Issue 25 I October 2013 – January 2014

Governance On The GoBringing governments closer to citizens

M.N. VidyashankarAdditional Chief Secretary,Government of Karnataka

Jiwesh NandanPrincipal Secretary, Department of IT & Electronics,Government of Uttar Pradesh

Hari Ranjan RaoSecretary, IT,Government of Madhya Pradesh

Rajesh AggarwalPrincipal Secretary, IT, Government of Maharashtra

IN CONVERSATION

This

mag

azin

e is

prin

ted

on re

cycl

ed p

aper

.

Letter from the Editor

Welcome tothe future ofgovernance

01

IFramework of Mobile Governance to “bring public services closer home to the populace,” and government departments and agencies have taken no time in deploying the country’s ubiquitous mobile network to communicate with the people and ensure greater transparency in the delivery of public services.

Text messages keep applicants abreast of the progress of their requests for

are mobile applications (apps) today for uses as varied as making railway ticket bookings or enabling anganwadi workers track the movement of food supplies. With these hundreds of initiatives, the governments at the centre and in the states have shown their commitment to reaching public services to

This edition of Perspective maps the progress made across the country in turning the idea of mobile governance into meaningful services. Giving us insights into this transformative process are four policymakers who have led the eGovernance missions of their respective states. They are M.N. Vidyashankar, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka; Jiwesh Nandan, Principal Secretary, IT, Government of Uttar Pradesh; Rajesh Aggarwal, Principal Secretary, IT, Government of Maharashtra; and Hari Ranjan Rao, Secretary, IT, Government of Madhya Pradesh. These are bureaucrats at the forefront of change and they know that transparent governance is the only way forward. As Rao put it, the young, who represent the overwhelming majority, “don’t have either the patience, or the inclination, to stand in queues or write long letters to authorities”. They want “instant responses” from the government.

An attempt has been made in this edition to give readers an idea of the possibilities of mobile governance. You

revolutionary Open Data initiative, which may inspire developers to dredge the numbers now in the public domain and create apps for the common good; and case studies from the states on the use of mobiles for development programmes.

This edition also highlights instances of successful public-private partnerships that are worthy of replication, such as the IRCTC’s railway ticket booking app for devices operating on the Windows platform, or the mPassport Seva app. These signify the many ways in which mobile devices, across platforms, can make life a little more convenient for citizens.

Perspective informative and useful. You can also access the online version of Perspective at www.microsoft.com/india/msindia/perspective/index.aspx.

Gauri Arora Editor, Perspective garora@microsoft.com

Contents

02

In Focus 04A mobile push to inclusive growth

Framework for Mobile Governance, the government has made rapid progress in reaching out to citizens via the omnipresent cell phone.

Mobile Nation 10Mobile Seva opens up new possibilitiesThe Government of India is ready to accept SMS as proof of documentation. And Mobile Seva apps will be available for downloads on non-android phones.

News Review 14IRCTC app shows the way forwardPlan your travel, book train tickets and do much more on the go, using your Windows 8 Phone, tablet or PC. IRCTC has embarked on an app journey.

Breakthrough 18A true friend of the farmerThe Kisaan SMS Portal is the new gateway for government departments to reach out to farmers. Find out how text messages can make a difference.

01 Letter from the Editor

03 Chairman’s Message

22 Case Study: UP’s mSakhi Initiative

28 Inside View by Arun Rajamani

30 States of Progress

04

10

14

18

Chairman’s Message The mobile platformcan transform thegrowth paradigm

When the Government of India unveiled the National eGovernance Plan (NeGP) in 2006 and embarked on 27 Mission Mode Projects

(the number was raised to 31 in 2011), it signaled its resolve to harness the immense transformative power of IT to make its departments and agencies more citizen-centric and service delivery-oriented.

The mood of the citizens is in favour of a transparent and responsive government, and our leaders and the bureaucracy have shown remarkable alacrity in responding to the changing ground reality. The NeGP has become a national movement, with state governments showing equal receptivity to the idea of re-writing the rules of their engagement with citizens.

In a country with a low penetration of computers, especially those with broadband connections, the digital platform is not big enough to enable the government to reach the last mile. There was an urgent need to get onto a bigger, cheaper, more accessible and literacy-neutral platform to deliver transparent governance and inclusive development.

India’s continually expanding mobile network is just the platform that can make it happen. It is this vision that spurred the Government of India to notify the Framework for Mobile Governance in February 2012 and set in motion a series of initiatives, beginning with the Mobile Seva, to facilitate the delivery of public services to citizens via mobile devices. The use of mobiles has extended the reach of public services to underserved areas and sections of society, and we also see the beginnings of private-public partnerships with the potential to make this enterprise a truly collaborative effort.

Microsoft, for instance, has invested in a growing developer ecosystem to produce citizen-centric mobile applications (apps). India’s developer community, the second largest in the world, has immense reserves of talent that governments can use to develop apps that make a real difference to the everyday lives of people.

of the country’s mobile network. It could be used, for instance, to streamline government-to-government (G2G) communications on the mobile platform. This is an area of mobile governance that is yet to be explored fully.

The mobile platform is indeed a powerful tool for inclusive growth and a potent development driver. Let us explore the possibilities together for the common good.

Bhaskar PramanikChairman, Microsoft India

03

News ReviewIn Focus A mobile push

to inclusive growth

the Framework for Mobile Governance, the government has made rapid progress in reaching out to citizens via the omnipresent cell phone

04

The Government of India rewrote the rules of its engagement with

citizens when it inaugurated the era of mobile governance with a gazette

March 2, 2012, giving a new thrust to the National eGovernance Plan. Less than two years have elapsed, but the Government of India and state administrations across the country have been moving fast to make it possible for every citizen to access their services from anywhere, anytime. The mobile has become the new means of empowering India’s underserved majority.

Taking forward the vision of the National eGovernance Plan, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) is tapping the country’s extensive and continually growing, mobile network to achieve the national objective of faster, sustainable and more inclusive growth. Citizens are able to save time and energy by accessing and communicating with government departments and agencies. Additionally, providing information

and services to citizens ‘on the go’ helps improve the way they get delivered.

The National eGovernance Plan’s vision statement unambiguously articulated this new mindset when it stated: “Make all government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets,

and reliability of such services at affordable costs to realise the basic needs of the common man.”

The common man was to be the pivot of all eGovernance initiatives, but the challenge that needed to be overcome was the low internet penetration in the country. The use of the internet moreover required a degree of literacy, which ruled out the vast population of unlettered citizens. The success of internet-driven eGovernance was predicated on a knowledge of the use of computers, which again, a vast number of citizens do not possess.

“Even though mobile technology was a late starter in rural areas, it has seen a much faster growth in recent times. The low tariff and low cost of handsets coupled with a clear value proposition for its users have been the drivers for this growth.”Inter-Ministerial Group on the ‘Framework for Delivery of Financial Services Using Mobile Phones’, 2010

130 million People accessing the internet via mobile devices (December 2013)#

919 million Active mobile connections in India (December 2013)*

14.91 million Number of people with access to broadband (min. download speed: 512 Kbps)^

227 million Estimated number of smartphones likely to be purchased by Indians in 2014@

683 million Unique users of mobile devices (35 per cent in rural India)*

mGovernance requires the least investment in infrastructure, because mobiles have reached the remotest

it easy to operate.

With the limited reach of WiFi, internet access is prone to being affected by erratic electricity supply.

Sources: * Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI); @ The Guardian; # Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI); ^ Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)

Why the government has taken the mobile route to achieve National eGovernance Plan goalsThe mobile is the most deeply penetrated communication device in the country

The Dial-in Advantage

205 million Population with access to the internet (only 25 million in rural India)#

05

Ubiquitous, and used for multiple purposes by even illiterate people, mobiles have opened up the possibility for the government to ride smoothly over these infrastructure speed-breakers. It is a classic case of the mountain moving to Mohammad, instead of waiting for Mohammad to come to it. It is also a giant leap forward in the government’s attempts to be more transparent in its dealings with citizens. The era of technology-enabled, citizen-centric governance has well and truly arrived. And the widespread penetration of mobile devices presents the government with an unparalleled opportunity to

to the remotest parts of the country.

