Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, June 18: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North eastern Region (DoNER) MoS PMO, DoPT, Personnel, Grievences ,Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today addressed the inaugural session of two-day international Workshop on COVID, through webinar.
Organised by ITEC-NCGG, the theme of the Workshop is “COVID-19 – Good Governance Practices in a Pandemic”. The Conference is being attended by 80 International Civil Servants from 16 Countries including the Chief of Staff, Sri Lanka Army Major General HJS Gunawardena, 19 Senior Secretaries to Government from Bangladesh, 11 District Administrators from Myanmar, Senior officials from Bhutan, Kenya, Morocco, Nepal, Oman, Somalia, Thailand, Tunisia, Tonga, Sudan and Uzbekistan.
In his inaugural address as chief guest, Dr. Jitendra Singh said that team work, compassion and statesmanship have defined India’s governance in response to COVID-19 Pandemic. The road ahead focuses on “Do Gaj Doori” – social distancing. India has popularised the Aarogya Setu App which is currently used by more than 120 million Indians.
Dr Jitendra Singh further added that getting to live with the Coronavirus has meant less contact governance, officials having to work in masks and gloves, and work from home models being adopted. Virtual offices, web-room meetings, virtual private networks were adopted as India’s Central Secretariat became a digital Central Secretariat.
75 Ministries in Govt of India have adopted e-Office, functional web-rooms were created by NIC and India’s digital infrastructure initiatives bore fruit, said Dr Jitendra Singh. The impact of integrated service portals was seen, he added.
Dr. Jitendra Singh said that India’s efforts for digital empowerment of citizens were successful in this period of COVID pandemic. The unique digital identity of Aadhar enabled availability of services on real time basis with e-Classes, e-Hospitals, e-Nam, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and Bharat Interface for Money, all of which were seeded on Aadhar identification.
The roadmap ahead for Nations in winning the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic lies in restarting the economy and strengthening cooperative federalism, noted Dr Jitendr Singh. The thrust is for stronger institutions, stronger e-Governance models, digitally empowered citizens and improved healthcare.
The two-day Workshop is jointly conducted by the Ministry of External Affairs, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances and National Centre for Good Governance with the objective of disseminating India’s good governance practices in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic to ITEC countries.
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