National E-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA): 2019

Policy Update

Ravirala Lahari

Background

By the late 2010s, states and Union Territories were putting hundreds of services online, but there was no common yardstick to tell which ones actually worked for citizens. Thousands of government-to-citizen (G2C) and government-to-business (G2B) services moved online, a major challenge emerged: fragmentation and uneven quality. The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) filled that gap with the National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA).

It is a benchmarking framework, formulated by DARPG in 2019, to evaluate how effectively States, Union Territories and Central Ministries deliver e-services. Its core aim is to measure the depth and effectiveness of e-governance service delivery from the citizen’s perspective, and it is based on the Online Service Index of the UN E-Government Survey. The framework is customised for India’s federal structure(PIB, July 2023).

The reasoning behind it is simple. Service delivery is largely a state subject, so quality varies widely across the country. A common assessment lets states compare themselves, learn from the better performers and improve. Launched as a periodic (biennial) evaluation framework, NeSDA systematically assesses the performance of States, Union Territories (UTs), and Central Ministries in delivering digital services to citizens. It seeks to achieve this through four key objectives: establishing an objective, data-driven assessment framework, encouraging 100% online delivery of mandatory public services, transitioning from isolated departmental websites to unified and integrated service delivery platforms, and minimising human intervention, red tape and physical touchpoints while promoting suo motu, entitlement-based services. (National e-Governance Service, n.d.).

Functioning

Scope and coverage: NeSDA covers all 36 States/UTs and key Central Ministries. To keep comparisons fair, states are grouped into three categories: North-East and Hill States (11), Union Territories (7) and Remaining States (18). The assessment works at the level of States/UTs, Ministries and city portals. It does not rank individual districts, though district services reach citizens through e-District and unified portals (viji, 2024, July 11).

Evolution of the framework: The framework has widened with each cycle, as the table shows.

Edition	Sectors	Mandatory services	Parameters
NeSDA 2019	Six: Finance, Labour & Employment, Education, Local Government & Utilities, Social Welfare (incl. Agriculture & Health), Environment (incl. Fire)	53 across G2C and G2B	Seven parameters. State/UT portals were also assessed on four of them.
NeSDA 2021	Public Procurement, Home and Tourism added	56 per State/UT, 27 for Central Ministries	Same core seven, plus six progressive parameters: Open Government Data, e-Participation, alignment to IndEA, alignment to SDGs, Emerging Technologies and Cyber Resilience
NeSDA 2023	Transport and Public Grievance added	59 per State/UT, 37 for Central Ministries	Refined sets by portal type (Mentioned below)

Source: Compiled by the author from DARPG’s NeSDA Assessment Reports (2019, 2021 and 2023).

In 2023, State/UT/Ministry portals and city portals were each assessed on seven parameters: Accessibility, Content Availability, Ease of Use, Information Security & Privacy, Open Government Data, e-Participation and Leveraging Emerging Technologies. Service portals were assessed on eight: the first four above, plus End-service Delivery, Integrated Service Delivery, Status & Request Tracking and Leveraging Emerging Technologies. The 59 mandatory services per State/UT make 2,124 across 36 States/UTs. The monthly reports group services into seven focus sectors, with public grievances tracked alongside(DARPG’s NeSDA Assessment Report-2023).

The Way Forward monitoring system: A full assessment every two years leaves long gaps, so DARPG added a monthly tracking layer after the encouraging findings of NeSDA 2021. A NeSDA Way Forward Project Management Unit (PMU) now monitors progress through a dashboard where States/UTs upload their data, supported by monthly reports and regular review meetings with their nodal officers. Each report tracks three things: total e-services, mandatory e-services, and the share of services available on a single unified portal.

AAKLAN: A newer addition is AAKLAN, an automated benchmarking tool used in the monthly cycle since June 2025. It scores portals on nine parameters, including Security&Privacy, Performance, Accessibility, Branding, Integration, Mobile Responsiveness, Content, Interactivity, Navigation. It uses an Analytic Hierarchy Process-based weighting model and normalises scores to 100 so states and portal categories can be compared(Edge, 2026).

