eGov-Aug-2011-[7-43]-eWorld2011 Awards- Objectives And Outcomes

Objectives

and Outcome eWorld Forum is a global thought leadership conference designed to celebrate innovation and broaden opportunity to convene leaders, change makers, and participants from all fields of global governance and health to address a range of critically important issues and themes relating to Governance and Health. It is being organised by the eGov and eHealth magazines to bring together leaders from the global healthcare industry on a common platform eWorld Awards are an integral part of this global event instituted with the primary aim of felicitating innovative and unique initiatives in governance and healthcare in India and across the globe. The awards welcomed global leaders to present their innovative projects and share their ideas to educate others of the developments being undertaken by various organisations holding healthcare technologies as their base. eWorld Awards was open to all national and international government and private organisations.

The awards were spread under three major processes— nominations, public voting and jury selection.

Categories and Nominations •

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Nominations were invited from innovative projects and programmes from across the globe in the following categories: Best Cloud Computing Initiative Best e- district Initiative Best State Data-Centre Initiative Government to Citizen (G2C) Initiative Government to Business (G2B) Initiative Government to Government (G2G) Initiative ICT enabled Agriculture Initiative Best use of ICT for Public Sector Units (PSU) ICT Initiative for Undeserved Communities ICT Initiative in Financial Inclusion Best Practices in Electronic Delivery of Services (EDS)

mGovernance Initiative Best Urban Governance Initiative … and more More than 150 nominations were received from around the globe under various categories. All these projects are innovative and unique and present an overview of some of the key initiatives being undertaken to transform the governance sector, worldwide.

• •

Public Voting After the nomination process was completed, the projects were made open for voting on the eWorld Forum’s website— www.eworldforum.net. The public voting process received a whopping response with over 2,00,000 votes received from around 90,000 voters from the world over.

The evaluation of the best project in the public voting category has hence been made on the basis of the number of votes received by each nomination.

Jury Rating The nominations were screened by an eminent panel of jury members, who chose the best project from each category. The projects were selected on the basis of the following criteria: • Economic cost and sustainability, stakeholder support • Gender parity, and other inclusiveness indicators • Impact on livelihoods and society in general • Demonstrable effects on the project target groups • Community initiatives and ownership • The measure and potential of replication • Extent of collaboration The nominations were vetted by certain procedures and rules governing the evaluation of the entries. In the following pages, we bring to you a compilation of the top projects chosen by public voting. International Projects which were adjudged separately are also featured.

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E-Gov Portal

National Portal of India Implementing Agency: Data Centre & Web Services Division of NIC www.india.gov.in

The National Portal of India (NPI) is a single window access to over 7000 websites and portals associated with almost every Government constituent, be it Central Government Ministries/ Departments; State/UT Governments, Districts, Panchayats etc.

NPI hosts over 1900 services from various states/ministries/ departments which are all packaged under the ‘How Do I’ section of the portal. It is also a central repository for Government forms, documents, acts, rules, schemes and policies.

The mammoth information available on this portal has been classified on the basis of sectors, target audience, life-cycle and geographical location. The information on the Portal has also been interlinked at relevant places to provide the visitor a holistic view with a clearly defined Information Architecture.

The portal has turned out to be an effective medium for the participation of common citizens in the process of governance since they are encouraged to voice their opinion through various feedback options on the NPI. The National Portal of India has as of now approximately over 78,000 registered users availing regular services provided therein with an increase of around 10 per cent per year. With over 13 lakh visitor per month, the portal receives around 24 lakh hits per day.

NPI has been first government website designed to be accessible to all users irrespective of device in use, technology or ability. The portal is standards compliant and follows principles of usability and universal design.

Making Institutional arrangement for uninterrupted content flow right from the source was the key challenge, as was to enforce syncing of all the content posted simultaneously in Hindi.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n Single Window Access to over 7000 portals and websites associated with Government

Standardisation of District Portals with web CMS Implementing Agency: NIC Orissa www.ordistricts.nic.in

public CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n Standardizing the technology, design layout and navigational architecture of district portals

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Currently the district websites are designed, developed, and maintained by the respective District Informatics Officers of NIC. This practice has resulted in use of different types of technology, design layouts, and navigation architecture etc. At times, citizens need to visit multiple websites for a single service. Thus, there is a need to standardise the websites to bring uniformity in availability of information to common citizens. NIC Orissa implemented a stan-

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dardised district portal framework which comprises of the following: 1. Citizen View District Portal (http://ordistricts.nic.in): The District Portal has been built from the users’ perspective.

The contents and formats include; profile, geography, administrative setup, directory, peoples’ representatives and many more. Citizen services such as acts and rules, e-forms, policies, enquiries, guidelines to get caste and domicile certificate, registration of documents, ration card, Right to Information.

2) Web CMS (http://ordistportalcontent.nic.in): A comprehensive web-based Content Management System (CMS) is designed based on the content architecture of the National Portal of India (india.gov.in).

3) Moderation Portal (http://ordistsupadmin.nic.in): The Web CMS follows a workflow management whereby a Content Creator or Content Service Provider (CSP) can submit a story, but is not published until the moderator cleans it up and the publisher approves it. The role of the moderator is to accept or reject the content. The publisher thereby approves the content to be displayed on the citizen view portal.

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sas.com/fraudgov for a free white paper

For more information contact Jaydeep.Deshpande@sas.com

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SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. © 2011 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved. S71487US.0411

Data Center Initiative

Srei Sahaj State Data Centre, West Bengal Implementing Agency: Srei Sahaj e-Village Limited www.sahajcorporate.com

public

Srei Sahaj has one of the largest network of around 23,000 VLEs or Common Service Centers setup under the National e-Governance plan of Government of India. Srei Sahaj built this tier-III data center in partnership with CISCO and HP. The major objective is to provide sustainable digital access to rural population by means of IT enablement. With an

area of approximately 2000 sq.ft, the datacenter houses racks and equipment with an ability to cater to 25,000 CSCs. Some of the salient features of the data centre are CISCO powered network with 99.5% availability, connectivity with multiple ISPs, 24x7 NOC monitoring, IDS and IPS installed, Smoke detection and fire suppression integrated with Building Management System, 24x7 onsite security all round the year and motion-detection for lighting and CCTV coverage. One of the other major objectives of this data center was to have secure transactions. Right from the inception, the company wanted to have in-house capability to serve the end customer, uninterrupted. This would ensure better control and predictability of services offered to VLEs. In line with the above, an in-house team of System Administrators and Network Administrators was developed. Today there is the capability to manage, maintain and enhance Data Center capabilities and ensure uptime of 99.5 per cent.

CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n  A Tier III Data Center powering the 23,000 Common Service Centers

State Data Center, Gujarat Implementing Agency: Gujarat Informatics Limited www.gujaratinformatics.com/gov/projects/SDC_Gujarat.htm

public CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n  First State Data Center made operational in the country.

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Setup in October 2008, Government of Gujarat has set up Gujarat State Data Center (GSDC) at Bureau of Economics and Statistics operational in Gandhinagar. GSDC includes 2600 sq.ft of server and storage area, 600 sq.ft of connectivity zone and 1300 sq.ft of control room & utility area. GSDC has been connected to all the Government offices through GSWAN infrastructure.

Gujarat State Data Centre acts as a mediator and convergence point between open unsecured public domain and sensitive

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government environment. The GSDC has been equipped to host systems such as web servers, application servers, database servers, SAN, and NAS. Gujarat State Data Centre (GSDC) under NeGP is the first SDC made Operational in India. Currently, applications running at State Data Centre are IWDMS-Integrated Workflow & Document Management System, IFMS-Integrated Financial Management System, Land Record Information System, Registration of Documents (Revenue Department), HMIS-Hospital Management & Information System, Labour & Employment, GSBTM-Guj State Bio-Tech Mission, GADGeneral Administration Dept., SWAN e-Mail service, Other departmental dynamic websites hosted on web server etc. The State Data Centre, connected to the State Wide Area Network (SWAN), shall provide the access to the e-Governance applications & Services to Government employees through Intranet and to the citizens through public Internet/CSCs etc. Through such a Shared Service Centre implemented and managed by a competent Implementation Agency, the individual departments can focus more on the service delivery rather than on the issues surrounding the Infrastructure.

Best Cloud Computing

iON: Integrated IT-as-a-Service for SMBs Implementing Agency: Tata Consultancy Services, Mumbai www.tcsion.com

TCS pioneered iON has been developed to deliver IT in the third generation service model to SMBs. In this model, using scalable cloud computing technology, iON removes the need for SMBs to invest in IT assets and retain scarce IT talent.

Through a pay-per-use business model, iON helps SMBs leverage technology at an affordable cost. More than 200 SMBs across India are leveraging the iON solution and have reduced their total cost of technology ownership by 35-40 per cent. iON

is expected to yield $1 billion in revenues over next 5 years for TCS. The main objective of the project was to address the unique IT needs of the Small and Medium Business (SMBs) segment and design a distinct approach to meet them profitably. iON employs cloud as a channel to deliver technology to SMBs. With over 10 million broadband connections in India, applications hosted in the cloud can reach every SMB, can be upgraded continuously, and can provide a much higher level of data security. iON offers a pre-integrated suite of hardware, network, software and services from TCS. Integrated applications provide a comprehensive view of business enabling better decisions. The project has been built with inputs from a number of small businesses. SMBs can start small and plug-in additional applications as they grow. Another unique feature is that TCS takes complete accountability for solution adoption. Customers are charged only when they go live with iON and the solutions are kept constantly cutting edge. Also, iON platform capacity grows with increasing computing needs of SMBs. The platform is resilient to failures. The service switches over to an alternate data center in case of a disaster.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n Has already benefitted more than 200 SMBs since inception n A ready integrated solution for SMBs in Manufacturing, Retail, Wellness, and Education sectors.

