Expert committee to address HR shortage in eGovernance

NEW DELHI, INDIA: To address the concern surrounding the shortage of skilled IT personnel in e-governance projects, an Expert Committee has been commissioned.

The Expert Committee headed by Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, has released its recommendations for the implementation of new Human Resources (HR) policies in the government.

As identified by the Prime Minister's Committee on the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) of India, lack of sufficient human resources was one of the biggest constraints in the adoption of e-governance. Currently, the government employs only 5000 IT professionals, 50 per cent of whom work in a single agency, according to a report in FutureGov Asia Pacific.

Inorder to strengthen the position and capabilities of public sector IT employees, the Expert Committee was constituted to recommend new policies. The committee also aims at attracting new talent from outside government.

The expansion plans and aggressive targets of the NeGP has called for the need, scale and urgency of the HR requirements. The four massive e-governance projects being implemented at a national scale and a bill mandating electronic delivery of government services within five years (expected to be passed soon in the Parliament) will raise more requirements for technically skilled Human Resources.

The Committee has recommended to create a Chief Information Office (CIO) in all government ministries, assisted by an Electronic Services Division, to provide corporate leadership for e-governance initiatives and work on convergence in policy, applications, and infrastructure across government.

Some of the other important recommendations were to create e-Governance Strategic Groups in key areas like cybersecurity, shared services, and standards and interoperability within the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY).

These groups are also expected to include experts from different government departments and agencies as well as from private sector organisations in the industry, academia, and research, to tap expertise available outside the government.