IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

Chief Minister Narendra Modi declared Banaskantha as an e-gram district at a function held at Palanpur on the eve of the 62nd Independence Day celebrations. After Amreli, Banaskantha has become the second e-gram-vishwa-gram district in Gujarat, with all its 783 village panchayats receiving broadband connectivity.

Also, 392 Community Information Centres (CIC) providing Internet facility to villagers are being made operational here. Amreli was declared an e-gram on May 1 this year.

While stating this here on Sunday, a spokesman of Haryana Department of Electronics and Information Technology said that new initiatives were being implemented under the leadership of Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda to make Haryana number one State in information technology so as to cope with the changing scenario.

Government of Haryana is in the process of setting up around 1200 Common Service Centres (CSCs) across the state by April 2008.

In its quest to set up a delivery platform for B2C and G2C, the government of Haryana is setting up 1159 rural CSCs and 104 urban CSCs.

State IT and BT Secretary M N Vidyashankar said 39 more such centers would be opened by the end of this year in the city and also one center each in cities like Hubli-Dharwad, Mysore, Gulbarga and Mangalore.

Official sources told Deccan Herald that the Centre has issued necessary guidelines for ESD regime after amending the Information Technology Act 2008, under Section 6A of the said IT Act. The draft rules called Information Technology (Electronic Service Delivery) Rules 2009, the Centre, notes shall extend to the entire country and State governments adopt them or notify the same immediately in their Official Gazette.

Most of us have been shunted from pillar to post to obtain a simple document such as a marriage or birth certificate. We have been bewildered, confused and angry with having to deal with multiple government agencies, each with their petty egos and all wanting their pound of flesh.

But now, those in rural Bangalore no longer need to worry as these chores are set to be made hassle-free. The government is embarking on a scheme to open 5,000 Common Service Centres (CSCs) at the gram-panchayat level where these documents can be obtained across a counter.

Many of the Bharat Nirman Centers, earlier known as Common Service Centers (CSC), the main tool of national e-governance program, are slowly fading out due to the lack of fund and improper connectivity issue.

"We are seeing the impact of slowdown on Service Center Agency (SCA). They are unable to manage funds which have slowed the rate of CSC roll out," said Chandra Prakash, Principal Secretary, Department of IT and Electronics, Uttar Pradesh at the 6th Assocham National Summit on E-Governance.

The Indian government’s programme for Common Service Centres (CSCs), which planned for 100,000 kiosks in at least 650,000 villages, has registered 84,000 CSCs.

As part of the National eGovernance Plan (NeGP), the programme is intended to provide citizens with services at their doorsteps. But some operational hurdles, including those pertaining to the village-level entrepreneurs running the CSCs, remain to be addressed.

These kiosks would serve as a common centre for a host of activities like getting licenses, property tax registration, bus pass, railway tickets, passport and so on. CSC is one of the core IT enabled initiatives under the national e-governance plan (NeGP).

Long queues and inconvenient timings at the local ward office to get a birth certificate or pay a bill are soon set to become history. The BMC has tied up with Internet company Sify to provide these services through its 250 i-way cyber cafes across Mumbai.

At these centres, the villagers of the area can avail the following services for a nominal fee: digital photograph, videograph, NREGA photograph and data collection, submission of forms to various government departments, information regarding addition, deletion and modification in electoral rolls, data regarding land acquisition and records, internet, birth, death certificates, BSNL bill payment, mobile phone recharge cards, railway reservation, LIC premium payment, etc.

The 13-member committee headed by principal secretary (electronics department) and the chief executive officer of Centre for e-Governance (CEG) will regularly hold its meetings at least once every month.

A government order has been issued in this connection by the Department of Information Technology and Electronics on Monday.

Under the NeGP - announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - implementation of Common Service Centers (CSCs) is the most important of the 4 pillars of the NeGP.

The e-Calcutta Citizen Service Centres — one on KN Sen Road near Bijon Setu and the other at VIP Market in Kankurgachhi — will be inaugurated by municipal affairs minister Asok Bhattacharya and IT minister Debesh Das on Monday. They will start operations on Tuesday.

One such centers in mountain locked Kishtwar district is testimony to the fact. The CIC centre in Kishtwar town, being operated by Rural Development Department, has become an inaccessible quarter. Residents allege that the centre was being used only by the staff members of the office, while the locals were being denied any access.

Der Finanzsenator des Bundeslands Bremen hat die IVU Traffic Technologies AG beauftragt, das bereits in Berlin bewährte Informationssystem für Bürgerämter auch für die neuen Lokalen Dienstleistungszentren in der Hansestadt zu installieren. Bei dem Auftrag handelt es sich um eine Lizenz der von der IVU entwickelten innovativen Software „Start-Infosystem“ sowie um technische Unterstützungsleistungen bei deren Einführung. Der Start in die E-Government-Zeit ist noch für dieses Jahr geplant.

All what you need to do is to call the National Contact Centre (NCC) for Government Service on 065008080 and you will get the information you need within minutes.