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POWER for ALL by 2012 ICT to Fulfill the Mission!

POWER SPEAK

KAPIL MOHAN Director, Ministry of Power Government of India

RAJENDRA KUMAR Principal Secretary - Power Government of NCT of Delhi

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P K MUKHOPADHYAY DGM-IT Rural Electrification Corporation

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COVER INTERVIEW

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Kapil Mohan Director, Ministry of Power Government of India

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Rajendra Kumar, Principal Secretary (Power) Government of NCT of Delhi

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P K Mukhopadhyay, Deputy General Manager Rural Electrification Corporation Limited Karan Bajwa, General Manager, Public Sector, Microsoft India

EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (NREGS)

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WIPRO ON COURSE IN POWERING ESIC’S PROJECT PANCHDEEP

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e-BOOKING-KEEPING PROJECT IN BIBINAGAR MANDAL, ANDHRA PRADESH

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CITIZEN’S CALL CENTRE: TOWARDS INCLUSIVE GOVERNANCE

EVENT REPORT

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SAFETY, SECURITY AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT: IS ICT THE ANSWER?

FEATURE

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CLOUD COMPUTINGENABLING EFFICIENT EGOVERNANCE ADOPTION AT GRASSROOTS

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BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION IN IPGCL- PPCL

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WHAT A WASTE! WILL THE GOVERNMENT LEAD BY EXAMPLE?

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BEYOND ‘MERE’ EGOVERNMENT: ENABLING THE IGOVERNMENT FUTURE

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INTERNATIONAL ARTICLEE

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SRI LANKAN e-GOVERNMENT GOES OPEN SOURCECE

NEWS

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International News

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Business News

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India News

STRENGTHENING NATIONAL RURAL

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

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EDITORIAL

IT is the Way Forward for Power Sector Reforms!

The acess to electricity is the key to the economic development of a country. The power sector in India has been receiving adequate priority ever since the process of planned development began in 1950s.

Despite, India being the 5th largest power producer in the world, it still faces huge power deficit with peak power deficit of more than 10%. With a demand supply gap of 66 billion units and peak shortage of 16,000 MW, it is estimated that India needs to add nearly 80,000 MW of power generation capacity (to the existing 140,000 MW in 2007-08) by year 2012. The Government of India is facing hurdles as the current inter-regional (national grid) power transfer capacity is inadequate to facilitate efficient transfer of power from power surplus to power-deficit regions.

If we look at the dynamic global platform for inspiration, the US president Barack Obama seems to show the way forward. President Obama’s strategy to invest $11 billion to create smarter electrical grids is a progressive move which shows that in order for power sector to become viable and sustainable what is required is not only reforms but IT-oriented reforms. IT has the potential to contribute significantly in the power reforms process, particularly in the areas of business process automation, revenue and commercial management, distribution system automation, consumer relationship management (CRM) and AT&C (Aggregate Technical and Commercial) loss reduction.

Indian government too sensing the hourly need has initiated reforms in power sector around two broad themes i.e., privatising the state-owned distribution utilities, and funding IT enabled measurement of the transmission and distribution losses and its reduction initiatives at utilities that continue to be state-owned.

The Ministry of Power, Government of India initiated Power Sector reforms in the 1990s to invite private investments for setting up additional generating capacity to bridge the wide gap between demand and supply. The Government is implementing the Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (RAPDRP) during the 11th Five Year Plan period. This is a USD 12 billion project aimed at IT-enabling India’s power distribution system.

The current issue is focussed on IT in Power Sector. We have put together the views from the Central and State Governments and the Private Sector on this topic. This issue of the magazine also carries the report of the National Convention on Public Safety, Security and Disaster Management and the Role of IT convened by egov in association with the Department of IT, Ministry of Communications and IT, Government of India.

The Convention saw a right-mix of participants from the security sector representing both government and the private sector. Hope you enjoy reading this edition of the magazine.

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Owner, Publisher, Printer: Ravi Gupta, Printed at Vinayak Print Media, D-320, Sector - 10 Noida, U.P. and published from 710 Vasto Mahagun Manor, F-30, Sector - 50 Noida, UP Editor: Ravi Gupta

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COVER INTERVIEW

Smart Meters for Tackling Flow of Electricity www.powermin.nic.in generation. Power is either wasted due to bad technology and bad state of the distribution grid or most of it is stolen.

Electricity audit and accounting helps us determine where the unaccounted power is going. Data collected through the metering and billing module,` which oversees the electricity and cash flow, can determine the amount of unaccounted electricity. As far as services for our consumers are concerned, ICT has enabled a host of citizen centric services like knowing the status of their applications, online payment of bills, checking their power consumption, etc.

KAPIL MOHAN DIRECTOR, MINISTRY OF POWER GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

Please throw some light on the over all scenario of the power industry in India.

The generation of the electricity in the country is met by the setting up of the Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPP). Even with having a regulatory commission/ statutory authority in each state, the government is unable to plan the clear 6

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distribution of the power supply for the citizens because of the unclear picture of the number of consumers in the power sector, in addition to the unannounced load shedding and the poor quality of power.

Electricity audit and accounting is useful to determine the electricity losses, which account for one-third of our power

Government of India has planned ‘Power for All by 2012’. How do you see the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) towards achieving this goal?

‘Power for All by 2012’ is the flagship programme of Government of India which aims to provide electricity to all the villages in the country by 2012.

The programme Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) was launched by Government of India in April 2005, which aims to provide all the rural households the access to electricity along with giving sufficient amount of electricity.

In the ‘Power for All’ project, the capacity addition project and the RGGVY are the two main programmes which the government is currently working on.

In providing electricity to all the main focus is on the grid management, which means better power facility for all. The other focus is on equitable distribution of power which ensures the quality of power being supplied to the customers.

ICT occupies an important role in the distribution sphere. It primarily has two roles to play – to carry out electricity audit and accounting linked with GIS to track electricity flow to the distribution grid, and secondly to improve the consumer experience.

ICT occupies and important role in the distribution sphere. It primarily has two roles to play – to carry out electricity audit and accounting linked with GIS to track electricity flow to the distribution grid, and secondly to improve the consumer experience.

How do you see the role of ICT in generation, transmission and distribution of electricity? What is the outlook of the Indian power industry in transmission and distribution?

ICT plays a major role in Transmission and Distribution (T&D). With the help of the use of ICT, the government is able to track the energy flow, how much energy is going where and to which all places. It also helps in keeping a track of the point where the energy is being lost, helps in able to identify the lacunae. With the help of the ICT the government is also able to keep a track of which particular areas are consuming more electricity than what is allotted to them. The overconsumption of electricity results in grid collapse. It is important to monitor how much electricity is being drawn and in which areas. ICT plays a role in maintaining the amount of electricity being used by particular states.

The distribution sector has to deal with the losses in the power sector as they are the ones who deal with the consumers directly in the flow of the electricity. With the help of ICT the ministry of power can track the flow of electricity. All this information can be linked to GIS so that it becomes easy to know the exact situation of what is happening where, how much electricity is being used by whom. Efficiency which is the core in the distribution sector is ensured.

How would the national grid resolve the issues of transmission and distribution losses (T&D)?

To resolve the problem of load shedding, ICT plays a major role in the digitisation and the distribution of the grid. It will facilitate setting up of the basic electricity audit and the accounting system on the electricity grid. This will be helpful in giving a clear understanding of the consumption pattern on a real-time basis. With the use of the automated meter reading (AMR) at regular intervals, the data can be maintained and can be checked where the electricity is being lost, so that the measures of tackling the problem of electricity is taken up and worked upon. The automation of the meters is called smart grids or the smart meters which is a symbolic tool.

It benefits both the consumers and the suppliers as it helps in managing the

electricity and reduces the losses. The consumption of electricity has to be done in a planned way so as to reduce the problem of the shortage or the collapse of the grid. To avoid the collapse in the grid, which can bring the daily life to a halt, real time intelligent grid is required which would shift the load of the peak hours during the non-peak hours and manage the infrastructure. Also with the help of customer relationship management (CRM) system, meter-cash process can be improved.

ICT plays an important role here too, not only in the monitoring but also in predicting and planning of the operations.

The work on energy accounting and distribution management system and the building up of smart meters has begun.

Pilot projects in few cities have started.

The aim is to reduce the T & D losses from 30% to 15% in the next 5 years.

Can you briefly tell us about the Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (R-APDRP)? Please name some states which are leading in R-APDRP implementation.

The Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (R-APDRP) focuses on improving financial viability of state utilities and sustained reduction in losses. It seeks to reduce the level of electricity supplied and the monetary loss incurred by the government.

R-APDRP intends to intensively use Information and Technology (IT) to enforce power reforms.

The schemes which come under RAPDRP are renovation and modernisation of substations, transmission lines and distribution transformers, augmentation of feeders and transformers, feeder and consumer meters, high voltage distribution system (HVDS), consumer indexing, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition/ Distribution Management System (SCADA/ DMS) solution, computerised billing, etc.

SCADA/ DMS solution has been implemented for real time monitoring and control of the distribution system.

With this the remote infrastructure management of the grid can be done, sitting in a substation.The states which have shown a noticeable success under

R-APDRP are Rajasthan, West Bengal, Gujarat and Bangalore. In other states, the work is in progress.

The Eleventh Five year plan focuses on 100% electrification in rural India.

How close are we in achieving this goal and why is it still a challenge to provide electrification in rural areas?

Currently, the electrification of 76,000 villages have been done out of 1.18 lakh villages in the country. The whole programme will be completed by 2012.

The critical focus is on the accessibility of the ‘electricity to all’ in the entire villages of the country.

The major challenge faced in the electrification of the rural areas is the lack of proper infrastructure, which makes it difficult to do the wiring in the remote areas and the interiors of the villages.

Also the load in the rural areas is quite low because of which, the major chunk of the village electricity load comes on the government as the villagers have to be charged a nominal price for the electricity.

From the rural areas the revenue is very low, hence at the moment the supply of the electricity is very limited.

How significant is the Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the power sector? How welcome is the privatisation of the Delhi Power Distribution by the Government after a not so good experience in Orissa?

In the generation of the electricity, the private companies have been actively promoted. In the next five year plan which will be the 12th plan, the private sectors will have much more capacity than the public sector or the government.

In transmission, initially, Power Grid Corporation of India was the major PSU in transmitting the electricity. But now the high voltage transmission lines have been given out on bid to the private sector. The Power Grid no more has the monopoly in the transmission of the electricity.

Though in the distribution phase of the electricity Government of India facilitates privatisation but it is not very actively promoted.

Input based franchise which is the half privatisation of the government assets is promoted.\\ Gayatri Maheshwary egov

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INTERVIEW COVER INTERVIEW

Delhi has Improved Power Position! www.delhitransco.gov.in

RAJENDRA KUMAR PRINCIPAL SECRETARY (POWER) GOVERNMENT OF NCT OF DELHI

“In the t e present pre en scenario scenario, en ri , the th Information nfo m t on and Communication Comm mu ic t on T Technology echn logy gy (ICT) p ((ICT) plays pl ayy a huge h g ge role rrole in the th power p w r sector, se ttor, b be itt generation, gene g n ratiion n, tr transmission n nsm mission n or distribution. di t ib ti t on Many Ma y initiatives initi t attiv have have been b be n taken tak k n iin n thi th thiss di d direction recti n b byy th the he Government G o ernme t as well welll as a private p iiv t utilities. utiliti i i i s NDPL, NDPL NDPL, BSES BSE and and PPCL hav have h already al l eady implemented impl pl m nte t d ERP to t integrate i teg g at their th heir various va i s functions ffun ti t ons an and d processes pro p s es and and bring b iing g out out the th he effi effi ficciency iency iin n th the he system. syy t m ” 10

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Delhi has witnessed rising peak demand of energy over recent years on one hand, and the stagnant power supply of its own power plants on the other. What are the milestones covered till now in resolving the demand-supply mismatch and making Delhi a ‘power surplus state’?

The power supply position of Delhi at present is quite encouraging and despite the load growth from 17,000 Mega Units (MUs) in 1999-2000 to more than 24,000 MUs in 2008-09, the shedding has reduced from 2.8% to 0.6% in the respective years. The generation capacity of Delhi, which stood at 994.5 MW for long, shall be increased to 1500 MW in the current year and again to 750 MW by the year 2011-12.

We also have 750 MW share in Indira Gandhi Thermal Power Plant in Jhajjar and 900 MW Dadri expansion project, which shall also be available in the year 2010.

Another 2500 MW power has been arranged from Damodar Valley Corporation in phased-manner to take care of the shortages. A total of around 11,300 MW power shall be available next year against an estimated demand of 6961 MW rendering a surplus of 4339 MW. How significant is the Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the power sector? What were the objectives of privatising the power distribution in Delhi?

PPP in power sector is very important and has given desired results.

Central Government has also encouraged PPP in the power sectors through the bidding of Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPP) and allowing the establishment of merchant power plants and power exchange. The power sector requires huge capital investment, which if taken care by the private sector, can be utilised in the development of other infrastructure in the country.

Delhi’s power sector was privatised mainly to bring in the accountability and efficiency in the system. The whole reform process in Delhi was conducted in a very transparent manner. The bidders were pre-qualified by the Empowered Committee with representatives drawn from the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, Delhi Vidyut

Board (DVB), Union Ministry of Power, Central Electricity Authority, Power Finance Corporation and Administrative Staff College of India. The entire process was also debated in the Delhi Assembly and in the various seminars before reaching the final stage.

Before bidding, an opening loss level and initial Bulk Supply Tariff was fixed by Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission.

An innovative target setting methodology was adopted to establish the efficiency improvement targets through bidding process itself. The reduction of Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses was fixed at a level, which will ensure that distribution of electricity in Delhi becomes viable by the end of five-year period.

Another objective was to minimise the tariff shock through efficiency improvements. The loss reduction target for the privatisation of the power distribution in Delhi has been overachieved and the losses have come down from 50% to around 20% at present and are expected to reduce further. The power supply position has improved, as elaborated in the above paragraph. During DVB’s time, the CPSU dues were not being paid in full and dues were mounting, which have now been cleared and there are no dues on Delhi’s power purchase. Three utilities – North Delhi Power Limited (NDPL), Pragati Power Corporation Limited (PPCL) and Delhi TranscoLimited (DTL) are constantly paying dividends to Delhi Government.

The subsidy burden of around INR 15,000 million, which Delhi Government was paying to the electricity sector of Delhi, has been completely eradicated and the money is being utilised for development of other infrastructure in the city of Delhi.

What strategy has been adopted by the Government in meeting the power demand of the Capital during the Commonwealth Games? Will the state opt for purchasing power from other states and corporations or increase its generation capacity?

