India to showcase digital initiatives under e-governance to world: Official

Union Secretary Alkesh Kumar Sharma said the G20 presidency will provide India an opportunity to showcase its digital initiatives under e-governance to the outside world

Union Secretary Alkesh Kumar Sharma on Wednesday said the G20 presidency will provide India an opportunity to showcase its digital initiatives under e-governance to the outside world.

Speaking at the two-day silver jubilee edition of national conference on e-Governance here, Sharma, Secretary for Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), said many countries in the world are looking at India, which has successfully implemented various e-governance initiatives.

The conference, "Bringing Citizens, Industry and Government closer", was organised by the department of administrative reforms and public grievances in association with MeitY and Jammu and Kashmir government.

"India is taking over the G20 presidency, which is a historic moment for the country and all of us. During the presidency tenure, the country will host about 200 events in 32 sectors at 55 locations, a couple of which will be held in Jammu and Kashmir," Sharma said.

He said states and the Union territories will get an opportunity to showcase their attractions to the global community in these events.

Referring to the conference, he said it is an occasion to recognise and showcase exemplary digital transformations brought about by the central and state governments, the start-up community and academia.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta said it is a proud moment to host the 25th national conference on e-governance in the Union territory.

"Jammu and Kashmir has achieved milestones in e-governance with distinctions in implementation of Amrit Sarovar, Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, agriculture income, ease of doing business, digitisation of land records and providing land passbooks that have been possible through transparency, teamwork and technology," he said.

Calling the revocation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two Union territories as bold steps, Mehta highlighted various achievements of the administration over the past three years and said this would not have been possible without a responsive bureaucracy.

He also referred to stopping the bi-annual darbar, under which the government used to function six months each from the twin capital cities -- Srinagar in summer and in Jammu during winter -- and said it saved Rs 400 crore annually.

Now, the darbar is functional from both the places and it was possible by the use of technology, Mehta said.