Over 600 Citizen Centric Services Available on-Line
14 Mission Mode Projects Gone Live
Apex Committee on NEGP Reviews the Plan Progress


Of 1100 citizen and business centric services targeted for delivery, over 600 services of various Departments of Central and State Governments are now available electronically – anytime, anywhere. This was disclosed by the Cabinet Secretary Shri K M Chandrashekhar here today while speaking to media after review of the progress of e-governance initiatives by the Apex Committee on National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). The Cabinet Secretary said that the Mission Made Projects (MMPs) under NeGP approved in 2006 have the potential to transform the socio-economic landscape of rural India.



People can now obtain copies of their land records, Job Cards for employment under MNREGS, certificates relating to birth/death/income/caste/domicile etc., on-line. Benefits under various social services schemes such as various types of pensions – widow/handicap/old age etc., scholarships, education assistance etc., can be availed electronically. There are many more such services, to name just a few like passport application, information about market prices of agricultural produce and commodities and even telemedicine and diagnostic assistance for diseases available through electronic mode.



The Apex Committee on NeGP met today under the Chairmanship of the Cabinet Secretary. Shri Nandan Nilekani, Chairperson, UIDAI, Shri Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the PM on Information, Infrastructure and Innovation, Shri Som MittaI, President NASSCOM and Shri Kiran Karnik, former President NASSCOM also attended the meeting and deliberated on the hurdles and issues that needed to be tackled to accelerate the transition in governance.



Of 27 MMPs under NeGP, 14 have already commenced delivery of services in different parts of the country. These include Mobile Computer Applications (MCA21), Pensions, Central Excise, Income Tax, Passport, Banking & Insurance, Land Records, Road Transport, Common Services Centre, e-Courts, EDI, National Service Delivery Gateway (NSDG) & India Portal. All MMPs shall start delivering e-services by 2014. Under all these projects 1,100 services are likely to be available progressively with full availability by 2014.



To enable all this, state wide connectivity is being provided through State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) ensuring a minimum of 2 Mbps connectivity up to block levels. SWANs are operational in 23 States and the remaining will become operational by March 2011.



State Data Centres (SDCs) will serve as the repository of data at state level. Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for SDCs in 31 states have been approved and bid process has been completed in 16 States. All 31 SDCs will be operational by December 2011.



More than 80,000 CSCs have been set up across the country and the number is expected to cross 1,00,000 by March, 2011. The Government has planned to have 2,50,000 in all by 2012 to cover all Panchayats to enable people to access the services under e-Governance in their vicinity.



The meeting took stock of progress made so far as well as of the major impediments, and made certain recommendations. These included the need for creating suitable HR framework in the form of Dedicated Project Teams for implementation of projects in a Mission Mode. The need of creating Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) as an institutional mechanism for long term sustained project implementation based on interoperable standards was emphasized. It was also agreed upon to leverage the private sector’s expertise in project management and implementation aggressively while ensuring that strategic control of the projects remains with the Government.



Ensuring mandatory e-delivery of some identified services within a given time frame through legislation is another important recommendation of the Apex Committee, the Cabinet Secretary added. He said that those services which could be quickly modified and moulded through business process reengineering need to be identified both in the Central and State Governments and road map for mandatory e-delivery of such services in given time frame has to be worked out. His office will become a paperless office from April 1, 2010 as step towards this transition, the Cabinet Secretary announced.



SP/AT/AS