The Commonwealth Games in the Capital are scheduled to commence in October-2010.

By October-2010 sufficient power will be available to Delhi through commissioning of units at Pragati-III Power Station at Bawana, units at Indira Gandhi Thermal Power Station at Jhajjar and Dadri. Sufficient

power has been tied-up by the Discoms to take care of the demand during the Commonwealth Games through bilateral arrangements, banking etc.

How do you see the role of ICT in generation, transmission and distribution? What are the various initiatives taken in this direction?

In the present scenario, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays a huge role in the power sector, be it generation, transmission or distribution.

Many initiatives have been taken in this direction by the Government as well as private utilities. NDPL, BSES and PPCL have already implemented ERP to integrate their various functions and processes and bring out the efficiency in the system.

Delhi Transco Limited is in the process of implementing ERP. SCADA has also been implemented in transmission and distribution sectors of Delhi to provide accurate online information about the status and health of the system. We are also using other technologies to enhance the efficiency in the sector.

How are the issues of T&D (transmission and distribution) losses are being taken care of and what are the steps adopted in this direction to curb these losses?

As elaborated earlier, the initial T&D loss levels at the time of privatisation was more than 50% and the bidding was made mainly on the basis of loss reduction targets and their achievements.

The Discoms were given year-wise loss reduction targets with incentives to overachieve the targets. This has given the desired results and at present the AT&C losses have come down from 50% to 20% and are expected to reduce further in the years to come.

Can you throw some light on the Green Initiatives (non conventional power generation) taken by the government?

Delhi Government is committed to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy. Waste-to-Energy projects have been undertaken, through PPP model.

Work in the concept of Solar power generation through distribution PV modules is on.\\ Gayatri Maheshwary egov

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INTERVIEW COVER INTERVIEW

Rural Electrification Corporation: Powering India’s Villages www.recindia.nic.in

PK MUKHOPADHYAY DEPUTY GENERAL MANAGER (IT/ERP) RURAL ELECTRIFICATION CORPORATION LIMITED

“ERP ERP R iss p playing ay ng a ma majorr ro rolee by improving m ro in the he iinternal te na in infrastructure r s ru u e to o increase n re se the he ef efficciency efficiency enc resulting e ul i g in n co consumer sume satisfaction. satisfaction a i f ct on T Thee RE REC fin fi financed nanced nc d p ojec s aaree m projects monitored nii or d b by th the h ERP ssolutions. lu l i ns It I h helps lp l iin n mak making king tthe h solutions olution and nd d the th he sstrategies tr tegie i available v iilab ble tto aall ll resulting es lltiing iin n th the ffaster a te t d decision ecision mak making. king g For F it its t own growth g owt and nd su sustainability t in b tyy aand d to o llive v u up to o the h status ta u o of th the p premier em r comp company, company nyy R REC C w l ven will venture ur for o d diversifi diversification v rs fication t on in n the he pow powerr se sectors t s in n the he yyears ar to o come come.””

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With the grids being integrated, the faults will be automatically known and then can be rectified accordingly. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is also aimed at bringing better transparency, better quality of distribution and transmission and for allowing people to contribute or express their views, thereby participating in the progress in this area.

REC aims to facilitate electricity for accelerated growth and for enrichment of quality of life of rural and semi-urban population. What is the strategy adopted to achieve this vision?

Rural Electrification Corporation Ltd. (REC), a premier financial institution in Power Sector under the aegis of Ministry of Power is implementing the flagship programme of Government of India viz, Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY). The programme aims to provide electricity to all the villages in the country as also to provide ‘electricity to all’ by 2012. Supplementing the above programme, REC is also financing for electricity Transmission, Distribution and Generation projects. In far flung and remote areas where conventional grid is not possible, REC is financing Decentralised Distributed Generation (DDG) schemes as well. Various agencies engaged in providing 100% electrification programme have been allocated with specific areas, strategies and targets and are monitored at various levels periodically and issues redressed.

What are the causes for high level of energy losses. What in your opinion is required to make the power sector financially viable and self sustaining?

Presently, the Aggregate Technical and Commercial losses (AT & C) in the country is around 35% and the target is to bring it down to 15% by the end of the current five year plan. In order to reduce the losses, the automation of the grids at the higher/macro level is initiated along with the integration of the system.

Another major step taken by REC is financing for up-gradation / modernisation of old transformers for its full utilisation and optimisation, bringing in uniformity

in the distribution of power. With the up gradation of the transformers, 2-3% of the losses can be pre-emptied. REC has been playing significant role in financing all such type of projects.

The current Five Year Plan is focused on the capacity power generation. In the previous five year plan, the target for total additional power generation was 40,000 MW, out of which only 21,000 MW power could have been generated. The capacity is targeted to be augmented by additional 78000 MW during the current five year plan. For this purpose, all states are coming up with the new power projects. Many new private players have also joined in for the additional capacity of power generation and distribution.

Similar capacity addition is likely to take place in future also to meet the demands of the present sustainable growth rate.

To make the power sector self sustainable, there are two major opportunities: one is the additional capacity power generation and other is the consolidation of the existing one.

How could ICT help in shaping the power distribution reforms in India?

For the reforms in the power sector, grid automation and distribution is very important as it plays a major role. For this purpose, regional grids have also been set up by the government at the higher, the macro level which has been integrated with the hooter. To bring in reforms in the power sector, talks are also on with the other countries, Bangladesh being one of them for the integration of the power sector in the country. Power flows from the higher level, from where it comes to the distribution level and then ultimately it reaches the consumer.

Another major part of reforms in the power sector would be the distribution of

power will be regulated by a meter and the bills will be generated automatically.

With the grids being integrated, the faults will be automatically known and then can be rectified accordingly.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is also aimed at bringing better transparency, better quality of distribution and transmission and for allowing people to contribute or express their views, thereby participating in the progress in this area.

In short, reducing the losses including AT & C losses can be achieved by use of ICT like smart metering, modernisation of transformer, computerised billing system, integration of grids and optimisation of the distribution of power at the national as well as cross border level.

What are some of the challenges of ICT adoption in power sector?

The major challenge faced is extending the services up to the consumer level, which is a mammoth task in itself, since the main problem faced is the ignorance of the consumers. As per the international standards the services have to be stabilised, which needs to evolve for further benefits not only in India but all around the world.

Tell us about ERP implementation in REC? ERP is playing a major role by improving the internal infrastructure to increase the efficiency resulting in consumer satisfaction. The REC financed projects are monitored by the ERP solutions. It helps in making the solutions and the strategies available to all resulting in the faster decision making.\\ Prachi Shirur Gayatri Maheshwary

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Cloud Computing - Enabling Efficient e-Governance Adoption at Grassroots www.cisco.com

The power of e-Governance in transforming citizen services has been proven. Not only does technology enabled governance results in quick, transparent and reliable citizen-centric services, but it also acts as a check on corruption.

In fact, automation of municipalities was identified as one of the 27 mission mode projects under the Government of India’s National e-Governance Programme (NeGP). Further, the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) decided to implement ‘automation of municipality’ scheme in 35 cities. These cities were also identified for massive infrastructural up gradation under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In return for the infrastructure upgrade, the cities were expected to introduce a system of e-Governance in their Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).

The stage was set for e Governance.

MODUS OPERANDI – SOME GLITCHES However, there have been practical issues in the adoption of technology at the grassroots - by local administrative bodies. Some questions that needed to be answered are: Which technology should be • adopted?

How can services be made • accessible to citizens living in different topographical zones?

• How should data be secured?

The problem is compounded by the fact that though the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) has issued a set of guidelines to various state governments for implementing e-Governance, and also prepared a model Detailed Project 14

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CISCO SYSTEMS INDIA

The ideal scenario for e- Governance would be one common application for all the 5,000 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).

However, variation in law across different states and 22 official languages make such a common application unviable.

Report (DPR), the Ministry did not lay down a specific solution to be deployed.

The result is that, though all municipalities have to offer a common set of eight services (minimum), they

CASE IN POINT The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation automated six civic centres in 2002 (covering over 50 lakh citizens) by using ICT applications. This was a much lauded e-Governance effort.

However, the initiative was not extended to other Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in Gujarat because of lack of knowhow, resources In the absence of a centralised application, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation remained an island of excellence.

all follow different technology designs.

This diversity is likely to create a serious human resource issue. Employees of ULBs are routinely transferred across different municipalities within a State.

Such people have to deal with different solutions at each end. Also, at the district level, specialised technology resources are hard to come by.

Another serious issue is the lack of learning from the implementation in seven mega cities, which are in advanced stage of e-Governance readiness.

The conclusion is that standardisation eliminates learning curve and increases efficiency – and is the need of the hour as far as e- Governance is concerned.

SHIFTING GEARS AND PERSPECTIVE – AN IMPERATIVE The ideal scenario for e- Governance would be one common application for all the 5,000 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).

CISCO’S ROLE IN e GOV IBSG (Internet Business Solutions Group), the strategic arm of Cisco is working with NISG (National Institute for Smart Government) that runs the e-Municipality projects of the Government of India. IBSG brings to the table, global experience of large scale deployment of e-Municipality projects. Cisco has been helping urban local bodies achieve their objectives by supporting and enabling initiatives like shared services, increasing eGovernment services and bringing local government services closer to the citizens.

Source: Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) and Metropolis (a global association of 106 member cities) Survey August to October 2009. The survey was done among municipalities around the world to explore plans, priorities, and challenges of city leaders as they pertain to sustainability. Sixty-eight officials from 27 nations participated in the study

However, variation in law across different states and 22 official languages make such a common application unviable.

Also, ULBs are typically of three types - city corporation (nagar nigam), city councils (nagar palikas), and town councils (nagar panchayats) - which are governed by a State Municipal Act and this Act devolves different levels of autonomy to different category of ULBs. Given the diversity across the country, the solution would be to adopt one application for each State. And a centralised application in each State would handle all ULBs in that State.

Cloud Computing is best suited to this scenario.

SUCCESS STORIES IN CLOUD COMPUTING The City Council of Biel, Switzerland moved from a standalone model to a cloud model, hosting 190 different applications.

Faulty clients can be restored within minutes, compilation of software inventories is automated, allowing IT staff to save hours of maintenance time each week while improving enduser productivity.

THE BENEFITS OF CLOUD COMPUTING •

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Evolutionary and enabled by a number of existing technologies, such as virtualisation, automation, and self-service portals Virtualised and dynamically scalable resources are provided as a service over the Internet. This means that users do not need to have knowledge

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of the technology infrastructure in the “cloud” that supports them. This aspect is very important considering that technology resources are hard to obtain at a district level.

‘Greening’ of the data center through centralised and shared infrastructure Reduced cost of infrastructure, platforms, and applications, as municipalities within state can share services like network, security, IT help desk support, facility management

•

Increased speed of response to business needs.

CONCLUSION To sum up, cloud computing at the state level (vis a vis independent deployments at local body level) is the answer to wide spread adoption of eGovernance in local bodies due to the following: Lower cost of development • Less complex technical manpower • requirement for maintenance of application software Lower roll-out time • Cost reduction as urban local bodies • can use the State Data Center and State Wide Area Network for hosting applications Clearly cloud computing can provide the strategic leverage needed by Indian States to take the power of e- Governance to India’s masses. The Cisco-Metropolis study points to an interesting trend where 45% of respondents (fig. 1) consider their cities responsive to technology innovation. It is in this positive outlook that cloud computing’s success in transforming local governance lies. \\ egov

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INTERVIEW COVER INTERVIEW

Smart Energy Reference Architecture to Support Power Sector Reforms www.microsoft.com

KARAN BAJWA GENERAL MANAGER, PUBLIC SECTOR MICROSOFT INDIA

“The entire gamut of the operation in the power sector revolves around better availability of quality power and efficient management of energy while maintaining the eco-friendliness all along.”

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The Microsoft Reference Architecture is a framework that can guide implementation in a utility and reflects best practices. It attempts to understand and incorporate the likely impact of technical, business and regulatory trends. It serves as a bridge from utility standards to specific Microsoft products and technologies.

Information Technology (IT) has the potential to contribute significantly in the power reforms process, What role can Microsoft play in it?

The structure, engineering and objectives of the world’s power systems are undergoing dramatic rethinking and significant change. Apart from the above points, new driving forces – like climate change, novel market participants such as Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles, and increasing energy demands – are combining to drive the development of what is being referred to as the Smart Grid. As a result, Microsoft is focused on enabling the technology innovation and advancement needed to create such a Grid. In support of this, Microsoft offers Smart Energy Reference Architecture (SERA) to support the reforms process as well as creating the Smart Grid.

The Microsoft Reference Architecture is a framework that can guide implementation in a utility and reflects best practices. It attempts to understand and incorporate the likely impact of technical, business and regulatory trends. It serves as a bridge from utility standards to specific Microsoft products and technologies.

How can you develop a synergy between IT and the Indian Power Sector which can play a defining role in profitability and quality of services?

Utilities worldwide have already spent large sums on technology and automation, creating a mix that is expensive to abandon, but also costly to maintain and make available throughout an enterprise. Microsoft is at the forefront in developing tools such as Web services that can connect and stitch together previously isolated, farflung data. Moreover, our software is designed to work together. The ‘Software plus Services’ model will enable utilities to have greater flexibility and agility to confront new business challenges.

Microsoft embraces these requirements and its software vision enhances and extends utilities’ technology investments – without requiring replacement of existing systems.

The selection of IT systems and tools for power sector should be based on long-term strategic and business continuity perspective. What are the factors that need to be kept in mind?

The entire gamut of the operation in the power sector revolves around better availability of quality power and efficient management of energy while maintaining the eco-friendliness all along.

In most advanced countries, power utilities have made major gains in terms of productivity, efficiency, reliability and commercial management through the use of modern IT tools. Information Technology has found application in a wide spectrum of tools that enhance performance in Planning, Operational, Maintenance, Training and Commercial activities in a Power System. Specific Information Systems (IS) in this context include; Energy Management Systems • (EMS) Distribution Automation (DA) • Systems Planning and Energy Accounting • Systems Metering and Billing Systems • Training Systems • Maintenance Management Systems • (MMS) Management Information Systems • (MIS) Power Plant Control Systems • Supervisory Control and Data • Acquisition Systems (SCADA) These systems are developed using a host of enabling core technologies such as those related to Data Communications, Centralised and Distributed Databases, Decision Support, Real-time Computing, Power System Analysis, Geographical

Information Processing, Graphics and Multimedia, Distributed Process Control, Simulation and Forecasting and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

Some of these Information Systems such as MIS and MMS are generic in structure for all industries, while being specific to a power utility in some functional aspects.

The primary objective of these solutions is three-fold: Ensure availability of quality power • Ensure high operational efficiency • Maintain ecological balance.

