Sandeep Ahlawat, head of the Department of Information Technology’s State e-Governance Mission Team (SeMT), is responsible for overseeing the functioning of the SeMT team comprising professionals from the domains of programme management, finance, technology, change management, etc.

The SeMT team provides consultancy and advisory services to the government for encouraging the use of telecom and information technology as an effective tool to deliver e-governance services to citizens. Talking about his team’s mandate, Ahlawat says, “Under the National e-Governance Plan formulated in 2006, SeMT is working towards making government services accessible to the common man through common service delivery outlets. The emphasis is on delivering e-governance services in an efficient and transparent manner, at an affordable cost.”

The government is making major investments to upgrade and create additional infrastructure for delivering e-governance services. However, to extend the benefits of technology to users through e-governance programmes, the government needs to re-engineer its existing processes. “Mere introduction of technology will not make an impact on the lives of citizens. There is a need to initiate legislative changes to enhance the scope of existing acts pertaining to different departments.”

Ahlawat adds that there is an urgent need to establish a single-window system to integrate the departmental databases at the back end. Further, all the departments need to be sensitised about the benefits they and citizens can derive through the adoption of telecom and IT tools.

Ahlawat started his career as a software engineer with the Regional Computer Centre, Chandigarh. In 2008, he moved to the Department of Information Technology, Delhi government, and spearheaded its IT/e-governance programmes. Thereafter, he was deputed as head, State e-Governance Team, Delhi.

Ahlawat’s most memorable project till date is the e-governance initiatives taken for the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. These include setting up the Delhi statewide area network, coming up with e-procurement, e-SLA, commercial taxes and the excise SCM system for Delhi, etc. “I enjoyed implementing the e-SLA project the most,” he says.

Time away from work is usually spent with his wife and two girls. Ahlawat unwinds by reading. He also enjoys jogging, swimming and playing badminton.