ICT FOR COMBATING CORRUPTION IN PUBLIC SECTOR

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• The First G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group(ACWG) meeting under India’s G20 Presidency began today at Gurugram, Haryana. As part of the meeting, a Side Event was held on the theme ‘Leveraging ICT for combating corruption in Public Sector’. Eminent experts from various walks of life spoke at the event, which was attended by delegates from various member countries.
• In recent years, the role of ICT has been recognized globally for fighting corruption. Many countries are increasingly using ICT to increase efficiency, reducing corruption through promoting transparency, unmasking government data to public review/analysis, automating government processes, restricting discretion of officials and restraining the need to interact with the gatekeepers/ officials to access key services. ICT not only enables citizens’ empowerment through access to information but also flattens the hierarchies in public service delivery systems.
• Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has been stressing on the power of digitization and bridging the digital divide to promote transparency, flow of information, and communication to curb corruption at all levels in the society. In keeping with this goal, the Side Event of the ACWG meeting saw active participation of government agencies such as Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology; Direct Benefit Transfer and Government E-Marketplace to discuss how integration of automation of government processes have made public delivery efficient and non-discretionary.
• The Digital ecosystem in India has reduced several processes and direct interaction with public officers and have made authentic information accessible and paper-less.
• For instance, the Digilocker has over 144.6 million registered users and UMANG has done transactions of over 3.36 billion through the digital platform. As part of Direct Benefit Transfers India has seen creation of over 1.35 billion digital identities for residents and over 470 million basic accounts were opened to access all social welfare schemes directly by the citizens. Over 11,000 products categories with around 2.8 million listed products, over 260 service categories and over 2.5 lakh service offerings are available on Government E marketplace
• Inclusiveness through transparency and efficiency through ICT is promoting the mantra “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance” and the deliberations during the Side Event reinforced this.

SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB