The Indian rural society is infested with problems like illiteracy, poverty, lack of awareness, etc., and to eradicate such problems an attempt has been made by the Government of India in the form of 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act which strongly affirms the establishment of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). The PRIs comprise elected representatives from rural vicinity, who can understand local demands and problems. The government has initiated various rural development programs which encompass keen involvement of PRIs and bureaucracy for their success. In the year 2006, the government approved National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) for computerization of high priority mundane tasks. As a result, numerous e-governance applications were designed for imparting various types of services to people in their own vicinity. But a majority of applications have not attained the intended success. The e-services, especially in rural areas, were hampered by the lack of participation and awareness among PRIs, bureaucrats and beneficiaries. This paper proposes a prototype for enhancing utilization of e-services in rural areas by reengineering the methodology adopted for capacity building of PRIs and sensitization mechanism. It also includes the feedback mechanism for beneficiaries. The paper encompasses the formal mathematical representation of the framework which gives an impeccable idea about the boundaries of the framework and the impact of various parameters in enhancing e-services utilization, and assists in the development of ontologies for the framework.

The concept of rural development is not novel, and it was coined after the independence of India. Since a majority of Indian populace lives in villages, the concept of rural development has become important. It imbibes the zeal of overall development of the nation. The current democratically decentralized architecture of India focuses on rural and urban areas separately with divergent modus operandi. According to the 73^rd Constitutional Amendment Act, a three-tier architecture was conceptualized for the establishment of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in rural areas (deSouza, 2010). A PRI comprises three bodies, viz., Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad at local level, block level and district level, respectively. The PRIs encompass elected representatives from local areas in order to identify local needs and formulate appropriate policies for them (Kumar et al., 2013).

Although the government has devised an influential mechanism for the overall development of rural society, still a majority of marginalized people reside in rural areas, and moreover, they are suffering from social problems like poverty, illiteracy, shelter, sanitation, etc., severely. The current scenario puts a stigma on the adopted strategies of government for the welfare of rural masses and hence the existing developmental mechanisms need to be reengineered in order to accomplish the intended objectives of rural development.

Information Technology Journal, Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Rural development, Capacity building, Sensitization, e-Governance, National e-Governance Plan (NeGP).