A Conceptual Framework for Improving the Efficacy of e-Governance in Rural Areas: An Indian Perspective

7A Conceptual Framework for Improving the Efficacy of e-Governance in Rural Areas:
An Indian Perspective
A Conceptual Framework for Improving
the Efficacy of e-Governance in Rural
Areas: An Indian Perspective
Puneet Kumar*, Dharminder Kumar** and A K Sharma***
* Assistant Professor of Computer Science, FASC, Mody Institute of Technology & Science, Deemed University,
Lakshmangarh 332311, Sikar, Rajasthan, India; and is the corresponding author. E-mail: professor.pkumar@gmail.com
** Professor and Chairman, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Guru Jambheshwar University of
Science & Technology, Hisar, Haryana, India. E-mail: dr_dk_kumar_02@yahoo.com
*** Professor and Head, Department of Computer Science & Application, FET, Mody Institute of Technology &
Science, Deemed University, Lakshmangarh 332311, Sikar, Rajasthan, India. E-mail: aksharma.et@mitsuniversity.ac.in
© 2013 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Two-thirdsoftheIndianpopulationliveinvillagesandinordertoachievethesupposedobjectives
of e-governance, they need to be given more attention. The rural areas of the country are
plaguedbyproblemslike connectivity, communication, technicalilliteracy,etc.,incomparison
withtheurbanareas.Therefore,asinglepolicyfor rural aswellas urban massescannotbeviable,
and hence the existingservice delivery mechanism needs to be reengineered. Inthis paper, we
have devised a new framework for improving the efficacy of e-governance in rural areas by
enhancedcapacitybuildingmechanism,new modusoperandiforinterestgenerationtowardsIT,
andinculcationofmobile andcloud technologies.Further, theproposed modelalso reduces the
costofinfrastructure aswell as delivered services, andenhancesthescalability.
Keywords: Cloud Computing, Capacity building, Telecenter, PRIs, CSC, G-Cloud, GDC,
Rural matrimony, Ruraldevelopment, e-Governance cash card, Net banking
Introduction
e-Governance is a modern way of governance which includes the zeal of democracy,
utilization of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for the dissemination
of services up to grassroots level and upliftment of undeserving areas. The current
population of India is over 1.21 billion with a regular growth rate of 1.41%; and 72.2%
of the total population lives in rural areas1
. In this perplexing and diversified scenario,
the implementation of a strategy which is common for all will go in vain. Therefore,
there is a need to devise separate policies or strategies for different clientele groups.
As it is evident from the statistics, the majority of the population lives in rural areas
and therefore, the policies formulated for them needs more attention for the overall
development of the nation. The major dominating challenges in the rural areas are
1
Wikipedia (May 3, 2013), Demographics of India. Retrieved May 4, 2013, from the free encyclopedia, http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_India

The IUP Journal of Information Technology, Vol. IX, No. 4, 20138
poor literacy rate, low awareness level, electricity, network connectivity, etc.
(Jhunjhunwala, 2002; Ramachander, 2007; and Kumar, 2011). In the last financial
year 2012-2013, the government of India put in lots of efforts for sensitizing the
beneficiaries of e-services as well as disseminating awareness among bureaucrats about
available e-governance services by organizing capacity-building programs. The World
Bank has also financed India with $150 mn for National e-Governance Plan (NeGP)
with an aim to capitalize on public delivery of e-services (Technology, 2012-2013).
Although there are islands of success, yet there are some areas that are still untouched
or embarked upon inadequately (Kalam, 2008).
2. Literature Review
Only establishment of an Information Technology (IT) infrastructure in the rural area
does not lead towards better delivery of e-services. It requires fostering a culture of
enactment across various ministries and departments at the center, state and district
levels (Bagga et al., 2009). The e-governance initiatives in the rural areas should be
taken up by identifying and analyzing the grassroots realities (Malhotra et al., 2010).
Bernnat et al. (2010) stated that the strategy devised for the implementation of
e-governance should be comprehensive and citizen-centric and should follow multiple
channels of communication for dissemination of e-services (Cloet, 2012). The lack of
necessary infrastructure, lack of awareness regarding e-services, inequality in gaining
access to various services between urban and rural, technical illiteracy and language
dominance are the major problems in the successful implementation of e-governance
(Dwivedi and Bharti, 2010). The disparity in rural-urban infrastructure also encumbers
private investments in rural areas2
. The Punjab government imparts various
e-governance services in rural areas, but despite that, they are not effectively
implemented (Singla and Aggarwal, 2012). The ‘e-Jana Sampark’ project, which is
functional in Chandigarh, is intended to facilitate the underprivileged citizens having
lack of IT and Internet facility. It provides various e-governance services and
minimizes the interaction points without any wastage of time3
. The ‘Warana Kiosks’
project intended to serve the villagers led to the failure because of lack of
participation by bureaucrats and top-down approach (Cecchini and Raina, 2008).
By adopting appropriate steps towards propagating awareness about ‘Ashwini’ project,
the Byrraju Foundation is imparting urban services in rural areas. As a result, currently,
there are 32 centers and 116 villages covered by the project in East and West Godavari
districts4
. The ‘Akashya’ project in Kerala facilitates citizens to make online payment
2
Initiative T D (2013), Digital Governance Vision for Rural Areas. Retrieved from http://www.digitalgovernance.org/
index.php/?option=com_content &view=article&id=86
3
Grievances (2012), E-Jana Sampark, Chandigarh-IT. Retrieved 2013, from Governance Knowledge Centre: http:/
/indiagovernance.gov.in/bestpractices.php?id=24
4
Grievances (2012), Ashwini-Urban services in rural areas. Retrieved 2013, from Governance Knowledge Centre:
http://indiagovernance.gov.in/bestpractices.php?id=341

