioning of judicial services to citizens.
2. e-District: launched by Deptt of IT, The MMP aims at delivery of high volume, citizen-centric services at the District level such as the issue of birth/death certificate, income and caste certificates, old age and widow pension, etc.
3. MCA21: project aims to provide electronic services to the Companies registered under the Companies Act.
4. e-Office: launched by DARPG, The MMP aims at significantly improving the operational efficiency of the Government by transitioning to a “Less Paper Office”.
5. Digital India Initiatives
   
   1. MyGov: aims to establish a link between Government and Citizens. It encourages citizens as well as people abroad to participate in various activities i.e. ‘Do’, ‘Discuss’, ‘Poll’, ‘Talk’, ‘Blog’, etc.
   2. DigiLocker: serves as a platform to enable citizens to securely store and share their documents with service providers who can directly access them electronically.
   3. e-Hospital Online Regtn Framework (ORF): to facilitate the patients to take online OPD appointments with government hospitals. This framework also covers patient care, laboratory services and medical record management.
   4. National Scholarship portal: provides a centralized platform for application and disbursement of scholarship to students under any scholarship scheme.
   5. DARPAN: It is an online tool that can be used to monitor and analyze the implementation of critical and high priority projects of the State.
   6. PRAGATI
   7. Common Service Centres 2.0
   8. Mobile seva: It provides government services to the people through mobile phones and tablets.
   9. Jeevan Pramaan: Aadhaar based Biometric Authentication System for Pensioners. The system provides authenticity to Digital Life Certificate without the necessity of the pensioner being present in person before his/ her Pension Dispensing Authority (PDA).
   10. National Centre of Geo-informatics (NCoG): Under this project, Geographic Information System (GIS) platform for sharing, collaboration, location based analytics and decision support system for Departments has been developed.
   11. NeGP: It takes a holistic view of e-Governance initiatives across the country, integrating them into a collective vision and a shared cause. It comprises of 31 Mission Mode Projects, approved in 2006, but later it was integrated into Digital India Program.

Question 7

Shillong Declaration?

Answer 7

1. adopted by 22nd National Conference on e-Governance
   
   • organised by DARPG,MoPPGP and MeiTY in collab with meghalaya Govt
2. declaration has outlined the future trajectory that would be taken in terms of e-governance with a focus on improving connectivity in Northeast.
3. 10-point declaration includes:
   
   1. The central government and state governments would collaborate to improve the citizens’ experience with government services.
   2. In order to do so, they would promote the timely implementation of India Enterprise Architecture (IndEA).
   3. They would also implement a single sign-on for interoperability and integration among e-Government applications throughout the country.
   4. It also resolved to consolidate the plethora of successful state-level e-Governance projects and domain-based projects with a focus to replicate them as common application software with configurable features.
   5. The declaration also stressed the need to ensure improvement in ease of living and ease of doing business by making a big shift in the role of government from Service Provider to Service Enabler.
   6. It also stressed on the need to take steps to further improve connectivity in the Northeast.
   7. Issues and challenges of telecommunication connectivity at the grassroots and formulate and implement a comprehensive telecom development plan were also addressed in the declaration.
   8. It was also resolved to improve the quality of delivery of e-Services in the Northeast to fulfil the vision of improved citizen experience.
   9. It was also resolved to develop India as a global cloud hub and facilitate the development of Government applications and databases on Cloud by default.
   10. To adopt emerging technologies for finding e-Governance solutions and to promote the Digital India Projects with focus on Smart Cities and Smart Villages through Startups and Smart Entrepreneurship were also resolved in the declaration.

Question 8

Village volunteer system?

Answer 8

Launched in Andhra Pradesh

1. Village Volunteers System will take governance to the doorsteps of the people.
2. The programme would involve 2.8 lakh volunteers. The volunteers will conduct door-to-door visits and provide the benefits under various programmes to eligible beneficiaries.
3. The volunteers will identify the problems being faced by people in their jurisdiction and take steps towards solving them.
4. Village secretariats would be set up in each village to deliver governance to people in 72 hours.
5. This scheme involves provision of one volunteer to cover 50 families in each village. Identity cards would be given to the volunteers and they would be given an honorarium of Rs 5,000 per month.

