egov.eletsonline.com
6th
Full Coverage
2015
ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON E-governance
Information Safety & Citizen Security
13th March, Le Meridien, New Delhi
` 75 / US $10 / ISSN 0973-161X
April 2015 | VOLUME 11 | ISSUE 5
Special Interview Riding High on IT
Ram Sewak Sharma
Jammu & Kashmir is Set to Take Off
Secretary, DeitY, Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India
Dr Nirmal Kumar Singh Deputy Chief Minister Jammu & Kashmir
R Chandrashekhar President, NASSCOM
Shambhu Singh
Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India
Cover Story Proposed ‘Pro-Industry’ measures announced in the Union Budget 2015 generate hopes of ‘Acche Din’ in the IT sector
Gaurav Dwivedi
CEO, MyGov, DeitY, Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India
Sanjay Jaju
Director, National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, Government of India
Rajesh Aggarwal
Joint Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Government of India
april 2015
corporate
Contents issue 4 n volume 11
23 CSR
R Chandrashekhar
Cover Story Great Expectations,Skyhigh Hopes
President, NASSCOM
32 Corporate
Divanshu Gupta
Product Manager, Security Product Department, Sony Corporation
34 Corporate
Narendra Nayak
EVP – Sales (India, SE Asia and Middle East, LinguaNext)
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36 Corporate
Prakash B Rane
government
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SPECIAL INTERVIEW
BFSI
Dr Nirmal Kumar Singh
Subhankar Dutt
Deputy Chief Minister, Jammu & Kashmir
National Business Head – BFSI, Ricoh India
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Gaurav Dwivedi
CEO, MyGov, DeitY, Government of India
20 Secure-IT
Ranjan Dwivedi
Director General Police, Home Guards, Uttar Pradesh
4
bfsi
14
Initiative
Managing Director, ABM Knowledgeware Ltd
BFSI
Abraham Chacko
Executive Director, Federal Bank
28 BFSI
G B Bhuyan
General Manager Financial Inclusion, Bank of Baroda > elets.egovonline.com > April 2015
38 Corporate
Ujjwal Sabharwal
Product Management Head, SafranMorpho
event Report
4455-
Event Report Data-Wise
further reading Editorial 05 event calendar 25 ecommerce 42 news 57
Optimism in Air
T
he Narendra Modi Government’s pre-poll promise of heralding Acche Din, supplemented by the first full Budget of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, has lifted the entrepreneurial morale across the technology sector.
These fiscal measures become all the more significant as most of the industry had been reeling under the decade-long global recession woes. A focussed approach towards small businesses and start-ups in the Budget 2015-16 is being deciphered as measures to address their financial issues. In line with the India Inc aspirations, the budget also gave required importance to facilitating the ease-ofdoing business, with due focus on promoting IT and Infrastructure Development. Reduction of tax rates on royalty and fee payable for technical services to 10 per cent from the previous 25 per cent is sure to boost the process of import of new technology and services into India. Further, realising the growing importance of technology, the NDA Government has also included IT and Business Process Management (BPM) among the 25 focus sectors in the recently launched ‘Make in India’ mission. NASSCOM estimates that the revenue of the IT-BPM sector at US$119 billion grew by 12 per cent in 2014-15, with export market alone making up for almost $100 billion. The Economic Survey 2014-15 also identifies this sector as one that continues to be one of the largest employers in the country, directly employing nearly 35 lakh people. Besides, thrust on the IT-driven Digital India campaign, exemption from Special Additional Duty (SAD) on all goods imported for use in the manufacture of electronic items and plan to establish SelfEmployment and Talent Utilisation (SETU) as techno-financial incubation and facilitation programme have the potential to herald better times (Acche Din) for the industry in general and start-ups in particular, sooner than later. The present issue of eGov magazine takes a closer look at the pre-poll promises made by the Modi Government and the supporting measures introduced in the Union Budget 2015-16 to fulfil those promises. It also tries to analyse whether the situation is conducive enough for the India Inc to expect better times in the current financial year. This issue of the magazine also touches upon some other topics of the day, like smart cities and eCommerce, in addition to interviews of top government officers, select bankers and corporate sector stakeholders.
We are pleased to offer you yet another power-packed edition of eGov. Look forward to your valuable feedback.
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cover story
Great Expectations, Riding high on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s apparently ‘pro-Industry’ budget, India Inc moves beyond the uncertainty of ‘will-it-won’tit?’ expecting that after a long spell of recession, better days could be just around
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ver since the Narendra Modi-led NDA Government took the reins of power in mid-2014 on the promise of heralding ‘Acche Din’, expectations of the business and corporate community have been running sky high.
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More than anything else, ‘Acche Din’ or better times slogan gave a ray of hope that business and economy would soon be witnessing better growth digits and that start-ups, SMEs, large corporate and public companies would soon stand higher in the green zone. And, all this
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cover story
Skyhigh Hopes hinges on the people’s faith in the ‘performer’ tag generally attached to Prime Minister Modi, who always lived up to the expectations of the people of Gujarat during his successive stints as the Chief Minister of the State. Having presented an interim budget in 2014, now government has proposed a full-scale budget. Businesses hope that the current financial year has more in store for them than the previous one — 2014-15, as then it was too early for the new NDA Government to implement all the initiatives it had talked about during the pre- and post-election days.
What the Budget has for ITeS, eGov? Dwelling upon the Prime Minister’s ambitious Digital India programme, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had
said in his Budget speech that the trinity of JAM – JanDhan, Aadhaar, Mobile and GST – are going to be the game-changing reforms in the Union Budget 2015. “Jan-Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile and GST will help the government implement direct benefits transfer (DBT) schemes in a leakage-proof manner,” he said. “The announcement to introduce GST Bill by April 2016 is a welcome decision for the Indian corporate. Reduction in corporate tax from 30 per cent to 25 per cent over the next four years, cut in taxes on royalty and technical fee as well as re-assurance on retrospective taxation will complement the efforts of improving investor sentiment and making India the next business destination,” says Rodney Noonoo, CFO, Xerox India, reacting to the Budget proposals.
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cover story
An overall sum of `2,510 crore has been set aside in the budget for 2015-16 under the head “Digital India Programme and Telecommunications and Electronic Industries”. Jaitely also announced `1,000 crore for promotion of start-ups and entrepreneurs, particularly in the technology sector. The Finance Minister also said the Postal Department would utilise the services of its vast network for the proposed Payment Bank, so that it can contribute to the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). “With a view to enhancing the scenario of eGovernance in India, post offices will function as payment banks to contribute to the Jan Dhan Yojana,” said FM.
ed for use in the manufacture of electronic items, and the government lived up to its expectation. Similarly, in a move aimed at promoting the eGovernance concept, the Railway Budget 2015 has also announced various initiatives for connecting with the citizens. In the Railway Budget, it was announced that a SMS alert service for passengers to inform them about arrival and departure of trains, mobile application to address complaints of people and ‘Operation 5 minutes’ system, wherein passengers travelling unreserved can get regular tickets within five minutes of entering the station. “…Provision of modified ‘hot-buttons’,
Given the high dose of ICT measures proposed in the twin budgets, companies operating in the IT domain can look forward to better growth and opportunities in the days ahead The Budget also provided the muchneeded relief to domestic manufacturers of personal computers and tablets by addressing the issue of inverted duty structure suffered by the industry. In this Budget, the IT industry was looking forward to the benefit of SAD exemption to be extended to all goods (including inputs, components and accessories as well as their parts and sub parts) when import-
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coin vending machines and ‘single destination teller’ windows will drastically reduce the transaction time,” Minister of Railways, Suresh Prabhu had informed Parliament. Given the high dose of Information & Communications Technology measures proposed in the twin budgets, companies operating in the IT domain can look forward to better growth and opportunities in the days ahead.
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Empowering Start-ups and Small Businesses The government has been working to provide a better platform to the start-ups and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across all sectors. MSMEs account for around 45 per cent of India’s GDP and their growth is crucial for the economic growth of the country itself. With the allocation of `1,000 crore proposed for the IT start-ups in the country, the government aims to reduce the financial barriers in the sector. According to the Finance Minister, the government will be establishing a financial and incubation platform for tech start-ups, and this will not only help in better employment opportunities, but also increase the scope of entrepreneurship between people. The Minister also announced an allocation of `150 crore for the creation of an IT hub. Reacting to the government’s focus on the emerging businesses, Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft India, feels that the Government has recognised the need to support start-ups and incubators, and has acknowledged that a culture of innovation needs to be fostered. “Budgetary allocations for incubators, a mechanism for supporting self-employment and talent utilisation will allow startups and MSMEs to access the funds and talent, creating new avenues for growth and employment,” Pramanik says. Alok Ohrie, President & Managing Director of Dell India, feels that the government initiatives will facilitate ease of doing business, encourage start-ups and give a big boost to the industry in general. “However, we’ll need to review the notifications before any predictions can be made on the impact on the sector.” “The commitment to further this process through online central excise and service tax registration in two working days, issuance of digitally signed invoices and maintenance of electronic records and cutting down of paper work and red tapism will be a significant move in digitising India, and IT industry players like us will look at working more closely with the gov-
cover story
Tech Start-Ups on way to Hyper-Growth Information Technology (IT) and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) makes up the single largest contributor to India’s Services exports. The Economic Survey 2014-15 says the IT and ITeS sector, including Business Process Management (BPM), continues to be one of the largest employers in the country, directly employing nearly 35 lakh people. NASSCOM estimates the revenue of the IT-BPM industry at US$119 billion grew by 12 per cent in 2014-15 with export market alone making up for almost $100 billion. The year witnessed
ernment on such projects,” Noonoo, the Xerox India CFO, adds. Hailing the Budget proposals, Altaf Halde, Managing Director - South Asia, Kaspersky Lab, says, “The announcement regarding bridging the digital divide between the urban and rural India is a welcome move. The announcement of allocating Rs 150 core to create a world-class IT hub in India under the Atal Innovation Mission is very encouraging.” The government’s decision to support the start-ups would go a long way in giving a boost to the IT sector, according to him.
Digital India, Make in India and Skill India Going further, speedy implementation of the National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN) will enable more rural communities to benefit from the ecosystem of services that can make governance more effective. At present OFC (Optical Fibre Cable) connectivity is available in all the state capitals and district headquarters, while the government plans to connect all the 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats in the country. This will be done by utilising the existing network of PSUs (BSNL, RailTel and Power Grid) and laying incremental fibre to con-
hyper-growth in the technology startups and software product landscape, with India ranking as the fourth largest start-up hub in the world having over 3,100 start-ups in the country. The software products and services revenue for 2015-16 is projected to grow at 12-14 per cent. Recognising the need for greater penetration of IT services domestically, the Survey notes that the Government’s “Make in India” mission has included IT and BPM among the 25 focus sectors. Source - Ministry of Finance
nect Gram Panchayats wherever necessary. The NOFN project, estimated to cost about `20,000 crore, is proposed to be completed in two years’ time. The project is being funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). The trinity of Jan-Dhan– Aadhar–Mobile introduced by the Finance Minister in the Union Budget 2015 would prove to be a major initiative towards mobile-first, cloudfirst India. The government has also shown its commitment to Skill Development to equip the nation’s youth to take advantage of economic opportunities. The formation of the National Skill Development Mission (NSDM) will consolidate efforts and outcomes, and budgetary allocations to financially support the youth in their skilling efforts would enable the country to benefit from its demographic dividend. The focus on job creation through the Make in India programme and providing gainful employment to India’s youth is commendable and a future-oriented outlook.
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cover story
The Finance Minister has focused on the ease of doing business in India. “We look forward to policy moves in the coming year that rationalise and streamline approvals for setting up businesses that can help attract investments and boost economic developments. I am positive about the reaffirmation of the government’s commitment towards PPP as a key driver for infrastructure creation. This would provide more opportunities for innovation-led companies to partner in India’s growth,” opines Pramanik of Microsoft India. The Budget has complete focus on education, health, agriculture and eGovernance. It has also laid due emphasis on infrastructure development, housing and manufacturing in India. According to Rakesh Dugar, Chairman & Managing Director, Mitashi, “With the government’s thrust on Make in India and skilling the youth of the nation, we are sure
Bhaskar Pramanik
to make India the manufacturing hub of the world… These are appreciable initiatives announced in the Budget presented by Fi-
Government has recognised the need to support startups and incubators, and has acknowledged that a culture of innovation needs to be fostered-Bhaskar Pramanik
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nance Minister Arun Jaitley. Reduction in custom duty on raw materials and intermediaries is good for the Industry as a whole.” Anil Valluri, President, NetApp India & SAARC, says, “The Government of India has charted out quite an ambitious list of plans including creation of a digitallyenabled India, smarter cities and ‘Make in India’. To transform the lives of people by going digital, the Union Budget 2015-16 should address the technology needs of the hour. We are sure that the budget will focus on providing investments in areas such as India’s technology infrastructure. A substantial amount needs to be earmarked to develop a robust network infrastructure across the country, which will be the foundation on which India’s digital economy will be built.” Valluri, however, adds that the IT sector also expects reduction in tax rates for the IT players, who will be key to realising this network infrastructure. “The government is taking up the ‘Make in India’ initiative in a big way. While this is a great initiative, the budget needs to address the issues of simplifying the tax regulations, improve ease of doing business and accelerate the speed of big ticket reforms on the anvil.”
