SHIMLA 12th May, 2023
Addresses a conference on governance and technology at Mohali
The need of the hour is that all the State government agencies should collaborate, connect, and respond to the needs of the public more efficiently by accessing accurate and real-time data, said Chief Minister, Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. He was addressing a conference organised by the Bharti Institute of Public Policy of the Indian School of Business (ISB) on governance and technology at Mohali today.
Chief Minister also launched the ‘Him Data Portal’ a common digital platform to integrate data of all organizations for the deliverance of welfare schemes and to better serve the public. From July 2023, the Himachal Pradesh government would start the Him Parivar project which will give a special digital identity to the people of the State. This will strengthen the State’s benefit delivery systems through Him Pulse which will support and enhance the capacity of Him Parivar in linking digital identity to the delivery of benefits to the targeted population.
Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that information about essential facilities like ration cards, family registers, electricity, drinking water etc would be available with a single click through the Him Parivar Project. He said that the people associated with the Him Pariyojna project would get information about various welfare schemes easily. “I believe that the simple off-the-shelf connection will not only save the time of the public but will also bring in more efficiency in the working of the Government besides transparency, which is the sole motto of my Governance”, said he, adding that this will largely benefit the targeted sections.
The most important component of a welfare State is Good Governance with better administration and to give practical shape to the overall development in a phased manner. He said that the aim of the state government was to provide basic facilities down to the last man and for this, it was necessary to have accurate digital data of the services and the beneficiaries. The Him Data Portal will bring valuable data from multiple domains together of various departments thereby helping in visualizing patterns, gaps, opportunities and connections cohesively, which would result in strengthening efficiencies in governance. Besides, it will assist in giving operators insights into critical parts of a transaction, smart recovery process and connected system outages to benefit both the Government and the Public.
In the very first budget our government emphasized adopting state-of-the-art data collection and research techniques so that available resources could be better utilized, said the Chief Minister. In the next 10 years, Himachal would be the most prosperous state of the country. This collaboration will go a long way in facilitating in improving the socio-economic prosperity of the State, said he.
The Indian School of Business, as a knowledge partner, would help in making the Himachal Data Portal more useful. The state government and the Indian School of Business would work together in the fields of education, information technology, forests and governance.
Sh. Sukhu also invited the Indian School of Business to set up a Center for Policy Research in Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Board Chairman, Raghuveer Singh Bali said that the wide political experience of the Himachal Chief Minister would give new heights to the development of Himachal Pradesh through digital technology. This collaboration will go a long way in facilitating in improving the socio-economic prosperity of the State as well.
Chief Advisor, Information Technology and Innovation, Gokul Butail said that the most important asset of 21st century is data and the timely collection of correct information. He said that Chief Minister is working to make Himachal an exemplary state of the country by using innovation and information technology. As data integration creates a pathway toward the unification of systems that also improves overall efficiency it also saves time which is an obvious benefit to data integration as users eliminate search time and manual errors arising from data transfer and manipulation, said he while giving detailed information about Him Parivar Project.
Abhishek Jain, Secretary Information Technology, Himachal Pradesh said that the Indian School of Business in collaboration with the State Government would be beneficial for the people by saving their time and money. He said that access to the right data in policymaking is an important factor in the successful implementation of schemes.
Professor Madan Pilutla, Dean, Bharti Institute of Public Policy, said that with the use of information technology and information available on the HIM Data Portal, people would be able to get benefits at the right time in a real sense.
Professor Ashwani Chatre, Director of Bharti Institute of Public Policy, gave detailed information about access to data in Himachal and its benefits to the people. He said that Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s initiative to benefit the public through information technology is praiseworthy.
Dr Arushi Jain, Policy Director, Bharti Institute of Public Policy welcomed the dignitaries present and briefed about the theme of the conference including the HIM Data Portal.
Principal Private Secretary to Chief Minister, Vivek Bhatia, Himachal Pradesh Director Information Technology, Mukesh Repaswal, academicians from the Indian School of Business, other researchers and students of the Institute were present on the occasion.