“The most important focus area for us is mobile governance, or mGovernance, which is a tremendous need in a diverse and vast country like India,” the Union Electronics & IT Secretary, J. Satyanarayana, said in a media interview recently. “mGovernance has the ability to simplify the lives of the masses and create a

direct connect for them with the government.” No other means of communication has had a greater penetration than the mobile across India, so what better vehicle can the government ask for to reach out to people untouched by its institutions?

Framework for Mobile Governance (2012), which spelt out the national objective with these words: “The mGovernance framework of the Government of India aims to utilise the massive reach of mobile phones and harness the potential of mobile applications to enable easy and round-the-clock access to public services, especially in rural areas.” Mobiles, the government believes with good reason, help reduce uncertainties and increase transparency for citizens accessing government services. It views mobiles as the ideal vehicles for the dissemination of details of

including micro credit, Aadhar-

information ahead of the next general elections.

New Possibilities

The mobile platform presents certain obvious advantages...

Mobiles can reach those parts of the country where the infrastructure necessary for internet or wired

Mobiles are relatively low-cost technology compared with the

affordable.

Mobiles are fairly simple to use and access, which means no additional effort is required to train citizens to use them, and voice applications in local languages make them even more suitable for people with limited reading skills.

Mobiles can provide location-

services and a range of other news we can use, such as information

weather conditions for agricultural purposes.

06

The numbers at play point to the inevitability of this route to equitable development. The country, according to the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), has 919 million active mobile connections. The number of unique users is believed to be 683 million (because of the numerous instances of individuals owning multiple connections) and about 130 million of them access the internet through mobile devices. Their number is expected to rise phenomenally with Indians poised to buy, as reported by The Guardian newspaper, 227 million smartphones in this year

ahead of India’s internet population, which is 205 million, as estimated by Internet and Mobile Association of

India (IAMAI). Of them, just a little over 50 per cent access the internet daily and a mere 14.91 million have access to broadband connections.

The report of the inter-ministerial group on the ‘Framework for Delivery of Financial Services Using Mobile Phones’ summed up the value proposition back in 2010: “India continues to be one of the fastest growing telecom markets in the world with 10-15 million new phone subscribers being added every month. Even though mobile technology was a late starter in rural areas, it has seen a faster growth in recent times. The low tariff and low cost of handsets coupled with a clear value proposition for its users have been the drivers of this growth.”

Unparalleled Reach

NASSCOM President R. Chandrashekhar estimates that as much as 50-60 per cent of government services could be provisioned on mobile devices.

A report on the socio-economic impact of mobile technology by a team of researchers led by Professor Rajat Kathuria of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) has established a clear link between higher mobile penetration and economic growth. It predicts that states with a 10 per cent higher mobile penetration will enjoy a 1.2 per cent higher annual average growth rate than those with a lower tele-density.

The mobile platform has the depth and the reach to become the most important delivery mechanism for the government’s development initiatives. It has emerged as the technology that can bridge the digital divide between urban haves and rural have-nots.

NASSCOM’s President and former IT Secretary of the Government of India, R. Chandrashekhar, has done the math on the impact of mobiles on the delivery of government services. “If one considers government services to be 100 per cent,” Chandrashekhar says, “my guess is that 1-5 per cent will still require a visit to the government

will be available through the Common Services Centres (CSCs) or government service delivery centres, and 50-60 per cent could be provisioned on mobile devices.”

In Focus

07

In Focus

Inclusive Delivery

• Websites of all government departments and agencies shall be made mobile compliant, using the ‘One Web’ approach.

• Uniform, single pre-designated numbers (long and short codes) shall be used for mobile-based services to ensure convenience.

• Open standards shall be adopted for mobile applications to ensure the interoperability of applications across various operating systems and devices as stipulated by the national policy on open standards for eGovernance.

Moving fast on the ground, the government rolled out Mobile Seva (www.mgov.gov.in), which

governance project aimed at enabling all government departments and agencies at the central, state and local levels to rapidly develop and deploy public services on the mobile platform.

The cloud- and open standards-based Mobile Service Delivery Gateway (MSDG), developed under the Mobile Seva project by the Centre for the Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune, and hosted by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), drives the integration of mobile applications with the country’s eGovernance

infrastructure and thereby speeds up the delivery of public services to users through mobile phones. As a

platform, states don’t have to waste precious resources on the hardware and software required to develop such a mechanism. They can instead focus on the services to run on this platform.

The government has stepped on the accelerator to actualise the possibilities opened up by the mobile platform. To make it an effective tool for the “inclusive delivery” of public services, the Framework for Mobile Governance (2012) lays down four objectives for the Government of India:

• All government departments and agencies shall develop and deploy mobile applications for providing all their public services through mobile devices to the extent feasible on the mobile platform. They shall also specify the service levels in each case.

08

The MSDG paved the way for the SMS Gateway, which, after its inauguration in July 2011, is a one-stop solution offered to all central and state government departments and agencies for their mobile platform-based public service delivery needs. The SMS Gateway, as of January 16, 2014, had integrated 864 government departments and agencies, and had successfully completed more than 60.1 crore ‘push’ SMS transactions from sending bulk text messages, for instance, on agricultural matters to dispatching details of the progress of passport applications by individuals.

Using the ‘pull’ SMS route, it had operationalised 272 services that can be accessed by citizens across the country, across mobile networks, using the short codes 166/51969. These could range from tracking complaints pending with the Election Commission or the processing of Aadhar cards by the

India, to the progress of applications

departments of the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon.

The third major move by the government to step on the mobile governance accelerator was the creation of the Mobile Seva App Store. At the last count, the App Store was hosting 242 live mobile applications, which had been downloaded more than 1,32,000 times. The apps, freely downloadable on Android phones from the portal apps.mgov.gov.in, range from one that enables citizens to use a GPS tracker to locate polling stations across the country to another that gives them an on-the-spot view of the day’s display board at the Rajasthan High Court, to yet another that helps them measure their own body mass index (BMI).

It is possible now for a system to be in place that enables citizens to apply for an array of government services, including birth and death, marriage or caste and domicile

redress of grievances, though the actual delivery might still happen manually. All that they need to have is internet on their mobiles, which, as pointed out earlier, is a rapidly proliferating segment of the market. They can download

on the mobile itself, and send it back to the department concerned, but they will still have to collect the completed documents manually, or have them posted to their home address. The participating government departments will only have to be registered on the C-DAC server. The new ecosystem will not only reduce processing time, but also save citizens the bother of travelling to far-

The government has also announced its intention to set up a dedicated fund to provide grants for mobile technology ventures that develop eGovernance solutions. To be carved out from the `700

Growth Gateway

crore allocated to the National eGovernance Plan in the 2013-14 Union Budget, the fund will be created and managed by DeitY. This move is clearly a signal from the government that it is willing, and prepared, to involve the developer community more deeply in coming closer to its mobile governance goals. It heralds a new age of public-private partnership.

In Focus

09

News ReviewMobile Nation GOI ready to accept SMS

as proof of documentation. Mobile Seva apps will be available for downloads on non-android phones in six months.

The Government of India has cleared the way for an online

authentication project that would lead to the acceptance of transactional text messages, which ministries and agencies at the Centre and in the states send out to service seekers on their mobile phones, as documentary proof for various payments and registrations.

initiative, which will do away with the need for people to obtain printouts of government documents sent to them via email and produce them as proof, was announced by J. Satyanarayana, Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY). He made the announcement after dedicating ‘Mobile Seva’, http://mgov.gov.in/, the national mGovernance platform, to the nation on December 23, 2013.

The online authentication project, which has been in the core development stage for the past six months, is likely to be rolled out by June 2014, according to media reports. It will be on the same lines as the Railways accepting text messages as proof of ticket purchase and berth/seat reservation. Such practices, Satyanarayana said, had to be brought within the ambit of mobile- and eGovernance to increase the reach of government services.

“Look at how the railways have done it,” Satyanarayana said. “Your PNR

code on SMS is valid proof instead of paper when you are travelling. We need more services along the same lines.” SMS authentication is part of the e-Pramaan project, which has been allocated Rs 23 crore in the

For this transformative initiative to be effective, Satyanarayana suggested that it be given legal recognition by being brought under the IT Act. “For mobile messages to be accepted for commercial and legal purposes, they need to have a legal status,” Satyanarayana said. “If you have a

for example, it should be acceptable,” he added. The number of mobile subscriptions in the country close to 950 million, the secretary pointed out, emphasising the likely impact of the authentication initiative.

