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inaugural session
Efficient use of technology, not procurement is the key India stands at a threshold where security is an area that poses a great threat as well as throws a great opportunity at us
(From L-R) M P Narayanan, President, CSDMS; Maj Gen R Siva Kumar, CEO NSDI, DST, GoI; Anil K Sinha, ViceChairman, Bihar State Disaster Management Authority; Shambhu Singh, Joint Secretary, (North East), Ministry of Home Affairs, GoI in the panel discussion at the inaugural session of Secure IT 2011
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ecurity is one of the gravest concerns of any nation today. Be it internal, external or even cyber security. India stands at a threshold where security is an area that poses a great threat as well as throws a great opportunity at us and using this opportunity coupled with the new and innovative technologies will make us come over the threat. Effective use of technology, technology for disaster management, community awareness, open data policy and other such important topics were discussed at the inaugural session of Secure IT 2011. The eminent speakers included Anil K Sinha, Vice-Chairman (in the rank of Cabinet Minister), Bihar State Disaster Management Authority & Chairman & Co-
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Open data policy as was thoroughly discussed by R Siva Kumar, DST, is critical for our nation as it firstly would reduce the burden from the government sector for locating information and secondly somewhat reduce the need for Right To Information (RTI) applications felt by the citizens. Data once recognised as ‘non-confidential’ should be available publicly for various purposes such as research, social audit and stock-taking. The main cons in the debate for an Open Data Policy are reluctance to share data and non-availability of data in digital format. The pros are simple for everyone to see. It will be a reason to digitise all the government data which is anyway a much needed reform. Also it will help in self-monitoring by the government officials. However, there is a difference between RTI and Open Data, both of them are often confused. A major point regarding the same was highlighted by R Siva Kumar, “It is slightly different if we see it from the perspective of RTI. RTI is more reactive where information is available only to the applicant and he/she can further disseminate it but in digital data sharing (open data) we are aiming at a more proactive manner of all government departments.” “We also need to have meta data, that is the data about data, which will enable people to discover the data and then explore it. We need to develop a lot of technological tools for all these,” he added.
RTI is reactive but Open Data is proactive where government cognizantly puts up data for public consumption
Founder, Global Forum for Disaster Reduction, Shambhu Singh, Joint Secretary (North East), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, Sanjiv Mital, CEO, National Institute for Smart Government, Maj Gen (Dr) R Siva Kumar, Head (NRDMS) & CEO (NSDI), Dept of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.
Technology alone cannot be a panacea for all our problems. Knowing the technology, using it effectively and coupling it with some highlyefficient traditional methods is what is needed. For example GPS is a very effective tool for monitoring and tracking movements. Using it for monitoring of vehicular movement can be a good move but coupling it with traditional
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Shambhu Singh
“Much can be learned from Japan”
Anil Sinha Vice-Chairman (in the rank of Cabinet Minister), Bihar State Disaster Management Authority & Chairman & Co-Founder, Global Forum for Disaster Reduction “In the way in last couple of years we have seen, disasters have literally been knocking. It is the worst disaster that took place in Japan. Look at how they have reacted to it. What has happened in Japan is ironically an alarm for people in Bihar and all over India. Japan undoubtedly is the best prepared country for such disasters. They had prepared for the worst, but their worst was around 8 on the richter scale, they were beaten as what happened was much more than what they had imagined that too happened at a location at a depth that generated a large tsunami. If you have closely watched the losses and damage due to earthquake were almost negligible, they coped very well with the tremors. One thing which is notable and remarkable in the people of Japan is how they responded to the earthquake. They first try to observe the seriousness of the tremor as they get hit by tremors almost every day. Once they realise that this is some-
methods like appointing an armed guard in government vehicle will ensure a two-point strategy. Sanjiv Mital, CEO, National Institute of Smart Government (NISG) pointed out some facts in this direction. He said, “Technology alone will not make a difference. Effective use of technology has to be there. Some time back a truck carrying explosives meant for various legal tasks such as mining, construction etc. went missing. If we have a proper tracking system for those trucks those explosives might not go into wrong hands.” “In Chhattisgarh use of simple GPS has increased the efficiency of the PDS by at least 10 times. Use of technology today and if it is
