1. m- Governance is the supplement to e- Governance
Aakash Kumar Kirori* Anand Kumar Kirori
PhD Research Scholar Senior Software Engineer
Poornima University Prathan Software Pvt.ltd
Jaipur, India Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
kirori005@gmail.com anand_kirori@hotmail.com
Abstract- e-Governance has been taken as a key for better Governance. As the name suggest, the ‘e’ represent the “Mode of electronic
flow of Data in a managed way” and the ‘Governance’ represent the “Current working of the Government departments /Officials”.
When these two things are combined for the betterment of the society and for citizen to avail the G2G (Government to Government),
G2C (Government to citizen) and B2C (Business and citizen) service then, this name came “e-Governance”. The Government of India
(GoI) has formulated National eGovernance Plan (NeGP) to foster modernization of Government Administration and Service
delivery to citizens through adoption of Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs). As part of NeGP, GoI has identified 27
Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) spanning across Central, State & Local government administration in India. Though eGovernance is
quite capable to achieve its objective, still we are facing some major problems related to hardware issues in developing countries. As
we all are aware and it has been also witnessed that in developing countries the person are more concern and user friendly with
telephone/mobile devices as compare to other mode of communication like Computer’s or Laptops etc.
It was found that for higher level penetration up to the users at village / block level it’s better to provide the services through
mobile connections rather than providing some additional hardware at ground level. Therefore we can say for the successful
implementation of e-Governance initiative for the beneficiary of the citizen, we can use m-governance (Mobile –Governance) as a
supplement to e-Governance. This approach will be helpful and bridging the gap for digital divide particulars /persons living in Rural
areas and Urban areas. The funding of these e-Governance projects are basically through central Govt. The proposed approach will
help the developing countries in implementation of eGovernance initiative and also overcome the problem of unavailability of
adequate infrastructure at ground level required for successful implementation of eGovernance services.
Keywords— m-Governance, e-Governance, Digital Divide, Developing Countries
I. INTRODUCTION
The Government of various countries envisaged that for the
betterment of the society and for bringing the transparency of
the government working, it’s necessary that an automated
workflow would be design.
As a result, e-Governance has emerged as a popular
phenomenon to deliver government services around the world.
However, e-Governance in an implementation plan is
restricted primarily to the use of computer based internet
access to deliver services. In countries where the penetration
of computers and internet is relatively low, such as in India,
there is an apprehension that the reach of e-Governance may
be limited.15
The objective of NeGP is to bring public services closer
home to the citizen, as the Vision Statement: "Make all
Government services accessible to the common man in his
locality, through common service delivery outlets, and ensure
efficiency, transparency, and reliability of such services at
affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common
man".15
This limited reach of e-Governance of availing government
services by citizen made governments think of new
technologies, such as mobile phones. This phenomenon has
been driven primarily by the rapid growth of mobile phone
subscribers in various developing countries. India, with its
more than 802 million
1
mobile phone subscribers offers a
unique proposition to develop into the world’s first truly
mobile digital society. In context to the delivery of public
services to the rural areas, there is a rapidly growing interest
in the concept of m-Governance.
II. M-GOVERNANCE POTENTIAL
Mobile phones have tremendous potential to expand the
access to and reach of public services in India. The rapidly
expanding subscriber base of mobile phone users in India can
help in accelerating the use of modern information and
communication technologies (ICTs) for improving
governance and ushering in inclusive development. As on 31st
January 2011, the number of mobile phone subscribers in
India stood at over 802 million1
and the mobile usability was
64.7%2
. Out of the total mobile subscribers, the share of rural
subscribers was 33.6% and the rural mobile usability was
31.1% whereas the same for urban areas was 143.4%. The
total subscriber base of mobile phone users is projected to
grow to one billion by 20123
. The huge user base of mobile
phones in our country presents us with an unprecedented

2. opportunity to expand the reach of public services to every
resident, especially in rural areas. 15
The relevance of mobile devices as a medium for delivery
of public services is also evident when we compare the
subscriber base of mobile phones to that of the internet. The
total base of internet users in India at the end of 2009 was
only 81 million4
and the total number of broadband
subscribers (with minimum connection speeds of 256 Kbps)
was only 11.21 million as on 31st January 20115
. Wide access
to mobile phones in the country has made it an ideal platform
for Government to resident interface, especially in the rural
areas. 15
The vision and mission of NeGP plan to provide public
services to all the residents in the country, especially in the
rural areas. This can be achieved by utilizing the reach of
mobile phones and the innovative potential of mobile
applications and making India a world leader in harnessing the
potential of mobile governance for inclusive development.
