Health Ministry discontinues Paper Greetings, switches to eGreetings

With the aim to reduce use of paper and give a boost to digital initiatives of the Government and topromote a contemporary and eco-friendly method of sending greetings, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has decided to goforward with eGreetingsinstead of paper-based greetings starting this festive season. In a circular issued today, the Health Ministry has advised its staff to send festival greetings in the form of eGreetings. Further, the Ministry has also said that it will not entertain any request for printing of season’s greeting card. The eGreetings can be sent through the eGreetings portal of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology developed as part of the “Digital India” initiative.

The eGreeting portal created by DeitY and NIC allows users to select and send greetings from multiple occasion-specific templates. Government Departments can also customize the greetings by adding tag-lines and messages related to their programmes and schemes. The portal includes greetings for various occasions, including days of national importance. The portal also addresses eGreetingsof the specific needs of government organizations. For instance, specific templates can be created for National Science Day, Women’s Day, various health days, as well as for national campaigns. Each department can create its own greetings and slogans to connect with their employees, colleagues and stakeholders. The designs and templates of the greetings are being crowd sourced. The portal is also open to use by all citizens. This would promote greater interaction and participation of citizens in the process of creative work for the government as well as dissemination of information pertaining to subjects of national importance.

The portal is also open to all citizens for sending eGreetings to their family and friends. Users can access the portal using the link http://egreetings.india.gov.in.