a study on e- governance and user satisfaction through ...€˜a study on awareness of e-governance...

Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Vol-2, Issue-10, 2016 ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in

Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) 547

A Study on e- governance and User Satisfaction through Akshaya Centers in Kerala; with special reference to

Marangattupilli Panchayath in Kottayam District.

Aswani Krishnan1 & Sreehari K.G.2 1Master of Journalism and Mass Communication, Amrita School of Arts and Sciences, Kochi

2Assistant Professor, Amrita School of Arts and Sciences, Kochi

Abstract: This study will discuss on the user satisfaction which determines the service quality of e- governance through Akshaya Centre’s with special reference to Marangattupilli panchayath in the Kottayam district of Kerala. E-governance means electronic governance which is a form of governance achieved through the use of technology. E-governance assists the people to make appropriate communication with the government about its various schemes and services. In Kerala, the state government implemented Akshaya Centre’s for the effective delivery of government services to the public. Akshaya was considered as mile stone information and communication technology project by Kerala State Information Technology Mission which has rewarded the people with effective and friendly governance through technology. The study aims at analyzing the awareness and user satisfaction on the basis of its service quality provided by the Akshaya centre in Marangattupilli panchayath. Keywords: e-Governance, Akshaya centre, Marangattupilli panchayath, User’s satisfaction, Kerala. 1. Introduction

According to Nikita Yadav and V. B. Singh, in their research paper ‘E-Governance: Past, Present and Future in India’- E-governance is the online communication with the people about the working of the government or providing the government services to its citizens. The online facility makes available the government services to its citizen on their footsteps. India also developed the e-governance project for the better online working of the government. The government of Kerala also implemented the e-governance project across the state for the efficient online functioning of the government. ‘A study on awareness of e-governance services provided through Akshaya centers in Kerala with special reference to Malappuram district’Nissar P,and Dr.Yakoob C says that Akshaya centre’s is an infrastructure of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) mission developed by the Kerala government. Akshaya is a public delivery

system which helps in an effective communication between the public and the government through the aid of internet communications. The main objective of the Akshaya project is to provide basic computer education to the public and thereby maintaining a proper communication with the government for their welfare and development. Most of the panchayaths in Kerala has an Akshaya centre, mainly focusing on the villagers and other communities in the state to provide the various government schemes and services through the internet. 1.2. e– governance in India E-governance, the word means governing the country by using the Information and Communication Technology. With this the state or country can provide better government services to their citizens. In India the e-governance project has been implemented with an objective to provide a more efficient and convenient government services to the public. The idea of national e-governance is to make all government services available to the citizens. For this the Government uses the Internet facility to communicate with the people. The NeGP plan consisted of 27 “Mission Mode Project” (MMPs) and ten components. The 11 report of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission says that in India e-governance project need further development and stressed the need for also implementing common services centers for the citizens to access the government services. The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY), Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances formulated the idea of National e-governance plan (NeGP) in 2006 to fulfill this project. E-governance means the computerization of the entire government department. According to Nissar P, and Dr.Yakoob, the ICT shared the e-governance services to: 1. G2C or Government to Citizen (accessed by the Citizens like online payment)

2. G2B or Government to Business (accessed by the Businesses sector, sharing of all kind of information, rules and data.)

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3. G2G or Government to Government (information that shared between various government agencies, department and organizations) 4. G2E or Government to Employees (increases the transparency between government and its employee.) 1.3. Advantages of e-governance E-governance helps in connecting the public with the government through the use of Internet. Promptness and reliability is one of the major advantages of e-governance. Rather than the traditional way of paper communication, online communication has the advantage of being much faster and accessible. People can access the government services from a single window platform across anywhere in the world through the aid of a digital device. Transparency in the communication process is also another advantage as well as the provision of up to date information about the latest government programs. This method of online communication also empowers the society to become much more informed than was previously possible. And as a result of this the Government becomes more responsible towards the needs of its citizens. 1.3. Drawbacks of e-governance

