IT infrastructure has expanded widely across Tripura, 228 civic services are now online: Punit Aggarwal, Principal Secretary IT

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, August 6, 2022

Punit Aggarwal, Principal Secretary of the State Department of Information Technology, said in a press conference yesterday that 228 citizen services are running online in the state presently. He also told the reporters along with Naresh Babu, director of the IT department sitting next to him in the press conference that, the State Government has been giving utmost priority in e-Governance for providing better delivery of services to the citizen. About 228 services have been delivered online using various platforms like Digital Seva (e-District), SWAAGAT, Beneficiary Management System (BMS), e-Municipality etc. he said.

According to the Principal Secretary IT, the State Government has launched Mukhyamantri Yuba Yagayog Yojana scheme in the year 202021, to provide grant of Rs.5000/- each to final year graduate students for purchase of Smartphone. Under this scheme, Rs. 5000/- each was provided to 7274 during the financial year 2020-21 and 9371 students during the financial year 2021-22. Recently, the state government launched this scheme on 20.07.2022 (online application submission last date upto 20.08.2022) for the financial year 2022-23.

He also claimed that, the State Government is developing quality infrastructure across the state to connect Tripura with high speed internet connectivity. Under State Wide Area Network (SWAN) all Districts, TTAADC HQ, Sub Divisions upto Block Offices have connected with high speed internet connectivity. Bandwidth has been upgraded from 2/4 Mbps to 10 mbps in 73 SWAN sites to enhanced internet connectivity. Besides, the Old equipment for SWAN POPs are being replaced with new Laptops, UPSs, and Network Rack etc. Under HSWAN project, 450 offices have connected to provide high speed internet connectivity.

To bring all welfare schemes under a single umbrella, he further said that, the IT Department with technical help of NIC has developed Beneficiary Management System (BMS). End-to-end digitization of entire process such as beneficiary selection, Ration Card based verification and DBT payments are done through BMS to make the system transparent, accountable and for eliminating ghost beneficiaries from the system. As on date, 58 nos. of such State DBT schemes have been on boarded on BMS, Principal Secretary state IT department said.

To promote investment in Data Centre industry and accelerate the growth of IT industry, the Government has introduced "Tripura Data Centre Policy,2021". Through this policy reimbursement of floor rental Charges upto Rs. 12.00 lakh per enterprise or Government Land Lease Charges at concessional rates, attractive Power Tariff @ Rs.4.75 per unit, exemption on Open Access of Power, Bandwidth cost subsidy upto Rs. 10.00 lakh per year per enterprise, Capital Investment Subsidy upto Rs.1 Crore per year per enterprise can be availed by the provided. This policy also intends create employment opportunities for graduate students of the State.

Tripura IT/ITS Startup Scheme has been introduced to create conducive ecosystem for Start-ups in IT sector in Tripura in the year 2019. The Budgetary provision was arranged from the FY 2020-21 and start-up activities were extensively started from the year 2020. In this regard Principal Secretary IT said, So far 13 IT/ITeS Startups have been registered. The Registered Startups are getting 100% subsidy in electricity and bandwidth charges, for Proof of Concept (POC) upto 10 Lakhs, Patent Filing cost upto 10 lakhs, employment subsidy, infrastructure supports like Data Center Hosting, Plug & Play Incubation Facilities etc.

The State Government has approved to constitute Tripura Start-up Venture Fund and sanctioned Rs. 15 Crore in State Budget during Financial Year 2022-23 to provide risk capital to the potential Startups of Tripura. This venture capital will have Rs. 50 Crore as corpus fund. SIDBI Venture Capital Limited has been engaged as the Fund Manager for venture capital. This venture capital will be sector agnostic and ticket size would be Rs. 25 Lakhs to Rs 2 Crore. Potential Tripura Startups will be benefitted through this venture capital. Tripura Start-up Venture Capital has been registered with SEBI passing the way to have the venture capital operational soon.

To redress the grievances of the citizen, the Govt. of Tripura has launched CM helpline with short code "1905' throughout the State on 6th of Sept, 2021. The issues raised through 'CM Helpline' are addressed & allotted to concerned department through Task Monitoring system (TMS) application. Till date, total 17,051 nos. of calls have been received in CM Helpline, among these 12,645 nos. of calls are enquiry based which are closed with information, 309 nos. of calls have been provided emergency service, 4,097 nos. of call have been registered, 4,321 nos. of grievance cases have been dispatched to concerned departments for resolution (some calls have been forwarded to multiple Departments for taking necessary actions) and 3,669 nos. of cases have been resolved by concerned departments.

According to the principal secretary IT, in Tripura, out of the total 1176 GPs/VCs, 1153 GPs/VCs are covered with Common Service Center. These Centres have become the access points for delivery of essential public utility services, social welfare schemes, health care etc. for the citizen in the rural and remote areas. Further, the State Government will be also launching 27 nos. mobile CSC van across the State to cover remaining GPS/VCs/Hamlets soon, he said.

Under the Capacity Building project, the State Government has recently imparted Specialized Training on Procurement in e-Governance and Social Media & mobile-Governance to about 74 Government official during the first week of August 2022, to acquaint the official with the components of DPR, Eol and RFP as well as understanding of Social media landscape, social reference framework etc.

There are cyber threats are increasing day by day. So, to combat cyber security threats and audit of critical infrastructure like State Data Centre (SDC), State Wide Area Network (SWAN) etc., state IT department is in the process of engaging 01 (one) Cyber Security Auditor and 01 (one) Cyber Security Expert, he said.