IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

Currently, pensioners are required to submit a physical Life Certificate issued by authorities and specified by the Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) in November each year in order to continue receiving pension. Alternatively, the person had to be personally present at the Pension Disbursing Agency.

According to a statement by the Government, the Government e-Payment Gateway (GePG) is a portal which enables the successful delivery of payment services from Pay & Accounts Offices (PAOs) for online payment into beneficiaries’ accounts in a seamless manner under a secured environment.

An MoU was signed on March 8 between Indian Railways and public sector telecom firm RailTel for implementing the e-office system aimed at digitizing the work of the national transporter.

RailTel, a Miniratna PSU under the Ministry of Railways, has taken up the work of implementing the e-office system for Indian Railways, an official statement said.

All railway stations — nearly 8,500 across the country, including those in rural and remote areas — will be equipped with Wi-Fi facilities at an estimated cost of Rs. 700 crore ($110 million).

As part of the government‘s ambitious , the national transporter has currently commissioned Wi-Fi services at 216 major stations enabling about seven million rail passengers to log on to the free Internet facility.

New Delhi: All railway stations, nearly 8,500 across the country, including those in rural and remote areas, will be equipped with Wi-Fi facilities at an estimated cost of Rs 700 crore.

As part of the government's ambitious Digital India initiative, the national transporter has currently commissioned Wi-Fi services at 216 major stations enabling about seven million rail passengers to log on to the free Internet facility.

The Digital India initiative is taking a ‘Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani’ approach to develop communication infrastructure, government information systems, and a digitally capacitate public life in India. ‘Public life’ here implies the wide sphere of interactions between people and public institutions.

This approach is like putting together Japanese shoes, British trousers, and a Russian cap for making an Indian entertainer. In this case, the analogy must not be understood as different components of the initiative coming from different countries, but as efforts made to use digital technology for governance in India. The initiative is deploying the Public Information Infrastructure vision, which will include the National Optical Fibre Network (BharatNet) and national cloud computing platform (Meghraj). The central identity platform is the Aadhaar ID and the authentication-as-a-service infrastructure built by the team of Nandan Nilekani and Ram Sewak Sharma.

The Digital India vision is disruptive thinking at a macro level that has the potential to change the living conditions of 1.2 billion people, and bridge the gap between Bharat and India. A tad ambitious but within reach, if the execution is as strong as the resolve.

To start with, the digital infrastructure of the country is at a stage where the pillars are yet being built. Broadband highways, universal mobile coverage, public internet access and electronic manufacturing are the requisite pillars. There are specific and time-bound goals to be achieved. More than 250,000 gram panchayats are yet to be connected through broadband, 42,300 mobile-uncovered villages to be brought under the radar, most 150,000 post offices and a similar number of common service centres are yet to have broadband internet access.

On 19 October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that health IDs would be used for COVID-19 immunisation in India. Modi first proposed these IDs on Independence Day this year, when he launched the National Digital Health Mission—a scheme to provide a digital “health ID” to all of India’s citizens. Despite the scale and ambition of this programme, the NDHM is not supported by a legal or governance framework, and consequently invited much criticism about the Modi government’s policy-making process. The NDHM’s use for the administration of vaccines against the deadly pandemic will likely compel widespread participation. While the centre has consistently drawn criticism for introducing policies that threaten digital security before enacting a data-protection law, there has been little focus on two aspects of the digital infrastructure behind it—the India Enterprise Architecture and the National Open Digital Ecosystem.

November 2013 marked 500 million enrolments to the scheme, making Aadhaar the largest biometric programme in the world. This year the scheme is set to be linked to major development reforms, and the collection of data, stored in a centrally controlled database, aims to improve transparency, reduce corruption and ensure access to the country’s myriad of welfare benefits.

The Cabinet yesterday approved the ambitious 'Digital India' programme, which aims to connect all gram panchayats by broadband Internet, promote e-governance and transform India into a connected knowledge economy.

