IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani today launched the KV Shaala Darpan programme of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan here, saying that the programme would script “a new definition of e-governance, good governance, and digital India”.

Elaborating, the Minister said, “The programme would be a step forward in the direction of fulfilling the vision of digital India of our PM Modi.” The project will link all 1,100 Kendriya Vidyalayas.

Over the last decade or so, there has been a surge in talks about e-Governance in India. This became the new panacea which would enable people of India to deal with the government more easily, and make government more reachable and transparent.

E-government startup Neocapita is preparing to launch Stoneblock, its decentralized, blockchain-based registration service for government-managed information and citizen records. The team is currently in talks with several organizations and jurisdictions for pilot programs.

Tony Willenberg, founder of Neocapita, told Bitcoin Magazine that proposals for piloting the Stoneblock platform are being discussed with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Vision, and directly with two governments, namely Afghanistan and Papua New Guinea. The proposed pilots include solutions to provide greater efficiency and transparency in aid contributions and cross-border transactions.

“All this has democratised information. And this huge database leads to better planning and better governance,” said Mr Shanker. It helps the national e-governance initiative to reach out to rural areas for better planning and service delivery.

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.

Monitoring Power Outages

North America’s energy grid is ageing, and marred with frequent outages. The average outage time for the grid in a year is as high as 214 minutes in the North east (the comparable figure in Japan is only 4 minutes). Overhauling the grid would, of course, require a lot of money. So, what the power companies there are doing is taking recourse to the social media.

ADSIC, the government entity in charge of Abu Dhabi’s ICT agenda, has revealed its plan for showcasing the emirate’s futuristic e-services and solutions at the upcoming event to be held on October 20-24 at Dubai World Trade Centre. The presence of Abu Dhabi’s e-government services this year includes a single stand of 350 square metres, which is six times bigger than the previous year.

The Abu Dhabi Systems & Information Centre (ADSIC) recently shared its successful adoption of an emirate-wide multi-channel public services approach and mobility for the benefit of its citizens during the 4th Annual Kingdom e-Government Summit held recently in Saudi Arabia.

ADSIC was among the select government entities chosen for the exclusive invitation-only Summit, which hosted in-depth discussions on the delivery of technology-enabled public services to the region's businesses and residents. During the last day of the event, Khaled Habrout Al Mazrouei, ADSIC's Business Information Manager, showcased the Abu Dhabi Government Contact Centre (800555) program's multi-channel architecture.

HE Khalid Jasim Al Midfa, Director General, Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority has said that the Authority is keen to upgrade and develop all its services in keeping with the directives of the Sharjah Government and UAE Government on the optimum utilisation of smart e-governance services and information in the Emirate. In this respect, he said, the SCTDA is working on a number of pilot projects in the field of information technology to develop and improve customer service solutions to effectively promote Sharjah and its tourism sector.

THE growing use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) through the assistance of informatics can help improve the quality of government services. It can also help institutionalise management systems that reduce the scope for rent-seeking activities.

Serving the citizens through electronic governance or “eGovernance”, is more essential for the developing countries than forthe developed and less populousones. The government in a densely populous country like Bangladesh can better serve the citizens through Information and CommunicationTechnologies (ICTs). Branding the country as Digital Bangladesh might have drawn the attention of local and international communities, but the country's success in adopting eGovernance is not noticeable if compared to some provinces of theneighboring country, India.

During the last parliamentary election of India, the successful project 'SWAGAT' in Gujarat often came to the limelight because it made the BJP leader, Narendra Modi,a hero of India,who was later voted as Prime Minister of one of the biggest countries of the world. Actually, SWAGAT is almost synonymous to the eGovernance services; people of the region arejust a click away from accessing the citizen services.

“E-Governance will not be possible within our tenure and it will take a little more time… that was also not our target,” he said while inaugurating the three-day Sylhet E- Commerce Fair and Digital Innovation Fair 2013 through video conference from his secretariat office.

Introducing e-governance in Bangladesh is a public demand to ensure good governance, corruption-free government, simplification of government functions, transparency and accountability of the government and effective delivery of public services at the people's doorstep. The demand also relates to decreasing the gap between the government and its citizens and ensuring some fundamental rights (right to information, freedom of speech and expression) of the people. One must not deny the fact that there have been some commendable initiatives taken by the present government in this direction in materialising one of its key election promises for establishing what it dubbed 'Digital Bangladesh'.

This roadmap, which is contained in a policy document adopted by the European Commission, is also an important milestone on our relations. It is a celebration of the new and higher level of maturity that our relations have reached over the last years.

The University of Regina is about to establish a research chair in e-governance financed with $2 million over 10 years from Cisco Systems Inc.

The chair in the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy will be used to support research into how governments can use technology to drive collaboration and productivity.

Speaking at the opening of a one-day conference on e-Governance for Small States held at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, UK, on 19 November 2012, the Secretary-General said e-Governance facilitates improvements in public financial management, anti-corruption and enhances efficiency in service delivery.

There is need to focus on strengthening of e-Governance, an important pillar of the Government of India's "Digital India" campaign so as to digitally empower the administrative and Governance process for providing Citizen Centric Services.

This was stated by Shri Devendra Chaudhury, Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) while inaugurating a Workshop on "UN e-Government Development Index".

"There is a great digital divide between rural and urban India. IT can address that. For instance long distance education can do wonders in the country," Modi said, addressing a Nasscom conference in Mumbai.

Richard Kerby, senior inter-regional advisor on e-Government and Knowledge Management, UN is in Muscat to attend a symposium, Excellence in e-Government that began at Shangri La’s Barr al Jissah Resort & Spa on Monday.