The Department of Public Administration, Panjab University, Chandigarh along with the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) Punjab and Chandigarh (UT) Regional Branch jointly organized a Special Lecture on “IT and Development: Key Issues around Citizens Adoption of E-government Programmes” by Dr. Banita Lal, Faculty member, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, UK on 26.7.2017 Prof. B.S. Ghuman, Dean, Faculty of Arts and Honorary Secretary IIPA Regional Branch while introducing the theme opined that use of information technology has brought revolutionary changes in government and citizens relations. The use of ICT is popularly known as e-governance and it has resulted in cost reduction, improvements in efficiency, reduced corruption and finally improved satisfaction of citizens by delivering in time bound services. Professor Ramanjit Kaur Johal, Chairperson, Department of Public Administration and Associate Director, Research Promotion Cell, Panjab University introduced the learned speaker and said administration has been citizen centric mainly due to the application of IT. Dr. Banita Lal while speaking on key issues around citizens’ adoption of e-government programmes covered benefits of e-governance like cost reduction, reduction in bureaucracy, reduction in corruption, more efficient processors, faster and more access to information and growth of digital literacy skills. However, the major constraint is digital divide since everyone does not have equal access to IT technology and security is still an issue. According to her if we want that e-governance should have a win-win situation, we need to reduce this digital divide. She shared the results of Digital India Programme. The lecture was followed by discussion in which Dr. Nemi Chand, Ms Pratibha, Mr. Sandeep Kumar and Dr. Ranjit Singh participated. Dr. Balram K. Gupta in his presidential address shared the importance of IT in the administration of justice partly in the form of e-filing of cases in the courts and improving access to legal cases. Vice-Chancellor Arun K. Grover in his remarks said that Panjab University’s partnership with the UK Universities has been growing tremendously. I am hopeful that this partnership will result in joint research projects, exchange of students and faculty. Prof. Ramanjit K. Johal proposed vote of thanks. |