The government has released a list of 100 digitally-powered delivery-based work plans for the improvement of governance. The list includes plans to improve administrative workflow and public service delivery. It includes several work plans that include the incorporation of digital technologies and digital transformation. In this post, we explore the government’s first work plan out of the 100 for administrative improvements that concern IT.
- The Rastriya Swatantra Party-led government says that it will develop an updated digital profile of government employees that will work on appointments, transfers, trainings, promotions, etc. For this, the general administration ministry will develop an architecture of the Personnel Management Information System- PMIS.
- To eradicate middlemen involvement in public services, a system will be developed immediately to provide services relating to passports, citizenship, National ID cards, etc., through the District Administration Office (DAO). A digital recommendation system will be developed for wards to provide recommendations to the public. NID will be used as a one-stop document for citizens’ ID-related works. Services will be rendered faceless, time-bound, and trackable. These plans share similarities with RSP’s election manifesto as well.
- National Citizen Assistance and Grievances Management system will be developed to address public concerns effectively and in a timely manner. For this, the system will work 24 hours. The government will develop a multi-channel system to engage with the public through a mobile app, portal, and social media.
- Hello Sarkar will be enhanced further and will be developed as a platform for dialogue with the public. The integrated dashboard will be used to coordinate with concerned ministries to address public complaints in real-time.
- Government Courier Services will be developed to modernize the postal service (Hulak Sewa). It will then work to deliver passports, citizenship copies, driving licenses, etc., to the doorstep of the citizens. The government plans to implement this within 100 days.
- A GIOMS will be further enhanced in 100 days to make public services efficient, transparent, and paperless.
- An auto-fill system will be developed to eliminate the need to enter citizens’ data every time they need a service. It will instead auto-fill personal details, such as citizenship number, instead of asking the user to enter the same data again. The government plans to design this system within the next 60 days.
- Government portals and apps will be made simpler and accessible for people who are less familiar with technology or have impairments.
- The government will arrange the Nagarik App to be the medium to apply for many online services. The app will be developed in such a way that it will fill out forms by using locally stored data. But for security reasons, the government says that the app won’t be able to store the data centrally. At first, the government will bring the police report, passport, and driving license permission application service in the next 45 days.
- Files will be trackable. If it surpasses the designated time, an alert will be sent to a high-ranking officer to address the situation. It will also notify which table the file stood on for and for what duration.
- Users will be able to download certificates on the official app, Nagarik App, or via email.
- A national integrated digital governance platform will be developed to provide public services digitally with interoperability. For this, the government maintains that citizens will have to enter their data only once.
The key is implementation
The party has long maintained that its focus is set on improving public services, which bring meaningful changes to the public on a daily basis. The digital transformation has been ongoing in the public sector. But the ruling party, RSP, aims at enhancing them further to deliver services in the most effective manner. Strengthening the use case of Nagarik App and Auto Fill systems looks very promising, as well as the delivery of citizenship copies and passports. If the need for those queues is removed, people will find great relief.
The key is coordination and effective implementation of these plans. We can only stay hopeful.