Creation of Cloud

Infrastructure to be used by the DIOS at remote districts, Assam public

Implementing Agency: NIC Assam intranet.assam.nic.in

CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n Low cost testing bed for testing various applications developed by various district officials

The NICNE Intranet project has created a low cost test bed for testing various applications developed by various district level officials and to help them create their own platform remotely. It’s also used as a knowledge sharing platform within the community. Launched in 2010, it was initially started to provide PAAS (Platform as a Service) to all the DIOS in the districts in Assam.

A OSS-based CMS namely Drupal was installed on top of one instance over the cloud. The target group for such a platform were internal officers of NIC across the state so that they can share all the knowledge and success stories from all over the state and others can benefit from it. It was one of the very first projects in the country of its kind. It is basically a platform for knowledge sharing within NIC to enable interaction and learning amongst themselves.

The main objective was to have a collaborative test bed at a much lower cost of ownership. The main challeneges faced during this project were having no prior knowledge of such a platform and he amount of inventiveness required. Also there were security of information concerns to deal with in terms of classifying which information to be put on portal and which one to be abstained from it.

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e district Initiative

SUGAM Single Window System Implementing Agency: NIC Jodhpur www.jodhpur.nic.in

NIC Jodhpur has developed (SUGAM) - Windows based software using Visual Basic and Microsoft Access Database to generate acknowledgment slips, domicile, SC-ST and OBC certificates (State & Central Level). Launched as early as 2002, this software generates various administrative reports and other registers. All the reports and certificates are printed in Hindi. The pre-printed stationery is being used to print acknowledgment slips and certificates. Modifications are

made every year and at present 40 services are being delivered through this software.

The project has been rolled all over the state of Rajasthan in over 278 locations. The role of middlemen has been duly eliminated from the public service delivery system. The common man also become aware of its uses and applications. Effective monitoring system for administration has fall in place. Manipulation in Govt. Documents has been minimized.

Resistance of clerical staff, Proper Training and Confidence build-up and role of middlemen were some initial challenges for the project which were duly overcome.

SUGAM has been designed to deliver services according to the administrative procedures whereby all formats are legally vetted. There is a provision for confidentiality and authorized user interface. The delivery of service is time bound with a robust in-built monitoring system.

Nearly all core applications have been automated and in use. Trust has been given to make the product scalable in terms of changes in the processes or changes in boundary of the regional offices.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n  Generating certificates and slips for various Government services in Rajasthan

eDistrict, Uttar Pradesh Implementing Agency: Department of IT & Electronics, Government of Uttar Pradesh edistrict.up.nic.in

public CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n  Delivered 21 lakh digitally signed certificates in 23 Government to Citizen Services across 6 districts in Uttar Pradesh

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Uttar Pradesh is the first state in the country to rollout eDistrict in six pilot districts. More than 23 Government to Citizen (G2C) services pertaining to certificates, pension, public distribution system, revenue court, employment, grievances from eight line departments have been covered for complete automation and delivery. So far more than 21 lakh digitally signed certificates/services have been delivered from eDistrict Centres, Tehsil Centres, Lokvani Centres and Common Ser-

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vices Centres being opened at the village level.

The eDistrict project in Uttar Pradesh has brought out certain innovative features like 100 per cent electronic workflow for all 23 services; digital signing of certificates/services stamped and signed by the CSC/eDistrict Centre; verification of citizen details based on electronic data available improving service levels and reducing delivery time typically to one-third; anyone can verify the authenticity of the certificates by providing the unique identification numbers printed on the issued certificates; SMS alerts are triggered automatically by the system at important points to keep the applicant informed about the status of their application; status tracking by the citizen and the government through the portal and the escalation metrics ensure the adherence to the service levels defined for each service.

Service output like certificates are printed online embedded with photograph wherever necessary to eliminate bogus certificates. The web based system has allowed both the citizen and the government officials to interact 24x7. The complete automated process has made it almost paperless and reduced the infrastructural requirements for physical movement of documents.

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eGov Initiative in Education

Online Scholarship Management System (OSMS) Implementing Agency: Andhra Pradesh State Minorities Finance Corporation Ltd. www.apsmfc.com

The Online Scholarship Management System (OSMS) for Minority students was taken up to enable students to apply for the Fee reimbursement and Scholarship scheme of Government of Andhra Pradesh.

The students apply online on the website and after filling the application, they take the printouts and along with required 2-3 documents, submit the application form to the College. The College Authorities in turn give the bonafide certificate and write

their bank account number for the reimbursement of tuition fee. These forms then come to the office of the Executive Director of Andhra Pradesh State Minorities Finance Corporation (APSMFC), whereby the documents are validated online with respect to the printouts and online sanction is given. An online advice is sent to the bankers to transfer the fees amount directly into the bank account of the college and the scholarship amount to the bank account of the student.

Students can track their applications by typing the Unique Token number issued to them. Colleges can download the sanction proceedings and can know as to how many students have been sanctioned scholarship and tuition fee and to how many students the tuition fee and scholarship is pending due to want of which certificate.

The Online Scholarship System is being used by more than five lakh students every year. Due to this the drop-out rate among the minority students has been reduced to a large extent and the number of minority students taking admission in the professional courses and specialised courses has increased considerably.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n  Enhancing the Gross Enrollment Ratio of Minority Students in Professional and Specialised Courses in Andhra Pradesh through effective disbursement of Scholarships

ePASS Implementing Agency: Center for Good Governance, Andhra Pradesh epasswebsite.cgg.gov.in

public CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n  Disbursing Rs 4000 crores to over 27 lakh Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Backward Class, Disabled, and Economically Backward Class students in Andhra Pradesh

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The Government of Andhra Pradesh is providing financial assistance to the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Backward Class, Disabled, and Economically Backward Class students studying post matriculation courses on saturation approach to enable them to complete their education.

To transfer the scholarships online to college and student accounts the ePASS was implemented. The eligible Post Matric Students register online, their documents are veri-

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fied online verification and the scholarships is released to college and student bank accounts. Over 27 lakh students are getting the benefit from this system. The bills are submitted online to the Treasury. The treasury uses CINB (Corporate Internet Banking) to transfer money to student and college accounts. SBI eZ cards (virtual accounts) are used for the students. All the document images are kept online for verification and release. Money is transferred to bank accounts within 24 hours using the SFTP server of Treasury and SBI. The reverse information from banks is completed the same day.

The key challenges faced by the project included the building up of the total master database for 10+2 education in Andhra Pradesh; distribution of SBI eZ cards to students; entry of fee structure for 1,40,000 categories; the reverse information from banks; deduplication of students having no SSC database .

The usage of digital signatures; development of a fully automated helpdesk; integration with University database for monitoring academic performance; Biometric Attendance Monitoring System and extending it to Pre Matric Students scheme and similar schemes are some of the futuristic goals of the project.

G2B Initiative

e-Procurement of Goods, Works & Services Implementing Agency: Mahanadi Coalfields Limited www.mcl.gov.in

Mahanadi Coalfields Limited, is the second largest Coal Producing company of India. Much of its business activities have been outsourced. The finalisation of tenders through manual processes used to take 120 days on average which has decreased to a week by the adoption of the web-based e-procurement system which has re-engineered the entire tendering process covering all categories viz. works, services, hiring of vehicle, procurement of materials, annual mainte-

nance contracts. The project covers all types of tenders viz.

Open (Domestic & Multi Currency Global), Limited Tenders, Single Tenders valuing Rs 2 Lakh or more. The whole tendering activity starting from Floating of Notice Inviting Tender till Award of Contract is covered under this Project.

The Project was conceived by MCL and has been implemented with the support of National Informatics Centre, Govt. of India.

The salient features of the project include fully automatic evaluation of the Tenders including Techno-commercial bid and Price Bid; evaluation on the basis of highly structured and objective data obtained from the bidders doing away with the need of submitting any document online or off-line for evaluation.

The entire business logic required for the validation of data and evaluation of bids has been incorporated in the software.

Bidders and Departmental users get appropriate system generated e-mails and SMS at various stages of tendering. Bidders can obtain clarifications on the portal in a very transparent manner without disclosing their identity. Anybody can view the Tender documents and status of the any Tender from the “Guest Login”, without getting registered on the portal

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n Reduced the tendering process time from 120 days to over a week.

Plant Quarantine Information System Implementing Agency: National Informatics Center plantquarantineindia.nic.in

public CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n The first e-Governance initiative in Ministry of Agriculture in which complete workflow process from online application to processing of forms and issuance of certificates has been computerized.

The Plant Quarantine Information System (PQIS) project is the first e-Governance initiative in Ministry of Agriculture in which complete workflow process from online application to processing of forms and issuance of certificates has been computerised.

Plant Quarantine is mandatory for import of any plant material under the provisions of Destructive Insects and Pests Act (1914) and Plant Quarantine Rules including Plants, Fruits and Seeds Order 1989 (PFS Order).

The project is being executed by National Informatics Centre (NIC) for Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine & Storage (DPPQ&S), Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC), Ministry of Agriculture.

