eGov partners with NIUA (National Institute of Urban Affairs)

DIGIT now the National Platform for Urban Governance, transforming urban landscape

BANGALORE, India, Oct. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Enabling access to civic services and providing ease of living for all citizens, eGov Foundation's DIGIT platform now supports the National Urban Digital Mission with the objective of supporting effective citizen-centric governance.

With an emphasis on realizing the vision of  'Atma Nirbhar Bharat', NIUA and eGov Foundation have commenced working seamlessly towards improved urban governance, bridging the gap between research and practice.

The purpose of this collaboration is to create and implement the National Urban Governance Platform (NUGP), which is one of the several initiatives under the National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM).

The National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM) was launched in February 2021 to improve the ease of living for citizens through the delivery of electronic governance services in partnership with State and local governments. The Mission is setting up a national governance platform – a cloud-based platform with nine services applications - property tax assessment and payment, building plan approval, municipal grievance redressal, trade license issuance and payment, No-Objection Certificate (NOC) issuance, water and sewerage connection management, NMAM compliant municipal accounting and finance, birth and death certificates and user charges – electricity, water supply, etc.

The NUGP platform will contribute to a smoother, and more efficient municipal administration and will benefit citizens living in more than 4,700 towns and cities across India.

"On Azadi ka #AmritMahotsava, I am pleased to witness the association between NIUA and eGov Foundation. The partnership will help the National Urban Governance Platform deliver inclusive and accessible municipal e-governance services to each Indian citizen in our 4700+ emerging cities across India", observed Shri Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, while addressing the representatives of the NIUA and eGov Foundation at an event held at Nirman Bhawan.

The NUDM aims to set up integrated platforms, to drive the digital initiatives of MoHUA to transform urban India, thus enhancing the ease of living,  business and service delivery for all citizens. DIGIT will be incorporated into one such integrated platform.

Viraj Tyagi, CEO, eGov Foundation, said, "eGov Foundation has spent the better part of the last two decades working towards building ease of access and ease of living for every Indian. We currently work with 16 Indian state governments towards the objective of the creation of a transparent, sustainable, scalable citizen-state engagement.

The main objective of eGov is impact at speed and scale by using free, open-source technology to enable and  transform the governance and delivery of services provided by urban local bodies, while facilitating interaction between citizens and governments in a transparent and simple manner.

We are delighted to be part of this initiative and with our platform DIGIT, (Digital Infrastructures for Governance, Impact and Transformation), being selected as the platform for NUDM. This aligns perfectly with eGov's  vision of enhanced citizen-state engagement."

DIGIT empowers local government authorities to administer urban governance services with efficiency, accountability and transparency. The state-of-the art technology enables automated civic services, such that systems, processes and decision making can be accomplished digitally. This is the need of the hour, not only due to the pandemic situation, but also towards the revolutionization of gov-tech & civic-tech solutions.

About eGov Foundation

eGov exists to improve the ease of living for citizens in our towns and cities across urban, health, sanitation and public finance management

To ensure that every citizen in every city of India can access the services they need from their local governments with ease and transparency, eGov has built the DIGIT platform, a digital public good that can be used by governments, businesses, civil society, and academia to co-create locally-relevant solutions. It provides a set of open standards, specifications and documentation to create a level playing field and enable ecosystem players to innovate on the stack.

eGov Foundation was established in 2003 by Nandan Nilekani and Srikanth Nadhamuni. The foundation is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Nilekani Philanthropies, Omidyar Network India, and Tata Trusts.

Over the last 18 years, eGov has partnered with more than over 2600 towns and cities across India, and more than 150 million citizens have benefited from its platform.

About NIUA

The NIUA is India's leading national think tank on urban planning and development. Established in 1976, NIUA was tasked to bridge the gap between research and practice on issues related to urbanization, and suggest ways and mechanisms to address urban challenges in the country. 

For more than 40 years now, NIUA has been the vanguard for contributing to, and at times, building the urban narrative for a fast-evolving urban India. Read more about the NIUA at: niua.org

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