"'Digital India' is not an elite concept anymore. We have to use this idea to revolutionize health and education in India. Use broadband for education for rural areas, and telemedicine for the poor," Modi said.

"Hello, it's Sanjay Sathe," the 36-year-old grape and tomato farmer announced in the local language, Marathi, as if talking to a friend. "Is it going to rain tomorrow?"

The voice at the other end of the line told him there would be 25 millimetres (one inch) of rain and temperatures would be a cool 24 degrees (75 Fahrenheit).

Maharashtra has emerged as the top ranking state in terms of overall Internet readiness index, according to a new report published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Indicus Analytics. The report titled 'Index of Internet Readiness of Indian States' pits Karnataka and Gujarat as close second and third while Telengana and Tamil Nadu rank fourth and fifth respectively. The bottom four states are all from the Eastern region, as per the report.

Delhi has emerged as the top state among smaller states in terms of Internet readiness index. The national capital is followed by Puducherry and Goa. At the same time, Chandigarh is ranked top among the Union Territories.

Legal framework for mandatory e-governance services in India is long due. If we make e-governance service optional or discretionary, the whole purpose would be defeated. This is the reason why we need time bound and accountable e-governance based public services in India. Keeping this objective in mind, the central government formulated the draft electronic delivery of services bill 2011 (EDS Bill 2011). The EDS Bill 2011 intends to provide delivery of government services to all citizens by electronic means by phasing out of manual delivery of services delivered by the government including matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Government to sign agreement running into billions of dollars, says Ravi Shankar Prasad

Taking forward one of his marquee projects, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Digital India week on Wednesday. The event will be attended by some of the top corporate leaders of the country including Reliance Industries' Mukesh Ambani, Cyrus Mistry, chairman of Tata Sons, Wipro's Azim Premji and Anil Agarwal of the Vedanta group among others.

While addressing a press conference on Saturday, union minister for communications and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the government is expected to sign agreement running into billions of dollars in the areas of Digital India and electronics manufacturing. However, he did not share more details on the contours of the deals saying that they will be announced on July 1.

India might boast of 900 million strong mobile customers and increasing every day. Bharti Airtel chairman might be saying that the next big thing which will hit the country is a data revolution. And the NDA government might have cleared an ambitious and grandiose “Digital India” program which is estimated to cost over 100,000 crore to get whole of Indian connected.

India launches NIRYAT – National Import-Export Record for Yearly Analysis of Trade. This has been developed as a one-stop platform for stakeholders to access all the information necessary related to India’s foreign trade. The Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, will also address the gathering on the occasion.

The NIRYAT portal is another step in the country’s journey towards self-reliance: ‘Antmanirbhar Bharat’.  In a first for the nation, the ambitious target of exports worth US$ 400 billion was achieved nine days before the deadline in March 2022. This prompted congratulations by the Prime Minister who recognised the efforts of all levels of stakeholders for this success.

Piloted in 2008 as a test, electronic passports were issued to diplomats and other high-level officials and now the Ministry of External Affairs is ready to begin distributing the passports to Indians across the country.

Reported in iGovernment.in, the new passports contain an RFID chip in the front cover which holds a digital photograph of the passport holder as well as biometric fingerprint information.

Addressing the probationers, the President said that the Indian Civil Accounts Service was carved out of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service in 1976 as part of reforms in India’s Public Financial Management System. The idea was to separate statutory audit and accounts at the federal level. The President stated that he was happy to note that the system has worked well. The Civil Accounts Organization has, over the years, progressed in the right direction and has developed systems not only to keep pace with developments in Information and Communication Technology but also to fulfill the aspirations of the common people.

This challenge comes in response to a Public interest litigation (PIL), seeking the issuance of Aadhaar numbers be put on hold, Firstpost reports.

This threatens to pull the plug on the massive Aadhaar program, which would completely stop the direct cash transfer scheme that depends on beneficiaries having Aadhaar numbers.