BENGALURU: We know our Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a tech savvy person and rightly so he chose Twitter as a platform to give his address on E-Governance. Fun fact is that he is now the first ever global leader to send out an audio-video tweet. Moving to the more important points from his address, Modi stresses on m-governance before India moves into e-governance mode. Mobile governance is the modem through which India can completely shift to e-governance. And Modi is absolutely right on this mobile strategy as India is soon going to be the largest Smartphone market in the world.
Before India gets started with M-Governance it is important to note that in a country where in each quarter of 50 million people are still using basic phone and this makes it difficult for the government to reach that target populace. Today internet banking, provident funds, status of passport applications are common among the Smartphone users but there is another demography who cannot afford such devices. This would be the first focus area for the government to deal with.
Karnataka government is the first to introduce MobileOne multi-mode service, which was made available across all platforms, including iOS and Android. This can be accessed through all the phones. Likewise the mPassport website is doing the needful. Here again there comes a problem that all the citizens cannot access the government websites due to the security issued and are blocked in search giants like Google. Another reason is that majority of Indian population is not literate enough to set their hands on the computers. This is the second arena which the government has to adhere to and figure a way in which they can communicate with that population.
Currently people can make their natural gas bookings and use the e-seva services through simple SMS-based services. Indian government can send out important information to the citizens via messages. And for this to be efficient, authorities will need to look at creating secure and credible apps for Smartphone users, since more and more Indians are expected to adopt these.
The Mobile-e-governance connection holds great potential in a country like India, and the PM is not wrong to point out that this is the direction in which policy-makers should be thinking. With companies like Facebook working on Internet.org project which aims to bring free, internet access to those who might not have access in collaboration with governments as well, the potential for mobile-governance is great in India.
Also Read: U.S. Stresses Important And Growing Relationship With India
PM Modi Pays Tribute To Mahatma Gandhi
Magazine : 
.jpg "Unlocking Potential Redefining Potential & Redefining Excellence")
