egov April 2012

Shankar Aggarwal

Dr C Chandramouli

Additional Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Government of India

Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India

ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON E-governance ` 75 / US $10 / ISSN 0973-161X

April 2012 VOLUME 08 n ISSUE 04 n ISSN 0973-161X

Anil K Sinha Vice Chairman, Bihar State Disaster Management Authority, Government of Bihar

Biometrics Expanding Horizons

national population

register p09

Police Modernisation:

Projects

and Experiences

Ravi S Saxena Addl. Chief Secretary, Dept. of Science & Technology, Govt. of Gujarat

A R Talwar Principal Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Govt of Punjab

M N Vidyashankar Principal Secretary, IT, BT, S&T, and e-Governance Dept, Govt of Karnataka

Yudhvir Malik Principal Secretary, Dept. of Electronics & IT, Govt. of Haryana

Aman Kumar Singh Secretary (IT & BT), Govt. of Chattisgarh

Satendra Singh, Secretary, Excise & Prohibition Dept., Govt. of Jharkhand

p44

egov.eletsonline.com

Contents april 2012

second grid grid name issue 04 n volume 08

26 interview M N Vidyashankar

Principal Secretary, IT, BT, Karnataka

40 interview

Sudipta K Sen

Regional Director – SEA, CEO & MD – SAS Institute (India) Pvt Ltd

09 | cover story

43

An Ambitious Project Takes Shape Aimed at creating a database of every resident of the country, the Ministry of Home Affairs has embarked upon the ambitious project of preparing the National Population Register

10

21

Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India

Secretary of Excise and Prohibition additional charge of IG (Prisons), Jharkhand

interview Dr C Chandramouli

18

interview Aman Kumar Singh Secretary (IT & BT), Chattisgarh

interview Satendra Singh

22

interview Ravi S Saxena Additional Chief Secretary, DST, Gujarat

interview Lt. Gen PPS Bhandari (Retd.)

Group Director, Defence, Homeland Security, Marine Security, Rolta India Ltd

27

biometrics Expanding Horizons Analysing the wide array of areas where biometrics are deployed

41

defence focus DRDO Promoting Science and Technology Building an ecosystem to encourage innovation

44

tech focus Police Modernisation: Projects and Experiences Experts share their thoughts

20

interview A R Talwar Principal Secretary, DIT, Punjab

4

egov / egov.eletsonline.com / April 2012

23

interview Yudhvir Malik

further reading

Principal Secretary, Dept. of Electronics & IT, Haryana

Editorial 05

Exciting Times Ahead

W

e are witnessing the deployment of ICT on a truly massive scale in the country. The government has made large investments in a number of e-Governance projects. The National Population Register project, which would be the largest such exercise to be undertaken anywhere in the world is being handled by the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, who has also been designated as the Registrar of Citizens. In an exclusive interview, Dr C Chandramouli discusses features of the NPR project and also dispels some myths regarding apparent conflicts between the UID project and the NPR. This year’s Union Budget has also increased outlays on a number of e-Governance schemes. In addition, the Finance Minister has set himself a target of reforming the subsidy system of the country on the lines suggested by a task force headed by Nandan Nilekani. The roadmap for this envisages establishing an Aadhar-based backbone – an initiative that would further entrench e-Governance in the country and present exciting opportunities for ICT companies.

Police modernisation is another area which is seeing massive investments. The Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) project is expected to introduce huge synergies in the way police forces across the country operate. We present views from some leaders implementing police modernisation in a number of states.

The issue also contains interactions with a number of industry leaders on the applications of biometrics in different areas of governance. We also bring to you interviews with an unprecedented six state Secretaries, who discuss the e-Governance scenario and how their states are deploying biometrics.

For eight years now, egov has been in the forefront, highlighting e-Governance projects and the impact they have had on the ground. Continuing with this mission, we would be bringing to you three conferences covering all dimensions of e-Governance. The eMaharashtra Convention on April 27 at Mumbai would focus on e-Governance in Maharashtra while eWorld Forum on June 15 and 16 will put a global highlight on issues. India’s largest ICT event eINDIA will this year be held in the very cradle of Indian ICT industry – the picturesque Karnataka capital of Bengaluru on November 7-9. While we discuss issues of importance to e-Governance with thought leaders and domain experts at these conventions, we would also be honouring excellence and innovation through awards. All of us at egov and Elets Technomedia extend a warm invitation for you to come and join us at these conventions, and experience e-Governance first hand.

ravi guptA Ravi.Gupta@elets.in

From the history Email at subscription@elets.in to get previous issues

January 2012

February 2012

March 2012

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5

Index of People and Organisations Index of People A • A R Talwar, Principal Secretary, Department of Information Technology (PSIT), Govt of Punjab............................................. 20 • Adarsh Parekh, Partner, Lead - Identity Management Services, Accenture................................................................................. 31 • Alok Bharadwaj, Senior Vice President, Canon India........ 35 • Amarendra Khatua, Joint Secretary (PV), Ministry of External Affairs............................................................................................. 35 • Anil K Sinha, Vice Chairman, Bihar State Disaster Management Authority, Government of Bihar........................................ 14 • APS Bedi, Executive Vice President, HCL Infosystems...... 32

• Roy Mathew, Senior Vice President / Business Head – e-Governance, IL&FS ETS Ltd...................................................... 38 • Ruchin Kumar, Principal Solution Architect, India and SAARC, Safenet India Pvt Ltd....................................................... 51

S • S K Basu, Vice President, NIIT Technologies........................ 46

• Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of Haryana.........................................................23 - 24 • Department of Homeguard and Civil Defence, Maharashtra........................................................................................ 46 • Department of Information Technology, Govt of Punjab.20 • Department of Science & Technology, Government of Gujarat............................................................................................22-23

• S Suresh Kumar, Joint Secretary (Centre-State), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India........................................... 46

E

• Brij Mohan Mandala, Director, Avid Software Solutions (I) Pvt Ltd.................................................................................................. 37

• Sanjeev Mital, CEO, National Institute of Smart Governance (NISG), Government of India....................................................... 49

C

• Santosh Bhogle, State Nodal Officer-UIDAI, DIT, Government of Maharashtra........................................................................ 30

• Deepak Gulgulia, Executive Director, Spectra Technovision (India) Pvt Ltd.................................................................................... 37

D

• Digitals India Security Products Pvt Ltd................................. 36

• Sandeep Sehgal, VP, Public Sector, India & South Asia, IBM....................................................................................................... 54

D

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• S Reghunathan, Former Chief Secretary, Government of NCT of Delhi...................................................................................... 17

B

• C Chandramouli, Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India................................................................................10 – 12

• Satendra Singh, Secretary of Excise and Prohibition Department with additional charge of IG (Prisons), Government of Jharkhand ........................................................................................... 21

• DRDO.........................................................................................41-42 • Excise and Prohibition Department, Government of Jharkhand............................................................................................ 21

H • HCL Infosystems........................................................................... 32

I • IBM.................................................................................................... 50 • IL&FS ETS Ltd................................................................................ 38 • IT, BT, S&T, and e-Governance Dept, Govt of Karnataka. 26

• Shankar Aggarwal, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Government of India...................................................... 15

K

• Hemant Sharma, Vice- Chair, BSA India Committee........ 54

• Sharat Kaviraj, Deputy Commissioner of Police, West Jaipur, Rajasthan Police................................................................................. 47

M

• Hitesh Rajwanshi, Director & CEO, Digitals India Security Products Pvt Ltd................................................................................ 36

• Sreeni Tripuraneni, Chairman & CEO , 4G Identity Solutions....................................................................................................... 37

J

T

• Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India............. 34

• Jatin Desai, Product Engineer-Security Products, Matrix Comsec Pvt Ltd.................................................................................. 37

• Tanmoy Chakrabarty, Head, Government Industry Solutions, TCS............................................................................................ 34

• Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India................. 46

M

V

• M N Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary, IT, BT, S&T, and e-Governance Dept, Govt of Karnataka .................................... 26

• V S Prakash, Director, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, Karnataka...................................................... 49

• Manas Sarkar, Head Pre-Sales (India & SAARC), Trend Micro.................................................................................................... 51

• Vishu Sikka, (Retd) General Manager – Defence, Aerospace & Public Security SAP India & Subcontinent........................... 50

N

Y

• NSN Murty, General Manager, Smarter Planet Solutions – India/ South Asia, IBM.................................................................... 50

• Yudhvir Malik, Principal Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of Haryana.........................................................................................23-24

H

P • Prashant Deshpande, Manager Corporate, Bartronics India Ltd.......................................................................................................... 36 • Purushottam Sharma, IGP, State Crime Records Bureau, Madhya Pradesh................................................................................ 48

R • R Siva Kumar, Head, (NRDMS), Government of India..... 16 • R S Sharma, Director General & Mission Director, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)................................. 30 • Raj Prem Khilnani, DGP (Homeguard and Civil Defence), Maharashtra........................................................................................ 46 • Rajan Raj Pant, Controller, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of Nepal............................................................. 49 • Rajvir P Sharma, Additional Director General of Police, Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force............................................. 47 • Ranjan Dwivedi, IGP, UP Police................................................ 48 • Ravi Kumar Gupta, Scientist G & Director, Directorate of Public Interface, DRDO..........................................................41 - 42

6

• Ravi S Saxena,Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of Gujarat...............................22-23

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egov / egov.eletsonline.com / April 2012

• Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre......... 49 • Matrix Comsec Pvt Ltd................................................................ 37 • Ministry of Defence, Government of India........................... 15

• Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of Nepal..................................................................................................... 49

N • National Institute of Smart Governance (NISG), Government of India...................................................................................... 49 • NIIT Technologies......................................................................... 47 • NRDMS............................................................................................ 16 • NSDI.................................................................................................. 16

R • Rajasthan Police............................................................................. 47

Index of Organisations

• Rolta................................................................................................... 43

• 4G Identity Solutions.................................................................... 37

S

A

• Safenet India Pvt Ltd..................................................................... 51

• Accenture......................................................................................... 31

• SAP India & Subcontinent.......................................................... 50

• Avid Software Solutions (I) Pvt Ltd.......................................... 37

• SAS India.......................................................................................... 40

B

• Spectra Technovision(India) Pvt Ltd....................................... 37

• Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force......................................... 47

• State Crime Records Bureau, Madhya Pradesh.................... 48

• Bartronics India Ltd...................................................................... 36

T

• Bihar State Disaster Management Authority, Government of Bihar...................................................................................................... 14

• TCS.................................................................................................... 34

• BSA India Committee.................................................................. 54

U

C

• Trend Micro.................................................................................... 51 • UIDAI, DIT, Government of Maharashtra............................ 30

• Canon India.................................................................................... 35

• Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).............. 30

• Census of India............................................................................... 12

• UP Police.......................................................................................... 48

april 2012 issue 04 n volume 08

President: Dr M P Narayanan Editor-in-Chief: Dr Ravi Gupta GM Finance: Ajit Kumar DGM Strategy: Raghav Mittal Programme Specialist: Dr Rajeshree Dutta Kumar partnerships & Alliances Sheena Joseph, Shuchi Smita EDITORIAL Anand Agarwal, Divya Chawla, Dhirendra Pratap Singh, Pragya Gupta, Shally Makin (editorial@elets.in) Sales & marketing Delhi & NCR: Jyoti Lekhi, Ragini Shrivastav, Fahimul Haque, Rakesh Ranjan (sales@elets.in) Mumbai: Rachita Jha | Pune: Shankar Adaviyar Bangalore: Puneet Kathait | Hyderabad: Amit Kumar Pundhir | Ahmedabad: Sunil Kumar circulation & subscription Jagwant Kumar, Mobile: +91-8130296484; Gunjan Singh, Mobile: +91-8860635832 subscription@elets.in Design & Creatives: Bishwajeet Kumar Singh, Om Prakash Thakur, Shyam Kishore Web Ishvinder Singh, Anil Kumar Information management Gaurav Srivastava IT infrastructure Mukesh Sharma, Zuber Ahmed Events Vicky Kalra human resource management Sushma Juyal legal R P Verma accounts Anubhav Rana, Subhash Chandra Dimri Editorial & Marketing Correspondence egov – G-4 Sector 39, NOIDA–201 301, India Phone: +91-120-2502181-85 Fax: +91-120-2500060 Email: info@egovonline.net egov is published by Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd in technical collaboration with Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS).

Owner, Publisher, Printer: Ravi Gupta, Printed at Vinayak Print Media Pvt. Ltd, D-320, Sector-10, Noida, U.P. and published from 710 Vasto Mahagun Manor, F-30, Sector - 50 Noida, UP Editor: Ravi Gupta © All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic and mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage or retrieval system, without publisher’s permission.

