NIC Himachal Pradesh has developed two national level products of Manav Sampada and Mid Day Meal Automated Reporting System, which are replicated in 17 other states. The Competency Centre for Mobile App Development, NIC Himachal Pradesh has developed 64 Apps on Android and 26 on iOS platforms, including Apps for national projects and other states. With limited resources, the NIC HP State Centre tries to maximize quality work.

Himachal Pradesh, the Land of Gods and rightly called Dev Bhoomi, is a beautiful, peace-loving and progressive State situated in the Northern part of India. A home to various hill stations, Himachal is a favorable tourist destination that enamors travelers with its snow-clad mountains and green landscape. Besides, many famous temples make it ideal from pilgrimage perspective.

Located in western Himalayas, the State shares boundaries with Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh in the North, Punjab in the West, Haryana in the Southwest, Uttarakhand in the Southeast and international boundaries with the Tibet region in the East.

NIC Himachal Pradesh came into existence in the year 1988, and in the same year, all the District Centres were made operational. Since inception, NIC HP has been acting as a backbone of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) activities and providing support to the State Government. NIC has its presence in the tribal districts of Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur, which are snow bound for almost six months and are cut off from rest of the world, thereby necessitating the need for the ICT infrastructure. NIC has offices at HP Vidhan Sabha, HP High Court and HP Institute of Public Administration.

ICT Support to the Hon’ble Chief Minister’s Office Him Pragati portal (https://himpragati.nic.in) has been developed for the Hon’ble Chief Minister’s Office. Shri Jai Ram Thakur, Hon’ble Chief Minister, Himachal Pradesh, in his budget speech, had promised to provide project proponents with a platform to help them find resolutions for their problems. As of now, a total of 841 projects with an estimated cost of Rs. 1,14,550 crore are registered, and 223 out of 303 tasks have been completed. The project execution agencies can raise concerns, which are converted into tasks for implementation of corrective actions by the concerned departments.

Jan Manch The Government of Himachal Pradesh launched a new initiative “Jan Manch” in June 2018. On first Sunday of every month, Jan Manch is organized simultaneously at 12 places covering all districts and one assembly segment in each district. Held at grass roots level, the event is chaired by one of the Ministers/ Speakers /Deputy Speakers and attended by district level departmental heads to provide solutions for public grievances and educate people on various welfare schemes run by the government departments. Services are provided in Jan Manch itself and all the records are maintained in the software.

Budget Ashwasan The Budget Assurances, which are part of the annual budget and assigned to various departments, are being monitored effectively using this module. The departmental heads report periodic progress of every assurance, which is verified by the Administrative Secretaries. The final disposal is decided by the nodal Planning Department, based on the documentary evidence uploaded by HoDs in the software.

Rojgar Srijan This module provides mechanism to monitor departmental schemes in terms of creation of employment avenues for the citizens of the State. Both self-employment and wage employment are monitored against targets fixed by the departments.

Him Vikas Samiksha The Him Vikas Samiksha module has been developed to monitor 26 departments based on the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) assigned against each of them. Each of the 26 departments are given 4 common KPIs, namely Private Investment, Simplification of Acts/ Rules/ Procedures, Budget Assurance and Employment Generation, in addition to the department specific 205 KPIs. The solution provides a mechanism to hold review meeting using the software and also to record decisions as well as follow-up of decisions taken in the previous review meeting.

CM RefNIC The software covers role-based functioning of the CM office and is web based with Unicode support. It is integrated with “Write to CM” and “Samgr eSamadhan” for effective processing and monitoring of CM references, which are sent to various departments for taking action and reporting compliance.

ICT Initiatives in the State Manav Sampada The Manav Sampada software at https://ehrms.nic.in is a standard solution that aims at an effective management and deployment of human resources in different government departments of the State. The software is under replication in about 18 states and covers service books, leaves, salary information, tours, annual confidential returns, property returns, transfers, joining, relieving etc. So far, 25 lakh employees have their eService books, and the software is supported by Manav Sampada Mobile App.

Mid Day Meals Automated Reporting and Management System (MDM-ARMS) The MDM-ARMS software has been replicated in 17 states, covering over 3 lakh schools. About 6 lakh teachers report the daily meals data from their mobile phones, which gets reflected in the National MDM portal. The software is supported by a web interface for management and Mobile App for both monitoring and sending data. The software has a feature to capture daily attendance of teachers, students, reasons for not serving meals, immunization programme information, availability of funds/ rations in schools etc.

