The future of DFID's programme in India


Book Description

The test of whether the UK should continue to give aid to India is whether that aid makes a distinctive contribution to poverty reduction. The Government of India has primary responsibility for this and has already reduced poverty levels from 60 percent in 1981 to 42 percent in 2005. But whilst the economy is growing there are large pockets of poverty that still remain. The DFID plans to change some of its programme, focusing primarily on three of the poorest states, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, also changing the sectors it prioritises and putting 50 percent of its budget through the private sector by 2015.The Committee supports the focus on the poorest states but provided it is supported by the Government of India. They recommend supporting in particular sanitation, malnutrition, maternal and child health and social exclusion. The Committee supports the Government's aim to forge a new enhanced partnership with India with its mutual benefits from cooperation in trade and investment but the DFID must ensure UK Government policies help protect the poorest and reduce inequalities. The Committee assuming that over the next four years as India continues to grow at current rates it will have increased its capacity to tackle poverty and meet the millennium development goals. DFID should continue to provide technical assistance where requested but the funding mechanism should change by 2015.







Information & Communication Technology and Local Self Governance - A New Age Solution for Digital India


Book Description

The digital world in which we live today is the result of several developments in automation and science, as well as modernizations and the most recent technologies. At the moment, every country desires to be completely digitised in order for the country to be legitimated in a more effective manner. The phrase “Digital India” refers to the concern about the use of different Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) such as mobile phones, personal computers, tablets, TVs, and other similar devices to promote the country’s development. The Digital India Campaign is a visionary initiative by the Indian government to transform our country into a smart, economically cautious, and digitally legitimised nation through the use of technology. To reconstruct India, the Indian government aspires to provide residents with quality and acceptable administrative services, as well as to promote coordination and synchronisation of obligations among citizens. The Digital India Campaign intends to link the people of India digitally and to convey the different government services and programmes to them via the use of information and communications technology (ICT). The notion of local self-governance is not a new one, since it has its origins in antiquity, dating back to the period of the Mauryan emperors and even before them. The path of local self-governance from the time of the dinosaurs to the present day is depicted in this study. Furthermore, in the current environment, information and communication technology (ICT) has emerged as a successful tool for the dissemination of various e-governance services, and the Government of India has formulated the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) with an adequate service delivery mechanism in this regard. After ICT was introduced, numerous apps were developed by both the federal and state governments that contributed to strengthening of public-private partnerships (PRIs) for rural transformation. The advancement of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has created a plethora of possibilities in rural India. It is feasible for information and communication technologies to make cognition sharing more convenient, and information may be easily transmitted via the use of information and communication technologies. This information might be easily accessed and used by administrators responsible for developing rural development strategies in India. Interactions between the Ministry of Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, the Government of India, and the Panchayat Raj Institutions are coordinated. In order to ensure rural development and strengthen rural local government, the primary goal of the e-panchayat is to provide a diverse range of services to its stakeholders. A series of research phases were initiated after the notion of the e-Panchayat. The stages of information gathering and planning, information and service requirements assessment, process re-engineering, and DPR (detailed project report) preparation are all included. Finally, in 2009, with the assistance of the National Information Council, the Indian government launched e-Panchayat (NIC). Along with numerous research papers, this book sheds some insight on the importance of information and communications technology (ICT) in self-governance toward the digital India. On the occasion of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav a workshop was funded by the Indian Council of Social Science Research from July 7th to 16th July,2022. The Chief Guest of The valedictory session was Hon,ble Vice Chancellor Prof. Sat Parkash Bansal and Guest of Honour Prof. Kaushal Kumar Sharama from JNU. Vice Chancellor Prof Sat Parkash Bansal motivate to all participants from whole the county to write a research paper on workshop whatever he or she learned from this workshop and send all research paper to Director of Workshop. We received nine research articles from participants and 14 research articles from another related themes like Digital India, Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, e-Governance State and central schemes and we published an edited book within 21 research article. I would like to thanks the Honorable Vice Chancellor, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Professor Sat Prakash Bansal who inspired us to publish the book. I would also like to thanks ICSSR, New Delhi who gave us the opportunity to publish the edited book in this way.