The State of Himachal Pradesh added yet another feather in its e-Governance cap by winning the Award for its contribution during the Digital India Week held in July this year. Himachal Pradesh has been ranked 2ndamong all States and Union Territories of India.

The Awards have been presented on the Good Governance Day at New Delhi on December 28, 2015 by the Honourable Union Minister of Communication & Information Technology, Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad. The Award was received by the ACS (IT), SIO (NIC) and officers of HP DIT and NIC HP. Every officer of these Departments was actively involved at State and District levels to make Digital India Week a success.

The Digital India Week was celebrated in the country between July 1 to 7, 2015 and its main objective was to Inform, Educate and Engage with citizens through organization of events at large number of Digital Points of Presence such as Government offices, CSCs/ Post Offices, Blocks, Schools, Gram Panchayats etc. In Himachal Pradesh, a number of events were organised during this week and reporting was done through the online systems.

The Honorable Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh launched the Digital India Week by commissioning7services under the eDistrict Program which include registration of birth, death & marriage; issuance of Parivar Register etc. During this event, a Aadhaar Permanent Enrolment Centre was also inaugurated. Besides this,eVidhan and Mandi Tourism Mobile Apps, MyDiarY Mobile App were also launched. A workshop on Cyber Security was held and a number of awareness counters for citizens were set up throughout the State to inform about the electronic delivery of Government and other services. Quiz Competitions on e-Governance and IT were also held in schools. Dissemination of knowledge about e-Governance activities was done in Special Gram Sabhas being held during that period.

The three Districts of Sirmaur, Shimla and Una have also received the award for being best contributing Districts of Himachal Pradesh. The Deputy Commissioners/ADC and District Informatics Officers of NIC of respective Districts received these awards on the Good Governance Day.

Digital Lockers of around 11,000 citizens were opened during this week through District Informatics Officers and LokMitraKendras, which is almost double the National average in percentage terms. All event photos and videos were uploaded on the portal and these have been evaluated by the DeitY, GoI for deciding the Best Performing States and Districts of the country. The Department of IT, Himachal Pradesh, National Informatics Centre, Himachal Pradesh and CSCs actively contributed during the DIW to create awareness among citizens about the various eGovernance aspects.