Industry’s Concerns Despite the laudable steps announced by the government in the Budget, the biggest con-
cover story
– policy bottlenecks including ease of business, procurement challenges and nurturing start-ups. The Budget does cover parts of these priorities, but some concerns remain and we would urge the government to address these issues on priority.” Bhaskar Pramanik of Microsoft India said that many of the announcements made in previous budget, which were geared to minimise/resolve transfer pricing litigation are yet to be implemented. It is nice to make a mention of the measures for dispute resolution in the speech, but the key is implementation.” Alok Ohrie
cern of the industry remains with regard to the implementation of the proposed initiatives within the estimated time. The Indian IT industry has welcomed the FM Arun Jaitley’s announcement on removal of Special Additional Duty (SAD) on IT products in his Budget 2015 speech. R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM, says, “Our wishlist for the Union Budget 2015 included three key priorities
Voices Heard? The Narendra Modi Government seems to have duly addressed their wishlist. Debjani Ghosh, Managaing Director, Intel India, tweeted, “Great to see removal of SAD on IT products and reduction of tax on technical services. It will enable IT industry in India to do more.” Sanchit Vir Gogia, Chief Analyst and CEO, Greyhound Research, wrote on Twitter, “Great move on reduction of Spe-
Despite the laudable steps announced by the government in the Budget, the biggest concern of the industry remains with regard to the implementation of the proposed initiatives within the estimated time
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R Chandrashekhar
cial Additional Duty - solid move to help increase domestic manufacturing.” Commenting on the Budget, Pramanik further said that it reiterates the major programmes and initiatives that have been previously announced – Jan-Dhan Yojana, Skill India, Swach Bharat, Make in India and Digital India – and also talks about building a better social security system for its citizens to provide financial security. Dell India’s Ohrie goes on to add that some of the forward-looking announcements in the Union Budget 2015 – exemption of SAD, reduction of Basic Customs Duty on electronics components, inputs etc. will have a bearing on the IT sector. “As a major contributor to the IT sector in India, Dell has been eagerly awaiting these announcements that boost the manufacturing capabilities of the country, which will eventually add to the growth of the sector.” Pramanik, however, points out that the government also needs to ensure that some of the other tax-related concerns of the IT and ITeS sector are addressed as well. These include resolving ambiguities in taxation of software products and services. In this context, the service tax rate going up is a concern. “One of its direct fallouts is that people will be driven to use pirated software, especially because of the dual tax on software – the net tax rate for software is above 20 percent,” says Bhaskar.
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SPECIAL INTERVIEW
Dr Nirmal Kumar Singh Deputy Chief Minister, Jammu & Kashmir
Riding High on IT
Jammu & Kashmir is
Set to Takeoff
On the lines of the Government of India’s vision to build smart cities, the State of Jammu & Kashmir has also decided to convert four of its cities—Jammu, Srinagar, Katra and Anantnag—into smart cities, shares, Dr Nirmal Kumar Singh, Deputy Chief Minister of the State, in an exclusive interview with Dr Ravi Gupta, Editor-in-Chief of eGov magazine, and Souvik Goswami of Elets News Network (ENN)
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> elets.egovonline.com > April 2015
SPECIAL INTERVIEW
Jammu, Srinagar, Katra and Anantnag. IT is definitely going to play a major role in these cities. At present, it’s in a conceptual stage. We have just come in the government. It will take some time to give it a concrete shape. We are thinking on all aspects and will try to do as much as we can. This will also help us translate the idea of using more and more IT into our day-to-day life. A number of states are implementing IT in a big way as well as focusing on creating smart cities. Do you have any plan to follow the best practices of other states in these fields? We will definitely try to follow other states’ best practices. Wherever we get knowledge, we will What is your vision for implementing IT for the benefit of citizens in the State of Jammu & Kashmir? A new era has been heralded in the State of Jammu & Kashmir. Although I am not saying that nothing has been done in the past, right now, the State is passing through a transitional phase. Looking at the future prospects, in my opinion, we should adopt more and more eGovernance means to provide services to the citizens. The present government will focus more on eGovernance . Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put forth the vision of ‘Digital India’. Various states have started implementing projects for the same? It is very much there in our mind. I am going to request Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and state IT Minister soon for a meeting to discuss these issues at length. The Chief Minister has also got his vision for the betterment of the State. How will you bring IT companies to the State, which can lead to employment generation for the youth? The idea of generating employment through IT companies is something that the presentgeneration prefers. It is also the necessity of the time. It can improve State’s performance
A new era has been heralded in the State of Jammu & Kashmir. Although I am not saying that nothing has been done in the past, right now, the State is passing through a transitional phase and will help in employment generation in a big way. We will consider all these aspects and try to get in big investments in the field of IT here. It is being often said that the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) can ensure better delivery of government services to the citizens. How does the State plan to go about it? Although I am not an expert in this field, I can give you a general opinion on this. As someone holding a responsible position in the government, I can say that we will focus more on use of ICT in government departments and ensure delivery of services through eGovernance. We will soon initiate all necessary steps to ensure an effective eGovernance mechanism. On the other hand, on the lines of the Government of India’s vision to build smart cities, we have also decided to convert four of our cities into smart cities. These are
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approach them. And why just other states, we are open to visiting other countries even to learn from them. What is your vision for Jammu & Kashmir as the Deputy Chief Minister of the State? Jammu & Kashmir has entered a new phase and the formation of the new government is a turning point in its history. This State has only seen talks on politics, militancy and separatism in the last 67 years, but now the time has come when we must get rid of regional divides. The incumbent government has a vision for that and the Chief Minister has got his plans for the development of the State. Apart from this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also solidly behind us. Corruption, mis-governance, etc., have been the issues in this State. We will work hard to overcome these challenges and we will do anything and everything to lift the State at par with the other states of the country.
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Initiative
Gaurav Dwivedi
CEO, MyGov, DeitY, Government of India
Linking Government with Governed
MyGov aims to continuously connect people in the discussions pertaining to policy issues. In an interaction with Elets News Network (ENN), Gaurav Dwivedi, CEO, MyGov, speaks about the primary objectives of the interactive platform Tell us something about MyGov and the idea behind its launch. MyGov is an innovative platform to build a partnership between citizens and the government with the help of technology for overall growth and development of India. The basic idea behind MyGov is that the expertise and talent, which is available within the country in plenty, should be used for various kinds of activities that relate to governance like designing of policies and implementation of programmes, and getting creative inputs from the citizens. For the very first time in the history of this country, citizens from across India are coming together to share their innovative ideas, thoughts and suggestions with the government in areas related to various policies, programmes, schemes etc. MyGov aims to empower citizens to work hand-inhand with the government. What new initiatives have been launched on the MyGov platform? We have conducted a discussion on the issue of internet safety and now we are looking at bringing out guidelines in simple and nontechnical language. It is specifically targeted at children and youth. As we know that the Indian population is using internet for various activities in a big way, it brings a lot of
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shared information in the public domain. However, due to lack of understanding and awareness of safety practices, sometimes they may also be exposing themselves to various kinds of dangers. So, we have to educate them to ensure that they do not compromise either with their personal or professional security. We want to educate citizens to ensure secure use of internet. What sort of threats are challenging the IT ecosystem? Cyber bullying and stalking are there. Sometimes, people try to extract some information out of you. We are obtaining various suggestions and having internal discussions. Further, we are talking to various ministries concerned of the Government of India. Hopefully, in the next few
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weeks, we will have very elaborate yet simple to understand guidelines. How does MyGov educate people about cyber threats? MyGov is actually a gateway platform. Therefore, it allows a space where people can share information or their ideas. Once we have got their creative inputs, we publish it on MyGov website. Do these types of forums help in curtailing the menace? Well, awareness is something that you can never have too much of. So, there are certain ways of spreading awareness that we have been devising. We have regular interactions with citizens and ministries through the same platform.
First Person
Privacy
Under Threat Shambhu Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, tells Elets News Network (ENN) how individual as well as business data are always at the risk of being exposed and what measures should be initiated to guard the same
O
ver the last three years, we have been occupied with the subject of privacy and the vast world of eGovernance rather than the electronic world itself. Over the period of time, we have come to realise that even with government programmes and our actions in day to day life, we are
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being monitored or can be monitored from minute to minute. The government has its various schemes like CCTNS, RSYB, DNA profiling, protective rights of women, privilege communications and brain mapping, and most of those are being implemented through ICT platform. An increased collection of citizen
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data by the government and the private sector has been raising the privacy concern. Now, imagine a situation wherein somebody is after you and you are travelling. You pass through toll gate and swipe the card, your presence is recorded there. You make an ATM transaction and your presence is recorded there, too. So, if there is
First Person
somebody keeping a watch on you, you can be under surveillance round the clock. Further, information is regularly collected, which is mandatory in nature. For example, data related to health, travel, taxes, religion, education, financial status, employment, disability, living situation, welfare status, citizenship status, marriage status, criminal record, etc — everything is being collected. So, how intrusive things can go in our lives on a daily basis is better left to imagination. Global data flow today is no longer a file initiated by somebody 30 years ago through an individual action for a pointto-point transfer. Now, it is instant and the moment one starts a transaction, multiple data flows happen simultaneously — be it on the web, online social networking, search engines or cloud computing. Such ubiquitous data transfers over the internet and enhanced technology of data processing with direct involvement of individuals in trans-border data flows. While this exposes individuals to more privacy risks, it also challenges the businesses, as they collect the data of others, have their own data and are responsible for what they do with that. After all, information is the key as far as their businesses are concerned. The private sector, on the other hand, uses personal data to create new demands, build relationships and generate revenue from their services. Individuals upload their data on the web in return for useful services at almost no cost, but of course at the risk of being exposed. The majority of global cyberspace and communication networks are built using hardware and software solutions having proprietary closed source court. The realisation that the global networking infrastructure built up in the last couple of decades are porous and, more frighteningly, can even possibly be not under the control of the user and can be shut down remotely are possibilities which are now increasingly clear to the entire global cyber security establishment. Now, if we think of the Snowden revelations and the surveillance activities carried out by the intelligence agencies for other nation-states, the information leak so far has revealed that the holier-than-thou western MNCs and their technologies
have been leveraged for a competitive advantage through economic and diplomatic gains by the US intelligence apparatus. The dangers to national security as well as individual liberties from the Big Data stored on the server farms of the giant MNCs are but the tip of the iceberg. The issue is monitoring directly through intelligence agencies and indirectly through the multinational corporations controlled and/or paid by them. All of us perhaps know of many such examples. Now, this has added a new urgent dimension to the requirement of enumerating policies and enacting laws on privacy for individuals as well as approving the security of the nation vis-à-vis cyber attacks. As of today, India does not have any
lection of data and use of information by the government. This has left to ambiguity over who is allowed to collect data, what data can be collected, what are the rights of the individual and how the right to privacy will be protected. The extent of personal information being held by various service providers and specially the enhanced potential for their conversions, i.e. digitisation, carries with it is a matter that raises issues about privacy. There are substantial justifications for the right to privacy, yet there are certain violations of privacy that as individuals we should be willing to suffer in order to maintain a proper balance between the right to privacy and the security. For citizens to accept and consent to certain forms of sur-
We have come to realise that even with government programmes and our actions in day-to-day life, we can be monitored from minute to minute… An increased collection of citizen data has been raising the privacy concern comprehensive policy. The High Courts and Supreme Courts have in various cases taken a stand that the situation should be evaluated on case to case basis and then let the practical kind of policy take shape in its natural course. We don’t even have national policy on governing of the data which are being collected for utilisation and sharing of that data which impede the citizen’s private life. Currently, there is no overarching policy governing the col-
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veillance, i.e. to say it’s a positive phase, the state should be accountable for its actions. It cannot be left with an unfettered discretion to determine why and where it carries surveillance on its citizens without some form of what you could say a legal responsibility. Now, in this chaste paradigm, the government and the civil society need to debate and build legal regimes and practices that are transparent and inspire trust. Our entire public cyber infrastructure is inherently insecure and open to snooping. We need to ensure our national security and provide an acceptability of privacy of our citizens that is differential, i.e. national critical ICT infrastructure is based on verifiable open source protocols, which are entirely under our control enabling government policies and legislations for promoting indigenous infrastructure, data storage of the Indian population under Indian National Jurisdiction. It is the need of the hour and herein lies the opportunity for Make in India.
