IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Karimnagar Mayor Y Sunil Rao informed that in order to provide modern facilities to students and job aspirants preparing for competitive examinations, they have decided to digitalize the district library under smart city programme. Besides digitalization, the library would also be linked with big libraries. For the purpose, an amount of Rs 9 crore was allocated from smart city funds.

While Rs 7 was earmarked for the construction of new library building (G 5), digitalization and linking library with other libraries would be taken up with Rs 2 crore.

Speaking at a conference on e-Governance and Mobile Payments, at the Smart Cards Expo in New Delhi, he said that the DIT intends to complete the development of mobile service delivery applications by December 2011.

DocsApp, a chat-based healthcare platform that connects patients to specialist doctors in less than 30 minutes, has reached out to people in tier 2 and 3 cities in a big way. The company earns 60% of its response from tier 1 and tier 2 cities and more than 40% of consultations come from towns, villages and other small towns falling outside the tier 3 bracket.

Through DocsApp’s, patients are able to gain access to specialists on the app anytime, anywhere. Consultation is provided in over 17 different specialties. It takes not less than 30 minutes to start the consultation from the time the user posts his/her query. Patients can either dial the toll-free number, 1800-2748-333, or access the UI on the app which is similar to WhatsApp. After the consultation, the doctor provides a report and an e-prescription. Users can also buy medicines and run lab tests through the app itself.

"The project was implemented in the two districts on a pilot basis last year. It will be rolled out in the other 28 districts soon," Information and Technology (IT) Secretary M S Padhy said here.

Padhy was here to attend a workshop on National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), jointly organised by the department of information and technology and Odisha Computer Applications Centre (OOAC).

The project implemented in Kannur and Palghat districts was found most successful among 35 districts in the country, where it was launched as a pilot project, with the two districts issuing a million digital certificates in less than two years.

This is a year to reckon with for the Indian sub-continent with several initiatives undertaken by State and Central Ministries to usher in an era of e-governance. It has steadily evolved from computerization of government departments to initiatives that encapsulate the finer points of governance like citizen centricity, service orientation and transparency.

The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), takes a holistic view of e-Governance initiatives, integrating them into a collective vision. A massive countrywide infrastructure reaching down to the remotest of villages is evolving, and large-scale digitization of records is happening to enable easy and reliable access over the internet.

The committee set up by the government in October 2015 has done a commendable job by issuing its first batch of recommendations in a short span of less than three months. The recommendations are on issues, which are simple but need immediate attention, in the areas of curbing litigation and ease of doing business. The recommendations are open for public comments, reflecting an appreciated consultative approach on the part of the government.

The committee has suggested various measures to avoid delays in issue of refunds, such as granting of refunds without awaiting completion of assessments, higher interest on delays and precluding set-off of refunds against demands without dealing with taxpayers' objections. Taxpayers struggling to receive timely refunds would surely applaud these recommendations.

The training was attended by senior officials of various district offices of Punjab, an official spokesman said.

The scheme will extend to all states and Union Territories

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Saturday approved a restructured Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA) aimed at building infrastructure and stepping up initiatives for e-governance.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the scheme on National Panchayati Raj Day on April 24.

The extensive use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has changed the fundamental principal of delivery of services in every aspect of life, including various functions of the government. This has resulted in increasing efficiency, creating transparency, and streamlining expenses in the government Organizations. Today, Electronic Governance (popularly referred as e-governance) has emerged as a keyword for all such IT applications that are deployed by government bodies to deliver solutions and information to the masses. Generally, e-governance is considered as "online government"; however, many non-Internet technologies like telephone, fax, SMS, wireless networks and services, CCTVs, tracking systems, biometric identification, road traffic management and enforcement, identity cards, smart cards, etc., can be used in this context.

E-pharmacies can be a game changer in delivering affordable medicines to all by increasing competition, driving costs down and helping to deliver drugs in remote areas, said Tushar Kumar, founder & CEO, Medlife.

As per the reports, the government is working on a policy that will ensure a level playing field for e-pharmacies vis-à-vis traditional retailers, he added.

The e-stamp system will ensure that only Puducherry court fees stamp papers, printed or issued by the Puducherry government can be used in respect of all original, appellate, revisional, review litigations arising out of the jurisdictional limits of the Union Territory.

In a major e-governance initiative, the government has launched an e-stamp system for payment of court fees in the jurisdictional limits of the Union Territory.

The Election Commission had earlier recommended e-ballot voting for Indian passport holders abroad. The Government had given voting rights to the NRIs in 2010, but as per the rule – the voter has to be present in their constituency on the day of voting. But with this things might change for better.

The state implemented many prestigious initiatives in the past like e-district, e-tendering, Aadhaar enrolment etc and most of the departments have already embraced e-governance in one form or the other to achieve this ambitious target, he said while inaugurating the 17th National Conference on e-Governance here.

Smart City budgetary allocations will not help address the urban environmental disasters that are looming in the future.

Smart’ Cities are one of India’s flagship projects. Of the proposed 100 Smart Cities, many face severe ecological and environmental risks from climate change-linked disasters such as flooding, drought and cyclones. However, Smart City budgetary allocations will not help address the urban environmental disasters that are looming in our future, given the shift in focus from an early emphasis on city-wide development, towards area-based development (ABD).

eOdisha Summit will comprise of parallel thematic track conferences on IT and Governance, IT in Education, and IT in Health. eOdisha will also present three important components including active Conference, Exhibition, and Awards.

In a bid to make life easier for the senior citizens, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has decided to follow the footsteps of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by mooting a digital life certificate to its 4.7 million pensioners.

The EPFO has already started testing the digital life certificate system in two of its centres - Delhi and Chandigarh. After verifying the system, the EPFO will launch the facility nationwide.

This story by Mark Scott in The New York Times explains how the people of Estonia have fully embraced the digital world, enthusiastically adopting public and private online services, thus offering a snapshot of a society that lives Digital First: