4th anniversary issue: january 2009 issue

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ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON E-GOVERNMENTV

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4 - 6 August 2009 | India Expo Centre, Greater Noida (Delhi NCR), India

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J a n u a r y 2 0 0 9 7ov

What does ‘FOUR’ signify? There are four basic elements in our planet – fi re, water, air and earth! In mathematics four is a highly composite number! The Holy Cross is associated with the number four! Plato had propagated four virtues - wisdom, courage, self-control and justice!

But for us at egov this year, ‘FOUR’ signifi es completing four calender years of successful publishing.

Four years back, we decided to tread on a path never traveled. When we decided to embark on this path, e-Governance was at a nascent stage and even the Government of India’s National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was not formulated. It was a time when there was lot of skepticism from government and technology solutions providers about the sustainability of e-Governance. Breaking such conventional way of thinking, we moved ahead with the confi dence to create a base for ‘knowledge sharing’ and to bring to the fore front a clear picture of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the government sphere. We addressed this issue through our three verticals web portal, events and last but not the least – our monthly print magazine – ‘egov’. egov is today four years old and it is a time to celebrate and a time to retrospect our endeavour.

We still believe that this is just the beginning! And we are all geared for the long and the exciting journey ahead. We are here to witness and bring to you the transition of India into e-India.

We take this opportunity to thank all our partners, supporters, readers and our egov team whose support and dedication has made this fruitful journey possible and worthwhile.

Achieving another milestone in our journey, we will be celebrating our 50th issue this year! Watch out for GOLDEN issue in May, 2009 to celebrate this special occasion.

On that note, we wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Happy Reading!

EDITORIALPRESIDENT

Dr. M P Narayanan

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Ravi Gupta

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Editor: Ravi Gupta

Moving ahead with confi dence

volume 5 | issue 1 | January 2009

Ravi [email protected]

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Planning the Future IndiaSubas Pani, Secretary, Planning Commission, Government of India

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In Lakshadweep Everything is Unique BV Selvaraj, Administrator, Union Territory of Lakshadweep

Making e-Nagriks for e-Governance Siddharth, Principal Secretary, Department of Information

Technology, Government of West Bengal

Chhattisgarh Setting Example Aman Kumar Singh, Secretary -IT & CEO – ChiPs, Government of Chhattisgarh

Target: 100% e-Literacy Dr. Ajay Kumar, Secretary, Department of Information Technology,

Government of Kerala

PPP: Philosophy of Success Anurag Jain, Secretary, Department of Information Technology,

Government of Madhya Pradesh

Computer Literacy Boosting e-Governance B K Agarwal, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Himachal Pradesh

Tapping the Advantage of ICT Literacy Ram Muivah, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Manipur

Banking on PAWAN Narinderjit Singh, Secretary, Department of Information Technology,

Government of Punjab

Our Focus - Capacity Building Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, Commissioner cum Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Orissa

Enhancing Sustainability of CSCs Raj Kumar, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, Government of Gujarat

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CENTRAL GOVERNMENT CORNER

UT & STATE GOVERNMENT CORNER

Large State: Larger Challenges D S Srivastava, Special Secretary, Department of Information and

Technology, Government of Uttar Pradesh

Attracting investments in ITeS V S Bhaskar, Commissioner & Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Assam

Roll Outs to happen in January’ 09Ajay Mishra, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Andhra Pradesh

Quality of Services is Prime Abhishek Singh, Secretary to Governor & Secretary – Information Technology, & Technical Education, Government of Nagaland

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NeGP: An Introspection R Chandrashekhar, Special Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and IT, Government of Indiae-Districts going Strong

S Abbasi, Director, Department of Information and Technology, Government of India


Featured States & UT

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Securing Education

Helping e-Government Step Into Web 2.0

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CASE STUDY

44 Contributing to Development and Convergence Centre for Development and Advanced Computing (CDAC), Government of India

SPECIAL FEATURE

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Powergrid to Knowledgegrid Samir Chaudhury, DGM – IT, Powergrid Corporation of India Ltd.

Powering Telecom ServicesPowergrid Corporation of India Ltd.

FEATURE

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Re-Engineering and ICT Prakash Rane, Managing Director, ABM Knowledgeware Ltd.

Providing Technology Solutions to the GovernmentKaran Bajwa, Group Director – Public Sector, Microsoft India

e-Procurement made EasySumeet Bhatt, Director, NexTenders (India) Pvt. Ltd.

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CORPORATE CORNER

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Please send in your papers/articles/comments to:The Editor, egov, G-4, Sector 39, NOIDA (UP) 201 301, India.

tel: +91 120 2502180-85, fax: +91 120 2500060, email: [email protected]

egov is a monthly magazine providing a much needed platform to the voices of various stakeholders in the arena of e-Government, apart from being a repository of valuable information and meaningful discussion on issues of e-Governance in general, and eGovernment in particular -- both to the specialist and the generalist.

Contributions to egov magazine should be in the form of articles, case studies, book reviews, event reports and news related to e-Government projects and initiatives, which are of immense value for practitioners, professionals, corporates and academicians.

We would like the contributors to follow these guidelines, while submitting their material for publication.ARTICLES / CASE STUDIES should not exceed 2500 words. For book reviews and event report, the word limit is 800. AN ABSTRACT of the article/case study not exceeding 200 words should be submitted along with the article/case study.ALL ARTICLES / CASE STUDIES should provide proper references. Authors should give in writing stating that the work is new and has not been published in any form so far.BOOK REVIEWS should include details of the book like the title, name of the author(s), publisher, year of publication, price and number of pages and also send the cover photograph of the book in JPEG/TIFF (resolution 300 dpi). Book reviews of books on e-Governance related themes, published from

year 2002 onwards, are preferable. In case of website, provide the URL.MANUSCRIPTS should be typed in a standard printable font (Times New Roman 12 font size, titles in bold) and submitted either through mail or post.RELEVANT FIGURES of adequate quality (300 dpi) should be submitted in JPEG/ TIFF format.A BRIEF BIO-DATA and passport size photograph(s) of the author(s) must be enclosed.

ALL CONTRIBUTIONS ARE SUBJECT TO APPROVAL BY THE PUBLISHER.

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C E N T R A L G O V E R N M E N T C O R N E R>

Planning the Future India

Planning Commission has played a pivotal role in creating a conducive environment for e-Developmentof India as a whole. What is the road ahead?Planning Commission has an important role in the e-Governance initiatives of the country. One of the major initiatives is to monitor the release of funds and progress of expenditure. We are trying to work out a comprehensive scheme from the Controller General of Accounts, so that there is the minimum time lag between the release of funds for various ministries and actual unit where the funds are utilised. This will be monitored constantly. This is an ambitious plan and the piloting is going on for the same. We hope that it will be rolled out in the next fi nancial year. A separate dedicated team is being created for it.

The other is that for the overall programme, we are making a major initiative by assisting the state in making the overall planning and monitoring systems for all the plan and progarmmes of both the Government of India as well as the State Governments. For this we will provide number of professionals who have a background in project management in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), evaluation and Geographical Information System (GIS). Through this programme we expect that we will be able to put a GIS unit in each district

which will act as a support to the planning team. There are various other programmes for which we are releasing funds, and we are looking into the fact that how they can be converged and be complementary to one another.

Thirdly, there are various fl agship programmes such as National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sarak Yojna. For example in the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, the implementation agency is an executive engineer, in NREGA, it is the programme offi cer in the block level. The implementing agency should be enabled to use ICT in an effective manner, so that the primary data which is originating is captured directly and fed into the computer system and the data base is updated. This will compress the time and enable the planners to plan in a better way.

We have initiated ‘reality checks’ of all the 6000 blocks in the Rural Development Department. Reality checks mean the checking what are the computer systems available, whether there are trained personnels available, whether there is data connectivity, which type of data connectivity is available – mobile unit or high speed connectivity. Fibre has been laid out in large areas, but there is the problem of last mile connectivity.

We are trying to ensure that the actual 2 Mbps connection is available in the block head quarters.

“In the next one year, we would like to have high speed connectivity in 6,000 blocks and 4,000 tehsils across India”

http://www.planningcommission.nic.in

Subas PaniSecretary, Planning Commission, Government of India

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w w w . e g o v o n l i n e . n e t ov4th Anniversary Issue

Under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), we have a component where there is an initiative for providing last mile connectivity. Is your initiate a separate endeavour?Our initiative is complimentary, because the State Wide Area Network (SWAN) is being rolled out in many states. They are looking more from the point of view of Common Service Centres (CSCs). But there is a lot of urgency, because we are now trying to make payment to all benefi ciaries of NREGA directly in their respective accounts in the Post Offi ce.

This cannot be done, until the block level works is completed. Reality check means, we will check what are the gaps. The most important thing is that the physical connectivity needs to be addressed.

Under NREGA, we are also proposing that there should be a Local Area Network (LAN) in every block. We are talking about spending INR 30,000 crores on a single programme which has to reach to about 3 crore people. There has to be high quality infrastructure and high quality human resource. Under NREGA, Orissa has done a pioneering work in this respect by providing two ICT professionals in every block. We have suggested that this model should be replicated in all the other places as well.

There is a huge crunch of ICT professionals in the Government Departments of the country. How are you tacklingthis situation?All the state governments has their own recruitment policies. Some of them outsource the work, while others train their own people. Eventually, we should move to a stage where the usage of ICT should be extensive.

How do you plan to address the issue of connectivity in the government offi ces?Sometime back, when I was in the Election Commission, we made sure that every single person was trained. There are 800,000 polling stations, everybody in one way or another way is using electronic voting machines. The percolation of technology to the lowest level is extremely important. We want to mainstream it, make it pervasive and ubiquitous in very single point of actual work being done.

That would require a lot of initiative for which we have included Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the Department of Information Technology and Department of Telecommunications.

We are all working together towards this ambitious programme. In the next one years time, we would like to have high speed connectivity in 6,000 blocks, 4,000 tehsils and 10,000 units. Also in all the major buildings we would like to have a LAN connectivity for the regular work to be carried out.

You are depending on BSNL a lot, are you also looking at other service providers also?We are not depending upon BSNL. We are taking into consideration the Point of Presence (PoP) of all the operators, and wherever it is available, we will utilise it.

BSNL has already worked out a large programme and the government has also supported them by funding them. We are looking at the last mile connectivity where we are looking at the PoP. It may happen through the SWAN, or any other means. What is important is that in the block and the tehsil, the connection has to be there. What is to be done in that particular block or tehsil, depends upon the local situation there.

What is the road map for Rural Health Mission?In the health mission, we ideally want is that every Primary Health Centre (PHCs) should have connectivity. All the

fi eld units of all the major plans and programmes should be ICT enabled. It will help the programme as well as fostering economic growth and reach in helping certain services to the common people.

There should be a strong health team at the district level with ICT professionals which enable connectivity. The Chief District Medical Offi cer (CDMO) is the person running the programme at the district level. These will be the tools available to them. Our idea is that whoever is the domain person there, they should be enables to use ICT to run his programme successfully in

the ground. Personally, I feel very keen and look forward to it as a major initiative to help ICT programme monitoring.

Will India be able to continue with the current growth rate?That is for the experts to say. There are various projections and nobody can predict what will happen. It will be perhaps lower than what was being predicted. In a diffi cult situation like this, India will be reasonably doing well and will have one of the best growth rates in the world.

In light of the current global economic situation, how do you see India coming up?We are one of the fastest growing economies and our fundamentals are good. We have a very good banking sector and a reasonably good regulation which has stood the test of time. Also, the government is closely monitoring the system. Generally, all over the world, the current thinking is that the public investments should be expanded. The Planning Commission is actively working towards the same so that it provides the necessary support to the government.

Sandeep [email protected]

We are one of the fastest growing economies and our

fundamentals are good. We have a very good banking sector and a reasonably good regulation which has stood the test of time. Also, the government is closely monitoring the system”


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NeGP: An Introspection

You will be completing six years in offi ce, so in retrospect what do you think were the major roadblocks when it came to adoption of Information technology (IT) in Government, in a macro-perspective?Six years is a long time to look back, but since you have brought up the topic then I would say that the fi rst hurdle to be crossed was, for people to atleast understand as to what was the need for a national programme like National e-Governance Programme (NeGP) and how has it arisen. There was a wide spread perception that something was happening in different parts of the country. But the need for the kinds of integrations we are talking about today was not at all self-evident and much less understood at that point of time. Moreover, since there were a large number of players, ministries, governments and departments involved it did take quiet a bit of time for people to be brought together and reach a convergence on a kind of a broad framework of a national level programme.

The second hurdle was that six years back it was still not very well understood that e-Governance as an area was not a concern of only government and technology partners, but infact there were a whole lot of other stakeholders that were equally involved. You as an organisation are a prime example of a kind of stakeholder who analyzes and conveys the message to others; then there are stakeholders who benefi t from

the system outside the government; then there are stakeholders who benefi t from the system inside the government; then academic institutions like IITs and IIMs form yet another stakeholder who help study and analyze trends. Moreover, private sector as in the IT organisations were not hugely involved in e-Governance at that time.

So really spreading the word around to all the stakeholders and to arouse their interest on the one hand; and on the other hand to get their perspective on the whole issue was indeed no easy task. Thus, it took almost three years before this kind of collaborative framework could be established and the broad contours of this national level programme could be concretized. And then ofcourse the next phase was that of initiating the process of formal approval by the government which fi nally happened around May 2006. And this approval by the government gave a kind of unifying vision to the whole programme thereby truly initiating the real processes of collaboration, consultation and bringing together of all the stakeholders. But even before the fi nal approval by the government, in the last year of that phase leading to May 2006, various elements of the programme started to get clearer. Elements like the concept of shared infrastructure, the concept relating to Public Private Partnership, started to get crystallized even as the government formed a clear vision, direction and mandate. And broadly speaking this

“Amongst the states implementing e-Governance there will be some who will be leaders, others who will be trying quiet hard, and yet others who might not be able to do as good as others”

http://www.mit.gov.in

R. ChandrashekharSpecial Secretary, e-Governance, Department of IT, Ministry of Communication and IT, Government of India

NeGP: An Introspection

J a n u a r y 2 0 0 9 17ov 4th Anniversary Issue

was the phase of actually getting down to action of actually putting some of these pieces together.

So starting from 2006, i.e. after the approval by government, to may be the middle of the next year it is the phase of actually putting these individual pieces together on the ground. And in parallel with this another overlapping process which has already started is that of integrating all these pieces together to create the orchestra of a complete shared delivered services through a common shared infrastructure. And I would say that we will be seeing a lot of these services being visible on the ground, getting delivered in an integrated manner over the next two to three years.

You started from scratch and as you said it took you two to three years to build up the agenda and develop a framework, it must have been a hard process. So which was harder, to sell NeGP to your seniors including the political parties in power; or was it harder to sell it to your colleagues, juniors and other public partners? I don’t think I was selling at all, infact it will be presumptuous enough to think that I had something which I was trying to sell, it was not at all so. The task that I had was to try and understand all the dimensions and try and put them together, and also keep distilling out whatever was common. So, it was really about trying to understand the perspectives, which infact had many advantages accrued to it. First advantage was that each one of the collaborative partners, no matter which walk of life they came from had some idea about e-Governance. But as the discussions proceeded I think everyone’s ideas got moderated and modifi ed by what other people had to say. Another advantage was that it made people look closely at what they wanted out of the process and what they could get out of the process.

As a result of which the understanding of each player of their own roles became perhaps clearer. And since the benefi t of that consensus and collaboration was visible, all the players were ready to go ahead with the process and the programme. For instance let us take the example of inside the government, it took some time for various departments to realize that they were better off riding on a common programme because than atleast some parts they will get already readymade, rather than trying to manage an entire programme on ones own. Anyways there was an absolute limitation on the kind of progress that a single entity could achieve on its own, from the perspective of a citizen. So for various departments even within the government the benefi ts of the collaboration became more evident and advantageous. Therefore I think this sort of arrangement has been really helpful for all partners involved.

Rather than asking about the intended consequences, I want to ask you about the unintended consequences of both positive and the negative kinds that you encountered in developing this whole NeGP programme over the past six years?If we look at some of the intended positive consequences then I think that fi rst and foremost the kind of collaboration that became necessary among the various stakeholders had a very positive outcome. Infact all of us ended with a

greater degree of respect for what the other agencies were bringing to the table. There was also the realization that in today’s world as more and more number of parties joined the collaboration, the collaboration went on becoming stronger; but for the collaboration to work the framework needs to be clear to all parties involved. Everyone collaborates because they expect to get something and contribute something to the collaboration. And even if one does not get into the rigid calculation of whether I get more than I give, as long as everyone is contributing as well as getting something out of it the collaboration should work well.

Other positive consequence of the whole programme was the development of concepts, like this concept of shared infrastructure, external support from other agencies, and piggybacking on the efforts of others, which not only made different parts of this programme more cost effective, but also effective in terms of achieving the end-results. Moreover the programme was able to generate a lot of passion amongst different people and that energy was very important in a national programme of such giant proportion.

Some of the un-indented but not un-anticipated consequences of the programme was that there was a gross mismatch between the pace at which real progress could be achieved and the pace at which expectations increased. So a lot of effort had to go, on the one hand, in not allowing the feeling to grow that expectations are not being met or that things were not moving, and on the other hand to generate quick wins where people could see the tangible benefi ts of some of what was happening; even today it is a constant battle, so there needs to be a constant balance between the short term, middle term, and the long term goals as well as benefi ts as we go forward.

The entire Information and Communication Technology (ICT) space has grammatically changed in terms of tool, technology and the cost involved in the last six to seven years. So in your view, if you had to start this National e-Governance Programme (NeGP) from scratch now in this changed scenario, would you do anything differently, be it in terms of technology, economy or partnership? Obviously if we were planning step one of the NeGP programme in today’s environment, things would have been very different because any plan has to take into consideration not only where we are in terms of evolution but also the environment in which the programme is being planned out. But since there was a detailed consultation process combined with long sessions of discussion even when we had started six years ago, so in my view all the reasonable perspective did bubble up to the top and got adopted. Yes, one perspective is that one perhaps could have used higher degree of force, force as in more mandated approach, more implementation-oriented approach, with lesser emphasis on discussion, deliberation, consensus and collaboration. And it is possible, that it could have led to a speedier implementation, but it is also possible that it could have led to larger mistakes. So I think there was a certain amount of trade-off in terms of the speed in the approach which was been taken up based on consensus and collaboration, but it also helped to get better abiding and thus avoid bigger errors.

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There is a growing awareness about e-Governance which has increased drastically in the last fi ve years amongst various government offi cials at all levels. But the feeling still persists that at the ground level, especially in the case of state government offi cials through whom most of the public interface happens, there the transformation using ICT is not as fast as one was expecting. So what is that one factor which can induce wider adoption of ICT at very-very basic fundamental level like that of state, so that various states can very soon claim for themselves the status of fully ICT enabled states of India?I would say there are two very broad approaches or perspectives towards citizen-centric e-Governance, one is the inside-out view which is looking at the supply side of the e-Governance and at how quickly you can e-enable the systems and processes inside the government to make available the services. And a typical example of this nature is the MCA-21 programme which is an end-to-end e-governance projects which has on the supply side made available the service to the corporates side.

But there also exists an outside-in view which is the way the citizen will interact with the development. And given the situation, for a very long time the inside-out view was the only view available because unless the service is e-enabled from inside nothing would be available outside. But as the common front-end infrastructure base is coming into picture, like CSCs through which all physical services would be made available, SWAN which networks these services, and SDCs which house these services; so eventually even if we adopt outside-in view, this shared infrastructure is going to be used. Hence once this infrastructure is in place, even the outside-in approach is possible where you can e-enable the systems from outside and then work towards e-enabling them on the inside progressively. And as has been observed, it turns out that it is possible to show dramatic improvement on the outside-in path fairly quickly and then include the back-end system which takes time. So while this process of e-enabling of the front end of a system does not provide true e-Governance but combined with proper shared infrastructure and proper middle-ware, it does provide the advantage of making available atleast 50 to 60 percent of the benefi ts of services under e-governance straight away to the common- man in rural areas for a very wide spectrum of services, and that too very quickly. And this is the exciting phase we are entering now, which will take maybe another six months to get fully functional.

Even in your last avatar in the state government in Andhra Pradesh you have played an important role in initiating processes towards an IT-led Government. And now you are again playing a similar role at the centre. So how is it different now when you have such a broad framework, in comparison to the earlier situation at the state government where you had a barren land to start with?Yes that comparison is clearly demarcated. The obvious advantage of having a baron land then at the state level was that of having to deal with no constraints, which allowed one to think both out-of-the-box and absolutely fresh. But otherwise it was very diffi cult to make any progress at that

point of time because then the level of growth of the IT capability within the country was not as good as it is today; even the level of maturity of IT tools and capabilities was not as great; moreover the interest of other stake-holders who in my view bring an important value to the table was just not there. So, it was then largely based on thoughts and efforts of a few individuals and a lot of the learning was also by trial and error which was not only a little expensive but also very slow.

Today the environment is much more conducive and the employees are also not threatened by Information and Communication Technology (ICT), so the receptivity towards any ICT based programme is much higher. And also with a broader framework in place one not only has a sense of what one needs to do internally but also of the externalities that one can depend upon.

In your view what are the inherent natural advantages and disadvantages that India has over other countries when it comes to implementing and adopting Information Technology (IT) in the government and in the country as a whole?India surely has many inherent natural advantages, some obvious others not so obvious. There are disadvantages too but advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

So, let me start with advantages. First and the most obvious advantage is that India has a very vibrant IT sector which has enormous depth. And speaking clearly from the perspective of e-Governance we also have the advantage of some turmoil in the global market as a result of which the entire attention has turned towards domestic markets. And in terms of Human Resource (HR), India is the provider of skilled HR to the world, so in today’s environment most of these HR capabilities can be tapped to take the e-Governance agenda forward which is not the case in any other country. Another not so obvious advantage is that we are late starters in e-Governance, as a result of which we do not have a lot of legacy, legacy in terms of back-end as well as non-standard applications. This puts us in a very good position to take maximal advantage from the learnings coming from implementation in our own country as well as learn to from the experiences and failures of the other countries.

From the point of view of disadvantages in light of the NeGP, it is essential to reconcile the tight structured programmatic compulsion imperative with the decentralized, disperse, dissipated decision-making structures of the government.

Ravi Gupta, Editor-in-Chief, egov in Conversation with R. Chandrashekhar

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Moreover, in my view language is not as big a challenge as it is made out to be because language is needed only at the front-end. Another big constraint is the lack of highly-skilled inter-disciplinary manpower, which understands the area of e-Governance in terms of technology, process, project-management, organisational-behaviour and handling public-private partnership. There are also constraints in terms of people who are responsible for certain domains not being able to reconcile their domain route with the types of extra skill required to lead such projects in order to manage the whole transition to a technology based organisation from a essentially manual structure. And also in order to change these processes which the government has followed for centuries, it needs certain entrepreneurial manpower employed within the government itself to take the initiative.

The IT spending of government has been very low. Do you think that a fi nancial regulatory reform making it mandatory for all central and sate government to spend a certain part of their budgetary allocation on Information Technology (IT) would work better than the current approach based on discussion, consensus and collaboration?Personally I am not in favour of the mandated force based approach due to certain reasons. I also think that there are many alternative approaches available which are being currently used, and are proving out to be quiet effective.

Let me start by why I was against that kind of an approach, it is mainly because mandated-force based approach is rooted in an era where it was believed that the mere induction of technology would improve effi ciency. Second problem with this approach is that for the government in the budgetary system once money is used as a yardstick, there is always an emphasis on expenditure alone. While in the short term this kind of approach may be benefi cial for the business, but in the long run this kind of an approach is detrimental for both government and businesses because no democratic government can sustain expenditure for a long time without any visible benefi ts being made available to the people. And NeGP is very clearly based on outcomes and value for the investments that are being made.

There can be another approach to implementing these mega projects like NeGP, which is the one being currently followed by the government. This approach rather than emphasizing on budgetary expenditure necessitates that these mega programmes need to be implemented in e-Governance mode such that the entire supporting system becomes e-Governance enabled. Infact, when the cabinet approved the NeGP it also mandated that all the major fl agship programmes should be implemented in this mode. Herein in this approach money-spending and the percentage of spending become consequence rather than the cause of the decision, and thus I think this is the right approach to take forward.

How has the role of private sector evolved in the last ten years especially in the domain of e-Governance? And how do you think it will be further shaping up in the future?I think the role of the private sector has evolved a lot in the span of these fi ve years. Ten years ago the sole focus of private

sector was towards the international market. Moreover at that time Indian government also did not know how to procure Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in a meaningful way because besides hardware, procurement of intangible products like softwares, consultation was still not well understood within the government spheres. So the net result of an outward looking industry combined with a government which was not appreciative of these nuances of the private players, was that private sector did not look at e-Governance in any signifi cant way. There was some interest amongst smaller industries towards e-Governance, maybe because they could not afford to look at international market, so they looked at government to provide some kind of opportunity. But on the whole the aspirations of the private sector was out of sync with government’s own requirements, because government required a certain minimum level of back-up and sustained support from the organisation. So with regards to both big and small private sector companies, there was a big mismatch between the expectations of the government and these private players. But over a period of time,not only has the government matured but also the private sector has become more stable and also more mature. Moreover with the movement of these private companies higher on the value chain, development of an understanding amongst them about the nuances of the government has signifi cantly increased. Also the recent downturn in the market has forced the private sector to look inwards. Moreover even the government in accordance with the need and imperatives of e-governance programme has increased its spending. Hence a combination of these developments has changed the entire scenario, such that now government and private-sectors are working together successfully in a lot of projects in the domain of e-Governance as well.

