Public Safety and Securitiy: Can ICT Help?: March 2010 Issue

ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON E-GOVERNANCE

KIRAN BEDI Former DG, Bureau of Police Research and Development

www.egovonline.net - Asia’s Leading Portal on e-Governance VOLUME 6

ISSUE 3

ISSN 0973-161X

RS. 75

MARCH 2010

Public Safety and Security: Can ICT Help? SANDEEP RAINA Senior Vice President North Region Cisco India & SAARC

RAJENDER KUMAR VIJ Inspector General of Police Chhattisgarh

Jean-Paul Jainsky CEO, Sagem Securite

VOLUME 6 ISSN 0973-161X

ISSUE 3

MARCH 2010

RNI NO. - UPENG/2008/25234

INTERVIEW:

KIRAN BEDI, FORMER DIRECTR GENERAL, BUREAU OF POLICE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

RAJENDRA MISHRA, INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE, HEAD, CYBER CELL, MADHYA PRADESH POLICE

RAJINDER VIJ, GENERAL OF POLICE, CHHATTISGARH AND STATE NODAL OFFICER FOR CCTNS

ROTHIN BHATTACHARYA, CEO, HCL SECURITY LTD

PUNEET GUPTA, VICEPRESIDENT, PUBLIC SECTOR, IBM INDIA & SOUTH ASIA

SANDEEP RAINA, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, NORTH REGION, CISCO INDIA & SAARC

SANJAY BAHL, CHIEF SECURITY OFFICER, MICROSOFT INDIA JEAN-PAUL JAINSKY, CEO, SAGEM SECURITE

EVENT REPORT:

13TH NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON eGOVERNANCE

FEATURE:

19 18

20 34

PRISON MANAGEMENT AND VISITOR MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

NASSCOM SOCIAL INNOVATION HONOURS 2010

RFID: A FACILITATOR FOR PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

INTERNATIONAL SCAN:

NEW MEDIA LEADERSHIP: PEOPLES PARTICIPATION AND CONTEMPORARY PRACTICES IN BANGLADESH

NEWS:

CCTNS: CONNECTING POLICE

INDIA

I-T DEPT HACKED, 14 CR SIPHONED THE REMEDY

INTERNATIONAL

BUSINESS

e-FORMS: CENTERPIECE OF e-GOVERNANCE INITIATIVES IN INDIA egov

MARCH 2010

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EDITORIAL

ICT and Safe State Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has become an essential element in making governments’ fit for the 21st century; providing trustworthy and qualitative services that are oriented to the needs of citizens and businesses. Increased violence by non-state actors, and the spur in extremism, terrorism and anarchism in countries across the globe, with clear intentions of undermining the faith of people on state authorities, indeed to the very concept of a democratic safe state itself, has alarmed the governments the world over to tighten their seat belts. Disastrous events, pandemics, environmental calamity, and terrorist attacks pose additional threats to public security. Much more alarming is the increasing terror attacks and loss of life due to them. There have been 2,929 terrorism-related deaths around the world since the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, as per the NBC News analysis of September 2004. The developed world is turning to technology and is using latest surveillance systems, situational modeling and visualisation software, chemical/biological detection monitors to counter terrorism. The recent 26/11 terrorists’ attack in Mumbai, India, has forced the Indian government and the private agencies to seriously consider improving the country’s homeland security apparatus. The situation is even more grim, given the fact that the terrorists today are extremely techno-savvy. Coupled with this, India has poor policing, poor intelligence, ill-equipped security agencies and weak criminal justice making it extremely difficult for any security agency to operate. Given this scenario, Government of India intends to spend USD 10 billion on India’s homeland security in the coming 2-3 years. Government has set up a National Investigation Agency to deal with cross- border terrorism. The top security agencies in India are leveraging the benefits of ICT for securing India. However, when it comes to policing, India just not lack in terms of technology but also in terms of transparency, reforms, standardised Police to People ratio and most importantly citizen centric governance. Even though the service delivery in the country is undergoing a complete transformation through eGovernment implementation, till date one finds it a big hassle to lodge an FIR, especially the uneducated and deprived sections of our society. Intelligence gathering and sharing are areas where ICT could be leveraged in a big manner. Recently, Ministry of Home Affairs has taken some steps while proposing projects like CCTNS and Natgrid, in this direction. Nevertheless, the readiness and usability of the infrastructure created through these projects, by the various government agencies, will be an issue. Its high time that the government take cognisance of these lacunae in public safety and security in the country and make India progress towards a true ‘Safe State’.

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egov

MARCH 2010

INTERVIEW

Police Reforms: Not a Priority of the Government www.saferindia.com terrorism and other sorts of violence] management. It is important to tackle the issues of terrorism, law and order and communal riots. It is seen that 80% to 90% of the policing impacts the common man. When the police aims to address these issues, public safety and security for the common man is ensured. Due to 26/11 in 2008, the public safety in 2009 was achieved completely.

DR. KIRAN BEDI FORMER DIRECTOR GENERAL BUREAU OF POLICE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

How do you see the state of public safety and security in the country ? The state of police reforms is evident from â&#x20AC;&#x153;feet on groundâ&#x20AC;?- of the Police forces. More than four lakh vacancies are there at present in the system, the aim should be to cover the existing vacancies and then increase the strength. As per the UN standards, the proportion of Policing is 222 policemen per one lakh people, where as at present, the proportion is 6

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120-130 policemen per one lakh people. Moreover, the major question which arises is how many of them are actually serving the common man, and are into day to day policing. Its ironical to notice that a big diversion [of Police forces] can be seen in the very important persons (VIPs) security, instead of serving the common man. The safety of the citizens comes from law and order and threat [from

Can you tell us about the current state of police reforms in the country? In terms of current state of reforms, an improvement in the overall infrastructure can be seen. One is able to transmit the information faster and also the analysis can be done at a faster rate. This can be seen as the beginning of a long process of institutionalisation of the Police department. Today, the day to day policing is not impacting the common man. The police officers, though have the authority, but are still not independent to take decisions on their own. They still depend upon the prior approvals. Though, in terms of the infrastructure our system has become stronger, but in terms of the assurance and the trust building from the citizens is still missing, which makes the whole system weak. Police reforms in the country can be brought in by implementation of the seven points directives issued by the Supreme Court in December 2006. However, not even a single state has implemented its directives. The apex court has itself gone slow in taking cognizance of these matters. There has been no kind of institutional approach from the Government of India towards the Police department and insulating it from political interference. Additionally, for reforms, constant training and capacity building is very important. At present, more than 80% of the Police budget goes into the salaries of the staff and hardly anything is left for the capacity building of the forces.

The Government of India is still following the Police Act of 1861, which needs to be changed, based on the present situation. As prevention of terrorism is a need in the country, especially because the economy is being affected, and hence the survival of the ruling parties, several mechanisms have been put in place. As a result, now we have a better infrastructure to fight against terrorism. However, at present Police reforms is not an issue of survival for the ruling parties, hence nothing major is being done towards it.

The reforms of the department had to start from the base. The real reform would be to modernise the million plus Police force not only in the metros but also in the rural parts of the country. Unless the Police officer is made non partisan, the Police department cannot under go any kind of reform. The state governments should take the call for the Police reforms in their respective states. At present, the Central and the state government put only those mechanisms into place by which they are impacted. What impacts the government is worked upon. What impacts the common man, like day to day policing, is not at all addressed. The Government of India is still following the Police Act of 1861, which needs to be changed, based on the present scenario. As prevention of terrorism is a need in the country, especially because the economy is being affected, and hence the survival of the ruling parties, mechanism has been put in place. As a result, now we have a better infrastructure to fight against terrorism. However, at present Police reforms is not an issue of survival of the ruling parties, hence nothing major is being done towards it.

be visible online and subsequently things will be transparent. It will also help in the speedy decision making. For the online registration of the complaints, there needs to be one repository to manage the common complaints and the software should be such which should direct the complaints to the concerned Police stations and the departments. The software should be linked to the local/area Police stations so that the immediate crime could be reported. The online registration of the case will also help in the authentication of the records, which at the moment is not possible as the results are tampered with. The Police officer will have no choice to suppress the crime. ICT can also help in engaging the entire Police force of the country with the help of Video Conferencing. It will make the things faster. People of the country have to be hungry for the reforms, then only the change in the system can take place. The IT companies can be involved for the updation and implementation of technology . The Police should have the zest to reach out to the common in the remotest part of the country, then only the system can be changed.

How do you see the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Policing? ICT has tremendous role to play in the modernisation of the Police as technology has no boundaries and cuts across all the barriers. Seamless technology is what is needed for integrated and transparent policing. Although the process has begun still it is a long way to go. e-Complaint has still not been networked, the process has still not begun at an all India basis. It is important that the whole crime mapping comes online as it will be easy to locate what is happening in a particular area. The strategy of the Police will change accordingly when most of the things will

Please tell us about the key objectives of ‘India Vision Foundation’, especially, the ‘saferindia.com’ initiative and the landmarks covered so far. Safer India, is an initiative where a common man is free to register his complaints from any part of the world. Once the complaint is registered by the citizen on the website of the Safer India, the team forwards it to the concerned department for further action. Safer India works as a medium between the common man and the government and expedites the process of delivery of justice. Through Safer India it is ensured

Supreme Court Directives on Police Reforms issued in December, 2006 \\ Separate law and order from investigation \\ Set up Police Establishment Board for postings, transfers \\ Two-year tenure for DGP, SP, SHO \\ Set up National Security Commission for posting of Police chiefs \\ Set up Police complaints authority \\ Set up state security commissions

that the complaint which is registered is addressed and forwarded to the concerned department within 24 hours. Once the complaint is forwarded, the responded gets the acknowledgement of his complaint. In general, in lodging a complaint the Police has a very indifferent attitude towards the citizens and for minor crimes they don’t even bother to lodge a complaint. Safer India, being a platform where the citizen is free to register any kind of complaint, helps him or her to reach the concerned government official without any hassle.\\ egov Team egov

MARCH 2010

NEWS

INDIA

DELHI GEARS UP FOR DIGITISED GOVERNANCE With the 3-Dimensional Geographic Information System (GIS) Mapping of the city now complete, the city is ready for a digital governance ride Governance in Delhi will be a hi-tech affair from April 2010 as the state government has completed the 3-Dimensional Geographic Information System Mapping of the city. When the system becomes operational, the Government of Delhi will virtually be run by Satellite. Entire Delhi will be displayed on the computer screens of its officers and with a click of button of the mouse; officials can see the status of different works going around the city. The satellite system will be able to take pictures 10 metres under the ground in the city. Top level officers will be able to give instructions to their juniors after watching the display of various works going on around the city on their computer screen.

GOA’S JAIL SOFTWARE BECOMES A MODEL FOR THE NATION Impressed with Goa’s home-built prison software PRISMS, the central government has decided to implement it in prisons across the country. PRISMS won the national CSI-Nihilent e-Governance Award of Excellence in 2009 among 60 other projects and attracted the attention of Bihar and Delhi. PRISMS is a jail booking and management system that networks all five jails in Goa with the office of the Inspector General of Prisons in Panaji and supports video conferencing between the jails. Goa Electronics Limited (GEL) officials said PRISMS is unmatched due to its high number of modules, user friendliness and transparency. Now GEL is set to launch its second phase in Goa to enhance it even further. In phase 2, touch screen kiosks will be installed in prisons. The kiosks will enable prisoners to find out details of wages earned in prison, the remission in sentence, probable date of release, status of parole application, etc

JHARKHAND GETS READY FOR e-NAGRIK SERVICES To extend the reach of Information Technology (IT) facilities upto the village level, the Jharkhand State Government has planned to launch e-Nagrik services at all 4562 Panchayat Kendras, known as Common Service Centres (CSC), at the panchayat levels, across the State. 8

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The IT facilities will be made available to villagers under the e-Nagrik scheme that envisages issuance of various certificates like birth, death, income, caste, etc, from the CSCs at a nominal cost. The JharNet, State Wide Area Network (SWAN) and JAP-IT (Jharkhand Agency for Promotion of Information Technology) together have been assigned the job for developing necessary infrastructure at the Panchayat levels to make the CSCs function smoothly.

INDIA TO USE THE ‘CLOUD’ SERVICES FOR e-GOVERNANCE India is to become one of the first country in the world to deliver e-Governance services to citizens using cloud-based IT services. The government is in talks with software industry body, Nasscom, on the roll-out of e-Governance services using the emerging technology. The advantage of using this technology is that the IT infrastructure need not be set up by the government. In addition, because of the ability of the technology to handle large number of transactions, citizens can look forward to less congestion bottlenecks.

RAJASTHAN MANDATES 3% BUDGET TO e-GOVERNANCE IN ALL DEPARTMENTS The state government of Rajasthan has earmarked three percent budgetary support amounting to Rs17,500 towards e-Governance in all state departments.

Jitendra Singh, Minister of IT said that the day is not far away when Rajasthan would become another silicon valley after Bangalore as special economic zone emerged a potential platform for IT investors. He also informed that Rajasthan has become the first state to have Bharat Nirman Rajiv Gandhi e-Seva Kendra with touch screen machines in every panchayat with an investment of Rs10 lakh each.

HIGH SPEED WIRELESS LAUNCHED IN ASSAM BSNL’s high speed wireless data services for rural areas was launched in Chhayagaon on February 03, 2010 by Union Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology, Sachin Pilot. The Rs 1,200 crore project with a peak speed of 7 mbps would offer a minimum speed of 1 mbps and support all government schemes in the rural areas. This technology has been specially designed for difficult geographical areas where laying cable is difficult and cumbersome. As part of its e-Governance programme, the Union Ministry is going to roll out Rs 250 crore for an 800-kilometre long Optical Fiber Cable Network project that would connect the State capital with all the district headquarters and blocks. In the next financial year 2010-11, the Union Government would put up 843 new mobile towers in the Northeastern region putting more emphasis on the areas affected by insurgency, and border areas as well.

INTERVIEW

Cyber Space is Least Policed

RAJENDRA MISHRA INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE, HEAD, CYBER CELL, MADHYA PRADESH POLICE

MP Police is one of the first Police organisation across states in India to have separate Cyber Police Department How did the department go for it? The Cyber cell of MP Police started in the year 2000 as a part of state CID. But it was felt that a cell is not enough to meet the kind of crime explosion in the cyber space in recent years. More so , due to increase in use of electronic gazettes and the transmigration of life of

almost one and all into cyber space. Our living, profession and business all today are dependent on the cyber space., but the cyber space is least Policed. Realising this in the year 2008, state government appointed an Inspector General of Police as head of Cyber Cell. In January 2009 an Independent State Cyber Police Department was carved out of State CID.

towards cyber crime. How did you plan to tackle this issue? We have created a dedicated website for the public, www.mpcyberPolice.nic. in so that young population is aware of the dangers in the cyber space. One can see sample cases and related information on our website so that they are aware of the dangers that exist in the cyber space.

The awareness about cyber crime and security is low, across states including Madhya Pradesh. Don’t you see it as biggest challenge? What is your road map to tackle this issue? Yes it is a big challenge. To bring awareness we are involving the media, conducting trainings, seminars for the public and the Police personnel in this regard.

Many times, perpetrators of cyber crime are not the residents of state and not even the country- sitting in foreign land- where the Police department does not have any jurisdiction. How did you bring perpetrators to justice? Yes it is difficult. But there are standard protocols to get these people to justice. We issue red corner notices and Letter Rogettory in such cases, take the help of INTERPOL and different embassies to solve such cases.

