IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

As part of this, two facilities - a state services delivery gateway and a payment gateway - will be functional within a year, he said.

Briefing the media at the e-Governance Leadership Meet, Chandy said that the state was all set to become the first in the country with all districts transformed into e-districts.

"Technology intervention to ensure social schemes such as subsidies reach targetted groups will create huge demand for ICT products and services. Measures announced in the budget are path-breaking for transforming lives of beneficiaries," Manufacturers' Association of Information Technology's (MAIT) executive director Sabyasachi Patra said.

Launching the project, P.H.Kurian, Principal Secretary in the State IT Department, said Kerala intends to become a digital State by 2016 and the government had taken steps to computerise many government services ahead of achieving this target.

India's efforts for coming at par with developed countries in terms of digital advancements have earned it not only the people's praise for convenience to easy access to the internet, but the recognition has been a global one as India rises four places in the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2019 (WDCR ) and sits at rank 44.

The most remarkable advancement in 2019 was in the technology sub-factor level, where India held the first position in telecommunications investment. This ranking measures the capacity and readiness of 63 nations to adopt and explore digital technologies as a key driver for economic transformation in business, government and society at large.

The year 2018 has seen the government partner companies and universities to explore AI, IoT, and Big Data based solutions.

India’s growth story is hard to ignore. Looking back at the year gone by, we see that India has not just leapfrogged but pole-vaulted in the technology space—and this can be put down to India’s success in navigating the road from digital transformation to digital innovation.

State Govt launches e-services, apps for admin

The Haryana government today launched seven e-services and software applications in a measure to provide hassle free and graft-free administration to the people of the state.

Launching the services in Panchkula near here, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the e-services would help translate the dream of 'Digital Haryana' into reality.

Efficient and transparent delivery of services will be assured in this manner, he said at a function here to commemorate the first year in government.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Thursday said that the State has charted out a plan to become a fully digital State.

Delivering the inaugural address at the 17th national conference on e-governance being held here on Thursday, Mr. Chandy said that in keeping with that vision, the State had implemented a slew of initiatives like e-district and e-tendering while most of the government departments had embraced e-governance.

Unfolding the government's plan for the next year at a function here to celebrate his ministry's first anniversary, Mr. Chandy said every citizen would be given an e-mail ID based on the UID Adhar, while all government transactions and applications would be through e-mail. By December 31, all panchayats would have 4G connectivity with optical fibre broadband. All pensions and scholarships would be distributed through banks. After Palakkad, Kannur, Kottayam and Malappuram districts, the rest of the 10 districts would be brought under the e-district project to provide certificates online. This project would be completed by March 31 next.

On a warm Thursday morning in New Delhi, Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi made a bold pitch for IT becoming the face of India, and, in the process, coined the Twitter-friendly phrase ‘India Talent (IT)’ + ‘Information Technology (IT)’ is equal to ‘India Tomorrow (IT)’.

“Citizens now have a direct say [in governance]. Earlier this was limited to once in five years or from one election to another. [The] Internet has truly empowered the citizens,” Mr. Modi said at the Big Tent Summit organized by online search giant Google last year.

As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman gears up to present her maiden union budget on July 5th, she met former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is also an ace economist, before the big day. On February 1, PM Modi’s previous government had presented an Interim budget for spending till the new government took charge after the general election.

So as the government unveils the budget for the financial year ending March 2020 soon, the Indian IT industry has also pinned its hopes on it.

India is experiencing rapid digitization and so is the process of digital identification and customer onboarding.

The recently passed Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019 will be paving the way for the next-generation of digital identification in our country. Biometric information of every individual is unique, so much so that it has always served as a gold standard for identification with the highest level of accuracy and a strong security.

Experts to design gamification strategy to advertise Digital India among citizens, industry.

India is looking for gamification experts to get involved in its campaign to digitise public services across the country.

Gamification creates scenarios in which people compete or win prizes, while learning about a topic or behaving in a certain desirable way.

This week, India’s Supreme Court allowed the country’s ambitious Aadhaar ID scheme to proceed, whilst setting down rules to protect people’s rights and privacy. Gavin O’Toole finds that the ruling offers mixed blessings for a digital agenda whose ambition and pace have long outgrown its infrastructure and policy frameworks

India’s vast ‘Aadhaar’ personal identity system has just won the backing of the country’s top court, in a major judgment which clears a path forward for prime minister Narendra Modi’s ground-breaking project. But the ruling also lays down boundaries around the scheme’s ambitions – setting out rules designed to protect citizens’ rights and privacy.

Surfshark rankings put Israel first for internet affordability, but 59th for internet quality

If you’re going to be working at home, Israel isn’t a bad place to be doing it: Israel ranks eighth among 85 countries around the world in the Digital Quality of Life Index compiled by the virtual private network provider Surfshark.

Israel ranked No. 1 in the world for internet affordability, but the survey also found that Israel was in just 59th place for internet quality. The survey looked at 12 parameters that include such factors as price, quality, speed and stability of the network, level of government digital services and cybersecurity.

“We are pleased to see that the Coalition has now publicly released its policy and announced the need for immediate action to address Australia’s recent and alarming deterioration in global rankings with regard to our digital competitiveness and innovation,” said Peter Lee, CEO of the IIA.

Africa’s progress and economic growth is being realised in part due to the role that information and communication technologies are playing, President Paul Kagame said.

He was addressing participants attending the Viva Technology Conference, known as “VivaTech” in Paris, France.

• Several projects launched to help modernise government services through the multi-million shilling e-Government initiative are currently not working despite millions of tax payers’ money having been used to install them.
• Kenyans online have repeatedly complained about services like the SMS passport and ID tracking service which was supposed to provide Kenyans with enquiries about the progress of their passport or ID applications.
• The stalled projects raise questions of the ability of various departments in the government to fully implement and maintain large, expensive ICT projects.
• Local IT experts are however, stating that if the government does not take appropriate steps to ensure the maintenance and updating of the software and hardware systems are done appropriately, all these projects risk failure.
• Another reason that has been advanced for the collapse of electronic systems is that they were designed by foreign software companies and therefore, maintenance and any upgrading has to be done by the same companies and this means extra expenses.

The Ministry of ICT and Youth Affairs has drafted the Digital Economy Strategy.

The first draft went live a few weeks ago. It is developed following Kenya’s adoption of the Digital Economy Blueprint for Africa that was launched by President Kenyatta in May 2019.

On the whole, the Draft Digital Strategy is based on six pillars: Digital Government, Digital Business, Infrastructure, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Digital Skills and Values and Digital Inclusion.

One of the key promises of the Kenya Kwanza administration was to transform provision of services by leveraging technology. Well, the promise is on course with ongoing implementation of the Kenya National Digital Master Plan 2022-2032, which underpins the country’s digital plans.

The ambitious plan centres around five pillars comprising digital infrastructure, digital services and data management, digital skills, digital entrepreneurship, and effective alignment to policy, legal, and regulatory frameworks. The ultimate aim of the project is to enable the government to deploy technology to improve public services by digitising government records and, more fundamentally, foster an innovation and entrepreneurship culture.