NeVA digital legislature push: 33 states, UTs sign MoUs, 21 Houses go paperless
Synopsis
33 of India's 37 State and UT Legislatures have signed on to the National e-Vidhan Application, with 21 already fully digital — but 4 remain unsigned, and NITI Aayog's own mid-term review flags that adoption depth, not just sign-on numbers, is the real measure of success.
Key Takeaways
33 out of 37 State/UT Legislatures have signed MoUs for the National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) as of 27 July .
21 Legislative Houses have been fully transformed into digital legislatures under the NeVA project.
The two Houses of Parliament are outside the scope of NeVA; the project covers only state and UT legislatures.
NITI Aayog 's mid-term evaluation confirmed reduced paper usage, improved workflows, and enhanced inter-departmental coordination.
NeVA has been migrated to NIC MeghRaj 2.0 cloud infrastructure; integration with BHASHINI enables multilingual access.
4 State/UT Legislatures are yet to sign MoUs; no deadline has been announced for full coverage.
A total of 33 out of 37 State and Union Territory Legislatures have signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) for the implementation of the National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA), Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs L. Murugan informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday, 27 July. Of these, 21 Legislative Houses have already been fully transformed into digital legislatures under the project.
Key Developments
Responding to a question in the Upper House, MoS Murugan clarified that the digitalisation of the two Houses of Parliament falls outside the scope of the NeVA project. The initiative is focused exclusively on state and UT legislatures, covering the electronic processing of House business, dissemination of legislative documents, and real-time public access to legislative information.
Murugan highlighted that NeVA has measurably reduced dependence on paper-based procedures, cut costs related to printing, handling, and document storage, and enabled faster processing of legislative business across participating legislatures.
NITI Aayog Mid-Term Evaluation
NITI Aayog has conducted a mid-term evaluation of the NeVA project. The evaluation report found that the platform has reduced paper usage, improved legislative workflows, and enhanced coordination among legislatures and government departments. It also noted that the NeVA public portal provides real-time access to legislative documents — a significant step toward transparency in state-level governance.
The report further observed that capacity-building measures, including the establishment of NeVA Seva Kendras, have supported platform adoption by providing technical assistance and training to stakeholders across participating legislatures.
Technology Upgrades and Cybersecurity
On the infrastructure front, the NeVA application has been migrated to the secure NIC MeghRaj 2.0 cloud platform to strengthen cybersecurity. Integration with BHASHINI has enabled text-to-text translation of public portal content, improving linguistic accessibility for users across India's diverse linguistic landscape.
The application is designed as a device-agnostic platform, ensuring interoperability across devices. Role-based dashboards and workflow-based electronic processing facilitate coordination among Members, Secretariat staff of Legislatures, and Government Departments. The application is upgraded periodically based on user feedback and operational requirements.
What This Means for Legislative Functioning
The NeVA initiative represents one of the more substantive e-governance pushes at the sub-national level, targeting the often-overlooked operational backbone of state legislatures. With 4 State/UT Legislatures yet to sign MoUs, full national coverage remains a work in progress. The Centre has not indicated a deadline for achieving complete sign-on from the remaining legislatures.
As digital governance becomes a stated priority, the pace at which the remaining legislatures join — and the depth of adoption among those already on board — will determine whether NeVA delivers systemic change or remains a platform underutilised by its intended users.
Point of View
While broadly positive, does not publish granular utilisation data, which makes it difficult to assess whether legislators and secretariat staff are actually using the platform or merely coexisting with it. The exclusion of Parliament itself from NeVA's scope is also a quiet contradiction: the Centre is digitising state legislatures while the two Houses at the apex of the legislative hierarchy operate on separate, legacy frameworks. That gap deserves more scrutiny than it typically receives.
NationPress
27 Jul 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA)?
NeVA is a central government initiative to digitise the functioning of State and Union Territory Legislatures in India. It enables electronic processing of legislative business, reduces paper usage, and provides real-time public access to legislative documents through a dedicated portal.
How many states have signed MoUs for NeVA?
As of 27 July, 33 out of 37 State and UT Legislatures have signed MoUs for NeVA implementation. Of these, 21 Legislative Houses have been fully transformed into digital legislatures under the project.
Are the two Houses of Parliament covered under NeVA?
No. MoS L. Murugan clarified in the Rajya Sabha that the digitalisation of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is outside the scope of the NeVA project, which covers only state and UT legislatures.
What did NITI Aayog's evaluation of NeVA find?
NITI Aayog's mid-term evaluation found that NeVA has reduced paper usage, improved legislative workflows, and enhanced coordination between legislatures and government departments. It also noted the positive role of NeVA Seva Kendras in supporting platform adoption through training and technical assistance.
What technology upgrades has NeVA undergone?
NeVA has been migrated to the NIC MeghRaj 2.0 secure cloud infrastructure to strengthen cybersecurity. It has also been integrated with BHASHINI for text-to-text translation, making the public portal accessible in multiple Indian languages. The platform is device-agnostic and updated periodically based on user feedback.
