Thursday, May 28, 2009

Orissa Is Heading Towards The Best ICT Enabled State In India

It seems the State of Orissa is all set to encash the benefits of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for its development, especially for e-governance in India.

Firstly, the IT department of the Orissa government is expected to come out with a new ICT policy, incorporating the best practices of IT-friendly states in the country by November this year. The new state focused ICT policy is being formulated after a gap of five years.

Secondly, as part of its initiative to make banking services available to the poor, the Orissa government has decided to launch an ICT pilot project. The six-month project seeks to extend banking services to the rural areas and strengthen the financial inclusion process in the state. The preparatory process is almost over and the scheme is likely to be launched by the month-end. It will be implemented in 29 villages across four gram panchayats.

The commitment of Orissa State is praiseworthy especially when e-governance in other States have miserably failed. The reason why e-governance is a big failure is because neither our political parties nor our elected governments take e-governance seriously.

While ICT was not on the “Priority List” of Congress led Government, yet it is very important for the socio-economic development of India. If the Congress Government strictly sticks to its manifesto, then only non-congress led Governments would flourish in this much needed arena.

Finally, it is not mere declarations but “actual implementation” that decides the fate of any venture. In the absence of dedicated efforts all declarations are at best a foolish attempt to cover the “corruption” that misappropriates the fund allocated for e-governance in India.

SOURCE: ITVOIR

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