With a view to provide transparent and responsive governance to the people of the state, Himachal Pradesh government has constantly promoted the maximum use of Information Technology (IT) in its working. Various IT enabled services have been started to bring governance reforms and ensure time-bound services besides speedy disposal of the public grievances. The Information Technology and Information Technology enabled Services (ITeS) have enabled the State to provide quicker and efficient services in governance practices, health care, education, research, and public service delivery etc. The state government has notified Himachal Pradesh IT, ITeS and ESDM Policy – 2019 to make Himachal Pradesh as a most favoured investment destination for IT, ITeS and ESDM companies.
It also envisages to build infrastructural support system which can cater to this industry requirements besides a pool of highly skilled manpower for this sector. It will also promote start-ups and entrepreneurship in these sectors and will go a long way in establishing an e-governance framework with backward automation to promote ease of doing business and create a conducive business environment by ensuring digital service delivery in a time-bound manner. The E-Office project is being implemented in various departments to enable paperless offices. So far, 5715 officers and officials have been covered under e-Office including HP Secretariat, 57 Directorates, 11 offices of the Deputy Commissioners, 10 SP Offices besides 26 Field Offices. The government intends to bring all the offices under the e-office umbrella by shifting them to paperless mode for which the department of Information Technology is continuously providing training to various departments.
In order to promote IT investments, two Centres of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) are being set up in the State at Shimla and Gaggal at Dharamshala. Apart from this, land has been provided to HP Kaushal Vikas Nigam at IT Park Waknaghat in Solan district for setting up of Centre of Excellence for skill enhancement of local youth. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had laid its foundation stone in December, 2020. Himachal Pradesh has become the first state in India to give approval to the Drone policy. A Drone Mela was organized in Dharamshala on 14 December, 2021 to explore possibilities of use of drone in various sectors including government sector. Various drone manufacturers participated in the event. The State IT department has also envisaged GARUD project which means Governance and Reforms Using Drones and the same was launched in Mandi on 27 December, 2021 during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The successful trial runs of drone were conducted for delivering medicines in Zonal Hospital and Medical College, Nerchowk and from Dharamshala to Tanda Medical College. The IT department in collaboration with the drone companies has already conducted Proof of Concept (PoC) for the delivery of medicines using drones in hard and far-flung areas of Kullu and Chamba districts. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur inaugurated Himachal’s first Drone School at ITI, Shahpur, Kangra in March, 2022. Mukhya Mantri Seva Sankalp (MMSS) Helpline-1100 is a centralized grievance system in the State to register grievances and suggestions or seek information and provide feedback. A total of 4,39,456 complaints have been registered in the MMSS helpline so far, out of which 4,24,782 (97%) complaints have been resolved to the satisfaction of the concerned citizen. The IT department identified 160 (Centre-73 and State-87) schemes with concerned departments during financial year 2021-22, out of which Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) has been implemented in 59 schemes. The notifications for 74 state schemes have been issued by the concerned departments. During the last financial year, Rs. 2283.58 crores were transferred through DBT to 13.83 lakh beneficiaries under 59 schemes.
The IT department added 31 new services in Himachal Online Seva portal for online delivery during last financial year. Out of these 28 services are of Horticulture department and three of Urban Development department. Now, 96 online services of various departments including Revenue, Women & Child Development, Panchayati Raj, Rural Development, Urban Development departments etc. are being provided through this portal. There has been a tremendous increase in number of applications being made through the portal and on an average 4500 applications are being done through this portal every day. This has led to a significant reduction in footfall in field government offices and helped in providing timely service delivery to citizen at their door-step saving their time as well as money. Further, to facilitate the delivery of services at the panchayat level, 68 services of this portal are made available through Lok Mitra Kendra’s (LMKs). The IT department has also created secure network called HIMSWAN (Himachal State Wide Area Network) under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) which provides secured network connectivity to all the state government departments till block level. As many as 2314 government offices, Boards, Corporations are connected through HIMSWAN.