thing unusual then they follow the do’s and don’ts taught to them in preparedness. There are so many areas where we can learn from them. This was one of the gravest possible situation and see how they are coming back to the usual living. You won’t find media showing large number of dead bodies or people shouting and running around for food or other things. Why did they respond like this compared to the usual behavior of the people in such situations. It is because of their preparedness for disasters. They know what to do and how to do in such a situation. Knowing what to do and how to do in such crises situations is what we should learn. IT is a great tool to tell people what to do but how to do will come only from practice, mock drills, which has to be done repeatedly, like it happens in aircrafts. Have you ever boarded a flight where the initial safety instructions are not given? No. Many of the buildings we live in have fire extinguishers, are very well maintained but how many of the residents are trained to handle that fire extinguisher? In Japan you don’t only have to come out of the building but also use the fire extinguisher, fully operate it. Public awareness and community education is the first step towards any disaster preparation or litigation. You cannot talk of risk reduction or litigation unless there is awareness and education. This is the area where we are weak. Public awareness and community education is the basic step and important also because they are the first respondents to any such disaster. We have to use the technology to reach out to women, children and each and every class. Not technology alone will help; effective use of it is the essential part.” Excerpts from his speech at Secure IT 2011
a secure technology will definitely be of great use and great help,” said Shambhu Singh, Joint Secretary (North East), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Amongst many other topics discussed another prominent topic was disaster management discussed by Anil Sinha, Vice-Chairman, Bihar State Disaster Management Authority. He meticulously pointed out various learnings that India as well as all other countries shall take from Japan in coping with disasters such as they suffered just recently. “What has happened in Japan is ironically a wake-up call for people in Bihar and all over. There are so many areas where we can learn from them. Public
Joint Secretary, (North East), Ministry of Home Affairs
“In Chhattisgarh use of simple GPS has increased the efficiency of the PDS by atleast 10 times. Use of technology today and if it is a secure technology will definitely be of great use and a great help” awareness and community education is the first step towards any disaster preparation or litigation. This is the area where we are weak,” he said. Public safety in terms of internal security and disaster management are the most relevant topics in the wake of the recent disaster in Japan and the various insurgency incidents happening in India as well as all over the world. Optimum and effective use of technology is the key to dealing with all. As it came out in the session too, technology alone won’t suffice. For example, having a high-tech biometric smart card won’t suffice if the card holder doesn’t know how to effectively use it and we don’t have solutions that are compatible with that particular technology. The event had many other important themes for the day with the first session being on ICT in Policing, Intelligence, Prisons, Airport, Railways, Border Security; the second on Disaster Management: Preparedness and Response and the third on ‘Security of IT Infrastructure: Cyber and Network Security’. May 2011 / www.egovonline.net / egov
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Cyber and Network Security
Phishing the boundaries In the wake of cyber security threats, India needs to focus on strengthening the security of IT infrastructure and combating the dramatic rise of cyber crimes
(From L-R) Ramandeep Singh Walia, Head - System Engineering Group, Check Point Software Technologies; Ruchin Kumar, Principal Solution Architect- India & SAARC, SafeNet India Pvt. Ltd; Purushottam Sharma, IG of Police, SCRB, Madhya Pradesh; AK Mukhopadhyay, PVSM, AVSM, Former Air Marshal, Indian Air Force; Alok Jauhary, Vice President, Government Practice, NIIT Technologies Ltd; Dr Ramachandran, Centre Director, National Technical Research Organisation, Government of India
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omputers rather than missiles could pose the biggest security threat, with nations able to cripple rivals by using cyber warfare. Indian companies lost about ` 58.59 lakh in revenues in 2009 due to cyber attacks, according to Symantec 2010 State of Enterprise Security Study. In addition to this, Indian enterprises also lost an average of ` 94.56 lakh in organisation, customer and employee data in 2009, while they lost an average of ` 84.57 lakh in productivity (factors leading to hampering of work like problem with servers), according to the Study. With Gartner predicting that total data center capacity in India would grow at 31 per cent to reach 5.1 million square feet by 2012, data security is a concern for IT administrators. The study found that more than 50 per cent of the enterprises surveyed planned to implement significant changes to their data centers in 2010. Reportedly, a total of 198 Indian govern-
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and government per se. Different stakeholders have to play their own game.”