The system facilitates online registration of importers and exporters; Online submission of application by Importers for Import Permit and Import Release Order; Online submission of application by Exporters. The system also facilitates online processing of these applications using workflows by plant quarantine Stations, automation of fees calculation, online schedules availability for processing applications, generation of Phyto-Sanitary Certificate (PSC), Import Permit (IP) and Import Release Order (IRO), MIS Reports for monitoring the application processing and creation of database on Import conditions as per the Plant Quarantine Order 2003.

32 Plant Quarantine Stations have been networked through dedicated leased line to NICNET for accessing the system. The system brings transparency in quarantine services, uniform adoption of standard procedures at all the PQSs and helps in minimising visits of traders at PQS to get the certificate issued.

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G2C Initiative

eShakti ICT enabled MNREGA Implementing Agency: Department of Rural Development, Government of Bihar

The e-shakti Project has streamlined MGNREGS by fast tracking execution and instituting transparent and accountable management systems in the state of Bihar. Under the project close to 1 million polycarbonate smart cards each with 80 kb chip have been handed over directly to individual rural beneficiaries. The demographic and biometric data of 5 million rural beneficiaries has been collected. A central data center has been installed at the state head quarter with all 534 blocks in the state. A software application

module for management of MGNREGS - from project creation to registering attendance of workers at project sites, measurement of project work, computation and disbursement of wages has been deployed. An integrated grievance redressal mechanism with a 24x7 call center has also been established. UIDAI of GoI has opted for e-Shakti to provide the Proof of Concept for Aadhaar in India.

The major objectives of the project were to undertake a green field project with the commitment to implement it on a population base scaled in a low resource setting in Bihar. The imperative of working in active partnership with a government machinery which is only trying to catch up with progressive ways and standards of professionalism; the heightening of stakes of MGNERGS functionaries in partnering to implement the project notwithstanding the fact that the same would make them increasingly more accountable in the process. Negotiating local power equations to suit project execution needs at local and other levels; and the integration of diverse stakeholder nodes at various levels (like the government departments, banks, local functionaries, communities, etc.) into a programme framework optimised for timebound delivery were some of the key challenges of the project.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n UIDAI of Government of India has opted for e-Shakti to provide the Proof of Concept for Aadhaar in India.

Online Voting System Implementing Agency: State Election Commission,Gujarat sec.gujarat.gov.in

public CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n The first Online Voting System in the country

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State Election Commission (SEC), Gujarat has developed an Online Voting System (OVS) for its Local Body Elections. The SEC had implemented OVS in General Elections of 6 Municipal Corporations and is extending its outreach subsequently.

The entire system is designed and the procedures amended thereof keeping in mind the privacy of the voter and privacy of the ballot. It ensures completeness and adherence to the

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voting protocol as applicable to Internet based voting system; ensures availability and reliability of the voting system (i.e. protection against denial-of-service attacks, hacking, and phishing attempts); ensures authenticity of the voter (or the voting client acting on behalf of the voter, respectively); ensures authenticity of the vote caste and digital non traceability of the casted votes by citizen; supports the concept of secret ballot; maintains integrity of the digital ballots and ensures Non-duplication of the ballots and votes.

OVS has been planned and implemented so that it is scalable to accommodate future elections and large voter participation, deployable with the minimum efforts, secured, reliable, flexible, completeness and soundness of voting protocol, and adherent to principles fairness, secrecy and anonymity.

The various challenges posed by the project have been low awareness about OVS; voters’ faith in OVS; physical verification of voter identity; high availability of systems during polling timeframe; maximum 6 votes are cast from a client machine; risk of DoS attack, phishing & intrusion attacks.

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G2G Initiative

GSI Enterprise Portal Implementing Agency: Geological Survey of India www.portal.gsi.gov.in

GSI Enterprise Portal Project has made possible the building of a central geoinformation repository thus achieving the prime objective of managing the vast knowledge gathered by Geological Survey of India (GSI) over more than 160 years. The portal now acts as a single gateway providing reliable and authentic geoscientific information to the government, industry and general public as well as broad geoscientific community thus contributing to the sustainable development of the nation.

Before implementation of this project all data/maps pertaining to 4,905 topographic sheets were strewn everywhere in GSI in different corners in heterogeneous formats. After implementation of this initiative, geological layers for 4756 toposheets are part of the central repository. GSI Portal has interactive map services with mineral /metal wise deposit search. Sections on Indian geology, earthquake and seismotectonic events, SOPs on geological investigations, interesting case studies, GSI reports, journals, photo galleries. Metadata pertaining to around 840 published maps, 800 publications 34000 progress reports and 7,400 actual reports are available for free download through the portal The back-office transactional and scientific applications have brought a considerable improvement in internal processes and services through faster and transparent decision making aided by readily available relevant information. It has also fulfilled GSI’s responsibility towards the changes in business environment, the demands of public and private sectors involving the mineral, infrastructure, power, steel, fertilizer, cement and other industries.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n  Central geoinformation repository managing the geological layers for 4756 toposheets gathered by Geological Survey of India (GSI) over more than 160 years.

Integrated Workflow & Document Management

System (IWDMS) public

Implementing Agency: Department of Science & Technology, Gujarat www.gujaratinformatics.com/gov/projects/dept/7-iwdms.htm

CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n  Reduced the cycle time of a government file by 80% and the number of touch points by 74%.

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IWDMS is an e-Governance project to automate the day-today work and improve the accountability, transparency and effectiveness in government administration. It consists of three major application sub-systems viz. Core Applications, Common Applications and Departmental Specific Applications. At present there are 14 core applications, 49 common applications including 12 budget applications and over 300 department specific applications. The applications, and the

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functionalities covered by them, can be increased based on the needs of the users.

The project was necessitated to overcome the person dependency and difficulty in tracking and tracing of files and correspondence; lack of timely availability of relevant reference documents like acts, government orders, resolutions and reports in required format; high proportion of establishment work and problem of inter-divisional consultations in some cases; review and approval cycles consuming a lot of time and repetitive performance of manual tasks causing delay and tiredness; multiplication of file population and problem of prioritisation of files; time consuming process for manual preparation of reports.

The project has reduced the touch points from 46 to 12. The cycle time of one file has reduced from 1412 mins to 285 mins.

The system handles over 2600 transactions on a daily basis and covers over 27 departments, 150 head of departments and 18000 users. The database of the application has swollen to 500 GB hosting a knowledge base of over 10000 items including GO, GR, circular, acts. The system has seen over 27,80,000 letters inwarded and over 4,10,000 files created.

ICT Enabled Agri Initiative

Knowledge Share Centers Implementing Agency: Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture www.naipsrl.org/ikisan

The Knowledge Share Centers have succeeded in delivering the location specific timely, need based advisory and diagnostic services to the farmers of 51 villages within a geographical area of 17,297 ha covering 4754 households in 8 districts of Andhra Pradesh. The project provides instant access to the best management practices of selected crops relevant to locality, daily market information for chosen commodities by the farmers pertinent to cluster villages, weather based agro advisory services, pest

diagnostic and management services which enables the farmer to have better yield of quality produce fetching better price.

The KSCs provide user-friendly information through touch screen kiosks (TSK). TSKs allow users to navigate for information on crop cultivation and package of practices, crop diagnostic services, etc, with a finger touch facilitating userfriendly interaction like ATMs. The queries are addressed through interactive voice response system (IVRS) which hosts the content in Telugu, the local language which is therefore accessible to one and all. Pre recorded voice files with different options on various information services on thirteen crops is available in the IVRS guide through which the caller can avail the requisite information The awareness about various technologies is created through Display Announcement Package (DAP). It is a communication media in the KSC through which knowledge is disseminated by screening films and CDs, which can serve the needs of farmers on knowing about improved technologies The website, available in both English and Telugu, is designed for building the online platform between different stakeholders

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n Delivering location specific, timely, need based advisory & diagnostic services to the farmers through Touch Screen Kiosks, IVRS systems, Display Annoucement Packages, Online Portal, Mobile Based Alerts

M-Powering Farmers Implementing Agency: IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited www.ikslindia.in

public CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n A Mobile Phone based Initiative to Improve Income, Yield, Quality of Living of Poor & Illiterate Farmers of Rural India through voice based message services

IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL) intends to empower small and marginal farmers of India by facilitating their informed decision making through access to timely, latest and scientifically validated information to the farmers. A joint venture between Indian Farmers Fertilisers Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), Bharti Airtel and Star Global the activities are spread across 18 States of India covering about 1

million farmers at present. Timely, latest and pertinent advisories are believed to help farmers to reduce cost through optimal utilisation of inputs, increasing yield, improving quality, take informed decisions in other spheres of life impacting his/her family.

IKSL provides a voice based message service to rural farmers. The special service to farmers includes 5 free Voice messages daily in 10 Indian languages on areas as crop advisories, weather related, market prices, animal husbandry etc. The services include a facility to re-listen the day’s messages, a farmers’ help-line, phone-in programmes, quizzes. Voice messages sent also include subjects related to women issues, health, employment and schemes.The project faces the challenge of ensuring that the information provided is contextual and timely for the local population.

Another challenge has been to ensure that appropriate experts are available when a query is received on helpline which has been overcome by networking experts through conference calls.

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ICT initiative in PSUs

Any Time Bill Payment Kiosks Implementing Agency: Forbes Technosys www.forbestechnosys.com

With the proliferation of ATMs, consumers can withdraw money at any time, but when it comes to bill payments to public utilities, consumers invariably have to stand in long queues to make payments and get receipts. The Any Time Payment Machine receives payments by cheque and cash and provides a receipt to consumers while updating his billing account with the utility. The consumer can make the payment at the time he chooses to do so, thereby making it a simple

and comfortable experience. There is no charge levied for the service on the consumer while the utility pays a small transaction fee. The benefit to the utility is more points of payment, extended working hours and hence better cash flows.