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Scan this code with your smartphone to visit the mobile version of egov

The quality, additional bandwidth requirement, manageability, billing issues etc, make VoIP a far cry from the present circuit switched voice available in the PSTN and mobile telephony, 2G, 2.5G, and 3G. However, there are some media like IP networks, Internet, Wi-Fi, WiMAX (wireless broadband), two-way packet data cable networks, and in passive optical networks like FTTx, where VoIP is the only method for voice communications. Fortunately, interfaces exist that can enable communications between the TDM based PSTN network and the IP based VoIP networks, facilitating a two way exchange of communications between these two systems. The billing issues need to be sorted out. Despite deregulation in other countries, the total number of VoIP phone connections as of 2010 are estimated at 200 million in a total world phone population of 5 billion (4%). The only advantage is some service providers like Skype facilitate free calling and video calling between computers anywhere in the world. Calls may also be made from computer to any phone or cell phone in the world but these are charged for.

Pankaj Mitra on egov portal news item VoIP will be allowed under National Telecom Policy

It is a good initiative in view of supporting the latest technology adoption, but our government should be equipped to manage some challenges from the revenue and risk prospective. The government and concerned departments should have the capability to track & collect revenue accordingly at all levels. Otherwise this initiative would lead to loss of telecom

revenue. Till date overall 2G loss is not established and this has led to considerable controversy. Tracking of call locations, its conversation & content and secured communication is another challenge, which our Government Investigation departments should have access and secure as a priority. As a proud Indian citizen, I want my country should take steps towards economic growth and also ensure that security of communication is ensured and national security is not compromised.

Mahesh on egov portal news item VoIP will be allowed under National Telecom Policy

Social media today is set to drastically intensify the influence of resultant Information.

And the only way to make the resultant information more accurate & relevant is to encourage the participation of discussed related entity (may be any party/group/ organisation) as well as the viewers (readers/ analysers), The best about the social media is that it doesn’t secure the interest of any individual or a group by its nature, as all the participants are almost free to air their views.

The people who are not sinners should not be afraid of the independence of this system.

If they are afraid means they are sinners. The big responsibility lies with the social media to maintain the authenticity of the matter by protecting it from any kind of online frauds.

Pravin Kumar Maurya on egov March story Elections 2.0

Write in your reactions to eGov news, interviews, features and articles. You can either comment on the individual webpage of a story, or drop us a mail: editorial@elets.in

cover story

An Ambitious Project Takes Shape Aimed at creating a database of every resident of the country, the Ministry of Home Affairs has embarked upon the ambitious project of preparing the National Population Register Anand Agarwal, Elets News Network (ENN)

T

he Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India has another hat to wear.

A 2003 amendment to the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citzenship (registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules 2003 has designated him the Registrar General of Citizens Registration of India. In this capacity, he heads the ambitious National Population Register project whose objective is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country.

The biometric-based database would use Aadhar numbers to uniquely identify citizens and also record their demographic details (see box).

The fieldwork for collection of demographic particulars of residents has already been completed in consonance with the Census 2011.

Work will shortly start on collection of biometric details, for which all persons of age 5 and above will have to visit local camps to be set up for the purpose. It is a legal compulsion for all residents to provide their demographic and

Biometric Details • Photograph • Scan of all ten fingerprints • Scan of both Irises

Demographic Particulars • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Name of Person Relationship to head of household Father’s name Mother’s name Spouse’s name (if married) Sex Date of Birth Marital Status Place of Birth Nationality (as declared) Present address of usual residence Duration of stay at present address Permanent residential address Occupation/Activity Educational qualification

biometric details to the NPR project – a key distinguishing feature from the UIDAI project, where enrolment is voluntary.

All residents enrolled by NPR would also receive an Aadhar number, if the UIDAI has not already allotted them one. In this way, the Aadhar would form the bedrock on which the entire system of resident identification would come to be based eventually.

The NPR would also issue to each resident a photo smart card with an embedded chip that would carry the demographic and select biometric details. This would be the final step in a long process (see figure) where caution is being exercised in abundance so as to ensure that the

final record is free of spurious details and is a comprehensive record of residents.

Once the first phase of identification of residents and issuance of smart cards is completed, a mechanism for continuous updation of this essentially dynamic dataset would be put in place. Making extensive use of the connectivity backbone created under the different State Wide Area Networks, centres would be created at the Block (sub district) level to cater to requirements such as birth and deaths, alteration in name & address etc.

A lot of space has been devoted to the apparent conflict between the UIDAI and NPR projects, but as the Registrar General of India Dr C Chandramouli clarifies in this month’s cover interview, the objectives of the two schemes are different, and the biometric data would be common to both. At an estimated per capita cost of a mere $0.5 per resident, the NPR project could be one of the most important investments made in national security.

April 2012 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

9

in person

Dr C Chandramouli

Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India

“There is

actually no conflict between UID and NPR”

P Dr C Chandramouli, the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, has overseen one of the most dramatic improvements in the time taken for Census data to be published. An amendment to the Citizenship Act 1955 has now made him the Registrar General of Citizens Registration of India as well. In this capacity, he is heading the National Population Register project, aimed at creating a database of all residents of the country. In conversation with Anand Agarwal, he discusses the project, the controversy over NPR-UIDAI clash and dispels many myths on the alleged conflict

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egov / egov.eletsonline.com / April 2012

lease take us through the history of the National Population Register project.

The National Population Register (NPR) Project goes back to the Kargil days, when after the Kargil War, the committee headed by the late K Subrahmanyam flagged the need for colour-coded identity cards for citizens and non-citizens.

Rajasthan was the first state to attempt issuing ID cards for citizens, but in the absence of an enabling legal framework, the initiative could not achieve much success. Following this, the Citizenship Act 1955 was amended by Parliament in 2003 and provision to create a National Register of Citizens was inserted in the Act. Pilot projects for developing the Register were subsequently taken up and these went on till 2009.

During the Pilots, it was realised how difficult a task it was to authenticate or determine citizenship in rural areas, for women and among landless labourers, as these areas or groups often have no documents to prove date and place of birth, identity and residence.

A Committee of Secretaries was formed to discuss modalities to be followed for the National Population Register Project and its recommendations were referred to an empowered Group of Ministers (eGoM) for final decisions which laid down the roadmap for the NPR project.

What is the conflict between the Unique Identity Project and the NPR? There is actually no conflict between UID and NPR. The illusion of conflict has been created by misunderstanding about the objectives of the two projects.

in person

NPR is a project whose major objective is geared towards ensuring better national security by developing a mechanism for creating a register of residents, which would later on be used as a base for creating a register of citizens.

It follows a set of specific procedures in order to authenticate identity, place of residence before issuing a Resident Identity Card. The UIDs emphasis is on assigning a unique number so as to be able to correctly identify an individual.

This is the basic difference in project objectives of the two schemes.

But there has been some controversy regarding the two projects about identity...

In 2008-09, the Department of Information Technology, Government of India (now renamed the Department of Information Technology and Electronics), started a parallel project for Unique Identity, based on three existing databases – the database of Public Distribution System (PDS), that for Elector Photo Identity Cards (EPIC or Voter-ID cards, as is commonly known) and the database for Below Poverty Line (BPL) households.

The DIT pilot aimed at identifying people common to all three datasets and assigning them unique identities as the first step towards a national unique identity system.

The DIT project came into some conflict with the Multipurpose National Identity Card (MNIC) project of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the matter was referred to an eGoM. The eGom decided that the UID project would go ahead with the existing databases and would not undertake any field operation to create any new database.

For MNIC, it was decided to first create a database of all residents along with the Census 2011 and then use it to verify citizenship in a separate database. It was also resolved that the MNIC would be rolled out in phases. The Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) later changed the approach and decided to engage multiple registrars to collect biometric data required for the generation of the Unique Identity Number or Aadhaar. Under this new system, NPR became one of the registrars of the UIDAI. The government had initially put a cap of 10 crore enrolments to kickstart the UID project and it was thought that by the time this number was achieved, NPR would kick in.

The UID target was later raised to 20 crore upto March 31, 2012. The Union Cabinet has

NPR Process

House to house canvassing for NPR by Enumerators (45 days) Scanning

Image based Data Entry

Printing of LRUR

De-Duplication by UIDAI and Issue of Aadhaar

Biometric Capture in the presence of Government Servants

Publication in the local area and settlement of claims and objections vetting by local bodiesGram sabhas/Ward Committees Indentity (smart) Card (Proposed)

NPR Central Database

Image courtesy: Office of Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India

now taken the view that the NPR and UID projects have separate purposes. The UIDAI has been asked to enrol 40 crore additional residents in specific states while NPR will cover all of India. Thus, UIDAI would be enrolling 60 crore residents in all.

So what is the mechanism for enrolment of a resident in the NPR Database?

The first step – creating a database of all residents was completed along with the 2011 Census. The enumerators carried NPR schedules that collected data which was then signed by a member of the household, the enumerator, and a supervisor.

When an individual visits the NPR enrolment camp, he/she would be asked for the acknowledgement slip that the enumerator would have given after collecting data for the NPR during the Census. Biometrics would be collected only after this slip is produced.

It would also be checked if they have already enrolled for the Aadhar number. If yes, then the number is noted down and the biometrics would be sourced from the UIDAI. After this the NPR enrolment proceeds. In case the individual has not been covered under the Aadhaar, biometrics of the individual are collected and Aadhar number generated through the NPR process for the individual.

After this, locality wise lists would be published and objections would be invited. The lists would be treated as final only after the Local Ward Committee or the Gram Sabha passes a resolution saying that the NPR list is an authentic and inclusive record of all residents of that locality.

There has been some criticism regarding the slow pace of work on the NPR project...

The NPR is slow because we have to follow a laid down procedure for authenticating resiApril 2012 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

11

in person

would be issued. In this way, every care is being taken to ensure that only bona fide residents are given the resident identity cards. This is obviously a time consuming process.

Under the amendment, the Registrar General of India has been designated as the Registrar of Citizens as well.

What is the budget for the NPR project?

What are the next steps, once the database is developed and residents enrolled?

The estimated cost of the project is INR 6,600 crore or roughly $0.5 per capita – one of the cheapest in the world.

Once the database is created, the Government is considering a proposal to issue identity cards to residents. After this, would be the task of keeping the database updated, which would be another major challenge. The maintenance and updating mechanism would make extensive use of State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) – every tehsil would have NPR centres to give services such

What are the features of the Resident Identity Card that would be provided under the NPR? The card contains the Aadhar number, photograph of the card holder and their biometric details on a chip. A handheld device can be used to quickly authenticate a person’s identity status off-line. This process requires no con-

“The estimated cost of

the project is INR 6,600 crore or roughly $0.5 per capita” dents. NPR is legally mandated to cover every resident and the residence status has to be reliably authenticated.

We give each individual three opportunities to enrol. In the first step, camps are set up in communities/localities, etc. Residents can visit these local camps with required documents and get recorded for the NPR. If someone misses the local camp, they are asked to come to another camp in the same area, and if even this chance is missed, the individual is asked to visit the nearest Tehsil or town office in order to be enrolled with the NPR. The UID does not need to follow such an elaborate process; neither does it have any obligation to ensure total coverage. It can thus be rolled out more quickly. Following the enrolment of residents for the NPR, the data is published in local communities and objections to specific names are invited. The local ward committee or the Gram Sabha has to certify each list published for their locality as correct in totality before the cards

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getting personal QUALIFICATIONs PhD (Public Finance) MA (Intl. Politics) BA (Economics) IAS 1985 Batch Tamil Nadu Cadre Important Positions (TN) Director of Census Operations

• Secretary (IT)

• Commissioner (Tourism)

• Secretary (Personnel & Administrative Reforms)

• Secretary (Planning) Awards Honoured with President of India’s Silver Medal

as change of name, change of address, birth, death etc. Proposals for establishment of such centres would be put up to the government in due course.

What in your view are the most important challenges involved in the project?

The biggest challenge was of course covering the entire population to build a database of residents. This has already been done along with the 2011 Census where the entire population of the country has been enumerated. Therefore, we already have a locality-wise list of people. Biometrics-based de-duplication would clean up the data. By March 2013, we hope to cover 50 crore people and the remaining thereafter by 2014.

What is the statutory backing for the NPR Project?

The NPR project derives its statutory mandate from the Citizenship Act 1955 and Rules therein, as amended in 2003.

nectivity and entails little or no computing or network costs for verification of identity.

A large number of e-Governance initiatives can be built around this platform.

The card would be an enabler, just like an ATM card allows you to access money, this card could allow citizens to access e-Government schemes and services after proper authentication of identity. Services offered by different ministries could be integrated on a common platform with the card as the common access key.

Aadhar is going to be the unique identifier across all datasets.

How would the security of biometric data collected under the NPR project be ensured?

