Developed Citizen Portal for India’s Largest State to Bring Transparency and Accountability to Scheme Administration
Overview
Our client is an IT consulting company, fully-owned by one of the largest State governments in India. We partnered with them on an initiative to develop a new ‘citizen information’ or Jan Soochna Portal for the government to publish, administer, and monitor various citizen benefit scheme.
With a population of over 80 million that resides in 33 districts, the state government aimed to enhance citizen outreach and uphold the right of the people to seek information, as laid out in the national Right to Information Act, 2005. The goal was to create a user-friendly web portal to digitize numerous schemes across more than a hundred departments.
The government envisioned the Jan Soochna Portal to become a single platform for citizen information and interaction. The portal aimed to educate people about existing and new citizen benefit schemes and policies of the State government, and to share data and key facts on governance of these schemes.
Industry
E-governance, Public Sector
Solution
Citizen Services, Jan Soochna or Citizen Information Portal
Location
India
Challenge
Smart governance requires a government or public body to share information with citizens proactively through a single, unified portal. This enables them to make the benefits of the various schemes and programs available to a wider set of citizens, and to also monitor the success of individual programs at various levels. However, in a large state there were several challenges in achieving the Jan Soochna vision.
- Poor Scheme Performance
- Many schemes didn’t perform well because citizens couldn’t easily access and track relevant information
- Many Schemes. Many Departments.
- Large number of active schemes and programs had to be covered – at the time of implementation more than 320 active schemes were run by more than 100 departments
- Managing and providing information about the numerous programs posed a significant challenge
- No centralized platform
- Details about citizen benefit programs were scattered and not easily accessible to the public
- Information needed to be in both English and Hindi to meet the language preferences of the local population
- Scheme Performance Monitoring
- Governing bodies struggled to monitor the reach and performance of active schemes in Wards and Panchayats
- Alignment with RTI Act
- Citizens had to file multiple applications to get information about programs, which went against the transparency required by the Act
- Non-implementation of major RTI provision – Section 4 (2) of the RTI Act mandates proactive disclosure of information
- Need for Modernization
- Unscalable and obsolete technology – initial portal was developed using an in-house open-source WordPress tool based on PHP
Solution
We partnered with the State IT provider to create the Jan Soochna Portal, focusing on simplicity and effectiveness. The portal provides Scheme related information, Department information, Scheme eligibility and Scheme penetration analytics on a single platform. Our solution ensures easy access to scheme information for citizens and streamlined scheme performance analysis for government departments.
- User-friendly Schemes and Benefits Information for Citizens – One-stop portal for citizens to find benefits, schemes and services based on eligibility and location. Well-organized and clearly presented information, including details of the scheme, beneficiary information, eligibility criteria, application process, required documents, and benefits. All information is easily downloadable for convenience.
- For Administration – Dedicated Scheme Penetration Module to provide insights on the coverage and performance of citizen services and schemes. The portal tracks essential KPIs, including the total number of eligible beneficiaries, the percentage breakdown of those eligible and receiving, and eligible but not receiving benefits.
- Modern, Future-ready Tech Platform – Rysun developed the portal using .Net MVC and API-based integration for easy scalability and future expansion. Rysun also migrated data from the existing Oracle DB to a new SQL database. To ensure privacy and security of sensitive citizen data, the application is hosted in the State government’s own cloud environment, Raj Megh.
Benefits
Rysun collaborated with our client partner to bring the State government’s vision to life through a meticulously designed citizen portal. Tailoring our global experience in citizen solutions, we designed an easy-to-use, multi-lingual citizen portal for a diverse population of 80 million from urban and rural areas. Ensuring accessibility across varied network speeds and handling peak loads, we monitor and optimize performance for peak load efficiency.
As at the beginning of 2024, the Jan Soochna Portal, hosting information in English and Hindi, showcases 720+ government schemes, of which nearly 325 are actively running. Since launch, the portal has successfully served over 35 million annual visitors, delivering high-impact citizen benefits.
- Empowered Citizens
- Enables easy access to crucial citizen benefits and schemes
- A single portal in two major languages of the region for greater ease of use and adoption
- Citizen-friendly government
- More accessible, transparent, and efficient citizen- government interaction
- Maximum coverage for citizen programs and benefits and improved government engagement with citizens and industry
- Improved Service Delivery
- Operating at higher efficiency and reduced cost, while also eliminating unnecessary, cumbersome paperwork
- Streamlined Scheme Administration
- Better planning and coordination across the various departments and at different levels of governance like Wards and Panchayats
- Transparent Scheme Operations
- Increased visibility into administrative processes helps improve confidence in the government’s programs, schemes, and benefits
- Scheme Analytics
- Built-in scheme performance monitoring modules
- Track the reach and conversion of government schemes into citizen benefits
- Provides quick comparison of target and actual progress to officials to take corrective actions