In the next fi ve years what are the further developments we can expect to witness on the horizons of the e-Governance scenario in India?If one is looking for measurement tool, then in the area of e-Governance there are two yardsticks which will provide a clear distinct assessment of e-Governance projects. First yardstick is that of the percentage of services which have been e-enabled. And second yardstick is that of percentage of people who have an access to these services. I think these two percentages form a very good indicators of the amount of progress that has been made in deep-seated areas like literacy, e-literacy and other infrastructural problems.

And the dream is to see that over the next three years atleast 50% of the services should be e-enabled and atleast 80% of the people should have access to these services. And then over the next fi ve years we will progressively e-enable all back-end services as well as end-to-end services. And as always, amongst the states implementing this e-governance there will be some who will leaders, others who will be trying quiet hard, and yet others who might not be able to do as good as others. So broadly this is the stratifi cation for the categorization of the states planning to adopt and implement e-Governance in my fi nal analysis.

Ravi [email protected]


C O R P O R A T E C O R N E R>

Re-Engineering and ICT

What is the core competence of ABM Knowledgeware in the space of e-Government ? e-Government is truly visible in the form of time-bound service delivery to citizens in a more effi cient and transparent manner. ABM has been operating in this niche area of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabling citizen and consumer services for over a decade. ABM has provided these solutions necessarily by blending government Process Re-engineering and ICT. As on date we have over 150 Citizen/consumer Facilitation Centres (CFCs)- A single window for citizen services running in India. These CFCs are delivering end to end G2C and G2B service covering almost 150 different citizen services (G2C) touching day to day lives of the citizens. Approximately, 65 lakh citizen services were delivered through our e-Governance solutions last year.

Can you tell us about your e-Government project carried out a Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM)?ABM in Consortium with SAP has implemented e-Government solution for MCGM which covers almost 70 percent of the functions of MCGM. The solution is a combination of SAP and software solutions designed/developed by ABM for Property Tax and Water Billing.

MCGM has over 3500 IT users and 200 locations connected on a state-of-the art data centre. After successful implementation, ABM is now responsible for managing the entire software system of MCGM for the next 3 years. ABM manages the software setup which handles more than INR 22,000 crore worth fi nancial transactions per year in addition to all the citizen services in MCGM. This project stands out as an exemplary e-Governance project not only in India but in the Asia Pacifi c region as well.

Can you tell us about your e-Government project carried out at Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Corporation (KDMC) as well as about ‘Setu’ in Maharashtra?The e-Government solution designed and developed by ABM for Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Corporation (KDMC) has a distinction of winning all the possible awards at different levels like Industry Associations, State Government, Central Government, International bodies for innovation.

ABM’s KDMC solution is a perfect tool for creating e-Governed municipal corporation. It is recently adopted by Government of Maharashtra for roll out in all 200+ Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in Maharashtra. It provides around 100 citizen services, G2C and G2B, across the counter by carrying our integrated computerisation of vital departments.

“Proper implementation of our Property Tax software has capability to fund the entire e-Government budgets of that ULB, including long duration hand holding support”

http://www.abmindia.com

Prakash RaneManaging Director, ABM Knowledgeware Ltd.

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like Double Entry Accounting, Property/Water Tax, Licence, Birth/Death registrations and Town Planning.

This solution also has the distinction of being one of the 3 short listed e-Government solutions by Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), Government of India for empanelment under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

The KDMC solution has already been adopted by several ULBs so far. This solution provides a cost effective and proven option for computerisation of a municipal corporation by meeting the JNNURM guidelines laid down by MoUD GoI for e-Government. Our project like ‘Setu’ in Thane Collectorate was a pioneering initiative of citizen centric e-Government which was subsequently rolled out by state government across the state. It is important to note that most of our implementations have resulted into concrete tangible as well as intangible benefi ts to our customers for improved revenue and citizen services

How have your solutions helped in bridging the digital divide that exists in India? I had the opportunity to study e-Governance implementations in different parts of the world. Most of these implementations have the fundamental objective ‘removing intermediaries’ between government and citizens. The e-Government framework is used to replace the intermediaries. It is achieved by delivering service on the web by avoiding the visits of the citizens to government offi ces.

But India cannot follow this model of Dis-Intermediation due to the digital divide prevailing in the country. India needs to make e-Governance more ‘inclusive’. Most of the citizens in India do not have the access or ability to use Personal Computers (PC) or Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) to access the e-Government framework. On the contrary there is a need to ‘Re-intermediate’ in Indian e-Government framework. It is necessary to introduce a layer in the e-Government framework which makes it possible for citizens without IT literacy to access the government services. Hence, ABM decided to introduce the Citizen Facilitation Centres as mentioned above where the citizens can walk – in and take end to end service using the friendly staff deputed on CFCs to assist citizens. They do not have to possess the PCs or ability to access computerised citizen services .

Due to process re-engineering the touch points for the availing citizen services within ULBs have been reduced substantially for each of the service. In many cases it is reduced to single touch point at the CFC.

As a result of the combination of walk-in CFCs, reduced touch points and government process re-engineering our e-Governance solutions provide the benefi ts of “inclusive” interaction of the citizenry with govt bodies. This will surely percolate into the system, ultimately resulting into participation of citizens into governance when appropriate use/analysis of the data is carried out.

What are the challenges in expediting the e-Government initiative in India?There are several challenges in achieving expeditious roll out of e-Government projects in an inclusive manner. The sheer size

of government machinery which needs to undergo mindset change, extremely wide geographical coverage required to reach the masses, some uniformity of outcome based e-Government initiative in states covering their subjects, easy and inexpensive access for delivering and seeking government services, effective Internet policy, security of government data and transactions, privacy of personal data, viability of maintenance and upgradation and so on.

Government also has the challenge to choose any of the two between ‘scalability, security and functionality’ of e-Government framework, as it is diffi cult to have all the three at a time.

One of relatively underplayed challenge is that of availability of proven software solutions which provide expeditious e-Government services without compromising on the credibility of the government services. There are some examples in India where the over emphasis on the fast delivery of services have proved to be counter productive to the very purpose of governance.

The 1 lakh kiosks scheme of Government of India may face the challenge of providing end to end e-government services due to scarce availability of proven e-Government solutions. In the ULB perspective proper implementation of our Property Tax software has capability to fund the entire e-Government budgets of that ULB, including long duration hand holding support.

Indian IT industry has seen very few private sector companies like ABM, which are working exclusively in the area of providing e-Government solutions. Can you briefl y tell us about your growth?ABM has grown over 600 percent in terms of revenues and human assets in the last 5 years. We are the winner of the prestigious ‘Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India 2008’ and ‘Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacifi c 2008’. This acknowledges our speed of growth as a technology company not only in India but also in Asia Pacifi c region.

Our solutions for ULB have won international recognitions in addition to acceptance at state and central government level. ABM was adjudged as the ‘Best Technical e-Government Organisation’ by a committee consisting of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi and Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MoICT) in 2006.

We have the unique accomplishment of having several sustained e-Government projects even after change of champions which are delivering value year after year to our patrons.

Our own solutions in the areas of ULBs, utilities have been standardised by progressive states in India. We have added a new practice of providing change management support to government customers after implementation of SAP which we feel would be one of the important niche areas for us which is unmatched by any competitors. Today, ABM is placed as the most competent e-Government solution provider for any size of Municipal Corporation in India with enviable track record.

Nilakshi [email protected]


The U.S. Department of Education (ED) was created in 1980 by combining offi ces from

several federal agencies. ED’s 4,200 employees and $68.6 billion budget are concentrated on the promotion of student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness through the use of quality education programs. The department is responsible for establishing policies on federal fi nancial aid relating to education, and the distribution and monitoring of those funds. ED also is chartered with collecting data on America’s schools, disseminating education-related research fi ndings, and ensuring that an appropriate nationwide focus is maintained on key educational issues. The department’s elementary and secondary programs serve more than 14,000 school districts and approximately 56 million students attending approximately 97,000 public schools and 28,000 private schools. Department programs also provide grant, loan, and work-study assistance to about 11 million post-secondary students.

BY PRESIDENTIAL DECREE

The Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 (HSPD-12) was signed in August of 2004, mandating stringent identity verifi cation and authentication checks for all federal employees and contractors. Winona Varnon, director of security services at the U.S. Department of Education, elaborated, “The directive involves validating that a person is who they say they are before they are granted permission to enter a federal building or access federally controlled information systems. HSPD-12 contains very specifi c requirements for the process of personal identity verifi cation (PIV). It

involves a smart card-a “PIV card”-with embedded biometric data, including both facial images and fi ngerprints, and PKI-based digital certifi cates obtained from an approved Shared Service Provider public key infrastructure (SSP PKI).” She continued, “We performed extensive market research to determine who would be our PKI provider and issuer of our smart cards. We selected VeriSign after thoroughly reviewing and vetting over 20 companies. We were impressed that VeriSign had the longest history and the best reputation for being a solid provider of PKI solutions. In addition, we were very pleased with the company’s obviously excellent track record of working with both federal and private entities.”

FEDERAL AGENCY TURNS TO VERISIGN FOR MISSION-CRITICAL SERVICES

VeriSign Shared Service Provider PKI Service is built upon a proven, hosted PKI platform with the high reliability, scalability, and availability needed for

federal agency mission-critical SSP PKI services. To enable these agencies to deploy a low cost, robust solution for complying with specifi c Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), VeriSign provides a SSP PKI service and a complementary Card Management System (CMS), MyID PIV for VeriSign, for the personalization and management of PIV smart cards. Both VeriSign SSP PKI Service and MyID PIV for VeriSign are on the GSA Approved Products List for FIPS 201-certifi ed products and services. The feature-rich VeriSign SSP PKI Service provides SSP PKI capabilities and functionality, including a Registration Authority (RA), key management, repository, all necessary archive services, and a dedicated federal agency Certifi cation Authority (CA). Additionally, VeriSign SSP PKI Service contains a responder service based on Online Certifi cate Status Protocol (OCSP). By selecting VeriSign SSP PKI Service, federal agencies are able to take full advantage

C A S E S T U D Y

Securing EducationSecuring EducationVeriSign’s solutions provided effi cient budget monitoring system for US department of education

24 } w w w . e g o v o n l i n e . n e t ov4th Anniversary Issue

of VeriSign’s highly available and scalable PKI platform to help ensure the availability and integrity of their core SSP PKI services. The VeriSign solution utilizes a global repository service, and can be seamlessly integrated into existing federal agency enterprise directories for storage and retrieval of digital certifi cates. Audit policies and procedures support the most rigorous compliance requirements. A full suite of disaster recovery capabilities is provided through geographically distributed back-up datacenters with a dedicated secure link to mirror all transactions in the event of a failure with a primary agency SSP PKI CA. MyID PIV for VeriSign was certifi ed by the GSA in 2006, making VeriSign the fi rst vendor to receive certifi cation using FIPS 201 compliant certifi cates. By adopting a wholly standards-based approach, the U.S. Department of Education was more quickly and cost-effectively able to implement a proven HSPD-12 solution, saving tax payers’ money.

VERISIGN’S POWERFUL COMBINATION OF PKI SERVICES

My ID PIV for VeriSign is integrated with VeriSign SSP PKI Service. Together they offer numerous and fl exible deployment alternatives, with custom tailored features and workfl ow options for meeting FIPS 201 requirements. The solution integrates user enrollment, document capture, biometric capture, card production, credentialing, and printing within a strictly role-separated application suite. Varnon recalled, “As a result of VeriSign’s industry leadership in PKI and related identity protection solutions, it is well positioned to provide support to the other vendors engaged by the department to deliver products and services in support of HSPD-12 compliance-so we purchased 30 days worth of VeriSign Professional Services. VeriSign’s unique ability to leverage established relationships with other GSA approved HSPD-12 vendors to achieve near seamless product integration provided the necessary experience and leadership the department needed in accomplishing such a complex undertaking. The implementation went extremely smoothly. We have since issued approximately 1,800 cards and we’re ahead of schedule, by September

1st 2008 we will have issued a total of 5,200 cards.”

As part of HSPD-12, the U.S. Department of Education performs a stringent series of verifi cations on each individual application, including corroboration of supplied statements, confi rmation of physical characteristics, and a detailed national agency background check (incorporating employment, criminal, and military verifi cations, where relevant). All verifi ed information is entered into the enrollment application, and sent electronically to the security management system where

it is substantiated once again by an ED employee. At this point, the entire record is sent to MyID PIV for VeriSign prior to creation of the physical smart card. Once claimed by the applicant, a fi nal fi ngerprint match is performed and a 6-digit PIN is assigned prior to the issue of a certifi cate against the approved smart card. PKI digital certifi cates are fully hosted through managed services provided through VeriSign SSP PKI Service. “The VeriSign Professional Services Organization’s unique ability to partner with the Department of Education in the review, evaluation, implementation and compliance with the myriad of requirements identifi ed in all related National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) documentation as well as FIPS 201 is directly proportionate to the success achieved here at the Department,” Varnon stated. “From the outset, VeriSign was able to leverage best-of-breed industry experience with PKI

and integrate it with a comprehensive understanding of the government’s objectives to help accelerate the project timeline. VeriSign’s offering of VeriSign SSP PKI Service, MyID PIV for VeriSign, and related key management capabilities, with VeriSign Professional Services resulted in us being able to focus on those elements and aspects of the solution where the department’s in-house skills and competencies would be most benefi cial.”

BENEFITS ABOUND

Varnon explained some of the benefi ts she experienced, “We see great advantages from having implemented a common security credential that will become interoperable across multiple government tiers-if an individual has a validated smart card, then any federal agency has the ability to access the shared services bridge for PKI-based digital certifi cates and validate that this person really is who they say they are. By utilizing the VeriSign solution, we have great fl exibility for the future, and are well positioned to handle upcoming federal mandates with the minimum of fuss. I also feel confi dent that the smart card is extremely diffi cult to tamper with, or to use in an inappropriate manner. A great by-product of this initiative is that it has forced every agency to reevaluate all existing personal identity validation related data-we’ve been able to start with an entire database of clean, accurate, and current data.” She concluded, “VeriSign SSP PKI Service has achieved full Authority to Operate (ATO) and is fully certifi ed and accredited by GSA. VeriSign’s ATO status was a signifi cant contributing factor to the department’s recent achievement of full ATO compliance with all aspects of the Department of Education HSPD-12 solution.

I would absolutely recommend VeriSign-it goes above and beyond to make sure we are completely satisfi ed. Without any doubts this is a superior PKI solution and one that is unmatched by any other vendor or government-managed service offering that I know of. I feel very secure that this is the best product on the market-so secure, that I have bet my career and the success of ED’s ability to comply with HSPD-12 on it!”

By utilizing the VeriSign solution,

we have great fl exibility for the future, and are well positioned to handle upcoming federal mandates with the minimum of fuss”

Winona VarnonDirector of security services,

U.S. Department of Education

The Indian economy has been growing at over 9% continuously over the last 3 years. IT spend in the public sector has grown from $1.4 billion in 2005 to $2.9 billion showing a growth of 19.6% beating even China's 14.6%. The context today is rapidly changing with the urban citizen becoming tech savy, and the Government adopting IT to manage services delivery, increase efficiency and reduce costs. e-Governance thrives on robust applications; the very character and soul of all government run services, and when it comes to IT implementation, it is the public sector and government which offers the greatest challenges and pushes the limits of what can be demanded of technology. When we look at the scale of government structures, departments, and public sector bodies operating within the context of a billion plus population, the complexity is baffling.

How can IT be leveraged to meet these challenges?

egov magazine takes a look at what really are some of the key IT solutions in the context of government owned processes and services. How can they help improve efficiency, manage cost, and increase ROI? Sify Technologies offers a range of applications and solutions. In this cover story we look at how these solutions map with the key challenges in the Government context. We also look at some case studies of already implemented solutions across sectors.

Leveraging technology to meet large scale citizen-facing functions on the internet (web applications)

Seamlessly managing the vast communication needs and enabling co-ordination between numerous stakeholders (communication and collaboration)

Managing citizen-facing processes that involve high volumes of documents and data in an efficient way (document and data management)

Streamlining internal processes for adequate and suitable staffing within the government and in government managed initiatives (skill assessment and learning)

Some of the key priorities that gain prominence in the government / public sector are:

Sify offers a range of robust applications and services that enable such processes to be managed efficiently and seamlessly.

Application services

Learning management solutions

Online assessment and certification

E learning content

Human Capital Knowledge Management Management

Document management

Digitization services

Enterprise content management

Customer Lifecycle Management

Unified Collaboration & Communication

Basic mail service

Unified communication

Value added services

Anti- spam solution

Bulk mailing solution

FORUM – Forward supply chain

Sales Force Automation (SFA)

Search engine optimization

Document Management Solution

Whether it is passport application processing, or ration card and PAN related document management, or even the massive piles of legal documents in the system at any given time, one of the most critical challenges the government faces today is the need for simplified and manageable document processing, storage and retrieval. The cost, time, and efficiency implications cannot be over-emphasized.

Sify's document management solution is a multi-user generic system which encompasses imaging, scanning modules and a document manager. The solution enables customized document profiles, and facilitates extensive access control and security. Electronic imaging is faster and more economical than data-entry or any other conventional method and the document image archiving technique is 10 times faster than conventional methods, and can reduce costs by 75%.

Technology Applications – The mind and Soul of e-Governance

The e-Governance context

Government to citizen G2C

Government to employeeG2E

Government to Government

G2G

Government to Business

G2B

G2X or G2S

G2S = stakeholder

Government to Citizen G2C

Government to EmployeeG2E

Government to Government

G2G

Government to Business

G2B

Government toStakeholder G2X

?Integrated communication enabling traceability, quick response, information access on the move

?Data and document management for easy maintenance, archiving and retrieval

?Customized applications and web interface for citizen / employee facing functions including web services and intranets

?Accurate, reliable, scalable skill assessment process with pre-assessment learning support and post assessment certification

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?

?

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Case StudyThe Customer:

One of India's leading retail financial services companies with over 135 offices across 95 cities. The company offers a full range of financial services and products, ranging from equities to insurance, and also offers a variety of loans. Customers are offered 24/7 access to all information and products.

Enterprise Application

ServicesEAS

Integrated Technology

services ITS

Software as a service

SaaS … XaaS

Networking and

Connectivity

Data Center Services

Managed Security Services

MSS

E governance services portfolio

The Challenge:

Sify's Solution:

Inefficiencies from managing massive volumes of documents for personal loan processing - loan application forms, agreements, income proof, ID proof, residence proof, bank statements etc.

Document loss or damage during transit from branch to head office

Cumbersome, repeated document retrieval process

High operating costs and admin overheads

Delays in loan processing

Deployment of batch scanning and document management solution - Sify's DocImage - a multi-user, enterprise-wide document management system which runs batch scanning after loan account numbers are generated.

The application numbers are auto-extracted using the loan file which includes the application form and supporting documents. The file is indexed on the application number and the loan account number is fetched by Sify DocImage dynamically from the Loan Management System.

Key Benefits:

Improved productivity and process control through simple web interface

Faster retrieval of e-documents and images

Scalability – ability to store and manage millions of documents on multiple servers across the network

Increased system security through user and group access control

Seamless digitization from scanning to storage, archival, and retrieval

Low Cost of Ownership

E Learning:

Learning Management

Online Assessment & Certification:

The Customer:

Sify’s custom courseware development, content digitization, high end simulations and blended learning solutions enable learners to internalize, retain and apply knowledge more effectively.

Sify brings a winning combination of training expertise, business acumen, and industry knowledge to every customer engagement, building a comprehensive interactive, online learning environment. Our e-learning delivery is flexible and scalable, ensuring consistent learning regardless of organization structure, locations, and audience.

Sify had pioneered in the deployment of its online examination engine-Sify iTest for its clients for conducting the online assessment tests. The software application is developed by Sify and has already been used by large academic institutions on a national scale.

A professional body of Banks and Financial Institutions licensed under the provisions of the Indian Companies Act with 650 institutional members and over 2.5 lakh individual members.

Case Study

The Challenge:

Sify's Solution:

Effectively manage the assessment exam for over 50,000 financial professionals in various subjects and complete the process within a short time across over 65 cities

Ensure accuracy and integrity in the process while also managing Time, cost, and effort. Typically, printing of question papers and courier of answer sheets for evaluation account for huge costs

Create a tamper proof system by ensuring proper candidate identity, security of the exam content and enabling an audit mechanism

Sify's offered a comprehensive solution that encompassed

Core online assessment engine

Pre-assessment processes including candidate ID card generation and secure upload of question bank on its servers

Conduct and invigilation of exam across its nationwide academic test centres with complete operational support

A central monitoring team for overall process management and call center support on the exam day

Post-exam results generation

The documents are arranged and made ready for scanning. Size, sides of document and scanning machine are factored in

Scanned docs are checked for quality to ensure clarity, orientation and detail. Sequencing check for double-sided documents is also done

The documents are indexed with appropriate key words. This aids in retrieval of documents. Indexing can be done on multiple parameters

The docs that are indexed are uploaded into the DMS. Here the access rights to the documents are set

Scan

Verify

Index

Upload

LMS (Learning Management Solution) and Assessment

Sify's Integrated Learning and Assessment Solutions include

Skill assessment in the government context poses challenges from achieving scale and accuracy, to data management and logistics. Every component of the assessment process has to be managed on a massive scale. For instance, about 6 lakh people took the Civil services exams, and about 5 lakh took the NDA test in 2007. The host of other assessment programs include the National Talent Search exams, Public sector banking exams, Railway Recruitment Board exam etc. In this cycle, skill assessment, pre-assessment learning management and post assessment certification become critical components. Sify has already demonstrated its ability to leverage technology for large scale skill assessment and learning.

E learning

Learning Management System

Online Assessment and Certification

Examination process

Generate candidate list and upload question bank into database

List centers and generate admit card

Candidates visit test centers to take exam

Dual authentication - test administrator and candidate

login to begin the exam session

Instruction page is displayed to the candidates and sample test is shown

Main question paper is displayedafter randomisation on

candidate PC

Candidates fill responses and submit

Instant assessment by software for pre-defined

pattern of questions

Secure access to assessment panel for manual

assessment

Report generation

Key Benefits

Web Application Development

Ability to manage high volume initiatives effectively

Scalable model with the ability to conduct assessment across 70 cities, in 700 test centers, for over 70,000 participants with over 20,000 candidates being tested on a single day

High security for handling question paper – encrypted channel for question bank upload to Sify server, restricted access, complete logs, and reports

Simple exam process for candidates

Unlike packaged software, business need/ design issues are addressed prior to software development. Custom applications are therefore “custom” ized to user “application” or needs.

With vast experience of building more than 1,400 websites in areas such portal operations, developing online business communities, eCommerce, web hosting, website maintenance, digital certification, and other internet services, Sify offers the industry's most complete solutions under one roof. Combining strong technology and internet services expertise with domain knowledge of key industry sectors, Sify web services has developed several industry-specific applications addressing critical eBusiness needs of its clients.

SLEMS:

HMC:

Antispam solutions:

The Customer:

Sify's Linux Enterprise Mailing Solutions(SLEMS) is a robust messaging solution that runs on a distributed architecture and can support any number of users. It is completely standard complaint supporting mailing protocols including POP/IMAP/SMTP/ODMR and LDAP.

Offers feature rich, efficient access to e-mail, calendars, attachments, contacts, and more on multiple devices enabling staff to have real time access while on the move.

On an average, an employee spends 20 minutes a day in clearing spam mails. Sify's Antispam solutions prevent email address harvesting from a website, while preserving the ease of use and flexibility of standard e-mail links. Sify’s Antispam solutions block 80% of spam at the gateway and reduce bandwidth cost to that extent.

A large insurance firm offering a range of innovative products to individuals and group customers at more than 600 locations through its bank partners and company-owned offices. The company has over 32,000 financial advisors across the country.

Case Study

Sify's services in this space include:

Messaging & Collaboration

Sify's Messaging Solutions include:

Web application development

Portal operations

Developing online business communities

eCommerce

Web hosting

Website maintenance

Digital certification and other Internet services

Sify leverages the full potential of up-to-date technology platforms including Open Source, NET, PHP or LAMP and delivers applications for high performance and ROI.

One of the key challenges is managing communication between stakeholders - within departments, between different departments, Government to Citizen, Government to Corporate, and Government to Government. Essentially, the challenge is managing the vast volume of communication, ensuring traceability, improving response time, and enabling information access while on the move.

Sify Linux Enterprise Mailing Solutions (SLEMS)

Hosted Messaging and Collaboration (HMC)

Antispam solutions

With a combination of robust infrastructure, strategic partnerships and professional services built into the solution, Sify is geared to:

Ensure high availability and scalability of an organisation

messaging environment

Improve mail security

Offer scalability for optimum resource utilization

Enable communication backup and archival

Ensure information access on the go

The Challenge:

Sify's Solution:

Key Benefits:

SaaS: Making Software Accessible for the Government What really is Software as a Service (SaaS)?

