Index for comparative assessment of municipal websites

Municipal corporations are important components of urban local governance. In India, these are responsible for many services including tax payments by citizens. In today's digital age, e-governance is a step towards effective utilisation of information and communication technology (ICT) for the flow of information between government and its stakeholders, delivery of public e-services and e-participation implementation. The present study proposes a detailed three-level framework municipal website quality assessment index (MWQAI) for assessment of municipal websites of India which may also be used for other developing countries. As a prototype of its use, qualities of seven municipal websites in the state of Madhya Pradesh in India are studied using MWQAI and other assessment instruments. Such a study enables comparative assessment of the websites to appraise their sophistication levels. More importantly, it provides suggestions for up-gradation of websites in the context of qualities of information provide...