Vaasanthi Vedantam
Gayatri Doctor
ABSTRACT
DIGIT- Digital Infrastructure for Governance Impact & Transformation, is a platform developed by the eGovernments Foundation (eGov Foundation) that aims to transform urban governance in India. So far, the organization has digitized many Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) from different states. Andhra Pradesh was one of the first states to standardize the municipal governance processes across all 110 ULBs through integration using DIGIT, in partnership with the Commissioner and Director of Municipal Administration (CDMA), Government of Andhra Pradesh. The state of Andhra Pradesh provides online service delivery through its integrated DIGIT applications, which are CDMA Website, and PuraSeva Mobile Application.
The research aimed to capture the experience of the digital transformation of urban governance in Andhra Pradesh. The scope of the research was narrowed down to Public Grievance Redressal (PGR) as other services areas were already taken up for the study, and was limited to one ULB, i.e., Guntur as it received the greatest number of grievances. Hence, all the active PGR channels in Guntur have been looked upon to understand the holistic approach. A small sample size was selected for the survey to bring out qualitative insights. The citizens belonging to different socio-economic backgrounds, and employees from different hierarchies across the departments of the ULB were covered for the survey to capture the on-ground scenario of DIGIT usage, and challenges. The paper highlights the major findings from the survey, which includes the challenges, and positive outcomes, along with the scope of improvements.
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