The major drawback of e-governance projects is the unfamiliarity of the people of Kerala regarding e-governance and its services. Another major hindrance is that computer education of the people in state is relatively very low, especially amongst senior citizens. There is a lack of sufficient knowledge regarding the use of computers and internet whereas this is completely opposite with the younger generation as they are immersed in a technologically dependent world. It can create divisions within the society as some sections of the people became more informed about the governmental programs than the rest. This has also been the result of a widely circulated belief among the people regarding the security of online communications that it can lead to a disclosure of important private and personal information which can have an adverse impact. 1.5. E- governance in Kerala The government of Kerala provides many citizens a friendly technological service which helps in the transformation of the society. Nissar P in his research paper ‘E - GOVERNANCE IN KERALA’ discusses about Information Kerala Mission (IKM) which is an autonomous body for the computerisation and networking of local governing body in Kerala and was setup as early as in June 1999. It is the largest mass computerization projects in India which digitized 1223 local self-governing

bodies in Kerala. The main objective of IKM is to provide quick information and creating a more responsible and efficient government. ICT provides the socio-economic development of a region by providing the necessary technological accessibility to the people and thereby making a sound physical digital infrastructure. The state of Kerala introduced the call center unit called FRIENDS, Akshaya center’s etc to provide the ICT facility to the masses. But in this the Akshaya centres are considered as the key undertakings in this project. The main focus of Akshaya is to bridge the prevailing digital divide and to act as a medium for the socio-economic development of the people. The Akshaya center’s mainly caters to the welfare of the rural people as well as their economic and social development by providing them with technological accessibility. 1.6. PPP approach and e- governance ‘A study on awareness of e-governance services provided through Akshaya centers in Kerala with special reference to Malappuram district’ by Nissar P,and Dr.Yakoob, the word PPP means public –private partnership, it is contract between the private and the public body to provide the services to the public. The public and the private unites share the services through the PPP approach. There by the government can reduce the finical burden and the delay in the implementation of the project. The private unites such as the IT vendors are extending their overall contribution in the fulfillment of the e-governance project for the citizen. United Telecoms Limited (UTL) is major player in India on PPP based e-governance projects. 1.7. Recent innovations in public sector in Kerala Kerala developed several e-governance projects for the people in order to make speedy and transparent communication with the government. Some of them are:

1. Broadband Connectivity for Rural Government Offices- The department of Information Technology, Government of Kerala provides the broadband internet connectivity to the rural offices.

2. FRIENDS (Fast Reliable Instant Effective Network for Disbursement of Service) - It is a single window service where the citizens can carry out the government transactions in an easy and comfortable way.

3. Citizen’s Call Centre(CCC)- This helps in providing information to the public especially regarding information about the Right to Information Act,2005





4. Cloud Computing- It provides common business applications online that can be accessed from a web browser.

5. Department WAN- It connects the various departments of the government of Kerala.

6. Digitization of Government Records- To promote easy data accessibility and protection of data.

7. M-Governance- Governance through the use of Mobile phones. It is a relatively easy way of communication and is gaining widespread acceptance.

8. Bhoomi Keralam- Land record management system of Kerala which aims at the completion of land resurvey and computerisation of land records in the state.

9. Chief Minister’s Sutharyakeralam- It addresses the complaints and the grievances of citizens directly to the notice of the Chief Minister.

10. Dr.SMS- People gets information about the health resources and medical facility in the locality.

11. Webinar- It is a cost effective way to conduct training, live meeting and presentation via the internet.

1.8. Potential reasons to undertake the initiatives in Kerala This paper discusses about the Akshaya initiative and its different projects. The project of Akshaya was developed by the ICT of the State to provide online communication facility to the people. In the state only a section of educated people use these technologies for their socio-economic needs and development. At the same time the large remaining section are unaware about this online facilities being developed by the government. This creates a division in the society between the information haves and have- notes which results in the formation of a digital divide within the society. To counter this, the local bodies in the three tire panchayath system put forward an initiative for providing computer literacy for the ordinary and backward sections of the society to grant access to the technology for their socio-economic needs and developments. The Malappuram District Panchayath was the first to suggest a proposal for providing computer literacy to the people through the aid of the block panchayaths. This project provides user friendly content/courseware to the people and thereby increasing the accessibility of the internet communications. Before the implementation works a meeting was held between the various heads of the district panchayath, block panchayath, grama panchayath, municipalities, and organization like C-

