IIT Jammu, J&K administration sign MoU on capacity-building in IT

The Indian Institute of Technology Jammu (IIT-Jammu) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Jammu and Kashmir administration on June 27 to jointly work on capacity-building of the information technology infrastructure and e-services, officials said. The MoU was signed by Prema Puri, commissioner-secretary to the government, information technology department, and Manoj Singh Gaur, professor and director, IIT-Jammu, in the presence of Manoj Sinha, leutenant-governor (LG), at the Raj Bhavan. According to the LG, the collaboration will create a centre of expertise and excellence towards design, development of projects related to software services, cyber-security, capacity building for cyber compliances and IT policies. "The agreement will also pave the way for developing and organising hackathons for talent hunt, besides incubation of start-ups in the Union Territory," he said. Highlighting the areas of collaboration through the MoU, the LG stressed on adopting cutting-edge technology for cyber-security solutions to provide security to all the digital assets of the government. He added that the biggest goal of the MoU is to improve the effectiveness of governance with the prime objective of making services faceless, paperless, easy, effective and efficient.Several initiatives have been undertaken by the government for revolutionising public service delivery and improving responsiveness and accountability of the departments, Sinha said.

Sinha cited the example of the 'Aapki Zameen Aapki Nigrani' Land Records Information System (LRIS) for establishing a transparent system by facilitating easy online access to individual land records by citizens, and thereby, curbing corruption. He suggested going a step ahead and exploring the possibility of a new platform-based on block chain technology, to keep the land records absolutely safe and tamper-proof. He also highlighted the need for a transition of the government websites to user-friendly mobile versions. The LG suggested collaborative efforts to develop community-monitoring tools for school education and higher education departments to objectively monitor the quality of education in schools and colleges across Jammu and Kashmir. On the occasion, the LG congratulated Jammu and Kashmir's information technology department for implementing an electronic service delivery programme on a mission mode and enabling the UT to secure the top position among all the UTs in e-governance services delivery. This was in accordance with the recent National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) report. Sinha also stressed on achieving the goal of end-to-end services in all e-governance areas to eliminate the need of physical intervention. He suggested replicating the application model adopted by the power development department (PDD) and Jal Shakti departments to achieve the same.