Correct Answer :   V. Srinivas

Secretary of Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) V. Srinivas launched the 3rd edition of the National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) Portal (www.nesda.gov.in) to show the performance of States, UT’s and selected Central Ministries in delivering e-Governance services to citizens.

DARPG has developed NeSDA framework with an overall objective to measure the depth and effectiveness of existing e-Governance service delivery mechanisms from the citizen’s perspective.

This framework, based on the Online Service Index (OSI) of UN eGovernment Survey, has been customized for the Indian federal structure and the e-Governance landscape of the States and UTs. DARPG undertakes NeSDA study biennially. This study assesses States, Union Territories (UTs), and focus Central Ministries on the effectiveness of e-Governance service delivery. NeSDA helps the respective governments improve their delivery of citizen centric services and shares best practices across the country for all States, UTs and Central Ministries to emulate.

The Department has successfully released 2 editions of NeSDA study, viz., NeSDA 2019 and NeSDA 2021.   Both the studies have shown a significant rise of e-services across all States/UTs. It has also shown a rising trend of e-Services delivery shifting from single silo departmental portals to integrated / centralized portals.

Improvement in the country’s e-Governance landscape due to last 2 editions of NESDA study may be summarized in the following key takeaways –

    * Increase in e-Service Delivery
    * Rise in use of Integrated / Centralized Portals for delivery of e-Services
    * Improvement across assessment parameter scores

In NeSDA 2021, 1400 services across all States and UTs were assessed as compared to 872 in 2019, an increase of over 60%. 74% respondents of the nation-wide citizen survey conducted during the study had stated that they are satisfied with the e-Services provided by the States and UTs. The e-Services of Finance and Local Governance & Utility Services sectors were the most widely used by citizens.

Now, with the launch of NeSDA 2023 portal, DARPG has embarked on the journey of third edition of the study- NeSDA 2023. NeSDA 2023 framework has been revised in-line with the contemporary citizens need, leading global digital government trends and UN e-Government Survey studies.

Additions in the NeSDA 2023 framework are proposed under following dimensions :

* Portals Coverage : All Government Portals assessed during NeSDA are classified into two categories viz., (i) State, UT, Central Ministry Portal and (ii) State, UT, Central Ministry Services Portals. A growing number of people are living in cities, more people will be accessing public services locally. So, it is imperative that robust e-government in place at city level to accommodate present and future citizen’s needs. Hence NeSDA 2023 framework will evaluate the maturity of e-Government at the City level by assessing City Portal i.e., the official portal of respective City/Urban Local Body that provides a single window access to the information and links to the services being provided for the citizens and other stakeholders in the city.

* Focus Sectors and Mandatory Services Coverage : The NeSDA framework covers G2C and G2B services across seven sectors, viz Finance, Labour Employment, Education, Local Governance Utility Services, Social Welfare (including Health, Agriculture, Home Security), Environment (including Fire) and Tourism sectors. The framework for NeSDA 2023 proposes an expansion on focus sectors with an addition of Transport and Public Grievance. Accordingly, additional mandatory services have been proposed under States/UTs and Central Ministries. In NeSDA 2023, additional 5 mandatory services at State / UT level and 12 services at Central Ministry level would be evaluated. In NeSDA 2023, a total of 59 mandatory services are proposed to be assessed for every State & UT and 37 services to be assessed covering 21 Central Ministries/Departments.

* Assessment Parameters : To make NeSDA framework more robust and align with global digital government trends it is proposed to include three additional assessment parameters, viz., Open Government Data (OGD), E-Participation, and Leveraging Emerging Technologies..

Surce : PIB