eGov October 2015

eGov Magazine

Contents

october 2015

volume 11 n issue 10

PSUs

cover story

Governance on

Cloud 9

Dr U D Choubey

Dr K Ravi Kanth

K S Popli

Director General, Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE)

Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO)

Chairman & Managing Director, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA)

Anil Shrivastava

M K Goel

V K Singh

Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India

Chairman & Managing Director, Power Finance Corporation Ltd (PFC)

Chief Vigilance Officer, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)

Tête-à-tête Cloud computing

44 Neeraj Sahdev General Manager & Head – Government & Defence, Wipro

Neeta Verma

Renu Budhiraja

Rana Gupta

Deputy Director General & Head - Data Centre & Web Services, NIC, DeitY, Government of India

Senior Director and Head State Data Centre & Cloud, DeitY, Government of India

VP – APAC Sales, Identity and Data Protection, Gemalto

52 Pramod Saxena Chairman & Managing Director, Oxigen Services India Pvt Ltd

From the States 34 – Digital Governance – Andhra Pradesh 46 - Labour Management - West Bengal

54 - Smart Policing – Chhattisgarh

Event Report Dr Justice G C Bharuka

Prashant Choudhary

Murthy Veeraghanta

Former Acting Chief Justice, High Court of Karnataka

Senior Director, Sales - State Government and PSU, CA Technologies

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, VSoft Technologies

2nd Annual PSU Summit & Awards 2015, New Delhi

Port Special

48 Sajan Paul Director Systems Engineering - India & SAARC, Juniper Networks

Neeraj Bansal Deputy Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT)

egov / egov.eletsonline.com / October 2015

editorial

Looking up to the Cloud

overing clouds in the sky have been a source of eternal joy and symbolised romanticism – since time immemorial. However, with the changing times, some more shades of Cloud have emerged on the horizon. What has been known for storing just the rains previously is also said to be storing digital data these days – a ‘natural’ object has also put on the ‘virtual’ hue.

The virtual Cloud, in which storing and accessing data and programmes over the Internet instead of PC’s hard drive is possible, is fast being adopted by both governments across the world as well as businesses for its cost-effectiveness, security of data, ease of accessibility, environment-friendliness and much more. The biggest advantage of Cloud Computing remains that it does away with the requirement to have individual/separate infrastructure for data storage or analysis. In a geographically diverse country like India, Cloud Computing has added a whole new dimension to the concept of governance, as it can facilitate delivery of a large number of citizen-centric services in remote areas, which cannot be easily accessed physically. Following the launch of Government’s initiatives, like Digital India and 100 Smart Cities, there is an increased need for adoption of Cloud technology. That being the reason, the Government is shifting more and more of services to its own Cloud, MeghRaj, which is shared by not just the Central Government departments, but also by the departments of several states. At present, it has 241 government users. This issue of eGov magazine is designed to give you an insight on the phenomenon of Cloud Computing not just in the Indian context but also globally. A series of interviews and write-ups by authorities in the domain present a 360-degree perspective of how the technology is revolutionising almost every sphere of human action. Besides, this issue also brings to you a detailed report on how the State of Andhra Pradesh has set a benchmark in eGovernance, which remains elusive for most of the other states, to date. Digital governance initiatives like ‘ePragati’ and ‘eCabinet’ set the State apart from others. Under the leadership of a tech-savvy and digitally-agile Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Andhra already boasts of about one million sqft of incubation infrastructure available in Vizag, Kakinada, Tirupati and Anantapur, and another 3,00,000 sqft of space in the vicinity of the Vizag startup village is on the anvil. In addition, we have also tried to gauge the mind of stakeholders and experts on India’s digital property that is driving the nation towards a brighter tomorrow. They talk at length about the way forward for the country vis-à-vis digital initiatives of the incumbent government. Hope you like the packaging.

ravi guptA Ravi.Gupta@elets.in

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October 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON E-governance

october 2015 volume 11 n issue 10

PRESIDENT: Dr M P Narayanan EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Dr Ravi Gupta EDITORIAL TEAM GOVERNANCE / BANKING & FINANCE Senior Assistant Editor: Nirmal Anshu Ranjan Assistant Editor: Kartik Sharma, Rachita Jha, Souvik Goswami Senior Correspondent: Gautam Debroy, Vishwas Dass, Arpit Gupta Correspondent: Poulami Chakraborty, Manish Arora Junior Correspondent: Sneha Mejari Trainee Sub-Editor: Akanki Sharma SALES & MARKETING TEAM Assistant General Manager: Ragini Shrivastava, Mobile: +91-8860651650 National Sales Manager: Fahim Haq, Mobile: +91-8860651632 Sr. Manager: Gaurav Srivastava, Mobile: +91-8527697685 SUBSCRIPTION & CIRCULATION TEAM Manager Subscriptions: +91-8860635832; subscription@elets.in DESIGN TEAM Creative Head: Pramod Gupta Deputy Art Director: Om Prakash Thakur, Gopal Thakur Senior Web Designer: Shyam Kishore WEB DEVELOPMENT & IT INFRASTRUCTURE Manager Web Development: Ishvinder Singh EVENT TEAM Manager: Gagandeep Kapani

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egov / egov.eletsonline.com / October 2015

cover story

Cloud Computing

Governance on

Cloud 9

Cloud computing has emerged as a powerful tool to empower Government to improve citizen-centric services by adopting ultra-modern technology. It’s easy to access, it’s cost-effective, it’s flexible to one’s requirements. Besides, Cloud technology is also generating lakhs of jobs for the skilled youth. Vishwas Dass of Elets News Network (ENN) writes about the status of Cloud Computing in India as also elsewhere

ith technological advancements happening day in and day out, governments across the globe have been trying to harness latest technologies to improve and strengthen citizen-centric services and their delivery. In this context, Cloud Computing has emerged as one of the landmark innovations in the digital landscape that has changed the way corporate firms and governments deliver services. Cloud Computing, which facilitates IT services to Cloud users with greater reliability, flexibility and scalability, has a huge potential for usage in the field of eGovernance and rural development in developing countries like India. The importance of this technology can be understood by the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s many technology-driven projects like ‘Digital India’ and ‘100 Smart Cities’

egov / egov.eletsonline.com / October 2015

heavily rely on Cloud Computing, which has also helped education, health, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sectors immensely in improving their services. According to reports, India Inc has pledged `4.5 lakh crore for Digital India, which can create over 18 lakh jobs in the country.

Revolution in sky The Cloud has literally brought revolution by offering solutions to store and share data. It is Cloud Computing which has empowered governments to roll out e-services like payment of property tax, drinking water, electricity, registration of land records and building plan approval, among others, to help people deposit taxes at the click of a mouse. eGovernance services to customers, businesses and even to

the agencies themselves have made a huge impact on India’s 1.2 billion citizens. A recent Gartner report shows the Cloud Computing will constitute the bulk of IT spending by 2016. It is expected that the Cloud market in India alone would reach over USD3 billion by 2017 — a five-fold increase from 2012, which is good enough to prove how rapidly the sector is growing.

Job spinner The Cloud is all set to transform the way we do business and grow on the digital platform. Cloud Computing in all likelihood is going to be a boon for the small to medium size businesses (SMBs), which employ 40 per cent of the overall workforce and are growing at a rate of eight per cent per year. According to another report, if all SMBs in India were to adopt Cloud Computing, the market could reach USD56 billion, creating additional 1.1 million jobs in the near future. Adoption of IT technology is often considered an expensive affair and the myth

Cloud Computing

is that it requires purchase of hardware, software, modern networks and manpower to operate. On the contrary, it is simple and cost-effective for SMBs to run IT solutions by having an account with a Cloud Computing service provider. Cloud solutions help SMEs implement technology quicker to gain competitive advantage. Cloud is also giving a thrust to India’s economy by creating more jobs in India. Many believe that if the Cloud market continues to expand in India, job prospects would also go up conspicuously. It is believed that this year alone, Cloud Computing will create over two million jobs. Consulting firm Zinnov has come out with a study that projects that Cloud Computing market in India will reach USD4.5 billion by the year-end. The situation can be gauged by the fact that many multinational companies in India have shelved their plans of developing their own Cloud-based solutions and instead of this bidding for Cloud Computing service providers because of requirement of the whopping funds.

Real-time governance When asked, Prashant Choudhary, Senior Director, Sales - State Government and PSU, CA Technologies, said that the Government departments can immensely benefit by Cloud Computing. “This technology can change the way IT services are delivered and realise benefits ranging from reduced costs, improved organisational agility and transformation in overall service delivery. It can be used to facilitate eGovernance in real-time.” Choudhary asserted that Cloud technology should be used extensively by the Governments to transform key citizen-centric services. “A number of large scale enterprises have committed to set up Cloud-based data centers in India in the near future. If reports are to be believed, the surge in Internet penetration backed by the Digital India initiative is likely to attract USD17 billion investment in the next three to four years in India. Ninety per cent of the SMBs are expected to be tech-influenced by 2020,” he added. Juniper Networks, which provides enterprise grade Cloud-based networking solutions to numerous telecom service providers, enterprises and educational institutions, believes that

cover story

Connecting Citizens and Services Ozair Yasin, Managing Director, SoftAge Information Technology Limited Cloud Computing refers to the remote data centres, thousands of computers and servers to connect into a Cloud computer. This model has exceptional computing power. Using the computer, laptop or mobile phone, a user can access remote terminals to enjoy a variety of services. For data storage requirements, such as large enterprise users, Cloud Computing technology is particularly attractive because it can help significantly reduce costs. There has also been a rapid development of the technology in the recent years. It would be really helpful in connecting the citizens with services under various initiatives undertaken by the Government of India, such as Digital India, Make in India, etc. SoftAge has developed a Cloud-based Document Management System (CloudDocu) to help small and medium-sized companies manage and organise all types of documents through a web browser. CloudDocu is a Cloud-based software, crucial for the organisations where the importance of documents, data security and reliability is a concern.

Cloud Computing can also be used for improving healthcare, education and eGovernance. A web-based education system can share knowledge by communicating between schools following the same curriculum providing citizen-centric services at affordable cost is extremely important. “Cloud effects everyone today, ranging from an average user to large-scale enterprises. Cloud-based technologies remain at the heart of most discussions pertaining the technological transformation enterprises are undergoing,” Sajan Paul, Director Systems Engineering - India and SAARC, Juniper Networks, told ENN.

Rural disconnect However, rural sector is one area which needs immediate attention when it comes to implementing Cloud technology for the betterment of people living in rural and remote parts of the country. A plethora of very smallscale industries are mushrooming in the rural parts of India, but all of them are struggling to match global standards of business and these industries do not have a chance of withstanding the incoming globalisation in India, until they start making efforts to meet international standards. Problems faced by rural education in India are known to all. It is plagued by dearth of qualified teachers, IT institutions and poor infrastructure. But the web-based education system can share knowledge by communicating between schools following the same curriculum. If the application is run on the Cloud, rural schools can use PCs at lower costs, with smaller hard disks and lesser memory. Besides, Cloud Computing can also be used for improving healthcare and eGovernance. Citizens’ health record on the Cloud can be of immense help in this regard. It doesn’t look too far away from human imagination to see India becoming a global hub for Cloud Computing, provided the Government takes adequate steps to cut redtapism, often hampering smooth establishment and running of IT firms, and promote use of Cloud technology pro-actively.

October 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

India Warms up for

Cloud Revolution Adoption of Cloud Computing is one of the necessities to take ‘Digital India’ and other similar initiatives rolled out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the next level. Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN) writes how Cloud technology is helping various central and state government departments deliver better and faster

he ‘Digital India’ programme aiming at reforming governance through technology has become a global initiative now. Technology bigwigs, such as Google, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Apple and Facebook, have joined hands with the Government to realise the dream of ‘India Tomorrow’. What’s more, the Redmond-based tech giant Microsoft India has launched public Cloud services from three local data centres, located at Chennai, Pune and Mumbai, in India to fuel country’s inclusive growth, spur innovation and accelerate digital transformation. Meanwhile, keeping in mind the benefits of Cloud Computing, the Government of India launched ‘GI Cloud’ initiative, christened as ‘Meghraj’, to accelerate the delivery of e-services covering aspects like

jurisdiction, cross-border data flow, data security, data location, etc. The focus of this initiative is to evolve a strategy and implement various components, including governance mechanism, to ensure proliferation of Cloud in the Government. “The National Cloud has been set up to cater to a variety of ICT requirements of the Government and is available for all the ministries and departments at Central and state level. The various Cloud services being offered by the National Cloud include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Storage as a Service (SaaS), among others,” says Neeta Verma, Deputy Director General & Head-Data Centre and Web Services, National Informatics Centre (NIC). Some of the major eGovernance projects

Services and Benefits At present, following Cloud services are being offered: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Meghraj offers on-demand storage and network facilities. Platform as a Service (PaaS): Programming languages and tools have been made available for developing and testing of applications. Software as a Service (SaaS): Core and regular applications, such as payment gateways and messaging platforms, are available in the eGov App Store. Storage as a Service (STaaS): Meghraj is excpected to expand user mobility through shared data and applications stored in the Cloud.

running on National Cloud include MyGov, Make-in-India, Biometrics Aadhaar attendance system for government employees, Digital Locker, Digital India, major website of the Central and state governments, etc. Cloud Computing holds potential to accelerate eGovernance and push the Make in India, Smart Cities and Digital India programmes. A public Cloud is based on the standard Cloud Computing model, and its services may be free or offered on a pay-perusage model. It is driven by a service provider, who makes resources, such as applications and storage, available to the general public over the Internet. Technology experts believe that more than 60 per cent of banks will process majority of transactions on the Cloud by 2018.

Creating virtual workspaces Ajay Chauhan, Co-founder, SalezShark Cloud technology has many benefits. It allows people to set up virtual workspaces, thus connecting businesses from anywhere and at anytime. As the demand of web-enabled devices for the smooth access to data keeps growing, there are lots of reasons to shift your b u s i n e s s to Cloud Computing. It can reduce maintenance hassles and manage the IT systems efficiently, with reduced operational tasks. SalezShark offers a Cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) that takes the concept of CRM to a whole new level by introducing an array of new features. The relationship Cloud comes with an intuitive sales mechanism automating every aspect of lead generation and sales process lifecycle. It is available with an integrated Enterprise Social Network that allows intraorganisational connections. These assist in sharing of files, contacts and resources with anybody within the enterprise. The Cloud builds intelligent reports and enables 360-degree collaboration with customers and offers full customisation of the dashboard with Email and Telephony.