The SaaS … XaaS: perspective

Enable easy communication access for over 18,000 insurance agents through a robust mailing system

Reduce infrastructure cost and at the same time achieve scalability and offer agents round the clock support

Sify's comprehensive solution included:

A complete mailing solution with licenses and assets (hardware, software and operating system) so the customer does not incur capital expense for set up

Customizable solution with frequent software upgrades

3 levels of technical support with response/resolution time and web based tracking

Hosting of the entire mailing system in a level 3 data center with value added services like intrusion detection system, firewall support, and constant monitoring

Easy deployment

Ability to scale up at short notice

High availability

Move from Capex to Opex model

Low license cost and high ROI

One-stop integrated solution

When an application is hosted on the service provider's servers and offered as a service on the internet, rather than a shrink-wrapped product, it enables the customer to eliminate the need to install and run the application on the customer's own infrastructure. This in turn removes from the picture the burden of high software ownership cost, software maintenance, high capital expenditure and software support. The concept now affords a highly versatile delivery model in diverse forms.

Software - SaaS

Hardware - HaaS

Platform – PaaS

Infrastructure - IaaS

Storage as a Service

The range of services are supported by all major OEM(s) – Original Equipment Manufacturers. Sify has the relationships in place, the domain expertise, the technology depth and the versatility to offer almost all of its applications in a pay-per-use hosted model enabling customers to avail services in the simplest, most effective manner.

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Sify is among the largest Managed Enterprise and Consumer Internet Services companies in India, offering end-to-end solutions with a comprehensive range of products delivered over a common telecom data network infrastructure reaching 500+ cities and towns in India.

A significant part of the company's revenue is derived from Corporate Services, which include corporate connectivity, network and communications solutions, security, network management services, enterprise applications and hosting. Sify is recognized as an ISO 9001:2000 certified service provider for network operations, data center operations and customer support, and for provisioning of VPNs, Internet bandwidth, VoIP solutions and integrated security solutions, and ISO 27001 certified for Internet Data Center operations. Sify has licenses to operate NLD (National Long Distance) and ILD (International Long Distance) services and offers VoIP back haul to long distance subscriber telephony services. The company is India's first enterprise managed services provider to launch a Security Operations Center (SOC) to deliver managed security services. A host of blue chip customers use Sify's corporate service offerings.

Consumer services include broadband home access, dial up connectivity and the e-port cyber café chain across 180 cities and towns. Sify.com the consumer portal of Sify has sub portals like www.samachar.com, www.walletwatch.com, www.sifymax.com and www.chennailive.in, www.bangalorelive.in, www.mumbailive.in, www.hyderabadlive.in the city based live video on the web. The content is available in 5 Indian languages, which include Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Tamil.

For more information about Sify visit www.sifycorp.com

SaaS is most suited for G2G and government internal processes

The SaaS advantage in government

Ease and convenience of adoption

Adoption of best practices across departments

Availability of best practices and application solutions at hosting level

Adoption by other departments through subscription

Access to customisable and configurable solutions in a dynamic environment

Secure, stable and scalable multi-tier platform

Institutionalisation of implementation (champion independent)

Manageability and maintainability - optimal combination of people, processes, and tools & technology

100% cost effective

Low/no cost of experimentation

Built-in de-risk model

Capex to Opex

SLA based delivery of services - managed services implementation model

Built-in continuous update and upgrade of techno-functional requirements/ features & facilities

Why SaaS is relevant in the government context?

Core infrastructure investment

Different departments adopting different solutions (applications, tools, and technologies) for pretty much the same/ similar requirements

Time and cost in conceptualisation, development, deployment, rollout, and maintenance of horizontal applications

Availability of skilled manpower

?Surveillance?Citizen Database

with digital identification

?e-learning framework and engine

?Tele-medicine framework

?Helpdesk platform/ framework

?Department Portals

?e-procurement?File Tracking system?Green sheet (DMS)

?HRMS and Payroll?Accounting and Budgeting?Project Monitoring engine

?Workflow based Office ?Visitor management?Digitisation

?Messaging & Collaboration?Web Conf and VoIP?RTI?Assessment Engine?KM (Knowledge Mgmt)

framework

Other applications

SaaS…XaaSutilities

Horizontal applications


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U T G O V E R N M E N T C O R N E R>

In Lakshadweep Everything is Unique

The Lakshadweep administration plans to introduce an ambitious Universal State Wide Area Network (USWAN) for digitally interconnecting each and every government offi ce in the territory which will be fi rst of its kind in the country. Kindly elaborate upon such plans and the possible roll out of the projects. The Union Territory (UT) of Lakshadweep is a group of islands, out of which ten are inhabited and randomly scattered in the India Ocean. Geographical isolation has hampered the developmental programmes in this territory over the years. Proper connectivity - both physical as well as in terms of communication are a high priority as islands are cut off from the main mother country. We aim that all these islands will be connected with the implementation of Universal State Wide Area Network (U-SWAN). There are around 230 subordinate offi ces in various islands of the UT of Lakshadweep. There will be at least 45-50 nodes in an offi ce. Altogether, 9,900 to 11,000 desktops will be connected/networked at a time, leading to a mega Wide Area Network which will have a much larger bandwidth.

The functioning of most citizen centric e-Governance projects such as Total Digitization of Employment

Services, Medicine and Appliances Stock and Cargo Movement System, the “EverAlert”, Electricity Consumer Management System and Advanced Ship Ticket Reservation System (Portnet) will be more smooth as more bandwidth speed will be available at Kavaratti. There will be a bandwidth of 16 Mbps in Kavaratti, Head Quarters and 4 Mbps each in Minicoy and at Agathi (the remotest, southern most islands), the gateway of Lakshadweep. The remaining islands will have a speed of 2 Mbps. Many other e-Governance plans are on the anvil, which will be launched once the U-SWAN is implemented / executed.

Can you tell us about the hurdles faced while rolling out video conferencing in the government departments of Lakshadweep? The main hurdle which we are still confronting is the non-availability of required bandwidth. The sole Internet Service Provider in Lakshadweep is Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL). Their existing capability does not support the required bandwidth for the web-based programmes. This narrow bandwidth affects our Video Conferencing and we aspire for better bandwidth with the launch of the U-SWAN. The U-SWAN will defi nitely be the panacea for these disconnected islands of Lakshadweep.

http://www.lakshdemo3.nic.in

“We have adopted VSAT technology due to problems with the availability of bandwidth from BSNL”

B V Selvaraj Administrator, Union Territory of Lakshadweep

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You have a digitally integrated Electricity Department which is connected through NICNET-VSAT. What are the benefi ts of such technology over others? We have adopted VSAT technology due to problems with the availability of bandwidth. When BSNL was not able to provide us the minimum required bandwidth, we had to go ahead with the VSAT technology, considering the peculiar geographical situation prevailed over this territory. Minimum level of stabilised and reliable connectivity is made available with VSAT over NICNET of the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

Lakshadweep is the fi rst Union Territory in India to fully digitise its employment exchange. Tell us how did your administration achieved such a feat?The Total Digitization of Employment Services is a good relief to the people of Lakshadweep. The one and only Employment Exchange in this territory is situated at Kavaratti. Earlier people had to come to Kavaratti for mere registration and for appending any training or higher educational qualifi cation which required a lot of traveling. Now, with the digitisation process, there is no chaotic queue in front of the Exchange which was a common and unavoidable scene in earlier days.

This was possible with the bold decision taken from the apex authority and consistent efforts, without relenting to any tactics. The project entailed re-entering of all the details of Live Register in the Exchange which consisted of around 15,000 candidates with varied qualifi cations and types of details.

The Sub Divisional Offi cer/Deputy Collector in all the islands, except Kavaratti, is designated as Additional Employment Offi cer in their respective jurisdiction island with powers of issue of registration cards against the registrants and adding newly acquired educational qualifi cation creating other 9 Virtual Employment Exchanges without any additional manpower. All these offi ces have been provided with adequate ICT tools for this purpose. The entire staff for this project in all the islands have been trained properly.

Now a native of Lakshadweep can register his / her name with the Employment Exchange of Lakshadweep from any part of the world. This has been a great relief for the youths of Lakshadweep who pursue their education in various parts of the country. This initiative has brought transparency in the system.

The islands and islets of Lakshadweep are interconnected through web enabled ship ticket reservation and booking system (PORTNET). How successful and popular is this system amongst the masses and is there a possibility of replicating in other states as well?

The web enabled ship ticket reservation and booking system (PORTNET) has immensely helped the entire population of Lakshadweep. Shipping is the lifeline of the ethnic people of Lakshadweep.

PORTNET has made it possible for them to plan their journey among the islands as well as to the mainland, which was once unimaginable. The students who study in the other parts of the country can come home without much diffi culty as they can book their ship tickets through advanced reservation system.

The information on ship schedules, berths and cabins availability in all the ships plying in Lakshadweep waters is provided on the website which can be accessed from any where.

Ship ticket advance reservation counters are also available in all the islands as well as in Kochi, Kozhikode and Mangalore. We are also considering e-Payment for ticket booking to further ease the services. However, entry into Lakshadweep islands is restricted and it is possible only when permission is granted by the concerned authority. Therefore, considering such sensitive reasons, e-Payment for obtaining ship tickets to Lakshadweep has been kept on hold.

How far is the political will responsible for the success of e-Governance initiatives in Lakshadweep?Lakshadweep is a UT without legislation. However, the leaders of all political entities have taken us into confi dence and took all the initiatives forward.

In the light of the given framework of e-Governance in the Indian plains and the islands; do you think the challenges are different in the two areas?Here, in Lakshadweep everything is unique. The peculiar geographical isolation of the UT has its uniqueness in all walks

of life. This isolation really is a challenge for any activity in Lakshadweep where everything becomes a challenge. Execution of work is really tough owing to this peculiar isolation which can be bridged with cautious and judicious planning. Without proper and reliable connectivity, development in Lakshadweep is not wise to envisage.

The most ambitious plan of USWAN will be a solution for the digital integration of islands with the provision of the right bandwidth. With much optimism, we took up the ICT initiatives and are able to derive the benefi ts to the citizens.

All deliverables from each project should reach the unreached which is the main moral and prime theme of all the premium e-Governance initiatives implemented in this remotest territory of the country.

Sandeep Budki and Nilakshi [email protected]

• A bandwidth of 16 Mbps in Kavaratti, Head Quarters and 4 Mbps each in Minicoy and at Agathi

• VSAT technology has been adopted due to problems with the bandwidth.

• 9 Virtual Employment Exchanges

• Natives of Lakshadweep can register his / her name with the Employment Exchange of Lakshadweep from any part of the world.

• Ship ticket reservation centres available at Kochi, Kozhikode & Mangalore.

• e-Payment for obtaining ship tickets to Lakshadweep has been kept on hold.

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Providing Technology Solutions to the Government

Common Services Centres (CSCs) are in the process of being roll out in various states and union territories of India. How is Microsoft India participating in the delivery of services through these front end service outlets?Microsoft has been closely aligned with the various state governments and governmental organisations to help build e-governance applications, understand their requirements and develop a blueprint based on local issues and constraints. The solutions have already been deployed in a few states and Microsoft is spearheading the percolation of these solutions to all the states in the country through the partner ecosystem.

Besides providing the technology platforms for the front end delivery of the Government 2 Citizen (G2C) and Business 2 Citizen (B2C) services and the back end systems for the aggregation and delivery of the G2C services, Microsoft is also working with the CSC operators in order to enhance the business viability of the CSC’s. Offerings such as Digital Literacy Curriculums are being offered through the CSC’s in order to support both the viability of the CSC’s and also the dissemination of the IT skills.

Do you see an emerging open source market in the country in the near future?What technology drives an application is irrelevant to the average user. If we look at the fi rst billion people who use

computers across the globe, they used it because it was easy to use. People like Windows or the MS Offi ce suite primarily because it is easy to use. When we ponder over ways to make rural India adopt computers, we should focus on user interface rather than underlying technologies.

The second constraint is affordability. Villagers see much less use for a ‘personal’ computer than we do, so shared access through pay-for-use kiosks is the way to go. The key to the success of this model is to fi nd a pricing formula where it is affordable for users and yet makes business sense. A differential pricing model for different segments of users seems to make most sense. In our case, these segments are: the government, education, and rural users.

Open Source Software is just another business model supported by a services revenue stream, that carries alongwith itself perceptions that are in most cases incorrect. The Government needs to, and it correctly is, focusing on the issues like deployability, ease of use, localisation, supportability, affordability and delivery of services rather than the underlying technology and that is the reason for the success of Microsoft in e-Governance initiatives.

In light of the current security crisis in the country, how do you think your solutions will be able to safeguard critical government data? This is an interesting question which cuts across a complex domain and does

“What technology drives an application is irrelevant to the average user”

http://www.microsoft.com

Karan BajwaGroup Director, Public Sector, Microsoft, India

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not have a short answer. For safeguarding critical government data you need to adopt a layered defense in depth approach using people, process and technology.

We believe that a comprehensive security program needs to include both the physical security of facilities, such as restricting access to buildings and monitoring alarm systems for fi re or break-ins, and logical security of IT resources, such as restricting access to sensitive data and monitoring network traffi c for signs of suspicious or malicious activity while using technology which from inception is designed to be secure and reliable.

Our solutions provide users and end to end experience of all these aspects. For example our physical security solution uses our own off the shelf technologies (Offi ce SharePoint Server 2007, Offi ce InfoPath 2007, Virtual Earth, Offi ce Communicator 2007, Offi ce System 2007, SQL Server 2005, Identity Integration Server (MIIS), Remote Desktop and Terminal Services) integrated with some third party devices (CCTV, Access control devices, etc) for monitoring our own physical facilities across the globe. Similarly at the logical level whether it is the operating system, the network protection, identity and access, encryption of data, server protection, client protection, protection from malware, protection at the browser level, prevention of data leakage or data governance, rights management of the data or the development of secure applications our products and procedures continue to strengthening your defenses against attack. Our goal is to create products that are secure by design, secure in their default mode of operation, and secure when deployed.

Our dedicated Critical Infrastructure Protection Team continues to drive strategic change both at Microsoft and with partners. Our goal is to enhance the security of critical infrastructure - banking, communications, and transportation, energy, healthcare, and government services by increasing the trustworthiness of software and IT services, and by collaborating with governments and critical infrastructure providers to reduce and manage risks.

In the current volatile market scenario, is Microsoft India betting big on the government vertical?Government has always been a key vertical for Microsoft in India. We are partnering with the GoI to fi nding technology solutions that helps in improving the operations of government and the delivery of services to its citizens, expand the quality and reach of educational opportunities, and fi nd new ways to grow the Indian Economy.

What are your plans for the year 2009 with reference to e-Governance?The world of government work is changing. To meet the growing expectations of their constituents, governments need to consider new processes, technologies, and systems to improve service and communication. In India particularly, there is a growing need to localise the applications so as make way for effi cient functioning of the system. Addressing this need, Microsoft has designed cost-effective and innovative solutions that allow Indian government agencies to leverage existing infrastructure and application investmentsand accommodate for future demands. Some of these applications are:

Connected Government Framework (CGF)At Microsoft, we believe technology can help deliver better quality and more cost-effective services within these tight budgetary constraints. Our strategy in India is to work in partnership with State and Central governments to ensure that our technology products and partner solutions meet the immediate and longer term needs of growing India.

Our initiative for achieving this is the Connected Government Framework (CGF) for State and Central governments which has been localized as per the requirement of the Indian government. With CGF, our objective is to provide State and Central governments with a clear picture of where Microsoft technology can enable their organization to deliver the transformation needed to support increasing citizen expectations in a managed, controlled and cost-effective way. The framework consolidates the solutions from our partners, as well as our own solutions for e-Government around the common business challenges and places them in

a context which makes sense to a local government.Citizen Service Platform (CSP) We call organisations that empower their staff to deliver cost-effective, seamless services ‘people-ready’ organisations. Technology has a key role in creating ‘people-ready’ organisations. Recognizing this, Microsoft has designed a vision and platform architecture called the Citizen Service Platform. The CSP, as our other offerings has been customized as per the dynamic Indian environment. The underlying philosophy of the Citizen Service Platform concept is to provide component based, Information Technology-enabled solutions for common services delivered by Local District. Solutions that can be rapidly confi gured to support common technology and process foundations across agencies will deliver the quality and effi ciency of service that is needed.


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We will continue to focus on building a trust worthy ecosystem, engineering for security, simplifying security, building fundamentally secure platforms and advancing ways for people to gain more control of their private data. Some of the best examples of these efforts are the following:• Security and Privacy Technology

Innovation: Kernel Patch Protection, Network Access Protection, Phishing Filter, Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool

• Engineering for Security with SDL and Privacy Guidelines for Developing Software Products and Services

• Security User Experience: Windows Security Centre

• Defense in Depth: Windows Defender, User Account Control, BitLocker Drive, Encryption, Windows Service Hardening

Highlights


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ov4th Anniversary Issue4th Anniversary Issue


e-Districts going Strong

How has been the journey of National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) so far?For the NeGP as a whole, the core infrastructure should be ready by the end of 2009. Most of the Common Service Centres (CSCs), States Wide Area Network (SWAN) and State Data Centre (SDC) should be functional by the end of 2009 in most of the states. Though it may vary from one state to another. If one looks at the Central Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) such as Income Tax or Customs and Excise, the picture seems pretty good. These are the two MMPs where the project is more or less completed. Moreover, we are coming up with the Passport Seva Project.

Further, there is Ministry of Corporate Affairs-21 (MCA- 21) which has been completed. It is just the state Mission Mode Projects where we are facing a some problems in getting off the ground, and there is still some work left to be completed.

The e-Courts project ( an integrated project), which has implications for the state level also, is already under implementation. Further, Land Records phase II, Municipalities has been sanctioned as well. I believe, these services should take another three to four years to get implemented across the country for all the states.

What was the vision behind e-District and what is the time frame for the completion of the project?While there are Mission Mode Projects (MMPs), it is possible that there are certain services which fall between the crack. The idea behind the e-Districts project was to address this issue. The idea was to see whether the services which were being delivered traditionally can be digitised and be delivered using the common infrastructure like the Common Service Centres(CSCs), State Wide Area Network (SWAN) and State Data Centres (SDC). For certain other services like birth and death certifi cates, old-age pension, we were wondering if these processses can be streamlined, and their delivery made speedier. These services do not require a whole host of back-end computerisation process because once the computerisation happens at the back-end these services can be easily delivered through CSCs. So the entire process is relatively simple. And as most of these services are delivered at the district level so they came to be termed as e-Districts.

e-Districts are right now in a pilot phase. Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) has more or less completed it, the other schemes will be sanctioned only in March 2009, and then there will be a eighteen month time frame for the pilot phase of the rest of

“e-Districts are right now in a pilot phase. Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) has more or less completed it, the other schemes will be sanctioned only in March 2009, and then there will be a eighteen month time frame for the pilot phase of the rest of the chosen states which are around twelve in number”

http://www.mit.gov.in

S. AbbasiDirector, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communication and IT, Government of India

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the chosen states which are around twelve in number. There is a host of learnings from U.P. alone which we plan to use in formulating a national level scheme in the next six to seven months. But I think we will start sanctioning the funds to states only after their pilot projects have been implemented. As per my estimates, the country-wide implementation across all districts of this project will take at least three years. So as of now we have a detailed time-line for the pilot projects only. U.P., Bihar, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are some of the states which are already leading the way for e-Districts but in the next four to fi ve months we can expect to see much more action in the arena of this e-District project in all the states across India.

What is the linkage between e-Districts, CSCs and SWAN?As far as linkages are concerned, if you want to have a centralised architecture through which you can deliver services then you have to web-enable them. This web enablement in the case of government is done through State Wide Area Network (SWAN). The State Data Centre (SDC) will be the point that the Common Service Centre (CSC) operator will access in order to provide the requested services by the citizens. CSC is simply a front-end through which the person or the citizen will make the request.

Unless the back-end of a department is computerised, the services of that department targeted through an e-District cannot be delivered even if CSCs, SWAN, and SDCs are in place because the department cannot process it. So all these (CSCs, SWAN, SDCs etc.) are various items that are required to ensure that various services are delivered to the citizens as seamlessly as possible.

How do you plan to address the issue of connectivity of data centres and e-Districts?The point is that you already have a state government data centre and these data centres have their Points of Presence (PoP) in the district. So under e-District what we ensure is that whichever departments we are planning to cover is included under the PoP through the e-District project, so that the funds for it can come through the e-District project. This is the way of providing connectivity as far as the government part is concerned.

Then comes the question of connecting the citizens at a CSC. This is generally done through the Internet provided through VSAT or broadband. Meanwhile, Department of Information Technology (DIT) is also doing partial funding of the BSNL’s plan to provide broadband connections to the rural areas. We are hopeful that broadband services will be made available in the rural areas signifi cantly over the next one year.

Do you think the current recession will impact the e-Governance projects which are working on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.If the economy goes under the impact of recession, government also suffers because the tax collection goes down, thereby bringing down the capacity to spend even for the government. But during the time of recession, having

government project is defi nitely a matter of greater credibility for any private player. So for private players in these times of recession, government projects becomes the best bet.This induces a lot of interest amongst private players to get involved in government projects like National e-Governance Plan (NeGP).

As you mentioned, Uttar Pradesh has successfully implemented the e-District project, so what were the major challenges that you faced there?Actually speaking, the challenges have been faced in reality by the state governments. But speaking from the central government perspective, the fi rst challenge has been faced in the area of bringing about changes in the traditional ways of the governmental functioning, as and when demanded by the learnings carried forward from implementation elsewhere. Second challenge relates to regulatory issues, for example regulating the rates of digitisation of data in different districts. And fi nally the biggest challenge is that of sheer co-ordination of a national-level project of this kind.

In the year 2009 which are the states in which e-District project will see implementation?Certain states are already moving fast towards the implementation of e-District like Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and other states of South India. But truly speaking work is being done all across the country. So I am pretty sure that in 2009 you will be see not only the already established states doing well, but even new states will be joining the club of those states which are successfully implementing e-Districts. So it would not be right for me to pin-point any one state or district at this point of time as the only one doing well.

Do you have any personal targets for the year 2009?We already have 23,000 Common Service Centres (CSCs) already up and running. Well, by March 2009 we are planning to come up with at least 40,000 to 50,000 CSCs. And I think this is an achievable target because already a lot of ground work is going on though it might not be getting refl ected on the books or accounts.

Do you think there is a need for the tendering process to be re-defi ned? I do not think the government processes in terms of e-Tendering needs to be re-defi ned for it adequately provides emphasis on the needed degree of quality or quantity as might be demanded by the situation.

In the current threatened security scenario do you think we should fasten our pace towards a e-Governed nation?Obviously, because e-Governance is the best way of keeping a check on people as well as various kinds of other data. So, in a e-Governed nations, not only will the security issue get addressed but even harassment of general public will stop. So advancing towards a e-Governed nation is of utmost importance to us as a nation.

Sandeep [email protected]

44 } w w w . e g o v o n l i n e . n e t ov

S P E C I A L F E A T U R E


As part of its NeGP (National e-Governance Plan) initiative,

Department of Information Technology (DIT) has laid down its vision for taking e-Governance initiative further with 27 Mission Mode Projects. C-DAC has built and deployed National e-Governance Services Delivery Gateway (NSDG) and National Services Directory (NSD) which is the second Mission Mode Project to have gone live since 14th August 2008. NSDG is the fi rst Gateway built for deployment at Central level. It is a messaging middleware conforming to various e-Governance Standards managed by DIT, such as Interoperability Interface Protocol and Specifi cations (IIP/IIS) that enable consistent communication and conformance to international standards such as the XML specifi cations and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Gateway brings in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) framework for the new as well as existing e-Governance services. DIT envisages various Gateways to be built at various levels, that is at state levels as well as domain levels, thereby establishing a Gateway Constellation which is an innovation in itself. NSD is the central Service Directory for coordination of message exchange among these Gateways constituting the Gateway Constellation

CONFORMANCE TO VARIOUS e-GOVERNANCE STANDARDS

DIT has designed various standards in collaborations with various government and industry representations. The Gateway architecture adheres to following standards:

Interoperability Interface Protocol (IIP) – IIP defi nes the XML based Message Structure and Message Exchange Pattern for SAP-to-Gateway-to-SP communication.

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Interoperability Interface Specifi cation (IIS) – IIS binds the IIP protocol to SOAP as message carrier.I n t e r - G a t e w a y I n t e r c o n n e c t Specifi cation (IGIS) – IGIS protocol defi nes the Message Structure and Message Exchange Pattern for Gateway-NSD and Gateway-Gateway communication.Gateway Common Services (GCS) – GCS defi nes the value added services such as User Authentication and Payment Gateway for enablement with a Gateway.

In addition to this, Gateways are required to demonstrate compliance to ISO and ISMS standards. Every gateway will have to engage in Service Level Agreements with DIT and/or the corresponding controlling entity. NSDG is designed to deliver the requirements for performance, availability and reliability taking into consideration the future of e-Governance infrastructure scalability requirements.

