I've been trying to determine if my name is on the Electoral Rolls, and whether I will be allowed to vote in the upcoming elections. And the revelation has been stark - I have to go to the Election Rolls Office to determine this!
What I constantly fail to understand is why cant our government go completely web-savvy? You know, they could have online registration for the house, online voter registration, online passport registration and the forms could be generated using inputs and submitted in a pdf format!
Advantages of this approach:
- Fewer forms means less paper used, thereby saving trees...
- Since the government will have a centralised repository of all documents, we will not have to keep xeroxing the ration card everytime we submit a form, thereby saving some more trees!
- Everything will be online, thereby increasing transparency.
- This will lead to reduced possibility of frauds - eg. once a house is registered, it cannot be re-registered by a person other than the owner..
- This will also reduce the corruption, as the steps in the process will be reduced and hence the corruption will reduce.
- Government will have better control over the documents, and cost of maintenance of loads and loads of raddi (papers!) will be reduced drastically, as they can manage with a few centralized servers and a limited number of maintenance personnel.
Wonder why our government doesnt see the most logical thing to do....
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4 comments:
Madam ji you are only giving the answers to most opf your questions, as to why this is not happening, why will the officials allow this is they cant earn more, including the politicians, who get paid by these officials for the post,
But i have some doubts , can we depend totally on electronic Bytes, how safe is it , I mean you talk about reducing paper, what if the memory systems crash, of something happens,
what are the systems followed in the US and the developed world?
Government should go web-savvy, no doubt about it. It takes time - m sure eventually it will happen. Having said that, its not easy :
a)Government needs to set up so many data centers
b)Data Security and Backup.
c)Employee Training.
d)Data Integration: Some data will be required by the State and some by Center. These systems will have to be integrated.
Sunand,
For one, the fact that everyone in the US has a unique SSN implies that there is some centralized data.
We can definitely depend on electronic bytes. In fact, it is safer than paper for 2 reasons:
1. You can do easy backups
2. You can provide multi-server redundancies, in some cases even across cities. This way, even in case of a calamity in one place, the data is still retrievable and accessible and safe. Its better than paper which will never survive a calamity.
Consider the example of the Tsunami which happened in Chennai. I am sure it caused a lot of damage to all the loads and loads of files stored in Government offices and a lot of data was lost. If this information was available on a centralized server with a backup in say Mumbai or Delhi, that server and thereby all the data would be perfectly safe.
Chetna, definitely much food for thought!
India is literally torn between extremes, from the abject poverty to the have-it-all elites. In such a system investing huge amounts of money in a computerization exercise could well not be a priority of our govt.
Also there are several dependancies; infrastructure and energy resources being the greatest. You know well how major cities face power shutdowns and far flung villages still lack electricity.
However I FIRMLY belive that once India develops sufficient energy resources and builds adequate infrastructure there will be an enormous boost to all kinds of development, including centralized computer services.
Till then, I'm afraid ... we have to listen to the creaking fan in govt offices :)
Having said that it is great to note several govt services already available online. irctc.com, online electricity payments, Taxes, host of forms; http://india.gov.in/howdo/index.php
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