Forbes Technosys Limited has been deploying these machines in State-owned Power distribution companies like Punjab State Power Corportation Ltd; Dakshin Gujrat Vij Co Ltd ; Paschim Gujrat Vij Co Limited; MP VVKL; Tamil Nadu Electricity Board; UPCL; BSES Ltd through Public-PrivatePartnership Models.

The Power utility provides the space, Forbes deploys the machine, hardware, software, connectivity and interfaces with billing systems and runs the operations providing manned assistance to bill paying consumers. The kiosks are collecting over Rs 100 crores a month benefitting over 4 lakh consumers. They are connected to the billing servers of the respective organisations and also to a National Operations and Control Centre. The customers are provided a receipt for every transaction and assisted by a promotional executive to carry out the transactions.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n Extending the ATM experience to bill payment for public utilities

IRCTC SMS Implementing Agency: Spice Digital www.irctc.co.in

public CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n A 24*7 service providing Booking, Cancellation and Registration Confirmation of Railway Tickets through mobile messages.

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“IRCTC SMS” is a SMS based user information and confirmation service being run exclusively for Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). This service provides Booking, Cancellation and Registration confirmation through mobile messages, to the people booking Train tickets through IRCTC website https://www.irctc.co.in.

IRCTC SMS is a 24*7 Service which covers all transac-

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tion scenarios (Booking, Cancellation, waitlist cancellation, waitlist conformation) and even registration confirmation.

It is a part of the m-Governance initiative and helps the masses (booking train tickets through IRCTC) stay updated anytime through a simple text message. Once the ticket booking is done through IRCTC website, the user is always updated of his booking status and has all the booking as well as registration records handy on his mobile phone.

With the increasing mobile penetration and almost everything that is “e” now linking into “m”, this service is an integral part of the dream of a fully mobile society. Such confirmation services do exist for movie ticket booking but leveraging such a platform for something like Train ticket booking is a big advantage for the masses ‘a commoner’ who use train for travel. The project is serving close to 3 crore registered users on IRCTC doing over 3 lakh transactions daily.

The key challenge of the project was to handle the large volumes of transactions for different services, seasonal demand fluctuations.

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ICT initiative for Underserved Communities

Use of Geoinformatics in the implementation

of Forest Rights Act 2006 in Maharashtra

Implementing Agency: Tribal Research and Training Institute (TRTI), Maharashtra trtimah.gov.in

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (Forest Rights Act, in short) to formalise the relationship between genuine forest right holders and forest land/resources. The number of claimants of Forest Rights in Maharashtra State is approximately 3,30,000. The process of finalisation of forest rights required that each plot of forest land under forest rights claim be measured as per claimant’s application.

Every claimant was assigned a 13 digit alphanumeric unique ID. To accelerate the measurement output, GPS machines have been used. After the area is measured, the GPS data is downloaded and processed in the computer at the SDO office.

The file created is uploaded on to the TRTI website along with claimant’s details. The website generates a measurement report which contains area polygon with latitude/longitude, area in various units, and claimant’s basic data. Simultaneously, reports get generated and automatically updated (Village/ Taluka/District/State level) showing total number of claimants, area under claim for various categories of claimants etc.

The claimant details and measurement data can be viewed and downloaded by the concerned offices for case processing. For temporal trend analysis, Cartosat-I Satellite imageries of two time series (2005-06 and 2007-08) are used. Web-based SMS services on TRTI server are used to contact GPS handlers, SDOs, Collectors etc.

A total of about 1.77 lakh cases have been processed using the above system till now and forest rights have been recognised in 1.04 lakh cases.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n Exercising Forest Rights the new age way : 13 digit alphanumeric ID; GPS Measurements; Satellite Imagery Overlays; Web based SMS services

e-Housing Implementing Agency: Center for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT), Kerala public

www.cdit.org

CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n Speeding up the application, verification, inquiry, inspection, recommendation, approval and sanction of housing support to over 16,500 beneficiaries in Kerala.

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The SC Development Department of Kerala gives financial assistance for construction of houses to the families of Scheduled Caste communities. The houses are constructed by the beneficiaries themselves and the amounts are being released to the beneficiaries in installments on the construction of the house reaching certain stages.

The e-Housing system computerises all the stages of fund distribution. Every beneficiary is provided with a post office

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savings account and the amounts are disbursed directly to these accounts online. The application processing, execution of agreement, disbursement etc are done online through the system.

Disbursement of housing assistance totaling Rs 35.62 lakhs to almost 16,500 beneficiaries has been done through this system. The system has reduced paper works in the Scheduled Caste Development Office (SCDO) and SC District offices.

The beneficiaries can monitor the present status of their application and fund details through the online software without going to the department. The system is being accessed from 999 gram panchayats, 53 municipalities and 5 corporation offices across the state. The beneficiary submits the application to the SCDO who verifies the application and supporting documents, conducts a detailed enquiry on the applicant and thereby enters the details in the application in the e-housing system. The system generates a unique number to the case and forwards the application to the district office.This communication is subsequently passed back to the SCDO who carries forward the next steps.

ICT in Financial Inclusion

Andhra Pradesh Smart Card Project Implementing Agency: Department of Rural Development, Andhra Pradesh www.rd.ap.gov.in

The project has brought about financial Inclusion of MGNREGA wage seekers and social security pensioners by means of smart cards with biometric finger print authentication through banks and business correspondents. Due to this prompt and accurate payment of government benefits has been duly facilitated. The leakages have been eliminated and the ghost beneficiaries have been removed to a large extent.

Under the project banks reach out to the poor. The enroll-

ment of the beneficiaries is done at the door step and a smart card is issued to every person. The payments are made at the door step with a PoS machine. Local Self Help Group act as Customer Service Providers. Identification and payment is done by biometric authentication. Print outs of the transactions are given to the account holders.

The project has enrolled 1,40,66,631 persons in 21965 Villages. Bank Accounts have been opened and Smart cards have been issued to 1,01,29,210 persons. Services have been commenced in 15,091 villages and Rs 2286 Crores disbursed through smart cards. Over 12 banks, DoP and 8 other service providers are partnering in this project.

The banks and service providers had no previous knowledge, experience or capacity. Reaching out banking services to the poorest of the poor, coordination of huge number of operators over a large area across districts, establishing Banking outposts at village point in unbanked areas have been a gigantic task. Cash management involving the movement of huge cash several times to every village has been really challenging. The project has become a national model being copied by other state governments.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n 1,40,66,631 people included in the financial fold through the opening of bank accounts and disbursement of Rs 2286 crores

e-Inclusion Implementing Agency: Financial Inclusion Network & Operations Limited www.fino.co.in

public CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n End-to-End financial inclusion technology comprising of SMART CARDS, PoT devices, SWITCH, CBS, MIS, Channel Interfaces, Product Engines and Data Repository.

FINO’s technology solution for financial inclusion is a complete end-to-end suite of products that enable institutions such as banks, microfinance institutions, government entities, insurance companies to take their financial products and services to the doorstep of millions of unbanked and under-banked households at bottom of the pyramid, through hand held devices, biometric Point of Transaction (PoT), biometric smart cards, mobile technologies and managed backend database.

The platform reaches out to more than 34 million of BPL people, which is close to 35 per cent of total BPL population.

FINO caters to this set of customers by acting as a formal channel, linking them to large and well-regulated financial entities. FINO processes five million financial transactions per month and enrolls new customers at an average rate of 50,000 per day.

The FINO technology platform includes smart cards as the medium for authentication & storing information; PoT (Point of Transaction) a secure, biometric handheld device used to carry out transactions; SWITCH - the PoT talks to the switch to transmit data captured on the field; CBS: the Core Banking System, which has been built as a shared back end banking engine that provides accounting, MIS, reporting and monitoring facility for all asset and liability products that the micro sector requires. The core component comprises of three sub units: Channel interfaces, Product Engines and Data Repository, enabling centralised data processing and data management of remotely captured transactions in the field.

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Electronic Delivery of Services Initiative

Online Passport Verification, Missing Person and Complaint Monitoring System

Implementing Agency: NIC District Unit, Jharsugda, Orissa jharsuguda.nic.in/police

The Online Passport verification status, missing person, unidentified dead bodies and complaint monitoring system of Jharsuguda Police enables citizens to file complaint to District Police and get the reply online. Other features include status of their complaints, crime statistics, mahila and sishu desk, registration requirements and related acts for foreigners, various acts and rules relating to Police Department etc.

The system enables to log a message/ complain online with Jharsuguda Police; to check the reply of the complaints and passport verification status online.

Currently all the Police Stations of Jharsuguda district are using this online application and feeding the data of missing person, unidentified dead bodies and DIB, Jharsuguda is using this to update passport verification status of the applicants. The web based software helps to know crime statistics Police Station wise. The website has also help line numbers, various Acts and Rules of Police department and links to Orissa Police, BPRD, NHRC, NCRB. At the onset of the project none of the documents were in digital form in Jharsuguda Police. The Superintendent Police, Jharsuguda took the initiative to train the staff of the various Police Stations to be trained in ICT tools.

NIC was invited to develop a web-based software. It took around six months to digitise major datasets and hosted on Internet.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n  Initiative of a Superintendent of Police brought about the police records online within 6 months

e-dhaRani e-Registration Project Implementing Agency: Orissa e-Governance Services Limited igrorissa.gov.in

public CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n  Enabling Deed Regisration in an hour from help desk to verification/validation to data entry to decision and archival.