NOT JUST A TEAM OF TWO BUT…

We have been talking about DIT and C-DAC but the whole thought process as well as implementation of the same involved other teams as well. NSDG and NSD

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NATIONAL EGOVERNANCE SERVICES DELIVERY GATEWAY AND NATIONAL SERVICES DIRECTORY

In Past: Nation had begun to take gradual steps in enabling e-Governance for the masses. The process took the fi rst step with the automation of department services for the faster delivery of the same. However these were isolated attempts limited to the individual department services. At Present: The next step was to take the web based approach and include the citizens in the automation process. But still the efforts were limited to department service level. As part of this program, Kiosks were established along with service centre concepts at key places. New delivery channels such as mobile devices etc. were enabled. The idea was to deliver services in an easier, better and faster way. With each of these steps, the time in delivering the services to masses was reduced by the best possible extent. However, further improvement was restrained by the fact that these automations were without any consideration for integration of interdependent services. Government services are rarely delivered in isolations and are coupled with other department services.

eGOVERNANCE

ontributing to evelop While serving to both Central and State Governments IT needs, Center for Development

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have been path breaking in the whole process of setting the united e-Governance framework for the nation. The project has been managed by DIT has not just played as the controller to the project but has also been involved in the parenting and nourishing activities carried out along with C-DAC. National Institute of Smart Government (NISG), Standardisation Testing Quality Certifi cation (STQC) and National Informatics Centre (NIC) have contributed to the project at every stage of from conception to verifi cation very constructively. The various issues could be resolved then and there with their active participation. The technical issues have been brought to Technical Monitoring Committee chaired by the Additional Secretary, DIT. Project Reviews and Monitoring has been performed by Project Review and Steering Group chaired by the Secretary, DIT.

IMPLEMENTATION PLATFORM

NSDG and NSD are developed on Open Source Software Platform. All the software architecture components such as Operating System, Application Server, Database Server, Reporting services, Clustering services and Web services belong to open source technology. The architecture does not compromise on the software quality parameters of

performance, scalability and reliability requirements of the project. The hardware design of the system addresses the issues such as vendor lock-in, easy availability and scalability of the same for future enhancements.

OPERATIONAL OBJECTIVES

The operation and maintenance of NSDG is to be handled for 5 years by C-DAC. The NSDG and NSD implementation will be updated and upgraded following the amendments to the standards as well as feedback from government service providers. C-DAC will be operational in integrating the national level as well as domain related applications with NSDG every year. Accordingly C-DAC will guide the department service implementing agencies in the development of necessary connectors/adapters for integrating the applications identifi ed.

BENEFICIARIES

On the commercial front, Gateway will encourage private players to participate as Service Access Providers (SAP) and act as single window for various services available with any gateway in the Gateway constellation. The government departments would be benefi ting from the application to application interoperability. They will be able to serve citizens more effi ciently. Citizens will benefi t from the fact that more and more e-Governance services across the country are available for them.

FUTURE DIRECTION

DIT has positioned the Gateway at state data centre to achieve the complete e-Governance infrastructure in place. NSDG and NSD will form the feedback loop for future work in the development of new e-Governance standards and extension of existing e-Governance standards. C-DAC and DIT will work to identify new facilities for value addition to the Gateway.

In Future: A need for integration of services to be provided by the government to the citizens is captured now. So as to a Government to Government (G2G) interoperation among e-Governance services is to be worked upon. Ideas were conceived to align the developments happening on technological fronts in areas of Web Services, Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). These are the tools which facilitate the B2B (Business to Business) interoperability. Gateway model was conceived to act as a tailored ESB for government services. It also was positioned to enable SOA framework for e-Governance service delivery and achieving e-Governance service interoperability. However, with the expected growth in number of e-Governance services, it is realised that having only one gateway will not fulfi ll the requirements identifi ed. A vision for having multiple gateways connected by a central Service Directory came into the picture. NSD is for the enablement for gateway to gateway communication and service resolution across the gateways positioned at different levels.

SERVICE DELIVERY

ment nd onvergence And Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has taken many leads since its inception in 1988

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Application of computers in medicine for expert systems for

visualization, decision-making in the by-gone digital age have evolved to medical informatics in this information age. Medical informatics, the domain of high social relevance in India, is a newer multidisciplinary fi eld so far with a defi ned skill set, educational pathway, comprehensive standards, etc. In developing countries like ours, medical informatics also promises to address the issues related to at least one major existing national divide namely – non-uniform distribution of healthcare services. Information Communications and Electronics Technologies (ICTE) can be effectively used to improve the overall healthcare delivery system for better healthcare services. This requires R&D efforts in multiple areas including development of telemedicine and tele-education systems, hospital information systems, picture archival and communication systems, biomedical instrumentations, virtual reality applications in medicine, and frameworks for standards compliant medical systems.

C-DAC has been working towards development of several technologies for better healthcare services for the last several years. These efforts have resulted in deployable systems and solutions for Telemedicine and Tele-education, Hospital Information System, Tele-oncology, Decision Support System for Ayurveda, and Software Development Kits for international healthcare standards. These systems and solutions are briefl y described below.

TELEMEDICINE

Telemedicine is the use of Tele-communication and Information technologies to provide clinical care at a distance. Consider a typical Telemedicine interaction. A patient goes to a doctor, who after examination of the patient’s fi le, feels the need for a second opinion. The doctor then consolidates the relevant clinical data into the patient’s Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and then seeks an opinion of a specialist doctor using Tele-consultation. A connection to

the specialist’s workstation is initiated from the patient end and the patient’s data is uploaded. The specialist then examines the data, makes a diagnosis, provides advice, and suggests a course of action. The two doctors get on to a video-conference to jointly arrive at the diagnosis and the course of treatment. This advice is then transmitted back to the presenting doctor at patient end who takes appropriate action.

This essentially avoids patient discomfort of having to travel to the specialist’s offi ce/clinic, or specialist’s discomfort of having to visit the patient, especially when the patient is in trauma. Thus right care can be provided at the right place at the right time with minimal discomfort to all concerned. This sort of interaction is becoming quite common.

C-DAC’s Telemedicine solutions named Mercury and Sanjeevani provide integrated solution to make such communication possible. They can be used to provide Tele-consultation for various fi elds of medicine including radiology, cardiology, oncology, and ophthalmology.

Telemedicine solution also enables Tele-education in critical domains using the same infrastructure.

HOSPITAL INFORMATION SYSTEM (HIS)

C-DAC’s Sushrut, a Hospital Information

System (HIS), has been developed with the objective of streamlining the fl ow of offering hassle-free treatment to a patient in a hospital, while allowing doctors and other staff to perform to their peak ability, in an optimised and effi cient manner.

Sushrut is modular, thus ensuring sustained benefi ts through changes in technology, protecting and providing optimal returns from the investment. It is modeled on a unique combination of a “patient centric and medical staff centric” paradigm, benefi cial to the recipients and the providers of healthcare.

Sushrut uses a network of computers to gather, process, and retrieve patient care and administrative information for all hospital activities to satisfy the functional requirement of the users. It also helps as a decision support system for the hospital authorities for developing comprehensive healthcare policies.

Sushrut incorporates an integrated computerised clinical information system for improved hospital administration and patient healthcare. It also provides an accurate, electronically stored medical record of all the treated patients. A datawarehouse of such records can be utilised for statistical requirements and for research.

TELE-ONCOLOGY

C-DAC pioneered the fi rst implementation of the Tele-Oncology

e-HEALTH

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system in India in the state of Kerala. It is known as ONCONET-Kerala. It is a comprehensive telemedicine solution, which has established knowledge enabled oncology network connecting specialty hospital at Regional Cancer Centre, Thriuvananthapuram (RCC-T) with remote hospitals at various places (Kannur, Kochi, Palakkad, Kozhenchery, and Kollam) in Kerala. It provides telemedicine services in early cancer detection, follow-up consultation, treatment, prevention of cancer, and tele-education. A web-enabled Hospital Information System, called TEJHAS (Telemedicine Enabled Java based Hospital Automation System), was also developed and integrated with the ONCONET Telemedicine system.

AYUSOFT

AyuSoft is a vision of converting classical Ayurvedic texts into comprehensive, authentic, intelligent, and interactive knowledge repositories with complex analytical tools. It is a pioneering multidimensional effort for Indian traditional medicinal system. It provides

end-to-end medical solutions based on traditional medicines at your fi ngertips. With AyuSoft your health decisions are expected to be more informed, more accurate, and quicker. Key features of AyuSoft are:

Integrated system offering multiple interconnected applications under the same umbrella. Systematic examination tool as per classical Ayurvedic guidelines.Investigations, case analysis, etc. according to practical clinical needs and research challenges. A high-end query database with multi-dimensional search utility. System addressing heterogeneous needs of various user categories like hospitals, practitioners, and researchers.Offers human expert analysis with human-independent analysis.

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Applications as well as data can be plugged into it to help you customise the tool to your specifi c needs aided by automated data loading and customised textual and graphical report generation capabilities.Development team consists of IT professionals and Ayurveda experts of national and international repute.

DICOM AND HL7 SDKS

C-DAC’s Medical Informatics Standards Software Development Kit (SDK) for Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) and Health Level 7 (HL7) are toolkits that provide APIs for applications/medical devices to comply with NEMA’s DICOM standard and Health Level 7’s HL7 standard. Both are rapid application development tools, which provide high return on investment through cost effective implementation of the standards.

The toolkits are designed to be easily programmable allowing DICOM and HL7 developers to build sophisticated and complex applications on top of these standards. The toolkits allow building applications targeting multiple platforms, thus providing fl exibility to developers to write applications once, run anywhere.

Both SDKs are supported with plenty of sample test codes and tutorials that make life easier for developers to start using them in a short period. Comprehensive API documentation explains the usage of different components of the SDKs.

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Core Services

Patient Management Consultation Surgical Oncology Resource Scheduling Investigation Nuclear Medicine Radiation Oncology Chemotherapy

Pharmacy

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Modules of TEJHAS(Telemedicine Enabled Java based Hospital Automation System)

Support Services

Cash & Billing Central Stores Purchase Blood Bank Radiology Engineering Central Sterile Services Department

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Back Offi ce

Enquiry Management Information SystemMaster Data

Users

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TEJHAS: C-DAC’s Hospital Automation System integrated with the ONCONET Telemedicine system

C-DAC Medical Informatics SDK




KAVERI is a Valuation & Registration Software For The Department of

Stamps & Registration, Government of Karnataka.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

To take care of the entire registration process inclusive of necessary report generation and property valuationProviding effi cient and quality service to the general public at a nominal costSpeed up the work thereby improving the qualityStreamlining the proceduresBusiness process re-engineering coupled with computerisation to enhance the productivityContinuous increase in revenue collectionStep in the direction of realising the concept of a paperless offi ce

HOW HAS THE PROJECT SUCCEEDED IN ACHIEVING ITS OBJECTIVES?

The software includes all the processes followed during the registration, viz. the Property Valuation, Stamp Duty Calculation and payment, Party Information, Receipt Generation, Witness Information and Capturing Photograph and Thumb Images. Instant valuations of immovable properties are done. More than 35 diverse ranges of

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reports like Endorsement, Certifi cates, Daily Register, Index, etc. are generated. The added feature of this software is that reports can be customised in local language also• Valuation and e-Registration

software has endowed the citizen with effi cient and quality services. Quick and effi cient registration process ‘Same day registration’ service Return of the original documents within 30 minutes Immediate search of important documents Faster and effi cient document copy Web Access to valuation information Automated KIOSKs for online calculations of various duties and also furnish additional information on the registration process, the pre-requisites, contact details, etc.

• With the activities in the department becoming faster and effi cient, the quality of services offered to the citizen has increased tremendously. Since the work burden of the department offi cers has reduced to a great extent, the focus is now on better service to the citizen.

• The procedures followed during the registration process are streamlined

by the computerisation of the department. The software ensures that all the necessary procedures required for registration are followed strictly. Transparency in the process has evolved in due course of time.

• Business process re-engineering coupled with computerisation has improved performance and cut down costs of the department. Tasks are completed in much lesser time than actually required doing them manually.

• Increase in Revenue Generation in the department is noticed.

• Valuation and e-Registration software reduces the manual process of writing records such as Day book, Daily amount reconciliation, Periodic reports, Pending document information, etc., as these are generated through the software. Such records are error free, accurate, quickly and anytime generated. A major amount of time and efforts of the departmental staff is reduced by this facility. This is genuinely a step in the direction of realising the concept of a paperless offi ce.

DETAILS

Valuation and e-Registration software suite is a client-server application, which takes care of:

Complete computerisation of the existing 5-step registration processDetermining the Market value of any immovable property located within the state. Scanning of registered documents and a secure document archival technique with backup facility.Generation of all types of reports (periodical, miscellaneous) at all levels in the department’s hierarchy. Capture and storage of digital images along with thumb print of every applicant.

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KAVERI- AN INSIGHT

Revenue collection before the introduction of Kaveri (C-DAC’s Valuation and E-Registration Software in Karnataka):

(Rs. In Crores)

Sl.No

01

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Year

2001-2002

2002-2003

Stamp duty

821.87

989.43

Registration fee

207.38

278.85

Total

1029.25

1268.28

During these periods, the rate of stamp duty on conveyance 10% and 2% Registration fee was in force.

Revenue collection after the introduction of Kaveri:

Sl.No

01

Year

2003-2004

Stamp duty

1333.01

Registration fee

176.16

Total

1509.17

The Government of Karnataka reduced the rate of stamp duty on conveyance from 10% to 8% and Registration fee from 2% to 1%, which effects from 01-04-2003. In spite of reduction in stamp duty and registration fee there is signifi cant growth in revenue as the Kaveri system calculates the valuation of property automatically eradicating the discretionary power of the Registering offi cer in accessing the valuation of property.

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Electronic generation of Index II.Daily report generation for Sub Registrar offi ce including Receipt, Indexes, Minute Book, Day Book, A Register, remittance etc.Automatic fees and stamp duty calculationsSingle data entry architectureSecure CD based Archival systemExhaustive document search based on different parametersEncumbrance Search certifi cate generationMarriage registrationFirms and Societies registration.MIS report generation at all levels in the hierarchy.Vendor Management softwareWeb enabled info baseBilingual interface (English and Kannada)

SUSTAINABILITY

Kaveri has long sustainability. Its robust features and design help in the long running of the application.The software has taken into consideration the conditions, working of the department and the rules and process, which would enhance or transform in the years to come.The BOT concept is an exclusive feature contributing to the functioning of the software. In the long run, the department staff would be enriched with the hardware and the software concerns, thereby owning the well-maintained system, enabling the department to continue with utmost ease.Revenue generation is a key feature of the Kaveri Application Suite. The service charges collected

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from the citizen will suffi ce the e x p e n s e s incurred by the Vendors as well as generate revenue to the d e p a r t m e n t . Approximately 21% of increase in revenue has been observed during the year 2004-2005.

REDUCTION IN CORRUPTION

The following features help in reducing corruption:

Automatic valuation of property. There is no discrepancy in valuating the property manually. No department offi cial is involved in the valuation.Automatic calculation of Stamp Duty, Registration and other fees. Since the fees are automatically calculated through the software, there is no scope for extra recovery from the citizen.Vendor Management System. The Vendor Management System of the software calculates the exact payment to be made to the Vendors based on the services rendered and generates the report. This forms the basis for the payment to the Vendors. There is no manual intervention in the calculation of this amount.Automatic generation of Encumbrance Certifi cate. The Encumbrance Certifi cate is automatically generated through the system. Manual search for encumbrance could lead to vested interests.

INTEGRATION WITH LAND RECORDS DEPARTMENT

The agriculture land transaction will be updated in BHOOMI server at the end of the day.No need of data entry at BHOOMI client.The corruption will be reduced at BHOOMI kiosk.The FIFO concept adopted at BHOOMI client.No need to send Form XIII.

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FUTURE PLANSOnline search for EncumbranceAnywhere RegistrationReadymade Data to other Governing bodies Benefi t to Town Planning Department

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Overview of the Valuation and e-Registration software suite

Cost EffectiveKaveri is highly cost effective in all respects. The expenses incurred per transaction and the service charges to the citizen have been so premeditated that the department and the vendors begin revenue generation right from the implementation of the software. Kaveri proves to be cost effective by endowment of the following services…

...to the citizenQuick and effi cient registration process‘Same Day Registration’ serviceReturn of original documents within 30 minutesImmediate search of important documentsFaster and effi cient document copyWeb based informationAutomated KIOSK for instant information at the offi ces.

…to the departmentReduction in time consuming and error prone writing workFaster, easier and highly effi cient registration processReduction in writing of Index II and search writingReduction in mundane chores of writing reportsDocument image access facilityImproved revenue for the department.Improvement in the work environmentEnhancement of department staff (computer literacy)Greater control of administrative authoritiesTremendous boost to the image of the departmentBetter services to the citizenEffi cient and faster decision makingQuality service and good relief to the benefi ciariesBetter offi ce environmentQuick and accurate generation of various reports

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The world of Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

changes rapidly. New technologies and along with them new opportunities, come and go at an ever increasing speed. The Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement is one such development, that is playing out before us today. FOSS signifi es many things like revolutionary development process, disruptive technology, ideological movement, new knowledge and standards, and many more. It offers many opportunities for governmental, private sector, and educational institutions.

Free and Open Source Software and the associated “Network effect” is playing an accelerating role in the emergence of an Information Society. The benefi t realisation of FOSS has motivated governments, industries and communities worldwide to adopt and implement FOSS.

Advantages like increasing interoperability, developing local capacity / industry, reducing costs, conserving foreign exchange, achieving vendor independence, enabling localisation, reducing piracy / copyright infringements and increasing growth of knowledge-based society are among the compelling reasons propelling the adoption of FOSS.

Market forces are tilting towards open standards and there is an increasing demand from customers for interoperability. Microsoft’s agreement with Novell on joint interoperability of Windows and Linux is in indicator of this trend.

The customers want to deploy the best and the most cost effective solution backed up by assured support. There is also a need to enable not only proprietary and open source systems to communicate and inter-operate effi ciently and effectively, but even various open source systems from multiple distributors should be made interoperable among themselves.

Successful free and open source projects require an eco-system of supportive commercial efforts and there is also the need to bridge the layers between users and developers.

NRCFOSSIndia as a country has emphasised upon the Open Source Software (OSS) with the intention of leveraging the IT prowess

of the citizens of India. However, there are many hurdles to be crossed such as lack of awareness, absence of standards and interoperability criteria, lack of skilled manpower in open source software technologies, absence of appropriate business models, insuffi cient user confi dence and the very low awareness of the technology itself. It is in these contexts that Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology set up a National Resource Centre for Free and Open Source Software (NRCFOSS) in Chennai with the twin roles of bridging the digital

divide as well as strengthening the Indian Software industry. NRCFOSS will contribute to the growth of FOSS in India through Research & Development, Human Resource Development, Networking & Entrepreneurship development, as well as, serve as the reference point for all FOSS related activities in the country including the creation and maintenance of a National FOSS Portal (www.nrcfoss.org.in). The activities of NRCFOSS are coordinated by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Chennai and Anna University (AU-KBC Research Centre). The primary focus area of C-DAC is FOSS technology and solutions, while the primary focus area of AU-KBC Research Centre is Human Resource Development.

NRCFOSS piloted a proof of concept through which it introduced FOSS Technologies in the formal & non-formal sectors. In the formal sector, NRCFOSS introduced the FOSS in engineering undergraduate curriculum of the Anna University with an affi liation of 254 engineering colleges. The strategy was to train teachers of engineering colleges and equip them to offer FOSS electives. And student projects in their colleges at the UG/MCA levels as related to FOSS are inspired as part of the curriculum so as to ensure that large number of Engineers and MCAs are produced every year with exposure, training and skills in FOSS technologies. In the fi rst phase around 207 teachers from around 105 engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu were offered training.

In the second phase NRCFOSS would extend the scheme to other states. Already, few of the other states have shown keen interest to introduce such programmes in their states.

BOSS

As part of the development of FOSS

NRCFOSS & BOSS LINUX

Objectives of NRCFOSS Human resource development for general FOSS capacity building in the formal and non-formal sectorsDesign and development of FOSS products and technologies with emphasis in the areas of e-Governance, School education and SMEsEncourage and promote the development of applications under FOSS & SOA framework in the areas of School education, SMEs and e-Governance domainsSupporting Localisation and Indian language computing using FOSSFOSS Promotion and decimation through study programmes, lectures, symposia, conferences, exhibitions and the like.

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It is estimated that by 2012 nearly 80 percent

of commercial software will include elements of open source technology. Industry and government can play an effective role in growing the entire eco-system around Open Source. While the often-cited cost and stability benefi ts of FOSS are attractive, Governments often choose to promote FOSS in their own countries for a variety of other reasons also”

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products and technologies, NRCFOSS has come out with an Indian version of Linux named as Bharat Operating System Solutions (BOSS) which supports Indian languages. It was decided by a committee of experts to have an Indian distribution of Linux so that the language used for the desktop environment and some of the applications can be in the Indian language which will enable the mainly non-English literate users in the country to be exposed to ICT and to use the computer more effectively. In the long term, the BOSS Linux project will attempt to be the standard GNU/Linux distribution for desktop computers in India.

This Linux distribution (distro) is based on Debian Linux and is targeted at the government user initially. The ultimate objective of creating BOSS Linux is to enable the people of India, most of who are not English-literate, to be exposed to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and GNU/Linux. It is hoped that with this version of BOSS that is available in the Indian language, more people will turn to FOSS as an alternative to using illegal unlicensed proprietary software.

The availability of BOSS Linux will have a positive impact on the digital divide in India as more people can now have access to software in their local language in order to use the Internet and other ICT facilities effectively. Community Information Centres (CIC’s), and Internet cafes will benefi t from BOSS Linux too as this software can be utilised to power these outlets and is also affordable and easy to install, use and support.

The primary target groups for BOSS Linux are the government employees/ users, Small and Medium Exporters

(SMEs), schools, and the fi rst time user. A second target group is the Linux distro (distribution) developers so that they can develop a new distro based on BOSS Linux.

BOSS LINUX IS AVAILABLE IN BOTH DESKTOP EDITION AND SERVER EDITION.

BOSS Linux Desktop OS is bundled with the BharateeyaOO a derivative of Open Offi ce suite which

supports commonly used document types and open standard fi le types apart from utilities such as Internet Browser, email client, Internet messaging client, pdf viewers and important features like Bulk Document converter & device drivers required for the government domain. BOSS Linux incorporates the graphical installer with which any end user with little knowledge of computer can also install the OS. BOSS Linux desktop edition version 3.0 is currently available in DVD format with install, live and utility options.

BOSS Linux Server is a Debian based server operating system. BOSS Linux Server features include user-friendly GUI Front end that has Firefox, Thunderbird and also supports printers and USB devices such as cameras. Presently it supports Intel and AMD x86/x86-64 architecture and is being tested on other architectures. BOSS Entry level server was released during Elitex 2008 (Jan 2008). BOSS Server has been upgraded to advanced level server featuring Virtualization, LDAP Server and LTSP Server. BOSS advanced level server is been confi gured for Intel ix86, AMD- 64 and Intel Core duo. BOSS Advanced Server 1.0 includes Web Server (Apache2), Database Server (Mysql and Postgresql), Virtualisation Server (Xen), Mail Server (Postfi x), Proxy Server (Squid), Network Server (bind9 and DHCP3) and File Server (Samba and NFS)

Today, several state governments have recognised the advantages of using open source software. C-DAC has also entered into a pact with National Informatics Centre and state Governments of Tamil

Nadu, Chattisgarh, Kerala and Bihar for deploying BOSS Linux for their e-Governance projects. Witnessing the encouraging response from Government organization, C-DAC has initiated three tier support centre and also has plans to extend support service to its customers through a 24 X 7 help desk.

C-DAC is now re-designing the e-Governance framework by its offerings to the government organisations. SaaS is emerging as a suitable model for many organizations to create a more fl exible base for supporting the business. C-DAC aims to broaden the facility of its data centre to Government organizations, which may not have the adequate facilities to set up or may lack requisite technical manpower in the fi eld of IT. Using SaaS and cloud computing as a component of their ongoing IT strategy, could make great economic sense for end users. C-DAC has employed SaaS & cloud computing internally within its organisation at Chennai and plans to expand it to its centres in Delhi, Bangalore, etc.

C-DAC Chennai is working on development of SaaS delivery stack based on Model driven Architecture. C-DAC is going to introduce the SaaS model in computing internal operations for government agencies. C-DAC Chennai’s Personnel Information System is currently working on SaaS and once the system becomes stable , the agency will extend the service to government departments on a pilot basis with in one year.

Most state Government have data centres and their departments are connected under State Wide Area Network (SWAN). Thus, SaaS would be easiest way to automate operations in Government.




Our country is well poised to take the benefi ts of ICT to the common

man. There has been consistent progress in addressing the challenges that exists - be it infrastructure or social barriers. The India Development Gateway (InDG) initiative is in response to limitations that exist at the social front. This nation-wide initiative is supported by the Department of IT, Ministry of Communications and IT, GOI and executed by the Hyderabad unit of C-DAC. InDG facilitates rural empowerment through provision of credible information products and services, that respond to the real and strategic needs of the unreached, especially women and poor, in their local language. In the process, it catalyzes the use of ICT for collaboration and knowledge sharing among development stakeholders.

