A Challenging E-journey Along the Silk Road: Lessons Learned from E-governments in China and India

Recent experiments from around the world have offered testimony to the relevance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in disseminating and simplifying the delivery of government-to-citizen services. Even in developing countries, successful e-government service delivery can, achieve three vital objectives—transparency, accessibility, and development. China and India are the first and second most populous nations in the world, respectively, accounting for over 37% of the world’s total population. Both countries are characterized by urban–rural disparities, income gaps, and inequalities in access of essential services. Toward the goal of bridging these divides in access to the government or its services, ICT opportunities for development are being explored by extensively implementing e-government networks within urban and rural regions. However, both successes and failures are prevalent within their current e-government infrastructures. This chapter probes the question of what determines a project’s success, using Heeks’ “Design-Reality Gap” model and infoDev’s criteria for successful e-government projects. An analysis is attempted of two e-government projects each in China and India. The authors’ analyses are solely based on secondary sources from practitioners, scholars, and governments that were involved with the projects in China or India. This chapter aims to emphasize the necessary role of underlying factors relevant to Indian and Chinese e-governments, such as education, funding, connectivity, leadership, and governmental control. In the absence of these factors, it is expected that success might be elusive.