Given the consideration that Police is not a very technology savvy department, please tell us how competent is your team to tackle issues in Cyber space? Although an average Police personnel many not be as good as it is expected, we have been able to get fair bit of appreciation as far as cyber crime is concerned. We have created dedicated cyber Police cadre to tackle more sophisticated crimes and we have been fairly successful in this regard. Young population is one of the most vulnerable sections of the society

E-mails and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) telephony is being increasingly used for communications by the non state actors (terrorists). How did you plan to tackle it? We are aware of these dangers. Today we have dedicated agencies to monitor the cyber traffic and timely intervention have saved us from many mishappennings. However, this continues to be a challenge.\\

CSI KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PORTAL LAUNCHED Computer Society of India (CSI), the premier and largest association of IT professionals in the country, unveiled its roadmap for a professional development ecosystem to groom and nurture talent in IT. Shri Sachin Pilot, Minister of State for IT & Communications launched the CSI Knowledge Management Portal on February 16, 2010. The Indian IT industry – both domestic and software exports – is carving its next phase of growth. With renewed value proposition to customers globally, Indian IT is estimated to clock double digit growth going forward. This optimism is further fuelled by increased Government spending in IT. This creates tremendous opportunities for both IT professionals and entrepreneurs in IT. The newly launched CSI Knowledge Management Portal would be the repository of intellectual capital for IT professionals. The portal allows professionals to discuss, debate and exchange information on technical and management issues enabling competency development.

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INTERVIEW

A Shift from Defensive to Pro-Active Policing www.cg.nic.in

RAJINDER KUMAR VIJ INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE, CHATTISGARH AND STATE NODAL OFFICER FOR CCTNS

Please comment on the current state of affairs in public safety and security in India. With the advent of an era of transparency and accountability, we cannot simply rely on defensive approaches and measures of conventional policing. We recognize that our efforts must involve measures for quick response and proactive policing with specialised training. We also need to disrupt criminalsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; plans and diminish the impact of man-made disasters through measures that enhance 12

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the resilience of our economy and critical infrastructure. Recent terrorist attacks indicate that criminals have been using latest IT gadgets and tools to commit heinous crime. Therefore, in order to effectively counter such malicious designs of ultras, security forces should also leverage Inormation and Communication Technology (ICT) and harness its potential to maximum in a well planned manner. How do you see the move of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) towards

automating and integrating the police stations through the Crime and Criminal Tracking Networking System (CCTNS)? Security requires timely access to relevant intelligence and other information that can be sensed and acted upon. However, the required data and information often reside in silos that are isolated from each other due to manual recording, jurisdictional boundaries and representational incompatibilities. Given the nature of threat to security, regional and cross-institutional data sharing is a first step necessary towards effective crime response management. To protect the citizen, security must be a responsibility shared across the entire nation. As we further develop a national culture of preparedness, modern ICT tools are required by the police forces to counter the emerging threats. Therefore, it is an appreciable effort of MHA to integrate all Police Stations and higher offices throughout the country with an objective to bring in uniformity of main functionalities and networking for timely sharing of crime and criminalsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; information. This would avoid the deployment of a series of disjoined capabilities of different states to serious issues and choosing to establish strategies around broad, functional components within those areas, important to centre and states. This approach shall provide a sensible balance between integration of solution with important key functions, giving enough flexibility to the states to focus on local requirements to enable rapid deployment of security enhancing capabilities. What are the possible outcomes of this Rs 2000 Crore project and how do you think it is going to change the way policing is done in the country? While law enforcement agencies collect vast amount of data, only a very small part of this information can be effectively handled, retrieved or absorbed from the present manual files system.

“Security requires timely access to relevant intelligence and other information that can be sensed and acted upon. However, the required data and information often reside in silos that are isolated from each other due to manual recording, jurisdictional boundaries and representational incompatibilities. Given the nature of threat to security, regional and cross-institutional data sharing is a first step necessary towards effective crime response management.”

This project will allow law enforcement agencies to integrate and leverage their data for more informed decision making during critical as well as normal policing activities. This project, which is being operated and managed by states nationwide, shall provide services to law enforcement forces, emergency responders, and other public safety officials. Once, completely rolled out nationwide, it would help develop joint strategies and policies, procedures, and other means to operate across agencies and state boundaries for improved citizen service delivery and internal efficiency. How prepared is the Chattisgarh Police, in terms of innovation and technology, to meet the increased demands of security in the State? State has given focused attention on capacity building. As a part of this strategy, the department is taking up a statewide campaign for capacity building for the entire police machinery assigned with multiple roles. In this very ambitious training programme, the entire police force in the state would undergo basic IT skills training as a part of CCTNS project. The first phase of this training is expected to begin by March 2010 for the first batch of 3000 police personnel in 21 district headquarters and State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) at Police Head Quarter (PHQ) in Raipur. Besides this, Common Integrated Police Application (CIPA) is being implemented in 10% of Police Stations of the state. First information reports (FIRs) are written in digital form and investigations are carried out partially using ICT tools. We have also established a state-of-the-art Finger Print Identification facility in the state. Cyber Cafe Rules have been notified to facilitate identification of Cyber Cafe users and check illegal use of computer resources. A state level Cyber Police Station is functional in PHQ and a

Cyber Forensic Laboratory is in the stage of development to aid in investigation of cyber crime. Thus, Chhattisgarh police is much better prepared in terms of adaption of innovation and technology. Can you tell us about your roadmap for enhancing public safety and security with ICT intervention? Pursuit of security is a never-ending activity. The state has its set goals and priorities in terms of quickness in response, degree of protection offered to citizens & VIPs and state assets. For us, the delivery of enhanced security for citizens and property through the use of ICT, is of vital importance. Our road map includes ‘secured networking for police’. For this, we are developing, in the state, a hybrid network as part of Chhattisgarh State Wide Area Network (CGSWAN) connecting inaccessible Police Stations using Captive Hub/VSAT, Wi-Max, and terrestrial network lines with the help of our state agency ChiPS. Our main thrust is on advanced ‘Data Management and Analysis tools’ as mainstay of the intelligence. State roadmap also includes advance ICT intervention for cyber crime investigation, surveillance in traffic management and physical asset security. Common Integrated Police Application (CIPA) that was aimed at automating the process of compiling data on crime and criminals at police stations was not very successful. What were its shortcomings? The main effort under CIPA was aimed at automating the processes of Police Stations with an objective to capture all the primary data relating to crime and criminals, and improving efficiency of the police stations. At present, it is implemented only in about 20% of police stations across the states/ UTs. As such, there was no networking

component for sharing and consolidating information either horizontally or vertically at appropriate levels. Focus of the entire programme was more on the data gathering and storing at thana level only. As a result, CIPA faces the risk of non-sharing of information because of deployment of stand-alone systems. Secondly, there was no web presence for the citizens to track down the progress of their complaints. Thirdly, it was a largely centralised project. For every troubleshooting, one had to approach National Informatics Centre (NIC) at Delhi. Please elaborate on the challenges faced while deploying new technology in the work flow of police department. The advent of Information Technology as a highly leveraged enabling tool and force- multiplier has now redefined the fundamentals of policing and changed its mechanism. This information age paradigm shift is characterised by enhanced citizen expectations from the police force. Undoubtedly, the ICT tools can assist Police in delivering high level of safety and security. The best practices to achieve the greatest value from technology in this area are being redefined continuously, which in itself poses a major challenge to the security forces in terms of adaptability. Capacity building is another field which requires a 360 degree change in its approach for effective induction of ICT tools and reduce digital divide. A cultural shift from its traditionally rigid and opaque style of functioning to a more accessible, user-friendly and transparent one needs to be managed well, keeping in mind the human tendencies to resist change. Thus, the oft criticized police can reap the benefits of the ICT and increase its productivity by effective deployment of limited resources at its end.\\ Prachi Shirur egov

MARCH 2010

FEATURE

ICT for Homeland Security India had never been so fortunate before – being one of the rarest and fastest developing economy - having a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 8 to 9 % and blessed with 540 million plus of youth population. It has crossed $ 50 billion mark in IT exports, and has an exploding domestic telecom sector with 500 million plus mobile subscribers base, besides having millions of Indians working in different parts of the world. Given the above facts, it seems and we are very much on track towards national development. However, what is disheartening is the state of affairs in public safety and security, which is one of the essential prerequisites for maintaining and spurring the pace of growth and development. On the northern part, in J&K, the country is witnessing the unprecedented separatists demands and the whole of country now has been struggling with foreign sponsored terrorism for nearly two decades. In the heartland, India has been dogged by the internal security threat by the left wing extremism, and separatism and regionalism in the north east and other parts of the country, respectively. Moreover, having a 7500 Km of coastline, it is vulnerable to security threat from the oceans as well. Amid huge aspirations and expectations of the citizens of a speedily developing nation and the challenges across, its very critical to evaluate the preparedness of the security system, which would ensure people their right to life with dignity; right to work, fearlessly and the right to prosper. Its appalling to notice that despite the long strides made in science and technology in the country, the security agencies– the state police, central police, central para military and armed forces and the intelligence agencies have been largely untouched by these developments. After the Mumbai siege on November 26, 2008, the government has realised that its high time that it took cognisance of its preparedness and response in security, lest it is too late. Perhaps for the 14

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first time, the technological backwardness and ill-structured security set up of the country was acknowledged as the bottlenecks and a complete revamp of security system was felt as need of the hour, with substantial restructuring. As a result, National Investigation Agency was formed in 2008 to investigate the terrorism related crimes and inhuman acts perpetrated by the miscreants. Later, taking serious note of the complicated structure of the whole security set up, where in the security and the intelligence agencies report to different masters and rarely share information and intelligence with one another, the Ministry of Home Affairs proposed setting up a National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) which would be a single reporting place for all the agencies. Delivering the Intelligence Bureau centenary endowment lecture on December 23, 2009, P Chidambaram, Home Minister, Government of India said, “NCTC would therefore have to perform functions relating to intelligence, investigation and operations. All intelligence agencies would therefore have to be represented in the NCTC.” “Some agencies would naturally have to be brought under NCTC and what come to my mind readily are NIA, NTRO, JIC, NCRB and the NSG. The positioning of RAW, ARC and CBI would have to be re-examined and a way would have to be found to place them under the oversight of NCTC to the extent that they deal with terrorism.” In a move to address the persistent technological divide, the Ministry of Home Affairs has recently come up with projects which would create the basic infrastructure for receiving, processing/ organising, collating, analysing and sharing information across multiple levels from circle offices in any part of the country to the monitoring centres in Delhi. Some of these projects are CCTNS, Natgrid, MMP on Immigration, Visa and Foreigners’ Registration and Tracking. Significantly, these planned deployments signals a clear shift in approach in public

safety and security from a defensive to preventive and proactive approach. ICT IN POLICING CRIME AND CRIMINAL TRACKING NETWORKING AND SYSTEM (CCTNS) Realising, though late, the need for having an integrated approach towards policing – the Ministry of Home Affairs has come up with a Rs 2000 crore project – Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) that is scheduled to be in place by 2011-12. CCTNS, a Mission Mode Project under National e-Governance Plan, will facilitate storage, collation, analysis and transmission/sharing of crime and criminals related information at the police station, District, State and Central levels. “The police stations in the country are, today, virtually unconnected islands. There is no system under which one police station can talk to another directly. There is no record of crimes or criminals that can be accessed by a Station House Officer, except the manual records relating to that police station,” Chidambaram said, while speaking on the need for a technological solution like CCTNS. Earlier, to computerise and automate the police stations, Common Integrated Police Application (CIPA) was deployed. However, it had its own limitations, especially in expanding the functional application and build in networking capabilities in to the system. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), being the central nodal agency for CCTNS, will look after its implementation across 35 states and Union Territories. Across the country, 14,000 plus police stations and 6,000 plus higher offices, including District Head Quarters, Range Offices, Commissionerates, State Head Quarers, etc will be automated and integrated. The proposed solutions/ modules (indicative) for the Police Department are as follows: 1. Registration, Investigation, and Prosecution Solutions

are bundled with the BlackBerry handsets, so that a quick receipt can be delivered to the violator. The system also tells if the vehicle has been stolen or underwent any accident. COMMON WEALTH GAMES 2010

Crime Prevention Solutions Reporting Solutions Collaboration Solutions Emergency Response Management Solutions 6. Citizen and External Interfacing Solutions 7. Traffic Solutions 8. Law and Order Solutions NCRB intends to engage the services of a professional software development agency (SDA) to develop core application software (CAS) that would be provided to all states. The State level Systems Integrators (SI) would configure, customize and enhance CAS according to the unique requirements of the state before deploying it, as per the Expression of Interest for CCTNS. 2. 3. 4. 5.

NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE GRID (NATGRID) Going to the next level of technological solution, besides automating and networking the police stations, MHA has taken another significant step towards setting up a national intelligence grid (Natgrid) which would integrate data bases of the line departments that contain vital information and intelligence. Presently, each database stands alone and rarely any information transaction happens between agencies through their databases. “As a result”, Chidambaram said, “Crucial information that rests in one database is not available to another agency. In order to remedy the deficiency, the Central Government has decided to set up NATGRID. Under NATGRID, 21 sets of databases will be networked to achieve quick, seamless and secure access to desired information for 16

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intelligence/enforcement agencies. This project is likely to be completed in 18 – 24 months from now.” Captain Raghu Raman, former CEO of Mahindra Special Services Group, has been appointed as CEO, for Natgrid, viewing his experience in defence services and the expertise he has in security domain. IMMIGRATION, VISA AND FOREIGNERS’ REGISTRATION AND TRACKING With an objective of creating a secure and integrated service delivery framework for facilitating legitimate travellers and strengthening security, another important Mission Mode Project initiated by MHA is on Immigration, Visa and Foreigners’ Registration and Tracking. As per MHA, the scheme will network 169 missions, 77 Immigration Check Post (ICPs), 5 Foreigner Regional Registration Offices (FRROs) and over 600 Foreigner Registration Offices (FROs) with the Central Foreigners’ Bureau at an estimated cost of Rs.1011 crore. Given the huge gaps in the visa system, very much noticeable in the case of David Coleman Headley, the ministry has decided to complete the task within 24 months. TRAFFIC The traffic police in cities like Bangalore and Pune are using smart phones for retrieving the previous record of traffic violations, if any, of a traffic violator, through his driving license number or a vehicle number. The smart phones are linked with central databases, through GPRS system. Wireless handy printers

TErrestrial Trunk RAdio (TETRA) – a secure government radio network - is being deployed in Delhi in preparation for hosting the Common Wealth games 2010 this year. Nearly 10000 handsets will be distributed to various agencies involved in common wealth games including the Organising Committee, Delhi Police, Fire and Emergency Services. Moreover, the government of NCT of Delhi is also deploying Internet Protocol (IP) based Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) cameras which would cover up to 5kms of area, in addition to 2000 closed circuit cameras (CCTV) for better surveillance of Delhi. GAPS The planned technological intervention, enlisted above, has the potential to transform the way the security agencies work in the country and drift the system towards citizen centric form of governance. Notwithstanding, there are non-technological issues that pose a serious challenge to this transformation. Constitutionally, one of the main lacuna found in the police system is still the prevalence of the Police Act 1861 and the vulnerability of police to political interference. No actions have been taken on the recommendations of National Police Commission (1981) and Supreme Court Directives issued in 2006 towards Police reforms. Supreme. Also, the Police reforms cannot be looked in isolation from the judicial reforms. Both have to go hand in hand to ensure good governance. The capacity building of the police force is another major issue which has been a long due on the Centre and the states governments to be addressed. CCTNS project has a dedicated module on Police training and capacity building, but only the time can tell if the governments will perform. Moreover, there is an acute shortage of 400,000 Policemen across the country, that needs to be filled in for better day to day policing that really impacts the common man. A billion plus citizenry is looking towards its government – for a more comprehensive and holistic approach to ensure the homeland security. \\ Pratap Vikram Singh

INTERVIEW

Enabling Safe State www.hclsecurity.in

ROTHIN BHATTACHARYYA CEO, HCL SECURITY LTD

Please comment on the current state of affairs in public safety and security in India. Securing lives and property has indeed emerged as a key concern and need in our society today. After the Mumbai terror attacks, there is growing emphasis on deploying technologically enabled security systems both in the public and private sector. Private sector, especially hotels, retail chains, banks and other corporate bigwigs are seriously considering security products and solutions to thwart terror attacks. Also, government is emphasising on the importance of deploying latest technology for ensuring a secure India. There is surely a positive change towards the issue of security in the country and the need of the hour is to ensure that this does not go on the back burner. At HCL Security, we believe that technology is an important pillar in the Indian security systems as it can intelligently analyse data and highlight suspicious behavior.