III. MOBILE PLATEFORM FOR DELIVERY OF
PUBLIC SERVICES
The growth of mobile phone subscribers in India over the
last decade has been explosive Table 1.1 below shows a
comparative status of the extent of mobile phone penetration
in India with South Asia. Table 1.2 shows the total number of
mobile phone subscribers in India under various categories
whereas Table 1.3 shows the number of internet and
broadband subscribers in India.
Table 1.1 Comparative status of mobile penetration and usage in India and
South Asia [
6
]
Mobile Usage 2008 2010 South Asia
Mobile telephone usage
(minutes/user/month)
440 520 472
Price basket for mobile service
(US$/month)
1.6 1.8 1.9
Table 1.2 Mobile phone subscribers in India as on 31st January 2011[
7
]
Category No. of Subscribers (millions)
Total Wireless Subscribers 711.18
Urban Subscribers 512.26
Rural Subscribers 258.9
Mobile Tele-density (Overall) 64.74
Urban Mobile Tele-density 143.3
Rural Mobile Tele-density 31.1
Table 1.3 Number of Internet users in India [
7
]
Category No of Subscribers(millions)
Broad band Subscribers 11.21
Figures 1.1 and 1.2 below show the growth of mobile phone
and wireless subscribers in India during the last five years
Fig. 1.1: Growth of mobile phone and wireless subscribers in India [
7
]
Fig. 1.2: Growth of broadband subscribers in India [
7
]
IV. Initiatives in Mobile Based Delivery of Public
Services
A number of initiatives have been launched in India
by various Governments and Government agencies to
provide public services through mobile phones. The
examples discussed below highlight some of the recent
initiatives launched in this area.
a) Mobile Governance in Kerala
The Government of Kerala has launched mobile
based public services in a number of Government
departments in the state. These include agriculture,
health, district administration, tourism, fisheries, motor
vehicles, police, elections, etc.8
For example, the health
department has launched “Dr SMS”, a SMS based m-
health information system for providing information on
health resources and the medical facilities available in
the locality of the resident.9
b) Mobile Governance in Goa
The Government of Goa has launched a mobile
governance initiative by establishing a SMS Gateway
for providing SMS based services to residents by
various Government departments.10
These services
include SMS alerts for receipt of applications,
shortcomings in the applications, and status tracking.

3. The Gateway has integrated SMS into the e-services
provided to the residents by the various departments by
integrating API with the eServices software. Currently,
the SMS Gateway services are being provided to the
following departments: Goa State Pollution Control
Board, Directorate of Accounts, Directorate of Printing
and Stationery, Inspectorate of Factories and Boilers,
Animal Husbandry and Veterinary services, and
Commercial Taxes. 11
c) Passport Application Status on Mobiles
The Ministry of External Affairs, Government of
India has launched a SMS based status tracking service
for passport applications. Passport Office, Delhi
provides this service to all applicants enabling them to
get the status of their applications by sending a SMS to
a short code. 12
Similar services have been launched by
several other Passport offices across the country, such
as Ghaziabad, Hyderabad, and Madurai. 13
d) Mobile Based Intelligent Garbage Monitoring
System in Hyderabad
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has
launched a unique mobile phone based Intelligent
Garbage Monitoring System that enables the sanitary
supervisors to report the status of cleaning of garbage
bins through their GPS enabled mobile phones. 14
They
can also upload pictures of the cleaned bins through
their mobiles in real time on the website. Any resident
can view the status of cleaning of the bins at anytime
on the website.
V. IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
This initiative of the Government of India was envisaged
for, millions of less-privileged individuals that had less access
to the Internet. Additionally, at the time of conceptualizing the
e-Governance strategies globally, the penetration of mobile
devices was very low and the capabilities of the devices to
carry out data transactions were minimal. However, this
scenario has now completely changed during the last decade,
both in terms of the penetration of mobile devices as well as
their computing capabilities. This given fact that majority of
Indian citizens reside in rural areas, mobile devices are ideally
suited as alternative access and delivery channels for public
services in these areas. It is important to mention here that m-
Governance is currently evolving, not only in developing
countries but also in the developed world. 15
To ensure the adoption and implementation of the
framework in a time-bound manner, following actions will be
taken.
a) Creation of Mobile based service delivery
gateway(MSDG)
Mobile Service Delivery Gateway (MSDG) is the core
component of for enabling the availability of the public
services through mobile devices. It is proposed that various
mobile based technologies such as SMS, GPRS, Bluetooth,
CBC, WLAN, USSD, voice, and multimedia (MMS) be
exploited to ensure that mobile based services are available to
the maximum number of users possible. The key
functionalities of MSDG and its role in integrating the current
e-governance infrastructure in the country for delivery of
mobile based services have already been noted earlier. End-
user devices which are used in this proposed technology
include landline phones, mobile phones, smart phones,
personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablets, and laptops with
wireless infrastructure. Mobile applications developed shall
take into consideration appropriately the wireless-device
interface issues, such as bandwidth limitations, micro-browser
and micro-screen restrictions, memory and storage capacities,
usability, etc.
b) Notification of Long Codes, Short codes and m-Gov
Number for Mobile Governance
There should be a pre-designated numbers, long and short
codes that will be uniform across the telecom operators and
states. All the telecom operators will be required to allow the
delivery of government services through these pre-designated
numbers, long codes and short codes. 15
Interactive IVR and
SMS based interfaces will be made available through the
MSDG for serving the diversified needs of residents
irrespective of the language they use or their literacy levels.
This will address the issue of Government agencies having to
talk to multiple operators while implementing the m-Gov
services. A long code for the mobile web portal will be
designated for the IVR based access where as a series of
convenient short or long codes for various government
services will be notified.
c) Creation of a Mobile Applications Store
Mobile applications (m-apps) store should be created to
facilitate the process of development of suitable applications
for delivery of public services through mobile devices. The m-
apps store shall be integrated with the MSDG and shall use
the MSDG infrastructure for deployment of such applications.
The store will be developed based upon service oriented
architecture and cloud based technologies using open
standards as far as practicable. 15
d) Creation of a Mobile Governance Innovation Fund
The government of India shall create a Mobile
Governance Innovation Fund to support the development of
suitable applications by Government Departments and
Agencies and also by third-party developers including start-
ups. The fund shall be created and managed by Government
for a minimum stabilization. The objective of this fund will be
to accelerate the development and deployment of the mobile
applications across the entire spectrum of public services.

4. VI. INTEGRATION WITH EXISTING WEB BASED
APPLICATIONS
For the successful implementation of m-Governance and to
meet its objective, it’s necessary that this would be integrated
with the existing running citizen centric applications. This will
not only affect the acceptability of this system among citizen
but also help in decision making activities of government
officials due to transparency in the system generated from real
time information from m-Governance.
.
VII. CONCLUSION
Lack of penetration of internet especially in developing
countries like India, is a cause of continuous dissemination of
eGovernance initiatives. Even in various district and Tehsils
where penetration of internet was not their due to lack of
availability of some basic resources like regular supply of
electricity etc. Hence there is a need of supplement model
which can provide support in penetration to grass root level.