Indian Cloud market Cloud market in India is very fragmented, and is divided into three broad segments – Data Centre services companies, like Netmagic and Tata Communications; Cloud providers like Amazon, Google and Microsoft; and the Telecom players getting into the Cloud. A lot of global tech giants such as Google, Microsoft Azure, IBM and Amazon Web Services are entering the country as Cloud

Market research firm Gartner claims that the public Cloud market in India is expected to reach USD838 million (roughly `5,527 crore) by the end of 2015, an increase of 33 per cent over 2014, and finally reach USD2 billion (roughly `13,193 crores) by 2018

vendors. Microsoft India has become the first public Cloud provider to set up three local data centres in the country. The company has launched three local data centres, located at Chennai, Pune and Mumbai, to offer Cloud services. Microsoft India Chairman Bhaskar Pramanik, in an official statement, said, “The Microsoft Cloud in India will transform the way computing is done in the country. The hyper-scale Cloud will empower governments, businesses and users and offer enough computing power that will support all their existing workloads.” Market research firm Gartner claims that the public Cloud market in India is expected

to reach USD838 million (roughly `5,527 crore) by the end of 2015, an increase of 33 per cent over 2014, and finally reach USD2 billion (roughly `13,193 crores) by 2018. Meanwhile, the Government of India’s spending will go up to USD6.88 billion (roughly `44,856 crore) by the end of 2015, an increase of 5.2 per cent over 2014. On the other hand, Amazon has also announced setting up of an AWS infrastructure in India for its Cloud Computing platform by 2016 and the US-based IBM is also planning to set up its second data centre in India to cater to the demands from various sectors, including financial services and government. The firm already has a data centre in Mumbai.

Cloud Computing

nic

National Cloud: Core of Digital India With the launch of Digital India Programme, the National Cloud is being further enhanced to cater to increasing ICT requirements of the departments, says Neeta Verma, Deputy Director General & Head-Data Centre & Web Services, National Informatics Centre (NIC), in conversation with Souvik Goswami of Elets News Network (ENN) The Government of India has initiated ambitious Digital India programme. How important is National Cloud to be seen as the core of Digital India initiative? The Digital India programme includes a number of eGovernnce initiatives which are using ICT infrastructure in a big way. Initiatives like the Digital Locker, Scholarships, MyGov, e-Hospital are powered through National Cloud. The Cloud enables provision of ICT infrastructure in an optimal manner. Cloud service also extends a department’s ability to go live in a very short time, as with Cloud service, departments do not have to go into the procurement and commissioning of infrastructure. It is evident from the fact that during the launch of the Digital India programme, various initiatives were made live in a span of just one month. So, the advantage of the National Cloud is that it gives the government the ability to go live at minimal cost and in a short time. Cloud also gives the opportunity to scale up infrastructure at a short notice to cater to peaks in demand of a service.

What is the present status of National Cloud? The National Cloud was launched in 2014. This was the first National Cloud setup under ‘MeghRaj’. We have got overwhelming response for availing Cloud services. In just one year, we have 241 government users and projects already running through this Cloud. Almost all the Digital India initiatives are powered through this Cloud. Around 5,000 virtual servers have been created

egov / egov.eletsonline.com / October 2015

nic

and allocated to various central and state government departments. Our department, DeitY, had also introduced â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;CloudFirstâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; policy in 2014, which has helped us achieve a high order of consolidation of resources and also a lot of cost saving for the government.

How has been the response from the state governments? The states are keen to use Cloud services. In fact, some of the state governments are already using our Cloud services. Some of the state governments have also set up small Cloud setups in their state data centres to explore the potential of Cloud and obtain a better understanding of the use of Cloud for government services. However, anticipating a huge demand, we are going for a large-scale expansion of the National Cloud. We are not only upgrading Cloud infrastructures, but also adding two more nodes in two of our national data centres to make it a multi-locational Cloud and give users a choice of location.

Cloud Computing

We need skilled manpower to assist us in 24x7 operations of our Cloud services. Getting skilled manpower with an experience of running Cloud operations is a challenge. Development of eGovernance software systems that can leverage the potential of Cloud is another domain, where a lot of work needs to be done of those threats are not relevant in this scenario. However, there are some threats such as data loss, data theft in transit, security of interfaces, etc. We handle it through technology such as encryption, secure access, supplemented by close monitoring and compliance mechanisms.

and introduction of value-added services are some of the key aspects of expansion strategy. The idea is to provide state-of-the-art and secure Cloud services to enable government departments make any initiative live in a short time without worrying about procurement or commissioning of the ICT infrastructure.

What is your expectation from the industry on Cloud for government? We need skilled manpower to assist us in 24x7 operation of our Cloud services. Getting skilled manpower with an experience of running Cloud operations is a challenge. Development of eGovernance software systems that can leverage the potential of Cloud is another domain where a lot of work

There is apprehension about the security aspect in the Cloud technology. Share your point of view on this.

What are the future plans for the National Cloud, as it is being seen as the core of the Digital India programme?

As far as security is concerned, cyber security concerns were there even when we were delivering data center services with physical servers. But I think quite a few threats which are being talked about are related to Public Cloud. Since we have a government Private Cloud, part

With the launch of Digital India programme, the National Cloud is being further enhanced to cater to increasing ICT requirements of the departments. We are planning to add 100 more servers in the coming six months. Infrastructure increase, multi-location Cloud

needs to be done. Automation in Cloud provisioning, operations and management can increase productivity of our team manifold. We are in the process of developing a sophisticated and featured Cloud orchestration layer that shall help achieve a high order of automation, compliance to government regulations as well as deliver customised services to our users. Industry can collaborate in all of these initiatives.

October 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

Cloud Computing

deity

Cloud to Shower eServices Cloud Computing is likely to be one of the key pillars on which various eGovernance services would ride and GI Cloud MeghRaj is an extremely important and relevant technology to create a paradigm shift in the way government procures IT, and deploys eGov applications across the country, says Renu Budhiraja, Senior Director and Head - State Data Centre & Cloud, DeitY, Government of India, in an interaction with Souvik Goswami of Elets News Network (ENN)

What is your view on the importance of ‘National Cloud’ with regard to various programmes of the Government of India, like Digital India? The Digital India programme talks about IT infrastructure as a utility and provision of government services on demand. All applications of the Digital India pillars need

egov / egov.eletsonline.com / October 2015

an elastic and agile infrastructure. Cloud will definitely turn out to be the pillar in facilitating delivery of various eGovernance services. In order to utilise and harness the benefits of Cloud Computing, the Government of India has embarked upon a very ambitious and important initiative – GI Cloud, which has been christened as ‘MeghRaj’. It is going to be an extremely important component that can

bring a paradigm shift in the way government procures and deploys IT tools and implements eGovernance applications in the country.

What is the current status of MeghRaj? The journey of Meghraj started in mid2013, but the first phase of the project was launched in 2014 by the National Informatics

deity

Cloud Computing

Center (NIC). Initially, we came up with two important and comprehensive reports. These were ‘GI Cloud Strategic Direction Paper’ and ‘GI Cloud Adoption and Implementation Roadmap’. Subsequent to that, NIC introduced first National Cloud in February 2014. At present, the National Cloud has 241 government users and several projects are already running through this Cloud and the demand is increasing continuously. The Meghraj architecture has got the space for the dedicated government Clouds like that of NIC and also for the Clouds of the private sector. The next important step would be building an ecosystem where the private Cloud service providers can actually deliver services to various government departments. It can be Public Cloud or Community Cloud or can be a dedicated Cloud set-up for a specific department.

How critical is it to implement the plan? The Cloud Management Office is being set up for its implementation. It is a bit critical. It is going to help in coming up with the various guidelines, policies, frameworks, standards on security, privacy, procurement and other aspects. These guidelines will be from the Cloud service provider’s perspective and end-user department’s perspective. We will be empanelling Cloud auditors, who will then audit the various Cloud service providers once these guidelines are in place. These will be accredited and made available on the MeghRaj Cloud directory. We are also coming up with a Cloud Selection Framework. Based on the data sensitivity and the type of application, the departments will be in a position to know that this kind of application can be run on a Public Cloud, etc. All of these guiding principles will help. That apart, we also have State Data Centres (SDCs). As many as six SDCs have been Cloudenabled and various other SDCs are at different stages of Cloud enablement.

What are the challenges in operating the Government Cloud? Awareness is a major challenge in operating the Government Cloud. A lot of departments are showing interest to adopt Cloud technology, but awareness

The MeghRaj architecture has got the space for the dedicated government Clouds like that of NIC and also for the Clouds of the private sector… At present, the National Cloud has 241 government users and several projects are already running through this Cloud and the demand is increasing continuously on Cloud security needs to be increased. Many people have apprehensions that their data will not be in their control. But a clear understanding of setting up Cloud in SDCs should be there. People should be informed that security concerns are not the same vis-a-vis having Cloud services which can be provided outside India by a Cloud service provider, in which case concerns of cross-border jurisdiction and data security become larger. Another problem is that various departments also don’t have the technical resources and strengths.

What is your vision on Cloud for Government? The Cloud is no more only a buzz word; in the next one year, the entire ecosystem of Cloud in India is going to reach various departments in the Central and state governments. The Digital India initiative, which we are trying to imbibe, is going to be on Cloud as the Cloud First Policy. We will see new architectures proliferating and applications getting revamped to ensure the benefits that Cloud can give, and it would be made available in the various projects that are going to come up in the near future.

October 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

Cloud Computing

gemalto

Guarding Cloud against Mala Fide Intent Gemalto has developed a number of Cloud security solutions, so that businesses could enjoy full benefits of Cloud Computing while also maintaining control over virtual environments, says Rana Gupta, VP – APAC Sales, Identity & Data Protection, Gemalto, during an interview with Elets New Network (ENN)

What are your views on Cloud technology and how it can be put to use to improve citizencentric services? Leading technology innovations aren’t just for business and consumers. Governments should use these technologies to more efficiently deliver new and better services to their citizens for their convenience. By adopting a Cloud-based IT strategy, governments can fundamentally change the way public services are delivered and consumed while at the same time also realise tangible operational and cost savings, improved organisational agility and transformation in service delivery. Government agencies using Cloud Computing can optimise legacy IT infrastructure by adding new services, which will eventually lead to reduced software/ application maintenance, decrease in project rollout timeframe and administrative costs, and improvement in asset utilisation.

What are the Cloud Computing products and services that Gemalto offers? Gemalto has developed a comprehensive set of Cloud Security solutions, so that businesses can enjoy full benefits of Cloud Computing while maintaining control in virtual environments. SafeNet ProtectV protects data in the Cloud using encryption and controlled across to data in virtualised and Cloud environments. SafeNet Authentication-as-a-Service enables organisations to apply strong authentication and user access controls for individuals when they access corporate networks and sensitive data.

egov / egov.eletsonline.com / October 2015

India, as a nation of more than a billion, understands the importance and challenges of connecting the ‘bottom of the pyramid’. Cloud technology can drive the inclusive growth agenda by providing platform to scale the reach

These solutions provide a data-centric approach to security, and allow for the expansion of the existing Cloud Computing security. The end result that emerges is a seamless and secure Cloud deployment. SafeNet offers a complete ecosystem of security solutions that combine persistent protection, flexible encryption, identity protection and secure communications. With these capabilities, SafeNet customers gain complete control over how data is isolated, protected and shared – even in multi-tenant Cloud environments.

Can you tell us about some of your Cloud technology-based deployments that your company has implemented in India? We are an IT Security company and deal with protection of critical resources of our renowned customers. Most of these contracts are covered under the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), so we cannot reveal their names.

What is the scope of publicprivate partnership (PPP) in the field of Cloud Computing? There is lot of scope of PPP in the field of Cloud. For instance, the BSNL Cloud is one of the most recent examples. The

gemalto

Cloud Computing

public sector alone canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t meet the required funds and technology for the large and secure Cloud infrastructure. So, it would be desirable to accomplish this business through collaborating with the sector which could fulfill this requirement, and that is none other than the well-equipped and proven names in the Cloud and IT Security industry.

has started using Cloud to benefit the masses and for delivering a number of citizencentric services electronically. While more and more technology adoption can be seen by the businesses and the government, there is a huge potential to harness the potential of the Cloud for percolating the benefits of scale, efficiency and low cost to all communities and sections of the society. We are very much ready with the infrastructure in place. All we have to be careful about is in ensuring similar level of data confidentiality, integrity and non-repudiation, and strong authentication and authorisation while operating in traditional data centers. Thus, public-private partnership has emerged as feasible collaboration, which would help both public and private sectors walk together on the path of success. Governments in order to materialise many key projects, including Cloud Computing, certainly require help of the private sector. The Indian Cloud infrastructure sector is at an inflection point and there are immense opportunities for both the parties.

Compared to the global standards, where does India stand in terms of Cloud

technology adoption? Is India fully geared up to embrace the concept?

What are the grey areas, according to you, which you would like the government to focus on?

Adoption of Cloud technology has increased over the years globally and growing at a rapid pace. India, as a nation of more than a billion, understands the importance and challenges of connecting the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;bottom of the pyramidâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Cloud technology can drive the inclusive growth agenda by providing platform to scale the reach of education, healthcare, financial services, entrepreneurship and governance, among other areas. The Indian Government

The Government is making a lot of efforts, but still a lot is yet to be done towards forming the Cloud Security Framework in India, which could help in classification of data, recommend security standards, address questions regarding data sovereignty and jurisdiction, interplay of financial intermediaries and Cloud technology, and issues of governance resulting from outsourcing IT functions to the Cloud.

October 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

Cloud Computing

Indian Judiciary

National Judicial Cloud

Need of the Hour Inadequate digitisation of the judicial process undertaken by subsequent governments and unavailability of instant and updated data on the case pendencies have resulted in undue delays in the delivery of justice and mounting costs for the litigants, Dr Justice G C Bharuka writes. Excerpts from one of his recent write-ups, where he advocates adoption of Cloud Computing by the judiciary without any further delay

n order to understand the concept of â&#x20AC;&#x153;National Judicial Cloudâ&#x20AC;? we have to first understand and analyse the structure, objectives, weaknesses and the needs of the Indian Judicial System. Under the Constitution of India, Judiciary is one of the three pillars of governance. Though it is an integrated system, still for jurisdictional and administrative purposes under the Constitutional scheme, three types of Courts are envisaged, namely, the Supreme Court

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of India, 24 High Courts for the respective states and union territories and about 15,000 subordinate courts with defined jurisdictions spread across the country. These subordinate courts are located in almost 3,000 towns. Six hundred of these towns are district headquarters and the remaining are talukas or sub-districts. Though we do not have dependable up-todate data available in public domain, based on whatever data is available, there are more than three crore cases pending for adjudication in

our courts. Some of them are pending even for decades. Ninety per cent of these cases are pending in subordinate courts and majority of such cases involve rural masses. It means at least six crore families of the country are locked up in litigations of one or the other nature. The gradual failure of Indian courts to provide timely justice has been there since the beginning of the post-Independence era. The National Commission constituted for the review of working of the Constitution, headed by Justice M N Venkatachaliah, former Chief

Indian Judiciary

Justice of India, in its report in 2002 observed, “About half a century of the Constitution at work has tossed up many issues of the working of the judiciary, particularly disturbing has been the chronic and recurrent theme of the near-collapse of the judicial trail-system, its delays and mounting costs. The glorious uncertainties of the law have frustrated the aspirations for an equal, predictable and affordable justice.” In 2001, the Supreme Court of India had warned that “the time is running out for doing something to solve the problem which has already grown into monstrous form. If a citizen is told that once you resort to legal procedure for realisation of your urgent needs, you have to wait and wait for 23 to 30 years, what else is it if not to inevitably encourage and force him to resort to extra-legal measures for realising the required relief?...” {Gaya Prasad v. Pradeep Srivastava, (2001) 2 SCC 604, pr.19}.

