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The World Bank has agreed in principle to provide financial assistance to the
tune of $500 mn over the next four years for the National e-Governance Action
Plan (NEGAP). In its present form, NEGAP consists of 10 functional components
and 25 Mission Mode Projects, to be completed in a timeframe of four years. In
addition to approving the Indian government's e-governance project agenda, the
bank also gave its nod for additional support, depending upon the need,
absorption capacity and rapid disbursement of initial financing.
The World Bank proposal comes after the India government started a dialogue
with the bank for possible support for its NEGAP in end-2003. A final decision
regarding the details of the bank's support, including amount of financing and
other modalities is expected to be forthcoming within the next 9-12 months.
"The next few months would be spent by the Indian government in
preparing a pre-assessment, which might take place in June, followed by the
appraisal from the World Bank around September," said Deepak Bhatia,
manager, E-Government Applications Group of World Bank. "This would further
be followed by negotiations and meetings with the various ministries and states
which, if all goes well, would lead to funding around Dec 05-Jan 06."
Apart form providing funds, the World Bank is also likely to support India's
e-governance initiative at the management and capacity building level. The
learning of the bank, while working with the Indian government, will be useful
for similar plans in other developing countries as well.
Jasmine Kaur, New
Delhi
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