Service Quality of Government Websites in India A Select Study

Abstract

Penetration of network technology has promoted growth of Information and Communication Technology newline(ICT) resulting in phenomenal change in global information economy. As an effect, government agencies newlineof almost all countries have adopted ICT to reengineer the existing administration at all jurisdictional newlinelevels into effective, transparent, accountable and efficient system. The endeavour of grouping different newlineindependent and interdisciplinary functional bodies together in government with the objective of serving newlinecitizens has been termed as e-government . newlineIndian government has prioritized implementation of e-government projects in the five year plans newlineallocating substantial budget to initiate e-government practices. A national level e-government plan has newlinebeen proposed with focus on network and service delivery. To communicate with citizens and other newlinestakeholders directly, government agencies have designed web sites and web portals. Citizens are eager to newlinewelcome interactive, integrated information and services from the government but have their own newlineexpectations. newlineThis study attempts to identify the important factors determining service quality of portals and examine if newlinethe satisfaction of use depend on the service quality. E-government implementation takes place in stages newlineand perception of service quality for users may vary with the stage of e-government. Initial stage is static newlineensuring web presence of government organization with essential information. Second stage is interactive newlinewhere people can send emails and contact the concerned departments. Third phase is a matured phase newlineinvolving transaction and two way communications between the administrators and the users. Since at newlinethis stage users have direct contact with public administrators, we considered web portals involving newlinetransaction to conduct our study.