Efforts for Reform In order to resolve problem of judicial delays during the last 50 years, the suggestions given by various expert bodies were: (i) certain legislative changes in the procedural and substantive laws, (ii) imparting of better training to the judicial officers, (iii) effective supervision over the activities of the court staff, (iv) increasing court strength by working out an objective policy, (v) providing better salary, perks and other facilities to the Judicial Officers and court staff, (vi) use of ‘Alternative Dispute Resolution Systems’ (ADR) and (vii) computerisation of courts. As per the reports of the expert bodies, the parliament has, from time to time, made necessary changes in the procedural and substantive laws. Twenty-four judicial academies, including the National Judicial Academy at Bhopal, have been established for training of the judges and the court staff. Further, the Judges and the court staff have been provided higher salaries, perks and other recommended facilities. Apart from this, for promoting ADR, appropriate legislative mechanism has been created. According to the policy framed by the Government, court strength is being increased by 20 per cent every year.

The Need It is fundamental that for identification of trends in court performance, the country needs online

It is fundamental that for identification of trends in court performance, the country needs online capturing of basic data of all the courts, so that certain standards can be laid down capturing of basic data of all the courts, so that certain standards can be laid down. Such standards can be used for automated evaluation of court performance, planning for future needs, and strategising for new reform efforts. Basic data can further allow planners to assess relative success rates of different reforms on an objective, rather than purely subjective, basis. Judicial data is also essential for budgetary planning purposes, such as for future increase in the number of courts, judges, staff, and related infrastructure. If budgetary planning is done without the benefit of statistical information, future needs cannot be scientifically worked out.

Subordinate Judiciary Under Article 235 of the Constitution the

Cloud Computing

power of control over subordinate courts vests in the respective High Courts. For effective management, supervision and related policy decisions for any institution, availability of the requisite information is the core requirement. Over the time, the age‐old manual system of collecting and processing the required management-related information of subordinate courts is becoming increasingly difficult. The country does not have any centralised online system of collecting and processing the correct and updated data regarding the number of subordinate courts, its human resources, available infrastructure and above all about the details of case pendencies, the workflow and judge’s performance. Mostly, collection and compilation of data takes unduly long time. Many a time data are faulty, inaccurate and manipulated. Data are not even sufficient to formulate policies for developing best practices, conforming to domestic need of timely justice. This archaic system is consuming enormous valuable resources by way of manpower, time, paper, stationary, postage, etc. The digitised system can overcome this entire futile, outdated, cumbersome and expensive data collection. This process will facilitate online availability of all data in the required formats ‘anywhere, anytime”. Unfortunately, benefits of technology could not be fully harnessed for providing timely justice and other related services because of the inept capacities of the implementing agency. More than `1,000 crore provided by the Central

October 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

Cloud Computing

Indian Judiciary

and state governments have been spent in the last two decades, but nothing fruitful in terms of justice acceleration could be achieved. However, now proposals have been given for reinventing the wheel. Experience shows that the implementing agency lacks capacity, capability, as also accountability. They are answerable to none for their failures, as Article 311 of the Constitution give them full protection. The government, particularly the Department of Justice, should bear in mind that now there is no need for repeatedly discovering the causes and solutions for combating the judicial delays and other systematic vices. Change management and ICT training is no more an issue for the Indian subordinate courts. These aspects have already been taken care of in the first phase of the e-Courts project. All the judicial officers are using laptops and internet facilities which were provided to them in 2007 under the e‐Courts project. It is time to act with determination to deliver, which, with the resources we have in the country, is quite feasible.

Adoption of Cloud Computing Looking at the present scenario, the ICT infrastructure and culture in our subordinate courts across the country, I feel that Cloud Computing is the best technology-based solution for optimising judicial productivity and formulating policy decisions for combating the judicial delays through

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Judicial reform, with the aid of Cloud Computing, can very much happen if the Government decides to implement it by availing the services of IT companies under wellformulated Service Level Agreements automation of various processes and capacity building of the judges. This will be the most cost effective and convenient to use. In most of the states, internet data cards with arrangement with the private service providers have been given to the judicial officers, which can be used both by the judges, as also their staff working in the court halls. Because of extensive training given under the e-Courts project itself, the judges and the court staff will not have any difficulty in using internet-based user-friendly application.

However, in deploying the Cloud Computing solution, development of a welldefined application based upon the Indian judicial process is most challenging. I believe that though the implementing agency has been, time and again, purchasing and providing the latest hardware in the Indian courts, it has not been able to develop a Cloud-based centralised software, which could cater to the needs of the entire judiciary and its management. Under the close and expert supervision of some of the techno-jurists, a core team of computer engineers, after several years of continuous efforts, have been able to successfully develop a web-based ready-touse, user-friendly application. It can easily cater to all the needs of the Indian judiciary for optimising its performance, providing public services and generating appropriate management-related reports and statements. It has already been successfully beta-tested in real-time environment in over 100 courts. Therefore, no further time is required to be wasted for this purpose.

Conclusion In my opinion, Judicial reform, with the aid of Cloud Computing, can very much happen if the Central Government decides to implement it by availing the services of reputed Indian IT companies under well-formulated Service Level Agreements (SLAs). The Central Government as a measure of policy has opted for public-private partnership (PPP) models in several premiere e-Governance projects, like passport, company affairs, income tax, railways, civil aviation, banking, etc. The Government can adopt the same model for the judiciary as well. It will be relevant to state here that ‘Administration of Justice’ falls under Entry 11A of the Concurrent List. Therefore the Union has both the Legislative as also Executive competence to undertake the necessary measures for judicial reforms. It is high time that appropriate technology should be deployed in at least the subordinate courts to provide timely justice, without loss of any further time. I am sure, if so done, results may start emerging within a couple of months. Otherwise, no amount of funding and its spending through incompetent hands, as being presently done, will yield any result and ‘We the People’ will continue to hanker for timely justice.

7th

2015 2015 Information Safety & Citizen Security

cloud computing

CA Technologies

Cloud Tech to Redefine Citizen Service Delivery At a time when majority of the government departments are rolling out online services to save citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; time and enhance the efficiency of and transparency in the government machinery, Prashant Choudhary, Senior Director, Sales - State Government and PSU, CA Technologies, in an interaction with Elets News Network (ENN), asserts that Cloud computing can immensely help the Government and private sectors change the way services have been traditionally delivered

How can Cloud computing be put to use to improve citizen-centric services? With the evolution of the Internet, Cloud computing is expected to become the dominant model of enterprise computing because it has the ability to change the way organisations access and use ICT products and services. Notably, benefits of Cloud technologies are as relevant to the public sector as they are to the private sector. By adopting a Cloud-based strategy, governments can change the way IT services are delivered and consumed while at the same time realise benefits which also include reduced costs, improved organisational agility and transformation in overall service delivery. Cloud can be used to facilitate eGovernance in real-time. Majority of small towns in the country lack the requisite technological infrastructure, so Cloud computing can be a major boon because it enables quick project execution. With increase in the economic growth and all-round development, and the all-knowing and demanding citizens, governments are severely challenged in delivering key citizen-centric services such as healthcare, education, public safety, transportation and utilities. Cloud technologies can help to deliver all the citizen services efficiently and enable IT resources to be provided on demand, at scale in a multitenant as well as secured environment.

What are the Cloud-related products/ services that you offer? CA Technologies offers a host of Cloud-based solutions to many leading firms. Cloud computing can help bridge the gap between what your business needs and what your business can provide, but the transition process offers its own set of logistical challenges. To this end, we ensure that we work closely with our customers to help them

egov / egov.eletsonline.com / October 2015

CA Technologies

select the best Cloud solution suited to meet their business needs. Some of the solutions we offer are as follows: yy Management Cloud: At CA Technologies, we offer a Management Cloud portfolio, which offers solutions enabling the customers to make the right portfolio decisions, deliver exceptional service experience and empower the modern, mobile workforce. The Management Cloud portfolio was developed in response to the growing size and complexity of enterprise IT investments. It delivers comprehensive management for IT services, assets and projects with rapid time-to-value, ease-ofimplementation and a user experience that will drive enterprise-wide adoption. yy Cloud Service Management: It helps organisations eliminate the long customisation and development cycles they usually undergo. It is rapid, flexible, personal, and powerful, and at the same time is responsive and adaptive. CA Cloud Service Management is service management with a breakthrough in time and is designed for the people who use it for delivering a flexible, personal experience that helps users resolve issues fast.

Can you tell us about some of your Cloud technology-based deployments that your company has implemented in India? Many customers including the government entities have deployed our solutions in their data centers to cater to the demands of their departments and clients. Our partner ecosystem (the large system integrators) has jointly deployed our solutions and we have helped set up Cloud platforms for their customers, which they are using to offer managed services to their clients.

What is the scope of publicprivate partnership in the field? Today, a number of organisations are rallying for Hybrid Cloud that is utilising private as well as public Cloud to perform functions within an organisation. However, organisations have a long way to go in terms of gaining a proper understanding of the hybrid situation. Still, organisations view hybrid Cloud as a consequence of uncoordinated Cloud

cloud computing

Cloud can be used to facilitate eGovernance in real-time. Majority of small towns in the country lack the requisite technological infrastructure, so cloud computing can be a major boon because it enables quick project execution investments rather than a strategy for getting more from their Cloud investments.

Compared to the global standards, where does India stand in terms of Cloud technology adoption? Cloud technologies offer a host of benefits to every organisation. In India especially, the adoption of Cloud computing is growing. Recent reports suggest that the Cloud market in India will grow at 45 per cent CAGR to $14.8 billion in 2020. It is estimated that the private Cloud market will increase to $7.4-7.6 billion in 2020. The public Cloud market is expected to grow to an equivalent size at $7.0-7.4 billion in 2020. Multiple factors are expected to result in significant adoption of Cloud solutions. One of the primary drivers is setting up of local data centers. A number of large-scale enterprises have committed to set up Cloud-based data centers in India in the near future.

What are the grey areas, which

you would like the government to focus on? The government has recently rolled out its ambitious Smart Cities project. To this end, the government will need to use latest technologies like Cloud to help them in this initiative. This requires a public-private census to ensure the smooth completion of projects. The government needs to have bilateral arrangements for Cloud computing in place, and to cooperate with providers on adopting a universal operating system. For the government to realise the benefits, the government would need to outsource some of the work they have been doing. The outsourcing might simply involve consolidation across the local, state or federal enterprise, keeping things within the government peripheral. But some of it will need to go to private-sector providers that will have a larger reach compared to the government. There may be challenges that they will need to prepare themselves for, especially as this involves dependency on various parties. Efficiency and timeliness will be other aspects to consider.

October 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

Cloud Computing

vsoft

Financial Services at Farmers’ Doorsteps Setting the tone for a financial revolution in remote rural areas, Hyderabad-based VSoft Technologies has introduced Cloud-enabled financial services signalling a new era of speed, convenience and transparency in agricultural credit disbursal for millions of farmers in Odisha, says Murthy Veeraghanta, Chairman and CEO, VSoft Technologies, in an interview with Sudheer Goutham of Elets New Network (ENN)

Tell us about your banking technology infrastructure that takes banking services to the doorstep of farmers in remote villages. Our new Cloud-enabled banking technology infrastructure has enabled the Odisha State Cooperative Bank (OSCB) and all its 17 District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) to gain access to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) National Finance Switch (NFS), providing lakhs of members of these banks access to over 1.88 lakh ATMs across the country. This Cloud-enabled platform has made it possible for OSCB to be one of the first State Cooperative Banks in the country to issue RuPay-enabled Smart Cards to millions of farmers in Odisha. OSCB’s technology

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transformation initiative is closely aligned with Odisha Government’s roadmap to convert Kisan Credit Cards issued to farmers’ families in the State as Smart Cards, so that farmers can withdraw their agricultural loans from ATM kiosk of any bank. VSoft’s Kisan Loan System (KLS), one of its newest solutions for the endto-end agricultural loan processing, will enable farmers to repay their loans through designated POS terminals and receive a real-time receipt.

How does this technology stand out among the rest in the market? The solution deployed on a ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) model with shared infrastructure has significantly brought down the total cost of the ownership for OSCB and its affiliates. IRIS CBS has reduced manual work and enhanced operational efficiency and made it possible for OSCB and its DCCBs to generate consolidated reports with ease and accuracy. IRIS CBS has all the features of Retail Banking operations, along with the unique modules of short-term loans and long-term loans, for on-lending to DCC banks, direct lending modules to State-level apex cooperative institutions, industrial finance etc. In addition to this, electronic transfers through RTGS/NEFT, CTS and DBT among others are also available. VSoft has also implemented an ATM switching solution for OSCB, which provides access to the NFS network to OSCB and all its DCCBs. With VSoft’s ATM Switch, OSCB/ DCCBs can accept transaction request from the connected front office devices (ATMs, micro ATMs and/or POSs) and that of the National

vsoft

Cloud Computing

Financial Switch. The ATM switch is connected to VSoft’s IRIS CBS for application transaction approval and card status management. VSoft’s IRIS Kisan Loan System, an end-toend priority sector lending platform, will offer a compliant handshake between the 323 branches of DCC Banks and the frontline grassroots level service centres managed by over 2,709 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS).

Can you tell us about the ‘One RuPay card to operate all accounts’ feature? In order to provide timely and adequate credit to farmers to meet their short, medium and longterm loan requirements, one of the fundamental simplifications is a capability to accurately and efficiently handle multiple concurrent loans, each having different duration, interest rates, repayment schedules, insurance premium and so on. VSoft’s IRIS KLS achieves this by processing each loan as a line of credit and linking them with a single RuPay-enabled savings-cum-KCC account of a farmer.

How the operations for reaching such end-to-end banking services to remote villages are being handled? The core banking platform is centrally deployed at a dedicated data centre that brings down cost and improves efficiency and performance of the system. The entire cooperative institution in the state of Odisha, including OSCB’s head office and its branches, DCCBs and the UCBs operate on a single core banking platform. The data centre where the CBS is hosted, is aligned with tier III data centre standards. The data centre infrastructure is vertically and horizontally scalable to keep up with the bank’s growth and expansion. The fully virtualised infrastructure at the data centre meets demanding and dynamic requirements of the bank with minimal deployment efforts. It has enabled synchronised applications, automated deployment of enhancements and a centralised support system. We have conducted training sessions in regional language for branch staff of all the SCB and DCCB branches (350+ branches) and interfaced the CBS with the State’s centralised paddy and grain procurement system for automating payments to the respective paddy/grain sellers.

VSoft’s IRIS Kisan Loan System, an end-to-end priority sector lending platform, will offer a compliant handshake between the 323 branches of DCC Banks (in Odisha) and the frontline grassroots level service centres managed by over 2,709 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS)

What were the challenges faced in rolling such innovative banking solutions? For VSoft’s team, one of the biggest challenges in the initial stages of the project was data migration. Legacy data existed in multiple systems and in multiple formats. To overcome the challenge, our team developed

a sophisticated ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) Framework that automated and thereby accelerated the process of migrating data from the legacy platform to VSoft’s IRIS platform. Use of advanced logic and scripts in the ETL framework helped immensely in terms of speed, accuracy and completeness of the data migration activity.

