NEW DELHI, Mar 25: Minister for Telecommunications and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad today said the ‘Digital India’ initiative is fundamentally aimed at making the Government more people friendly and to bridge the gap between haves and have nots through digital empowerment.
Addressing the Third Web Ratna Awards ceremony here, Mr Prasad called for collective approach of related Government Departments to create a friendly outlook.
The Minister said the Government is shortly coming out with “Open Software Policy to further the process of transparency and credibility in Government administration.” The Department of Posts and Common Service Centers, with presence in nearly four lakh centers, are being deployed to further empower the less privileged people by digitalisation. He added that the reach of internet penetration in 30 crore households of the country is next only to China. With the figure estimated to touch 50 crore in a couple of years, India is all set to digitally transform the society. Web Ratna Awards have played a major role in recognising the noteworthy and sustainable initiatives in the realm of e-Governance for better delivery of information and services. At the same time, Web Ratna Awards have re-established itself as an important platform to disseminate information about such path breaking initiatives, encouraging others to customise and replicate the successful solutions. The Awards have contributed to the overall increase in quality and quantity of web presence of various Government departments across the country.
It has also created an atmosphere for further innovation in web-based services sphere, promoting and encouraging Government Departments/Ministries and States to come out with their best. E-Governance initiatives of Government Ministries and Departments across India were evaluated under various categories. Three awards- Platinum, Gold and Silver were presented in each category to the winners short listed from the nominations received under each category.
The categories included Citizen Centric Service, Open Data Champion, Outstanding Content, Innovative Use of Technology, Comprehensive Web Presence-Ministry and Comprehensive Web Presence-State/UT. Open Data Champion is a new addition to the awards.
It honours Ministries/Departments which have contributed datasets to India’s Open Government Data (OGD) Platform (data.gov.in).
In the Citizen Centric Service Category, Platinum went to Passport Seva Project, followed by National Safai Karmachari Finance Development Corporation and National Institute of Open Schooling, winning the Gold and Silver award, respectively. In the newly-instituted Open Data Champion category, Platinum was won by the Office of Registrar General and Census Commissioner.
The Planning Commission and Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation bagged the Gold Award, while the Silver was bagged by the Ministry of Water Resources. For Innovative Use of Technology, MKisan-Government of India Portal for Farmer Centric Services won the Platinum Award. Madhya Pradesh Commercial Tax Department and Department of Commercial Tax, Tamil Nadu won the Gold Awards. The Silver Award was won by E-Sahakar, an online Cooperative Society Process Management System of Maharashtra Government. In the Outstanding Content Category, Platinum Award was bagged by Ministry of External Affairs, followed by Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Kerala Tourism and Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region winning the Gold and Silver award respectively For Innovative Use of Technology, MKisan-Government of India Portal for Farmer Centric Services won the Platinum Award. Madhya Pradesh Commercial Tax Department and Department of Commercial Tax, Tamil Nadu won the Gold Awards. The Silver Award was won by E-Sahakar, an online Cooperative Society Process Management System of Maharashtra Government. For comprehensive Web Presence- Ministry, the Platinum was bagged by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Gold by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Silver by Controller General of Accounts.
For Comprehensive Web Presence -State category the Platinum award has been won by Maharashtra followed by Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand in the Gold and Silver section respectively. (UNI)
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