HPAS/Allied Mains 2022 Answer Writing Challenge Day 32: Model Answer

Question: What services are being provided by HIMSWAN to bring efficiency and transparency in HP in public administration of the state ? ( 8 marks, 120 words )

Answer: 

Under the National Governance Plan (NeGP), the Department of Information Technology, Himachal Pradesh (DITHP) created a secure network called HIMSWAN (Himachal State Wide Area Network).

Under this project, horizontal connectivity is being provided to various Govt. Departments/ Boards/ Corporations of the State till block level and vertical connectivity till the Panchayat level through Community Service Centres.

Himachal has the distinction of 1st state in the country to commission the HIMSWAN project on 5^th February 2008.

The objective of the Scheme is to create a secure close user group (CUG) Government network for the purpose of delivering Government to Government (G2G), Government to Business (G2B), and Government to Citizen a(G2C) services, e-Procurement, and e-Samadhan etc.

Benefits of HIMSWAN

• To make government departments intelligible (easily approachable) to the masses by offering them speedy and efficacious public services.
• To provide Internet/ E-mail facilities and links to various departmental websites using HIMSWAN.
• Better dissemination of information through a web portal and online status of applications submitted online or through post or by hand.
• Reduction in response time in addressing grievances by the concerned departments.
• The updated and latest information regarding public distribution system, list of beneficiaries under different programmes, information regarding government grants given to PRIs, and urban local bodies.
• Facilities to the farmers and villagers who make queries about the latest techniques, advice for their problems, new technologies, etc. from a group of experts pertaining to fields of agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, health, fisheries, etc.
• The other key applications envisaged on the network are E-mail, file transfer, broadcast and data communication, intranets, electronic data interchange services, value-added networks, government communication, call centres, information kiosks, data warehousing, disaster management and maintenance of the wide-area network itself. More extensive video and teleconferencing Facilities.