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Tag: Tapan Ray

  • e-Governance necessary for citizens’ digital empowerment

    e-Governance necessary for citizens’ digital empowerment

    NEW DELHI: “There is need to focus on strengthening of e-Governance, which is an important pillar of the Government’s ‘Digital India’ campaign – to digitally empower the administrative and Governance process for providing Citizen Centric Services,” said Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances secretary Devendra Chaudhury.

     

    Inaugurating a workshop on ‘UN e-Government Development Index,’ Chaudhury highlighted the importance of process change, which can be effectively enabled by IT tools and consequential changes in approach to e-Governance as a business model similar to e-Commerce. 

     

    Commending the government’s plans to transform governance, UN resident coordinator and resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme Yuri Afanasiev said, “e-Governance is like building a house. Build a strong foundation and everything works.”

     

    In his view, the key challenge for the country was to deliver services to the last mile population, removing the digital divide, towards improving the quality of their lives. 

     

    Acknowledging India’s progress, Inter-Regional Adviser on e-Government with the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Richard Kerby said, “e-Government has to be a part of the national development strategy and sustainable development. While open data is a key to empowering people, it should support a bottom-up approach, with citizens contributing to the data collection process equally with governments.”

     

    Electronics and IT additional secretary Tapan Ray stressed on the need to “integrate efforts across government to achieve the vision of a digitally empowered India.” 

     

    A key focus of the workshop was to understand the United Nations e-Government Survey, which assesses e-Government development across all 193 member states of the UN launched in 2003. The global Survey has three components – Telecom Infrastructure Index, Human Capital Index and an Online Services Index. The Workshop threw up a number of innovative and transformative ideas of which the States have undertaken to serve the Citizens. 

     

    The workshop featured presentations by four States, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh on innovative e-Governance initiatives launched by them to improve service delivery to citizens.

  • Govt to launch Internet Safety Plan in collaboration with Google

    Govt to launch Internet Safety Plan in collaboration with Google

    NEW DELHI: The government is launching an Internet Safety Plan throughout the country. In this regard MyGov held the first round table in the capital in collaboration with Google and Computer Emergency Response Team-India (Cert-In) this week.

     

    The Plan is being launched by the Department of Electronics and Information and Technology in collaboration with Google and Cert-In.

     

    DeitY additional secretary Tapan Ray chaired the round table, which was attended by DeitY joint secretary Dr. Rajendra Kumar, MyGov CEO Gaurav Dwivedi, and representatives from Google India, NCERT, CBSE, Cert-In, the New Media Wing of Information and Broadcasting Ministry, and the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).

     

    Ray laid out the vision of the Department in promoting Digital India, which is also to be Safe Digital India and complimented MyGov’s efforts in inviting suggestions from citizens in educating the youth on how to be digitally safe.

     

    As part of the Digital Literacy and Internet Safety Campaign initiated by MyGov, Ray suggested a year round programme to raise awareness of key policy makers on issues of internet safety. The programme would include roundtables, workshops, security cafes, and contests for young adults, policymakers, and NGOs.

     

    Speaking about the initiative, Dwivedi said, “We are happy to partner with Google and Cert-In in the cyber security education and awareness campaign.  The Internet offers many opportunities to explore create and collaborate. We are starting a nationwide campaign sensitizing our youth and policy makers in Mission Safer Internet. Google and Cert-In are our partners in this effort and are committed to keeping our users safe and secure.”

     

    MyGov, in collaboration with all stakeholders, is also expected to issue awareness guidelines soon on various safety measures, which can be followed by government officials, schools, guardians and other vulnerable sections.

     

    Google’s Public Policy India head Chetan Krishnaswamy said, “The Internet has brought a number of incredible things to the world. But it’s also important that it be a safe space for families to explore, learn and enjoy together. To enable this and ensure that families and young people across India are safe, we’re working with CERT- In and MyGov to get the word out about good Internet practices and how to keep users safe online.”

     

    Measures to take Internet safety practices for two specific target groups- government officials, children and young adults were discussed at the round table. Over 650 ideas received from MyGov users on the issue were also presented during the today’s meeting and were debated upon.

     

    As a precursor to the round table, MyGov had announced a poster making contest and online discussion among teens and youth in India to celebrate Internet Safety Week from 10 to 17 February.