Evaluation of National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA)
The National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) is a mission-mode project under the Digital India program, aimed at transforming legislative processes across India’s State and Union Territory (UT) legislatures by transitioning from paper-based to digital processes. This evaluation study, commissioned by the Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO) under NITI Aayog, will assess NeVA’s implementation and impact over a period of four months from September 2024 to January 2025, covering 23 legislative houses across 17 States and UTs in the different geographical regions of India. The study primarily aims to assess the implementation status of NeVA across different legislative houses, identify challenges, bottlenecks, and successes in the implementation of the project, examine the accessibility and user-friendliness of NeVA, evaluate the sufficiency of ICT infrastructure and human resources supporting NeVA in each State/UT, and develop recommendations for improved implementation, enhanced user interface (UI), user experience (UX), and stakeholder, particularly end-user and public engagement. The study will include facility visits to legislative houses in 17 States/UTs to document the extent of digitization and usage of NeVA by key stakeholders, such as Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLAs), Legislative Councils (MLCs), Branch personnel of the legislatures, administrative staff in Government Departments and agencies, state-level NeVA officials, and technical personnel. Additionally, the study will interview the developers of NeVA i.e. officials from the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and National Informatics Centre (NIC). The research will also explore areas for enhancement, such as the adequacy of the e-infrastructure, UI/UX improvements, and capacity-building efforts at the State/UT level. A mixed-methods research approach will be adopted in which both qualitative and quantitative research methods will be used to gather data. Data will be collected through in-depth and semi-structured Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), a brief UI/UX survey for end-users of NeVA, and a facility checklist (measuring the extent of digitization under NeVA and availability of ICT infrastructure and human resources) supplemented by secondary research of relevant project documents.