What are the areas where IT and Communications plays role in enhancing the security? Technology is an effective enabler for optimum security these days. Technology has to be fused with people, intelligence and process to create excellent security architecture. Such architecture will not only minimise risks drastically but also enhance management of cities/facilities/ departments and also add immense value to national security apparatus. A layered architecture will add more value in enhancing security measures and technology should not only be deployed but should be integrated with devices/ equipments in such a way that they compliment with each other and offer actionable intelligence. What are your offerings in the security domain and the key projects (including Terrestrial Trunk Radio & Command and Control Centre) you are working on with the government in India? Leveraging on the power of technology, HCL Security has designed an indigenous framework called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;SAFE STATEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; that is focused on securing the nation through Technology. Safe State will offer actionable intelligence by integrating futuristic and intelligent technologies. In addition to the existing security setup in the state, Safe State will enhance the existing capabilities leveraging on the state of the art technologies, analysis and enforcement and seamless connectivity. It will equip authorities with advanced technologies that will help monitor, track, detect, prevent and respond to threats and distress. The most interesting fact being, apart from enabling security, Safe State will also help the revenue generating departments like State Tax Departments, Traffic Department, Police Department, Municipalities etc., by providing vital information that will help them to function effectively and efficiently. With Safe Stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seamless connectivity modules,

ground units and control units can be contacted to respond to the situation in a positive & rapid way. Also, we are working on a designed platform which will offer actionable intelligence by integrating and analysing inputs from multiple solutions and provide a single window output giving the enforcement agency an enhanced decision making platform over security concerns. This product will integrate every possible solution incorporated in security and surveillance architecture and offers a single window approach for viewing all the solutions in a single monitoring solution. Along with Motorola, we have recently collaborated with all Delhi Government agencies to deploy the Government Radio Network (GRN) based on TETRA (TErrestrial Trunked RAdio) - a secure communication network for seamless inter-department communication. This network would cover the entire metropolitan area of the capital, including transportation networks such as Delhi Metro Railway Tunnels and New Delhi Airport Terminal-II. The GRN has been designed to minimise the reaction time in the toughest of situations, ensuring minimal call drops and encrypted communication to maintain the highest levels of security How do you see the move of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) towards automating and integrating the police stations with other security agencies through the Crime and Criminal Tracking Networking System (CCTNS)? We welcome this move from Ministry of Home Affairs. We always believe that unless and until we integrate technologies with our national security system, we will be not able to succeed in achieving the desired outcome. This step from MHA will definitely boost our security system and will help us to take a step further in securing India. \\ Pratap Vikram Singh egov

MARCH 2010

INTERVIEW

Making Public Safety Smarter www.ibm.com/in

smart systems that capture data from myriad instrumented and interconnected processes, devices and objects, and then applying intelligence to this welter of information to detect patterns and take action in real time. India should take a leaf out of such countries to ensure a robust safety and security system.

PUNEET GUPTA VICE-PRESIDENT, PUBLIC SECTOR IBM INDIA & SOUTH ASIA

How do you compare framework of public safety and security in India to other parts of the world? We have seen feverish activities around public safety since the last one year, especially after the Mumbai terrorist attack. While the country has made enough progress in ensuring safety, the fact is that challenges to public safety will continue to grow. Progressive countries around the world are undertaking a transformational shift. Instead of merely responding to crimes and emergencies after the fact, they are analysing, anticipating and actually working to prevent them. They’re doing so with

What are the areas where IT and Communication can play a role in enhancing security? Governments are turning to the same technology advances that businesses have been using—autonomic senseand-respond capabilities, analytics, visualisation and computational modeling - to make public safety systems smarter, and drive a fundamental shift from responding to events to anticipating and preventing them, when possible. For all cities and regions competing in the global marketplace for work, investment and talent, safety and security are crucial factors in determining overall quality of life. Which is why smarter public safety isn’t just a responsibility of the state, it’s also a priority for the success of businesses, communities and civil society at large. IBM has witnessed enormous interest amongst private sector firms in beefing up safety and security measures. Can you tell us about your road-map for enhancing the national security with ICT intervention? IBM works with several governments across the world, partnering them to build smarter cities - safe and secure cities. Just to provide an example, IBM

4-6 August, 2010, Hyderabad, India

Block Your Calender! 18

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is helping the city of Chicago develop Operation Virtual Shield, one of the most advanced citywide intelligent security systems. It includes large-scale video surveillance and incorporates license plate recognition, advanced search and trending capabilities. Being at the forefront of technology innovation, IBM can extend unmatched capabilities to governments to address security challenges. How do you see the move of MHA towards automating and integrating the police stationsthrough the Crime and Criminal Tracking Networking System, CCTNS? It’s often a mundane detail that ultimately solves a crime. Integration is imperative – if not today in the coming days. The sooner it is done the better. IBM worked with the New York Police Department (NYPD) to create a data warehouse that could bring together information buried in filing cabinets, on index cards and in handwritten notes. Today, the Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) stitches together more than 120 million New York City criminal complaints, 31 million national crime records and 33 billion public records,just to name a few. Sophisticated analytics and search capabilities make connections across multiple databases. Information can be visualized in seconds on a two-story video wall. Critical data can be relayed instantly to officers at the scene. What once took days now takes minutes. \\ Gayatri Maheshwary

INTERVIEW

Indian Security Market: Largely Analog www.cisco.com

SANDEEP RAINA SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, NORTH REGION, CISCO INDIA & SAARC

How do you see the homeland security market in India? According to a report by International Fire and Security Exhibition and Conference (IFSEC), the Indian physical security market is likely to grow to USD 3.5 billion market in India; this is expected to grow up to 30% year on year. Frost & Sullivan pegs the market for security and surveillance equipment in India at Rs 1,800 crore and the video surveillance market at Rs 866 crore, both of which have a compounded annual growth rate of 25-30 per cent. India still has a lot of legacy analog based closed circuit television (CCTV) systems which provide for immense potential for conversion to IP based systems. Growth can be seen coming from various sectors such as urban security, public transport, hospitality sector, airport security, BFSI and Education. The Government remains the biggest spender on physical security or surveillance solutions. Customers are now looking to adopting a more holistic and integrated approach to physical security.

What is your approach towards homeland security? Cisco’s approach to physical security and safety is to bring together the industry leaders to integrate the most effective designs, products and services to comprehensively deliver solutions that meet customer needs. As customers converge their physical security infrastructure and operations, and begin using the IP network as the platform, they can gain significant value through rapid access to relevant information and interoperability between other IP-centric systems. This creates a higher level of situational awareness and allows intelligent decisions to be made more quickly. Cisco’s integrated and collaborative physical safety and security offering includes components such as securing networks, preventing disasters, responding to threats, communicating across channels, sectors and boundaries. Organisations must realise that network security and physical security are converging. Cisco aims to bring to life the network’s role as the platform to integrate command and control with sensing and actuation, citizen to authority interaction and incidence response in enabling right information to right people at right time. Cisco physical security solutions are customised to meet the requirements of key verticals such as urban security, transport security, secure hospitality and airport security among others. These solutions enable customers to use the IP network as an open platform to build more collaborative and integrated physical security systems while preserving their existing investments in analog-based technology. Can you elaborate on Cisco’s Smart + Connected Communities framework? Cisco’s Smart + Connected Communities is an Urban Services Platform which aims to help cities around the world use the network as the fourth utility for integrated city management. It

pursues solutions along seven tracks: Real Estate, Utilities, Transportation, Safety & Security, Learning, Health, and Government. Under Cisco’s Smart + Connected Communities framework, Cisco has announced pilot projects and announcements with the Government of Karnataka, Gujarat International Finance Tec-City’s (GIFT) and Lavasa Township, which includes deployments of physical security solutions. At present Cisco is also discussing projects with various bodies, to offer consultancy services for deployment of security system such as cities, refineries, resorts and hotels, power generation plants, education institutes etc. Please elaborate on the implementation challenges. The Indian security market is largely analog. First-generation physical security systems, especially video surveillance systems (closed-circuit television systems) were controlled and video was transmitted in an analog format. These video streams are aggregated, switched, and dispersed to monitoring displays using analog matrix switching technology. While these analog devices provided basic monitoring and recording capabilities, they had several operational drawbacks such as lack of remote accessibility & storage, scalability, collaborations, etc. The new approach to security is about bringing all the security systems on a common platform where they can exchange information and communicate to each other that aids in quicker identification of incidents, faster responding to threats and communicating across channels, sectors and boundaries. The main challenge is to convert the already existing installations onto an IP network. In order for physical security to become a mission-critical application that operates on the IP network, both physical security and IT groups must work together for maximum benefit. \\ egov Team egov

MARCH 2010

INTERVIEW

Making Cities Safe and Secure www.microsoft.com

refining intelligence analysis to prevent acts of terrorism and crime and preparing and responding more effectively to natural disasters and aiding rapid recovery. For more than 30 years, government agencies and international organisations have trusted their most essential functions to Microsoft solutions. We are helping public sector agencies enhance their effectiveness by cutting complexity, costs, risk and helping maximise their existing technology investments.

SANJAY BAHL CHIEF SECURITY OFFICER MICROSOFT INDIA

Where do you see India in public safety in security? India has been making rapid progress in the areas of public safety and security. While this wasn’t much prevalent during mid 90s, the space has undergone tremendous change over the last 6-7 years. India has some unique challenges in terms of the size and existence of various languages. The government has its focus on ensuring collaboration across agencies that will enable seamless sharing of information and facilitate creation of an effective emergency response or a disaster management system. How is Microsoft positioned in public safety and security market? Today technology from Microsoft is helping organisations across the globe to transform information technology architectures and procedures, surveillance, improve collaboration and information sharing, refine operational situational awareness including visual views of situations based on role, help in building capacity, providing and 20

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What are your offerings in the security domain and the key projects you are working on with the government in India? As part of our core strategy, we make huge investments in Research and Development. We closely listen to our customers and follow trends in this space such as increased mobility and globalisation of crime. No source is irrelevant ranging from those in the physical space to the cyber space, requiring a multidisciplinary investigation and response. Let me cite a recent example from a disaster management perspective - with great concern and sadness we’ve all watched the people of Haiti deal with the aftermath of the devastating earthquake on January 12. Apart from various other support that Microsoft offered Haiti, Microsoft also donated software to ensure better connectivity and digital collaboration tools to organisations like NetHope, a consortium of 28 leading international humanitarian aid organizations involved in the relief efforts, as well as to support the American Red Cross, World Vision, and CARE. Through our technology and our people, we played a very active role in Haiti. Within 24 hours of the earthquake, • Microsoft online collaboration portals were launched to support information exchange and situational awareness among aid organisations and civilian and military agencies

Bing maps were updated within 72 hours with post-earthquake data to help with search and rescue The first ever Haitian Creole Machine • Translation system was deployed to help aid workers and volunteers (www.microsofttranslator.com) Microsoft’s Integrated Security Solution shows firsthand how customers can leverage Microsoft products “off the shelf” and remarkable ways to reduce operational costs and improve their customer service worldwide. Using our own technology the three Microsoft Global Security Operations Centres (GSOC), located in US, UK and India, monitor more than 700 sites worldwide, along with 186,000 active personnel access accounts, 10,000 video cameras and 5,000 other devices, such as duress alarms, biometric security systems and environmental alarms. The GSOCs are central support centers designed to serve as communications hubs with all Microsoft assets worldwide. Our model enables Global Security to react quickly and precisely to incidents monitored from the other side of town — or the other side of the globe. In addition, should any one of the GSOCs be taken offline, monitoring loads can be transferred to another GSOC within minutes. Our goal is to take the lessons and apply them in ways that facilitate collaboration and information sharing and help others build collaborative strategies for the future in every country. We will continue to build breakthrough technologies that revolutionise the ability of agencies to respond and serve, provide software solutions that connect and empower people, help deliver secure data through many screens using the cloud. India needs a comprehensive security infrastructure and we believe that public-private sector collaboration is the right and cost effective track to achieve this. \\ •

Pratap Vikram Singh

FEATURE

CCTNS: Connecting Police RAJINDER KUMAR VIJ

There has been a paradigm shift in the fundamental concept of governance in the recent years. More emphasis is now being given to the citizen centric services. Automation levels have gained new heights. The service delivery channels have been gradually increasing. Though the private sector has taken a lead in leveraging the benefits of the Information and Communication Techniques (ICT), the governments have also been making sincere efforts to tap its potential by systematic transformation of its traditionally rigid and opaque style of functioning to a more accessible and transparent one. Even the oft criticised police, which perceives itself a victim of digital divide has acquired a better preparedness to reap the benefits of the ICT. The e-Cop application of Andhra Pradesh police and networking of all Police Stations (PS) using Virtual Private Network (VPN) by Karnataka police speaks volumes about the capability of the police to harness the potential of the ICT. It’s time to turn things around, do more with less by using these modern tools in every day policing; know more, in order to make better decisions as well as increase public confidence in police forces, and share information. Therefore, in order to modernise the police force and bring uniformity in dealing with its important functions, the ‘Crime & Criminals Tracking Network and Systems’ (CCTNS) project has been conceptualised by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India (GoI) as a Mission Mode Project (MMP) under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). CCTNS- SCOPE The aim of CCTNS is to create a comprehensive and integrated system for effective and efficient policing at all levels through a nationwide network with a bottom-top approach in accordance

with the principles of e-Governance. The key objectives of the CCTNS project therefore include: providing enhanced IT tools for • investigation, crime prevention, law and order maintenance and other functions; increasing operational efficiency • by reducing manual and repetitive tasks; better communication and • automation at the back-end; sharing crime and criminals’ • databases across the country at state and central levels; sharing intelligence on real-time • basis, and improving service delivery to the • public and other stakeholders The Police Station (PS), a basic unit of policing, has been conceived as a core unit of the project. The First Information Report (FIR) shall now be written and saved in digital format. Evidence pertaining to the scene of crime could also be captured on a real time basis. This would solve the problem of alleged overwriting, cuttings and illegible handwriting to a large extent. Complainants would be able to keep track of their report without visiting the PS. The Chief of Police would be able to talk to a remote PS staff at will. Record-keeping would improve and mundane tasks of report making would be minimised. The project covers all PSs (approx. 14,000) and about 6,000 higher offices that come under the ambit of all states and union territories. However, the states that have already implemented similar schemes of their own, have the freedom of leveraging the CCTNS funds for improving their existing systems. The system components covered under the project include core application software (CAS) to be provided centrally by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), hardware and communication

infrastructure including state-level Data Centres, capacity building & handholding and, digitisation of historical records of last 10 years through System Integrators. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: To ensure proper and timely implementation of the project, NCRB has been designated as the central nodal agency. Besides defining the functional scope of CCTNS and providing specifications, it has been given additional responsibility to develop CAS. Nevertheless, the implementation model is in alignment with the NeGP guidelines of ‘centralised planning and decentralised implementation’. Accordingly, states have to play the lead role in implementing this project. In order for state governments to plan, implement and monitor CCTNS in their own states, they need to constitute appropriate governance structures that include committees like State Apex Committee, State Empowered Committee, State Mission Team and District Mission teams which are already in place. Simultaneously, states are required to select a State Project Management Consultant to advice the State Empowered Committee in preparing a Detailed Project Report, identifying a System Integrator and developing the functional specifications for the enhancement of CCTNS applications not covered by NCRB. Similarly, in order to monitor the progress of CCTNS at the state level and support the state governance structures, states need to engage a State Program Management Unit. The role of SI is unique for the project which would act as single point of contact and accountability for the implementation and performance of CCTNS. It is required to customise and implement the core application provided by NCRB, develop additional functionalities, procure hardware and communication egov

