Marshall McLuhan predicted in the 1960s that media (television) would create "the global village". But the thesis that had been rejected by many media scholars in the last two decades for lack of empirical evidence has now become true in the Internet age. Thus the ideas underlying McLuhan's work (Understanding Media 1964) have gained new relevance.

In India, the Information Technology Act, 2000 has come into effect, ushering in the era of digital signatures. At least on paper, the citizens can conduct business with the government without leaving the comfort of their homes. The Internet can help citizens in (i) paying bills (telephone, water, electricity, etc.), taxes and so on, (ii) registration formalities for land, marriage and birth & death, (iii) information and download application forms, and (iv) lodging complaints. The Internet has cut the frontiers of time and space. Anyone anytime can access information and give feedback. But this calls for not only Net-enabled governments but also Net-enabled citizens.

The Problem of Access
In this Internet age, while a minuscule population thrives on information overload, a vast majority is starved of information. More than 50 per cent of the population in the U.S. own computers, and a vast majority has access to computers at work place. But only as low as 2.7 per 1,000 people in India have computers, whereas the world-average itself is 70.6 per 1,000 (Source: World Development Report, 2000-2001).

According to the 'Working Group on Information Technology for Masses' (2000) of the Indian Ministry for Information Technology, the present level of facilities in the country of one billion population is highly deficient to enable the reach of IT services to the common man: telephone households are 8 million and Internet connections 1 million. Telephone networks continue to be the most prominent communication media for access to the Internet. As the telephone density in the country is extremely low, access to the Internet is concentrated in only limited parts of the country.

The availability of computers is also a major problem. There is no coordinated effort to bring the Internet to low-income groups. No doubt, digital divide based on economic criteria is real. This slows down adoption of IT tools and services. Even if with the good intentions the government provides every village with a free computer, there is no surety that the computers would find a place in community centres, instead of in the panchayat presidents' houses just as the free community television sets did. There is also a proposal to offer subsidised Internet connections at public telephone booths throughout the country. The emerging convergence of technology - computer, radio, digital television and phone/fax in one box - may bring down the cost of technology and help the spread of computerisation.

The common man in the country continues to be largely unaware of the potential of IT in daily life. This calls for a mass campaign for creating awareness of IT benefits. At times with over-enthusiasm, IT is projected as a panacea for every problem. No doubt it can enhance the capability in every field, but it is not a substitute to economic and technical inputs in the respective fields. Particularly in a development initiative, 'the virtual world' can at best strive for the betterment of the real world by spreading information and creating awareness; but to convert awareness into action, an active intervention in the real world is needed.

Several states have gone in for Net-enabled administration and they are in the process of making the citizens too Net-enabled. But little work has been done to find if e-governance has had an impact at the grassroots. Whatever be the case, even a small provision for downloading application forms has helped eliminate the tyranny of middlemen.

Mindset Poses Hurdles
The Internet is set to transform business and governance. Those in business have realised that if they want to survive in a global competitive environment they should actively use the Internet - be it setting up a Web site or transacting with customers over the Net. But the question frequently asked is why e-commerce is a success whereas e-governance is not so much a success. Is it not true that business is more enterprising than the government?
E-governance could help reduce government controls to a bare minimum, and develop a system that can administer in an efficient manner. This calls for a change in the mindset of the bureaucracy that still carries with it the 'babu' legacy. If the change in the mindset does not take place, e-governance will not go a step further than computerisation of traditional manual activities.
In most states, e-governance relies on private participation. In Andhra Pradesh, even the technical support comes from private firms. Hence some government employees feel that e-governance would deprive them of power and status. They allege that this is nothing but handing over some of the functions of the government to the private sector. They also fear that this may reduce government jobs. So they are reluctant to take to e-governance.
Not always the digital divide is in terms of haves & have-nots and urban & rural. It is, more often than not, in the mindset. The mindset prevents a vast majority of bureaucrats from taking to information technology, leave alone they propagating IT among the masses. The mindset can be changed to a large extent by providing enough number of computers at government offices and offering training to the staff.

Catering to Target Group
All major global portals are set to come to India by mid-2001. Microsoft Network and Yahoo portals already deal with India-specific stuff. Foreign portals incorporate UCD (User-Centred Design) that gives attention to the target audience's perspective. For instance, they have redesigned their sites to reduce graphic content for fast access from India's limited bandwidth. At the same time, several Indian portals concentrate on visuals that take long time to download, which could irritate the user. Many of them start with a big photograph of their institution's building or their crest that takes more than 10 seconds to download. The user is trigger-happy on the Net with a finger constantly on the mouse and he/she readily jump if the page does not respond quickly.

E-governance is capable not only speeding up transactions but also allowing transparent functioning. When it is said that e-commerce has shifted thrust from a company-driven market to a customer-driven one, so should it happen in e-governance.

Web sites can host a large collection of data that would never appear in the print due to cost factor. On the Internet, the 'information hole' is nearly infinite, and the publisher need not have to worry about the 'shrinking information hole'. The only requirement is that the matter needs to be properly split and links given to subheads so as to be user-friendly. The Internet gives the user the option of accessing the material of his/her choice. Web sites, with their voluminous stuff catering to diverse interests, have helped empowering people and also curtailing opinion-making tyranny.

