Maharashtra Government has taken a small, but significant step towards ushering in an era of paperless offices, with the rollout of the ambitious 'DigiGov' framework.

"The 'DigiGov' framework aims at increasing the intra- office efficiencies across the administration," Vijayalakshmi Bidari Prasanna, Director Information Technology, Government of Maharashtra, told PTI.

'DigiGov' is a joint venture between the State Government and top IT firm Tata Consultancy Services.

The rollout of the project has started with the IT Department, which has become paperless, she said.

The project envisages all departments of the state secretariat converting paper files into e-files, create processes and track the file till decision making is completed on a real time basis.

This helps reduce the number of steps and time needed to process requests. 'DigiGov' also helps keep a tab on the efficiency in decision making and monitoring the pace of processing through the use of inbuilt alert systems and reports.

This would lead to integration and seamless exchange of information across departments on a need-to-know basis with decision support system, Prasanna said.