IT Telephony Hotline Inaugurated, Foundation Laid for Bhamashah State Data Centre

Chief Minister Smt. Vasundhara Raje has said that the IT sector is evolving in Rajasthan at a very fast pace and very soon we shall be in a position to support other states and the Central Government to realize the vision of Digital India. She called upon the youth to adopt new technologies and skills to establish the state as Digital-sthan of the country.

Smt. Raje was addressing a function organized on the occasion of Rajasthan IT Day at Birla Auditorium on Tuesday. She said that the state government was using technology for empowerment, transparency and accountability. On this occasion, she inaugurated the country’s first Statewide IP Telephony Hotline and laid foundation of the Bhamashah State Data Centre.

On this occasion, the Chief Minister called upon the youth to join the state government in suggesting IT solutions to various citizen services. She said that whoever could think of an innovative idea to resolve a problem, they would be judged by an expert jury and if selected, would be awarded work orders worth upto one crore rupees directly. For this, prior experience and minimum financial turnover would not be required.

Smt. Raje also directed the officials to establish Digital Rajasthan Exhibition as a permanent museum. Anybody or everybody, even from the far-off districts could visit this museum to have a face-to-face with the latest technology and IT solutions. This would help the commoners understand and adopt the changes and challenges of life, she said.

The CM said that during her previous tenure in the government the initiatives like Statewide OFC Networks, Rajasthan Statewide Area Network and Common Service Centre called e-Mitra, were launched, which were then replicated all over the country. Similarly, the Bhamashah Program was initiated in 2007-2008, which has now gone far beyond financial inclusion and delivery of all benefits to a family through direct transfer into one common account. Very soon it would also have a legal backbone in the form of Bhamashah Act, she said.

According to Smt. Raje, Rajasthan happened to be the only state in the country having a common dedicated service delivery platform catering to 290 services. This was more than thrice to the number of services in any other state. Also, Rajasthan’s 40,000 e-Mitra kiosks were more than 15% of the total kiosks targeted for the entire country under Digital India program and most importantly all these kiosks had become self-sustainable, she said.

The Chief Minister said that Rajasthan has become a front-runner in Smart Streetlights to Waste Management, Smart Transportation, Integrated Command and Control for law & order, e-PDS, State Wide GPS monitoring of vehicles and Integrated Payment Gateway etc. This had been possible because of the environment created by a forward looking IT and ITES Policy and an e-Governance Architecture. The state had won several national awards for all these, she added.

Smt. Raje said that a Startup Policy was announced to nurture disruptive technologies and to encourage our youth for incubating new ideas and to offer them opportunities of employment. The state government’s e-office application Raj Kaaj and integrated GIS initiative Raj Dhara were also important steps in the direction of good governance, the CM added.

The CM also gave prizes worth Rs. 15 lakh, 10 lakh and 7.5 lakh to the winning teams of Hackathon competition respectively led by Shri Kundan Singh, Shri Ankush Sharma and Shri Arjun Sharma. She also honoured Collector of Nagaur district Shri Rajan Vishal, Collector of Udaipur district Shri Rohit Gupta, Jaipur Police Commissioner Shri Sanjay Agarwal, CEO of Jaipur Smart City Ltd. Shri Sandesh Nayak and other officers and employees for innovations and adoption of IT solutions in delivery of public services.

During this, Chief Secretary Shri O.P. Meena, Member of Chief Minister’s Advisory Council Shri Mohan Das Pai, Principal Secretary IT Shri Akhil Arora, other senior government officials, industrialists, entrepreneurs of IT sector and students were present in big numbers.

Jaipur, 21 March 2017