October 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

Cloud Computing

Juniper Networks

Cloud Optimisation to Boost Citizen Services With the advancement in Cloud Computing technology, various leading IT firms have tightened their belts to focus on innovations and develop virtualised architecture. Juniper Networks—a leading firm in network innovation—firmly believes that Cloud can be optimised for rolling out more citizen-centric services with the help of secure next gen networks. Sajan Paul, Director Systems Engineering - India & SAARC, Juniper Networks, interacts with Vishwas Dass of Elets News Network (ENN) Cloud technology is the buzzword these days. How can it be put to use to improve citizencentric services? The extensive focus on Cloud technologies has prompted us to further innovate and create more integrated and virtualised architecture. It can be understood from the fact that the Cloud is something that affects everyone today, be it an average user, large-scale enterprises or even full-fledged data centres globally. Cloud-based technologies remain at the heart of most discussions vis-à-vis the technological transformation enterprises are undergoing. Notably, a significant portion of the innovations pioneered in Cloud technology affects the average citizen as well. Almost

everything a user accesses on the Internet is sustained by the Cloud, be it new reforms in governance like the eGovernance project or just day to day usage on the networks. Cloud can be better optimised for more citizen-centric services only with the help of scalable and secure next gen networks. With massive eGovernance and Digital India initiatives, Cloud infrastructure plays a vital role in enabling citizen-centric services. More importantly, providing such services at affordable cost, like a typical utility, is extremely important. Innovations in the area of Hybrid Cloud and Inter-Cloud Federation are very important to achieve mass adoption and affordability.

What are the Cloud-related products / services that you offer? Being a leader in high scale networks across the globe, Juniper Networks has given a lot of importance to innovate technology to empower mass scale Cloud infrastructure enterprises and Governments to give their businesses maximum agility and efficiency while maintaining an adequate level of control and privacy. In this regard, Juniper Networks has pioneered an array of products, spanning from the QFX Series Ethernet switches, SRX series firewalls to the MX Series routers. Juniper Networks has also developed automated and scalable private or hybrid Cloud infrastructure that eliminates the delays and risks associated with manual provisioning to a large extent. Switching, routing, SDN and security put together ultimately forms the

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Cloud infrastructure solutions we develop and deploy. ‘Juniper Contrail’ Cloud platform is a fully orchestrated open stack system that works on existing infrastructure to support scale-out and agile framework using seamless orchestration of server, storage and networking resources.

Can you tell us about some of the Cloud technology-based deployments that the company has implemented in India? Juniper Networks provides enterprise grade Cloud-based networking solutions to a number of leading telecom service providers as well as large enterprises and educational institutes in India. We have deployed our Cloudbased infrastructure at Xavier University, Bhubaneswar (XUB) in Odisha, which has enabled the varsity to be a fully digital institution with leading edge services, such as Xavier Videobook and Xavier My Room, among others. This has enabled students to source relevant and contextual video content to make learning more immersive, and hosting virtual classrooms and peer-to-peer interaction using high-quality video and audio conferencing. Besides, Juniper innovation is at play in several large-scale Cloud providers – both public and private build-outs. With enormous network automation APIs, rolling out a Cloud system could be a lot faster.

What is the scope of publicprivate partnership in the field? In order to further strengthen various

Juniper Networks

Cloud Computing

Juniper Networks headquarters in Sunnyvale, California

digitisation initiatives, I believe public-private partnerships are crucial. At the onset of the Cloud revolution, most organisations were not really sure whether the networkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s security and stability would be compromised. It is important to have credible local players in the public Cloud space for faster rollout and capex containment. In fact, many of the web2.0 companies are capitalising on the public and on-premises Cloud technologies for faster rollout and disaster recovery framework.

Compared to the global standards, where does India stand in terms of Cloud technology adoption? Are we ready yet? Adopting Cloud-based technologies remains critical for the digital empowerment of the people. Projects like Digital India, Smart City Mission, eGovernance etc., all depend on the rising levels of adoption of the Cloud technology. Compared to other countries, India is still behind in terms of adoption; however, adoption levels are going up as awareness increases. Recent studies show that public Cloud adoption is accelerating in India. According to Gartner, public Cloud services sales will see a 36 per cent increase compared to the previous year. Given

Juniper Networks has developed automated and scalable Private or Hybrid Cloud infrastructure that eliminates the delays and risks associated with manual provisioning to a large extent the privacy and confidentiality laws prevailing in the country, it is even more important to have Cloud infrastructures hosted within India.

What are the grey areas, according to you, which you would like the Government to focus on? The Government must focus on building legal framework and information security laws at par with the international standards. It should also ensure that there is no monopolistic approach in this area due to the very high dependency on a particular provider, as the cost of switching then becomes prohibitive. It is also very important to clearly articulate our stand on privacy and confidentiality framework in line with the international laws.

What are your expectations from the Elets 2nd CloudGov Summit 2015? The industry has come to recognise Cloud as a significant driving force on the technology front. However, at this stage in time, there needs to be more discussions and debate on how we can further innovate and drive better results. I think the Elets 2ndCloudGov Summit 2015 aims to do exactly that and extend the debate to various domains and create interesting outcomes. Another key highlight of this conclave is that it is highly collaborative with active participation from the Government, and this, I feel, is of significant importance.

October 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

Public Sector

SCOPE

Going Strength to Strength Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) need to be free from the shackles of multi-agency control mechanisms and stringent procedures that impinge on their smooth decision-making and commercial operations. We have always been concerned about revival and strengthening of lossmaking PSEs, says Dr U D Choubey, Director General, Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE), in conversation with Nabin Sinha of Elets News Network (ENN) How do you perceive the role of Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) in India under the changing scenario? PSEs have been a major source of strength to the Indian economy and will continue to play a significant role even in the changing scenario. Their role was greatly appreciated during the troubled times of global recession and disturbing tribulation when they demonstrated tremendous resilience and provided the muchneeded stability to the country. Today, their presence has become even more relevant and significance grown manifold. With significant dominance in the major sectors of economy, they have shown excellent performance in the post-liberalisation era. During the year 2013-14, the contribution of the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) to the central exchequer increased by about 35 per cent, it went from `163,212 crore in 2012-13 to `220,166 crore in 2013-14. The overall profit of the 234 CPSEs during the year stood at `129,109 crore, showing an increase of 12.29 per cent. Also, the number of profit-making PSEs has increased to 163 from 151 in the previous year.

What role do you find of PSEs when the Government is laying emphasis on private sectorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s growth? In the Budget 2015-16, the Government has put greater responsibility on the public sector for increasing investment in infrastructure, power, construction and manufacturing sectors, in which a large number of PSEs are involved. PSEs are expected to accelerate capital expenditure to support economic growth. Further, with the

egov / egov.eletsonline.com / October 2015

emphasis of the government on Make in India, Skill Development, Swachh Bharat and Digital India programmes, the public sector enterprises have an enormous role to play in these initiatives. Public sector is well placed to direct its latent energies and gained expertise to double its efforts in meeting the objectives of nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s goal of infrastructure and the overall development of the country. Apart from this, the sector is also fulfilling its social responsibility in the areas of health, drinking water, sanitation, education, etc.

Can PSEs compete with MNCs or private sector entities like steel, power, telecom and other sectors? Since the liberalisation of the Indian economy,

PSEs have been successfully competing with MNCs and corporates. In fact, liberalisation has strengthened the public sector further. It was widely anticipated that once private sector investment materialises, the public sector will fade away. On the contrary, the public sector has consolidated its position of being a catalyst for planned development and a harbinger of growth, particularly during the recent economic crises. PSEs continue to be dominant players in the steel and power sectors, and the government has indicated to grant telecom sector PSEs their due position in the economic development process.

Disinvestment in most of the companies, including Coal India

SCOPE

and the ones in the power sectors, has thrown up positive results. Do you think it is a good trend? SCOPE is not against listing of PSEs. However, we feel that views of the Boards of PSEs may be taken into account for deciding the strategy and time frame in order to get maximum value of equity. Moreover, many PSEs have been contributing substantially to the exchequer by way of dividends, taxes, etc. With disinvestment of the government holding in PSEs, there will be proportionate reduction in the quantum of contribution to the central exchequer.

Some of the PSEs have been making huge losses and the government has recently planned to shut down many of these. Is there a way to revive? PSEs have made a net profit of `1.29 lakh crore during 2013-14, which is after the deduction of loss-making PSEs. There is a need of coherent policy to revive and strengthen loss-making PSEs by making available funds for investment, expansion and technological upgradation. A speedy decision on revival package within a definite time frame is required. Making the tenure of CEOs/Directors reasonably long and commercially developing the land bank available with sick PSEs may help such enterprises in their business development.

Public Sector

There is a need of coherent policy to revive and strengthen loss-making PSEs by making available funds for investment, expansion and technological upgradation Do you think SCOPE can play a role in reviving the stressed and loss-making PSEs? SCOPE is an apex professional organisation representing the Central Public Sector Enterprises, and came into existence in 1973. It has always been concerned about the revival and strengthening of loss-making PSEs. From timeto-time, it has been taking up the issues affecting profitability of PSEs, also including financiallystressed PSEs with the government. It is because of these efforts that the number of loss-making PSEs has come down. Recently, SCOPE organised a conclave with the objective to consolidate the issues affecting the optimal performance of MiniRatnas, Non-Ratnas and financially-stressed PSEs. A set of recommendations emerged during the conclave have been forwarded to the government for consideration.

What role do you see for PSUs in

the next three decades, especially when the concept of MoU system and other devaluation system seem to be failing? Do the PSUs still lack autonomy? PSUs seem to be prospering and attaining the pinnacle of financial stability, and MoU system is not failing. From four MoUs being signed in the year 1987-88, it increased to 197 in the year 2013-14. According to MoU rating system, 75 PSEs were graded Excellent, 39 Very Good and only two fell in the Poor category. These include parameters such as gross margin (profits), turnover, project implementation, quality of products and services, and many others. However, PSEs need a conducive policy for professional board management and level-playing field. They need to be free from the shackles of multi-agency control mechanisms and stringent procedures that impinge on their smooth decision-making and commercial operations.

October 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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Digital Governance

Andhra Pradesh

AP Shows the Way in eGovernance While Andhra Pradesh has already earned a reputation of being the leader in eGovernance, it is growing leaps and bounds through its latest e-initiatives setting milestones, writes Sudheer Goutham of Elets News Network (ENN)

hief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu, is widely acclaimed for his vision in creating the fastest growing IT hub of the country — ‘HITEC City’ in Hyderabad. The CM, with greater zeal and experience, is now going in a big way to develop cities like Vizag, Vijaywada and Tirupati, on similar lines, with more emphasis on Vishakhapatnam as an IT hub. In the process of achieving the vision of transforming Andhra Pradesh into the most advanced technology hub of the country, the State Government has recorded many firsts in eGovernance within a short span of a year. Some of the notable ICT initiatives of the State are as follows:

eCabinet While Andhra Pradesh has already topped in recording highest number of e-transactions across the country, it has also created a niche in the country as the most advanced and technology-driven State by conducting the first ever eCabinet meeting. Now, such eCabinets are being conducted regularly. The Chief Minister and his colleagues held the first eCabinet meeting in September 2014, which involved no papers related to the agenda as in the conventional Cabinet proceedings. Only tablets and electronic devices were used in the proceedings, where the Cabinet members electronically noted minutes of the meeting, suggestions and remarks were keyed in and power-point presentations were m a d e and they eventually emerged as paperless politicians. “Agenda of the meeting was accessed in their devices through an app called eCabinet. The data is password

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Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu, presides over an eCabinet meeting

protected and cannot be shared or viewed by others. The electronic files that need sharing are hosted on a file-sharing system using File Cloud tool,” said Dr Ratnakar Jauhari, CEO, eGovernance Authority, AP Government. Before the first eCabinet meeting was conducted, the ministers were acquainted with eCabinet app on its login and file-sharing features.

ePragati Andhra Pradesh became the first State in India to conceive and execute state-wide enterprise architecture – Andhra Pradesh State Enterprise Architecture (APSEA) or ePragati. Designed at an estimated cost of `2,358 crore, APSEA is a comprehensive architecture to leverage the latest advances in eGovernance tools. “This will become a model in Government Enterprise Architecture in India,” said N Chandrababu Naidu during a media interaction. The project is aimed at bringing together 745 G2B (Government to Business), G2C (Government to Citizens), G2E (Government to Employees) and G2G (Government to Government) services offered by 33 departments

and more than 300 government agencies. “The main objective of ePragati is to move away from the piecemeal approach and p r o v i d e an integrated ’One Governance’ that will be citizencentric, transparent and effective,” said GS Phani Kishore, Special Secretary, IT Department, AP Government. Entrusted the ground work to IT giant Wipro, the ambitious project is going on since January this year. As many as 72 projects of various departments of similar nature such as welfare departments, land management, tourism, industries, etc., are grouped under 14 packages. The project is envisaged to be implemented in three phases and set for completion by December 2017.

eOffice eOffice product, pioneered by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), aims at supporting governance by using more effective and transparent inter and intra-government processes.

Andhra Pradesh

“eOffice is the unique initiative in India, where starting from the Chief Minister to senior officials, anyone can know the status and track a particular file in any department,” said Dr Ratnakar Jauhari, CEO, eGovernance Authority, AP Government. eFile, an integral part of the eOffice suite, is a system designed for the Government departments, PSUs, autonomous bodies, etc., to enable a paperless office by scanning, registering and routing the inward correspondences along with creation of files, noting, referencing, correspondence attachments, drafts for approvals and finally movement of files.

Digital Governance

J Satyanarayana Advisor to Government of Andhra Pradesh “Our Chief Minister wants to use IT as a strategic tool to enhance the effectiveness of governance in the State. On these lines, the Government has taken up a large number of programmes on eGovernance seeking e-linking of all the departments. This will improve our efficiency and help deliver citizen-centric services in a coordinated, integrated, efficient and equitable manner”

APSpeaks APSpeaks is yet another e-initiative that formed a citizen-engagement platform with the Chief Minister and senior officials directly. It allows citizens to directly interact with the Chief Minister and top bureaucrats from any corner of the world and give their feedback.

What is e-Pragati?

System provides integrated ‘One Governance’ AP State Enterprise Architecture (APSEA), a comprehensive architecture, to leverage the latest advances in eGovernance tools

Certificate-less governance

Around 100 certificates being issued by various departments at present will be brought down to three or four

Digital convergence

745 services offered by 33 departments and 300 government agencies to be brought together

Major Components

AP Fiber Grid, AP State Data Centre, eHighway: All departments to be connected digitally People Hub: Socio-economic databank of citizens Land Hub: Details of all parcels of land DialAP: Unified contact centre to access services and information over phone eLearning: Online content and education aids, social benefits management APcan: Comprehensive system for management of cancer mSeva: A wide range of services over cellphone eAgrimarket: Online platform for sale of farm produce ePanchayat Raj Institutions

APSpeaks is an e-initiative that empowers citizens to interact with the Chief Minister and top bureaucrats directly from any corner of the globe and give their feedback Certificate-less governance While an individual cannot think of going to government offices without carrying a list of documents, the AP Government is set to break the tradition by unveiling a certificateless governance. “In the coming days, we are planning to scrap certificate system for an individual, such as domicile, residence, income certificates including

academic ones. Aadhaar Card will be single source of information of citizens,” said Phani Kishore. The plan also includes abolishing the title deeds and pattadar passbooks by taking details available on ‘Mee Bhoomi’ portal as authenticated information of a land owner.

