Nepalese NSDI framework in the context of e-government initiatives in Nepal
Paudyal, D.R.
Government of Nepal has initiated discussions about the master plan for e-governance strategy in Nepal. The main purpose of the discussions about the master plan for egovernance strategy in Nepal is to innovate, modernize and perform the public services through the use of ICT. The master plan has identified various public services sectors like edriver license, e-passport, e-geoinformation services, e-visa, e-procurement, e-land administration etc. as core projects for e-governance initiation in the first phase. The role of spatial information is very important to support various public services. NSDI is the common portal to use Geo-spatial data in effective and efficient way and link with other attribute database. NSDI helps to reduce duplication of efforts, avoid redundant expenditures and eliminate corruption practices. The saved resources can be used for the physical, economic, and social well-being of the Nepalese society. In this context, Government of Nepal has initiated the National Geographical Information Infrastructure programme (NGIIP) for building NSDI since 2002. The overall objectives of NGIIP is planning and resource management and its specific objective is to develop a platform to facilitate data sharing among Survey Department (SD) and Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) and participating agencies. The program has now successfully crossed the pilot phase. The vision of NSDI is to promote e-government procedure, however NGII framework has developed without seriously considering all the various aspects of e-government services. Major stakeholders like Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) and Department of Land Information and Archive (DoLIA) were been taken into account to participate in this first phase of piloting. This paper investigates the appropriate institutional framework for Nepalese NSDI in the context of e-government initiatives in Nepal. This paper starts with introduction of e-government initiation in Nepal. It describes about the various components of Nepalese NSDI. The existing Nepalese NSDI framework in terms of data framework, technological framework and institutional framework is explained. An appropriate institutional framework to support e-government procedures is proposed and suggested for its implementation.
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