MARCH 2010

infrastructure and manage change for capacity building. Thus SI, central to the entire project would be responsible for the outcome of the program, and its payments would be linked to the progress of the project. CCTNS, being a ‘Mission Mode Project’, is a 100% centrally funded scheme. Rs. 2,000 crore have been earmarked for the project up to 2011-12. But the release of funds has been linked to the progress of implementation and achievement of pre-defined milestones. Further, each state has to identify a ‘State Designated Agency’ (SDA) that shall serve as a channel for transfer of funds from GoI to states and from governments to the vendors implementing CCTNS. CAPACITY BUILDING Starting and maintaining an ICT project to fight crime and promote community safety requires a sustained commitment. An ICT project’s success or failure will depend heavily on the organisational capacity to manage and respond to the information transmitted by the technology. The development, implementation, and communication of policies and procedures will help citizen trust that information collected, stored, and disseminated through ICT tools will be handled thoughtfully, legally, and ethically. Capacity building, the most vital component therefore has been appropriately addressed for the successful implementation of the project. Funds have been earmarked not only for the enhancement of training infrastructure at district headquarters, State Crime Record Bureau (SCRB) and training centres, but also for providing various training programs to the police staff. Various target groups identified for the training include investigating officers, station house officers, senior police officers, police personnel providing technical support and training support to CCTNS. Specialised courses have been designed for sensitisation and awareness creation in basic ICT and computing skills, role specific training for different CCTNS user categories and ‘training for trainer’. Almost all training programs are to be delivered by the System Integrator engaged by the states. Once the systems are in place, handholding will be provided for 6 months. EXPECTED OUTCOMES Implementation of any project is never complete without measurement of the 22

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“Citizen satisfaction may not depend on how fast data is uploaded on the system. Since the internet access is quite limited in rural areas, the real improvement in service delivery can be brought about only by inculcating attitudinal changes in the policemen. Therefore, focus should be on people and not on systems.” expected outcomes and subsequent impact. The CCTNS project envisages the following (indicative only) outcomes: CITIZEN SERVICES Ease of reporting petitions and • complaints Web interface to keep track of • complaints Quick responses on general service • petitions like NOC EXTERNAL DEPARTMENT SERVICES Quick responses to inter• departmental service requests POLICE DEPARTMENT SERVICES Quick response to queries • Quick feedback from senior officers • on identified crime patterns Easy compilation of crime data and • reporting Less time spent on non-core back • office tasks Thus, to ensure ‘Reliability, Availability, Supportability, Performance’ of system, operational Service Level Agreements are to be agreed upon between the SI and the S-PMU. Some of the measurable parameters to be monitored include application, data availability and accuracy, network availability, functional requirement upgrade, uptime of back office servers etc. CHALLENGES AHEAD Though the project has been conceptualised keeping in mind the past experience of implementation of ‘Common Integrated Police Application’ (CIPA) and requirements of modern policing, the real challenge lies in identifying the constraints for effective implementation and sustainability of the project and employing appropriate methodologies to overcome them. The flow of funds is ensured until 2011-12. Beyond this, the state governments have to own the project (as per the signed MoU) for its sustainability and divert some minimum funds towards it. Unless such funds are committed, sustainability of the project cannot be assured.

Secondly, connectivity of PSs may pose a major challenge in difficult terrain covered by hills and dense forest. Many PSs are still devoid of regular supply of electricity. Even maintenance of a meagre ‘Generator Set’ may be difficult to ascertain constant flow of data. Thirdly, although, sufficient funds have been provided for enhancement of training infrastructure and capacity building yet, unless the change management is carefully planned and implemented, the project may not take-off with the required momentum. ‘Expect the resistance and plan for it’; must be the slogan for managing change. Change is a process and therefore must be planned accordingly. Fourthly, citizen satisfaction may not depend on how fast data is uploaded on the system. Since the internet access is quite limited in rural areas, the real improvement in service delivery can be brought about only by inculcating attitudinal changes in the policemen. Therefore, focus should be on people and not on systems. Fifthly, states must be supplemented with additional funds for upcoming PSs and other police units as and when required. Therefore, if sufficient provision of funds is not made for the additional units, the very purpose of sharing information will be defeated. Lastly, the successful implementation of any e-Governance project primarily depends upon the leadership of the organisation. Unless the command comes from the top, commitment loses its sheen. The top brass must own the project for timely implementation and effective usage. Moreover, at state level, envisioning by state to integrate an ongoing evaluation system that monitors the effectiveness of daily operations and allows responding to problems and making mid-course corrections in a timely fashion for this project, is paramount. \\

RAJENDRA KUMAR VIJ

IGP, Chhatisgarh Police State Nodal Officer for CCTNS

INTERVIEW

www.sagem-securite.com

JEAN-PAUL JAINSKY CEO, SAGEM SECURITE

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“It [Biometrics] is considered the most reliable way of guaranteeing peoples’ identity since each person has his or her own individual characteristics that cannot be changed, lost or stolen. Not to mention that India was one of the first countries to recognise the use of biometrics, since it saw the first development of a fingerprint classification system (the Henry Classification System, developed in the 19th century by two fingerprint experts at the Calcutta Anthropometric Bureau: Azizul Haque and Hem Chandra Bose), which is now the basis of systems used by every police force in the world.” As a multinational company, how is Sagem Securite represented in India? Twenty percent of our global workforce is Indian, with more than 1000 employees in New Delhi, Noida and Bangalore. Sagem Securite has an office in New Delhi, subsidiaries in Noida (Smart Chip Limited and Syscom Corporation Limited) with a factory producing 1 million smart cards per day, and another subsidiary, Morpho Detection, in Bangalore. We will shortly announce the creation of Sagem Securite’s own subsidiary in India to further bolster our local presence. Could you give us a brief overview of solutions provided by you? Sagem Securite is part of the international group Safran. We develop identification and detection solutions covering both people and goods for our commercial and government customers. We are the world leader in multi-biometric technologies for fingerprint, iris and face recognition, a global leader in the smart card industry and an acknowledged expert in identification and detection systems. Our solutions meet a wide range of security needs for individuals, businesses and governments worldwide, including identity management, personal rights for residents and travelers, physical access to airports or other high-value sites, and logical access – either online or via secure terminals. Sagem Securite is a very dynamic company, and is poised to become a major growth driver for the Safran group. Within a few years, we will generate about 20% of the Group’s consolidated sales. Please elaborate on the landmarks covered so far. Sagem Securite is the only company today that encompasses every aspect of identification, multi-biometrics (fingerprint, iris and face recognition), smart cards, detection and data security systems. Over the last 35 years, Sagem Securite has installed some 450 major

systems in more than 100 countries and has delivered 300 million secure ID documents (ID cards, passports or visas, driver licenses or health cards). We have established long-standing relationships with some of the world’s most demanding clients, stretching back more than 20 years. We have deployed nationwide biometrics solutions in just about every type of environment on the planet. Our solutions are proven in the field and regularly updated; for example, 3/4 of Sagem Securite’s workforce is composed of engineers. Through feedback from our clients, we continuously improve our learning curve. At the same time, we are always facing new challenges, which is extremely motivating for everybody in the company. Why would you say that biometrics is a critical part of security? Fighting identity theft has never been so necessary, as today, if we are to guarantee homeland security. We all know that fake identities can have very serious consequences, as shown by crimes, terrorism and illegal immigration. Biometrics is highly recommended as the best solution to counter these threats. It is considered the most reliable way of guaranteeing peoples’ identity since each person has his or her own individual characteristics that cannot be changed, lost or stolen. Not to mention that India was one of the first countries to recognise the use of biometrics, since it saw the first development of a fingerprint classification system (the Henry Classification System, developed in the 19th century by two fingerprint experts at the Calcutta Anthropometric Bureau: Azizul Haque and Hem Chandra Bose), which is now the basis of systems used by every police force in the world. Above all, the applications of biometrics concern society as a whole, an approach which is at the heart of our company’s founding values. These functions are particularly important in India. Biometrics is the best way to safeguard people’s ability to prove their

identity, which not only gives them access to benefits or services, but also protects their political and economic rights. In short, biometrics can be seen as a critical instrument for protecting and empowering people, and enabling them to enjoy the most elementary right: acknowledgement of existence as a person in their own right. What projects are you working on with the Indian government? Sagem Securite already participated in the pilot ID card program by supplying Bharat Electronics Limited, BEL with the hardware and software needed to capture biometric data. We are also involved in many social schemes like National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), Rashtriya Swastya Bima Yojana (RSBY), Public Distribution System (PDS), Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and MNIC 1 & 2 (Multipurpose National Identity Card). An important aspect of citizen empowerment and security in India will be addressed by the UID Project; how do you see your involvement? First, the UID Project is a major technological challenge since very few companies are capable of successfully implementing such a large database. Sagem Securite has already proven its ability to deploy large-scale projects, in Albania, France, Colombia, Ivory Coast, Malaysia and other countries – although these are of course limited compared to the impressive scale of the UID project. Looking beyond the solely technological aspects, the UID project also gives us the opportunity to take part in a project that will support India’s development and take advantage of the demographic dividend to keep moving forward. This is at the heart of Sagem Securite’s mission and reflects our ongoing commitment to India. The UID Project is clearly a transformational initiative that will change the course of biometrics technology. \\ Gayatri Maheshwary egov

MARCH 2010

Department of Information Technology Ministry of Communications & IT Government of India

FEATURE

I-T Dept Hacked, 14 cr Siphoned The Remedy As we know that governmentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; have been confronted with the increasing need for providing services electronically and providing access to information to partners, suppliers, consumers, contractors, and remotely distributed employees. But hacking events like occurred in the I-T department forces us to rethink about the strategies adopted for the same. The incident throws light on the security enhancement need, which has to be in Fig: 1.1 place if we have to save our systems from such attacks. Security, In todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s business environment, it is the one word that continually poses challenges to organisations looking to protect their data assets. Everything from financial information, transactions, and intellectual property to customer and employee dataâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it all assumes an increased level of vulnerability as network access is broadened both within the organisation and externally. Password-based authentication is very expensive for organisations. The financial burden of resetting passwords represents a significant portion of an IT help desk workload. But there is a bigger picture to look at these days in terms of

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what it can cost an organisation should a data breach occur. The impact can be staggering on both finances and reputation. That is what happened in the case of IT Department, where due to the password hacking Rs. 14 Cr was stolen As networks become increasingly exposed through a wide range of access points, the traditional user name and password method of authentication is no longer sufficient for establishing and trusting user identity. Passwords are often so simple that they can be easily guessed, or so complex that the user needs to write them down, which is weakening security. And while changing passwords on a

regular basis can somewhat minimize the risk of guessing or a brute force attack, the aforementioned vulnerabilities are still present. Yet most of the departments and companies continue to rely on passwords as their only means of user authentication. But these events of password hacking and identity theft can be minimized; with the use of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) based two factor authentication and encryption for data residing on the hard disks. The use of two-factor authentication provides a significant increase to the level of network security by forcing a user to provide two means of identification when attempting to log in. In most cases, this

Fig: 1.2

As networks become increasingly exposed through a wide range of access points, the traditional user name and password method of authentication is no longer sufficient for establishing and trusting user identity. Passwords are often so simple that they can be easily guessed, or so complex that the user needs to write them down, which is weakening security. And while changing passwords on a regular basis can somewhat minimize the risk of guessing or a brute force attack, the aforementioned vulnerabilities are still present. Yet most of the departments and companies continue to rely on passwords as their only means of user authentication.

is a password (something you know) and a security token (for example, USB or smart card - something you have). These devices are small enough to carry and typically store cryptographic keys, digital certificates, and digital signatures. Since the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s digital credentials are saved on the USB token/smart card instead of the computerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard drive, they are protected from compromise. Similarly with the help of encryption of data at rest inside the hard drives its confidentiality can be maintained i.e. only the user who will be

able to provide the correct authentication can have access to the data otherwise nobody can see the data in readable format. Below figure (Fig 1.1) shows the difference in having encryption with two factor authentication and not having the same. These initiatives are very much important in the case of e-Governance projects undergoing and the projects which are been planned for the future. As these involve usage of electronic means for enhancing the reach of the

services offered to the citizens and providing the same in an effective manner, there is a need of bolstering the security and confidence, so that more and more people start using these facilities. We have already discussed how we can secure the information assets using PKI based security solutions, with the help of which integrity, confidentiality and non-repudiation of data can be maintained. If we have to make these e-Gov initiatives successful and to kill the cases of identity frauds, public key infrastructure security should be considered as an implicit part. Also if the security infrastructure has to be strengthened then organsation as a whole should be secured i.e. data in any form should be protected from any kind of malicious activity. For the same there should be some kind of integrated suite of Data centric security solutions in place (Fig 1.2). So we had seen that how use of PKI based Authentication and Data Security could have solved the problem of hacking and save the organsation from such kind of attacks and how this incident shows the need for e-Governance programs to review their state of Security preparedness and including Security as an essential component of the long lasting infrastructure. \\

egov

MARCH 2010

NEWS

INTERNATIONAL

PAKISTAN GETS ITS LARGEST DATA CENTRE

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has launched the largest data centre in Pakistan, the first of which will be located in Karachi. The PTCL Data Centre is protected from intrusion and failure with multi-layered security, fail-safe redundancy, diversity measures, and rapid response recovery measures. It is designed and built to accommodate the comprehensive data in a secured managed and climatically controlled environment. This data centre is engineered using the same rigid specifications, consistent with international standards and data centre certification bodies and is enabled with technologies that proactively manages and enterprises missioncritical applications for predictable and continuous performance.