• What are the challenges of IT in the power sector?

Technology is changing each day and it is great to see the improvements it can bring to several difficult processes.

As mentioned above, the selection of IT systems and tools should be based on long-term strategic and business continuity perspective. If these tools are selected appropriately there are not many challenges that for IT in the power sector.

The following factors are critical in any IT implementation: Adoption of open architecture and • adaptive communication network based on proven standards and specifications Consistent infrastructure for data • collaboration, communication and interoperability Authentication and role-based • access to the network Robust and scalable architecture • to support large volume of transactions 3-tier architecture for easy • modifications of business logic and SW deployment Platform-independent application • components for easy migration to new platforms Disaster Recovery and Continuity • Planning. \\ Gayatri Maheshwary egov

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COVER STORY

Business Transformation in IPGCL- PPCL

R. K. SRIVASTAVA

Project ‘Parivartan’, a turnkey project for implementation of SAP ERP has been successfully completed by Indraprastha Power Generation Company Limited and Pragati Power Corporation Limited (IPGCL and PPCL) to support their power generation management for the National Capital Territory of Delhi. The project go-live was inaugurated by Smt. Sheila Dikshit, honourable Chief Minister of Delhi on 7th October 2009, at the Delhi secretariat.

IPGCL-PPCL’s journey to business transformation started with its creation in the year 2002 itself when it was carved out of the then Delhi Vidyut Board. It was a gradual and difficult journey to transform an organisation which was working with a typical government mindset without any thrust on profitability and self sustenance.

The journey of IT transformation started with only one desktop which was available to the Chief Engineer (Generation). An independent IT department could be created only in the year 2004. First thing was to make a company website which was done immediately. Then started the mission of educating the employees to work on computers and windows. As a first step, all the offices and plants were connected through LAN (Local Area Network) so that they could work on a unified platform.

A long term vision was finalised and goals were set to bring transparency and efficiency in operations with the help of IT. This prompted the adoption of a technology platform that drives operational excellence, maximises resource productivity and enables delivery of superior value to the community.

IPGCL-PPCL decided to increase its efficiency through end to end business transformation. With the adoption of SAP ERP solutions IPGCL-PPCL has replaced its existing software systems with a centralised enterprise applications solution across all its existing 18

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Inauguration of Project “Parivartan” by Hon’ble Chief Minister of Delhi, Shiela Dikshit

and upcoming power plants. This has enabled streamlining and seamless integration of business processes on a single platform and aided business diversifications in areas such as power trading and coal mining. In addition, the company has achieved reduction in total cost of ownership by moving on to systems and platforms which allow scalability and interoperability.

The ERP project, which took seven months to complete, has consolidated nine core business processes through a comprehensive suite of applications, integrated with leading business support and analytical software.

Utilities today must navigate through a business atmosphere fraught with security risks, geopolitical uncertainty and subject to complex regulatory requirements. In addition, utilities also face the unrelenting pressure to reduce costs. To address these challenges utilities must implement innovative technologies and best practices, and transform their organisations into the

utilities of the future. By implementing SAP, IPGCL-PPCL has adopted the best practices of major industry players from across the world. IT has now become capable of maximising the power generation capacity along with setting the highest standards of plant operation and environment protection. IPGCL-PPCL is confident that business insights that it will gain with SAP ERP will enable it to comply with the regulatory requirements and bring in great transparency in its system management.

PROBLEMS FACED •

Allthough the project is implimented successfully, it was not without its share of problems. The topmost problem was to depute suitable manpower in the project because of shortage of manpower resources since so many activities were going on together; most importantly New 1500 MW power project at Bawana, for which whole team

•

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was to be deputed. However with the support and clear vision of top management, this was overcome.

Connectivity became major issue because DTL, on whose fibre opticle network IPGCL was operatiing, had to relocate it’s transmission tower and lines on which optical fibre was laid due to construction of ring road bypass. This was overcome by immediately switching over to wireless Wi-Fi system.

Uncertainity in the mind of people and fear to loose power also acted negatively and was very hard to overcome. Legacy data cleaning and migration into ERP, response from end-users, particularly in providing clean data, training and role mapping, maintaining motivation

of core team members were the other challenges faced during the implementation period.

STRATEGIES ADOPTED TO OVERCOME THE RESISTANCE The most important was the top management’s support without which, the success would have not been achieved.

Effective communication strategy was adopted to communicate the progress and advantages of project and to encourage people to participate through workshop sessions and training.

to every transaction made in the Company along with the data in correct format, would be available at one place.

The correct information at right time for decision-making will always be available to those who need it at the time of taking such decisions.

The success of this project also proves that if intentions are good and goal is clear then anything can be achieved through hard work and ability to change in any given circumstances. \\

RAJNEESH KUMAR SRIVASTAVA

CONCLUSION The biggest advantage of this system would be that the information related

Officer on Special Duty (IT) / ERP Project Incharge.

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EVENT REPORT: SECUREIT 2010

Safety, Security and Disaster Management Is ICT the Answer?

(L-R) General N C Vij, Vice Chairman National Disaster Management Authority; Dr M P Narayanan, President, Centre for Science, Development & Media Studies;Maj Gen (Dr) R Siva Kumar, Head (NRDMS) & CEO (NSDI), Dept of Science and Technology; Dr Ravi Gupta, Editor-in-Chief, egov magazine & Executive Director, Centre for Science, Development & Media Studies; Prof Amarjeet Kaur, Director, CDMS, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University Amarjeet Kaur

INTRODUCTION egov in association with the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and IT, Government of India, in partnership with NSDI and GGSIP University, organised a Convention on ICT in Public Safety, Security and Disaster Management on March 04, 2010 in New Delhi. The Convention aimed to identify and discuss emerging public security threats, highlight cutting edge technological resources, share expertise in conducting risk assessments, assist in the formulation of appropriate response

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strategies, and facilitate the development of inter-disciplinary partnerships to ensure homeland security. The one-day Convention involving experts, government and private organisations in security field discussed and deliberated on issues such as ICT in Policing and Police Modernisation, Integrated approach in security- Cutting across government agencies and departments, Intelligence gathering and sharing, IP based video surveillance and secure communication systems, Cyber security, Role of biometrics, Capacity building of security forces and Disaster management.

INAUGURAL SESSION: VISION AND ROADMAP The Convention began with the introductory note by Dr M P Narayanan, President, Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies. He remarked that the terror in India has penetrated deep into the society and even children are well aware of these horrific acts. The government has taken it seriously. He hailed the role of ICT in combating terrorism. Dr Narayanan remarked that the homeland security in India is a billion dollar industry demanding

active participation of private sector.

General N C Vij, Vice Chairman, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) described NDMA’s initiatives and informed that it has been focusing on

General N C Vij Vice Chairman National Disaster Management Authority

structural and systematic changes rather than linear and incremental movementswhich does not stay for long. The Planning Commission, the Finance Commission and the Government of India (GoI) as a whole, have agreed to support financially. The theme, essence and core of mainstreaming disaster management into development process have been accepted by the GoI as the basic theme.

He also informed that Disaster Management curriculum will be included in the syllabus of schools, higher and technical education institutions. The same will also be included in the Panchayati Raj Institutions, State Institute of Rural Development and National Institute of Rural Development and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).

Amarjeet Kaur, Director, Centre for Disaster Management Studies (CDMS),

Amarjeet Kaur Director Centre for Disaster Management Studies Gurugobind Singh Indraprastha University

Gurugobind Singh Indraprastha University, stated that the pride of the nation lies in the security of forthcoming Common Wealth 2010 Games. She informed that the Geo Spatial Security Plan of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, where the opening and closing ceremony of Common Wealth Games will be done, is in the process of final stage of finalisation and will be submitted to Delhi Police very soon. Similarly, GIS based fire management plan for Delhi and is also in the last state of completion.

She also apprised that CDMS has started working on GIS based security plan for Naxal affected area and is in constant touch with the Ministry of Home Affairs and para-military forces.

The university is preparing a brigade of disaster managers for the Government of India and the Delhi government.

Savitur Prasad, Secretary, Department of IT, Government of NCT of Delhi, apprised the participants that the Delhi government has come up with the Integrated Communication System for all government departments, by establishing

services, including ambulances. He envisioned that all the departments will have the same handsets.

He called forth the industry to partner with the government in this initiative.

Under TETRA project, the Delhi Government will not be investing anything at all. The entire service would be on rental model (per handset). However, Captive license would be owned by the Delhi Government. He informed that the service level agreements (SLA) are already in place and in case of small deficiency in the system, the service providers could be penalised.

SESSION: ICT IN POLICING, INTELLIGENCE, PRISONS, PORTS, AIRPORT, RAILWAYS AND BORDER SECURITY Chair: Maj Gen (Dr) R Siva Kumar.

Major General Ramesh Chandra Padhi, MOGSGS, hailed the role of ICT and informed that ICT has brought the capabilities in depiction, integration, visualisation and analysis of geo spatial data. Improved bandwidth, high speed data processor and data storage capacity has enabled fusion of military and intelligence inputs so that a common operational picture is made available to all security managers, commanders and officers at different levels. He stressed that maps need to be properly georeferenced, because worldwide there are many reference framework that most

Savitur Prasad Secretary, Department of IT Government of NCT of Delhi

Terrestrial Trunked Radio Network Radio (TETRA) technology- which is one of the world’s most secured communication system in the world. It is an integrated communication solution, which would integrate 18 departments including Police, Health, Fire, Administration, and Municipal Corporations. TETRA would cover entire Delhi and would enable encrypted transmission of data and voice and supports duplex communication without call drops.

Savitur Prasad remarked that currently everyone is holding separate communication handsets like Delhi Police has a separate handset, the fire services have separate and so do the emergency

Major General Ramesh Chandra Padhi MOGSGS, Indian Army

people get confused. So there is a need of a common reference framework. It is with this concern that the National Map Policy has been designed on a global reference framework. He laid emphasis on high resolution satellite imagery data. He concluded by saying that the

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security forces must be able to exploit the technology ensuring the security and integrity of the data.

Joachim Murat, Director, Sagem Securite (SAFRAN Group), discussed Sagems’ role in biometrics the worldwide.

Biometrics comprises methods for uniquely

Loknath Behera IGP (O & C) National Investigation Agency Ministry of Home Affairs Government of India

Joachim Murat Director, Sagem Securite (SAFRAN Group)

recognising humans based upon one or more intrinsic physical or behavioural traits. Biometrics is the image processing of a body part. The image is processed and put in the database. He cautioned that mistakes in biometrics are bound to happen, because of difficulty in taking the picture and then the matching. For this technological tests have to be organised.

National security should be seen as a knowledge holistic system, which should notify/identify the population for both criminal and civil reasons. He remarked that India has taken the smartest step by opting for UID system for identification of its citizens. Technologically, it is a feasible project. Use of biometrics in smart cards can to some extent stop the forging of the documents. Biometrics also helps in fast border control, border crossing with reliability. Biometrics data is interplayable, therefore, it is easier to exchange data with the neigbouring countries. He concluded by saying that the only concern with biometrics, is information privacy.

Loknath Behera, IPS, IGP (O & C), National Investigation Agency, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India spoke on ICT in policing. He brought to notice that in earlier times matching the signature of the culprit took around one month, delaying the investigation process.

But now with the help of the technology, it is just a matter of few seconds. ICT plays major role on crime prevention and detection. With the use of CCTV it has

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become quite easy to deter and detect crimes, which has reduced the rate of the crimes. The establishment of a National Police Computer Network will help to hold the details of all the criminals and the offenders, he added. ICT in policing is used all over the world in maintaining law and order and investigating crime. ICT is used in different devices for accuracy and for better and faster communication. The major role of ICT in maintaining law and order can be seen in the application of Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) which is a digital trunked mobile radio standard for public safety. With the help of the technology, the analysis of the digital evidence has become easy. He urged the manufacturers to come up with such a technology which can be easily adopted by the police.

Naval Khosla Program Manager- Government, IBM

Naval Khosla, Program ManagerGovernment, IBM, talked about the various solutions which are being offered

by IBM for homeland security. He spoke about the various ICT based technologies of IBM already running in the country and the ones which can be adopted from

the other countries. At the moment, IBM is trying to address detection and introspection, deterrence and emerging response centre, which are all vital part of the homeland security. He pointed out that identity management systems, warehouse building, smarter surveillance and radio connect as pillars of homeland security. It is important to effectively leverage the information in the right and appropriate manner. IBM provides end to end smart public safety framework. All the solutions and services are standardised which is modular and on demand kind of a model, Khosla added.

KR Murali Mohan, Director, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, discussed the role of GeoICT, the areas of focus being sensor networks and web enablement,

K R Murali Mohan Director Department of Science and Technology, Government of India

3-D data acquisition technologies, UAV’s and air chips. He pointed that all the sensors are connected to the web and are meta data registered, which are readable/controlled remotely. The various web services and encodings are based on open standards. The sensor model language is used for describing sensor systems and processes which provides information for discovery of sensors and location of sensor observations. The description of the transducers and the real-time streaming of the data is done by Transducer Markup Language. With the help of the Sensor Alert Services (SAS) the publishing and subscription to the alerts can be done.

Anshul Gupta, Group General Manager, Railtel stressed upon the issue of Public Safety and Security in the Indian Railways, which is the largest carrier of passengers in the world, carrying

Anshul Gupta Group General Manager, Railtel

around 8 billion passengers in a year.

He highlighted the need and importance of train asset tracking and on board surveillance system. The use of GPS system is important for security in the railways as it helps in tracking each and every movement along with the sensors and the strategic traffic planners to plan the train movement. Anshul Gupta emphasised upon the importance of a centralised network operating center, which is connected with all the other networks. He informed that currently the Indian Railways is working on the safety and security of level crossing gates, assets, block sections, thefts of cables etc. Railtel is working towards integrated IP based safe and secured train management system, said Gupta.

Praveen Khandelwal, Deputy General Manager (IT), Airport Authority of India (AAI), informed that the main responsibility of AAI is to handle the safety and security of all the passengers. Though safety solutions are there but work needs to be done on the integration of new threats

Praveen Khandelwal Deputy General Manager Airport Authority of India

so that an adverse and a critical situation can be responded quickly. He brought to notice that AAI is coming up with Airport Operation Control Centre and is working

on integrating all basic security systems.

A common IP network is being proposed and all the infrastructures are being integrated, which is an integrated safety solution data flow. Khandelwal stressed upon the use of Video Surveillance IP Camera, which helps to access the videos at any time from any plane, and is easy to deploy with power over Ethernet. He concluded that at the airport everything needs to be integrated to ensure safety and security of the airport and the passengers.

