K S Chandrashekar, joint secretary (IT), Daman & Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, has said that the union territory will become 100 percent e-savvy by the end of this year. One of the main projects for this purpose will be the ‘UT Wide Area Network’, which will be implemented in three phases.

The first phase, to be completed by March 2014, will enable multiple connectivity in 15 areas of the UT. The second phase will be completed by May and the entire project will be implemented by June 30, 2014.  “It will make DNH one of the first UTs to complete the implementation of the project.”

Speaking at a state consultation workshop on ‘citizen centric e-governance’ in Silvassa on January 16, Chandersekhar said, “All the departments will be integrated. Our UT will be 100 percent e-savvy by the end of 2014. The e-District project will be implemented in all the three districts of DD and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

Delivering the keynote address, B S Bhalla, administrator and secretary IT, union territories of Daman & Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, said that the best way to utilise the full potential of technology in government services is only when it is integrated. “They (government departments) are isolated cases of excellence that we have created. They are not integrated. They are not talking to each other. A statewide area network will connect these. It can be a state or a city. By March 30, over 30 offices will be connected.”

Bhalla also spoke about the UT’s own data centre that will soon come up. “The NeGP (National e-Governance Plan) has ensured that each state/UT will have its own data centre. We had tied up with the Goa state data centre. I was not happy, as there was no control over data. Now Silvassa will have its own data centre. We have finalised the site and it is in the tendering process. All the individual centres will be connected to the state data centre. It will be easier to control. We won’t have to run behind BSNL and Goa. A department may achieve excellence, but it is worthless without integration.”

Dr Rajiv Arora, Chief Operations Officers (COO), National e-Governance Division (NeGD) at the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DietY) of the government of India, spoke about the road ahead for e-Governance, especially in terms of NeGP 2.0. “Today we are talking about transparency. The government is not what it used to be 40 years ago.”

He said that the new vision of the next chapter of NeGP would look at the way departments integrate with each other. “The biggest challenge that we face today is that in whatever ICT initiatives we have done, all those silos need to talk to each other and integrate and present a single point of interaction.”

Therefore, certain measures were needed, including capacity building, a need for central line ministries to monitor the projects and develop uniform standards for these projects. “All this is collected and put together in the form of NeGP 2.0. Now is the time to do new things. It is getting strengthened over time. Citizens have to play the role of putting their aspirations forward.”

Dr Arora said that the focus should be, not on the quantity of services that the government provides to the citizens, but rather on the quality of these services.

During the daylong workshop, e-Governance solutions were showcased by the Land Records and Registration Department, VAT Department, Wipro and Sterlite.

The workshop was organised by DeitY along with the Department of IT of the UT administration and NASSCOM. The consultative meet is part of the 50 workshops being organised in all states and UTs to amplify the mission and message of the NeGP – "Public Services Closer Home".

With many states in various stages of rolling out public services on the e-Government platform, the NeGP Apex Committee decided to create awareness about NeGP initiatives among stakeholders, discuss challenges in delivery of e-Services, identify state-specific issues and understand emerging technologies from industry.

The first workshop was hosted in the National Capital Territory of Delhi in July 2011 and the workshop in Silvassa was 29th in the series.