IIPA ORGANIZES SEMINAR ON E-GOVERNANCE AND EFFICIENT PUBLIC SERVICES

Indian Institute of Public Administration, J&K Regional Branch organized a workshop-cum-seminar on efficient delivery of Public Services through e-Governance which was attended by administrators from various government departments, civil society, faculty members, research scholars, students from various Universities and members of IIPA.

In his opening remarks, Ashok Bhan, Chairperson IIPA J&K Regional Branch mentioned about the significance of e-Governance in taking administration to the doorsteps of a common citizen. He said that through e-Governance the spirit of RTI can be easily achieved. He further said that the departments should come forward and proactively adopt e-governance initiatives to improve the public service delivery mechanisms.

The keynote address was delivered by Amit Sharma, Special Secretary to Government, Animal/Sheep Husbandry Department. In his address he proposed various e-Governance solutions for various departments of J&K Government such as creation of e-PRC, e-PDS Smart Card, Aadhaar-enablement of state residents, computerization of land records, automation & RSBY solutions for labour & employment department, MIS in health department & excise department, online examination for technical education department, etc. which was based on his expertise he acquired at EPGP e-Gov Programme organized by IIM Indore. He further said that the future of e-Governance is mobile governance models (m-Governance) which will help government departments to reach out to the last mile users and provide maximum services through mobile phones.

It was followed by a case-study presentation by Dr Suparn Sharma, Director School of Business, SMVDU regarding successful implementation of MIS in Sugarcane Industry in Uttar Pradesh. He highlighted the benefits accrued to the farmers because of successful implementation of the MIS system. Mr. D.S Bali, Addl. CEO, JKeGA, shared his experiences in introduction of e-Governance in J&K through IT Department and various e-Governance projects which are being successfully implemented in J&K. Mr. Shafqat Bashir, Principal Consultant, SeMT IT Department talked about some projects in the pipeline such as eAssembly, ePrisons, eDistrict, FMS, etc. He also demonstrated the latest initiative- JK Pulse an application developed for mobiles as well in which a real-time snapshot with GPS tags can be uploaded for assessing the real situation in far flung areas. They also talked about the need of capacity building and training more & more officers in e-Governance at national as well as international levels.

The proceedings were conducting by Dr. Anil Gupta, Joint Secretary, IIPA J&K Regional Branch and the formal vote of thanks was presented by Sh. J B S Johar, Honorary Secretary, J&K Regional Branch.