The 28th National Conference on e-Governance (NCeG) will be held in Visakhapatnam on June 9-10, 2025, organised jointly by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), in collaboration with the Andhra Pradesh government.
The conference, themed “Viksit Bharat: Civil Service and Digital Transformation,” will include six plenary sessions and six breakout discussions focused on improving public service delivery through technology, said a statement.
Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh will present the National e-Governance Awards (NAeG) 2025 during the event. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will inaugurate the conference and lead a session on Visakhapatnam’s development as an IT hub. Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan and IT Minister N. Lokesh are also scheduled to speak.
According to government data, the NCeG has been held annually since 1997 to promote digital governance best practices. The 2024 conference in Indore saw participation from over 1,200 delegates across government and private sectors.
A preparatory meeting for this year’s event was held on April 30, chaired by DARPG Secretary V. Srinivas, with officials from MeitY, Andhra Pradesh’s IT department, NASSCOM, and IIM Visakhapatnam in attendance.
Online registration for participants is currently open on the official conference website, nceg.gov.in. The event comes as India continues to expand its Digital India initiative, which has seen mixed implementation across states according to various audit reports.
The conference will provide a platform for discussion on current e-governance projects, though its actual impact on policy implementation remains to be seen. Previous editions have resulted in policy recommendations, with varying degrees of adoption by state and central governments.
NCeG 2025 is expected to highlight innovative projects from across India. Past winners have included Kerala’s e-health initiative and MP’s AI-based farming advisory system. This year, special focus is likely on AI applications in governance, following the government’s recent ₹10,000 crore AI mission announcement.
Despite the fanfare, India’s e-governance revolution faces significant hurdles. The digital divide remains stark, with only 38% rural women having access to e-governance services, according to Oxfam India study.
While India has seen notable e-governance successes like the Passport Seva project – which processes over 15 million applications annually and approximately 65,000 passports daily, the Passport Seva Program has become a benchmark for e-governance with over 96% satisfaction rate, according to MEA data.
Significant implementation gaps remain across other critical services. The Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) continues to struggle, with subdued complaints resolved within stipulated timelines as per the latest DARPG annual report (2023-24).
The transport sector presents particularly glaring disparities. Despite the Union Road Transport Ministry‘s 2021 mandate for online driving license services, physical RTO visits remain mandatory in 17 states due to infrastructure gaps.
A study by the Indian Foundation for Transport Research and Training found that a significant number of license applicants still need to visit RTOs at least twice to complete the process.
State such as Uttar Pradesh, despite implementing an online learning license system designed to eliminate in-person visits, RTOs continue to delay even basic approvals—in some cases taking months—undermining the initiative’s goal of reducing corruption and eliminating middlemen.
These inconsistencies highlight the uneven progress of India’s digital governance transformation. While flagship projects demonstrate technological capability, systemic challenges – including last-mile connectivity, bureaucratic resistance to change, and varying state-level implementation capacities – continue to hamper nationwide adoption.