INTERNET KIOSKS WITH WIRELESS ACCESS IN RURAL AREAS OF MACEDONIA By June 2010 three private operators will install 680 Internet kiosks with wireless

Internet access for the citizens of the rural areas across Macedonia.

BANGLADESH TO FOLLOW SINGAPORE IN ICT

The service the operators will need to provide includes the installation of the Internet kiosks that will be located in rural areas close to schools, through which the wireless system will transmit free Internet signal within a radius of 250 meters.

Bangladesh on to follow experiences and practices of Singapore in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to achieve its vision for a digital country by 2021.

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT INTEGRATES E-HEALTH SYSTEMS Tasmania’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has released a request for tender for the implementation and support of a system to pull together data from various legacy systems into one electronic health record. The contract will be for five years, and will commence from July 2010 and last until the end of June 2015. Tasmania’s hospitals and health professionals have been running multiple systems for different requirements, such as iSoft’s iPatient Manager and Homer for patient administration, as well as iSoft’s EDIS system for the emergency departments. The idea was to have a single view of Tasmanian patients. Integration, ease of navigation and user interface were key for the tender. The finished product will serve as a foundation for the three areas of health services, statewide and mental health services, Tasmanian Ambulance Service and other business units within DHHS.

Singapore has been consistently ranked as one of the top countries in e-Governance and for ease of doing business. Today in Singapore, over 2,000 government services are available online. Drawing on the Singapore example, the Bangladesh government’s vision of Digital Bangladesh can be a catalyst to improve service delivery to citizens and business in Bangladesh.

MINISTRY OF LABOR AT SAUDI ARABIA GOES ELECTRONIC The Ministry of Labor will start providing services through its e-Government system from March 1, 2010. The ministry of Planning and Development will provide employment services and issue work permits via the website www.mol.gov.sa. The official explained that the new electronic service will also include the issuance and renewal of work permits, where applicants can pay the fees and complete all other procedures through the website without the need to visit the labor offices. People seeking jobs can register through this link and be nominated for jobs tailored to their qualifications and experience in the private sector. 30

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knowledge for change

FEATURE

e-Forms: Centerpiece of e-Governance Initiatives in India www.cisco.com

INDIA took a major leap of faith on September 18, 2006, when the Ministry of Company Affairs (MCA) made e-Filing of returns to the Registrar of Companies (RoC) mandatory for all companies in India. The initiative under the country’s MCA 21 project was aimed at automating the processes related to the proactive enforcement and compliance of the legal requirements under the Companies Act, 1956. , For the project, fortunately, standardisation of its various forms was not a big hindrance as the proposed service, despite being a nationwide rollout, was related to just one department, and there was enough political and bureaucratic support to ensure its smooth run. However, despite a massive success of the project that has truly enabled anytime and anywhere MCA services to businesses, the other departments which interact with these businesses cannot, in any way, benefit from the repository of valuable data that the Ministry collects from companies and its directors from across the country. Besides, it also does not allow companies to significantly streamline their interaction with the government as they are still required to re-file the same or substantially similar information to multiple departments. This issue may however soon be a thing of past once departments start following standards for electronic forms and share common information on individuals and businesses. Experts suggest that standardisation of information collection, storage and digitisation of forms are the next crucial steps for making e-Government services 32

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CISCO SYSTEMS INDIA

Standardisation of information collection, storage and digitisation of forms are the key factors for making e-Government services work in India

successful in the country. As a foundation step, some of the states have already deployed State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) and are in the process of completing Common Service Centers (CSC) deployment and putting in place the State Data Centers (SDCs). In India, eForms will ride on these three pillars-SWAN, SDC and CSC. • The SWAN infrastructure helps in

•

connecting all state government offices, horizontally and vertically SDC is used for hosting the state service delivery gateway (SSDG) and state portal and forms the main engine of e-Forms. CSC is the main access point for citizens and will be used for filling up e-Forms from a remote rural location

Joan McCalla and Prakash Kumar of Internet Business Solutions Group, Cisco at CSI Regional e-Governance Summit 2009, Hyderabad

complicated cases. Further, the greater transparency in service delivery will also hopefully lead to reduced corruption, thereby changing the image of the government among citizens. To take the initiative further, Department of Information and Technology (DIT) has asked CDAC to develop a “Form Engine” which could be used by the states and the Union Territories (UTs) to generate eForms and showcase capability of routing the e-Forms to different departments. The engine is also expected to support all 22 official languages of India. CHALLENGES FACING E-FORMS ROLLOUT CISCO HAS PLAYED A MAJOR ROLE IN BUILDING THESE PILLARS. Once the infrastructure is in place, state governments would be loading applications on the SWAN, which can be accessed through the SSDG. These gateways will provide a single window access to the information and services of the Indian government at all levels - from panchayat to the central government. By simply filling in specific forms with the required information at nearby CSCs, all citizens, including those in remote rural areas, will be able to access data and apply for certificates etc with the click of a mouse. STANDARDISATION: THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE While one of the key elements of India’s National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) is the CSC project, the country still needs to travel a long way before it can actually achieve this objective. Presently there are hundreds of forms related to both government to citizen (G2C) and government to business (G2B) services provided by all the three layers of the government i.e. central, state and municipal governments. Many of them vary widely from state to state. For example, different states have different formats with respect to birth certificate, domicile certificate, RTI, various welfare schemes etc. In the same state, the format at times varies from district to district. The reason for this can be attributed to the fact that many such services are state subjects and are governed by local laws, which have evolved over

many years. Also lack of standardisation procedures in absence of automated functioning is another major cause. Now with the Government of India focusing on automation of all the departments within central and state government through central Mission Mode Projects (MMPs), state MMPs and integrated MMPs there needs to be a well defined process and standard for all forms. Both information collection and storage need to be standardised so that forms on central and state portals use one standard format – this will enable users download, fill and submit applications electronically in a consistent manner nationwide. The e-Governance infrastructure project also guarantees assured electronic delivery of the request from the citizen to the specified field office of the government department, followed by electronic acknowledgement of successful submission of application or request from a department to the citizen. The back end processing at the department may initially continue in a manual mode. Gradually as MMPs and state applications get implemented and the backend gets computerised, the functionality of the services provided will get enhanced and eventually all services will be provided online and can be accessed through state portals in an integrated fashion. Secondly, availability of the forms through the CSCs will increase convenience to villagers and significantly reduce the time and costs they incur in accessing government services. What is more, the reduced contact between citizen and government departments will increase efficiency and productivity of departments allowing department staff to redirect their efforts to resolving the most

e-Forms have been started on a pilot basis in a few states and there is still some distance to be covered before full scale implementation. Some of the problem areas related to e-Forms implementation stem from management issues and people issues. All these issues need to be sorted out so that e-Forms roll-out in the states is smooth and all stakeholders benefit due to excellent time bound quality of service. A key management issue to be resolved is identification of gaps in infrastructure for roll-out of e-Forms. Also important is ensuring ownership by line departments for the information and processes required to support e-Forms within states as well as development of a mechanism for monitoring timely disposal of electronic applications. Work is underway to provide unique acknowledgement number at the national level for all applications whether made to central/state departments or municipal authorities so that tracking becomes easier and every application across the country has one unique acknowledgement number. Tracking applications using mobile phones is also on the agenda. People issues are also important and should not be neglected as the focus should be on business process reengineering. Persons responsible for different processes need to be identified and staff at all levels need to be trained in how their functions differ as e-Forms are introduced. The absence of back-end automation will mean additional work for updating applications and it needs to be factored while allocating work. On the plus side, introduction of e-Forms will generate significant information on where work loads are greatest/lowest and allow for improved planning. \\ egov

MARCH 2010

FEATURE

Prison Management and Visitor Management System www.nic.in

Prison Management System (PMS) is a government to government (G-2G) and government to citizen (G-2-C) application, which encapsulates the manual working-pattern of the prison rule book i.e. registration, movement within the jail and outside and release of the inmate. It helps to generate more than 65 reports of administrative, performance and statistical nature. It helps in dealing with over populous prison that is housing inmates, which are more than 3 times of the sanctioned capacity. It facilitate in monitoring the inmate movement (both inside / outside the correction home). It also facilitates, regulates and simplifies the processes of meeting between the visitors who are coming to visit their relatives and friends lodged in the correctional home. It is helping the prison authorities in identification / verification of the inmates using fingerprint based identification tools. BACKGROUND ICT in prisons was initiated in the year 2002 at Delhi Prisons, Tihar. The Tihar Prisons Complex in New Delhi is the biggest prison complex in Asia comprising of 9 prisons and one District Jail at Rohini with a total strength of more than 11,000 prisoners against a normal sanctioned capacity of 6250 prisoners. In a year about 70,000 - 80,000 inmates remain lodged in these prisons for different duration and crimes committed by them. Nearly 1700-1800 visitors meet their relative inmates everyday. There was manual system of booking ‘mulaqats’ (meetings) in each jail for its respective inmates. Centralised visitor record was not available. There was a lack of exchange of visitors’ information within jails and 34

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RAJIV PRAKASH SAXENA

prison headquarters. No provision for identification / detection / verification of visitors was there. Keeping a tab on the movement of visitors / nefarious elements was difficult. There was no control either on multiple meetings with an inmate in a day / week or on number of visitors permissible to meet with each inmate. It was difficult for the jail administration to keep a record of those prisoners whose meetings were stopped by the Hon’ble courts by way of punishment. There was limited and unstructured recording of demographic details about the visitors. No provision to store visitors photograph was there. Lot of malpractices was mushrooming in the system. Managing the prisoner record and monitoring of prisoner / visitor was

processing of information need of courts and various other national agencies. As the technology evolution is taking place, there arose a need for centralisation of prisoner’s data to facilitate information exchange and data sharing to the users of the prison. It shall reduce administrative overheads, speed up responsiveness to users, reduce risks involved in inmate’s custody, eliminated obsolete processes and reap cost-cutting benefits. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) took up this task of automating and streamlining the process of prisoner / visitor movement at Tihar Prisons. Followings are the accomplishment in this area of prison management: 1.

Establishment of LAN: Establishment of LAN connecting all

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. 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. SOLUTION In order to cope up with the increasing number of prisoners being lodged in, the Tihar Administration required a reengineering and rationalisation of their key business processes and functions of prisoners related information and their computerisation in order to speed up the

prisons situated in a big wide spread complex using 5,500 meters of Optical Fiber Cable (12 and 6 core) operated with one Layer - 3 switch supported by 16 Layer - 2 switches in the entire jail complex. The network has 185 IOs and can be expanded to 300 nodes without any additions / modifications / disruptions to the existing infrastructure. Surveys were got conducted and laying of OFC was found to be the best suitable option; Development and Implementation of PMS: Prison Management System (PMS) comprises of 12 primary

functional modules. More than 65 reports of various types have been developed under Client / Server architecture. It has been developed, tested and implemented. Biometric Tools: The PMS has been integrated with biometrics tools, which stores inmate’s biometric details at the time of entry and shall be used to authenticate him at the time of their movement. The biometric based verification and authentication system is installed in all 9 jails of Tihar Prisons Complex and at District Jail, Rohini, New Delhi with facility to store prisoner photograph. Tihar Prisons was the first prison using this technology for prisoner’s identification and verification along with the photograph; Photo Pass for Visitors: Visitor Management System [VMS] is implemented at Central Public Relation Office situated at Gate # 3 and at Gate # 4 of the Tihar Prisons. All visitors coming to Jail to meet their relative prisoners are first being photographed and then they are issued photo pass. Details of the visitors are being kept in the database and this information is shared with police for the investigation purpose. The meeting slip is generated within 45 seconds. The booking is using the concept of call centre. ISO Certification has been obtained for this process; Videoconferencing: The use of videoconferencing facility in prisons has drastically reduced expenditure incurred as compared to being physically producing the jail inmates in the courts. Physical production of an inmate require transportation, escort by armed police personnel, prevention of fights between inmates and nearly six hours of time wasted by each inmate. Fear of custody break is always there during the physical production. By the use of videoconferencing, there is a check on all such incidents; and Cameras: Using analog and digital cameras security has been enhanced in the Tihar Prison complex. Cameras have been installed at strategic locations within wards, inside high security cells, at meeting points and at dheodi, where inmates are searched whenever they are escorted out of jail or are brought inside the jail complex. Each and every inmate can be watched from a video wall and surveillance brief

Nearly 1700-1800 visitors meet their relative inmates everyday. There was manual system of booking ‘mulaqats’ (meetings) in each jail for its respective inmates. Centralised visitor record was not available. There was a lack of exchange of visitors’ information within jails and prison headquarters. No provision for identification / detection / verification of visitors was there.Keeping a tab on the movement of visitors / nefarious elements was difficult. is also sent to DG (Prisons) in real time. These video graphed shots are produced in case of any disputes. PROJECT FEATURES It is a G-2-G and G-2-C e-Governance tool. It has created a transparent, simplified and efficient Prisoners’ Information Handling System for all Prisoners who are lodged in the Delhi Prisons and Visitors’ Management and Monitoring System for visitors prisoners meeting system. Provisions are there to store Photographs of Prisoners / Visitors. It also stores fingerprint data of the prisoners for the authentication / verification / identification at the time of their release. It improves efficiency, performance and speed in decision-making process at all levels. Information about prisoner / visitor is readily available at any corner of the Prison complex. Provides Quick and accurate information for better strategic planning for administration. It helps in tightening the noose on the movement / meeting of nefarious elements with the inmates.

•

LESSONS DRAWN FROM THE PRACTICE Each project gives the implementing agency few lessons, which helps in better utilisation of resources. • In a changing business environment, the main stakeholder needs to be

•

able to monitor key performance indicators. In order to support this when implementing the system, key decision makers and champions must be asked what key information they need in order to achieve high work/business performance. NIC discussed the software with DG as well as the warders and matrons of the jail and understood what they want. The software was made as simple as possible and each screen was not more than half page such that data entry was not cumbersome. Installation and implementation were the critical phases of the deployment path of the PMS project. One has to ensure that the main stakeholder understands the steps they shall need to take to implement PMS Project, together with the resources they shall need to put into the project to ensure its success. When dealing with new ICT technologies there are numerous problems that may arise, making it crucial for agencies to have a welldeveloped process for this phase of the project. It is the opportunity to test the system and should be approached thoughtfully and with patience. Ultimately, implementation remains the user’s responsibility and it is the user who determines when application goes live. \\

RAJIV PRAKASH SAXENA, DEPUTY DIRECTOR GENERAL, NATIONAL INFORMATICS CENTRE (NIC)

Rajiv Prakash Saxena has been working with the National Informatics Centre (NIC) since 1983. He has worked on national and international projects, worked for UNDP projects. Expertise in eCommerce and eProcurement. He also also worked in the area of Urban Informatics, Parliament Informatics, Jail, NHRC, Housing and Municipality Sector. Disclaimer: The views expressed herein in this paper are the views of the author and shall not be construed to be the views of the Government of India.

egov

MARCH 2010

NEWS

BUSINESS

L&T INFOTECH COMPLETES E-GOVERNANCE PROJECT L&T Infotech has completed the first phase of an e-Governance project for the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), an institution affiliated to the Union Ministry of HRD, Government of India. In addition to bring visibility into the governance process, this project aims to enhance productivity and standardisation by automating various approval and accreditation processes and work flows across bureaus and regional offices. The project also includes a four-year support of the applications and hardware. L&T Infotech will be integrating payment gateways and biometric features in the e-Governance solution.