All the biometric and biographic data would be stored in secure data repositories to be set up by National Informatics Centre (NIC). All measures will be taken to ensure cyber security of the highest order.

disaster Management

Effective Management of Disasters and the Role of ICT Understanding of disasters has moved from mere post-disaster relief disaster risk reduction. ICT is playing an important role in spreading awareness and building readiness Anil K Sinha, Vice Chairman, Bihar State Disaster Management Authority

H

aving been involved in disaster management for last 15 years, I feel that the two fields of Disaster Management and ICT, are inextricably linked. The business of disaster management is very serious, and the understanding has evolved a lot over time.

Whereas earlier most of the thinking was oriented towards post-disaster activities and oriented towards relief, the understanding has evolved and expanded over time and from relief, we have moved to both pre- and postdisaster aspects.

Earlier, disasters used to be viewed from the point of view of natural disasters only, but the definition given under the disaster management Act of 2005 has expanded the definition’s scope to a very wide range of situations. As already stated, earlier, disasters were looked only in terms of relief – post disaster, and there was less focus on pre-disaster activities, and that too only on natural disasters. But the focus has now moved to include pre-disaster activities as well, and also on man-made disasters. So the field of disaster management has expanded in scope.

Disaster management is a very challenging area and the nation even today is not fully prepared to deal with such situations in a comprehensive manner. Emerging threats

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such as cyber warfare, cyber crimes and other types of manmade disasters add a completely new paradigm to the problems associated with disaster management.

ICT has really exploded in present times and deployment of modern technologies should make it possible to create some sort of a virtual world of data that enables connecting different things in any big event and to take actions in terms of readiness, prevention, mitigation and management etc.

BSDMA Activities The Bihar state Disaster Management Authority (BSDMA) was established under provisions of the National Disaster Management

Act 2005. The hon’ble Chief Minister is the Chairperson of the BSDMA. In the districts, the erstwhile District Relief Committees have been reconstituted as District disaster Management Authorities and their mandate has been expanded to cover all incidents that come under the category of disasters as defined by the Disaster Management Act. In addition, the composition of the DDMAs has also been radically altered and much broader representation from government agencies, institutions and common public has been ensured, as opposed to the earlier District Relief Committees that used to be dominated by government officials from some select departments.

Set up in 2007, the BSDMA became operational in 2010 and presently, the organization is focusing on two major areas – public awareness and capacity building.

Public awareness is the very first step in disaster risk reduction. The approach has changed from relief to disaster management and now to disaster risk reduction. It lays emphasis on prior identification of risks and then taking steps to adequately prepare to address these risks With the objective of spreading awareness about disasters and how to act in times of a disaster, BSDMA has started observing Earthquake Safety Week in January and Flood Safety Week in June. As part of these activities, we take up a number of awareness building exercises among the common people as well as among government officials and the response has been very encouraging.

Using photos from 1934 earthquake, we have come out with a desk calendar and hope to spread awareness regarding earthquake. Backpage of each month contains a factsheet on earthquake that acts as a ready recokner.

BSDMA is also going to launch a campaign on road safety which kills more people than all disasters combined, and is covered under the definition of disasters as per the NDMA Act. Road deaths seem to go unnoticed as they occur in ones and twos, and we need to pay more attention to road safety and this country needs to something about this.

ICT can be deployed for all of these activities to act as a force multiplier and help expand the reach of our initiatives. In addition, ICT solutions are being extensively deployed to improve operational planning to respond to disasters.

ict in defence

Better Defence Management through ICT The country’s defence establishment can make massive improvements in almost all areas of its functioning if it could deploy ICT solutions in an effective manner Shankar Aggarwal, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Government of India

A

t the time of Independence, ensuring security of the country was the foremost challenge before us. This challenge was compounded by a volatile neighbourhood and our forces and civilians stood together and we have been able to ensure national security to a large extent, against all odds. Today after almost 65 years of independence we have not only kept the country united, we are now a force to reckon in the entire world.

Security of the country involves two aspects – preventive and curative. And in both these aspects one feels ICT can be deployed to our advantage. For example, take the curative side. When the country is at war, we have to

ensure that all information is made available to each and every person who could make use

“The future of warfare is increasingly moving to electronics and the personnel fighting these wars would need to be comfortable in using technology”

of that information to advance our strategic objectives. It is imperative that the soldier on the battlefield receives authentic information in a reliable, secure and timely manner.

Secondly, we also need to have seamless integration of information as well. Earlier we were basically dependent on one wing of the force – for coastal security the Navy was deemed responsible, and for territorial security- the Army. However, the situation is not the same anymore. In present times, if one has to decimate the enemy, all arms of the forces need to collaborate and work together to ensure integrated functioning. There has to be a very high level of integration in the activities of all wings of the armed forces and this is also a huge task.

Coming to the preventive side, we have to invest a lot in developing large scale surveillance capabilities. This requires a lot of integration, sharing of information among the armed forces and also among the different intelligence agencies. This in turn requires a lot of discipline in terms of standardisation. It requires new systems that can ensure seamless sharing of information in a secure manner.

Overall, we need to build our capacities in the field of ICT. The future of warfare is increasingly moving to electronics and the personnel fighing these wars would need to be comfortable in using technology effectively if we are to prevail in these wars. We have to build enough capacity and impart the necessary ICT skills to our personnel.

ICT can also be used to make a major difference in the way the defence establishment handles its personnel-related issues such as human resource issues. In this area, the lack of transparency is a major grievance of the personnel. With infusion of technology in the HR department, significant qualitative improvement can be brought about.

The defence establishment procures goods such as uniforms, shoes, belts, provisions etc on a truly massive scale. If we could move to a system of e-procurement, we could bring in a lot more efficiency and accountability and certainly cut on costs also.

Similarly, ICT could make a significant impact in the way the defence establishment manages its finances. We deal with almost 2 million personnel and if we had to take care of them we had to have our account in perfect condition and that will be possible only with the introduction of ICT. April 2012 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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open data

Open Data Policy for Empowering Citizens The government is in the process of adopting open data policies that would enable publishing of a large volume of data on a dedicated portal, but there is a need for effective tools to make use of this data Major General (Dr) R Siva Kumar, CEO, NSDI & Head, NRDMS, Government of India

T

he Government of India has issued a draft Policy on National Data Sharing and Accessibility. Once implemented, the Policy would open numerous for using the data collected from public funds. It is somewhat different to RTI mechanism in the sense that in RTI one has to ask for the data whereas under the new policy the government would proactively display and disseminate the data on a portal being specially being created for this purpose – data.gov.in. There will be some data which would not be disclosed but at a lot of data would be made available under three categories - open access where data would be available to all; another category would

“The government would proactively display and disseminate the data on a portal being specially being created for this purpose – data.gov.in”

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be where data would be available postregistration where one would need to disclose identity and authentication. Finally, a third category would make data available only to a restricted category of users to protect the IPR, commercial and pricing issues.

The proposed policy is opening up new challenges in terms of determining the ways in which this vast volume of data would be utilised. Whereas the government is trying to develop the requisite tools and technologies even for online analytical processing capabilities, one needs to make sure that the data is not misused.

Another important initiative to be shortly unveiled is the publication of all map data in form of web map services. Today the geospatial data of Survey of India is available through the India Geoportal as an open web service. This would be combined with the Bhuvan system which provides data up to one meter resolution.

The government would also shortly provide data from the geographical field, forestry and other geospatial and non spatial data producing organisations.

Once the data is made available, it would be utilised in a number of ways, for example in disaster management. Ultimately, the people should be empowered. In case of a flood, for example, one need not look up to the administration or someone else to come to the rescue you. A common citizen should be able to ascertain on her own when a flood is likely to strike, and whether or not her house would be affected. This would be possible only if the data is made available in a form that can used easily.

There is also a need to develop simple tools to allow for manipulation and analysis of the data. The country at present lacks operational system that can perform such functions in an intuitive manner, other than perhaps one or two. Once such huge volume of data becomes available, stakeholders would need to come together to develop systems.

The government, industry and academia need to work together for realizing the true potential offered by open data. The tools must enable effective utilization of data, but at the same time should also ensure against malicious use of the data. Care must be taken to ensure adequate security of systems so that unauthorized access or malicious use of data is not possible.

Information Security

Information and Network Security: Important Issues As ICT becomes increasingly integrated with day-to-day life, there is an urgent need for a specialist organisation to identify and address vulnerabilities S Reghunathan, Former Chief Secretary, Government of NCT of Delhi

A

s the Internet and the World Wide Web become more and more ubiquitous, concerns related to privacy and security would increasingly assume centrestage. In the physical world, events are somehow attributed to divine powers and super powers. Activities of individuals are, to a large extent, modulated and controlled by religions and organisations.

Larger organisations even wield influence over national policies. In the physical world, we have well-defined structures of control, but the virtual universe that is springing up at such a rapid rate still lacks that structure. This is a major issue as there is no organisation that really controls the virtual world. This is a great threat because today IT infrastructure can be

very effectively used to disturb all the physical features, physical universe which is becoming increasingly dependent on the cyber world.

“Just like in religions where interdependence is absolutely established and one cannot live without another, in the cyber space also interdependence is going up every day�

Cases of cyber attack or cyber threats are becoming increasingly common nowadays.

Our important assets such as power plants, power distribution lines, cyber networks etc., which are now distributed between the public and private sector, are all critically reliant on ICT. Just like in religions where interdependence is absolutely established and one cannot live without another, in the cyber space also interdependence is going up every day. Therefore there is absolute necessity for the public and private sectors to coordinate and collaborate to work together, especially when issues related to security come up. There are organisations working on aspects of cyber security, but there is the need for an organisation that can focus on all major issues related to the cyber world in a comprehensive manner.

One feels that the private organisations are not making requisite investments into securityrelate aspects of critical networks. A specialised organisation that can identify vulnerabilities and ensure that critical network and infrastructure is secured is badly needed today.

In order to be effective, such an organisation would need participation from all stakeholders and not just the government. It would be virtually impossible to ensure high-level security for the entire network, and therefore the need is to identify those critical components of the network that must be guarded against breach. As we go on deepening and widening our networks down to the level of Gram Panchayats, the amount of critical infrastructure that is coming up and the complexity of the security need is huge. This challenge can be met only if all interested parties come together and pool their resources and expertise towards a common end.

Finally, there is also the need for a framework governing the use of networks during times of national emergencies and disasters.

Many public and private organisations have fibre that can be utilised in times of emergency so as to mitigate the sudden load on the common communications networks. However, there is as of now, law that can authorise the use of such networks during times of crisis. It is imperative that such a framework also be put in place.

While the Information Revolution has given rise to unprecedented opportunities and has ushered in massive change, it is imperative that the threats to and from ICT and networks are also recognised and steps taken to address the same on a priority basis.

April 2012 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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IN PERSON

biometrics

Aman Kumar Singh

Secretary (IT & BT), Chattisgarh, in an exclusive interview with egov

“Biometric identification is here to stay” attracting knowledge based industries through extended support to IT/ITeS industries.

How do you rate the state’s response to e-Governance?

W

hat initiatives is the Department taking to foster growth of IT industry in the state?

Chhattisgarh recognises the importance of Information and Communication Technology as a key enabler in economic development.

We are trying to improve the society at large through good governance. In present scenario, e-Governance platform will be most important enabler for improving governance through a process of continuous self-appraisal. It would also be the best means to take government to the last mile. IT department through the nodal agency CHiPS is implementing it’s roadmap for e-Governance in the state. We are trying to develop an environment conducive for

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The state’s e-Governance journey started in 2002-03 and in the last 10 years the state has come a long way in terms of acceptability and maturity of the end users for the various eGov initiatives taken by the departments. Almost every department is using ICT in one form or the other. Examples are CHOiCE project, PDS, eProcurement, GIS and CG-SWAN, all of which are functional and are being used across the state. These projects have also been appreciated at the National Level in various forums.

How is the Department contributing towards the modernisation of police forces?

Chhattisgarh has started the implementation of the Mission Mode CCTNS project. Before the conceptualization of the CIPA and CCIS project the predecessors of CCTNS, Chhattisgarh Police started using ICT for Automatic Finger Print Identification System (AFIS) and some citizen centric modules through CHOiCE project which is a flagship project of IT department & CHiPS. The IT department has always extended its’ full support to Police, presently IT department is working with Police on CCTNS, Dial 100 and Command Control Room projects.

What systems are best suited for biometric identification?

Experts believe that biometric identification technology is here to stay for a long time to come.

Whether it’s for time and attendance/workforce

management, healthcare, banking, membership management, public safety or point of sale, biometrics continues to gain popularity. While picking up a biometric identification system, you need to consider the nature of your work and the sensitivity or value of the data and products that it contains. Understanding your security risks will largely determine the type of system you decide on and what is needed to implement it. Consideration is given on the Performance, Acceptability, Circumvention, Robustness, Population coverage, Size, Identity theft deterrence in selecting a particular biometric solution.

