Kerala to shift to an e-governance system from Thursday, says govt

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will on Thursday declare the state as fully e-governed' where delivery of government services would be digitised, transparent and fast.

The declaration of Kerala as India's total e-governed state' would be a major step in the southern state's journey towards a knowledge based society and economy, besides achieving cent per cent digital literacy, a government release said.

This unique achievement, which comes decades after Kerala became the first fully literate Indian state and began its quest to become a fully e-literate society, has been realised through a set of visionary policy initiatives of the government seeking to transform the state into a digitally empowered society, the release said.

The achievement would enable online delivery of a whole range of government services by leveraging state-of-the-art technology and platforms to build a single window service delivery mechanism called e-Sevanam which integrates more than 800 government services online, it said.

The total e-governance will also help bridging the digital divide by making digital infrastructure to all at affordable cost, which is critical in transforming Kerala into a digital society to achieve sustainable economic growth, the release said.

The roll-out of KFON (Kerala Fibre Optic Network) will be a decisive step forward in this direction. Kerala stands out as the first Indian state to declare access to the internet as a citizen's right, it said.

Besides these, total e-governance will also ensure inclusion of all sections of the society, including the less privileged and marginalised, the release said.

Apart from the e-Sevanam' system, the state IT Mission has also created a set of digitised platforms and applications, including e-Office File Flow, to take it down to the village office level, it said.

Additionally, the delivery of all vital services has already been digitised, covering all key domains including health, education, land revenue, documentation of properties, public distribution system and social security payouts, it said.

Over the period, the state has also successfully carried out a clutch of major projects like eDistrict, K-Swift, EHealth, ePDS, eCourt management, ERSS, Pol App, Cyber DOM, KITE, HSCAP and Digital Survey Mission. the release said.

It further said that Kerala also emerged top in the National e-Service Delivery Assessment conducted by the Government of India.

State Transport Minister Antony Raju will preside over the function which will also be attended by Chief Secretary V P Joy and Secretary Electronics and Information Technology, Dr Rathan U Kelkar, among others, it said.