International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887) Volume 12– No.5, December 2010 5 SWOT Analysis of e-Initiative in Uttarakhand Kunwar Singh Vaisla Department of Computer Science & Engineering, BCT Kumaon Engineering College, Dwarahat – 263653, Almora (Uttarakhand), INDIA Manoj Kumar Bisht Department of Computer Science, SSJ Campus, Kumaon University, Almora (Uttarakhand), INDIA ABSTRACT Uttarakhand, having completed more than 9 years as a separate state, is now poised to embark on a new era of rapid development and inclusive growth. The broad features of the administrative structure and systems, extending from the state to the district and sub-district levels, are now in place, though the problem of shortage of manpower in crucial areas remains. The Eleventh Five Year Plan gives a good opportunity to launch the State on the path of rapid and sustained growth with emphasis on rural development, education and welfare of the state. The previous plan was prepared at a time when the State was quite young. The administrative system was in the stage of infancy and adequate administrative support and expert assistance for planning were not available. The financial resource position of the State was quite precarious, when the State came into existence. Despite constraints, Uttarakhand has made rapid advancement and has posted a significant high rate of growth. Keywords: e-Governance, Good-Governance, e-initiatives; impact analysis; SWOT Analysis. 1. INTRODUCTION: 1.1 Stages in e-Initiatives e-Initiatives are about service delivery to the citizens using the Information and communication Technologies. The e-Initiatives go through three distinct levels of implementation. These stages in the e-Initiatives are: Provision of static information: This stage is where a local body/government department has a portal of its own. Citizens can access information, seek procedural details about city services. However, they can‟t interact with any of the processes within the Local Body (LB)/department. Capability for Transactional Services: This stage is where users can carry out transactions online. Creating Online Communities: At this stage, LB websites provide interoperability with various organizations. Majority of current -initiatives fall under the first stage [4]. The general use problems in the e-Initiatives system are: No clarity in the setup of Civic authority, poor information availability on initiatives, lack of clarity on procedures, time consuming processes, lack of accountability of officials of the system, too many agencies and overlap of work. 1.2 e-Initiatives challenges There has been tremendous success of e-Initiatives in the country. In early 1990‟s most of the states in India started implementing the e-Initiatives. Process SMART has been implemented in the Government of Andhra Pradesh in 1992. It focuses on Simple, Moral, Accountable, Reachable, and Transparent Principle for the successful implementation of e- strategies. Many states have successfully implemented e- Strategies there after. However, there are many implementing challenges in deploying the e-Initiatives. They are: Infrastructure capacity Compatibility with other IT systems/ databases/ platforms Scalability of existing applications Information exchange mechanisms Geo referencing of assets Ability to carry out financial transactions The Span and reach of e-Initiatives may primarily focus on the following: Various levels of administrative set-up from village/ block to State/Central agencies Non-governmental social agencies Connecting citizens to the above agencies The main purpose of developing e-Initiatives is to develop an effective, rapid, accountable and self-sustaining mechanism for the betterment of social service through multi-layered system. e-Initiatives are basically the concerns of governmental organizations which are to be utilized by the larger society for tackling major as well as day- to-day problems of ordinary citizens. The over all strategy for e-Initiatives is to develop methods to be used for the society using ICTs. The state of Uttarakhand is engaged in this endeavor for the last about ten years. It is high time for a proper investigation and the assessment of the impact of e-Initiatives of the state. 1.3 Objectives The objective of Educational qualification wise groups of the respondents does not differ in their mean IAOEIU (Impact Assessment of e-Initiative in Uttarakhand) scores. There exists no significant difference in the mean IAOEIU scores of gender wise two groups of the students. Age wise four groups of the respondents do not differ from one another with regard to their mean IAOEIU scores. The present research work is to study the impact assessment of various e-Initiatives of Uttarakhand state with special focus on effectiveness and countable measures related to the implementation. To address the objective, the following research questions have been undertaken: To describe and examine the e-Initiatives undertaken and initiated by the Central government. To describe and examine the attempts made by the State of Uttarakhand with regard to e-Initiatives.