Are biometrics more secure than other systems of verification?

Biometrics is the only identification technology that can verify with near absolute certainty the identity of an individual. Biometric authentication strives to make systems more secure. They eliminate the risks that come with using password, PIN’s and other normal authentication methods.

How can biometrics be used for investigations by the police?

Chhattisgarh Police has started using ICT for Automatic Finger Print Identification System (AFIS) and some citizen centric modules through CHOiCE project which is a flagship project of IT department & CHiPS. Making best use of biometrics will also involve relationships outside of the Police Service. However, the Police Service cannot rely solely on the commercial sector to meet all their needs. A detailed roadmap for Biometrics in Policing needs to be worked out. In Chattisgarh, Biometrics Technology for Person Identification within the Police Service is being discussed with the Police Department.

IN PERSON

Biometrics

A R Talwar

Principal Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Punjab

“Punjab has taken lot of

e-governance initiatives�

T

ell us about the e-Governance initiatives that have been undertaken in Punjab.

In last few years IT department in Punjab has taken lot of e-governance initiatives by implementing certain core infrastructure projects.

For providing public services in electronic mode, we have setup Punjab State Wide Area Network (PAWAN) to provide connectivity for data, audio and video till block-level. In addition to this State has plans to provide horizontal

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connectivity to all offices up-to block-level in next 3-5 years. A state-of-the-art State Data Centre (SDC) is coming-up in Ajitgarh. The Data Centre with 4000 sq.ft. area will host IT infrastructure for various e-Governance applications being implemented in future.

To provide front-end services the State has set-up 95 Suwidha Centres, which are equipped with latest hardware, software and trained manpower. These centres provide single window services for various citizen services. To facilitate our rural population, State is in process of setting-up Gram Suwidha Centres. These centers are being setup with Public Private Partnership model and will act as front-end to provide G2C services.

State is already in the process of automating backend operations to provide public services in the time bound manner. For this, e-District project has gone live in two pilot districts of Nawanshahr and Kapurthala. In next 4-5 years the remaining districts of State will be covered to complete backend operations of various departments for providing 47 services to citizens in electronic mode.

What kind of systems do you think are best suited for biometric identification?

UIDAI (Unique IDentification Authority of India) has captured biometric data of one crore plus citizens in last one year in the State of Punjab. The big challenge for us is to make all the applications being used for e-Governance UIDAI compliant during the next 3 to 5 years.

Care has to be taken to make the new softwares being developed to include authentication facilities for verification of citizens’ data to ensure that the benefits reach to genuine beneficiaries.

Do you think biometric solutions are more secure than other physical and identity card based systems of verification?

Going by trends across the world, biometric systems are the latest and provide foolproof security features as compared to other physical and identity card based systems of verification.

However, it will remain a challenge to use these systems in a simplified manner with reasonable cost of their maintenance.

How is the department of IT contributing towards the modernisation of police forces?

The Department of Information Technology is supporting the State Police department in implementing Crime Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS) in the entire State till police station level. However, the challenge for Police department in coming years will be to equip themselves to handle cyber crime, cyber related frauds and cyber attacks on Police and Intelligence networks.

What kind of experience and sensibilities must an IT secretary bring to his job?

An IT secretary can help the State to visualise potential areas where e-Governance can help in bringing transparency in government functioning and reducing corruption to help citizens meet their expectations from government. With wide administrative exposure to various government departments, an IT secretary may be a guiding force in implementing end-to-end service delivery solutions and creating IT infrastructure and service delivery platform for the State.

Biometrics

IN PERSON

Satendra Singh

Secretary of Excise and Prohibition Department with additional charge of IG (Prisons), Government of Jharkhand

“Biometrics

can be helpful in crime detection” What new initiatives are planning to improve efficiency & transparency through deployment of IT solutions?

T

ell us about your vision for the state’s department of Excise and Prohibition.

Excise and prohibition department is a regulatory department. Main function of the department is to control trade in liquor and other intoxicants in the state and to earn revenue for the state exchequer. This control is exercised through issuance of various permits and licences by the excise officials at the field level and at the headquarters.

21

IT intervention is a must in regulatory departments because every new step has to be performed through a system of predefined rules.

The roles of the official are also predefined.

Unfortunately, excise department has been the least automated department among regulatory revenue earning departments across states.

In the state of Jharkhand, excise department has decided to automate its functioning. IT solution for the department will encompass complete automation of its functioning. Permit and licences will be issued online through a web based system. This will improve delivery of service and effective and easy monitoring of every action of its officials. Integrating this system with data provided by manufacturer and distributor will prevent leakage of revenue.

Do you think the usage of biometric systems can lead to better security in our jails?

I am certainly of that view. Biometric systems not only improve security, they can also be helpful in crime prevention and in crime detection. When biometrics of criminals is stored, they can be tracked more easily by enforcement agencies around the country.

How would you rate the state’s response to e-governance?

State has been at the forefront of initiating e-governance projects despite many handicaps.

Improvement in the efficiency of government

functions and better delivery of service to citizens has started having impact now. There are some challenges also that we are trying to overcome. Two of the major challenges are linked to the status of basic telecommunication/IT infrastructure and capacity building of all the stakeholders in our e-Governance projects.

What kind of systems do you think are best suited for biometric identification in jails and also for various aspects related to the excise department?

IT solution for jail has two major component PMS (Prisoner Management System) and VMS (Visitor Management System). In both the systems identity of the subject (prisoner and visitor) is very important for identification and tracking for crime prevention. The excise department identification of permit and licence issuing authority for authorisation in the automated system could also be done through the deployment of biometric systems.

Should more biometric solutions be made available to our police forces for quick and accurate processing of individuals and detection of suspects?

Introduction of PMS and VMS has led to creation of a database, the need of the hour is to make this database web-based and make it available online. Effective use of this data base will require efficient tools and solutions for biometrics capturing and processing. As systems go online, the different department across the country will be able to access the biometric data and keep tab on criminal elements.

April 2012 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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IN PERSON

Biometrics

“Biometric is

one of the oldest

identification technologies” ing to achieve the above goals is also a part of the NEGP. We are planning an IT Investment Region (ITIR), and developing a new policy for setting up the Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMCs), following the policies declared by the Government of India.

How would you rate Gujarat’s response to e-Governance?

Ravi S Saxena

Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of Gujarat, in an exclusive interview with egov

T

ell us about your vision for the state’s IT department.

Gujarat State’s IT department has to eventually become the anchor department for change management.

It is because the entire document management, workflow as well as delivery of services to citizens have to be done electronically by each department. The business process re-engineer-

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Gujarat has always been at the forefront in e-Governance. We set up Gujarat State Wide Area Network (GSWAN) way back in 2001. Today this is the only end to end IP-based network across the state and the largest in this part of the country. It covers almost 35000 nodes. We have almost 50,000 mail addresses on our Exchange Server in the active directory format. All districts and talukas in Gujarat are covered vertically and horizontally with the same network. The state has a robust State Data Centre. Then there is eGram, a VSAT network that covers all villages of Gujarat through broadband and makes it easier for state government to provide e-Governance solutions to the citizens. The state is in the process of setting up SSDG and MSDG. Almost every state government’s department has been advised to deploy ERP kind of applications with GIS basis because we are very strong in GIS. In fact the Gujarat State Geospatial Data Infrastructure has been appreciated at all levels and even by the Planning Commission of India.

In today’s scenario where there is a big boom in IT, what are the main challenges being faced by the officials in the position of IT secretary?

The major challenge before the IT Secretary in any state is to transfer knowledge and information to other departments about the latest developments in the field of Information Technology, particularly with relevance to e-Governance. Apart from information, it is also the responsibility of IT secretary to have a unified database, accessible through a common robust infrastructure, which is functioning round-theclock without problem. We have, in Gujarat, evolved a structure of policies which has come a long way to help us in taking the integrated vision of deployment of e-Governance in the State Government. This is achieved by way of setting up IT committees in each department that in turn are closely monitored by the IT department.

Many government departments and schemes have started using biometrics for identification of beneficiaries and users. What kind of systems do you think are best suited for biometric identification?

Biometric is one of the oldest identification technologies existing in the country. Indians have been authenticating documents ink and thumbprint for a long time. However, with the advancement in technology, the ink is replaced by electronic and optical identifiers.

We have found that when it comes to ensuring end to end delivery of benefits with transparency, Biometrics Identification and Integrated

Biometrics

Applications works well. Gujarat has experimented with Biometric Identification system in various applications like Public Distribution System, gArvi – vehicle registration system, eDhara – Land Records, Student teacher attendance, City Survey and many more. We are even planning to have it integrated with our Home Department Security Application.

IN PERSON

IT secretary should neither be

techno-phobic nor try to

be technology agnostic

Do you think biometric systems are more secure than other physical and identity card based systems of verification?

Physical and identity card based systems of verification are very primary level technologies. These days, barcodes and QR codes are becoming common in all sectors including retail. However, biometric system is are much more secure. They provide a better system of identification. UIDAI is a good example of an initiative that utilises Biometric Technologies in the best possible way. Once we are in a position to make our applications UIDAI-compliant, we will be in a better position to understand the challenges and advantages.

Should more biometric solutions be made available to our police forces for quick and accurate processing of individuals and detection of suspects?

Biometric has Physiological and Behavioural Technology Aspects. Both have many dimensions of individual identification per se. Forensics laboratories are already utilising these solutions but simple applications integrated with devices which can provide intelligence to conventional way of detecting the suspects should be available to crime detection forces in critical and sensitive regions of the country.

Tell us about the State Data Centres that have already been built in your state or are in the process of being built.

Gujarat is the first state to go for a State Data Centre project in 2008 along with 3 mini data centre setups. Gujarat SDC is based on a best of breed solution, which makes up the core compute, storage, security, management infrastructure with consolidation and optimisation as a major part of operations maintaining 99.991 percent average uptime. Today these data centres act as a convergence point between open unsecured domain and sensitive government environment. Moreover, they enable departments to host their services/applications on a common infrastructure which ensures efficient management and optimum resources utilisation.

These days we are having the issue of malicious content on the Internet. In your opinion what are the best ways of tackling this problem?

Cyber attacks and malicious content are the big challenge areas when it comes to security of Sensitive Government Data. CERT-in reported that more than 1400 Indian Websites were defaced and nearly 300 websites were compromised with malicious content during January 2012. Proactive measures, preventive Mechanism, Quick Response Features with Internet Facility Policy should be deployed along with latest OS/Network patch updates for tackling these problems caused by intruders. Moreover, it is advisable to have State Web Cell for centralised monitoring of the web content and security measures.

Yudhvir Malik

Principal Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of Haryana

T

ell us about the new initiatives that your department is taking to foster the growth of IT industry in Haryana.

Gurgaon is already a well established hub of the IT industry in the country. After taking industry input, we have recently revised our industrial policy and made several special provisions to promote IT and IT enabled services industry. We are currently engaged with NASSCOM to take the next step forward and look at the feasibility of expanding the outreach of IT industry at locations beyond Gurgaon.

As regards the IT Education is concerned, the Education Department in setting up computer labs in all the 64 Govt. Colleges and more than April 2012 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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IN PERSON

Biometrics

2600 selected Schools. The Education Department also agreed to train the young boys and girls in the schools in use of Open Source Software. This is the single largest impact area as far as the IT Education is concerned.

Some of the initiatives that we are working on are:1. establishing a private cloud in our State Data Center while we explore the possibilities of leveraging other government-owned public cloud infrastructure; 2. establishing an e-Governance Integration Platform; 3. creating an Information Security Management Office; 4. creating a Citizen-centric Services Delivery Organisation that all our departments can leverage and present a unified and friendly facet to our citizens.

What are the main challenges being faced by the officials in the position of IT Secretary?

The first and foremost challenge for any IT Secretary is to meet the gap between expectations and capacity. Even when we outsource a bulk of our projects, the skill sets required to manage complex projects is a critical need that we will need on a continuing basis. Not all of it can be given out to external consultants; certainly not forever. So we need a sustainable mix of external input and internal capacity building. This is not an easy task, given the current constraints of government HR management. Nearly every other challenge can be managed better, if we have the right amount of the right talent.

Many government departments and schemes have started using biometrics for identification of beneficiaries and users. What kind of systems do you think are best suited for biometric identification?

In Haryana, biometrics is one of the methods available for dependable identification. Recent guidelines issued in the context of the use of Aadhaar as Proof of Identity and Proof of Address reflects our thinking in this matter.

We feel that ease of use is a very important consideration to ensure widespread adoption and hassle-free services delivery. Any system that is intrusive or time-consuming is unsuitable.

This means that at this time, we can only use single finger scans and facial photograph-based

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manual matching for biometric identification.

In the future, increased technology adoption as well as industry’s R&D efforts could make other options as acceptable.

