Before digitization, getting a business license in Goa could take up to two years
The screen lit up: green on the left, white on the right. Just like the files stacked in every government office. Behind it ran a new land allotment system—built from scratch and wired straight into a digital public infrastructure. No one needed a manual. Officers glanced at the interface and it was work as usual—issuing allotments, tracking applications, moving files along. The logic felt familiar because it was. But beneath that old-paper surface, the system moved with a speed and precision the old ways never allowed.
A transformation had taken place, quietly and seamlessly. Choosing simplicity was a departure from the usual preference for complex, heavily-designed custom ERP solutions, but as Pravimal Abhishek, MD of the Goa Industrial Development Corp had come to learn: Digitization is not always about cutting edge interfaces. Sometimes, it’s about meeting people where they are.
- Author's Name Darshana Ramdev
- Posted On 25th Jul 2025 at 16:30 PM
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Known locally as the Goa IDC, the corporation was set up to enable the establishment and organization of industries in the state. Over time, it evolved into something larger—a special-purpose authority managing everything from land allotments and building permissions to water supply and tax collection within notified industrial areas. When Pravimal, a dynamic IAS officer and IIT Madras alumnus, took charge, he inherited a system caught in a fairly typical bureaucratic chokehold—paper-driven, fragmented, and struggling to meet the expectations of a fast-growing industrial base.
The GIDC handles land allotments through three different processes with varying timelines. What Pravimal digitized was the screening stage – which used to take 7-8 months – plus 70% of the evaluation process. The committees still need to meet, but the overall process that could stretch to two years now moves in months.
The DPG decision
Sometimes, change begins not with a committee or a directive, but with a single person willing to ask ‘why not?’ “I’ve always wanted to work on complex problems,” Pravimal says. “Here, I’m dealing with everything from legislative reform to server infrastructure to change management—sometimes in the same week.”
From the outset, he knew that real transformation would require more than software. It would need a platform that could evolve with the institution—and one that others could build on, too.
That’s where DIGIT came in.
Developed by the eGov Foundation, DIGIT is a digital public good—a foundational, open-source platform designed to help governments deliver public services more efficiently. With plug-and-play modules for common urban functions like water billing, property tax, and approvals, it was already powering governance in dozens of cities across India. Pravimal saw the potential to extend its utility into a completely new terrain: industrial governance.
“I chose the DPG route because I didn’t want to get locked into a proprietary software contract,” he explains. “DIGIT was time-tested, reliable, and already had modules we could use straight away. But most importantly, it allowed us to cocreate.”
The co-creation journey
Together with eGov and his in-house teams, Pravimal began building something entirely new on top of DIGIT: a custom estate module for industrial land allotment. It was a function municipal bodies don’t usually handle, and no ready-made software existed for it. So they prototyped, adapted, and iterated, working with Deloitte as an SI partner to build.
They redesigned the UI to mirror paper-based workflows—green notes on the left, white correspondence on the right—minimizing training and resistance. “We had to make it feel intuitive, especially for staff used to the old system,” he says. “So we brought the familiarity of the physical file onto the screen.”
A custom blend of tech, reform
But tech, Pravimal says, can’t run ahead of reform. “Our regulations define how business is conducted. If those are ambiguous or outdated, no amount of digitisation will help. Tech works on top of rules. The foundation has to be solid.”
So while the platform was being built, Pravimal pushed forward with streamlining processes, clarifying terms, standardising forms. He set up public grievance camps across industrial estates. He met with industry associations. And he listened. “We heard the same thing over and over: people didn’t know where their files were. They had to physically visit offices again and again just to follow up. They asked for a smarter system. That’s what sparked it.”
And when he presented DIGIT—its open data policies, its government-grade security standards, its modular architecture—they were convinced. “Knowing that it was a certified Digital Public Good gave them confidence. It felt credible, and safe.”
The impact
Today, the numbers speak for themselves. Where land allotments used to take six to eight months after evaluation, they now move in five to six days. The number of documents required for approvals has dropped. So have the number of procedural steps. “We’ve reduced time, documents, and steps by over 65%,” Pravimal says. “That’s how we measure impact.”
The transition hasn’t been without friction. Data migration posed a challenge, especially cleaning and uploading legacy records. Some features—like the split-screen view or custom functions in the online building approval system—had to be developed from scratch. But the team worked in agile cycles, gathering feedback and fine-tuning. “We never said this is final,” he says. “We kept asking, what else can be better?”
Trust, in the end, came not from the interface or the analytics—but from how people felt using it. Industries could apply, track, and receive approvals online, without multiple visits. Staff felt empowered, not confused. Architects were surprised at how simple the OBPAS module felt. And across the board, the new system began shifting expectations about what government could deliver.
Paying it forward
“Once your information is there, it’s seamless,” Pravimal says. “And now people are starting to ask—if this is possible in industrial estates, why not in other departments too?”
That’s the larger bet.
Goa may have led the way, but the solution was built to travel—across states, even across borders. “We’re working with eGov to develop a white paper so other countries, especially in Africa or South Asia, can pick this up and adapt it to their needs. That’s the power of co-creation on a digital public good.”
What began as a redesign of a service flow has turned into something larger—a new model of governance, shaped not in a control room, but in conversation with users, officers, industries, and technologists. It’s iterative, open-ended, and grounded in practice.
And it started with one officer, asking a simple question: What if we built this together?
