Mentor’s Comment:

Mention the meaning of SMART Governance with its features. How the features of SMART Governance helps in daily dealing of Governance helping executives to tackle the situation effectively.

Model Answer:

Introduction:

• SMART Governance is about using technology to facilitate and support better planning and decision making. It is about improving democratic processes and transforming the ways that public services are delivered. It includes e-government, the efficiency agenda and mobile working. For Eg: National Institute of Smart Governance.
• It is about the future of the public services, which brings greater efficiency, community leadership, mobile working and continuous improvement through innovation.
• It is the further process of E-Governance bringing Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent Governance. It implies fundamental changes in Government operations by involving new set of responsibilities for the Legislature, Executive, Judiciary as well as Citizens.

Meaning of SMART Governance:

• Simple- meaning simplification of rules, regulations and processes of government through the use of ICTs andthereby providing for a user-friendly government.
• Moral- connoting emergence of an entirely new systemof ethical values in the political and administrative machinery.Technology interventions improve the efficiency of anti-corruption agencies, police, judiciary, etc.
• Accountable- facilitating design, development andimplementation of effective Management InformationSystem and performance measurement mechanisms andthereby ensuring accountability of public service
• Responsive- streamlining the processes to speed upservice delivery and make system more responsive.
• Transparent-bringing information hitherto confined in thegovernment documents to the public domain and makingprocesses and functions transparent, which in turn wouldbring equity and rule of law in responses of theadministrative agencies.

Significance in the context of Indian Bureaucracy:

• SMART Governance involves features like simplicity, morality, accountability, responsibility and transparency which is considered to be the essential features of Civil Servants in modern India as we have emerged from the rule based state to socialist and welfare oriented state.
• The modern Bureaucracy is also responsible for the formulation and implementation of various programmes and policies of the government which requires SMART approach.
• This SMART approach will enable People Participation, Accountability and Efficiency, Transparency, User Friendly Government Processes, Removal of Hierarchical Barriers and Red Tapism ultimately improving the better service delivery.

Use of Technology in governing process will certainly reform administrative processes to a great extent such as:

• Automation of Administrative Processes: This will minimize human intervention leading to bias less service delivery with no vested interest ultimately ending the culture of Red Tapism. This will also bring efficiency in administration. Availability of online information for each department will enable online carrying of operations and file movements as well as bringing easiness in budgeting, accounting and data flow.
• Paper-Work Reduction: This enables the transfers of files and mails (Information) over wires to each employee’s desk reducing physical movement and consumption as well as storage of huge piles of papers. This also helps in protecting the environment with less garbage being produced.
• Quality of Services: Availability of online information enables the organisation to work in effective manner delivering quality services in order to improve its credibility in the face of citizens. This enables them to work with greater accountability, responsibility and sensitivity since people are able to get services efficiently and instantaneously as well as economically. Video tele-conferencing monitoring has further facilitated central supervision, reporting and face to face communication leading to better quality of services.
• Elimination Of Hierarchy – Through the introduction of Intranet and LAN there has been a reduction in procedural delays caused by hierarchical processed in organisations as it has become possible to send and receive information and data across various levels in an organisation instantaneously helping the involvement of all levels in decision making.
• Change in Administrative Culture – With E-Governance public action has come under public glare thus inducing norms and values of accountability, openness, integrity, fairness, equity, responsibility and justice in the administrative culture freeing it from ‘bureau-pathology’ and becoming efficient and responsive.
• Effective Service Delivery: The abovementioned has become possible since SMART Governance ensures:
• Transparency – Via dissemination and publication of information on the web which involves detailed public scrutiny making the service delivery efficient and accountable.
• Economic Development – SMART Governance reduces transaction costs making services cheaper. To state an example – rural areas suffer on account of lack of information regarding markets, products, agriculture, health, education, weather etc. and when all of this could be accessed online by them it would evidently lead to better and more opportunities and prosperity in such areas.
• Social Development – Access to information empowers citizens as they can participate and voice their concerns which could be accommodated in programme/project formulation, implementation, monitoring and service delivery. Also, web enabled participation will counter the discriminatory factors affecting our societal behavior.
• Strategic Information System – The competitiveness in the organisational sphere today has forced public functionaries to perform to their best ability and this is achieved only when information regarding all aspects are made available to the management at every point in order to make routine as well as strategic decisions which are done effectively via the use of SMART Governance.
• The priorities of the governments in the 21st century changed to attain economic competitiveness, providing digital services to citizens, encourage e-democracy and e-communities leading its citizens to be ready to greet ―knowledge century‖.
• The five principles of SMART Governance are relevant to the working of public sector. If e-Governance systems are designed and built to enhance these SMART principles in practice they can provide multiple benefits to its users.