SESSION: DISASTER MANAGEMENT PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE Chair: R C Sharma, Director, Delhi Fire Service Major General Girish Kumar, Director, Delhi State Spatial Data Infrastructure (DSSDI) discussed on how Delhi is gearing up in case of any disaster and how far the security, development and

Major General Girish Kumar Director Delhi State Spatial Data Infrastructure

planning has been done. He talked about the DSDDI project which is collaborative and comprises of creation of an urban information system, i.e., creation of a 3 dimensional spatial data, survey from aerial photographs, creation of digital elevation model of digital terrain model, ground validation and over ground utilities, 3D modelling of the city, texturing, visualisation, virtual walk through, mapping of all underground utilities and land information system. The project is suposed to be covered in four phases.

Rajiv Saxena, Deputy Director General, National Human Rights Commission, National Informatics Centre talked about the digitisation of the Tihar jail which is

Rajiv Saxena Deputy Director General National Human Rights Commission National Informatics Centre

one of the largest prison complex in the world comprising of 9 functional jails in the Tihar complex and a district jail at Rohini.

It was important to have the infrastructure first and then build the utilities around it.

A LAN has been created in the entire Tihar jail. It has 178 nodes layer, 3 switch network, 1 gbps bandwidth based switch to switch backbone, 5.4 km of optical fibre cable was laid. The software application has prison management system (PMS), which includes the personal information, the medical and the crime history of the convicts and the under trials. It helps in monitoring the physical location of the prisoner along with his movements. It also keeps a record of all the policemen who deal with the convicts. The visitor management system (VMS) includes the registration of the visits made by the relatives of the inmates. Talking about Video Conferencing, Saxena pointed out that it saves lot of time and also the security concern of the convicts is lessened.

K Srinivasan, DIG (Intelligence), Border Security Force (BSF) discussed the role of Border Security Force (BSF) which is envisaged as managing the security of

K Srinivasan DIG (Intelligence) Border Security Force

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borders and other matters connected therewith. He informed that BSF has two major roles in peacetime role to promote a sense of security amongst the people living in the border areas and to prevent trans-border crimes and unauthorised entry or exit from the territory of India.

Besides this, they also keep a check on anti-infiltration/counter insurgency operations, protection of VIPs and other tasks assigned from time to time by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The other major role of BSF is during the Wartime where they act as the first responder to engage the enemy and integrate with the army for operations.

including the environment from fire and other emergencies. The challenges faced in deploying the services are obstructions and encroachments, high rise buildings, chocked roads because of major traffic

Dr Gulshan Rai Director General, CERT-In Government of India

A K Sharma Chief Fire Officer, Delhi Fire Services

Dr Vasan Institute of Remote Sensing Anna University, Tamil Nadu

Dr Vasan, Institute of Remote Sensing, Anna University, Tamil Nadu, talked about his Project- Developing additional support system for cyclone disaster management for Nellore using GIS and Airborne Laser Topographic Mapping (ALTM) technology. He pointed out that Nellore is selected for the project as eastern coast of the country is bashed by frequent crossings of cyclone compared to the western coast. The overall objective of the project is: to demonstrate the ALTM technology and to generate the high level DCL elevation model and then use that for storm search modeling and to develop a decent support system for cyclone disaster management. The advantages of the ALTM technology are higher accuracy, faster acquisition and processing, less gestation time, weather and light independence and high data density, Dr Vasan informed.

AK Sharma, Chief Fire Officer, Delhi Fire Services spoke on the fire management system using the geospatial technology. The mission of fire services is to protect life and property

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on the road, movement of hazardous material on the road. All these make it difficult for the fire department to ensure the effective delivery of the services in the society. In light of these challenges, he pointed that the risk management and preparedness and mitigation have attained new importance. Effective response cannot be continually achieved without planning and preparedness. Fast access to critical information is essential, the best tools and techniques and the training methods must be utilised fully to meet the public expectations. He pointed out that GIS is an important tool to help the fire services optimise the delivery of fire services in the city. With the help of GIS, instant display of all the fire safety parameters of the concerned building can be displayed, and the shortest route of the scene of the incident could be chalked out. GPS can also help to get the real time information of the fire services.

sophisticated and complex. Every day new products are launched in the market, which every organisation wants to install in their system. The life span of these products is very short because they are vulnerable right from the time they are launched in the market. He highlighted that previously the hackers exploited the vulnerability which were known, but now the manufactures or the suppliers are unaware of the vulnerable areas. Very few organisations in the country have attained the ISO standards in security.

It is an important issue, which needs to be addressed. It is important to upgrade the application depending upon the technology. The security testing part of the product is important. The organisations need to have crisis management plan which deals with various aspects. The government is in the process of coming out with security policy which will be a Public Private Partnership. He further pointed that mobile devices will also become exposed and vulnerable to the threats and it is important to focus on their security right from now.

Rajendra Mishra, Inspector General of Police, Madhya Pradesh Police, explained that cyber crime has nothing

SESSION: SECURITY OF IT INFRASTRUCTURE Chair: S Ramakrishnan, Head-Delhi Chapter, Cyber Society of India and N Vijayaditya, Controller of Certifying Authorities, Department of IT, Government of India Dr Gulshan Rai, Director General, CERT-In, Government of India, opined that it is difficult to judge the security scenario of the country. The IT infrastructure is growing both horizontally and vertically; with many new devices coming up in the market, the system is becoming more

Rajendra Mishra IGP, Madhya Pradesh Police ...Continued to Page 29

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IT & Communication Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh

empowering education... enabling careers

TRS TOTAL REFLECTIVE SOLUTIONS

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...Continued from Page 24

to do with the robust infrastructure that an organisation has built, neither is it confined to police; cyber crime cuts across nations, boundaries and is in the virtual space.

With the increase in the cyber crimes, the main problem with the citizens is the lack of awareness on reporting of the crime. And even if the crime is reported, the local police station might not have the expertise to deal with it. In this context, he informed that Bangalore is the 1st city to have its first cyber crime police station. Delhi, Mumbai and many other cities followed suite. The competence to investigate cyber crime is lacking.

In cyberspace the vulnerability and destruction potential is enormous. He emphasised on the need to work on cyberspace enforcement and security, so that a secure cyberspace is provided.

All the security issues pertaining to biometrics, smart cards, mobile devices have to be dealt in such a way that a proper solution comes out of it. There is a need for the policy to be implemented in this direction.

Major General SV Chinnawar, Additional Director General, Military Survey of India, stressed upon the need for effective communication of data, which has to be maintained at one Dr N Vijayaditya Controller of Certifying Authorities, Department of IT, Government of India

security is not static, but dynamic. While doing electronic transactions the integrity and the confidentiality of the data has to be maintained by cryptography. Digital signature is required not only to protect oneself but to maintain the integrity of the data. It is important to come up with new solutions which are hardware based and is independent of the mobile operator.

Private players are converting physical data into e-Data and storing in data centers. It is important and is needed to look for solutions for accessing these information. The worthiness of the security solution has to be looked into.

Dr Ramachandran National Technical Research Organisation

Dr Ramachandran, National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) talked about remote sensing for which the data is managed and distributed and considerable amount of analysis is done, which supports many intelligence organisations, done primarily from the space. He pointed out that in the present day scenario more and more people are moving towards service oriented architectures including the various intelligence organisations. According to him, the key element is to present the requisite data to the right people. NTRO has been able to achieve it by making the whole process automated. He stressed on the need of creating an organised geo database.

Dr N Vijayaditya, Controller of Certifying Authorities, Department of IT, Government of India, talked on the security of electronic transactions and its trustworthiness. According to him,

S Ramakrishnan Head-Delhi Chapter, Cyber Society of India

S Ramakrishnan, Head-Delhi Chapter, Cyber Society of India discussed about two schools of thought,s one which prefers the adoption of new technology and makes one vulnerable. The second school of thought favours the denial of the new technology because of the complexities they come along with. He pointed that ICT makes our infrastructure really powerful along with making it vulnerable . As the technology is advancing, the sophistication of the hackers tools have been increasing.

Major General SV Chinnawar Additional Director General Military Survey of India

place. Another important issue which has to be addressed is the vulnerability of data since it is available to a lot many people than before. It is important to keep on updating the advancements in the technology and the same is being done at the military survey. To get correct information, the data processing has to be done carefully. The challenge which one comes across for the generation of the data is the lack of tools. He opined that the different sets of data are required for disaster management and preparedness.

Ramandeep Singh Walia, HeadSystem Engineering Group, Check Point Software Technologies, said that is important to live with security but the management of the security is the need of

Ramandeep Singh Walia Head-System Engineering Group Check Point Software Technologies

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the hour, which Checkpoint has expertise in. In this regard, it is important to collaborate and to ensure the awareness of the risk attributes. Electronic systems are intelligent and it is important to make use of the technology in the right way.

He brought to notice that the source of revenues from cyber terrorism or cyber attacks have far exceeded the revenue generated due to drug trafficking.

Another major challenge is the attacks by the hostile countries, which cannot be stopped. For this, there is a need to have a system which makes the response time much faster to block these attacks. He recommended that the processes, the policies and the awareness programmes have to equally compliment the security controls.

as the use of IT in crime prevention, use of IT in Intelligence generation, gathering and distribution, IT in crowd management and disaster management.

Although, IT is important, he pointed out that IT security policy is missed out in large number of organisations, which is a serious lag. Quoting a CII and PwC Study of industries in India, he informed that 80% of the industries surveyed in the study lacked IT security policy, and more than 70% of these industries were affected by some kind of a IT threat. Also, many of these industries did not have data recovery or disaster recovery plans.

Talking about his own PSU, he apprised that ONGC finalised the IT policy only last year. He questioned that if such a large PSU could take so much time to

VALEDICTORY SESSION T Ramasami, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, tried to explore the connecting link between public safety, security and disaster management. Though, apparently, there is no connect, but as per him, if we try to find out who’s security we are trying to secure, we would get the connect between all the three, which are the human beings.

Dr T Ramasami Secretary, Dept of Science & Technology Government of India

He recommended development of data processing system / image processing system, which uses the kind of technology which can be used by even a technology deficient person. He pointed out a valid point for further discussion, which is ensuring that the technology that people have is securely handled.

B C Nayak, Director General (Security), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Ltd., applaued the Convention for discussing very pertinent issues such

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B C Nayak Director General (Security) Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd.

formulate the IT Policy, what would be the state of affairs of IT Security in other industries? He concluded by saying that not only there is a need for formulation of IT Policy and its implementation, but also making people aware of the threats to IT Security.

Ashwini Kumar, Director, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), noted that while on the one hand, mankind has extremely

benefitted from information technology and communication revolution, on the other hand there are people, who are misusing this technology for ulterior motives. IT is not only being used to undertake conventional crimes, but also new set of crimes, which were never there earlier. These include cyber attacks and cyber crimes. Ashwini Kumar stated that cyber crimes fit perfectly into the definition of international crimes, since it does not recognise any political or geographical jurisdiction. Prevention, investigation and prosecution of cyber crimes have become the most formidable task before the law enforcement agencies all over the globe.

In view of the serious threats posed to the safety and security by cyber attacks, one thing that has emerged very clearly is that cyber crimes cannot be tackled without effective coordination and cooperation between law enforcement agencies, private sector, ISPs, R&D centres at national and international level.

Ashwini Kumar concluded by applauding the efforts of the Department of IT, Department of Science and technology, NSDI, NTRO, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and the private players, especially the ISPs, in securing us from cyber attacks. He was sure that their cyber crime prevention efforts will go a long way in securing data. He thanked the egov magazine for organising this National Convention to deliberate on safety and security issues.

The Convention concluded with a Vote of Thanks from Maj Gen (Dr) R Siva Kumar, Dept of Science and Technology, GoI,

Maj Gen (Dr) R Siva Kumar Head (NRDMS) and CEO (NSDI) Dept of Science and Technology, GoI

Ashwini Kumar Director, Central Bureau of Investigation

who thanked the eminent panelists and the distinguished guests for their presence and making this Convention a success. \\ egov Team

PERSPECTIVE

What a Waste!

Will the Government lead by example?

PRASANN THATTE

India is estimated to be generating approximately 400,000 tons of electronic waste annually (computers, mobile phone and television only). This is expected to grow at a rate of 10-15% per year (Source: www.toxicslink.org). By 2020, the country’s e-Waste from old computers will jump 500% from 2007 levels as per the recent Report of the United Nations Environment Programme. What makes the problem far worse is that except the Hazardous Waste Management Rules of 2003, there is no law governing the management of e-Waste in India. Even the guidelines framed by the Ministry of Environment and Forestes in May 2008 are only ‘intended to provide a broad guidance’.

But facts like these, though frightening, only tell the more familiar part of the story. An oft-neglected aspect of the problem is that the focus of discussion is almost entirely on the industry and retail consumers - the major users of computer hardware – followed by the unorganised sector involved in the collection, recycling and processing of such waste, mainly because of the hazardous working conditions existing there. Meanwhile, the third arm of the triangle – government assumes the position of a mere regulator and policy-maker.

While it is true that the government’s role is primarily one of introducing stricter legislation, encouraging organised recycling of e-Waste, collecting fee from manufacturers/consumers for its disposal, subsidising and incentivising the small units involved in recycling industry, and generating public awareness on the subject, it can hardly be ignored that the Government is no longer merely a regulator of the Information Technology sector. It is also an increasingly important user of technologies and consumables.

The rollout of an ambitious National

e-Governance Plan (NeGP) in the year 2006 further reinforces this. Available data suggests that government sector IT spending in 2007 was of the order of Rs. 5800 crore and is expected to grow rapidly. More than half of this spending was directed towards hardware, which directly contributes to the generation of e-Waste. In this backdrop, it is indeed surprising that the implementation framework in place for NeGP does nothing to commit the Government to the principle of effective e-Waste management.

Compare this with what the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) asks of the US government on this subject. While highlighting that only 61 out of thousands of federal facilities participate in what in US is called the Federal Electronics Challenge, it says: “the federal government (should) lead

by example in promoting recycling, reducing the use of toxic chemicals, and conserving energy and materials in its lifecycle management of electronic products”, as per US GAO Report of November 2005.

It is important for the government in India – at the centre and in states – to clean up its act fast, considering that government institutions, together with business enterprises, account for over 70% of e-Waste generation and are responsible for much of the damage. Besides, compared to developed countries, governments in India are still far from attaining a stage of full computerisation.

The percentage of government schools with computers stands at a mere 8.5% in 2006-07, as a report published by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India and the National University of Educational Planning and egov

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Administration (NUEPA). Issuance of unique citizen IDs is still at a nascent stage.

In the field of document management and imaging, large-scale digitisation and mapping projects are being undertaken, while biometric applications are going to be extensively used for providing citizen services, both of which will employ scanners and other such equipments. As the government moves towards filling the vast gaps still left, volumes of electronic waste generated in the process will become truly unmanageable.

