The present book on e-Panchayat is outcome of the UGC national seminar on "e-Panchayats in Bihar, Impediments and Solutions" organized by the editors at R. N. College, Hajipur in October 2009. The quality papers after revisions have been epistemologically arranged in order to produce a readable discourse. e-Governance has become the key to success of governance as well as good governance in this age of knowledge dominant world. India is also prone to adopt e-governance both at micro PRIs and ULBs and macro levels. This is evident from the fact that Government of India has pondered up on to the proliferation of electronic net work through out the country for governance down at the village level shortly has already passed Information Technology Act 2000. In this context, the e-Panchayat is not a new phenomenon now. Now the question is - what is e-Panchayat? How is it different from macro level e-governance? Can e-Panchayat be vehicle of good governance at grassroots level? For a ready reference it can be said in short that e-Panchayat is nothing but use of Information and communication technology (ICT) in the local self governance through panchayat bodies (local self government) for administrative and development purposes. But as a student of politics and government, it seems essential to go for conceptual clarity. There are various aspects of e-Panchayats like application, use, equity in accessibility, maintenance, efficiency, sustenance, etc. Further it is essential to have a conceptual framework for examining the e-governance by the grassroots level functionaries. In this context, it becomes imperative to examine the tenets and intricacies of the concept of e-Panchayat vis-a-vis e-governance. It is in this sense the book endeavors to underline the conceptual as well as the functional aspects of e-Panchayats in context of impediments and solutions in Bihar. As Such the book is divided into five sections: the first section contains the introduction to the discourse and proceedings of the seminar. The second part of the book contains the conceptual treatment, functional aspects and basic issues on challenges and opportunities in context of e-Panchayats in Indian states like Bihar and Bengal. The third section examines the e-panchayats in relation to human resource development and rural development. The fourth part of the book traces out the social impact of e-Panchayats. The fifth part contains bibliography and the policy documents for the readers.