The levels of authentication will vary from user ID and passwords to biometric authentication, depending on the level of security required for these services. Highlighting this point, Rajendra Kumar, Joint Secretary heading DeitY’s eGovernance Division, said the department is also ready with digital signatures for government ministries and agencies, which can use them in messages that are to be sent to citizens applying for a service.

“We will start allocating digital signatures to all government

quarter of 2014,” Kumar said. In

signatures is referred to as the PKI, or Public Key Infrastructure. Eventually, any communication with a PKI, say an SMS, can be shown instead of a paper receipt or document.

10

The Secretary, Information Technology, Government of India, J. Satyanarayana (middle), and the Joint Secretary, eGovernance Division, DeitY, Rajendra Kumar (left), with the Mobile Seva logo at the dedication of the service to the nation.

Across platforms

Making another important announcement, Kumar said that in six months the government will bring all applications up to the HTML5 standard, which will make them compatible with all mobile platforms.

At present, the mobile applications available on the Mobile Seva m-App Store work only on Android mobile phones or on the ones that are Java-enabled. The applications relate to services covering areas as diverse as Right to Information (RTI), health, Aadhaar, education, directory listings, and so on.

Rajiv Gauba, DeitY Additional Secretary, said a growing number of departments from the Centre as well as the state and local governments have come on board, and the department is working on the third phase to further scale up the mobile governance platform and bring more services within its ambit.

“We have to complete inter-ministerial consultations to scale up this mGovernance store for the launch of the third phase,” Gauba said. “The third phase will have many more departments and capacity, which in turn will lead to the addition

shape of the third phase can be known only after the consultation process is complete,” Gauba added.

February 2012. At present, most services being provided by it are centered around sending information to citizens via SMS. “Information services for citizens in certain sectors are already in operation,” Kumar pointed out. The Union Health Ministry, for instance, sends SMS

registered pregnant women. The Ministry of Agriculture too, sends out text messages on mandi prices, pesticides and the weather.

Mobile Seva has been designed to provide government services to the people through mobile phones and tablets, says a media release issued by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), Government of India. It enables the integration of the mobile platform with the country’s eGovernance infrastructure consisting of State Data Centres (SDCs), State Wide Area Networks (SWANs), and State and National Service Delivery Gateways (SSDGs/NSDG).

It also allows government departments to integrate both web- and mobile-based services seamlessly and enhances the access to electronic services leveraging the very high penetration of mobile phones, especially in rural areas. The availability of government-wide shared infrastructure and services enables rapid development and reduced costs for the departments rolling out mobile-based services.

As the time of going to the press, 864 Central and State government

departments were using Mobile Seva to provide SMS-based services, and they had sent out more than 60

for various mobile-based services. The platform also enables citizens to interact directly with government departments using text messages. As many as 272 public services have been made available to citizens.

DeitY has also developed a Mobile Applications Store (App Store) for Mobile Seva and it now hosts more 242 live mobile applications. The live applications can be downloaded and installed free of cost on an Android or Java-enabled mobile phone by anyone, but it will be available soon on other mobile platforms as well. That means users of iOS- or Windows-based phones won’t be left out of the government’s attempts to come closer to citizens and make their lives less complicated.

Sources: The Times of India; Press Trust of India; Press Information Bureau

11

How strong is the Government of Karnataka’s commitment to the idea of mobile governance?

There has to be a mobile interface for every eGovernance initiative, especially if you wish to take eGovernance to the last mile. Citizens are no longer prepared to wait in queues for government services. They expect them within an acceptable time frame. The government must have the back-end in place to connect with citizens anytime, anywhere, via any mobile device. That is the mission and vision of the National eGovernance Plan. The Government of Karnataka, for sure, is navigating into mobiles in a big way.

Can you share an instance from the state of the mobile platform being put to good use for the

Mobiles can be used in a number of creative ways to bring the

government closer to the people and make a real difference to their lives. Take for instance the pilot project implemented by HP Labs for Bangalore University to end leakages of examination papers, which only hurts honest students, who have to take a test afresh just because certain unscrupulous operators have leaked the paper.

Under Bangalore University’s pilot project, each examination centre is provided with a printer that has a processor and a memory, and can print 500 question sheets

each printer is fed with multiple password-protected question papers. Ten minutes before the scheduled start of an exam, the password of the designated question paper is texted to all centres so that they can print copies of it in time for the exam. This element of surprise rules out the possibility of a leakage. It shows how mobiles can become

An MBA from Harvard with an M.Phil. from Delhi School of Economics, M.N. Vidyashankar is a thinking person’s bureaucrat. Karnataka’s

Additional Chief Secretary, Commerce and Industries, in his previous stint as the state government’s Principal Secretary, Information Technology, powered many of the eGovernance initiatives that have made his state a model for others to follow. In this in-depth interview, the Karnataka-

show how government institutions can turn the mobile platform into an effective means of improving the quality of life of citizens.

News ReviewIn Conversation “The mobile

interface alone can take eGovernance initiatives to the last mile”

against examination malpractices.

That’s a laudable move worthy of replication. Is there any other similar initiative by a state-run institution to use the mobile platform to prevent fraud.

Take the case of bogus paperwork. It accounts for 11 per cent of

presented to IT companies by their prospective employees. This massive fraud wouldn’t have come to light had the U.S. embassy not detected it and alerted the IT industry after

these papers to get visas for their employees.

As a result of this revelation, Bangalore University has started

standard text, but the back has 2D text. There’s no technology is place that can copy 2D text. To

12

back this up, the university has also

employees can know instantaneously

prospective employees are genuine or not. It is yet another instance of how the mobile interface can be put

contain fraud.

Karnataka has led the way in ensuring greater transparency in governance with its e-procurement programme. Is a mobile interface in place to make the programme

SMS alerts have also emerged as a key component of the Government of Karnataka’s acclaimed e-procurement

goods, works and services produced anywhere in the world are procured by the state. Karnataka is not any different, but by implementing end-to-end e-procurement, the state government has made the process not only transparent at every stage, but also competitive because it is possible now for a supplier anywhere in the world to bid for a tender

or agency.

As a result of the transparency and increased competition, Karnataka has saved Rs 33,000 crore in the last four

increasing revenue without raising taxes. And the transparency of the process is supported by its mobile

interface, which sends each supplier an SMS alert at every stage of the processing of bids.

Is there any other instance of the mobile platform being used to promote transparency in government processes and practices?

One can keep citing examples of the mobile interface becoming a facilitator of transparency in governance. Take the case of the state government’s File Monitoring and Tracking System, which works in

set up industries. The process involves many stages and many agencies, but now you get SMS alerts that help you track each stage of your application’s progress. So does the state’s chief secretary in case of any delay in regard to any application. This is how the File Monitoring and Tracking System works. It alerts the

responsible for the delay. It ensures

How can the mobile platform become a source of information that can empower citizens and make a real difference to their lives?

SMS alerts can make a real difference to the lives of ordinary people. After

the state road transport corporation launched a pilot project of sending text messages to women subscribing

to the service to let them know of any change in the timings or the route of a bus service. Armed with this information, women can reach a bus stop only when necessary, or avoid one in case of a sudden change of route or service. This is especially useful at night when women commuters are most vulnerable, as was brought to light tragically in the Delhi gangrape case.

Can you cite a development initiative that uses the mobile platform to disseminate information to help people earn more and live better?

In the Dakshin Kannada district, the state government has launched a unique development initiative, again using the mobile platform,

would all congregate in areas where they expected a good catch. So, for instance, one tonne of catch would

99 tonnes went untouched.

Now, with the help of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO),

department sends individual

guide them to particular latitude-longitude coordinates where it expects the catch to be bountiful.

target a bigger individual catch, instead of chasing a limited catch

district.

Citizens are no longer prepared to wait in queues for government services. They expect them within an acceptable time-frame.M.N. VidyashankarAdditional Chief Secretary,Government of Karnataka

13

`33,000 croreThe money saved by the Government of Karnataka because of e-procurement

names show up quickly, and planning your journey, making train choices and booking tickets are now more seamless than before. You can use the app to make train inquiries, plan your travel, make railway reservations, and check PNR status, booking/cancellation history and ticket availability. Microsoft’s cloud platform brings together all these components for a pain-free rail travel experience.

Landes said he hoped this app was

between Microsoft and government organisations to enrich their citizen-oriented services. “We are particularly interested in the education space,” he added. With the government backing innovation in the development of apps that work across platforms, its interface with citizens can only get smoother.

Now you can plan your travel, book train tickets and do

much more on the go — anytime, anywhere — using your Windows Phone, Windows 8 tablet or PC. The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the public sector undertaking that revolutionised e-ticketing and

eGovernance success story, has embarked on an ‘app’ journey. The IRCTC app has been made available for Windows devices and it will be available throughout the day, except from 8:00 a.m. to 12 noon, and 11:30 p.m. to 00:30 a.m.

The intuitive, clutter-free app performs all the tasks already available on the IRCTC website. And that’s not all. It comes with new and exciting features, such as visual maps of train routes, Windows Phone live tiles lighting up as train tickets, and the user gaining access to saved

devices. It means you don’t have to enter your personal details each time you book a ticket. You can pin your ticket on the start screen, so you don’t need a printout. And you get all this at no extra cost.

Security is one feature of the app that Rakesh Tandon, Chairman and Managing Director, IRCTC, stressed at its launch in New Delhi. “Windows is the most trusted and widely used platform and offers the security required while handling vast

News ReviewNews Review IRCTC app for

Windows devices shows way forward for citizen-friendly public services

user data,” Tandon said. Later, speaking separately to journalists, he added that it had taken more than a year to develop the app. “A lot of effort has gone into it,” he said. “And we have incurred zero cost.” This “pilot project”, he added, was intended to “enrich the consumer experience”.

Speaking at the launch, Joseph Landes, General Manager (Developer and Platform Evangelism), Microsoft India said: “The app is a huge step forward to make the IRCTC booking system more accessible, more visually appealing, more secure and more reliable.”

The IRCTC app lights up in-built features of your Windows 8 and Windows Phone devices to bring you a delightful experience. Destination

14

Windows Phone 8 india.gov.in app reveals how citizens can get more out of government websites

The National Portal of India

of call for anyone, anywhere in the world with an interest in India. Designed, developed and hosted by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), under the aegis of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), india.gov.in has links to just about any information that you could ever want on the Government of India, Parliament and state legislatures, state administrations, judiciary and the array of citizen-centric services that state agencies have to offer. It is a one-stop gateway to every government organisation that makes a difference to our daily lives.

The portal’s stated objective is “to provide a single window access to the information and services being provided by the Indian Government for citizens and other stakeholders”. You can’t beat the portal when you are looking for “a comprehensive,

accurate, reliable and one-stop source of information about any facet of the country”.

And the beauty of it is that it is metadata-driven, so the information is updated and as real time as it can get, and its responsive web design makes it amenable to easy reading on both mobile phones and tablets. From getting the telephone numbers of Jharkhand High Court judges to downloading voter registration or provident fund transfer claims forms, to making online road tax payments, to browsing the latest Press Information Bureau (PIB) releases, this is one portal that allows you to gain access to all the information in the public domain.

collated by the NIC and made available on the site, india.gov.in, on average, gets more than 1.5-1.7 million visitors a month — each visitor spends 7-12 minutes on the

portal and 30-40 per cent of them are based abroad.

To further ease access to this information gold mine, especially for people on the go, the NIC and Microsoft’s Developer Platform Evangelist team have collaborated to develop a Windows Phone 8 india.gov.in application that you can download from the Microsoft App Store. The utility of this app is that it presents the vast oceans of information attractively to simplify navigation and its intuitive user interface helps you reach your destination link with the least number of clicks.

If you wish to know, for instance, where the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) is located in New Delhi’s

Locator’ icon and not go to the department’s website. Or if you need to contact a particular Lok Sabha member, go to ‘All Lok Sabha Members’ and click. That saves you

Sabha website, locating the member, and then contacting him or her. Three steps get reduced to two.

This is how Microsoft technology is making it easier for citizens to connect with government websites and get their grievances addressed or their desired services delivered faster. They can now do it from anywhere, at any time. Applications developed on the Windows 8 platform are highly secure, fast and provide a rich user interface, as in the case of india.gov.in.

The learning curve for a developer working on a Windows Phone 8 application is also much shorter because of the familiarity provided by the .NET language framework and Visual Studio. Government agencies and public sector undertakings can help citizens extract more out of fewer clicks.

15

Uearly last year. The state government’s Principal Secretary, Department of IT and Electronics, Jiwesh Nandan, an UP-cadre

ensuring transparency and faster delivery of citizen-centric services through the eGovernance route, and the potential of the mobile platform to be used to bring the administration even more closer to the people.

News ReviewIn Conversation “Mobiles will play a

very important part in connecting the state government to underserved citizens”

It was clear at the national conference on e-Uttar Pradesh, which was held in Lucknow in November 2013, that the state government is serious about eGovernance. What are some of the steps it has taken to reach the

people in the state?

The Government of Uttar Pradesh is determined to reform the way the government interfaces and interacts with citizens. As part of the National eGovernance Plan, we started the online delivery of 26 services of eight departments via the Jan Suvidha Kendras (JSKs), which is what we call the Common Service Centres (CSCs) in the state, from April 1, 2012.

In the months since then, we have delivered more than 1.4 crore

death, caste, domicile or income) to people across the state. More than 13,500 JSKs have become operational and they will be joined

very soon by another 3,000-plus. In urban areas, private entrepreneurs have moved in to transform their small-scale computer or mobile repair shops into the JSKs, but access is still an issue in villages.

What are the different ways in which the state government is reaching out to citizens through various eGovernance initiatives?

Our citizen-centric uses of IT extend from ration cards issued online to the computerisation of land records under the Bhulekh programme. The commercial tax and transport departments, in fact, are the leaders in the use of IT in their daily operations. We can even track whether students who have been awarded state scholarships get their money on time. The growth potential of citizen-centric IT services is immense and they are getting very popular. We just have to create supply and build up critical mass, and the demand just grows.

We mean business when we say we are pushing for transparency in governance, using IT and, increasingly, the mobile platform.

UP’s rising national rank on eTaal, the web portal that monitors the number of e-transactions across the country – our position has gone up from No. 11 to No. 4.

How successfully has the state government incorporated mobile-based services in its eGovernance plan?

16

1.4 croreThe number of digitally signed

death, caste, domicile and income) issued across the state.

Mobiles will increasingly play an important part in taking us to the last mile. Without doubt, the penetration of mobiles is much deeper than any other device and they will always be in use. The platform is particularly important in reaching information to the people, as we have seen in the case of mSakhi, a versatile application that keeps village-level Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) informed and updated on matters related to pre-natal care of mothers-to-be, child delivery, and mother and infant care after child birth.

Mobiles are also a part of the Easygas and Kisan projects initiated in Gonda district. These projects underline the importance of mobiles in enhancing government-to-citizen (G2C) communications and in monitoring the delivery of consumer essentials and services from government agencies. Eventually, mobiles may remove the need for citizens to travel to JSKs to access an online service.

Has the state government mulled over the possibility of using mobiles to reach out faster to its own employees, especially those in daily contact with citizens?

I agree, mobiles can dramatically increase the speed of the state government’s communications with its employees, especially those who service the last mile. We have not moved in this direction in a big

way, but it is a part of our eDistrict plan. The plan focuses on providing back-end automation for services brought under eGovernance initiatives. The idea is to minimise manual processing of services required by the people so that they can be delivered seamlessly to the

Has the infrastructure in the state been able to cope with the government’s efforts to use IT to promote transparency and deliver citizen-centric services faster?

We have been able to make quick progress because every other infrastructure was in place. We have our own SSDG (State Service Delivery Gateway) and SAN (State Area Network). More importantly, we have a tradition of the state government taking the IT route to provide services to citizens. In the early 2000s, we opened cyber kiosks in urban centres under the Lokwani programme to provide a limited number of services to citizens. The pilot was successfully implemented in Sitapur and then the experiment was replicated all over the state.

