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Digitisation has revolutionised the way governments worked. Today, not only the government services can be availed online but a single-window has been developed to ensure citizens’ convenience. Highlighting how the Government of Haryana has joined the digital revolution and addressing associated challenges, Aman Kumar, Deputy Secretary, Information, PR & Languages, Haryana shared his views at the Elets Digital Governance Summit, Haryana Edition.

Answering a question on challenges that governments are facing in preparing their workforce to adapt to the digital environment, Kumar said, “If we talk about the challenges in governance, human resource is a big challenge here. People are not very acquainted with technologies. Moreover, the conventional mindset restricts them to welcome a change, hence, the adoption of technologies is a big issue. E-office has been introduced in the Haryana government offices but its adoption is on the lower side.”

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Moreover, governments should always consider the impact of e-governance measures and how they can benefit citizens before they are implemented. “There is a lack of confidence in government among people. I think one of the reasons for this is that the ownership lies with the government and not with the citizens. This is a big issue. In my suggestion, there must be certain trust-building and confidence- building approaches that can ensure people that their data is safe from breaches and will not be misused,” he added.

Sharing his perspective on cybersecurity awareness among people and how digitisation has changed the way governments interacted with citizens, Kumar said, “Yes, a lot of has changed. We have curbed corruption, enhanced accountability and transparency. Also, from the government’s perspective, there is a lot of improvement in Haryana. We have taken a great initiative ‘Saral’ to take over 55 government schemes to the people at the grassroots level.” Earlier, people in Haryana had to run from pillar to post for almost every government service. However, with the adoption of technology, now the state government has developed a single-window arrangement. People can reach out to this single window online platform to avail any government service, he added.

“I would like to bring this up that the government is facing issues when it comes to the collection of data from the people. For most schemes, it is observed that the same kind of information is coming from people. Therefore, the Department of IT should come up with a long term plan,” Kumar pointed out.

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Haryana has evolved significantly in IT and digital governance. The technology interventions have benefitted the government and the citizens of the state. With data collection and digital tools, the government is heading to process and analyze data and adopt solutions for predictive analysis. “State data is immense and we can add value to the overall governance. However, we should design some strategy that helps us in value creation from this immense amount of data,” he concluded.

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