Chandigarh has taken a lead in e-readiness from Punjab and Haryana according to the the latest e-readiness assessment report released by the department of information technology, Government of India. The a survey was conducted in association with the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER).
Chandigarh ranked 8th in 2003 and in 2004 it secured 5th rank. Maintaining its position, Chandigarh has joined the league of leader states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra . Punjab and Haryana are placed at the 7th and 9th position respectively with Delhi, Goa and Gujarat. The ranking projects these northern states flourishing in terms of the information technology.
Talking to FE, UT administration’s IT director MS Brar said, “The administration is very actively taking up infrastructure development projects in order to attract new investments in the IT sector. Efforts were made last year for the implementation of the e-governance initiative, state wide area network, setting up of state data centre etc. The IT companies have also started construction work at the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park. Now we are hosting e-revolution 2007, an endeavour by the Chandigarh administration with the support of Punjab and Haryana for developing an ecosystem for growth of IT industry in the northern region.”
As per the report, Chandigarh ‘s performance in the Environment sub-index has been outstanding. To retain the top position, the government needs to address the political and regulatory environments. But the city needs to improve in the areas of readiness index including- individual (total number of technical students), government expenditure on secondary education and number of ministries using ICT in governance process.
Chandigarh has also prepared an action plan to give financial support to colleges and give them incentives to increase the seats in technical courses.The government will also seek co-ordination from Karnataka for application on land records; Maharashtra for application on property records, transportation etc; Andhra Pradesh for birth and death registration and Madhya Pradesh for application of ICT in agriculture.