Shimla, December 1 : An e-Gov Consultation Workshop was organized by Department of Information Technology, Government of India together with NASSCOM here today with the objective of bringing senior decision makers and stakeholders of National e-Governance Plan, State Government Leadership, e-Governance Consultants, Technology Partners and Implementing Agencies on to a common discussion platform.
Giving an overview of National e-Governance Plan, Dr Rajendra Kumar, Director, NeGD, Government of India said, “NeGP is a flagship program of the Government of India aimed at bringing various departments of the state and the central government departments into IT’s fold. IT has played a key role in achieving the multilingual and multicultural barriers and has played a considerable role at national level as IT and ITeS sectors contribute close to seven percent GDP and also offer 2.5 million direct and five million indirect employment.”
Dr Kumar further brought some of the projects into spotlight where IT has played a central role. “There are still a number of sharp socio-economic issues which are being addressed through the use of IT in popular schemes like MNREGA or Right to Work, Right to Education and other similar 27 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs), said he. In order to utilize mobile as a tool which already has a common connect, the development of a mobile service delivery gateway which is expected to ensure the timely delivery of services is also on its course as part of the m-governance process. Common service centres (CSCs) are part of this. Equally strategies are being devised to retrieve vital impact through public-private partnerships, state e-misson teams and strong focus on training. Also the government has focused on developing and adopting open and interoperable standards for all its projects so that the projects do not become paralysed due to vendor lockins. Adoption of cloud computing is also part of the process in making projects interoperable across different government networks and platforms. He also briefed about the Department of IT efforts for making the Electronics Service Delivery Act a reality in the near future. Besides, Dr Kumar told about Government of India’s National Population Register (NPR) on which the work will start soon in some of the states in the first phase.
Other interesting sessions that gave the audience a ringside view of what is happening from a policy and a State perspective were ones like Capacity Building in which Ms. Deepa Sengar, Director, Capacity Building, NeGD, Government of India, said, “The objective and vision of capacity building scheme is to provide technical support and specialized skills for e-governance, to State level policy and decision-making bodies. Emphasis is also on establishment of an institutional framework for State Level Strategic decision- making including setting-up of State e-Governance Mission Team (SeMT). We are also imparting specialized training, orientation program for SeMTs and decision makers, knowledge sharing and bringing in international best practices.”
Other State projects that were showcased in the workshop were ones such as, VAT-IT Project by Sh. Jagdish Sharma, Commissioner, Excise & Taxation, Government of Himachal Pradesh, and E-Procurement in industries Department by Sh. Dinesh Malhotra, Additional Director, Industries Department, Government of Himachal Pradesh. Furthermore
Sh. Subhasish Panda, Director IT, DIT, Government of Himachal Pradesh, gave an overview of the large number of IT initiatives already taken up in the State successfully to provide services in a more efficient and transparent manner to the citizen. He gave an update on the e-Gov drive in the state. Some of the key initiatives are HIMSWAN, SUGAM Centres, e-Procurement, PMIS, e-Despatch, Litigation Monitoring System, Revenue Court Case Monitoring System, SMS Gateway, Payment Gateway, Police Portal, Land Records Computerisation & Registration of Deeds, Rollout of G2C Services through CSCs etc.
The Himachal Pradesh edition of the Citizen centric e-Government State Consultation Workshop deliberated on the various e-Governance projects successfully undertaken or being implemented in the State of Himachal Pradesh and also took stock of what needs to be done in ramping up the projects for efficiency and better delivery.
During the discussions a need was felt to have Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) keeping in view the penetration of IT in all the Government Departments, modification in the HR Policy, need for Capacity Building of existing staff to have smooth transition from manual system to e-Governance, use of UID in various e-Gov applications and integration with NPR. DIT appreciated the e-Governance initiatives taken by State Government which were otherwise not known to the GoI.
The key take-away at the end of the day for the delegates was how e-Gov has empowered the citizen and what needs to be done to graduate to the next level by achieving a common data base and interdependency. The delegates also deliberated on the bottlenecks that hinder the delivery of services through electronic platforms and endeavored to find out ways to enhance efficiency so that citizens can access services at doorsteps in an integrated manner.
