The Government seems to have touched upon every aspect of governance with utmost impact and care. There has been a deliberate policy shift in order to benefit every section of society.


Prudent Fiscal Management
The State has been lauded for its prudent fiscal management. From a revenue deficit of 30% in December 2003, within a short period of three years, the State has achieved a revenue surplus in 2006-07 (RE). This is the first time since 1991-92 that Rajasthan had a revenue surplus. Moreover, the Government has not used overdraft facility for even a single day since February 2004. As another feather in its cap, the Government was given a debt waiver of Rs.308.70 crore in each of the year 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 for achieving reduction in revenue deficit.

E-Governance Initiatives
With the aim of moving towards a citizen-centric method of delivery of services from a Government-centric one, various e-governance initiatives have been implemented and many more are on cards. There has been a 200% increase in budgetary outlay for e-governance over the last 2 years. As per the guidelines of Government of India under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), National Institute for Smart Governance has prepared the State's e-Governance Road Map (EGRM) and Capacity Building Road Map (CBRM). The State has undertaken several e-Governance initiatives:

e-Mitra: Citizen-centric services of Government departments are now being made available across the State through an integrated IT-enabled service delivery channel, 'e-Mitra' centres/kiosks. Currently 850 e-Mitra kiosks are operational in 32 districts around the State under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) framework.

Virendar Singh has been running a tailoring shop in Hasanpura (Jaipur) for the past 21 years. Today, his small 150 square feet shop, Kapil Enterprises, is much more than what meets the eye. It is an integrated service and information delivery point for various citizen-centric services of Government departments ― the e-mitra. He is an e-mitra Franchisee, offering a wide range of services ranging from payment of electricity and water bills to online bus ticketing; from payment of various Municipal Corporation and UIT dues to application for ration card, birth & death certificate; from access to land & revenue records to sale of stamp paper. Citizens do not have to wait in long queues or visit various government offices for such work. Virendar might never have heard of e-Governance, but he is one of the hundreds of small entrepreneurs in the State who are making it happen in Rajasthan.

Common Service Centers (CSCs): 6626 CSCs will be set up in rural areas for providing some of Government and private sector services and information under one roof. These will be allotted only to women entrepreneurs.

Swasthya Mitra (Telemedicine): A Telemedicine network interconnecting 31 district hospitals and 6 medical colleges is under implementation with the support of ISRO.

Aarakshi (Online FIR): Electronic filing of FIRs is being enabled in the State in a phased manner.

Registration & Stamps Department Project (SAARTHI): All the 259 Sub-registrar offices of the Registration and Stamps Department have been IT-enabled. It has reduced service delivery time to citizens from several hours to just 20 minutes. The project for 'Anytime, Anywhere Registry' system has been successfully launched in 11 SR offices of Jaipur on pilot basis.

Land Records Computerization: Database of Record of Rights (RoR) covering 6.8 million landowners has been completed in all the 241 tehsils. Copies of RoR are being provided to citizens through e-Mitra kiosks and other independent channels.

Right to Information: A Right to Information (RTI) Portal is being developed to create an e-platform for inculcating right to information amongst the citizens. The Citizen Charters of various State Government Departments / PSUs and other organizations are already available on the website of Government of Rajasthan.

Business Process Reengineering (BPR): BPR has been initiated in 15 citizen-centric departments. TCS, the consultant, has already initiated the study in 4 departments.

Back-end Computerization: To achieve the goal of complete e-Governance in the State, backend IT-enabling of citizen-centric and revenue earning departments is being done on priority.

VAT-IT Project: VAT Accounting System has been implemented at all the 11 zonal headquarters & 56 regular circles. Other activities include registration of dealers and maintenance of revenue collection registers. All 137 ward offices are to be IT-enabled and the Check-posts Management Information System is to be implemented.

e-Procurement: To bring about transparency and reduce time constraint in procurement procedures in Government Departments, e-Procurement system is under implementation.

Video Conferencing Network: All 32 district collectorates have been linked to the State Headquarter through video conferencing network.

CARISMA: 1100 Panchayati Raj Institutions are being interconnected over a state-wide wireless based network.

IT Enabling of Municipal Bodies: Complete IT enabling of 6 municipal corporations at divisional HQs has been completed. Remaining municipal councils/boards are being covered in a phased manner.

e-District: This program is proposed to cover Ajmer, Baran, Jalore and Jhalawar districts. It would help in IT-enabling of internal processes of the district administration and its subordinate offices and integration with the e-Mitra service delivery channel. Funds for the e-District project would come from Government of India and would be provided to the selected districts. Price Waterhouse Coopers has been selected as the consultant for project planning, implementation and management.

SecLAN and MAN: 1000+ nodes Secretariat Local Area Network (SecLAN) has been operationalized. Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) of over 30 Government buildings in Jaipur city has been set up and made operational.

Rajasthan State Wide Area Network: Government of Rajasthan has proposed to set up Rajasthan State Wide Area Network (RajSWAN) to modernize the communication infrastructure with an aim to improve the administrative efficiency and effectiveness. This project aims at creating vertical and horizontal communication network (data, voice and video) by linking 32 District HQs and 241 Tehsil HQs with the State HQ.


Capacity Building in Government Domain
To derive the envisaged benefits from various e-Governance projects, the Government is ensuring training of each and every employee (class III and above). At the initiation of Department of IT & C, training programs are being conducted through private institutes at district level. Nearly 10,000 employees have been trained across the State since the financial year 2006-07.