Amit Sharma
“Oh, my Aadhaar Number has been generated and this is the confirmation sms I got for it”. We find these and similar other alike whispers around us when a confirmation sms is received from some government agency or organization. This is a form of m-Governance model in action.
Yes, m-Governance is next big thing which has happened in the world as yet another important corollary to e-Governance. And why not, when mobiles are so popular and they are being used as one of the most powerful means of communication and multi-tasking these days. Some call m-Governance as a subset of e-Governance, some term it as an independent methodology of modernized public delivery mechanism. However, it has much wider scope and future than we all think m-Governance has.
We find these days many countries in the world have been using m-Governance services for varied and vast purposes. Let me quote few glaring examples to prove how mGov revolution has taken over the world. In United Kingdom, Mexico & Hong Kong, there is a mGov service of Emergency SMS Alerts like Security warnings in case of security threats; SARS outbreak, etc. In India, Lokvani services in which follow-up can take place through IVRS & SMS. In Brazil, Sweden and Philippines, mGov models are used for Employment and Job related services. Countries such as Indonesia, Estonia and Spain use mGov models for provision of Information Inquiry Services. USA uses mGov model for Electronic Benefits Transfer like recently they did to provide assistance to hundreds of thousands of people in the aftermath of Katrina. In India, Ireland, The Republic of Korea, Spain, lot of Taxes and Other payments related services are provided SMS based services. Hong Kong, Malta, Spain and Italy use mGov service models for making Bookings/Appointments in various Government services. Sweden and Austria use mGov models for signing transactions with mobile signatures. France, Indonesia, Kenya, UK, Venezuela and Estonia provide a major mGov platform for elections and voting. Apart from this, many countries of the world successfully provide Government to Government (G2G), Government to Business (G2B) and Government to Employee (G2E) services through m-Governance platforms.
Let me stop over here as the list is very exhaustive and the quantum of m-Governance based services is increasing all across the world day-by-day. The major factor behind such fast-track growth in m-Services is the exponential growth in the number of mobile phone users across the globe. It has forced the planners and executors to switch over to creation of mobile-based applications for ease and convenience of citizens. We know that today a person may not possess a computer or laptop but it is very much possible that almost every individual whether residing in villages or urban belts will be possessing a mobile phone. So, it is now a reality that mobile phones have become the best medium of passage of various services to the citizens, whether information-based, transaction-based or data-based.
The major advantages m-Governance enjoys over e-Governance or conventional governance models are wider acceptance of these technologies by the public sector, large scale penetration of mobile devices, ease of use for citizens, easier interoperability due to it, bringing Government closer to citizens and above all, m-Governance services being much cheaper and economical than computer-based or e-Governance based services. So, m-Governance provides and additional channel of communication to users to access Government services. Its availability is 24x7x365 and m-based services have anytime general information retrieval and transaction processing. Another special advantage is that m-services have virtually no waiting time, whereas conventional approaches such as telephone calls or in-person visits may take much longer times. It really helps otherwise marginalized communities to communicate and interact via online technologies. We must realize it has helped in cutting all costs on printing, especially in densely populated areas. Also, the stakeholders have a better participation and involvement in Government processes and services. Everybody enjoys the privilege to be part of decision-making by expressing opinions, choice and visions with the usage of m-services like sms, gprs, ussd channels, etc.
Various social movements in Middle East Asia like Arab Spring which toppled many Governments in that part of the world, Anna Movement against Corruption & in favour of Lokpal Bill in India and even the recent successful election campaign by the NDA with the active usage of social networking methodologies are all off-shoots or corollaries & contemporary examples of m-Governance all around the globe, especially in India. M-Government is the future way towards all successful campaigns or the most powerful tool to reach out to a common citizen. The earlier, a Government realizes the importance of it, the better it is. Probably, the last Government in the Centre under-estimated its utility and importance and this also became a major reason of its failure to win over the confidence of people which became visible after the results of elections were out recently.
The state of Kerala has pioneered in implementation of m-Governance across the board in provision of various services to citizens of the state. There is a comprehensive m-Governance Project which has been successful implemented towards provision of more than 90 services in Kerala. It has indeed helped to create cost effective, efficient and round the clock Government information systems. Three major channels of mobile communication, namely Voice Applications, Signaling-channel based Applications and Data-Service based Applications are being used for this purpose. A comprehensive and integrated Service Delivery Platform is being created to roll-out various m-Services and interestingly, such platforms are based entirely on Open Source Technologies. It simply means that the platforms used for provision of m-Governance in Kerala are not bound by encryptions, passwords, security measures, etc. which has broadened the scope and base for provision of such services across the board in Kerala.
India may implement m-Governance with the usage of following 6-phase model to get better m-Gov services which can complement and supplement e-Governance in a better manner:
I – Making all Government websites mobile compliant/mobile site access should be promoted.
II – Plan strategies to popularize the use of mobile device technology in rural areas by giving subsidies, training and guidelines.
III – Implement m-Governance by developing mobile applications in local languages and more mobile utilization applications.
IV – Plan strategies to popularize the use of mobile devices technology amongst all citizens by education.
V – Develop mechanisms and platforms for the good design and delivery of m-Governance.
VI – Implement laws for m-Governance for better m-Gov based services.
However, few threats or challenges still loom over successful implementation of m-Governance in the nation such as Cost, Low levels of Literacy, Lack of Knowledge of English Language, Low Computer Literacy, Not enough Facilities in Mobile Devices for m-Governance, Need to develop Applications in each of Local Languages, Data Overload and Trust/Security in Money-based Services.
To sum-up, it can be concluded that with the kind of advancement in technology and greater push towards creation of lighter, simplistic and interoperable models of e-Governance, the day is not far when m-Governance will become a virtual reality and it shall become such an important reality that we shall mandatory use mobiles to access all Government services like we use mobile tickets commonly these days during rail and air travel. It shall definitely become a talk of the past when people use to feel harassed while visiting Government offices and standing in long queues as it has already become in provision of banking and railway reservation services.
{The author is a Senior KAS Officer and an e-Governance Expert of J&K Government). He can be reached at amitkas@gmail.com or amit1kas (Facebook ID)
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