DIT (Center for Development of Imaging Technology) to chart the formalities and plans for its effective application among the public. On 28 November 2002 the then Indian President Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam launched the first Akshaya project in the Malappuram district of Kerala and made available the technology to the people. 1.9. Services provided to the citizens The sole objective of the Akshaya program is to provide government services online and make the people e-literate. An Akshaya centre serves the people in all means through its various services which are readily accessible and functions as a medium between the government and the people. Some of the services provided are:

1. Aadhar Enrolment- Akshaya is one of the UDI enrolment agencies under the Govt of Kerala.

2. E-grants- Application for Post metric scholarship of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe category.

3. E-pay services- Online payment of bills. 4. Online Application for Ration card. 5. E-manal- Online registration for sand

dealings for construction purposes. 6. E-filling- e-filling of monthly returns by

traders. 7. E-vidya course- Advanced computer

training course. 8. e-ticketing- Online ticket reservation

services. 9. Birth-Death certificates 10. Kiosks Banking- Banking services to the

public available through Kiosks. 11. e-District- An integrated, seamless, online

delivery of citizen services at the district level.

12. E-Krishi- For farmers to provide online agriculture trading and information portal.

13. Election ID card services.

1.10. Akshaya centers in Kerala

‘A study on awareness of e-governance services provided through Akshaya centers in Kerala with special reference to Malappuram district’ by Nissar P,and Dr.Yakoob and the paper ‘E-Governance Initiatives and Decentralised Planning in Kerala’ have a denoted a term for the Akshaya project. Akshaya was a milestone ICT project by the Kerala State Information Technology Mission (KSITM) with the main objective of bridging the digital divide across the populations and make the ICT services available to the entire populace in their respective local languages. The first step of the project is to





educate at least one member in a family to be e-literate. This project is expected to reduce the gap between the ‘information haves’ and ‘information have-not’ as it aims to provide the relevant information to citizen in an identical way. The Akshya project is being implemented through Panchayathi Raj Institutions, and involves private enterprise in the development of training institutes and content generation across the state. In Kerala the first Akshya project were started in the Malappuram district in November 2002 and has now it spread its operations into all the districts of the state. Each Akshaya centre has necessary computers, fax, printers, telephones, broadband internet connectivity and necessary software. The private sector provides the capital required for the setting up of these facilities. The capital required for the wireless network for broad-brand connectivity will be shared by both the public and private units equally. The government gives training to the private entrepreneurs in setting up the facilities across the state. Kerala State IT Mission, Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Broad (STED), Centre for Development of Imaging Technology(C-DIT) and Local Self Government are the core partners in the implementation of the Akshaya projects in the state. 2. Objectives of the study The study mainly focuses on quality of e- governance and user satisfaction through Akshya Centers in Kerala; with a special reference Marangattupilli panchayath in Kottayam District. Following are the proposed objectives of the study

1. To understand awareness of e-governance services provided through Akshaya Centres in Kerala.

2. To find out how the service of Akshaya centres in Kottayam District and Marangattupilli panchayath influence user’s satisfaction.

3. To identify Akshaya centres as a medium for delivering services between governments – to- customer (G2C).

3. Literature review

A large number of studies were conducted about the e-governance and also the Akshaya projects in the state. The research studies which are directly or indirectly related to the topic of the study have been reviewed. According to Nissar P. in his paper ‘E – governance in Kerala’- E-governance is identified as an integral part of a country to provide better government services to the public. The e-governance policy makes the government more accountable and transparent to the public. India also devised various

