Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh, on Saturday, said that closer synergy among researchers, academia, industry and start-ups is the way forward for India to become self-reliant in the true sense of the term.

He said under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a new governance model has been introduced in India based on the mantra of ‘Maximum Governance, Minimum Government’ aimed at technology driven citizen-centric ease of governance for ease of living.

Inaugurating the 25th National Conference on e-Governance (NCeG), the silver jubilee edition of the NCeG in Katra, Dr Jitendra Singh said the ultimate objective of good governance is to bring ease of living in the life of common man. He said the Modi Government is committed to augmenting inclusive growth across all sectors.

The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) and Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, in association with the State Government of Jammu & Kashmir, is organizing the 25th NCeG on November 26 – 27, 2022 in Katra. The theme of this conference is ‘Bringing Citizens, Industry and Government Closer.’

Dr. Jitendra Singh said that closer synergy among the Research, Academia, Industry and Start-ups is the way forward for India to become self-reliant in the true sense of the term.

The Minister added that in an era of increasing digitization with Web 3.0, Artificial Intelligence and regular Tech Disruptions, Prime Minister Modi’s vision of India’s Techade can be realized through vigorous and all pervasive Digital push.

The minister said that digital innovation will play an important part in the next decade for governance to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. He said that this will necessitate conversations around topics and technologies which would shape Digital Governance in the future to enhance the delivery of Government services to citizens.

Dr. Jitendra Singh said that what is worth noting is that all such large public digital solutions are built with an open architecture, and are modular with plug and play that essentially seek to democratize and decentralize technology usage. He said, India has been building ‘open digital platforms’, which are tremendous force multipliers and underlined that this is critical and unique in being affordable, interoperable.

He urged all participants and stalwarts taking part in two-day intense deliberations to focus on questions that will propel India to the next decade of agile growth. He said, while discussing digital governance across the whole-of-the-government do ponder upon what it will take for making government more accessible to every citizen of India.

Dr. Jitendra Singh concluded that increased efficiency, increased transparency, robust focus on citizen-centricity and reaching out to the last man in the last queue for service delivery in the true spirit of Antyodaya is the ultimate objective of all governance reforms. He said that in the next 25 years of Amrit Kaal, the officers in their 20s and 30s have to play a stellar role to steer India to become the unique and best model of governance in 2047.

Expressing happiness that NCeG is coinciding with the Constitution Day celebrations, Dr Jitendra Singh administered reading of the Preamble to the Constitution with all participants in the inaugural session, as 26th November is celebrated as the Constitution Day to commemorate the adoption of the Constitution of India in 1949.

Secretary, DARPG, V Srinivas; Chief Secretary, J&K Arun Mehta; Additional Secretary, DARPG, Amar Nath, Joint Secretaries, DARPG, NBS Rajput and Jaya Dubey and several senior officials of other departments and retired bureaucrats took part in the inaugural session.