The National Conference on e-Governance 2020 ended after two days of deliberations on issues, opportunities and challenges in transforming governance using digital technologies, in Mumbai.
The theme of the event was India 2020: Digital Transformation; the conference had in-depth discussions on six sub-themes:
- Digital Platforms and Digital Economy
- Improving Service Delivery
- Building Digital Trust – Transparency, Security and Privacy
- Digital Payments and Fintech
- National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA)/ Digital Service Standard (DSS)
- Skilling and Capacity Building
In addition, the Mumbai Declaration on e-Governance was also unanimously adopted at the valedictory session. Through its comprehensive list of goals, the Declaration seeks to take forward the roadmap for e-Governance outlined in the Shillong Declaration of 2019.
The aim is to improve public service delivery using digital platforms, especially in health, agriculture, education and land; propagate successful e-governance solutions using emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and Machine Learning; enable in India to rank higher in the United Nation’s E-Governance Development Index; support greater trust-building in digital services; develop India as a global cloud hub, and foster the implementation of e-office and reforming public procurement system.
In his keynote address at the valedictory session, the Union Minister of State for the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions stated that e-Governance is the key to the future of India’s developmental journey in the 21st century; whether it is e-NAM or Ayushman Bharat, e-Governance is essential to good governance, said the Minister.
The Minister told the delegates that the litmus test for the success of their projects is whether the initiatives taken by them serve the last person on the street or not. He said that we need to fulfil the aspirations of youth, for which leveraging digital technologies is a must.
The Minister also announced that the Government of India will extend all necessary support to the state government in holding India Fintech Festival.
Later, the Minister for Information Technology, Government of Maharashtra state that Maharashtra is the first state to have launched a fintech policy.
The government has decided to develop Mumbai as the fintech capital of India. He also announced that the state government would be holding India Fintech Festival in Mumbai, in March 2020.
In recognition of excellence in implementation of e-Governance initiatives, the National e-Governance Awards 2020 were presented at the valedictory session.
The National Health Authority, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare received Gold for Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, under the category Excellence in Government Process Re-engineering for Digital Transformation.
The Antyodaya Saral Haryana of Department of IT, Haryana received the Gold for Excellence in providing citizen-centric delivery.
The IIT Roorkee’s Satellite-Based Agriculture Information System: An Efficient Application of ICT received the Gold Award for Outstanding Research on Citizen-Centric Services.
A project by a local start-up which aims to provide farm-scale data from multi-satellite bagged the Gold for Innovative Use of ICT in e-Governance Solutions by Start-ups.
T-Chits of Registration & Stamps Department, Government of Telangana was honoured with the Gold Award for Excellence in Adopting Emerging Technologies.
For the first time, the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances conducted an online hackathon, seeking innovative solutions for redressal of citizen’s grievances. Four lakh data points were made available to the contestants for developing the solutions. The Awards for the Hackathon were also presented at the close of the conference.
A total of 28 States and nine Union Territories participated in the Conference, with around 1,000 delegates attending it. The conference brought together stakeholders from central and state governments, industry, academia, researchers and think tanks.
It provided an excellent platform for sharing of knowledge, experiences, lessons, latest technology developments and best practices in designing and implementing sustainable e-governance initiatives.
It resulted in exchanges which will enable adoption of informed steps in mitigating risks, solving problems and planning for success in implementing e-governance and digital transformation projects, to improve citizen satisfaction.