Question 9

‘Mos Sarkar’ initiative?

Answer 9

• Odisha govt’s citizen centric project that takes feedback frm ordinary people regarding their experience at the govt run facilities in the state- with special emphasis on police stations and govt run hospitals.
• one negative feedback will lead to more calls to other customers of that particular service and if negative feedback persists, explanation will be sought.
• Privacy concerns?

Question 10

National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP)?

Answer 10

1. to be created by NITI Aayog
2. The platform aims to democratize access to publicly available government data.
3. It will host the latest datasets from various government websites, present them coherently, and provide tools for analytics and visualization.

Question 11

Potential of Free and Open SOurce Software (FOSS) in govt applications?

Answer 11

1. FOSS presents an alternative model to build digital technologies for population scale. Unlike proprietary software, everyone has the freedom to edit, modify and reuse open-source code.
2. This results in many benefits —
   
   1. reduced costs,
   2. no vendor lock-in,
   3. the ability to customise for local context, and
   4. greater innovation through wider collaboration
   5. FOSS can actually create more trust between the government and citizens. FOSS communities can examine the open-source code for adherence to data privacy principles, help find bugs, and ensure transparency and accountability. Many solutions launched by the government including Digilocker, Diksha, Aarogya Setu, the Covid-19 vaccination platform CoWIN — built on top of open-source digital platforms — have benefited from valuable inputs provided by volunteer open-source developers.
3. We have seen some great examples of public services being delivered through systems that use FOSS building blocks, including Aadhaar, GSTN, and the DigiLocker.
4. Recognising its potential, in 2015, the Indian government announced a policy to encourage open source instead of proprietary technology for government applications.
5. In the case of FOSS, there appears to be an absence of one clear “owner”, which makes it harder to identify who is responsible. While this concern is legitimate, there are ways to mitigate it, for example, by having the government’s in-house technical staff understand available documentation and getting key personnel to join relevant developer communities. This has been tried out in several projects successfully but needs to be strengthened further.
6. With an IT workforce of more than four million employees and a software industry that is the envy of the world, we already have the required talent to push for the possibility of collaborative technological innovation.

Question 12

Potential of Free and Open SOurce Software (FOSS) in govt applications: way forward?

Answer 12

1. incentivise the uptake of FOSS in government:
   
   • The government’s policy on the adoption of OSS requires all tech suppliers to submit bids with open source options. Suppliers also need to justify in case they do not offer an open-source option, and sourcing departments are asked to weigh the lifetime costs and benefits of both alternatives before making a decision.
   • While this serves as a good nudge, policy can perhaps go a step further by formally giving greater weightage to FOSS-specific metrics in the evaluation criteria in RFPs, and offering recognition to departments that deploy FOSS initiatives, such as, a special category under the Digital India Awards.
2. curate a repository of “GovTech ready” building blocks that are certified for use in government and audited for security compliances. Off-the-shelf FOSS software is often not ready for direct deployment by government. Creating a repository of ready-to-use “GovTech-ised” building blocks, can help departments quickly identify and deploy FOSS solutions in their applications.
3. FOSS innovations can be encouraged through “GovTech hackathons and challenges”, bringing together the open-source community to design solutions for specific problem statements identified by government departments. One such challenge — a #FOSS4Gov Innovation Challenge — was recently launched
4. a credible institutional anchor is needed to be a home for FOSS led innovation in India. Such an institution can bring together FOSS champions and communities that are scattered across India around a shared agenda for collective impact. Kerala’s International Centre for Free & Open Source Software (ICFOSS) is a great example of such an institution that led to Kerala being a pioneering state in the adoption of FOSS.

Question 13

case study of Rajasthan to improve rape case reporting?

Answer 13

Rajasthan has registered the highest number of rape and attempt to rape cases in 2019 and 2020, as per NCRB. Overall, Rajasthan stood fifth in crime against women, an improvement from its third position in 2019. For crimes against women, the state has a crime rate of 90.5 per lakh population. IN terms of rape rate RJ ses 13.9 cases (FIRs of rape) per lakh as compared to national avg of 4.3 perlakh

However, at 13.2 per cent, Rajasthan has among the lowest pendency rate with police among the states when it comes to crime against women. It is next only to Gujarat, which has the lowest pendency at 10.7 per cent. The national average is 35.2 per cent.