towards government through single ICT window5
. The use of VoIP can also reduce
the cost as well as provide better telephony, and it is also effective in establishing
communication in remote areas (Manikpuri and Choudhary, 2012). According to
IDC, the smart phone market in India has grown up from 11 million units in the year
2011 to 16.3 million in the year 2012 with a remarkable growth rate of 48%6
. The
cloud computing is also becoming a big force in enhancing delivery of services related
to e-governance (Kumar, 2011). The government of Japan has established
‘Kasumigaseki Cloud’ to deliver public services to its citizens; and according to the
government of Singapore, it is a major source of economic development (Bansal et
al., 2012). Cloud computing is not only a tool for cost reduction but it also helps in
enabling new services, improving education system and creating new jobs/
opportunities7
.
3. Case Studies
• The promotional mechanism for any e-governance project is an essential
component in making that program successful. It is necessary to promote a
program with attractive communication and necessary marketing skills. In
the United States, the ‘Social Service Administration’ portal had attained
a great success because of the continuous touting efforts of government
about its significant virtues. As a result, the site received a huge number of
customers and has become one of the key resources for information on social
service in the country (Bernnat et al., 2010).
• The Universities MIS was an e-governance project intended to manage
the university sector of Nigeria. It was a great failure, and the main reason
behind its failure was lack of training, awareness and poor project
management8
, whereas in West Africa, the project ‘Automating a Social
Security and National Insurance Trust’, a computerized transaction
processing system, has attained great success because of continuous staff
training (Chekpeche, 2008).
• The project ‘Community Information Link’ was initiated by the Durban
government to improve the quality of life of the communities around the
libraries by providing access to information in Zulu and English. Further,
it provides a platform to the residents of the city who do not have access
5
Grievances (2011), Akshaya: Innovative Operations and Service Delivery, Kerala. Retrieved 2013, from Governance
Knowledge Centre: http://indiagovernance.gov.in/bestpractices.php?id=145
6
Corporation I D (2013), Indian Smartphone Market Breaks 5 Million Mark in Q4, 2012 Powered by Sub-US$200 Price
Points. USA: IDC Corporate.
7
Forum W E and Accenture (2010), Exploring The Future of Cloud Computing: Riding The Next Wave of Technology-
Driven Transformation, World Economic Forum, Switzerland.
8
Exchange (October 19, 2008), Challenges to Management Information Systems in Nigerian Universities. Retrieved on
June 4, 2013, from eGovernment for Development: http://www.egov4dev.org/success/case/misuniv.shtml

