Meet on e-governance from Thursday

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government will host the 15th national conference on e-governance on February 9 and 10. This is for the second time that the Information Technology (IT) Department is hosting a national conference on e-governance. IT Department Secretary Pradip Kumar Jena told a mediapersons here on Tuesday that the conference aims to provide a sharing and learning platform for effective interaction among policy-makers, practitioners and industry leaders to deliberate, interact and identify priorities and recommend an actionable strategy for good governance through use of IT. The conference will explore how government departments can work cohesively and increase use of public information in all aspects of governance. This can only be ensured if access is available anywhere, anytime and to everybody and helps ensure accuracy while maintaining privacy and security of information shared from large repositories of data, he added.The conference will provide a forum for exchange of ideas, experiences, best practices and showcase, recognise, promote excellence in various e-governance initiatives taken by the State Government. Around 1,500 delegates are expected to participate in the conference.Governor Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare will present the national e-governance awards along with the prizes for best stalls, best question and best paper in compendium. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will deliver the inaugural address.Minister of State for IT Ramesh Chandra Majhi will deliver the welcome address followed by opening address by Union Minister of State for Communication and IT, Sachin Pilot. Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Narayanswamy will  also address.Jena said the conference would be based on the theme ‘towards effective electronic service delivery’. The panel discussions will be on ‘towards effective electronic service delivery, democratisation of information, social audit and local government’.The conference includes an exhibition by various sponsors and participating state governments. The stalls will showcase their services, products and achievements in the field of e-governance.Jena said the conference to be held in the KIIT university campus will be jointly organised by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances and Department of IT, Government of India with the Department of IT, Odisha Government.