Two-thirds of the Indian population live in villages and in order to achieve the supposed objectives of e-governance, they need to be given more attention. The rural areas of the country are plagued by problems like connectivity, communication, technical illiteracy, etc., in comparison with the urban areas. Therefore, a single policy for rural as well as urban masses cannot be viable, and hence the existing service delivery mechanism needs to be reengineered. In this paper, we have devised a new framework for improving the efficacy of e-governance in rural areas by enhanced capacity building mechanism, new modus operandi for interest generation towards IT, and inculcation of mobile and cloud technologies. Further, the proposed model also reduces the cost of infrastructure as well as delivered services, and enhances the scalability.

e-Governance is a modern way of governance which includes the zeal of democracy, utilization of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for the dissemination of services up to grassroots level and upliftment of undeserving areas. The current population of India is over 1.21 billion with a regular growth rate of 1.41%; and 72.2% of the total population lives in rural areas1. In this perplexing and diversified scenario, the implementation of a strategy which is common for all will go in vain. Therefore, there is a need to devise separate policies or strategies for different clientele groups. As it is evident from the statistics, the majority of the population lives in rural areas and therefore, the policies formulated for them needs more attention for the overall development of the nation. The major dominating challenges in the rural areas are poor literacy rate, low awareness level, electricity, network connectivity, etc. (Jhunjhunwala, 2002; Ramachander, 2007; and Kumar, 2011). In the last financial year 2012-2013, the government of India put in lots of efforts for sensitizing the beneficiaries of e-services as well as disseminating awareness among bureaucrats about available e-governance services by organizing capacity-building programs. The World Bank has also financed India with $150 mn for National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) with an aim to capitalize on public delivery of e-services (Technology, 2012-2013). Although there are islands of success, yet there are some areas that are still untouched or embarked upon inadequately (Kalam, 2008).

Information Technology Journal, Cloud Computing, Capacity building, Telecenter, PRIs, CSC, G-Cloud, GDC, Rural matrimony, Rural development, e-Governance cash card, Net banking.