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Purpose -The purpose of this study is to examine the position of interoperability of government and corporate portals in technological adoption space in India in terms of three critical dimensions: data integration, process integration and communication integration. Design/methodology/approach -This exploratory study was conducted through a survey questionnaire from 300 portals of government departments and public sector undertakings (PSUs) in India. Data were also collected from portals of Indian companies and the results have been compared with those of the government portals. Findings -The results show that the majority of government portals in India have initiated integration. Second, the portals of Indian companies are performing better than the portals of government and PSUs for achieving an interoperable position. Third, there is high dispersion in level of integration of government portals in India. Practical implications -The portals with the lowest level of integration in government in India will determine when government will actually attain full horizontal integration and hence achieve an interoperable portal as there is high dispersion in level of integration of government portals in India. Also, for achieving an interoperable government portal, an organization needs to focus on the weakest factors of each dimension. Originality/value -This study is the first to examine the position of interoperability in technological adoption space in India. The results lead to a number of recommendations for achieving interoperability for government portals in India. The study also highlights the weakest factors of each dimension that require more improvement than other factors.

Interoperability is an important pre-condition for achieving higher stages of e-government and further ensures that a one stop portal will become a reality. Interoperability results from vertical and horizontal integration. The question arises: How can the level of interoperability and degree of integration be ascertained? This paper suggests a framework. It begins by identifying critical factors necessary for the successful adoption of interoperability technology along three dimensions of integration—process integration, communication integration, and data integration. Factors are formed from a literature review and discussions with webmasters and IT professionals working on portal development in various government departments of India. These factors are useful in further evaluation across the three dimensions and locate the position of a government portal in a technology adoption space. It is then possible to ascertain a portal’s current level of integration sophistication.

Anurag Agrawal and colleagues describe their experience of setting up a readily deployable cargo container-based health center in rural India. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary

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Purpose The cities are distinctly engine of economic growth, which depends upon speed at which innovations are brought out and trigger entrepreneurship. Smart city initiatives are one of the opportunities to unleash innovation and entrepreneurship in developing countries like India. Entrepreneurial ecosystem research in smart cities is still in its nascent phase. Therefore, the study aims to bring out elements for a start-up ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship in smart cities. Design/methodology/approach Focus group discussion has been applied to gain a variety of insights and opinion from selected participants with diverse expertise. Findings The study proposes a framework for developing a start-up ecosystem in smart city. The findings suggest the technology infrastructure along with the elements of start-up framework as knowledge hub, public policy, entrepreneurship and city economy. Research limitations/implications The study does not show the impact of smart city strategies over an extended period. Practical implications A robust entrepreneurial framework usually impact on utilization of technologies for economic activities and regional development. The innovators, policymakers, city administrators, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and various stakeholders in society will get benefit from the outcomes of this study. Social implications The evolution of smart cities is a social initiative with various stakeholders –such as governments, residents, businesses and entrepreneurs. The creation of start-up ecosystem in smart cities requires several levels of interventions such as new programs and institutional reforms. Originality/value The research explores pillars and constituents that describe a start-up ecosystem in smart cities and nurtures a collaborative culture of innovations and entrepreneurship.

Developing countries are witnessing an upsurge in the number of e-Governance projects being undertaken. This has presented a lot of issues and challenges in efficiently using ICT in delivering effective governance at the lowest societal costs. One of the critical areas where there is duplication of infrastructure and manpower in e-governance is the data center. There are several approaches to e-Governance but most of them require the different government agencies to procure and maintain the entire IT infrastructure themselves. Utility Based Computing (UBC) offers tremendous potential to develop a sustainable eGovernance framework wherein a common data center infrastructure can be setup to provide the e-governance solutions, with different departments being billed as per the usage of the infrastructure. The combined potential of UBC to deliver computing on demand and to pay as you go paradigm offer a new approach to deliver cost-effective and efficient governance to the citizens. However, this framework has also its risks and issues.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to attempt to fill the need to identify critical information security issues at national level, both technical and social in the Indian context, and create a framework of these issues to provide interesting managerial insights about their hierarchy. Current literature advocates relevance of both technical and social issues in a potential framework to address national and organizational information security concerns. Such a framework can guide users in developing insight for strategy in the maize of important information security issues and their intricate interdependency. Design/methodology/approach – Delphi methodology is used to identify a set of topical issues with help from members of a cyber security group. These issues are further analyzed using Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) to impose order and direction to the complex relationships among them. Findings – The analysis using ISM creates a framework of these issues and provides interesting managerial insights about their hierarchy. These insights are used to recommend prioritized action for information security at national and organizational levels. Research limitations/implications – The highlight of this research is ingenious deployment of two idea engineering methods in developing interpretable structural model of 25 information security issues. This model provides valuable insights and can guide the policy formulation. This is the key contribution of this paper. It needs hardly any emphasis on the need for continuous search of all technical and social issues and formulating policies and programs using experts” judgment in a rigorous manner. Subsequent research may scale up to the global level for extension and validation by empanelling Delphi experts from nations belonging to different regions. Time-variant analysis can be attempted with the help of System Dynamics Modeling using causal-loop diagrams to account for the supportive and inhibiting influences of various issues. This approach has the potential to generate more realistic insights that can inform policy formulation. Practical implications – It brings about key information security issues connected with its various facets, viz. national/organizational level initiatives, supportive processes, capabilities and objectives. These issues, identified by Indian experts in the Indian context, offer a method that one could apply in other national contexts and see whether substantial differences occur, and how other experts prioritize these issues. The analysis of social issues along with technical issues using the ISM tool provides us insights that are considered applicable to a larger context than India. The policy and program formulations in other nations can benefit from the insights generated by this research. The fast-paced proliferation of technology and its resultant vulnerabilities have given birth to an underground economy of malware trading by criminals, terrorists and hostile nation states. Secure cyber space for legitimate use by the globalized world can only be achieved by international cooperation. Social implications – A “digital divide” in cyber defense cannot be afforded. As explained earlier, cyber security is a challenge for both developed and developing nations. Prioritization of resources in a sequence suggested by ISM analysis would help face the challenge of cyber security better. The methodology suggested in this paper would ensure adequate response to cyber threats and eliminate knee-jerk reaction. Originality/value – This research emphasizes identification of hierarchical relationship among the identified topical issues of information security rather than using them as a flat checklist. It helps us segregate the end objectives from root issues and highlights the necessity of addressing these root issues to achieve those objectives.