Published Online: October 13, 2025
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India, with its burgeoning digital landscape, presents a compelling case study for understanding the transformative power of e-governance on trade and economic growth in developing economies. This study investigates the impact of the Electronic Government Development Index (EGDI) on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Economic Growth (GDP at current price) in India over the period 2003-2023. Utilizing data from World Bank indicators and the Handbook for Indian Economy (the official site of RBI), the study employs the Auto regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model to analyze the long-run relationship between the variables. The findings of the study give evidence of the non-existence of long-run relationship between FDI and EGDI. The existence of short run relationship is further denied by the VAR Granger Causality test. However, GDP and EGDI exhibit the presence of a long-run relationship, while ECM indicated that there is no short-run relationship running between the variables. The results provide valuable insights into the role of e-governance in fostering economic development and enhancing global trade integration in the digital. Significant linkages between the variables in a dynamic framework are also evidenced using an empirical analysis.
Keywords
ARDL; Economic growth; EGDI; Foreign Direct Investment; GDP; India