Measures taken by Rj govt caused absolute no of crimes against women to shoot up drastically in 2019 from ~28000 to ~42000 but it fell in 2020 to ~34000, showing effectiveness.

earlier people used to approach the courts for registration of FIRs under CrPC 156(3). This saw a decline too from 28 per cent (in 2018) to 16 per cent in 2019 end, since cases were being freely lodged by the police

measures taken:

• emphasis on registeration of FIR as fundamental duty of police
• increase in no. of FIRs was not punished
• complaints about hesitation in registering FIR or about behaviour of police was stricty dealth with; departmental proceedings were initiated against two dozen SHOs (as of 2020) when they did not register a case
• SG undertook “a large number of decoy operations” to see whether FIRs were being lodged at police stations.
• In May 2019, it was announced that FIRs could directly be registered with the SP’s office if local police stations did not entertain a complaint.
• On July 1, 2019, the state government also made it mandatory to register every complaint on Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS).

Question 14

Recent downgrades for India in various democracy indices and reports?

Answer 14

Freedom House Index for 2021 pushed India down four points from last year, bringing its score from 71 to 67. This demoted the country from being a “free” to a “partially free” country.

V-Dem, the world-renowned think-tank from Sweden, has similarly downgraded India and labelled India an “electoral autocracy”

EIU Report: India’s score dropping from an all-time high of 7.92 in 2014 to 6.61 in 2020, and its ranking has taken a nosedive from 27 to 53 out of 167 countries.

The Reporters without Borders’ Press Freedom Report has placed India 167th out of 183 countries. Freedom House has also given India a score of 2 out of 4 in terms of press freedom, and has stated that the Indian press is “partially free”.

Question 15

RTI Act, 2005: intro?

Answer 15

It sets out the rules and procedures regarding citizens’ right to information.

It replaced the former Freedom of Information Act, 2002.

Legal Backing:

• Genesis of RTI law started in 1986, through judgement of Supreme Court in Mr. Kulwal v/s Jaipur Municipal Corporation case, in which it directed that freedom of speech and expression provided under Article 19 of the Constitution clearly implies Right to Information, as without information the freedom of speech and expression cannot be fully used by the citizens.
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948 providing everyone the right to seek, receive, information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
• The International Covenant on Civil and Political rights 1966 states that everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression, the freedom to seek and impart information and ideas of all kinds.

According to Thomas Jefferson “Information is the currency of democracy,” and critical to the emergence and development of a vibrant civil society.

Question 16

RTI Act, 2005: obj?

Answer 16

• To empower the citizens
• To promote transparency and accountability
• To contain corruption and
• To enhance people’s participation in democratic process.

Question 17

RTI Act, 2005: provisions?

Answer 17

• It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
• Section- 2 (f):“Information”, among other forms, also includes information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a Public Authority under any other law for the time being in force.
• Section- 2(j) : “Right to Information” means the right to information accessible under this Act which is held by or under the control of any public authority and includes the right to:
  • Inspection of work, documents, records;
  • Taking notes, extracts or certified copies etc.
• Section 4 of the RTI Act requires suo motu disclosure of information by each public authority. However, such disclosures have remained less than satisfactory.
• Section 8 (1) mentions exemptions against furnishing information under RTI Act.
• Section 8 (2) provides for disclosure of information exempted under Official Secrets Act, 1923 if larger public interest is served.
• The Act also provides for appointment of Information Commissioners at Central and State level. Public authorities have designated some of its officers as Public Information Officer. They are responsible to give information to a person who seeks information under the RTI Act.

Question 18

RTI Act, 2005:”Public Authority”?

Answer 18

“Public authority” means any authority or body or institution of self government established or constituted—

• by or under the Constitution;
• by any other law made by Parliament/State Legislature.
• by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and includes any—
  • body owned, controlled or substantially financed;
  • non-Government organisation substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government.

Question 19

RTI Act, 2005: Time limit?

Answer 19

In normal course, information to an applicant is to be supplied within 30 days from the receipt of application by the public authority.