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Secure-IT
Ranjan Dwivedi Director General Police, Home Guards, Uttar Pradesh
IT — the Cost Saver,
Efficiency Enabler One can buy technology simply by paying money, but for its adoption by the masses, promotion of a technology culture remains a pre-requisite, observes Ranjan Dwivedi, Director General Police, Home Guards, Uttar Pradesh, during an interaction with Elets News Network (ENN)
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Secure-IT
How do you find SecureIT as a platform where you can share and hear the thought process of the key stakeholders of the industry? First of all, I would like to suggest that events like these should be conducted on university campuses, so that students - young minds can benefit from deliberations and also express their views. In locales like expensive hotels, 80 per cent benefit of this kind of conferences is networking. Also, If we can find a platform which is in-between a conference and a workshop, then we will be able to deliver and achieve much more. The workshop mode involves teams, which have five to 10 people working together. It will lead to the result of workshop being actionable concrete plans. What are the present-day challenges of IT security? It is a huge open question and there are two aspects, IT in security and security issues in use of IT. Addressing the first, we must understand, to begin with, that IT is basically an enabler. It can only leverage technology to do what you are doing otherwise. By itself, IT will not solve your problem. It allows you to work in a more efficient, cost-effective and efficacious manner to probably achieve more in given time. However, the basic governance has to be put in place first, or else the desired results may not be achieved, no matter how much investment is sunk in IT. Apart from that, the trouble is that in India, we have not given sufficient care to sectoral reforms, especially in sectors like security and governance in general. The basic systems and structure are still “19th century civil service”. These systems were designed for stability to serve the interest of colonial imperialism, not large scale social and economic change. In most day to day functioning of public systems, IT is not used in mission critical work- it is still full paper based back-up, which is why security issues are not high on agenda. People avoid marginal investment in security. Increasingly smart phones are being used to access the net (globally, 4 for every personal computer), and smart phone security is even less addressed. Most computing and all security software and guidance is in English fluently used by 10 per cent of the people, and almost none in Indian Languages accounting for 90 per cent. Use of
mindset, work cultural openness and mutuality in functioning. Unfortunately, in the real world, the government officers hardly talk to each other, and departments and ministries do not readily interact with each other. However, Digital technology can force a data structure and sharing, and force a change in behaviour. It is a strategic issue that must be leveraged when designing new systems.
pirated software, and not updating to avoid detection also creates vulnerabilities. (The free and open source movement has been week in India). All free e- mailing systems are subjected to analytics, and the humanity today lives in a virtual glasshouse. I got a scare early morning by an unsolicited alert form Google that my flight was leaving in two hours! Can there be a more challenging time for IT security? What are your views about the Government of India’s ‘Digital India’ programme? How do you think it can be implemented more effectively? We can have a ‘Digital India’ only if we first sort out the issues relating to the ground level governance, interdepartmental cooperation and coordination, meta data standards, interoperability issues addressed and data base sharing. And, we are quite away from all this. Thus, India will be able to avail the advantages of digital technologies, which make interaction and decision making efficient and cost effective, services ubiquitous and people centric when we have seamless database sharing and interoperability at the level of systems. This calls for a digital
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Through its ‘Digital India’ initiative, the Modi Government is trying to transform traditional ways to look at things. What’s your take on that? The current federal Government, as much as I am aware, working in a state, is taking recourse to the civil service to implement a change agenda. But, the structure of civil service is such that it works in cultural isolation, and even cultural inbreeding without exposure to modern systems. Policy making maybe at the Center, but implementation is in the states. Despite having best public interests in intent, lack of exposure for a vast majority of All India Service officers, who prefer to remain in the states, severely handicaps them in adopting modern work methods. Also, we must remember that we are still carrying on with a service structure, which was designed to serve colonialism. Recruitment for most services has little relevance to the skills and aptitude needed for the job the incumbent is required to do with promotion in service linked to performance in an exam passed which had little relevance to the job. Unless we are ready to see civil service reforms in a big way (and there is big backlog) with scope for specialisation, interaction with academia and research for evidence based functioning, opportunities to work periodically in non-governmental systems, achieving the grand vision of Digital India with a different way of working will remain a huge challenge. The ‘Digital India’ initiative offers immense potential, but needs a huge cultural shift for the initiative to deliver value. Successive large centrally sponsored projects with investments in ICT and policing not delivering value is a good illustration. (Views expressed in the interview are entirely personal of the interviewee and do not reflect the views of the organisations he is associated with) ranjandwivedi@gmail.com
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CSR
Joining hands
to Bring about Change R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM, shares with Elets News Network (ENN) the challenges and opportunities in the CSR segment in India 22
> elets.egovonline.com > April 2015
CSR
How is technology shaping the CSR initiative in the country and what are the challenges facing the IT sector? A number of challenges have been put before the industry in different areas, and very specifically shared by none other than PM Narendra Modi himself. We are already fully involved in the Digital Literacy programme through the Foundation. It is one of the earliest and the largest programmes, which the industry has done, because the IT sector has been well-known for good governance as well as for implementing social responsibility. Many of the companies have their philanthropy arms in separate foundations for this purpose. Also, the use of technology in a lot of the CSR initiatives can bring about a big change in the social sector. For instance, very often we keep thinking of digital literacy and say let’s get
You said digital learning is a big challenge and the government can get involved directly or through a B2B model. Could you elaborate on that? Earlier, a lot of initiatives were being taken in the CSR segment. One knows the kind of work being done by Intel extensively under the NDLM (National Digital Literacy Mission) umbrella. Companies like Microsoft too have been contributing in the past with some of the learning materials etc, but more recently the
For example, the content which comes from companies like Intel etc can be used everywhere. There is no need for reinventing that content again, though there may be a need to customise it. Second necessity is to customise it to the local requirements, and the government further brings in the scale and the money, or else it may not be an ideal revenue model. However, these may not be the kind of initiatives that are necessarily linked to a revenue model. Combining these is what we are advocating and that’s the partnership being built with the government.
…IT sector has been well-known for good governance as well as for implementing social responsibility... Many of the companies have their philanthropy arms in separate foundations for this purpose
You also spoke about sharing success stories and how there lies a huge opportunity. Are you planning any initiatives for their outreach? Individual companies have worked on different models and have their own variations. Sharing these models and examples is a good idea, because ultimately every company will cover only a few locations and a few villages. However, these are IT companies using their expertise and their money directly. To get scale, they will need a combination of government and the corporate sector, because it may not be in the core area of competence of other corporate houses. So, this offers a model and a way for them to really contribute meaningfully rather than just putting money into some fund. Actually, the challenge is not about the money; the question is whether we are offering opportunities to other non-IT players to take initiatives through the IT sector. There can be another way as well, wherein the non-IT industries can be offered models and shown the way in which they can make a bigger impact using today’s disruptive technologies to achieve scale.
hold of the graduates and make them digitally literate. Nevertheless, the way that technology has evolved today, digital literacy may be the first step to literacy rather than the other way around. Today’s technologies have enabled a complete reversal of the way in which social challenges are addressed.
government came up with this Digital Literacy programme, DISHA, and in that the implementation is through the CSC network also. Here, the point is that rather than saying that it’s a government programme and the other is a business programme, the idea is how one combines the strengths of the two.
What is the role of NASSCOM Foundation in this regard? Nasscom Foundation not only offers the models and the partners, but also direct facilitation to build the execution and the collaboration model. The Foundation helps identify the different needs and brings them together.
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CSR
Technology
Aiding Philanthropy ‘Digital India’ programme is all set to get the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) boost, making the initiative more effective as well as people-friendly
U
sing technology to add to the social good was one of the primary objectives of the NASSCOM Foundation’s “CSR Leadership Conference 2015”, held in New Delhi on 26th March, 2015. It registered attendance of over 200 leaders from the IT sector, government and NGOs. The meet also looked and discussed various initiatives and ways to create social impact through CSR programmes. With the Government of India mandating 2 per cent of profit to be spent on CSR activities, the event enabled a dialogue between relevant stakeholders on making collaborative use of technology for national good by plugging gaps in India’s social development. Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA Government after coming to power had announced several schemes that would make India a technology hub and one of them is the ‘Digital India’ initiative. “Our Foundation’s focus is on how we can leverage technology for good and create models which can be replicated and scaled. The key areas of focus for us are digital literacy, NDLM or DISHA, and we are also in the space of digital libraries. Last year, we did a pilot project with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where we got two libraries, in Patna and in Ghaziabad, and created them as public spaces, helping them with an IT centre and creating a knowledge hub,” shared Shrikant Sinha, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation. Primarily aimed at addressing key national imperatives of health, education, skill and sanitation through CSR initiatives, the Conference also focused on helping corporates scale their CSR efforts through effective strategies and partnerships. The Conference also saw R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM, release “Ideas That
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Dignatories launch ‘Ideas that Impact’, a compendium of stories of impact of IT, at CSR Conference
Impact”, a compendium of real-world stories that showcase the use of technology and innovation for creating scalable social impact. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Ganesh Natarajan, Chairman, NASSCOM Foundation, said, “Most of the Indian companies have been undertaking social initiatives proactively, driven by a desire to give back to the society. With a concerted approach, it is possible to channelise these energies towards sustainable and inclusive growth, and this Conference aims to propel the same.” He further emphasised on the larger agenda, which PM Modi had talked to NASSCOM about, and which the Foundation has been implementing. “In areas like eWaste, Digital Libraries and National Skills Mission, our role has been of digital literacy,” added Natarajan. Dr Ajay Kumar, Secretary, DeitY, Government of India, emphasised the need for collaborative approach under the Public Private
> elets.egovonline.com > April 2015
Partnership model for creating collective and sustainable Digital India. The National Digital Literacy Mission, aimed to create digital literacy in one member of each family, is one of the great examples of collaborative approach for effective collective impact, he said. Apart from Dr Kumar, the Conference was attended by N S Parthasarathy, Co-Founder and COO, Mindtree; Debjani Ghosh, VP-Sales & Marketing Group, and MD, South Asia, Intel; Kiran Karnik, Member, MCA Monitoring Committee; P Balaji, Director, Vodafone; Prof Jeremy Williams, Director, APCSE, Griffith University, Australia; Mohan Reddy, Founder & Executive Chairman, Cyient and Vice Chairman, NASSCOM; Vijay Chadda, Head, Bharti Foundation; and Susmita Malik, Global CSR Leader, Genpact, among a host of other CSR leaders, policy makers from the Government and Heads from NGOs.
eHEALTH Magazine
2015
KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE, Higher Education
2015
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6th Annual
bfsi
Abraham Chacko Executive Director, Federal Bank
Financial Inclusion
Moving on IT
Abraham Chacko, Executive Director, Federal Bank, shares his views with Elets News Network (ENN), about the use of technology in making financial inclusion an existing reality 26
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Now that we have come to a stage of completion of financial inclusion (FI) targets set by the PM, what are your views about its implementation in the country? The Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) has been a mission run with a lot of zeal. For example, we as EDs of financial institutions have to be on a con-call meet every Wednesday with the government official in charge, clarifying and justifying weekly targets given to us with regard to PMJDY. With this as the key mandate in the last few months, we have almost 12.5 crore accounts opened across the country. At present, the focus is on three aspects – the JanDhan account, Adhaar Card and the mobile banking aspect; cumulatively named as JAM (Jan-Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobility). The duties involved meeting the target of opening over 12.5 crore accounts by the next fiscal year. Linking Aadhaar with bank accounts through RuPay Card will ensure getting subsidies easily, thus, bringing a transformation in the ground scenario. However, there are cases of duplicity or a single person holding more than one bank account under PMJDY, through various business correspondents etc.
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Even then the first step towards opening bank accounts for the masses is 75 per cent accurate. Now, further action should be to ensure financial inclusion even in the last mile and also ensure whatever money is lying among the population is enrolled under the financial institution scheme. What about the rural scenario? We have to also make sure that we shift our focus to the rural areas, which we ignored in the last 20 years. To facilitate an overall inclusion of the rural population, we might have to spend a bit of extra money in issuing more and more RuPay cards, through which the rural population will get real-time benefits. Thus, the key is to get the entire lot of PMJDY bank accounts into transactional accounts. Another important aspect that payment institutions or banks must focus on is to create mobile wallets for customers residing in a different town or states. Small points like departmental stores in that specific region can be the payout points to the customers. Technology has influenced almost all or every sector of operation across the nation. To what extent has it influenced banking industry? Today, banking is the biggest user of technology, given its massive customer base awaiting mobility for the ease of banking. There were days when banking ledgers were printed through electro-magnetic machines, later done by posting machines. However, the figure has grown up to as much as 45,000 bank branches in the last four years, which is remarkably well. These days, entire banking operations are fit to be called paperless including transactions. Customers these days do not visit banks much for any kind of transactions. Newer innovations are taking place in the industry ensuring bestin-class facilities for customers; thus, leading the industry towards modernisation every day. With e-banking and mobile banking launched, banking sector has got a new identity ensuring ease to its facilitators, cutting out the complica-
At present, the focus is on three aspects – the Jan-Dhan account, Adhaar Card and the mobile banking aspect, cumulatively named as JAM (Jan-Dhan, Adhaar and Mobility) tions. As a matter of fact, the basic platform for payments that is introduced to customers has to be very sophisticated. There is a huge scope of innovations for banks in this space. Thus, it can be rightly said that they are no longer the conventional institutions where people flocked in the month-end to collect their pensions. What were the challenges being faced while implementing IT and ICT in the Tier II or Tier III cities? There was or is no challenge when we implement IT or ICT in the Tier II or Tier III cities. People today are tech-savvy; almost everyone today has smartphones and mobile banking facility ensured in their hand-held devices. However, in terms of tech literacy, we are still lagging behind as a nation to some extent. Financial institutions have to organise thorough knowledge enhancement sessions for rural people when they introduce any new technology in this scenario.
