Realising the vision of Digital Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh has built robust digital platforms for citizen services: the likes of PRERNA, the platform for stamps and registration dept has raised more than Rs. 43653 Crore revenue from 2018 to 2020; over 4 lakh jobs provided during the pandemic through the Sewamitra module; Uttar Pradesh bagged the second position – a jump of 12 positions in last 3 years in the Business Reform Action Plan ranking of states by DPIIT, Government of India; Uttar Pradesh has witnessed an exponential rise in startups with more than 3500 startups registering in the state in last three and a half years, registering a massive increase of 1700 percent from just 200 in 2017. This has provided employment to more than 22000 people; UP is the first state in the country to do biometric authentication of farmers and make MSP payments using the Public Financial Management System (PFMS). Uttar Pradesh’s Secretary to Chief Minister, Alok Kumar, speaks with Express Computer’s Abhishek Raval

Edited Excerpts

How do you see the role of IT in enabling governance and it’s conversion into creating more financial resources for the state? This includes for e.g. both the ways of using IT in Govt departments that translates into revenues and also creating a friendly and predictable policy environment for electronics manufacturing and IT / ITeS industry ? How successful have you been thus far in this endeavor ?
Uttar Pradesh Government has been at the forefront when it comes to embracing digital transformation and relentlessly pushing PM ‘s vision of a ‘Digital India’. Uttar Pradesh government has relied on e- Governance as it fosters a broader change in the relationship between the government and its stakeholders. Moreover, it reduces the cost of government operations and improves transparency and accountability. People, process, technology, and resources have been the hallmark of e-Governance practice by the UP Government.

We have been quite successful in our endeavors whether its Transport department, Trade Tax, Mining Department or Stamp and Registration introduction of IT has really helped in increasing the revenue by checking the loopholes and making the system transparent and further increase in the compliance level and enforcement level.

Tell us more about Jansunvai Samadhan, Property evaluation and Registration Application, Rojgar Sangam, Project Monitoring System, UP Skill Development Mission and share some statistics on how has it benefited the common man ?

JANSUNWAI (IGRS) is an integrated system for grievance redressal, to achieve the goal of good governance using latest technology involving all stakeholders.

So far, total registrations have been 2,77,75,998, out of which 2,73,78,011 have been disposed. Total Feedback: 1,31,72,910, out of which 1,28,76,803 has been redressed. Also,

• • Intensive monitoring leading to overall pendency of less than 4 percent. 
  • Jansunwai App for Citizens have 1 million+ downloads with rating of 3.85 & App for Officers have 1 Lakh+ downloads with rating of 4.18. Disposal of PG Portal complaints has increased drastically. 
  • Single integrated platform helped the officers in quick disposal. Now CM and Chief Secretary are reviewing status of all grievances received through all means on one single interface.
  • Extensive use of CM Helpline and Jansunwai Portal/ App from all over the country to register Complaints/ Feedback during the Covid-19 pandemic & to provide information related to several concern. 

• Digital Empowerment and Green e-Governance achieved

Property Evaluation & Registration Application (PRERNA) is designed to reorient the Stamps & Registration Dept. towards 100 percent automation in the registration process and speedy delivery of registered documents to the citizens. So far,

• More than 1.05 Crore documents has been registered from 2018 to 2020.
• More than Rs. 43653 Crore revenue has been generated from 2018 to 2020.
• Approximately 40 Million people visited SRO’s office every year.
• More than 21 Lakh documents and Rs. 12525 Crore Revenue has been generated in current financial year.
• Running successfully in all 364 SRO office of U.P.

