National e-Governance Plan

NeGP comprises of 27 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) encompassing 9 Central MMPs, 11 State MMPs and 7 Integrated MMPs.

It also includes 8 program support components aimed at creating the right governance and institutional mechanisms, core infrastructure, policies, standards, and the necessary legal framework for adoption of e-Governance in the country. NeGP is implemented at the Central, State, and Local Government levels.

As of date, all Central MMPs have crossed the stage of conceptualization and moved to design-and-development and implementation stages, schemes having been approved for 8 of the 9 MMPs. All Integrated MMPs have crossed the stage of conceptualization, schemes having been approved for 6 out of the 7 MMPs. With respect to State MMPs, schemes for 5 MMPs have been approved and scheme preparation for 3 out of remaining 6 MMPs is in advanced stage.

Under NeGP, the Government has approved a Scheme for facilitating establishment of more than 100,000 broadband- internet-enabled Common Services Centers (CSCs) in rural areas of the country at a total cost of Rs. 5742 Crores. The Scheme is being implemented in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

As of November 2009, the number of CSCs rolled out in 25 States is 57,599. The remaining CSCs are expected to be rolled out by June 2010.

For expanding Bharat Nirman Common Services Centers to all Panchayats and utilization/ integration of CSCs, a committee constituted at DIT to determine the cost of delivery of G2C services through CSCs has given its recommendations. Accordingly, rates have been notified on 30th November, 2009, for the purposes of leveraging CSCs to capture MIS, deliver services and disseminate information, awareness etc.

Under NeGP, the Government has approved the Scheme for establishing State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) across the country in 29 States/ 6 UTs at a total outlay of Rs.3,334 Crores. Under this Scheme, it is envisaged to provide technical and financial assistance to States / UTs for establishing SWANs connecting each State / UT Headquarters up to the Block level, with a minimum bandwidth capacity of 2 Mbps. As of November 2009, SWANs in 4 States/ UTs (Punjab, Tripura, Karnataka, and Gujarat) have been made operational, while in other States/ UTs, the SWANs are expected to be made operational by June 2010.

The State Data Centre (SDC) Scheme was approved by the Government in January 2008 at an estimated outlay of Rs.1623.20 Crores to cover 28 States and 6 UTs. SDC proposals of 31 States/ UTs have already been approved by the Department of Information Technology (DIT).

In order to provide a mechanism for adequate capacity building and training for the end-user, a Capacity Building(CB) Scheme at an outlay of Rs. 313 Crores has been approved in January 2008. This envisions establishment of institutional framework for State-level strategic decision-making including setting up of State e-Governance Mission Teams (SeMTs). A Capacity Building Management Cell (CBMC) has been set up in DIT for overall coordination and implementation of the CB Scheme.

As approved by the Empowered Committee under the chairmanship of Secretary (IT), Rs. 46.63 Crores as Additional Central Assistance (ACA) to 28 States and DIT Grant of Rs.62.90 Crores to 35 States/UTs has been released along with guidelines for utilization of CB funds.
For National-level programme management role under NeGP, an Independent Business Division (IBD) called the “National e-Governance Division (NeGD)” has been set up. NeGD would also take full-fledged role and responsibilities of Capacity Building Management Cell (CBMC) for implementing the CB Scheme in the Country.

The e-District MMP under the NeGP aims to target certain high volume services currently not covered by any other MMP under the NeGP, and undertake backend computerization to enable the delivery of these services through CSCs. In January and March 2009, the pilot project went live in 6 districts of Uttar Pradesh (Ghaziabad, Gautam Budha Nagar, Rae Bareli, Sitapur, Gorakhpur and Sultanpur) with a few services. Progressively more services were added, and currently, 15 out of 22 services are live. In November 2009, pilot projects in five districts of Tamil Nadu and one district of Assam went live. In Assam, the pilot project is live in Goalpara district with 22 services and it is expected that in Sonitpur the pilot will go live in December 2009. In Tamil Nadu, the pilot project went live in Ariyalur, Coimbatore, Krishnagiri, Perambalur & Tiruvarur.

Under the Standards component of the NeGP, the Government has prepared the draft Policy on Open Standards. Localization Standards, namely Character Encoding Standard (Unicode 5.1.0) and Font Standard (ISO 14496-22 Open Type Font), have been notified for use in e-Governance applications. The Metadata and Data Standards (MDDS) have also been drafted.

The National e-Governance Service Delivery Gateway (NSDG), an MMP under the NeGP, has been implemented successfully. This standards-based messaging switch will provide a platform for seamless interoperability and exchange of data across e-Governance applications. Under the e-Forms on State Portal and State e-Governance Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG) project, proposals of 29 States have been approved by DIT, and RFPs are under preparation by States for selection of imp February 11, 2010