programmes for the implementation of e-governance and NEGP is a result of the effort taken by the India to make a better government. Kerala also has implemented several programmes as a part of the e-governance policy. They considered that ICT as an engine for transforming the state into a knowledge-based, economically vibrant society. It is only done when the people gets the benefits of the information. The first IT policy was announced in the year 1999 and the Department of Information Technology was established in the year 1998 as well as a separate Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) was constituted as an executive wing under the Department and entrusted with the implementation of various IT initiates. Kerala State IT Mission is an autonomous body which provide support to IT initiatives in the state. The paper also discuss about the Information Kerala Mission (IKM) started in 1999 to strengthen the local-self government by the application of ICT and to computerize the local-self government to provide a better government services to the citizens. Sakarma (handling of council) Samoohya (Citizen Database) Saphalya (Human resources package) Sevena (Registration of birth, death and marriage) are some of the applications developed by the IKM. Janasevanakendram, Digital Document File System, Service and Payroll Administrative Repository for Kerala (SPARK), Information and Data Exchange Advanced System (IDEAS), Akshaya, E-District are some of the initiative developed by the IKM. The paper concluded that Kerala realize the importance of ICT for the developments of state in all aspects and for that the state of Kerala implemented several applications to improve the society by providing better services to the public. Nikita Yadav and V. B. Singh have a same opinion about the e-governance by saying that it has been one of the most striking developments of the internet. In their paper ‘E-Governance: Past, Present and Future in India’ identifies the global shifts towards the increased deployment of information technology by governments emerged in the nineties with the advent of the World Wide Web. But in the launching of the e-governance projects they have a different opinion. Recognizing the increasing importance of electronics, the Government of India established the Department of Electronics in 1970. The subsequent establishment of the National Informatics centre (NIC) in 1977 was the first major step towards e-Governance in India as it brought information and communication in focus. However, the main thrust for e-Governance was provided by the launching of NICNET in 1987 – the national satellite-based computer network. This was followed by the launch of the District Information System of the National Informatics Centre (DISNIC) program to computerize all district offices.





They also stated that in India e-governance started by the implementation of the Akshaya centre in Malappuram district of Kerala to provide e-literacy to the citizens. E-governance is the use of internet by the government to provide the services to the citizen at their door steps. They also speak about the four pillars of e-governance which are connectivity to link the people with the services; knowledge which employs skilled engineers who have IT knowledge to help the citizen, Database to share any kind of information, Capital to provide the services. Governance has four different models that is Government to Citizen, Government to Government, Government to Business, Government to Employees. The government implemented the e-governance in different fields like in education (Result declaration for 10th & 12th standard in secondary school examinations), urban (Transportation), rural (agriculture) and in health (Information about the availability of medicines and hospitals). The paper also discuss about the three important challenges that are: technical challenges (issues like security, multiservice interaction and privacy), organizational challenges (lack of key persons, population, different languages), and economical challenges (cost, maintainability, portability). The paper concluded by suggesting some technical implementation for the future developments of the e-governance plan. That are open source software, which is software available both in source and binary form which allows users to freely use and it also provides increased flexibility to address localization issues and extensibility. And the next one is cloud computing, it allows computer e-governance users to conveniently rent access to fully featured applications. Cloud computing also provides software development and deployment environments, and computing infrastructure assets such as network-accessible data storage and processing model. In ‘E-Governance in India: Opportunities and Challenges’ Kiran Yadav and Sanatan Tiwari express the same views about e-governance. E-Governance provides a sound strategy to strengthen overall governance. It can not only improve accountability, transparency and efficiency of government processes, but also facilitate sustainable and inclusive growth. E-governance also provides a mechanism of direct delivery of public services to the marginal segments of the society in the remotest corners, without having to deal with intermediaries. Fast, convenient and cost effective service delivery, transparency, accountability and reduced corruption, increased participation by people etc are the benefits of the e-governance. The paper also speak about the different areas benefited by the e- governance that is education (Result publication for 10 & 12 classes),

