Shift to Digital Governance during Covid-19: Case Study of Jal Shakti Ministry

Covid-19 pandemic catapulted human order into a new kind of era. The most striking feature of this change was the necessity to bring about a transformational change in connecting with each other. With stringent lockdowns in place, an urgent need to expedite the shift to digital governance was strongly felt. In a way, connecting virtually remained the only possibility to carry on with governance. The National Informatics Centre, which had already made deep inroads to facilitate digital governance at central and state levels, rose to the challenge faced during the Covid-19 pandemic and strengthened the pillars of digital governance to laudable standards. The issuing of Virtual Private Network (VPN) and mainstreaming of virtual conferences are two cases in point that marked the transformational success of India’s digital governance. This article demonstrates with data the timely alignment of the Department of Water Resources, River Development, Ministry of Jal Shakti with the changing contours of governance in India and turning a challenging situation into an opportunity to take digital governance in India to newer heights.

As soon as the Covid-19 pandemic hit India in 2020, the process of shifting to digital governance was expectedly expedited in the country. The foremost challenge was to enable the government machinery to work on eOffice. More than a lakh Virtual Private Network (VPN) accounts for users in Ministries/Departments at central as well as state level were created. The eOffice team with its centralized helpdesk was equally up to the task to manage the skyrocketing demands for eOffice and troubleshoot reported issues.^[1] While National Informatics Centre mobilized all its resources to enable shifting to eOffice for file related work, it was time for the Ministries/Departments to rise to the occasion and aid the implementing agencies particularly during the initial transitional phase. The Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, which was one of the leading Central Ministries in implementing eOffice before the pandemic, left no stone unturned in keep the wheel spinning and ensuring no work was affected due to Covid-19 restrictions. Before discussing in detail the success with which Ministry of Jal Shakti implemented eOffice, let us briefly shed some light on eOffice as a primary digital governance platform of the Government of India.

eOffice: A Digital Workplace Solution

According to NIC, the eOffice aims to support governance by ushering in more effective and transparent inter and intra-government processes. The vision of e-Office is to achieve a simplified, responsive, effective and transparent working of all Government Offices. The Open Architecture on which eOffice has been built, makes it a reusable framework and a standard reusable product amenable to replication across the governments, at the Central, State and District levels. The product brings together the independent functions and systems under a single framework.

Benefits of e-Office:

• Enhance transparency – files can be tracked, and their status is known to all at all times
• Increase accountability – the responsibility of quality and speed of decision making is easier to monitor.
• Assure data security and data integrity.
• Provide a platform for re-inventing and re-engineering the Government.
• Promote innovation by releasing staff energy and time from unproductive procedures.
• Transform the Government work culture and ethics.
• Promote greater collaboration in the workplace and effective knowledge management.^[2]

Case Study of Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti

The Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti implemented eOffice in February 2017 and has now achieved e-file percentage of more than 90. All new files are opened as electronic files. There are approximately 30111 files in e-Office, out of which only 2288 are P-Files and 27823 are e-Files as on 31^st August 2021. eOffice version 6.0 has been upgraded in the Department from 29^th June 2021.^[3]

Currently, 1461 active e-Office users have already been created so far. The total number of VPN accounts issued in the Ministry of Jal Shakti are 895 which are being used by the officials in the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation (Secretariat), National Mission for Clean Ganga, National Water Informatics Centre, National Water Development Agency, Central Water and Power Research Station, Central Water Commission, National River Conservation Directorate, National Institute of Hydrology, Central Groundwater Board, Central Groundwater Authority.

e-Office Lite (e-File) version, as both e-Leave and e-Tour applications provided under e-Office Premium version have now been moved under e-HRMS which is a flagship programme of Government of India, implemented by Department of Personnel and Training across all central government Ministries/Departments. In addition, the implementation of new version of Unicode compliant product with localized interface like Hindi, Telugu, Kannad, Malayalam etc. is in progress. DSC/e-Signature has been used by all officers of Deputy Secretary and above levels in the Department.

NIC has also come up with a two-factor authorization using PARICHAY (SSO Platform) (https://saccess.nic.in/parichay/) with a view to enhance the security of the accounts. The previous version was authenticating the user based on his/her email ID and password only. But now it will also send OTP to the mobile associated with the email ID to enable the login. In this regard, implementation of two-factor authorization – an additional security features in the functioning of e-Office has already been introduced by the NIC in this Department to lessen the chance of breach of security.

The above steps taken by the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation clearly indicate show that conceptualization and implementation went hand-in-hand as far use of as eOffice is concerned. By the time of the second lockdown, they Department was well conditioned to operate from Home without affecting the quality of work. There were regular meetings to review the progress of ongoing projects and activities.

Use of Video Conferencing: A Remarkable Step Towards Digital Platformization

According to an estimate, the percentage of physical meetings have come down to around 10%, thanks to extensive use of video conferencing for meetings/reviews/webinars etc. The ever expanding list of video conferencing applications like Webex, Vidyo, MS Teams, Google Meetings, Zoom, GoToWebinar, Skype, Whatsapp etc. is a testament to the fact that virtual meetings have become the new normal. The use of video conferencing has also enhanced resource utilization with decrease in demand of logistics and other expenses. The flexibility offered by online platforms with respect to rescheduling of meetings is also conducive in saving physical and economic resources. The capacity to engage with much more audience than a physical event is one of the most outstanding pluses of organising the public events on digital platforms. It has been proved during remarkably increased participation of people in Water Talks organised by National Water Mission and Namami Gange events.

As many as 455 meetings^[4] through video conferencing took place in the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti since 22^nd March 2020, the day first lockdown was announced till September 2021. This augurs well in bringing about effective water management for which the role of people is crucial. The shift to virtual conferences/meetings/programs has also given the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, an opportunity to connect with a larger set of audience as compared to the physical events. For instance, the 18^th Water Talk organised by National Water Mission on 16^th October 2020 and delivered by Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Minister for Jal Shakti engaged more than 2.4 lakh viewers through various social media platforms. The successful organization of National Water Awards 2.0 in November 2020 on a virtual platform is also a testament to the use of digital governance during the pandemic. The two-day event was inaugurated by Hon. Vice-President of India Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu. Over two days, the total reach on social media was recorded to be 335.4K with total minute viewership at 71.9K. In addition, 5.3K people viewed the event live and total engagement was recorded to be 26.6K.

In other words, the use of virtual platforms and amplification of dissemination through social media provide a good opportunity to transform public programmes on water conservation and river rejuvenation into Jal Andolans.

Conclusion

The propensity with which the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti shifted to the digital mode of governance in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic is a reminder that use of Online Platformization is the future of governance not just in India but around the World. The significance of digital governance increased manifold as the world grappled to face the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. As National Informatics Centre took the lead in facilitating e-Governance by creating record number of VPN accounts, especially during the first phase of the national lockdown, the small IT and NIC teams at the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti and its affiliated offices worked tirelessly day and night to meet the target of ensuring smooth governance activities. The experience of the Covid-19 pandemic teaches us an important lesson that the future of governance is online and it would be prudent for every Ministry/Department under central and state governments to prepare themselves for this inescapable transformation. It is also the right time to take the local bodies/gram panchayats along in this digital endeavor that is the need-of-the-hour. 

[3] Official NIC data of the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti.

[4] Official data by NIC which keeps the record of every virtual meetings/conference organised by Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.