Similarly, back in 2001, we had launched 56 eSuvidha centres in Lucknow to decentralise the collection of utility bill payments so that people didn’t have to travel long distances or spend long hours in queues for this routine chore.

Mobiles can dramatically increase the speed of the state government’s communications with its employees, especially those who service the last mile.Jiwesh NandanPrincipal Secretary, Department of IT & Electronics,Government of Uttar Pradesh

17

No. 4UP’s national rank, up from No. 11, on eTaal, the web portal that monitors all government e-transactions.

What are the conditions that must be in place before the state government starts incorporating the mobile platform in a bigger way in its many eGovernance initiatives?

Before we give the idea of mobile governance a push, we have to become an IT-savvy state beyond NOIDA. We have to make our young generation computer-enabled by bridging the digital divide. We have also to make a mark nationally, which was why we organised a national conference on e-Uttar Pradesh in Lucknow.

At this event, Chief Minister Akhilesh

determination to develop Lucknow and Agra as the next IT hubs in the state. The government is also encouraging the administrations of smaller cities to set up mini IT parks. Uttar Pradesh is a big state with a huge domestic demand. We have the ability to support a growing number of IT parks.

News ReviewBreakthrough Kisaan SMS Portal

is the new gateway for government departments to reach out to farmers

Information on the government’s schemes can help more farmers

reaching out, the government will be able to broaden the footprint of these schemes.

Weather alerts help farmers plan their operations more effectively. Following the onset of adverse weather

conditions, SMSes can provide real-time advice to farmers to take precautionary measures.

Immediate warnings on the outbreak of diseases/pests can help farmers take pre-emptive or

remedial actions in and around the core affected area. This was not possible before.

Can an SMS from a government agency make a real difference to the life of a farmer in a distant, barely accessible village? On July 16, 2013, the 85th Foundation Day of the Indian Council for Agriculture Research, when President

Pranab Mukherjee launched the Kisaan SMS Portal developed by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, the

relevant information via the fastest available channel of communication today. Consider the following:

Timely market information will give a better bargaining power to farmers.

Crop advisories will lead to farmers adopting better varieties/breeds and better technologies.

Soil test results conveyed via SMS will help farmers select the right fertilisers and dosage.

The SMS Portal has got the support of all the agencies that matter to a farmer. State governments and their

level (including state agriculture universities and Krishi Vigyan Kendras) have signed up to use this interactive service and reach out to farmers with timely and relevant information provided in their own language.

The SMSes will get transmitted only to farmers within the territorial

expert for the crops or agricultural practices that such farmers might have opted for. The search facility (by text and by topic) will also help the farmers go through previous

information given.

The integrated Farmers’ Portal (farmer.gov.in) has been hosted as a beta site and the SMS portal is the most important part of it. Common Service Centres (CSCs) set up by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology and Kisaan call centres are being integrated with this portal to improve access to such web-based information.

Farmers can register for the SMS service by calling the Kisaan Call Centre on the toll-free number 1800-180-1551, or through farmer.gov.in. The farmer can also choose the language in which he or she would like to receive the SMSes. If his or her mobile does not support the regional language, then the farmer can choose to receive the SMSes in the regional language written in the Roman script.

And for farmers who are not familiar with SMS, a voice SMS platform is being set up.

SMSes sent to farmers, says the PIB media release, can be broadly

information, services and advisories. The content could include information about government schemes, advisories from experts, or market developments down to the state, district and block as well as crops and activities selected by each

SMSes to farmers within the entire area, or a part of it, of their respective jurisdictions. The government is coming closer to the people. SMSes are making it possible.

18

Mobile app takes the sweat out of passport application process for Windows Phone users

All it takes is a Windows-powered smartphone to help

you get your passport application in order and then keep track of its progress. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has smartened up the passport application process with its user-friendly, quick and transparent mPassport Seva mobile

Android users, and soon after made available on the Windows and iOS operating systems. It is one of the most ambitious moves by the Government of India under the National eGovernance Plan.

The app addresses some common fears that arise when you apply for a new passport or seek a reissue of your expired one. The biggest fear is that you haven’t got your documents in order. After spending a couple of hours in a queue, no one wishes to be told that they need to come back with the right papers.

And then, the wait for the passport to land at your house can be tiresome. You want to know, here and now, exactly where your

passport is and that is what the mPassport Seva mobile app tells you without your having to ask for it.

The app ensures you no longer have to go to the Passport Seva website to access basic information. Apart from general information, the app allows you to search for the location

Passport Seva Kendra, city-wise and also by PIN code. Users in certain states can even search for their closest police stations as well.

Indian citizens living overseas can seek information on Indian missions or posts, along with other useful tidbits. The app serves many audiences at once.

A helpful feature — the fee

how much money you’ll have to pay for the application process, based on the type of service you seek (whether, for instance, it is a fresh passport application or a reissue).

To track the status of your passport application, you have simply to feed

• The app downloads on your Windows Phone all the information you need to get your passport.

• Locates for you the nearest Passport Seva Kendra (PSK).

• Makes it easier for you to zero in on the relevant police stations in certain states and districts.

• Has a fee calculator.

• Keeps you updated on the progress of your application.

Smart Guide to mPassport Seva

19

in your application number and date of birth. If your passport is hot off the press and has been dispatched, you’ll get to know at once.

The mPassportSeva app can be downloaded for free from the Windows Phone Store. It runs on both Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 7.5. With the MEA showing how easy it is for a government department to get closer to citizens via the Windows Phone route, it may not be too long before we have a ‘smart’ way to apply for passports and pay the service fee — all on the Windows phone!

From a mobile app that enables instant transmission of inspection and survey data within the government to a well-oiled system of SMS

Maharashtra has turned the mobile platform into an important facilitator

with Perspective, he shares details of the many steps taken by the state government to give the idea of mobile governance a positive thrust.

News ReviewIn Conversation “We have used

mobiles to end the need to queue up at

for basic services”

The Government of Maharashtra has been vigorously pursuing the goals of the National eGovernance Plan. How important is the mobile platform in your initiatives?

Our government is committed to using the massive reach of mobile phones to enable easy and round-the-clock access to public services, especially in the rural areas. We believe that the mobile platform can enable the state government

and communicate better with citizens. Led by this belief, we have developed a number of mobile applications (apps) and are using them in a number of ways.

What are some of the important directions that the state government has taken to use the mobile platform to cut through red tape and come closer to the citizens?

One of our most successful apps is

inspections and surveys. Suppose an engineer goes to inspect a project

department go to check out the condition of a hostel, they don’t have to prepare lengthy reports on paper.

app and their superiors have the

while an inspection is on. The beauty of this app is that it is very easily customisable and we have already shared it with some other states.

We have also developed apps to streamline our communications with citizens and even provide them information that is relevant to their lives. One of our apps allows journalists to download government orders without having to travel to the Mantralaya in Mumbai to get a physical copy. Another informs

and public places that are easily accessible on wheelchair. We use crowdsourcing to collect and update data for this app. And while we are upgrading the online presence of the

Mumbai Police control room, we are introducing an app to guide women on their safety in the metropolis.

These are laudable examples of the mobile platform being used effectively to speed up communications within the state government for faster decision-making and for greater interactivity with citizens. What is your department doing to make life easier for government employees, pensioners and service providers?

The salaries/pensions of a majority of Government of Maharashtra employees and retirees now get transferred electronically to their bank accounts and SMS alerts are issued at once. This process has not only ensured complete transparency, but also reduced delays. Likewise, we have streamlined payments to service providers. They no longer have to make repeated visits to

rightfully due to them.

20

Their payments are moved, within a stipulated number of days, directly to their bank accounts through the RTGS route and SMS alerts are sent when these transfers are made. The system of electronic payments

delays and remove the bottlenecks, and scotch any possibility of corruption. We are doing away with the need to queue up at

This combination of electronic transfers of funds followed up by

who receive scholarships from the state government. No matter how far they may be from Mumbai, all scholarship recipients get the amounts that is due to them at the same time.

used to be a daily feature in the past. Could you share examples of how the mobile platform is being used to make queues history?

SMS alerts have made it possible for all citizens to track the status of

requests for services. This eliminates the possibility of unnecessary delays and also does away with the need for people to crowd government

applications.