• If information sought concerns the life or liberty of a person, it shall be supplied within 48 hours.
• In case the application is sent through the Assistant Public Information Officer or it is sent to a wrong public authority, five days shall be added to the period of thirty days or 48 hours, as the case may be.

Question 20

RTI Act, 2005: Applicability to

1. pvt bodies?
2. political parties?
3. CJI?

Answer 20

1. Private bodies are not within the Act’s ambit directly. however, In a decision of Sarbjit roy vs Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission, the CIC also reaffirmed that privatised public utility companies fall within the purview of RTI.
2. CIC had held that the political parties are public authorities and are answerable to citizens under the RTI Act. But in August 2013 the government introduced a Right To Information (Amendment) Bill which would remove political parties from the scope of the law. Currently no parties are under the RTI Act and a case has been filed for bringing all political parties under it.
3. Supreme Court of India on 13 November 2019, upheld the decision of Delhi High Court bringing the office of Chief Justice of India under the purview of Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Question 21

Exemptions from RTI Act 2005?

Answer 21

1. MHA:
   
   • IB
   • BSF/CRPF/ITBP/CISF/NSG/Assam rifles/Sahastra Seema Bal/
2. FM:
   
   • Directorate of Revenue Intelligence
   • Central Economic Intelligence Bureau
   • ED
3. Min of Defence: DRDO
4. independent:
   
   • Narcotics Control Bureau
   • Aviation Research Centre
   • Special Frontier Force
   • RAW, Cabinet Secretariat
   • SPG
   • BRDO
   • FIU
   • Directorate General Income Tax (Investigation)
   • National Technical Research Organisation
   • National Security Council Secretariat

These organisations are exempted, but cases related to corruption and Human Rights Violation are not exempted.

Question 22

RTI Act 2005: vs other legislations that prevent access to info?

Answer 22

• Some provisions of Indian Evidence Act (Sections 123, 124, and 162) provide to hold the disclosure of documents.
  • Under these provisions, head of department may refuse to provide information on affairs of state and only swearing that it is a state secret will entitle not to disclose the information.
  • In a similar manner no public officer shall be compelled to disclose communications made to him in official confidence.
• The Atomic Energy Act, 1912 provides that it shall be an offence to disclose information restricted by the Central Government.
• The Central Civil Services Act provides a government servant not to communicate or part with any official documents except in accordance with a general or special order of government.
• The Official Secrets Act, 1923 provides that any government official can mark a document as confidential so as to prevent its publication.

Question 23

RTI Act, 2005: importance?

Answer 23

• Change of principle from secrecy to transparency and accountability
• strengthening participatory democracy
• can empower the poor and the weaker sections of society to demand and get information about public policies and actions, thereby leading to their welfare
• led to exposure of many scams like CWG, 2G spectrum and coal block scams
• increases accountability
• Improves decision making by public authority by removing unnecessary secrecy.

Question 24

RTI Act 2005: issues?

Answer 24

• Different types of information is sought which has no public interest and sometimes can be used to misuse the law and harass the public authorities. For example-
  • Asking for desperate and voluminous information.
  • To attain publicity by filing RTI
  • RTI filed as vindictive tool to harass or pressurize the public authority
• Because of the illiteracy and unawareness among the majority of population in the country, the RTI cannot be exercised.
• Poor record-keeping practices
• Dilution of supplementary laws like the whistleblowers protection Act.
• Though RTI’s aim is not to create a grievance redressal mechanism, the notices from Information Commissions often spur the public authorities to redress grievances.
• Silos of secrecy still exist
• Acc to report by Information Commissions of INdia 2021
  
  1. CIC has three vacancies left and has not functioned at its full strength of 10 Commissioners.
  2. There were delays in disposing of cases due to both shortage of personnel and inefficient operations.
  3. Based on the present strength, twelve State Information Commissions plus the Central Information Commission (CIC) would need at least a year to dispose of their appeals.
• RTI Amendment Act 2019

Question 25

RTI Amendment Act 2019?

Answer 25

1. The Centre shall have the powers to set the salaries and service conditions of Information Commissioners at central as well as state levels.
2. Term of the central Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners: appointment will be “for such term as may be prescribed by the Central Government”.
3. While the original Act prescribes salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the state Chief Information Commissioner as “the same as that of an Election Commissioner”, and the salaries and other terms of service of the State Information Commissioners as “the same as that of the Chief Secretary to the State Government”, the amendment proposes that these “shall be such as may be prescribed by the Central Government”.