As part of the NeGP blueprint, over 1,22,000 Customer Service Centres are being set upto cover 6 lakh Indian villages, as per the Ministry of IT Status Update of Feb ’10. Once the reach of e-Governance expands through the CSCs to remotest corners of the country, the problem of e-Waste management will grow more acute, since rural areas completely lack the knowledge of correct waste management practices.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Estimate the consumption of electronic products and supplies, in order to bring out information on total volume of waste generated, major producers of such waste, and future trends Study the best practices of governments worldwide in the field of e-Waste management, with special focus on countries such as Switzerland, one of the pioneers in e-Waste legislation, and Australia Make the past performance of an IT vendor in e-Waste management a critical criterion in evaluating the tenders and finalising new partnerships Recognise and reward the agencylevel efforts within government to control e-Waste generation Educate government staff on how

to handle electronic equipments better, that can help extend the life of electronic equipment and delay the end-of-life disposal 7. Bring in smarter technologies, e.g. mobile communications, wherever possible, in order to cut down on hardware requirements Finally, in any assessment of e-Readiness of governments, their capacity to control the generation of e-Waste, and manage its safe disposal and recycling must find an important place. The existing frameworks for eReadiness assessments, such as the periodic studies conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) (Ref. India eReadiness Assessment Report, 2008, NCAER, January 2010), completely lack this aspect. \\

PRASANN THATTE

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?.

Some of the steps the Government must take towards a more effective e-Waste management are: 1.

Undertake a comprehensive audit of electronic supplies and equipment used by government agencies, so as to be able to know the productive life of the gadgets in use and plan their phasing out

Prasann Thatte is a research professional with an experience of over 10 years in market research and research for government and non-profit sector. A postgraduate in Economics, he is a product of Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA). With the intention of using his research skills in the domain of development consulting, Prasann joined Centre for Good Governance (CGG) in 2007 as a Program Manager. Currently, Prasann manages over a dozen projects, including both consulting and evaluation studies, which deal with themes as diverse as child labour, migration, housing, public service delivery, Entrepreneurship Development, Right to Information, Bt Cotton cultivation, HR issues in government, slum development, disaster management and inflation.

VERISIGN TRUST SEAL INTRODUCED, ALLOWING MORE WEBSITES TO BENEFIT FROM WORLD’S NO. 1 ONLINE TRUST MARK VeriSign Inc., the Internet infrastructure provider for the networked world, introduced the VeriSign Trust Seal, an extension of the world’s most recognised online trust mark, to increase confidence, traffic and transactions for sites that do not require SSL Certificates. These include sites that outsource their shopping cart or payment functions to third-party providers and those that do not collect sensitive personal information.

With VeriSign Trust Seal, VeriSign is promoting a safer Internet by proactively identifying Websites that compromise consumer safety.

By displaying the new VeriSign Trust Seal, any business Website has the opportunity to leverage the global awareness created by the VeriSign Secured Seal, which is viewed more than 175 million times a day across more than 90,000 websites worldwide. The VeriSign Trust Seal pairs the familier VeriSign checkmark circle with the words “VeriSign Trusted,” enabling Websites of any size to display a highly recognised visual element commonly seen on brand-name Websites.

Benefits for Websites that display the VeriSign Trust Seal include increased traffic, conversion and customer loyalty. The VeriSign Trust Seal helps drive traffic by serving up the most recognised trust mark on the Internet while helping Websites avoid search-engine blacklisting. Additionally, increased conversions result as consumers have a higher propensity to take action on sites that they trust, and they will come back to sites that protect them from mailicious attacks or identity theft.

“Reputation is vital to the success of the growing number of small-to-medium-sized business competing in the online marketplace, and trust is a key component for protecting brand reputation and increasing consumer confidence,” said Ray Boggs, vice president of SMB research for IDC. “VeriSign’s brand recognition will extend to the new VeriSign Trust Seal to help small and medium-sized businesses communicate trust and safety to customers and prospects.”.

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NEWS

INTERNATIONAL

e-GHANA PROJECT TO PROVIDE 6,000 JOBS BY 2011 The e-GHANA project is on course at providing over 6000 jobs and has targeted 50% women participation in these jobs before the project ends by 2011.

The objective of the e-Ghana Project is to assist the Government in generating growth and employment, by leveraging Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and public-private partnerships (PPP), and to develop the IT - Enabled Services and contribute to improved efficiency and transparency of selected government functions, through e-Government applications.

To this end, the project components consist of an enabling environment component that includes capacity-building and operational support to the Ministry of Communications (MoC), for the overall coordination, implementation, financial management, procurement, monitoring, reporting, evaluation and communication of Project activities.

KENYA TO DEVELOP INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE The Government of Kenya is dedicated to build the crucial Internet infrastructure to enable access to faster, efficient, affordable connections by Kenyans and others in the East and South African region The use of fibre optic cable in Kenya would enhance business process outsourcing and software development.

Kenya is at the threshold of becoming a digital economy, which will be instrumental in building and broadening the investment base in the country and its neighbours who are benefiting from the connectivity. The government has automated services through various digital village projects, facilitating access to services such as e-Procurement, e-Registry, integrated land management system and e-Health.

The government has deployed digital arteries county-wide to link rural, under-served and un-served areas to enable people access full benefits of the submarine cables.

The implementation to the arteries also aims at stimulating private sector participation in the provision of rural telecommunication services.

e-PASSPORTS ONLY BY APPOINTMENTS IN PHILIPPINES All applications for electronic passports (e-Passports) will only be accepted and processed via the appointment system at the new Consular building on Macapagal Boulevard according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Government of Philippines.

Applicants may set an appointment by going online through its dedicated website or by calling 737-1000. Travel agents can secure an appointment at the DFA website or email at scheduler@dfa-appointment.net. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. They may also call 8344961, 834-4855, and 834-3707 for other details.

This appointment system will be strictly implemented to enable DFA to pre-process information submitted in advance by an applicant, thus avoiding long queues.

The applicants are no longer required to bring photographs since they will have their pictures taken using e-Passport data capturing machines at DFA-OCA.

EXPORTERS IN BANGLADESH GET e-ACCESS TO BUYERS Exporters in Bangladesh can go to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) to contact buyers directly through video conferencing.

Exporters have to spend only Tk 30 for an hour video conferencing and Tk 1,000 for annual membership to be in regular

contact with their potential buyers.

Now the local exporters will be able to reduce timeline for producing things as per the exact requirement. It will help them save their money and time.

One can also register his or her company online, which takes only four hours to complete the total procedure.

Entrepreneurs have to apply online and pay fees that he or she can pay directly to bank or through credit cards, and it’s done.

ARMENIA TO ESTABLISH e-SOCIETY IN 2011 In 2011 Armenia will take another step towards establishing an e-Society. The ID card represent a plastic card, which includes complete information about its owner and can be used in all spheres of public life.

As for the biological passports, they will resemble the current passports, but will be necessary only for leaving abroad.

Besides biological data, they will include the fingerprints of the owner. The ID Cards will not be compulsory, either, until the date of expiration of the current passports.

BANGLADESH GETS ITS ‘DIGITAL PLAN’ Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed, son of Bangladesh Prime Minister, delivered a presentation on the government’s initiatives to build a digitised Bangladesh.

The plan had four areas: e-Governance, IT education, IT industry and IT outsourcing.

The Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, had launched her government’s ambitious ‘digital vision’, Digital Bangladesh: Plan for Connecting People. The plan is based on the principal of building a Bangladesh, which is free from hunger, poverty and corruption. Community e-Centres will be set up at every upazila (sub-district) under the programme. Bangladesh government plans to set up e-Centres for the rural communities across Bangladesh at 8,500 post offices using the vast infrastructure of the postal department. egov

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Enabling the iGovernment Future www.oracle.com

Over the last 5-10 years, governments around the world have implemented ‘e-Government’ in some form or the other, with mixed results. Generally, such efforts have helped them provide enhanced access to information for government agencies, government employees and citizens.

However, significant issues remain.

Most government agencies today, still operate in silos, based on previously built ‘legacy systems’. Essentially, separate computing entities and environments were created to meet diverse needs, with different applications for different organisations. So, while access to services are good, the issues of legacy and IP creation based on business rules have tended to hamper growth and offerings of more innovative and effective services for the citizens. These systems are also generally inflexible and expensive to maintain.

But since they incorporate years of government policy and thousands of man-hours of effort, it is understandably difficult to do away with them or move to a new, lower-cost and more agile computing environment.

This infrastructure situation is juxtaposed with an increasingly sophisticated and demanding citizenry.

LALIT GUPTA

Citizens, both individuals and businesses, are looking for a high level of flexibility and agility by the public agencies to help them do things better and more efficiently.

They are very much used to particular levels of quality and convenience, drawing the expectations from the private sector. They are consequently growing more demanding in similar levels of convenience and service from their Government agencies.

These are the two essential challenges that require a next level of evolution for the electronically-enabled government of the future. The call is for the government agencies to be creative, do things differently, and quickly, across multiple agencies. Oracle defines this next step as ‘iGovernment’ – the next level of evolution for governments to address contemporary and future challenges. iGovernment is not just about addressing inefficiencies in cost and flexibility. It is also about liberating a whole lot of energy that can be utilised to create more efficient and innovative citizen services. iGovernment will enable government services to essentially: • be Innovative – with the flexibility and agility to do things differently and to do things better in being able to define, develop and launch

innovative citizen services; be Integrated – to break down infrastructure and process silos to enable effective collaboration across agencies; and be Intelligent – to embed rich • analytics capability and business intelligence into ones’ operations so that an organisation is able to monitor the performance of agencies and public programmes/ policies in a way not possible before.

The net result of iGovernment is that the government operations become more capable of delivering more targeted public policies, with the ability to craft more creative public programmes, to monitor their performance, to evaluate their impact faster, to correct as required, and to deliver new services quickly. In a nutshell the government operations become more innovative, integrated and intelligent Executing this iGovernment strategy will differ market to market. However, broadly, the transition will involve three key components: modernise the IT infrastructure, increase efficiency and transparency, and from there, transform government service delivery. All the proposed strategies, technologies and solutions that drive the transition to •

NEW YORK CITY 311 GOVERNMENT INFORMATION CALL CENTER SERVICE New York City’s 311 Government Information Call Center service is one-stop, single-number that caters to the city’s multi-ethnic, multi-language citizens’ non-emergency needs. The centre handles about 40,000 calls per day, answered by live operators 24x7, 365 days a year. About 250 agents will staff during peak hours and they have access to language translation services in over 170 languages. Previously, citizens had to navigate through 45 different call centers staffed by almost 1,000 employees who used different systems and could not share information across government agencies. These days, 90% of the calls are answered within 5 seconds and 80% of the problems are resolved within 30 seconds.

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iGovernment are available today.

1. Modernise the IT Infrastructure.

This is essentially about transforming legacy applications into a lower cost infrastructure that is based on open standards. Crucially, this approach must allow an organisation to take an ‘evolutionary approach’ to this modernisation effort. It must allow organisations to easily plug pieces of infrastructure together – as though they were puzzle pieces – as well as add and upgrade pieces as and when needed.

This is the thinking behind a ‘Service Oriented Architecture’ that is fundamental to the entire iGovernment concept. This must enable an organisation to take advantage of new technologies while preserving the business content of existing applications, and in the process leveraging existing investments in technology while increasing the life span of one’s legacy applications.

At the technology level, this is about a transition to grid computing and virtualisation. Grid computing and virtualisation provides high performance and reliability at a low cost by clustering servers together to act as a single large computer, dynamically shifting server resources between applications on demand. Capacity can be added as needed – one inexpensive server at a time – providing superior scalability and a faster return on investment. Security policies can also be implemented consistently and efficiently on an enterprise basis for effective controlled access. An organisation can now implement processes that connect securely between government agencies, and with users inside and outside government.

Therefore, modernisation of IT infrastructure is about combining open standards with Service Oriented Architecture to create a next-generation IT infrastructure that ensures security and controlled access.

2.

Increase efficiency and transparency.

A modernised IT infrastructure provides the foundation for this second component, which basically concerns the breaking down of information silos, in order to enable three areas of benefit – delivering shared services, streamlining business processes, and delivering effective governance, risk and compliance (GRC) controls.

Shared services have traditionally been focused on back office functions like payroll or HR, but now even front office functions like call centers and CRM systems must also be capable of being implemented as shared services,

to enable technology investments to be leveraged to serve more users and also facilitate collaboration across agencies to offer more innovative services.

A modernised, open standards based infrastructure must also enable effective streamlining of business processes such as Planning and Budgeting, Tax and Revenue, Financial Management, HR Management, Procurement, or Project and Grant Management.

Finally, it is about assuring the integrity of operations. Delivering shared services and streamlining business processes also creates the platform for implementing enterprise-wide Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) Controls.

Legacy systems cannot achieve these benefits because these require system agility and information granularity to deliver.

As an example, Oracle delivers a comprehensive application suite for GRC that provides real time visibility into risks, along with controls to ensure operational integrity. By automating the segregation of duties, rules and managing access rights in a central location to prevent conflicts and deter fraudulent conduct, security of information is greatly enhanced. Running on a service oriented architecture based on open standards, the GRC solution platform works across applications and systems environments - be they Oracle applications, or other applications, including custom built ones. This allows an organisation’s finance, IT, audit, or HR professionals to more effectively collaborate in developing a coordinated response to compliance risks.

3. Transform Government Service Delivery. This is the most important component because the whole purpose of the government is to serve its citizens, businesses and other agencies!

With a modern IT infrastructure and efficient, transparent back-office operations in place, the ultimate goal of transforming service delivery essentially means providing a Common Service Delivery Platform that must allow the organisation to seamlessly link its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and case management applications with back-office functions, or other services like workflow, content management and geospatial data.

This is about delivering an enterprise wide citizen service delivery platform to deliver these benefits: Facilitate the use of master data • to deliver a cross agency view where this is relevant or useful, instead of just within departments

or organizations. For example, your health history/ records across various hospitals/ health ministry.

Facilitate superior and relevant self • service capabilities for relevant public users (and the organisation’s staff, of course).

Facilitate embedded business • intelligence and analytics to measure performance and increase accountability for the services that the organisation provides. To be able to monitor the performance of the citizen service, understand the impact and accordingly tweak, modify and re-launch the service.

It provides for what public sector organisations are not able to do today or are able to do, in a very limited fashion.

IGOVERNMENT – VISION AND PLATFORM iGovernment is a long-term vision and a strategy for tomorrow. It is the platform for the next level of evolution for governments. It addresses both basic issues relating to interoperability and collaboration across agencies, and provides for the ability to deliver more targeted public programmes that are innovative and fundamentally business intelligence driven.