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Another aspect impeding smooth functioning of technology in this sector is tech connectivity or infrastructure, which is of poor quality, to ensure seamless connections. But on the positive side, we are able to monitor each and every branch from the head office itself. We can easily figure out which ATM has how much currency and what amount is being transacted from the point; which renders us the real power of technology. What is your take on the concept of plastic money? How far do you think that the economy is behind from adopting cashless transactions entirely? It will be time consuming for the entire economy to go cashless. Even cities like Singapore, which is hi-tech and draws people from other countries for tourism, education and employment, are yet to be converted into an entirely cashless economy, even though there is a huge cash inflow. However, partly, we are converted to cashless structure wherein we transact through cards in places like food courts, shopping malls, multiplex etc. Even if you book a radio cab today, you need not carry cash if you have a mobile wallet, through which you can clear off your bill. However, five years down the line, we will be able to witness greater use of technology.
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bfsi
G B Bhuyan General Manager Financial Inclusion, Bank of Baroda
ATMs Barrier to
Cashless Economy! G B Bhuyan, General Manager - Financial Inclusion, Bank of Baroda, shares his thoughts with Poulami Chakraborty of Elets News Network (ENN) on the technology opportunities that exist in the financial inclusion space in the country
How do you perceive the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana initiative (PMJDY)? This is one of the best steps ever taken by the government. We began with Financial Inclusion (FI) way back in 2005, which was referred to as bank-led initiative and is today known as bank-led financial programme as per the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India. During 2005-2013, RBI revised its programme twice. The first guideline under the programme was to complete FI by 2012, which the bankers were not able to. Therefore, RBI has now introduced a segregated FI plan for 2013 to 2016, wherein all the six lakh villages across the country have been identified
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up reasonably over the years is mobile banking, which enables customers to bank on their fingertips. None the less the problem lies in the fact that people in rural areas need more awareness and education on these initiatives.
and allocated to the banks, out of which 5.9 lakh were not included in the banking sector. Most of these villages are in far-flung remote areas and cannot be covered under the banking sector as bankers have their own limitations. There are around 40,000 bank branches in these villages to handle this odd issue in remote places. Thus, it was difficult for banks to address this, unless government authorities came forward for the cause. Government authorities can open branches from 40,000 to 6 lakh — one branch in every village, unlike the bankers, who have limited authority to address the issue. We, as bankers, tried to introduce various models — of which, Business Correspondent (BC) model is one of the most popular one. However, the problem with this model is acceptability by the villagers and developing that trust and credibility depends on the BC network and its viability. Now, with the government coming forward with the PM Jan-Dhan Yojana, this model in the banking sector will be given a boost and fill up to sustain better. The government has taken the right step to rope in government machinery for the benefit of the citizens of the country.
they might vanish after collecting their money. Moreover, the villagers have very small amount of money to save as their source of income is also low. We started sending all our officers and link branch managers with BCs in villages once a week, compulsorily. So, when villagers find managers and officers from banks along with the BCs they start believing on these people and automatically the business increases. With backdrops and branding for the BCs in association with the bank, people started trusting their money with us, resulting in a record number of bank accounts opened with us. The fourth important thing that we took up is to ensure that our BCs visit the villages everyday to ensure villagers have regular ease of banking.
What initiatives has the Bank of Baroda taken towards financial inclusion? There are several initiatives that we have taken towards this cause. In early 2011, our bank was trailing behind other banks despite adopting several business models of proven success. Then, we tried identifying the problems, and as a solution, the foremost thing that we have done is to introduce a sense of ownership within our organisation, which has helped us in building and boosting our confidence. Through this initiative, we were also able to create awareness amongst our branch managers that in the FI initiative, there is a business for the banker. The second initiative that is remarkable is BC remuneration, because if these Business Correspondents are financially comfortable, only then they will work under this model. So, it was important for us to pay them competitively. We started to restructure BC remuneration by giving them added incentives on a stipulated amount of account opening procedures. The third good initiative that I would like to mention is opening of ultra-smart branches in remote villages, which is a step above the BC model. BCs are not credible for villagers as
On one hand, we are advocating a cashless economy, while on the other, we are installing ATMs everywhere, helping people withdraw more and more. It is high time the government addressed these issues
Technology has gone miles in various sectors. How has technology been adopted by your institution for implementing FI? We Indians are very good at technology and its exploitation. There is a constant competition amongst firms for newer technological advancements. However, what is needed at this juncture of advancement is a technology that
will provide seamless connection to me and my network, which will ensure connectivity to all even in far-flung areas. We may deploy any technology, but it will not work if it does not talk to my people on a real-time basis. Seamless connectivity being the issue, today we face problems in our data centre reflecting on these transactions immediately. For banking, we use two kinds of technologies – GPRS for remote areas that does not have internet connectivity, and wherever there is internet, we have kiosks for reflection of transactions. But, both have their limitations. We have more than 5000 kiosks spread across the country, which is the highest number recorded yet. Another area of evolution that has picked
April 2015 > elets.egovonline.com >
Access to ATMs and frequency of its distribution is a basic problem that people have faced in rural years, with little done to the issue. How can this be resolved? The main issue is that we are a cash-oriented economy, but we need to move towards cashless transactions. The density of merchant POS (Point of Sale) machines needs to be increased in almost all types of market transactions. Problems like low density of ATMs, no cash, or out-of-service ATMs, can be addressed through cashless or contact-less transactions. In my opinion, ATMs should be banned. On one hand, we are advocating a cashless economy, while on the other, we are installing ATMs everywhere, helping people withdraw more and more. It is high time the government addressed these issues. Instead of increasing the density of ATMs
across the country, it is important that we increase the density of POS machines, providing one to each vendor and the required connectivity. Even in malls, these machines do not have wireless connectivity. We need to improve on these services to make money readily available in cashless mode across the country. How far do you think is our economy from going cashless? In India, we have adopted cashless transactions to some extent. Shopping malls have POS machines, and online transactions, mobile banking which is common these days. However, to ensure entirely cashless transactions, we have to wait for about five-six years.
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BFSI
Subhankar Dutt National Business Head – BFSI, Ricoh India
Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana
An Opportunity for IT Companies Ricoh is one-stop solution provider for all IT needs of the BFSI sector, says Subhankar Dutt, National Business Head – BFSI, Ricoh India, in an interaction with Elets News Network (ENN)
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Traditionally, Ricoh has been known for hardware products. Can you tell us about your presence in the BFSI segment? Yes, we have traditionally been known for hardware products. However, today our breadth of experience translates into our ability to recommend, design, deploy and maintain IT infrastructure for our customers. Ricoh has transformed into a very well-equipped organisation when it comes to managing both document and print services as well as its endeavours in the field of IT and IT-enabled services. Today, we have expanded our products and services offerings and have capabilities to easily provide single point of contact for all IT products and services to totally optimise the IT environment. We have gone much more in-depth in our approach towards customer and have created specialised products and solutions customised for the needs of individual sectors. Healthcare, education and BFSI, among others, are some verticals where we are trying to implement our reach. The whole idea has been to be near customer’s focus to drive our business aligned to the needs of the customer.
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When it comes to the BFSI sector, we are trying to develop vertical-specific applications. We have our footprints in all the major public sector or private sector financial institutions, be it as hardware system integrators or providing them with our own homegrown Ricoh cloud services or data services. We have a whole bouquet of services to cater to the BFSI sector currently. This is substantiated by the kind of projects we are involved in right now. Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is a pioneering effort of the Government of India to achieve financial inclusion. How can you partner and be part of this revolution? Today our diverse products and services portfolio and strong partnerships across the IT industry position us as a one-stop solution provider for IT needs of any government projects or citizen-centric schemes. We are fully equipped to execute projects that demand robust technology platforms for diverse geographies and scale at the moment. And probably, that is why we have been awarded the scope of work from the Department of Posts, Government of India for modernisation of the post offices across the country. It will definitely be our endeavour to replicate the same as an enabler. When it comes to financial inclusion initiative taken by most of the public sector banks that have been given the mandate, we could replicate what we are doing as hardware integrators, as a solution provider
share of BFSI is 13 per cent, `250 billion spend, precisely. Our IT services include IT infrastructure services including data centre solutions, network and security, virtualisation, infrastructure management and cloud software. Hence, we are excited to be part of this large and dynamic sector. BFSI sector is growing rapidly in India, and PMJDY and similar financial inclusion endeavours or financial literacy are some of the biggest opportunities. There is no doubt that it is going to be a major player in the economy. It has always been a major player, but now with
With the government putting a lot of thrust on PMJDY, role of banking as well as insurance sector and other financial institutions will actually quadruple within the next five years and as an end-to-end service provider to the Central Government. So, I think that could be sufficiently and successfully replicated in financial inclusion spaces. What are your expectations from the market? The technology spends for FY2014 in India stands at `1,900 billion, and within this the
the government putting a lot of thrust on PMJDY, role of banking as well as insurance sector and other financial institutions, which are there in the eco-system, will actually quadruple within the next five years. I will not be surprised if it goes to a very high and competent CAGR level. And surely, technology providers like Ricoh and others will also grow in the whole process.
April 2015 > elets.egovonline.com >
What kind of arrangement have you worked out with the Department of Posts for pushing financial inclusion in the country? As we are a leader in the field of imaging and IT solutions, we have been choosen by the Department of Posts, along with Telecommunications Consultants India (TCIL), as the system integrators for “Rural Information & Communications Technology (ICT) – Hardware (RH)” solution, which will enable them to modernise approximately 129,000 post offices through automation. Under the Ministry of Communications & IT, the Rural ICT Project is a part of the larger IT modernisation project being undertaken by the Department of Posts. The primary goal of the Rural ICT Project is to improve the quality of service, provide more value-added services and achieve financial inclusion in unbanked rural population. This will provide wider reach to Indian populace through more customer interaction channels. The scope of work includes supply of mobile computing devices and peripherals, installation of solar UPS, connectivity to access the application by service providers, along with maintenance for five years. We have leveraged our IT solutions suite on similar projects in financial inclusion space, like MNREGA and other similar projects. This system integration contract further strengthens our foray into IT services and showcases our ability to deliver such crucial and large-scale deployment and also contribute to the development of India.
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Corporate
Divanshu Gupta
Product Manager, Security Product Department, Sony Corporation
Spend More Be Secure What are the top security products offered by Sony Corporation? Sony has two types of divisions: Consumer Electronics and Professional Security Solutions divisions. In terms of security, Sony has a powerful presence in radio surveillance as most of the agenda moves around smart and safe cities. Radio surveillance is an important aspect, which Sony offers for keeping people secure. We have recently introduced some surveillance cameras for better, smart and safe cities.
Keeping in mind the rapidly growing cyber threats, Sony has come up with new products specially designed for making safe and secure cities. Divanshu Gupta, Product Manager, Security Product Department, Sony Corporation, tells Elets News Network (ENN) plete darkness. With built-in IR (infrared) illumination, it is complemented by an additional white LED illuminator that can be triggered by movement, capturing clear colour footage and providing a visual warning to intruders. Advanced IR technology ensures that close-by and far-away objects are all evenly exposed.
