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Governor PB Acharya speaking at the 2nd e-Naga Summit 2016 at Kohima on Monday.[/caption]
KOHIMA, NOVEMBER 28 : Stating that e-governance is the application of information and communication technologies to improve efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability between government agencies, business organisations and citizens, Governor PB Acharya said all forms of information technology and e-governance should be promoted so that the state of Nagaland quickly catches up with the rest of the world.
Speaking at the inaugural session as the chief guest at the two day 2nd e-Naga Summit 2016 under the theme ‘Towards making the state of Nagaland the next IT hub in South East Asia’ at Indira Gandhi Stadium, Kohima today, Acharya maintained that with rapid advancement in information technologies, citizens are learning to exploit their new mode of access in wide ranging ways.
Though the changes towards accepting information technology and e-governance are likely to face some hurdle at the initial stage and some resistance cannot be overcome by lower and middle level official, Acharya said it requires initiative from the top to bring about the change.
Recommending some few basic important things using IT&C tools, Acharya has recommended that the state of Nagaland need to immediately adopt electronic tendering system, as a state policy to avoid table tender and other possible ways of manipulation.
He also said that payment of salaries of employees should be made fully online so that bogus employees can be eliminated, and direct benefit transfer system directly through personal bank account of the beneficiaries should be encouraged so that genuine citizens will get their benefits in time.
Acharya also suggested that all forms of revenue collections should be done through online system so that brokers can be eliminated and the state revenue will improve.
He said that Business Process Outsourcing (call centre) must be provided to engage the English speaking youth in a meaningful way.
Therefore, Acharya asserted that every state government must take initiatives to use I&CT to improve IT literacy, create awareness of the benefits of e-governance, improve coordination among various departments, promote government process re-engineering, create vision and also incorporate best practices of other states.
Minister IT&C, Tansport & Civil Aviation & Border Affairs, P Paiwang Konyak said the department of IT&C s now playing a key role to transform the state of Nagaland into a modern state by way of improving transparency, efficiency and ensuring cost effective public service delivery to the citizens.
Briefly highlighting some of the landmark achievements of the department, Konyak said Nagaland is the first in India where the state itself has taken over State Portal and State Services Delivery Gateway (SP&SSDG) core infrastructure project and now acting as the implementing agency without engaging private companies.
It was informed that Nagaland is the only state in India where the state IT department is running the State Data Centre without engaging private Data Centre Operator (DCO), and acting as CSC Service Centre Agency (SCA).
Nagaland is the first state in NER to start the pilot project for National Information Infrastructure (NII) and the first in NER to introduce Aadhar based Biometric Attendance System in the State Civil Secretariat.
The state is also ranked among the top 1 in eDistrict Mission Mode Project aong with 6 other states in the country.
He also informed that the department has formulated visions to make Nagaland an IT hub through setting up of world class BPO/KPO for North Eastern Region and South East Asia.
Some of the few visions are to enable all government departments to have e-office to deliver services promptly to citizens through online system and to generate direct and indirect employment for atleast one lakh local youths in IT and e-governance related activities by the year 2030.
It has also envisioned to ensure digitilisation of all records and promote use of demographic database for determining age and sex composition, income levels, distribution of resources, regional disparities, incidence of diseases, life expectancy etc, ensure cyber security, information security, prevention of dtat corruption and fraudulent practices etc.
Delivering the keynote address, Chief Secretary, Pankaj Kumar said with Government of India’s decisive push to digital infrastructure and e-governance with the Digital India initiative, the state department have strengthened manpower of the IT department and intends to add more e-services to the citizens soon.
Backed by requisite investments in the IT sector and networking with the institutions in the state such as NIELIT, Kohima, NIT Chumukedima Dimapur and the IC&IT, Mokokchung, Kumar said it should be possible for the state to embark upon the challenging journey towards realizing the dream theme of this year’s e-Naga Summit.
Adviser to the President of Estonia, Dr Liia Hanni in her address said e-Nagaland is nothing else than a forward-looking strategy for Nagaland, that aims to harness the best from modern information and communication technology.
Congratulating the state for its recent recognition by the Computer Society of India as the top performer on e-governance, she said this is the start of Nagaland’s journey towards digital society. She expressed hope that this summit will have fruitful discussions on how to make Nagaland an advanced and prosperous digital society.
The inaugural session was followed by seminar sessions on ‘what role can Law Makers play in promoting IT and e-governance?’, ‘can media be an enabler in promoting IT and e-governance?’ and ‘how can civil societies and students promote IT and e-governance?’
The foreign visiting team includes Dr Ivar Tallo, founder of Estonia e-governance Academy; Markko Künnapu, Adviser, Criminal Policy Department, Ministry of Justice/Associated Expert to Estonia e-governance Academy; Tiit Roosik, Senior Expert on digital identity, Raul Walter; Annela Kiirats, Head of e-governance Training Domain, Estonian e-Governance Academy and Nigel Eastwood, New Cal Telecom International, UK.
