Amidst today’s rapidly changing world, how does a government make data-driven decisions? Traditionally, the exchange of governance information was based on manual bureaucratic processes, but this often led to challenges with efficiency. Does the information era offer better alternatives?

Led by Shri Prabhat Malik, IAS, the Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society (CHiPS) is expanding the scope of e-governance in Chhattisgarh. Their achievements highlight how modern technologies such as AI, APIs, and geographic information systems (GISs) can benefit stakeholders across the board, ultimately boosting state-wide economic development.

Standardized data sharing

Aiming to increase communication between departments, CHiPS launched Digital Dwaar. This is a centrally governed data exchange platform that standardizes all inter-department data exchange. Information can be accessed rapidly as long as the request has clearance and the target department has shared its API with the platform. With such clear protocols for requesting and sharing data, this service has allowed officials to devote less time to paperwork and more to analysis, planning, and service delivery. At the same time, the well-documented nature of the APIs has reduced technical delays, saving the costs of troubleshooting.

Consolidating state-wide information

Alongside creating a smoother flow of information across departments, CHiPS maintains the Atal Monitoring Portal (AMP). As its name implies, this dashboard consolidates all available information related to state governance and visualizes it in a single digital location. 

The dashboard operates as follows. First, it accepts scheme-wise data from each participating department, at both the State and District levels. This data can come from either direct API-based synchronization or Excel uploads. Next, the platform uses data wrangling, built on MySQL, to validate, quality-check, and transform the data into standard formats. Finally, it presents the information in the form of interactive visualizations and AI-powered reports on a multilingual interface. 

The AMP is actively used in all 33 districts of Chhattisgarh, covering 193 schemes and >729 key performance indicators (KPIs) at all levels. Importantly, it includes data from poorer regions, such as tribal and rural districts, as well as from areas affected by Naxalism and Left-Wing Extremism. Its use has resulted in a 40% reduction in data processing  time and 30% increase in data accuracy, directly supporting 2000+ government officials and bringing the benefits of crucial government schemes to ~3 crore citizens.

Land Record Digitization

CHiPS’s next initiative, the Geo-Referencing and Digitization of Cadastral Maps of Chhattisgarh, follows the theme of standardization. Prior to its implementation, Chhattisgarh’s official digital maps lacked a common geo-referenced framework. This meant there were several discrepancies between recorded and actual ground positions for several geographic features, especially in remote regions. 

Aiming to improve operating efficiency, CHiPS reviewed and restructured existing land datasets into standard formats for a common geographic information system (GIS). Using high-resolution satellite imagery and differential GPS, they fixed discrepancies between real and recorded land boundaries, cutting the number of disputes, across all 33 districts. This has also allowed faster land-related service delivery for 1.5-2 crore landowners and other stakeholders. Additionally, it has streamlined the land acquisition process for government projects.

Greater efficiency in litigation

Information related to court cases tends to be scattered across sources, leading to delays, low accountability, and difficulty in tracking. Noting this, CHiPS built a Court Case Monitoring System (CCMS), a single, authoritative platform leveraging cloud infrastructure and API-based integrations to digitize government litigation data. This platform offers an interactive dashboard and automated notifications to help users with clearance follow cases of interest.  

Its 8,000-10,000 beneficiaries include not only state departments and legal/administrative staff — who can perform their duties 30–40% faster — but also citizens, who experience a more timely resolution of government litigation. The first of its kind, the CCMS plays a key role in reducing adverse court orders and avoidable financial liabilities for the State.

Increasing ease of doing business

While the abovementioned initiatives all indirectly benefit private citizens, CHiPS’s cloud-based Single Window System (SWS) focuses directly on businesses. Investors, entrepreneurs, and MSMEs are often slowed by manual procedures for business approvals, registrations, and incentives. In the absence of a central mechanism to monitor application timelines, these entities may experience systemic inefficiencies. To solve this, the SWS uses two-way APIs to integrate with various commercial services (e.g., related to PAN or GST). The portal also contains an AI chatbot that reduces processing times, as well as using automated, trackable workflows. 

The benefits have been considerable—reducing approval timelines for registrations, incentives, and certificates by 30–50%; reducing business compliance costs by 25–40%; and reducing grievances by >30%. 

* **

CHiPS’s initiatives in the realm of e-governance highlight the utility of technology in working with State data. Their success can be augmented by further investment in digital infrastructure, partnerships with research institutions, and integration within national API and other technological frameworks. Meanwhile, states aiming to improve transparency, efficiency, and public trust may well benefit from expanding similar digitization projects.