Are people in the state expressing satisfaction with the quality of e-Governance services that they are having access to?

The people of Haryana are among the most rights-aware and politically active people you will find in the country. As a result, we do get encouraging response to any initiative that impacts them positively. As a matter of fact, there has always been a gap between what we deliver and their expectations.

Do you think biometric systems are more secure than other physical and identity card based systems of verification?

Biometric systems are definitely more dependable (for identification) than other forms. These systems can co-exist with identity card systems (e.g., Smart Cards) – to that extent they are not mutually exclusive. The key differentiator here is the vastly increased certainty with which iden-

would be to build the next generation of specialized crime and criminal databases that will address a vast majority of the police needs.

Please tell us about the State Data Centres that have already been built in your state or are in the process of being built.

So far, we have been using the NIC-HSU Data Centre. It is still operational for a good many of our projects. The State Data Centre is also ready. It is a 4000 sqft Data Centre built as per the NeGP & DIT guidelines. We are strongly encouraging all departments and projects to use this facility instead of building their own.

The Commercial Taxes, the PDS as well as the Transport Department projects will be among the first big users of this facility.

In your opinion what kind of experiences and sensibilities as an administrator, must an IT Secretary bring to his job?

The IT department is not very different from other departments in the sense that an IT secretary should have the “domain knowledge” or the aptitude to gain it on the job. The big difference

“The first and foremost

challenge for any IT Secretary is to meet the gap between

expectations and capacity” tity can be verified; not increased or decreased security. Biometrics as well as non-biometrics systems will both need adequate measures to ensure security.

Should more biometric solutions be made available to our police forces for quick and accurate processing of individuals and detection of suspects?

Yes, given the importance of biometrics in forensics, it is important to make biometrics solutions available to the police forces. Of course, this does not mean that the police can or will treat every citizen as a suspect. Even with current advances of biometric technologies, it is most inefficient to do population-wide bruteforce biometrics searches. So the emphasis

though is that the technologies evolve much more rapidly than other areas. This means that the IT secretary must be willing to work in a dynamically changing environment, with more uncertainty than is usual. With IT, the balance between being a pioneer (with the attendant risks) and taking a well-trodden path is far more delicate one. A certain amount of willingness to try new ideas – perhaps in a controlled risk environment is a necessity if one wants to take lead. Whereas in other departments, it may be alright to take a fail-safe approach every single time, with the IT department, for certain projects it may be necessary to adopt a safe-tofail approach; i.e., acknowledging and accepting that failure may be one of the outcomes and managing the risk accordingly. For this, it is important for an IT secretary to neither be techno-phobic nor try to be technology agnostic.

special feature

trend micro

Securing Industrial Automation T

he Industrial Automation is a key enabler of the manufacturing sector.

The traditional physical security in manufacturing consists of fences, security guards and barriers protect the physical environment and the approach of physically isolating the industrial automation network from the corporate network is no longer viable. With the merger of the Enterprise Network and the Industrial automation net-work to bring about efficiency and speed a single firewall used to isolate the networks is not adequate. A multi- layered approach to securing industrial automation is needed today.

With wireless, Scada, Industrial LANS, RFID and similar technology deployed in the hop floor and the traditional barriers between industrial networks and corporate networks are diminishing; today the automated system can be monitored from a smart phone anywhere in the world.

With a connected world the Industrial Automation systems are vulnerable to all types of attacks and hackers and could be sitting ducks to cyber attacks.

SCADA and Stutxnet and Standards At the start of this century industrial automation meant SCADA devices for data acquisition and management, and isolating the SCADA environ-

ment was considered enough to secure the industrial automation environment this no longer holds true today. SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) generally refers to industrial control systems (ICS): computer systems that monitor and control industrial, infrastructure, or facilitybased processes. Stuxnet is a computer worm discovered in June 2010. It initially spreads via Microsoft Windows, and targets Siemens industrial software and equipment. While it is not the first time that hackers have targeted industrial systems, it is the first discovered malware that spies on and subverts industrial systems, and the first to include a programmable logic controller (PLC) rootkit.

An antivirus solution is not enough to protect industrial automation systems and will only work if you have a signature, but there is no signature available for a worm using a zero-day vulnerability and will mostly go undetected. An in-depth approach to security is needed in protecting industrial automation solutions which will include antivirus, firewalls and a defense-in-depth approach ensuring complete protection.

Standards The industrial automation solutions were designed for an isolated environment and security controls are almost non-existent, most solutions do not possess robust authentication, integrity or confidentiality capability. Any individual or worm that gets a foothold into the network can completely take control of the automation systems. Even when vulnerabilities are detected or indentified most often nothing is done because the industrial automation does not come in the ambit of IT Governance and hence there are no processes defined for identifying or patching vulnerabilities.

A sound approach is to visit the IEC62443 and ANSI / ISA99 ICS security standards and also the ISO 27001 which address the need for a defense-in-depth solution as part of the standards requirement. It is important to deploy a mix of various technologies and procedures to ensure sustained and enhanced security of the control system environment; this is augmented by using available security standards.

Key elements we need to consider in our Defense in Depth approach are: Continuous Patch Management, Network Segmentation, Authentication, Application control, SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) and Intrusion Detection Systems.

April 2012 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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IN PERSON

Biometrics

M N Vidyashankar

Principal Secretary, IT, BT, S&T, and e-Governance Dept., Government of Karnataka, in an exclusive interview with egov

“One must

have a passion for technology”

T

ell us about your vision for the state’s IT department.

The Department of Information Technology, Bio Technology, Science & Technology, has played a facilitating role in the growth of IT in the State. In IT, we are at the top of the ladder in the country. We will continue to come up with proactive, industry-friendly, entrepreneurfriendly policies. Some of the most important initiatives taken by the state to improve the IT infrastructure include: a) Promoting rural BPOs in Tier-II and TierIII cities.

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b) Setting up of the country’s first Bio Technology Finishing Schools. Enhancing the footprints of IT Finishing Schools. d) Launching the Semi Conductor Venture Capital Fund. e) Launching the second tranche of Karnataka IT and BT Venture Capital Funds. f) Steps towards setting up of Indian Institute of Nano Science & Technology. g) Inviting global offers for setting up the country’s first Nano Park. h) Setting up of a characteristic lab in the Semi Conductor space. i) Strengthening International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore, Institute of Bio Informatics and Applied Bio Technology, Centre for Human Genetics as Centres of Excellence. j) Setting up of Karnataka state-of-the-art bio-technology clusters in Electronic City. k) Setting up of IT Parks in Tier-II and Tier-III cities. A host of steps to enhance the infrastructure base in schools, colleges in terms of setting up labs, strengthening of labs etc. m) Opening up a Dharwad Regional Science Centre and getting ready to launch to Pilikula Regional Science Centre (Mangalore).

How would you rate Karnataka’s response to e-Governance?

The response has been tremendous. The e-procurement project has had a turnover of 1,00,000 crores during the past 3 years. In Bangalore, we had started with 37 centres in the year 2007-08, and now the number of centres stands at 80 (till February 2012). The number is expected to reach 100 by June 2012. As e-Governance initiatives

render services more transparently and efficiently, the political leadership desires these initiatives to be implemented in every sphere of governance.

Please shed some light on the part that your department is playing in the UIDAI initiative.

The e-Governance Department in Karnataka is implementing UIDAI Initiative. Of course, it is on hold since Feb 2012. In the project biometric authentication was employed for collecting the details of residents like iris and finger prints (All ten fingers) at the time of enrolment. In the days to come the government services will flow to the eligible beneficiaries through a system of verification based on biometric standards.

How is the department of IT contributing towards the modernisation of police forces?

In your opinion what ICT technologies are most important for the modernisation of police?

In Karnataka, the Department of e-Governance has rendered assistance to the Police Department in its modernisation. As a result 4,000 + computers are functioning in a networked environment in Police Department.

The Department also needs open GIS software for crime mapping.

Tell us about the State Data Centres in Karnataka.

Karnataka is the first state to start Data Centre services in 2005. Since the existing data centre was co-located with a private service provider, the state government has set up its own Data Centre in the year 2011.

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Biometrics Expanding

Horizons Navigating the complexities of life entails usage of an array of cards and passwords that confirm our identity, but there is always the risk of losing the card or forgetting the password. Such issues can be overcome with biometric systems, which recognise people on basis of distinctive anatomical and behavioural traits Anoop Verma, Elets News Network (ENN)

B

iometrics is being used to create foolproof identification records of large sections of the population. The database being created can be perused in seconds by an array of efficient systems. There is no doubt that in the coming years, such technologies will infiltrate further into our society. Biometric systems of identification might become as commonplace as the Internet and the GPS. Laptops and mobile phones that can recognise a fingerprint or facial features, for instance, are commercially available. With continuous fall in the price of sensors and the advent of powerful microprocessors, it is certain that biometric technology will become more pervasive. The future of identification systems consists of inexpensive tools from the world of Biometrics – those that identify individuals based on unique biological characteristics like fingerprints, retinal patterns, voice, or facial features.

With biometric systems government agencies have a better chance of identifying and tracking individuals. This means that the subsidies and developmental funds can be targeted in a more efficient manner. The recipient of welfare payments can be properly identified. Anti-social ele-

ments can also be tracked by use of biometric tools. Law enforcement agencies are using these systems to identify and apprehend criminals and terrorists.

Many countries around the world have started providing their citizens with passports that are embedded with microprocessor chip that stores crucial private information such as biometrics as well as name, date and country of birth. Such e-Passports result in faster passport control at airports. With installation of systems capable of speed reading cards incorporated with biometric information, the waiting times can be cut drastically and much more data can be processed in shorter periods of time.

Government departments, as well as private companies are engaged in authoring Indian biometrics success story. In order to garner a comprehensive view on the biometric industry in the country, eGov interacted with government figures and with leaders of a select group of private companies. The responses that we have received enable us to develop a comprehensive overview of the business related and the sociological aspects of biometrics industry in the country.

April 2012 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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15-16 June 2012, Le MĂŠridien, New Delhi, India

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INDIA FOR THE DIGITAL DECADE Kapil Sibal Jyotiraditya Scindia Union Minister of Communication Minister of State for Commerce and Information Technology, and Industry, Government of India Government of India

Arvind Mayaram Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor, Ministry of Rural Development, Govt. of India

Shankar Agarwal Additional Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of India

Dona Scola Deputy Minister ICT, Government of Moldova

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UIDAI Set up by the government of India on 28 January 2009, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is using stateof-the-art biometric systems to issue twelve digit unique identification numbers to citizens in hte country.

The biometrics standards being used by UIDAI are framed by a Biometrics Standards Committee set up by the Authority. After reviewing international standards and current national recommendations, the Committee concluded that the ISO 19794 series of biometrics standards for fingerprints, face and iris set by the International Standards Organization are the most suitable.

Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) Directorate, an attached office of the Department of Information Technology (DIT), Government of India, is providing quality assurance services in the area of Electronics and IT to the UIDAI.

Aadhar is “aam admi ka adhikar” R S Sharma, Director General & Mission Director, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Aadhar is a 12 digit random number. It has no intelligence of its own, but it can enable lot of intelligent applications to function with seamless efficiency.

Every resident of this country is entitled to this number. Aadhar is “aam admi ka adhikar.” Essentially we are ensuring uniqueness of this number by collecting biometric attributes, ten fingerprints and both iris scans, of the citizens who come for enrolment. Even when a person comes with a different name, we will at the backend be able to capture that this person is already enrolled with us.

Aadhar is for everybody. The biometric attributes are not fully developed in children, nevertheless, we give it to them also with the provision that when they become fifteen years old or more they should come and enrol with us. The thing is that we have not devised Aadhar as an application; we have devised it as a platform. Ultimately our thought is that there are lot of applications, including security applications that can ride on this platform. The name Aadhar essentially means that it is a platform.

The main importance of Aadhar is that as it is based on biometric attributes, it ensures that there are no duplicates or fakes. When there is Aadhar, it means that there is a unique person, and it will ensure that the databases like NREGA, PDS and others will not be plagued by duplicates or fakes. Aadhar is most suited for stoppage of leakage at the last mile. Many people in the country do not have any ID at all, and as they lack a valid ID, they are unable to access formal systems of delivery. Aadhar will enable them to access the benefits that they are entitled to.

Maharashtra has Conducted 2.5 Crore UIDAI Enrolments Santosh Bhogle, State Nodal Officer-UIDAI, DIT, Government of Maharashtra, spoke to egov regarding the progress of UIDAI initiative in the state.

Tell us the progress of the UIDAI initiative in Maharashtra.

The state of Maharashtra has generated nearly 2.5 crore UIDAI numbers. We have the second highest number of enrolments in India. The UIDAI project was launched in the state at the Tembli village in Nandurbar district in Maharashtra. The state has institutionalised the UIDAI project up to the taluka level. We have also made panchayat as an introducer to help villagers register for UIDAI. In Amravati 90 percent of the population has obtained UIDAI registration.

