Haryana on top in e-readiness among major states

Haryana ranks on top among the major states on the e-readiness index according to a report compiled by the National Council of Applied Economic Research.

The report, released by Union Communication and Information Technology Minister A Raja, on Thursday, at the inaugural session of the two-day 11th National Conference on e-governance in Panchkula, is the fourth in the series of such reports compiled since 2003 to rank states and UTs according to their levels of e-readiness. Haryana is next only to Delhi and Chandigarh.

Haryana Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Electronics and IT, PK Chaudhary said the report had measured the e-readiness of the states in terms of their ability to participate in an increasingly networked world.

Three main quantitative and qualitative indicators have been used in the exercise: the environment that promotes the spread and usage of information and communication technology (ICT); the readiness of different stakeholders of the economy (the government "" both the initiatives of the Central government and the response of the state governments "" businesses, and the individual) to use ICT; and the degree of usage of ICT by the three stakeholders.

Under these indicators, Haryana ranks second in terms of environment among the six states in level 1, second in readiness among the three states in level 1 and seventh among the 14 states in level 2 of the usage index. None of the states has qualified for level 1 in the usage index.

Chaudhary said unlike on previous occasions, the e-readiness report 2006 had been compiled on the basis of a more comprehensively designed questionnaire, including in it some more relevant variables along with appropriate consistency.

Explaining e-readiness, he said it can be considered as the ability to pursue value creation opportunities facilitated by ICT.

Therefore, it is not simply a matter of the number of computers, websites, Internet service providers, Internet connections, telephones and mobiles in the state, but also the ability of readiness to use technology skillfully at the level of the individual, business and the government.

Dwelling in details into the indicators, Chaudhary said the environment relates to conditions prevailing in the state like infrastructure and policies external to the players involved in making e-governance effective.

Readiness deals with those characteristics of the players that make them to respond to an environment that is enabling. Qualification or training of individuals in IT is an example of readiness. Usage, on the other hand, is the actual usage of IT given a conducive environment and positive state of readiness, he added.

He, however, clarified that the methodology used in compilation of the report does not make absolute comparisons of the three components of e-readiness, and only provides relative positions of states as the indices indicate relative positioning of states.