to ICT for giving them a voice. But this project was also unsuccessful
because it was not citizen-centric, i.e., the requirements of the citizens
were entirely different from the information provided to them (Exchange,
2008)9
.
• ‘Agricultural Mobile Market Information System (MMIS)’ is an
e-governance project launched by the government of Tamil Nadu for
delivering agricultural market price and other relevant agricultural
information to the rural farmers on their mobile phones. Since mobile
phone has evolved as a new source of communication, it can be used as
an alternate and cost-effective mode of communication. Further, the
availability of mobile technology has developed a self-learning environment
among farmers—a farmer with basic literacy rate is able to understand
the facilities provided by communication technology (Priya and
Mathiyalagan, 2012).
• The Japan government has devised a G-Cloud, named as ‘Kasumigaseki
Cloud’, to host all Japanese government’s computing. It allows greater
information and resources sharing by utilizing virtualization and consolidation
techniques in government’s IT resources. It is not only cost-effective but
environment-friendly also. In Thailand, Government Information
Technology Service (GITS) has established a cloud for serving all Thai
government agencies. The Vietnam government is also working with IBM
to formulate a cloud to serve public and private sectors. China has established
the Yellow river Delta Cloud Computing Center not only to improve only
e-governance service delivery but also for the economic development of
the country (Wyld, 2009).
• A Swedish company, Hi3G Access AB, was facing challenges like reducing
infrastructure costs, improving management of data center, improving
scalability and performance of the application. To overcome these
challenges, the company adopted virtualized environment, and as a result,
the total number of servers were reduced from 400 to 75 and floor space was
cut by 75%. The speed of the application was also enhanced drastically,
indeed there was a great reduction in IT infrastructure as well as real
estate requirements (Vinberg, 2013). iTricity company in the Netherlands
has reduced their asset utilization by 25% to 30% and operational costs by
30% to 35% in last three years by adopting virtualization (Rosier, 2009),
while EDIF of Italy has reduced their operational costs by 75% (Cerquetti,
2012). Le Bourget Communauté of France has saved 20% of the total cost
9
Exchange (2008), Durban Council’s Community Information Link. Retrieved 2013, from eGovernment for Development:
http://www.egov4dev.org/success/case/durbancil.shtml

along with continuous savings in power consumption (Larose, 2010) and
‘Denver Health Medical Center’ of Denver has also reduced their
operational costs along with a significant improvement in service delivery
by espousing virtualization (Boone, 2011).
• In the Middle East and African (MEA) countries, the growth of x86 servers
is declining by 5.9% year-on-year with a significant growth in revenue of
3.0%, whereas the shipment of blade servers has increased up to 10.9% in
the MEA region. It shows the extent of the deployment of virtualization in
business enterprises10
.
4. Objectives
The objectives of the paper are:
• Development of an abstract framework especially focused on imparting better
and cost-effective delivery of e-services to rural masses.
• To devise a mechanism for capacity building of beneficiaries as well as
bureaucrats for the successful implementation of e-governance and
utilization of offered e-services.
5. PRIs and e-Governance: Current Scenario
The democratic architecture of India focuses on two zones, viz., urban and rural areas.
For divulging democratic decentralization in urban areas, the municipal corporations
are formulated, whereas for rural areas, Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) are
formulated. According to the 73rd
constitutional amendment, PRIs comprise a three-
tier architecture (Figure 1), i.e., gram panchayat at village level, panchayat samiti at
block level and zilla parishad at district level (Singh and Ali, 2001).
10
Corporation I D (2013), Middle East and Africa x86 Server Market Records Decline in Unit Shipments but Growth in
Value, IDC Corporate, USA.
Figure 1: Three-Tier Architecture for PRIs
District Level
Block Level
Village Level

Figure 2: Components of Proposed Framework
Capacity Building Interest Generation Service Delivery
The central idea behind administering PRIs is to ensure devolution of powers and
responsibilities up to grassroots level and enhancing participatory approach for attaining
the objectives of democracy. Since India lives in villages PRIs need to be more attentive,
powerful, responsive and resourceful (Mishra et al., 2011). For empowering rural masses
as well as PRIs, the government of India has taken significant initiative by including
panchayats in the Mission Mode Project (MMP) under National e-Governance Plan
(NeGP) and launching e-Panchayat portal for publicizing various type of services like
issue of trade license, issuance of birth/death/income/solvency certificates, receipt of
funds/progress reports, etc.11
.
6. The Framework
The proposed framework is divided into three segments. The first segment is intended
to improve the capacity-building mechanism; the second segment is concerned with
generation of interest among the rural masses towards IT; and the last section is related
to fostering the accessibility and effectiveness of e-services, especially in the rural
sector of India (Figure 2).
11
Technology (August 13, 2010), Mission Mode Projects. Retrieved on May 4, 2013, from DEITY Website: http://
deity.gov.in/content/mission-mode-projects
12
India (April 29, 2013), Capacity Building Scheme. Retrieved May 2, 2013, from National e-Governance Plan
Website: http://www.negp.gov.in/Projects/OtherProjectsandInitiative.aspx
6.1 Capacity Building
Capacity building is the prime factor behind the success of any project, particularly in
the case of e-governance because of the involvement of IT (Prasad, 2012). A majority
of recipients for e-services in rural areas are IT illiterate and a majority of bureaucrats
involved in the implementation of e-services at local level also do not have significant
knowledge about IT. Therefore, capacity regarding IT for both the clientele groups
needs to be built. The government of India has a total budget of 313 crores for capacity
building under NeGP. In this regard, the government of India has formulated various
State e-Governance Mission Teams (SeMTs) comprising deputed officials from
numerous departments12
. But there are several problems associated with the current
mechanism like cultural differences, language differences, selection of imperfect
officials, attitude of officials and gaps in expectations (Sachdeva, 2008). Moreover, it
also hampers the regular job profile of the employees deputed at SeMTs. In a huge

