Good governance is one of the key ingredients of growth and development. Over the years, e-Governance in India has steadily evolved into a potent tool to foster transparency, accountability, efficiency and public participation in government systems, strengthening the premise of democracy. In a run up to Government of India’s effort to promote and uphold the use of World Wide Web for enhancing the efficiency and transparency of government mechanism and encouraging its speedy transition towards Digital India, National Informatics Centre (NIC), under the ambit of India Portal (http://india.gov.in) organized the third edition of Web Ratna Awards. Instituted in the year 2009, Web Ratna Awards is one of its kind awards in India which has honored the works of different government bodies on the web based platform. Web Ratna Awards since its inception has played a major role in recognizing the noteworthy and sustainable initiatives in the realm of e-Governance for better delivery of information and services. At the same time Web Ratna Awards have re-established itself as an important platform to disseminate information about such path breaking initiatives. At the same time, Web Ratna Awards has also encouraged numerous departments to take up and replicate the successful innovations which have been recognized on this platform. All in all the Web Ratna Awards in itself has created a benchmark for various Government Agencies in India enabling and encouraging them to strive for better utilization to promote innovation in the web space to add on to public delivery and efficient governance. In addition to this it has also created a healthy culture of competition pushing them to do better and add to the larger goal of promoting Web based e-Governance application. The idea of Web Ratna is one of the key components in the Digital India initiative, doing its bit to promote exchange of information and values which run key governance aspects on the World Wide Web platform ultimately leading to digitally empowered society and a knowledge based economy. THE EVENT AT A GLANCE The third season of Web Ratna Awards was marked by unprecedented fervor. The award ceremony was held on 25th March 2015 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Hon’ble Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad graced the occasion and presented the awards to the distinguished winners. Shri RS Sharma, Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), Shri Tapan Ray, Additional Secretary, DeitY and Dr. Ajay Kumar, Director General, NIC also graced the event. Senior officials from Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY) and NIC were also present at the ceremony. Web Ratna Awards 2014 Compendium and Index of Government Websites were also released during the event. THE PROCESS E-Governance initiatives of Government Ministries and Departments across India were evaluated under various categories. Three awards Platinum, Gold and Silver were presented in each category to the winners shortlisted from the nominations received under each category. The categories included Citizen Centric Service, Open Data Champion, Outstanding Content, Innovative Use of Technology, Comprehensive Web Presence –Ministry and Comprehensive Web Presence-State/UT. Open Data Champion is a new addition to the awards. It honors Ministries/Departments who have contributed datasets to India’s Open Government Data (OGD) Platform (data.gov.in). KEY QUOTES “National Informatics Centre, Web Ratna Awards by the Department of Electronics & Information Technology would indeed go a long way to promote e-Governance initiatives and to harness the medium of World Wide Web (WWW) for delivery of Government Information and Services.” Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad Hon’ble Minister of C&IT “These Awards are being conferred in different categories which touch upon different aspect of e-Governance. I am happy to learn that a new category of Open Data initiative is added in this edition of awards. DeitY and NIC have a greater role to play in leveraging technology for realization of Digital India.” Shri RS Sharma Secretary, DeitY “I congratulate NIC for keeping up with the tradition of honouring the exemplary e-Governance initiatives using World Wide Web as a medium. I hope these awards will serve as a source of inspiration for others to follow.” Shri Tapan Ray Addl. Secretary, DeitY “It’s my pleasure to stand here on the occasion of conferment of Web Ratna Awards-2014. It is extremely important to recognize exemplary initiatives to drive healthy competition all across the government. A spectrum of parameters including creative design, ease of use, ready updation, quality of content etc. are taken into account while deciding the awardees.” Dr. Ajay Kumar, Director General NIC “We had received total 315 nominations for Web Ratna Awards 2014, from all over the country. All the nominations were evaluated based on scientifically formulated criterion. All shortlisted nominations were equally deserving. I wish Web Ratna Awards will go a long way in making websites inclusive and accessible.” Ms. Neeta Verma Deputy Director General NIC “On behalf of NIC, I take this oppurtunity to heartily congratulate the winners of the prestigious Web Ratna Awards 2014. Your sustained efforts towards e-governance has enabled your department in delivering quality services. I hope to see many more awardees to join our journey in future.” Ms. Alka Mishra Sr. Technical Director NIC Award Winners There are total six categories of awards and winners for each of these categories are decided on the basis of content currency, relevancy, updation, website usability, accessibility, scalability, technology, design, interactivity among the other critical parameters. CITIZEN CENTRIC SERVICE Platinum Icon: Passport Seva Project Gold Icon: National Safai Karmchari Finance Development Corporation Silver Icon: Passport Seva Project OPEN DATA CHAMPION Platinum Icon: Office of Registrar General & Census Commissioner Gold Icon 1: Planning Commission Gold Icon 2: Ministry of Statistics & Program Implementation Silver Icon: Ministry of Water Resources OUTSTANDING CONTENT Platinum Icon: Ministry of External Affairs Gold Icon 1: Kerala Tourism Gold Icon 2: Ministry of Tribal Affairs Silver Icon: Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region INNOVATIVE USE OF TECHNOLOGY Platinum Icon: mKisan-Government of India Portal for Farmer Centric Services Gold Icon 1: Computerization Project of Madhya Pradesh, Commercial Tax Department Gold Icon 2: e-Services, Department of Commercial Tax, Tamil Nadu Silver Icon: e-Sahakar, Maharashtra COMPREHENSIVE WEB PRESENCE - MINISTRY/DEPARTMENT Platinum Icon : Ministry of Information & Broadcasting Gold Icon: Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Silver Icon: Office of Controller General of Accounts COMPREHENSIVE WEB PRESENCE – STATE Platinum Icon: Maharashtra Gold Icon: Tamil Nadu Silver Icon: Uttarakhand Online nominations were called from various Government entities and overwhelming response was received for all the six categories. An extensive process for evaluation of filed nominations was followed which was conducted in two stages. In the initial stage, entries were screened based on a scientifically formulated Evaluation Matrix which was specifically designed for each category of the Web Ratna Awards. The distinguished Jury thereafter reviewed the shortlisted nominations and finalized the awards in each category. JURY The esteemed, high-level Jury of Web Ratna Awards-2014 consisted of senior members from Government, Academia, Institutes and Organizations. Hon’ble Minister has felicitated the esteemed Jury members for their role in deciding the winners after evaluating the entries on various parameters. The names of Jury members are - Shri RS Sharma, Secretary (DeitY), Dr. Ajay Kumar, DG (NIC), Dr. Rajendra Kumar, JS (DeitY), Ms. V Vidyavathi, JS (ARC, DARPG), Ms. Neeta Verma, DDG, (NIC), Prof. MP Gupta, Dept. of Management Studies (IIT Delhi), Ms. Rama Vedashree, Vice President, (NASSCOM), Shri Shyamanuja Das, Director/Columnist (Juxt Consult Research & Consulting Pvt. Ltd.) and Ms. Anjali Kaushik, Associate Professor (Management Development Institute).