With a strong iGovernment-informed strategy, public sector organisations can be capable of delivering more targeted public policies, have the ability to create more innovative public programmes, be able to monitor their performance, evaluate their impact faster, correct as required and deliver new services quickly.

Ultimately, iGovernment can mean more value, choice and flexibility, with a lot less complexity, risk and cost. \\ LALIT GUPTA

Vice President, Public Sector and Education Industry Business Unit, Oracle Corporation, Asia Pacific and Japan

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PROJECT SCAN

Strengthening National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme www.nrega.nic.in

MADHURI SHARMA

INTRODUCTION With the aim of strengthening National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) , initially in 200 districts which got subsequently extended to 330 and finally to all rural districts across the country, National Informatics Centre (NIC), along with Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and other stakeholders, conceptualised web enabled management information system (i.e., NREGASoft) to address the planning and monitoring needs of scheme. Long association and experience of NIC with rural development processes and engagement with computerisation of rural development schemes at various levels proved to be valuable factor in designing NREGASoft. The first version of NREGASoft was launched along with the launch of the scheme.

NREGAsoft is a work flow; local language enabled e-Governance system and is available in offline as well as online mode to capture all the activities under NREGA at Center/State/District/ Block and Panchayat level. NREGAsoft has been prepared and deployed at the portal www.nrega.nic.in., by NIC in collaboration with Ministry of Rural Development. Each stakeholder can access relevant information through the portal. NREGAsoft captures Registration of workers, work demanded, number of days of employment for whole family, funds transferred,/utilised and number of works undertaken. Under the scheme various stakeholders of the project are: 1. Citizens 2. Gram Panchayats, Block Panchayats Zilla Panchayats 3. Workers 4. Programme Officers 5. District Programme Coordinators 36

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6.

7.

8.

Implementing Agencies other then Pancayati Raj Institutions State Rural Development Departments Ministry of Rural Development and Administrators in Government of India

VISION AND OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT NREGAsoft envisions facilitating e-Governance by enabling IT based implantation of NREG Scheme across State, District and three tiers of Panchayati Raj Institutions, it envisages empowering the common man using the information technology as a facilitator It provides information to citizens in compliance with the Right to Information Act (RTI Act). It makes available all the documents like muster rolls, application register, job card/employment register/

muster roll issue register, muster roll receipt register, which are inaccessible to public otherwise. It facilitates faster

information exchange between the various stakeholders through the network.

PROJECT

DESCRIPTION

Taking forward the onus of crafting an efficient implementation of the NREGS, the NREGAsoft captures the information right from the registration of the worker.

It provides linkages with the household survey known as Below Poverty Line (BPL) survey 2002 which captured information of each person and family in the rural area.

APPLICATION MODULES Following are the various application modules:

Work-flow of NREGA

WORKER MANAGEMENT MODULE Worker Management Module of the software captures registration, demand for work, work allocation and muster rolls. The software has the provision for enabling of payment of wages through banks/post offices as it captures the bank/post office account number, bank/ post office name, branch name for the person who demanded job. The module calculates unemployment allowance, if any and also keep tracks of number of days of employment of a family.

FUND MANAGEMENT MODULE Fund Management Module captures the funds transferred from MoRD/States to Districts and then to Programme officers/ Panchayats and expenditure incurred by various implementing agencies on labour, material and contingency. Hence it keeps track of each and every paisa spent under the scheme.

WORKS MANAGEMENT MODULE Works Management Module captures information about the various works undertaken as a part of the scheme at

various level (GP, BP, ZP). It facilitates online approval of projects and keeps track of time taken for the approval of project. Each project is provided a unique ID and status of work is maintained in the system.

GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL SYSTEM Grievance Redressal System allows a worker/citizen to lodge complaint and trace the subsequent response.

STAFFING POSITION MODULE

activity of a work. This further helps engineers to fill the measurement book and calculate wage per day for a particular muster roll.

KNOWLEDGE NETWORK/ SOLUTION EXCHANGE Knowledge network/ Solution exchange provides a common platform to all stakeholders to exchange their views, pose queries to other stakeholder/Experts and get responses, exhibit their best practices.

Staffing Position Module captures name, telephone numbers etc. of all the officials, planning and implementing agencies from Gram Panchayat to Ministry of Rural Development involved in NREGA, thus strengthening communication and co-ordination among them.

ALERTS

COST ESTIMATION MODULE

TECHNOLOGY TO MEET THE CHALLENGES

Cost Estimation Module makes detailed estimation for the works taken up under NREGA e.g. construction of tank, well, sluice gate, earthen road, cement concrete road etc. This module calculates quantity of work to be done and calculates the per unit rate as per Schedule of Rates (SOR) for each sub

Alerts: The software also raises alerts to implementing agencies about the various irregularities, important activities, messages for funds to be received by the agencies etc.

NREGAsoft is getting implemented in 614 Districts, 6000 blocks and around 2.3 lakhs Gram Panchayats with different languages, poor infrastructure and poor connectivity. Due to these circumstances, NREGS implementation required a software, which was cost effective egov

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and could overcome the language, connectivity and platform barrier.

NREGAsoft is available in online as • well as in offline mode overcoming the barrier of connectivity It is Unicode enabled and supports • all local language thus addressing the language barrier Software is available in Microsoft • technologies as well as open source technologies NREGASoft is also connected to other e-Governance systems for streamlined operation: BENEFITS ACCRUED e-GOVERNANCE FOR MASSES •

•

•

•

The Software computerises all the activities of NREGS right from the registration of the worker by the Gram Panchayat to the muster roll prepared and payment made to the worker.

Citizens can access all the information like the various reports, various documents/registers at gram panchayats, analysis of implementation under NREGA.

A worker can check his employment details, unemployment allowance, lodge complaint and can trace the subsequent response.

It has a provision of payment of wages through bank/post office thereby ensuring the correct payment to a worker

• •

•

•

•

•

It keeps track of 100 days of the employment to a family.

It generates all the registers/ documents as specified in the guidelines of NREGA. It ensures that a worker should not work on two worksites simultaneously.

The software keeps track of the fund released from the MoRD /states to the districts and then from districts to blocks/gram panchayats so it helps in reconciliation of accounts.

It provides status of available funds in the accounts at panchayats/ blocks/districts level.

It provides the details of unfulfilled demands, works which can be taken up and the unemployment allowance

ASSISTING THE OFFICERS, ADMINISTRATORS, PROGRAMME MANAGERS 1. The software has a strong analysis system for the following: Programme implementation • status like locations with no registration, no demand for work, no allocation of work, no work in shelf, no on-going work etc.

Fund transferred and availability • of fund at each level Work Approval time analysis • Gender, caste, wage earned on • work analysis Work execution level analysis • Labour, material ratio analysis • Expenditure on work • Households getting more than • 100 days and less than 14 days employment Persons earning wages more • than twice the wage rate 2. It can generate monthly progress report (MPR) at gram panchayat level, block level, district level and state level and all the figures in the report can be drilled down to lowest level.

3. The staffing position module of the software enhance the coordination and communication among the various stake holders of NREGA

ASSISTS GRAM PANCHAYATS IN NREG SCHEME IMPLEMENTATION

DATA MANAGEMENT AT GRASSROOT LEVEL

NREGS entrusts Gram Panchayats with a lot of responsibility as registration, demand for work and allocation of work can be done only by gram panchayats.

Software assists gram panchayats as follows:

NREGASoft was first of its kind e-Governance solution attempt, which took data management practices below block level in online mode across the country in absence of e-Governance infrastructure availability at Gram

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Panchayat level where actually majority of events related to NREGS implementation takes place. The data management of NREGS, in the majority of states is being done at block level. The majority of states started managing data using offline and a few with online system. As connectivity scenario is improving further, some of the states are switching over to use online system. The states have adopted various kinds of models (in-house using its own staff, using contract data entry operator, outsourcing data entry, arranging entire ICT infrastructure at block level through private parties etc.) to address the need of content management.

CAPACITY BUILDING MEASURES The team at NIC Headquarter has been engaged in preparation of NREGASoft package and in deployment (training on domain issues, offline/online package and handholding) of the application, in active collaboration with NIC-State/ District Units across the country. Training methodology included face-to-face training at state and district level and utilisation of Video-Conferencing and e-Learning technologies.

RECOGNITION The collective work done by the Ministry, NIC and other stakeholders has been recognised at various platforms and has won accolades. The package has been demonstrated to Hon’ble Prime Minister and senior functionaries of the Government, Planning Commission officials , State Rural Development secretaries.

The package has also won several awards: Microsoft e-Governance award • 2006 Skoch Challenger Award 2007• National Significance Category Dataquest e-Gov Champions award • 2008 Also, it is satisfying to note that package has demonstrated that the data management could be done effectively from Blocks online now. This has inspired and encouraged the design of many other e-Governance projects that are in pipeline. \\

MADHURI SHARMA

Technical Director National Informatics Centre (NIC)

COUNTRY FOCUS: SRILANKA

Sri Lankan e-Government goes Open Source www.icta.lk

WASANTHA DESHAPRIYA SANJAYA KARUNASENA

LANKA GATE – OPENING ENDLESS OPPORTUNITIES Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) which has been established to implement the eSri Lanka development initiative, launched one of its major e-Government infrastructure project called Lanka Gate recently.

Lanka Gate is a middle-ware software infrastructure that enables application level integration across government organisations and electronic service delivery to citizens based on service oriented architecture (SOA) principles.

Lanka Gate contains all necessary components to ensure proper integration, interoperability, security, and electronic payments. The other key component in Lanka Gate is the all important single window for e-Services, the ‘Country Portal’.

TAKING THE FOSS PATH...

Managing the prisoner record and monitoring of prisoner / visitor was always difficult since most of the records were normally maintained manually, so the concerned authorities were required to go through all the registers to find out the details and status of the inmate as well as of the visitor. very high number of e-Services. Currently it supports the e-Vehicle Revenue License (Road Tax) project, which is also a complete FOSS production.

FOSS IN SOA FOR SERVICE DELIVERY The SOA principles implemented by Lanka Gate facilitate seamless service orchestration in providing citizen friendly services which would have not been possible in an ordinary architectural approach.

The use of FOSS technologies has contributed a lot to the stability, scalability, security and low TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of the solution.

It has used the following FOSS technologies to build this marvelous piece of software.

Apache Synapse • WSO2 Governance Registry • Liferay Portal Framework • Apache Axis2 • MySQL • Apache HTTPD • Nginx •

The plan for Lanka Gate which has been formed for years took a different turn when Dr Shahani Markus Weerawarana became the first CTO of ICTA in 2006. Being an ardent fan and one who understands the benefits of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), she conjured up a FOSS based recipe for Lanka Gate.

The Lanka Gate primarily operates over Lanka Government Network (LGN), the network infrastructure that connects government organisation at the networking layer. Public key infrastructure (PKI) scheme of Lanka Gate uses digital certificates issued by LGN Certificate Authority (CA), which is the Certificate Authority established for the government within the Sri Lankan legal framework.

The highly scalable architecture of Lanka Gate is capable of supporting a egov

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Lanka Gate Country Portal is published under http://www.srilanka.lk and http://www.lk. It currently provides basic services such as weather, train schedules, crop prices in addition to the e-Revenue License e-Service. Localisation, which is a major benefit facilitated through FOSS technology is utilised to maximum by Lanka Gate project where every service is provided through Sinhala, Tamil and English.

Lanka Gate has also enabled its mobile platform to provide the government information services through 1919 which is the common number used for Government Information Centre (www.gic.gov.lk) to provide all government information. Therefore the text message service provided by Lanka Gate has been branded as “1919 – GovSMS”.

The e-Revenue License e-Service is currently the only service available in Lanka Gate which facilitates electronic payments (Credit/Debit card payments) for a government service Ministry of Finance of Sri Lanka has restricted the use of credit card payments only for eRevenue License project until June 2010. Hence ICTA is incapable of releasing any more eService until this restrictions is removed.

VENDOR NEUTRAL Sri Lanka, which boosts a very high FOSS technology capacity, has many local companies who thrive in FOSS based application development. ICTA has selected Virtusa Corp. which is a Sri Lankan based global company to develop Lanka Gate.

However, due to the openness of the software any competent party should be able to provide maintenance services for the software. For example, ICTA has selected 3i Infotech India as the partner to provide application integration services for Lanka Gate.

Therefore, ICTA is happy and proud to declare that it has built its own SOA based middle-ware infrastructure by using the available FOSS products and managed to reap the following benefits due to reliance on FOSS. 1. Cut down of development cost from USD 4 mn to USD 0.3 mn 2. Cut down the development time from 2 years to 6 months 3. Avoid vendor locking 4. High level security due to openness of the source code 5. Very high financial sustainability due to low TCO.

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GOV 2.0 THROUGH ENTERPRISE LEVEL FOSS PRODUCTS The use of cutting edge FOSS technologies has enabled ICTA to leapfrog and achieve the following objectives of Gov 2.0.

1. Provide citizen services based on requirements of individuals such as customisable user space in the Country Portal 2. Provide “one-stop” services through meshing up services in collaboration with public and private sector organisations by achieving a high

level of interoperability High level citizen participation through citizen forums 4. Channel all information and services through mobile platforms ICTA intends to build its own public software repository (http://www.govforge. lk) to release the entire collection of FOSS applications under a Free License. This is a very good news for countries/states that plan to build their own middle-ware infrastructure as now anybody can download the Lanka Gate software and customise to suit its own needs with minimum effort, time, and money. \\ 3.

WASANTHA DESHAPRIYA PROGRAM DIRECTOR, RE-ENGINEERING GOVERNMENT, ICTA, SRI LANKA

Wasantha Deshapriya obtained a B. Sc. from the University of Kelaniya, a Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Technology from the University of Colombo and an M. Sc. from the University of Reading, UK. An SLAS officer with public sector experience for more than 20 years, Wasantha has been involved with government computerisation projects for over 15 years and has been instrumental in the delivery of Public Administration Circulars by email and web from 1999 onwards.

SANJAYA KARUNASENA, HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY, ICTA SRI LANKA

Sanjaya Karunasena is an Enterprise Architect with over 12 years of industry experience. Sanjaya has significant architecture and development experience in product development and enterprise software development, including experience in the retail, telecommunication, and e-Government domains. In his current role, while contributing to the design and the implementation of the nationwide SOA infrastructure, he provides technical guidance to a variety of initiatives.

CASE STUDY

Wipro on Course in Powering ESIC’s Project Panchdeep www.wipro.com

WIPRO INFOTECH

CLIENT OVERVIEW Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), a statutory corporation under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India (GoI), is the implementing agency of a pioneering Social Security Scheme in India. The scheme provides social security protection to over one crore industrial workers and their family members all over the country within the ambit of ESI Act 1948.