NASSCOM TO FOCUS ON E-GOVERNANCE The IT industry’s apex body, Nasscom, announced that it will further enhance its focus on ‘e-Governance’ during the year. Its initiatives cover the areas of e-Governance and other mission mode government IT projects at both Central and State Governments. Kicking off the 18th edition of the Nasscom India Leadership Forum, the flagship event of Nasscom, it said the domestic sector in the past year has witnessed rapid growth, largely led by government spending on IT. Nasscom has been a keen proponent of e-Governance which has become a top priority for the government.

NIIT BAGS E-GOVERNANCE PROJECT FOR BSF NIIT technology, a leading IT solution company has bagged a Rs 228 crore project from the Border security force (BSF) called intranet Prahari project The project involves setting up of the complete infrastructure, network and applications to facilitate operations management, integrated financial activities and human resources management for the force. The supply and set-up of the entire infrastructure of the project includes establishment of a central data center, 10 mini data centers, a disaster recovery center and infrastructure in a total of 230 sector headquarters and battalions. Applications on state-of-the-art technology would be configured and deployed across data centers and remote locations.

NEW DELHI AWAITS ELECTRONICS NEXT INDIA 2010 ELECTRONICS NEXT INDIA 2010 “Global Marketplace and International Trade Exhibition for EMS, electronic components, material and production equipment” will come to New Delhi on 24 February, 2010. ELECTRONICS NEXT INDIA is the only international exhibition for this sector being organized in New Delhi and is proposed to be an annual event catering to needs of the electronics market in India. It is the sole platform for conducting business, networking and staying up-todate with the latest electronic industry trends across the world. 36

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The exhibition aims to bring the buyer and the seller together on one platform thus opening up new opportunities for displaying one’s product/offering, throwing open new avenues for networking and gaining new business leads. Another big draw is the introduction of the ‘Defence Pavilion’ to discuss and create an action plan for opportunities and challenges in Defence Electronics. This initiative is a dedicated approach to encourage solutions for the Defence sector. ELECTRONICS NEXT INDIA is recognized as a vital opportunity for professionals of Design and R&D of Electronics Manufacturers to catch up with the latest technology trends.

ATHULYA – INFOPARK KOCHI’S LATEST SMART SPACE Infopark Kochi’s latest smart space Athulya is a perfect blend of intelligent workspaces, state-of-theart infrastructure, and 360 degree support facilities and lifestyle amenities, seamlessly integrated within one complex to create a singular business environment of hi-technology companies. Situated on 7.1 acres of land in Infopark SEZ, it has a total built-up area of 5.5 lakh square feet and can house a software development block (with an area of 3.5 lakh square feet), a cafetaria building (with an area of 0.50 lakh square feet), and multi-level car parking facility. Athulya’s total seating capacity would be 4000 and will have a total of 10 elevators (8 for the software development blocks and 2 for the cafetaria). With an average floor plate size of 50000 sq. ft, it can provide parking facilities for 111 cars.

REPORT

13th National Conference on e-Governance February 18 -19, 2010, Birla Auditorium, Jaipur

On a bright, sunny day in Jaipur, the 13th National Convention on eGovernance was inaugurated by the state Governor Ms Prabha Rau, flogged by the state Chief Minister Ashok Gahlot, union ministers Sachin Pilot, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, and Prithviraj Chavan, Minister of State, Prime Minister Office. The conference was organised by the Department of Administrative Reforms, Pensions and Grievances, Government of India, in collaboration with Department of Information Technology (DIT), Government of India and Department of IT, Government of Rajasthan. Delivering the keynote address, Ashok Gahlot drew home the point that the development in science and technology and the economy would not be worth till it reaches to the common man. Recalling Rajiv Gandhiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vision of India entering in 21st century as a developed country, Gahlot assured that the state is moving in the right direction. He stated that Rajasthan, being spread in a vast geographical terrain, would utilise eGovernance for eliminating the limitations of long distances that citizens cover to access the government services. Apprising about the circular issued on resource allocation on e-Governance to each of the government departments in the state, Gahlot said the state government has made mandatory for each department to allocate 3% of the budget of a plan on e-Governance. Conceding the capacity building in government as a big challenge, Gahlot said the administrators have to take the pain of getting friendly with new technologies, so as to provide services in time to the citizens, in full cognisance of their convenience. Comparing the penetration of Internet and mobile phones across India, Prabha Rau said that given the mobile phones penetration in the country, with users

Ms Prabha Rau, State Governor, inaugurating the 13th National Convention on e-Governance

numbering more than 500 million, it offers platform for reaching out to the citizens. She noted that access and affordability are two critical factors for the greater acceptance of technology. She also underlined the usage of mobile phones in promoting Financial Inclusion. Rau said that while Information and Communication Technology (ICT) could be used for educating and training the young population, it could connect the senior citizens of the country to government services and to their near and dear ones. Taking note of the inconvenience caused to the citizens due to delay in delivery of several government to citizen services, Sachin Pilot said the prime reason is the inability of the government departments to completely digitise and automate the processes. IT must not be limited to the use by the government departments in metros but also by the person residing in the country side. ICT can bring in transparency and accountability in the administration, working and day to day lives.

The minister said that even in the time of global economic slowdown, the Indian IT export market grew to $ 60 billion and the domestic market grew to $13 billion. In the coming years, the IT sector will open employment opportunities for one lakh people. While e-Governance drive goes deeper into the country, there is also need for having focus upon cyber security, he pointed. Pilot also ensured the states governments of complete support from the Centre in implementing e-Governance. Prithviraj Chavan put forth the relevance of the annual conference on eGovernance organised by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances. Speaking about the e-Office project, he said that it enables government process re-engineering in Government to Government (G-2-G) interface. Jitendar Singh stated that the popularity of state of Rajasthan was no longer limited to the sand dunes, instead it is increasingly being recognised as the silicon valley of the country. He spoke about the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s initiative of allocating egov

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Sachin Pilot-Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, delivering the key note address

3% budget of each department on eGovernance and said that it has got no precedence in the country. He talked about setting up of Bharat Nirman Rajiv Gandhi e-Seva Kendras in rural Rajasthan, which aims to educate as well as act as service providers for the rural areas. Under this project, each of the 249 blocks in Rajasthan would have one kendra which would facilitate rural citizens in payment of various types of bills, in making rail reservations and in procuring copies of birth/death/caste certificates without usual harassment and delay. SESSION: e-GOVERNANCE FROM THE CITIZEN’S PERSPECTIVE Moderator: Mr. R. C. Mishra, Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India Explaining the underlying principle for the session theme selection, Navin Agarwal, Executive Director, eGovernance Advisory, KPMG mentioned that there is an imperative need to capture the experiences and perspectives of the common man, who is often considered as the last-man-in-queue to derive benefits from e-Governance initiatives. “ICT is merely an enabler and for e-Governance initiatives to be successful, it is important to take in to account the perspectives of the citizens,” he said. Agarwal emphasised that eGovernance has helped reduce the rural vs. urban disconnect considerably. The ultimate objective of such initiatives would be to see whether they can bring some improvements as well in the lives of both rural and urban citizens. R. C. Mishra, Secretary, Department 38

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of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India highlighted that one should not look at e-Governance as mere computerisation, rather it should be looked at as a means to review existing processes, change them appropriately to make the job/task easier, thereby simplifying the overall work-flow with the fundamental aim of improving service delivery to the citizens. He noted that there is a lack of focus on developing mechanisms to track the success of many of the e-Governance initiatives that have been implemented in the country. Prithviraj Chavan, Minister of State in the Prime Minister Office (PMO) and Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Parliamentary Affairs stressed on the need to develop suitable mechanisms to solicit and monitor feedback from the citizens – the end beneficiaries of the projects. He emphasized on the need to develop a robust and sustainable revenue model for e-Governance projects based on Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model. Ensuring transparency and fairness in the charges collected by the Service Providers is critical which can be achieved by appointment of a Regulator. Having a stable revenue model would ensure that the citizens pay the minimum appropriate charges for availing the services. Highlighting the fact that most government websites do not adhere to the standard guidelines issued by National Informatics Centre (NIC), Chavan enlisted the following activities that need to be undertaken: Firstly , the websites should be user friendly for differently-abled citizens.

Secondly, the user interfaces need to be standardised and lastly the website needs to be made technology neutral. Jitendra Singh, Minister of Energy and Non-Conventional Energy Resource, Information Technology and Communication, Government of Rajasthan urged the private sector for their contribution and investment in the state and in its initiatives owing to the availability of infrastructure and all round socio-economic progress. He mentioned some key developments in the space of mobile communications including tele-medicine and Video Conferencing which have resulted in the benefits of e-Governance reach the beneficiaries faster. He felt that most of the e-Governance initiatives could be looked at as unaccomplished missions and there is an immense need to work together as a team and make sure that at the grassroots level, one makes a common man also understand the working of IT systems. Russel Craig, Vice-President, CISCO underlined the need to adopt a citizencentric approach in the design of services- an ‘outside-in’ approach incorporating the needs and concerns of the citizens at every stage in the process and service delivery workflow. He illustrated the success of an e-Governance project in Philippines for Pensions in which the senior citizens did not have to go to the government office to prove that they are alive and eligible for pensions. The government deployed a voice– biometric mechanism, through which the pensioners just have to call the concerned authorities and the system would authenticate his or her voice and accordingly it is processed further. He pointed that the citizens generally do not prefer to interact with the government officials unless in case of transactional interactions. It is therefore necessary to listen to their concerns and address them suitably. Ascertaining the service delivery process at the ground level in an effective way to handle this. He stressed on the need to define measures to ascertain fairness, timeliness and quality of the service delivery process by soliciting user feedback and making changes, wherever deemed fit. Siddharth Shankar, President, Drishti remarked that in the design of the service delivery process, it is important to make a note of the time taken for processing the transactions and the same has to be reduced for increased efficiency. He articulated: “Since in rural areas, citizens

are still not aware of the concept of eGovernance, hence, there is a greater need to bring about awareness about e-Governance among the masses through promotional activities and public campaigns.” He also touched upon the need to augment capacity building activities at the grassroot level. The Village Level Entrepreneurs need to be imparted the right kind of training to execute their responsibilities. BPOs could be set up in the rural areas to generate employment for local citizens. Jobs like digitization of data could be outsourced to such RuralBPOs. S R Rao, Additional Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of India emphasised on the role of the citizen in creating a pullforce in the service delivery mechanism. He noted that an ‘AS-IS’ study of the existing processes cannot be done in a central office. It is to be undertaken at the field level. Extensive interaction with the citizens is of prime importance in the design of the bouquets of G2C services. On the aspect of devising feedback mechanism and measures, he mentioned about a stratified study conducted by IIMA. The study aimed to statistically bring out the waiting period for the transaction, quality and level of corruption in the service delivery mechanism. The study was conducted for three state government initiatives namely - Driving Licence, Land Records and Land Registration across eight states in the country. An important inference from the study was that the level of corruption was low where citizens were involved in the conceptualization of the service. Rao also said that all e-Governance initiatives need to be supported by adequate capacity building activities, targeted at stakeholders at all three levels – leadership [elected members], managerial [higher departmental officers] and operational [the department’s team members involved in the day to day activities]. SESSION: LEVERAGING MOBILE TECHNOLOGY FOR BETTER SERVICE DELIVERY AND FINANCIAL INCLUSION The panelists include: Sambamurthy, IDRBT, S.R. Rao, Additional Secretary, Department of IT, C. K. Mathew Principal Secretary, Finance and Policy Planning, Government of Rajasthan, Sachin Khandelwal, ICICI Bank and Rajiv Sehgal, Airtel

The panel extensively discussed the scope for financial inclusion in India, technological and regulatory aspects, security aspects for leveraging mobile and ICT technologies for financial inclusion. Panelists also discussed about the mobile ecosystem – that would encompass not only the banker, service provider and customer but also the community at large, involving governments, regulatory authorities and other parties. Highlighting the fact that the banking in India is currently concentrated in the urban areas, Sambamurthy said that financial inclusion is a part of corporate social responsibility and must be thought of as a part of public service delivery. He pointed that financial inclusion has been incorporated as a policy by RBI. Yet, the no frills account aiming to proliferate the financial inclusion did not yield expected results in India because of lack of last mile connectivity. He proposed that mobile technology could bring innovation and is a unique channel for service delivery where it not only serves the high tech youngsters but also the poor people in rural areas. In his opinion, there is a lack of collaboration between the banks and the telecom operators. Together, these industries can create a common platform which will transform the rural banking scenario in the shortest possible time. S. R. Rao commented that in spite of recession, India’s economic growth has remained high (7.4% in 2009). Yet, sustained economic growth will require inclusive socio-economic growth as well. Government of India has given a high priority to the goal of achieving inclusive society as could be seen from President’s address to Parliament on 4th June 2009. He presented a SWOT analysis on financial inclusion adopting mobile technology. Sachin Khandelwal remarked that 50% of the cost comes from salary and infrastructure cost for a bank, which can be eliminated through branchless banking. He indicated that prepaid markets provide a great opportunity for scaling up the mobile channel for banking usage. In terms of security features for such alternative channels, biometrics can play a key role. ‘Fingerprints at fingertips’ applications can provide secure accessible banking services to both the urban poor and rural rich. He informed that Reserve Bank of India has recently permitted withdrawal of cash up to Rs.1 000 per day through debit cards issued in India from point of sale (PoS) terminals. While banks welcome

this step, one has to understand that the country has only around 45000 ATMs and around 0.5 million PoS, where number of merchants is 12 million. Hence the scope of inclusion still remains large in India. Demonstrating the key trends in mobile telephony, Rajiv Sehgal said the affordability is increasing and the usability is going up. “People don’t know how to read or write but know how to operate a mobile phone,” he said. Providing example on m-Governance, he described how Blackberry has automated and greatly improved the process efficiency for Bangalore Traffic Police and Chennai Tax collectors. He noted that in microfinance, a working prototype is being developed where mobile device is going to be integrated with core banking applications. Answering to Sambamurthy’s question on where and how the collaboration between telecom and banking sector is happening, he said that banks and telecom operators have already made some progress in collaboration. Services like mCheque through which one can pay bills and send money to others would cost nothing to the consumer. Regulatory challenges are primary concerns for the collaborative growth. Yet technologies allow such collaborations and either parties are very receptive. There will be a sea change in 12-18 months. Discussing about security issues, he commented that telecom operators attempt to ensure end to end security perspective: data from mobile to server is ensured with highest level of encryption. Data flow or transactions can be encrypted even over the air. SMS / USSD services also have encryption standards. Speaking about the opportunity that is being offered through NREG programme for linking banking with e-Governance for rural masses, C K Mathew said that the 25 lakh working people under NREGA need bank accounts, but half the accounts are with post offices, and not under any electronic system He highlighted the difficulties with biometric details and aid that although biometric details are taken for the card holders, these details do not conform to UID specifications. He also noted the fund flow from NREGA require a common platform - Cascading of fund flow from large accounts to end customers involve multiple bankers and financial institutions. Currently there are no common standards existing for the whole gamut of bankers, neither are there any standards for interoperability. egov

