Under the India-Bhutan International Cooperation initiatives in the area of e-Governance, a twelve member senior level multi sectoral team from the Royal Government of Bhutan visited the NIC Headquarters, New Delhi to attend a six day e-Governance Solutions Workshop from 9 – 14 January, 2006. The workshop aimed at creating awareness among the delegates about the various e-Governance applications, technologies and solutions implemented by NIC, which may be relevant for replication in Bhutan.

Smt. Suchitra Pyarelal. Dr. N Vijayaditya, DG NIC gave the inaugural address, and a booklet titled ‘e-Governance Solutions Workshop for INDIA-BHUTAN Cooperation on Information Communication Technology’ was also released on the occasion.

Dr. Y K Sharma, DDG, NIC gave a brief presentation on the Mission report of Ministry of C&IT (May 2004) on the ICT Projects to be taken up during the 9th Plan Period of the Royal Government of Bhutan in assistance with the Government of India. The inaugural meet concluded with the Vote of Thanks given by Sh. M Moni, DDG, NIC.

Various successful e-Governance initiatives of NIC were showcased during the workshop. The delegation thanked NIC for hosting a very engaging and highly stimulating workshop and identified following areas of ICT development in Bhutan that could immediately benefit from the technical expertise of NIC: • Strengthening of DIT-Bhutan and establishment of Regional Information Centres • Security Clearance System • Electronic Money Transfer System • e-Governance Standards • Quality Management System • Automated Border Management System • Trade, Commerce and Industry System • Agricultural Informatics System • Rural Informatics: BhulekhSoft, PriaSoft, eNRICH, and RuralBazar • e-Procurement System • ICT for Grassroot Level Planning • Government Intranet Solutions

The Director, DIT, Royal Government of Bhutan also invited a team from NIC to visit Bhutan and carry out a systems study with their Bhutanese counterparts to quantify the scope of work required to achieve the broadly outlined areas of assistance focusing on: • Study of existing ICT Infrastructure, Systems and Human Resources and its limitation for deployment of e-Government and e-Governance Service for rural population. • Analyze and workout Financial, HR and Systems requirements. • Define the scope of work, interoperability issues, time schedule tentative work plan etc. for e-Governance to be successfully implemented in a sustained manner.

In his letter to DG NIC, Sh. Tenzin Chhoeda (Director), DIT, Royal Government of Bhutan conveyed his appreciation by saying, “First of all I would like to thank you and your officers for hosting a very engaging and highly stimulating workshop on e-governance in NIC Delhi and Assam. We now look forward to the possibility of building a rewarding partnership with NIC to address some of our e-Governance applications needs.”

Field Trip of Bhutan Delegation to NIC Assam State Centre The delegation, headed by Mr. Tenzin Chhoeda, Director, DIT, Royal Government of Bhutan, had a two day field visit to NIC Assam State Centre to have the first hand experience on e-Governance activities being implemented in the State.

On the first day, the delegates were briefed about the various IT projects of the State including Pragati, Dharitree, ASHA, Network Operation Centre (NoC), Video Conferencing facilities (in all the districts), etc. during the conference organised by NIC Assam in collaboration with IIT, Guwahati and the State Government.

On the second day, the delegation was taken on a visit to CIC Dimoria followed by a visit to the office of the Commissioner of Taxes, Assam to have a glimpse of the Computerized Sales Tax System.

After two days of enriching experience at NIC Assam, and a soothing cruise on the Brahmaputra River, the delegation returned back to New Delhi.

For further information, mail to suchitra@nic.in