Title: Enhancing the reach of public services through mobile governance: sustainability of the Mobile Seva initiative in India

Authors: Rajendra Kumar

Addresses: Youth Welfare and Sports Development, Government of Tamil Nadu, Secretariat, Chennai 600009, India

Abstract: In this paper, I examine the sustainability of the hugely successful and award winning Mobile Seva initiative in India, which aims to bring all e-government services on a common mobile platform. I analyse the critical success and the potential critical failure factors (CFF) behind the performance of the project. The analysis shows that the critical success factors (CSFs) include formulation of a national policy framework on mobile governance and support from the highest decision-making body on e-governance in the country, responsiveness of the implementing team, ease of on boarding and implementation for the departments, portal effectiveness, performance reliability, transparency and participatory design. However, the major potential CFF include lack of technical knowhow within departments, lack of adequate power and connectivity, lack of face to face interaction and lack of an appropriate business model. These issues need to be addressed properly to ensure that the project does not suffer a sustainability failure in the long term.

Keywords: mobile governance; m-governance; Mobile Seva; India; CSFs; critical success factors; CFFs; critical failure factors; e-governance; electronic governance; mobile channels; sustainability; service reach; public services; India; mobile services; m-services; e-government; electronic government; sustainability.

DOI: 10.1504/EG.2016.076133

Electronic Government, an International Journal, 2016 Vol.12 No.2, pp.142 - 159

Received: 07 Apr 2015
Accepted: 09 Nov 2015
Published online: 26 Apr 2016 *

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