People living in Maharashtra today can receive SMS updates on the progress of their applications for the

death to caste, proof of residence and income) issued by Citizen Service Centres. When they present

college admissions, or scholarships, or jobs, the authorities can instantly verify their authenticity merely by sending a text message to the SMS number given at the bottom of each

You have to go to the Government Printing Press on Charni Road in Mumbai to see the visible difference

this integration of the online and mobile platforms can make to the lives of the citizens. In the old system, at least 600 people had to queue up daily outside the press to get their

gazette. It took two months for each

online, use quick, paperless UID-linked eKYC at the counter, and on the same day in the evening, the

be on the website. The applicants instantly get an SMS. The time for

two months to two hours!

The Government of Maharashtra, we believe, has taken a number of steps to leverage Aadhar for improved delivery of services. Can you cite examples of the mobile platform being used for this purpose?

We have developed an app that allows people to book LPG cylinders via mobiles using their Aadhar data. This service works on the USSD platform. To ensure the

given a one-time password each time they use the service. Mobiles have also become important means

living in the remotest parts of the state. Now that the majority of the people living in the state have Aadhar numbers, bank agents (or ‘correspondents’) armed with mobiles can go to under-served

villages and help their residents to open accounts.

Last year, your department teamed up with Microsoft to organise an ‘app fest’ to get young developers to work on mobile applications that can be used for the improved delivery of citizen services. What have been the gains of this initiative?

The app fest was a very useful exercise. It threw up a number of interesting ideas for apps, for instance, to connect people with blood banks and ambulance services. We are now more open than before to ideas from young developers. We have issued new and easier guidelines for websites and mobile apps whose development does not cost more than Rs 2 lakh. Now, it is not necessary for an app developer to be a registered company with a number of years of

ready to support even students with innovative, scalable ideas.

SMS alerts have made it possible for all citizens to track the status of their applications for

for services.Rajesh AggarwalPrincipal Secretary (IT), Government of Maharashtra

21

600The number of people who can now get their name changes gazetted daily without having to queue up at the Government Press in Mumbai.

News Review Uttar Pradesh shows how an app can make a difference to maternal and child health

As many as 56,000 mothers die during childbirth and so do

876,000 newborns every year across India. It is an avoidable toll that is responsible for India accounting for 19 per cent of all maternal and 26 per cent of all newborn deaths in the world. It is a challenge for frontline health workers, known as accredited social health activists (ASHAs).

Over the last three decades, India has brought its maternal mortality rate down by 60 per cent. To be able to root out this malaise completely, the last-mile health worker has to be

of-its-kind initiative in Uttar Pradesh, mSakhi, sets out to achieve this objective by using mobile phones to empower ASHAs with life-saving knowledge. ASHAs, incidentally, are critical to the success of the National Rural Health Mission because they bridge the human resource gap, at the level of the remotest village, caused by the nationwide shortage of trained doctors and nurses.

Operations research studies conducted in Bahraich and Jhansi districts between April 2012 and June 2013 have shown that mSakhi, an interactive mobile phone application that provides maternal and newborn health information to ASHAs, has yielded positive results and is scalable as well. The initiative is powered by IntraHealth International’s Manthan Project with the Government of Uttar Pradesh

and is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

A majority of ASHAs, and there are 887,450 of them across the country, are village women with low levels of literacy and they face

in keeping their skills updated. What is particularly constricting for ASHAs is their lack of easy access to healthcare information, refresher training, supportive supervision and user-friendly job aids. mSakhi addresses these issues.

Drawing on the National Rural Health Mission’s ASHA manuals and home-based newborn care formats and guidelines, mSakhi provides interactive, on-the-go support to ASHAs in conducting routine maternal and newborn child health checks. The distinctive features of

for touch phones using an open-source Android platform, include voice-guided vernacular messages, illustrations and videos.

Smartphone-equipped ASHAs

women and/or newborns) by entering basic information about them into mSakhi during home visits. After registration, mSakhi generates a home visit schedule for

of audio/video-guided instructions for counselling, assessment and

data entered by ASHAs into mSakhi

are received by their de facto supervisors, the auxiliary nurse midwives, and it gets stored in a central database. For ASHAs, the simple, intuitive and voice navigable interface of mSakhi makes it easy to use and contributes

of their knowledge. For village communities, it means that they can now bank on ASHAs to provide more informed counselling to mothers-to-be and more accurate and quicker referrals of sick newborns, who tend to be under-diagnosed by community health workers. If actionable knowledge

mSakhi looks poised to make a

and child health outcomes.

Source: www.intrahealth.org

Case Study

22

Microsoft India

for developers to create apps for better governance and social good

Microsoft India has launched a one-of-its-kind contest for

independent software vendors (ISVs) and technology start-ups that is likely to result, over the next six months, in the creation of more than a hundred mobile applications (apps) and solutions for businesses and governments.

The ‘Code for Honor’ contest (www.

initiative by the world’s leading software company to engage the developer community in a national effort to develop apps that, among other things, will help government departments improve their internal operations and become more accessible to citizens. With support from elite organisations such as the National Informatics Centre (NIC), NASSCOM, TiE, Nokia, Nokia App Campus, Intel, and accessibility

contest promises to be an important support for the many mobile governance initiatives.

ISVs and technology start-ups can win up to nine awards in four categories -- Enterprise, MSME, Government Enablement and Citizen Services. They will be encouraged especially to develop apps and solutions that are accessible to differently-abled people and/or are designed to promote social good. An NIC-backed award is earmarked for the ‘Best Solution for Social Good Using Open Gov Data’. Fifty-six

ministries and departments of the Government of India have opened their data sets to the public – the number is growing almost every week – and the NIC is encouraging ISVs to use this gold mine for social good.

Launching the contest, Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft India, said, “With the proliferation of devices and cloud-based services, governments, businesses and other organisations are seeking to interact with customers, partners and other stakeholders securely and reliably. There is an opportunity to create commercial apps beyond the traditional ERP and other transactional systems.”

With an estimated 1.6 million professionals, India has the

Launch Pad

23

world’s second largest developer community after the United States. Microsoft has had a relationship with Indian developers for over two decades. In 2012 the company set a Guinness Record with 2,567 developers coding non-stop for 18 hours on the Windows platform.

Putting all these developments in perspective, Joseph Landes, General Manager and Chief Evangelist, Microsoft India, said, “The rich developer ecosystem in India makes it the ideal place for developing commercial applications. With best-in-class guidance, Code for Honor will challenge developers to build apps that have large-scale impact both for India and the world.”

Bhaskar Pramanik (left) and Joseph Landes at the launch of Code for Honor

News ReviewIn Conversation “I want to create an

ecosystem where each department comes up with its own mobile solutions and apps. We will provide the plug-ins.”

How committed is the Madhya Pradesh government to turning the idea of mobile governance into a statewide reality?

It is our intention to replace every other interface between the government and citizens with the mobile interface. Like India, Madhya Pradesh is a young state – 50 per cent of our population is aged below 35. They are mobile savvy and they don’t have either the patience, or the inclination, to stand in queues or write long letters to authorities. They want instant responses from government departments and agencies.

the new connectivity? What’s working in their favour is the complete political acceptability of new technologies. Bureaucrats don’t have to teach politicians the importance of ICT when it comes to service delivery. Also, when

this new connectivity, there will be a demand-side pressure.

What are the enabling steps that the state government has taken to implement the idea of mobile governance?

Mobile governance is a very young idea, but we are moving on it at a very fast pace. We are plugged into the mobile service gateways provided by both the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and the Centre for the Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). And since March 2013, we have sent out more than 2.75 crore SMSes providing actionable information to citizens across the state. We have signed MoUs with more than 80 departments and agencies of the state government, offering them gateway access so that they can communicate with the citizens anytime, anywhere via mobiles.

We’ve put mobile communications to a lot of creative uses. Just to cite one instance, citizens who apply for services that come with the guarantee of time-bound action under the Madhya Pradesh Public

Service (Lok Seva) Guarantee Act

at every stage of the movement of their applications across the departments concerned.

The Madhya Pradesh Agency for the Promotion of Information Technology (MAP-IT) is in the process of setting up a Centre of Excellence. What is it going to do? Is mobile governance on its agenda?