The content of a Web site can be updated round the clock. But often, bureaucratic hurdles bog down many a government Web site and the sites offer stale stuff. The sites have to be continually updated as the user does not stand stale information. Any site that is not current is bound to lack credibility and lose its clients. Many a times, even e-mails seeking more information or clarification are either unanswered or answered months after sending. If the mindset of bureaucrats remains the same and it prevents many of the government information from being made public, going online would only be ornamental.

Governance Made Efficient
Some states have computerised vehicle registration, land records, birth & death registration, employment exchanges and the like. This has resulted in effective governance in a limited sense. But e-governance has not gone in for interactive aspect of the Net to create a government-citizen interface. Presented below are two cases of how e-governance could take the next step from mere computerisation of government records.

Case 1: The Gujarat Road Transport Department's 'computerised check-post project' has eliminated corruption at 10 octroi posts on the state's borders, and increased the revenue from Rs. 60 crore in 1998-99 to Rs. 250 crore in 1999-2000. The moment a truck enters the state its weight is recorded and the vehicle is videographed, and the data is instantly accessible in Ahmedabad. This allows little room for local officials to take bribe. Compared to the additional revenue earned, the heavy capital investment of Rs. 18 crore is nothing.

Case 2: The Water Resources Organisation of the Public Works Department of the Tamil Nadu Government is in the preliminary stage of implementing Management Information System (MIS) for its irrigation basins. If implemented in toto, it would allow farmers in remote villages to key in water requirements and crop status on computers that would enable the officials sitting in towns to decide the quantum of supply based on the situations at various spots at times of water scarcity. MIS can check political pressures and bribe-taking by officials, and thus eliminate the inequity in water distribution. But more often than not in such projects, computer use gets confined to government officials and e-governance fails to serve the purpose.

Openness in governance
E-governance has two aspects: (i) an easy interface among government departments, and (ii) openness in governance. Of course, several states in India have attempted the former, but little has been done to use IT for ushering in openness in governance. This democratic aspect is conveniently given a goby.

The present e-governance dishes out information just one-way about government policies with a lot of statistics. The recipient of information is not allowed to have a participatory role. Even the material provided is of outdated stuff clouded with bureaucratic jargons.

The right to information ushered in through e-governance also calls for prior decentralisation in power structure and decision-making. The Internet is an open medium with four major features: e-mail, Web site, search engines and MUD (multi-user domain). All these features should be optimally used for a participatory decision-making. The governance will be put through a high level of scrutiny by the transparency resulting out of the interactions.

Democratising Politics and Press
Politics and the press are the two social institutions that have major impact on governance. Democracy holds leaders accountable to the people, and it allows the free flow of information and ideas. The Internet is set to usher in e-democracy that would influence political parties and news media (press). The Internet will change some social institutions and create new ones.

As already pointed out, many government departments do not give prompt replies to e-mails received. But a few elected representatives have realised the need to be interactive over the Net, at least during the election campaign. They could also inform their constituents in a cost effective manner about what they are doing in Parliament or the Assembly, and also get to know about the happenings in the constituency. Thus the Internet offers an easy option for an elected representative to carry on communication with the electorate, in the language of their choice, even when he/she is out of the constituency.

The Internet will affect politics by helping people to make more informed choices, based on a wide variety of information. Before the advent of the Internet, the voter only had limited information on which to base his/her choice, and was often hoodwinked by dishonest politicians. No more, politicians would find it easy to mislead the public.

The Internet is also poised to reorient news media. It has the potential to break the stranglehold of media barons and journalists on public opinion. News media would feel the urge to be more people-oriented, with the more and more people of diverse backgrounds being outspoken over the Net. Today anyone with a computer and an Internet link can be a publisher, and can air his/her view. So news media will be more sensitive to the issues concerning various sections of society.

People's Voice Heard
The Internet has become a powerful tool in the hands of advocacy groups, NGOs and the public. This is particularly so at times of distress. During Kargil war, the Internet not only provided people with information but also gave them an opportunity to air their views. In fact, the Internet has helped patriotism to transcend borders! The same is in the case of violence against Christians in far-off places which would otherwise have gone unnoticed: the exchange of chain emails set the agenda for the press, which in turn forced the Government to take notice of the events. The Internet is the best tool yet devised for communication between distant persons.

In Zimbabwe, without e-mail the opposition would not have been able to get its message to the people quickly and effectively. In the country lacking in free press, the Internet made a big difference. Thus the Internet can succeed in not only further democratising democratic societies but also bringing in democracy to non-democracies. It would emerge as a powerful alternative form of communication that could even set the agenda of politics, governance and mass media.
As the use of the Internet deepens and widens, social exclusion of the underprivileged would decrease. The Internet is the first mass medium wherein even a common man can carry on mass communication. McLuhan was ahead of his times when he said that electronic technology would decentralise power and information, allowing people to live in smaller clusters far from major urban centres but having the same level of access to information. No doubt, the Internet has the capability to go back to a village panchayat-type, participant-based democracy where each individual would have a say in the decision-making. E-governance is bound to accelerate this process.