19/08/2026
eGovernments Foundation participated in the National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM) Industry Consultation Workshop, convened by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) to help shape the next phase of National Urban Digital Mission NUDM_NIUA.
Our association with NUDM dates back to the Mission’s initial phase. Launched in February 2021 on the principles of the National Urban Innovation Stack, it leveraged eGov’s DIGIT as the base platform, along with nine open-source, interoperable and microservices-based reference applications.
At the workshop, Viraj Tyagi, CEO of eGov Foundation, joined the plenary to reflect on eGov’s journey of contributing to shared digital infrastructure for the urban sector. The distinguished panel included Mr. Satendra Singh (Secretary, Department of Urban Development, MoHUA), Mr. Manish Sinha (CEO Office, GSTN), Ms. Usha Padhee (ACS, Govt. of Odisha), Mr. Praveer Kumar (JS, MoHUA), Mr. Manish Srivastava (CEO, ARF) and Ms. Debolina Kundu (Director, NIUA).
Eight years ago, around 450 cities had some form of digital service. Today, 3,000+ Urban Local Bodies are adopting the UPYOG platform. This journey has unlocked a wider ecosystem of innovation for states to improve public service delivery beyond municipal services as well. Because of the open interoperable architecture, many states like Odisha, Punjab, Kerala, and others have built new services across sectors like sanitation, livelihoods, rural services, etc., and have enabled interdepartmental linkages on the shared digital rails.
Viraj highlighted few key priorities for the next phase of NUDM:
Reducing friction in accessing high-fidelity data for AI and better decision-making.
Creating more structured ways for State-level innovations to travel quickly across States.
Making adoption easier through familiar channels such as WhatsApp and simple voice-based interfaces.
Enabling climate change related interventions on shared digital rails to make cities more resilient.
The workshop included three round-table discussions focused on UPYOG’s technical architecture, AI and citizen-centric innovation, and implementation approaches across States and Union Territories.
Across the discussions, a few themes emerged consistently: citizen outcomes must remain the test of technology; states need a small common core on which they can build; strong data foundations must come before AI; adoption pathways must reflect differences between States and ULBs; and institutional capacity, governance, and predictable funding will determine the Mission’s long-term sustainability.
Building on the foundations of NUDM, the Ministry’s forward looking vision for a unified urban stack was articulated by JS, NUDM, which will aim to create a common digital backbone for cities.