CS assesses IT initiatives taken to improve services across govt deptts

Srinagar: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, on Monday chaired a high level meeting to review the status of various Information Technology (IT) initiatives being undertaken across departments in Jammu and Kashmir with the active technical support of Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N).
The meeting was attended by Administrative Secretaries of several departments; Commissioner Secretary, IT Department; CEO, JaKeGA; Special Director General, BISAG-N and other senior officers associated with implementation of digital transformation projects in the Union Territory.
During the meeting, the Chief Secretary took stock of the ongoing IT initiatives aimed at enhancing service delivery and improving user interfaces to ensure ease of access for the end users. He acknowledged the critical role of BISAG-N in supporting government’s efforts towards digital empowerment and appreciated their continued collaboration.
Dulloo emphasized the importance of strengthening the synergy between BISAG-N and the J&K government, calling for sustained cooperation to achieve new benchmarks in IT infrastructure development and public service delivery. He directed all the concerned departments to proactively share relevant data and information to facilitate timely upgrades and improvements in digital services.
Stressing the need for inter-departmental coordination, the Chief Secretary reiterated that each department should designate a senior officer as a nodal officer to take responsibility for ensuring timely accomplishment of the given tasks.
Reviewing establishment of the proposed Centre of Excellence in Emerging Technologies, the Chief Secretary enquired about the progress made, including finalization of the Detailed Project Report (DPR) and the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the stakeholders. He called for expediting efforts to operationalize this centre at the earliest.
Among key digital initiatives, the Chief Secretary reviewed the progress on rebranding of JK Samadhan public grievance portal (Samadhan 2.0). He also reviewed the integration of KYC and Single Sign-On (SSO) systems across government services; development of a portal for digitization of cadastral maps and revenue records to enable its real-time updation during different land transactions.
He also had appraisal of the launch of a Price Bulletin mobile application, creation of a comprehensive dashboard for the District Good Governance Index and JK Digital Digest of Statistics besides development of Village/Panchayat-level profiling of infrastructure and amenities.
The Chief Secretary took notice of the GIS-based land bank initiative being jointly developed by the Revenue, Industries and Forest Departments with technical assistance from BISAG-N to support sustainable developmental and ecological planning.
Upgradations to JKCIP, Kisan Khidmat Ghar and the DakshKisan Portal under the Agriculture Production Department were keenly discussed in the meeting. The progress against each was noted and directions passed for completing the tasks within the set timeline.
Further, the Chief Secretary reviewed the development of a comprehensive MSME Health Clinic for monitoring the vitality of small industries. He also reviewed the development of various digital modules for the Power Development Department (PDD) and Jal Shakti Department to optimize service delivery and resource management;
Regarding the Education department, he asked about the status of e-content development in local languages under PM e-Vidya initiative. Simultaneously, the AI-powered personalised learning tools to assist students in overcoming learning gaps was too given due focus for its early rolling out in the schools.
Other innovative projects discussed included a multi-featured mobile application for the Tourism department, mining surveillance system to curb illegal mining activities; digitisation of MSMEs, Cooperative Banks and Societies and modernization of several other citizen services across the different departments.