Tamil Nadu government plans to create rural ATMs, m-governance, smart classrooms and low-cost internet PCs through its e-governance initiative.
Santhosh Babu, managing director, Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Elcot) said that within six months, it would be possible for people to apply, register and obtain digitally-signed birth and death certificates.
The state will also roll out State Service Delivery Gateway, a portal that would host application software for citizens to carry out advanced-level interactions with various government departments.
Participating in a panel discussion on digital infrastructure and inclusiveness at Connect 2010, which was organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he said that having computerised government schools, the government was now focusing on smart schools and developing multimedia content that would redefine the way subjects are taught in schools. On a pilot basis, it has already set up three smart schools in three villages.
“Tamil Nadu has the political will, technology infrastructure, funding, human resource, and partners for making e-governance happen at all levels, across the state. It will roll out Tamil Nadu Giga Byte project to increase bandwidth availability and appropriate content,” Babu said.
The government is providing opportunities for entrepreneurs in ICT – most citizen service centres are run using Public Private Partnership model.
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The government’s e-government projects are driven by its understanding of the economic value chain in rural society, where, each visit to a government office could result in loss of wages, the projects aim at reducing number of visits by citizens to government offices.
Earlier, Hans Raj Verma, Labour commissioner, said that his department was launching Project Lead and Project Empower to provide web-based services to 55 lakh-odd unorganised workers and about 66 lakh people who have registered for jobs in various employment exchanges, respectively.
The Project Lead, likely to be rolled out in the next six months, will network with banks and postal departments to reach the benefits to unorganised labour at their door step.