Information Technology led transformational impacts has been reshaping every walk of our lives. Digital India, flagship programme of the Government of India, has a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. e-Governance in India, aligned to the Digital India programme, has enabled delivery of government services online, i.e. e-services, across the nation in every spectrum of the socio-economic sphere. In order to further boost the e-government endeavors at all levels of governance and also to embark on the journey for Digital Government excellence, National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) initiative has been undertaken by Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DAPRG), Govt. of India.

NeSDA framework, launched in August 2018, was conceptualized with an overall objective to measure the depth and effectiveness of existing e-Governance service delivery mechanisms. This framework, based on the Online Service Index (OSI) of UNDESA eGovernment Survey, has been customized for the Indian federal structure and the e-Governance landscape of the States and UTs. NeSDA is first of its kind initiative in India. The first edition - National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment 2019 was released during 23rd National e-Governance Conference in February 2020 held in Mumbai.

NeSDA 2021

DARPG intends to conduct service delivery assessment periodically for improving the effectiveness of State / UT and Central Ministry in delivering their online services to the citizens. The next edition of NeSDA assessment is planned to be published in 2021.

Digital transformation is now a critical part of the national sustainable development. Governments in pursuit of digital government transformation are taking new approaches that include expansion of e-participation and adoption of data-centric approaches through open government data, innovative use of new emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, addressing data privacy and cybersecurity concerns of citizens, whole-of-society engagement through alignment of digital government strategy with UN’s Sustainability Development Goals (SDG), agile development of digital service supported by whole-of-government integration.

Understanding the relevance of the above aspects, these have been considered in NeSDA 2021 framework as additional parameters that would be evaluated across States / UTs and Central Ministries. NeSDA 2021 would also be aligned UNDESA’s eGovernment Survey 2020 in terms of service coverage and assessment areas.

NeSDA Framework

The framework covers six sectors, viz. Finance, Labour & Employment, Education, Local Government & Utilities, Social Welfare (including Agriculture & Health) and Environment (including Fire) sectors. The framework covers services under G2B and G2C segments, in these six sectors. During NeSDA 2021, additional 6 mandatory services at State / UT level and 4 services at Central Ministry level would be evaluated.

In 2019, the NeSDA framework covered G2C and G2B services across six sectors, viz. Finance, Labour & Employment, Education, Local Government & Utilities, Social Welfare (including Agriculture & Health) and Environment (including Fire) sectors. In alignment to the UN eGovernment Survey online services coverage and country’s priority sectors, additional services under sectors / departments such as Public Procurement, Home Department, and Tourism have been included in NeSDA 2021.

A summary of mandatory services across the sectors is listed below:

State / UT	No. of Mandatory Services		Central Ministry	No of Mandatory Services
Finance	15		Ministry of Finance – CBDT	5
Labour & Employment	7		Ministry of Finance – CBIC	2
Education	4		Ministry of Finance –Procurement Policy Division	1
Social Welfare (including Health, Agriculture, Home & Security)	11		Ministry of Commerce & Industry	1
Local Governance & Utility Services	13		Ministry of Labour & Employment	4
Environment	4		Ministry of Education (formerly Min. of Human Resource Development)	2
Tourism	2		Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment	1
Total Mandatory Services	56		Ministry of Health and Family Welfare	2
			Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare	3
			Ministry of Rural Development	2
			Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions -Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare	1
			Ministry of Home Affairs - National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)	1
			Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change	2
			Total Mandatory Services	27

The NeSDA framework primarily assessed all the service portals (State/UT and Central Ministry service portals) on 7 key parameters, viz. Accessibility, Content Availability, Ease of Use, Information Security & Privacy, End-service Delivery, Integrated Service Delivery and Status & Request Tracking. Apart from the service portals, the quality of the State / UT portals was also assessed on four parameters, namely, Accessibility, Content Availability, Ease of Use, and Information Security and Privacy In NeSDA 2021, the framework has been enhanced to include additional 6 parameters, viz., Open Government Data, E-Participation, Alignment to IndEA (India Enterprise Architecture, Alignment to SDG (UN’s Sustainability Development Goals), Leveraging Emerging Technologies, and Cyber Resilience.

A summary of assessment questions under each parameter is listed below:

S. No.	Assessment Parameters	No. of Assessment Questions
		State / UT Portal	Central Ministry Portal	State / UT Service Portals	Central Ministry Service Portals
1	Accessibility	11	11	18	18
2	Content Availability	7	6	11	11
3	Ease of Use	14	14	10	10
4	Information Security & Privacy	9	9	8	8
5	End Service Delivery	-	-	5	5
6	Integrated Service Delivery	-	-	14	14
7	Status & Request Tracking	-	-	8	8
8	Open Government Data	8	8	-	-
9	E-Participation	6	6	-	-
10	Alignment to IndEA	4	4	-	-
11	Alignment to SDG	7	7	-	-
12	Leveraging Emerging Technologies	4	4	4	4
13	Cyber Resilience	4	4	4	4
	Total	74	73	82	82

 

Under NeSDA 2021, the State, UT and Central Ministry portals will be evaluated on 10 assessment parameters whereas service portals will be evaluated on 9 assessment parameters as highlighted in the table above.