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State treasuries automation project gets MMP status In a move aimed at driving eGovernance initiative across the states, the Union Cabinet has decided to bring in computerisation of state treasuries as a Mission Mode Project (MMP), under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). The Cabinet also approved the expenditure of Rs 482 crore by the Centre as part of the grants-in-aid. This Rs 626 crore MMP aims at supporting the state governments to computerise their treasury
functions and provide the required interface for data sharing among treasuries, state finance departments, Accountant General offices, Reserve Bank of India, agency banks and Central Plan Schemes Monitoring System of Controller General of Accounts. The NeGP comprises 27 MMPs, including nine Central MMPs, 11 State MMPs and seven Integrated MMPs spanning multiple ministries and departments. Mission mode implies that the
objectives and the scopes of the project are clearly defined, that the project has measurable outcomes and service-levels, and the project has well-defined milestones and timelines for implementation. The focus of the treasuries MMP is to improve the efficiency and transparency of the financial administration of the state governments. The implementation of treasuries MMP will lead to improvement in financial administration of the state governments.
Kerala PWD to tread e-tendering route Kerala Government plans to introduce e-tendering in the Public Works Department (PWD) to bring in transparency in awarding contracts. This will be executed in a phased manner. In the first phase, submission and acceptance of tenders will go live. While the officials will initialy have to manually verify the tender details, the remaining procedures will be soon incorporated into the new system, sources said. The project is aimed at bringing in more transparency and efficiency in the PWD processes and execution of works. “Apart from e-tendering, PWD also plans to bring in people’s supervision in construction works to maintain quality”, said PWD minister TM Thomas Issac. He explained that a mechanism with the cooperation of local people to monitor the quality of the construction work will be put in place.
Citizen Identity
Delhi to sign pact for early rollout of UIN The Government of Delhi has decided to sign a pact with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for an early rollout of identification numbers for residents. The State Cabinet also decided to constitute two committees to oversee the implementation of the UIDAI project in the capital. While Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta will be the Chairman of one committee, the second panel will be headed by
Citizen Service Centre
Punjab to set up more than 3,000 e-Gram Suvidha Centres The Government of Punjab has decided to set up 3,037 e-Gram Suvidha Centres in the villages across the state at a cost of Rs 90 crore, to ensure citizen centric services to the people in the rural areas. Disclosing this, a spokesman of state government said that an empowered committee under the Chief Secretary comprising administrative secretaries of various departments has given in-principle approval to implement the scheme within a stipulated time frame of one year. These centres will ensure the delivery of basic peoplefriendly services including delivery of old-age pension, registration of pension for handicapped and widows and disabled persons.
UP Waqf property records to be online soon The UP State Waqf Boards (SWB) has decided to move all its properties related records online. The initiative is being undertaken by the Uttar Pradesh Central Waqf Boards and the National Informatics
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Centre Uttar Pradesh support from the Union (NICUP). The ‘Waqf Ministry of Minority Computerisation Affairs. The project Citizen Project’ is an aims to create e-docIdentity e-Governance uments for all records initiative being of the Waqf properties carried out on the and also upload them on guidelines and financial the Centre’s website.
the Chief Minister. “The government has decided to collaborate with the UIDAI to enhance efficiency in delivery of citizen services through accurate identification of beneficiaries,” said Dikshit. The Delhi cabinet also approved a draft memorandum of understanding (MoU). As per the MoU, the UIDAI will prescribe standards for recording data and biometric fields and also the processes for enrolment of residents.
“Waqf properties date back to the Mughal era and a lot of properties are still disputed in the absence of proper documents,” said an official of the UP Shia Central Waqf Board. He added: “And what makes these
disputes worse is the fact that some of the old records of the pre-Independence era have gone missing in their entirety. Hence, computerisation and making the records accessible online will certainly help maintain a second copy of the records for a longer period of time.”
india
Public Distribution System R-APDRP
Haryana in review stage of power reforms project The power distribution reforms projects for 36 towns of Haryana will be analysed by a technical evaluation committee, set up to carry forward the implementation of Restructured-Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (R-APDRP) of the Union government. Haryana is one of the first states to get approval for the ambitious plan. A spokesperson for the Haryana Power Utilities said that the Union Ministry of Power had approved projects worth Rs 158.36 crore for the state to implement the reforms programme and modernise the power distribution system. He said under the scheme a disaster management centre at Panchkula and a data centre at Hisar will be set up to ensure the timely implementation of the schemes in the towns for which the project had been sanctioned. The project will be completed in two years. The various works in this project include consumer indexing, geographic information system, and metering of distribution transformers and feeders. The project will also cover asset mapping of the entire distribution network comprising 11 KV feeders, distribution transformers, low-tension lines, poles and other distribution network equipment of these towns. Consumers will be benefited by way of better service, while for the power sector there will be an increase in revenue after the implementation of the scheme. The Government is implementing R-APDRP during the 11th Five Year Plan period. This is a USD 12 billion project aimed at IT enabling India’s power distribution system. The main objective of R-APDRP is to strengthen overall power distribution system and reduce the aggregated technical and commercial losses of power utilities. Implementation of the information technology plan to achieve the goal under the scheme will go a long way in minimising interruptions and breakdowns.
