(a) whether the Government has taken any initiative to promote e-Governance,e-Procurement, Digitization of records including land records, war records, etc. pertaining to the defence sector;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) the time by which digitization of all such records are likely to be completed; and
(d) the extent to which it is likely to bring trans- parency in the defence sector of the country?
MINISTER OF DEFENCE (SHRI MANOHAR PARRIKAR)
(a) to (d): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (d) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.605 FOR ANSWER ON 8.5.2015
(a ) & (b): Government has taken various initiatives to promote e-Governance in Defence Sector like Aadhaar enrolment for defence personnel and their dependents, Digital Life Certificate for retired defence personnel, Central Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) for online complaint registration and Smart cards for accessing canteen facilities etc. Defence services have also implemented various IT initiatives for decision making relating to opera- tional, manpower, infrastructure and procurement matters.
Using Raksha Bhoomi software, the Defence Land Records are also digitized by Directorate General Defence Estates (DGDE) with the objective of long term preservation and easy retrieval. Further, under the digitization programme, the work of indexing, scanning and digitization of records of Defence Estate Offices (DEOs) and Cantonment Boards has been taken up in two phases. In Phase-I, 69,657 files by 37 DEOs and 2,42,836 files by the 62 Cantonment Boards were digitized.
Further, Digitization of declassified War Records has already been initiated by History Division and about 29 Lakhs pages have been Digitized upto 31.03.2015.
(c) & (d): Digitization of Records is a continuous process. Many of the above efforts taken are expected to bring transparency and efficiency.