country like India, a single policy is not sufficient to target all the groups. Therefore
the existing framework needs to be redesigned in order to meet the requirements of
rural areas (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Capacity Building Mechanism for Beneficiaries and Bureaucrats
Trainers ToT
Clientele
Group
Analysis of
e-Services
Utilization
Utilization
Growth
Feedback
Capacity
Building
Team
In the proposed framework for capacity building, a team can be formulated and
designated as capacity building team. The capacity building team comprises local
unemployed educated persons who can work as trainers. For these trainers, ToT
(Training of Trainers) is conducted by the officials deputed by the government for
capacity building. The trained capacity building team imparts training to involved
local level bureaucrats. The major role of the team is to sensitize and provide training
to elected representatives. They can also organize IT awareness campaigns for
disseminating awareness about various e-governance services. Periodical surveys will
be conducted by the team to get feedback about e-services and their utilization by
elected representatives and villagers. The training is conducted repeatedly until the
percentage utilization of e-services attains a significant value. In case of monotonous
growth of e-services utilization, either the training team is restructured or contents
are changed or the modus operandi for content delivery needs to be revised.
6.2 Interest Generation
The success of any e-governance effort depends on its utilization. Since a majority of
e-services are based on Public Private Partnership (PPP), their persistence wholly
depends on their utilization. The underutilization of e-services at Common Service
Centers (CSCs) or telecenters can weaken their existence particularly in the rural
segment of India. Thus, there is a strong emerging necessity to develop interest towards
IT and trust in e-governance services in the rural segment.
The proposed framework for interest generation among rural masses about IT and
its services suggests some untouched areas which are related to their culture and
livelihood. The services which can be imparted in these unattended areas are
mentioned as under (Figure 4):

6.2.1 Rural Matrimony
The currently available matrimonial web portals like bharatmatrimony.com and
jeevansaathi.com mostly deal with only the urban areas of the society. Though 70% of
Indian populace lives in rural areas, there is no such type of web service specifically
designed for them. Since the sex ratio is declining across the whole nation13
, such type
of e-services can help them in searching for appropriate bride or groom in nearby or
distant areas and from their own culture and religion. The PPP can also charge minimal
amount for their initial registration and subsequent services.
6.2.2 Rural Job Portals
Job portals like naukri.com, monster.com, etc., deal with the job openings associated
with the multinational companies or the highly reputed organizations situated generally
in urban areas. Such web services are completely oriented towards profits gained from
various companies or organizations in lieu of the services provided to them. In rural
areas, there are various small-scale industries or organizations which may require skilled
as well as unskilled manpower from time to time. Such job requirements can be displayed
at rural job portal for very nominal charges. This service will benefit both the employer
as well as the job-seeker. The employer may get the appropriate person, while a job-
seeker may get the desired job in the local or adjoining areas.
13
Wikipedia (February 28, 2013), List of Countries by Number of Mobile Phones in Use. Retrieved May 25, 2013, from
Encyclopedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki List_of_countries_by_number_of_mobile_phones_in_use
Figure 4: IT Services for Interest Generation Among Rural Masses
Rural Matrimony Skill Management
Rural MarketingRural Job Portals
Users
Services for
Interest
Generation
Tele Center
e-Governance
Services

