Odisha's e-governance is keeping people at forefront

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik addressing the valedictory session of the regional conference on ‘Replication of Good Governance Practices’ organized at the convention centre in Lok Seva Bhawan, has emphasized the significance of his government’s initiative ‘Mo Sarkar’ in good governance.

Highlighting the initiative, he said it was rolled out for citizens who visit different offices for various services, seek their feedback and to instill professionalism among government officials.  The spirit behind Mo Sarkar is that in a democracy the citizens are supreme and their satisfaction of government service delivery must be taken seriously and used as a benchmark for initiating change.

Stating that good governance is a pro-people approach to all interventions, the Chief Minister said Odisha has initiated a number of good governance practices and various e-governance projects including Odisha One Portal and Odisha Right to Public Services Act to provide services to people within the stipulated time frame. E-Jana Sunani has also been rolled out to cater to the grievances of citizens anytime and anywhere.

Dr. Surjya Narayan Patro
Speaker, Odisha Legislative Assembly

How your assembly has geared towards the digitization? 
We have changed the way of administration and also procedure inside Vidhan Sabha. We have gone paperwork to paperless work. The staffs who are working on in different hard files have completely stopped.  The file work is done through computer.  In Vidhan Sabha we have an application called NEVA (National E-Vidhan Sabha Application) which was adopted by Rajya Sabha. If you download the NEVA app in your android mobile you can find out all the Ministers, their birthdays, their functioning, their contact numbers and you can directly keep in touch with them. Our MLS when they asked questions, they will give the answers, which are given by department. The answer will be uploaded on the NEVA app.  Then the finance and the budget is also uploaded in the NEVA app. If people download the NEVA, he can find the records, what is happening in the Assembly every day. 

How are you empowering the MLs or the people associated in the assembly for this procedure gone for the digitization? 
So far our staff is concern he have provided everyone with laptop and asked them to put the questions or take the answer. Of course there are a number of panel who are not associated with this new system of computer. For them we have put the system to write the answers to us.

DoES Odisha as a state move ahead with the digitization?
After the development of IT everything has been changed and digitized. Now Odisha government and the assembly are working very speedily to implement everything online and people are easy to access for today own demands, requirements and own works online. 

Odisha government has implemented ‘Mo Sarkar’ here every officers interface chief minister and secretaries all minister have to call and take the grievance of the public, what is your take?
There are many people who are uneducated and staying in the villages. There is a huge gap between the people and the government many times so there is a generation gap. 

To bridge that generation gap the ‘Mo Sarkar’ is there. ‘Mo Sarkar’ is a concept by which officers go to the villagers, sit together with the people and request them to put forth the demands to officials so that the headquarter will know what is the people's requirement and what is their answer.

citizens of Odisha ARE able to registered in the ‘Mo Sarkar’ records
 

Shri. Tusharkanti Behera
Minister of State (Independent Charge), E & IT, Sports & Youth Services, Government of Odisha

Odisha is progressing ahead towards digital transformation. How DID IT COME TO YOUR MIND AND HOW IT IS IMPACTING THE GOVERNMENT SYSTEM? 
Our honorable CM Naveen Patnaik decided to implement the ‘Mo Sarkar’ yojona, and that involves all officials, all government and private stakeholders and also the citizens. First of all we have to take into consideration of the devices’ grievances, then all kinds of applications, which involve the implementation of grassroot projects and other government initiatives so that they can complaint the grievances directly to the officials through ‘Mo Sarkar’ and also how the government official behave to the ordinary citizens that can be registered in the ‘Mo Sarkar’ records. So ministers, officials, IAS officers are assigned to call directly to the people and take the grievances so that the e-grievances can be sorted out in a positive way. Apart from that, basically medical facilities in home department police stations and how people are behaved by the higher authorities that can be also monitored in the ‘Mo Sarkar’ program. 

How this has been conceptualized to reach to the core of the citizen in the state?  
CM Naveen Patnaik at first interacting with people directly, so he implemented the ‘Mo Sarkar’ yojona. In the chat bot we can connect people directly and apart from that the government is established by the people by the citizen of its state, so by the taxpayers’ money and by their concern we have come to power that is the main thing.

explain the technology robustness in the system?
The technology behind it is multifaceted so here we implemented all the emerging technologies for working behind the screen like artificial intelligence, blockchain and other things so that the people’s grievances can be addressed directly, as well as the complaint should be ticketed to the appropriate officer.

What are the key advantages?
I would say since citizen centric services have gone to a higher class, so, the government is responsible for addressing all the concerns of the people and citizens. Now, people are happy and also the problem is reduced in efficient manner.

How many departments are being connected to the ‘Mo Sarkar’?
Now, more than 22 departments have been integrated into ‘Mo Sarkar’. The plan is to spread out to all departments in state governments.

What are the key benefits THAT Odisha has been achieved SO FAR?
The revenue department, the caste and residence certificates are given and also in sports department as well. The citizen centric services are delivered at doorsteps; the utility services are also done in Odisha one portal. Other things like Mo Seva Kendra and some key services are implemented in Odisha one portal. So citizens are getting benefited directly from the state government sites.

Do you find any bottleneck in this project?
There are some bottlenecks because to facilitate all this kind of stuff, we need large number of human resources and due to implementation of technology or on the 5G chatter, technology is the one key component, but still, we need more resources to redress all these kind of problems,

How you are attracting the IT investments in Odisha?
We have implemented our policies like the policies and BPO, IT and ESDM policies, just one month before it got cabinet approval. So, now our key consultants are promoting the state policies so that we can get business opportunities, investment proposals in a large number and due to Covid-19 some of the things got delayed, but I hope in the coming years, many companies will come to Odisha to invest in IT. 

What is your vision for IT to place in the state? 
Just trying to get the company's investment in Odisha would not solve the problem, we have to create the proper infrastructure that is the IT ecosystem in which we should be as vibrant as Bangalore or Chennai or Hyderabad. So that is that is the key vision right now to establish Bhubaeswar, as well as other tier three cities to be a destination for IT professionals.

AFTER T-HUB, O-HUB IS BRINGING REVOLUTION

Shri. Subroto Bagchi
Chairman, Odisha Skill Development Authority Bhubaneswar

“Within five kilometers of any wall, you have outstanding additional institutions; you have the medical science, IIT, C V Raman University, the whole clan of skill development centers. If you look at 360 degree you will find that the one skill center is now in Bhubaneswar which has been set up an outlay of 1200 corers.  Today in the evening our honorable CM Naveen Patnaik is going to inaugurate O-Hub, O-Hub is the next big thing. 

It is going to be a place where we will celebrate the gigs and nerds of microbes that create innovation, so it will be the platform for innovation. Believe that the eco-systemic view of innovation, adaption there is no other place like Odisha to be here. The market is very aware and very supportive of Indian tech capability. And what has happened in the last 20 odd years is that there was such a rush of trying to be IT companies or IT enabled companies or IT in the engine kind of companies but it is the dust has kind of settled down and the touch of companies today which are listed and each of them have very impressive market capitalization. India is now home to 63 unicorns. What people don't know is four unicorns out of the 63 unicorns are actually from Odisha.”