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e-dhaRani is the e-Registration project implemented in the state of Orissa. The Project has been implemented at all 177 Sub-Registrar offices in the State. A significant capacity in terms of physical and technology infrastructure has therefore been built to implement e-dhaRani in a competent manner, with a holistic perspective and with speed.

E-dhaRani deploys a five step system for deed registration comprising of helpdesk, verification/validation, data entry,

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decision and archival. It’s a centralised and web based application software encompassing all 64 kinds of deeds. All types of deed registration facility is available as per the Registration Act. Automatic valuation through benchmark valuation configuration is done by the system. The system captures biometric data through webcam and signature pad for secured transaction. Data is archived in compressed format to save disk space. The deed is integrated with agreement and power of attorney. Important checks like SC/ST land sale, undervaluation, workflow management etc have all been incorporated into the system. Various online queries and reports are catered to. The system provides an instant issuance of Encumbrance Certificate and Certified Copy.

It also gives the facility to enable anywhere registration. The final output to the citizen is in the form of a One Page Registered Deed.

A registration deed could be registered and delivered to citizen in less than an hour. More than four Lakh Documents have been registered through e-Registration System. All plots and masters have been configured in the database to get correct valuation of property. A significant increase in the number of land registrations has been witnessed due to the advent of this system.

ICT Initiative Promoting Millennium Development Goals

Girl Child Protection System Implementing Agency: Department of Women, Child, Disabled & Senior Citizens, Govt of A.P results2.ap.nic.in/wcd/gcps

The Girl Child Protection System has brought about greater transparency; eliminated errors; ensured timely generation of certificates; facilitated the easy reconciliation with LIC and provided easy monitoring of the implementation of the girl child protection scheme. The scheme is aimed at preventing gender discrimination by empowering and protecting rights of girl children. It enhance status of girl child and promotes adoption of small family norm by ensuring holistic develop-

ment of the girl child for a bright future entailing improved sex ratio besides preventing female infanticide.

An online state wide web-based automation system developed to achieve the objectives of the project includes promotion of enrollment and retention of the girl child in school and to ensure her education at least up to intermediate level; encouraging girls to get married only after the age of 18 years; encouraging parents to adopt family planning norm with two girl children; protect the rights of the girl child and provide social and financial empowerment to girl child; eliminate negative cultural attitudes and practices against girls; strengthen the role of the family in improving the status of the girl child; extend a special dispensation to orphan/destitute and differently-abled girls.

Online workflow automation; use of low cost and open source technologies; training of in-house staff to operate the system; online entry of applications by CDPOs; provision for getting objections; LIC, school administration; provision for monitoring the status to State administration and generation and authentication of certificates in local language are some of the salient features of this system.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n  Bringing out social change through streamlining information and application for various welfare schemes for the empowerment of the girl child.

Project Jyoti Implementing Agency: Microsoft India public

www.microsoft.com/india/msindia/msindia_ourmission_projectjyoti.aspx

CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n  Impacting 34.4 million people through IT skills training enhancing livelihood opportunities

Microsoft’s Community Technology Skills Program christened as Project Jyoti has successfully supported 1,300 Community Technology Learning Centers (CTLCs) and about 300,000 individuals have been trained in IT skills in partnership with 14 NGOs. More than 180,000 students have been placed in jobs including in the rural areas. Over 34.4 million people have been impacted directly or indirectly through IT skills training, including marginalised women, unemployed

youth from urban slums, farmers, fishermen, other members of the village community, victims of human trafficking and communities vulnerable to trafficking, rural self-help groups, and rural kiosk entrepreneurs.

The use of Computer Aided Design (CAD) software by Chikankari embroidery weavers in Uttar Pradesh for making better designs; market price information for farmers to realise better value for their produce; timely weather information and data on location of fishing schools for fishermen via satellite connectivity at some CTLCs; access to information resources on health, education and legal rights for women and rural communities; use of CTLCs being used as Information centres to help communities fight for their rights through dissemination of information on various schemes, laws and policies of government etc. are some of the innovative facets of this project.

High travel cost due to dispersed location of habitation; erratic power supply; lack of skilled female trainers; demand for more computers and lack of Internet connectivity are some of the challenges faced by the project.

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INDIRA GANDHI NATI

Maidan Garhi, New Delhi

inclusiveness incorporated The University continues to make path-breaking advances in challenging existing modes of delivery and ushering in innovative combinations. Major achievements include:

Expansion in On-Campus Programmes Several new programmes have been added to the bouquet of on-campus teaching. Three new programmes have been launched by the Economics faculty at the postgraduate level.

M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes in Economics are also on offer in the on-campus mode.

The School of Performing and Visual Arts has launched four new on- campus and full- time Master’s Degree Programmes in Performing and Visual Arts. These programmes include: Master of Performing Arts – Hindustani Classical Music (MPA – HVM); Master of Performing Arts – Bharatanatyam (MPA – BN); Master of Performing Arts – Theatre Arts (MPA-THA); Master of Fine Arts – Painting (MFAP).

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The School of Gender and Development Studies has launched a new Master’s in Women’s and Gender Studies from July 2010.

Reaching the Unreached: Major Strides through Community Colleges The Community College Scheme of IGNOU has been extended to the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy after a very fruitful and successful collaboration with the Indian Army was initiated. The Gyan Deep project with the Indian Army was launched by the President of India and has achieved remarkable success. An estimated 1.25 lakh Indian soldiers are now undergoing education in IGNOU community colleges.

So far 517 Community Colleges have got registered with IGNOU. The total number of students who have taken admission so far is 43000.

The total number of programmes offered through Community Colleges is 1615.

ONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY – 110068, India, www.ignou.ac.in

Multimodal Education Delivery: Advances in the Convergence Scheme The Convergence Scheme optimizes use of both conventional and ODL systems. As many as 464 partner institutions are participating in the Scheme. In the year under report, 35 new Partner Institutions were added under the Convergence Scheme. The number of learners added in 2010 is an unprecedented 41,986. The total number of students under this scheme is now 1,01,755.

On-Demand examinations In addition to the six monthly term -end examination held conventionally, IGNOU also provides the facility of On-Demand Examination in 135 courses of different programmes through 15 Regional Centres of IGNOU. NCIDE has also developed a prototype system of On-line examination and evaluation aiming at “instant testing- instant result”.

cation, the University would provide a Certificate programme in Functional English through Nokiaphone’s Ove Life Tools primarily using SMS. The initiative is to start initially in six districts of Maharashtra and will be launched nation-wide after a review.

IGNOU has already initiated a number of moves in the area of IT research through its Research and Teaching Assistantship (RTA) scheme and ODTEL.

Building learner-friendly services The Student Satisfaction Survey, a first of its kind initiative in the country, enlisted open participation of all students and responses were encouraging. The feedback has helped identify and initiate refinements and corrections in the course curriculum. The Survey is now a mandatory aspect of the academic programmes and will be administered every year.

More Information Dimensions of Technology Use and Upgradation IGNOU offers state-of-the-art education facilities to its students. Today the university’s educational programmes reach over 10 million homes through the DTH and Edusat. The recent innovative moves such as mobile telephony, online admission to certification, on-demand examination and all-time admission have created new directions to democratize higher education and research. In the recent past a firm step has been taken to ensure quality research and documentation through digitization of contents and repositories.

IGNOU launched a SMS facility to benefit students studying in the Madurai Regional Centre. Students across 17 districts are able to receive periodical information from the University regarding fee details, last date for payment, classes, special assignments and programmes with roll out of new services.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Over 3.5 million Students 21 Schools of Study 12 Divisions 445 Academic Programmes Over 3,500 Courses More than 45,000 Academic Counsellors Over 500 On-Campus Students Over 120 Research Scholars at the Campus Presence in 40 Countries 67 World-wide Partner Institutions 62 Regional Centres More than 3,000 Study Centres Nearly 517 Community Colleges Largest Number of Foreign Students among Indian Universities • Tie-ups with Universities in Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, America...

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Innovative ICT Initiative in Governance

PowerIT Implementing Agency: Tata Consultancy Services www.tcs.com

The average power consumption across 84 TCS offices is 0.5 million units per center per month. Given the growth pattern and increasing cost of electricity, it was estimated that the energy cost would double over a period of 2 to 3 years.

The overall goals of the Power IT project were to Increase the awareness of energy conservation amongst Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) associates spread across a huge

geography and to identify the most apt technology solutions for increased energy efficiency in each specific location.

As the development centers/offices of TCS are located across various states in India, the PowerIT team launched an internal website to enable sharing of best practices and ideas, and also deployed a web based tool to capture and report daily energy consumption across various centers. The data is compared across all the centers through different metrics.

This helped identify the energy consumption patterns of different offices of TCS and also the best practices followed in the ‘energy efficient’ centers. The project also advises technology solutions like Installation of Variable Frequency Drives for Air Handling Unit’s, Installation of Energy Savers for lighting and recommends appropriate energy audits.

PowerIT produced the major benefit of bringing awareness on energy conservation to TCS associates through different activities. The savings in energy consumption was recorded around 9% in a controlled environment by bringing only awareness without any major financial investment. The project has recorded an energy savings of around 16 per cent.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n 9% saving of power through awareness building resulting out of information sharing

Web based Information System for Managing

Manpower Utilisation public

Implementing Agency: National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur www.nmlindia.org

CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n Generating Involvement Matrix of every team member per project - per month

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The project is a Government to Employee (G2E) initiative for managing R&D manpower utilization in projects and facilitating efficient resource (manpower) planning.

