Chandigarh gets Web Ratna Award

Department of Information Technology, Chandigarh Administration and National Informatic Centre, UT have been awarded three National- Level Web Ratna Awards for the year 2009. These awards had been constituted by the ministry of communications and information technology, Government of India for the first time in order to acknowledge exemplary initiatives/practices of various states/UTs in the realm of e-governance for the dissemination of information and services to the citizens.

The selection criteria followed by GOI included overall quality and quantity of web-based initiatives, the spectrum of sectors/departments having a good web presence and the level of responsiveness towards web-based queries including the usability and accessibility by the citizens.

Chandigarh has been recognised for this award as it has comprehensive web presence on the national portal (india.gov.in) through its website and has been uploading the maximum content on the national portal since 2008. Chandigarh was one of the first amongst all states/UTs to appoint a content service provider for the National Portal of India and has been ensuring a steady contribution of contents in the form of information about the various departments, statutory notifications, all kinds of forms and procedures pertaining to citizen-centric services, online services including payment of utility bills etc. During the assessment phase the content service provider chosen by the department of IT was Seasia Consulting led by Col Anil Khanna without whose untiring efforts this award would would not have been possible.

With these awards, the number of national-level awards conferred on the department of IT, Chandigarh has risen to six.