Tell us about your plans for making use of the Aadhar numbers.

We envision becoming a leader in rollout of UIDAI-based applications and citizen-centric services. As of now Maharashtra is the only state that is set to start Aadhar-based applications and services in its districts. Aadhar is being used as system of authentication for 8 pilot projects. Aadhar will ensure that our schemes and programmes reach the right beneficiary.

We are working actively with PDS, social justice and welfare department. We are also developing systems for enabling the state’s education, healthcare, rural development and other departments to make use of Aadhar based identification. The aim of the UIDAI initiative is to ensure that each citizen of the state gets benefits and support that he is entitled to.

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Biometrics will Lead to Profound Change The future will bring more integrated approach to biometrics that blends technologies with business services to help citizens and governments manage issues related to social welfare, travel and trade in a more efficient manner.

How do you view the field of biometrics?

Biometrics is presenting new opportunities for private and government organisations to excel.

With increased mobility and the societal shift toward online activities, biometrics technologies are being used to provide more robust forms of authentication.

There is a growing acceptance of biometric recognition technologies in our daily lives and this acceptance will grow with time.

In the coming months and years, Accenture believes businesses and governments alike will introduce biometric authentication technologies into many of their operations to enable secure and targeted access to services, thereby driving social and financial inclusion while simultaneously ensuring that services are received by genuine beneficiaries, drive efficiencies, and increase public safety and security.

Tell us about the biometric solutions that you are currently providing.

In 2010 Accenture launched an innovative large scale biometric identity matching solution designed to help public service agencies enrol and accurately verify the identity of individuals, whether for the purposes of detecting potential national security threats or for improving the delivery of government assistance programmes and social services to eligible citizens.

Accenture’s large scale matching

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solution (“SMOTA”) enables the timely and accurate identification of individuals while reducing the costs of identity assurance for large populations. The solution is able to de-duplicate all available biometric data. It is highly secure, flexible, built on proven, open standards, and significantly scalable when deployed to a cloud platform. Accenture has also been deploying globally our Automated Border Clearance (ABC) solution, which presents an opportunity for border management authorities to increase security and create efficiencies in providing secure access to bona fide travellers.

You are one of the key partners in the UIDAI initiative of the government. Please tell us about the role that you are playing in the enrolment process.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has awarded a contract to Accenture in 2010 to implement the core biometric identification system in support of the “Aadhaar” programme Under the terms of this initial contract, which will run up to two years or until 200 million enrollments (whichever comes first), Accenture will build a new system to help manage identity-related de-duplication and verification requests from both public and private organisations. Accenture will also assist UIDAI in performance benchmarking and management

Adarsh Parekh Partner, Lead - Identity Management Services, Accenture, talks about the future of biometrics of data quality for continuous improvement of the biometric solution, in addition to operating and maintaining the system.

What is the size of the biometrics market in India?

What steps are you taking to improve your market share?

Considering the government’s large-scale nation-wide deployment of Aadhaar and NPR, alongside growing national and personal security concerns, the biometrics market in India is poised for tremendous growth.

We believe the primary spurt for growth will come when we start using biometrics to curb fraud.

Ns numerous government services, like Public Distribution System, will require biometric based authentication prior to provision of services and funding to the concerned citizen.

How are the biometric systems evolving?

The Accenture Technol-

ogy Vision 2011 report has highlighted how biometrics is evolving from a high-security, specialist technology to the primary tool for high-volume applications with a strong identity requirement—for instance, provision of government benefits, voting, border control, or police applications.

Tell us about the new biometric solutions that Accenture has developed?

Accenture Technology Labs, the technology research and development arm of Accenture, has developed the “face in the crowd” solution. We foresee an increase in the use of passive facial recognition technologies such as ‘Face in the Crowd,’ which can work at distance and do not require close camera interaction or the physical interaction of subjects. These will be very important for public safety.

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The Rise of Biometrics Industry HCL Infosystems, the flagship company of the HCL enterprise, had in 1994 a turnover of Rs. 400.6 crores (USD 85 million), which underwent tremendous growth to become Rs. 10,901 crores (USD 2.4 billion) today. Employing more than 7600 people, the company has today emerged as the country’s information-enabling powerhouse. APS Bedi, Executive Vice President, HCL Infosystems, spoke to egov on the rising importance of the biometric industry.

take into consideration issues like interoperability and future readiness.

Tell us about the biometric solutions that HCL Infosystems is developing?

At HCL Infosystems we have been implementing various Biometric based solutions - from the very basic Access and Identity Management Systems, to the very high-end AFIS - Automatic Fingerprint Identification System. Currently some of our key solutions using Biometrics include Integrated MultiLocation attendance tracking for Government schools/offices; Biometric based Smart card solutions for Government’s National AIDS Control Project (NACO); MNREGA Worker’s card; Public Distribution System (PDS); Identity and Access Solutions at Border Check-post; mobile portable kits/stations for enrolment; mobile hand-held terminals for authentication. We have partnered multiple banks for rolling out Financial Inclusion schemes across multiple districts. Through our biometric devices and solutions, we have been offering service solutions to cater to a wide range of HR & security needs.

What is the size of the biometrics market in India?

Biometrics is becoming one the fastest emerging technologies in the Indian market with increased usage in various Government and non-Government projects ranging from applications in driving license to security needs of organisations. According to a report by Frost & Sullivan, the Indian Biometric Market earned revenues of INR 5.43 billion from the combined sale of biometric readers and cards in 2009 and is estimated this to reach INR 52.55 billion in 2015.

What factors can cause biometric security systems to fail?

Even as the biometric solutions are being deployed aggressively across multiple projects, these systems are not entirely failure-proof.

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Is it possible for us to have biometric security system in which we don’t have to touch something or even look deeply into a camera?

Facial recognition systems that are deployed at airports and some other installations use technology that does not require physical touching.

Facial images are picked from a distance using cameras, and then fed into a search engine for identification.

What is the future of biometric solutions? What kind of biometric devices will we have, let’s say, 10 years from today?

APS Bedi Executive Vice President, HCL Infosystems

The biometrics process involves a one to one comparison of previously stored data (like hand geometry measurements or retina scans) with a live person’s corresponding attribute.

Failure can be due to poor quality of scan or even a hardware problem. The solution lies in having the right technological solutions, which are also scalable and future ready.

How do we ensure that the security of the biometric data that has been collected?

All Biometric systems use highest form of authentication, and hence they can’t be easily accessed by hackers/intruders. As with any fast growing industry, biometrics also has to adapt to technological changes. To enhance security, the systems have to be updated constantly. Any solutions in this space have to

Biometric solutions are a fast growing technology and are gaining fast acceptance in e-Governance projects and also for security & surveillance needs. Moving forward, various organisations, both Private and Public Sector, are expected to embed biometrics in their security solutions, whereby authentications will be established through fingerprint, iris, facial and possibly voice, Palm-Vein technologies or a combination of these to create a robust security system. The need to remember multiple passwords will then get redundant.

Tell us about the e-Governance projects that you are involved with?

Some of the large-scale e-Governance Projects in which HCL Infosystems is participating include - PAWAN (Punjab State Wide Area Network), State Data Centres, Common Service Centres, e-Governance in Districts (e-District) and Municipalities (e-Municipality), Panchayats, e-Governance in Public Distribution System (Chandigarh-UT and State of Madhya Pradesh), and various other SMART Card initiatives like NACO, MNREGS etc.

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Rajesh Aggarwal Secretary, Department of IT, Government of Maharashra

R A Rajeev Commissioner Thane Municipal Corporation

Ramnath Sonawane Commisioner Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation

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Passport Seva Kendras Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest software exporter, has entered into a partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), and is engaged in providing end-to-end solutions for the Passport Sewa Kendras. Biometric details of the applicants are captured during the issuance of passports. It was in October 2008 that TCS bagged Passport Seva Project from the MEA. According to TCS, of the 77 Passport Seva Kendras to be set up, 50 have gone live across the country. Once the project has been fully implemented, the Ministry expects that the process of issuing a new passport will be completed in three working days, while passports issued under the Tatkal scheme will be dispatched on the same day.

Biometrics in Passports Tanmoy Chakrabarty, Head, Government Industry Solutions, TCS, spoke to egov magazine about the functioning of the Passport Sewa Kendras (PSK) Tell us about the Passport Seva Project and other e-Governance projects in which you are involved.

Passport Seva Project uses fingerprint biometric as part of the passport application. Fingerprint biometric is useful in identifying duplicate applications. Other e-Governance projects include implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Scheme in state of Andhra Pradesh, MPOnline, Mahaonline, MCA21, Aarogyasri Health, etc.

What kind of biometric solutions will you provide at the Passport Seva Kendras?

We will soon start using fingerprint biometric software for identifying duplicate applications.

This will minimise the possibility of one applicant applying for multiple passports. The fingerprint technology will detect duplicates based on the physiological characteristics of the applicant rather than demographic information. We are not planning to store iris scan, face scan or other biometrics. Only fingerprints are being considered.

What factors can cause biometric security systems to fail?

It is possible that applicant may be physically disabled. In addition, fingerprint minutiae may be worn out in case of labourers. Almost all biometric technologies have possibility of “False Acceptance” and “False Rejection”. In such cases, manual intervention is required.

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What is the size of the biometrics market in India?

Usage of biometrics is becoming increasing common in the country. Biometrics based applications such as “Employee Attendance System” are being used by Delhi MCD. We are also having very sensitive applications such as Electronic Passports with embedded smart chip, which contains fingerprint of the passport holders. These days it has become a norm for sensitive locations to have some kind of biometric based access control systems.

Largest implementation of this biometrics technology is in UIDAI project, in which fingerprint and iris scan are being used to further enhance the authentication process.

What is the rate of obsolesce in the biometrics industry?

Rather than obsolescence, technologies keep evolving to reduce possibility of “False Acceptance” and “False Rejection”. For this, more sophisticated mathematical algorithms will keep evolving. It is important to select a technology vendor that has the financial and technological strength to keep implementing newer technologies.

How do we ensure the security of the biometric data being collected?

Generally, biometric de-duplication process is a back-end function. It is isolated from external access and from public networks. In addition, only authorised officials are involved in collec-

Tanmoy Chakrabarty Head, Government Industry Solutions, TCS

tion of biometric information. The bottom line is that we have enough security systems in place to safeguard the data.

What is the future of biometric solutions?

There is massive surge in demand for biometric solutions in India and other parts of the world. For instance, some countries are providing their citizens with electronic passport, which is capable of storing biometric data. Biometric solutions are being used to improve the security situation of many of our installations. Some airports have started implementing biometrics such as fingerprints and iris. UIDAI and NPR are using biometrics to create a more secure system of identification.

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e-Passports for all Citizens “Diplomats and officials already have e-Passports in the country. We are planning to introduce e-Passports for all citizens. Secondly, any foreigner coming to India will have to provide biometric identification through the IVFRT system. The pilot project for Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration & Tracking (IVFRT), has already started in London and Bangladesh,” Amarendra Khatua, Joint Secretary (PV), Ministry of External Affairs.

Amarendra Khatua Joint Secretary (PV), Ministry of External Affairs

Biometrics in Devices Biometrics is a technology that identifies the user based on the physical or behavioural traits like user’s irises, voice or fingerprints. Companies like Canon have an array of biometric based products in both consumer and business segments.

Dr Alok Bharadwaj Senior Vice President, Canon India, talks about the prospects for biometrics and other aspects of electronic manufacturing services in the country What is the next milestone for Canon as far as the Indian operations are concerned?

India, one of the fastest growing economies in the world, provides enormous growth opportunities for Canon India. We are aiming to become No 1 in at least 5 categories and be a $ 1 billion company by year 2015. Canon is already No 1 in Copier MFD category and close No 2 in most of other categories.

Your views on being featured in VentureOutsource. com’s list of top 100 people influencing global electronics manufacturing services (EMS) for the year 2012.

I would like to expand the EMS industry by identifying and

creating business drivers. My wish is to make the industry more competitive and attractive to investors. This in turn will create more jobs and lead to economic growth. I would like to make some contribution towards the society at large by ensuring that the deployment of ICT is for everyone’s benefit and empowerment. The industry needs to take steps for ensuring that e-waste does not topple the applecart.

Tell us about the role you play in MAIT (Manufacturers Association of IT)?

I recently took over as President of MAIT (Manufacturers Association of IT), an industry association looking after the interests of the Rs 70,000 Cr IT hardware industry. I also took over as Chairman of CII-OA & Imaging Division. My role in ‘EMS’ is to work towards creation of policy framework that can help make India a beneficiary of the next wave of global investments in electronic manufacturing. Thailand, Japan, China, Vietnam etc. are huge players in EMS segment and there is no dearth of opportunities for India.

