E-PAYMENT GATEWAY IN 11 INDIAN STATES BY 2012

E-governance in the country will get a shot in the arm with the Indian government’s plan to launch a single payment gateway in 11 states by March, 2012. The gateway will facilitate collection of fees for licences and other chargeable services over the internet.


Shankar Aggarwal, Additional Secretary, Deparment of Information Technology (DIT) explained that DIT had completed proof of concept with the state of Maharashtra and had a set of standard guidelines ready, which would now be replicated throughout the country. Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Goa would be the early adopters of the platform.

National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL), a central securities depository based in Mumbai, has been selected for this service. Aggarwal added that around 20 services, including those provided by both the central and state governments, will be linked to the payment platform in the next two to three months. This would help citizens make online payments without having to make the rounds of government offices.

“The idea (behind the common platform) is to ease the selection of technology vendors for states, reduce the processes and costs involved. We expect 11 states to connect their services with this platform by March, 2012,” said Aggarwal.
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