Lok Sabha Question No. 2331 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-03-16
Subject: NeVA
Ministry: PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS
Asked by: Jayant Sinha

2331.

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2331 TO BE ANSWERED ON 16-03-2022

## NeVA

## SHRI JAYANT SINHA

Will the Minister of PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

- (a)  the States that have adopted National eVidhan Application (NeVA) so far;
- (b)  the implementation status of NeVA in these States;

(c)  whether the Government will be making the adoption of NeVA mandatory for all States in the country and if so, the details thereof;

(d)  whether  NeVA  will  provide  easy  access  to  searchable  documents,  while  bridging language barriers and if so, the details thereof; and

(e) whether the digitisation initiative under NeVA also includes creating digital archives of previous documents and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS AND CULTURE SHRI ARJUN RAM MEGHWAL

- (a) &  (b)  'National  eVidhan  Application  (NeVA)',  a  Mission  Mode  Project  for  Digital Legislatures to make the functioning of all Legislative Houses in the country paperless has  been  developed  on  the  theme  of 'One  Nation  -  One  Application' .  NeVA  is transforming  all  State  Legislatures  into  'DIGITAL  HOUSES'  so  as  to  enable  them  to transact entire Government Business on digital platform including information exchange with  the  State  Government  Departments  in  digital  mode.  It  stands  for  bringing  far reaching transformation in the governance across the country by making the people well informed & enlighten citizens and thereby strengthening the roots of the democracy in the country. NeVA is not only bringing greater synergy, coordination, transparency and accountability between the Legislature and the executive in a State, but also across the States.    Keeping  in  view  the  latest  technological  development  in  the  field  of  ICT, maximum use of AI & IOT has been made to make NeVA a robust IT product.

Since, the process involving the functioning of all Legislatures are similar except some minor variations, enabling provisions have been incorporated in NeVA for onboarding it by the two Houses of Parliament also.

To  adopt  National  e-Vidhan  Application  (NeVA),  Memorandum  of  Understanding (MoU)  have  been  signed  with  18  States  viz  (1)  Punjab  (2)  Odisha,  (3)  Bihar  {both Houses}, (4) Meghalaya, (5) Mizoram, (6) Manipur, (7) Gujarat, (8) Arunachal Pradesh, (9) Nagaland, (10) Puducherry, (11) Tripura, (12) Himachal Pradesh, (13) Chhattisgarh, (14)  Tamil  Nadu,  (15)  Sikkim,  (16)  Haryana,  (17)  Uttar  Pradesh  {both  Houses} (18) Jharkhand.

Out  of  these  18,  Detailed  Project  Reports  have  been  submitted  by  13  States  viz. (1) Punjab (2) Odisha, (3) Bihar {both Houses}, (4) Nagaland, (5) Manipur, (6) Sikkim, (7)  Tamil  Nadu,  (8)  Meghalaya,  (9)  Haryana,  (10)  Tripura  (11)  Uttar  Pradesh  (both Houses) (12) Mizoram, (13) Arunachal Pradesh for sanction of funds.  All but last one (Arunachal  Pradesh)  have  been  sanctioned  necessary  funds  as  per  the  requirement  of respective  Legislature  for  implementation  of  the  Project.    All  these  Legislatures  have also  begun  the  procurement  of  various  devices  as  per  their  requirement  following  the respective  procurement  procedure  &  General  Financial  Rules/  Regulations/  guidelines without any interference by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.

As  a  special  achievement,  Bihar  Legislative  Council  became  the  first  House  in  the country to transit to NeVA platform completely on 25 th Nov, 2021 and conducted Winter Session, 2021 on the NeVA platform in paperless mode. They will also be conducting the  ensuing  Budget  Session,  2022  on  the  NeVA  platform.    Odisha  Assembly  also presented  their  budget  2021  in  paperless  mode  using  NeVA.    Other  Houses  are  also adopting the same path and during next few months with the completion of procurement of  IT  devices  and  installation  of  necessary  infrastructure  in  and  around  the  Houses, noticeable changes would be visible in the functioning of all State Legislatures.

- (c) Keeping in view the federal structure and autonomy of the State/UT Legislatures, all are being encouraged to adopt NeVA.
- (d) Yes  Sir.  NeVA  is  a  Unicode  compliant  software  having  provision  for  easy  access  to various documents like List of Questions, List of Business, Reports etc. bilingually viz. English  and  any  regional  language.  This  application  is  spearheading  the  principle  of 'One  Nation-  One  Application'  with  the  objective  of  Cloud  First  and  Mobile  First  to serve Members' FIRST.
- (e) Yes  Sir.  Technical  &  financial  provisions  have  been  made  under  NeVA  for  creating digital archives of entire legacy data and making it available to users including Members and citizens in easy to search mode through mobile App and website as well.

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