Assessing the Maturity of Online Service Delivery by Applying Local Online Service Index (LOSI) Methodology in Selected Indian Cities

The research aims to assess the current level of maturity of Municipal Governance Portals (MGPs) in selected Indian cities in terms of institutional framework, technology, provision of service, information, and features for local participation. The research tries to analyze the online public service delivery under the e-governance domain in India from the citizen's side at the front end, by applying the Local Online Service Delivery (LOSI) methodology in selected cities from across the nation. The assessment process consists of four steps. The first step involves selection of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and their municipal portals. The identification of the portal that caters to the ULB only and not part of a state or national scheme is crucial for this assessment. The second step involves understanding the parameters that form the questionnaire for the LOSI assessment. The third step involves filling up the questionnaire with provision of proof for every answer. The fourth step involves re-checking all the answers provided and deriving results by percentage value method. There can be multiple parameters from which the results can be derived, such as city-wise results and component-wise results. The data points that are captured from multiple sources are determined by the analysis and correlations to be made with different factors governing the maturity of the city in terms of online services. Primary data about city demographics, such as population, state, zone, designation of smart city, and budget allocation for e-governance projects were collated from Census India 2011 and Smart Cities database. The availability of budget was checked manually. The assessment results generated a database of city-wise scores, category-wise scores, and parameter-wise scores. From the combined database, there could be a possibility of visualization and analysis by correlating data. This visualization and analysis include inferences from different maps and charts to identify areas of improvement for each city and component of the assessment.