The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MoCIT) of the Nepalese government has launched a national government services app, Nagarik, for all government services across 40 governmental entities via a single platform, writes Nepalese outlet enepsters.
Nepal’s app is part of the Digital Nepal Framework project, and makes use of previously-registered digital ID data. The same drive to provide services online is gaining popularity around the world.
Development of Nagarik follows announcements of a new biometric identity card in the country. MoCIT collected data on 21.5 million citizens, gaining biometrics and digital identity data from the Ministry of Home Affairs’ citizenship, PAN and passport registration records, which will be used for the app. The data collected by MoCIT also includes fingerprint biometrics and facial photos of 15.5 million citizens from the Election Commission’s server. The aim of the app is to reduce corruption by increasing transparency, and save citizens valuable amounts of time in the process.
Some services provided by Nagarik will include PAN Registration, Educational Documents, Local Government Information, Citizen Investment Trust and Employees Provident Fund. A further 24 services including passport and driving license will be gradually added onto the app platform.
“Since it is a beta version, the app will provide only around 50 percent services at the moment. However, our team is working on making all the services available in the next three months,” said Communications Minister Parbat Gurung. “…All the decentralized services that are now provided by the local governments to the citizens can also be availed through this app.”