The Centre of Excellence will have 18 accomplished IT professionals

ARao has no doubt that the mobile platform will be the most effective deliverer of the promise of eGovernance. His state has a large mobile-savvy young population that he believes is not ready to queue up, or wait endlessly, for services that it expects the government to deliver within acceptable deadlines. The state government, he emphasises, has got to live up to this generation’s expectations and reach out to it “anytime, anywhere” via the mobile platform.

24

2.75 croreThe number of SMSes sent out by state government departments and agencies providing actionable information to citizens applying for

drawn from the industry who will provide the technical backbone to departments as they go about incorporating eGovernance into their service delivery mechanisms. Mobile governance is very much on its agenda.

On similar lines, we are setting up Project eMission Teams, again drawn from the best professionals in the industry, for each department to enable it to prepare its own eGovernance road map. That is

implementing the idea of mobile governance. State government

before they can move on to the mobile platform.

MAP-IT has been busy hiring IT professionals and technocrats from the market and offering them market-based salaries and emoluments. I chair the interview committee and we have already hired bright young people from Bangalore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune.

What kind of success do you visualise from this initiative? Will this infusion of professionals from the industry make a real difference to the state government departments?

Believe me, it is going to be the killer app. Let me share with you my experience with a young IT professional we had hired for the agriculture department. For the past two years, I had been discussing with the principal secretary (agriculture) ways of making the department move to the eGovernance platform. I had not made much headway, so I was surprised when the principal secretary called me up some days back, asking for a meeting on his department’s Mission Mode Project on IT.

I arranged for the meeting, which was attended by 50-plus top

associated agencies, and to my pleasant surprise, it started with a presentation by the young IT professional who had joined the department just ten days ago. It was he who had convinced the principal secretary of the urgency of moving over to the eGovernance platform.

How else are you engaging the services of professionals from the IT industry?

We are turning to them to develop mobile governance applications. When we have talent in the market, there’s no point reinventing the wheel. Our attempt will be to develop apps that can be available across all platforms – Android, iOS and Windows. We don’t want to limit the availability of our apps only to users of Android phones, though they now outnumber the others.

One of our most downloaded apps is the one that sends SMS

stage to the declaration of results, to young people who take public exams. My dream is to launch a one-stop app that will provide a similar service to citizens applying for any service provided by a state government department or agency.

I see mobile applications going a long way in promoting cheaper and real-time communications between state government departments and their last-mile contacts with citizens. An app, for instance, can make the

task of recording the attendance of teachers in government-run primary schools across the state so much easier. I want to create an ecosystem where each department comes up with its own mobile solutions and apps. We’ll be there to provide the plug-ins.

progress of mobile governance as the enabler of a better life for the citizens of the state?

I am slightly more futuristic than my realistic colleagues. The concept of e-kiosks, which the state government had rolled out in 2007 to provide a host of online services to citizens at Common Service Centres, will go out of fashion in

replaced by the mobile interface in the same way as cell phones

which had revolutionised rural telecommunications, redundant in less than ten years.

Are all the state government departments at the same level of preparedness for this switchover?

Not every department is at the same level of development, so they cannot move on to the mobile governance platform at the same time. A backend, as in the instances of the commercial taxes and transport departments, must be in place for mobile apps to make a real difference to people’s lives.

Our attempt will be to develop apps that can be available across all platforms – Android, iOS and Windows.Hari Ranjan RaoSecretary, IT,Government of Madhya Pradesh

25

News ReviewBreakthrough Government of India’s

Open Data portal pushes transparency, unlocks treasure chest for app developers

Government departments and agencies sit on mountains of

or secured through surveys. As and when these numbers are unlocked for free public access, they can not only create conditions for better governance by improving transparency and accountability, but also open up a gold mine of material for developers of mobile applications (apps) aimed at keeping decision-makers better informed and raising the quality of citizen services.

This thinking is at the base of the worldwide Open Data movement, which the Government of India logged on to on March 17, 2012. That was the day when the government

and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP), which mandates all ministries and departments to release the maximum number of non-sensitive datasets into the public domain. The launch of the Data Portal India (data.gov.in)

and it has revolutionised access to government data, leading many commentators to point out that it may eventually make the Right to Information Act redundant.

Overseen by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the nodal agency for the implementation of the NDSAP, and developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), the portal today is the repository of 5,670 datasets handed over by 58 central government ministries and

departments and four states (the

the press) as well as 27 mobile apps.

As many as 92 senior government

data controllers in their respective ministries and departments to ensure

the public domain. And as you’d expect from a portal promoting better communications between the government and the citizens, it encourages a high degree of user engagement – users can rate datasets, comment on their quality,

relevant on their websites, blogs and social media pages. “Collaborative innovation” is the new buzz phrase.

impact on enhancing the reach and accessibility of government services and information through innovative apps around the Open Data,” the industry body NASSCOM said in a statement welcoming the government initiative. NASSCOM is partnering with the NIC to create awareness about the portal across the country and to engage the developer community in building an Open Data ecosystem.

From an all-India PIN Code directory to a brilliantly visualised table showing the state-wise breakup of the percentage of people living below the poverty, the datasets cover just about every nugget of information that an app developer,

researcher and policy-maker could want. Do you wish to map the movement of the wholesale price index up to May 2013? Or keep tabs on the progress of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme? Or get answers to questions you may have on the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO)?

The data portal is brimming over with information that can be dredged to develop apps for the general

groups. And if there’s a dataset you

the portal, then you can always post a suggestion. The ones listed on the portal range from data on state-wise consumption of kerosene to a break-up of the number of electricity theft cases and arrests. This the kind of information that civil society usually seeks by taking the Right to Information (RTI) route.

In August 2013, the NIC and NASSCOM joined hands to organise a ground-breaking conference on ‘#OpenDataApps for Innovation in Governance’. “The need of the hour is to ignite data-driven innovation to make the Open Government Data initiative more relevant and useful for citizens,” NIC said in a media release issued on the occasion.

“The Open Data Apps Challenge is an important initiative to harness the

the media release said. “The datasets

26

released on the portal get added advantage through visualisations, enhanced presentation, discoverability and usage.”

The key phrase here is “data-driven innovation”. The experience of other countries have shown that data portals have spawned the growth of a culture of development of apps centered around open government

government data initiative may just lead to a similar development and the activity on the data portal seems to suggest that this is not a remote possibility. There’s already talk of building a ‘data economy’ up from villages, municipalities and districts.

The Planning Commission, in partnership with the National Innovation Council, set the ball rolling on April 6-7, 2013, by organising an all-India hackathon in ten leading IITs, IIITs, universities and institutions of excellence such as TISS and IISc. The objective of this national exercise was to get creative minds together to pore over the 12th Five-

Year Plan document and develop “out-of-this-world visualisations of the future, tell the next big story in a myriad ways and build apps to fuel the change”. The prize-winning apps ranged from one that compressed the data scattered across the 12th Plan document to another that makes science lessons easy and entertaining, and a number of other stellar ideas in between.

At the conference on ‘#OpenDataApps for Innovation in Governance’, which brought senior government functionaries, software entrepreneurs and app developers, academics and members of the civil society together on one platform, participants shared a number of useful suggestions on using Open Data to develop apps for social good.

up-to-date crop management information. Or from information on best practices in crop production and irrigation, combined with details

(prices and locations) of mandis. For the healthcare sector, the suggested apps included those that provide lists of doctors or blood donors, or information on the dosages of medication, or enable general physicians in remote areas connect with super specialists.

Open Data is not about cold numbers, but getting the ‘innovation community’ to make sense out of them and turn them from indicators to drivers of change.

27

12The number of leading educational institutions that participated in the Planning Commission’s 12th Plan hackathon.

News ReviewInside View India’s vast mobile

network has opened up multiple opportunities for better governance

Mobile governance is still at a nascent stage in the country,

but what works in its favour is the irreversible commitment of both the Government of India and the state governments to ensure transparency in their dealings with citizens and to speed up the delivery of citizen-centric services.

The political leadership and bureaucracy are committed to ending the queues and the wait for even such basic services as getting

promise can be delivered faster to more citizens by using the mobile platform, whose penetration across the country has not been matched by any other technology. It is a platform that is both easily reachable and cheapest to reach.

