National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment

In order to boost the e-government endeavors at all levels of governance and also to embark on the journey for Digital Government excellence, National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) initiative has been undertaken by Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DAPRG), Govt. of India.

NeSDA framework, launched in August 2018, was conceptualized with an overall objective to measure the depth and effectiveness of existing e-Governance service delivery mechanisms. This framework, based on the Online Service Index (OSI) of UNDESA eGovernment Survey, has been customized for the Indian federal structure and the e-Governance landscape of the States and UTs. NeSDA is first of its kind initiative in India.

The first edition of the biennial study - National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment 2019 was released during February 2020.

NeSDA Framework

Sectors covered

• 2019 - The framework covers six sectors, viz. Finance, Labour & Employment, Education, Local Government & Utilities, Social Welfare (including Agriculture & Health) and Environment (including Fire) sectors. The framework covers services under G2B and G2C segments, in these six sectors.
• 2021 - In alignment to the UN eGovernment Survey online services coverage and country’s priority sectors, additional services under sectors / departments such as Public Procurement, Home Department, and Tourism have been included in NeSDA 2021.
• 2023 - In NeSDA 2023, Transport and Public Grievance sectors are added.

Portals Coverage

• 2019 & 2021 - All Government Portals assessed during NeSDA are classified into two categories viz., (i) State, UT, Central Ministry Portal and (ii) State, UT, Central Ministry Services Portals.
• 2023 - Includes addidtionally City Portal (One City per State/UT)

Services coverage

• 2019 - 53 mandatory services covering G2C and G2B segments were identified across six focus sectors
• 2021 - 56 mandatory services for each States & UTs and 27 services for Central Ministries
• 2023 - 59 mandatory services for every State & UT and 37 services to be assessed for Central Ministries.

Parameters covered

• 2019 -  7 key parameters, viz. Accessibility, Content Availability, Ease of Use, Information Security & Privacy, End-service Delivery, Integrated Service Delivery and Status & Request Tracking. Apart from the service portals, the quality of the State / UT portals was also assessed on four parameters, namely, Accessibility, Content Availability, Ease of Use, and Information Security and Privacy
• 2021 - State/UT portals were assessed on four parameters, viz., Accessibility, Content Availability, Ease of Use, and Information Security & Privacy. The  State / UT / Central Ministry Services Portals assessed on an additional three parameters, viz., End-service Delivery, Integrated Service Delivery, and Status & Request Tracking. Additional 6 parameters, viz., Open Government Data, E-Participation, Alignment to IndEA (India Enterprise Architecture, Alignment to SDG (UN’s Sustainability Development Goals), Leveraging Emerging Technologies, and Cyber Resilience.
• 2023
  • The State / UT / Ministry Portals - seven parameters, namely, Accessibility, Content Availability, Ease of Use, Information Security & Privacy, Open Government Data (OGD), E-Participation and Leveraging Emerging Technologies.
  • The Services Portals - eight parameters, viz. Accessibility, Content Availability, Ease of Use, Information Security & Privacy, End-service Delivery, Integrated Service Delivery, Status & Request Tracking andLeveraging Emerging Technologies
  • The City Portals - seven parameters, namely, Accessibility, Content Availability, Ease of Use, Information Security & Privacy, Open Government Data (OGD), E-Participation and Leveraging Emerging Technologies.

Categorisation of states

To account for the variations in the size and diversity of the States, they have been categorized into three groups:

• North East States and Hill States (11)
• Union Territories (7), and
• Remaining States (18)

NeSDA 2023

DARPG has embarked on the journey of third edition of the study- NeSDA 2023.

To access the details, click here.

NeSDA 2021

DARPG embarked on the second edition of NeSDA study in January 2021. More than one lakh responses from across the country were reviewed to finalize the findings of NeSDA 2021 report.

NeSDA 2021 covers services across seven sectors – Finance, Labour & Employment, Education, Local Governance & Utility Services, Social Welfare, Environment and Tourism sectors. The assessment covered 56 mandatory services for each States & UTs and 27 services for the focus Central Ministries. The second edition of NeSDA added eight State / UT level services and four Central Ministry services. Five of the State / UT level services assessed in NeSDA 2019 are now offered through Central Ministries and hence were not considered for the 2021 assessment.

