DIGITAL INDIA: Celebrating 4 Years of Digital Empowerment
Digital India is a campaign launched by the Government of India on July 1, 2015 under the visionary leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. The aim is to digitally empower the country and its people, improve infrastructure, introduce a better quality of life and raise India’s stature in the global scenario. Under the 3 central areas of the DIGITAL INDIA programme i.e Digital Infrastructure | Digital Literacy | Digital Delivery of Services, India is on its way to becoming a digitally advanced country through the launch of various projects and initiatives such as MyGov.in, Digi Locker, e-hospital, e-education, National Scholarship Portal (NSP), BharatNet, Wi-Fi Hotspots, e-Adhaar Card etc.
The key objectives in focus to digitally empower India are:
1. Broadband Highways
2. Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity
3. Public Internet Access Programme
4. E-Governance
5. E-Kranti (Electronic Delivery of Services)
6. Information for All
7. Electronic Manufacturing
8. IT for Jobs
9. Early Harvest Programmes
Digital India is particularly keen to transform the rural and remote sections of our country by introducing high-speed internet connectivity, knowledge and skill level and by bridging the gap between government and citizens.
Arunachal Pradesh is one of the states that has come a long way since the launch of the Digital India Campaign. Digital Arunachal aims to enhance the state’s socio-economic growth by improving effective e-governance, digitization of various government services, connecting rural areas with high-speed internet connectivity et al. Various important schemes under the Digital India programme have been launched successfully in Arunachal Pradesh, such as e-Office, National Scholarship Portal (NSP), Digital Locker, JeevanPramaan, e-HRMS, e-ilp, e-service etc. . Additionally, there are several other important IT initiatives that have been initated in the state.
Some of the significant IT initiatives under Digital India in the state are:
- Arunachal eService under NIC service Plus Platform
The project aims to provide support to district administration through automation of workflow, back end digitization, integration and process redesigning across participating sections/departments for providing services in the most efficient manner to citizens.
Under this plan, 6 important identified e-services such as the issue of PRC, ST Certificate, Character Certificate, Income Certificate, Dependent and Temporary Residential Certificates have been disseminated through Arunachal e-services portal in most of the districts. A total of 9278 Certificates have been issued digitally through this portal.
- CM Dash Board
The CM dashboard project was launched on 14thJune 2018. Through this initiative the state has started using an important monitoring platform for timely monitoring of implementation and progress of government departments and their activities with near real-time information projects so as to avoid problems of coordination, overlapping of work and difficulties in interoperability of systems.
The trained officials in the first phase included 167 and 80 in the second phase respectively.
Departments included under this plan include the Education Department, Health and Family Welfare, Agriculture Department, Horticulture Department, PhED Department, Economics and Statistics.
- E-ILP
With the growth of tourists and tourism sector in the state, the automation process of issue of Inner Line Permit in the state for the domestic visitors has been incorporated successfully by State Council for IT & eGovernance, Department of IT & Communication with integration of payment gateway to the eILP system for online mode of payment for application fees.
More than 1,00,000 online applications have been received through the eILP system and more than 60,000 eILP have been issued successfully.
- E-Office
The aim to make government offices paperless, accountable, transparent and efficient, the e-Office plan has been rolled successfully in AP Civil Secretariat. Various departments such as Administrative Reforms, IT & Communication, Personnel, DC ICC, Law and Judicial, Planning, CM’s Office, Itanagar Municipal Council, CS’s Office are onboard in the plan.
- Wi-Fi Hotspots
To ease connectivity issue and promote digital transactions, free Wi-Fi hotspots at AP Civil Secretariat Itanagar, Akashdeep and Ganga Market Area Itanagar, Tawang, Dirang and Kanubari have been set up successfully.
- National Scholarship Portal (NSP)
To mitigate the weariness of the students, the automation process for scholarship has been setup. The entire process of submission of application, verification and disbursal of scholarship/stipend to students directly into their bank accounts is done through National Scholarship Portal.
- Websites for Government Departments
Considering the seeming importance of websites for the dissemination of information to the citizens, the Government approved for the development of websites for Government Departments. The work of website development for 10 Government Departments that was taken up is listed below:
- Directorate of IPR (http://www.arunachalipr.gov.in)
- Health (http://health.arunachal.gov.in)
- Finance (http://finance.arunachal.gov.in)
- Power (http://power.arunachal.gov.in)
- Science &Technology (http://ardst.arunachal.gov.in)
- Civil Aviation (http://civilaviation.arunachal.gov.in)
- Handicraft & Textiles (http://textiles.arunachal.gov.in)
- Research and Museum (http://research.arunachal.gov.in)
- Dept of IT & C (http://ditc.arunachal.gov.in)
- State Portal (http://arunachalpradesh.gov.in)
Some other features of DIGITAL ARUNACHAL include:
- e-HRMS
- e-education
- Digital Locker
- JeevanPramaan
Through the power of digital connectivity, the country is on its way to becoming a knowledge economy. Digital India has been introduced to ensure placid implementation of e-governance in the country and help transform public services through the use of information technology. This will ensure that government services are made available to citizens electronically by improved online infrastructure and by increasing internet connectivity or by making the country digitally empowered in the field of technology. Under this initiative, Arunachal Pradesh can hope for improved and stable living and development of the state through the help of digitization.