THE CHALLENGE As the prime medical care disbursement agency in India, ESIC has the largest captive base of Insured Persons (IPs).

The IPs belong to the economically weaker sections of society. ESIC provides medical services to them through its network of 144 hospitals and 1388 dispensaries spread across the country.

The IPs have been given a unique IP number to identify them as beneficiaries.

However, since the authentication and verification process in place is manual, the IPs can avail medical benefits only at the Hospital or Dispensary where he/she is registered. This is a problem, as due to the migrant nature of their jobs, IPs rarely remain at the place of registration to be able to avail medical services.

Yet another problem is that if the IP cannot accompany his/her family at the time of availing the medical facilities, the family members cannot get treated at the ESIC facilities. The physical presence of the IP is necessary to complete the manual authentication process.

ESIC envisaged a system where all ESIC hospitals and dispensaries spread across the country could be integrated into a single e-Health environment for better accessibility to beneficiaries as well as to ensure ease of administration. The

Wipro is expected to rollout around 20 million Pehchan cards under project Pehchan. challenges were as follows: Creation of one of the largest medical • records database in the world Largest roll out of identity cards • in India – 20 million to start with; Largest collection of fingerprints and creation of the largest finger print database in India – approximately 50 million to start with Coverage for 2220 sites across • India WIPRO’S SOLUTION ESIC decided to automate the entire process to ensure medical services reach the intended beneficiaries. Titled Project Panchdeep, ESIC invited bids on a BuiltOwn-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) model through a global tender. After a detailed scrutiny of all tenders, ESIC awarded the six-and-half-year project worth INR 118.2 million to Wipro in March 2009.

Project Panchdeep is divided into five important components namely, Pehchan, Milap, Pashan, Dhanwantri and Pragati.

Project Pehchan comprises all services related to identification, authentication and verification of Insured Persons (IPs). The objective is to provide a pair of smart cards to all IPs – one for the IP and another for his family members. With this Pehchan card, an IP or his family members can step into any ESIC facility across the country and avail medical facilities. The Pehchan card will have the photographs of all the family members along with their biometric details stored in the central database. Wipro is expected to rollout around 20 million Pehchan cards under this project.

To enable this, Wipro will be undertaking the following activities: Project Milap: Networking of 2220 • locations (including 144 hospitals, 1388 dispensaries, 620 branch offices, 40 regional offices and 27 State Directorates).

Project Pashan: Setting up • the centralised Data Center / Disaster Recovery and computing infrastructure.

Project Dhanwantri: Providing • services related to IT support and Medical Information System for all ESIC hospitals and dispensaries.

Project Pragati: Undertaking all • services related to ERP modules – Finance / HR / Legal / Procurement / Health Insurance / DMS etc.

KEY BENEFITS •

•

• • • •

•

IPs will be able to avail medical services at any ESIC facility across India With each IP being given two smart cards (one for himself and one for his family), family members can avail medical services even when the IP is away at another location Automation resulting in faster processing of claims Improved operation co-ordination across functional departments Reduction in operational cost in terms of lower inventory cost Improved productivity of employees by reducing redundant data entry and processes Timely availability of data for improved decision-making. \\ egov

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NEWS

BUSINESS

CISCO SIGNS MOU WITH CSC ON e-GOVERNANCE Cisco Systems has signed a memorandum of understanding with CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd to execute various e-Governance initiatives in India.

CSC has been established to accelerate the delivery of services such as healthcare and education through the Common Service Centres (CSCs) that are planned under the National e-Governance Plan.

Under this plan, 250,000 CSCs will be set up in 600,000 villages across India. They will have the potential to offer Web-enabled e-Governance services in rural areas as well as to provide high-quality and cost-effective video, voice and data content and services in areas such as education, health and entertainment.

4G IDENTITY SOLUTIONS TO PROVIDE DEVICES TO UIDAI 4G Identity Solutions, a Hyderabad based ID cards maker and consultancy, has won two bids to provide fingerprint and iris recognition devices to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

These devices will be used in the UIDAI Proof of Concept (PoC) tests. The objective of the UIDAI feasibility tests is to establish a definitive baseline for biometric data quality under Indian conditions. Subsequent to those tests, the devices and the data collected in the PoC will be used in the UIDAIs biometrics Centre of Competence.

3i INFOTECH PULLOUT TO HIT e-GOVERNANCE PLAN 3i Infotech, ICICI Bank-backed IT firm, has withdrawn its bid to set up 11,500 Common Service Centres (CSC) giving a blow to the government’s ambitious plan of setting up a network of 1,00,000 CSCs across the country. The CSCs are part of the Rs 23,000crore National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) which was conceptualised for providing government and private services in the hinterland through e-Enabled kiosks.

Not just 3i Infotech (which was allocated the second highest number of CSCs after the West Bengal-based SREI group), Comat Technologies, which was supposed to set up around 6,000 CSCs has also pulled out of the venture. Around one-fourth of the 1 lakh CSCs have either been terminated, shut-down, withdrawn or not bid for. Another 5,000 CSCs have not received any interest from private players so far.

e-PROCUREMENT SYSTEM IMPLEMENTED BY MCL The Mahanadi Coalfield Limited (MCL) has implemented the e-Procurement system for finalising its various tenders on the state government e-Tender portal developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

The system of e-Procurement as implemented in the MCL has got a system online for evaluation of tenders apart from online submission of tenders by the bidders.

The MCL e-Procurement portal (http://mcltenders.gov.in) was inaugurated for all the tenders valuing Rs 10 lakh and more on August 15, 2009. After four months, on December 15, 2009, the 42

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MCL took another decision to reduce this limit to Rs 2 lakh. The implementation of e-procurement has started showing its results.

WIPRO SIGNS CONTRACT WITH FINANCE MINISTRY Wipro Infotech has won a contract from Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Ministry of Finance. As part of the project, Wipro will implement Financial Intelligence Network for Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Ministry of Finance.

The scope of services includes development of portal, data warehousing,

de-duplication, analytical application and ERP implementation at the data centre and setting up of disaster recovery site.

The project is scheduled to be completed in 24 months in different phases with a further service period of 36 months.

Project FINnet would greatly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness in the FIU’s core function of collection, analysis and dissemination of financial information.

IT enablement of key processes would ensure substantially higher productivity, faster turn-around-time and effective monitoring in all areas of FIU’s work.

IT COMPANIES IN MEGHALAYA TO BOOST INFRASTRUCTURE Department of Information Technology in Meghalaya is setting up IT companies to provide the benefits of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to the youth and boost infrastructure in the region.

Implemented under e-Governance programme, private companies like ETPL India, Chilli Breeze, Anjaybee Infotech Pvt. Ltd have entered into projects for the development of the IT sector, and would cover areas like infrastructures, and job opportunities for the educated masses.

There are four IT projects initiated in the state, which include State Data Center (SDC), State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG), Community Service Center (CSC), and the State Wide Area Network (SWAN), which are smoothly working towards its implementation.

The objective is to develop platforms that can enable government, private and social sector organisations to align their social and commercial goals for the benefit of rural asses, by reaching the remotest corner of the country and bridging the digital divide by ICT dissemination.

FEILD STUDY

e-Book-keeping Project in Bibinagar Mandal, Andhra Pradesh The Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), an autonomous society of the Department of Rural Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh, has initiated an ICT project, named Bookkeeping for Self Help Groups (SHG). The project aims at equipping the SHGs with a portable computing device, which would enable them in maintaining records of the financial transactions in a more simple and efficient manner.

This project is a part of the Indira Kranti Patham (IKP) initiative taken by the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

This is a major programme of the State Government under which the Government provides ownership rights on lands to the landless poor. The vision of the programme is, “The disadvantaged communities shall be empowered to overcome all social, economic, cultural and psychological barriers through selfmanaged organisations. They will attain higher productivity with improved skills and asset base and utilise resources to full potential and gainful access to services”.

With increasing activities, bookkeeping has emerged as an important function in the self management of SHGs. Despite having a long history of SHG movement in the state, SHGs continued to depend on trained book-keepers, mostly non-members, for their book-

Self Help Group Member’s Meeting in Progress

keeping. The low literacy rate among women is primarily the reason for this dependence. As a result of dependence on others, the quality of book-keeping of SHGs has suffered. The poor quality of book keeping has often affected the internal functioning of the SHGs. It has resulted in intra-SHG disputes. There are several instances of SHGs winding up due to defective book-keeping.

In general, book-keeping is viewed as a drudgery. It amply reflects in SHG book-keeping throughout the state even though SHGs are provided with books.

Under e-Book-keeping project, which has been piloted in the Bibinagar Mandal of the Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh, 35 HCL and Asus Notebook PCs have been provided to 35 Village Organisations, VO (nearly 25 SHG

WHAT SELF HELP GROUP MEANS? A Self-Help Group (SHG) is a registered or non-registered group of micro-entrepreneurs having homogeneous social and economic background, voluntarily coming together to save regular small sums of money, mutually agreeing to contribute to a common fund and to meet their emergency needs on the basis of mutual help. The group members use collective wisdom and peer pressure to ensure proper end-use of credit and timely repayment.

SHG has primarily women members, aims to create a single source of borrowing for a woman. There are more than 1.2 Crore women members engaged in 9 lakh SHGs in rural Andhra Pradesh.

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makes a Village Organisation at village level).

These notebooks have been bundled with softwares for maintenance of all sort of financial transactions and individual records. The software has been developed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

Earlier, the book keeper, a person who maintained the records of all the business transacted in a SHG meet, had to maintain seven books for the purpose and had to spend one and half hour sto register all of it. But with the help of these Notebook PCs, all of the transactions are recorded in just a time period of 10 to 15 minutes.

NAV CHAITANYA – II SHG The SHG meet once a week or once in a month and transact their business. The meeting starts with a prayer ‘Jeevithana Gelupundhani’, which in essence praise the collective effort and strength of the community towards the path of prosperity and goodwill.

After the prayers, in one of the group meeting of the Nav Chaitanya – II SHG of the Gudur village of Bibinagar Mandal on Sunday, March 21, 2010- a member of the group presided over the meeting and collected the thrift money from other SHG members. The SHG collected the savings from their members in this group meeting. The information on savings made in the current meeting and cumulative savings is made available to the members.

The SHG members repay the loan amount as per the repayment schedule.

Thereafter, discussion on loan sanctions, credit delivery and social development activities as well as resolutions passed, if any, is recorded in the minute’s book during the progress of the meeting. The loan disbursement follows the recording of loan disbursement details in the prescribed screen.

BENEFITS: The benefits are numerous. The SHG members can get their balance and account details, as and when required. e-Book-keeping provides valuable information to help the SHGs to take the right decision at right time and help in full scope for the e-Book-keeping for the SHGs, which means that the data is analysed as it is processed, on daily basis/ weekly basis.

Ledger extraction is automatic and can be done at any time automatically at the touch of a few keys. Large amount of data is processed by the computer.

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Narmada, e-Bookkeeper of Navchaitanya II SHG, Gudur Village, Bibinagar Mandal, Nalagonda District, Andhra Pradesh

Live centralised accounting is made feasible for many remote villages as the data can be uploaded to central server as and when needed. All errors of omission and commission, compensatory errors are prevented It has reduced overhead expenses. It also provides regular contact with the assigned bookkeeper with rest of the group members.

This system offers information to various stakeholders apart from SHG members. Individual SHG members can get information on their cumulative savings, loan outstanding as well as the overall financial position of their group. The bank manager can assess performance of the SHGs with respect to loan repayment from the accounting records. The VOs can observe regularity in terms of attendance of members and savings in each meeting. Receipts and payments statement, income and expenditure statements and profit and loss account and trial balance of the SHGs for three to four consecutive years would indicate the direction of the growth of the group as also the indication of the accumulation of the group capital. In essence, the Bibinagar pilot has demonstrated that e-Bookkeeping can be extended across the state for all SHGs.

while SHG meeting is conducted. She writes the books of all SHGs in the VO. She is provided an initial training for 7 days on basics of the use of computers and laptops. Most of the e-Book-keepers are matriculates or higher secondary pass outs, and most had never before seen a laptop in their life.

They are paid Rs 2000/-, monthly.

Active and interested women from the community based organisations having bookkeeping knowledge who are ready to take up the responsibility are being preferred as e-Book-keepers in these districts. A total of 4944 such women are to be selected to work as eBook-keepers.

SCALING As per the Department of Rural Development, e-Bookkeeping will be extended to all the VOs within the project period in a phased manner.

Within this financial year (2009-10) it will be extended to 5000 VOs. The project will be extended, in the next financial year (2010-11), to 5000 more VOs and by the end of Sept 2011 it will be extended to all the VOs of the State. The scaling will be done in all the 22 Project districts in 371 mandals comprising of 4944 villages. \\

BOOK-KEEPER The e-Bookkeeper works as a paid service provider recording transactions

egov team, with inputs from Department of Rural Development Government of Andhra Pradesh

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PROJECT UPDATE

Citizen’s Call Centre: Towards Inclusive Governance www.itmission.kerala.gov.in

RATHAN U KELKAR

BACKGROUND The concept of inclusive governance is gaining wide currency in recent times.The United Nations Development Programme recognises inclusive governance as being critical to human development.

Kerala is the cent per cent literate State in India. Kerala also has led the country in employing ICT for the betterment of the masses. Towards this end, the Government launched the pioneering project of Akshaya in 2002 to bridge the digital divide and make some 65 lakh families in the State e-Literate. The project has emerged as a catalyst in creating massive economic growth and creation of direct and indirect employment in the State by focusing on the various facts of e-Learning, e-Transaction and e-Governance etc.

CITIZEN’S CALL CENTRE – PROJECT RATIONALE Various governments, from time to time, have devised and brought out varied schemes to benefit different sections of the people. But experience has shown that the citizens are seldom aware of the new schemes floated and if at all; do not know how to access them.

To overcome this and to improve transparency in the functioning of government, the Citizen’s Call Centre was launched as a project of the Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM), the IT implementation arm of the Government of Kerala, in the year 2005. The project acquires more relevance with the introduction of the Right of Information (RTI) Act 2005.

Hailed as an important milestone in the growth of the democratic system in the country, the Right to Information Act 2005 mandates timely response to citizen requests for Government information. The fillip given to e-Governance by the Kerala 46

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The Citizen’s Call Centre (CCC) is a Government/Public Call Centre, which is equipped to provide information to citizens in a user-friendly manner. An IT-enabled single window facility, the Call Centre is positioned as a platform that enables easy and effective interaction between the citizens and the government and quick delivery of authentic information.