It is an established fact that Information, when properly provided, is a positive power of unequalled strength. India Development Gateway thus follows a carefully worked out strategy for fulfi lling its objective. Building symbiotic partnership with various development stakeholders, delivery of value added content and services through online and offl ine

presence, use of local languages for content delivery and ensuring strong pro-poor and pro-women orientation in all the services, are the guiding strategies for this initiative

The online mode through the multilingual portal, www.indg.in, provides knowledge management services on the thematic areas (initially the fi ve sectors of Agriculture, Primary Education, Health, Rural Energy and e-Governance), collaborative tools and a platform for learning and networking to its user communities. To begin with, fi ve Indian languages (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Bengali), apart from English are presently used for information delivery.

A content framework desinged in consultation with user communities, serves as the strong backbone for the portal. The initiative is currently associating with over 200 organisations for generation of content on about 2000 topics.

The rainbow of associating institutions include international agencies, government, civil society organisations, community based organisations and private agencies. A specifi c point of interest is that, the rural communities have been generators of knowledge,

apart from being users of it too, in this initiative.

InDG follows a decentralised content management system for content on the multilingual portal. An automated content fl ow process that ensures free fl ow of authenticated, unbiased, value added content is the key feature of the portal. Various interesting features that aim at providing interactivity and comfortable use to the rural audience are also available on the portal. The offl ine mode in the form of products complements the online mode, wherever connectivity and other delivery issues are present.Participation of rural communities and the people working closely with them at every stage of the initiative has been one of the unique characteristics of India Development Gateway. Constant interaction with user communities is made possible through consultative workshops, fi eld visits and various outreach events. Capacity building activities for content contributors and master trainers of village knowledge centre operators are also facilitated as a part of the initiative.

As the rural landscape is set to take advantage of the fl ourishing ICT initiatives, by various institutions, and more specifi cally through the Common Service Centres, InDG offers the much required content that makes the difference in the lives of rural people.

INDIA DEVELOPMENT GATEWAY INITIATIVEInspired by inclusive vision, powered by technology

India Development Gateway - At a GlanceAgriculture in InDG - Towards sustainable use of resources and gainful employmentThe Agriculture vertical of www.indg.in focuses on technologies and processes for sustainable use of resources, besides creating avenues for employment and supplementary income for the rural communities.

Our user communities share and use information related to Banking and credit, crop production technologies, best practices, Animal husbandry, various on and off farm enterprises. Crucial inputs such as weather based

advisory and market information for farming community and Potential Fishing zones for fi shermen are available in local languages.

Health in InDG - Improving the quality of Health in Rural IndiaThe Health vertical of www.indg.in focuses on areas that contribute to improving the health scenario among rural communities, especially that of women and child. InDG has been effective in addressing the information needs related to the adolescent and reproductive health of women in rural communities. Other important topics include Hygiene, First Aid, diseases, Child health, Nutrition and a database of health care services.

Primary Education in InDG - Establishing the right of a child to quality educationThe Primary Education vertical of www.indg.in focuses on child rights and improving the quality of primary education. One can access information related to child rights, girl child education, multimedia content on various subjects, resource materials for teachers and IT literacy.

e-Governance in InDG - Complementing the e-Gov movement in the countryThe e-Governance vertical of www.indg.in focuses on propagating the nation wide e-Governance initiatives through provision of related information in local languages. ICT initiatives in states and judiciary, downloadable public utility forms, online citizen services, resource links, mobile governance are some of the key areas covered in the portal.

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Development of a Quality Assurance Framework, Quality metrics,

prototype tool for evaluation and comparison of e-Learning applications and training the teachers in e-Learning are the various initiatives being undertaken under e-Education.

Quality Assurance Framework for e-Learning is a three year project funded by e-Learning Division, DIT, GoI. Objective of the project is to develop quality metrics that can be used for quantifying the various quality parameters of an e-Learning tool and the content and develop a prototype tool that can be used by end users for deriving the quality metrics so that the effectiveness of a tool can be measured and also different tools can be compared.

The quality assurance framework adopted web service architecture to facilitate deployment of quality parameter evaluation modules on various nodes to circumvent inherent limitations while evaluating the parameters.

The prototype tool upon evaluation of intended quality parameters viz., Scalability, Security, Content Reusability and Portability, Usability and Accessibility will generate quality parameter wise analytical report along with executive summary report

comprising quality index value.As a part of the project C-DAC

organizing a fi ve day training program for academia and industry on e-Learning tools and practices, content development and standards and course management with hands on sessions.

GRID LEARNING

“Collaborative Class Room” grid based e-Learning experimentation is a funded project by DIT, GoI, under the foundation phase of Garuda Grid Computing initiative. The objective of the project is to establish collaborative environment for educational purpose, jointly by IIT Kharagpur and C-DAC in collaboration with Garuda Grid Partner

Institutes. The project focus is to deploy access-grid collaboration environment that comes with various tools and solutions for e-learning especially video conferencing and audio conferencing coupled with third party software solution for content aggregation and hosting on grid nodes. This project has research component which involves exploring network infrastructure based experiments such as QoS, High-quality-video transmission and Multicasting and comes with specifi c interfaces for e-Learning grid services.

MULTILINGUAL e-LEARNING FRAMEWORK

e-Sikshak, is a multilingual e-Learning environment developed by C-DAC, Hyderabad. e-Sikshak provides features like Course Organiser, Discussion/Bulletin Board, Announcements, Assessment, Collaboration, Query Handler, email, WhiteBoard, Chat with Indian Language Interface. These functionalities are developed as components and can be interfaced to other e-Learning tools.

C-DAC, Hyderabad developed Cyber Security Course content having multiple presentations formats which include PPT, PDF, Recorded Video Lecture, Flash Animations. This course is being offered over internet to working professionals, IT administrators and Information Security personnel. The work was supported by eLearning Division, DIT,

Government of India.The e-Sikshak

framework is being used by C-DAC to offer e-Learning courses like Core Competency in Software Process Management (CCSPM) and Cyber Security. Indian Law Institute, New Delhi is offering course on Intellectual Property Rights using eSikshak. This work is developed as part of a funded R&D project of e-Learning group, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India.

INITIATIVES IN e-EDUCATION

Quality Assurance Framework for

e-Learning is a three year project funded by e-Learning Division, Department of Information Technology, Government of India”


POWERGRID as a public utility, is committed to the principle of good governance

and has adopted a multidimensional approach in accomplishment of the mandate of e-Governance. The vision of e-Governance in POWERGRID is ‘Transformation of POWERGRID into KNOWLEDGEGRID’. The mantra for e-Governance is “IT is Of the user, For the user, By the user”.

The objective of e-Governance initiatitive in POWERGRID is empowering all users of its IT enabled services and facilities covering all its functional areas for the benefi t of all stakeholders such as the organisation, employees, government, State Electricity Boards and peer organisations, business partners/vendor communities and the citizens and society at large.

MILESTONES OF e-GOVERNANCE

The continuously growing and increasingly demanding business environment as well as transparency in business function calls for e-Governance in all business processes. POWERGRID has taken a holistic approach towards e-Governance initiatives.

ENTERPRISE WIDE AREA NETWORK

A futuristic Enterprise Wide Area Network (EWAN) was envisaged in 2002 to establish state-of-the-art infrastructure as a platform for e-Governance initiatives. EWAN consists of 24x7 data centres with high uptime and high speed connectivity (2/10 Mbps) among the various critical locations of the organisation. EWAN is capable of carrying data, voice and video traffi c across the connected locations.

Two dedicated Internet leased links (8 Mbps and 3 Mbps) have been provided at corporate centre, Gurgaon as a single gateway to Internet for all connected locations. e-Governance initiative is overlain on the top of converged EWAN

infrastructure. The e-Governance initiatives comprise of IT enabled services for internal and external stakeholders bundled under the key elements viz. DATANET, VIDEONET, VOICENET.

DATANET

DATANET comprises of data services which are provided through converged network. The following services are provided through DATANET:

Integrated Grid Management System: Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System/Energy Management has been deployed with state-of-the art technology for management of grid operation of extra high voltage intra and inter regional network of power system.

Centralised Finance and Accounting System (FAS): FAS is an in-house system which captures all fi nancial transaction across the organisation and provides online status of the same.

The POWERGRID website, www. powergridindia.com, has multifaceted features to act both as information portal as well as single platform for web service delivery. The web Servises are Inspection Management System(IMS), Online Recruitment System, Online Complaint Management System, Online Tender System, Online Bill Tracking System and Sub-Vendor Status System.

VIDEONET

VIDEONET provides video conferencing facility to the top/middle management level personnel at Corporate Centre and Regional Head Quarters. At corporate

centre, Gurgaon a high end MCU based video conferencing unit has been installed which is capable of carrying out video conferencing with three locations simultaneously at 512 Kbps.

The VIDEONET system is being used on a regular basis for project monitoring, budget monitoring and e-Training. The use of video conferencing system has resulted in huge cost saving and time saving by avoiding journey of the top/ middle personnel.

VOICENET

Implementation of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system known as VOICENET is one of the biggest implementations of VOIP system so far in INDIA. The coverage of this System is in the corporate centre and the thirteen regional offi ces of POWERGRID. The VOICENET includes around 1,300 telephone sets distributed across the connected locations. The VoIP system has helped in improving the cost effective communication among the employees.

CONCLUSION

Considering POWERGRID pioneering initiative in e-Governance Ministry of Power has entrusted POWERGRID with the project of establishment of National Power Monitoring Centre (NPMC). The centre has been established with a control room in the Ministry of Power as an apex monitoring setup for a country wide power scenario of central and state power projects as well as online grid operational status. The futuristic planning and effective execution of e-Governance projects has resulted into huge tangible and intangible benefi t to the company and society. However, POWERGRID foresees this not as a destination but as a journey, an endless journey of improvement.

Samir Chaudhury, DGM(IT) Sunil Kumar, Manager(IT)

F E A T U R E

POWERGRID KNOWLEDGEGRIDTOPOWERGRID KNOWLEDGEGRIDPOWERGRID has adopted a multidimensional approach for empowering all users of its IT enabled services and facilities covering all its functional areas for the benefi t of all stakeholders

The e-Governance initiatives of POWERGRID comprises of IT enabled services for internal and external stakeholders”

“


F E A T U R E

POWERTEL offers its country wide telecom network to support the e-Governance initiatives of Government of India and various state governments

POWERTEL has the unique distinction of being the only telecom

player with a country wide over head optic fi bre network using Optical Ground Wire (OPGW) on its vast power transmission infrastructure making it sturdy, secure and vandalism proof. We have a network coverage of more than 20,000 Kms with multiple self resilient rings covering over 100 cities.

The DWDM backbone network has a capability of 32 lamda capacity with scalability to Terabit capacity level and the entire network is monitored 24x7 and managed through Network Management Systems established at its National and Regional Control Centres.

Our network reliability is of 99.99% and the licenses we hold are ISP Category “A” and National Long Distance (NLDO).

Our clientele include country’s leading NLDOs, Cellular Operators, ILDS, ISPs, BPOs , MNCsand government agencies. The range of services offered by us includes provisioning of leased circuits and IP leased circuits at E1, DS3, STM1 levels and above. POWERGRID is also geared up to provide value added services such as Video Conferencing, VoIP, and MPLS based VPNs utilising its network.

The Pilot Project successfully completed for installation of GSM& Microwave Antenna on its transmission

line towers which is expected to pave way for major break through for rural connectivity and e-Governance projects. POWERTEL offers its country wide telecom network to support the

e-Governance initiatives of Government of India and various state governments.

POWERING TELECOM SERVICESPOWERING TELECOM SERVICES


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S T A T E G O V E R N M E N T C O R N E R>

Making e-Nagriks for e-Governance

West Bengal had plans for setting up of 6,797 Common Service Centres (CSCs) across the state, when can we expect these CSCs to be functional? So far we have been able to put in place a little over 2,000 Common Service Centres (CSCs) in the state. There are two Service Level Agencies (SLAs) – one is SREI and another is Reliance Communications. These CSCs have started providing basic services such as providing birth and death certifi cates. Some of them have gone to the extent of tying up with the Electricity Boards for making bill payment options available, this has happened in the Hoogli district. They have also started providing services such as reservations in the Indian Railways. So far the response from the public has been good. In the Hoogli district the pilot projects are running successfully.

The contract for West Bengal State Wide Area Network (WBSWAN) was signed way back in September 2007. How are you addressing the issue of last mile connectivity through this? 90 – 95 percent of the work on the West Bengal State Wide Area Network (WBSWAN) is complete. We would be concluding the remaining work by the end of December 2008. We would be inaugurating it in the beginning of 2009. We have a pilot project in the Bardhaman district of West Bengal. WBSWAN only provides connectivity

up to the block level. Therefore, SWAN connects all the districts and an extension of it connects all the sub-division and block level But in Bardhaman, we have gone down to all the 277 Gram Panchayats. This initiative is the fi rst of it kind in the country. Now, we have plans for rolling out this pilot project in the remaining districts of the state. We have already send the proposal for the same to the Department of Information Technology (DIT), Government of India and they are examining the same. Since this project intends to connect all the Gram Panchayats, we would be glad if the Ministry of Panchayati Raj funds it. Another interesting thing we have done in Bardhaman is that instead of hardware based solutions for video conferencing, we have a local based company for developing the software based solution. This has reduced the cost per point from INR 2 lakh to about INR 4,000. We plan to put video conferencing softwares in all the Gram Panchayats of Bardhaman and some of them are already in place. In our interactions with the District and the Sub-Divisonal Administrtation, we have found out that these facilities are extensively being used. Encouraged by such feedback, we plan to replicate the model in other districts also.

How is the work on State Data Centre (SDC) progressing?The work on the State Data Centre (SDC) has been initiated. We already

http://www.itwb.org/

SiddharthPrincipal Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of West Bengal

“We are taking SWAN to the Gram Panchayats in West Bengal”

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have the consultants and the implementing agency in place for the same. The construction of the building for the SDC has started which we expect to be functional very soon. In the meanwhile, the data is being stored in the National Informatics Centre (NIC). The data will be eventually transferred to the SDC, which we expect to be functional by May 2009. There is no delay with the development and storage of data because of the absence of the SDC right now. The SDC will be an extension of these services.

With the current threatened security scenario of our country, do you think the computerised police departments of West Bengal will act as an effective tool for checking terrorist activities in the state? In terms of physical security in areas such as Salt Lake or Rajaghat, we are in conversation with the IT industry and the Police Departments for enabling ICT based security solutions. We have gone a step ahead of that, the IT Department of West Bengal has chosen a private entity who is developing a product for security purposes. The product which is being developed by us is a very interactive one and it enables the analysis of any movement and can take a picture which can be sent on a mobile device of the security professional. We are trying to ensure all the safety and security aspects pertaining to cyber security, IT industry security and how to improve public surveillance with the help of ICT tools.

What has been the major partnerships in West Bengal under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model? Apart from private sector, do you have partnerships with other agencies outside the realm of government? In West Bengal, number of e-Governance projects has been on a PPP model such as WBSWAN and CSCs. In terms of the video-conferencing as well, we worked on a PPP model as there was a close collaboration with the private players. So far, we have had a very fruitful partnership with private players for the e-Governance projects.

West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation (WEBEL) has developed a number of products which are not strictly PPP based, but they are developed in close collaboration with academic institutions such as IIT Kharagpur, IT Department, Jadavpur University. We also have the Centre for Promotion of Open Source which promotes the use of open source software which ensures that the masses have a taste of a ICT. We have developed the software called Baisakhi Linux in Bengali language for the benefi t of the citizens.

What has been the key achievements in developing IT software?It is our intention to cover most of the schools in the remote areas by providing them education through multimedia. From the very beginning, we have tried to address the people who are physically challenged. WEBEL has developed a BRAIL software in collaboration with IIT Kharagpur where people can use libraries through this software. This software is being used in 120 schools, in 22 states in 13 different languages across the country. We are already thinking about the health sector as well. We developed a tele-medicine product

which is used in four projects where the lateral hospitals are connected with the nodal hospitals in West Bengal. Beyond the state, the product is used in the North-Eastern regions as well, in states such as Tripura. These two products have won all major national awards.

Department of Information Technology, GoI has emphasised that state Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) are going to be the focus for the next few years, what are the developments on this front in West Bengal? I am a bit disillusioned. The Detail Project Report (DPR) for the Mission Mode Projects has also been prepared and we are now waiting for the funds to be released by the Government of India for rolling out these projects. Though the government processes takes a long time, the Government of India is taking a little longer to release the funds. We are waiting for these funds, so that we can start the process. It has not been done for any other state as well. If it is done for one line ministry, it will be done for all the other ones. We have been told that some development is happening under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM). Whichever, way it is, the MMPs can be rolled out only when the money come rolling.

In the implementation of the various e-Governance projects across West Bengal, what do you think have been the major roadblocks?One of the major roadblocks in the implementation of e-Governance projects has been Capacity Building. Issues of convincing, orientation, training the people and how to motivate the people to be a part of the process. One very important thing in this regard is change management. To achieve this there is a need for course re-engineering and streamlining the procedures where legislative and executive policies and orders can play an effective role. There will be attitudinal problems, mental blocks and there will be a feeling of erosion of their authority. But if these are overcome, there will be more transparency and accountability in the system, which is the main objective of e-Governance.

What are the other e-Governance projects in the pipeline for the year 2009?The WBSWAN will be completed in 2009. Our focus will be to ensure that all the CSCs are in place. We have two e-Districts which are operational right now. One is the Bankura and the other in Jalpaiguri. e-Districts are envisaged as a medium for providing seamless administration from one department to another. If this project succeeds, then I think that e-Governance will go beyond from being department specifi c to bring all districts together. We also expect that the State Data Centre (SDC) to be fully operational.

Would you like to give any message for our readers?I believe that what is required in e-Governance, is to develop e-Nagriks in each and every corner of the country. My intention is not just to make a person learn how to use a computer. Rather, my intention is to make a person realise how a computer can make his / her life easier.

Nilikshi, [email protected]


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Chhattisgarh Setting Example

You informed egov last year that CHhattisgarh Online information system for Citizen Empowerment (CHOiCE) will be replicated in rural areas under the Common Service Centres scheme. How far has this been successful in catering to the different needs of urban and rural areas?CHOiCE state wide rollout is going on as per schedule. Chhattisgarh has already completed selection process through transparent process and selected its two Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) operators - AISECT for Durg & Korba Zones and Zoom Developers for Raipur and Raigarh Zones. The Government to Citizen (G2C) services are already under fi nal stages of testing / fi ne tuning in fi ve districts for workfl ow, roles, responsibility of authority and other technical issues such as connectivity master data population. It is expected that entire 3000 rural CHOiCE Centres as part of CSC will be fully operational for G2C services by August 2009 as per the revised schedule.

Regarding catering to the different needs of urban and rural areas the issues in Chhattisgarh are three fold namely technological infrastructure, capacity and service requirements. The technology infrastructure work in terms of strengthening backend support including upgradation of server farm, redundant lease lines, multiple instances for application server, and other performance and security infrastructure are already complete or are in advance stages of

completion. Signifi cant success has already been made in capacity building for handholding support required for such a vast rural deployment roll out. The formal support structure and units are already in place and continuous training / retraining programme of stake holders is underway in big way.

In terms of specifi c rural centric services requirements, state is in advance stages of completion / integration of these services. These services are mostly related to land records and welfare related information / delivery mechanisms required in rural area in the state, most of which are ready to be made functional after undergoing rigorous testing.

Our priority also includes intersecting or cross departmental / organisational rural application from different base / platforms. CHOiCE will transform the e-Governance for rural citizen, once the State Services Delivery Gateway (SSDG) is made functional with help of state partner Centre for Development and Advanced Computing (CDAC).

Give us an update on the State Data Centre (SDC) in Chhattisgarh? State of Chhattisgarh based on its requirements has been considered and sanctioned funds along with large state category. The ‘Pre Draft’ document for selection of Centre Operator submitted by State Consultant is already being scrutinised and shall be submitted, after approval from the State Project Committee, to Department of Information Technology, GoI, in a

“CGSWAN is the largest WiMAX 802.16d deployment in Asia connecting 3,000 Government offi ces of the state government”

http//:www.chips.gov.in/

Aman Kumar Singh Secretary Information Technology and CEO - ChiPS, Government of Chhattisgarh

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short span of time. Taking into account, the growing trend of miscreant attacking economic nerve centres, the state is creating a world class secured civil structure. Our State Data Centre (SDC) Consultant is helping in selection of technology infrastructure which is suffi ciently future proof, support state responsibility towards citizen, can embraces change faster and at less expense with lower ongoing operating cost. We as part of strategy cautiously spend more time on planning then in execution. We are hopeful to bring this infrastructure at the same time along with other core infrastructure and utilise the fund within the right time frame.

The implementation of State Wide Area Network (SWAN) in Chhattisgarh is expected to be completed by March 2009. What is the progress so far and will it achieve its expected time line?Chhattisgarh State Wide Area Network (CGSWAN) is a hybrid backbone connecting all districts and eventually Blocks using Lease lines, VSAT and Wi-MAX. It is also the largest WiMAX 802.16d deployment in Asia connecting 3000 Government offi ces of the state government. Chhattisgarh is the only state which has cared to include all its offi ces as part of horizontal connectivity. After following a transparent bid process TCS has been selected as BOOT Operator for the state and agreement in this regard has already been inked on October 8, 2008. The roll out work has already started in full swing though the state is witnessing assembly election but this has not deterred the ongoing CGSWAN rollout work. Entire dispatch, intermediate task and milestones are strictly adhered to. The vertical connectivity for all districts and blocks shall be completed in the next four month, which is well ahead of the set deadlines. The completion date of project for all horizontal offi ces is August 2009.

Your state has several fi rsts to its credit in regard to e-Governance. Could you highlight the key lessons to be learned from such achievements, especially by those states that are still lagging behind? Chhattisgarh’s approach is rather simplistic which other states may also evaluate for their own state requirements. Our entire focus was on requirements for citizen services delivery and citizen empowerment, and never on selection of a particular technology. One of the most important part of this entire e-Governance projects for us is the full spectrum thinking to include all component, functions and coopt all stake holders. We could ensure projects to be successful by institutionilisation of all the factors stated earlier. We have constituted an empowered committee under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary with proper process in place to take right decisions backed by required notifi cations from cabinet of the state. This in turn gives direction and guidance to the project execution committee constituted with proper representation from the stake holding departments and organisations.

In our selections of technology part in any project, we always preferred open standards, system and protocols on wider / multiple delivery channels including Internet, XML to describe data, no limitation on usage by multiple citizen - clients from the outset, virtualisation of resources and their capabilities, and lastly maximum level of automation possible

with it. For us secure, reliable system is a sine quanon. Our state has pragmatic approach for open standards rather than having a ‘Jehadi’ argumentative approach for open, free or proprietary codes. At the same time, for every project by us measurement matrix on how and what to improve is a mandatory. These matrixes are ensured to match with service-level agreement elements and ensured allocation of appropriate resources. We proactively create a feedback mechanism along with the system to ensure citizen and user needs are being addressed in a timely way.

What are the key outcomes of the state Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) in Chhattisgarh? Our state has taken a proactive approach on e-Governance and now we are rightly placed for being supported by the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). One of the most welcome outcomes is that the state is already through with pilot phase and poised for statewide roll out of all such projects with necessary infrastructure pieces in place. The immense learning we have from being an early starter is giving us clear understanding on change management, state citizen specifi c requirements and department readiness and capacity building within the state. However, in some of the projects such as e-Procurement and other state specifi c initiative we may have to wait for some time before DIT provides central assistance.

We have observed that negative bidding is becoming a trend in acquiring government tenders. What are your comments?We have always preferred leveraging strengths of private organisations in its e-Governance initiative and has benefi ted from such collaborative partnerships. Negative bids received in projects are an indication that business entities view the state as being a good investment destination. Perfect execution of technology initiative and creation of corresponding business value propositions associated with the execution are the two most important goals for such collaboration. However, the state shall be extremely careful that it is not a monopolistic trap by any greedy corporate.

What are the other e-Governance projects in the pipeline for the year 2009? During the coming year our major e-Governance initiative for the state shall include creation of ‘State GIS Application Centre’ which shall be a state of art facility for the utilisation of special GIS data set already created by the state. Digital Secretariat and Citizen Call Centre are the other two major initiatives that the state is undertaking. The citizen call centre will be a one stop personalised help desk of the government to connect directly to its citizen. The state is also working on its Transport Management System and Integrated Check Post on its borders with other state. These state of the art facilities shall do away the multiple check post of different departments and also regulate vehicle playing within or ‘out to out’ the state. Another ambitious initiation includes agriculture information network for the state farmers. Apart from this, other central assisted Mission Mode Projects will also be taken up.

egov Team



Target: 100% e-Literacy

Kerala was the fi rst state to have achieved 100 percent literacy in the country. When can we expect the same for e-Governance?We are confi dent that our state is going to add another ‘fi rst’ to its credit within a short span of time by achieving a full hundred percent e-Literacy. The state government has rightly understood that the digital gap includes the imbalances in physical access to technology as well as the imbalances in resources and skills needed to effectively participate as a digital citizen. So in order to address all these issues related to the digital divide in a holistic manner, the government has introduced many a e-Governance project like Akshaya, Friends. By setting up around 2,500 Akshaya centres all across the state, the government tries to ensure the presence of at least two Akshaya centres in a village, it became easy for even the rural people to have access to the information and communication tools. Akshaya not only provides physical access to the new technology for the people, but also it trains them in using the computers. 100 percent household e-Literacy has been attained in Malappuram, Kannur, Kollam, Kazarkode, Kozhikode and Thrissur districts and post-literacy services like e-Pay, e-Krishi, e-Learning are being introduced here. Malappuram and Kannur districts have been offi cially declared as 100 percent household

e-literate districts. The government is slowly changing the mode of service delivery (through computers and the internet), and is simultaneously taking steps to enable the public to avail these facilities. In short, the holistic approach of the state government towards the e-governance projects helps them reach the public effectively and you can expect Kerala to be a 100 percent e-governed state within a few years.

e-District has been rolled out in two districts of Kerala – Kannur and Palakkad. What is the ground reality in terms of roll out in other districts?The e-District project started in Kannur and Palakkad in July 25, 2008. Presently, the system requirement study is going on for the pilot district, based on which selection of solution provider and implementing agency would be made. After the completion of the project (which is expected to take 18 months ), an impact study will be conducted. The state-wide roll out of the project will take place only after this.

