E-Sevan in Hyderabad, India: Implications for Data Sharing Amongst Planning Agencies

Abstract

In 1996, Srinivasan surveyed the use of the Web as a dissemination tool by Indian government agencies and found that there was little Web-based participation by either government or non-government agencies. By 2002, there was at least one Indian city that offered citizens the opportunity to pay property taxes on the Web (http://www.esevaonline.com). Clearly, even in a developing country like India, e-government has come a long way in a very short time. In this chapter, the authors survey the use of this facility in Hyderabad, a rapidly growing city in India. They look in particular at the implications of e-Seva for local planning agencies. The authors also suggest a geographical information systemsbased framework whereby virtual agencies could create data ‘portals’ that allow for inter-agency data sharing. The study relies on interviews with the users of e-Seva and other government officials who are interested in its use for planning at the metropolitan and regional levels. While the study focuses on Hyderabad, India, as its case study, the implications to planning in other cities in India are also an important aspect of the research.