What are the unique features of Sony’s products? We are more focussed on government and commercial segments now, and keeping this in mind, we recently launched
One of the important challenges is that government is always on the lookout for products that are not very expensive. But, better security products might not be that cost effective 32
VB632D camera. It is a weather-resistant, easy to install ‘bullet-type’ fixed network camera, ideal for a wide range of roundthe-clock security and surveillance tasks from city centres, transport systems and retail centres to schools and colleges. It captures smooth and crisp full HD pictures at 60 frames per second, with industry-leading sensitivity for clear, low-noise images in challenging low-light conditions. The camera can capture even in com-
> elets.egovonline.com > April 2015
What challenges did Sony‘s security division face during its initial days? One of the important challenges in terms of introducing security products is that government is always on a lookout for products that are not very expensive. Hence, the better security products and technology suffers as it might not be that cost-effective. Similarly, in the commercial segment also scenario is similar and it is sometimes difficult to offer better products at low prices. Which vertical, do you think, is most affected by the security threats? Most of the sectors, including transportation, industry and government sector, find the threats looming large on their IT domain.
corporate
Narendra Nayak EVP – Sales (India, SE Asia and Middle East, LinguaNext)
Demolishing the
Language Bar LinguaNext launched Linguify.Cloud solution in mid-2014 to enable a web application and website to work in multiple Indian languages simultaneously without a change in the source code. In an interaction with Elets News Network (ENN), Narendra Nayak, EVP-Sales (India, SE Asia and Middle East), shares more about the initiative
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Tell us something about Linguify.Cloud and its unique features? As a company, LinguaNext has a number of products under the Linguify.cloud brand that allows a software application to be used in any global language. It translates screens, prints and reports into the language without requiring access (or change) to the application source code or database of the original application. It is specially developed to enable all web applications, websites or portals to be used in any of the 22 Indian languages or a global language. Linguify.Cloud completely changes the conventional method and with this approach, there is no need to change the code and manage the translations or multiple versions of a website or its content. It also has the capability to convert not just static screen content on the web page but also the dynamic content that may be accessed from a backend application or a database. The solution allows an existing application to be made multilingual in a very effective and cost-efficient manner. It is also a risk-free approach to language localisation, as we do not make any changes to original software. How does this solution Work? The solution converts web pages from the original language in the web application to the target language. Linguify.Cloud is based on Apache Web Server and is deployed inside the enterprises’ data centre. It has been specifically designed to provide robust high performance web-page translation across various web platform and operating systems. How does this product help in removing language barriers? With the help of our product, the same English website or web portal gives user a choice of language selection. This product is in true sense allowing democratisation of software for the masses that could not otherwise access applications or websites for dearth of specific language skills which are applicable only to professionals. The value is even more when it comes to citizen services, any consumerfacing portals and government employees, because they can access the information in their local language.
Who are the major clients who had opted for your service? India’s leading consumer gas companies have chosen our product to make their portals multilingual. These consumer-centric portals are used for various activities like booking a gas cylinder to registering for PAHAL. Now these portals have an option that allows the consumer to select his preferred language for transacting on the portal. The portals are now available in 12 Indian languages simultaneously and making the Digital India mission fulfilled in its own way. A leading consumer portal in the automotive space uses the Linguify.Cloud solution to provide the user a choice of language (currently in Hindi). What have been major achievements of the company? Our products and solutions are used by leading public sector banks, leading public sector undertakings, manufacturing and e-Commerce organisations and for e-Governance. Our products have also been deployed globally in leading multinational enterprises in many global languages. LinguaNext’s solution Linguify.Banks is deployed in almost 19 nationalised banks, including SBI, which gives an opportunity to use the core banking solution in Hindi and other regional languages under the Official Languages Act. It is also gives facility to print passbooks and other customer-facing communication in any local language. LinguaNexts’ language platform Linguify.S is now a SAP-endorsed business solution for all countries worldwide. Which means Linguify.S allows any SAP application to work in any global language. Linguify.S makes no changes or modifications to the underlying SAP® software or application databases. Instead, language conversion is handled exter-
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nally at the display level. EBS partnership is an invitation-only category of engagement with SAP. There are very few selected EBS partners worldwide. Siemens PLM Software has joined hands with LinguaNext. With this partnership, Siemens product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions are now ready to use in all Indian languages. What are your views on Digital India campaign, PMJDY and ‘Make in India’? Digital India has three core components. These include creation of digital infrastructure, delivering services digitally and digital literacy. To achieve digital literacy and offering e-services to the masses, the Digital India content must be in multiple languages to ensure wide adoption. India is a multilingual country and the information should be available to its citizen in a language. As an example, most ATMs currently generate a receipt in English even if a transaction is done in Hindi, or access to internet banking services is restricted to English today. As part of the financial inclusion initiative, RBI has released guidelines for banks to provide printing of ATM receipts as well as internet banking in Hindi as well. This move will align with the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana campaign. LinguaNext has products which can be deployed for both the above without making any change to the original software or database.
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Corporate
Prakash B Rane Managing Director, ABM Knowledgeware Ltd
IT Solutions that Make
eGovernance Work ABM Knowledgeware Ltd has a vision to work with large Government organisations for automating their critical business processes with focus on achieving ‘Leadership, Credibility and Profitability’, says Prakash B Rane, MD, ABM Knowledgeware Ltd, in an interaction with Elets News Network (ENN) Tell us about ABM Knowledgeware Ltd. ABM is an IT software and services company focused on eGovernance segment. It is the owner of several trademarks and re-usable software frameworks. Our various eGovernance solutions deliver more than 20 million citizen services per year today as against 4.2 million in 2010 and growing. Several states have selected ABM for a state-wide rollout of crucial citizen facing projects. Many of our projects are quoted as exemplary case studies in various prestigious journals and research reports. We have the unique distinction of long sustenance of most of our projects as well as ensuring satisfactory RoI to our customers. Key customers awarded us crucial eGovernance projects as we competed for them with the prominent four MNCs and another big four Indian IT firms in the last three years. What products and services does ABM offer? Some offerings of ABM Knowledgeware Ltd are: eMunicipality – ABM MAINet® (Municipal Administrative Information Network) is a customised ERP for providing eGovernance to a typical municipal corporation to create eMunicipality. It encompasses every department of a municipal corporation. SAP Practice - ABM provides subject matter expertise, software licences and entire implementation and post-implementation support to large corporations. Our ERP Center of Excellence continuously enriches our consultants with new technologies, knowledge management and solution architecting with focus on Government segments. Government Resource Planning (GRP) - GRP is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for Government. It is an indigenous ‘integrated office automation system for government and other government bodies’. This offering is focused on helping both State and Central Government organisations and other bodies shift to an end-
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Corporate
to-end digitised enterprise to improve service delivery and increase efficiency. Water Billing and Accounting - The offering provides consumer relationship management solution for water supply through standardisation of customer facilitation centres. Services such as information helpdesk, billing and collection-related services, MIS reports, grievance redressals, multiple citizen services delivery channels like Portal, Mobile, Kiosks, etc., are key solutions of the offering. Property Tax Capital Value Reforms and Automation - With a unique feature of supporting various assessment methods, such as Ratable value, Capital value and Area- based systems, it covers all the aspects of assessment and billing. It also enables transparent tax assessment and collection. Double Entry Accounting Reforms and Automation – It helps in initiating changes and helping Government bodies in migrating from single entry to double entry accounting system, and customisation of product to suit relevant needs of organisation.
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State-wide implementation of eMunicipality in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh l Property Tax Reforms and Automation at Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai l GRP implementation at Chennai Port Trust and in Jharkhand l ABM Aqua at several large and small municipal bodies in Maharashtra l Double Entry Accounting System Reforms at Director General of Defence Estate across all India l Tourism portal at Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation What are the major achievements of the company? ABM has won several major recognitions, including l ABM Managing Director Prakash Rane recognised as one of the ‘The Economic Times 50 Inspiring Entrepreneurs of India’ in Feb 2015 l Recognised by Silicon India Magazine as “Company of the Year 2014: e-Governance”
It (Digital India mission) can open doors on young IT entrepreneurs in spaces like IT services and BPR, ITES, IT products and in areas of SMAAC (Social Media, Mobility, Analytics, Apps and Cloud Computing) Tourism Portal - Tourism portal has a content management system with robust document management solution. The entire reservation system is revamped and replaced with a new reservation engine. The portal includes geo-location features, development of a mobile web site as well as device-specific mobile applications. Who are ABM’s major clients and what services you offer them? Our clients and services are: l SAP implementation at Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai l ABM MAINet® implementation at Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation and 231 urban local bodies of Maharashtra
– An annual recognition of a company in eGovernance representing continuing rise and glory of entrepreneurship and also recognising companies impacting the market place l Placed amongst top three Finalist nominees in CNBC TV18 award out of two lakh applications in different categories across the country l Recognised as one of the Top 20 IT Services Companies in India founded and managed by an Indian promoter by Silicon Review l Conferred the Skoch Order-of-Merit Award for SAP Implementation & Services to Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM). l Dr Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Chairperson of the High Powered Expert Committee on
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Urban Infrastructure and Services of GoI (Government of India), has included a section on ABM’s eMunicipality project (after spending one day in the concerned ULB) in her book on “Transforming Our Cities Postcards of Change” l We have gone from a one city company to pan-India level within a decade l Market capitalisation has grown 70 times and employee strength has grown 120 times in the last 15 years Will ABM launch any new service in the coming fiscal? If yes, what would be its unique features? Many of our customers are reaching stages of IT maturity. So, we will be focusing on areas like Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) and Security. We will be enabling our flagship products with features like integration with Social Media, Mobility features , offer Analytics and Apps for better leveraging of our applications. We will be strengthening our all India focus and making foray into new geographies with our existing and enhanced offerings. We will also be strengthening our new product offering, i.e. GRP, through a newly formed Strategic Business Unit (SBU). Briefly share your views on Digital India campaign, PMJDY and ‘Make in India’ mission. With proliferation of mobiles and catching up of Aadhaar enrolment, India has unprecedented opportunity to leverage Mobile-Aadhaar-Bank Account for effective implementation of various Government schemes as well as delivery of G2B or G2C services. This will open a new paradigm in Indian context and can jump many stages of making direct delivery of citizen benefits. PMJDY will be just one of the examples of this new paradigm. IT Industry can develop many apps to provide services around combination of Mobile-Aadhaar and Bank Account. If the Digital India mission of Government, coupled with focus on ease of doing business and Right to Government Service Bill, becomes reality, then IT platform will be inevitable in Government functioning. It can open doors on young and veteran IT entrepreneurs in spaces like IT services and BPR, ITES, IT products and in areas of SMAAC (Social Media, Mobility, Analytics, Apps and Cloud Computing).
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Corporate
Ujjwal Sabharwal
Product Management Head, SafranMorpho
Keeping Security
Threats at Bay
Morpho offers products and solutions that keeps information safe and secure, says Ujjwal Sabharwal, Product Management Head, SafranMorpho, in an interaction with Elets News Network Tell us something about Safran. Safran is a French high-technology group and supplier of systems and equipment in its core markets of Aerospace, Defence and Security, while Morpho is a part of Safran group and quite prominent in the security sector. India is one of the world’s fastest growing economies and its growing infrastructure in Airport and Rail networks, Power and Nuclear installations, and Smart cities and related physical and digital assets need protection from security threats and vulnerabilities. SafranMorpho has the right products, solutions and in-country presence to ensure safety and security of such critical infrastructures and assets. What products and solutions Morpho offers? Morpho, a high-technology company in the Safran group, is the market leader in security solutions. Our unique expertise lies in providing cutting edge security solutions for Civil Identification, Criminal Justice, Public Security, Transport and Border Control, Critical Infrastructure, Digital ID and Smart Transactions markets. With more than €1.5 billion revenue, international presence and more than 9 per cent turnover dedicated to R&D, Morpho provides security solutions that are cutting edge and are relevant for its markets. In India, we are one of the key partners of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in their project Aadhaar. We
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tions for telecom, payment, transport and enterprises by delivering trust in the digital world through smart cards, secure elements, lifecycle management solutions and strong authentication software platforms.
are the leaders in the supply of enrolment as well as authentication devices (including microATM) for various Aadhaar-based programmes like AEPS, DBT, eKYC. We’re the only and the first biometric vendor to have established manufacturing facility for biometric sensors and are contributing in a way to Government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. We have been working with several banks for customer acquisition, secure, auditable and safe transactions and nonrepudiable access to their core banking software. Through with our solutions, banks can keep a track on who did the transactions and what was the location. Our biometric sensors range has the capability to encrypt on-board and support digital signatures, which ensure complete security of the biometric data at rest and in motion. With its subsidiaries, Syscom Corporation and Smart Chip Limited, Morpho is a market leader in India in digital solu-
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What all you do to keep users updated in keeping their data safe and secure? Apart from system and technologies, we also train users and organisations regarding the challenges that are threatening the IT ecosystem, digital and physical assets, how can they stay safe from these threats and what should be the best practices to keep the data, systems and infrastructure secure. Regular trainings are conducted in short durations for our users and partners so that they understand our solutions and adopt best practices in security. Where do you see the future of Indian IT ecosystem in the coming years? India’s future is very bright as lots of initiatives have been taken by the Government of India to promote importance of IT among people and also take IT to the grassroot level in India. Just like GoI’s Digital India campaign would help Indian IT ecosystem to grow in the coming years and help reduce the digital divide, initiatives such as Digital Locker also need reliable security measures to ensure they are sustainable and effective in the future.
