Waiting for the Internet Dhaba: Case Studies of Technology Access, Indigenisation and E-Government in India

Abstract This paper examines a number of case studies in development towards E-government and citizen participation emerging from the EU-India Cross-Cultural Innovation Network Project, in which the author has been a partner for the past four years. The paper makes a case for re-examination of dominant technology-centred globalised models of development and points to the need for indigenisation of ICTs to provide tools for citizen participation. It is suggested that there is no single, simple answer to this problem, but that one important component of the solution lies in a holistic and Human-Centred approach to Information Design. Attention is drawn to Indian arguments regarding the importance of a bottom-up approach (the so-called Subaltern Trajectory) in the evolution of both E-Government and E-Governance. The paper argues that the Subaltern Trajectory has already produced a number of sustainable exemplars for citizen-centred service delivery in the context of E-Government, but that the work of moving towards E-Governance is only just beginning.