E-Governance as an Anti-Corruption Strategy in India: Successes, Scope and Challenges

The new government in India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to pursue e-Governance as a part of its bigger strategy to improve governance and reduce corruption in the country. There is empirical evidence supporting the efficacy of e-Governance as a tool to reduce corruption. This goal of adopting e-Governance is not a new phenomenon in India as an elaborate National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was adopted way back in 2006. In spite of being an early starter, India has made little progress in this area. There have been several e-Governance projects in the past, which have been initiated by governments at state/local levels. However, these projects met with limited success due to the lack of adequate digital infrastructure, lack of long-term planning, lack of continuity due to changing leadership and others. The current initiatives are under a comprehensive plan and motivated leadership, which were lacking in the previous ad-hoc attempts. Yet, there are several challenges faced by the Government of India in implementing e-Governance to reduce corruption. This policy paper aims to assess the scope of recent e-Governance schemes of the Modi government to reduce corruption and make policy recommendations on increasing their efficacy.