Corporate
Rajesh Maurya
Country Manager, India & SAARC, Fortinet
Offering You a
Safe Cyber Space Fortinet has been a leading provider of security solutions, says Rajesh Maurya, Country Manager, India & SAARC, in an interaction with Elets News Network (ENN) What all is Fortinet into and what are its offerings? Fortinet offers customers a broad product line of complementary solutions that goes beyond traditional Network Security to address all of the security needs of the extended enterprise - whether network, branch, cloud, mobile, data centre or other complex environments. This end-to-end security solution offering includes scalable management, control and reporting, thus giving comprehensive visibility on the state of the network, regardless of its size or complexity. Our solution offerings include l Integrated Cyber Security Platform – Fortinet provides a consolidated network and security platform, FortiGate, which is complemented by a number of specialised appliances to provide comprehensive Advanced Threat Protection l Scalability & Performance – As bandwidth increases exponentially and traffic patterns trend towards cloud and mobile applications, Fortinet’s continued R&D investment addresses the constantly evolving security requirements of the Enterprise l Security & Visibility – With a focus on Prevention, Detection and Mitigation, Fortinet offers a range of technologies that have the ability to provide real time Network Traffic, Traffic Payload and End Point Behavior analysis for recognition of malware attempting to breach the network.
through FortiGuard Labs’ zero-day signature process and assigned a generic name. The goal is to provide protection while disclosing as few details as possible. Beyond Signatures As malware numbers have increased exponentially in the recent years, network security vendors have had to find alternate methods for malware detection and mitigation. Fortinet, for example, incorporates more than 150 new security features.
How these services help companies in terms of growth and better security? FortiGuard Labs Cyber threat analysis and threat management and reporting has enabled security professionals to better understand and defend against cyber criminals, malware and advanced threats. Also, when coupled with vulnerability research, IT professionals are armed with critical information for preventing attacks that target susceptible systems and applications. Responsible Disclosure FortiGuard Labs’ responsible disclosure dictates that a discovered vulnerability be patched before public disclosure. Even without a working patch, a signature for the vulnerability can be generated to prevent intrusions. Once a signature is created, it is put
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FortiGuard Labs in a minute In a typical minute, Fortinet’s FortiGuard Labs will neutralise 15,000 malware programmes, intercept 55,000 spam emails, thwart over 600,000 network intrusion attempts, shut down 94,000 Botnet command and control attempts, and block access requests to 150,000 malicious websites. Does your company intend to launch any new services in the coming fiscal? If yes, what would be its unique features? In India recently we have expanded our India Technical Assistance Centre by adding support engineers, professional services consultants and Premium Account managers. The company has also invested in highly-skilled engineering resources to help customers solve difficult technical issues and deploy complex architectural designs and implementations.
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Smart City
Gartner says smart cities will use 1.1 billion connected things in 2015 and smart homes will lead with 294 million connected things in use during the year
Wired to the Future I
ncreasing urbanisation is putting unprecedented pressure on city infrastructures, forcing authorities to constantly balance the challenge of resource constraints against environmental sustainability concerns. As per 2011 census, India’s urban population stands at a whopping 377 million, constituting 31.16 per cent of the total population. In fact, India sits on the brink of an unprecedented urban expansion boom – by 2031, the country’s urban population is estimated to increase by more than 200 million. Gartner, Inc. estimates that 1.1 billion connected things will be used by smart cities in 2015, rising to 9.7 billion by 2020. This was shared at a recent Gartner IT Infrastructure Operations & Data Center Summit in Mumbai.
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In one of his public addresses, Prime Minster Narendra Modi had shared how cities in the past were built on riverbanks. They are now built along highways. But in the future, they will be built based on availability of optical fibre networks and nextgeneration infrastructure, he had said. Smart homes and smart commercial buildings will represent 45 per cent of total connected things in use in 2015, due to investment and service opportunity, and
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Gartner estimates that this will rise to 81 per cent by 2020. “Smart cities represent a great revenue opportunity for technology and services providers (TSP), but providers need to start to plan, engage and position their offerings now,” said Bettina Tratz-Ryan, Research Vice-President at Gartner. According to the global industry research, the investment in each smart city is estimated to be in excess of $10 billion, presenting a tremendous economic growth opportunity. Gartner defines a smart city as an urbanised area where multiple sectors cooperate to achieve sustainable outcomes through the analysis of contextual, real-time information shared among sector-specific information and operational technology systems. “The majority of Internet of Things (IoT) spending for smart cities will come from the private sector. This is good news for TSPs as the private sector has shorter and more succinct procurement cycles than public sectors and cities,” said Tratz-Ryan. Residential citizens will lead the way by increasingly investing in smart-home solutions, with the number of connected things used in smart homes to surpass 1 billion units in 2017. Connected things include smart LED lighting, healthcare monitoring, smart locks and various sensors for such things as motion detection or carbon
Smart City
Connected Things Installed Base Within Smart Cities (in Millions) Smart City Subcategory Healthcare Public Services Smart Commercial Buildings Smart Homes Transport Utilities Others Total
2015 2016 2017 9.7 15.0 23.4 97.8 126.4 159.5 206.2 354.6 648.1 294.2 586.1 1,067.0 237.2 298.9 371.0 252.0 304.9 371.1 10.2 18.4 33.9 1,107.3 1,704.2 2,674.0 Source: Gartner Research
monoxide. Smart LED lighting will record the highest growth of IoT consumer applications, from 6 million units in 2015 to 570 million units by 2020. Light will move from being an illumination source to a communications carrier incorporating safety, health, pollution and personalised services. “Homes will move from being interconnected to become information- and smart-enabled, with an integrated services environment that not only provides value to the home, but also creates individualdriven ambience. The home will become
the personal space that provides assistance or personal concierge experiences to the individual,” said Tratz-Ryan. In addition to residential IoT investments, there are a number of IoT deployments for on-street and off-street parking guidance, road traffic guidance and traffic flow metering. A quick win within transport is the reduction of traffic congestion. California and the U.K. are already implementing radio receivers or sensors that are embedded on a section of highway to diagnose traffic conditions in real time.
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Another successful use of IoT in the city is smart parking. The city of Los Angeles, for example, has been implementing new parking meters, parking space vehicle sensors, real-time parking guidance and a full parking management system to influence demand during peak times. “Electric mobility, charging stations and embedded IoT will generate additional IoT opportunities in smart cities,” said Tratz-Ryan. “This could be, for example, IoT in vehicles, or vehicle batteries sensing and communicating with the driver, or the next charging station to negotiate charging terms.” New and transformative business environments and ecosystems will emerge. For instance, automobile companies are investing in streetlights with charging stations embedded in the post to reduce the infrastructure investment for automobile charging stations. Sensors allow these companies to identify vacant charge-parking spaces for their customers, communicated via mobile applications and on-board systems. They will also be the facilitators of the payment and transaction for ease of use. While investment in IoT hardware is fundamental for smart cities, the real revenue opportunity for TSPs is in the services and analytics sector. “We expect that by 2020, many IoT TSPs will have grown their hardware revenues through services and software by more than 50 per cent,” said Tratz-Ryan. Gartner also estimates that smart-home security and safety will represent the second-largest service market by revenue in 2017, and that by 2020, the smart healthcare and fitness market will have grown to nearly $38 billion.” “We expect commercial IoT implementations to be used across multiple industries, such as smart energy, environmental service or journey planning, which will offer TSPs the opportunity to monetise IoT by building IoT-related service models,” concluded Tratz-Ryan. “Significant value contribution will come from information and data analytics of IoT, which connect services to third-party transactions and billing records, as well as enabling subscriptions or on-demand services. This enables a multidimensional value chain with different partners.”
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eCommerce
Taking cue from the fast-catching rage of eCommerce, the government has initiated steps to help MSMEs sell their products far and wide using its eCommerce portal, msmeshopping.com
Big Platform for
Small Ventures
S
elling your product online through an eCommerce portal helps in expanding your reach and building up your brand. Nowadays, you can buy apparels, machinery, gadgets as well as raw material for your business, yourself and your loved ones online. According to a Gartner report, the Indian eCommerce market will reach $6 billion in 2015, a 70 per cent increase over 2014 revenue of $3.5 billion. “Digital commerce is at an emerging stage in India. However, India is one of the fastest-growing eCommerce markets in Asia-Pacific,” says Praveen Sengar, Research Director at Gartner. Keeping this growth of eCommerce
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market in mind, the government has also been working towards connecting small enterprises to the consumers through information technology. The National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC)’s B2C e-commerce portal— msmeshopping.com—aims to help Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country sell their products online. The site offers vast range of products in various categories, like Computer and Peripherals, Mobile and Tablets, Home & Decor, Sports goods, Fashion & Apparel, Health & Beauty, Stationery & Books, Machinery and much more. The sites have over 100 suppliers, who have listed more than 1,000 products on the site.
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The portal was launched on 31st July, 2014 and so far a large number of brands from Tier II and Tier III cities are already connected to it. msmeshopping.com is a low-cost marketing platform for MSMEs, enabling them to sell retail products as well as industrial equipment and machinery all around the country. According to MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra, “Small businesses play a very important role in nation building. The B2C portal is a holistic, innovative and low-cost marketing platform for MSMEs, where they will be able to sell retail products as well as industrial equipment/machinery online. It will be immensely benefitting for both buyers and sellers.”
eCommerce
How to list products Sellers can list their products online through a simple registration process. They need to fill up an online form with details like name, email address, company name and postal address. Just by paying an annual fee of `5,000 + taxes (`5,618 at the moment), which can be paid either by online modes using credit cards, debit cards, netbanking or offline mode like demand draft or cheque, a person can register himself or his company. They can also download the registration form and supplier agreement and submit those to the nearest NSIC branch. After registration and NSIC activation, sellers can submit their products’ details for approval. These products will be visible on the site once these are approved by the NSIC team.
MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra speaks at the launch ceremony of msmeshopping.com
It is not that if a person, who has never used internet or has never uploaded an image, cannot use msmeshopping.com. In order to educate the sellers to enhance the reach of bulk products, NSIC guides sellers on how to use the portal, upload images of products and other relevant details. It also tells the sellers on how they can check the status of sale record under the dashboard report provided in the panel.
This helps buyers from small cities in different states to get connected with the sellers. This also helps the ministry reach out to merchants even in Tier II and Tier III cities, who might not be well-versed with English. NSIC CMD, Dr H P Kumar, says, “The shopping portal will be a boon for small businesses to take their products to every corner in the country. The portal facilitates online marketing and retail selling services, wherein MSMEs shall be directly connected to millions of buyers across the country through internet with a minimum expenditure. In addition, MSMEs can also set up individual web stores, which are like retail shops, selling products without any geographical boundaries and remain open 24 x 7, being a virtual shop.”
Multilingual support
Payment mode
The site offers an option to users to change the interface language to Indian languages like Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
The site only offers Cash on Delivery as a payment mode, with plans to add other offline payment methods like Demand Drafts (DD) and Cheques. There doesn’t seem to
A user-friendly portal
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be any plan to introduce online payments at the moment. The site also charges a flat `200 shipping fee across the country. MSME Secretary, Madhav Lal, says, “The shopping portal is the need of the day. In the last half-a-decade or so, particularly in developed countries, SMEs also use eCommerce by adopting completely new business practices, or changing the ways in which they interact in the marketplace.”
Other eCommerce initiatives Similarly, the Ministry for Textiles signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the eCommerce company Flipkart. As part of one of its kind agreement, Flipkart lists products from rural Indian handloom weavers and craftsmen on its platform. The weavers can sell their products under their brand name and Flipkart (or its business partners) sets up collection centres to collect these products from weavers and artisans. Flipkart also provides them with infrastructural support in data analytics, marketing and customer acquisition to scale up their businesses. This includes providing market intelligence and data analytics to artisans in areas like deciding the right selling price, payment automation, proper packaging, transportation, and brandbuilding exercises. This tie-up is quite similar to Flipkart’s MoUs with FISME (Federation of Indian Micro and Small and Medium Enterprises) and NCDPD (National Centre for Design and Product Development) in 2014. Flipkart has promised to list products from 50,000 SMEs as part of this initiative.
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event report
Sizing up Security against
Cyber Threats Technology in general and Information Technology in particular has made the work of the government easier, but it has also enhanced the risk of cyber threats. Moreover, following announcement of the Digital India initiative by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the threat has acquired even larger proportions. With a view to highlighting the cyber attack concerns and discuss possible ways to counter the threat, Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd organised the 6th Annual SecureIT — a national conference on information safety and citizen security, in New Delhi on 13th March 2015. We reproduce the event in a nutshell here, along with the views expressed by the speakers.
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event report
Inaugural Session: Changing Times, Securing India Bansi Dhar Sharma
Director-General, Sashastra Seema Bal, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India SSB is a border guarding force spread along 2,450-km Indo-Bhutan and Indo-Nepal borders. Its sole aim is to ensure Seva, Suraksha and Bandhutva. But, information restricted to one police station would not help in crime prevention and detection. Earlier, we only had information, but now we also have technology. We got communication but at its own pace. We want our men on the border to be smartly equipped with latest ICT tools so that they can give us the real time account of the situation. Crime has become very sophisticated since some criminals now use the latest technology. The police have also developed the equally sophisticated techniques to track down the criminals and the crimes. Criminals are one step ahead of the police in terms of ICT tools and designs. So, it becomes necessary for the police to keep pace with the changing technology. Life today without email, eCommerce, eBanking, eGovernance is unimaginable. Policing required integration of multiple data resources in short time, and ICT systems present an opportunity for police to increase their capabilities. Some of the major initiatives taken by SSB are connecting units up to border via Wide Area Network (WAN) for video conferencing and maintaining Personnel Information Management System (PIMS), which stores complete information of each employee.
