Govt seeks to speed up governance with mobile app

It’s no secret that for us Indians, any job involving the government institutions, is a herculean task to accomplish. To iron out the serpentine processes the government is developing a mobile application, which will give access to over 1,000 services of the Centre and state governments, as well as local bodies.

The app, christened UMANG—Unified Mobile App for New Age Governance—is slated to be released by the end of this year. In a bid to be inclusive, the app will be available in 12 Indian languages, besides English, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Monday.

However, not all services will be accessible with the launch. “We will start with National student scholarships, women safety and health care,” Prasad said. The aim of developing the app, Prasad said, is to improve governance in the country.

“I can very satisfactorily say that if Rs 100 is going out from Delhi then Rs 100 is reaching in account of the beneficiary. By leveraging technology, we have addressed agony of pilferage,” Prasad said. He informed the media that the government transferred funds amounting to Rs 61,000 crore, to over 30 crore beneficiaries in 2015-16. The government was able to weed out 3.5 crore duplicate beneficiaries, which saved over Rs 15,000 crore under direct benefit transfer scheme, in 2014-15.

If this does see the daylight, it will definitely be a boon for survival.