Union Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Dr. Jitendra Singh on Monday, 13 July declared that India is entering the next phase of governance transformation, with artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and digital public infrastructure at its core. Speaking at the inauguration of the two-day National Conference on Next Generation Administrative and e-Governance Reforms in Shillong, he said the country's administrative architecture is being rebuilt around citizen-centric service delivery and AI-enabled platforms.

Key Developments at the Shillong Conference

The conference, jointly organised by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) and the Government of Meghalaya, brought together administrators and policymakers to chart the roadmap for next-generation governance. Dr. Singh highlighted a decade of path-breaking administrative reforms, including the removal of nearly 2,000 obsolete rules, and stressed that future reforms must embed AI, digital public infrastructure, and robust cybersecurity frameworks into every layer of governance.

Digital India's Scale: Numbers That Define a Decade

The minister cited a series of figures that underscore the depth of India's digital transformation. More than 56 crore Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar-enabled service delivery, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) have, according to Dr. Singh, fundamentally redefined the relationship between citizens and the state. UPI now processes over 18 billion transactions every month, positioning India as a global leader in digital payments — a benchmark few nations have matched at comparable scale.

CPGRAMS: From 2 Lakh to 25 Lakh Grievances Annually

One of the conference's focal points was the transformation of the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS), which DARPG has developed into one of the world's largest technology-enabled grievance platforms. Annual grievances registered on the platform have surged from around 2 lakh in 2014 to nearly 25 lakh today — a more than tenfold increase that reflects both wider digital access and growing citizen confidence in the system. The platform is now supported by AI-powered multilingual chatbot services, though Dr. Singh noted that a human interface is retained at the final stage of grievance disposal to ensure both efficiency and empathy.

Special Campaign Frees Space, Generates ₹4,000 Crore

Dr. Singh also highlighted the nationwide Special Campaign for Disposal of Pending Matters and Cleanliness, which has generated over ₹4,000 crore through the scientific disposal of scrap and obsolete materials. The drive has freed nearly 700 lakh square feet of government office space — a logistical achievement that signals a broader shift from administrative bloat toward leaner, more responsive governance. This comes amid a wider push by the Centre to move from a regulatory posture to one of facilitation, placing citizens at the centre of policymaking.

What Comes Next

The two-day conference in Shillong is expected to produce a set of recommendations on integrating AI and digital platforms into state and district-level administration. As India scales its digital infrastructure, the challenge ahead lies in ensuring that the gains in transaction volume and grievance redressal translate into measurable improvements in last-mile service delivery — particularly for citizens outside major urban centres.