It gives me immense pleasure to present Smart Governance before you— for a reader, stakeholder-trial. Smart Governance and its sister online publication egovin.com are just the opening shots of Aptek Media group that intends to cover information technology’s role in centre, state and local governments.
This being the first edition, I think it fit to briefly introduce myself and my credentials. I have taken up the responsibility to lead the editorial team after having spent over seven years in well-known specialty publications like 9 Dot 9 Media and Elets Techno Media. I spent around two decades in the mainstream media; before shifting to the government technology sector.
I am a ‘journalist of the old school’, who is focused on fairness, objectivity and good taste in content — free of comment, agendas, innuendo and un-attributed pejorative quotations. I am a fierce critic of the present trend set by corporate media managers – that the media should provide what the readers want.
Our magazine and website will strive to impart, not merely information about e-governance models and related technologies, but also about how they are being incorporated into existing systems, hits and misses along the way as also the reasons behind them, achievements and blind spots, citizen-centric initiatives, personnel training and general awareness of the field, and much more. We hope that our effort will spread to the general reading public instead of getting limited to the hands of a few.
Our magazine, I hope, will be able to fill in at least some of the gap that exists, between the pace at which ICT is being adopted and integrated into governance systems, and awareness about it among the public and even the large government workforce.
Being deeply aware of the need to regularly revise our content, reinvent ourselves and introspect upon our perspectives, we will especially look forward to questions, comments, suggestions, appreciation and criticism from our readers about any aspect of our work.
With that, I wish to conclude this first editorial to the first edition of the magazine. I hope you find it informative, thought-provoking as well as enjoyable. Happy reading!