NeSDA 2025: The next full assessment is now underway. DARPG launched the NeSDA 2025 portal on 25 May 2026 at a meeting with nodal officers of Central Ministries and States/UTs. The portal serves as the national platform for data submission, verification and benchmarking(PIB, May 2026).

Performance

The monthly reports are the best guide to current performance. The latest edition is the 36th, for April 2026(as of October 2026). It records 25,484 e-services across States/UTs, with the largest share (9,140 ) in Local Governance & Utility Services, such as municipal utilities, local certificates and billing. Growth over the past year has been steady. The total number of e-services increased from 20,315 in March 2025 to 25,484 in April 2026, reflecting an addition of 5,169 services (25.44%) over the year(DARPG, April 2026).

Mandatory services have improved too. In April 2026, 1,743 of 2124 mandatory e-services were available, a saturation above 81%(approximately 81 out of every 100 mandatory services are available online). Fourteen States/UTs now provide all 59 mandatory services(100%coverage), among them Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra. 8 States/UTs, that is Maharashtra, Jammu & Kashmir, Chandigarh, West Bengal, Meghalaya, Telangana, Tripura and Punjab have achieved over 90% saturation of the 59 mandatory e-services. Some states moved quickly. Bihar went from 28 to 45 mandatory services between March 2025 and March 2026, and Chhattisgarh’s total e-services rose from 296 to 1,164 in the same period(PIB, APR 2026).

Unified portals are the other measure of progress, and here the picture is mixed. Seven portals deliver 100% of their state’s services: Sewa Setu (Assam), e-UNNAT (J&K), Seva Sindhu (Karnataka), Odisha One, MP e-Service, Apuni Sarkar (Uttarakhand) and e-Sevanam (Kerala). At the other end, Puducherry has only 7% of its services on its unified portal and Jharkhand 6%, while Lakshadweep and Mizoram have no unified portal at all (NeSDA Way Forward-2023,).

The assessment has also extended to the municipal level through city portals, ensuring that urban local bodies delivering essential utility, civic and grievance-redressal services are also evaluated for their digital service delivery. Each edition of the NeSDA reports also highlights best practices across State and municipal portals, as well as Central Government ministries and departments, showcasing initiatives that improve accessibility, service delivery and citizen engagement.

Impact: How NeSDA Shapes E-Governance

NeSDA has transformed how governments operate and how citizens experience public services:

Competitive Federalism: By ranking states and publishing monthly updates, NeSDA fosters positive competition. Lagging states actively replicate best practices from top-performing regions (e.g., J&K’s unified e-UNNAT platform, has served as a source for replication and dissemination of e-services in Manipur)(ET Government, n.d.).
Citizen-Centric Shift: It shifts the governance mindset from what the government wants to provide to what the citizen conveniently requires, minimizing corruption and discretionary delays through faceless processing.
Policy Accountability: It provides objective diagnostic data, enabling policy makers to spot structural chokepoints, plug digital leaks, and secure citizen data effectively.
Alignment with SDGs: Its emphasis on citizen-centric design, accessibility and interoperability also supports SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) by promoting transparent, accountable and inclusive public service delivery, and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) through improved digital infrastructure.

Emerging Issues

Despite the steady rise in e-services, gaps remain in how evenly, how well and how measurably they are delivered. The first gap is the Digital Divide. NeSDA data reveals significant disparities in digital service availability across States and UTs. While Karnataka offers 2,102 e-services, Lakshadweep provides only 42. Similarly, Ladakh offers just 9 of the 59 mandatory services, highlighting gaps in the availability of essential online services. While major states excel, smaller UTs, hill regions, and remote districts face digital infrastructure bottlenecks, low internet penetration, and lower digital literacy among citizens. Further, over 35% of the country’s e-services are concentrated in Local Governance and Utility Services, indicating an uneven distribution of digitisation across sectors(NeSDA Way Forward-2023,).

The second gap is in Technical performance, which remains a significant weakness in government portals. DARPG’s AAKLAN assessment (June 2025) found that all 10 assessed Northeastern and Hilly States/UTs scored only 3 out of 19.2 in Performance and Technical parameters. Similarly, all six assessed UTs recorded just 3.02 out of 19.2 in July 2025. AAKLAN assessment also identifies Interactivity and Engagement as the weakest-performing parameters, Chatbots, feedback tools and live assistance are largely missing, so citizen interaction is limited (Monthly Report for States/UTs: March 2026.). These low scores highlight shortcomings in website optimisation, loading speed and technical responsiveness, which can affect the user experience and reliability of digital service delivery.

