Chhattisgarh has bagged two national awards in Information Technology (IT) sector. The Computer Society of India (CSI) Nihilent has conferred award on Chhattisgarh for sustained excellence in IT sector and has also bestowed Sustenance Award in project category for geographical information system (GIS) operated by Chhattisgarh InfoTech and Biotech Promotion Society (CHiPS), officials stated.
On behalf of State Government, Information Technology Department Secretary B Anand Babu received this award from Dr Peter Pariscake (Danube University, Austria) in Conference Hall of Jawaharlal Nehru Technical University of Hyderabad. On the occasion, Chairman of Computer Society of India HR Mohan, Chairman of E-governance Special Interest Group Piyush Gupta, Deputy Chairman lC Singh and Chief Executive Officer Nihilent Technology Shridevi Aayluri and IT experts from across the country were also present.
CEO of CHiPS, Saurabh Kumar told that in IT sector, renowned organisation Computer Society of India Nihilent has been giving away awards every year since last 12 years for excellent execution of Government projects in information technology sector of India. He continued by saying that CSI has formed E-Governance Special Group for focusing on various IT schemes formulated by Government in the country.
This group organises workshops, seminars, award ceremonies etc across the nation for information regulation. This year, more than 1000 applications were received from entire country under various categories. After scrutiny of which, Chhattisgarh was selected for sustained excellence in implementation of many extensive projects.
Moreover, GIS project of CHiPS was also awarded by CSI. It is noteworthy that schemes operated by CHiPS have been recognised and awarded with many national and international awards. This particularly includes CSI Nihilent Excellence State Award and awards for E-procurement in four categories, etc.
It may be mentioned that on September 5 this year, the Chhattisgarh Government formed a high-level ‘Empowered Committee’ under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand to monitor and resolve issues arising out of the current State Government policy for investment in Information Technology (IT) and related services.
Department officials informed that the Committee comprises Additional Chief Secretary (ACS)/Principal Secretary/Secretary Finance, Principal Secretary/Secretary Revenue, and Principal Secretary/Secretary IT as members while Chief Executive Officer (CEO) CHiPS would be the Member Secretary of the Committee.
The Committee may consult or invite representatives from institutions related to e-Governance/IT-ITES sector such as NASSCOM, STPI, Private IT Parks, IIM, IIIT, NISG, NeGD or any other experts. This apart, the Committee shall have the authority to deliberate and decide on various issues including approval, monitoring and controlled execution of the plan, periodic reviews with regard to implementation of the policy, recommendation of additional incentives/concessions for large investments of more than Rs100 crore.
The Committee would also have the authority on monitoring single-window clearance system, resolution of inter-departmental issues that may arise from time to time, issuance of clarification on any issue pertaining to this policy or extension of timeliness etc, issuance of single registration for all statutory requirements in the State within 30 days, for commencement of business activities by the IT/ITES entrepreneurs and other relevant matters.
All decisions of the Committee regarding this policy shall be final and binding to all the concerned parties including investors in the State. The meeting of the Committee may be held at least once every three months or earlier as per requirement. It may also be recalled that in 2012 itself, around 3,000 offices of the Chhattisgarh Government were connected to the digital highway under the State Government’s State Wide Area Network (SWAN) project launched to bring the benefits of e-connectivity to the general public.
As a result, video conferencing became possible from 27 district collectorates including the Mantralaya in the State. The Government had already developed the video conferencing system between many district collectorates and janpad panchayat offices, officials stated. It may be mentioned here that Chief Minister Raman Singh had inaugurated the e-governance project made operational through ‘Chhattisgarh Infotech and Biotech Promotion Society (CHIPS) on April 6, 2010.
Moreover, Chhattisgarh is the first State in the country to have connected its offices through a digital highway. The Central Government had also selected CHiPS as the nodel agency to implement the e-Governance projects. The SWAN project provides both ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ connectivity. All the state’s offices are now connected through ‘horizontal connectivity’ under which all three technologies—WiMAX, VSAT and leased lines are being utilised.
The e-connectivity system had helped connect the remotest region of the State. In the villages where it was not possible to provide connectivity by the telecom operators, the government had facilitated connectivity through SWAN project. This has helped easier conduct of administrative work and also provision of various services to general public.
The e-connectivity system has helped safer exchange of information between various Government offices resulting in lesser travel by officials on government work. The system has also brought down costs incurred on correspondence, courier and postal services and telephonic conversation.
The State Government had been managing its various e-governance projects through e-connectivity including its web portal. The State’s universities, medical colleges and government engineering colleges had also been connected through the ‘National Knowledge Network’ which has helped students speedily download information at the global level.
Moreover, as many as 1.20 crore pages of about 2.5 lakh files of 17 departments located at the Chhattisgarh State Secretariat have been fully scanned and uploaded online. The ‘Digital Secretariat’ of the Chhattisgarh Government has started functioning and thereby, now, has completely eliminated the manual processes in these departments.