ELECTRONIC GOVERNANCE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT: A STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF ICT ON WORLD’S LARGEST WORKFARE PROGRAM (MGNREGA)

Electronic Governance augmented public services have shown encouraging results in terms of satisfaction of stakeholders. Considering the growing significance as well as the vastness of Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Scheme, we took up the study to ascertain the impact electronic governance or in other words the impact of ICT intervention on the scheme. The research study was conducted on the basis of analysis of primary data collected from scheme beneficiary as well as scheme administrator response groups through the process of administering separate questionnaire instruments on both response groups. Respondents were approached on the basis of simple random sampling. Analysis of the obtained data was carried out on the basis of pre and post ICT intervention. Results clearly depicted improvement in the operationalization of the scheme. Moreover, a brief account on suggestions and shortcoming of electronic governance deployment are also given.