Rojgaar Sangam (Integrated Employment Portal) – The Objective of this portal is to provide a one stop solution for all employment related issues in UP. It facilitates all types of job seekers (unskilled / semi skilled / skilled / degree holders / highly educated etc ) and all types of job providers ( Private Sector Industries / Service sector / Private Individuals / Governments ) in the match making of suitable employers with suitable employees and also helps in career progression of all registered workforce. So far,

• Around 36 lakh white collar job seekers, 37 lakh blue collar workers including migrant labourers and more than 19316 employers are registered on the portal.
• Around 2.7 lakh jobs through flagship scheme ‘Rojgaar Mela’ in the last 2 financial years and around 4 lakh jobs through Sewamitra module during COVID-19 pandemic were facilitated.

DARPAN – Dashboard for Analytical Review of Projects Across Uttar Pradesh is a very comprehensive, generic and configurable Bilingual Dashboard product of NIC for CM, Chief Secretary, Divisional Commissioners and DMs consolidating multiple data. 

• Innovative dashboard analytics using Time-Line Series/Graphical/Statistical reports/Multiple Graph Choices for administrative monitoring or informational purposes.
• Single screen visualization of all department and district data. 
• Department KPI’s further zero in leading & lagging districts also.

UP Skill Development Mission (UPSDM) – UPSDM developed an end to end comprehensive portal as digital solution, which is active from the stage of enrollment of trainees to completion of their training extending to their tracking after placement.

EoDB Ranking and the role of technology ?
One of the major reforms done by the Uttar Pradesh Government was implementation of one of India’s largest digital single window portal ‘Nivesh Mitra’, providing around 166 services to the entrepreneurs. With average NoC application disposal rate of 93 percent, the Nivesh Mitra portal has successfully achieved an outstanding query resolution rate of 98 percent.

Since its inception more than 2,47,523 NOC’s/Licenses granted within approved timelines to about 2,80,850 registered enterprises who applied. Only 0.02% applications are pending beyond the allowed time limit.

A clear indication of the remarkable progress done by the state on ensuring the ease of doing business in the state is the quantum jump in the state’s ranking in the recently announced Business Reform Action Plan ranking of states by DPIIT, Government of India. Uttar Pradesh bagged the 2nd position – a jump of 12 positions in last 3 years.

The state has received a very good response from the students on the Abhyudaya Coaching scheme. Tell us more and the role of tech ?
‘Ábhyudaya’ initiative aims to provide assistance to all such students who want to prepare for these exams but are unable to, due to their financial status. The coaching centres will be first set up at the divisional level and then at the district level in the second phase. The free-of-cost coaching institutes since its inception on February 16th has seen about five lakh students from different competitive backgrounds already availing the benefits of the Abhyudaya Scheme. More than 9.5 lakh aspiring students have been registered for Abhyudaya Scheme with about one crore hits on its website, making it a grand success.

Under the scheme, the students will be able to attend offline classes and will also get online study material. The coaching will also involve provision of direct counselling by senior IAS, IPS and PCS officers for the aspirants. In case of examinations like the National Defence Academy (NDA) and Combined Defence Services (CDS), thorough training will be given by principals of Sainik Schools in UP.

There will also be separate classes for NEET and Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for admission into the prestigious IITs. All the lectures and complete study material covering the entire syllabus of various examinations will be made available online.

For better guidance, the state government will also organise doubt solving sessions to help candidates choose the best field for them. It will be accompanied by discussions with experts as guest lecturers. 

The government will further provide students with tablet computers to some students selected under the scheme so that they can use digital resources to prepare for the examinations. The eligibility criteria will be decided soon.

Role of IT during the pandemic and how did IT come to the rescue ?
When last year, Covid-19 led to a nationwide lockdown, CM Yogi Adityanath conceptualized and put forth the idea of using the CM helpline as a centralized control room which could function both as a resource centre, where all the citizens of the state of UP could call and register their needs, and also a  nerve centre from where the dissemination and collection of information could be done on real time and effective way for all the stakeholders involved in crisis management. 

