Changed governance or computerized governance? Computerized property transfer processes in Tamil Nadu (India)

This paper reports on the first large-scale e-government project in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Called STAR (Simplified Transparent Administration of Registration), this project uses ICTs in the administrative processes involved in transfer of ownership of real estate. A World Bank study (Tamil Nadu Governance Challenges published in October 2004 ) identified a bloated government workforce, poor levels of transparency and accountability, high levels of corruption and the poor quality of public services as the significant governance challenges faced by Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu, however, has the advantage of a high-quality ICT infrastructure built for promoting IT and IT-enabled services industries. E-government is generally believed to have the capacity to increase productivity, promote higher levels of transparency and accountability, and contribute to increased quality of public services. It is interesting, therefore, to examine how the government of Tamil Nadu is using ICTs to meet its governance challenges. The Registration Department of the government deals with registration of documents relating to sale, mortgage, lease of real estate properties, providing title search reports and similar functions. Before STAR, the department followed procedures unchanged since colonial times. The department had a reputation of being corrupt, arbitrary and unfriendly. The paper reports the results of a study of the objectives, implementation, funding, and actual working of STAR, as well as a survey of stakeholders on the impact of this project. Based on these, it discusses the effect that key policy choices made have on the impact of e-government projects