Shambhu Singh Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India Over the period of time, it has been witnessed that the government programs and our actions in day to day life can be monitored. The Government has its schemes like Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), RSYB, DNA profiling, privilege communications and brain mapping and most of it is being implemented through ICT platforms. Increased collection of citizen data has been giving rise to the privacy concern. Further, information is being collected which is mandatory. Data related to health, travel, taxes, religion, education, finance, employment, disability, living situation, citizenship status, marriage status, crime records, etc. is being collected. The moment you start a transaction, multiple data flows take place and these are all simultaneous. Such data transfers over internet with direct involvement of individuals is exposing individual to more privacy risk and challenging the businesses. The private sector also collects data for building relations and generating revenue. Government along with civic society should debate on the challenges faced under cyber security threats. There is a need to develop our internal security that deals with such cyber security threats.
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Ram Sewak Sharma, Secretary, DeitY, Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India Most of the critical infrastructures of our country are connected to each other, like railways are connected to large number of users. The more we get connected through IT, the more vulnerable we become from the cyber threats. So, it becomes very important to secure cyberspace and applications from cyber threats. Banking is one of the most crucial areas. Everyone, who has an account, is able to do transactions online, which is open to cyber threats and anyone can easily attack the system and the whole thing would break down. Initially some people were hacking the system to prove that they can do that, but now people have started doing economic crimes, stealing information that have turned into cyber warfare. Closing down the system is not the solution for this problem; we have to be a step ahead on the curve to see that we have the best security systems available in the world so that we could secure our resources. Moreover, all the systems on open source are much more secure. Several measures have been taken to guard against cyber threats. As part of the ‘Digital India’ campaign, we are creating National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) and introducing secure emails. We are also putting up Malware and Botnet cleaning system, so that we can run this system in all our critical infrastructures to clean all the security threats.
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event report
SecureIT 2015: Snapshots 1. Ram Sewak Sharma, Secretary, DeitY, Ministry of Communications & IT, Govt of India, speaks at the Inaugural Session. 2. Dignitaries launch the SecureIT 2015 special issue of eGov magazine. 3. Delegates at the Registration Counter 4. Audience all ears to the Speakers 5. ElsaMarie DSilva, Managing Director & CoFounder, Safecity speaks at the event
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6. Rajesh Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, shares his views on cyber security 7. Sanjay Jaju, Director, National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited ( NHIDCL), Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, addresses the audience 8. R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM, expresses his views at the event 9 -10. Teams receive awards for cyber security solutions 11. Speakers pose together for a group photograph 12. Speakers and awardees pose for the camera
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event report
R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOMM
It is very clear that ICT has become pervasive in our life. Be it any sphere of life, such as business, personal or leisure, it has pervaded us making life infinitely easy and better today. However, it has brought along with it a set of new problems also making it a mixed blessing. The nature of people who were the cause of problems in cyber security has been changing over the years. Nonetheless, today it is a milieu, which includes nations, state players, non-state actors, petty criminals, gangs, youngsters, etc. Thus, today it is escalated to a point where the future of the country depends on how well technology is used. The present Government has made an article of it that technology will be the determinant of our economic progress and equally the biggest concern in that context is security. India became the second largest base for internet users in the world overtaking the US as well. The industry has faced certain challenges in the past with regard to the security of information emanating from countries, which were getting their work done in India. Hence, the Data Security Council of India was set up in that context to look at some of these issues and the areas of standard, and how a industry could undertake a process compliance essentially in order to provide a level of comfort to the giant companies and the countries from which the data was originating and it was safe and secure. We have an IT industry which has established itself globally and commands 55 per cent share in the global sourcing industry in ICT, and we are not a significant player in the security space.
Session 1: Leveraging Technology, Ensuring Safe Cities: Importance of City Surveillance Gaurav Dwivedi, CEO, MyGov, DeitY, Ministry of
Sajan Paul, Director- Systems Engineering- India and
Communications and IT, Government of India MyGov is a paradigm change in how the government seeks to engage with the citizens and various stakeholders in governance. In 2012, the Government of India had issued couple of guidelines for the citizen engagement framework and the social media guidelines and subsequent to that many government organisations across the country, including the central as well as the state governments have been leveraging social media for various purposes. The Digital India initiative of the Government of India has many different components, and MyGov is one of them with a specific intention of involving citizens directly both in the design and implementation of public policy. There are 300 and more tasks and discussions that MyGov has performed over the last seven months with about 1 lakh submissions being made in terms of creative ideas. Further, to ensure the cyber security of the MyGov portal, we do have large number of guidelines and instructions in place.
SAARC, Juniper Networks We play a very important role in the telecom industry in India and across the globe, building a large scale data structure infrastructure. Juniper is not a holistic player providing all the solutions, but we focus on few areas. These include smart connectivity, smart security and smart cloud (since it is a very important piece of resource which actually has the capability to manage the data and provide actionable intelligences on the ground). Today, mobile has become a part and parcel of our life and cloud is enabling it. In Karnataka, we have number of mobile applications which is very convenient. In Eastern Europe, there are 120,000 people and everybody is a hacker there, as per a report by The New York Times. The challenges are the growing number of attacks. Unless the intelligence is shared, we are unable to take any action. So, we are working on it.
Sunil Sharma, Vice- President, Sales and Operations, India and SAARC, Cyberoam
We have been hearing the concept of Smart Cities and almost everything is coming to a smarter level. This concept is so dynamic, but every other day, we are facing a new challenge. Around 78 Indian government websites were hacked in 2011-13 and around 16,000 incidents of spam took place in the government system alone in 2013. The Government is taking initiative for dealing with such problems. They have set up National Cyber Coordination Centre for `1000 crore. There are so many solutions to so many problems. Cyberoam provides a single window for government’s IT needs. We have got 20,000 certifications and 600 plus people working out of Ahmedabad as a research and development facility and providing support to our customers and users. Being the only product in India from Gartner’s Headquarter, it has marked its presence in about 125 plus countries. We are one of the first companies to be a part of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant.
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Ranjan Dwivedi, Director General of
Sanjay Sahay, Additional Director General, Karnataka Police With regard to cyber security, the scenario is not as simple as plain. Currently, a $14 billion request has been made for cyber security in US. Further, there is an executive order, which has already been passed for sharing cyber intelligence between corporations and the government. Inputs from various agencies have been brought down for the same. Today, surveillance has become ubiquitous. Talking about the importance of city surveillance, Homeland Security is a robust counter- terrorism mechanism. At present, we need a technological framework for safe and secure cities. It includes initiatives like Command and Control Centre, Cyber Security Interception System (a requirement-based deliverable system for Indian conditions), citybased video surveillance system (CBVSS), Tetra radio malware, etc. For ensuring safe cities, we need video footages. It is the most patent way for intelligent gathering and preventive surveillance. In addition to it, video analysis would be done, which is a roadmap for video surveillances. In all, the dream is an intelligent citybased video surveillance national network.
Police, Home Guards, Uttar Pradesh There is a limit to changing things. Leveraging technology in a big way is not possible unless it is done in an overall contextual reform and it involves and engages billions of people living in the country. When we come to the security system, we have had successful projects for criminal tracking and so on. Most of our governmental systems were designed keeping personal computers in mind. And now, we find that it is easier to engage people via mobile computing. The number of smartphones today globally, is about four times the number of computers. In India, it is 30 times. Database sharing is done in a big way. In terms of CCTV security or smart city or camera-based security, we have also introduced a Modern Control Room in Lucknow.
HK Lohia, Inspector General, Jammu & Kashmir Police There is no well-defined boundary between honesty and dishonesty, said O Henry, the American writer. India is the largest software making country in the world. Talking about the safe and smart cities, the objectives are ensuring safety and security of life and property and an unobtrusive security system. The safe city architecture includes surveillance system, screening system and emphasis on real time surveillance. However, there are a few challenges related to it. Cyber security is the major one. Others include keeping commercial hubs safe, hassle-free checking at airports / railways and security on highways and public places that
need to be addressed. The road ahead comprises the replication of ‘Made in India’ solution abroad, which will result in flourishing economy of the country.
Brijesh Singh, Special Inspector General, Criminal Investigation Department, Maharashtra Police 26/11 was the first time a terrorist organisation used a control room, and these people were monitoring various things. The terrorists are using simple technology, while we as government systems want to create large Godzillas. We want city-wide surveillance, which requires a lot of money and is a waste of time. Large systems can be defeated by very small hacks. The way a government procurement works, or the way government develops these large systems is probably not suited to the performance we are looking for. For innovation, we require a different environment. We cannot have it in a bureaucratised command and controlled system. We will have to go for individual solutions, and change the system of procurement of government and have in-house innovation.
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Session 2: Securing Big Data, Protecting Business Amit Sharma, Additional Director, Office of Secretary Defence (R&D) and Scientific Advisor of Defence Minister, DRDO, Government of India Big Data is essentially about the data people contribute. The moment you step on to the internet, you contribute something. Big Data started off with the notion of huge quantities of data, primarily structured and unstructured ones. It started from a technical view point to formation of a distributed file system, and subsequently distributed operating features in terms of computing aspects, and then clubbing both of them so as to provide certain application aspects to it. The primary classification is based on the value or the quantum of data, the velocity in which it is created and the veracity of it and the kind of content that is a part of it. The sources of Big Data are enormous, and it has got its own challenges, which are attributed to it.
Anubhav Tyagi, Senior Solution Spe-
Amit Sharma, Special Secretary, Jammu and Kashmir Government
When it comes to Big Data, Government is always a major stakeholder. Social networks are always a challenge. Big Data creation is always possible with lots of things happening like creation of Aadhaar. As far as data management is concerned, some kinds of bans and restrictions are being imposed. For instance, prepaid mobile numbers of Jammu & Kashmir could not work outside the State and vice-versa. Further, social networks are also a challenge because at the national perspective, these challenges come all of a sudden. And the time we start controlling it, things have already been spread as fire. There is a big challenge of data management and data creation, which is a long due kind of affair. We are looking forward to creation of data centres where data should be stored and DR Centres to be created preferably out of the State. We can create lot of wonderful opportunities for people to get engaged into the IT management to have some kind of exploration of opportunities in a State like ours.
cialist- India and SAARC, SafeNet Cyber security is a serious business that deserves serious attention at the highest levels of every organisation. 40 per cent growth in data volume every year has been witnessed and it will grow 50 times by 2020, and Cloud will play a major role in it. In the IOT market, $28.1 billion rise is expected by 2020. 90 per cent data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. Further, new technology also leads to new threats. Some of the benefits of big data include efficiency, transparency and accountability, which are the most important pillars for any kind of governance. We are sharing the data all around that is a major concern for security. The four pillars of security are data confidentiality, non-repudiation in transactions, and integrity of digitised information. Additionally, we have IT Act of India, which defines that what kind of data needs to be protected. The security approach must always be data-centric. Apart from that, security should be thought of as enablement.
Dr Srinivas Josyula, Senior General Manager, National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) As per Gartner’s 2012 definition, Big Data is high volume, high variety information assets that require new forms of processing to enable enhanced decision making, inside discovery and process optimisation. The four Vs for big data are Volume, Velocity, Variety and Veracity. In India, Big data is at a very nascent stage. It will grow at 83 per cent annually to reach US$ 1 billion by 2050, says NASSCOMM. The Prime Minister is also using big data technique on MyGov.in to translate popular mood into government action. Today, for most of the institutions, product is the information and security is the key. But, we need some fundamental answers which we need to get before we collect a lot of data. Further, the question raises-“Who owns the security of this huge data?� There is a need for data sharing policy among the organisations, corporates and individuals. There must be guidelines which must be agreed upon, respected and then used. However, all this is possible via audits only.
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Sanjay Jaju, Director, National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL), Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India We have created a B2B platform, not very difficult to do in an eCommerce age, where we have enough capacity. On that portal, we opened registration for the cement companies. We told them that it is a portal which is being created and it will be used by the infrastructure providers, contractors, concessionaire, companies, State PWDs, NHIDCL, and any other infrastructure player might access it. So, it is for people to come to this portal and get themselves registered. 50 per cent of the cement companies participated and registered themselves on this portal. It will be booking orders and based on those orders one can convert them into contracts. The moment we set up this portal, 36 different cement companies with more than 110 plants came on to this portal and offered 100 lakh metric tonnes of cement.
