HPAS/Allied Mains 2022 Answer Writing Challenge Day 29: Model Answer

Question: What steps have been taken by the State Government to strengthen the digital infrastructure? (8 marks, 120 words)

Answer: 

INTRO

• Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has the potential to play a vital role in growth and development of the state.
• Steps taken by the government-

o  Under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), Department of Information and Technology, Himachal Pradesh (DIT-HP) created secure network called HIMSWAN (Himachal State Wide                       Area Network).

o HIMSWAN provides secured network connectivity to all State Government Departments upto block level and provides efficient electronic delivery of G2G (Government to Government),                   G2C (Government to                 Citizen) and G2B (Government to Business) services.

Steps taken by the government-

• Himachal Pradesh State Data Centre (HPSDC)

o To keep the Government applications / websites running in the event of a power outage, natural disaster or any other disruption, a disaster recovery (DR) site of HP State Data Centre has been setup for Himachal                          Pradesh State Data Centre (HPSDC) at Delhi

• Himachal Online Seva Portal

o  During current financial year, the Department has added 31 new services in Himachal Online Seva portal for online delivery.

E-Office

• E-Office is being implemented in various departments of the State to enable paper-less offices.
• During this year, 77 departments and 87 branches of HP Secretariat covering 5,104 officers / officials have started e-Office
• The scanning of old files in HP Secretariat has been completed. All offices will gradually shift to paperless mode by using e-office

Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC)

• High-tech state-of-the-art Command and Control Centers are proposed to be setup in Shimla and Dharamshala with the aim to ensure convergence of various citizen services at one place using Information and Communication Technology (ITC) as a tool.
• ICCC would be utilized to capture data pertaining to various citizen centric services in real time manner and provide useful information to the public using One City One App and to provide emergency as well as disaster management services to the citizen.

BODY

Bharat Net

• Bharat Net is an initiative of Government of India to provide broadband services to the Gram Panchayats of the country.
• It aims to provide broadband connectivity especially in rural areas.
• It is the world’s largest rural connectivity scheme to be connected by the optical fiber network.
• Under Phase II of Bharat Net-159 remote Gram Panchayats are being connected using very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) links.
• Material has been delivered in 159 locations, out of which VSAT have been installed at 156 locations.

• Strengthening the digital infrastructure in the following areas of State with the help of Information &Technology:
• DIT is working to add more Government to Citizen Services through the e- District (Himachal Online Seva portal/ Lok Mitra Kendra).
• High-speed secure internet connectivity through HIMSWAN is being extended to every Government office/ location.
• In order to maintain flawless/uninterrupted speed of network for e-office, the minimum bandwidth in all offices through HIMSWAN is being increased

• On requirement basis, secured VPN connectivity will be provided to Government officials in order to increase productivity during work from home
• Single Sign On (SSO) will be implemented across all major portals of State
• Government to allow officers/ officials to login with the single username and password on these portals.
• Facilitating the citizens for online building permissions with auto Development Control Rules (DCR) are proposed to be created across all the ULBs