Innovation in eGovernance In order to encourage innovation, the AP Government has endorsed an innovation and startup policy that supports startups with innovation funds. It is set to float a `100 crore innovation fund for startups. “Andhra Pradesh is targeting to incubate 500 startups by the end of this December, and 5,000 by 2020. The Government will reimburse to the incubators or the investors 15 per cent of the seed capital infused into a startup based out of the State,” said J Satyanarayana, Advisor eGovernance, IT, AP Government. At present, the Government has created about one million sqft of incubation infrastructure available in Vizag, Kakinada, Tirupati and Anantapur. Besides, it is in the process of creating another 3,00,000 sqft of additional space in the vicinity of the Vizag startup village.

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public sector

Hudco

In Forefront of Urbanisation The Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO) spans the entire spectrum of infrastructure services ranging from roads, water supply, hospitals, schools, airports and waste to energy, says Dr K Ravi Kanth, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, HUDCO, in conversation with Gautam Debroy of Elets News Network (ENN) What has been HUDCO’s role in nation building through its operations in the housing and infrastructure sector? In April 1970, the Government of India established Housing & Urban Development Corporation to accelerate the pace of housing and urban development in the country. Since then, HUDCO has been working consistently to build assets for the nation and to serve every segment of the society across the length and breadth of the country. Over the past fourand-a-half decade, HUDCO has financed over 16,900 housing and infrastructure projects with a cumulative disbursement of over `102,000 crore. It has supported more than 16.2 million houses in the country, in both rural and urban areas, including staff housing, rental housing, sites and services projects, slum upgradation, disaster rehabilitation, women’s condominiums, etc., thus making it the largest facilitator of housing in the country. HUDCO’s work in the infrastructure sector spans the entire spectrum of infrastructure services ranging from roads, water supply, hospitals, schools, airports and waste to energy. Besides, we have supported the development of new and satellite towns, SEZs, IT parks, and industrial infrastructure as well. We have also been providing design consultancy for redeveloping towns, preparation of master plans and repair and retrofitting of disasteraffected areas.

Can you explain the challenges

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the urban housing sector is facing? What do you think are the answers to these challenges? Housing is a complex problem and has both quantitative and qualitative dimensions: while the quantitative aspects are amply reflected by the statistics, the qualitative aspect can be understood in terms of congestion and obsolescence factors, quality of building materials including mud, straw and bamboo, and lack of access to basic amenities like safe drinking water, bathroom, toilets, and sewerage for millions of houses in urban areas. Besides, there are many houses which are unable to withstand the impact of natural disasters like cyclones, floods and even heavy rainfall. The key challenges in meeting the housing deficit are the access to affordable serviced land, housing finance and building materials and technology. Another important factor is lack of adequate participation of the private sector in creating affordable housing stock, since the public sector alone will not be able to meet the demand for affordable housing. The reasons for the shortage of affordable housing options include issues on the demand side as well as the supply side of the housing market. On the demand side, intervention is required to rationalise the high-interest rates that make the housing-finance unaffordable and nonavailability of institutional credit facilities to the urban poor. On the supply side, some of the key issues are land scarcity and skyrocketing land prices, lack of skilled manpower, cost of housing finance and undue delays in the

building approval process, which add up to the overhead costs. We need to provide affordable housing options, good rental housing for migrants, slum redevelopment and housing for urban destitute and homeless. Even building at full capacity, our major house builders can’t meet the required numbers. Therefore, there is an urgent need to use land as a resource and leverage resources from the states to combine with the resources of the Central Government. All stakeholders, including the private sector, banks and financial institutions and civil society, would have to be involved in this task. We need to leverage innovative and low-cost technologies such as pre-fabrication, which can be used to construct affordable houses quickly and cost-effectively.

As a public sector profit-making housing finance company, how important is it for HUDCO to prioritise the housing needs of the deprived sections of the society? HUDCO’s motto is ‘Profitability with Social Justice’. Since inception, HUDCO has been promoting affordable housing, an important aspect for the socio-economic development of the country. With an allocation of significant quantum of its housing funds for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWSs) and Lower Income Groups (LIGs) at a relatively lower interest rate, higher extent of unit cost extended as loan, and with a relatively longer

hudco

repayment period, HUDCO makes houses affordable for the urban and rural poor segments. Our concerted efforts have resulted in over 92 per cent of the 16.20 million dwelling units supported by HUDCO, benefiting the EWSs and LIGs. In its endeavour to benefit the population at the bottom of the pyramid, HUDCO is promoting microfinance in housing, in the form of equity contribution to Sewa Grih Rin Limited, a new micro housing finance company, set up by Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA). The future growth path for the housing portfolio of HUDCO also has a major focus and thrust on increasing the social housing operations to a significantly higher level, so as to retain HUDCO’s role as the only housing finance company of its kind. The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities of HUDCO also aim at improving

the quality of life of the deprived sections through various projects, including support to local bodies for construction/renovation of night-shelter facilities, and short-stay facilities, among many other projects that benefit the society at large.

With new schemes like Smart Cities, Affordable Housing for All by 2022 and AMRUT being launched, how is HUDCO preparing to meet the agenda of urban development? India is making rapid strides towards an urban future where by the year 2030, urban areas are expected to house 40 per cent of India’s population and contribute 75 per cent of India’s GDP. This obviously requires large-scale investments and effective planning to ensure comprehensive development of

The future growth path for the housing portfolio of HUDCO also has a major focus and thrust on increasing the social housing operations to a significantly higher level, so as to retain HUDCO’s role as the only housing finance company of its kind

public sector

physical, institutional, social and economic infrastructure and housing for all. In this context, the Smart Cities and AMRUT programmes aim at helping cities acquire better infrastructure, including water supply, electricity, sanitation, storm water drainage, urban transport, mobility, digital connectivity, sustainable environment, safety and security, health, education and good governance, etc. On the other hand, the Affordable Housing Mission seeks to address the housing requirements of urban poor. Besides, HUDCO has been identified as one of the Central Nodal Agencies (CNA) for the Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) component of the Affordable Housing Mission. It will assist the Ministry in appraising the plan of action sent by states/cities, and annual implementation plans for inspection of projects. Today, HUDCO is the only institution which funds land acquisition and its integrated development. With the development of ‘Smart Cities’ throughout the country, HUDCO’s role would continue in the fields of project funding, project monitoring, evaluation studies and support to the urban local bodies in conceiving city-specific business plans for sustainable infrastructure development.

Urban unemployment is a major issue faced by the nation. In what way HUDCO is contributing to tackle it? The construction sector is the second largest employer in the country, supporting more than 250 ancillary industries and contributing nearly 10 per cent to the GDP. Also, housing is regarded as an ‘engine of economic growth’, which can give a big push to the economy. However, there is another fact that more than 80 per cent of the workforce in this sector is semi-skilled and employment is largely seasonal. Moreover, being at the bottom of the work pyramid, women working in this sector are particularly at a disadvantage. As responsible stakeholders in the construction sector, HUDCO has recognised the need to support interventions which address some of these concerns. The firm has directly and indirectly supported capacity building and skill development in the construction sector through HUDCO supported Building Centers, Habitat Polytech, HUDCO’s HSMI & HUDCO’s CSR activities.

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Green Energy

IREDA

IREDA: Energising the Energy Sector The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) has been proactively developing innovative financing schemes and policies to develop solar projects in the country and as of today it contributes more than 12 per cent to the total installed power capacity of India, says K S Popli, Chairman & Managing Director, IREDA, in an interview with Gautam Debroy of Elets News Network (ENN)

What role does IREDA play in the energy sector? IREDA was established in 1987 as a specialised public financial institution under the administrative control of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), with an objective to promote, develop and extend financial support to renewable energy and energy efficiency, and conservation projects in the country. IREDA has been notified as a ‘Public Financial Institution’ and registered as a Non-Banking Financial Company (NFBC) with the Reserve Bank of India. The Agency has played a pioneering role in the promotion and development of renewable energy in India. It has acted as a vital bridge in commercialisation of the sector by providing innovative and customised financial instruments across the value chain of the Cleantech sector. With the business models developed by IREDA becoming successful, the financial institutions and banks are coming forward to finance the sector. Till the end of the financial year 2013-14, the agency had sanctioned more than 2,100 clean energy projects with a loan commitment of `26,278 crore, making it the largest ‘green financier’ in the country. This has supported the growth of renewable energy sector, which currently contributes more than 12 per cent to the total installed power capacity of India. IREDA has been the focal point of attracting international finance in the Indian renewable energy sector, i.e. multilateral/ bilateral lending agencies like World Bank, Asian Development Bank, JICA, KFW, AFD

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ireda

Green Energy

and EIB, preferring to route their funds through IREDA for supporting the Indian cleantech sector.

What initiatives are being taken to make the renewable / solar energy user-friendly? Apart from offering term loans at competitive terms, IREDA is also involved in various promotional and developmental activities. It provides concessional finance to projects located in Jammu & Kashmir, north-eastern states (including Sikkim), tribal / hilly areas, islands and deserts. It encourages entrepreneurs hailing from certain segments of the society, viz. SC / ST, ex-servicemen, physically handicapped and women, for setting up the projects. Besides fulfilling its role as a financial institution, IREDA has been acting as a thought leader. It is proactively disseminating information to stakeholders on various facets of the renewable technologies through awareness programmes, best practices manuals, compendiums and a trade journal (Energy Next). IREDA has a comprehensive policy on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainable Development, which aims to enhance value creation in society through community development, education and healthcare through use of solar/renewable energy. With a view to have intensive approach towards CSR, IREDA has a dedicated unit to undertake various CSR programmes and a committee of directors to oversee the activities.

What are the benefits of International Finance Corporation (IFC) joining hands with IREDA to provide infrastructure financing projects in India? IFC, a member of the World Bank group, and IREDA have partnered to provide the muchneeded infrastructure financing for renewable energy projects in the country, which, in turn, will help boost growth in renewable energy capacity additions and also create entrepreneurial opportunities and jobs. This collaboration will help standardise steps that lenders take while co-financing projects with IFC. This will also help bring global best practices

Till the end of the financial year 2013-14, the agency had sanctioned more than 2,100 clean energy projects with a loan commitment of `26,278 crore, making it the largest ‘green financier’ in the country and standards in the Indian market. IFC can also help us in augmenting our net-worth and raising long-term debt from offshore.

How does IREDA plan to encourage the commercial market to take up green projects? IREDA is a specialised public finance institution for providing financial support to renewable energy and energy efficiency, and conservation projects in very competitive market terms. IREDA comes out with new and updated policies from time-to-time in line with the market requirements and in keeping with the market trends. It provides term loan financing at highly competitive terms with longer repayment periods and higher debtequity ratio for renewable energy projects to attract investments in the renewable energy sector. IREDA has been awarded ‘Mini Ratna’ (Category-I) status by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in 2015.

What are your strategies to support rooftop solar mission of the Government of India? IREDA has recently developed a new policy for providing terms loans for all gridconnected/interactive Solar PV projects located on rooftops. To avail the benefits of the scheme, applications can be submitted under aggregator category and direct category. In the aggregator category, the application can include either single project or aggregate multiple projects, while in the direct category, application can include projects from single roof owners only. There is flexibility with respect to revenue models of projects, which can be either on captive consumption basis, or sale to grid under net metering and gross metering and also other revenue models. This will facilitate financing reachout to more such projects. Interest rates offered for the rooftop projects are 150 to 200 points lower than gridconnected solar projects.

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Aviation

Anil Shrivastava

Smart Cities to Soar on Aviation With the Smart City mantra being chanted across the country, the Aviation sector is also planning to come up with various plans, making it more intelligent and affordable. Anil Shrivastava, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India, talks to Gautam Debroy of Elets News Network (ENN) on how the sector is planning to go smart What is the importance of aviation in a Smart City? A Smart City cannot be visualised without having smart modes of transport, and aviation is the smartest mode of transport that saves one’s precious time. It also provides smart connectivity to the destinations of economic growth for which aviation is not only a connector, but is an engine too. As rightly said by David Williams, ‘All human life can be found in an airport’, airport has become a hub of large human activity. Therefore, expansion of Civil Aviation has become a focal point of development as it is a key infrastructure that connects people, shrinks distances and facilitates the growth of business and seamless flow of investment. Today, the sector of Civil Aviation & Tourism directly contributes up to 3.6 per cent of the national GDP. Thus, it can play a crucial role in development of a Smart City.

What significant role does IT play in the civil aviation sector? Nowadays, the entire aviation is controlled through Information Technology (IT). Right from the cockpit to Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower through satellite communication, it is the IT which governs and controls the entire aviation. A smart city uses digital technologies or Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to enhance quality and performance of urban services, to reduce costs and resource consumption, and to engage more effectively and actively with its citizens.

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Anil Shrivastava

What strategy do you have to connect with the remote areas of the country? Currently, our main focus is to provide air connectivity to remote and interior areas of the country, North-Eastern Region, along with the tier-II and tier-III cities of India. For this, new and innovative solutions in the form of Route Dispersal Guidelines, aircraft acquisition and development of low- cost airports will be put in place. There is a need to develop India as an international hub for passengers. An action in this regard has also been initiated, which includes revisiting the policy regarding bilateral air service agreements with different countries and also rationalisation of all bilateral and traffic entitlements on international routes to Indian carriers and rationalisation of traffic on domestic routes. Besides, the Government of India has also approached various state governments for reduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) on Air Turbine Fuel (ATF) and under writing of seats so that it could be made affordable.

How is the public perception towards the aviation sector? Although the passenger growth in the aviation sector is about 15 per cent, the air transport is still not affordable by general public. So, the Government is taking various steps to make it affordable. Apart from affordability, the concern is also rising on safety and security. As per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, data safety record of India is

Although the passenger growth in the Aviation Sector is about 15 per cent, the air transport is still not affordable for general public. So, the Government is taking various steps to make it affordable good in comparison to other countries. However, security is our prime concern and the country takes all steps towards the upgradation of security equipment like the introduction of Biometric Access System at airports.

What are the various problems faced by this sector? Implementation of projects/policies in civil aviation involves various factors such as liquidity for providing infrastructure and updated technology to the sector, viability being the major one. The high cost of operation and creation of infrastructure has an adverse impact on the aviation sector. The main operational cost depends upon the cost of ATF. Also,

Aviation

due to competitive atmosphere and lack of expertise, airlines operators are playing with thin profit margin.

What is the status of the regional connectivity for aviation? Franklin Roosevelt once said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too littleâ&#x20AC;?. Thus, it is imperative that growth in the civil aviation sector is equitable and inclusive across the country. The issue of providing regional and remote area connectivity, therefore, attains great significance. Considering the vastness of the country and varied terrains â&#x20AC;&#x201C; ranging from the high mountainous region in the North, hilly terrains in the North-East, deserts in the West and thickly populated congested regions in the South, the present number of operational airports in the country is very small. We need to develop smaller low-cost no-frill airports in economically growing cities identified in various parts of the country with the help of the State Governments. There are 454 airports/airstrips in the country, out of which only 93 are operational. Many of the smaller airstrips are owned by the State Governments and we can join hands to develop these. The respective State Governments can provide the land required for expansion and provide road and power connectivity to the airport. We are in the process of identifying the most suitable low-cost viable model for development of small airports to promote and enhance regional and remote area connectivity.