The two Waqf boards of UP—Shia Central Waqf Board and Sunni Central Waqf Board—have already completed 60 percent of the computerisation process of all documents. The Ministry of Minority Affairs has given a financial support of Rs 27 lakh each to both the Waqf
boards in the first phase, where records will be computerised and e-copies prepared. In the first phase, all records from the block level to the state level will be computerised and e-copies will be submitted to NIC for uploading them on the portal.
Commercial Tax
GPS to track PDS vehicles in Chhattisgrah
Global Positioning System (GPS) devices will be used in Chhattisgarh State to track the movement of vehicles carrying subsidised rice for the poor. All the 600 vehicles carrying subsidised food grains, distributed through Public Distribution System (PDS) in the state, will be equipped with the GPS devices. These devices will give complete information on where and for how long the vehicles carrying rice are halted after loading at the warehouses and before unloading the rice at PDS shops. The move will ensure effective implementation of the Rs 1,000-crore, Chief Minister’s Food
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Security Scheme, under which the state government provides 35 kg rice a month at Rs 2 and Re 1 per kg to the poor families. With the launch of the project, the state government is looking at putting in place the monitoring mechanism essential to track the state’s food scheme that covers over 60 percent of Chhattisgarh’s population of above 20 million. According to reports, the state Civil Supplies Corporation has already floated the tender for GPS installation and their integration with the existing software for tracking of PDS vehicles in all the 18 districts.
Chandigarh gets e-Services Grant Chandigarh has got a grant of Rs 5.97 crore from the central government to implement various e-services in this union territory. This sanctioned amount is part of the Commercial Taxes Mission Mode Programme (CT-MMP) project, according to officials. “We have already prepared a blueprint and this project will be completed in the next two years. Under this project, various e-services like e-registration, e-filling, e-payment, e-forms, e-refunds and e-redressal of grievances will be introduced in Chandigarh,” said the UT’s Finance Secretary Sanjay Kumar. “Our basic aim is to create citizen-centric environment in Chandigarh and to bring more transparency in work. All these services will be available to citizens on 24x7 basis and people can access all the services sitting in any part of the world,” Kumar said.
Haryana public grievance portal launched The Government of monitoring system aims to Haryana has announced the provide a quick grievance launch of its public redressal mechanism grievance Web for citizens. Haryana portal www.harsalaunch is the first state in the madhan.gov.in. The country to launch such web portal-based a portal. centralised public Announcing the launch grievances redressal and of the pilot project state
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that redressing citizens’ grievances was a priority area with the state government and that the user friendly portal will help citizens seek faster disposal of their cases.
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industry
Police Records
Wipro Infotech bags Rs 2,000 crore e-policing project Integrated IT solutions provider Wipro Infotech has bagged one of the largest e-Governance projects worth Rs 2,000 crore for linking police records across the country. The project, Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS), is a Mission Mode Project (MMP) under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). It aims at creating a comprehensive and integrated system for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of policing by adopting principles of e-Governance and creation of a nationwide networking infrastructure for evolution of IT-enabled state-of-the-art tracking system. The focus will be on investigation of crime and detection of criminals. The project will link police stations nationwide, digitise criminal records, and develop Core Application Software (CAS) for CCTNS. It will digitally integrate 14,000 police stations and 6,000 headquarters. The final agreement is expected to be signed within a month. The contract is for a period of eight years.
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UID
MindTree bags Aadhaar’s IT deal MindTree Limited, a global IT solutions company, has secured the application development and maintenance services contract of the Nandan Nilekani-headed Unique Identification (UID) project, renamed ‘Aadhaar.’ The multi-crore project involves services across the application lifecycle—from designing, developing, testing, maintaining and supporting the Aadhaar application to providing help desk services from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI’s) Bangalore Technology Centre. Aadhaar will authenticate every Indian citizen in terms of his or her identity based on biometric verification. With a mas-
sive information base of 1.2 billion people and the ongoing collection, validation, issue and constant verification of identities, project Aadhaar will require one of the most complex IT architectures
ever created and a software implementation that will become a benchmark for years to come. The company will work as the development partner to build the Aadhaar application, in collabora-
tion with the technology team of UIDAI and other stakeholders. It will also carry out the ongoing services of development and enhancement to the core Aadhaar application. MindTree won the project against competition from large global IT players. “It is not just a matter of business for us; it is an opportunity to serve the nation. This partnership further affirms MindTree’s commitment and focus in the Indian market,” said Anjan Lahiri, President and CEO, IT Services, MindTree. “This project win reaffirms our leadership in architecting and delivering large missioncritical high throughput applications.” he added.