6.2.3 Skill Management
To manage the skills of less educated or illiterate people of the area, skill management
service can be offered through CSCs. The villagers can register themselves by providing
their personal skills like carpenter, mason, plumber, labor, etc. along with their current
engagement and expected time for accomplishing current task. If an individual or
organization requires such types of personnel then they may get benefit from such type
of e-services. For facilitating the management of their skills, CSCs may charge a nominal
amount from them in lieu of the services provided to them.
6.2.4 Rural Marketing
Rural marketing can play a significant role in strengthening the rural economy. There
are various small-scale industries owned by individuals or self-help groups available in
the rural areas, but unfortunately they are suffering from inadequate marketing of
their products. If the products manufactured by available small-scale industries get
promotion over the Internet, then they may acquire more benefits. The products may
get noticed at the national or international level. So this type of applications will
definitely help the small-scale industries in their expansion and progress.
6.3 Service Delivery
The third segment of the framework deals with the delivery of e-services with a specific
focus on rural areas.
The current mechanism for delivering e-services in rural areas is via L1, L2 and
L3, i.e., services are hosted by government data centers (L1) and each data center is
connected with many CSCs or telecenters (L2), and finally the user interacts with the
CSC for availing various available e-services either free of cost or on payment basis
depending on the nature of service availed by the user. In this mode of delivery, there
are various problems faced by clienteles. Some of them are as under:
a. A majority of CSCs are rolled out due to lack of telephone or broadband
connectivity in remote area. Either such areas have less population density
or they are economically marginalized, or both.
b. The CSCs established by the government or private partners are remotely
situated; therefore to avail the services, they have to travel a lot which
consumes time as well as money.
c. The government is providing assistance for e-governance and services through
centralized call centers which have separate helplines for separate services.
Moreover, the information is not delivered in the regional language.
d. Improper supply of electricity in rural areas and real state requirements for
CSCs establishment are also big hurdles in delivering e-services
(Bhattacharya, 2012).

The proposed model for improving service delivery can rectify the aforesaid problems
to a great extent and also support in reducing the cost incurred in delivering
e-services. It includes the inculcation of cloud computing, mobile telecenters, regional
call centers and online payment system for availing e-services.
6.3.1 Preliminaries
6.3.1.1 Cloud Computing: Cloud computing enables a common man to avail all kinds
of required IT services without establishing own infrastructure. It provides IT
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service
(SaaS) and Network as a Service (NaaS). It is also called utility computing. The
central idea behind evolution of utility computing is to minimize the total IT
expenditure and maximize the resource usage. Currently, there are various private
players in the market who provide such types of facilities on payment basis.
6.3.1.2 Telecenters: It is a place where people can meet, talk, share experiences,
learn new IT skills, access information resources and pursue online courses. They are
also known as CSCs or information kiosks or village knowledge centers. A CSC is
supposed to impart various e-services, viz., e-governance, e-commerce, e-health,
e-learning and e-banking, in urban and rural areas (Bhattacharya, 2012).
6.3.1.3 Call Center: It serves the people by providing general, technical and grievances-
related services about various e-governance services on 24 x 7 basis. There are separate
helpline numbers for separate services; therefore people have to contact accordingly
for availing call center services.
6.3.2 Mechanism of the Proposed Framework
Figure 5 depicts the enhanced service delivery framework to deliver e-services in a
cost-effective manner. The highlights are as under:
Seventy two percent of the Indian populace is using cell phones14
, whereas 39.52%
of the mobile subscribers belong to rural areas. The rural teledensity in India is 39.52
and the number of mobile subscribers is increasing with a growth rate of 0.51% per
month (Vishal, 2011)15
. In the year 2012, more than 50% of the cell phones sold were
smart phones16
, therefore cellular phones can be used as a pivot to bridge the digital
divide and to deliver e-services in remote areas where broadband or VSAT connectivity
is not feasible economically or technically. Since e-governance comprises a variety of
e-services with erratic software or hardware requirements, the government should
formulate their own cloud, which is known as government cloud (G-Cloud). The
G-Cloud behaves as a ubiquitous source of IT resources as well as e-services and
14
Encyclopedia Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki List_of_countries_by_number_of_mobile_phones_in_use
15
India (2012), Highlights on Telecom Subscription, New Delhi: Government of India.
16
Encyclopedia Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki List_of_countries_by_number_of_mobile_phones_in_use

imparts them to people and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) at minimal cost17
.
Further, the government can devise an e-governance application for smart phones
compatible with Android, Windows or other operating systems. An e-service can be
accessed in wireless mode by recipient through the channels L1, L4, L8 and L9.
Figure 5: Framework for Improving Delivery of e-Services
17
Government H (2012), The G-Cloud Programme. Retrieved 2013, from UK Government Website: http://
gcloud.civilservice.gov.uk/