It provides quantitative (per month) involvement/ availability tracking of every human resource for short term & long term R&D planning and allocation of new assignments.

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The system provides an Involvement Matrix (per project- per month) elucidating individuals per month involvement/availability tracking in various projects. Tracking can be done for a selected duration. New Project manpower needs can be planned accordingly. Long term R&D planning can take help from the system by tracking availability of intended manpower in the planned period. The system thereby helps in improved manpower mapping to the project activities. i.e. Manpower planning on the basis of technical capability and availability of a person and not just by choice.

The system provides transparent, single window information of involvement of manpower. It has become a Decision Support System for triggering capacity building exercises for the organization.

The activity-manpower mapping information was missing in the project proposal forms. Collecting the mapping information for every ongoing project was a major challenge. In order to overcome the same it was made mandatorily by top management to provide this mapping information in every new proposal.

mGovernance Initiative

eMMS: electronic Muster and Measurement System for MGNREGA

Implementing Agency: Department of Rural Development, Government of AP www.rd.ap.gov.in

The Electronic Muster & Measurement System (eMMS) is a technology solution for achieving complete transparency in MGNREGS by obtaining live data from the worksite to website on day to day basis. The mobile technology is customised and deployed for the MGNREGS field functionaries through different mobile application like e-Muster, e-Measurement, e-Muster verification and e-Check Measurement.

The project was started to arrest distortions in the imple-

mentation of MGNREGS programme such as muster fudging, delays in payments, benami wageseekers, fake measurements and work duplication. The project has enabled the display of Information upto the level of Name and JobCard ID of each wage seeker present for work on website. It has increased accountability of the 20,000 field functionaries who are uploading data every day into the system.

The system deploys a mobile software based application to monitor all the processes from labour attendance to wage pay order generation. Real time data from the field is captured and displayed in public domain. Images of works are captured and displayed in website. GPS coordinates of work locations are captured and put in public domain. Details of each and every wage-seeker reported for work each day is captured and displayed in website.

The application is menu driven with graphic user interface provided in local languages. “Own your mobile scheme” providing mobiles at 50 per cent subsidy was launched to overcome the issue of mobile availability with the functionaries. Flexibility was given to procure sim cards of service providers having network coverage in local area to overcome the challenge of network availability.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n Real time field data collection including work images, GPS coordinates, name & jobcard ID via mobile phones

Em-power Kerala Implementing Agency: Kerala State IT Mission www.itmission.kerala.gov.in

public CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n 90 Departments providing Information & Interactive Services through mobile Service Delivery Platform in Kerala

The Project Mobile Governance “Em-power Kerala” was initiated by Kerala State Government in order to utilize the strengths of high levels of Mobile penetration in the State and to provide the citizens with a “always-on” connection for the delivery of citizen services offered by government departments through mobile phones accessible to them in the field, in the street, at home or other convenient locations on a 24 X 7 basis, rather than the users having to visit government offices

or log on to the internet portals to access services.

An integrated Service Delivery Platform (SDP) has been created and integrated with the e-Governance infrastructure, for enabling m-Services of various Departments in a “Plug and Play” fashion. As many as 90 Departments are using the m-SDP to provide their services and the portfolio of services is expanding.

The three channels of mobile communication (Voice, Signalling and Data) and a wide range of technologies (Voice Applications, Applications using signalling channel and data service based Applications) are being used for this purpose. The focus is to build a centralised platform into which the services/solutions for each and every Department can be integrated.

The services currently being provided can be broadly classified into: 1) Information Services: Services such as DoctorSearch, Price Alerts, Results on Mobile etc; 2) Interactive Services: such as mobile- polls, surveys.

The project has led to the dissemination of information to a larger number of people having mobile access in a short period of time. It has reduction the average time for processing various services and thereby the costs.

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Rural Governance Initiative

GPNIC: Rural Connectivity for Panchayats Implementing Agency: NIC Rajasthan raj.nic.in

GPNIC– an e-Service delivery solution, has been designed, developed and implemented in 10 gram panchayats of Srinagar block in Ajmer district as a proof of concept. BSNL has provided optical fiber based connectivity to all the 10 panchayat offices. NIC took the lead to select and provide software for e-governance applications which are beneficial to the citizens of the Gram Panchayat. Infrastructural support was extended by Panchayati Raj Department, Government of

Rajasthan. NIC developed a portal to facilitate all the services and also provided an email account to all 10 panchayats. Computer system with operator hired under MGNREGA scheme is being used for this project at all 10 Gram Panchayats.

Facilities like telephone, desktop, video conferencing, IP TV have been enabled from Panchayat.

The project has been developed to facilitate Panchayat office by providing various online services like the availability of various records like land records copy, BPL list, birth and death certificate; availability of various medical records like ANC schedule, immunization schedule and ensuring their due delivery; maintaining vaccine stock, medicine stock etc. to medical staff posted at Panchayat level. Various information like job card status, caste wise registration, demand for work, families completed 100 days employment, work status etc. are now been monitored at panchayat level by accessing national NREGA database.

Panchayat personal have been trained in using facilities like admission/counseling information of educational institutions, employment forms, Mandi rates of agriculture produces, court cases status from panchayat office.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n BSNL, NIC & Department of Panchayati Raj, Govt. of Rajasthan empowering Gram Panchayats through innumerable ICT services

Goa Broadband Network (GBBN) Implementing Agency: United Telecom Ltd. www.goa.gov.in/departments/gbbn.html

public CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n 100% broadband coverage across Goa

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GBBN is a high-capacity, end-to-end fiber, next generation network, has been implemented by Goa Broad Band Network in association with Government of Goa to make Broadband services available to entire rural population in all 189 Village Panchayats and 414 villages and towns. Goa has thereby got the distinction of being the only state extending broadband connectivity to 100 per cent Panchayats.

It has empowered the panchayats to provide all essential

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Government to Citizen (G2C) services, applications and portals which can be accessed through various panchayats and CSCs. The government is in the process of extending broadband connectivity to 2119 schools, 24 colleges, 32 government hospitals and 123 private hospitals which are in a phased manner.

GBBN is the only network where the same network is utilised for government, businesses and citizens. It provides AVVID Structure (Architecture of Voice, Video and Integrated Data) for the Government, all businesses and citizens. It has the capability to provide innovative services on the established infrastructure such as IPTV, Telemedicine and e-Learning.

Goa has become the first State to have IP Based, 10Gb fiber backbone high-bandwidth broadband network which reaches all parts of the State. Laying Fiber of 1400 Kms in the most difficult terrains (laterite soil) across the state was a real challenge which was duly accomplished by the UTL Operation Team within the stringent timelines.

Telecenter Initiative

CaneInfo All About Sugarcane Implementing Agency: Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore http://www.caneinfo.nic.in

Cane Info is an interactive and user-centered website that provides a platform for sugarcane growers, cane development personnel, scientists and students to share information and knowledge on sugarcane.

A few modules available in CaneInfo are ‘Ask a Specialist’, ‘OFAS (Online Fertilizer Advisory Service)’, Online Directory of research institutions and sugar factories, discussion forum, ‘Suggest a Variety’, publications/bibliographic database, multi-

media gallery ,What’s Available?, What’s new ?, News Feeds , Streaming of Video Programmes on sugarcane and ‘Feedback’.

The portal has been designed in such a way that it is easily navigable even for those with low computer-literacy levels.

Large files like videos, detailed graphics, animation and audio have been restricted as learner satisfaction declines when downloads are slow. The site is trilingual - English, Hindi and Tamil. A provision for translating all the English pages to Hindi has been provided through ‘Google Translate’.

Information generated from the users through the Discussion forum is effectively moderated. CaneInfo is databasedriven and interactive. It has taken agricultural extension/ information dissemination to farmers to the next level.

Since its launch CaneInfo has received about 6-lakh hits so far. Though this website is predominantly India-specific, it has users from abroad as well. The timely intervention by CaneInfo experts helped a farmer from Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu save his sugarcane crop, by identifying the dreadful disease in a patch of his sugarcane field, through the ‘Ask a Specialist’ section of CaneInfo.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n Taking the agricultural extention and information dissemination to the next level providing research based information to farmers online

e-Samwad Implementing Agency: NIC District Unit, Ramabai Nagar, UP kanpurdehat.nic.in/esamwad/index.html

public CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n Interacting with the people of the remotest villages through mobile Video Conferencing systems

With the initiatives of the District Magistrate of Ramabai Nagar (UP) the last mile of the district has become accessible to the top functionaries. On the behest of the District Magistrate, the eSamwad Team gets ready for a trip to a remote village inside the district with all its paraphernalia in a vehicle.

The DM along with some of his senior officers at the District Headquarter can interact with the villagers in any remote corner through Video Conferencing. Villagers start telling

their problems and the senior officials redress them. The villagers have a win-win situation. e-Samwad provides services to the villagers and solve the problems at their DOOR STEPS. The project has enabled the interaction of villagers with the Distict Magistrate facilitating the on the spot catering of the various Services. Within an hour the e-Samwad team reaches to the desired place and the concerned village is on the AIR. This has led to the emergence of effective & efficient governance. SDMs and BDOs are addressed on monthly basis after proper analysis of the repeated problems in the services and hence the repeated problems are also addressed. The many fold corruption, mistrust/ill treatment at the government offices has reduced. The loss of wages/loss of day/days of villager is mitigated and the cost of travel and stay get nullified.

