CHENNAI DEC. 11 . A global expert in information technology, Douglas Holmes, has offered to explore the possibility of setting up an "e-governance centre" in Chennai, to monitor and expand the government IT initiatives.

"I impressed on the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, the need for the Government switching over to e-governance," Mr. Holmes said after a 20-minute meeting with her at the Secretariat here today.

Mr. Holmes, who presented a copy of his book e-Gov: e-Business strategies for Government, to Ms. Jayalalithaa, offered to come again to give shape to the varied IT initiatives being undertaken by the Government in the critical departments of Health, Commercial Taxes, Rural Development and Revenue.

The Law and IT Minister, D. Jayakumar, the Chief Secretary, Lakshmi Pranesh, the Finance Secretary and Development Commissioner, N. Narayanan and the IT Secretary, Vivek Harinarain, were present at the Secretariat meeting.

Mr. Holmes, whose India mission covered Hyderabad and Chennai aimed at spreading the message of "e-governance" in developing nations, also addressed a seminar on "e-governance" organised by the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu and Microsoft, India.

Earlier, in an interview to The Hindu, the British-Canadian journalist and writer, whose forte was transforming the industrial society into an information society, underscored the importance of gathering the "political will" for embarking on IT measures at the governmental level.

Mr. Holmes said the web-driven IT measures would provide the Government the right opportunity to deliver cost-effective, round-the-clock, customer-oriented services.

There was no option before the Governments other than introducing the concept of e-governance designed to improve the results of the varied services and making the departments "people-friendly".

The CEO and Chief Consultant of Innovative Media, Muhamed Muneer, who was one of the coordinators for Mr. Holmes' visit, said the exercise was meant to evolve a suitable citizen-driven IT initiative, in keeping with the needs of the State.