Finally, measurement is limited. The monthly figures count services but do not capture how many people use them, how fast they are delivered or whether citizens are satisfied. The data is also self-reported by States/UTs.

Way Forward

First, states below the 50% mark(total e-services available through its identified Single Unified Service Delivery Portal) need a clear timeline and handholding to bring all services onto a single unified portal, with better-performing states mentoring the weaker ones. These portals should offer unified citizen dashboards, single sign-on and end-to-end application tracking with defined grievance-resolution timelines.

Second, portal quality should be improved through multilingual Whatsapp chatbots, feedback forms and “You Said – We Did” mechanisms. Regular performance audits, site optimisation can improve speed and reliability. GIGW 3.0 and WCAG 2.1 standards would make portals mobile-first and accessible, particularly for persons with disabilities. Periodic content audits, designated content owners and wider regional-language coverage would strengthen content governance.

Finally, assessment should move from counting services to measuring outcomes, using indicators such as usage, turnaround time and complaint resolution. Independent audits and citizen surveys should sit alongside state-reported data. Publishing parameter-wise scores and state-specific recommendations from the NeSDA 2025 cycle would let these lessons guide reforms until the next assessment.

References

DARPG launches NESDA 2025 Portal to strengthen digital Governance across India. (n.d.).https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2266244&reg=3&lang=1
DARPG releases 35th NESDA Monthly Report: India Crosses 25,000 e-Services milestone. (n.d.). https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2256516&reg=20&lang=1
Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances. (2024). NESDA – way forward: Monthly Report for States/UTs, January and February 2024. https://www.darpg.gov.in/static/uploads/2025/11/40910626b6387066be9c6c4022250a97.pdf
Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances. (2026). Monthly Report for States/UTs: NeSDA Way Forward Monthly Report, April 2026. https://www.darpg.gov.in/static/uploads/2026/06/77624a04f971c449a4c1f42041ded988.pdf
Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances. (2026a). Monthly Report for States/UTs: March 2026. https://www.darpg.gov.in/static/uploads/2026/06/fc3297e178ec90452ae1317afa9a99bb.pdf
National e-Governance Service. (n.d.). National E-Governance Service Delivery Assessment: NeSDA 2021. https://www.darpg.gov.in/static/uploads/2025/10/63b2e7da6f71f2ae167c54684e343093.pdf
National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment. (2024, July 11). E-governance. https://egovernance.vikaspedia.in/viewcontent/e-governance/national-e-governance-plan/national-e-governance-service-delivery-assessment?lgn=en
Secretary, DARPG V. Srinivas launches today the third edition of the National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) portal www.nesda.gov.in. (n.d.). https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1937792&reg=48&lang=2
Edge, P. (2026, January 8). NESDA November 2025 Report: Scaling e-Service Delivery across India. The Policy Edge. https://www.policyedge.in/p/nesda-november-2025-report-scaling
ET Government. (n.d.). NeSDA Way Forward: DARPG coordinates digital collaboration between Manipur, J&K. ETGovernment.com. https://government.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/digital-india/nesda-way-forward-darpg-coordinates-digital-collaboration-between-manipur-jk/107866684

About the Contributor

Lahari is a Public Administration and Governance postgraduate from the Central University of Karnataka, with a keen interest in Urban Governance, Public Policy, and Sustainable Development. Committed to making governance more inclusive, sustainable and having a tangible impact on citizens’ lives.

Acknowledgement

I am writing to express my sincere gratitude to IMPRI (Impact and Policy Research Institute) for providing me with the opportunity to prepare this policy update article and for fostering a rigorous learning environment that connects research with public policy practice.

Reviewed by

Aditi and Arjya

The article was posted by Mahenoor Imam, a Research and Editorial Intern at IMPRI.

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or positions of IMPRI (Impact and Policy Research Institute) or any other affiliated organisation.