DIGITAL INDIA - FOCUS PSU
Public Sector units (PSUs) or Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) play an important role in the country’s economy. They promote rapid economic development with emphasis on creating and expanding infrastructure, generate financial resources for the development of the economy, create employment opportunities, promote balanced regional growth and encourage and develop small scale and ancillary industries in India. PSUs provide a huge leverage to the government (their controlling shareholder) in achieving the desired socio-economic objectives. Understanding the role that the PSUs play in the economic growth of the country and at the same time the power of digital in the current era, the Indian Government is playing a pivotal role in pushing forward an agenda of digital transformation in all public sector organizations. It is thereby catalysing several PSUs and government departments to look at leveraging digital technologies in a big way. Four waves of Digital Government innovations have emerged in the contemporary times – s s s s
Digitization – improving internal government operations and delivering better public services Transformation – facilitating administrative and institutional reform in government Engagement – engaging citizens and non-state actors in policy and decision-making processes and Contextualization – supporting policy and development goals in specific sectors and localities.
SIGNIFICANCE OF IT IN PSUS Today leveraging ICT to improve business processes and to perform better in a competitive world has become a necessity for any company, be it a PSU or a private sector firm. Consequently, there has been a significant interest in planning and on developing digital transformation best practices and applying them to ensure that these programmes and initiatives are on the right track and are more aligned to outcomes. Today with the help of ICT, various projects can be monitored, capacity building of individuals can be enhanced and also efficiency and competitiveness of PSUs can get enhanced. It is therefore important for the government to play a crucial role in harnessing the power of digital technologies and data to fundamentally re-imagine and transform the business models of not only the government but also in all the government agencies, institutions and organizations. While much progress has been made by the government, the full potential of digital transformation remains largely untapped. For digital transformation to happen in the real sense, it’s important to implement the latest technologies and ensure that they contribute to specific business measures. A lot of gaps and loopholes need to be filled for the transformation and happen on a large scale and to be effective. VARINDIA therefore presents before its readers a list of 40 agencies and organizations, comprising of PSUs and government nodal agencies that have realized the power of technology and have made inroads into adopting the latest technologies, thereby embracing the ongoing digital transformation.
www.varindia.com April 2019
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