Rajasthan is the largest (area-wise) state in India. The gross state domestic product (GSDP) of Rajasthan expanded at a CAGR of 12.83 per cent over 2004-05 to 2014-15. It is divided into 32 districts, out of which, 11 districts covering 61 per cent of total area and 40 per cent of the total population lie in the arid, sparsely populated Thar Desert region. Rajasthan bagged 12 SKOCH Order-of-Merit, out of which, it won two Awards, one each in the Governance and Health category.

Key Achievements

The performer list this year leads with the State of Rajasthan, which has done remarkable work in the e-Governance category. By bagging nine Order-of-Merit, Rajasthan’s performance here has been much due to the stellar work by National Informatics Centre, Rajasthan State Centre and Department of Information Technology & Communication, Government of Rajasthan. NIC, Rajasthan executed the RTE online portal, Electronic Government Receipt Accounting System (e-GRAS), Online Social Security Pension System (RajSSP) and the IGRS (Computerisation of Registration Stamps) (http://epanjiyan.nic.in), Material Management System for Public Health Engineering Department, Government of Rajasthan project. The Department of Information Technology & Communication, Government of Rajasthan won a merit for e-Mitra, Rajasthan Sampark and Raj VC State Wide Video Conferencing Facility in Rajasthan. The RajComp Info Services Ltd. For Planning Department won the Order-of-Merit for its BHAMASHAH project.

Growth in the state is to be led by Infrastructure development, industrialisation and Government’s initiatives

In the Education & Skill category, the Rajasthan Public Service Commission’s project ‘MEMORY’ got an Order-of-Merit for the objective of providing 100 per cent transparency in Government’s each and every recruitment.

In the Governance category, the Implementation of Energy Saving Project for Efficient Public Street Lighting System by Samudra Electronic System bagged the Award. The objective of this project was the development, operation and maintenance of energy efficient public lighting in Jaipur at zero cost to JMC/Government of Rajasthan and to supply lamps at zero cost in the new areas of the ‘Project Lighting Network’ during the contract period. Post implementation, the benefits are that the overall minimum committed annual energy savings of 77.13 per cent in comparison to baseline is in place. The 77.13 per cent savings in energy costs will result in an expense of only 22.87 per cent on the electricity bill to JMC.

Tourism sector to be a significant contributor to growth in the services sector, 17 tourism projects are scheduled for completion in the state by FY20

The other award was won by the National Health Mission, Department of Health, Medical and FW, in the Health category for the ASHA Soft project. Since the inception of National Rural Health Mission (2005), the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) component has played an important and critical role in the implementation of NRHM activities. In Rajasthan ASHA is known as ASHA Sahyogini and approximately 47,000 ASHA Sahyoginis are functional in the state. To ensure timely and seamless online payment, ASHA software popularly known “ASHA Soft” was conceptualised. The software has been developed in a very short time span to solve the major problem of ASHA’s delayed and partial payment. The solution has been implemented in all 33 districts of Rajasthan. More than 70 per cent population is the targeted beneficiaries. Since launch of the solution, up to June 2015, more than Rs 45 crore has been paid online to the more than 41,000 ASHAs for providing health services.

Look Ahead

The Government of Rajasthan appreciates that a well-articulated, realistically achievable vision is the starting point for a comprehensive approach towards implementing e-Governance. In general, the Revenue earning departments like the Commercial Taxes, Excise, Rajasthan Stamps and Registration, Jaipur Development Authority, Revenue and Land Records, Municipalities etc. have taken a number of important e-Governance initiatives. All these departments have a highly informative web site, downloadable forms, procedures and timelines for procuring services etc on the Internet in Hindi.

A total of 33 projects in the transportation services sector are lined up till FY20