October 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

Infrastructure

Power Financing

Re-energising Indian Power Scenario Even as the 2015 fiscal proved to be a good year for the Indian power sector that witnessed highestever capacity addition of 22,566 MW, it is still plagued by a plethora of issues like fuel supply, weak financial health of state distribution agencies and stressed projects. M K Goel, Chairman & Managing Director, Power Finance Corporation Ltd (PFC), shares Corporationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future plans and his insights on the Indian power sector with Jessy Iype of Elets News Network (ENN)

What are the key initiatives that the Power Finance Corporation has undertaken? We have taken several initiatives to diversify our areas of expertise, as demonstrated by our wholly owned subsidiaries. The PFC Consulting Limited (PFCCL) was incorporated on March 25, 2008 to provide exclusive focus towards offering consultancy services to power sector. So far, consultancy services have been rendered to 51 clients for 93 assignments by PFCCL. It is also undertaking the work related to the development of UMPPs (Ultra Mega Power Projects) and ITPs (Independent

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Transmission Projects). Further, during the fiscal 2015, total income of PFCCL was `49.40 crore compared to `55.19 crore in the previous fiscal 2014 and the net profit earned by PFCCL during fiscal 2015 was `21.70 crore as against the corresponding net profit of `26.96 crore last fiscal. Besides, PFC Green Energy Limited (PFCGEL) was incorporated on March 30, 2011 to extend finance and financial services to promote green sources of energy.

What is your outlook on the Power Sector of India?

The fiscal 2015 was a good year for Indian power sector with (i) highest capacity addition in a single year, of 22,566 MW, (ii) power generation growth of 8.4 per cent, the highest in the last 20 years, (iii) power deficit reduction to 3.6 per centâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; the lowest ever, (iv) highest ever increase in transmission lines to 22,100 ckm, (v) highest-ever jump in sub-station capacity to 65,554 MVA, (vi) highest coal production growth of 8.3 per cent in last 23 years and (vii) first time-ever exceed in renewable capacity addition targets. The Indian power sector, however, is still plagued by structural challenges like fuel supply issues, weak financial health of state distribution utilities, and stressed projects and balance sheets of power developers. The Central Government has already introduced several reform initiatives and measures to address the problems. The uncertainty, post cancellation of 204 coal blocks in 2014, was adequately addressed to by the government through quick reallocation of coal blocks through a transparent e-auction process. The government has also formulated two new schemes aimed at distribution reforms, namely Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) for urban areas and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) for rural areas. Additionally, Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (R-APDRP) scheme was subsumed into IPDS. The government has finalised a loss reduction trajectory for bringing down national AT&C losses from current level of 25 per cent to 15 per cent by 2020. To promote efficiency, competition, renewable energy and improve quality and reliability of power, government

Power Financing

has approved amendments in the Electricity Act. The amendments envisage ensuring grid stability, competition in distribution sector, operationalisation of open access, strengthening regulatory commissions and tariff rationalisation among others. On the renewable energy front, solar capacity has been increased by 42 per cent in 2015 fiscal. Out of planned 25 solar parks with capacity of 1000 MW, already 17 solar parks in 14 States have been approved. Renewable energy global meet held in Feb, 2015 attracted commitments of 273 GW. Green energy corridors are being rolled out with an investment of `38,000 crore to ensure power evacuation from renewable energy plants. On the power transmission front, Government has approved National Smart Grid Mission to bring efficiency in power supply network and reduce losses and outages. About `1,00,000 crore of transmission projects are to be bid out in next one year. To achieve sustainable development of power sector, Government of India has set a long term plans of 24x7 power for all by 2019, doubling Coal India’s production to 100 crore tonne by 2020, increase power generation by 50 per cent by 2020, increase renewable capacity by more than 5 times to 175 GW by 2022 and energy saving to increase to 10 per cent of current consumption.

Infrastructure

Taking a leap into the technological arena, PFC has started keeping digital copies of vouchers, invoices and payments, and hard copies of the existing documents are being converted into digital format

How can technology help in the Indian power finance sector? The cyber era is driven by Information and Technological breakthroughs. In today’s competitive scenario, IT and Digitisation are crucial factors for any business. Information system plays the role of ‘enabler and facilitator’, which endows tactical options to officials

and is a considerable boost to the quality of administration. Taking a leap into the technological arena, PFC has started keeping digital copies of vouchers, invoices and payments, and hard copies of the existing documents are being converted into digital format. PFC has successfully established a stateof-the-art Data centre for ERP and in-house developed applications, which is capable of processing transactional data at a very high speed with zero downtime, for seamless business availability round the clock.

What are the CSR initiatives being carried out by the PFC? PFC believes quite strongly in fulfilling its responsibility and commitment to society at large. To oversee the activities of CSR, the company has in place a Board-level CSR Committee of Directors headed by an

Independent Director. From setting up toilets in schools, as part of the Prime Minister’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, to funding LED lamps in remote, off-grid villages, PFC remains dedicated to fulfilling its CSR commitments. During fiscal 2015, PFC sanctioned CSR projects worth `304 crore.

What, according to you, are the core areas of growth for PFC? PFC will continue to play a significant role in the overall development of the Indian power sector. PFC prides itself in being at the forefront of the Government of India’s plans for the Power Sector. We are the key implementation partners for three of the Government’s flagship programmes – Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPPs), Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) and Independent Transmission Projects (ITPs).

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technology

wipro

Enabling Digital Initiatives Ever since the new Government has taken charge, various digital initiatives have been in the limelight, roping in private players as the facilitators for implementation of these programmes. Neeraj Sahdev, General Manager & Head â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Government & Defence, Wipro, tells Souvik Goswami of Elets News Network (ENN) how the corporate world has joined hands with the Government to help India grow digitally caution and risk mitigation. It is crucial to see how the projects are executed in a relatively risk-free manner. We are going to very carefully choose the projects we work on, while working with the Government to enable more friendliness and better procurement policies. For instance, if you look at large companies like us, among others, there are issues with respect to payments, closures or non-acceptance of applications. We are also working with the Government in terms of easing things, to ensure building capacity and improvise terms and conditions, while providing a conducive environment to the corporate and private players to complete the programmes. At the same time, we have sought to help the new Government attain its dream project of making India digital.

What are Wiproâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expectation from the Government?

Do you think initiatives like Make in India, Digital India and Smart Cities offer opportunities to major IT companies like yours?

Wipro has been working with the Government for a very long time. We have our own views and perceptions of the dynamics of the Government market in India. Since the arrival of the new Government, one has witnessed a huge shift, there have been many large projects in the pipeline, including the new look of the National eGovernance Programme (NeGP). Many Mission Mode Projects have not been successful or have completed as the nature of these projects is very complex. While many of our peers have taken a passive stand to work on the Government projects, we are enthused to work with the Government, obviously with a right mix of

The Government today has taken up around five flagship programmes. The projects like Digital India, Make in India or Smart Cities, are crucial from the perspective of the new Government. If electronic services to the citizens, Digital India needs to effectively take off. They have to set up the infrastructure and ensure that the citizens are skilled necessarily. At the same time, the Government is also realising that to make crucial programmes successful, like providing connectivity for 2,50,000 Gram panchayats across the country, it has to be resourceful. This presents companies like Wipro to be a part in various capacities like consulting, advisory, execution

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and design, among others. The opportunity space for us from an end-to-end perspective is massive. Be it global or Indian companies, they are looking for ways to participate in Digital India campaign. The same goes for Make in India. The Government realises that growing at a swifter pace requires strengthening the manufacturing sector. Further, we need to promote manufacturing of goods to be sold in India, along with the trade deficit, in terms of export and import. To ensure equal employment opportunities are created in the country, Make in India is the sought after programme. This promising programme is also seen as a platform of participation for companies like Wipro. Since we are based in India, we can manufacture here. The third promising programme focuses on Smart Cities, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is driving. The programme is seen as a tool that can pave in modernising our infrastructure while ensuring that it is linked to Digital India. It further assures that the core infrastructure in a city will be made digital. This validates Digital India programme in terms of providing suitable facilities. A lot of things that citizens require today are based on inclusion, such as financial inclusion, educational inclusion, digital inclusion. This scenario has a suitable role for a company like Wipro, which has significant capabilities in the space.

Working with the Government, what are the various challenges you face and how can these be overcome? The nature of projects in the Government

technology

is extremely complex and tends to spread across multiple boundaries and timelines. Working with the Government, consequently, poses significant challenges like capacity and interworking. Pace of projects at times is found to be different which leads to significant delays and poor dependency management. We also face significant issues in procurement norms and policies. To overcome such challenges, Wipro is working upfront with the Government. We are trying to work with them and advocate industry-friendly procurement norms and policies and work with them to explain the issues that the industry faces today.

Do you think the digital initiatives of the Government, or even the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), will dispel the apprehensions of the industry? The mentioned programmes are massive in scale. However, they need to be executed first. When we talk to the people at the senior level, be it IT secretaries of various states or secretaries of various ministries, they seem very positive. They know what needs to be done.

wipro

While many of our peers have taken a passive stand to work on the Government projects, we are enthused to work with the Government, obviously with a right mix of caution and risk mitigation. It is crucial to see how the projects are executed in a relatively risk-free manner But, the gap lies in ensuring that it is being executed in reality. This is something which needs to be looked at and addressed.

What are the focus states of Wipro in terms of engaging Government for programmes like Digital India and Smart City? Digital India is an umbrella programme of the Government which has a vision of digitally enabling India. The eKranti pillar of Digital India will enable provisioning of eGovernance services to the citizen of the remotest village in the country. The programmes under eKranti are mostly being driven by state Governments. So, we are focused on most progressive states,

where we have traditionally been working and where we have garnered some good relations with people. Once we get in, we tend to work across all the departments.

What will be your future plan in terms of getting engaged with the Government? We are looking at enhancing ourselves by participating in large and transformational programmes and are ready to work with the center and states which are futuristic and transformative in nature. We are also trying to swiftly engage ourselves with the Government right from the policy level to ensure participation while moving forward.

October 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

Labour Management

West Bengal

Labour Reforms Edge Out Unrest Proper industrialisation is possible with proper labour management and any sort of development cannot be done at the cost of the labourers of the State, says Jawaid Akhtar, Labour Commissioner, West Bengal, in an interview with Subhajit Bhattacharya of Elets News Network (ENN) What specific steps have been taken by the Government of West Bengal to improve the condition of the labourers in the State? The Government, under the leadership of the Chief Minister of the State, Mamata Banerjee, has laid down several reform measures and implemented plethora of plans by targeting an all-round development of the labour force of the State. We have already amended the age-old labour laws and introduced some very progressive provisions therein. We also digitised the entire Labour Department, which added pace to the working process. It also helped us eradicate the malpractices, which are there in this business.

Industrialisation never supports labour reforms. So, how is the State maintaining the balance between the two? West Bengal has always given paramount importance to the issues of labourers, and we believe that any development cannot be done at the cost of the labourers. In case of any dispute, we always opt for tripartite settlement or go for the minimum wage system. We also know that the jute industry of Bengal is in a sorry state, but through this specific settlement method, we have achieved considerable success.

What steps have been taken to tame violent labour unions? West Bengal has witnessed several violent labour protests in the past. But, over the years, the mindset of the labourers of the State has changed. Now, they are more inclined to support development rather than resort to lockouts every now and then. They are interested in running the wheels rather than applying brakes on them. The tea and the jute industries of West Bengal have suffered a lot, but

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best to tackle this issue through proper social and economic reforms. We are also working closely with several NGOs and conduct periodic raids to curb child labour. In addition, we also organise seminars and awareness campaigns against it across the State. We also run a toll-free number (1800-103-0009) to lodge complaints against child labour.

How is the issue of labourersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; migration from adjacent states and Bangladesh being addressed?

Over the years, the mindset of the labourers of West Bengal has changed. Now, they are more inclined to support development rather than resort to lockouts every now and then never succumbed to strikes or lockouts.

What preventive steps the Government has taken to eradicate child labour? Child labour is an issue that has spread its tentacles in the society, and it has become difficult to uproot the malady. However, we are trying our

Controlling the influx of labourers from different adjacent states and from Bangladesh, has been a big challenge for the State Government. We are taking the help of the Migrant Labour Act/InterState Migrants Act to solve this issue. We are strictly adhering to this law, and all migrant labourers to the State have to go through a proper process of registration. Those violating the norms are arrested immediately, and a high-level committee is there to look into such issues. In addition, the Child and Women Welfare Department of West Bengal also keeps a close tab on the issue.

The tea industry of Bengal suffered massive losses due to strikes in 2014. How did the State handle the situation? It was difficult, but thanks to the tea sector labourers, who showed maturity that helped us resolve the issues afflicting the industry. We increased their daily wages and there is a huge scope of increment in the future as well. Further, we are strengthening the social security measures and trying to give proper food and shelter to the labourers of the closed tea gardens. This will definitely minimise their woes and improve the overall condition of the tea industry of Bengal.

Port Sector

jnpt

Sagarmala to be the Game Changer

With the announcement of Sagarmala Project, the port sector is expected to get a boost and will be a game changer for the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT). Neeraj Bansal, Deputy Chairman of the Trust, shares his plans and methods that are being used in the long run to strengthen the port sector, with Poulami Chakraborty of Elets News Network (ENN) The Government of India has embarked upon an ambitious plan to set up the Sagarmala Project. What is your vision for the same? The Sagarmala Project announced by the Shipping Ministry is a new hope for the country’s ports and port infrastructure sector. The project is aimed at port-led development along the 7,500 km coastline of India and development of Regional Economic Clusters. For long, the growth of India’s maritime sector has been hampered by many procedural and policy-related challenges, the most important among them being the presence of a dual institutional structure that has led to the development of major ports governed by the Union Government and non-major ports

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coming under the state governments’ ambit. A key element of this Project is setting up of 10 Coastal Economic Regions (CERs). It will play an important role in realising the vision of ‘Make in India’ programme, as each CER will hold an integrated and comprehensive plan of the area, combining the growth potential of various industrial clusters and economic activities with the upgradation and development of both in major and non-major ports simultaneously. The key components of the Project would be modernising port infrastructure, transforming the existing ports into world-class ports, development of new ports, and improving hinterland linkages through efficient rail, road and water networks for efficient evacuations.

How do you think the role of IT can be enabled in the overall development of the ports sector? IT plays a crucial role in overall development of the port sector. JN Port is one of the youngest major ports in the country, having four container terminals and one liquid terminal, facilitating the best IT support to its customers. It has also brought transparency in the customer services. JN port has undertaken a project ‘Software Development, Integration and Upgrade of Port Operations’. This project includes design, development, implementation and commissioning of an integrated port operations system covering functional areas like finance, traffic operations, mechanical engineering, administration, marine

JNPT

proved to be very successful as the best global players have started terminal operations in the Indian port sector, thus augmenting the capacity of ports.

What are your future projects and pipeline for development of ports and SEZ? JN Port handled 63.80 million tonnes of cargo during the last financial year. We will add another 10 million tonnes of capacity in 2016 by commissioning a standalone container terminal of 330 metres length by Nhava Sheva (India) Gateway Terminal Pvt Ltd (NSIGT), an SPV of the DP World. After commissioning of the first phase of a mega fourth container terminal, we will add another 30 million tonnes of capacity by the end of 2017. It is the biggest FDI project in the port sector involving a cost of `7,915 crore by M/s Bharat Mumbai Container Terminals Pvt. Ltd. (BMCTPL), an SPV of the Port of Singapore

operations, port planning and development, etc. The projects will also automate the library and workflow management, including document management, with a centralised user management and single sign on.

