E-governance is a concept that signifies the government's application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to deliver services, exchange information, and conduct transactions with citizens, businesses, and other government agencies. It is fundamentally a shift towards SMART governance, which stands for Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsible, and Transparent.
The origin of e-governance in India dates back to the 1970s, initially focusing on internal government applications like defense and tax administration. The major thrust came with the launch of NICNET, the national satellite-based computer network, in 1987. The formal, comprehensive framework is the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), which the Government approved on May 18, 2006. The NeGP was formulated to solve the problem of making all public services accessible to the common man in their locality at affordable costs, ensuring efficiency and transparency.
The mechanism of e-governance is built on the legal foundation of the Information Technology Act, 2000, which provides legal recognition for electronic records and digital signatures. Section 6 of the IT Act directs government agencies to adopt electronic means for services like filing documents and issuing licenses. The NeGP operationalizes this through infrastructure like State Wide Area Networks (SWANs), State Data Centres (SDCs), and Common Service Centres (CSCs). The NeGP initially comprised 27 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) to digitize services across various sectors.
E-governance is closely connected to the Digital India initiative, launched in 2015, which scaled up the NeGP vision. Key tools include UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) and DigiLocker. Related concepts include the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, which complements e-governance by promoting transparency. A significant recent change is the enactment of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, which lays down rules for handling personal data collected via e-governance platforms. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, also updated provisions of the IT Act.