Rajasthan front-ranker in delivering online services: NeSDA report

Rajasthan has been rated a leading state in delivering online services to citizens, says the National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) 2021 report, an initiative of the Centre’s Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances.

NeSDA 2021 covers services in seven sectors -- finance, labour and employment, education, local governance and utility services, social welfare, environment, and tourism.

A senior official said the performance of Rajasthan would improve further in the next assessment.

The portals assessed were classified into two categories. One is the state/UT/central ministry portal -- the one that provides single-window access to information and service links. These portals were assessed on four parameters -- accessibility, content availability, ease of use and information security, and privacy.

The second category comprises the state/UT/central ministry services portals, which focus on the digital delivery of services and give service-related information. They were assessed on three additional parameters -- end-service delivery, integrated service delivery, and status and request tracking.

The categories in 2021 were “North-East & Hill States” (10), “Union Territories” (8), “Remaining States -- Group A” (10), and “Remaining States -- Group B” (8).

Rajasthan ranks first in state/UT service portals in Group B across all sectors (55 services provided online). The score in 2019 was 0.61, which increased to 0.76 in 2021. The sectors that saw improvement include finance, labour and employment, education, local governance and utility services, and environment.

The state ranks second in finance (14 services provided online) with a score of 0.68, and first in labour and employment (seven services provided online) with 0.91.

Similarly, it ranks first in education (four services provided online) with 0.64. It stands first also in social welfare (including health, agriculture, and home security) with 0.61; second in local governance and utility services (13 services included online) with 0.75; third in environment (four services provided online) with 0.84, and first in tourism (two services provided online) with 0.88.

Rajasthan comes eighth in the state portal overall score, which from 0.36 in 2019 increased to 0.50 in 2021.

Nagaland was in first position in “North-East and Hill” states, while Jammu & Kashmir was ranked first among the Union Territories. Kerala was first in “Remaining States - Group A” and Odisha came on top among “Remaining states - Group B”.