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Abstract
The literature on the effectiveness of e-government in developing countries towards improving public service delivery is littered with failure stories. Notwithstanding, the failures have not stopped most governments in developing countries from increasingly turning to ICT, most notably internet based models, as the preferred channel for citizen-centred service delivery. This paper investigated e-government within the developing country context of Himachal Pradesh. I used the interpretive paradigm primarily because I wanted to increase our understanding of the phenomenon of e-government for public service delivery within the Himachal Pradesh. The investigation focused on one of the government’s primary service delivery programmes. The analysis of findings suggest that e-government in Himachal Pradesh is aligned to the service delivery philosophy, and is hence making effective in delivering on the public service delivery mandate. The research highlights the need for ICT, particularly e-government in developing contexts, to firstly be aligned to the current over-arching government philosophies if they are to have any effective impact on service delivery. The practical contribution of the research is a possible framework that could be used to align e-government in Himachal Pradesh to the government philosophy of service delivery. The Government of Himachal Pradesh in its novel venture in the forms of ‘SUGAM CENTRES’ has taken initiative to provide services concerned with government departments to the people in a hassle free, corruption free, time bound and transparent manner.E-district concept is one of the vital steps towards e-Governance Plan.