So in view that mobile has higher penetration in remote
locations, governance services can be deliver by this mode of
communication. The objective that is envisaged to be
achieved through m-Governance is to make public services
available to all the residents of India through a mobile
platform that is available 24x7 on anytime anywhere basis. In
order to leverage the potential of mobile devices as the service
delivery platform, some policies initiatives should be their
like: Making all Government Web Sites Mobile Compliant
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors are thankful to the PricewaterHouse Coopers,
Gurgaon, and Pratham Software, Rajasthan, India for giving
an opportunity to work on various project. The authors would
like to thank Ministry of Information Technology, Department
of Information & Technology, Rajasthan, RaJCOMP Info
service Pvt. Ltd (RISL) a State level designated agency,
Rajasthan, and also like to thank their family members,
colleagues & friends for their direction and support during the
preparation of this paper.
REFERENCES
[1] 1
Source:http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/trai/upload/Press
Releases/800/Month lyPressRelease-Jan-2001.pdf
[2] 2
Source:http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/trai/upload/Press
Releases/800/MonthlyPressRelease-Jan-2001.pdf
[3] 3
Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_in_India
#cite_note-tci_growth-32
[4] 4
Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.html
[5] 5
Source:http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/trai/upload/Press
Releases/800/MonthlyPressRelease-Jan-2001.pdf
[6] 6
Source: World Bank: ICT as a Glance
[7] 7
Source: TRAI
[8] 8
Source:http://www.itmission.kerala.gov.in/mobile-governance-
initiatives-in-departments.html
[9] 9
Source:http://www.itmission.kerala.gov.in/mobile-governance-
initiatives-in-departments/200-health-department.html
[10] 10
Source: http://www.infotechgoa.com/smsgateway.php
[11] 11
Source: http://www.infotechgoa.com/smsgateway.php
[12] 12
Source : http://passport.gov.in/delhi.html
[13] 13
Source: http://passport.gov.in/ghaziabad.html
[14] 14
Source:http://www.osrt.in:8080/igms/ebin/ebin.jsp and
http://www.hindu.com/2011/03/13/stories/2011031363050500.
html
[15] Web site of Department of Information and Technology
www.mit.gov.in
Aakash Kumar Kirori S/o Late
Shri. Pramod Kumar Kirori and Smt
Madhu Kirori, was born on 29-03-
1986. He is completed his Master in
technology in Electronics and
Communication with specialization
in Embedded System from Jaipur
National University, India in 2010
and Bachelor of
Engineering in Computer Sciencefrom Rajasthan University,
India in 2007. His area of interests lies in the field of e-
Governance, Embedded System, Real time system and many
other areas. He is pursuing PHD from Poornima university and
also working as e-Governance Consultant in Grant Thornton
Gurgaon. He has more than 5 years of professional experience.
He has an expertise in Business Process Re-engineering and
project management; He has been associated with number of
ICT projects in government sector such as eDistrict Rajasthan
and AgrisNET Project. He has also been exposed to various
assignments in areas such as development of citizen centric e-
governance application, requirement gathering and
documentation, bid process management, capacity building &
change management, and project management for the clients in
the Government sector.
Anand Kumar Kirori S/o Late Shri. Pramod
Kumar Kirori and Smt Madhu Kirori, was
born on 14-08-1987. He completed his
Master in technology in Electronics and
Communication with specialization in
Embedded System from Jaipur National
University, India in 2011 and completed his
Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and
Communications from Rajasthan University,
India in 2008. His area of interests lies in the
field of e-Governance, Embedded System,
Real time system and many other areas. He is
working as Senior Software Engineer in
Pratham Software, Jaipur. He has more than
4.10 years of professional experience. He has
an expertise in Equity Capital Markets,
Business Process Management (Savvion
BPM). He has been associated to requirement
gathering, development of test plan, test cases
and testing (Functional, Performance) for
these projects.