WB to provide $150 mn loan for e-delivery plan

The World Bank will provide a soft loan of $150 million for improving delivery of public services, like land records, licences and passports, under the government's National e-Governance Plan (NeGP).

The plan (NeGP) is a flagship e-governance initiative of the government aimed at transforming the service delivery system across the country.

The e-Delivery of Public Services Development Policy Loan was today signed between the World Bank and the Finance Ministry here.

"(The loan) will support NeGP's countrywide plans of increasing online services for citizens in their locality to improve the quality of basic governance in areas of concern to the common man," the ministry said in a statement.

This loan will also support the adoption of a policy framework for the delivery of basic financial services using mobile phones, it added.

While this loan will not target specific services per se, it will support the various policies and institutional actions of the Government in accessing more services online as well as in increasing its outreach to the common man.

"Reducing the financial and opportunity costs of obtaining specific services through enabling policy measures can go a long way in transforming service delivery in the country," World Bank Country Director (India) Roberto Zagha said.

The NeGP, which was approved in May 2006, will operate on a single common IT infrastructure, thus allowing faster and easier sharing of information between departments, saving infrastructure costs, and lowering cost of service delivery.