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SESSION: PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM The session was moderated by Ashank Desai from Nasscom. The panelists include: O P Meena, Principle Secretary, Food & Civil supply, Government of Rajasthan; Pradip Pant, Secretary, Department of Food & Civil Supply, Government of Chattisgarh; Dr Ranjana from NIC & Anand Swaroop from HCL. Ashank Desai emphasized on the reengineering of the processes [involved in Public Distribution System] rather than sheer focus on technology. Pradip Pant discussed a working model in the state of Chhattisgarh, in which the private parties have been removed from the distribution channel. He stressed that the distribution through Co-operative society and government shops are critical to the success of public distribution system (PDS). He proposed for incentivising the model through a month’s credit allocation to all the fair price shops (FPS), and discussed significance of a web-based reporting system. O P Meena highlighted the practical issues faced by the state government and discussed the status of ICT in PDS in the state of Rajasthan. Dr Ranjana touched on the need for standardization for electronic PDS system. She also spoke about a uniform and core system in place at the level of Food Corporation of India (FCI) and said that there is a need for the states to adopt similar uniform systems. Besides, she also advocated the introduction of smart cards in PDS. SESSION: ICT IN EDUCATION The session was moderated by Shankar Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Department of IT, Government of India. The panelists include: Siddharth, Principal Secretary IT, Government of West Bengal; HNS Rao, Educomp; Sitanshu Jena, National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS); Dhiraj Prasad, Microsoft and Prof Arun Mehta, NUEPA. Shankar Agarwal highlighted the need to provide quality education for all in order to realise the potential of the large young population. He stressed that while access has been addressed to a large extent through schemes like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, quality of education has remained a concern as the learning levels of children are found to be very low. Further at the higher education level too, the quality of training provided is found to be inadequate. In this context there is a need to explore how ICTs can be utilised 40

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Valedictory Panelist (L-R) R C Mishra, Secretary DARPG, Government of India; Jitendra Singh, Minister of IT, Government of Rajasthan; D.V. Singh, Speaical Secretary, DARPG, Government of India

to improve both quality and reach of education in our country, he said. Siddharth highlighted initiatives taken in West Bengal for improving quality of education through the use of ICT tools like IL&FS’s KYAN. The Kyan is a device combining a PC and a projector with over a thousand lessons of multimedia content for school going students, tackling hard to understand concepts. The initial response from students and schools was extremely positive and the initiative is being scaled up to cover most districts in West Bengal. In terms of reach, the West Bengal government has looked beyond just geographical reach, to focus on providing quality education for those who are differently abled. Sitanshu Jena highlighted the potential offered by ICTs in distance education in the country. He stressed that use of ICTs can be successful if it provides contextual and scenario based learning. While infrastructure is a significant constraint at present, including poor connectivity, poor infrastructure as well as low levels of electrification, this challenge will perhaps be addressed in the near future; however designing good quality, relevant content that is freely accessible to all is going to be the more enduring challenge. He said: “Thus questions that need to be addressed are those concerning the pedagogy of ICT usage, namely how to promote student engagement, how to support communication and collaboration between learners, how to assess and provide feedback and finally how to introduce remedial support.” Further, he also underlined the need to create a platform for sharing open educational resources that can be made available to all.

Mr Dhiraj Mathur outlined some of Microsoft’s initiatives in the Education space including innovative projects like Project Shiksha for training teachers, Project Jyoti- a community technical skills programme, Project Bhasha for digitizing content in different languages as well as initiatives for the differently abled. While Microsoft has been a front runner in providing IT education it is also increasingly channelizing the potential of using ICTs more generally for all types of education. He noted that providing quality and reach are two ends of a large spectrum in education delivery, and thus pose an enormous challenge. ICTs if used effectively have the potential to address both ends of this spectrum. Mr Rao highlighted that improving the quality of education in the first place requires that a strong awareness of quality must be inculcated in all those involved in the education space including teachers, administrators and parents. ICT can provide tools that can improve quality but what is urgently required is that all processes with regard to the use of ICTs in education are streamlined and clearly defined. In such a case all aspectsinfrastructure, training and monitoring will become very important, in order to ensure that quality of education is improved. Prof Arun Mehta stressed on the need to focus on basic issues such as quality of teaching/teachers, lack of basic infrastructure etc. While only 14% of schools have a computer, of these 14% only 86% schools have electricity. Therefore only providing hardware will not be enough and several critical aspects need to be addressed first. The basic minimum infrastructure that has a bearing on the quality of education must be provided. \\

HIGHER EDUCATION SUMMIT 2010

FEATURE

Honours (NSIH) 2010 www.nasscomfoundation .org

The power of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has been discussed widely by media, academics and practitioners alike. In the last two decades, it has changed the world as we know it. While gaps exist, ICT provides new age tools that can speed up sustainable development and enhance the overall quality of life. Recognising the role of ICT in sustainable development, NASSCOM Foundation (NF) instituted the NASSCOM Social Innovation Honours (NSIH) in 2009 with the objective of nurturing and showcasing innovation in the use of information technology that brings about positive and sustainable social change. In creating the platform for Social Innovation Honours, NF aims to identify projects where innovation could be in the form of both a process and a result. In looking at the process, NF aims to understand systems based on transfer and sharing of knowledge across the public, private, and non-profit sectors. For NF, a social innovation can be not only a product, a process, or a technology, but also a principle, an idea, a piece of legislation, a social movement, an intervention, or some combination of the above. NF endeavours to recognise organisations that foster these social innovations. We hope this Honour inspires creativity and imagination to bring positive social transformations for ICT in development. The NSIH 2010 showcased innovations under the following categories – 1. ICT led Innovation by Non - Profits 2. ICT led Business Innovation for Development 3. ICT led Innovation through Corporate Social Responsibility 4. ICT led Innovation in e-Governance 5. Multi Stakeholder Partnership 6. Environment related project The Honours were judged by an 42

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District Administration, Kolhapur, receiving honours in the category of ICT led e-Governance innovation

eminent jury of Narayana Murthy, FounderChairman, Infosys Technologies Limited, T. N. Ninan, Chairman and Editorial Director, Business Standard Ltd., Rama Bijapurkar, Independent Market Strategy Consultant, Jaithirth Rao, Chairman, NASSCOM Foundation and Saurabh Srivastava, Chairman, CA India and past Chairman , NASSCOM Foundation. The following organisations were honoured at the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum held in Mumbai on 9th Feb, 2010 and the Chief Guest, Mr. Ashok Chavan, the CM of Maharashtra honoured them: ICT LED INNOVATION BY NONPROFITS Health Management and Research Institute (HMRI) (www.hmri.in ) won the Honours for its unique means of reaching at-risk rural populations through a 24x7 health helpline - 104 Advice. This health contact centre offers nonemergency medical advice, information

and counselling services on the toll free ‘104’ number ICT LED INNOVATION THROUGH CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY a. Iris Business Services Pvt. Ltd (www.irisbusiness.com) won the Honour for creating an internet based voting mechanism through which children in the schools of Navi Mumbai could vote for the candidate of their choice from amongst those standing for election. In doing so, the company was successful in increasing awareness about the importance of voting and citizenship in a democracy amongst children in middle and high schools. b. Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited (www.mcxindia.com) won the Honour for it’s Gramin Suvidha Kendra (GSK), a unique Public Private Partnership (PPP) model with India Post, that provides relevant information to farmers. The project brings a gamut

of services under a single window. By involving local people in the value chain GSK represents a collaborative approach that is vital when tackling pressing social problems. c. Steria (India) Ltd. (www.steria. co.in) won the Honour for its ‘community model’ which engages a child right from the early school days to senior school and beyond, leveraging employee volunteers. With facilities and self learning English language software, vocational skills are an effort to provide a “Superior School Experience” for all round development of the child. d. ITC Limited (www.itcportal.com) won the Honour for introducing viable options in the area of social and farm forestry, watershed development and wealth out of waste program. The honour recognised ITC’s innovation in using technology imaginatively in improving tree cover across the country. ICT LED BUSINESS INNOVATION FOR DEVELOPMENT a. Educomp Solutions Ltd. (www. educomp.com). The project introduces a new approach in teaching-learning paradigms across schools in India. Educomp offers interventions, products and services to teach children in the language they understand and with multimedia that brings alive abstract curricular concepts. With the introduction of MagiKeys Software, Educomp has enabled ‘Online’ / ‘Offline’ ICT usage in different languages. b. Geodesic Ltd.(www.geodesic. com and www.geoamida.com) won the Honour for GeoAmida, the world’s first biometric smart card enabled by a multilingual last mile platform, which reaches out to a remote customer base. The multilingual, graphical interface (display,

print & speak) is designed to address low IT literacy of the users & fundamentally improve ease of use. c. TATA Consultancy Services ( www. tcs.com) won the Honour for mKRISHI, an innovative end-to-end platform involving mobile phones to reach farmers. Apart from giving personalised services and advice to farmers on the mobile phone, it also allows farmers to make a query in a local language. ICT LED E-GOVERNANCE INNOVATION a. District Administration, Kolhapur (www.savethebabygirl.com) won the Honour for the initiative “SAVE THE BABY GIRL”, which tackles malpractices of sex-determination and selective abortion. Through its online entry software, the administration tracks all sonography tests done across all authorised centers in a District and thus stop the malpractice of aborting the girl fetus. b. District Health Society, Baghpat and JP Nagar – Uttar Pradesh (www. bagpat.nic.in, www.jpnagar.nic.in) won the Honour for ‘Aarogyam Kendra’, a unique end-to-end community based digital health mapping programme which ensures health for the entire family at their doorstep. The innovative use of IVRS and telecommunication technology devolves automatic call alerts/sms (in Hindi) with respect to specific family related information, on all aspects of child immunization, anbtenatal care, care of pregnant mothers, safe delivery, (Janani Suraksha Yojana), thereby ensuring health for the entire family with special focus on infant and pregnant/lactating mothers. c. Information & Public Relations Department, Orissa (www.orissa.gov.in/ IandPR) won the Honour for e-Despatch, which facilitates instant communication of

official letters to government functionaries using technology. d. Jhansi Jan Suvidha Kendra, JhansiUttar Pradesh (www.jhansi.nic.in/jjsk. htm) won the Honour for its completely new approach in the arena of public grievance redressal where citizens can register grievances through mobile or landline phones. This can be done from anywhere in the district at anytime and the citizens get a quick and effective response/disposal of their grievances registered through call/SMS/Internet. IN MULTI STAKEHOLDER PARTNERSHIP a. Ekgaon Technologies Pvt. Ltd.( www. ekgaon.com). The project MERComs is a partnership between WOSCA, Concern World Wide India and Government Welfare Departments. MERComs is a mobile phone-based monitoring system for tracking delivery of social welfare programme entitlements to rural poor. b. Swanchetan Society for Mental Health (www.swanchetan.org) won the Honour for setting up a 24-hour counselling service run by clinical psychologists that reaches out to victims of crimes and their families. Swanchetan works with Delhi Police, Delhi Judiciary, victims and their family ENVIRONMENT. Both the projects under this category, received certificate of appreciation. a. India Water Portal www. indiawaterportal.org for its use of web technologies to create an important network of users and for providing access to valuable content to a larger community. The portal is rich on-line resource on water for virtual community. b. Peer Water Exchange (PWX) www.peerwater.org for going beyond content creation and moving towards creating multi-modal expert input and support. The project is a scalable human network that can select, manage and monitor projects needed to eliminate global safe drinking water crises. NASSCOM Foundation would want to thank Genpact - the presenting sponsor, MphasiS - the platinum sponsor, CNBC - the media partner, and Ernst & Young - the process validators and the jury for supporting the NSIH 2010. This has enabled us to foster innovation and help bring the immense power that ICT can bring to development for the benefit of our country and the world at large. \\

A group picture of the awardees egov

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INTERNATIONAL SCAN

New Media Leadership: Peoples Participation and Contemporary Practices in Bangladesh OVERVIEW After countrywide 459 blasts in 63 districts within 30 minutes on August 17, 2005; the national debates was held to search the cause of this catastrophic violence. During these blasts people could not get real news from Bangladesh, they were dependent only on the news from international agencies and or e-mail from friends. But now the situation has been changed abruptly by the practices of the new media and citizen journalism in Bangladesh. Nowadays, the citizens particularly young generation widely uses mobile phone for communication. However in cities the blogging, social networking sites and online video distribution platforms are popular especially among the journalists, media professionals and development practitioners. But the grassroots reality has not yet changed as its needed parallel to the new media development in the cities. The majority of the rural poor don’t have access to the new media opportunities even to the basic information. It is true that the blast of 2005 mostly involved the grassroots youth who were innocent believers and didn’t don’t have clear concept about the modern world, culture, faith and life style. It happened, because Bangladesh could not give proper education to those ese youth generation as universal minded that could encounter fanaticism, hatred and ignorance. Not only such, because of lack of sharing and dialogue, prejudices and dogmatism are getting built up in the country. As a result indolence, violence, respect to other opinion and mutual

understanding as well free environment for free speech cannot be created which is the precondition for freedom of expression. NEW HOPE: VISION 2021 & DIGITAL BANGLADESH Bangladesh is now moving forward to build democratic and modern nation with the vision 2021. Its hopes to celebrate 50 years anniversary with dignity as a developed state. The government itself is promoting and taking favorable steps to make ICT based knowledge society, called “Digital Bangladesh”. The prime minster herself uses live video conferencing to talk with remote people. However “Vision 2021” and “Digital Bangladesh” is the main agenda of this government The new media opportunities and citizen journalism opened the golden gate to involve, inspire and encourage the unprivileged grassroots youth to participate in development process. The young generation has been inspired widely. Misguided grassroots youth could be saved from militancy, corruption, dogmatism as well as from terrorism by getting news and expressing their life views and experiences in global stages online by practicing citizen journalism. Such way the fruitful dialogue could create the environment for unity, peace and prosperity that will advance the democracy, human rights and development. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSIONS •

The constitution provides for freedom of speech and press; however the

government approved the Right to Information (RTI) Ordinance on March 29, 2009 allowing journalists and the public greater access to information. In the present democratic environ• ment the situation has been improved compared to previous years During emergency period (2006• 2008) the freedom of expression was in high tension. Newspaper ownership and content were sometimes subject to direct restriction by the military’s InterService Public Relations office and DGFI. Journalists reported being cautioned by DGFI against criticizing the government or the military. A state of emergency was declared on 11 January and the country’s TV and radio were ordered to stop broadcasting the news programmes for two days. CSB News and Ekushey TV were ordered by the Press Information Department not to broadcast “provocative” reports and commentaries. A management figure at ATN Bangla told Reporters Without Borders, “The ban on talk shows is a disaster. While there is no parliament, political broadcasts are the best way for citizens to comment on the government’s decisions.” Tasneem Khalil, Daily Star journalist and Blogger was detained on 11 May 2007 and allegedly tortured by Joint Forces because he had reported on human rights violations and had contacted international human rights organizations. He is now in exile in Sweden. Arifur Rahman, cartoonish of Prothom Alo’s Alpin, the satirical weekly magazine of the newspaper Prothom Alo, due to alleged blasphemy against Islam. egov

