WE'VE ENTERED AN ERA OF DATA DRIVEN DECISIONS AND PREDICTIONS

Golok Kumar Simli, Chief Technology Officer, Passport Seva Programme, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, believes what we are witnessing the next phase of technological revolution within Government sectors with the adoption of the latest cutting-edge emerging technologies

- Aanchal Ghatak

Elaborate on the Smart Governance initiative taken by the Passport Seva Programme (PSP) of the Ministry of External Affairs. The PSP has been continuously discovering and enhancing citizen service experiences in the country, be it adoption of latest and emerging technologies, innovative business model, data governance, workforce skilling and re-skilling, a vibrant stakeholder ecosystem along with data security and privacy. The geographical coverage of the PSP which includes 36 Passport Offices, 93 Passport Seva Kendras, 428 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras and more than 180 Indian Missions/ Posts abroad reflects the magnitude and enormity which delivers passport related services to more than 60000 citizens on a daily basis. The citizens can also access the services through the mobile app available on iOS and Android platforms.

The end-to-end digital platform, state-of-art Passport Seva Kendras with required facilities and amenities, young and dynamic workforce and a robust feedback and grievance handling system makes the programme and governance truly smarter. The citizen-centric portal and mobile App is available 24x7x365 for anytime-anywhere access to the citizens in India and the Indian Diaspora across the globe. We say passport services are “a click away to smartphones” and “suggestion/grievance redressal is a Tweet away”.

How are you using technology to facilitate and support better planning and decision-making?