The concept of mobile telecentre can be introduced in areas with inadequate number
of mobile users, lacking broadband connectivity. In consultation with the district
administration, the state government can formulate a list of disadvantaged areas. With
the help of PRIs, the district administration can depute some mobile telecenters equipped
with VSAT or other types of devices to get the Internet connectivity in remote areas.
The mobile telecenter will provide the services on a periodical basis. After the
establishment of G-Cloud, a telecenter can easily access all kinds of e-services from a
single terminal with the channels mentioned as L1, L4, L5 and L7.
To provide assistance about various e-services, the concept of regional call center
can be adopted. The regional call center should be centralized, i.e., it must have
coordination with all the departments; therefore, a single helpline number should be
used for the rectification of any query irrespective of the nature of e-service. It can be
established at district level and the person(s) deputed to entertain or resolve the
queries must be of local background so that they can interact with the rural masses in
the local or regional language. The call center must have VoIP facility so that the user
must have sufficient number of options related to the selection of language, type of
query and redressal of grievances.
There are free as well as paid e-governance services and the amount will depend on
the nature of service. If any person visits CSC for availing any paid e-service, then he/
she has to deposit the requisite amount at the CSC’s counter, but there is no provision
for online payment if a user wants to access the paid e-service through mobile. Figure 6
Figure 6: Payment Mechanism for Availing Paid e-Services

shows the framework for performing the online payment through various modes like
credit cards, debit cards and e-governance cash cards. The e-governance cash card
is a coupon which can be obtained from any CSC by paying the requisite amount
containing a code, and can be used for making payment for availing any paid
e-service. To promote e-governance services and activities, these cash cards can be
periodically distributed to villagers either free of cost or at subsidized cost by the PRIs
or CSCs. The cost can also be subsidized for marginalized sections and BPL card
holders.
7. Cost-Effectiveness of the Proposed Framework
The proposed framework is capable of delivering e-services in a cost-effective manner
to the citizens due to the following reasons:
• The cloud computing uses the concept of virtualization and consolidation
at hardware and software levels. It reduces the cost of hardware as well as
software by performing server virtualization, operating system virtualization,
storage virtualization, network virtualization and running multiple
applications like web server and database server on a single machine. Further,
it also reduces the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and improves profitability
and ability to respond to citizens (Bittman, 2011; Joshi, 2012; and
Bhattacharya, 2012). The survey conducted by Avanade (2009) revealed
that a non-virtualized server involves power cost up to 4.36% of the total
cost, whereas a virtualized server costs up to 1.68%, i.e., virtualization cuts
up to 75% of energy costs. According to Gartner, the concept of virtualization
reduces more than 10% of the total cost (Pultz, 2013).
• In cloud computing, the cloud applications can be devised by adopting
open standards and using Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). The
cloud-based application is scalable, hence a single application can be used
across the whole country. It reduces the overwhelming costs incurred in
delivering e-services (Bhattacharya, 2012).
• In the current scenario to avail any e-service, one has to visit CSC. It
consumes time as well as travelling expenditure in case of distant CSCs.
Therefore, using mobile technology as a pivot for delivering e-services saves
both time and money.
• The services for interest generation will enhance the number of visitors
towards CSCs. Hence the private partners can generate revenue for their
sustainability by imparting such services and can reduce the costs for other
e-governance services.
• In the proposed framework, the capacity building of clienteles will be
performed by the persons of local origin on honorarium basis. The amount

of honorarium can be decided by the government and can be footed by the
private agency or the government or both, which can reduce the cost.
Conclusion
The success or failure of any e-governance project depends on its level of utilization,
whereas the utilization of any e-governance project depends on various factors like
quality of service to be delivered, efforts required for availing the service, time
consumption and cost incurred. In this paper, we have achieved the aforesaid objectives
by proposing a cost-effective and improved service delivery framework along with a
framework for appropriate capacity building mechanism. On the basis of literature
review and various case studies of national and international origin, it can be concluded
that the proposed framework can overcome the current challenges in delivering e-
services, particularly in rural areas. The concept of G-Cloud along with mobile
technology opens new avenues for delivering various e-services to the disadvantaged
areas of the country.
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