'National e-governance project largest in South Asia'

The Union government has recently approved the national e-governance project at an outlay of Rs 12,400 crore to be spent over the next three to four years.

"This is the largest e-governance operation to be carried out in the South Asian region. This project will see the participation of the public and private sectors, and the plan is made up of 30 components," J Satyanarayana, chief executive officer of National Institute for Smart Government (NISG), said.

He was addressing a press conference to announce the two-day summit on 'South-Asia Public Sector Information and Communications' on January 24 and 25.

According to Satyanarayana, NISG is also working on building an online repository of knowledge on e-governance """" eGovWorld.

"The portal will function as the first site of reference on e-governance globally by providing a single window interface for sharing ideas, resources and opportunities," Satyanarayana said.

He said that the summit is targeted at senior government and policy makers from countries in South Asia.

"The key to accelerating e-governance lies in educating policy makers about its benefits. This forum will offer participants the opportunity to understand and compare new models for public service delivery from India, Asia and the world," Rangnath Salgame, president of Cisco Systems (India and Saarc), said.

Maxine Olson, United Nations resident coordinator and UNDP resident representative in India, said that ICT is a tool of governance.

"In India, our partnership with the Union Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, NISG, civil society and the private sector seeks to pilot a public-private partnership approach to deploy ICTs for development and improved governance," she added.

Olson also said that the initial commitment on the project was set at $5 million with an indicative budget of $30 million over 2003-2007.