The Punjab state government recently created a state-level IT Cadre and invited applications for 354 posts of IT officers.
The move is an attempt to effectively execute various projects under the Digital India programme, a media report said.
Launched in 2015, Digital India is a government flagship programme with a vision to digitally transform every sector of the country.
The State Additional Chief Secretary of Governance Reforms Department stated that the cadre would go a long way in making Punjab a digitally empowered knowledge economy instead of depending on conventional ways of doing business.
She noted that the IT Cadre would provide impetus to implement enterprise architecture in all government departments and functionaries in order to facilitate interoperability. It could help avoid the duplicity of efforts and wasting of time.
Additionally, the cadre will help departments in the integration of various departmental services on digital platforms like mSewa, Digilocker, Sewa Kendras, and GeM, which is the national procurement portal.
She explained that the newly recruited officials will play a vital role in executing the process of re-engineering various state government departments and PSUs. It would also serve as a backbone for all tech-based projects as it will lay a strong foundation for the state’s digital infrastructure.
The report also said that the applications are being invited from aspiring technocrats to be part of the state’s IT cadre. The posts that candidates can apply for include senior system manager (SSM), system manager (SM), assistant manager (AM), and technical assistant (TA).
The Indian government, in the budget for 2020, has increased funds for the Digital India initiative 23% to INR 3,958 crores (around US$5 54,905) compared to the actual allocation in the current fiscal.
As OpenGov reported earlier, the increase is mainly on account of incentives for electronics manufacturing, for research and development, the development of manpower for the segment, cybersecurity, and the promotion of IT and IT-enabled services.
The Finance Ministry had allocated INR 3,750 crores (around US$ 525,725) in the previous budget but it was revised downward to INR 3,212 crores (around US$ 450,301).
The government budget document claimed the government has launched several initiatives that promote electronics manufacturing in the country to create an environment for the industry to compete globally.
Electronics manufacturing is an important pillar of the Digital India project and the target to achieve nett zero imports is a demonstration of intent.
The government increased provision for the promotion of electronics and IT hardware manufacturing through the modified special incentive package scheme, the electronics development fund, and the electronics manufacturing cluster to INR 980 crores (about US$ 137 million) from INR 690 crores (about US$96 million) in the current fiscal.
The research and development programme under the Ministry of Electronics and IT will get 75% higher funding in 2020-21 compared to INR 435 crores (about US$ 60.9 million) in the current fiscal.
