The Maharashtra authorities has mandated that each one its staff use the indigenously developed Sandes cell app for official communication. The transfer goals to boost the security and safety of presidency operations and enhance the flexibility to detect any misuse.
Launched by the Nationwide Informatics Centre (NIC) in 2021, Sandes is an prompt messaging platform much like WhatsApp. It helps varied types of communication for anybody with a cell quantity or e mail tackle. As a part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat marketing campaign beneath the Digital India programme, Sandes is managed by the Authorities of India and is at present utilised by central authorities officers in addition to over 200 authorities organisations throughout totally different states. It is usually built-in into greater than 350 e-governance functions for sending messages, instructions, and OTPs.
The Maharashtra authorities has instructed all departments to obtain and full the ‘organisation onboarding’ varieties from the Sandes official web site and coordinate with Sandes system directors after submitting the required data.
Based on the Basic Administration Division (GAD) of Maharashtra, the Sandes app may be tailor-made to satisfy authorities wants. “The appliance affords options much like these of WhatsApp, corresponding to group formation, focused messaging, emojis, and receipt notifications confirming message supply and studying,” stated a GAD official. Moreover, Sandes permits for messages to be marked as non-shareable.
The official emphasised that authorities directions are clear: Sandes is for use completely for official communications. “The transition to Sandes was anticipated for a while. The choice to discontinue the usage of different personal messaging functions was within the pipeline, and all departments have been directed to make use of solely Sandes for official functions,” the official added.
The idea of a safe communication community for presidency staff has been beneath improvement for a number of years, with its implementation being expedited through the Covid-19 pandemic.