The mental agony of the visiting villagers is also reduced to a large extent.

The District Magistrate gets more time for the District level planning and effective utilization of various other resources.

A new era of monitoring the work of subordinate officers has also been started.

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ICT Initiative in Urban Governance

Orissa e-Municipality Services Implementing Agency: Orissa e-Governance Services Limited http://ulborissa.gov.in

This Orissa e-Municipality Services is a centralised integrated application which provides “Single Window” services to citizens on anytime, anywhere basis. The various key modules under this application are: Civic Services Management System; Solid Waste Management; Welfare Schemes Management; Grievance Redressal Management; Revenue Management System; Trade License; Water Connection; Property Tax; Building Permission; Financial Management System; Accounts & Audit;

Municipal Management Information System(MMIS).

Asset Management for ULBs; Works Section Management; GIS and GPS based Solid Waste; Vehicle Tracking for the City and GIS integration for Property Tax remain the futuristic objective of the application.

More than 10000 users have been using the application throughout the length and breadth of the state of Orissa.

Over 36,900 Birth Registrations, 7339 Death Registrations, 9898 Birth Certificates, 3075 Death Certificates, 2088 Trade Licenses have been issued using this application.

Through the dependable database, a useful revenue model has been explored for ULBs. The digitisation of all data helped in better management of time and resources. SMS alert reduces communication gap between goverment and citizen.

Requirement Gathering turned out to be a major challenge as there was a huge gap between the system oriented architecture and the current practice. Data Migration, Training of the MIS, Change Management from the offline system to the online version and inter-departmental dependencies were some of the challenges faced by the system.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n From an offline computerized application to a centralized integrated Municipal e-Governance application

Tulana Karnataka Service Level Benchmarking Implementing Agency: Municipal Reforms Cell, Directorate of Municipal Administration, Bangalore www.karbenchmarking.gov.in

public CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n Decision Support System in Municipal Administration providing quantitative and qualitative information about 49 performance indicators in 7 sectors

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Tulana is a web based online tool which enables performance measurement, assists in analysing trends, reflect trends; and also provide quantitative and qualitative information about 49 performance indicators in 7 sectors of municipal governance viz. Water Supply System; Waste Water Management (sewerage and sanitation); Solid Waste Management; Roads, Road side Drains and Street lights; Disease Control; Developments of Parks and Gardens; Finance

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It’s a tool for determining the efficacy, cost-effectiveness, timeliness of services and suggests corrective actions to improve performance.

Tulana provides the mechanisms by which the ULB knows if it is achieving its objectives as the online application transforms data into information useful in support of decision making The outputs that can be duly measured. It provides a monitoring mechanism that produces information on the output that is accurate, timely, relevant & complete. The comparison mechanism compares the performance against a set of targets.

Tulana attempts to integrate the decision maker, the data base, and the quantitative implementation models being used for service delivery at ULB . It’s a web based application which has the facility to capture the data online from all 213 ULBs. For the 1st time ULBs are ranked based on their performance.

Automated ranking generation based on indicator results is yet another application. Every sector and indicator within has been assigned with fixed weightages based on the priorities and importance.

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ICT initiative for Eradicating Extreme Poverty

Asha Kirana Mahithi Implementing Agency: Municipal Reforms Cell, Directorate of Municipal Administration www.mrc.gov.in

Under the project the mapping of all the slums notified and non-notified in urban area along with GIS map & household data of the state of Karnataka was carried out by the Directorate of Municipal Corporation, Karnataka. Municipal Reforms Cell has developed the application which consists of General information of city town (ULB); Slum profile along with sketch map; Particulars of survey operations; Detailed slum survey; Detailed household survey; Detailed livelihood survey.

The information about 7,29,870 households is available online. The application has been able to map household, infrastructure & livelihood information for preparing concepts for a slum free city planning. The Health Facility Details of 3571 slums has also been made available online. The Employment & Expenditure Details have been duly captured.

The project is a GIS Based Web Application which allows the data to be available for everyone on a click. It synchronizes data onto Geographical Map with Key Indicators and quickly identifies the details. As per user needs Data can be searched & retrieved in Multiple Columns.

The key challenges in this project were the geographical distribution of 213 ULBs as well as the different sizes of the municipal bodies (Corporations, City Municipal Councils and Town Municipal Councils & Town Panchayats).

The solution architecture for the project was designed in such a way that each municipal body is treated as an independent entity complete with its data and most of the municipal body specific rules are data-driven, thereby allowing only one application for multiple databases.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n  Mapping the infrastructure and livelihood information of 7,29,870 households located in 3571 slums across Karnataka for slum free city planning

Poorest of Poor (PoP) strategy Implementing Agency: Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty, Andhra Pradesh www.serp.ap.gov.in

public CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n  A web-based and mobile-based decision support system providing handhold support and access to all entitlements to the poor

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PoP strategy - a last mile approach is being implemented by SERP for addressing the specific needs of the poorest of the poor families and ensuring that they come out of poverty via continuous handhold support. It also ensures that the poor gets access to all the entitlements through internal activists and external support mechanisms. The new strategy needs to be household focused, bringing about convergence of all existing activities required by a poor family, internal motivator

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for handholding support and an external support system with provision continuous tracking of progress made.

ICT in terms of web-based software and mobiles platforms is being used in local lingo and in a user friendly manner. The usage of web-based platforms for data capturing and analysing and usage of mobile technologies in local language for tracking the progress made by each household under a CA along with the usage of web-based technologies such as Decision Support Systems for the CBOs and linking them with the different existing databases for a single window access are some of the ICT based interventions of this project.

The project has been able to obtain the baseline information of all the selected households in web and has thereby provided a way to reach the unreached and meet their unmet needs.

The software has been developed in Telugu which has helped the working staff make use of it in a convenient manner. The progress made by each of the selected household in the livelihood front is being tracked using the software. Convergence of key components and continuous focus is helping out in getting people out of poverty.

INTERNATIONAL projects

eGov Initiative in Education

Teacher-led Digital Content for Multimedia Classroom, Bangladesh

Implementing Agency: Teaching Quality Improvement SE Project, Ministry of www.tqi-sep.org Education, Banglasesh

Jointly led by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Ministry of Education (MoE), the Access to Information (A2I) Programme aims at helping secondary level teachers to develop digital contents (teacher-led content) for their own multimedia classrooms for different subjects like English, Science, Mathematics, Geography, Bangla, Mathematics etc. This would make their lessons easy, interesting and enjoyable for the learners.

Initially 1000 multimedia classrooms have been established

from 20 upazillas of 15 districts. The remaining 20,500 secondary institutions (out of about 32,000) from all districts (64) will be included in this programme by 2012.

Teachers are sharing contents among themselves across the country using various online platforms (teachers blog); Every secondary school is being equipped with multimedia classroom with a power-saving internet-connected laptop as well as projector/large-screen TV. A Multimedia classroom has been found much more cost-effective solution rather than establishing ICT Lab in every school in the perspective of Bangladesh About 400 teacher-educators and 3000 teachers have been trained on teacher-led digital content development. An online collaboration platform (www.ictinedubd.ning.com -Teachers’ blog) has been created as well.

Initially few teachers couldn’t understand about this new method of teaching-learning approach. But, in the 14-day training programme, they got clear that laptop and projector is not a teacher itself, it is actually a tool where teachers will just take the help of laptop and projector/large-screen TV during conducting class in order to make the class more interactive and effective.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n School Teachers developing secondary level digital content in English, Science, Mathematics, Geography, Bangla, Mathematics

G2G Initiative

GeoSpace, Singapore Implementing Agency: Singapore Land Authority www.sla.gov.sg

public CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n One-stop spatial data resource centre providing access to 300 layers of spatial data contributed by 70 participating government agencies

GeoSpace has more than 70 participating government agencies and provides access to 300 layers of spatial data.

It’s a one-stop spatial data resource centre which eliminates duplicative efforts in acquiring spatial data already collected by other agencies.

It provides a complete and automated end-to-end spatial data value-chain that bridges data suppliers and data users.

The up-to-date data is uploaded by suppliers and is instan-

taneously download by end-users online. The system also provides one-stop data discoverability and accessibility on a whole-of-government basis. The Web GIS with desktop GIS-like functionalities helps to discover, explore, query and analyze spatial data. The tools for automatic extraction, transformation and loading of data in most GIS formats are available. Web Service-based access to data and functionalities such as address geo-coding and address validation; automatic source data quality assurance; online mapbased e-consultation for enhanced communications and operational efficiency between government agencies; and geospatial APIs, data services and tools for agencies to build their own applications or spatially enable their non-spatial applications are some of the key features of GeoSpace.

Several public facing government websites such as www.

OneMap.sg, www.inlis.gov.sg, www.spio.gov.sg etc are powered by GeoSpace. GeoSpace System represents a whole new concept in delivering NSDI using Geospatial Cloud Computing based platform where data, applications and tools are published as services.

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INTERNATIONAL projects

ICT Enabled Agri Initiative

Official Website of the Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka Implementing Agency: Audio Visual Centre, Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka www.agridept.gov.lk

The official website of the Department of Agriculture was implemented as one of the major ICT initiative by the Audio Visual Centre (AVC) of DoA as an appropriate information exchange mechanism using the latest web technologies. This is a dynamic and interactive website in Sri Lanka and which comprises of five different sections namely new agriculture technology section, web services, media section of the DOA and institutional information.

A discussion forum is opened for the agriculture community to discuss agriculture issues in order to disseminate agriculture research and extension information to the agriculture community effectively.

