Soon Govt. services will be available at a mouse click

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 30 June 2010, 18:44 IST
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New Delhi: Soon the citizens of India will be able to get all government services at a mouse click, thanks to the ongoing 2,000 crore state portal project. Now the Indian citizens will be able to get all government services through common Internet portals, reports Harsimran Julka from The Economic Times. The portals' offer different services like getting birth or death registration certificate, payment of utility bills, application for driving license, pensions and getting residence certificate. The forms will be available electronically. The government plans to develop portals for at least 10 states by October 2010, and the rest will follow. The portals will need 50-60 crore each to be developed, said an e-governance business head of at one of the top Indian tech firms currently bidding for this business. "We expect many states to go live within six months. It will reduce red-tapism and make delivery of services hassle free," said a Joint Secretary-level official at the Ministry of IT & Communications. Citizen service centers in rural areas will help the technologically challenged to submit forms online. The government plans to roll out around 10,000 more CSC kiosks by December this year, taking the total to 90,000. Already, five IT companies - Accenture, Infosys, HP, Wipro, and 3i Infotech - have been empanelled as agencies for implementation of the project at the state level. KPMG, Ernst & Young, PwC, IL&FS and UTITSL have been empanelled as the consulting firms. The states may pick any of these agencies for implementation of the project. When the portals go live, citizens would be able to query the status of the application at any point. Response will also be conveyed through SMSs, email or even displayed on portals. Initially, it may be limited to notifications like a licence or permit being ready to be picked up. But with time, all emailed printouts of licenses/tickets may also be made legally eligible. The e-service delivery will have three main steps - selecting and filling the e-form and submitting it electronically. The user will also get a unique ID generated by the system, to follow the status via email or SMS. The portals would be available in local languages and English. The Madhya Pradesh government has already gone live with its MPOnline portal, a joint venture with Tata Consultancy Services. The state has tied up with Bajaj Allianz, Tata AIG and LIC, to enable their customers to pay insurance premiums online. Citizens can also recharge their mobile prepaid accounts online for Airtel, Tata Docomo, Tata Indicom and BSNL phones. They can also book private tours of state national parks like Kanha and Bandhavgarh online. Victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy can apply for free medical facilities, and state incentives online.