CHENNAI: Information Technology Minister T Mano Thangaraj on Wednesday announced that the State government would implement Digital Tamil Nadu Strategy (DiTN), a new scheme which would help all government departments reach their key performance indicators and outcomes. The Minister said this while replying to the discussion on the demands for grants for his department in the State Assembly.
A senior official told TNIE that the State government has approved a strategy document for implementing DiTN which aims at digitising all departments to make the entire government e-enabled. He said DiTN will ensure SMART - Safe, Monitorable, Accessible, Responsive and Transparent - administration. In each government department, Departmental Digital Unit (DDU) will be created. Suitable experts for implementing DiTN would be selected through Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency.
The minister also said the Information Technology Department would be renamed as Information Technology cum Digital Services Department. The www.tamildigitallibrary.in, which has over 50,000 digital books on Tamil language, culture, history, manuscripts, etc., would be converted as a multimedia digital library at a cost of Rs 1 crore.
Thangaraj also announced a Digital Cultural Atlas of Tamil Nadu which documents tangible and intangible art forms with the help of audio, video and photo. This project includes archaeological sites, visual arts, performing arts etc. The documented files would be hosted with Tamil and English explanations. In the first phase, the cultural Atlas for the districts in the Madurai zone would be created at a cost of Rs 1 crore by the Tamil Virtual Academy.
The minister also announced that a new policy for further developing the IT and Business Process Management (BPM) sector would be unveiled soon. The sector has been a propeller for the creation of employment opportunities in second and third-tier cities, he said.
The minister further said the government has decided to unveil policies for Software as a Service (SaaS), agriculture technology, health technology and wearable technical equipment. He said at present, Chennai is addressed as the SaaS Capital of India since 10 of such companies in the country are located in Chennai. Tamil Nadu government is aiming at preparing 10,000 SaaS entrepreneurs by 2030. The government would also consider creating a separate Accelerator Centre and an Innovation Fund for this purpose.
Thangaraj said Chief Minister MK Stalin has announced a scheme - Data for Public Good. Under this scheme, within six months, the public can know the welfare schemes they would be eligible for. For this purpose, a software called State Family Database is being designed. Also, e-Services 2.0 scheme would be implemented very soon. Through this, the number of services from the government would be increased to 300. Besides, a separate mobile app is being developed for this purpose.