The Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) and Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, in association with the State Government of Telangana organized the 24^th Conference on e-Governance (NCeG) 2021 on 7^th – 8^th February 2022 at Hyderabad, Telangana. The theme of this Conference is “India’s Techade: Digital Governance in a Post Pandemic World”. At the Valedictory Session today, ‘Hyderabad Declaration’ on e-Governance was adopted after intensive deliberations during the sessions held over two days.

The Conference was inaugurated by the Chief Guest, Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Minister of State of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space, Government of India and presided by Shri K. T. Rama Rao, Cabinet Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Industries, Information Technology Electronics and Communications, Government of Telangana.

The 24^th NCeG represented a platform for constructive exchange of ideas on some of the latest technologies for promoting e-Governance. The Distinguished speakers invited for the Conference shared their knowledge and insights on the themes identified for the Conference. The 24th NCeG 2021 provided all participating State and UT Government teams with a detailed view of the latest concepts and technologies to promote e-Governance and enable them to go back with useful takeaways for being implemented in their respective States and UTs..

Over the two days, discussions were held on six sub-themes in Plenary sessions- AatmaNirbhar Bharat: Universalization of Public Services; Innovation– Platformization, Emerging Technologies; Ease of living through Technology Interventions for Good Governance; Government Process Re-engineering and Citizen’s participation in Government Processes; India’s Techade – Digital Economy (Digital Payments – Building Citizen’s Confidence). There were also parallel breakout sessions where the awardees of National e-Governance Awards 2021 from Centre, State and District showcased their award winning entries. These sessions were on the themes : Unicorns of 2021: Demonstrating Power of Innovation, Digital Excellence at District level; Seamless, Creating a technology Innovation Ecosystem, End to End service delivery without human interference through technological interventions; Replicability and sustainability in e-Governance-Best Practices. An Exhibition including a Wall of Fame was also organized during the event to showcase India’s achievements in the field of e-Governance.

Over 50 speakers presented their papers in semi-virtual mode. The Conference was attended by over 2000 delegates in semi-virtual mode.

To recognise the implementation of e-Governance initiatives, the National e-Governance Awards 2021 were presented during the Inaugural Session. 26 awards were presented under the 6 categories of the Award Scheme to Central Ministries/Departments, State/UT Governments, Districts, Local Bodies, Public Sector Undertakings and Academic & Research Institutions. This include 12 Gold, 13 Silver and 1 Jury Award.

The 24^th NCeG provided a platform for the delegates, including senior Government officers from across the country, industry stalwarts and researchers, to share best practices, latest technology developments, thus leveraging them for achieving effective governance and public service delivery. The focus of all the sessions was on learning by experience sharing effective e-governance tools for benefits of the citizen and achieve Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’.

Hyderabad Declaration

The Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DAPRG), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions and Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India in collaboration with the Government of Telangana organized the 24^th National Conference on e-Governance at Hyderabad during 7-8 January 2022.

Under the visionary leadership of the Prime Minister, the e-Governance landscape of India has radically changed in scale, scope and learning paradigms. As India celebrates 75^th year of Independence as Azaadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the Prime Minister’s clarion call for adoption of Next Generation Administrative Reforms for bringing citizens and government closer was the focus of the Conference deliberations. Secretariat Reforms, Swachhta Campaign, Redressal of Public Grievances and Improving Service Delivery which form the core of India’s good governance model were deliberated. During the pandemic, the widespread adoption of e-Office helped create paperless offices in the central secretariat and enabled smooth governance functioning. CPGRAMS helped redress 20 lac public grievances in 2021. The National e-Governance Awards were conferred in the Inaugural Session. The Two-day Conference held exchanges of views between the Award winners and Unicorns.

The Conference has unanimously adopted the Hyderabad declaration outlined below after intensive deliberations during the sessions held over two days.

The Conference resolved that Government of India and State Governments shall collaborate to:

1. To bring citizens and government closer through digital platforms.
2. Transform citizen services through use of technology by leveraging the artifacts of India Stack that include Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, UMANG, e Sign and consent framework.
3. Fast track the implementation of the national level public digital platforms in key social sectors viz. Health, Education, Agriculture, etc by adopting open interoperable architecture for joined up connected services.
4. Operationalize the data governance framework to facilitate data sharing within Government entities as also make available all data on data.gov.in except for a negative list. Enable protocols for data collection, data harvesting, data privacy, data anonymization, data security, and data preservation that can help build a data economy.
5. Foster responsible use of emerging technology such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, 5G, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, etc for Social Empowerment.
6. Make India the global hub for emerging technology through creation of large pool of skilled resources on futuristic technologies
7. Ensure resilient Government Infrastructure with robust technological solutions to withstand pandemic like disruptions.
8. Foster a spirit of research and development and process reengineering in ongoing government services
9. Uplift good governance to higher level through healthy competition among States and UTs and among Central Ministries by benchmarking services.
10. NeSDA 2021 to be adopted in collaboration with MeITY for improving e-Governance landscape.
11. Integration of all State/District portals with CPGRAMS for seamless Redressal of Public Grievances
12. Replication of awarded projects under National Awards for e-Governance 2020 – 21 and their nomination for dissemination of best practices through Regional conferences
13. Adoption of e-office version 7.0 in all ministries and departments
14. Use technology for propagating end to end service delivery without human interference to the citizen at the grass root level
15. Make “digital” the primary aspect of government service design and delivery and provide requisite infrastructure to achieve that.

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SNC/SP