STATE TIMES NEWS
SRINAGAR: Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo on Monday chaired a high-level meeting to review the functioning of the Information Technology (IT) Department and the National Informatics Centre (NIC) in Jammu and Kashmir. The meeting was attended by Secretary IT, Dr. Piyush Singla, CEO JaKeGA Mahima Madan, State Informatics Officer NIC J.S. Modi, and other senior officials.
At the outset, the Chief Secretary stressed the critical importance of cyber security, directing the IT Department to bolster it right down to the tehsil and block levels. He called for the expansion of the e-Office network to all such offices across J&K and requested a status report identifying offices yet to be brought under the system.
To further strengthen IT infrastructure, he instructed the department to expedite the upgradation of the State Data Centre (SDC) and establish a Mini Security Operations Centre (SoC) in the UT. He also emphasized capacity-building, urging the creation of a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Information Technology to develop skilled manpower aligned with future industry needs.
A key directive was to formulate a comprehensive proposal for setting up a futuristic IT Park in J&K to generate high-end employment opportunities for youth trained in advanced IT domains.
Secretary IT, Dr. Piyush Singla, presented an overview of departmental achievements, noting that audited websites had increased from 110 to 206 in the past three months. He said over 210 government websites and applications are currently live. The SDC is also in the process of securing ISO 27001 and ISO 20001 certifications, highlighting J&K’s commitment to global standards in information security and service management.
CEO JaKeGA, Mahima Madan, shared updates on projects, including successful third-party security audits and migration to IPv6. Under e-Office 2.0, 4,056 offices and 21,774 users have been onboarded, extending services to tehsil and block levels. The SWAN network has been expanded to all districts and 167 blocks for seamless connectivity.
She also informed that 127 citizen services, including 15 new ones, have been integrated with DigiLocker, making over 8.06 crore records available to 30.4 lakh users in J&K. Other key projects include digitization of records, Digital Village Centres in 44 panchayats, biometric attendance, and disaster recovery solutions.
NIC’s J.S. Modi reiterated NIC’s role as a technological partner, supporting key initiatives like Shri Amarnathji Yatra services, Pension Suvidha, BoPEE, and Service Plus (JanSugam). Future plans include NeVA, Next Gen Hospital, and online sanctioning of social welfare schemes.
On the occasion, the Chief Secretary also launched the E-SAM (Electronic System of Asset Management) Portal, a platform aimed at optimizing asset performance, improving inventory control, and enhancing governance through workflow and compliance tracking.
