E-governance plan to be ready in two months

The national e-governance plan, announced by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the Budget, will be finalised in two months.

The plan includes 26 projects for computerisation of data, including that of public sector banks and insurance companies. The projects, to be implemented at the Centre, state and integrated levels, will be completed in two years.

While no estimates have been made by the department of information technology (DIT), which will be the nodal agency for implementation of the plan, sources say it could be at least Rs 300 crore per project.

"The cost of the entire plan has not been estimated. Even small projects like the MCA 21, under the ministry of company affairs, took Rs 334 crore. Big projects like excise and setting up of the national citizen databases will take much more than that. This could total to anywhere between Rs 5,000-7,000 crore for the entire e-governance plan," a government official told Business Standard.

The projects include setting up of databases for central excise, under the finance ministry, income tax under the department of revenue and passports, visas and immigration and national citizens under the home ministry. There is also a proposal for computerised data on employment exchanges under the ministry of labour.

Each department is to be allocated resources, which will be released by the ministry of finance under non-Plan expenditure.

"The idea is to decentralise implementation of the proposal and funds will be released to each department separately, including the department of banking, department of pensions and the department of external affairs," the official added.

DIT, the nodal agency implementing the project, will provide core policies, infrastructure, technical assistance and research and development.

Some of the projects to be undertaken at the state-level include those for commercial taxes, police and treasuries.

E-courts under the department of justice, e-procurement under the ministry of commerce and supply and e-biz under the department of industrial policy and promotion are some of the projects that will be undertaken jointly by the Centre and states.