The e-governance mess

Govt's digital push founders on complex, buggy portals

The Union finance ministry has taken the somewhat unusual step of publicly rebuking the technology major Infosys for failures in the income-tax portal that the latter has developed. Infosys Chief Executive Officer Salil Parekh was summoned to meet Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday. The ministry tweeted that the portal had not been accessible since August 21. The income tax e-filing website was launched on June 7, but has had consistent problems since then — causing some filers to face the possibility of having to pay late fees. The finance ministry’s ire is probably enhanced by the fact that Infosys