Trends in cyber crime The recent trends in cyber crime are professionalisation of cybercrime, hacktivism, cyberwarfare, rising rate of identity theft, epidemic of security vulnerabilities in software & networking products, shrinking time from exposure to attack, soaring rates of SPAM, targeting of web-based applications, targeting of desktop computers, new risks stemming from mobility of data; and emergence of sophisticated, multi-vector “blended threats”. Pavan Duggal, Cyber Law Expert and Advocate, Supreme Court of India says, “The major cyber crimes that the government and the police are facing are four in different categories. The first category can be of cyber crimes against persons, like cyber-stalking, cyber harassment, cyber-nuisance. The second category is cyber crimes against property, where a particular property is targeted - a computer, a network, a data base, or some information. Hacking and cracking are typical cyber crimes against property. The third category is of cyber crimes against nations- where a particular nation is the target.” SS Sharma, Additional Director, CERT‐IN,
A total of 198 Indian government websites were defaced by foreign hackers in the past six months
ment websites were defaced by foreign hackers in the past six months. B Bhamathi, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Home, Govt of India says, “Risks in cyber space have the potential to damage national security, businesses and individual civil liberties.” Srinivasan Ramakrishnan, Former Director General, C‐DAC and Chairman, Delhi Chapter of Cyber Society of India says, “Technology can itself be a good solution but can introduce vulnerability, too. The new upcoming technologies must consider the protection aspects and enough safety. We cannot leave the security issues only purely to service providers
Department of IT, Government of India opines, “The attack targets are critical infrastructure, the business intelligence, personal and peripheral informations. Today, the motive of cyber attack is more of purpose orientated, stealing intellectual data and business informations.” Recently, the government has issued the draft of proposed National Cyber Security Policy (NCSP) that identifies indigenous development of IT products essential for curbing threats from imported hi-tech products. The draft has asked government to identify the most dangerous classes of cyber security threats to the nation, critical IT infrastructure
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“The country needs a detailed regulatory, legal and policy-enabling regime”
B Bhamathi Additional Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs Risks in cyber space have the potential to damage national security, businesses and individual civil liberties. With the objective of having an integrated approach towards policing, the Ministry of Home Affairs has come up with a ` 2000 crores project–Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS). This important project is scheduled to be in place by 2012. CCTNS-CAS is being developed on a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) which shall enable the seamless sharing of information on crimes and criminals within police departments and across various other external agencies like transport departments, Passport authorities, Courts and Jails. CCTNS addresses several functional and technical challenges with respect to data standardisation, generation of reports, redundancy in data entry, mapping of major and minor crime heads. CCTNS aims to facilitate storage, collation, analysis and transmission/sharing of crime and criminals related information at the police station, district, state and central levels. National Crime Records Bureau, on behalf of the Ministry of
vulnerabilities and cyber security problems and use these findings to develop and implement a coordinated R&D effort focused on the key research needs. Says Pavan Duggal, “Cyber secrecy and network security are extremely relevant in today’s context. Both the requirements of national sovereign governments as those of balancing the needs of data protection and privacy have to be appropriately addressed.” Sujoy Choudhury, General Manager, NIIT Technologies says, “Today, Security is no longer an option, it has become an imperative. At NIIT technologies, whenever we design, develop and deploy IT technologies, we make sure that we understand all the security concerns of stakeholders in any enterprise application.”