How do you plan to utilised funds for State Data Centres (SDCs)? The State Data Centre has been identifi ed as one of the core infrastructure components to consolidate services, applications and infrastructure to provide effi cient electronic delivery of

http://www.kerala.gov.in/dept_it/index.htm

“100 percent household e-Literacy has been attained in Malappuram, Kannur, Kollam, Kazarkode, Kozhikode and Thrissur districts and post-literacy services like e-Pay, e-Krishi, e-Learning are being introduced here”

Dr Ajay Kumar Secretary, Information Technology, Government of Kerala

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G2G, G2C and G2B services. We already have a tier III 5,000 sq. ft State Data Centre which has been operational for over 5 years. We have over 100 servers and 150 applications of different Departments running in the existing State Data Centre. The existing State Data Centre is near saturation. Recently, we had to augment its UPS capacity to meet demand from Departments. The new State Data Centre sanctioned by the Government of India is being set up in Technopark, Trivandrum. This is another 6,000 sq. ft facility being developed and will cater to increasing demand for Data Centre from several Departments. It will be linked to the existing State Data Centre and augment the existing facility. Wipro has been selected as the consultants and RFP is near fi nalization. We expect to fl oat the RFP next month. A total of Rs 55.68 crores has been sanctioned by the Department of Information Technology, which will be utilised for setting up a new State Data Centre for Kerala. Of this INR 15.5 crores will be spent as the capital expenditure and the rest will be used to meet the operational expenditure.

IT and technology parks is the next big thing in Kerala. Can you give us an update on its progress so far?Aiming the new horizons in the industry, the government has set up a new company, Kerala State IT Infrastructure Ltd (KSITI), which will play a crucial role in identifying locations, partners for investment and resources required for implementation of all IT infrastructure projects. This company will also channelise private investments into the sector through the PPP route.

Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram and Infopark in Kochi have become the most sought after destinations by the IT investors in India. But the government takes care that the IT development in Kerala does not centre around these two cities only. The benefi ts are disseminated to all parts of Kerala through a hub and spoke model of development envisaged by the State Government. In this model, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode will act as hubs and surrounding locations as spokes.

Each of these parks is less than an hour drive from an airport and connected by National Highway. The land is already with the government. Most of these facilities are being developed as SEZs with both IT space as well as related social infrastructure.

What is the status of the common e-Procurement platform which was said to be set up during 2008 – 09?

e-Procurement is one of the Integrated Mission Mode Projects, which is going to be implemented in the state soon. Department of Commerce, Government of India has identifi ed Kerala as one of the three states to implement the e-procurement programme in the next phase. Data collection in this regard is completed and the Detailed Project Report preparation is underway. National Institute of Smart Government (NISG) and Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PWC) are the project consultants. Kerala has identifi ed eight Departments/organisations to implement the pilot run for the project. We expect that the RFP for the service provider can be fl oated within next three months.

Your department has emphasised upon the localisation of content and celebrated 2008 as the year of promoting linguistic diversity in cyberspace. How far has the campaign been successful in its mission? Also, is the content generation being outsourced?Malayalam Computing and Entegramam projects are two major projects by the government which focus on the strengthening of local language content in the cyber sphere. Malayalam Computing, is a Kerala Government attempt to hinder the gradual erosion and disappearance of our local language, Malayalam. Started in February 2008, the campaign is active at present in fi ve districts of Kerala – Kannur, Malappuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta and Kozhikode. It is expected to cover all the other nine districts of Kerala soon. The campaign is being carried out through the network of 2500 Akshaya Centres around the state. Each Akshaya centre reaches approximately 1200-1500 families. The campaign will address about 40-50 lakh households in Kerala over the next three years. The campaign is being carried out in participation with local self governance bodies and other social organisations. The website www.malayalam.kerala.gov.in, which was hosted as part of Malayalam computing campaign helps the public download necessary software and training manual on Malayalam Computing.

In order to increase the local language content in the web-sphere, it was decided to host a portal for each panchayat in the state, documenting all details of the village – be it on agriculture, geographical area, culture or artforms. The project named ‘Entegramam’ (which translated in English means My Village) is one of its kind as this is a project where the portals have been created by the local people, about local content in the local language. On demand from local community, a marriage portal is under development as part of the

Expansion of Technopark Phase III, Thiruvananthapuram - in about 100 acres of landTechnocity project at Thiruvananthapuram in about 450 acres of landSetting up of Technopark Kollam in about 40 acres of landExpansion of Infopark, Kochi in about 150 acres of landSetting up of Infopark at Cherthala in about 65 acres of land ((which is less than half an-hour drive from Ernakulam city)Setting up of Infopark at Ambalappuzha, Alappuzha district in about 100acres of landSetting up of IT Park at Koratti, Trichur in about 40 acres of landSetting up of Cyber Park at Kozhikode in about 70 acres of landSetting up of IT park at Thaliparambu, Kannur in about 30 acres of landSetting up of IT park at Kasargode in about 100 acres of land

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New projects in the pipeline

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entegramam project. This would meet the local requirements of online match-making in the community.

You had told us earlier that you envision a move towards m-Governance. What kind of government to citizen services would be available on a mobile device? Are you in talks with any of the telecom service provides regarding this?m-Governance involves the utilisation of all kinds of wireless and mobile technology, services, applications and devices for improving the service delivery. Several initiatives are underway. For one of the projects (Dr. SMS), the pilot district implementation has been completed.

Dr. SMS is a unique attempt to deliver healthcare information through mobile phones. It enables citizens to use their mobile phones to get information on health resources. It provides the user with a comprehensive list of medical facilities available in their locality, like doctors or hospitals having expertise in various medical disciplines (cardiology, nephrology etc). In the pilot phase, the project is implemented in Kozhikode, where it is fully functional and it helps the users avail the facility by sending an SMS to a pre-designated number (9446460600). The content of the SMS should include the pin code of the locality where the person concerned is looking for the medical facilities/ doctors. We are in the process of rolling it out to other districts. The data entry is complete in four more districts and we may expect the roll-out in these districts in next few months. Meanwhile we are also in the process of identifying an SMS aggregator through which the Dr. SMS service can be provided. An RFP for the same shall be brought out in a couple of months.

Another project which is part of m-Governance is the Enforcement

Automation project in the Motors Vehicle (MV) department. This project envisages the use of wireless technology to facilitate enforcement by the offi cials of the department. One of the benefi ts of the project is the ready availability of online real time data of vehicles and license holders, which in turn will strengthen the enforcement, bring in effi cient penalty collection system and thereby ensure strict enforcement and improvement of road safety measures in the state.

The main m-Governance project that is in the pipeline is development of an overall m-Governance platform for the State. This would enable provision of e-Governance services through mobile telephones. As part of this development of mobile infrastructure, twenty services across eight

Departments shall be provided on a mobile platform. The consultant has been identifi ed and kick-off of the project is expected shortly.

What are the other e-Governance projects in the pipeline for the year 2009? Apart from stabilising the ongoing projects and expanding their scope geographically and in terms of processes being covered, we are planning several new initiatives which we expect will take shape during the next year. As part of stabilising the activities, third-party software testing and security management of our e-Governance applications will become an important part of our efforts. Among new initiatives being planned, some of the main ones include: e-Filing of Value-Added Tax; Setting up Centre for Advanced Training in Free and Open Source Software (CATFOSS) in Kochi; e-Inventory Management Implementation; Use of email for work policy; Kerala State Service Delivery Gateway; Strategy for use of IT by Small Scale Business and Industrial Enterprises; and e-gov initiatives in PSUs.

egov Team

Malappuram and Kannur districts offi cially declared as 100 percent household e-Literate districts100 servers and 150 applications of different Departments running in the existing State Data CenterTechnopark in Thiruvananthapuram and Infopark in Kochi are the sought after destinations by the IT investors in IndiaKerala identifi ed as one of the three states to implement the e-Procurement programme in the next phaseHealthcare information through mobile phones has been implemented at the district levelOverall m-Governance project is in the pipeline

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HIGHLIGHTS



PPP: Philosophy of Success

Madhya Pradesh plans to set up a total of 9,232 Common Services Centres (CSCs), by when can we expect all these CSCs to be functional? The Common Service Centre (CSC) project is being implemented in full earnest. Approximately 1,200 CSCs have already become operational. The salient point of this project in Madhya Pradesh (MP) is that we have already developed Government-to-Citizen (G2C) www.canvas-mponline.gov.in which is mandated to provide e-Governance services to the citizens. This will defi nitely help in making CSCs viable. Five partners from the Public Private Partnership (PPP) have been selected to implement the project in different areas of the state. As per the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed with PPP partners, CSCs are to become fully functional by March 2009. However, because of the model code of conduct additional time is being sought by the partners.

The Madhya Pradesh State Wide Area Network (MPSWAN) project for which the bidding is slated to be completed by December 2008. How do you plan to address the issue of last mile connectivity through this project? The project envisages connecting all block headquarters to the state capital through districts and divisional Head Quarters (HQs). All block Head Quarters, Tehsil HQs and District HQs are being connected to the State HQ

through optical fi ber network. In each Block/Tehsil/District HQ the necessary equipments will be installed, one Point of Presence (POP) is also being established. The work of establishing POPs is on the verge of completion. The offi ces will be horizontally connected to these POPs through wireless or wired line connections. A minimum bandwidth of 2 Mbps shall be provided at each Block HQ which will be scaleable in future.

The connectivity to the end-user is based on either one or more of the standard technologies like leased circuits, radio frequency dial-up circuits or using appropriate ethernet ports for the individual offi ces. Tulip IT is implementing the MPSWAN. Service provider will ensure uptime of SWAN and service levels. The horizontal connectivity to various departments and offi ces will be provided via copper/optical cables and broadband wireless radio on unlicensed band, depending on the feasibility. It is expected that 75 percent of the horizontal connectivity shall be provided through wireless. In Madhya Pradesh, a cost effective broadband connectivity to deal with the challenge of the last mile wireless technology is also being worked out.

How do you plan to utilise funds relesed by DIT for State Data Centres? State Data Centres (SDCs) is an important Information Technology (IT) initiative under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), of Government of India.

http://www.dit.mp.gov.in/

“MP was the fi rst state to put cyber treasury in place whereby citizens can avail the facility by making anytime, anywhere tax/fee payments”

Anurag JainSecretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Madhya Pradesh

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Madhya Pradesh Government has also adopted the project and its implementation has been initiated. All Projects categorised under Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) including other e-Governance projects of the state will be hosted at SDC. This will ensure better delivery of government services to citizens.

In Madhya Pradesh, PricewaterHouse Coopers has been appointed as the consultant. The Detailed Project Report (DPR) has been prepared, submitted and approved by Government of India (GOI) with a total project outlay of INR 54 crore for selection of private partner, who will be responsible for installation, commissioning, operation and maintenance of SDC.

Accordingly, the Department of Information Technology, Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP) has started the process of implementation of the project. The project SDC is being implemented in Bhopal for storing the data and applications of the various government departments. The tender process for construction of building work has been completed. The building plan has been made with complete security system in place which will not only prevent unauthorized access but also have the facility to detect fi re and intrusion. The building will have provision for 100 percent power backup and will be connected to Madhya Pradesh State Wide Area Network (MPSWAN). The SDC will enable easy access to common data of the state in safe and secured manner. It will also eliminate the need for setting up of individual data centres. We will issue the tenders to Public Private Partnership (PPP) partner to set up SDC after a couple of months so that the two processes of construction of building and installation of SDC are synchronized and the whole project is completed by July 2009.

Once the building is in place we plan to make this SDC a central server where all e-Governance projects will fi nd a place and delivery of citizen service will become faster, safer and reachable.

State Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) are been given serious focus now. What is your agenda in this regard?In Madhya Pradesh we are focussing on Mission Mode Projects (MMPs). Accordingly, we have developed the Roadmap for e-Governance in the state. Madhya Pradesh Agency for Promotion of Information Technology (MAP_IT), a state owned society, has been made as the nodal agency for implementation of the project. Consultant for implementation of MMP has been identifi ed and an MOU has been signed for carrying out the computerisation work of MMP. Presently we are working on several projects like: Jail, Health, Forest, upgradation of Commercial Tax, Police and Cooperatives.

Computerisation in Madhya Pradesh has achieved many feats. Do you think the benefi ts have started percolating to the citizens?

In Madhya Pradesh, major departments like Land Records, Transport, Commercial Taxes, Treasury and Accounts, Mandi have been computerised and this has naturally benefi ted the citizens. We believe that e-Governance or computerisation is crucial for bringing in effi ciency, transparency and 24x7 availability to the governance.

This results in increased satisfaction level of the citizens who are the end customer to the services provided by the government departments. To my knowledge, MP was the fi rst state to put cyber treasury in place. Citizens can avail the facility by making anytime, anywhere tax/fee payments. MPOnline is the portal to provide citizen centric services. At present approximately 700 kiosks are providing these services.

We have taken a decision to converge Common Service Centres (CSC) project with Madhya Pradesh Online (MPOnline). At present the major services provided by the portal are online payment of electricity bills, water tax and fi lling of forms online. Computerisation of Transport Department has really made tremendous impact on the way the business is transacted in Transport Department. People can pay tax online. The registration of the vehicle can be done at the dealer point. Thus one does not really have to go to the offi ce of the Regional Transport Offi cer (RTO) physically.

Fire Alarm Alert System of the Forest Department is a very innovative project worth mentioning here. The satellite senses the fi re and alerts the offi cer in-charge of the area where the fi re has started. The response time has come down to a few hours compared to a few days earlier. This is defi nitely saving a lot of natural wealth.

There are a lot of private players in e-Governance projects in your state. How has been your experience with the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) so far?The experience of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) is good in MP. Most of the projects have been implemented in the PPP mode. In our policy we have categorically stated to promote PPP as a philosophy and have attempted to implement in the e-Governance projects accordingly.

We are following the philosophy on PPP not only in the infrastructure projects like Common Service Centres (CSCs) and State Wide Area Network (SWAN).

Moreover, our various projects like e-Tendering, computerisation of Transport Department, Madhya Pradesh Online (MPOnline) are also in the PPP mode.

What are the other e-Governance projects in the pipeline for the year 2009?We want to achieve full convergence of CSC and MPOnline. We are also working at state portal, ICT in school education, roll out of e-Districts, upgradation of treasury and commercial taxes networks, Jail, Health, Forest, and Police Departments computerisation.

egov Team

Approximately 1200 CSCs have already become operationalFive partners from the Public Private Partnership (PPP) have been selected to implement the e-governance project in different areas of the stateConnectivity of Head Quarters and District HQs with the State HQ has been done with optical fi ber network

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HIGHLIGHTS



Computer Literacy Boosting e-Governance

The Department of Information Technology has released funds for State Data Centre (SDCs) in 27 states and union territories of India, which includes Himachal Pradesh as well. How do you plan to utilise these funds?The State Data Centre (SDC) in Himachal Pradesh is under construction. We will soon be issuing Request for Proposal (RFP) inviting private companies to set up the SDC. The SDC will be owned and managed by the Department of Information Technology. However, regular maintenance and operation of the data centre will be handled by the private party involved. We will be spending approximately INR 50 crores on this project.

A web based job portal for all stakeholders has been started in the state, how do you think the target audience is receiving these e-Governance initiatives? The web based job portal has been a great help to the industry as well as the job seekers of the state. Due to rapid industrialisation in the state in the last few years, demand for manpower with various skills has also increased. This portal helps to match the requirement of the industry with the available skills without going through the process of advertisement

or taking help of recruitment agencies. The government is also able to monitor the actual number of job seekers and creation of employment. This initiative has been highly appreciated both by entrepreneurs and the unemployed youth.

In your view, how far has the telemedicine project benefi ted the common man?Himachal Pradesh has a diffi cult geographical terrain due to which patients can not easily travel to the hospitals where specialists are available. There are not many private medical institutions in the state. In such circumstances telemedicine project has proved to be a boon to the people. At present 19 remote locations are connected to Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), Shimla which is further connected to Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. The doctors in the remote locations are regularly making tele-consultation with the specialists in IGMC and PGI. Many critically ill patients have already benefi ted from this facility. Staff Clinical Pathological Conference (CPC) from PGI Chandigarh is also broadcasted through telemedicine network every wednesday for the use of Post Graduate students/ Resident Doctors of IGMC.

http://www.himachaldit.nic.in

B K AgarwalSecretary, Department of Infomation Technology, Government of Himachal Pradesh

“Non-Availability of enough funds is a magor roadblock in the implementation of e-Governance in Himachal Pradesh”

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In various e-Governance projects there is often a need for collaboration with private players. How has been your experience with private players in terms of partnership and performance so far?Various projects like Himachal Pradesh State Wide Area Network (HIMSWAN), AGRISNET, and Common Service Centres (CSCs) are being implemented in collaboration with private companies in our state. Our experience has been that if rigorous screening is done before awarding the contract and terms and condition are laid down explicitly, there is no problem afterwards. Nevertheless, a project is implemented in collaboration with private players the department must have adequate technical capabilities and strict system of monitoring.

What is the current status on the well–intended project of setting up of 3,366 Common Service Centres for which tender was fl oated on 9th February 2008 by Himachal Pradesh?The objective of this project is to develop a platform that can enable government, private and social sector organisations to align their social and commercial goals, especially for the benefi t of the rural population in the remotest corners of the country through a combination of IT-based as well as non-IT-based services. The Agreement has been signed with Service Centre Agencies (SCAs). They have started the process of identifi cation of Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) and we expect that all the CSCs will be operational by next year. To ensure delivery of more and more services through CSCs, we have started process of creating a State Portal and a State Delivery Gateway as well.

The state of Himachal Pradesh was also planning for AGRISNET for the benefi t of sectors like agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Horticulture and Fisheries. Can you provide us an update on the current status of this project?

AGRISNET proposes to create an interactive interface for Government to Citizen (G2C) i.e. for Farmers; and Government to Government (G2G) services i.e. services for the Department of Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries. In this project, we have provided training to around 500 employees of four departments involved in this project. Hardware and system software has been supplied and installed in all four departments up to district level. Agreement has been signed for the development of software. The Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India has approved funds for hardware to be given down to block level in the next phase.

In the implementation of the various e-Governance projects, what do you think have been the major roadblocks in your view?In Himachal Pradesh computer literacy among the government employees is very good. The political leadership here is committed to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for increasing the effi ciency and

transparency in the government. However, a major road block is non availability of enough funds. The Government of India is in the process of fi nalising policy guidelines for fi nancing of Mission Mode Projects (MMPs). I hope that after this, more funds will fl ow to the state and e-Governance will get a further boost.

In the next one year, what are the major developments we can expect to witness in the area of e-Governance in the state of Himachal Pradesh?Computerisation of Public Distribution System (PDS) is in pipeline, all the treasuries, a comprehensive web enabled system of grievance redressal, computerisation of all the revenue courts, maintenance of land records, property registration, Common Service Centres (CSCs) are some of the projects which are likely to be rolled out in the next one year.

egov Team

INR 50 crores to be spent on SDC19 remote locations are connected to Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), Shimla which is further connected to Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and and Research (PGIMER), ChandigarhAll CSCs will be operational by 2009.State Portal and a State Delivery Gateway under processG2C services through AGRISNET Computerisation of Public Distribution System (PDS) is in pipeline

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HIGHLIGHTS



Tapping the Advantage of ICT Literacy

Across the country, Common Service Centres (CSCs) are becoming a necessity. Kindly give us an update on the implementation of CSCs in Manipur? How many CSCs are operational?A total of 399 Common Service Centres (CSCs) are to be set up in Manipur at the rate of one CSC for every 6 villages. Out of this 360 will be new CSCs and 39 will be Community Information Centres converted into CSCs. The Service Centre Agency (SCA) for implementing CSC project in Manipur (in a Public Private Partnership (PPP)) model is Zoom Developers Ltd. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on August 28, 2008. We had expected that 80 CSCs will be operational by end of November 2008. However, the actual roll-out of CSCs is taking a little longer, but we hope that the delay will be made up once the arrangements are streamlined.

The DIT, Government of India, has released funds for State Data Centres in 27 States and UTs including Manipur. How do you plan to utilize these funds?The State Data Centres (SDC) funds will be utilised as per the guidelines of the project. As we could not get room

space in the existing infrastructure, a new fl oor is under construction in the Secretariat, for which the work is in progress. With the identifi ed fl oor space, the consultant for the project - Wipro Ltd. is preparing the Request for Proposal (RFP) for SDC, which will be issued in January 2009.

What is the status of implementation of Manipur State Wide Area Network (MSWAN)?Manipur has decided to deploy National Informatics Centre (NIC) for the SWAN project. However, choosing NIC has some disadvantages as there is no consultant manpower who will be available to tackle the ground work for survey and identifi cation of the SWAN Point of Purchase (PoPs), pursue and coordinate with the District Administration and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, make site preparation plans and cost estimates, work out costs for bandwidth. The District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs) have fi nally been persuaded to take up the site preparation works. The NIC had informed that they would like to place orders for SWAN equipment only when at least about 10 sites are ready, to avoid delay in installation after delivery. The BSNL which is the bandwidth provider

http://www.manipur.nic.in

“Employment Exchange, Finance Department, e-Procurement, Land Records, Geographical Information System (GIS) for administrative planning will be given priority in the future”

Ram MuivahSecretary- IT, Government of Manipur

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has completed work on 7 OFC lines and work is in progress. Overall, the SWAN implementation in Manipur has lagged behind. However, the State Government and NIC are making renewed efforts to push the project forward.

State Data Centre is an important arm of e-Governance. What are your states initiative in this regard?The state government will set up the State Data Centre (SDC) which will comply with the international standards. All data banks of the state will be hosted in the SDC for maximum effi ciency and security of data storage and transactions.

Are there any initiatives taken by your department in regards to capacity building? Is the IT literacy among the State offi cials in Manipur impressive?Information and Communication Technology (ICT) literacy of the state offi cials is good as they have been exposed to computer usage for several years now. Also the learning speed is quite impressive. This may be due to the fact that all government correspondence is in English only. Apart from this, the NIC conducts IT related courses regularly. This department is also sponsoring various ICT courses such as ICT security through DOEACC Centre at Imphal. A new computer centre is coming up at the State Academy of Training. All new trainees of accounts training from government departments are given compulsory computer literacy training.

Public Private Partnership (PPP) is gaining popularity among many states in India for e-Governance initiative. Are you also looking at the PPP model for increasing the reach of e-Governance in your State?The Common Service Centre project is being rolled out on a PPP model in Manipur. The issue of smart cards for driving licence by the Transport Department of Manipur, has also been done on a PPP model. We are looking

at PPP as a very effective model, and we plan to extend it to e-Procurement as well.

We are aware that the North East as a region is lagging behind in the e-Governance road-map of India. Do you see any possibility of leap-frogging in the near future? What in you opinion should be the government initiatives in this regard?The Government of India is taking many initiatives to bring the remote areas into the mainstream. The diffi cult topography, poor road connectivity and absence of power supply are tremendous constraints in the implementation of IT projects reaching out to remote areas. The most signifi cant initiative at present, are the towers (40 metre height) set up by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) which

are to be used by multiple Service Providers. There is a need to extend the Optical Fibre Communication (OFC) over power lines down to the 33KV level on the state government power grids with assistance from Government of India.

The operation may be on a PPP model, with the State Electricity Boards also getting revenue for use of their power grid tower infrastructure. The use of WiMAX and other new technologies to reach the remote locations is also given top priority.

What are the major e-Governance projects in the pipeline for the year 2009?For 2009, the major activities will be the implementation of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) projects for infrastructure, viz-a-viz State Data Centre, State Wide Area Network, Common Service Centres and Capacity Building. In the terms of application projects, Employment Exchange, Finance Department, e-Procurement, Land Records, Geographical Information System (GIS) for administrative planning will be given priority in the future.

egov Team

399 Common Service Centres (CSCs) are to be set up in Manipur at the rate of one CSC for every 6 villagesRequest for Proposal (RFP) for SDC, will be issued in January 2009 The BSNL which is the bandwidth provider has completed work on 7 OFC lines and work is in progress SDC for maximum effi ciency and security of data storage and transactionsA new computer centre is coming up at the State Academy of TrainingThe issue of smart cards for driving licence by the Transport Department of Manipur, has been done on a PPP modelWiMAX and other new technologies to reach the remote locations is also given top priority

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HIGHLIGHTS



Banking on Pawan

Complete computerisation of Land Records in Punjab was expected by July 2008. Is this target achieved? What are the key learnings fromthis project? The phase I of computerisation of Land Records in Punjab project is slated to be completed by December 2009. There are several issues which are addressed in the implementation of the project. There is some inconsistency in the Land Records under the Land Records Act and Manual. There are about 30 percent illogical and inconsistent data which would need more than 1 lakh Fard Badrs for correcting this data. In addition to this, there is huge work of standardisation of revenue terminology which needs to be carried out. The project also requires re-engineering the Revenue Sub-system. Lastly, the software development work is very complex for this project due to non-standard procedures being followed in different areas.

