New Delhi, Dec 25 (PTI) Union minister Jitendra Singh on Monday said that civil servants need to harness the potential of the digital revolution and embrace the latest IT innovations as a means to advance digital governance.

Addressing an event here, he stressed that technology is the key to good governance.

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“Technology fosters transparency and hence accountability, which is the basic feature of good governance,” said Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel.

On the occasion of Good Governance Day on Monday, he launched the extended version of Mission Karmayogi with three new features on the iGOT (integrated government online training) Karmayogi platform — My iGOT, blended programs and curated programs.

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The central government has been celebrating Good Governance Day since 2014 in honour of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to promote citizen-centric, efficient and transparent governance and improve service delivery.

Singh also launched 12 domain-specific capacity-building e-learning courses and a new blended learning programme named VIKAS (Variable & Immersive Karmayogi Advanced Support).

The minister called for the optimum use of technology for the timely delivery of services to the common man.

“Civil servants need to harness the potential of the digital revolution and embrace the latest IT innovations as a means to advance digital governance,” he said.

Singh pointed out that the emphasis is on e-governance and paperless office, which has resulted in a seamless flow of decision-making in the administration.

He said the Centre's ambitious Mission Karmayogi programme focuses on grooming civil servants of the future by making them more technology-enabled, innovative, progressive and transparent.

Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been emphasising on maximum governance and minimum government.

Underlining PM Modi's principle of the ‘whole-of-government' approach, he said, it is an all-encompassing, all-enveloping, all-inclusive and all-participating march toward development.

“Citizen-centric reforms initiated by the prime minister in the last over nine years have led to ‘ease of governance', eventually leading us to ease of living for the citizens,” Singh said.

Lauding the increasing number of women joining government service, the Union minister said that the women have started taking up leadership roles in the government.

Singh said that PM Modi has introduced a series of initiatives towards enabling ease of living for women employees including the grant of 60-day special maternity leave for women central government employees in case of stillbirth or death of an infant within a few days of birth besides he grant of 730 days child care leave among others.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)