I have been a member of this group for long and have followed some of the postings with interest. This forum seems to be the right platform to share some of the comments made by ICSSR on my report "E-governance for conservation"   This report formed a part of my thesis submitted  to ICSSR titled 'Growth of entrepreneurship in the Country with the growth of Information Systems'.

The report is available online and can be read at the following link.

http://www.indianwildlifeclub.com/mainsite/clubreviews2.asp

Comments and Review by ICSSR (Indian Council of Social Science Research)

"The proposed model for e-Governance for the Ministry of Environment and Forest is one of the major dimensions of the thesis, which merits commendation and makes the thesis a qualitative work.  Cost-Benefit analysis for the suggested model will further enhance the quality of the thesis.

A public project analysis considers the worthiness of shifting resources from the private sector to the public sector and the extent to which a public project should be pursued when its benefits exceed the cost.  Many other factors besides a benefit/cost analysis influence the final decision about funding public projects.

The model recommended to generate entrepreneurship in the rural area can also be evaluated by cost-effective analysis.  The measure of effectiveness which is non-monetary in character can be judged taking into account the reduction in rural unemployment, increase in the wildlife, decline in deforestation and criminal activities and improvement in the environment-Jaan, Jal, Janwar, Jungle, Jameen.

Further , it has been proposed that the model can be worked out by public private partnership.  The model on application needs a good amount of investment.  Basically it is an economic decision, which is usually subject to an environment of uncontrollable influences.  The longer the planning horizon, the greater the exposure to chance events.  Inputs and outputs for short-term investment alternatives are usually subject to less variability than the long- term investment proposals.  Risk analysis is a mechanism, which can be used fruitfully when significant outcome variations are likely for different future states and meaningful probabilities can be assigned to these states. The time to consider risk is before one makes a commitment to a course of action.  Perhaps a portion of the potential profit should be traded for partial immunity to risk.  The rural people and the people of the nearby villages of jungle are to be educated to develop individual skills and temperaments and the only way they can behave impetuously when exposed to the demands of such situations.  The properties of materials vary over time.  Environmental factors are never constant and economic conditions change irregularly.

Natural resources are threatened by the demand placed on them by the poor.  Despite several efforts aimed at addressing the problem, environmental degradation continues. Hence, the goal is to achieve poverty reduction through wise, sustainable and economic use of natural resources and the environment.  Strategies include strengthening the legal and institutional framework to encourage local communities to control and sustainably manage natural resources, develop alternative livelihood strategies and create environmental awareness."

I request the esteemed members of this community to respond and add your comments to finally arrive at a workable model of E-governance for conservation.

Dr. Susan Sharma

susan_sharma@...

 

--- In bytesforall_readers@yahoogroups.com, "Vivek Vaidyanathan" <vivek@...> wrote:
>
> Apologies for cross-posting.
>
>
>
> Dear All,
>
>
>
> Greetings from IT for Change!
>
>
>
> 2008 will be an important year for the National E-governance Plan (NeGP)
> with the expected massive roll-out of the Common Services Centres (CSCs) and
> other components of this plan all over the country. While we have been
> speaking of greater participation of citizens in this plan, such
> participation must begin at the policy-making process itself. However,
> unfortunately, there has been little text to read on the NeGP anywhere. The
> link on the Department of Information Technology (DIT) -
> http://mit.gov.in/default.aspx?id=115 - gives a very sketchy outline of the
> NeGP. One wonders if that is the final NeGP policy document, or is there any
> other comprehensive policy document. One would expect such an initiative
> like the NeGP which at its heart may redefine (through re-structuring)
> Indian governance systems to have a rather elaborate policy write-up. We can
> find some implementation level documents on CSCs and State Data Centres
> (SDCs) etc, but the overall policy document should be one with clearer and
> elaborately laid out overall vision, objectives, context, challenges and
> possibilities. If there is any such document we have not been able to find
> it and request others who may be in possession of such documents to kindly
> share it on this list serve and others so that we can engage in a
> constructive discussion on the NeGP.