Video Series: The Bold Ones – Innovating for the Next Half Billion powered by Omidyar Network India
Premiering on November 17, 2021 on omidyarnetwork.in, this 11-part video series featured stories of some of the country’s boldest entrepreneurs who are helping create a meaningful life for every Indian.
In this series, Viraj Tyagi, CEO, eGov Foundation shares his personal stories as he dared to dream, overcame challenges, and built tech-led innovations that today drive social impact. "We work so that citizens have access and choice of access. We want to ensure that we make cities liveable for the citizens, so we are not just providing technology but an intersection between government and citizen. The key thing in 'Next half a Billion' is to meet the citizens where they are and not make assumptions about where they need to be." Viraj Tyagi
Morning WhatsApp: Good morning Government In small town of Kartarpur, Amandeep is facing a dilemma on how to pay bills for essential utilities such as property tax and water/ sewerage. As a responsible citizen, Amandeep was a frequent visitor to her nearest municipality centre for making such payments. She found this mode to be trustworthy and easily accessible.
Because of the pandemic and social distancing restrictions, the offline payment centres are suspended for the general public. Hence, Amandeep has no other accessible and trustworthy channel to pay for essential utilities.
Amandeep is not alone. Across cities and states of our country, many people, especially post the pandemic, are trying to find ways to digitally connect with government services. But, the technology has to be easy to use. Enter whatsapp. Easy, conversational, ubiquitous. Over the last two months (August- September 2021), we have been working with the Punjab government to bring WhatsApp based services to the citizens, and here are some of the learnings.
1 Billion COVID Vaccination Certificates Issued on CoWIN via eGov’s DIVOC Platform
Excited to announce that 1 Billion vaccination certificates have been issued on CoWIN, Indian government’s COVID-19 vaccination portal, using eGov Foundation’s technology platform DIVOC.; DIVOC (Digital Infrastructure for Vaccination Open Credentialing) is a fully-open source (MIT licensed) and modular digital platform that enables countries to manage large-scale rollouts of last-mile vaccine administration programs.
DIVOC was conceptualized and built with a "Make-In-India, For-The-World" approach.This milestone could not have been achieved without the support of our partners Sahaj Software and Ernst & Young LLP (EY India). They have been instrumental in strengthening the DIVOC product suite via technological contributions, as well as played a key role in advocating DIVOC to adopter countries globally and supporting their governments in successfully implementing the DIVOC certificate services on the ground.
DIVOC, being a WHO-DDCC:VS compliant software package, countries across the globe can freely use DIVOC, manage the platform within their control, and roll it out to their citizens to enable large scale vaccination programs. A few notable sectoral updates are outlined below;
With India being one of the early adopters, DIVOC's "Certificate" module has been implemented within the Government's Co-WIN platform to generate digitally signed and verifiable COVID-Vaccination certificates, for fully & partially-vaccinated citizens. The Government also recently launched a DIVOC-based COVID-Test Certificate issuance service, for citizens to avail digitally signed and verifiable COVID test certificates.
Philippines has adopted DIVOC's credentialing module and soft-launched the issuance of a "COVID-Vaccination certificate" service in the National Capital Region (available via the Government portal, as an on demand service) for fully vaccinated citizens. There are plans underway to commence issuance of "provisional certificates" for partially vaccinated beneficiaries as well, along with a nationwide launch to extend these services to all regions.
Sri Lanka has also adopted DIVOC's credentialing module to issue digital vaccination certificates for their citizens.
DIVOC-based COVID-Certificate services (Vaccination & Test Results) are being planned for launches across more countries in the South/SE Asia & African regions.
On the occasion of the 1 BN vaccination certificates milestone, Pramod Varma CTO, EkStep Foundationshares the journey of #DigitalPublicGood- DIVOC (Digital Infrastructure for Vaccination Open Credentialing) envisioned a year back, for vaccination credentialing.
Highlighting the vision of going international, Pramod also talks about DIVOC being a WHO-DDCC:VS compliant software package and how countries across the globe can freely use DIVOC, manage the platform within their control, and roll it out to their citizens to enable large scale vaccination programs in the health sector.
National Urban Digital Mission Update
In February 2021, the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs launched the National Urban Digital Mission to build better cities that work for their citizens. With the launch of the Citizen Centric Smart Governance programme, the Mission is harnessing the power of technology to deliver e-governance services for municipal governance. Enabling access and providing ease of living for all citizens, eGov Foundation’s DIGIT platform now supports the National Urban Digital Mission with the objective of strengthening the capacity of the urban ecosystem.
Latest Updates
NUDM roll out communication has been sent to all states and UTs- Letter from Secy, MoUHA sent to CS of all States/UTs to onboard on NUDM.
DIGIT Setup up as NUGP: 8 applications and dashboards have been set-up- This instance is being used for demonstration of the platform to the states. States can also use this instance to do a hands-on of all the applications and dashboards.
Capacity Building at NIUA: 45+ member team being formed within NIUA to lead the mission.
Creation an ecosystem of empaneled partners for state level implementations is up and running.
National Urban Digital Mission will soon be implemented in Jharkhand
National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM) by the Government of India (GoI) will soon be implemented in Jharkhand for the integration of e-governance services in cities across the Country. In this regard, a four-member team of National Institute of Urban Affairs met Secretary, Urban Development and Housing Department, Vinay Kumar Choubey on October 22, 2021 and discussed this new and entire plan. Daily Pioneer Times of India
Viraj Tyagi, CEO, eGov Foundation In Conversation with Express Computer
On November 5, 2021, Viraj Tyagi in talks with with Sudipta Dev, Senior Associate Editor, Express Computer, Indian Express Group, highlighted how eGov propels e-governance in India with special focus on e-governance applications and platforms, on various initiatives in the pipeline; ways in which eGov works with state governments to improve e-governance on a daily basis and how eGov work towards the creation of a transparent, sustainable, scalable citizen-state engagement.
Greater Chennai Corporation's Online Revenue Collection
From October 1- October 15, 2021, the incentive period at Greater Chennai Corporation witnessed 73.17% of its revenue collection online with 1,67,775 receipts generated in 15 days with all the other channels contributing to 26.83% only. AT GCC collections reached 51 crores in 15 days.
Career Opportunities
Opportunities for Gender Consultants/Organization
As the urban mission reaches institutionalisation, eGov is also working on a mission to catalyse an open digital ecosystem around Sanitation. The sanitation mission is in the early phases and working closely with the stakeholders, our mission is to reduce untreated waste to zero in 1000 habitats (urban & rural) in 1000 days.
We are looking for consultants/organizations (experience of working in sanitation domain would be a plus) who can build a gender sensitive approach into our programs and projects. If this opportunity interests you, please connect with Ameya Ashok Naik, Sr. Manager, Policy Initiatives and Sowmya V, Partnership Manager, eGov Foundation.
eGov hopes to catalyze radical actions on the ground that can change India’s trajectory in the world. We see ourselves as architects of change over a 20-year horizon, and are looking for individuals from varied backgrounds, cultures and domains of expertise to be united by a common purpose.
Explore the opportunities with eGov, and be a part of this game-changing initiative to drive collaborative urban governance in India. <openings to be added>
