To study e-initiative of the State, High level central government delegation visits Kerala

A team of high level bureaucratic delegation lead by Shri. Sathya Narayana IAS, Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India and Shri. Gaurav Dwivedi IAS, Director visited Trivandrum to understand the various e-Governance initiatives undertaken by the Govt. of Kerala. The team also held discussions with the Chief Secretary and other Secretaries on the integrated e-governance delivery services to be rolled out in the State, soon.

The team visited Kerala to review the status of implementation of these initiatives and with the notion of replicating them in other States. Shri. PH Kurian IAS, Principal Secretary, Department of IT, Government of Kerala briefed the delegation about the ongoing e-initiatives of the State.  

Sh. P H Kurian underlined that Kerala “pioneered in implementing several e-initiatives of the Government of India and became a role model to many other Indian states by their effective and timely execution”. The visiting team thoroughly reviewed the advancements in implementing the programs, particularly the e- District program and the State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG) programs and expressed satisfaction. The delegation explored the possibility of replicating some of the successful e-models of Kerala- like the   e-literacy program, common service centers, e-district etc. in other Indian states.

  

e-District is a State Mission Mode Project under the National e- Governance Plan. e-District proposed integrated, seamless, and online delivery of citizen services at the district level through automations of work flow, backend digitization, integration and process redesign. Kerala State IT Mission was identified as the Implementation Agency for implementing the pilot project, in Kannur and Palakkad districts.

This project targeted high volume services delivered at the district level and to undertake back-end computerization to enable the delivery of citizen services through Akshaya centers. The State Government has implemented the pilot phase of e-District project with the objective of making all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, ensuring efficiency, transparency & reliability of such services. 23 Revenue Certificates have been made online in the first phase. An estimated 8 Lakhs e-applications have been processed during the pilot run, with 80% certificates issued. The e-District services are planned for rollout to entire Kerala in a year’s time.

The State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG) project was formulated under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) to fulfill the vision of integrating all services across departments and provide the same through Common Service Centers (CSSs) and state portals.

                              

Concluding the deliberations, Sh. P H Kurian said that the State IT Policy, to be announced soon, ‘will have its thrust on e-service delivery to citizens of Kerala.’ A futuristic, integrated service delivery framework has been chalked out by the Kerala State IT Mission, envisaging a single identity for citizens to log in to a State portal, to access the services A detailed, long-term plan is under preparation now, in consultation with all departments focussing on high volume, high impact services. Government Secretaries and senior officials representing the departments including revenue, finance, public distribution, health, police, motor vehicles etc. also participated in the deliberations.