B.K. Aggarwal, Secretary, Information and Technology announced that Himachal Pradesh has been declared as second best state in the country in e-Governance. An assessment done by India Tech Foundation, Mumbai on application of Information Technology and its use in Government institutions has recognized the state while the award would be presented by Som Nath Chatterjee, the Speaker of Lok Sabha during the 10th International Summit and Expo Power 2008 to be held on 8th November next in Mumbai.
The award was judged on the criticality of IT usage, improvement in service, impact on quality and productivity, impact on society and innovation in terms of reach and replicability, tangible impact on efficiency, operational costs and decision making and demonstrating functionality of providing various information relating to e-governance. Himachal Pradesh, being the first State to launch State wide Area Network in the entire country, has about 3000 offices at tehsil and block level to be connected through HIMSWAN project in near future for which a State Data Centre will also be separately set up.
All the 69 Employment Exchanges/Sub Employment Exchanges in the State have been computerized and the 1186 Gram Panchayats are being computerized too.