Home Affairs, is the nodal agency for overseeing the implementation of this project. CCTNS can act as a catalyst and technology-enabled agent for initiating a change in Police functioning. To address issues pertaining to natural and man-made disasters, the Disaster Management Act of 2005 was passed leading to the formation of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). It is mandated by the Government of India to create the policy framework, transform disaster management plans and establish guidelines for effective response to disasters. The enforcement of its policies and implementation of its guidelines, disaster mitigation provisioning and disaster prevention also form the broad charter of apex body. The pace at which the envisaged reforms and modernisation initiatives are being adopted are not the same as that on an international level. The country needs a detailed regulatory, legal and policy-enabling regime to facilitate further protection and preservation of cyber security. The security architecture proposed for the CAS application shall ensure complete authenticity and integrity of data and transactions. Access control procedures shall cover all stages in the life-cycle of user access, from the initial registration of new users to the final de-registration of users, who no longer require access to information systems and services. Special attention shall be given, where appropriate, to the needs to control the allocation of privileged access rights. Government needs to create a national body to evolve a fine balance between cyber data protection and privacy of citizens as the society and businesses become a part of the huge electronic ecosystem. Cyber security can be achieved if interwoven with corporate governance. Excerpts from her speech at Secure IT 2011
A new form of warfare Cyber war has moved from fiction to fact. Cyber terrorism is one of the biggest challenges India is facing. The cyber terrorist today is an extremely intelligent mind whose only job is to try and destabilise a particular country, its institutions or its networks for the purpose of creating terror in the minds of the people. Pavan Duggal states, “A cyber terrorist, who is jamming or effectively de-stabalising the network could have far bigger ramifications and that is where I think India really needs to work hard in terms of coming up with distinct laws on cyber crimes.” If we see globally, the recent case of cyber attack is with Iran. Iran has been targeted by a second computer virus-Stars
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virus-in a cyber war waged by its enemies, according to its commander of civil defence Gholamreza Jalali. Prof Srivathsan, Pro VC, IGNOU elaborates, “The concern is regarding professional and academic approach to deal security. Every data has its multiple attributes. Different parties have right to own it. We need to evolve certain data models—i.e. what is data and who owns it.” A major tool of cyber warfare is key-loggers, which is a software program or device designed to monitor and log all keystrokes. Key-loggers are intended not to steal source code or information but to record the data input into a computer, to be used for financial fraud. Says Prof K Subramanian, Director, Advanced Center for Informatics & Innovative Learning, IGNOU, IT Advisor, CAG of India, “Cyber has no territorial boundary. Identification mapping in citizen to citizen and asset classification are challenges in cyber security space. Management, technology assurance, financial and network audit, service delivery assurance and forensic aspect should be covered in security considerations.” In the wake of increasing cyber crime in India, the Information Technology Act, 2000 was amended in February 2009, but it remains insufficient tool to effectively protect the nation from a cyber onslaught. While, laudably, the new Act legislates against the growing menace of identity theft, phishing and violation of privacy, it does not even contemplate the tools of modern cyber crime. B Bhamathi says, “The country needs a detailed regulatory, legal and policy-enabling regime to facilitate further protection and preservation of cyber security. Government needs creating a national body to evolve a fine balance between cyber data protection and privacy of citizens as the society and businesses become a part of the huge electronic ecosystem. She adds, “Cyber security can be achieved if interwoven with corporate governance.” From power stations to sugar factories, dam sluice gates to suburban train signalling systems, banks to stock exchanges, most complex systems are largely controlled by computers. If hostile elements gain control of these decidedly civilian establishments, they can create havoc. Therefore, cyber security has to go beyond securing overtly sensitive systems such as in the government and the defence network. May 2011 / www.egovonline.net / egov
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ICT in Policing, Intelligence, Prisons, Airport, Railways, Border Security
IT is an Epitome for Modernisation
The gap between the mandatory management of security forces and appropriate technology gives them the encouragement to terrorist culture
(From L-R) Prof Srivathsan, Pro-VC, IGNOU; Srinivasan Ramakrishnan, Former Director General, C-DAC and Chairman, Delhi Chapter of Cyber Society of India; B Bhamathi, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India; Pavan Duggal, Advocate, Supreme Court of India and President, Cyberlaws.Net ; Prof K Subramanian, Director, Advanced Center for Informatics & Innovative Learning, IGNOU, Hon. IT Advisor, CAG of India; SS Sarma, Additional Director, CERT-IN, Department of IT, Government of India; Sujoy Choudhury, General Manager, NIIT Technologies Ltd.
