Gujarat emerges as premier e-governed state

With 2004 declared as e-governance year by chief minister Narendra Modi, Gujarat has emerged as the premier e-governed state in the country.

The state has not only the best e-governance infrastructure among all the states in the country, the approach adopted by the state government has also been comprehensive and holistic.

The chief minister took a detailed review of various e-governance initiatives taken by the government during the year and declared 2004 as e-governance year.

"Gujarat State Wide Area Network (GSWAN), the largest IP based IT infrastructure network connects 25 districts and 225 talukas through 12,000 nodes. GSWAN is capable of voice, video and data transfer and is being replicated by the other states in the country. The capacity of the network has been further strengthened. The bandwidth from the state capital to district headquarters has been increased from two MBPS to eight MBPS and from district headquarters to taluka headquarters to two MBPS from 64 KBPS. GSWAN has been made more secure. More than 165 video conferencing sessions with the officials in districts and taluka places using this IP based network were held resulting in substantial saving of time and money," said Anil Mukim, managing director, Gujarat Informatics Ltd (GIL).

Swagat online, a unique grievances redressal programme, where chief minister directly addresses the issues of citizens and so far has addressed over 17,000 grievances. The project has been internationally acclaimed for bringing in transparency in the administration.

All 141 city civic bodies are in the process of becoming e-nagarpalikas, aimed at directly benefiting the citizens. The city civic centres are already functional in 82 nagarpalikas.