Dun and Bradstreet hosts the 2nd India e-Governance Forum in association with Entrust Datacard

Dun & Bradstreet, the world’s leading provider of business information, knowledge and insight organized the 2^ndIndia e-Governance Forum in association with Entrust Datacard in New Delhi today.

The progress of e-governance has been one of the most striking developments of the web and e-governance initiatives have come a long way since then. E-Governance in India is transforming government functions for increased citizen participation in its day-to-day activities by opening up new channels for government-citizen collaboration. Today, the government’s major focus area is the rollout of citizen services, using IT and the Internet as platforms.

India, overall, has taken significant steps in the area of e-governance, with almost all States in the country launching e-services in some way or the other. Although efforts have been made in the creation of infrastructure and internal information handling by government bodies as well as public services, the diffusion of technologies in moving towards e-governance have been slow and it is now imperative to overcome the identified challenges affecting the evolution of e-Governance to enable efficientgovernance& administration.

Giving the welcome address,  Preeta Misra, Director – Learning Solutions, Dun & Bradstreet India said, “In this dynamic VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, complex & Ambiguous) world of new age risks, the challenge always remains on how well we anticipate and then mitigate these risks. With use of technology, the issue of data security is also an area of concern for a project like Digital India.”

Highlighting on Trusted Identities and Strong Authentication for e-Government Services ,Devendra Chaudhry, Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India said “When I was invited by D&B to address the event, I was driven by this passion of sharing my e governance experience with everyone. We need to understand that there is much more to e governance than just technology. I want to excite the entrepreneurs to support e governance through ecommerce. I believe we should work together as team India to achieve honorable PM’s goal of Digital India.”

Elaborating on the theme of the panel discussion, The State of e-Government in India (Now & the Future),  Shree Parthasarathy, National Leader - Cyber Security, Senior Director - Enterprise Risk Services, Deloitte India said, “The e-governance seminar organized by D&B and Entrust Datacard is forward looking and addresses the specific key requirements of Digital Age that we are moving into Digital Platforms and Cyber Security have to operate synergistically and provide for a secure digital channel. Trust at all levels should be at the core theme for secure digital and it would need to imbibe the security principles of confidentiality, integrity and availability.”

While stressing on the importance of e-governance, Rajiv Singh managing director South Asia, Entrust Datacard, said, “Whatever we are hearing about digital India is true, action is happening on ground. Citizens are getting empowered you are giving them access to online information, their identities are being exposed. There is a need for robust and secured technology to protect citizen’s identity which is a real challenge today. A lot of concerns need to be addressed in implementing successful initiatives like Digital India and Smart City. While there is a technology available today, there is not enough groundworkthat works in conjunction with technology to build trust in citizens.”

Ajay Kumar, Head of Marketing-South Asia, Entrust Datacardsaid “This was a great event which touched upon various aspects of digital India and e governance especially around trusted identities and secured transactions. We from entrust data card would like to engage again with thought leaders in future to hear their views and best practices which could help the Nation to move forward in the right direction.”

In the event, Henry Leung, Sr. Marketing Manager-APAC, Govt. Vertical Marketing and Mr. Saurabh Airi, Technical Sales Consultant from Entrust Datacard presented their view on various use cases which are relevant to e-governance and digital India initiatives. Mr. Leung also stated about the relevance of combining physical and digital identities in order to form a stronger credential especially for multi-use government application.

This seminar witnessed participants from the Government and Industry together discussing the need for latest technologies, products & services and suggested a holistic approach to effectively maximize the adoption of e-Governance in India. Other eminent speakers present at the forum were  Vinay Thakur, Director, National e-Governance Division,Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India, Partha Adhikari, Deputy Director (Sys), National Institute of Electronics &Information Technology (NIELIT),Pawan Duggal, Sr. Advocate, Supreme Court and Cyber Law Expert.