This onerous task of remodeling and redeploying the UP CM helpline 1076, a 500 seater capacity call centre with 24X7 functioning into a covid control centre was carried out by various senior officers of NIC along with senior doctors, municipal officers etc. UP CM Helpline worked under the broad framework, which is as follows: 

1. Data analysis of Incoming calls was done 
2. Based on data analysis 12 categories were identified 
3. Standard operating procedure for resolution, category wise complaints was drafted. 
4. To bolster the system, a detailed G.O. was issued for Standardize implementation
   
5. Insured by CM Helpline Via collection of grievances and direct feedback through complaints  

The UP CM Helpline has gone about its operations in a planned way comprising of both inbound and outbound calling strategy. For the inbound calls pertaining to Covid-19, a separate dashboard was created on the Jansunwai portal, where all the complaints were logged and sent to districts on real time basis with stringent timelines of a few hours to resolve the issues raised. The various types of complaints are categorized based on urgency and responding department.  

The dashboard captured two broad categories of calls- The covid lockdown issues like food requirement, interstate movement of migrant labour, medical emergencies etc and the covid health issues where people with travel history and symptoms could call and register their status which was monitored over time.

A GIS based map with layers upto village level was also created by NIC Technical team  collating all the data of inbound and outbound calling, giving great insights on lockdown and  containment planning at the state and district levels.

How is Uttar Pradesh encouraging startups and what is the comparative advantage of working with the startup community as compared to big IT vendors?
We currently have the UP Startup Policy-2020 which is proving to be extremely popular among the startups. Uttar Pradesh has witnessed an exponential rise in startups with more than 3500 startups registering in the state in last three and a half years, registering a massive increase of 1700% from just 200 in 2017. This has provided employment to more than 22000 people.

The seed capital is given in the form of marketing assistance of upto Rs 5 lakh per startup to launch the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in the market.

Under this provision, the seed capital is disbursed in milestone-based installments, for example, 40 per cent + 30 per cent + 30 per cent in three tranches, the first being advance and remaining two on completing the milestones. On disbursement of the first installment, startups shall have to commit Key Performance Targets to the PIU on which they will be assessed before releasing the second and the third installments of the grant.

UP recently announced its data center policy. What are some of the unique features of the policy that gives an edge over other states in inviting data center developers to come to Uttar Pradesh ?
Our government has been aggressively pursuing industrialization led development in the state to generate new employment opportunities and uplift the economic condition of its citizens. The Data Centre Policy has been launched to attract investments worth Rs 20,000 crores and setting data centre industry of 250 MW capacity. Under the policy, investors are offered capital subsidy, interest subsidy, subsidies on land procurement, as well as non financial incentives. We will also give global data centre players an opportunity to come and set up their plants in the state.

Dealer point registration for vehicles has been enabled. What challenge has thus been solved ?
NIC is providing ICT solutions to Transport Dept. for managing Central Motor Vehicle Act & Rules and State Motor Vehicle Rules through an integrated portal (parivahan.gov.in). VAHAN, SARATHI and e-Challan solutions have also been developed by NIC.

Vehicle dealers can upload and send digitally signed documents to RTO offices for vehicle registration. There is no waiting time required for physical file submission, resulting quick service delivery to vehicle purchasers. There is facility to download the Registration Certificate/ Fitness Certificate/ Permits/ Learning License through OTP based authentication and online Appointment facility & Automated SMS and Alerts.

So far, 24 Online Citizen Centric services have been integrated with e-district and digitized DL are 2.17 Crores; Digitized RC are 3.69 Crores.

UP has adopted the system of biometric authentication of the farmers, so they get paid online for their produce getting procured by the Government at the pre-decided MSP. Please discuss the advantages and the future roadmap ?
It has been piloted at few centres in the last paddy season and from the coming wheat season onwards, we have taken a decision to scale up. All such centres will have point of purchase machines for biometric authentication. As of now the best thing we have done in procurement is payment through PFMS. The state has been a pioneer in this regard. This has helped in ensuring that genuine farmers are directly paid and there’s no role of middlemen.