23rd National Conference on e-Governance concludes in Mumbai

‘Mumbai Declaration’ on e-Governance adopted
Ten-fold Mumbai Declaration aims to improve public service delivery using digital platforms, especially in health, agriculture, education and land
Ayushman Bharat wins National e-Governance Award for Excellence in Government Process Re-engineering for Digital Transformation
e-Governance is the key to the future of India's developmental journey in the 21st century: Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh
Will develop Mumbai as the fintech capital of India; India Fintech Festival to be held in Mumbai in March 2020: Maharashtra IT Minister Shri Satej Patil

The National Conference on e-Governance 2020 came to a close after two days of rich deliberations on issues, opportunities and challenges in transforming governance using digital technologies, in Mumbai today.

Weaved under the broad theme of India 2020: Digital Transformation, the conference had in-depth discussions on six sub-themes:

1. Digital Platforms and Digital Economy
2. Improving Service Delivery
3. Building Digital Trust - Transparency, Security and Privacy
4. Digital Payments and Fintech
5. National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA)/ Digital Service Standard (DSS)
6. Skilling and Capacity Building

The Mumbai Declaration on e-Governance has been unanimously adopted at the valedictory session today. Through its ten-fold goal, the Declaration seeks to take forward the roadmap for e-Governance outlined in the Shillong Declaration of 2019. Improving public service delivery using digital platforms, especially in health, agriculture, education and land; propagation of successful e-governance solutions using emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and Machine Learning; encourage steps so as to improve India’s rank in United Nation’s E-Governance Development Index; supporting greater trust-building in digital services; developing India as a global cloud hub; fostering implementation of e-office and reforming public procurement system are some of the objectives of the Declaration. To find out about these and other objectives in detail, do check out the full text of the Declaration here.

In his keynote address at the valedictory session, the Union Minister of State for the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Dr. Jitendra Singh said that e-Governance is the key to the future of India's developmental journey in the 21st century; whether it is e-NAM or Ayushman Bharat, e-Governance is essential to good governance, said the Minister. The Minister told the delegates that the litmus test for the success of their projects is whether the initiatives taken by them serve the last person on the street or not. He said that we need to fulfill the aspirations of youth, for which leveraging digital technologies is a must.

Dr. Singh expressed satisfaction at the increased participation of regions across the country in conferences such as NCeG, after the Governement decided to hold such conferences in states as well. He said that such conferences also help highlight the priority areas of the Government, such as Jal Shakti.

The Union Minister said that the Government has talked its walk of being a government which is dedicated to the welfare of the poor, by using technology also to help reach the benefits of government schemes to them and advance their welfare.  He reminded the delegates that such conferences are in line with the Government's philosophy of Minimum Government, Maximum Governance.

Responding to the request of the Maharashtra IT Minister, the Minister also announced that the Government of India will extend all necessary support to the state government in holding India Fintech Festival.

Addressing the concluding session, the Minister for Information Technology, Government of Maharahstra, Shri Satej D. Patil stated that Maharashtra is the first state to have launched a fintech policy. He said that the government has decided to develop Mumbai as the fintech capital of India. He also announced that the state government would be holding India Fintech Festival in Mumbai, in March 2020. 

In recognition of excellence in implementation of e-Governance initiatives, the National e-Governance Awards 2020 were presented at the valedictory session. National Health Authority, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare received Gold for Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, under the category Excellence in Government Process Re-engineering for Digital Transformation. Antyodaya Saral Haryana of Department of IT, Haryana received the Gold for Excellence in providing citizen-centric delivery. IIT Roorkee’s Satellite Based Agriculture Information System: An Efficient Application of ICT received the Gold Award for Outstanding Research on Citizen-Centric Services. A project by start-up firm Satyukt Analytics Private Limited, to provide farm-scale data from multi-satellite bagged the Gold for Innovative Use of ICT in e-Governance Solutions by Start-ups. T-Chits of Registration & Stamps Department, Government of Telangana was honoured with the Gold Award for Excellence in Adopting Emerging Technologies.  The full list of award-winning projects and winners, across six categories, can be found here.

For the first time, the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances conducted an online hackathon, seeking innovative solutions for redressal of citizen's grievances. Four lakh data points were made available to the contestants for developing the solutions. The Awards for the Hackathon were also presented at the close of the conference. The list of awards can be found here.

Secretary, DARPG, Dr. Kshatrapati Shivaji, in his address during the valedictory session, said that the 23rd NCeG has been one of the best and most comprehensive conferences organized till now. Dr. Shivaji acknowledged the brilliant standard of discussions and presentations made by the participating delegates. He expressed confidence that 23rd NCeG 2020 has provided all participating State and UT Government teams with important takeaways that may be implemented in respective States/UTs.

Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra, Shri  Ajoy Mehta, complimented the enthusiasm and dedication of the organizing team and wished that all the delegates bring the learning from this Conference in actual practice. He said that Sandbox and Blockchain policy is a flagship policy in the area of Emerging technology which can be adopted by all the States/UTs and Central Government.

On Day 1, Blockchain Sandbox and Draft Sandbox Policy for Maharashtra was launched by the Chief Guest Shri Aaditya Uddhav Thackeray, Minister for Environment, Tourism & Protocol, Government of Maharashtra. The inaugural session was presided over by Minister for Industries and Mining, Government of Maharashtra, Shri Subhash Desai.

28 States and nine Union Territories participated in the Conference, with around 1,000 delegates attending it.The conference brought together stakeholders from central and state governments, industry, academia, researchers and think tanks; it provided an excellent platform for sharing of knowledge, experiences, lessons, latest technology developments and best practices in designing and implementing sustainable e-governance initiatives. It resulted in exchanges which will enable adoption of informed steps in mitigating risks, solving problems and planning for success in implementing e-governance and digital transformation projects, in order to improve citizen satisfaction and realize the Prime Minister’s vision of “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance”. The Conference has been organized by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG), Government of India and Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, in association with the Department of Information Technology, Government of Maharashtra.

An Exhibition including a Wall of Fame was also organized during the event to showcase India’s achievements in the field of e-Governance.