Digital Empowerment: A Cornerstone for eGovernance

Digital Empowerment - a word that implies a digital world - where population is digitally literate; adequate Digital Infrastructure and availability/accessibility to everyone assured; Universal digital literacy exists; resources are digitally available and accessible in local languages; Mutual digital stages for participative governance and transferability of entitlements for individuals, happening through the Cloud.

This book "Digital Empowerment -a cornerstone for eGovernance" presents the Indian Government authorities hard work, determination, continuity, experience and knowledge sharing of their achievements of transformation from Digital India to Digitally Empowered India.

Embracing the select 'e' and 'm' Governance projects, the book provides a platform to the CSI Nihilent eGovernance Awards (CNeGA) 2017 participants to share their experiences, as well as enabling them to put their contributions to make the country Digitally Empowered.

The projects present an insight of critical success factors to gain the set targets of the project, categorized further in result and enablers indicators. The projects on 'e' and 'm' Governance initiatives are associated with Infrastructure, Scholarship, Women Empowerment and Safety, Mid-day meal, General Administration, Transportation, Health, Payment, Electricity services, Grievance redressal, Human Resourses and Financial services etc.

For eGovernance practitioners, canvassers and professionals, compendium published under the series 'Selected e-Governance Initiatives' by Computer Society of India's Special Interest Group on eGovernance (CSI-SIGeGov) persist to endow with a rich source of information for discerned readers.

K. S. Vijaya Sekhar holds Ph.D. in Public Administration with a specialization in eGovernance. His interest areas are eGovernance, Mobile Governance, Use of Innovative Technologies to reach out the last mile challenges and, Inter-disciplinary approach while using the ICT applications. He has Master of Commerce (M.Com), Master of Computer Applications (M.C.A), Master of Business Management (M.B.A) in Human Resource Management (H.R.M) and Master of Social Work (M.S.W) to his credit. He has published over 30 research papers in International and National conferences. He is recipient of Best Paper Award for Measuring Sustainability in eGovernment Projects. He has Co-edited Four books - eGovernance Initiatives in India; Envisioning Digital India; Digital India in Action and, Digital Transformation. He has about 25 years of professional experience and presently working in Research Center for eGovernance (RCeG) at IIIT Hyderabad. He was associated with Center for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) and ICRISAT, in the past. He is Secretary to Computer Society of India's (CSI) Special Interest Group on eGovernance (CSI-SIGeGov) from its inception - the year 2007 and Member, CSI Nihilent eGovernance Awards (CNeGA) since its very inception, the year 2002. He is presently, Convener to the CSI Nihilent eGovernance Awards 2017. He is a Life member of CSI. In 2012, he had received CSI Service Award for his significant contribution to eGovernance at National Level. He received the award during 47th CSI Annual National Convention held at Science City, Kolkata. e-mail: vijay@iiit.ac.in.

G. P. Sahu is Associate Professor and Head, School of Management Studies, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, India. He has more than 19 years of teaching and research experience. He completed his one-year Post-Doctoral Fellowship program from California State University Monterey Bay, California, US and PhD in Management from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India. His research interests are in the areas of MIS, E-governance, Green Information Systems, etc. He has published around 90 research papers in international journals and conferences. He has coordinated a few international conferences. He has also edited seven books in the area of MIS and E-governance. He has acted as a reviewer for international journals. He is also a Guest Editor with International Journal of Electronic Governance. He has been on the jury for the CSI-Nihilent E- governance National Awards, India.

Prabhu Gollamudi, has extensive experience in the IT Industry, working for most part of his career with the IT major and closely worked on several e-governance projects, from concept to implementation. He had also worked on system integration projects in the sectors of transportation, power, public administration and defence. During this journey, he had the opportunity to interact with several Government officials at various levels that enabled him to understand the Government processes for implementing e-Governance projects. His stint as Vice President (Business Development) for CMC Informatics UK, provided exposure to business management and projects delivery from a global perspective. Post superannuation, he continued his professional engagements with erstwhile CMC Ltd, NISG and later with Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Ltd, Bengaluru. Currently a freelance consultant, his interests include helping organizations in articulating processes for Government bids qualification, management and participation. A key member of the Computer Society of India's Special Interest Group on e-Governance, he has supported many of its professional activities. He holds a Master's degree in Applied Mathematics from Government Engineering College, Jabalpur. E-mail gsnprabhu@yahoo.com.