Mobile governance in India (m-governance in India) is the latest buzz word in India. Indian government is planning to use m-governance for delivery of public services. However, India has neither a regulatory framework nor m-governance infrastructure to accomplish this huge task. To successfully implement m-governance in India there must be a forceful obligation on the governmental departments to provide m-governance enabled services. Presently, we have no legal framework for mandatory electronic governance services in India and m-governance in India.
This has not discouraged Indian government from exploring an area for which it is not ready at all. Another associated area pertains to lack of privacy laws, data protection laws and data security laws in India.
The real problem with Indian E-Governance and M-Governance initiatives is that Legal Framework for Mandatory Electronic Delivery of Services in India is missing, says Praveen Dalal, Supreme Court lawyers and Managing Partner of India’s exclusive techno legal law firm Perry4Law.
There is no effective Legal Enablement of ICT Systems in India and even the Information Technology Act, 2000 is “Non-Mandatory” regarding E-Governance and M-Governance in India, informs Praveen Dalal. The Draft Electronic Delivery of Services Bill 2011 of India must be made an “Enforceable Law” before M-Governance can be successful in India, suggests Dalal.
India has been imposing projects and authorities without any legal framework and in active violation of the provisions of Indian Constitution. For example, the unique identification project of India (UID project) or Aadhar project of India is operating in India without any legal framework. Similarly, the unique identification authority of India (UIDAI) is also operating in India without any legal sanction and Parliamentary oversight. Both Aadhar Project and UIDAI are using hard earned public money that also in an “Unconstitutional manner”, informs Dalal.
Surprisingly, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh did not find anything wrong with this exercise despite protests in this regard. It is obvious that the present legal and regulatory regime of India is not compatible and conducive for cloud computing services, e-governance and m-governance in India and India is still not ready for these initiatives. If India still believes in self regulation in these crucial fields, nothing can be more suitable as a corruption breeding ground than these initiatives.
