National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment Report

In News

• Recently, the Union Minister of State released the second edition of the National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment 2021.

About National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment

• Organisation: Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) had constituted the National eGovernance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) in 2019.
  • It is part of its mandate to boost the e-government endeavours and drive digital government excellence.
• Coverage: The NeSDA 2021 report has been prepared covering the assessment of States, UTs, and focus Central Ministries on their effectiveness in delivering online services to citizens.
• Aim: The biennial study assesses States, Union Territories (UTs), and focuses on Central Ministries on the effectiveness of e-Governance service delivery.
  • NeSDA helps the respective governments improve their delivery of citizen centric services and shares best practices across the country for all States, UTs and Central Ministries to emulate.
• NeSDA 2021 covers services across seven sectors:
  • Finance
  • Labour & Employment
  • Education
  • Local Governance & Utility Services
  • Social Welfare
  • Environment
  • Tourism sectors
• Portal is assessed on four parameters:
  • Accessibility
  • Content Availability
  • Ease of Use
  • Information Security & Privacy.
• Groupings
  • NeSDA has followed the Good Governance Index 2021 grouping of the States and UTs.
  • North-East and Hill States make up the first group while Union Territories make up the second group.
  • The remaining states of India have been classified into two states as Remaining States Group A and Remaining States Group B.

Major outcomes of the report

• Ranking of State / UT Portals is as follows:

• Ranking of State / UT Services Portals is as follows:

• Increase in services: In NeSDA 2021, 1400 services across all States and UTs were assessed as compared to 872 in 2019, an increase of over 60%. 
• Service delivery: 74% respondents of the nation-wide citizen survey conducted during the study had stated that they are satisfied with the e-Services provided by the States and UTs.
  • The e-Services of Finance and Local Governance & Utility Services sectors were the most widely used by citizens.
• Among the North-East and Hill States: Meghalaya and Nagaland are the leading State Portals with an overall compliance of more than 90% across all assessment parameters.
• Among Union Territories: Jammu & Kashmir ranked the highest with an overall compliance of nearly 90%.
• Among the Remaining States: Kerala, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh had a compliance of more than 85%.
  • Amongst all the States and UTs, Kerala had the highest overall compliance score.
• Among the focussed Central Ministries: Home Affairs, Rural Development, Education, and Environment, Forest & Climate Change are the leading Ministry Portals with an overall compliance of more than 80% across all assessment parameters.
  • Ministry Portal of Home Affairs had the highest overall compliance score.

Significance of the report

• E-Governance services: NeSDA 2021 has shown clear progress for e-Governance services across the country.
• Creation of integrated portal: States and UTs have strived to implement the recommendations of NeSDA 2019 for creation of integrated State / UT Portals and enhancing the number of services provided on their services portals.
• Security measures: Governance in the times of the pandemic necessitated operationalization of security measures such as VPNs, flexible working policies including work-from-home, and development of several new apps that brought citizens and governments closer through use of technology inter alia providing timely services at the doorstep.
• Unified access to services: These portals also provide unified access to services, improving accessibility and usability.
• Uniform digital experience: They also provide a uniform digital experience to users, creating ease of use through intuitive navigation, uniform look and feel, improved content availability, robust information security, and privacy mechanisms.

Way Forward

• The report also provides suggestions for governments to further enhance their e-Governance service delivery systems.
• Integrated services: Governments across the country have put a stronger emphasis on integrated service delivery which has led to a greater number of e-Services being offered through integrated / centralised portals.
• Digital India: The progress shown by NeSDA embraces the vision of Digital India.

Source: PIB