What is the status of e-District implementation in the pilot projects – Nawanshahr and Kapurthala? Are there similar projects planned for other districts as well? The project consultant has completed the assessment study for various kinds of citizen centric services at the pilot districts – Nawanshahr and Kapurthala. While doing so, SUWIDHA project was also studied from the citizen point of view to understand the service delivery mechanism. Individual and

joint workshops were conducted at pilot districts and state departments for drawing up a common Government Process Re-engineering (GPR) framework applicable to all identifi ed services in consultations with different stakeholders across the administrative structure. GPR framework encompasses technology enablers to fasten the internal work fl ow and enabling CSC for close proximity with the citizens. Suwidha/ Common Service Centres (CSCs) would act as interface from application submission till the fi nal delivery of service output to the citizens. The state government has in principle accepted the recommended GPR framework with an objective to automate the service delivery for the convenience of the citizen. As a next step, the project consultant will design re-engineered (TO-BE) system for all the identifi ed services and Functional Requirement Specifi cations (FRS) describing the functionality of the proposed automated services. In parallel, the process for selecting an agency would also be initiated for on-ground implementation of the project at pilot districts.

According to the e-District guidelines, the implementation of e-District project (Phase-I) is planned over a period of eighteen months for study, development, testing and roll-out in the two pilot districts. Thereafter, Request for Prposal (RFP) would be prepared for state wide roll out for the rest of the districts in the state in the next six months.

http://www.doitpunjab.gov.in/

“All Tehsils will be providing computerised Land Records by March 2009”

Narinderjit Singh Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Punjab

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What is the status of Punjab State Wide Area Network (PAWAN)? The order for vertical implementation of State Wide Network called PAWAN was given in the month of January 2008 on Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) model for a period of 5 years.

So far, we have setup 193 (out of 196) Point of Presence (PoPs) in the state, including one at the state level, 20 at district level and 172 at Sub-division/ level. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is providing 2 Mbps bandwidth for this project throughout the network.

Apart from this, 21 Video Conferencing Centres have also been setup under the project. We are now providing links from these PoPs to government offi ces which are within 100 meters from each of these PoPs which is expected to be completed by January ‘09.

For the horizontal connectivity of other government offi ces with nearest PoP, the department has already started the bidding process for the selection of BOOT operator and I am hopeful that the entire horizontal connectivity would be done within a period of 6-8 months from now after which we can say that the entire important state administration is connected via PAWAN.

How far has project SUWIDHA achieved its objective of providing a single user-friendly window help line to the citizens of Punjab? What have been your department’s efforts in popularising this service and other G2C services? This is one project which has received many awards at the national level. Single window Suwidha Centres have been established in all the districts and sub-divisions of the state. The project is highly successful in the delivery of citizen based services by the district administrations but a lot of work is still required to be done for improving the service level.

The centres are to be interconnected within the district and with state Head Quarters (HQ) for better management. Some of the back-end services are computeris ed but there are still many where this is to be done at the earliest. I am hopeful with the e-District project in the pipeline, the backend service departments would be computerised and their services integrated with Suwidha.

The connectivity with state HQ would also be established very shortly using SWAN and once this is done, the present problems faced by the citizens would be addressed more effectively.

The overall citizen reaction is very encouraging and more and more citizens are availing services through Suwidha. Once CSCs are established, the government plans to take Suwidha to the village level probably within one year from now and then large scale media campaigning would be undertaken to popularise the benefi ts of the project.

How many Common Service Centres (CSCs) are being established in Punjab till date? How many are operational? We are carrying out the required ground work in the state. There are 2112 CSCs to be established in the state which is a vast number needing a lot of preparation on the part of government. You will agree with me that many of the states where CSCs have been established have not been able to roll out suffi cient nunber of G2C services yet. There has been a lot of learning from the other states in this regard.

Public Private Partnership (PPP) has been a success for rolling out Common Service Centres (CSCs) in India. Do you see such partnerships in other sections of e-Governance? In Punjab, which are the departments which are following the path of PPP? For various e-Governance projects, the state government is opting for a PPP model for leveraging technical, managerial and fi nancial potential of private sector for faster implementation of e-Governance projects and also to act as a fi rst point interface to the citizen for the delivery of services. In fact, the state government has been following the path of PPP in infrastructure based projects and citizen centric projects to give boost to e-Governance for better governance.

Such projects include SWAN, Land Records, Property Registration, Transport, School Education The projects in pipeline are SWAN-Horizontal, CSC, SDC, Police, Excise and Taxation and e-District.

There are several state Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) that are already implemented in Punjab. What are thekey outcomes? After successful pilots, the Punjab government is implementing two state Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) namely Land Records, Property Registration as part of the horizontal replication programme of Department of Information Technology (DIT), Government of India in the state.

Out of 153, two Tehsils have already been made live for issuance of nakals for land records and all tehsils would be

live by March’09.

We have observed that negative bidding is becoming a trend in acquiring government tenders. What are your comments? In my view a company bids negatively where it is totally confi dent that it will be able to earn suffi ciently from the project and there is nothing wrong in doing so.

This will not adversely affect the level of services delivery to the citizens since Service Level Agreements (SLAs) clearly specify all the criteria regarding this.


Establishment of 2112 Common Service Centres (CSC) planned Computerisation of Transport Department soon Pilot implementation of e-Districts at Kapurthala and Jalandhar completedHorizontal Connectivity with SWAN in 6 - 8 months

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Projects in Pipline for 2009



Our Focus - Capacity Building

Kindly give us an update on the roll out of 8,500 Common Service Centres (CSCs) in Orissa. Common Service Centres (CSCs) are the front-end delivery centres of the government and private services to citizens.

As on date, 405 CSCs are in operation already, and we are expecting all the 8558 CSCs to be operational by June 2009. Awareness campaign is under way to create awareness among citizens about the initiative and objectives of CSC and National e-Governance Programme (NeGP). Efforts are also being taken to motivate stakeholders. Training for Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) have also been planned for those who will be operating the CSCs.

What is the status of implementation of State Data Centre (SDC) in your state?The State Data Centre (SDC) is proposed to be established in Bhubaneswar at Orissa Computer Application Centre (OCAC). The State Data Centre will provide the services like hosting options, data and application availability seven days a week all through the twenty-four hours of a day, centralised network management and operations capability, backup and archival services, disaster recovery and business continuity plan.

Department of Information Technology (DIT), Government of India has appointed Wipro as consultant for SDC. The Draft of Request for Proposal (RFP) has been prepared and submitted to DIT, New Delhi, for vetting. We have planned to fl oat the RFP by the fi rst week of January 2009 and completing all the tendering process by March 31, 2009.

The State Wide Area Network (SWAN) in Orissa will connect 30 District Collector offi ces and 284 Taluka/Tehsil offi ces. How far has this been implemented?Orissa State Wide Area Network (OSWAN) is a network to link all government offi ces at State Headquarters (SHQ), district headquarters (DHQ), and block headquarters (BHQ) including horizontal offi ces at each of these locations. ITI - Spanco has been selected to implement this project in our state. The fi rst phase of implementation i.e. Vertical connectivity from SHQ to DHQ, horizontal offi ces at SHQ and 3 DHQ namely Cuttack, Berahmpur and Sambalpur will be completed by March 2009. The fi nal phase will be completed by July 2009. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has emerged as the LI bidder for OSWAN Bandwidth Tender and Letter of Intent (LoI) for the same will be issued within one week.

http://www.orissa.gov.in/informationtechnology/index.htm

Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Orissa

“We have planned to fl oat the RFP for the State Data Centre by the fi rst week of January 2009 and completing all the tendering process by March 31, 2009”

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State Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) are given special priority now. What is your agenda in this regard?The state is implementing State Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) and other e-Governance projects in the state and priority is given to the projects under which citizen will get maximum benefi t like e-Registration, Smart Panchayat Agri Portal and e-District.

Also for speedy implementation of e-Governance Projects a Special Purpose Vehicle has been formed in partnership with Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS).

We have observed that negative bidding is becoming a trend in acquiring government tenders. What are your comments?We are admitting that the quality of the work will be hampered if the bidding will be negative/lower than normal cost. However, we are giving emphasis to quality/better service delivery by adopting Quality Cost Based Selection (QCBS) selection method in most of the tenders.

Also negative bidding has not become a regular trend in Orissa. So far, only in one instance of the CSC tender, in one zone, we have encountered negative bidding.

What are the emerging challenges that you are facing while implementing e-Governance projects in the State?Lack of awareness among department employees and citizen, lack of infrastructure, lack of usage of Information Communication Technology (ICT) among stakeholders, problem of capacity building, lack of political ownership at highest level, common vision, lack of clarity in policy and legal framework are major challenges encountered in implementing e-Governance projects.

What will be your focus areas for the year 2009?There will be a focus on implementation of Common Service Centres (CSCs), Orissa State Wide Area Network (OSWAN) and State Data Centre (SDC) in a timely manner to develop ICT infrastructure in the state and implementation of major Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) like e-Registration, Smart Panchayat, Agri Portal. Awareness and capacity building programme at both department and citizen level will be given priority as the success of the e-Governance projects hinges not only on accessibility and availability of information and services, but also on awareness regarding programme, effective branding and fi nally effective communication strategy.

Tannu Singh, [email protected]

Smart PanchayatSmart Panchayat, a PILOT for e-delivery of services of Panchayat. The Project aims to enabling e-delivery of various citizen centric services at Panchayat Level. In the fi rst phase, the services of Public Relations (PR) Department will be addressed and services of other 17 Department will be added subsequently which we are targeting to cover.e-Municipality (Housing & Urban Development)Aimed at e-Delivery of all citizen centric services available at Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). Property e-Registration The project objectives were to replace existing manual systems of verifi cation and scrutiny of documents, valuation of properties, capturing and preserving copies of the documents, conducting searches and of maintaining back offi ce records. Implementation will be done in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, in a Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) model.Agri-Portal and Help lineThe aim here is to conceptualise, design & develop a referral agriculture portal and a call centre for rural citizens. A bilingual portal will be developed. The scope starts from generation of contents to manage the portal on day to day basis. Besides this a call centre will be set up, which will function as referral centre for Agriculture, Veterinary, Fisheries & Horticulture issues.

e-Districte-District Project focus on e-enabling the delivery of majority of Citizen centric services that are administered by the District Administration.Modernisation of Prison (MoP)This project is dedicated to application of ICT for proper security and Surveillance system in the prison of Orissa.e-Employment Exchange e-Employment exchange is an on-line recruitment service system where job-seekers can virtually meet and apply for job with several employers from a single place.National Land Resource Management Programme (NLRMP)Major components of the NLRMP Project:

District Land Record ModernisationTehsil Modernisation with storage and Kiosk FacilityModernisation of Sub-Division Level Land Record Offi ceState Training Centre ModernisationDigitilisation of Cadastral MapModernisation of Sub-Registrar, District Sub-Register Offi ceTraining and Capacity Building MeasuresSetting of Revenue Data Centre, Connectivity & Security Measures

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Orissa State MMPs



Enhancing Sustainability of CSCs

The State Wide Area Network (SWAN) project has been in place in Gujarat for the last six years, so what has been its impact on delivering the services so far? Gujarat State Wide Area Network (GSWAN) project has been the foundation of successful implementation of several other important e-Governance projects such as, Value Added Tax Information System, Land record information system and Record of Right (RoR) at village, State Wide Attention of Grievances by Application of Technology (SWAGAT), Gujarat Ration Card Computerisation, Health Management and Information System (HMIS). As a matter of fact, due to availability of GSWAN, all of the aforesaid projects could be rolled out in a very short time span of 3 to 9 months across the State and e-Governance applications were made operational in the District and Block level offi ces of the Revenue Department, Health Department, Commissioner of Commercial Taxes.

In Gujarat, State Data Centre (SDC) is already underway in the region of Gandhinagar with an estimated cost of INR 100 Crore. What is the status of other regions on SDC?

Gujarat State Data Centre (GSDC) has been operationalised since October, 2008. Currently, we are in the process of shifting the existing e-Governance application servers from Server Farm area to the aforesaid State Data Centre facility. Further, we have suggested to other line departments of the government to plan out their server rack requirements and convey the same to us, so that rack space could be allotted to them in the State Data Centre. Also, we are in the process of issuing tender bid for selection of Operations and Management (O&M) agency for GSDC.

Six more Satellite Data Centres are also being planned in Gujarat, what is the roadmap in terms of when and how will these Satellite Data Centres get operational?On the same lines as the Satellite Data Centres (SDC) in the State capital at Gandhinagar, Government of Gujarat has also set up 3 Mini Data Centres at Mehsana, Rajkot and Vadodara; while there is plan to set up a fourth Mini Data Centre at Surat in due course. Basic purpose behind setting up these Mini Data Centres in the above mentioned prominent regions of the state has

http://www.dst.gujarat.gov.in/

“More than 90 percent of the CSCs have been completed in terms of installation of computers, furnitures and appointment of the operators by respective Service Center Agency (SCA) in four regions of the state”

Raj KumarSecretary, IT & Science City, Department of Science & Technology, Government of Gujarat

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been to provide reliable infrastructure for running localised applications and providing online services to urban and rural citizens of the respective regions. For instance, citizen centric services that would be delivered through Common Service Centres (CSCs) can now be provided through these servers, physically located in the Mini Data Centres.

Total number of Common Service Centres (CSCs) proposed for Gujarat is 6,000. How many out of these are already operating and by when can we expect to see all of these CSCs functional? As against the norms laid down by the Government of India for setting up of CSC in one out of six villages, Government of Gujarat has decided to set up CSC in one out of three villages. Consequently, Government of Gujarat through the Panchayat Department, has decided to set up 6,000 CSCs across the state. So far more than 90 percent of the CSCs have been completed in terms of installation of computers, furnitures and appointment of the operators by respective Service Centre Agency (SCA) in four regions of the state.

Gujarat was aiming to provide extensive services such as issuing caste certifi cates, widow certifi cates, integration of insurance schemes through Common Service Centres (CSCs). How far have these services been achieved? As per the Common Service Centre (CSC) scheme envisaged by the Government of India, such centres are expected to earn a minimum of one-third of their revenue out of the delivery of government services to the citizens. While Gram Panchayat level services such as registration of caste, income, birth and death are already operational; so far only one block/district level service relating to the land records has been made accessible through CSC. In order to expand the gamut of citizen centric services through CSCs, we have already developed the prototype of Gujarat Portal and service delivery gateway.

Currently, we are in the process of starting the pilot run of the Gujarat Portal which has already incorporated more than 50 citizen centric services of various line departments of the state government. Once pilot run is successful, we will roll out the same across the state.

In various e-Governance projects there is often a need for collaboration with private players. How has been your experience with private players in terms of partnership and performance so far?As a matter of fact, most of the citizen centric e-Governance projects implemented by the Government of Gujarat have been executed in collaboration with private sector players. GSWAN, city civic centre, registration of property and e-Gram projects have been executed in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, while other e-Governance projects have been implemented through private players on outsourcing basis. Our experience in the implementation of these e-Governance projects through private sector has been quite good so far.

In the implementation of the various e-Governance projects, what do you think have been the major

roadblocks?In the implementation of various e-Governance projects, we have come across several hurdles. For instance high attrition rate of technical manpower, limited tenure of project leader besides perceptible gap between the person’s knowledge of governance and technology. For overcoming these hurdles we are also implementing the capacity building project for the government staff.

What are the other e-Governance projects in the pipeline for the year 2009?Besides Gujarat Portal and Service Delivery Gateway Project, Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) and Home Department’s integrated IT solution are other major projects in the pipeline for 2009.

GSWAN enabled the roll out of e-governance projects in a time span of 3 to 9 monthsTender bids for selection of Operations and Management (O & M) agency for GSDC to be issued soonSetting up CSC in one out of three villages90 percent of the CSCs have been completed in four regions of the stateCity civic centre, registration of property and e-Gram projects have been executedProjects for 2009: Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) and Home Department’s integrated IT solution

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HIGHLIGHTS



The Uttar Pradesh State Wide Area Network (UPSWAN) was earlier, scheduled to get operational by January 2008. After its rescheduling of the deadline when can we actually expect it to be functional?Uttar Pradesh State Wide Area Network (SWAN) has a 2 Mbps bandwidth up to the block level. There are a total of 885 Network Operating Centres (NOCs) which are being established. All 70 districts are linked with the Head Quarters and the network is operational. Civil work for all 885 Point of Presence (PoPs) is almost complete. Further, more than 75 percent of the total 241 Tehsil level NOCs and more than 85 percent of the block level NOCs are operational. We shall be able to operationalise all the Tehsil and Block level NOCs by December 2008.

How is the work on State Data Centres (SDCs) progressing in UP?The third major core infrastructure project under the e-Governance plan of the state government is the State Data Centre (SDC) which is being set up to consolidate services, applications and infrastructure to provide effi cient delivery of Government-to- Government (G2G), Government-to-Citizen (G2C) and Government-to-Business (G2B) services.

The state government has taken note of the broad requirements of a typical data centre which include infrastructure facilities (physical, electrical, air conditioning) installation and integration of IT infrastructure

(servers, telecom equipment, integrated portal/departmental information system, Enterprise and network management system, security, fi rewalls/IDS, networking components) software and databases. The Uttar Pradesh state government proposes the establishment of shared infrastructure across various departments, centralised network management and operations capability, availability of high data and application and provision of infrastructure to build central repository of information/data. Further, the SDC will provide a trustworthy environment, where citizens can conduct secure transactions with confi dence and have easy and multi-channel access for interacting with the government.

Uttar Pradesh has chosen Wipro as a consultant for the SDC project. A Detailed Project Report (DPR) has been prepared and submitted to the Government of India. Government of India has given approval for establishment of SDC at a cost of INR 55.33 crores. The Data Centre will be installed at UPDESCO premises and a sum of INR 4.20 crores has been transferred to the state by the Government of India for the same. The draft Request for Proposal (RFP) is also ready.

When can we expect the 17,909 Common Service Centres (CSCs) in Uttar Prades to be operational?The state is implementing the Common Service Centres (CSCs) project in which a total of 17,909 CSCs will be setup during the year 2008-09. These CSCs

http://www.infotech.up.nic.in/

“17,909 CSCs will be setup during the year 2008-09”

D S SrivastavaSpecial Secretary Information and Technology & Electronics, Government of Uttar Pradesh

Large State: Larger Challenges

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Zone

Moradabad

Varanasi

Faizabad

Lucknow

Bareilly

Agra

Kanpur

Related Divisions

Moradabad and Saharanpur

Varanasi, Allahabad and Mirzapur

Faizabad and Azamgarh

Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Basti

Bareilly and Devipatan divisions

Agra and Meerut

Kanpur, Jhansi and Chitrakoot dham

Selected SCA Name

CMS Computers Ltd

SREI Infrastructure Finance Ltd

Comat Technologies Pvt Ltd

SREI Infrastructure Finance Ltd

Comat Technologies Pvt Ltd

3i Infotech Ltd

CMS Computers Ltd

Total No. of Jan Seva

Kendra

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Revenue support (per CSC/Month)

Rs. 890/-

Zero

Rs. 2106/-

Rs. 10/- (-ve bid) i.e. SCA to pay toGoUP

Zero

Rs. 14/- (-ve bid) i.e. SCA to pay to GoUP

Zero

Zonal Division of Jan Seva Kendras

Type of Transaction

e-Governance Services

Utility Collection

Land Record

Charge to Citizen (per sale)

INR 10/-

INR 0

INR 25/-

GoUP’s share

INR 0

INR 0

INR 10/-

SCA/VLE’s share (per

sale)

INR 10/-

INR 4/-

INR 15/-

Utility provider to

pay

INR 0

INR 4/-

INR 0

Revenue Model of Jan Seva Kendras

will be known as ̀ Jan Seva Kendra’ in the state. These Kendras will act as the delivery points of various services to citizens at their doorstep. The CSC scheme has a 3-tier implementation framework which includes - State Designated Agency (SDA), Service Centre Agency (SCA) and Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE).

Master Service Agreement (MSA) with all the selected SCA’s has already been signed on April 8, 2008. As per the agreement 25 percent of the centres were supposed to be rolled out by September 8, 2008 and 25 percent by November 8, 2008 and the another 25 percent by January 8, 2009 and the rest 25 percent by April 8, 2009.

Since the revenue support is based on the availability of G2C services, the State has to develop appropriate G2C service enablement plans, at least for key government services. The service and revenue for the services to be provided from Jan Seva Kendra has been decided as follows:

In Uttar Pradesh there have been voices raised in favour of setting up of RTI call centres on the lines of the initiative taken by Bihar. Are we going to see any developments on that front in the near future?The U.P. Government is considering to set up Call Centres for RTI and to provide informations.

In various e-Governance projects there is often a need for collaboration with private players. How has been your experience with private players so far in terms of partnership and performance so far?In the state, lot of schemes are being implemented under the Public Private

Zone

(2)

Agra

Mora-dabad

Kanpur

Lucknow

Varnasi

Bareilly

Faizabad

Total

Target for Ist phase (25%)

(3)

422

404

442

1112

917

530

650

4477

%age achiev-ement

(5)

150.00%

100.50%

101.81%

400.09%

400.11%

122.64%

100.00%

243.62%

No. of VLEs selected till date by SCAs

%age achiev-ement

(7)

111.37%

81.93%

91.63%

62.50%

39.48%

75.47%

76.92%

70.65%

Nos

(6)

470

331

405

695

362

400

500

3163

No of CSC sites where construction work is on/ constructed

%age achiev-ement

(9)

106.64%

47.77%

60.41%

25.90%

6.00%

109.06%

99.85%

55.39%

Nos

(8)

450

193

267

288

55

578

649

2480

No. of CSCs fully established (operational/ to be operational)

%age achiev-ement

(11)

31.04%

0.00%

0.00%

12.23%

0.44%

0.00%

0.00%

6.05%

Nos

(10)

131

0

0

136

4

0

0

271

Nos

(4)

633

406

450

4449

3669

650

650

10907

Locations identifi ed till date in Ist phase

Roll-Out Status of Jan Seva Kendras (as reported by SCA on 30.09.08)

81J a n u a r y 2 0 0 9ov 4th Anniversary Issue

Partnership (PPP) model. All these schemes are running successfully. In the future, most of the schemes will be preferred on the PPP model.

In the implementation of the various e-Governance Projects, what do you think have been the major roadblocks?Non-availability and maintenance of connectivity in rural areas has been a major problem in the implementation of e-Governance projects.

Most of the G2C e-Governance services are to be delivered through CSCs and all the CSCs are to be connected through the available service provider and in the last mile through wireless networks. Another roadblock is non-availability of IT personnels for monitoring e-Governance schemes. It is diffi cult for the state government, to get qualifi ed IT professionals, as we can not match up to the salaries offered by the private sector.

What are the other e-Governance project in the pipelines for the year 2009?We are implementing several e-Governance project such as e-District Pariyojana which is being implemented in 6

districts of the state - Gorakhpur, Noida, Ghaziabad, Sultanpur, Sitapur and Rae Bareilly.

It will provide 10 services and 32 sub-services (as per list enclosed) to the citizens electronically. It will become operational in December 2008. The inauguration of the scheme was done by the Chairman of Board of Revenue which was scheduled on 15th December in Sitapur District. The delivery of services has started from 19th December 2008 in Rae Bareilly and on 22nd December in Ghaziabad. Considering the success of these initiatives, it shall be rolled out in other districts of the state as well. These initiatives are the fi rst of its kind in the country.

Tannu [email protected]

SWAN connecting 70 districts in UPINR 55.33 crores approved by GoI for SDC17,909 Common Service Centres (CSCs) will be setup during the year 2008-09 e-District Pariyojana is being implemented in 6 districtsRTI Call Centres under considerationDiffi culty in getting qualifi ed IT professionals for state e-Governance

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HIGHLIGHTS

2008,The year gone by ...


>



Attracting investments in ITeS

What has been the achievements of the IT Department of Assam?In addition to the implementation of NeGP projects like SWAN/CSC/SDC the Department with support from AMTRON is also taking care of supply of Personal Computers (PCs) to needy institution, training to unemployed youth on ITeS, horizontal connectivity for SWAN and IT park in Guwahati.

Give us an update on the implementation of Common Service Centres (CSCs) in Assam? Assam is going to establish 4,375 Common Service Centres (CSCs) covering the entire state. So far, 397 CSCs are operational and by March 31 2009, the entire lot will be rolled out.

What is the status of the state Mission Mode Projects in your state?Mission Mode Projects are under way in the departments of Commercial Tax, Treasuries, Public Works and Transport. Besides, e-District project is also being implemented in state.

