Technology in Governance

Technology in Governance: With the Digital India Campaign, the face of Indian governance is changing slowly and steadily. The new online initiatives launched by the Indian government are proving to be beneficial for the citizens.

The Government of India approved the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), comprising of 27 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) and 8 components in 2006. In the year 2011, 4 projects – Health, Education, PDS, and Posts – were introduced to increase the list of 27 MMPs to 31.

Under Pillar 5 of Digital India, e-Kranti – Electronic delivery of services of Digital India programme, currently there are total of 44 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) being implemented by the Central and State Governments to provide complete online services in various domains like Agriculture, Health, Education, Travel, Trade, Income Tax, Excise & Customs, Corporate Affairs, e-Police, Land Records, etc. Some services are completely online, while some services are partially online.

• 13 of the MMPs are being implemented as Central MMPs
• 17 are being implemented as State MMPs
• 14 of them are being implemented as Integrated MMPs

Beneficial Initiatives in Various Sectors

Agriculture

(a) Mobile Applications

1. Crop Insurance: It focuses on educating farmers about insurance premium, notified area, etc. on their mobile.
2. Kisan Suvidha: The app provides information on five critical factors that affect agriculture – weather, input dealers, market price, plant protection and expert advisories.
3. Pusha Krishi: Through this app, farmers can learn about the latest technologies in agriculture.
4. Agri Market: Farmers can learn about the prices of various crops in the local markets (mandis) near them.
5. India Weather: The app provides current weather updates and can forecast weather up to 4 days, across the country in more than 300 cities.

(b)      Web Portals

1. Farmers Portal: This online portal is a one-stop site for farmers where they can get information on a range of topics including seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, credit, beneficiary practices, dealer networks and availability of inputs, beneficiary list, and Agromet advisories.
2. mKisan Portal: This is a unified platform to connect scientists and officials directly with the farmers. They can send targeted text and voice-based advisories to the farmers on a host of issues related to agriculture and its allied sectors.

Education

1. School Education MMP: The MMP is focused on Primary, Secondary and Higher education. It will be a driving force for the implementation of the National Policy on Information & Communication Technology (ICT) in School Education.
2. National Scholarships Portal (NSP): The portal is a one-stop solution to implement end-to-end outlay of scholarships to beneficiaries. It goes in a process which includes registration, application, approval, and disbursement. 76 schemes of 22 Ministries of the Government are being on-boarded on the portal.

Travel and Tourism

1. Passport Seva: A portal focused on reforming passport services in India through simple, efficient and transparent processes, right from the processing of passport to its delivery.
2. e-Tourist Visa: A one-stop online portal for e-visa application, fees payment, and delivery. Around 8.45 lakh e-Tourist Visas have been issued since Nov 2015.

 Others

1. Vikaspedia: It is a multilingual collaborative content creation platform that promotes access and sharing of e-knowledge for the empowerment of underserved communities. Vikaspedia facilitates societal empowerment through provision of relevant information in various domains including Agriculture, Education, Health, Social Welfare, Energy and e-Governance in 22 scheduled languages of the country, besides English.
2. e-Hospital – Online Registration System (ORS): It facilitates patients by providing online registration and appointment services, online lab reports and status of blood availability. 43 hospitals have been integrated on the platform.
3. MCA 21: The major services delivered under the aegis of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs through MCA21 include viewing of public records, issue of certified copy of documents, change in registered office, change in director(s), annual filings, application for change of name of a company, incorporation of a company and name allocation to a new company.
4. Central Excise and Customs: It facilitates trade and industry by streamlining and simplifying customs and excise processes.
5. Land Records: Major services of this portal include the real-time availability of land records, issuance of Record of Rights along with cadastral maps, issuance of certified copy of the deed, issuance of the non-encumbrance certificate, payment of stamp duties, etc. Twenty-six states have computerized their land records and provide computerized copies of Records of Rights, on demand. These states have also placed their land record data in the public domain.
6. Aadhaar & Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT): 103+ crore citizens have already enrolled in this scheme. Twenty-seven plus crore bank accounts have been seeded with Aadhaar numbers. Seventy-four Government Schemes are there on the DBT, where Rs. 1.2 lakh crores have been transferred through DBT.
7. MyGov: MyGov aims to establish a link between the Government and citizens towards meeting the goal of good governance. MyGov encourages citizens as well as people abroad to participate in various activities like ‘Do’, ‘Discuss’, ‘Poll’, ‘Talk’, ‘Blog’, etc. There are multiple theme-based discussions on MyGov where a wide range of people can share their thoughts and ideas.