Significance of National e-Governance Division : Daily Current Affairs

Relevance: GS-3: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life; Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology; Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, and robotics.

Key Phrases : National e-Governance Division, Cloud Computing, Project Meghraj, Project ASMAN, Project Mausam, Digital India Programme

Context:

  • NeGD organizes a Capacity Building programme in Cloud Computing for central and state government officials.
  • This necessitates the discussion about the role of NeGD in the digital arena.

Background

  • The future roadmap of the digital revolution in India includes Cloud Computing in a big way.
  • In Addition, e-Governance is already at the vanguard of revolutionizing governance in the country from ‘system and power-centered’ to ‘resident and service-centered’.
  • Fusing the two together, the NeGD organized the first batch of Capacity Building programme in Cloud Computing for government officials of Central Line ministries, State/UT Departments, Mission Mode Project officers, e-Governance Project heads and State e-Mission teams.

National e-Governance Division

  • In 2009, it was created by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) as an Independent Business Division under the Digital India Corporation.
  • It has been playing a pivotal role in supporting the MeitY in Programme Management and implementation of e-Governance Projects and initiatives undertaken by Ministries/ Departments, both at the Central and State levels.

Roles and Responsibilities of NeGD

  • Providing strategic direction in terms of framing policies and implementation strategy for the Digital India Programme in different domains of e-Governance.
  • Proactive support to Central and State Governments for Mission Mode Projects and other e-Governance projects. Providing technical assistance in their e-Governance projects either directly or in collaboration with professional consultants.
  • Acting as a facilitator and catalyst for implementation of the Digital India Program by various Ministries and State Governments.
  • Undertaking technical appraisal of e-Governance projects for examining issues like overall technology, architecture, framework standards, security policy, service delivery mechanism, sharing of common infrastructure, etc.
  • Developing generic / model Expression of Interest, Request for Proposal, Standard Contracts, PPP Models and other related documents for various stages and requirements of projects for use by the States.
  • Ensuring effective citizen engagement and communication with all stakeholders using offline and Social Media channels.
  • Impact assessment and e-Readiness measurement of e-Governance projects of all States / UTs.
  • Recruitment, deployment and HR management of specialized resources in the State e-Governance Mission Teams in all States and UTs

Training and development initiatives

  • Development of competency frameworks, training guidelines, case studies, etc.
  • Developing Online and Web-based Training and setting up Learning Management Systems.
  • Knowledge management and sharing through workshops, development of case studies, sharing best practices and creation of knowledge repositories, etc.

Projects under NeGD

  • UMANG - to facilitate single-point access through mobile apps anytime, anywhere.
  • DigiLocker - to provide citizens with 'Digital Empowerment' by allowing them to access authentic digital documents through a Digital Document Wallet.
  • BISAG-N - to undertake Technology Development & Management, Research & Development, facilitate National & International Cooperation, Capacity Building and support Technology transfer & Entrepreneurship Development in the area of Geo-Spatial Technology.
  • Rapid Assessment System - for online instant feedback for e-services.
  • OpenForge platform - to promote sharing and reuse of e-governance application source code.
  • Learning Management System - a software application that automates the administration, tracking and reporting of training events.

Recently held Capacity Building programme

  • The two-day programme was held at the Haryana Institute of Public Administration covering participants from Delhi-NCR.
  • The programme is designed to build capacities, within the Government at both the Central and State levels, by adapting a synchronized approach to ensure the availability of adequate knowledge, appropriate competencies and skill-set to optimally utilize the huge benefits of cloud computing in e-Governance practices.
  • Projects with cloud computing offer integration management with automated problem resolution, manage security end-to-end, and help budget based on actual usage of data.
  • At a national level, cloud architectures can benefit the Government to simultaneously utilize resources optimally and also accelerate delivery of e-services.

Additional Information

  • Project 'Meghraj'
    • It is an initiative of the Government of India with the aim of GI Cloud (Meghraj) initiative to fast-track delivery of e-services in the country while optimizing information and communications technology (ICT) spending of the government.
  • Project ASMAN
    • An initiative to reduce infant, neonatal and maternal mortality in India launched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, MSD India, Reliance Foundation, Tata Trusts and the USAID.
  • Project Mausam
    • A transnational program launched by India's "Culture Ministry" aimed to restore its ancient maritime routes and cultural links with republics in the region.
    • It emphasizes the natural wind phenomenon, particularly monsoon winds used by Indian sailors in ancient times for maritime trade, that has formed relations amongst nations and groups linked by the Indian Ocean.
    • It aims to determine the versatile Indian Ocean “world” — expanding from East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka to the Southeast Asian archipelago.

Key domain issues under discussion

  • The workshop brought together an array of subject matter experts from the industry, academia and the government to speak on key domain issues -
    • Cloud fundamentals,
    • India’s Cloud journey,
    • Cloud building blocks,
    • Procurement of Cloud services,
    • Regulatory and policy framework for Cloud,
    • Challenges associated with Cloud implementation and
    • Future of Cloud on digital transformation, with engaging presentations on successful Cloud use cases.
  • Session discussions also featured essential training on various components of Cloud computing -
    • Custom bidding for Cloud services,
    • Establishment of Pay-per-use and billing frequency with Cloud service providers,
    • Negotiation instruments for dynamic services under Cloud,
    • Best practices in Cloud procurement,
    • Focus on the Computing requirements,
    • TRAI and MeitY guidelines on Cloud Computing and
    • ITU global standards on Cloud Computing.

Significance of this development

  • Technology has been leapfrogging over the past two decades and one such technology rapidly scaling up is the Cloud-based systems driving businesses and touching every aspect of our daily lives.
  • Anything that is available via the internet has the service being delivered out of a cloud-based application and IT Infrastructure.
  • Within this decade, Cloud Computing will replace the traditional data centers and emerge as the prominent solution for data analytics and storage, as per a recent study done on the topic.

Way Forward

  • Witnessing attendance from 31 participants - mostly officers from Central Line Ministries, New Delhi and State Governments of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Goa, Mizoram and Uttarakhand – capacity-building programmes on the theme of cloud computing would move forward with physical programmes to be conducted in the East, West and South zones of India, this year.

Source: PIB

Mains Question:

Q. Cloud Computing has the potential to replace traditional data centres and emerge as the prominent solution for data analytics and storage. Elucidate. [150 Words].