The portal is user friendly addressing local language issues. The information is available on demand including the latest news.

The portal is updated by nearly 150 institutes of the Department of Agriculture through a decentralized update mechanism. The farmer production database facilitates agriculture marketing and supports the policy makers in decision making. Agriculture Classified support the agribusiness. Agriculture TV and Programmes are added to the website and therefore, these programmes can be viewed repeatedly. There are different publications are available for free download. The organisation and navigation of the huge amount of data and information available; security measures due to hosting of important database in different servers; Updating mechanism through content managers in different institutes; conversion of content to local languages through translators and redressing the connectivity issues by creating the CD version of the portal have been some the challenges for the project.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n  A multi-faceted agricultural information dissemination portal updated by 150 institutes of Sri Lanka

Electronic Delivery of Services

Virtual Certificate for Supplier Registration Implementing Agency: ePerolehan project Unit, Malaysia public

www.eperolehan.gov.my

CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n  Extending the eProcurement system by incorporating the issuing of virtual certificates

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ePerolehan is a complete electronic procurement system which enables the Government to buy goods and services from Suppliers through Internet. It consists of comprehensive eProcurement modules that reflects the Government procurement policies and processes namely Direct Purchase, Quotation, Tender, Ministry Contract, Central Contract and Reverse Auction. In addition to these six modules, ePerolehan also has a module for Supplier Registration.

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The Supplier Registration process via ePerolehan was introduced as early as 2000 and even though the registration and renewal process is conducted online, MOF issued out the certificate to successful applicants physically. It handled 7,000 to 8,000 applications of new and renew Supplier Registration on a monthly basis. The physical certificate lack in many aspects as they lack security, are open to forgery and could easily be lost or damaged due to natural catastrophe. Now, with the establishment of the Virtual Certificate these limitations have been overcome.

The new Virtual Certificate is more flexible and secure.

MOF has embarked on a campaign to promote the use of technology and electronic data interchange (EDI) for the issuance and delivery of the MOF Certificate to the Suppliers to replace the paper-based certificate.

Government Procurement Offices utilize the certificate as form of identification and verification prior to procurement engagement. It has also lowered the total expenditure in the preparation and mailing of the certificates, thus promoting cost savings. Over 32,000 active suppliers have renewed their registration and obtained the Virtual Certificate.

INTERNATIONAL projects

Promoting millenium development goals

GDCO sudab a partnership for community development,

Sudan

Implementing Agency: gedaref digital city organization gedaref.com/newone

There is a big digital divide in Sudan due to poverty, illiteracy, war, and climate changed. As far as agriculture is concerned, in Gedaref state there are more than 8 million acres of cultivated agriculture area and it lacks the basic e-Infrastructure to increase yield and decrease the cost of agriculture production. There are more than three million out of school children. GDCO is an NGO in Gedaref

State located in East Sudan where ICT is not part of the culture and not a priority. The project was started with the basic aim to bridge this digital gap and bring together the communities and marginalized sections of the society.

Utilisation of ICT for community development is another aim. It is successful in providing a platform for knowledge exchange, sharing experiences and best practices through ICT in a public private partnership (PPP). The project already has database of more than 10,000 farmers which help in making quick reports to decision makers and develop an e-Map for Gedaref state natural resources which tackle the conflict between farmers, nomads and forestry. There is also an online crop market which helps farmers and traders to buy and sell crops. In addition there is an agro-mobile service which will provide 6 services to the community through mobile technology. It is also helping in eradicating illiteracy by involving more than three million children in need of education through various initiatives.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n  Helping in achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by various initiatives for farmers, children and differently abled population bringing together an all inclusive society.

Innovative Initiative in Governance

Bahrain National Enterprise Architecture public

Implementing Agency: e-Government Authority of Bahrain www.ega.gov.bh

CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n Maturity Improvement program- where each government entities will find their improvement area to attain their maturity level in Kingdom n NEAF group has developed vendor neutral Guidelines and it has been mandated by Supreme Committee of Information communication and Technology

The National Enterprise Architecture initiative aims to establish the foundation for utilising the Enterprise Architecture concepts in realisation of the eGovernment Strategy and Vision 2030 of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The National Enterprise Architecture is mainly targeted on around 28 government entities in the Kingdom of Bahrain. And in near future the strategy would extend to the Non government Organisations as well. Many major government entities which are a part of this initiative are Ministry of

Finance, Ministry of Central Informatics Organisation, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Work, Ministry of Labour, and Ministry of Housing.

The National Enterprise Architecture group pursued a number of goals in the architecture development and architecture governance areas. Closely aligned and complementary in nature, the activities performed under these goals created an appreciation and deeper understanding of Enterprise Architecture in government organisations. Ensuring that all the Information Communication Technology projects to go through Architecture Validation and Compliance and performing the validation and compliance thereby to ensure all IT projects are aligned with National Enterprise architecture framework which was developed in the year 2010 was one of the main objectives of the programme. However, the initiative also came across a number of challenges which were primarily driven by the lack of understanding and skepticism created by the introduction of a new concept in the environments of government organisations. Lack of adequate mandate also contributed to the challenges.

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INTERNATIONAL projects

Telecenter Initiative

Knowledge Station Implementing Agency: National Information Technology Center, Jordan www.ks.gov.jo/default_EN.htm

A network of 180 Knowledge Stations (KSs) has been established throughout Jordan. One of the primary purposes of the KSs is to facilitate access to information, which spreads awareness of new technologies and their benefits, such as community and self-development. Most of these KSs have been established in areas where the marginalized communities live, in order to better serve them. These KSs effectively serve two primary roles; first, as training centres in information technology and social

programs, and second, as walk-in centers providing services such as internet, fax machine usage and photocopiers.

The total number of users of the services of the Knowledge Stations by the end of 2010 was 1.2241 million citizen all over the Kingdom. Out of which 1,51,000 users were involved in some or the other kind of training, while the remaining 1.1 million used the Knowledge Stations for other services like internet, printing and scanning. 45% of the users belong to the age group of 20-30 years. Users of the age group 30-40 years constitute 25% of the user base. 47% of the users use the PC to get better informed and educated, 37% use it for recreational purpose.

The KSs have helped in empowering women; increased Internet penetration for the country; built capacity and has helped in upgrading skills of communities through utilization of ICT in different areas of development. Job opportunities have been created in the remote and rural communities. Knowledge Stations also help facilitate job hunting through the use of the Internet, The Knowledge Stations are moving towards building a more socially and economically sustainable enterprise through lifelong learning and enterprise development.

public CHOICE #1

Salient Feature n  180 Knowledge stations serving 1.22 million citizens for training & services

Urban Governance

Monofeya Portal, Egypt Implementing Agency: Monofeya Governorate, Egypt public

www.monofeya.gov.eg

CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n Overcome nepotism, jobbery, waste of time and money, traffic and the accumulation of citizens in the governmental authorities to get their services.

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The Monofeya Portal is an example of the e-government adopted in Egypt to overcome nepotism, jobbery, waste of time and money, traffic and the accumulation of citizens in the governmental authorities to get their services. Monofeya is the first governorate in Egypt to apply the electronic system in delivering services to its citizens.

The portal is a civilized media interface on which the citizen can realize the efforts of development and projects which are

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planned by the governorate and to achieve the best performance of interactive services which include electronic complaints; information about job opportunities in the governorate; free Medical Convoys; Youth Housing Units; results of academic primary education stages; tenders; views and suggestions; Local issues for discussions; opinion polls for citizens etc.

The project is sustainable and has become indispensable for its stakeholders as it is updated regularly. The news and information about the different sectors of the governorate are updated on a daily basis. The continual effort to upgrade the sites design attracts the user base. The services rendered through the system are continuously increasing which shows the progressive demand of the citizens. Database reports are taken monthly to evaluate the performance of the various entities and the best of them are honored to encourage them.

These reports are used as an indicator to the leadership for drawing the annual development plans. Opinion polls are made regularly to gauge the orientation of people towards a certain issue. Tenders are published regularly on the portal to present the project and result.

Rural Governance Initiative

Pilot Improvement of Computer Usage and Public Internet Access in Vietnam

public

Implementing Agency: Project Management Unit - VTF - MIC www.i4ra.vn

CHOICE #2

Salient Feature n Reaching out access to Computers & Internet to the 60% population through public access centers

The project “Improvement of computer usage and public Internet access in Vietnam” has been implemented by the Vietnam Public Utility Telecommunication Service Fund (VTF), under the Ministry of Information and Communications of Vietnam. The project has been funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Under the project computers with internet connectivity have been installed at 99 public access points which are commune cultural post offices, libraries of province, district, school, commune

people’s committee in the three provinces of Thai Nguyen, Nghe An, Tra Vinh.

According to the statistics Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city account for about 72% of the total number of Internet subscriptions in the nation, other cities 11%, and the remaining 17% are in a large populated area with millions of people accounting for 60% of the total population. Without the assistance of the government and other organizations, this disparity can hardly be resolved.

Before the advent of the pilot project, many of the libraries and commune cultural post offices had relatively few users. With the provision of computers, Internet access, and training for front-line service providers on how better to serve users, most pilot sites have seen a dramatic increase in the number and types of users accessing Internet. Hundreds of library/commune cultural post office staff and thousands of local people/end-users have been trained by the project. The project has created a useful and friendly environment for the local people to use computer and public Internet service in the project sites. They have learned to use computer and Internet to seek for useful information and apply into their work and have gained initial achievements.

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