Heard of e-governance, e-commerce, e-banking, e–learning: but many of us might not be knowing G-governance. “G-governance” or good governance is a relatively new term that is often used to describe the desired objective of a nation-state’s political development. The principles of good governance, however, are not new. Good governance is, in short, efficient administrative set-up that is accountable, effective and efficient, participatory, transparent, responsive, consensus-oriented, and equitable. These are the major characteristics of good governance as outlined by the United Nations.
The World Leaders at the 2005 World Summit concluded that good governance is integral to economic growth, the eradication of poverty and hunger, and sustainable development. The views of all oppressed groups, including women, youth and the poor, must be heard and considered by governing bodies because they will be the ones most negatively affected if good governance is not achieved.
It has been shown nationally and globally that geo-information technology and communication technology play a significant role in development planning. However, what is the contribution of geo-spatial information technology and Communication Technologies towards the development programs in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. For that we need to take a look at the status of geospatial data, planning policies and mechanisms, human and institutional capacity and arrangements. It is a known fact that we lack baselines in the J&K state or it is a poorly mapped state, this means there is paucity of geospatial information. There is no coordinated and pragmatic approach for the collection, maintenance, updating and accessibility of the datasets at the state level. Even when it is made available, the users are poorly trained to use and update the geospatial data. Without the geospatial information, it is not possible to analyze the development needs, plan projects or to monitor the impacts of development projects. We have taken a number of initiatives at the University of Kashmir aimed at generating geospatial information for use in various sectors in the state. We need to catalogue the geoinformation available with all the state government agencies and academic/research institutions. This shall constitute a ground breaking initiative and shall form the basis of any further work on the collection and maintenance of geospatial data to support the development planning in the state.
The success achieved in the use of Geoinformation Technology for good governance at the national and international level need to be emulated for the promotion of good governance at all levels in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in order to push forward the development process in the state. Further, in order to develop a roadmap for building capacity of the state in E- and G-governance at the grassroots, it is imperative to take necessary steps for the promotion of Geoinformation Technology in various sectors for the overall socio-economic development of the state
Therefore, rising to the occasion and taking forward its mission of building the technical ingenuity of state to harness the benefits of Geo-IT for the overall development of the state, University of Kashmir, together with the Indian Society of Geomatics is organizing a 2-day National Conference on “Geomatics for G-Governance” from 13-14 September, 2011. The Conference is being attended by more than 150 professional delegates from various premier institutes all across the country and a dozen keynote speeches by reputed experts on various topics related to the use of Geoinformatics for good governance have been scheduled during the Conference. Various themes related to the use of cutting edge space and information technologies for day-to-day governance for rural and urban development, resource planning, disaster management, public health, municipal administration, revenue records, land and water resources management are being deliberated upon during the Conference. Dr. Shakil A Romshoo, Organizing Sectary of the Conference and Chairman, Kashmir Chapter of the ISG said that the objective of the Conference is to build the technical ingenuity of the state government and other segments of the society here to harness the benefits of Geoinformatic Technology for effective resource planning, utility services, urban and rural development and policy making and thus, improve the governance in the state. He said that Geoinformatics is making life different in many areas of our activities and the government functioning will derive greater benefit from the use of this technology.
Prof. Talat Ahmad, Vice-Chancellor, KU patron of the conference said that there is a need for making geospatial information mainstream. This could be achieved by ensuring that, instead of being a domain of few specialists or scientists, there is need to take this technology to the users in the government sector. He said that the timely provision of accurate, reliable and affordable geospatial information used in government decision making, is essential for ensuring sustained socio-economic development of the state.
Keeping in view the Technical papers that are up for presentation and discussion at the Conference, it is important that all the interested people, particularly middle level government officers, must attend proceedings of the Conference to get the first hand knowledge of how this technology is routinely being used in day-to-day governance in various southern and western states of the county.
Please visit the Conference website at http://geo.uok.edu.in/index.php/g-governance-2011 for details and update.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Showkat Shafi
Quelle/Source: Greater Kashmir, 11.09.2011
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