‘Modi Govt broke all taboos of past’
Avtar Bhat
KATRA, Nov 26: Maintaining that under Narendra Modi Government a new governance model has sought to be introduced in India, Union Minister, in PMO with independent charge of Science and Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh today said that people had lost faith in previous UPA Government which failed to come up to their expectations during its decade long rule at the Centre.
Inaugurating the two days long 25th National Conference on e-Governance (NCeG), the silver jubilee edition of the NCeG here today, Dr Jitendra Singh said, Modi model is based on the Mantra of “Maximum Governance, Minimum Government”.
The Union Minister said the people had totally lost hope on previous UPA regime as during their rule only two lakh complaints had come under RTI whose number during the Modi rule has reached to 30 lakh now. “This indicates that people trusted the fairness and public friendly approach of this Government”, he added.
He said during present Government disposal of RTI’s is 96 to 97 percent. He said when people had lost hope in the previous UPA Government knowing that their RTI cases will not be disposed off so that they considered submitting of complaints under RTI was of no fun.
Enumerating various public friendly and pro poor decisions taken by Narendra Modi Government, Dr Jitendra Singh reiterated that this Government is fully committed to justice to all and appeasement to none. He said first and foremost thing done by this Government was that it abolished signing of certificates by Gazetted officers as our Government has confidence to trust its youth. He termed it a great decision.
Not only this, Dr Jitendra Singh said the Modi Government abolished interviews for lower posts and this way the justice was given to all as people coming from poor background could get a job on the basis of their merit which earlier was not possible.
He said this Government unlocked the space for private players and India’s first private satellite was recently launched from Sriharikota. This happened because Modi Government broke all taboos of past as this Government is committed to Mantra of “Maximum Governance, Minimum Government”.
He said even the daughters were not entitled to father’s pension after separation till court verdict but our Government made them entitled to the same.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that this Government introduced many social and economic reforms and has done away with those obsolete rules which had legacy of colonial rule.
He regretted that Modi’s administrative reforms did not pickup in J&K earlier and they were only introduced after 2019. Dr Jitendra Singh said likewise the youth could not take the advantage of Start-Ups in J&K as the people here have not still come out of Government job mindset though private sector jobs and setting up own business ventures under Start-Ups are much lucrative than Government jobs. However, he exuded confidence that with various motivational programmes and workshops held in the UT, the mindset of the youth is also going to change now.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, under PM Narendra Modi, the ultimate objective of good governance is to bring ease of living in the life of common man. He said, Modi Government has pre-empted the need of Information Technology and inculcated the same in each and every aspect of governance and has committed to augment inclusive growth across all sectors.
Dwelling on the theme of the conference “Bringing Citizens, Industry and Government closer”, Dr Jitendra Singh said, this has become an absolute necessity in the times we live in, as the days of working in silos is over. He said, closer synergy among the research, academia, industry and Start-ups is the way forward for India to become self-reliant (Atmanirbhar) in true sense of the term. The Minister added that in an era of increasing digitization with Web 3.0, Artificial Intelligence and regular Tech Disruptions, Prime Minister Modi’s vision of India’s Techade can be realized through vigorous and all pervasive digital push.
The Minister said, digital innovation will play an important part in the next decade for governance to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. He said, this will necessitate conversations around topics and technologies which would shape Digital Governance in the future to enhance the delivery of Government services to citizens. He said, Vision India@2047 would be e-Vision India @2047.
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Dr Jitendra Singh said, what is worth noting is that all such large public digital solutions are built with an open architecture, and are modular with plug and play that essentially seek to democratize and decentralize technology usage. He said, India has been building ‘open digital platforms’, which are tremendous force multipliers and underlined that this is critical and unique in being affordable, interoperable, API-driven (and hence scalable), mobile-first in vernacular languages, and allows India’s entrepreneurs to build on the rails of these platforms to innovate and solve problems at scale and for trust. These are not only digital transformations, but also innovations in the design philosophy of citizen-centric solutions with huge socio-economic implications, the Minister added.
Dr Jitendra Singh urged all the participants and stalwarts taking part in two-day intense deliberations to focus on questions that will propel India to the next decade of agile growth. He said, while discussing Digital Governance across Whole-of-the-Government, do ponder upon what it will take for making Government more accessible to every citizen of India, how do we build a more transparent and Real-Time Grievance Management System with state-of-the-art technology and best practices in grievance redress learning from the world and some of our own corporates, how do we leverage technology for strengthening the Start-up Ecosystem, generate more employment and promote the ease of doing business.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, the “Whole of Government, whole of nation and whole of society” approach has become the new norm to achieve the desired results in the shortest span of time. He gave the examples of success stories of 75-day long “Swacch Sagar, Surakshit Sagar” campaign from 5th July to 17th September, 2022 and the ongoing nationwide campaign of Department of Pension of the Ministry of Personnel PG and Pensions for creation of Digital Life Certificates.
The Minister pointed out that due to this whole and integrated approach, 25 lakh Digital Life Certificates (DLCs) for Central Government pensioners were created in just 20 days from 1st to 19th November, 2022. Apart from officials of DoPPW, SBI & Punjab National Bank, registered Central Government Pensioner Associations, the representatives of Indian Post and Payment Bank (IPPB), Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), National Informatics Centre (NIC) as well as Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) in every city took part in the campaign.
Dr Jitendra Singh concluded that increased efficiency, increased transparency, robust focus on citizen-centricity and reaching out to the last man in the last queue for service delivery in the true spirit of Antyodaya is the ultimate objective of all governance reforms. He said, in the next 25 years of Amrit Kaal, the officers in their 20s and 30s have to play a stellar role to steer India to become the unique and best model of governance in 2047, when we celebrate the 100th year of India’s Independence.
Dr Jitendra Singh presented the National Awards for e-Governance (NAeG) under 5 categories of the NAeG Scheme – 2022 to 18 e-Governance initiatives at Central, State and district levels, Academic & Research Institutions and Public Sector Undertaking. This includes 9 Gold and 9 Silver Awards.
Secretary, DARPG, V. Srinivas, Chief Secretary, J&K Arun Mehta, Additional Secretary, DARPG, Amar Nath, joint secretaries, DARPG, NBS Rajput and Jaya Dubey and several senior officials of other departments and retired bureaucrats took part in the inaugural function.
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