urban (Transportation), rural (agriculture) and in health (Information about the availability of medicines and hospitals). The paper concluded by suggesting some technical implementation for the future developments of the e-governance plan that are open source software and cloud computing as it allows computer e-governance users to conveniently rent access to fully featured applications. Cloud computing also provides software development and deployment environments, and computing infrastructure assets such as network-accessible data storage and processing model. Afzaal H. SeyalSharul Tajuddin Noah Abd. Rahman ZurainahAbidin discuss about the user satisfaction in their research paper ‘Evaluating User Satisfaction with Bruneian E-Government Website: A Case of e-Darussalam’. The concept of e-governance is formed from the wide use of Information and Communication Technology and the dependency of the internet and web technologies. E-governance is the product of a set of new principles of the public administration and ICT that is providing the government services to the citizen and reconstructing the public services with the aid of technology. Most of the studies are about the lack of technological infrastructure, security and confidentiality, difficulties in making organizational changes, institutional arrangements, budgetary and financial constraints, group conflict and internal politics which were identified as some of the reasons of the slow delivering of e-government services. The success of e-government services is chiefly dependent on the users’ attitude and their satisfaction level. User satisfaction is a crucial factor for evaluating the continual usage of e-Government services and for the success or failure of its various projects including the information systems. But the paper says that most of the study only focuses on the supply side of the e-government services and never discuss about the demand from the side of the services. The same is true to the Brunei where some studies indicated the supply side. This study therefore conducted in Brunei Darussalam in 2015 a small Sultanate with a population of about 401,356, and geographically situated between Singapore and Malaysia with the aim of understanding users’ satisfaction of one of the popular Website (e-Darussalam) developed under His Majesty’s e-Government initiative. The study results after the analysis will contribute to the literature not only to test the reliability and validity of the instrument but also identifying the various factor of measuring user satisfaction among Bruneian users of e-government portal that are either similar or dissimilar to the Australian study. This practical implication of the study after the cross cultural comparisons will benefit the governmental policy makers and





Information Systems’ designers. Brunei Darussalam has recognized the importance of ICT as one of the key drivers for sustainable socio-economic development of the country. The Sultan of Brunei Darussalam expressed his view for establishing e-Brunei, aimed at a paperless society by guiding Brunei into the mainstream of global Information Technology. The paper studied different research papers and make a conclusion that is the study empirically confirms that only four factors make up user satisfaction: ease of use, security and privacy, content related and finally the information quality. It also gives a lesson that that in order to enhance the satisfaction of users with e-government websites, government agencies should concentrate on those above mentioned four factors that are perceived to have a significant effect on satisfaction. They also give a key contribution by identifying a new factor that is ‘content relatedness’ and that has not been reported previously. In ‘A study on awareness of e-governance services provided through Akshaya centers in Kerala with special reference to Malappuram district’ Nissar P, and Dr.Yakoob C talk about the Akshaya project implemented in the Malappuram district .As already discussed e-goverance is the application of the information and communication technology (ICT) for delivering government services to the public. As in the research paper ‘E-Governance in India: Opportunities and Challenges’, here Nissar P,and Dr.Yakoob C also discuss about the three kinds of government services, G2C, G2B; G2G. E-governance in India has steadily evolved from computerization of Government departments to initiatives that encapsulate the finer points of governance, such as citizen centricity, service orientation and transparency. According to this paper constitutional provision for e-governance was given by passing Information Technology Act 2000. Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY) and the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances formulated the idea of National e-governance plan (NeGP) in 2006 to fulfill this project. The paper says that the ultimate objective is to bring public services closer home to the citizens. In their research, the state of Kerala introduced the Call Centre’s FRIENDS; Akshaya centres etc. to provide the ICT facility to the masses. But amongst them the Akshaya initiative is considered as the most important and beneficial. The main focus of Akshaya is to bridge the digital divide and to act as medium of the socio-economic development of the people. The paper conducted a survey to measure the success of the Akshaya projects across the state. From the survey conducted in the Malappuram district it is clear that 89% of respondents are aware about the UIDAI/ Aadhar

services. Services like e-payment, RSBY health card, e-district and ration card services are to some extend known among people. But the awareness levels of other services are not in a satisfactory level. Services having least awareness are E-grantz, e-manal and e-vidhya services. In short it can be justified that awareness level of the services provided through Akshaya are low. Mainly used services are UIDAI, e-payment and RSBY health card. So it can be summarized that usage level of services provided through the Akshaya Centre’s are not in a satisfactory level. The paper also suggests some suggestion for the improvements of the Akshaya centres in the district which is to conduct a survey and make aware about the Akshaya centre. The paper concluded with a justification that AKSHAYA has been trying to make government services more accessible to villagers, which attempts to reduce the time and money people spend, trying to communicate with public officials and to provide immediate, transparent access to local government data and documentation. The radical changes in Government through e-Governance may lead to lot of resistance to change and the Governments must opt for sequential change. 4. Research methodology

This study is an exploratory in nature, it uses the methods such as interviews, and observation, literature and document review to determine the outcome. Primary data has been collected from 200 respondents from the Marangattupilli panchayath to measure the awareness and acceptance of the e-governance services provided through the Akshaya centers projects in Kerala. For this research various research papers about the e-governance and the Akshaya centers in Kerala were also reviewed.