NeSDA 2021 has shown clear progress for e-Governance services across the country. States and UTs have strived to implement to the recommendations of NeSDA 2019 for creation of integrated State / UT Portals and enhancing the number of services provided on their services portals. Further, governance in the times of the pandemic necessitated operationalization of security measures such as VPNs, flexible working policies including work-from-home, and development of several new apps that brought citizens and governments closer through use of technology inter alia providing timely services at the doorstep.

Improvement in the country’s e-Governance landscape may be summarized in the following key takeaways –

• Increase in e-Service Delivery
• Rise in use of Integrated / Centralized Portals for delivery of e-Services
• Improvement across assessment parameter scores

In NeSDA 2021, 1400 services across all States and UTs were assessed as compared to 872 in 2019, an increase of over 60%. 74% respondents of the nation-wide citizen survey conducted during the study had stated that they are satisfied with the e-Services provided by the States and UTs. The e-Services of Finance and Local Governance & Utility Services sectors were the most widely used by citizens. The rising trend of e-Services delivery shifting from single silo departmental portals to integrated / centralized portals has resulted in higher citizen satisfaction. 

Among the North-East and Hill States, Meghalaya and Nagaland are the leading State Portals with an overall compliance of more than 90% across all assessment parameters. Among Union Territories, Jammu & Kashmir ranked the highest with an overall compliance of nearly 90%. Among the Remaining States, Kerala, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh had a compliance of more than 85%. Amongst all the States and UTs, Kerala had the highest overall compliance score.

Among the Services Portals for North-East and Hill States, the highest-ranking states of Meghalaya and Tripura showed improvement across all six sectors compared to NeSDA 2019. In the Union Territories category, Jammu & Kashmir was assessed for the first time in NeSDA 2021 and scored the highest amongst all UTs for six sectors. Among the Remaining States, the overall score of Tamil Nadu increased the most in 2021 compared to 2019. Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, Goa, and Odisha also improved the compliance of their Services Portals by 100%. Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Rajasthan are the leading states with compliance of more than 75% across all parameters for their Services Portals. 

Among the focussed Central Ministries, Home Affairs, Rural Development, Education, and Environment, Forest & Climate Change are the leading Ministry Portals with an overall compliance of more than 80% across all assessment parameters. Ministry Portal of Home Affairs had the highest overall compliance score. The Central Public Procurement Portal, Digital Police Portal, and Bhavishya Portal are the leading Ministry Services Portals with an overall compliance of more than 85% across all assessment parameters.   

To access the complete report, click here.

NeSDA 2019

With the overall objective to assess the States and UTs in their effectiveness in eGovernance service delivery, the NeSDA assessment was conducted on the web portals of States and UTs. The assessment covers the G2C and G2B (especially the small businesses) segments in six focus sectors, viz., Finance, Labour & Employment, Education, Social Welfare (including Health and Agriculture), Local Governance & Utility Services and Environment.

Among the North-East and Hill States, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura and Assam are leading State Portals with more than 60% compliance to the criteria assessed across all the assessment parameters. States have higher compliance to the criteria assessed in Ease of Use and Content Availability parameters compared to other parameters. Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep are leading UT Portals with more than 50% compliance to the criteria assessed across all the assessment parameters. Among other states, Kerala, Goa, Haryana and West Bengal are leading State Portals with more than 65% compliance to the criteria assessed across all the assessment parameters.

Among the Services Portals for North-East and Hill States, Nagaland is the leading State with its service portal having average compliance of more than 45% to the criteria assessed across all seven parameters. Amongst the seven parameters assessed, average compliance under ‘Ease of Use’ and ‘Accessibility’ are better compared to other parameters. With regard to the identified 53 mandatory services across all six focus sectors, Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Nagaland are the leading states delivering the identified mandatory services online whereas Sikkim is providing the least number of identified mandatory services online. Delhi, Chandigarh and Daman & Diu are the leading UTs with their service portals having average compliance of more than 10% to the criteria assessed across all seven parameters.  Among other states, Haryana and Rajasthan are the leading States with their service portals having average compliance of more than 60% to the criteria assessed across all seven parameters.

Among the focussed Central Ministries, Ministry Portals of Health & Family Welfare and Human Resource Development are the leading portals with compliance of more than 60% to the criteria assessed across all the assessment parameters.

To access the complete report, click here.

Source : NeSDA portal