In view of the fast-moving changes in mobile technology and the domain experience of private-sector players, there is a lot that public-private partnerships can achieve in this exciting nation-building initiative. The mPassportSeva of the Ministry of External Affairs and the IRCTC’s railway ticket booking app, which can be downloaded on to any Windows 8 or Windows Phone device, have shown how it is possible. These two apps have not only expanded the user base of the services offered, but also enhanced the user experience – for instance, if you use the IRCTC’s Windows Phone app, you do not have to key in your

personal details each time you book a ticket. The information is already saved. These are new opportunities for government departments and agencies to deliver their services to more citizens with greater

This trend can get a greater impetus if more technology companies with the relevant domain expertise are engaged with the government. There is in fact immense scope for newer and more useful citizen-centric apps in the areas of healthcare, education, railways and public transport. And by leveraging the talent of citizens to develop apps for the community, an entire ecosystem can be created for developers to become entrepreneurs.

The Government of India has

step of opening up its databases for use by app developers. Before this revolutionary initiative, the government’s primary concern was security, but it realised soon that managing the sea of data at its command was a Himalayan challenge. Today, the opening up of non-sensitive datasets of key ministries and departments has catalysed the development of apps around the released data. These are early days yet, but you can see the impressive initial results on http://data.gov.in.

One area that promises an explosion of opportunities is government-to-

government (G2G) communications. Quicker delivery of citizen-centric services must go hand in hand with faster decision-making, which in

to be in real-time touch with last-mile government workers, for an accurate understanding of ground realities. By making the last-mile government worker mobile enabled (I call it “last-mile enablement”), the decision-making process can be hastened. State governments are also looking at using mobility to increase the productivity of their employees. In Uttar Pradesh for instance, the lekhpals, or village-level revenue

land records, have been enabled with laptops and mobiles. Likewise, across the state, frontline health workers, called accredited social health activists (ASHAs), have been given mobiles, so that they can access information on matters concerning their work, receive text messages from the state health department,

28

The political leadership and bureaucracy are committed to ending the queues and the wait for even such basic services as getting a birth or

and transmit data required by decision-makers in Lucknow from anywhere at any time.

These are just two examples of how the mobile interface enables government departments and agencies not only to enhance the quality of their interactions with citizens, but also to access primary data, which would have taken a

longer time to get in the past. This ease of access is critical to faster decision-making and technology companies can be big facilitators in this endeavour.

The G2G apps developed within the Microsoft ecosystem, for example, can be uploaded on the secure and virus-free Windows 8 App Store. These can be accessed and downloaded only by authorised employees. This will ensure a ready-made system that does not have to be developed, and will enable higher levels of communications with employees down-the-line, thereby improving productivity, and allowing collaborative decision-making.

The mobile platform promises to open up multiple new opportunities. We have to continue to tap it more vigorously to facilitate the delivery

Arun RajamaniGeneral ManagerPublic Sector & EducationMicrosoft India

29

The opening up of non-sensitive datasets of the government’s key ministries has catalysed the development of apps around the data that has been released.

of government programmes to the underserved sections faster and in full measure.

News ReviewStates of Progress Mobile weather

alerts for Haryana farmers to cut losses

Farmers in Haryana no longer have to wait for the weather bulletin

on national television to know about the chances of a heavy shower or a hailstorm across the state. They can now get the latest weather reports and related agricultural advisories on their mobile phones.

With support from the Indian Meteorological Department and the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural

University has developed a portal, http://emausamhau.gov.in, where farmers can sign up for SMS alerts. They have the option also to register at the nearest Krishi Vigyan Kendras

physically submitting the required details. As many as 75,000 farmers have already signed up for the alerts.

Maintained by the university’s Department of Agricultural Meteorology, the portal provides detailed district-wise weather alerts

and the agricultural advisories are based on them. The alerts are sent via the SMS gateway of the National Informatics Centre (NIC). These help farmers to get more lead time to minimise losses because of abnormal weather conditions. The information also enables farmers increase

management of day-to-day farm operations.

30

Reaching a nutritious diet to malnourished mothers and

children in the country’s poorest and remotest villages is a national goal. Is it possible, then, for state governments to stay in touch daily with anganwadi workers responsible for reaching the designated food supplies to their

the villages under their charge? This link is important because delays in communication can impact food supplies, which in turn can cause a setback to the health of children and mothers, especially those who are pregnant or lactating. For a country

maternal mortality rates, that is indeed a cause for concern.

The Andhra Pradesh Government, in association with the National Informatics Centre (NIC), has operationalised a no-capital expenditure, low-cost, mobile-based solution. The Mobile Application for Anganwadis (MAA) enables anganwadi workers to send SMSes daily to indent food supplies and report on the attendance of the

nutrition as well as provide data on pre-school attendance of children, progress of immunisation and the health status of at-risk women. Supervisors too, can text daily inspection reports on whether the anganwadi centres under their charge are open and the anganwadi workers are present in them, serving

This SMS-based communication system enables the Department of Women, Children, Disabled and Senior Citizens to stay continually in touch even with the last-mile anganwadi workers and monitor maternal and child health across the state on a day-to-day basis. The app has delivered the desired results. Month after month, several lakh text messages are being transmitted through the system, which has eliminated supply gaps and ensured on-time availability of food at anganwadi centres, improved the attendance

and performance of anganwadi workers, and resulted in better infant and maternal mortality rates as well as a drop in the number of severely malnourished children in Andhra Pradesh.

The performance of each anganwadi worker can now be tracked daily and she can also communicate her problems directly to the people who can redress them. It takes just one mobile application to ensure delivery of nutritious food to mothers and children across the state, better accountability, and easy communications between the state government and its anganwadi workers.

Each mother or child rescued from the clutches from malnutrition means a life saved, healthcare costs conserved and a healthy women continuing to be an earning member of her family. And all that this system requires is a regular mobile phone already in the possession of each anganwadi worker. The SIM cards come for free from mobile service providers and the rental is just `30 per handset. That’s a small cost paid for thousands of lives saved.

31

Anganwadis in Andhra Pradesh get mobile support for nutrition campaign

You can be a Below Poverty Line (BPL) family anywhere

in Chhattisgarh, but you’re not going to be fobbed off by your neighbourhood fair price shop (FPS) owner, who tries to convince you that the supplies haven’t arrived yet, or have run out. The Government of Chhattisgarh’s Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection has employed the mobile platform to introduce transparency into the public distribution system (PDS) at two critical stages - when supplies are being transported to the remote villages of this state marked

terrains, and when they reach the designated fair price shops.

The base of the project is an online database of more than 3.7 million ration cards issued to BPL families in the state and each one of them has a unique number and bar code. This database has reduced the incidence of fake and duplicate ration cards. It supports the ICT infrastructure linking 120 warehouses of the state civil supplies corporation. A web-enabled application for automated allocation of ration to fair price shops (FPS) and online inventory management is also in place.

Each FPS is required to declare its stocks and sales every month and based on allocation, stock and sales

amount of commodities to be issued to the FPS. In the old manual system, there was a possibility of some shops securing higher allotments by paying bribes, but the software system has ruled out this possibility. To track the movement of commodities from warehouses to shops, the civil supplies corporation uses GPS technology to track the location of the trucks and issues SMS alerts as soon as any truck stops along the way for a longer than usual time or deviates from the designated path.

have been provided a toll-free number (18002332663) to register complaints or grievances. They can also register their e-mail addresses or mobile numbers on the civil supplies corporation’s website so that whenever PDS commodities are dispatched, an e-mail or mobile alert for each FPS is sent to the people served by it who have registered their e-mail addresses or mobile numbers.

The system has made it very hard for unscrupulous operators to divert PDS supplies into the regular market. It has also put a system of communications in place that conveys to fair price shops the allocation and movement of stocks

as well. Better communications and bigger citizen engagement mean greater transparency. The Chhattisgarh PDS infrastructure has shown how it can be done without running into speed breakers.

32

Better communications and bigger citizen engagement mean greater

transparency. The Chhattisgarh PDS infrastructure has shown how it can be done without running into speed breakers.

Chhattisgarh PDS

defence against fraud

3.7m+The number of the ration cards, each with a unique number and bar code, issued to BPL families in Chhattisgarh.

The website of the Government of Chattisgarh’s Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection

This

mag

azin

eis

prin

ted

onre

cycl

edpa

per.