5. Hypotheses

Hypothesis of the study is that the people are satisfied and aware about the e-governance services that provided through the Akshaya Centre’s across Kerala. In Kerala Akshaya centre is mean to provide the e-governance services to the public and there by promote their economic and social developments. The study gave special reference to Marangattupilli panchayath to understand the Service Quality of E- governance and User Satisfaction through Akshaya Centers in Kerala. 6. Analysis and Discussion

Do you have computer in your home? a) Yes b) No





Table.1 computer availability

Yes 100 No 100

Figure 1.Computer availability in the panchayath Figure one shows that 50%of the people in the Marangattupilli panchayath have a personal computer in their home. The rest 50% didn’t own a computer. There is equal variation in the graph. From the graph, we can get an idea that in the future the computer availability and the computer education will increase in the panchayath. Are you aware about the Akshaya centre in your panchayath? a) Yes b) No

Table.2 Total numbers of Akshaya centers Yes 200 No 0

Figure 2. Total numbers of Akshaya centers in the

panchayath. The graph shows that 100% that means in the panchayath, most of the people are aware about the Akshaya centre. All of them know that there is an Akshaya centre in the panchayath. That means the residence in panchayath is aware that there is an Akshya centre by the government for them. It is only the basic knowledge that they have about the Akshaya centre.

Do you know what the Akshaya Project is and its objective? a) Yes b) No

Table.3 Awareness about Akshaya Yes 22 No 178

Figure 3. Awareness about Akshaya project and

its objective From the figure it is clear that all are aware about the Akshaya centre but no one know what exactly the projects mean and its objective. In the graph only 11% of the population is aware about the Akshaya projects and its objective while the 89% of them are unaware about it. Majority of the respondents are not aware about what exactly the Akshaya project meant, they only know that there is an Akshaya centre in the panchayath by the government. So in this sense the project fails to provide the basic knowledge about projects aims and its objective to its citizens. Are you aware about the various e-governance services provided through the Akshaya centre? a) Yes b) No Table.4 Awareness about e-governance service Yes 34 No 166

Figure 4. Awareness about e-governance service

through Akshaya From the study conducted in the Marangattupilli panchayath, it is clear that 17% of the people are





aware about the various e-governance services provided through the Akshaya centre. But the remaining, that is 83% of the respondents are not aware about the Akshaya services that are majority of the people in panchayath. The people didn’t get the benefit of the Akshaya centre because they are unaware of its various services. How do you avail information and services from panchayath? a) Directly from office b) from your own system c) Akshaya centers

Table.5 Information source Directly from the panchayath 159 From Akshaya centre 41 No one use personal system to avail the information from the panchayath.

Figure 5. Information source

In the panchayath 79% of the people avail the information form directly from the panchayath and only 21% use the Akshaya centre to avail the information about the various services. From this question it is obvious that people directly go to the panchayath office than Akshaya centre for the services. Akshaya Centre’s acts as medium between the government and the public. But lack of awareness among the people make Akshaya centre’s a different one from the panchayath office. It is the reason why most of the people prefer the panchayath office to know about the government information’s. How often do you use online services from Akshaya centers? a) Always b) Rarely c) Not used

Table.6 Usage of online services Not used 158 Rarely 42 From the survey conducted no one always use the online services from the Akshaya centre.

Figure 6. Usage of online services

It is clear that only 21% of respondents rarely use the online services from Akshaya and the remaining 79% of the people are not used the online services. That means the majority of the respondents were no use the online services from the Akshaya centre. What is the Problem faced by you while using Akshaya centre? a) Not user friendly b) Website unavailability

c) Internet connection

Table.7 Problems while using Akshaya

Website unavailability 84 No internet 78 Not user-friendly 38

Figure 7. Problems while using Akshaya centre

By conducting this survey, the most common problems faced by the people is the website unavailability, 42%of the people are not satisfied with the website. 39% of the people faced problem of no internet connection and 19% of the respondents says that it is not user friendly. They say that it is difficult to operate because they are not trained people about the Akshaya procedure to make a communication with the government departments. Akshaya Centers provides quality services? a) Yes b) No