What is happening in the SDC front in your state?The Government of India have sanctioned State Data Centre (SDC) with an estimated cost of INR 49.04 crores. We have selected the site and we are in the process of selecting an architect for preparing the designs. The Request for Proposal (RFP) for SDC is also being prepared.

What are the initiatives taken by your state for attracting IT companies towards the North Eastern region?

In order to attract investment in Information IT & ITeS Sectors, Government of Assam have taken up an IT Park. This location is very close to the airport and has all the necessary requisites for an IT Park. The RFP for having a consultant is being fl oated for the same.

What are the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) initiatives in the e-Governance domain of Assam?We are in an embryonic stage as far as IT & ITeS sectors are concerned. However, we have been able to bring TCS as a private sector partner in the state.

Outside the realm of NeGP, what are the other e-Governance initiatives undertaken by your department ?Government of Assam has taken up schemes for training the youth in IT & ITeS sectors and providing employment to them. Besides this, there is distribution of PCs to needy institutions (both Government and Non Government), to students who secure fi rst division in the 10th Standard, and in all the Higher Secondary Schools.

What is the e-Governance agenda for the next couple of years in Assam? In the next couple of years, we propose to utilise the ASWAN, CSCs and SDC to the maximum extent possible and through e-Governance initiatives make the life of citizens easier. The business community should also fi nd it simplier and easier to interact with the government.

egov Team

“So far, 397 CSCs are operational and by March 31, 2009, the entire lot will be rolled out”

http://www.assamgovt.nic.in

V S BhaskarCommissioner & Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Assam



Roll Outs to happen in January’09

What is the progress of the State Wide Area Network (SWAN) project in your state?Tender has been released for new State Wide Area Network (SWAN) covering up to Mandal Head Quarters (MHQs). The existing SWAN is based on Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technology. The new proposed SWAN is based on Internet Protocol (IP) and the bandwidth can be more effi ciently used. District Head quarters (DHQs) are connected to State Head quarters (SHQ)s with 8 Mbps bandwidth and each DHQ is connected to its MHQs through 2 Mbps bandwidth. The tender process is likely to be completed by mid June 2009 and will be in place by September 2009 covering all MHQs on experimental basis. One Mandal in selected districts are proposed to be connected to three villages through WiMAX. Furthermore, new IP based video conference system is alreadyin place.

Is APSWAN addressing the issue of connecting the Police?The existing APSWAN is already connecting district level police stations and the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) offi ce. The APSWAN is also utilised for network purposes for sharing data on critical issues. We are planning to extend the network to the Mandal level through the new SWAN. It is expected that this system will facilitate the police department to reduce the response time.

How do you plan to utilise the funds released by the Government of India for the State Data Centres?DIT has released an amount of INR 4.15 crores as a part of the total allocation of INR 55.5 crores for setting up the State Data Centres (SDC). Presently, the Request on Proposal (RFP) is in progress and a System Integrators would be fi nalised after the bidding process is completed.

The amount would be utilised partly for capital expenditure and the balance amount for making the payment to the vendors on quarterly basis for the operational expenses in the next fi ve years under the Build, Own, Operate, Transfer (BOOT) model.

An amount of INR 17,86,748 has also been paid to the Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PWC) towards mobilisation as an advance and for the preparationof the Detailed Project Report (DPR) on SDC.

Andhra Pradesh has plans to set up a total of 4,687 Common Service Centre (CSCs), by when can we expect to see these CSCs actually getting operational?We are planning to launch a total of 4,687 Common Service Centre (CSCs) in the state. We expect that by January 2009, approximately 800 CSCs will be operational. The remaining CSCs would become operational by August 2009.

Tannu [email protected]

http://www.apit.ap.gov.in/

“One Mandal in selected districts are proposed to be connected to three villages through WiMAX. New IP based video conference system is already in place”

Ajay MishraPrincipal Secretary, Department of Information Technology & Communication, Government of Andhra Pradesh


>



Quality of Services is Prime

In the last one year, what is the overall progress in terms of implementing the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) in your state?In Nagaland, the core Information Technology (IT) infrastructure comprising of State Wide Area Network (SWAN), State Data Centre (SDC) and Common Services Centres (CSCs) are in the process of being implemented. For the SWAN, Request for Proposal (RFP) has been fl oated and bids are being evaluated. We expect the SWAN to be in place by June 2009. RFP for SDC has also been fi nalised and we expect the data centre to be commissioned by June 2009 as well. Similarly, the state has already signed Master Service Agreement (MSA) with Terasoft, Hyderabad for establishing 220 CSCs by June 2009. Mission Mode Projects (MMPs), System Software Development Group (SSDG), and Capacity Building programmes under NeGP are also being implemented.

What is the status of various state Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) in your state? What is the plan of action so far? Mission Mode Projects for various departments are being implemented. Project e-Mission teams have been formed and they are in the process of doing the ‘As Is To Be’ analysis and we hope that by the time core NeGP infrastructure is established, these projects will also be ready for rollout.

The Government of Nagaland has declared 2008-09 - the Year of Capacity Building which will aim at reforms and renewing the system of governance and delivery of public services. What is the way forward from here?The idea is to transform the way government functions and the way it interacts with citizens. As part of Capacity Building programme, we are trying to enhance the capacities at various levels in the government.by improving and re-engineering government processes and systems.

IT is playing a major role in this process as information availability and government processes for service delivery can be greatly improved by use of technology.

The government of Nagaland recently launched 220 Common Service Centres across the state in association with the Service Centre Agency (SCA). By what time will these centres be operational?As per the MSA, the Service Centre Agency (SCA) is supposed to establish 25 percent CSCs in three months, 50 percent in six months and all the 220 CSCs in a span of twelve months. Since we have only 220 CSCs we are hopeful of rolling out all of them by June 2009.

In the fi rst phase, we are integrating the 52 Community Information Centres with the CSCs.

http://www.itngl.nic.in/

“We have a very rich resource in the form of English speaking, technology savvy youthful population that is ideal for employment in Information Technology Enabled Services (ITeS)”

Abhishek Singh Secretary to Governor & Secretary Information Technology, Technical Education, Government of Nagaland

To boldly go where no man has gone before

Contact: Santosh Gupta, Mobile No: +91-9891192996, Email: [email protected] Anuj Agarawal Mobile No: +91-9911302086, Email: [email protected]

ov

www.egovonline.net

Watch Out for

May 2009

For Advertising and Branding opportunities

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You had told egov earlier, that in 2008 one district in Nagaland will be taken up as an e-District. Which district has been adopted and what is the status of the same?Mokokchung district was proposed as e-District and we are hopeful of taking the project forward based on the learnings of the e-District pilot projects in other States.

How far has been the e-Modop project successful in providing the citizens of Nagaland with G2C services?e-Modop project has been the fi rst project to offer e-Services to people of the state. It has changed the perception of how people look at government for availing services. Now we are in the process of integrating the services with mobile service providers to ensure offering Government to Citizen (G2C) services over the mobile phones for wider reach and easy accessibility.

North East as a region is lagging behind in the e-Governance road map. Are there any specifi c strategies for attracting IT companies towards the region? What other initiatives the government should take in this regard?We are in the process of establishing an IT park in Dimapur for attracting IT companies to establish base in Nagaland. We have a very rich resource in the form of English speaking, technology savvy youthful population that is ideal for employment in IT, Information Technology Enabled Services (ITeS) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry. Infact, a majority of BPO workers in the country belong to the North East region. The state government provides various tax concessions, subsidised power and other subsidies to IT industry for establishing base in Nagaland as per the IT and the Industrial Policy of the state.

Your government has invited bids for the NagaSWAN on the Build, Own, Operate, Transfer (BOOT) model. What is the response for the same?We have already had the pre bid conference on 3rd December 2008. Last date of submission of bids was 19 December 2008. Many companies have expressed interest for the same.

We have observed that negative bidding is becoming a trend in acquiring government tenders. What are your comments?Negative bidding is seen mainly in CSC projects in many states. This shows the opportunity that exists in G2C, G2B and G2G services. As a long term business strategy, companies are interested in getting contracts through negative bidding with the hope that volume of services and number of transactions will help them generate revenues. However, we need to be cautious to ensure that quality of services being offered is not compromised.

Outside the realm of NeGP, what are the other e-Governance initiatives undertaken by your department? Our vision of e-Governance is to simplify government and to offer services that are reliable and always available. The state has also initiated projects in other government departments like transport, industries etc. Secretariat’s Local Area Network (LAN) is fully functional. File tracking system project has been implemented. For uninterrupted G2G services, we have networked all sub divisional headquarters in the state with Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs). Video Conferencing with all district headquarters is also functional. At the state level, all departments have been connected with Radio Frequency (RF) to facilitate connectivity.

egov Team

SWAN to be in place by June 2009Data centre to be commissioned by June 2009Plan to roll-out 220 CSC’s by June 2009e-Modop project is the fi rst project to offer e-Services to people of the stateFor uninterrupted G2G services, all sub divisional headquarters in the state are networked with Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs)Video Conferencing with all district headquarters is functional

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HIGHLIGHTS



e-Procurement Made Easy

Elaborate upon the benefi ts that is accruing to the various government departments through your e-Procurement solutions? Which are the states where you are providing such services?Our e-Procurement solutions have reduced the tender cycle time signifi cantly. It has increased the competition among the bidders which in turn has resulted in savings for the state and central government’s public exchequer. For instance, a few of the tenders of the Water Resources Department of the of Chhattisgarh which were processed by using the e-Tendering System saved INR 27.43 crores for processing of tenders of estimated value of INR 105.81 crores. There has been an increase in the process of effi ciency and increase in the budget and number of works to be executed. Our e-Tendering System in Chhattisgarh Rural Roads Development Agency has reduced more than 80 percent of the time involved in the evaluation of the bids.

You have sophisticated e-Tendering solutions. What is the impact that it has created?The introduction of our e-Tendering system in the various state government departments and Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) has been welcomed by the younger generation of contractors / suppliers especially because of the greater transparency and ease of use which gives them an equal opportunity to compete with their competitors. Our e-Procurement system has got a built in facility of evaluating bids online

based on the parameters defi ned by the user departments implementing the solutions. It also has a feature to monitor the processing time of bid evaluation at each user level which monitors the excess time utilised by each user. This results in faster execution of each user’s role and fi xing of responsibility which in turn results in faster award of Tenders to appropriate bidders.

Our e-Procurement system is also capable of being implemented in a state-wide environment for all the departments / agencies in the state, the historical data on the performance of the Vendor can be viewed and monitored by the departments and their bidding capacity can be calculated in real time. Because of the patented tamper-evident security of the bidders’ data offered by our system, bidders have complete confi dence in not being physically present during the tender opening events.

They are able to view the price bids of the other participating bidders online. Since our solution has a patented tamper-evident bid security feature, bidders do not feel compelled to be present during tender opening events. There has been a noticeable increase in the participation of vendors from other states to participate in the tenders processed.

For instance, due to introduction of e-Procurement system by the state of Chhattisgarh, many of the works contractors from the state of Andhra Pradesh are participating in the tenders of works department in Chhattisgarh.

“Our e-Procurement solutions have reduced the tender cycle time signifi cantly”

http://www.nextenders.com

Sumeet BhattDirector, NexTenders (India) Pvt. Ltd.

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You have partnered with several state governments for providing e-Tendering services. Which states and departments are the recent addition to your client list? NexTenders is actively implementing e-Procurement (by itself as well as with partners such as Wipro and Satyam) in various state governments such as Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Haryana. We are also working with Municipal Corporation of Delhi and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.

More recently, NexTenders, along with Satyam, has bagged the order to implement our new version 3 e-Procurement system in one of the India’s premier strategic government agencies (the identity of which cannot be disclosed at this point of time since the contracts are still being negotiated). One of the most important features of our new version 3 system that will be deployed for this client is a unique multi-location Intranet-Internet network security architecture with data synchronisation across multiple locations and multiple servers. This provides clients additional security since it ensures that their internal procurement servers are not accessible from the Internet, and their suppliers do not connect to their internal servers but work through an ‘external’ procurement portal. This is a critical requirement for security-conscious clients.

What are the measures taken by your company for securing the e-Tendering process? What is your USP vis-a-vis your competitors?Right from inception NexTenders realised that standard industry security measures for document exchange were not adequate to meet the unique challenges of government procurement. For example, in government procurement the mere viewing of bid data is a fundamental compromise, which standard security solutions do not address completely.

The list of standard security measures offered by e-Procurement / e-Tendering solutions and their vulnerabilities are SSL / HTTPS - data on the server vulnerable; time - stamping - defeated by bid substitution; standard encryption and double encryption - decryptable at any time; digital certifi cates and hashing - bid substitution defeats this; time locks - not part of PKI and can be compromised by anyone with access to the application layer of the system; biometrics and other server access restriction - defeated by collusion with the department and need for off-site data back ups; read only logs and audit trails - oxymoron, logs and trails are written and hence can be edited by the system

administrator not applicable to backed up copies of sensitive data; and “Principle of 4-Eyes” – defeated by collusion.

Another common problem that NexTenders has addressed is the transfer of access control and privileges from one offi cial to another in an organisation, without the need to share passwords, digital certifi cates. The unique NexTenders document security management feature enables the secure transfer of such access and other privileges through PKI and therefore without compromising individual or organisational security at any stage.

This feature is presently patent pending in several countries. NexTenders is involved with the development of the UN/CEFACT TBG6 new worldwide standard for e-Tendering based on an eBXML schema which is now ratifi ed worldwide; and the next version of our system (version 4 that is now in development and is expected to be released in Q2 2009) will incorporate this important new means of publishing standardised tender information.

What are your plans for the year 2009 with reference to e-Governance?Within the broad area of e-Governance, NexTenders will focus on e-Procurement. The term has been much abused and is poorly understood. For instance, websites that merely provide tender documents for download in PDF format tout themselves as e-Procurement solutions. It is very important to have a base minimum standard of what constitutes genuine e-Procurement. NexTenders plans to use all available forum to educate government clients as well as the public at large.

NexTenders is soon scheduled to release Version 4 of its e-Procurement solution which is a revamped version of its

existing version of the solution. Whilst the work fl ow and the security shall be continue to be the core strengths of the newer version, the new system shall be platform independent, browser independent on the client side operations, modular, scalable, can be integrated with the present legacy systems, offer increased functionalities, better user interface and ease of use functionality.

The beta version of the software is expected to be released by April – 2009 and the fi nal version by July – 2009. NexTenders also envisages to offer its data security module for other government applications and systems that require the security and sanctity of their data. NexTenders also plans to target international market with its newer version of the e-Procurement system with its global partners in different regions of the world.


• Reduction in administration and communication costs

• Real time access to information for the decision makers

• Price savings through aggregation of volumes and ‘smart buying’

• Instant and round-the-clock access to publicly accessible information on the Internet

• Increased levels of accountability• Capability to monitor the

performance of state agencies• All transactions are truly auditable• Enhanced security• Demand aggregation across

different divisions/departments leading to better negotiating power with suppliers and process effi ciency

• Supplier discovery / widening choice and the supplier base

• In-built document management/fi le management system

Benefi ts of implementing our e-Procurement System are


Digital government offers the prospect of public services

that are easy-to-use; accessible, cost-effective; available around-the-clock; unifi ed across agencies; and consistent in appearance and functionality. In addition to government-to-citizen interactions, the Internet offers new possibilities for government-to-government (G2G); government-to-employee (G2E); and government-to-business (G2B) connections. G2G requires applications that share data across agencies as the foundation for knowledge management, content management, workfl ow management, and inter-institutional collaboration. G2E requires intranet, project management and easy publishing, while G2B requires e-Procurement, MRO goods, contracting, e-Auctioning, e-Tendering, e-Procurement, and extranets.

CHALLENGE IN INDIA: “QUEUES-TO-CLICKS” CONVERSION

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) is a public sector company, set up and fully owned by the Ministry of Railways. IRCTC quickly recognized the Internet’s potential to improve its existing operations and, in parallel, look at new horizons of revenues. IRCTC is changing with the times and has done the right thing by adopting the right kind of technology that provides IRCTC with multiple solutions on a single platform. As the IRCTC site (www.irctc.co.in) has grown to meet business demands, the BroadVision agile business suite scaled to meet IRCTC’s growing traffi c from 1 Lakh transactions in one month to over 1.75 Lakh transactions per day! BroadVision’s highly-scalable and

robust solution helped IRCTC to record a peak booking of more than 15,000 tickets in an hour – an average of 4 tickets per second! IRCTC leveraged BroadVision’s capabilities to the fullest extent and added other tourism and reservation touch-points services to enable its customers to plan trips and purchase the tickets online – creating great customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Solution: Agile platform grows with customer needs, scales to immediate growth and brings Indian consumers to forefront

IRCTC’s BroadVision-powered portal integrates a simple-to-use e-Commerce customer interface with an existing passenger reservation system and payment gateway to enable customer self-service and increased convenience for Indian Railways’ passengers seeking to plan trips, book and receive tickets. From “queues to clicks”, it has been a highly interesting and groundbreaking journey not only by its revenue success, but also for having a signifi cant impact to increasing the Internet adaptation rate in India.

HIGH-PERFORMANCE AND HIGH-SCALABILITY

• Entire project completed within six months – including integration with legacy systems.

• One of Asia-Pacifi c’s largest e-commerce solutions.

• Covers 200+ cities/towns.• Moved from a single-service offering

company to a full-service tourism portal.

• Over 25 payment integrations including Credit, Debit and Cash Cards.

RAISING INDIA’S STANDARDS

The Internet ticketing system has been awarded numerous “Firsts” in the Indian e-Commerce space. The solution received the Gold Award for

C A S E S T U D Y

Helping e-GovernmentStep Into Web 2.0

Helping e-GovernmentStep Into Web 2.0

Low Total Cost of OwnershipEasy Integration and Rapid Time-to-MarketProven ScalabilityPlatform-Neutral Solution

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BroadVision Delivers

Broad Vision Powered IRCTC’s Portal with simple customer interface, thus integrating it to optimise the benefi ts of e-Commerce


“Outstanding Performance in Citizen-Centric Service Delivery” for National Awards for e-Governance at the 11th National Conference on e-Governance.

BROADVISION’S GLOBAL E-GOVERNMENT SUCCESSES:

BroadVision’s solutions have supported local and federal government agencies globally for intranet/extranets; content management; logistics; e-Procurement; information distribution and permit processing from the resident to the government agency.

CITY OF TILBURG, NETHERLANDS

The city of Tilburg’s innovative site (www.tilburg.nl) serves over 2 Lakh residents. This city has been managed, to the greatest extent possible, as a business concern – public services are subsidiary companies of the local authority and must adhere to yearly contracts drawn up in operating budgets. The site, built on BroadVision’s Business Agility Suite solution, enabled the citizens to transact routine, administrative businesses online; enhanced communication between the government and the city’s inhabitants; and added to Tilburg’s reputation as one of the most technologically-advanced cities in the country. The site has extensive personalization capabilities. Users can visit a WebShop to request passports, permits and other city documents and search for documents of any kind on the site containing specifi c text. Each user will be able to create a Personal Internet Page and elect to receive news feeds, RSS feeds, Tilburg-specifi c news, on-line videos of meetings, Tilburg On-Line TV and other information streams. In the Netherlands, government organisations are regularly assessed and ranked for “Best Governmental sites.” At the project’s start, Tilburg’s public site was in 60th position; and their strategic aim was to establish a position in the Top 10. The new site climbed Gemeente Tilburg to the 14th spot – then, one week later, 5th position. Being the 6th largest city of the Netherlands, this is an excellent achievement – Tilburg’s priority is to retain this status and improve.

STATE OF VIENNA, AUSTRIA

The state of Vienna powers all of its sites with BroadVision’s Business Agility

Suite platform with over 13 independent services on a single platform installation. A centralized database enables these sites for media management. Moving to BroadVision gave this organization reduction of infrastructure, platform maintenance and barrier-free websites.

BroadVision’s self-service Web applications enable government agencies to provide citizens, suppliers and employees with one-stop, personalized self-service access to information, transactions and business processes. BroadVision solutions support the complex relationships, processes and interactions necessary for e-government and make it possible for government

agencies to reach its goals for 24/365 availability, paper reduction, citizen participation in governance, knowledge transfer, and cost reductions.

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION (GSA)

GSA Advantage (www.GSAAdvantage.gov) operated by the U.S. General Services Administration’s Federal Supply Service, is the largest federal government, Internet-based, e-Procurement site. The GSA Advantage e-Commerce market allows government agencies such as the Department of Transportation, the Navy, and the Veterans Administration to order products and services from a database that contains over fi ve million products and services that fulfi ll 11,000 Federal Supply Service and Department of Veterans Affairs schedule contracts.

Before GSAAdvantage.gov launched, government employees seeking to complete procurement had to review paper catalogs from vendors, call vendors, and wait several days to complete the contact process and receive telephone or paper quotations. Additionally, procurement research was only a limited number of vendor catalogs. Once deployed, GSAAdvantage.gov enabled the government to scale quickly and increased the personalisation capabilities. GSAAdvantage.gov also gave the government a more fl exible and easy-to-update system to handle changes in laws and procurement regulations.

Today, GSA Advantage has more than 275,000 registered customers and is used by federal civilian and military personnel located throughout the world who conduct more than 100,000 searches for products and services each business day. The site’s volume of transactions has grown at a triple-digit rate for years, and more than 400 new federal customers register every day. More capabilities include product and service categorisation, virtual stores for customised agency access, single login with other major federal portals, and XML capabilities for vendors. A major initiative was to deploy GSA punch-out/punch-in capability to enable agencies to access GSAAdvantage.gov from their e-Procurement systems and seamlessly integrate their back-end fi nancial systems to automate reconciliation.

“Our online commerce sales have seen exponential growth on a yearly basis starting from monthly online sales of approximately 3,300 tickets in August 2002 and growing to over 2.4 million online tickets in March 2008. BroadVision has been our technology solution provider since the beginning and has made an important contribution in our efforts.”

Dr. Nalin Shinghal Managing Director, IRCTC

“We will scale to meet IRCTC’s increased load needs. At the same time we are committed to helping IRCTC to enhance customer satisfaction; increase self-service by automation; and increase access options. We are elated with IRCTC’s accomplishments and to be a part of their success.”

Subir Agrawal Director Business Consulting,

South Asia-Pacifi c, BraodVision

“We’ve established that BroadVision’s solutions are globally proven and cost-effective. Our localization forays with Indian Government agencies and PSU’s have been nothing short of spectacular. We are eager to participate in the next wave of Web 2.0 e-Government initiatives.”

Biplove BelwalRegional Director

South Asia-Pacifi c, BroadVision

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One approach to universal access (UA), which springs from the user side of the network—even though the fi rst international case and several current initiatives involve leading mobile operators—is the village phone concept. This has emerged in several forms around the world, sometimes organised by a Micro-Finance Institution (MFI), sometimes by a private enterprise, or sometimes by the operator with fi nancial partners.

The village phone concept began with the launch of the village phone programme in rural Bangladesh in 1997 as an initiative of the Grameen Bank. The Grameen Bank provides impoverished village women with fi nancial support to develop sustainable income generating activities. In 2006, Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the bank, and the Grameen Bank itself, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.”

Women clients of the Grameen Bank who show the initiative to become local Village Phone Operators (VPOs), receive training and are loaned funds to purchase a mobile phone set-up (phone with special in-built pricing software) suitable for rural areas, as well as airtime credits. Through the network of VPOs, vending affordable airtime denominations and facilitating individual calls, residents enjoy better access to communication services.

The success of the programme at generating sustainable business

and social empowerment opportunities for women, and high performance in the recovery of loan disbursements, led to the replication (with variations) of Grameen’s initial Bangladesh model, in the African countries of Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda.

At the core of a generic village phone programme is a viable business model for local entrepreneurs (women and increasingly men) to provide

telecommunications services to their community.

The entrepreneurs are offered a telephone operator business kit consisting of a mobile phone, external antenna (in the African cases), business management materials, a marketing poster, and usually some introductory training via the telecommunications service provider alone or in partnership with supporting organisations, which include microfi nance entities, banks and non-government organisations (NGOs).

FLIP SIDEby

Santulan Chaubey

Village Phone Programme

Right Sir, He is BPL. But he is not carrying the Ration. On his back are smart cards, ration cards,

identity cards, Multi purpose cards, etc. He is searching for a ration shop sir….

For information, please contact :Director (e-Governance), Department of AR&PG

Sardar Patel Bhawan, Parliament StreetNew Delhi-110001, Tele +91-11-23743030

Department of Administrative Reforms & Public GrievancesMinistry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions

Government of India

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Building Assistive Technology Services

Local Governance: Reaching Services to the Under Served

Building Capacities, Forging Partnerships

Legal Issues in Process Reforms

Managing SUAs: Lessons from the Past

Putting Governance before ‘e’

Evaluating the Impact

Translating objectives into outcomes: Priorities, Challenges and Solutions

RTI and e-Governance: How to Synergise

e-Governance Compendium 2009 Themes

Venue:Hotel Holiday Inn, Panjim

Goa, India12-13, February 2009

th12 National Conference on e-Governancee-Governance: Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges

Important Dates:

Paper Submission Deadline: 15 Jan 2009Paper Acceptance / Rejection Notification: 25 Jan 2009

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