The district of Jalgaon in Maharashtra won the award of
excellence in the District category while Education Department,
Madhya Pradesh and Finance Department, Gujarat received the award
of excellence in the Department category. 23 eGovernance
initiatives were awarded under various categories.
The CSI-Nihilent e-Governance Awards 2008-09 for e-governance
initiatives during the period April 1 2008 to March 31 2009 were
announced at a grand function held at the 44th Annual Convention of
CSI at Pune. Held for the seventh successive year, the awards are
an annual process of identifying and recognizing the best
e-Governance initiatives in India in citizen services at the State,
Department, District and Project level.
Speaking at the awards function, Piyush Gupta, Convener of the
awards, said, "The aim of these awards is to recognize and
replicate the successful initiatives in achieving good governance
using ICT. We have continuously improved the evaluation process,
making these awards the true benchmark for quality conception and
implementation of e-governance initiatives."
Ravi Teja, Country Manager, India and Head, Enterprise
Transformation Practice, Nihilent said, "e-Governance is a tool to
ensure equitable and easy to avail good governance. The biggest
challenge is change management encompassing cultural,
organizational, process, people and technological challenges. A
metrics driven governance would enable a government department or
municipal corporation to perform its functions efficiently and
effectively to achieve its public mission"
Madhya Pradesh was awarded for its initiatives such as
computerization in government departments, manpower development for
IT, guidelines for setting up of information kiosks and development
of web sites by all government departments, facilitating good
governance. MPOnline, a citizen services portal delivers a wide
range of government services (copy of land records, forms for
professional examination board, birth/death, caste certificates,
etc.), improving transparency and accountability, and reducing
delivery cycles.
The district administration of Jalgaon, Maharashtra received the
award of excellence in the District category for developing an
Integrated Voice Response System (E-Lokshahi) that provides 24 hour
online public grievance redress system and FAQ forum being used
widely through telephone and mobile.
The award of excellence in Department category was conferred on
two departments - An e-Government initiative of the Education
Department of Madhya Pradesh received the award for enhancing the
quality of education to 1.60 crore students enrolled in 1.10 lakh
schools by optimal utilization of the 3.5 Lac teachers and
resources. The Finance Department of Madhya Pradesh was recognised
for implementing e-governance best practices such as comprehensive
dashboard with drill down facility, uniform decision support system
reports for decision making, electronic payment to pensioners,
online receipt of various taxes with real time accounting in state
accounts.