E-governance and millennium development goals: sustainable development perspective in rural India

The year 2015 is fast approaching for the countries and the United Nations pursuing Millennium Development Goals (MDG). In the United Nation (UN) Millennium Summit 2000, 191 countries adopted the Millennium declaration. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) supported E-Governance is a critical element in achieving MDGs. National E-Governance strategies have hastened ICT interventions. Recent global assessments on MDGs suggest that though many countries have shown noticeable results in meeting MDGs with scope for supporting sustainable development strategies. In this paper, it is posited that efforts to meet MDGs in India need to have converged efforts at the village levels. This is desired because local development processes are likely to influence the national agenda. Village households being units of development processes need to understand the contours of MDGs and its effects in lives of the household. Use of E-governance supported services by these units for meeting MDGs has influences to meet sustainable development of the households. This paper includes studies in some sample villages in the state of Gujarat to examine the effects of E-Governance in meeting MDGs and sustainable development. It discusses the process of convergence and contributions of E-Governance services to meet MDG agenda and overall sustainable development.