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ndia is at the cusp of complete structural and technological transition in the area of physical safety and security. Being the back benchers in technology adoption in the government, the security agencies are now speedily leveraging information systems and technologies like biometrics, global positioning system (GPS) and geographical information system (GIS) for better preparedness and response. State polices across the country are working on some or the other technology projects for modernising and enhancing the capacity of the agencies. Cops in Karnataka are working on enterprise resource planning. In Madhya Pradesh, biometrics and integration of servers are being worked upon intensively. Border Security Forces (BSF) is working on computerisation and electronification of its offices. These were the key deliberations that took place during the session on ‘ICT in Policing, Intelligence, Prisons, Airport, Railways, Border Security’. The session was chaired by A K Mukhopad-
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Practice, NIIT Technologies focused on how can IT help in managing security. He said that IT has got significant role to play on creating cyber infrastructure, collection of data, storage, analysis, flow of information, assist in rapid decision making and increase in efficiency. Giving details of a large project in government which NIIT is currently working on, Jauhary said, “We are working on a project of the security forces, right from providing infrastructure, ensuring information collected from lower levels to reach to the top.” It includes training of personnel who are completely computer illiterate and grooming them to work on the IT systems. NIIT technology mission is to enable enterprise to leverage our services and focus on managing information rather than on technology. Ruchin Kumar, Principal Solution Architect India & SAARC, SafeNet India said that Crime Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNS) aims to improve service delivery, enhance tool for law and order maintenance, increase operational efficiency from police stations to central sites. Speaking on the need for confidentiality and proper authorisation, Kumar said, “Authentication and proper provisions, other than login and passwords such as biometrics, pin, digital certificate biometrics, etc, are significant for
State polices across the country are working on some or the other technology projects for modernising and enhancing the capacity of the agencies hyay, PVSM, AVSM, Former Air Marshal, Indian Air Force. Giving the opening remarks, A K Mukhopadhyay said that computer is one of the greatest foods for imagination. Information technology has become an epitome of modernisation. “During my early association with Air Force, we had a computer with memory of 4 Mb and we were feeling modern, but now the RAM is also of Gigabytes. I compare technology to a mother. Mother embraces the child but gives him full freedom to give his expressions and growth.” Alok Jauhary,Vice President, Government
ensuring data security and preventing data tempering. Similarly, he further added that IGRS for property details could be done through fingerprints and signatures, downloading the registry copies which could be misused. Sanjay Sahay, IGP, State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB), Karnataka said that 9/11 has really shattered people’s faith in the ability of government to provide mankind safety. ICT is being used by the terrorists for purposes such as money laundering, gun running, narcotics or open acts of terror. The gap between the mandatory management of security forces and appropriate technology gives them the
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encouragement to terrorist culture. Sahay opined: “Homeland security needs policy makers with experience from the IT industry to build an ERP solution for data creation and information dissemination, and search engine Ebiz, city based video surveillance, automatic vehicle location system, GISbased crime analysis and search engine, tetra radio network, and integration of all networks. Pointing out the challenges, Sahay stated that the major challenge is the ownership of projects because of its quality and timeline, since most of them have been running indefinitely. It can be sorted out with the effective delivery of standard technology like ‘tetra’ which has shown great benefits in public safety. Project management is still not up to the level so the top levels should be made to learn. Loknath Behera,IGP (O & C), National Investigation Agency, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India said that Police is not yet IT savvy. “Today we will not be able to know that whether a case was registered in J & K. However, CCTNS will now take care of these on-integration issues. We wish 14,000 of the police stations can be connected so that information can be easily accessed. The crime and criminal will be seen through CCTNs,” he said. Dr Rajvir P Sharma,IG of Police, Planning & Modernisation, Karnataka remarked that there are very few technocrats in police. Pointing
towards the dearth of skilled human resource, he said, “We suggested that we should have different cadre of technocrats and technology driven people to look after the management.” Purushottam Sharma, IG of Police, SCRB, Madhya Pradesh elaborated on the deliverables of CCTNS and said that once CCTNS is implemented, it would facilitate complete connectivity from remote areas which would connect to the headquarters and the NCRB would become the repository of all the crime. He informed that the connectivity in CCTNS would be provided through MPLS network and state wide area network (SWAN). “CCTNS has got wonderful software to generate reports at the central level, which can be used for providing information or a reply in the Parliament,” Sharma further added. Sharma referred to the word ‘tracking’ in CCTNS project and said it is of particular significance. “It has been envisaged to have a repository of biometrics data of the criminals, which would enable tracking.” He also stressed on the need for networking of servers and databases within the Police from different states. “We have 18 states which have Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) but we have got tremendous challenge, they are working in isolation. No interconnection. The databases are not shared.” Citing an example, Sharma said, “I got a
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call from joint commissioner that they are encountering cases of robberies and that they are suspecting the criminals are from the border areas of Madhya Pradesh. But we could not get the two systems integrated. We were unable to define technology.” Ramandeep Singh Walia,Head System Engineering Group, Check Point Software Technologies said that the vectors of the threat are changing- people could leak the information from agencies. The armed forces are not able to protect the information which is being spread or leaked. “FBI says that the number of criminals has outnumbered the money attached to drug trafficking. This is some information in the changing vectors in the digitised world. The proliferation of the web tool is causing threat. The state of today is the beginning of the new era.” Dr Ramachandran,Centre Director, National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), Government of India highlighted the increased use of GPS and GIS technology in governance and security purposes. He said: “It (GPS) has great information and the way it has grown in number of entries in Wikimedia maintained by the University of London is commendable. The number of GPS points is huge like 2 trillion points at the positions and the exponential growth in the availability of content primarily by web 2.0 to be contributed is huge.”
