Visakhapatnam: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, Earth Sciences Dr Jitendra Singh recalled how practices tried initially in the state decades ago such as outsourcing of civic services, were later adapted in other parts of India. Delivering a keynote address at the inaugural of a two-day-long 28th National Conference on e-Governance (NCeG) in Visakhapatnam on Monday, the Union Minister praised the Andhra Pradesh government for pioneering citizen-centric innovations, ranging from real-time governance to digitised service delivery. The Minister thanked Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N Chandrababu Naidu for facilitating the organisation of the conference in Visakhapatnam and said the choice of venue was apt given the state’s tradition of pioneering governance reforms. Later in the day, Dr Jitendra Singh conferred 19 national e-Governance Awards in six different categories. The Union Minister also felicitated winners of the online hackathon on Data-Driven Innovation for Citizen Grievance Redressal and announced the launch of the 2026 awards scheme.