In era of e-gov, does it matter if Mamata works from Kolkata?

samirsachdeva

Samir Sachdeva | May 20, 2010



This is a decade when e-governance and information technology are the buzz words in every government office. There are examples of successful implementation of virtual offices in national and international organisations. These days it does not matter which part of the world the chief executive officer (CEO) of a company is based, he can look after his organisation through the e-controls from anywhere. 

In this era, then, does it matter if railway minister Mamata Banerjee is in West Bengal (that is, after all, where her constituency as MP is) and monitors her juniors through IT tools? The distance should not be an issue especially in the case her ministry, which was the first to bring the success of IT and e-governance in India.

When a train traveler can book a ticket for his journey from anywhere in the world through the IRCTC website, why should there be location constraints on the minister? If meetings can happen through videoconferencing, decisions can be taken on e-mails and the files can travel over a secure virtual network, do we need the minister to still come to Rail Bhawan and sign the attendance register?

So, in the era of technology innovation, does it matter if a minister operates from Delhi or Kolkata?

Comments

 

Other News

What the nine Indian Nobel winners have in common

A Touch Of Genius: The Wisdom of India’s Nobel Laureates Edited by Rudrangshu Mukherjee Aleph Books, Rs 1499, 848 pages  

Income Tax dept holds Ghatkopar Outreach on new IT Act

The Income Tax Department organised an outreach programme in Ghatkopar, Mumbai, to raise awareness about the key features of the Income Tax Act, 2025, effective April 1, 2026. The initiative is part of a nationwide effort to promote taxpayer awareness, simplify compliance, and strengthen a transparent, eff

Making AI work where governance is closest to people

India’s next governance leap may not solely come from digitisation. It will come from making public systems more intelligent, more adaptive, and more responsive to the dynamics at the grassroots. That opportunity is especially significant at the panchayat level, where governance is not an abstract po

Borrowing troubles: How small loans are quietly trapping youth

A silent crisis is playing out in the pocket of young India, not in stock markets or government treasuries, but in smartphones of college students and first-jobbers who clicked on the Apply Now button without reading the small print.  A decade ago, to take a loan, you had to do some paperwor

A 19th-century pilgrim’s progress

The Travels of a Sadhu in the Himalayas By Jaladhar Sen (Translated by Somdatta Mandal) Speaking Tiger Books, 259 pages, ₹499.00  

India faces critical shortage of skin donors amid rising burn cases

India reports nearly 70 lakh burn injury cases every year, resulting in approximately 1.4 lakh deaths annually. Experts estimate that up to 50% of these lives could be saved with adequate access to skin donations.   A significant concern is that around 70% of burn victims fall wi


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter