AI, blockchain to increasingly shape India's governance landscape: Jitendra Singh

Visakhapatnam, Sep 22 (PTI) Union minister Jitendra Singh on Monday said that artificial intelligence, blockchain and the Internet of Things would increasingly shape India's governance landscape.

Addressing an event here, he said that the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS), now recognised globally, has scaled up to redress over 26 lakh grievances annually with a disposal rate of 95 per cent, while e-office has enabled over 95 per cent of files in the central secretariat to be processed digitally.

Singh said that the CPGRAMS has emerged as one of the world's leading grievance redressal systems and has even been recognised internationally for possible replication.

The minister highlighted innovations such as the digital life certificate through face recognition, which has eased pension access for millions of senior citizens, and the Assistant Secretary programme, which has given young civil servants early exposure to policymaking at the Centre.

Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel, pointed out that in recent years, the e-office platform has significantly expanded, making the central secretariat leaner and faster by reducing file movement levels and enabling more efficient decision-making.

Looking ahead, he said technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and the Internet of Things (IoT) would increasingly shape India's governance landscape — AI enabling predictive administration, blockchain reducing corruption through transparency and IoT strengthening service delivery, according to a Personnel Ministry statement.

At the same time, Singh stressed the importance of "digitising every function but humanising every service", making technology a bridge of empathy and empowerment.

The minister was addressing the 28th National Conference on e-Governance (NCeG), which serves as a platform for states and the Centre to exchange best practices in governance, enabling replication of successful models across the country.

Singh said the conference theme, 'Viksit Bharat: Civil Service and Digital Transformation', reflects not just an aspiration but a guiding principle for India's journey towards 2047.

Reviewing governance reforms over the past decade, he said more than 1,600 obsolete rules had been repealed, outdated practices like mandatory attestation of documents scrapped and amendments brought into the Prevention of Corruption Act to ensure accountability on both sides of bribery.

The Union minister praised the Andhra Pradesh government for pioneering citizen-centric innovations, ranging from real-time governance to digitised service delivery, and recalled how practices first tried in the state decades ago, such as outsourcing of civic services, were later adapted in other parts of India.

He said that Andhra Pradesh continues to play a leading role in India's growth story, pointing to upcoming projects such as a quantum data centre at Amaravati and an additional space launch pad at Sriharikota.

Later in the day, Singh conferred the National Awards for e-Governance 2025, which saw record participation with more than 1.44 lakh nominations from gram panchayats, reflecting the growing reach of digital governance at the grassroots.

He also felicitated winners of the online hackathon on data-driven innovation for citizen grievance redressal and announced the launch of the 2026 awards scheme.

Earlier, during the inaugural session, V Srinivas, Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), said the conference has emerged as a key forum for institutionalising best practices, promoting state-to-state learning and sharing award-winning innovations.

The two-day conference, co-hosted by the DARPG and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) with the government of Andhra Pradesh, features sessions on AI, civil service transformation, agri-stack, service delivery and cyber security.

It will conclude with the adoption of the Visakhapatnam Declaration, setting the roadmap for India's future in e-governance, the statement said. PTI AKV AKV KSS KSS