Disaster Management: Preparedness and Response
Technology Needs for Facing and Fighting a Disaster The recent tsunami in Japan is the worst natural calamity to have occurred in recent years and to a country best prepared to handle it. Yet, the damage is immense both in terms of property as well as human displacement. This catastrophic disaster had ironically acted as a wake-up call for India as well as countries over the world. Indian cities are categorised in earthquakeprone areas with high sensitivity and yet when it comes disaster preparedness we don’t stand a chance like Japan. Preparedness governs
response as well as rehabilitation. Using technologies such as GIS, GPS and geo-spatial mapping and data for pre-determining the natural disasters is the call of the situation. “Disaster Management- Preparedness and Response” was discussed at Secure IT 2011 with Maj Gen R C Padhi, MOGSGS, Military Survey, India Army and Dheeraj Goel from NIIT-GIS in the panel. The issues touched upon were the need for proper disaster management systems and
tools in place for a vast disaster prone country like ours. Dheeraj Goel, NIIT-GIS touched upon the high-end technological solutions available for preparing for the calamities in advance. “GIS can definitely help in making the plans, evacuation plans for the fire handlers, preparedness of medical facility and staff and good reaction teams. Geographical management system and visualisation on the urban strata helps to plan for disaster and emergency plans for high rise urban settlements.” May 2011 / www.egovonline.net / egov
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eworld curtain raiser
Bridging the Divide Let information technology be an integral part of every aspect of human development, from security to healthcare
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nformation and Communication Technology (ICT) is performing the role of universal equaliser, enabler and integrator. The most important and revolutionary aspect of ICT is their potential to shift the balance of power in society, governance and economy towards the common people, the disadvantaged groups, the poor, the women and youth. Today, ICT can help achieve the dream of a more just, inclusive and equitable world in a most peaceful way. We can see many examples of ICT-enabled empowerment and social inclusion achieved in the developing world over the last 10 years. In the event Secure IT 2011, organised by egov, “Adopting Global Best Practices in Bridging Digital Divide Opportunities and Challenges” was discussed by eminent experts in the eWorld curtain raiser. The panel members were R. Chandrasekhar, Secretary, Department of Information technology (IT); Major General R Siva Kumar, CEO Natural Data Management System (NSDI) & Head Natural Resources Data Management System (NRDMS) Division, Department of Science & Technology; Prof Srivathsan, Pro VC, IGNOU; Madhulika Gupta, USAID; B.S. Bedi, Advisor, CDAC and Bhaskar from Check Point. R Chandrasekhar, Secretary, Department of information technology (IT) said, “India is very
R. Chandrasekhar Secretary, Department of Information Technology (IT)
“India is very seriously going towards ICT-enabled transformations and developments. People across the world are now looking at what India is doing in ICT and what lessons can be learnt from it” seriously going towards ICT-enabled transformations and developments. People across the world are looking at what India is doing in this field and what lessons can be learnt with it.” He added, “Kenya and the mobile money are some examples that had done it very successfully: it shows that mobile phone itself can be a powerful instrument and can be substitute of credit card and UID which enables the identity to be established not only online through biometrics but also through mobiles.” In the information age, the role of Geo-Spatial data is increasing day by day. Geo-Spatial data or geographic information is the information that identifies the geographic location of features Dr R Siva Kumar CEO, NSDI & Head NRDMS Division, Department of Science & Technology
“You can empower the people through information and data. Most of the human activities are related to Geo-Spatial data. So, we have to migrate from e-Governance to g-Governance”
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and boundaries on Earth, such as natural or constructed features and oceans. “You can really empower people through information and data. Most of the human activities are related to Geo-Spatial data. So, we have to migrate from e-Governance to g-Governance. In open data policy, most of the data which is non-spatial in nature, in many of the government departments, should be made available across the platforms,” R Siva
Kumar, CEO, NRDMS Division, Department of Science & Technology said. He added, “In Geo-Spatial data, people have a lot of data, but they don’t have the capability to provide services as such. In government and private sector, the important thing is to share data or resources. If people have no consciousness of sharing; they won’t have the knowledge about resources. Unless you locate data, you can’t discover data; unless you discover it you can’t explore it.”
