23rd National Conference on e-governance

• 21 Feb 2020

Why in News

Recently, the 23^rd National Conference on e-Governance was organised by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG ) along with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in Mumbai.

Key Points

• The theme for the conference was “India 2020: Digital Transformation”.
• The discussion at the conference was broadly divided under 6 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)
  • Skilling and Capacity Building
• The conference adopted the 10-fold Mumbai Declaration on e-governance.
• The Mumbai Declaration seeks to take forward the roadmap for e-Governance outlined in the Shillong Declaration adopted during the 22^nd National Conference on e-Governance (NCeG) 2019.
• During the conference, Blockchain Sandbox and Draft Sandbox Policy for Maharashtra was launched. Maharashtra became the first state of India to have dedicated Fintech policy.
• The Maharashtra state government will hold the India Fintech Festival in Mumbai, in March 2020.

National e-Governance Awards 2020

• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare received Gold for Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.
• Antyodaya Saral Haryana of the Department of IT, Haryana received the Gold for Excellence in providing citizen-centric delivery.

NOTE :

• e-Governance can be defined as the application of information and communication technology (ICT) for providing government services, exchange of information, transactions, integration of previously existing services and information portals. The “e” in e-Governance stands for ‘electronic’.
• The establishment of the Department of Electronics in 1970 was the first major step towards e-governance in India.
• In 2015 with the vision of “Transforming e-Governance for Transforming Governance” India adopted e-Kranti: National e-Governance Plan 2.0
• In the background of Digital India Initiative, India has launched various e-governance initiatives like My Gov, PRAGATI, DARPAN, Common Service centre etc.
• In the United Nations E-Government Development Index (EGDI) 2018, India ranked 96 by making a giant leap of 22 positions from 118 in 2016.
• E-governance is critical in realising the PM's vision of “Minimum Government and Maximum Governance.”