The 25th National e-Governance Conference is scheduled to be held on November 26-27 at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra. The conference is being organised by the government of Jammu and Kashmir in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances.

The two-day conference will be attended by 1,000 delegates from 28 states and eight Union Territories and officials from Central ministries and departments. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar will also attend the conference on November 27. The IT Department, J&K UT and Haryana’s Department of Information Technology will also sign a MoU for knowledge sharing, idea exchange, capacity building in IT sector.

J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said the National e-Governance Conference is a momentous occasion for Jammu and Kashmir as it furthers the vision of Digital India of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“In a short span of two years, we have taken a giant leap to create user-centric service delivery system and paperless administrative functions through e-Office. Technology has redesigned the rules and procedures bringing accountability and transparency in the system and enabling us to provide services more effectively and efficiently,” the Lt Governor said.

The Lt Governor observed that the accelerated digital transformation and adoption of emerging technologies has helped the administration become more open, transparent and develop new delivery models to ensure people can access e-Services conveniently. He said, Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory has recorded more than 2 Crore E-Transactions in October 2022, which is significantly higher than 10.5 Lakh e-Transactions during the same period in 2021.

“e-Governance means inclusiveness, people first, strengthening trust with citizens, establishing real-time grievance redressal mechanism, bridging the digital divide, enhancing ease of doing business & ease of living and enabling the citizens to transparently provide feedback on their experience of public services. We are committed to bring benefits of digital transformation to the people and society. I am confident the two-day National e-Governance conference shall go a long way in deliberating new e-participation tools and better collaboration with people for efficient service delivery,” the Lt Governor observed.

In the last two years, several e-governance initiatives have been launched to reach out to citizens and bring greater efficiency and transparency in the functioning of the J&K government. The government has recently launched the ‘Digital Jammu and Kashmir’ programme to provide all government services in digital mode through an integrated services delivery portal. The vision is to make governance more effective, efficient and citizen-centric by harnessing the power of IT for inclusive development.

The NeSDA (National e-Governance Delivery Assessment Report) of DARPG, GoI for the year 2021 has ranked Jammu and Kashmir first amongst UTs in e-governance. Jammu and Kashmir has been ranked first amongst UTs both in State portal and in the online services with highest compliance on NeSDA parameters.

The Conference will be inaugurated by Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Science and Technology, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office. The Valedictory Session, presided over by the Lt Governor on 27th November will witness launch of J&K Vision Document and launch of J&K Cyber Security policy.