ICT in health Quality of public health and availability of proper healthcare amenities are one of the prime yardsticks for estimating the level of development and well-being of any country or society. Advent of powerful medical electronics coupled with latest tools of IT and communication technologies are bringing opportunities for advanced healthcare services. Spanning from primary healthcare to medical image archiving; complex forecasting of health hazards or even performing critical surgical procedures - technology is leveraging healthcare at all fronts B S Bedi, Advisor, CDAC said, “Out of the primary, secondary and tertiary health, rural health workers operate in 310 primary health centres. These health workers created database
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manually but with introduction of computers and technology, the databases are now organised and created on computers at block level in specialised primary healthcare centres.” He added, “We are adding 18 million handsets per month, and an additional 750 million handsets are there. This will be another revolution in the hands of people. Health delivery will go down right to the persons with the help of m-Health. With technology, we have the potential to reach people at their households. The lack of information is now being planned and collected by the health information system. IT shows successful results which will engage in taking information to the next generation.”
Kerala model Farmers of Kerala are availing the benefits of IT as e-Krishi Projects in various districts of the state. The project site, e-krishi.org, becomes a platform for farmers to get a variety of farm-related information ranging from the best agriculture practices to commodity prices. The website also provides trading facilities in agriculture commodities. The project has created a network of 12,500 farmers with links to more than 100 institutional buyers. The government has also integrated it with the Karshaka Information Systems Services and Networking (KISSAN) developed by the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Kerala and the Virtual University for Agricultural Trade (VUAT) attached to the Kerala Agricultural University. The project enables farmers to interact with agriculture service providers in the private, government and non-government sectors through agri-business centres. The website and call centre are providing the farmers with information on market demand, prices, good agriculture practices, quality agriculture inputs and expert advice. The mentor of this project and Pro VC, IGNOU Prof Srivathsan said, “Every college in the rural area must have at least one local extension service which should be beyond public-private model and special purpose vehicles, and we will call it community enterprise extension service.” He added, “Link education with development, which must be central not just peripheral.” “With the help of ICT, the phenomenal growth has happened in the last decade. We must have the right policy and strategy for implementation. We should involve and
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Dr B S Bedi CDAC
“We are adding 18 million handsets per month. This will be another revolution in the hands of people. Health delivery will go down right to the persons with the help of m-Health”
Madhumita Gupta Senior Economist & Deupty Director, USAID
“As a development agency we look at ICT for delivery of services, geographical reach and targeting the people “ educate the people to achieve the objectives of governance and security,” B Bhaskar, Check Point, said.
Digital divide Hundreds of millions of lives were lost during the last century alone to seek a better world through revolutions, wars and political struggle. Despite all these sacrifices, we still have poverty, inequality, corruption, and social exclusion everywhere. There is still a huge digital divide in India. We can adopt global best practices in bridging digital divide. R Chandrasekhar stated, “Imagine a situation where everybody in the country which has mobile wallets. It is something is mindbog-
gling in terms of its possibility. Content and services will take a little time. But there are some limitations when we go to the villages or interior areas of the country. We find some basic problems-- the availability of power and connectivity are basic problems. In telecom to extend broadband to wireless and wire LAN, we are now at the threshold in the length and breadth of the country in terms of wireless and in terms of optical cables for Panchatyas. Content and services will be on one track and connectivity and arrangements will on another track and there will be synergies. We are now in a scenario where all the things are there.” He added, “People are really interested to know about the ICT scenario in the current era. This is the right time to learn from and share experiences with others. The need is to spend a lot of time in exchanging experiences and looking towards changing the scenario in ICT. That’s why, we have forums like e-India, e-Asia and e-World and elets has initiated eWorld forum at the right time.” Madhumita Gupta, USAID said “In education, physical infrastructure is inadequate. So, we look towards ICT as an option to deliver teacher education. Another bottleneck is the issue of local language. Development agencies are looking for cost effectiveness. Whenever we find a best practice model, there must be rigorous study on the enabling factors and why very good e-Governance projects are not able to reach geographical locations. As a development agency, we look at ICT for delivery of services, geographical reach and targeting the people.” India is at the threshold of being an economic power. With a strong ICT backbone, we can cross the threshold faster. For that, we need aggressive goals and thus we will be truly ahead on the path to Digital India. May 2011 / www.egovonline.net / egov
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