Indian state extends local e-service delivery

The Indian state of Tamil Nadu has decided to extend its ‘e-District’ project, successfully piloted in six districts, to the remaining 26 districts.

The e-District project is one of the key initiatives under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) by the central government. The project identifies high volume services and computerises their backend to enable delivery of these services through Common Service Centres – another major initiative under the NeGP which aims to establish tele-centres in villages.

In India, majority of direct government services to citizens are delivered at the district level.
A key feature of NeGP is central planning with local implementation, which aims to build the common infrastructure yet caters to regional differences when it comes to service delivery.

The four pillars of the infrastructure are State Data Centres, State Wide Area Networks, State Services Delivery Gateway and Common Services Centres.
Located in the southernmost part of Indian subcontinent, Tamil Nadu has a population of 72 million living in its 32 districts.

The government will form a ‘District e-Governance Society’ in each of the districts to implement the project and coordinate different stakeholders. Each Society will receive Rs1 million (US$20,000) initial funding. The Collector of each district will serve as chairman of the society and District Informatics Officer of the National Informatics Centre – the body in charge of implementing e-government projects – will be the member-secretary.

The services will mainly come from Department of Revenue and Department of Backward Class, Most Backward Class and Minorities Welfare. They will allow citizens to apply for certificates, scholarships and grants online and track status of these applications.

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