Government coupled with the needs of the RTI Act 2005 has made the Citizen’s Call Centre a timely intervention.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES The main objectives of the Citizen’s Call Centre are: To improve accountability, • transparency and efficiency of government processes by providing timely information To enhance delivery of citizen • services To empower citizens by providing • a platform for interacting with the Government CITIZEN’S CALL CENTRE The main facilities provided by the Citizen’s Call Centre, Kerala are, Information Services and Complaint Registry.

INFORMATION SERVICES The Citizen’s Call Centre (CCC) is a Government/Public Call Centre, which is equipped to provide information to citizens in a user-friendly manner. An IT-enabled single window facility, the Call Centre is positioned as a platform that enables easy and effective interaction between the citizens and the government and quick delivery of authentic information.

Manned 24x7 by specially trained call centre operators, the CCC provides information on the details of schemes, programmes, entitlements, welfare benefits etc., together with modalities for accessing such entitlements/benefits.

For example, any citizen can call the Centre using the number 155300 at local call charges for information on ration card/driving licence/building permit/ employment registration etc. or for information on the procedures for applying a nativity or caste certificate. The call center has a PRI / ISDN connection with

DEPARTMENTS/CALLS FROM 2005 TO 2009 Year 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Departments/ Projects Departments - 9 Departments - 13 Departments - 15 Departments - 17 35 as of October 2009

Total Calls 16,146 34,210 64,062 62,486 134,824

30 lines. The Primary Rate Interface (PRI) is a telecommunication standard used in Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) for carrying multiple voice and data transmissions between two physical locations. Upon receiving the call, the call operator quickly accesses the electronic database with more than 2000 government processes and efficiently delivers the information.

The project started in the year 2005 with nine departments participating in it. The number rose to 35 departments/ projects in the year 2009. The following table shows the numbers of departments and calls received to the call centre over the years 2005 to 2009.

As of October 2009, the Citizen’s Call Centre had handled 134,824 calls pertaining to as many as 35 Government departments/projects.

COMPLAINT REGISTRY The Citizen’s Call Centre also facilitates as a platform for registering citizen’s complaints/grievances regarding the functioning of various government departments. It serves as a complaint registry for senior officials/ministers of government departments and accepts registered both in Malayalam and English, over the telephone. The complaints received over the phone are transcribed by the operators and forwarded to the heads of respective department by e-mail. Instant mobile alerts can also be sent to pre-designated mobile numbers.

COMPLAINTS UNDER SUTHARYA KERALAM The Sutharya Keralam is an innovative project of the Government of Kerala aimed at bridging the gap between the public and the Government to ensure efficiency and transparency. This project helps to bring the complaints and grievances of citizens directly to the notice of the Chief Minister.

The Citizen’s Call Centre accepts complaints calls, transcribes them and send as electronic data to the Chief Minister’s Grievance Redressal Cell. At the Cell, the complaints are recorded in a server placed at the Government Secretariat. All complaints are given due attention. Select complainants can talk to the Chief Minister Live through the teleconferencing facility set up at different district offices and grievances are replied to directly by the Chief Minister and the same is aired ive as ‘Sutharyakeralam’ programme telecaste by Doordarshan Keralam on all Sundays between 7.15 and 8 pm.

The Citizen’s Call Centre accepts complaints calls, transcribes them and send as electronic data to the Chief Minister’s Grievance Redressal Cell.

The data collected via the call centre together with the data collected through the online public interface acts a guideline for grievance redressal processes.

TAXES - CHECK POST COMPLAINTS The Call Centre also accepts complaints for Tax Department and complaints regarding Check-posts round the clock. Tax related complaints received are quickly passed on (both by e-mail and mobile alert) to the Commissioner, Commercial Taxes and Special Tax Officer.

The Commercial Taxes Department enquires about the complaint, takes any necessary action and informs them both to the complainant as well as the Call Centre. The Action Taken Report sent by the Department enables the Call Centre to furnish details if the complainant makes further enquiries about his/her complaint. State Consumer Helpline – Food and Civil Supplies Department – Since May 2008 the Citizen’s Call Centre has been accepting complaints relating to the Civil Supplies Department. These complaints are forwarded to the Director of Civil Supplies and the Secretary to Government, Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs to their e-mail IDs. Thus the main features of the Citizen’s Call Centre are: Accessible from anywhere in the • State using the number 155300 at local call charges (Mobile users have to add 0471) Networks other than BSNL may use • 0471-2335523, 0471-2115054 or 0471-2115098 State Consumer Helpline can be • accessed through the toll free number 1800-425-1550 Manned by people well versed • with the relevant Acts, Rules and procedures Full fledged data base with more • than 2000 government processes Key search facilities incorporated in • the software for speedy access Operates on all days except National • holidays in a 24x7 manner Information pertaining to various • government departments and complaint registration facility included in the project

ROLE OF PARTICIPATING DEPARTMENTS The Citizen’s Call Centre actually serves as an interface between the government departments and the public by providing various services, as has been outlined above. The efficacy of information delivery at the Call Centre depends on the quality of information provided by the respective departments.

To achieve this, the participating departments are asked to compile an extensive list of frequently asked questions/queries for ready reference and retrieval by the call centre operators.

Key search facilities have been incorporated in the software to facilitate easy information retrieval. The participating departments are further advised to nominate a senior official conversant with the schemes, policies as well as the activities of the department as the `Nodal Officer` to interact with the Project Manager of the Call Centre. Such a measure ensures that the Call Centre can address a caller’s query even while it is not listed on the database.

For availing the complaint registration facility at the Call Centre, the departments are requested to provide a template including all the fields and parameters pertaining to each type of complaint. Based on this, the Citizen’s Call Centre conducts a system study to develop asoftware equipped with features like mobile alert, complaint forwarding etc. The cost of this software is borne by the participating department.

PROJECT ACHIEVEMENTS •

•

•

The fact that the number of participating departments have grown from 9 in 2005 to 35 as of October 2009 is itself an indication of the acceptance of the project The Citizen’s Call Centre has handled 176,904 calls during the period May 2005 to October 2009 As many as 1,34,824 complaints have been received by the Citizen’s Call Centre during the year 2009 (as of October) egov

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THE TECHNO-ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE

“The Citiz “Th Citizen’s C en n’s C Call Calll Centre Cen C tre project p j t envisages envi i age g to to bring b bring g aall ll the th he Kerala K rala Gove nmentt Government G departments d par m nt under u der d iits t ffold ld and and to o emerge eme ge as the g the onenestop op p destination de tina ion d i for f r aall ll information info fo mattion o r quiremen s off requirements the he citizens. h i i en Gove Government G overnment nment p ojj ct and projects nd d departments d epartments ar m nt including ncludi d g Service rv c a d Payroll and P yrolll Admi i r t ve Administrative Rep Repository o y of Ke l (SPARK) Kerala (SPARK), SPARK) ee Krishi, Kr Krishi sh Kerala Ke l Women’s W Women m n’s Helpline Helpline, He p in Sp t Council Sports Cou ci and Comm Commissionerate m s i er te o Rural of Ru a Dev lopme will Development w l b added be a ed on to the th p oj ct shortly project shortly.” s rt y ”

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Avaya definity prologix call centre system is installed in the Citizens Call centre. The system is working with basic Call Centre features. The PRI/ISDN lines are connected to this system. This system keeps a track of the available call executives and also has an inbuilt call hunting facility which automatically distributes the incoming call to the call executives according to their availability.

This feature enables the citizens to seamlessly connect with the call centre without having to wait for a long time.

The Call Center is equipped with the state of the art telecom infrastructure and ensures service levels in par with international standards.

The Project Manager runs regular checking on calls logged, responses given by the executives and ensures that quality service is being provided to the public.

System is working with 30 lines PRI/ISDN Digital Lines working with Samptronic Head sets and additional facility for 8 port Centre Office trunks (analog telephone lines). A Nice Call logger with 8 Channel recording facility at a time is also installed in the CCC. Using this facility all the calls can be recorded and can be stored in other media.

The manning of the Call Centre is outsourced to ‘Kundumbasree’ – an Autonomous organisation under the Government of Kerala, established under the poverty alleviation mission, ensuring social-inclusion by providing livelihood for executives from the rural areas and belonging to the lower strata of the society.

The call center software was developed during 2004 which follows a two tier client server architecture and allows to keep the FAQs of various departments and these can be searched using keywords.

The RDBMS used for developing the software- Front end V.B and Back end is Oracle. The application software is installed in a server and working in a client-server architecture THE ROAD-MAP The Citizen’s Call Centre project envisages to bring all the Kerala Government departments under its fold and to emerge as the one-stop destination for all information requirements of the citizens. Government projects and departments including Service and Payroll Administrative Repository of Kerala (SPARK), e- Krishi, Kerala

Women’s Helpline, Sports Council and Commissionerate of Rural Development will be added on to the project shortly.

PROJECT BENEFITS AND CONCLUSION The Order of the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG), Government of India, constituting the Second Administrative Reforms Commission “elaborates the concept of “citizencentric administration” in five major components: (i) Accountable and transparent government, (ii) Resultoriented administration, (iii) Citizen centric decision making, (iv) User groups in decision-making, and (v) Freedom of information. The DARPG appointed a Commission of Inquiry, called the Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) “to prepare a detailed blueprint for revamping the public administration system” in August 2005.

The Citizen’s Call Centre project, in its short span of implementation has conformed to the recommendations of the DARPG by facilitating the following: Promoting accountability and • transparency of Government and its Departments Reducing delay and ensuring • promptness in delivery of services, Augmenting facilities for submission • and redress of grievances and providing replies Disclosing information and • transparency as a supplement to the Right to Information of the citizens.

By serving as empowering agent for the citizens, the Citizen’s Call Centre project is well on its way in its task of helping Kerala achieve inclusive governance.\\

RATHAN U KELKAR

Rathan U Kelkar is Director Kerala State IT Mission. He may be reached at director@keralaitmision. org Co-Authors Sabarish K Kerala State IT Mission Deepu Kerala State IT Mission

NEWS

INDIA

EMPLOYMENT NEWS WEBSITE AMONG BEST IN GOVERNMENT SECTOR The interactive website of employment news, providing job-related information, has been rated as one of the most popular website in the government sector, attracting an average three lakh page hits per day.

The website www.employmentnews.gov.in has interactive features such as online career counselling, information about job vacancies and a search engine facility. The revenue of employment news up to December, 2009 was Rs 5,568.60 lakhs while its surplus stood at Rs 4,265.86 lakhs.

CERT-IN TO LOOK INTO CYBER ATTACKS AFFECTING IT DEPT, BANKS The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a technical and cyber security department under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, has initiated a probe into complaints of Income Tax (I-T) department, banks and other financial bodies that have reported a spurt in cyber attacks and fake mails, which was affecting their operations.

Electronics, BP Project and Sweka Power-Tech Engineers. Delhi-based Sweka is responsible for developing software and related technology.

DELHI TO GET SMART CARD HAVING UNIQUE ID NUMBER A smart card, incorporating the muchtalked about unique identity number, will be launched in the city by 2011 to primarily help the poor and illiterate easily avail the benefits of various welfare schemes.

CERT-In is taking pro-active measures to prevent phishing attacks as huge monetary transactions are involved.

IVRS LAUNCHED AT CHENNAI MUNICIPALITY

REMOTE CONTROLLED STREET LIGHTS IN DELHI

The system is based on global satellite monitoring (GSM) and general packet radio service (GPRS) on which the mobiles work. In the event of any fault or a power theft from a feeder pillar, the alarm will go off in the main server and an SMS will be sent to the area’s maintenance staff for correction.

The project is being implemented by a consortium of companies —Phillips

No Cheques or Drafts are required nor any Bank Challan to fill up for the purpose. This facility is available round the clock, no service charge and tax payers can get instant e-Challan . The tax payers can also print the e-Challan on a subsequent day.

The requirement for payment of Commercial Tax Department is to have an account with any branch of State Bank of India along with Internet facility.

The CERT-In is working on incident reports sent by the I-T department and various banks who have complained about phishing attacks on their servers.

Country’s first remote-controlled street lights has been launched that can be switched on and off using an Internetenabled main server located in the heart of the city. The first phase of this street light upgradation project, under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), will become operational on March 9, 2010 and will cover a distance of 101 km on 52 roads.

State Bank of India (SBI) portal. Work is going on for introducing e-Filing of return, e-Registration, e-Generation of statutory forms and e-Refund through its own portal by the Commercial Tax Department in future.

Chennai Municipal Corporation has launched an Integrated Voice Response System (IVRS) for property tax inquiry, payments and complaints. The assesses can now dial 1913 and using credit cards pay their property tax.

The incorporation of unique identity number will help authorities in online verification and authentication of the beneficiaries and make it “more effective and foolproof. The smart card will cover services of as many as nine departments that include departments of food and civil supplies, labour, education, child and women development, among others.

e-PAYMENT OF COMMERCIAL TAXES LAUNCHED IN ORISSA Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Orissa, launched an e-Payment facility for commercial taxes as part of citizencentric services in Orissa through the

It will enable citizens to inquire about property taxes, lodge complaints regarding civic amenities and pay taxes.

People can even lodge complaints through SMS by sending it on 9789951111 and they would be provided with a reference number for monitoring the progress of their complaint.

IVRS would ask for the credit card number, validate the card and collect the amount. Consumers would also get a voice response that the amount has been paid. The time taken for this depends on the transaction and phone network, he explained. Within a week the receipt would be posted to the assesses. egov

APRIL 2010

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QUOTE/UNQUOTE

BUDGET QUOTES: “Budget 2010 is the first budget after the global crisis. Overall the budget was well balanced and responsible. Various projects and schemes announced by the government will see increased role of Information Technology as an enabler towards more inclusive growth.

The Union Finance Minister has also given us a clear direction on the roadmap for GST with a definite date for implementation i.e. April, 2011. I am sure that the various measures announced today will go a long way to ensure proper focus on taking core sectors like education, healthcare, social security, rural development, national security and banking to the grass root levels. Further to this, deduction on In-House Research and Development (R&D) has been increased to 200% from 150%, which will definitely help put back focus on R&D. Going forward IT will play an important role in driving these nation building initiatives across sectors.”

Mr. Ajai Chowdhry, CEO and Chairman HCL Infosystems Limited

“Increased thrust in key areas like primary education, health, infrastructure, rural development, and financial inclusion would fuel broad-based growth and development. Enhanced focus on SEZs to drive growth and employment and clarity on the tax regime is welcome. This would aid recovery for the IT industry.

Social transformation and technology enabled governance will gain momentum and this is good news for the country.”

S Mahalingam, CFO, Tata Consultancy Services

FLIP SIDE by Santulan Chaubey

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