As MAIT president, I am attempting to create a platform for launch of a global event in India in 2012. The event will bring to light India’s capability for excellence in the field of electronics, and it will also lead to an informed discussion on the industry’s expectations from the government.

Tell us about how biometric systems are being used in your cameras, printers, projectors and other devices?

Canon has various products with biometric system both in consumer and business segment.

The consumer products come with face ID registration in which the camera registers “face,” “name” and “birth date (age).”

Our MFDs are equipped with innovative solutions like Uniflow, which allow users to securely collect print jobs with fingerprint recognition system.

Why are many devices makers offering biometric solutions for logging into their devices?

Reliable user authentication is essential. A password can be shared, and so there is no way for the system to know who

the actual user is. A properly designed biometric system will always be more secure than a password system.

With changing technology, do you fear some of your technologies could become obsolete? What are you doing to ensure that your systems are always up to date?

Biometrics is not a new idea.

Fingerprinting started in late 1960, after that there came systems for iris scan and face recognition etc.

Over a period of time, the biometric technologies will certainly evolve and become more mature.

At Canon we take constant endeavours to ensure that our technologies are up to date.

What according to you are the main benefits of biometric solutions?

Biometric technology is here to stay. In the UIDAI initiative, our government is spending massive amounts of money to accumulate biometric data of citizens. Departments like passport offices and transport authorities regularly make use of biometric systems.

Canon has developed devices that can identify the user through his fingerprints.

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Biometrics everywhere – from temples to UIDAI The emergence of biometric solutions has to a large extent reduced the risk of fraud with duplicate key or lost key. When used in conjunction with RFID or barcode technology, biometric solutions can significantly increase security and provide multi-fold advantages.

Tell us about the biometric solutions that you are providing.

During implementation, a Biometric system will operate in verification mode or identification mode. Verification (Am I who I claim I am?) involves confirming or denying a person’s claimed identity. On the other hand, in identification, the system has to recognise a person (Who am I?) from a list of N users in the template database.

Identification is a more challenging problem because it involves 1:N matching compared to 1:1 matching for verification.

Using this basic feature of the technology Bartronics provides solutions in wide range of applications like Time & Attendance, Access Control, Data Security, and Queue Management etc.

Prashant Deshpande Manager Corporate, Bartronics India Ltd, talks about the scope of the biometric systems that Bartronics India is providing

Tell us about the solution you have provided at Tirupathi temple.

When we implemented the project at Lord Venkateswara Temple, Tirumala, Tirupathi, it was the largest such project in the country.

The project is aimed at managing the huge number of pilgrims. On peak days the number of pilgrims can be as high as 300000. We have used a combination of technologies – barcode and fingerprints with image-logging - to eliminate the need for the pilgrims to stand in long queues.

Tell us about the role that you are playing in UIDAI enrolment process.

The company has collaborated with many registrars to the project as an enrolment partner where in we enrol the citizens of the identified region and issue them the Unique Number as per the guidelines laid by the authority.

What is the size of the biometrics market in India?

According to most analysts, the market

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size of biometric solutions is in the range Rs. 3500 cr to Rs. 10000 cr. Only a fraction of this estimated market is currently being addressed. The size of the market has increased mainly due to initiatives like the UIDAI. What kind of growth are you eyeing in the coming financial year?

The company has made investments in many large scale prestigious projects. The year ahead looks very exciting and promising for us as these projects have achieved certain stage of completion and are expected to generate revenues from Q1FY13. The company’s international operations too are fairly young and are showing lot of traction.

With improved business environment, we expect the company to regain the same growth momentum as in the past. We expect the company to grow its bottom line by about 15 percent when compared to the current financial year.

Banking on Biometrics Tell us about the biometric solutions that you are providing?

We are solution providers and system integrators.

We are currently Hitesh providing Biomet- Rajwanshi ric Access Control Director & CEO, solutions. Banks Digitals India Security are our largest Products Pvt Ltd customers. They use our systems for enhancing the security of their secure areas, where currency is stored.

The Banks currently using our access control systems include the likes of Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Dena Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Syndicate Bank, Punjab National Bank, Corporation Bank, UCO Bank Etc. What is the market share of the biometric systems in the overall access control industry in the country?

It is difficult to say for sure, as there are lot of marginal players in the market. However, my own assumption is that the Biometric Access Control in India should not be more then 15 percent of the total Access Control Industry. The biometric systems that we have at present are not foolproof.

In winters, the impression on the fingers contracts and in summers it expands.

Moreover, the children below the age of 14 years and the older person above the age of 65 years are prone to changes in their finger impression with each passing time.

What factors can cause biometric security systems to fail?

Biometric systems can fail due to any of the following reasons • Restriction on user registrations • Non-creating of proper templates • Limitation on the data storage and back up options • Dust, heat and mishandling on the finger sensor film

biometrics

tech focus

Smart Cards Tell us about 4G Identity Solution’s plans for Indian market.

4Gid specialises in providing end-to-end biometric based Identity Management Solutions to government and private entities. We are playing a key role in creating applications that are based on UIDAI’s Aadhaar.

Tell us about biometric solutions that you have developed for use of government departments – for Public Service Delivery Infrastructure, Public Distribution System, and Welfare & Entitlement.

4Gid has created Aadhaar based CORE PDS (Public Distribution System) for Chhattisgarh government. Our Public Distribution System framework is designed to eliminate fake or ghost ration cards and ensure that the subsidy reaches the right people. More such applications are going to come from us in near future. 4Gid has also created a public service infrastructure delivery framework through which government can provide all services to its citizen through a single window.

Dr Sreeni Tripuraneni

What are the main features of your National ID Solutions? Tell us about your microchip-enabled smart-cards.

Our National ID Solutions have features like multi-biometric enrolment of citizens, PKI encrypted data communication to secure biometric data transfer and much else. By integrating Smart Card and biometric technologies, 4Gid provides secure Personal Identification Systems that support a wide variety of usage scenarios.

Biometrics for Access Control Tell us about your biometric solutions?

We have presence in almost all the sectors of the industry. We offer biometric devices Deepak for Attendance, Gulgulia Access Control, Executive Director, Visitor Management and Canteen Spectra Technovision Management. Our (India) Pvt Ltd biometric solutions are devised keeping mind all sectors of the industry. The list of our customers includes private companies, as well as government organisations.

What are the main features of your Access Control, visitor management solutions?

For Access Control, we offer NetXSControl, which is used for employee management, movement monitoring and controlling user access. Our Visitor Management solution is designed to facilitate controls over the accessibility to confidential areas within an establishment.

Chairman & CEO, 4G Identity Solutions

Vigorous Demand for Biometrics Tell us about your access control solutions?

Matrix COSEC is a state-of-the- art Access Control System, designed to provide comprehensive Access Control and Time Attendance solution for small, medium and large enterprises. This versatile solution comes with a Web-based Management Software that can monitor and control up to 1000 locations, 10,000 doors and 1 Million users in real-time. We are receiving a good response from the security market.

How do you design and develop new products for different consumer segments?

Jatin Desai

Product EngineerSecurity Products, We make an in depth study of the needs of our users before we develop Matrix Comsec Pvt Ltd

new products. Consumers like Small Retail Shops, Private Offices and Clinics mostly demand products that have simple functionalities. However, large establishments require sophisticated devices with advanced features and functions. We are targeting banks, financial institutes, shopping malls, corporates, hospitality industry, healthcare segment, and government departments for our products.

How is the biometric market in India developing?

The demand for biometric security solutions in India is vigorous today and is expected to accelerate in future. There is immense potential. Overall market size is increasing day-by-day, as customers are getting aware of the efficiency and security that can come in by installation of biometric systems.

Transforming Industry “The emergence of Biometrics has changed the face of business prospects in private and public segments. At the bottom of every operation, sees process improvisation, tracking, tracing and accountability using biometric & RFID solutions in the larger sense. In government projects, Brij Mohan Mandala there is now talk of all welfare schemes being channelled through Director, Avid Software process of biometric identification.”

Solutions (I) Pvt Ltd

April 2012 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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tech focus

biometrics

Biometrics can be used for Electronic Service Delivery IL&FS ETS, a noted player in the infrastructure, education and financial inclusion space, is participating in many e-Governance initiatives. Roy Mathew, Senior Vice President / Business Head – e-Governance, IL&FS ETS Ltd, spoke to egov about the prominent role that the company expects to play in the e-Governance space.

Give us an overview of the e-Governance projects in which you are participating.

We are consultants in key NeGP Mission Mode Projects like SSDG and CCTNS. We are also involved with many state government projects. We are consultants for Directorate General of Employment & Training, Ministry of Labour and Employment and Directorate of Employment & Self Employment (DE&SE), Government of Maharashtra. We also have a very strong team for internet connectivity programme management which monitors over 13700 Points of Services in Panchayats of Government of Gujarat. We are programme managers for Biometric Attendance and Computer Aided Learning Systems (BACALS) project of the Government of Gujarat. Also, we are implementing E-Municipality programme and Computerisation of PACS in some of the States.

Financial Inclusion is one of the key focus areas and we work closely with Central Bank of India in three States.

You are one of the key partners in the UIDAI initiative.

Please tell us about the role that you are playing in the enrolment process in the state.

On behalf of UIDAI, IL&FS has been carring out enrollments in 23 States/UTs in the country. We are engaged with major banks and other entities that are serving as UIDAI Central Registrars - Bank

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of Baroda, Allahabad Bank, Central Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce,Department of Posts and with State Registrars of Jharkhand Urban Development Department, Rural Development Department, Food & Civil Supplies Departments of Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. IL&FS has enrolled close to 1 Crore residents and we are getting ready for the Phase II of the implementation process.

Please tell us about the revenues that you are making from UIDAI.

IL&FS has done enrolments of close to 1 Crore residents. We envisage having revenues in tune of Rs.120 Crores during the term of the project.

What is the size of the biometrics market in India?

What steps are you taking to improve your market share?

Biometrics is one of the fastest growing technology segments in the country. The sector is primarily being fuelled by the UIDAI initiative. Biometric based Financial Inclusion programmes spearheaded by various banks and increased adoption of biometrics in time and attendance systems, access control system, is also leading to growth. As per an analysis of Frost & Sullivan, Indian Biometric Market (combined sale of biometric readers and cards) was about INR 5.43 billion 2009 and estimates this to reach INR 52.55 billion in 2015. We are

Roy Mathew Senior Vice President / Business Head – e-Governance, IL&FS ETS Ltd

tying up with OEMs of biometric enabled devices in India and overseas and building online and offline applications together with various partners. IL&FS ETS will aggressively focus in all segments of biometrics.

How important are biometric solutions for secure identification of employees and visitors at power plants, airports?

We need to verify the Identity of all personnel who have access to critical service areas. Due to rise in security concerns, governments and enterprises are adopting biometric access controls. The emerging biometric market will comprise of face, iris, vein, and voice recognition systems.

What kind of role do IT solutions have to play in better management of large infrastructure projects?

IT has a seminal role to play in successful and cost effective implementation of any large project.

Large projects are spread across a number of States and timely flow of information and control sheets of project deliverables is absolutely necessary to ensure that the projects are compliant to the Service Level Agreements.

We deploy systems that relay alerts and automated reports for monitoring the projects. It is important that we have concurrent view of the progress reported by every key team members for cost effective and fully compliant implementations.

ORGANISERS

CO-ORGANISERS

23 - 24 July 2012, Le MĂŠridien, New Delhi

Conclave of Global Leaders in Education Conference: The education leaders platform

Awards: Recognising global innovation and excellence in education

Expo: Global showcase of education technologies

Where Education Takes Centre Stage Thematic Sessions Confluence of Thinkers, Innovators, Experts Expositions on Digital Technologies Interactions with School and College Leaders Excellence Awards for Education For Programme Enquiries Sheena Joseph, Mobile: +91-886065144, sheena@elets.in For Exhibition and Sponsorship Contact: Fahim Ul Haque, fahim@elets.in, +91-9873277808

Programme chair

Programme co-chair

Prof. SS Mantha

Prof V S Ramamurthy

Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)

Director, National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS)

www.worldeducationsummit.net

IN PERSON

Sudipta K Sen

Regional Director – SEA, CEO & MD – SAS Institute (India) Pvt. Ltd., speaks to Dhirendra Pratap Singh

“ICT is a force Multiplier In Improving Internal Security” through state portal and channels like Maha e-Seva Kendra and Setu.

Tell us about your ideas for improving data connectivity in rural Maharashtra?

W

hat has changed in the last six years in e-Governance in Maharashtra?

