“The number of transactions were 8.25 crore in 30 states which meant 8 crore transactions per month in the country...We plan to make them more than 15 crore by end of March 2013,” said Dr Rajendra Kumar, Joint Secretary, DeitY at the state-level consultative workshop on “Citizen Centric e-Government” in Port Blair, on Friday, November, 2012.

“The e-governance initiatives have a huge impact of in improving citizen’s lives,” he said.

The event was inaugurated by Anand Prakash, IAS, Chief Secretary, Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It was 21st in the series of 50 workshops, being organised by Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) of the Government of India along with NASSCOM in all states and union territories (UTs) to amplify the mission and message of the NeGP – "Public Services Closer Home".

“It is very important that we are having this workshop at a timely juncture,” Shri Prakash said.  “e-Governance has caught on in India in a big way and as a part of India, Andaman and Nicobar Islands should also get its due,” he added.

Shri Prakash said that when he was young a lot of time was wasted in standing in queues for various government services; now many things can be taken care of online and time can be spent in a fruitful way which is a huge advantage for the people.

“There was a time when if you wanted to buy a Fiat car you had to wait for seven years and even longer for cement and steel if you had to build a house; today these can be eliminated by opening up of technology,” he said.

Technology is a great help if used properly, he added.

“I request you all to take the benefit and the fruits of the growth of technology and make sure that these benefits also reach the common people,” he said. 

Utpal Sharma, Special Secretary IT, Department of IT, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, elaborated on the e-governance programme and initiatives in this union territory.

He said, “IT policy in Andaman and Nicobar Islands was designed and implemented in 2001 to overcome the constraints due to geographical isolation and make people’s lives better in the islands.”

He said that to overcome connectivity issues, a multipurpose VSAT has been installed to make connectivity in the islands better. 

Shri Sharma said that the e-government approach was adopted in 2008.

As for the National e-Governance Programme (NeGP), the Data Centre in Andaman and Nicobar Islands is ready to be launched. “There were some hiccups but it is ready now,” he said. 

He said that the State Wide Area Network (SWAN) is slated to be completed by November 2012.

He said that as for the Common Service Centres (CSCs), 10 kendras are operational and 10 more will be operational in a week or 10 days. 

Shri Sharma said that he had only recently floated the tender for ‘e-Prashasan’. “A pilot for e-Prashasan will be ready by July 2013and work will be allotted in three to four weeks,” he said. 

He said that 20 to 40 percent offices have been connected with a biometric attendance system.  “The aim is to ultimately connect them to the Data Centre and get the leave applications online in some time,” he said.

“OFC cable will also be connected by taking fibre from the existing cable in a few years,” he said.

The other e-government initiatives are telemedicine, interactive education and distribution of tablet PCs and laptops to school children, he said.

“We need to move to Data Centre virtualization and Cloud computing because of space constraints in the islands,” he added.

Shri Sharma said that a centre for disaster recovery of data will be built for better disaster management. A go-ahead for the same had been given by the Department of Information Technology.

“If all goes well, Andaman and Nicobar Islands will be truly wired by 2015,” He said.

Dr Rajendra Kumar elaborated on a Macro level where the department stands today and what new elements we have added to achieve the original vision of the NeGP.

Shri Kumar said that the indicators to measure the impact of the programme, they looked at the number of transactions that took place through various applications.

He said that a new method of service delivery through certificate repository has been adopted by many states where citizen request is stored in repository and he or she can avail it without visiting the CSC the next time he wants it.

He said that the new elements added in the NeGP is Cloud Computing; Mobile Service Delivery Gateway where 10 lakh transactions take place every month every month; E Praman which will be the priority for Andamans and it will be a pilot for other states; Electronic Service Delivery Bill which is under the consideration of the Parliament which ensures delivery of services electronically and lastly the social media engagement with citizen to implement the services in better manner and also involve citizens to improve the service.

He said, “E-governance has huge potential in transforming the present services and making them better for the citizens.”

He said that the use of local languages for developing applications has been made mandatory especially in the applications such as e-district.

“166 will be a single number for services for all the citizens in the island,” He said.

During the daylong workshop, the Andaman and Nicobar administration showcased e-government solutions implemented under the NeGP.
National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), a key component of the government's "inclusive growth" strategy, was approved by the Cabinet in May 2006. It aims to delivery public services to the common man in his locality to make them both accessible and affordable.

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 Port Blair was 21st in the series.