The Bhutanese Leading the way.
According to the Department of Information Technology and Telecom (DITT) under the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC), almost all the components under the Digital Drukyul Flagship has been impacted by the current pandemic situation, and projects requiring physical presence, like face-to-face training with practical sessions, consultation meetings, stringing of fiber network, and setting up of equipment on the ground are impacted the most.
However, wherever possible, DITT has explored and tried their best to carry out the activities through the online mode.
A total of 125,987 Biometric Data has been collected from 11 dzongkhags in the phase I collection as of 24 February 2022.
Currently, the collection in 5 out of 11 dzongkhags namely Thimphu, Punakha, Wangdue, Pemaghatshel and Chukha are kept on-hold. On the other hand, the development of NDI solution is progressing well. Internal Proof of Concept (POC) and prototyping of solution is being carried out.
The Pilot I solution package is expected to be ready by August 2022.
Another key project under the Digital Drukyul Flagship is connecting around 1,084(target for 12th FYP) key government offices to the fiber-backbone Government Network, which includes over 590 plus schools.
The Head of Application Management Division under DITT, Sonam Penjor, said that the department is racing with time to connect all schools by the coming academic session.
“So far we have connected approximately 400 schools,” he said.
The Biometric Data collected, as part of this program, will allow individuals to link their identities to their digital avatars, allowing individual to securely authenticate applicants identities, which will open up a slew of new possibilities on how the government can provide services to citizens.
Digital Identity is one of the main results focused under the main Digital Drukyul Flagship Program of Nu 2.557 billion, as the fund also covers the institutionalizing e-Patient information system, creating digital schools, integrating e-Business services (business licensing and single window for trade), land records, tax information, among other, with the use of digital ID. One can have bank transactions or even sign up contracts remotely, to state a few components that the program encapsulates.
