29 Central Ministries/Deptts to be covered under e-Office in 2011-12

29 Central Ministries/Deptts to be covered under e-Office in 2011-12 V. Narayanasamy Inaugurates Workshop on e-Office

   A Workshop on e-Office for Nodal Officers and project teams of implementing Ministries/Departmentswas held in New Delhi today. e-Office is a Mission Mode Project under the National e-Governance Plan which has been assigned to the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DAR&PG). The Workshop was organized by DAR&PG and NIC with the objective to sensitize the Nodal Officers and project teams of user Ministries/ Departments on e-Office implementation aspects.

   The workshop was inaugurated by Shri V. Narayanasamy, Minister of State, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and the PMO. On the occasion, the Minister also released a handbook titled ‘e-Office Framework – A way forward for the Government’. In his remarks Shri Narayanasamy said that e-government is the way out to ensure effective and faster public service delivery system to which the Government is committed. This, he said, increases transparency and openness in the office working. The Minister said that the Government is planning to bring Electronic Delivery of Services Bill to further facilitate and smooth transition towards e-office at all levels.

   The Minister said that Central Ministries and Departments should be pioneer in implementing e-office project and whatever put extra effort to make it a reality at the earliest. The Minister felt that further improvements need to brought in e-office and e-governance projects. Training at all levels has to be imparted so that the dream of paperless office can be realized. With a view of ensure that implementation of e-office is not unduly delayed, the Minister suggested that a timeframe should be put in place.

   Secretary, DAR&PG, Shri R.C. Misra in his remarks said that 27 mission mode projects are part of e-governance. He said that the Department has plans to facilitate implementation of e-office in 12 Ministries during this financial year and in 29 Ministries for the next year. By the end of the 12th Five Year Plan, all the Central Ministries and Departments are proposed to be covered under the e-office scheme.

   DDG (NIC), Dr. Y.K. Sharma gave an overview of e-office applications. He said that the Department is ready on infrastructure side and has a stable and robust technology available and is in Place to carry out the e-office implementation.

Two major components of e-office are:

i) Moving files electronically which is known as e-file and

ii) other issues related to office management like budget management, personnel information system, knowledge management, leave management, tour management and messaging management etc.

The broad objectives of e-Office are:

· Improve efficiency, consistency, quality and effectiveness of government responses

· Reduce turnaround time and to meet the demands of the citizens’ charter

· Establish transparency and accountability, and

· Provide cost effective e-storage facility in an environment and eco-friendly manner

   DARPG has also finalized the Central Secretariat Manual of e-Office Procedure (e-Manual) which enables working in an e-Office environment. The e-Manual is based on the existing Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure. The e-Manual will be circulated to all Ministries/ Departments soon.

   In November 2010, DAR&PG had formulated and circulated Change Management strategy and Business Process Re-engineering framework, which will be useful to the Ministries/ Departments during implementation of e-Office.

   NIC presented an online demonstration of e-Office application and clarified the queries of the officers of participating Ministries/ Departments. The workshop concluded successfully having achieved its objective of capacity building on e-Office.

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Source: PIB