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Reporters without Borders claimed police monitored journalists’ e-mail. In addition, journalists and political figures detained by the Joint Forces reported they were forced to hand over their e-mail logons and passwords. MOST RECENT CENSORSHIP The YouTube was blocked in Bangladesh (March 6, 2009). Abbas Faruq, a spokesman for the government’s Internet regulatory body said, “YouTube has been temporarily blocked in the national interest.” In the Youtube, the audio clip showed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina defending her decision to negotiate with the guards while army officials shouted and jeered, drowning her out and preventing her from speaking. NATIONWIDE INTERNET CONNECTIVITY The country is now linked with global communication system through fiberoptic Internet. Rapidly the Internet speed and technical limitation are improving and providing by Grameen Phone, Tale Talk, City Cell, Banglalink telecommunication companies. But the majority grassroots poor yet cannot afford the high price of Internet, digital devices. Within these limitations also day by day new media and ICT becoming popular and playing roles as the democratising force and action media. It is creating virtual space for community gathering and grassroots development for repression, propaganda and enforces authoritarian control, particularly for the marginalised community. The situation will be more positive if the new media and citizen journalism could expand the periphery from cities to villages. DIGITAL DIVIDE, OWNERSHIP AND MOVING FORWARD Majority access to basic information and people’s participation are the precondition for democracy, human rights and development. With the vision to change, the history of new media in Bangladesh was started. In April 1994 off-line e-mail system of Bangladesh was operated from Netherlands as “DripTAP” brand and the first ISP was set up in June 1996. The Internet technology could not expand as VSAT licensed was blocked by BTTB until 2000. 46

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Still there is no minimum access and ability of majority grassroots people to information and join in the system. The city and village, rich and poor the big gap on access, opportunities and participation. To solve digital divide with last mile solutions the initiatives already started by Bangladesh Tale Center Network (BTCN), Grameen Tale Center, BRAC Net. Grameen Phone already established countrywide 5000 Tale Centers, BTCN going forward to setup 40000 Telecenters by 2011. Above all present democratic government is patronising and encouraging using ICTs. The Government has given permission to VOIP, Wimax wireless; Community Radio however approved the ‘Law of Information Rights’. As a result favorable atmosphere is been created for citizen journalism. Now 2G Internet via mobile available in Bangladesh. The 4G internet is coming soon as “BanglaLion” brand ONLINE NEWS AND CONTEMPORARY PRACTICES Most of all the national news papers in Bangladesh are available in online. The bdnews24.com, Prothom-Alo, DrikNews, Focus Bangla, Somewherein blog, Unheard voice, publishes the breaking news. UnnayanTV and UnnayanNews publish issues based video logging. However TV channels broadcast live spot news via Internet and point to point satellite connectivity. Although there is less than 4% of people using the Internet; but citizen journalists enthused to publish text, photo, and video logging. Within the copyrights violation is also nowadays huge number local content publishing online by young citizen journalists and online activists. In the way new media and citizen journalism are creating space as action media to create national confidence. They are inspired as in new media and citizen journalism does not have authoritarian censorship difficulties. NATIONAL CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS Along with low computer penetration, lack of local content, slow and expensive Internet access, lack of Bangla interface, prohibition to online payment system, cyber security, and lack of Internet Policy and traditional bureaucratic practices are big challenges of the nation. The freedom of expression cannot be improved with interactive muffs because

of outdated policies and practices in public level corporations. Public officials are too lazy even to check their email regularly. On most occasions emails are bounced back to the sender. The sender of the message must inform the recipient by telephone to check the email if it is important. The websites also not updated and properly functional to start e-Governance. Non-government organizations and private institutions are more advanced in the use of information technologies than are public institutions. Bangladesh most of prominent NGOs and activist organization have URL(s). As there is main crisis local content and access. The NGOs can play role for fruitful improvement by producing local content on their working area and issues. This way grassroots journalism and effective citizen journalism practices could be started beyond the personal and entertainment approaches of internet. In the way if New Media applications could be powerful tools for e-Commerce, eLearning, e-Governance. CONCLUSION It is true the country now has been divided based on information and views. By sharing the proper information, Bangladesh can overcome the misunderstandings, and can find the common vision for national prosperity. Misguided grassroots youth could be saved from militancy, corruption, dogmatism as well as from terrorism by effective use of Internet and new media. However with the vision to make a responsible new media leadership, along with Dhaka University, a number of private universities have started to teach new media, electronic and cyber journalism. Bangladesh is now moving forward to establish a new free democratic society where new media and citizen journalism are playing important roles. \\

SHAHJAHAN SIRAJ

Shahjahan Siraj is a multimedia designer, online journalist, ICT4D practitioner in Bangladesh. He is the founder of Machizo Multimedia, UnnayanNews and UnnayanTV. Along with multimedia design and publishing on human rights and redevelopment issues, he is teaching multimedia communication in University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh.

FEATURE

RFID: A Facilitator for Public Distribution System DR. RAJESH RAJAGURU

With a network of more than 4.99 lakh fair price shops (FPS), distributing annually products worth more than Rs. 33,000 crore, the public distribution system (PDS) in India is perhaps the largest distribution network of its type in the world. PDS promises basic food to over 330 million poor people living in India. Though PDS provides benefits to a vast majority of the Indian population, its performance is questionable in the grounds of efficiency and effectiveness. PDS supply chain failed to achieve its prime objectives due to the malpractices, mismanagement, corruption, black market and anti social elements. However, the shortfalls of the PDS supply chain can be overcome by the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) such as on line communications, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and radio frequency identification (RFID). INTRODUCTION Public distribution system (PDS), a major instrument of the Indian government’s economic policy, procure and distributes major commodities such as wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene to a large number of people living in India through Fair Price Shops (FPS). It also ensures the availability of food to the general public at affordable price. It helps in eradicating poverty and intends to serve as a safety net for the 330 million Indian poor people, who are nutritionally at risk. PDS is one of the largest supply chain networks in the world with 4.99 lakh Fair Price Shops (FPS) and is operated under the joint responsibility of the central and the state government. PDS SUPPLY CHAIN: AN OVERVIEW PDS supply chain consists of several central and state government bodies,

private industries, farmers, warehouses and transportation agencies. Central and state government is responsible for procurement, storage, transportation and distribution of products. Issuing ration cards and distributing food items to the end consumers through fair price shops (FPSs) are responsibility of the state government. Though the PDS supply chain provides food to vast majority of the Indian population, we should accept the fact that the whole chain is exploited by mismanagement, corruption and antisocial elements. Corruption is well rooted and spreaded along the whole PDS supply chain. The chain of corruption in PDS begins at the procurement stage itself. Some of the produce that is procured by the government for the public distribution finds its way into the open/ black market. Though enough produce are procured and distributed by PDS, the beneficiaries often find difficulties in getting what they are entitled to. This mismanagement and corruption is the indicator of inefficiency in PDS supply chain and distribution systems. Long supply chain and the large number of intermediaries’ involvement in the PDS is another reason for inefficiency and corruption. When the produce moves at each stage of PDS supply chain, there is a higher opportunity/chance for mismanagement, corruption, wastage and poor quality products. It was estimated that total value of corruption in PDS is Rs. 358crores/ year. Differences in distribution and subsidy systems followed by the state governments encourage trafficking of produce between states. Subsidised rice policy (Rs.1/ kg) announced by the Tamil Nadu state government encourages the trafficking of rice to the neighboring states; Kerala, Karnataka, Pondichary and Andhra Pradesh. Indian government and general public is longing for solutions to control the above mentioned malfunctions. The

use of advanced ICT could help PDS to curtail. TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT AND PDS SUPPLY CHAIN Technological advancement and major break through in (ICT provide huge opportunities for streamlining supply chain processes and minimizing mismanagement and corruption. Organisations’ are increasingly using ICT to facilitate supply chain processes, to maintain relationships with supply chain partners and to satisfy customer needs and wants effectively and efficiently. It is surprising that the utilisation of ICT by the Indian central and state government bodies is negligible compared to other developed and developing nations. However, Indian government bodies are recognising the use and importance of ICT and consider implementing such systems in PDS supply chain. Maharastra state government is pioneer in the initiative and collaborated with Spanco to computerize PDS supply chain. The project is expected to complete in the year 2012. The project use locationing technology such as GPS to identify and monitor the movement of the produce and streamline PDS activities. Research indicates that the combination of RFID and GPS technologies help organisations’ to streamline supply chain processes. RFD is considered as one time solution to all supply chain related problems. HOW RFID WORKS? RFID system includes tag, reader software and a computer. Tag consists of barcode, antenna and a small chip to store data and information. Tags are designed to attach with product lots. Reader usually attached with a mobile egov

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Though PDS provides benefits to a vast majority of the Indian population, its performance is questionable in the grounds of efficiency and effectiveness. PDS supply chain failed to achieve its prime objectives due to the malpractices, mismanagement, corruption, black market and anti social elements. computer and is used to communicate and read the data and information presented in RFID tags. Reader sends a radio signal that is received by all tags present in the radio frequency field tuned to that frequency. Tags receive the signal emitted from the reader via antennas and respond by transmitting stored data. RFID reader receives the tag signal via its antenna, decodes it and transfers the data to the computer system through a cable or wireless connection. Tags can hold many types of data, including a serial number, date of procurement, location, product variety, product quality and even the moisture content of produce. RFID tags can be either read-only or read-write. Data and information can be loaded in read-only tags at the point of procurement or at the warehouse. Data and information available in the read-write tags can be revised thousands of times. At each stages of the PDS supply chain, data and information can be modified and updated. At the delivery point (fair price shops), tags can be collected back for reuse. RFID APPLICATION TO PDS The effective use and implementation of RFID in PDS can facilitate PDS supply chain and promise eradicating mismanagement, corruption, trafficking, theft and anti social elements. RFID provides highly accurate and detailed information by capturing the data and information at each stage of the supply chain, automatically. It also improves the safety and efficiency of the food supply chain. RFID helps PDS supply chain in collecting the data and information about the produce procured and distributed (when the grain was harvested and procured, how long the grain was kept in warehouse, packaging and transportation details and point of sale information). The collected data and information will be stored in small RFID tags, which are adjoined with the produce lots. Locationing technology such as GPS can also be combined with RFID technology to automatically track and record the information regarding the field where the 48

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produce was picked, when and where it was transported and the current location of the produce. This also helps in reducing theft and trafficking. RFID chips store real time data and information. Food Corporation of India (FCI) is solely responsible for procuring food produce for PDS. When procuring food produce from the farmers, FCI should take initiatives to store information and data in RFID tags. Information and data regarding date of purchase, quantity purchased, product variety, moisture content, product quality, nutrient contents etc should be entered in RFID tags. The stored information will automatically passes to the next stage of the supply chain through RFID tags and facilitate the efficiency and effectiveness of supply chain process. For example, information on moisture content of the produce helps the warehouse managers to take appropriate actions before storing the product. When transport the procured food produce to warehouse, the tag reader fitted in the warehouse conveyer belt separate food produce lots based on moisture content, quality and variety. It helps the warehouse manager to follow appropriate warehousing practices to the produce. It was estimated that about 9% of the procured food grains spoiled or wasted in FCI warehouses due to the improper handling and storage system. By using RFID, FCI can automate warehousing systems and procedures and avoid spoilages and wastages. Another major problem faced by PDS is the supply of tainted and expired food produce. Beneficiaries of PDS often complained about the tainted produce and the illness caused by the spoiled food produce. By facilitating the ability of PDS and FCI to rapidly identify and remove potentially tainted food items from the supply chain, RFID can minimize the opportunity for food borne illness â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and the associated liabilities. Further, in the event of necessary recall, the serialized data and information associated with the produce lots (RFID tags), enables more narrow recall. Spoiled and infected product lots can be effectively and efficiently located and removed from

the distribution systems. In addition, the narrow recall procedure will eliminate the need to pull unaffected food produce from the supply chain and will reduce the costs associated with broader recalls. Another advantage of RFID to PDS will be its ability in tracking the location of produce. The uniqueness of the Indian PDS is, the grains produced in northern part of India (Punjab) have to be distributed in southern part of India (Tamil Nadu) and vice-versa. Thus the procured food produce should undergo several stages of supply chain before reach final beneficiaries. By using RFID, sale person at the point of sale (fair price shops) can track the location of the produce and predict the date of delivery. Combined with advanced ICT we could make the information available to general public and help them in planning their visit to fair price shop at most appropriate for purchasing produces. The RFID facilitated tracking system can also be used to control trafficking. It is evident that the food produce (rice and wheat) procured and allocated for PDS, sold in black market at a higher price and, at times, the real beneficiaries donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t receive adequate quantity. By using GPS supported RFID tags, we can track the theft and retrieve the produce from black market. RFID and biometric based ration card may be a better alternative for traditional paper based ration cards, and it will control fake ration cards and theft. RFID will also eliminate the traditional paper based filing and data storage system and improve the efficiency of civil servants working in the PDS. It is obvious that RFID can provide enormous benefits to PDS and streamline PDS supply chain. It requires minimum effort from the policy makers to implement. Even though the cost associated with the implementation of RFID is high, the efficiency and benefits we expected to achieve from RFID will overcome the cost in few years. \\

DR. RAJESH RAJAGURU

Dr. Rajesh Rajaguru is working as a Assistant professor (Marketing) in SolBridge International School of Business in Daejeon, South Korea. He has completed PhD in Marketing at Monash University, Australia, and has published research articles in the area of information systems, supply chain, consumer behavior, public policy and food systems.

NEWS

WIPRO DEVELOPS INTEGRATED POLICE INFORMATION SYSTEM Wipro Infotech, the India and Middle East IT Business of Wipro Ltd and a leading provider of IT and business transformation services, has developed an integrated Police Information System. This end-to-end online application software developed by Wipro covers all the important activities related to the day-to-day functioning of the police departments including the back-end administrative processes of General Administration, Finance & Stores etc. The processes have been automated to ease the tasks of administration and record keeping, thereby bringing in operational efficiency throughout the police department. Currently the application is in a pilot stage. This is a path breaking application and will bring in a lot of efficiency and agility in the functioning between various units of the police department through real time information sharing thereby resulting in better service to the citizens. The application has been developed on a flexible software oriented architecture that allows it to be used in a centralized deployment mode as well as a de-centralized deployment mode. This architecture enables each police station to function independently and at the same time allows for data to flow to the divisional and Head Quarter levels at regular intervals, thereby achieving the benefits of a centralised system. The application also has a citizen interface through which complaints can be raised and the status of an already lodged FIR can be tracked. The user interface can display content both in English and the local language.

The application has several operational modules which will maintain records within the Police Stations and other police bodies pertaining to various activities of the police in areas like Crime, Law and Order, Wireless, Traffic, Intelligence and counter intelligence, etc. Each module has the search function to retrieve relevant data. A standard based information exchange gateway will make available the required crime and criminal information for access by other states. The information exchange will also retrieve the required information from other states enabling a seamless sharing of crime and criminal information across the country. ONLINE COMPLAINT SITE BY MAHARASHTRA POLICE The Maharashtra Government has created an eComplaint system for citizens to e-mail their complaints to the police.Citizens can log on to the Maharashtra State Police online e-Complaint Registration Web site (http://gms. maharashtra.gov.in/CMS/). They will have to select the district and the police station name from a drop-down list and then lodge the complaint. Complainants will have to provide their mobile numbers and e-mail ids. The system will in real time send a verification code via SMS to the mobile number, which needs to be filled in by the complainant for authenticating the complaint. The verification code also helps the complainant track his complaint online. If the complaint remains unattended for long, it can be sent up to a higher officer.

FLIP SIDE by Santulan Chaubey

egov

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