Centre of Competence for Mobile App Development NIC HP, Shimla is one of the 4 centres for Mobile App development and has developed 64 Apps on Android and 27 on iOS platform. Apps have been developed for Central Projects like Jan Manrega for MGNREGA, Safe City, Rajya Sabha Debates etc., and for other States like Chandigarh Gazette, eAwas, JK PSC, Xongtok Assam etc.

Web Development About 50 websites of different departments have been developed by NIC HP, including the State Web Portal at https://himachal.nic.in. This portal is responsive, bilingual, security audited, compliant with the Guidelines for Indian Government Websites and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, supported by chatbot, and well supplemented with good graphics and audio-video content. It is a single point of contact for all information related to the State government. The portal has won many awards over the years.

eGazette Himachal is the first State to switch to digital gazette, and now all the gazettes since the year 1954 are available in searchable format for both English and Hindi contents. The departments submit their notifications online for publication. The software has been replicated in Chandigarh and is supported by a Mobile App.

iOHRS The Integrated Online Hotels Reservation System enables online booking of over 50 hotels of Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC), and the inventory is shared with major travel portals for improved bookings. It ensures that HPTDC hotels get presence at all portals as in the private sector. The software is supported by a Mobile App.

Cooperation MIS A complete automation software has been developed for the Himachal Pradesh Cooperation Department for functions related to the online application of registration of cooperatives & NGOs and filing of returns, inspections, release of budget to societies, audits etc. A total of 47,120 societies under the HP Societies Registration Act 2006 have been registered, and 5,018 co-operative societies are registered under HP Co-operative Societies Act 1968. The total assets are 123917.32 crore and total liabilities are 129747.37 crore.

eKalyan A complete solution has been developed for the management of quarterly disbursement of Social Security Pension Schemes being run by the Social Justice Empowerment Department, covering all State and National level Social Security Pensions. The solution has been implemented in all the districts, and presently, quarterly pensions of 5,34,578 individuals are being managed under various schemes. The solution has also won National e-Governance Award 2017.

Rohtang Permits MIS The National Green Tribunal has restricted vehicular traffic to Rohtang Pass on daily basis. The District Administration, Kullu, with help of NIC HP, has developed and implemented a software, which is being used to issue online permits. The permits are issued based on predefined business rules without any manual intervention and a payment gateway has also been integrated. The software is supplemented with a Mobile App available on both Android and iOS platforms.

Works Management Information System (WMIS) Developed for the Department of Irrigation and Public Health, Government of Himachal Pradesh, Works MIS covers physical & financial aspects of government schemes executed by the department. The main modules include Online Administrative Approval and Expenditure Sanction of Schemes, Water Billing, Contractor Bills, Monthly Accounts Generation, and Electronic Measurement Book and Inventory. The application has been implemented in all the field offices and a mandatory monthly account to be submitted to Accountant General (AG) office is also generated online. The application is supplemented with Mobile Apps for e-Measurement Book and Assets Management.

Employment Exchanges Management Information System (EEMIS) Developed for the Department of Labour and Employment, EEMIS has been implemented in all the 74 employment exchanges of the State for online registration, renewal and transfer of applicants within the exchanges throughout the State. Skill Development Allowance, Unemployment Allowance and Industrial Skill Development Allowance are also disbursed to the beneficiary’s bank account directly through the application. A total of more than 8 lakh registered applicants, 4 lakh renewed online, 1.5 lakh skill allowance beneficiaries and 60 thousand unemployment allowance beneficiaries have been registered.

Samgr eSamadhan The Department of Redressal of Public Grievances, Himachal Pradesh has integrated all input channels for public grievance redressal at Samgr eSamadhan. Public has multiple options to submit grievances/ demands using the online interfaces of eSamadhan, write to CM, Jan Manch etc. The processing for speedy and effective resolution is achieved through a single channel available at Samgr eSamadhan. The present disposal rate is more than 92%.

Schemes Monitoring Management Information System (SMIS) Implemented in all the 10 non-tribal districts in the State, SMIS software is used to monitor development works under different heads of accounts, which are sanctioned by the Deputy Commissioner offices at District level. The software is supported by a Mobile App. A total of 2,51,880 works have been sanctioned, and 1,66,975 works have been completed.

Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) IFMS comprises of the following modules:

eBudget: The complete process of annual budget preparation is automated. Once the budget is passed in the Vidhan Sabha, all the budget documents are published on the web in public domain. Budget publication is supplemented with mBudget Mobile App.

eVitran: The web-based interface is available to the heads of various departments for distribution of sanctioned budget to their respective Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDO) in the field offices.

HPOLTIS: This is a role-based web application for conducting all the treasury operations. Operations related to preparation of bills, passing/ rejection and payment to beneficiaries are covered. Treasury operations such as stamps distribution, DDO management, and creating and rendering account to AG office are also covered to help the HoDs/ DDOs to utilize the allocated budget efficiently.

eSalary: The eSalary software is used to process monthly salaries of all the employees of the HP Government (1.96 lakhs) and disburse salaries directly through banks (ECS) into the accounts of individual employees. It has been integrated with AG office for Provident Fund and National Securities Depository Limited for New Pension Scheme employees. eSalary Mobile App is available on Android, iOS and Windows platforms.

ePension: The ePension software has been implemented in 12 district treasuries for calculation, modifications, processing and disbursement of pensions to (1.2 lakhs) pensioners in Himachal Pradesh on monthly basis. Pensioners can get their monthly pension breakup using the ePension Mobile App.

eChallan: The facility for online challan is available 24X7 and customers can make payment to the government treasury from anywhere through the internet. The application has also been integrated with all the major applications for collecting receipts like transport, excise etc. The eChallan Mobile App is available to check the validity of online receipts by officials.

eKosh (Online Financial Reporting): eKosh is an electronic dissemination interface on the web for various stakeholders like finance department, HoDs, DDOs, employees, AG, pensioners etc. All kinds of MIS reports are available on this interface in the public domain, and it is supplemented with a Mobile App.

Land Records: Himachal Pradesh is one of the leading States in Integrated Land Records System. The attribute data of Land Records is 100% computerized and is kept up to date using the web-based application i.e., eHimBhoomi. The digitization of existing manually prepared cadastral maps is also in advanced stage, with 100% completion of 5 out of 12 districts. The verified digitized village maps (settlement stage and updated till date) are uploaded on Bhu-Naksha application developed by NIC Headquarters. The attribute and spatial data are integrated, and a copy of the Record of Rights (RoR) is available in the public domain. The solution is two-way integrated with Registration of Deeds – HimRIS software. Citizens can get a signed copy of RoR from the nearest Common Service Centre known as Lok Mitra Kendras that are authorized by the Revenue Department to issue the copy.

In Himachal Pradesh, almost all the central projects developed by NIC are either implemented or under implementation. The prominent among these are DARPAN CM Dashboard, eOffice, eProcurement, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM Kisan), Arms Licensing Information System, SPARROW, Case Information System 2.0, Integrated Criminal Justice System, MGNREGA, Vahan, Sarathi, GST Prime etc.

Visit of VIPs/ Other Events

  • Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon’ble Minister for Law & Justice and Electronics & Information Technology, during his visit to Shimla in July 2018, appreciated the work done by District Informatics Officers of NIC HP for making it the first State to complete S3WAAS migration of all District Administration websites.
  • Dr. Ram Lal Markanda, Hon’ble Minister for Information Technology, Agriculture and Tribal Development, Himachal Pradesh visited NIC State Centre in June 2019 and discussed the ICT initiatives of NIC Himachal Pradesh. He desired to provide better citizen services with special reference to the implementation of the PM KISAN scheme in the State.
  • NIC HP organized a residential training programme for five days in January 2019, in collaboration with Training Division, NIC Kerala and HP Institute of Public Administration on Mobile Application Development. 33 NIC officers from Northern States participated in the training.

Awards & Accolades

  • Gems of Digital India Award 2019 for Mid Day Meal Automated Reporting & Management System
  • Digital India Award Gold 2018 for State Web Presence (https://himachal.nic.in)
  • National e-Governance Award Gold 2017 for Manav Sampada
  • National e-Governance Award Gold 2017 for Online Rohtang Pass Permits MIS

Way Forward NIC Himachal Pradesh is developing a generic product-based software for State Public Service Commissions, which will be implemented at HP PSC on pilot basis and later, offered to other States for replication. The work on adoption of elastic stack for faster search results in existing web applications is in advanced stage, with the secondary objective of incorporating data analytics in projects with data accumulated over the years, for better decision making. The National Generic Document Registration System and GST Prime software will be implemented throughout the State in the coming months and efforts are being made towards AI implementation in software applications being developed for various functional requirements to benefit the government and citizens at all levels.