National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment

Union Minister released the second edition of the National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) 2021. The NeSDA 2021 report has been prepared covering the assessment of States, UTs, and focus Central Ministries on their effectiveness in delivering online services to citizens.

What is it?

• Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) had constituted NeSDA in 2019.
• This drive was part of DARPG’s mandate to boost the e-government endeavours and drive digital government excellence.
• It is a biennial study which assesses States, UTs, and focus Central Ministries on the effectiveness of e-Governance service delivery.
• NeSDA helps the respective governments improve their delivery of citizen centric services and shares best practices across the country.

About the NeSDA 2021 –

• DARPG embarked on the second edition of NeSDA study in January 2021.
• NeSDA 2021 covers services across seven sectors — Finance, Labour & Employment, Education, Local Governance & Utility Services, Social Welfare, Environment and Tourism sectors.
• The portals assessed were classified into two categories.
  • • First category — The designated portal of the respective government that provides a single window access to information and service links. These portals were assessed on four parameters, viz., Accessibility, Content Availability, Ease of Use, and Information Security & Privacy.
    • Second category — It comprises of the Services Portals which focus on the digital delivery of services and provide service-related information. The Services Portals were assessed on an additional three parameters — End-service Delivery, Integrated Service Delivery, and Status & Request Tracking.

What does the report say?

• Progress for e-Governance services across the country —
  • • NeSDA 2021 has shown clear progress for e-Governance services across the country.
    • Improvement in the country’s e-Governance landscape may be summarised in the following key takeaways –
      • • Increase in e-Service Delivery
        • Rise in use of Integrated/Centralised Portals for delivery of e-Services
        • Improvement across assessment parameter scores.
• Satisfaction with the e-Services provided by the States and UTs —
  • Citizens surveyed for the study stated that they are satisfied with the e-Services provided by the States and UTs.
  • The e-Services of Finance and Local Governance & Utility Services sectors were the most widely used by citizens.
  • The rising trend of e-Services delivery shifting from single silo departmental portals to integrated/centralised portals has resulted in higher citizen satisfaction.
• Journey of e-Services towards citizen centricity and benchmarking governance —
  • • Governments across the country have put a stronger emphasis on integrated service delivery.
    • This has led to a greater number of e-Services being offered through integrated/centralised portals.
    • These portals also provide unified access to services, improving accessibility and usability.
    • These factors have led to increase in scores across all assessment parameters.
• Most improved parameter across all portals —
  • • An overall improvement has been seen in scores across all parameters and at all levels.
    • Information Security & Privacy is the most improved parameter across all portals.