International Version of UMANG Application launched in selected countries

On November 23, 2020, the Union Information Technology Minister Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad launched the International version of the UMANG application. UMANG is Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance. It was launched in UK, US, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, UAE, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand. The International version was launched on the completion of three years of UMANG. It was launched in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs.

Significance

The application will help to take Indian culture to the world through its services. Also, the Common Services Centres are being integrated with the application.

Key Features of UMANG Application

The application mainly helps to avail several government services.

The application was launched under the Digital India initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. It provides integration of services such as Aadhaar and Digi locker. The application can also be used to avail several e-government services such as Employment Provident Fund Organisation services, filing Income Tax, pension, e-land records, epathshala, Crop Insurance, etc.

Integration of IMD services with UMANG

The application has IMD (Indian Meteorological Department) services. This feature will help to check weather forecast of the cities in advance. The application provides forecast of seven weather services such as rainfall information, cyclones, warnings, sunrise, humidity, sunset, etc. This helps farmers to get timely updates about weather conditions.

Achievement of the application

In the last three years application has grown immensely providing 2039 services. This includes 373 from Central departments, 1179 services of utility bill payments and 487 from state departments. There are more than 2.5 crore registered users of the application. Also, the application has crossed more than 3.7 crore downloads.

It is to be noted that in March 2020, the application had only 643 services. Currently, there are more than 2,000 services. Thus the reach of the application is growing largely indicating growth of digital e-government services and their success.

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2020