Aurangabad in Maharashtra, is all set to host the two-day 14th National Conference on e-Governance from tomorrow. The conference is aimed at creating awareness about the opportunities offered by Information and Communication Technology for the economic and social development in rural India. The conference will be inaugurated by Governor of Maharashtra Mr.K.Shankarnarayanan. Chief Minister of the state Mr. Prithviraj Chavan and Union Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs Mr. V. Narayansami will be among the dignitaries, who will grace the occasion. Identification of priorities, mechanisms for cooperation between all stake holders, capacity building initiatives and conceptualization of IT strategies would be discussed with its focus on the use of information technology in agriculture.The conference aspires for a transparent, efficient and effective government to deliver citizen centric services through the use of IT.Over 600 delegates from across the country including policy makers, experts and activists would be attending the two-day conclave being organized jointly by the Central government’s Department of Administrative Reforms and Department of Information Technology and the state government’s directorate of information technology.The secretaries of various departments concerned, the social activists like Aruna Roy and the experts from the field including Prof M S Swaminathan and Azim Premji are also expected to attend the meet.The theme of this year’s Conference is ‘Rural e-Service Delivery Status and Challenges’ which aims at understanding the introduction and penetration of e-Governance in rural India and providing ICT solutions to improve the delivery and accessibility of e-Services.During the inaugural session, National Awards for e-Governance 2010-11 in seven categories are to be distributed to the winners. The awards in Gold, Silver and Bronze will be given to 22 organisations.