Road to digital India begins in B'luru: CM

The number of mobile users have touched 5.4 crore, making Karnataka the leading state for its e-governance initiatives, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said at an event here on Monday.

Speaking during the two-day regional conference on ‘Minimum Government - Maximum Governance,’ Siddaramaiah said that the State government’s mobile governance initiative ‘MobileOne’ is not only being replicated by other state governments but also by the Union government. “The road to Digital India begins from Bengaluru. We are now working on something unique for the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly said that state governments should map their department databases with Aadhaar to address irregularities. Karnataka has become the first State, where this work is speedily underway. Many of our departments have been mapped with Aadhaar and duplicates are being removed,” he said.

Launched last year, the ‘MobileOne’ platform sees as many as one lakh hits or downloads on a daily basis and the number of transactions are also picking up. A team of experts from United Nations (UN) also showcased this mobile governance initiative at their headquarters in New York, recently, he added.

“MobileOne can now be extended to citizen audit platforms, rural asset creation programmes or services that entail a G2C (Government to Consumer) or a G2B (Government to Business) engagement,” he said.

Other e-initiatives
Another award winning project, e-Sugam sees 30 lakh forms being generated every month. This has enforced accountability and reduced corruption by making traders act as agents of the government for indirect tax collection. “Now, tax collections are in the range of Rs 40,000 crore per annum, through five lakh returns. It has eliminated about 1.5 lakh visits by traders everyday to government offices. Projects like Bhoomi, Sakala, Mojini, e-Khajane, e-procurement and e-swathu are changing the nature of transparency and governance in the State,” he added.

In fact, over 35 per cent of India’s IT exports coming from Bengaluru alone and the State would soon be in the forefront of ushering ‘Governance through Accountability, Transparency, and Innovation’ or GATI, he added.

Representatives from the government and private sector are participating in the two-day conference, where e-initiatives and its implementation in platforms such as Aadhaar, urban transport, m-Governance and various start-up companies are being showcased.