4. Towards Sustainability of e-Governance

Without exploring and repeating the sustainability parameters which most studies on e-governance have already analysed such as access, affordability, institutional reforms and indigenisation, this chapter looks into the strength of the public sector department and agencies to provide e-governance services with consistency, continuity, inclusivity and meaningful content. This would require intra-agency coordination, specialised partnerships, knowledge-based entry into international markets and a well-structured road map for e-governance for the next two decades. The rapid increase in Internet, e-commerce and social media site users along with an overwhelming accumulation of data every minute is bringing new challenges for e-governance. This is leading governments to new concerns of managing Big Data analytics as a major source of knowledge power in improving governance and working of institutions. Governments have to urgently create task forces to monitor and manage processes of transition from a limited capacity IPv4 to IPv6 and to generate storage spaces through Cloud Computing. Much of the critical e-governance discussion bypasses the need for disseminating broadband, increased IP addresses, Big Data and Cloud Computing as fundamental technologies which kick-start e-governance projects and also prevent any e-catastrophe in contingent times. This chapter investigates and compares the seriousness and commitment with which governments are pursuing the above requirements. Governments are seen to work within tremendous pressures of an international technological regime towards deployment and purchase of ISP addresses through IPv6 and data storage locker spaces in the ‘Cloud’. In governments with a widespread e-governance framework like India, China, Indonesia, Philippines and Australia and rising aspirations of people towards smart governance, any form of delay may throw the country out of all the gains made so far in connecting markets and people to governments. While this chapter compares country-based efforts in the global sphere, it also warns that ICT may not lead to organisational reforms where many preconditions are necessary to be addressed in e-governance.