Table.8 Quality of services Yes 191 No 9

Figure 8. Quality of services

96% of the respondent of the survey say that Akshaya services has quality. It is because of the availability of trained staff in the Akshaya centre.4% of the people are not satisfied with the quality of the Akshaya centre. Is the Akshya centre consumes your valuable time for the services? a) Yes b) No Table.9 Time consuming Yes 175 No 25

Figure 9. Time consuming

From the respondent 87% of the people says that the Akshaya centre consume their valuable time. From the survey conducted the respondents says that it is only because of the limited numbers of the trained staff in the center. And only 13% of the people are satisfied with the Akshaya centre. Do you think that the amount charged in the Akshaya centre is fair?

a) Yes b) No Table.10 Amount charged Yes 200 No 0

Figure 10. Amount charged

In the study it is clear that Akshaya centre in the panchayath charged only fair amount for the services from the citizen. The people get services in limited cost. So they are satisfied the amount charged in the Akshaya centre. Describe the services that you received from the Akshaya centre from your panchayath? Somewhat agree 127 Somewhat disagree 46 strongly agree 36

Figure 11. Most used services Akshaya centre provides various services to the citizen but they are not aware about these services. From the figure 92% of the people use the Akshaya for the aadhar enrolment and 4% use the Akshaya Centre for the aadhar card and ration card copy. It is because of the lack of the awareness about the services. It is only because of the Akshaya centre, they didn’t take any further steps to make aware about the services provided by Akshaya centre. The





residences of the panchayath were not aware about the services like e-manal, e-district, and e-payment. Akshaya services employees are well trained a) Somewhat agree b) Strongly agree Table.12 Employees training Somewhat agree 55 Strongly agree 145

Figure 12. Employees training

From the survey, 73% of the people strongly agree that the Akshaya employees are well trained, they says it from their experiences from the employees. They also prefer the Akshya centre for various services. But at the same time 27% are not fully agree that the employees are well trained. Akshaya services employees are well supervised? a) Somewhat agree b) somewhat agree c) strongly agree

Table.13 Supervision of Employees Somewhat agree 127 Somewhat disagree 46 strongly agree 36

Figure 13. Employees are well supervised

From the study it is clear that 61% are agreeing that the Akshaya employees are well supervising them from their own experience from the Akshya centre.

And the 22% of the people are agreeing to a certain extent. But the 17% are strongly disagreeing. Based on your experience with services, how likely are you to do it again?

a) Definitely will b) Probably will c) Might or might not

Table 14.Future use

Probably will 101 Definitely will 70 Might or might not 29

Figure 14. Future use of Akshaya

In this study 35% of the people will definitely use the Akshaya services in future and 50% of the people are probably will use the Akshaya centre in the future and the remaining 15% of the respondent were not sure about the future contacts with the Akshaya centre. The people respond to this question from their experience what they get from the Akshaya centre. Overall, I am very satisfied with the way that Akshaya centers performance on their services a) Yes b) No

Table.15 Satisfactory level Yes 176 No 24





Figure 15.Satisfactory level of people

From the study 88% of the people are satisfied with the Akshaya services and at same time 12% of the people dissatisfied with them. That means majority of the people are satisfied with the Akshaya centre and its services. 7. Suggestions The government of Kerala has implemented various projects to with an aim to make a clear and transparent communication with the people. The state realizes the importance of the ICT in the developments programs of which communication is an important one in the development process. The technology makes the communication more easy and transparent one. The State of Kerala realized the importance of technology in the communication and develops different programmes to develop the same with the people. Akshaya is one of the projects developed by the state to provide-governance services and technological communication to the people. But the study shows that most of the people in the district of Kottayam are not aware about the various services provided by the Akshaya centre in their own panchayath. Aadhar card enrolment and ration card application were the mostly used services in the program. Akshaya is only for the citizens to provide e-governance services and provide the computer education to the people especially those from rural areas. The lack of awareness of this project creates a gap between this initiative and the public. Thereby they are unaware of the people friendly services provided by the government through the Akshaya centers. Akshaya centers can improve their e-governance services by:

1) Conduct usability survey for the assessment of the Akshaya centre in Kerala.

