TN to re-purpose e-governance directorate for secure transition to paperless era

Tamil Nadu Information Technology department will be re-purposing and segregating the directorate of e-governance with Standard Setting and Enforcement wings to ensure a secure transition of governance to a digital, paperless era, according to Information Technology and Digital Services Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan.

The minister, during the discussion on demand for grants to his department, said, “It has become imperative to create and enforce standards in the areas of application development, data hosting, data sharing, and cyber security through a dedicated and independent organisation that is at an arm’s distance from the implementing agencies such as TNeGA and ELCOT.”

The minister also proposed to undertake a reorganisation of ELCOT, TNeGA, TANFINET, TACTV, ICT Academy, TVA, and the iTNT Hub — the institutions under IT and digital services department — on principles of specialisation and complementarity to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery. These institutions were set up over the last four decades and have assumed various functions and roles in a manner resulting in an overlap. Each of these institutions will be governed as Section 8 companies to ensure transparency and accountability, he said.

The government will release a Tamil Nadu Deep Tech Policy this year to drive utilisation of advanced research-based deep tech inventions and to support startups, he added.

Thiaga Rajan also announced that ground control survey using Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) utilising the Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) will be carried out to improve the positional accuracy of satellite data and for geo-referencing the village and urban cadastral maps, thereby creating a cadastral fabric of the entire state.

The seamless spatial framework of cadastral data will be created at a cost of Rs 15 crore through the convergence of funds under schemes implemented by coordinating departments and shall be used for their planning, project monitoring, and policy making.

He also said that during the financial year 2024-25, TANFINET is to connect 30,000 government health service providers, including primary health centres, government colleges, and other institutions in remote areas, with high-speed and affordable internet bandwidth.