How has the JNPT benefitted from PPP projects? In order to enhance capacity of ports and upgrade the existing facilities, the Ministry of Shipping adopted a policy to build the facilities under PPP model. Under this model, the port sector has attracted an investment of more than `42,000 crore. Moreover, JN Port was the first to develop a container terminal under this replica on Buy-Own-Transfer (BOT) basis with NSICT in April 1999. Further, we added GTI as second PPP partner at JNPT. All three container terminals together handle more than 4.45 million cargo in a year. The entry of private entity brought in modern equipment and competition is leading to a significant improvement in key performance parameters. The PPP model has

Port Sector

of jetties, berths, deepening of channels, procurement, replacement or upgradation of port equipment and to improve hinterland and last-mile connectivity. A major issue is delay in implementation of projects, especially that of greenfield ports and SEZs or port-based SEZs, on account of the protracted process of receiving clearances, like environmental clearances, security clearances and litigations during tendering process and after awarding the project. There is no singlewindow clearance, so a project moves through multiple departments and processes at the state and central levels, which considerably delays the process. The other issues in augmenting port capacity are land acquisition, long term loans, etc.

How do you feel the port sector can attain a sustainable profitability? In order to make port sector attain sustainable profitability, following initiatives need to be taken:

In order to contribute to ‘Make in India’ campaign, JN Port has taken a lead and is developing a multi-product port-based SEZ. This will create huge job opportunities for the youth in this region Authority (PSA). It started its construction activities in March 2015 and will develop 2 kms of jetty in two phases. JNPT has planned to develop a Satellite Port near Vadhavan in Thane district, a joint venture with the Government of Maharashtra and two dry ports near Wardha and Jalna each, in Vidharbha and Marathawada regions. Besides, in order to contribute towards ‘Make in India’ campaign, JN Port has taken a lead and is developing a multi-product port-based SEZ. This will create huge job opportunities for the youth in this region.

What are the challenges faced by ports and SEZ in the Indian scenario? Upgrading the basic infrastructure and improve the competitiveness of Indian the companies will reduce logistics cost. The port sector requires huge investments for construction

More autonomy and financial power to major ports: Major ports need more liberalisation and autonomy or a new structure akin to corporatisation for speedy decision-making and accountability. Deregulation of tariff: Regulators like Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP) should be transformed from a tariff regulator to a competition regulator on the basis of a new Port Competition Act, applicable to all commercial ports. Productivity improvement: Productivity of ports needs to be improved at par with international standard. Proper planning of infrastructure: As the JN Port is handling about 40 per cent of the country’s EXIM containerised cargo and working with more than 90 per cent of the capacity for last several years, port is working on the optimum utilisation of available infrastructure.

October 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

public sector

bsnl

CVOs: The Eyes and Ears of PSUs Levelling charges of malpractices and corruption in government organisations is stylish more often than not, more so in case of PSUs. However, going by the age-old adage, “There’s no smoke without fire”, the Chief Vigilance Officer of the elephantine PSU, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), V K Singh, came up with some unique ideas to nail corruption in PSUs, if any. The CVO insists that punitive measures can address the issue only in the short term. We bring you some excerpts here from his interaction with Subhajit Bhattacharya of Elets News Network (ENN)

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bsnl

he Chief Vigilance Officers (CVOs) are the eyes and ears of a public sector undertaking (PSU). They play a seminal role in upholding the integrity of the organisation and building its clean image in public eyes as well as in the market. CVOs work as a special advisor to CEO and help them in vigilance matters of the company. As Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is a mammoth organisation, which offers services to a massive customer base, the Vigilance Department keeps a hawk-like watch on each and every activity happening within the ambit of BSNL. We monitor all the key departments and if our officers sniff or witness any malpractice happening within any department of the organisation, we immediately take action and try to eradicate the ‘ailment’.

Communication Gap In PSUs, like BSNL, lack of communication between the higher and the lower strata is the real cause of malpractices. I believe a robust bridge of communication is the key solution to cork corruption and transgressions happening within an organisation. Proper, uniform planning and transparent execution of projects is a significant factor that could tame the menace within a large public sector organisation like BSNL. Proper awareness against corruption and dereliction of duty should be spread across all the verticals of the organisation. And, last but not the least, all the supervisors must keep a close watch on each and every employee of the department concerned.

Punitive Action as Half Measure If we kick off punitive measures against individual offenders, then it not only burns time, but at the same time, it also does not

public sector

help in solving the problem from a long-term perspective. So, before taking cognizance of a problem, we must analyse it properly and understand the animus of that problem. Most of the time, frailty creeps into an employee’s mind because of sheer unawareness. So, proper and routine training and awareness camps for the employees will definitely keep corruption at bay.

Thrust on Transparency Transparency in decision-making procedure can strengthen the hands of CVOs. So, transparency with uniformity in the entire decision-making procedure within a PSU must be adhered to as a rule. All decisions should be executed by following a proper and prescribed procedure.

As BSNL is a mammoth organisation that offers services to a massive customer base, the Vigilance Department keeps a hawk-like watch on each and every activity happening within its ambit In this context, another important tool is technology, which if leveraged properly, will definitely strengthen the hands of the CVOs. The entire process of payment and tendering should be wired and the file movement within the departments should also be transparent, so that projects are not delayed and there is no room for corruption. Mandatory inspection and rotational transfers of the officers holding key positions are some more steps, which can go a long way towards making the institution of CVO stronger and more meaningful.

Having CBI Onboard All the CVOs of PSUs are required to keep in constant touch with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), because they not only help us in investigating certain cases, which are related to third party / vendors, but also compliment us in numerous other ways.

Inter-PSUs Officers’ Pool I strongly feel that a proper pool of officers should be created to maintain a clear and transparent investigation process, wherever some malpractice is suspected. I believe, a

proper pool of officers from other PSUs should come and assist CVOs. An officer’s swapping process should be put in place to execute unbiased investigations. I applaud the new Chief Vigilance Commissioner of India (CVC), Mr Vinod Chowdhary, for taking some exemplary steps to create robust machinery for bottling up soaring corruption levels in different government organisations.

Caring for Public Grievances As vigilance officials, it is our duty and responsibility to monitor all public grievances wherein there is vigilance angle and if at all a complaint warrants a vigilance probe, we immediately flag and start looking into the matter.

Lokpal in Nascent Stage I think Lokpal is a sensitive issue and it’s still in a nascent stage; until and unless it becomes a reality, it is really hard to comment on the effectiveness of the Lokpal’s office. But once it takes the desired shape, it will definitely act as a catalyst of change in the system.

October 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

BFSI

oxigen

‘Oxigen’ to Breathe Life into BFSI Sector Oxigen Services India Pvt Ltd leverages technology to take banking and financial services to the people living in rural India. It helps deliver financial products like subsidy transfers, bill payments, recharge services, etc., in an efficient, simple and cost-effective manner, says Pramod Saxena, Chairman & Managing Director of the company, in an interview with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN) What is Oxigen Super Point of Sale (PoS) machine and what is the technology used in it? Oxigen has two sets of services — one is for the consumers, who may choose to interact with us directly, and the other for the retailers who decide to use Oxigen services as a business tool. In line with the government’s vision of financial inclusion and its efforts to digitise India by creating a cashless society, Oxigen Services has introduced Oxigen Super PoS. It is first-ofits-kind device that brings three segments on one platform of retail, i.e. financial inclusion, card payments segment and recharge / bill pay operators, packaged with state-of-the-art features customised for Indian conditions. PoS is the only device selected by the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) through a global bid recently. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also proposed to give merchants and customers tax benefits using electronic payment systems, i.e. mobile wallets / debit cards / credit cards, to bring transparency in financial transactions and convert maximum transactions from cash to electronic.

How will Oxigen Super PoS help in promoting financial inclusion? We are committed to promoting financial inclusion by providing payment solutions for recharges, money transfers and payments; business solutions for traditional retail, modern retail chains, online banking and government portals as well as the endconsumers. We also keep continuously upgrading our processes and skill sets. Oxigen Super PoS is quite helpful in bill payments,

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recharge services and money transfers. It enables people to make bill payments of postpaid mobile, landline, electricity and other utility services and avail recharge services

for all mobile operators’ prepaid services, data card and DTH services. Currently, the industry stands at `7 lakh crore for bill payments and `2 lakh crore for recharges. As

oxigen

BFSI

far as financial inclusion is concerned, cash in–cash out transactions through Oxigen Super PoS will provide a safe and cost-effective way of money transfer for those having bank accounts but not easy access to bank branches / ATMs, and ensure an efficient subsidy transfer mechanism to the target population. Currently, the industry stands at `2 lakh crore for domestic money transfers, `3 lakh crore for electronic benefit transactions and `5 lakh crore for international remittances. This will provide a huge boost in increasing the reach of Indian financial systems.

How does this device ensure security of transactions? Oxigen Super PoS device is fully safe and secure for all types of transactions. Linux software has been used for easy development of applications. We have designed it in a way that there is no security threat. All information is encrypted and needs secure login ID and password. Currently, it is the only micro-ATM device selected by the Indian Banks’ Association as per the UIDAI / NPCI specifications. The device is equipped with biometric reader for Aadhaar transactions and eKYC, and GPRS with a SIM Card slot and two Smart Card slots. It has in-built NFC – Tap & Pay facility and debit card and credit card acceptance (Rupay / VISA / Master Card both magnetic swipe & Smart Card facility). It is also certified by global payments standards for cards, i.e. EMV L1 / L2 & PCI 3.0. We are serving 150 million customers annually and nearly 600 million transactions happen every year, and there has been not a single complaint so far related to security of transactions.

What is the network availability of Oxigen, and its plan for the coming years? We have largest retail footprint of small retail outlets crossing 2,00,000 in numbers, and more than 50 million-plus transactions occur per month. We are dealing with 4.8 million Jan-Dhan Yojana accounts with a gross transaction value of `10,000 crore. We are getting overwhelming response to Oxigen Super PoS device, which has battery backup of up to eight hours even after continuous operation and several days of standby. It supports wide power supply fluctuation in extreme Indian conditions—90 volts to 290 Volts AC input—and has extended

Oxigen Super PoS can be used by following industries and establishments: Banking industry (Department of Financial Services) Telecom industry Utility bill payment industry All industries using Aadhaar services such as Provident Fund and Pensions, etc.  Mobile Wallet and Mobile Payments  Government CSCs and Hubs  Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution  Large format retail chains  Traditional retailer (grocery stores, chemists, telecommunication shops, mom & pop stores, tea stalls, small merchant establishments)  Banking kiosks / Business Correspondents  Money transfer agents    

antenna for working in poor coverage conditions. Our target is to provide easy access to lastmile banking, remittances and other financial products, bringing services within the common man’s reach, with a special focus on rural India.

Which financial institutions or banks have sought Oxigen’s help to reach out to the unbanked? Having been tied with 100 plus banks on IMPS by NPCI, Oxigen’s money transfer services reflect a greater promise of contribution to the mobile payments sector. We have also joined hands with India’s biggest banks, like State

Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Ratnakar Bank, to deliver a host of banking services across the country. By partnering with the State Bank of India to deliver mainstream financial services to the excluded, unbanked population using kiosk banking technology, together with its Business Correspondent model, Oxigen is the fastest growing company in the industry, in India. We have deployed a robust and advanced platform by engaging many retailers and enabling them with not only SBI’s kiosk banking, but also Oxigen’s proprietary single-point recharge technology to successfully achieve a sustainable monthly transaction volume.

October 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

Smart Policing

Chhattisgarh

Common Man Turns ‘Citizen Cop’ in Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh recently launched a mobile application of the State Police Department, called ‘Citizen Cop’, which will help them report crime instantly and without taking the pain of visiting police stations. Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Raipur Range GP Singh, in an interview with Arpit Gupta of Elets News Network (ENN), says this will help increase people’s participation in curbing crime What is the idea behind launching the ‘Citizen Cop’ app? Citizen Cop is a user-friendly mobile-based public safety application that empowers every citizen to become a powerful cop. We have seen that many a time people remain hesitant approaching police stations to report petty crime cases, as they feel it is a lengthy process. But this application would help them report the crime, lost articles and seek emergency help at the click of a button. We have developed this application in response to the concerns and needs of the citizens, so as to enlist their cooperation and participation in creating a safe, secure and crime-free society. With an aim to bring police and citizens together against crime, we have developed this influential tool that empowers common man. It can be downloaded for free on Android phones and iPhones through Google Playstore and iPhone App Store, respectively.

Should we look upon the initiative as the beginning of the era of ‘smart policing’? With the advent of technology, the police

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in just one click. They will also get information about your geographical location instantly. So, people will now be more aware of security threats and will be able to save themselves from unnecessary hassles of visiting police stations.

What unique features does ‘Citizen Cop’ offer?

department is also going high-tech and hopefully, the Citizen Cop application will prove to be an effective tool for every citizen, to communicate with the police establishment. It will also help in establishing a relationship of trust with and gaining confidence of the citizens. The Citizen Cop app enables user to store four mobile numbers in it. If you are feeling unsafe or need assistance, it will alert all the four people

The mobile app offers 12 unique services, namely Report an Incident, Call Police, Call Administration, SoS Help, My Safe Zone, Fare Calculation, Towing Vehicles, Vehicle Search, News Update, Report Lost Articles, My Close Group and Emergency Call. Using My Safe Zone tool, one can flag a safe zone on Google map by geo-fencing its boundary. Vehicle Search option can help the user get details of any vehicle, like its owner, model information and more. Emergency Call option provides a list of all emergency numbers, while Help Me option has been created especially for women safety. Report Lost Article will allow the user to report any lost article/documents in the State/ City and Towing Vehicle Search provides information regarding location of towed away vehicles.

EVENT Report

Reinventing PSUs In an attempt to highlight various initiatives undertaken by the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and the Government to push the economic growth of the nation at large, Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd organised “2nd Annual PSU Summit and Awards 2015” on August 26, 2015 at Le Meridien, New Delhi. The Summit witnessed participation from key stakeholders and industry experts who elaborated on how ICT is making the operations of PSUs transparent and efficient, and underlined the contribution of PSUs towards pushing economic growth. Mr M P Narayanan, President, Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd., along with key dignitaries, lights the traditional lamp during the inaugural session of PSU Summit & Awards 2015.

Partnering in Progress (Contribution of PSUs for Pushing Economic Growth: Challenges and Opportunities) Responding to social needs With only `49 crore of investment, five PSUs were started and by 1990 there were 273 of these. Till 1990, we were treating PSUs as an instrument of keeping India together, creating jobs anywhere, everywhere without looking into the necessary element of capital being viable and profit-oriented. Creating jobs and reaching the unreached was important and this role was beautifully played by central PSUs. Post 91 era, we gave a shift, profitability and viability were added. Moreover, what makes central PSUs different from other PSUs is the freedom of management, freedom to take decisions, and response to the market the way private players give. Looking at the central PSUs till 1990, these were giving employment to over four lakh people. There was monopoly in many areas which was broken in the due course and now these are competing in almost every sector. The central PSUs were created with the purpose that statesponsored industrialisation should be controlled and managed by the state only. It’s our role and wisdom that guides central PSUs and these are not only investors of the public capital, but also respond to the social needs of the society.