Question 26

RTI Act 2005 vs Official Secrets Act?

Answer 26

The OSA was enacted in 1923 by the British to keep certain kinds of information confidential, including, but not always limited to, information involving the affairs of state, diplomacy, national security, espionage, and other state secrets.

• Whenever there is a conflict between the two laws, the provisions of the RTI Act override those of the OSA.
• Section 22 of the RTI Act states that its provisions will have effect notwithstanding anything that is inconsistent with them in the OSA.
• Similarly, under Section 8(2) of the RTI Act, a public authority may allow access to information covered under the OSA, “if the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interest”.

Question 27

What are the different forms of Aadhaar and what are their features?

Answer 27

Aadhaar Letter: Paper-based laminated letter with secure QR Code with Issue Date and Print Date. Aadhaar letter is sent to resident free of cost by ordinary post in case of new enrolment or mandatory biometric update.

eAadhaar: eAadhaar is the electronic form of Aadhaar, digitally signed by UIDAI, having QR code for offline verification with Issue Date and Download Date. Resident can easily download eAadhaar/masked eAadhaar from UIDAI’s official website using registered mobile number. The masked eAadhaar displays only last 4 digits of Aadhaar number. eAadhaar is generated automatically with every Aadhaar enrolment or update and it can be downloaded free of cost.

mAadhaar: mAadhaar is digital form of Aadhaar which can be installed on mobile device. mAadhaar app is available on Google play store/iOS for downloading on resident’s mobile device. It has QR code for offline verification. Like eAadhaar, mAadhaar is also generated automatically with every Aadhaar enrolment or update and it can be download free of cost.

Aadhaar PVC Card: Aadhaar PVC Card is the latest form of Aadhaar introduced by UIDAI. Other than being easy to carry and durable, the PVC-based Aadhaar Card has a digitally signed secure QR code with photograph and demographic details with multiple security features.

Question 28

Good Governance in india: A historical intro for any general question on the topic?

Answer 28

Good governance or Sushasan is an inheritance from India’s ancient culture and ethos. The democratic values retrieved through the Gan Sangha of Buddhism, Anubhav Mantap of 11th century established by Lord Basveshwar, Chanakya’s Arthashastra, civic planning during the Indus Valley civilisation, the legacy of Mauryan emperor, Ashoka, among others, are inherited wisdom that enable better governance.

Question 29

Good Governance iNdex: by? about?

Answer 29

by DARPG, Min of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions

1. to assess the Status of Governance and impact of various interventions taken up by the State Government and UTs. to provide quantifiable data to compare the state of governance in all states and UTs.
2. states and UTs are divided into three groups: a) Big States, b) North-East & Hill States and c) UTs.
3. It is based on ten sectors and 58 indicators. The sectors are
   
   • Agriculture and Allied Sectors
   • Commerce & Industries
   • Human Resource Development
   • Public Health
   • Public Infrastructure & Utilities
   • Economic Governance
   • Social Welfare & Development
   • Judicial & Public Security
   • Environment
   • Citizen-Centric Governance

Question 30

Good Governance iNdex 2021?

Answer 30

• The GGI 2021 says that 20 States have improved their composite GGI scores over the GGI 2019 index scores.
• Ranking of the States: The Index categorises States and UTs into four categories, i.e.,
  
  • Other States – Group A:
    
    • Gujarat has topped the composite ranking in the Good Governance Index 2021 covering 10 sectors, followed by Maharashtra and Goa.
  • Other States – Group B:
    
    • Madhya Pradesh tops the list followed by Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
  • North-East and Hill States:
    
    • Himachal Pradesh topped the list followed by Mizoram and Uttarakhand.
  • Union Territories:
    
    • Delhi tops the composite rank registering a 14% increase over the GGI 2019 indicators.

Question 31

Features of Good Governance?

Answer 31

1. Participation
2. Rule of Law
3. Transparency
4. Responsiveness
5. Consensus Orientation
6. Equity
7. Effectiveness and Efficiency
8. Accountability
9. Strategic Vision