NeSDA Way Forward December 2025 Report Tracks India’s Digital Governance Progress
SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure | SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities | SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) | Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) | NITI Aayog
The December 2025 National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) Way Forward report for States/UTs indicates a significant expansion in India’s digital governance, with a total of 24,090 e-services now provided across all States and Union Territories. This represents a growth of 156 new services in a single month. The Local Governance & Utility Services sector remains the most digitally active, accounting for 8,656 services, followed by social welfare and finance.
Mandatory Service Saturation and Group Performance
A core objective of the NeSDA framework is the saturation of 59 mandatory e-services across all administrative units.
Saturation Milestones: The national saturation rate for these mandatory services has exceeded 80%, with 1,714 out of 2,124 identified services now available online.
Leading States: 21 States and UTs, including Karnataka, Kerala, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh, have achieved 100% saturation.
State Volume: In terms of total e-service volume, Karnataka leads nationally with 2,102 services, followed by Madhya Pradesh (1,752) and Tamil Nadu (1,634).
Unified Service Delivery Portals and Benchmarking
DARPG is actively promoting Unified Service Delivery Portals to provide a single-window interface for all citizen interactions.
Portal Integration: Six states/UTs, including J&K (e-UNNAT), Karnataka (Seva Sindhu), and Assam (Sewa Setu), have achieved 100% service integration through their unified portals.
AAKLAN Benchmarking: The AAKLAN tool (Automated Assessment of Government Websites) evaluated 34 unified portals on parameters like accessibility, security, and interactivity. Top performers include Saral Haryana and Goa Online for their innovative design and user experience.
Municipal Best Practices: The report highlights city-level digital transformations in Puducherry and Guwahati, emphasizing that local bodies are now the primary frontier for digital urban governance.
Policy Relevance
The continued expansion of e-services highlights a structural shift toward faceless and paperless governance, significantly reducing the need for physical visits and human intervention in public services.
Entitlement and Equity: The objective to promote suo-moto delivery ensures that benefits are allocated based on actual socio-economic status, reducing “inclusion errors” and ensuring equitable growth.
Accountability through Data: Tools like AAKLAN and the NeSDA Dashboard provide objective, real-time rankings that drive competitive federalism, encouraging states to improve their digital infrastructure to match top performers.
Decentralized Digitalization: Highlighting municipal portals like Puducherry and Guwahati signifies a policy focus on the “last mile,” ensuring that municipal services like property tax and licensing are as digitally mature as state-level certificates.
What is NeSDA? The National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) is a strategic benchmarking framework launched by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) in 2019. It systematically evaluates the effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of digital services provided by State Governments, Union Territories, and Central Ministries in India.
Core Objectives
Benchmarking: Evaluates and ranks the performance of diverse administrative bodies in delivering digital services.
Digital Transformation: Encourages the systematic improvement of e-governance infrastructure across various sectors.
Citizen-Centricity: Enhances transparency and ease of use to improve the end-user experience for all citizens.
Assessment Parameters
NeSDA evaluates portals based on a rigorous seven-parameter framework:
Accessibility: Ensuring portals are usable by everyone, including persons with disabilities.
Content Availability: Maintaining relevant, up-to-date, and accurate information.
Ease of Use: Providing user-friendly interfaces and intuitive navigation.
Information Security & Privacy: Safeguarding user data and ensuring secure transactions.
End Service Delivery: Measuring the actual efficiency of delivering a service to completion.
Integrated Service Delivery: Assessing how well services are linked across different departments.
Status Request & Tracking: Providing the ability for citizens to monitor their application progress in real-time.
Sectoral Focus
The framework monitors progress across seven high-impact sectors:
Tourism and Environment.
Education and Labour & Employment.
Finance and Social Welfare (including Agriculture, Health, and Home Security).
Local Governance & Utility Services.
Impact and “Way Forward”
To maintain continuous momentum between biennial assessments, the NeSDA Way Forward PMU was established to monitor monthly progress. This initiative uses real-time dashboards and monthly reports to help States and UTs identify bottlenecks, adopt best practices, and prepare for higher rankings in the national assessment. These efforts have been pivotal in driving the adoption of Unified Service Delivery Portals, enabling a seamless “single-window” experience for the public.
Follow the full report here: NeSDA Way Forward Monthly Report for States/UTs (December 2025)