The context of Public Administration and Governance has changed over the years. People have become more and more aware of their rights and are demanding better services. Along with the need to make Government services transparent, their delivery has to be made more efficient, reliable and easily accessible to the common citizen through an integrated platform.
The recent launch of the National Portal of India (http://india.gov.in) by the Hon’ble Union Minister of Communications & IT, aptly marks the realization of the vision to have an ideal single window platform for an integrated delivery of information and services by the government for the citizens.
The National E-Governance Plan, a flagship programme of the Government of India is a comprehensive and holistic programme with an agenda to accelerate e-governance at all spheres in the Country to ensure efficiency, transparency and accountability at the Government-Citizen interface. One of the key points in the agenda has been to provide a platform to our citizens and the world at large to be able to gain access to government information and services and also constructively participate in the way government functions in our democratic set-up utilizing the benefits of Information and Communication Technologies. Such a platform in the shape of a National Portal was accorded the Mission Mode status in the Plan by DIT and I am happy to note that the efforts of National Informatics Centre have made this the first amongst the mission mode projects to be realized and launched before the public.
The concept of having a single unified web interface for the entire government at all levels is expected to prove immensely beneficial as compared to making the citizen visit multiple websites of different government departments in order to look for the desired information and services. One of the most significant highlighting points of the Portal is that it has been built from the ‘citizens’ or ‘users’ perspective rather than the perspective of the government. The aim behind the initiative is that a common citizen should identify with it and find it easy to understand and use the content and features of the Portal. This National Portal can now identify opportunities for collaboration across government departments, leverage on the existing ICT developments in these departments and act as an effective gateway to provide all these services and information through a single window.
I am happy to use the effective and popular medium of ‘Informatics’ to convey my congratulations to NIC for the good work carried out in the National Portal Project as well as all other useful services and Projects being undertaken by NIC in the drive to take our mission forward.
Good wishes to the readers of Informatics for a Happy and Prosperous New Year.