The budget allocation for the Department of Information Technology has increased from Rs 2,802 crore to Rs 3,067 crore. A meagre increase of about  9 percent, pitifully smaller than the tall claims of Rs 50,000 crore mentioned by a senior government official on the sidelines of an event at Mumbai last month.

Even from the amount of Rs 3,067 crore, the National Informatics Centre (NIC) will take away over Rs 700 crore and a little over Rs 1,000 crore will be available for e-governance.  

Though there is increased allocation of Rs 1,900 crore on the UID project and Rs 1,133 crore for the Mission Mode Project on commercial taxes, there was no separate mention of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) or e-governance in the budget speech of the finance minister. 

Does this mean that NeGP is no more in the priority list of the government? Even the Bharat Nirman Common Service Centers was missing from the speech of the finance minister.

It appears from the announcement of a technology advisory group under the leadership of UID chief Nandan Nilekani that the government is looking forward to a change of direction in the course of implementation of e-governance in the country.