Common Service Centre
IT Management
Srei Sahaj e-Village Limited, a subsidiary of Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited, has partnered with Bharat Matrimony, India’s leading matrimony solutions provider to announce the launch of online matrimonial services for rural India through the 28,000 common service centres (CSCs) that Sahaj is setting up in the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Tamil Nadu. To avail of the service, one will have to get registered by a village level entrepreneur (VLE) on the Sahaj Portal to obtain a unique ID and password which can be used to register on the Sahaj-Bharat Matrimony home page on the portal. The profile will be created in English. This is an attempt to provide hassle free matrimonial services to the rural India by coupling technology with the tradition of marriage. The idea is to introduce the prospective eligible singles and their families in rural areas to online matchmaking that saves time and gives them access to thousands of enlisted singles at a click.
NIIT Technologies Limited and Hitachi Asia (Thailand) Co. Ltd. have jointly launched a high-reliability cloud computing service, leveraging their respective expertise in data center management. The suite of cloud-based offerings ‘Caliver,’ derived from ‘cloud computing being alive and responsive,’ offers resource-on-demand, virtual mail hosting and virtual Web hosting services on the cloud. The cloud computing hub will be hosted at NIIT Technologies’ data center in Bangkok and will initially serve local Japanese corporations. Hitachi Asia (Thailand) and Hitachi Information System have carried out the design and architecture of the cloud system while NIIT Technologies will be responsible for the implementation and maintenance of the system. Both the companies will leverage their strengths in solution designing, SaaS application development and sales and marketing to evangelise this technology.
Sahaj e-matrimony services for rural India
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NIIT Tech, Hitachi Asia team up, launch cloud services
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STANDARDS
Oman launches e-Government services framework Information Technology Authority (ITA) of Oman has launched ‘framework for the technical criteria of e-Government’ to provide the frameworks and standards to promote information systems and e-Government services. Omar bin Salim al Shanfari, Head of Corporate Sector and Consultancy at ITA said that the
Sultanate had initiated an ambitious journey to transfer Oman to a sustainable knowledge based society through utilising ICT in enhancing government services, enriching business sector and enabling individuals to improve the quality of their lives. The framework aims to build e-Oman society and
e-Government and will provide the criteria that identify the technologies required to support the governmental work and utilising them in the provision of services. It will also reduce the time and cost incurred by rolling out these applications and merging the information and services provided.
QUOTE US Chief Information Officer
Vivek Kundra on the need for a secure Cloud
“As we move to the cloud, we must be vigilant in our efforts to ensure the security of government information, protect the privacy of our citizens, and safeguard our national security interests”
PUBLIC ADMIN
UN, S Korea to jointly develop e-administration system South Korea and the United Nations have agreed to jointly develop a UN electronic public administration system. In this regard, Maeng Hyung-kyu, Minister of Public Administration and Security, and Sha Zukang, a Chinese diplomat who is currently the UN under-secretary-general for economic and social affairs, exchanged a letter of intent in Barcelona, Spain, for the joint development of “UN public administration knowledge space.” The UN knowledge space is a system for collecting and analysing basic data on 192 UN member nations’ e-Government policies and infrastructure. The project will become a base for the UN’s efforts to construct a global electronic government. South Korea will provide its knowledge and technology for the USD 6-8 million project being pushed by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said Park Min-sik, an official in charge of the e-Government project. “South Korea’s winning of the UN e-government global grand prize is an achievement resulting from a combination of public attention, the government’s strong driving force and technological support by the country’s information-technology industries,” Maeng said.
LEGISLATION
E-CITIZEN
With the passing of Healthcare Identifiers legislation by the Australian Parliament, implementation of e-Health programmes has gained speed in Australia. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has actively pushed for the identifiers and was involved in the discussions on the development of the legislation. AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce said healthcare identifiers are an important building block for electronic health records. “Healthcare identifiers will facilitate the timely and accurate sharing of electronic patient information to improve medical care in Australia,” Dr Pesce said. The legislation provides for the healthcare identifiers to be used solely to identify individuals for the purposes of accessing and sharing individual electronic health information. “AMA is keen to see the funding allocated in the 2010-11 Budget being directed to building the infrastructure to connect up patient information across the health care sector so that a summary electronic health record can finally become a reality,” Dr Pesce said.
All Singapore residents will have an online mailbox to which various Government agencies will send statements and bills ranging from tax statements to TV license renewals and service and conservancy bills. Informing this, the country’s Chief Informaton Officer James Kang said that citizens can log into the mailbox using their SingPass ID as well as register online to get e-mail and SMS alerts for new mail. Called OneInbox, this service will be launched by 2012. The initiative is part of a new approach to cut down paper usage, make it quick and easy for people to keep track of their bills, and provide citizens with a digital “safe deposit box” for their important documents and statements. People will also be able to track the status of their transactions with various public agencies online, just as they track registered mail.
Australia puts e-Health on fast track with healthcare identifiers
Singapore to have e-postbags for citizens by 2012
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