2) Make an awareness programme about the e-governance services and the Akshaya centre in the panchayath respectively.

3) Create an evolution system for all Akshaya centre in Kerala.

4) Provide training programmes for the government servants in the Akshaya centres in all aspects like-governance services and attitudes towards the public.

5) Provide SMS services among the people about the various e-governance services provide through the Akshya centre.

6) Conduct different cultural programmes to promote the Akshaya initiative.

7) Provide classes to educate the rural people about the Akshaya services, its uses and benefits.

8. References [1] E-Governance in India (.n.d) Retrieved June 07, 2016, from https://india.gov.in/e-governance [2]Palackal,A.,Sundararajan,A.,Kurien,P,H.,Parayil,G.,Sooryamoorthy,R.,&Miller,B.P.(n.d).ICT and the Kerala Model.Past,Present and Future of Research in the Information Society,225-244.doi:10.1007/978-0387-47650-6-16 [3] EGovernance. (n.d).Retrieved May 10, 2016, from http://egovernance.ie/ [4] InfoDev. (n.d). Retrieved May 10, 2016, from http://www.infodev.org/ [5] E-Governance in India. (n.d.).Retrieved June 07, 2016, from http://theinternationaljournal.org/ojs/index.php?journal=rjebs [6] Akshaya: An Exploratory Study Project Report. (n.d). Retrieved May 10, 2016, from http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/-cs671/project_report/06808001,06808004.06808007,0680801006808011.25-11-07-13-41.Akshaya-An Exploratory Study.pdf [7] Akshaya, Kerala. (n.d).ICTs and Developments.doi:10.1057/9781137005540.0009 [8]Yadav,N.,&Singh,V.B.(2012).E-Governance:Past,Present,and Future in India. International Journal of Computer Applications IJCA, 53(7), 36-48.doi:10.5120/8437-2230 [9] Electronic Governance and Electronic Democracy.920010.doi:10.14217/9781848597365-en [10] Akshaya, Akshaya Centres, IT for Masses, E-governance Programme, Kerala State It Mission-Nodal IT Implementation Agency. Akshaya, Akshaya Centres, IT for Masses, E-governance Programme Kerala State It Mission-Nodal IT Implementation Agency. Accessed June 07,2016.http://itmission.kerala.gov.in/Akshaya.php





[11] E-GOVERNANCE IN KERALA abhinavjournal.com. (n.d.).Retrieved June 30, 2016 from http://abhinavjournal.com/journal/index.php/ISSN-2320-0073/article/download/439/pdf_116 [12] E-Governance in India: Opportunities and Challenges. (n.d.).Retrieved June 30, 2016 from http://www.ripublication.com/aeee-spl/aeee4n6spl-21.pdf [13] Evaluating User Satisfaction with Bruneian E-Government Website: A Case of e-Darussalam. (n.d.). Retrieved June 30, 2016 from http://www.researchate.net/publication/284714196-Evaluting-User-satisfaction-with-Bruneian-E-Government-Website-A_case_of_e_Darussalam [14] Reddick, C.G. (2010), Comparative e-government [15] Ramachandran, A., Enserink, B., &Balchand, A,(2005). Coastal regulation zone rules in coastal panchayath (villages) of Kerala, India vis-a-vis socio-economic impacts from the recently introduced people’s participatory program for local self-governance and sustainable development. Ocean & Coastal Management, 48(7-8), 632-653.doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2005.03.011. [15] E-governance in India: Concept, Initiatives and issues-INSIGHT. (20140.Retrieved July o1,2016,from http://www.insightsonindia.com/2014/11/23/e-governance- India-concept-initiatives-issues/ [16] A STUDY ON AWARENESS OF E-GOVERNANCE SERVICES PROVIDED THROUGH AKSHAYA CENTERS IN KERALA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MALAPPURAM DISTRICT. (n.d.).Retrieved July1, 2016,fromhttp://abhinavjournal.com/journal/index.php/ISSn-2277-1166/article/viewFile/37/pdf_80 [17] National e-Governance Plan.(n.d.).Retrieved July 01,2016,from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/national_e-Governance_paln



a study on e- governance and user satisfaction through ...€˜a study on awareness of e-governance...

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