Minister Keshab Mahanta inaugurates NIC Assam District Conclave

 STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Assam Minister for Information Technology Keshab Mahanta inaugurated the NIC Assam District Conclave for District Governance at the Assam Administrative Staff College in the presence of the Chief Secretary Paban Kumar Borthakur, Addl. Chief Secretary Avinash Joshi, and DDG and SIO, NIC Assam Kabita Roy Das, on Friday. All NIC district and state officials participated in the conclave.

In his inaugural speech, the minister commended NIC for its considerable contribution in bringing a paradigm change in the information and communications technology (ICT) scenario in Assam and urged it to carry on with its crucial role in tandem with the other ICT organizations of the state.

In his address as the Guest of Honour, the Chief Secretary lauded the exemplary role of NIC Assam in making the objective of a digital Assam come true, in keeping with the vision of the Chief Minister of Assam and the Prime Minister of India. He pointed out that NIC provides eGovernance-enabling support to the highest offices in the Government of Assam by providing critical data and information for decision-making and through monitoring and status tracking systems for almost all government projects, schemes, and other activities. As far as the working of the government machinery itself is concerned, file management and processing have been automated by NIC systems like eOffice, which have been adopted at all levels of government.

Similarly, online applications for land records, public procurement, government receipt accounting, etc. have been implemented with the help of NIC, which brings in transparency, accuracy, and efficiency, he said. NIC offers more than 500 citizen-centric services through the SewaSetu Portal itself. Everyone in government works with the connectivity provided by the NIC Network (NICNET), uses the official NIC email, and conducts important discussions over NIC video conferencing. During COVID, video conferencing played a very important role, he said.

Addl. CS, Avinash Joshi, appreciated the role of NIC in making the Assam State Government able to successfully implement an all-encompassing office automation system such as eOffice in such a short period of time. He expressed his confidence in the capabilities of NIC and urged it to continue working for the development of the state. Both the Chief Secretary and Addl. Chief Secretary have expressed that NIC works in such close collaboration with the Govt. of Assam that they consider NIC and the Assam Govt as a team in bringing about technological progress in Assam.

In her address, DDG and SIO Assam, Kabita Roy Das, took the august gathering through the different stages of ICT development that the state has passed through since the advent of NIC in 1988. She then proceeded to cite a few of the frontline technological developments taking place in ICT, such as quantum computation and artificial intelligence. She also expressed that NIC will continue to remain a close technology partner of the government of Assam and will always strive to bring about a digital Assam.

The inaugural session was followed by a technical session and a panel discussion on ‘Reaching the Unreachable with Accountability and Transparency Beyond Expectation.’ It ended with an interactive session between all NIC officials present.

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