E-Governance in India - State-level MMPs

India is one of the largest democracies in the world and follows federal system of governance which divides the responsibilities of governance between Centre and States. While we have seen centre-level Mission Mode Projects (MMP) initiated by Government of India, this post gives a brief about the state-level MMPs. The intent of these MMPs cannot be appreciated enough, but does everyone realize the benefits of these programs made possible through application of IT ? Read my comments in bold against each MMP below and post your comments as well. (source: http://mit.gov.in)

Land Records (NLRMP) http://dolr.nic.in/Nlrmp.htm	The National Land Records Modernization Program (NLRMP) has been formulated by merging two Centrally Sponsored schemes of Computerization of Land Records (CLR) and Strengthening of Revenue Administration and Updating of Land Records (SRA&ULR). Several departments are involved in managing land records in most of the States, and the citizen has to approach 3 to 4, or even more, agencies for complete land records leading to waste of time, exposure to rent seeking, and harassment This MMP provides the citizens free accessibility to the land records thereby reducing interface with the Government functionaries, rent seeking and harassment. If this is being implemented as envisaged, would it not solve 25% of corruption problems in the country?
Road Transport http://morth.nic.in/	Under the Transport MMP, all the RTOs in the country will implement standardized software - Sarathi (for driver licenses) and Vahan (for vehicle registrations and permits). The Transport MMP also intends to setup National and State Registers. The setting up of these Registers will facilitate in providing the real time services to the citizens. Undoubtedly, this will form a touch-point with Government for many citizens.
Agriculture http://agricoop.nic.in/	The proposed scheme (NeGP-A) aims to provide an integrated and seamless interface to the farmers for making informed decisions. Additionally, under the proposed scheme, information is proposed to be delivered using multiple delivery channels such as the internet, government offices, touch screens, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, electronic media, Kisan Call Centres, Agri-Clinics, Common Service Centres and mobile phones , which will enable easy access to information for the farmer. If this is implemented across the country, does it not take away all farmers problems (except for natural calamities and access to enough funds) ?
Police (CCTNS)	Provide Enhanced Tools for Investigation, Crime Prevention, Law & Order Maintenance and other functions like Traffic Management, Emergency Response. I am sure it must have helped with the internal efficiency in police functioning, but are the citizens less intimidated to approach police because of application of IT?
Treasuries http://finmin.nic.in/	The State Treasuries are the structural and financial unit of the Government Financial System and are responsible for handling the day-to-day transactions of receipt and payment of Government. This project will promote real-time reconciliation of accounts, strengthen Management Information Systems (MIS), and improve accuracy and timeliness in accounts preparation. I wonder when this treasury would be disclosed to the public in real-time !
Municipality http://jnnurm.nic.in/	This initiative envisages covering Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in 35 mission cities identified, from 15 states (~ 80 ULBs), having more than 1 million population as per 2001 census to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of delivery of municipal services to citizens. I guess there is good progress, but are we anywhere near the end-goal?
e-District	This project aims at providing support to the basic administrative unit i.e. 'District Administration' by undertaking backend computerization to enable electronic delivery of high volume citizen centric government services which would optimally leverage and utilize the three infrastructure pillars of State Wide Area Networks (SWAN), State Data Centers (SDC) and Common Service Centers (CSCs) to deliver services to the citizen at his doorsteps. How come no one - including government employees - talk about the benefits of IT being applied at the district level? Is it that people are not able to see any benefits or things are taken for granted?
Commercial Taxes	Sales tax/VAT is one of the most important sources of indirect taxes for the purpose of taxation by the State Governments. The tax is levied and appropriated by the States on sale of goods. The Commercial Taxes Departments in the States are entrusted with the administration and enforcement of commercial Tax legislations. Commercial Taxes MMP will support the States and UTs Governments to computerize their Commercial Tax administering departments.
Gram Panchayat http://panchayat.gov.in	Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in India is a concept of local self governance, which promotes decentralized governance by participation of the ordinary public in their own governance. PRIs function at the village, intermediate (block) and district level. Planning & Budgeting, Accounting, Scheme implementation and monitoring, Social Audit and Grievance redress are some of the services envisaged under this MMP. Has any third-party every conducted an independent study to ascertain the benefits of IT-enablement of Panchayats?
Employment Exchange (EE)	The overall aim of the EEMMP is to provide gainful employment to all job-seekers registered with Employment Exchanges by facilitating interaction between jobseekers and employers and disseminating accurate and consistent labor market information to the policy makers on time. Wonderful program ! Not sure who would still register with these employment exchanges, though.