March 28, 2024

Narendra Modi govt to use Kindle, go paperless to curb leaks: Report

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Amazon-Kindle-back

 

The Narendra Modi government on Monday took another step in its mission to go paperless. In within six months, all Union Cabinet meetings will be using Kindle tablet instead of papers, Indian Express reports. The government hopes that this will — in addition to cutting down on the use of papers — will also help to stop “leakage of information.”

The Amazon Kindle will be used by ministers in meetings, and after that they will have to return it to the Cabinet Secretariat, the report adds. National Informatics Centre, the technology arm of the government has been instructed to implement the feature within six months.

The government pledges to not leave paper trails after it has switched to electronic devices. The Prime Minister’s Office believes that the move will prevent information from leaking to the media before the government gets a chance to take final decisions.

As part of the move, ministers and secretaries will receive a Kindle tablet loaded with Cabinet notes and annexures by the Cabinet Secretariat when they will arrive. The tablets are to be handed back after the meeting.

But why Kindle? One could arguably get a tablet with better reading experience. The report citing its source asserts that the NIC had done a comparative study in which the Kindle offered most sophisticated level of security. “Ease of access and absolute secrecy were the two things we evaluated all options on,” said the source.

The tablet also comes with additional security measures wherein if someone tries to copy the information using Bluetooth (or Wi-Fi) or connects it to a computer or other device via USB cable, all data in the Kindle will get erased. Andhra Pradesh government has already adopted to a similar model. However, N Chandrababu Naidu government allows ministers to use their own devices.

This isn’t the first example where government has made progress in the technological field by adapting them into their own day-to-day lives. In October, the NDA government had launched an online biometric attendance system which tracks the attendance of all government employees.

IMPORT:-BGRindia