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Surendra Nath Tripathy Additional Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, Government of India

EVENT Report

PSUs are a necessity PSUs are supposed to be owned by the public and public ownership is through our own ex-chequer, the money from the government, etc. The PSUs are managed and run by all of us and through the elected representatives. The commitment is towards parliament, towards various committees of parliament, towards the various regulations and guidelines by the parliament. This is the scenario under which PSUs do operate and certainly these are very important when it comes to the balanced regional growth. We cannot think about having a plant in back waters of Odisha or somewhere in Chhattisgarh, Bastar, etc. However, one thing that goes with the PSUs is that to what extent we are using the natural resources with which our country is endowed and to what extent those are being used in the public interest. We have to strike a balance between what is the objective and in which direction, do we really want to take these PSUs. PSUs are indeed necessary. We canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think about telecom as yet without BSNL and MTNL and about airlines without Air India. However, there is a lot of criticism, which comes to the PSUs. But then, without PSUs, the Indian economy would not have reached here where we are currently. In an Indian social scenario, the checks and balances which are very much needed, PSUs have done a tremendous job in playing that role of checks and balances.

Anil Shrivastava Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India and Chairman-cumManaging Director, Pawan Hans Limited

Need to introspect

Rajiv Ranjan Mishra Joint Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India

Housing and infrastructure go hand in hand. The kind of human resources and knowledge base which PSUs have is perhaps very difficult to find. At the same time, this also faces challenge and criticism in the public domain. We all know that PSUs also have to fulfil certain social responsibilities, which often private sector may not be able to take up. We should also be aware of the challenge that often meeting up various sectors for the private participation is the need of the day and perhaps that is what is going to happen in future. Keeping that in mind, public sectors also have to introspect. There is certainly a need for more operational flexibility, but also there is a need to look at the profitability within the PSUs. We know that there are social responsibilities but why profitability is important is because that will bring more and more professionalism and effective use of resources. That sensitisation is absolutely necessary. The PSUs will have to keep on pacing their growth, along with the challenges that will come. Moreover, urbanisation and housing are very critical and by 2050, it is expected that more of the population will be in the urban areas. If we just allow PSUs to keep on with their routine work, and they do not associate or donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t give people place in the ambitious missions of the government, then certainly there is going to be a disconnection.

Liberalisation brought the change Until 1990, the social factor mattered more than any of the commercial sectors, and to this end, lot many appointments were made, so much so that if you see the figures of the 1989-90, there were 24 lakh public sector employees. Unfortunately, these became synonyms with letharginess, ineffectiveness and all such negative things. However, with liberalisation, things changed, and within 10 years of the post-liberalisation period, the turnover itself multiplied by nine times in public sector enterprises and profitability increased by 35 times by 2001. There are 292 public sector enterprises in which the Government of India has invested about `9.51 lakh crore so far and the turnover today stands at around `20-21 lakh crore. The profits are around `1.29 lakh crore after the payment of taxes. As many as 44-45 enterprises have been listed so far, which is almost five per cent of the total listed companies and this five per cent is having a market capitalisation of around 20 per cent of the total capital market in India, which is also a complimentary thing for the public sector enterprise. But, there is a need for further improvement and there comes the reform process, which has gone substantially of very high order throughout the world in public sector enterprises. At the same time, the Government of India has taken many good initiatives towards reforming the Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs).

UD Choubey Director General, Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE)

October 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

EVENT Report

Allowing freedom to PSUs Our country is facing a number of challenges, which are common to many of the developing nations, including education, health, etc. And, solutions to these issues are very complex in many cases. However, since Independence, the public sector enterprises in these facets have played a good moderating role for the inclusive growth of the society. As an instance, for water management, there are various public sector enterprises that play a huge role. Similarly, in health services, so many public sector enterprises are there. The same goes for the education and energy sectors. The coal and oil PSUs have played a huge role in the country. Looking at the transport sector, it is indeed difficult to find a match of DMRC, one of the best and most efficiently running railway metro networks in the world. Also, most of these public sector enterprises in the 50s were established in the remote areas. Nothing was there except land, and even the agricultural land was not sustaining the populations there. It resulted in employment generation in those areas. Establishment of ancillary units, schools in their own areas also led to employments. There are so many small establishments which automatically sprout up apart from the ancillary unit. Times are changing and the PSUs need to be allowed to be free in many ways.

Vimal Wakhlu Chairman and Managing Director, Telecommunications Consultants India Limited

Promoting sustainable habitat development

Nila Pandian Assistant General Manager, Housing & Urban Development Corporation Limited

Our mission is to promote sustainable habitat development to enhance the quality of life and that is the contribution we want to make for the nation. The key objectives include providing long-term finance to housing and urban development programmes - setting up satellite towns, industrial enterprises for building material, etc. Moreover, in keeping with the objectives, the major activities include financing housing, urban development through infrastructure projects. We also offer consultancy services and a lot of focus is on building technology for both promoting new materials and encouraging building material industry and training and capacity building. Further, there are the implementing agencies, primarily state governments, urban local bodies and also the community sector, corporates, private sector and of course the last individual too. We have sanctioned almost 17,000 projects cumulatively, which also include housing and infrastructure. Today, almost every 16th house in the nation is supported in some way or the other through HUDCO. Our operations are not just urban, but also rural. Apart from housing, we also look at the extended infrastructure and all the supporting infrastructure that goes into making a house liveable.

Safeguarding PSUs (Importance of Vigilance & Security) Need for pro-active approach PSUs play a vital role in our daily lives. Similarly, IT also plays a major role in our daily lives. So, if we want to grow faster in this modern era, we need to have IT in place, and use it for the growth we want to achieve. Efficiency, transparency and accountability are the three factors that every organisation wants to have and technology can help achieve all the three. However, the most important thing to understand is the better usage of IT if one needs to share the information efficiently. Also, when we share it, we in a way lose control over it, which increases the security scope needed and the compliance factor requirement. So, that is why, security and compliance are not the biggest admirers of sharing. As we are living in an IT world, we require data confidentiality, data integrity, authenticity, etc. Moreover, the IT Act of India mentions that if any organisation is holding some sensitive data of any user or organisation, there should be reasonable practices through which that data needs to be secured, and if the data is being compromised, certain penalties would be slapped. Besides, data breaching is also a major problem. To avoid all this, we need to think ahead of hackers, which requires a pro-active approach.

egov / egov.eletsonline.com / October 2015

Anubhav Tyagi Senior Solution Specialist - India & SAARC, Gemalto

EVENT Report

Encouraging integrity and transparency in PSUs

Manoj Kumar Chief Vigilance Officer, Coal India Limited

With regard to PSUs, the most important interest that we are looking at is financial. There are leakages which need to be plugged, and vigilance and security can play a key role for the same. Talking about vigilance, it plays a crucial role in protecting the honest officers. It is so because unless we protect the honest officials, the decision-making process actually gets impeded. As far as the safeguarding role is concerned, PSUs play a role which is much beyond even the financial safeguarding. We are basically looking at stopping revenue leakages, which can happen while doing procurements of various goods or services. Apart from that, vigilance also plays an important role in terms of preventing corruption. We also take various surveillance mechanism and conduct inspection etc., to ensure that malpractices could be put to end. Thus, vigilance can improve the decision-making mechanism in a country by reducing discretion, placing right kind of systems in place, etc. Similarly, we can have system-improvement measures, which can improve the system itself, leading to higher productivity or improved business processes.

Leveraging technology to enhance transparency in PSUs Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) being a subsidiary of the Coal India Limited, we are using many technological interventions to strengthen the management in safeguarding the interests of PSU. A part of the inhumanity of a computer is that once it is completely programmed and works smoothly, it is completely honest. Keeping this in mind, vigilance department in CCL is working to enhance transparency, efficiency and accountability by leveraging technology as per the mandate of the Central Vigilance Commission. The Ministry of Coal and the CIL are using technological interventions in day-to-day working. There was a requirement of unified solution to process all functions of CCL in order to streamline the working and recording system. So, we implemented an ERP-like solution, called Coalnet. For transparency and accountability in carrying out the business, we have implemented various IT initiatives like e-procurement, e-tendering with reverse auction, online billing and tracking system, etc. in the past two years. We have also implemented GPRS and GPS-based traffic systems, along with RFID-based system and CCTV cameras along the command zone.

Arbind Prasad Chief Vigilance Officer, Central Coalfield Limited

Technology Driving PSUs - The Way Forward Training is the key

Roshan Gupta Head, Global Alliances and Public Sector, Business Octane

We need to do our business reviews effectively. For this, we can skill the required workforce, which can be located at various places. So, all the parts of the organisations and the stakeholders, partners, contractors, etc. have to work in a synchronised manner. Also, we must conduct town-hall meetings, the meetings in which any senior executive can address the team members and employees together. Training is another important factor, which should happen regularly and effectively. However, the challenge is that there is an acute shortage of quality trainers, along with geographical constraints. Further, with the use of technology, reviews, trainings and town-hall meetings are not effective or are very less effective. Another issue that we come across includes immersiveness. It is the basic challenge that comes while using audio-video conferencing. Sometimes, we need to share presentations or draw a picture on the whiteboard, which is a challenge in audiovideo conferencing. Also, ease of use is very low. It also becomes like a project as we have to plan in advance, arrange for an IT manager so that everything works on time.

October 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

EVENT Report

Technology must to sustain

Dr SPS Bakshi Chairman & Managing Director, Engineering Projects India Limited

Historically, public sectors consume significant importance in the Indian economy in both preand post-Independence period. In the pre-Independence era, the public sector was confined primarily to few sectors, including railways, ports and ordinance factories etc. Post-Independence era was characterised by organising economy with a weak industrial base, regional imbalance and economic development, low-level saving, inadequate infrastructure facilities etc. In this scenario, the role of technology in various operations and processes of Indian public sectors is crucial to not only meet the organisations, but also to sustain in the competition. Innovation has become a global phenomenon, and investment and nurturing of R&D have become an absolute necessity for any country to be a global player or a market leader. In the absence of critical inputs, particularly technology, it becomes difficult for any entity to sustain in the phase of intense competition and meeting the objective of industrialisation. In order to have the competitive edge, some PSUs entered into strategic alliances. Moreover, in our business areas, we are mainly sustaining on the upgradation of technology and adopting the new technologies. It is true that once you adopt the technology, only then you can sustain in the market.

Need to strike balance in PSUs On the one hand, we have huge social responsibility, while on the other, we have to schedule our larger business interests also. Hence, balancing is becoming very tough. Our every action is judged meticulously and thoroughly. Today, our effort is towards globalisation. The world is becoming very small and technology is changing fast. However, the question remains â&#x20AC;&#x201D; are we really progressing? The whole world is marching towards development and forwardness. The Public Sector Undertakings have contributed tremendously towards the national growth and Karnataka has been a favourite place for Navratna PSUs. We have enough challenges covered with equal opportunity. The prime object of the PSU is to ensure the availability of goods and service to the general public at much competitive prices. Profit alone should not be our motto. PSUs are failing and corporate sector is flourishing. We are smart people cursed with too much of non-governance. Public sector has to seriously think about priority sector. Whatever we do today has to be remembered with gratitude by the upcoming generation. It is our prime responsibility to have sustainable development model and the ultimate aim is that elite PSU class would be reaching out to the last man of the society and uplift his morale.

T Ishwar Chairman, Karnataka State Forest Industries Corporation Limited

Supporting Digital India

Prem Narayan Director, Railway Stores, Ministry of Railways, Government of India

60 egov / egov.eletsonline.com / October 2015

As we all know that there are more than 250 central Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in the country and these were created to foster the technological and economical growth of the country, it was stipulated in the government procurement system that the public sector companies are to be encouraged to provide the subsets to the central government departments. After the liberalisation which took place in 1991, PSU companies also became competitive and a lot of technological innovation and development has happened across the country in the public sector companies. Among 250 Public Sector Undertakings, we have 11 PSUs of Indian Railways. All of those are performing well and a majority of those are the profit-making PSUs. We have also got central PSUs like BHEL and Steel Authority of India (SAIL) among others, which are encouraged by the Indian Railways to have business with us. Further, Indian Railways has switched over to the e-procurement system all across the network. Also, it is generating about `4,500 crore of out of scrap sale which is done through e-auction. We are very much into Digital India and look forward to the support from the industry to be a part of the Digital India Movement.

EVENT Report

Plan when in good health Instrumentation Limited is a company which has spent 50 years of its existence. It was created in 1964 and was an undisputed leader in control and instrumentation for about more than two decades. The only competitive advantage a company has, especially in public sector, is to change, learn, unlearn or learn, unlearn and change faster than the potential competitor. If you don’t change, you perish. So, change is the only thing which is constant. The best time for a company to plan its future is when it is doing well and not when it’s not doing well. You have to plan for the future when you are healthy or if you fail to plan , you are planning to fail. IL is supplying control and instrumentation systems for thermal, steel refineries, etc. MNCs became our competitors because the doors were open. However, we didn’t have what is required for a PSU if it is in manufacturing sector - strong foundation of technology. Even till today, we are struggling. The only thing that is happening in our country right now is that it is neither swimming nor sinking, it is floating. We are making all efforts not looking outside. The way forward is that you have to look for the opportunities that government has created for us like Make in India, Swachh Bharat and Digital India.

MP Eshwar Chairman & Managing Director, Instrumentation Limited, Kota

PSUs for Partnering Growth PSUs shaping economy of the country The growth of Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) can be broadly categorised into the pre and post Independence era; that is where the genesis of their start and their role in shaping the economy of the country lie. Prior to the Independence, there were not many entrepreneurial activities happening in the country. However, soon after Independence, the need was to put the country on the map of industrialisation and the road for speedy economic growth. After deciding the political and constitutional framework of the country, it was decided to build an economic model, which goes along with political framework.

MR Krishna Joint Secretary & Chief Vigilance Officer, Central Public Works Department, Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India

Also, the first Industrial Policy Resolution followed by the five-year plan concept adopted by the Government of India has mainly focussed on the public sector, and the objective was making the country self-reliant. Most of the major public companies were established in the first Five Year Plan, and till the time of Independence, we had about five public sector companies with an investment of about `29 crore in 1948. As on today, we have around 290 public sector functional units. Also, in 2010, there were about 247 PSUs functioning in the country with an investment of `5.8 lakh crore. So, this is a huge journey of PSUs in the country from a figure of 5 to 290.

Key speakers stand with their mementos at the end of the session - Technology Driving PSUs: The Way Forward

October 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

EVENT Report

PSU Awards 2015 Dr P Jayapal, Senior Executive Director, HUDCO receives award for its G2G project “Digitisation”.

Anant Garg, DGM (IT), Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., is awarded for its project “Saral Patra Vyavahar”.

Kaushik Chakrabarty, General Manager- Environment, Western Coalfields Ltd., gets award for Biological Reclamation of Mined out areas.

G Satheesh Reddy, Scientist at RCI, DRDO, Hyderabad, is being given award for IT Enablement of the Organisation through ERP.

C K Verma, ZM (DGM), Bank of Maharashtra, receives award for its “Financial Inclusion Initiative in Allotted Villages.”

Winners pose for a group photograph.

egov / egov.eletsonline.com / October 2015

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