Shrikant Shitole, Senior Director, Business Development, Symantec Big Data Analysis Platform (BDAP) We are the fourth largest software company in the world and the largest information security firm. Our ownership is much higher when it comes to securing the data and business arising out of the data. We have close to about 240,000 plus sensors spread across 200 countries and around more than 200 million clients who are on gateways. When you look at the total number of programmes downloaded and the number of websites visited, we use Big Data Analytics Platfrorm (BDAP) to crunch the data and to understand the security vulnerabilities. When we are talking about the security as a company, it is all about the intelligence aspect. We are almost close to 300 rows per second when we talk about the Big Data Analytics in order to secure our clients.
Session 3: ICT for Securing National Assets, Vital Infrastructures and Border Management Rajiv Prakash Saxena, Deputy Director, General, National Informatics Centre (NIC), Government of India The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has got a framework for intermixing of IT and security. There are almost about 3500 data centres in the country both in the private and government sector. In the major data centres, they have got baggage scanners and they do real thorough checking of your baggage to be brought in to the data centres. The security plan is to create a ‘feel safe’ security mechanism at all vulnerable points. A good data centre will not have any window, which is opening outside. A major amount of the resources are there to prevent any virus to develop into the systems. In all data centres, we have got automatic sensors in order to keep away the vehicles that try to force-enter any area. Sometimes, CCTV is also built into the system to track the people walking in the allies, which are exterior to data centres to see that anything is not going under the sea for any mischief.
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Raja Babu Singh, Inspector General, Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force We guard 3488 kms of Tibetan border from Karakoram Pass in the western sector to Jachep La pass in Arunachal Pradesh to interlude in between Nepal and Bhutan, which are with the SSB. 21 years ago, everything was in manual form, but now we are heading towards digital transformation. The general critical infrastructure can be defined as those facilities, systems or functions whose incapacity would cause a negative impact on the national security and governance. The critical infrastructure and key assets have got growing threats and growing vulnerability of the modern society. These critical sectors that we need to guard include energy, transportation, air, rail and water. Banking and Finance, telecommunication, law enforcement, security and intelligence, sensitive government organisations, etc. These are the areas we need to take care of. To enhance security, threat detection vulnerability can be very effective measure in this direction. If we follow strict implementation of the cyber security policy, periodic audit of IT resources by domain experts in place; policy of crisis management, frequent cyber attack derails amongst all the stakeholders. Further, the government agencies will definitely improve the cyber security scenario of the country and will provide much needed security for national assets and vital infrastructure.
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Rajeev Krishna, Inspector General, Border Security Force (BSF) BSF is an organisation working for the protection of two international borders i.e. Indo-Pak border and Indo-Bangladesh border. Essentially for border guarding, we require good surveillance equipment. However, since the complexity of the border and the terrain in which they are deployed and operated within the same six or seven technologies available all over the world, the challenging part is to dovetail the particular type of technology and equipment to a particular type of terrain. BSF is heavily into the Geographic Information System (GIS)based obligations. These applications may take many forms and we are also in the process of equipping ourselves designing some applications based on GIS. The biggest issue about it is detailed map. Different types of applications based on these maps or other to be plotted or layered on them is another area in which we would like to have more cooperation from the industry. There is huge potential n this area. It is not only the physical or three-dimensional rendering of the equipment, assets etc., but also different types of analyses based on these maps.
Saurabh Khosla, Senior Consultant, SeMT, Government of NCT of Delhi Today, cyber crime landscape includes flaws in ancient standards which might enable eavesdropping, spying etc. It is present in two forms: physical and digital, and is raised with the help of manual forces, digital forces and criminal intent. Nevertheless, to prevent these threats, various scientific tests are being conducted in both the physical as well as digital form. The forensics in physical world include finger prints, residual analysis, trace processing, while in digital forensics, we have live analysis, deleted files, network analysis and other processes. Some other tools to prevent these cyber threats are Email tracers, Login checkers, Mobile checker, Disk checker, Registry analyser and so on and so forth. The implementation process involves identification, preservation, analysis and presentation. The innovation areas for the same are selfpolicing, use of innovative technologies, focus on evidence recognition, enhancement and documentation, strong documentation indicating security risks, a well-defined security policy and incident management team. Additionally, integrated task forces of security experts, prosecutors, administrators, investigators and criminal justice system will also help reduce the cyber threats.
Maj Gen Anurag Gupta, Advisor, Operations and Communication, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Government of India Nothing like ICT has ever been witnessed by human society. In terms of technology itself, its impact is visible on our lives and the pace of change has precipitated. At the core of the ICT revolution is the abstract and intangible commodity and that is information. Whether it is data, intelligence or knowledge, information is a vital commodity having some rather unique attributes. It can be shared without its value being diminished. It can be stolen, but is not measureable. It can exist at more than one place at a time. Its non-linear impact yet even a small quantity can have a devastating effect. The three objectives of Critical Information Infrastructure Protection (CIIP) are: to prevent cyber attacks against critical infrastructure, reduce national vulnerabilities to cyber attacks and minimise damage and recovery time from cyber attacks that do occur. However, there are few challenges like high costs and lack of financial investment in securing vital assets and critical infrastructure. The measures to handle these challenges are creation of few programmes like National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC).
Umakant Lal, Chief Vigilance Officer, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited, Ministry of Railways, Government of India We all know that ICT application has become an integral part of our system. So, areas of critical infrastructure like energy, rail transport and defence, etc. is concerned. The role of the ICT is very pre-dominant and we are using it in a huge manner everywhere. In ICT security, there is a role of top management with the people who are working on the system. For them, there is a need of training in which we generally lack. When the people work in private industry or government organisations, they can always ask for the CERT India in order to get benefitted. We need an international corporation in dealing with the cyber crimes. A number of countries have enacted the law as well. Some of them raised the squads also, who are working in a wonderful manner. Earlier, the figure of cyber threats was very less, but by reaching 2015 it has already crossed many thousands. There are huge number of things we don’t know because there has been a tendency on part of the private people and the government authorities to not report the cases. One has to remove this tendency or we may land in some problem and the security of the vital organisations can be compromised.
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Increasing Partnership to Counter Cybercrime in the World of New Age Social Media Ashok Kumar, Additional Director General, Uttarakhand Police Today, everything is in the reach of big powers. Whatever we do on computer, it goes through Google and can be tapped by them. They know each and everything we do. Nothing is safe and secure. Thus, security becomes important. In many states, cyber security is at a nascent stage and police needs to have a tap on social media. We need to do cyber patrolling. Cyber world is a virtual world though deeply connected to the real world. Hence, we need cyber patrolling on a regular basis. We need to have cyber intelligence as people are doing nuisance. Thus, it is a must and can be achieved with the help of various corporations.
Rajesh Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Government of India We have recently started talking about something called JAM, which includes Jandhan bank account, Adhaar linkage and Mobile banking. Keeping all the three things secure is a priority these days. After the Snowden revelations, privacy and safety of internet is more a matter of destiny and karma. So, godmen and private companies are doing their bit, but some governments also need to put in their efforts to make the things more secure. We all should try to come together to make this JAM system tasty and safe.
ElsaMarie DSilva, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Safecity There is a global statistic where one in three women across the world experiences sexual violence at least once in their lifetime, and around 80 per cent of them do not report it officially. We tend to overlook the verbal and non-verbal kinds of harassment that occur on a regular basis. Further, there are cases of stalking, be it online or offline. However, online stalking is increasingly taking place. Two years ago, this country witnessed a horrific rape in Delhi and that is when me and my friends decided to use technology in a way that people can share their experiences of violence. We wondered if we could use technology and data to create safe public spaces which were equally accessible to all. So, that’s how we started a crowd map, launched on 26th December 2012. Since then we have been collecting stories of sexual harassment in public places. We have almost 5000 reports from around 50 cities in India. We are trying to collect the information that people can read and further use it for their safety.
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Data-Wise: The Cyberspace Challenge
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news Policy to Promote BPOs in Small Towns Soon
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s a part of its ambitious Digital India initiative, the Government of India is in the process of setting up Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) centres in small towns across the country, said Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad. Addressing the Web Ratna Awards ceremony in New Delhi, the minister said that the Government will soon finalise a policy providing incentives to companies for setting up BPOs in small towns. The BPOs in small towns will pave the way for lots of allied activities, giving impetus to the overall ITdriven development across the country. The Minister also emphasied easy access to
Cabinet approves key components of e-Kranti The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the approach and key components of e-Kranti: National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) 2.0. The mission of e-Kranti is to ensure delivery of all government services electronically to citizens through integrated and interoperable systems via multiple modes.
e-Filing of Tax to go Easier
information and services to citizens through eGovernance . “All government websites should be more infommated and reguarly updated.” Ram Sevak Sharma, Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology ( DeitY) said, “Now, the focus should be on creating common application platforms, which will reduce cost. States should be taken on board.”
To take the Digital India initiative forward and prepare the roadmap of innovations, the Government is planning to organise Digital India Week soon, said Tapan Ray, Additional Secretary, DeitY. Applauding the Digital India initiative, Dr. Ajay Kumar, Director General, National Informatics Centre (NIC) said, “The inititaive has instigated innovations in government departments.”
The Income Tax Department is set to introduce a new customer verification system for e-filing of IT returns by sending OTPs (One Time Passwords), validating net banking identity and enrolling Aadhaar number in the returns form. The IT Department, through its policy making body Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), has decided that a taxpayer does not need to send his/her ITR-V (Verification) form to the department’s Central Processing Centre (CPC) through post. “We want to make e-filing completely hassle-free for taxpayers,” CPC Director and IT Commissioner , R K Mishra, said. The department has already submitted a blueprint for introducing these new measures to CBDT. “The new measures will be implemented very soon,” he added.
Coal Projects Monitoring Portal Launched
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n a bid to track stalled investment projects and fasttrack their implementation, Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy, Piyush Goyal, launched Online Coal Projects Monitoring Portal (e-CPMP) for both public and private projects. Goyal said, “The new system will bring
in more transparency and responsiveness in the Ministry of Coal. Each of 30 allottees will successfully mine each piece of coal that is expected from
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them. The government encourages everyone to do more mining, so that every allottee will not only meet the targets but exceed it,” he added. e-CPMP automates
the entire tracking of issues resolution mechanism from submission to commission on time. This would include submission of a new project, editing/ updating the projects, reviewing the projects, submission of details relating to bottlenecks.
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Now, a portal to complain against misleading ads
Vehicle registration to go paperless in Delhi
Firms can apply for PAN through e-Biz portal Delhi government is set to introduce “paperless registration” of vehicles in the national capital. In the first phase of the pilot project, the transport department has started an online registration process for all private cars in the city. In the second phase of the project, which will begin next month, all two-wheelers will be registered online. Moreover, automobile dealers would also be able to register sold vehicles on the transport department online.
The companies can apply for PAN card number through the e-Biz portal as the integration process has been completed, according to reports. To provide one-stop clearance platform for investment proposals, the government is in the process of integrating all the state and central government services to this portal. Users can apply online for as many as 11 services through this portal. They can fill the eForms online/ offline, upload the attachments, make payment online and submit the form for processing of the department.
Digital India: PM launches ‘Twitter Samvad’
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aking the Digital India initiative ahead, the government launched ‘Twitter Samvad’ in collaboration with social media platform Twitter to communicate directly with citizens via tweets and SMS on their mobile devices. The service aims to boost the nation’s e-governance plans by helping Government bodies and leaders communicate directly with citizens on a daily basis via tweets and SMS. Through Twitter Samvad, every day a set of curated tweets will be delivered from the government
and leaders’ accounts to mobile users across the country as SMS. Updates on government services, policies and activities will be delivered. Anyone with a mobile phone, with or without a data plan, can register for the service by giving a missed call to a unique number for each of the partners.
Twitter Samvad can also be used during the time of emergency with the ability to deliver live updates by government bodies. Dick Costolo, CEO, Twitter said, “Twitter Samvad is dedicated and specially built for the largest democracy of the world. As part of the Prime Minister’s Digital India initiative, this tweetpowered service enables citizens to be the first to know about the government’s actions by receiving political content in real-time on their mobile devices anywhere in the country.”
IRDA Releases Draft Norms on e-Settlement
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he Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has released a draft guidelines on participation in its Electronic Transaction Administra-
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tion and Settlement System (ETASS). The ETASS is an electronic platform deployed for insurancerelated clearing house operations.
The IRDA had initiated setting up of ETASS for co-insurance and re-insurance transactions. The development of ETASS is currently underway
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and the co-insurance module for the fire insurance portfolio is expected to be operational in a short time, the IRDA website said.
The government has launched a dedicated portal – www.gama.gov. in – to help consumers register their grievances against misleading advertisements. On a pilot basis, the portal was also launched in six cities, including Delhi and Ahmedabad. “Some misleading advertisements claim that a particular medicine will help increasing height of a person or help bald person grow hair. Such claims are dubious and unverified. We are taking this issue seriously,” Consumer Affairs Minister, Ram Vilas Paswan, said. Any consumer in any part of the country can register on the portal and can lodge a complaint against misleading advertisements. The portal also enables consumers to be informed of the action taken.