During the last 6 years, Maharashtra has been at the forefront of creating an e-Governance infrastructure, essential to delivering various G2C, G2B and G2G services in a cost effective manner. This includes creation of MSWAN( Maharashtra State Wide Area Network) across all 35 districts, 324 talukas and 6 divisional head quarters; creation of SDC along with other public/private managed data centre services; and creation of service delivery channels

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With the Maharashtra State Wide Area Network (MSWAN) being operational for the last few years, Maharashtra now has the IT connectivity from the state headquarters to the districts and further down to the talukas. This has been accompanied with setting up of State Data Centres (SDC’s) and Common Service Centres (CSC’s). There are more than 6000 CSC’s called Maha e SevaKendras, offering G2C services like land records, pension schemes and ration cards.

It is envisaged that there should be at least one Seva Kendra for every 4 villages. Several B2C services like rail tickets, banking etc., are also in the process of being made available on this network.

What are the areas where ICT plays role in enhancing the security?

ICT is definitely a force multiplier in the government’s efforts towards improving internal security. Globally policing, investigation and Intelligence agencies leverage ICT to deliver on their goal of providing safe cities. ICT is typically used in areas like monitoring & surveillance, biometrics, information sharing/ collaboration and fusing intelligence. While ICT forms part of the core infrastructure of a public security system, some of the advanced applications of ICT in security include crime analytics, risk profiling, network analysis for identifying gangs, terrorist networks and terrorist financing, open source intelligence and predictive modelling.

Your views on Crime and Criminal Tracking Networking System (CCTNS)? How is it going to ensure security issues in Maharashtra?

The CCTNS is an important step in ensuring that the various police stations in the state are connected, thereby enabling collaboration between various police and intelligence agencies at the state and centre level. It has been observed that some major crime and terrorist incidents in the past happened due to a silo approach of the police and intelligence agencies. Several crimes/ criminals span more than one state, and policing and investigation therefore need collaboration between the states involved. The CCTNS provides the basic platform for collaboration and information sharing.

Tell us about your ICT based solutions for enhancing public safety and security?

We provide end-to-end solutions for public security in policing, investigation and intelligence. SAS has a data integration platform that can help standardise information, fuse the intelligence residing in silos. SAS automatically categorises the vast amount of data and text, thereby making it amenable to be then searched/accessed quickly.

SAS Social Network Analysis (SNA) software helps connect the dots and thereby create a visual view of the linkages between the various seemingly unconnected parties/persons.

SAS provides the platform for Crime Analytics through use of sophisticated data mining techniques.

Defence Focus

DRDO Promoting Science and Technology The most significant contribution of DRDO is the creation of an ecosystem conducive to development of cutting edge technologies Ravi Kumar Gupta, Scientist G & Director, Directorate of Public Interface, DRDO

B

alasya mulam vigyanam (The source of strength is Science) is the motto of DRDO. It is science that drives the nation in peace and war. DRDO has firm determination to make the nation strong and self reliant in science and technology. Being knowledge based organisation, DRDO has always been generating and protecting the intellectual property rights. DRDO has taken more than 491 Indian and 46 foreign patents /designs/ copyrights till date, while another 652 Indian and 104 foreign patents are under process. A good number of national and international papers are being published by our scientists. DRDO provides support to academia to carry out research on topics related to military science under Grantsin-Aid Scheme.

With strength of over 28,000 personnel, DRDO has developed a wide range of strategic and tactical weapon systems. The indigenous strategic missile development programme represents a quantum leap in terms of capabilities and level of technological excellence. The Agni series together with PII surface to surface April 2012 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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Defence Focus

DRDO: an Outlook Established in 1958, by the amalgamation of Technical Developments Establishments (TDEs) of the Indian Army and the Directorate of Technical Development & Production (DTD&P) with the Defence Science Organisation, Defence Research & development Organisation (DRDO) has grown into a premier organisation with 52 laboratories/establishments spread across the length and breadth of the country.

missiles cover wide range of 300-4000 kms.

MBT- Arjun is the pride of the Indian Army.

Akash surface to air a missile system is being inducted by both, the Air Force and Army. The Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), DRDO’s flagship programme, reached a significant milestone, when it achieved the Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) on 10 January 2011.

Creation of National Assets The infrastructural facilities created by DRDO are national assets and include the integrated instrumented flight test range, structural dynamics and vibration test facility for aircraft, electronic warfare test ranges, propulsion and ballistics test facilities, underwater weapons test ranges and test tracks for land systems.

The National Centre for Automotive Testing (NCAT), Ahmednagar, provides a one stop solution to the requirements of the Indian Automotive industry and defence services. It is an approved agency for evaluation of vehicles and their subsystems/components for certification and compliance to various national and international standards and regulations.

The major partners in the DRDO’s nation building endeavours include the armed forces, defence PSU’s, private industries, international collaborators and academic/researchers. InterGovernmental Agreements/MOUs on defence cooperation exist with about 35 countries.

The growth of DRDO and the successful outcome of many of its recent programmes in high technology areas have been noticed by many countries, which are evincing interest in collaborative efforts. India and the United Kingdom entered into a letter of arrangement in September 2011 to pursue collaborative Defence R&D Cooperation with UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL)

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the structure and dimensions: • Total No. of Labs/Estts:

52

• Training Institutes:

CEPTAM (Delhi), DIAT (Pune), ITM, (Mussoorie)

• Integrated Test Ranges:

2

• Total strength ( as on 01 July 2011)

27796

• Scientists:

7854

• Technical personnel:

10139

• Others:

9803

• Def. R&D Expenditure 2010- 11

Rs 10149.71 crores

• Def. R&D Budget 2011- 12

Rs 10253.17 crores

• Official websites

http://www.drdo.com,

http://www.drdo.org/, http://rac.drdo.in

and facilitate best use of respective research and technology development capability through joint projects.

In its drive to take the fruits of technological progress to the common man, DRDO has been releasing many technologies for civilian applications. A recent DRDO initiative in this

direction is ATAC (Accelerated Technology Assessment and Commercialisation), which has been launched in association with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). Forty five technologies have been already identified and over hundred other technologies are being assessed.

IN PERSON

Lt. Gen PPS Bhandari (Retd.)

Group Director, Defence, Homeland Security, Marine Security, Rolta India Ltd

Innovative Information Technology Solutions for Defence operational needs with Geo spatial data. Rolta’s offerings have constantly been upgraded to keep pace with changing user needs.

Rolta has brought in state-of-the-art technologies to address various C4ISTAR offerings including, Optronics and Communications needs of Indian military including Tactical mobile communications offering triple-play services. It is also setting up an R&D Laboratory for development of Software Defined Radio. SDRs would be the communication technology in the Defence Services in future.

W

hat new technologies is Rolta developing for the defence vertical?

Rolta’s strengths have grown over the years and the company has undergone a transformation from being a provider of customised Geospatial solutions, to one that offers comprehensive Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (C4ISTAR) solutions for the complete ‘sensor to shooter’ chain.

Rolta’s Military-off-the-Shelf (MOTS) solutions employ innovative technology linking

43

Tell us about the Geospatial based Operations and Intelligence solutions, and other solutions that you are providing to Indian army?

Rolta is India’s leading provider and developer of state-of-the-art Geospatial solutions for Defence.

The company has been working with the Indian Defence forces for more than two decades. Apart from Mapping Solutions, Rolta’s portfolio offers the full range of solutions to Indian Army, other defence services and security organisations including Photogrammetry, Missile Trajectory Planning, Terrain Planning, Asset Management & Visualization, Battlefield surveillance, Advanced / Mobile Integrated Image Exploitation, 3 D Visualization, Automated Change Detection, Head mounted Night Vision Devices, Mobile Radios, Vehicle Systems, Local Area Control Systems, Optronics, Sensors, Network Integration & Exploitation, Terrestrial Trunking Radio (TETRA), Line of Sight Radio Relay, Satcom, WiMAX, Combat Net Radios, Software Defined Radios, Interoperability Devices & Network Management Systems, etc.

How critical is ICT in enabling success of operations?

ICT has transformed the defence forces from people-centric to network-centric battlefield management, from aftermath combat review to real-time combat surveillance, from land and sea to air and outer space superiority, and from hardware-based to software-based force multipliers. ICT has brought in new paradigms in how the operations are conducted. With real-time situational awareness coupled with sound decision support systems, commanders and staff take quick and bold decisions, which are conveyed to the subordinate forces instantaneously. Thus, ICT has provided multitude of force multipliers at each level of hierarchy.

Please tell us about your solutions for homeland security and low intensity conflicts.

Rolta serves the Home Land Security domain, through a combination of technologies. The solutions offered include the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) and the solutions for the typical requirements of Command Control rooms for Public Safety, Coastal Security, Safe city, Border security, Critical Infrastructure Protection for on-shore and off-shore assets in terms of oil platforms, refineries etc. and the Maritime Vessel tracking solutions. These solutions are based on the indigenously developed Command and Control framework, which can be customised to meet the requirements of current security concerns. These solutions also include the Sensor data integration, data fusion and visualisation solutions that seamlessly integrate with the Command and Control framework.

April 2012 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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police modernisation

Police Modernisation: Projects and

Experiences

Police forces across the country are modernising and adopting new methods and technologies in order to carry out their mandate in a better way. egov presents a brief overview of police modernisation programmes in India and views of some key people involved with police modernisation projects Elets News Network (ENN)

P

olice being a state subject under the constitution of India, it is the primarily responsibility of state governments to take care of the requirements of respective police forces, including those related to modernisation. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) supplements efforts of the state governments through grants and also technical assistance. It also carries out modernisation activities directly for the Central Police Forces.

Police Modernisation has been included as an Integrated Mission Mode Project (MMP) under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). The establishment of a nationwide Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) is a major initiative being undertaken under the MMP presently. In addition, a number of other initiatives are also underway. The basic objective of the MMP is to meet the identified deficiencies in various aspects of police administration, worked out in 2000 by the Bureau of Police Research and

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Development (BPR&D) in a study, according to which a requirement of about Rs.25,000 crore, was needed for the purpose. The MHA has also undertaken a scheme of Mega City

Policing (MCP) under which police forces in seven cities - Mumbai. Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Ahmedabad are being modernised.

special feature

NIIT

NIIT Technologies: Modernising the Indian Police Department T

he Indian Police Department is embracing automation to remain cutting-edge and in tune with global technological trends.

It has therefore launched a key initiative—the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS)—which is not only expected to provide a national repository of crime and criminal data, but also bring in computerisation at the local police level to improve service delivery to citizens.

The project is being driven by the Ministry of Home Affairs through the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

Under this project over 12,000 police stations (across Indian states and Union Territories) will be computerised, creating the country’s largest database of crime and criminals.

Some of the services envisaged under CCTNS include a citizens portal, complaint and FIR maagement, PCR call interface and management, investigation management, court and jail interface , crime and criminal record management, periodic crime and law and order reports, review dashboard, and Talaash, a search application, etc.

In the long-term, the CCTNS project aims to create a more transparent and accountable police force.

NIIT Technologies has been selected as the System Integrator (SI) for the states of Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu.

As an SI, NIIT-Tech will study the existing IT applications in use by these states, develop new application modules in accordance with their requirements, and integrate the same with the CAS (core application software). Simultaneously, NIIT Tech will start digitising the data of the last 10 years, provide all the necessary hardware for the effective implementation of the software and offer training

to police personnel on the IT application.

NIIT technologies has to manage and provide training to large number of police station & police personnel’s which looks like a tough task but they have history of successful implementation of big projects in Government business like “SELO” with CRPF and “Intranet Prahari” with BSF. There are over 579 police stations in Orissa, 1,504 in UP, 478 in Jharkhand and 1,452 in Tamil Nadu. NIIT Tech will need to train over 28,000 police personnel in Orissa, 1,22,000 in UP,

7,000 in Tamil Nadu and more than 25000 in Jharkhand. It will additionally have to manage stakeholders at various levels, providing Integrated Service delivery to geographically dispersed and remote locations including Naxalite areas.

CCTNS is not about replication but a separate project in itself for each of the states as the requirement/issue/challenges are varied in nature at each of the state –location. The task is mammoth and tough, but expected to end in success like their other big successful projects.

April 2012 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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police modernisation

CCTNS is a Rs 2,000 Crore Project

that most of the police forces in India are implementing. Issues related to data protection, how you look at your data and what is the level of access accessibility you have given to the people and what you try to protect is something extremely crucial. There are also best practices available for the data security and integrity.

We seem to Reinvent the Wheel Again and Again

again. In the context of policing, the areas of application are more or less similar whether it is United States or Europe or any other part of the globe. Instead of reinventing the wheel entirely what we could do is to have suitable modifications and adaptation of technology catering to our home conditions.

The private sector and technology companies are key stakeholders. Unless all the stakeholders work in greater harmony, we cannot see the success of any project.

NCRB should make Data Available across India S Suresh Kumar, Joint Secretary (Center State), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India The Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) project is a Rs 2000 crore project. Spread over an implementation span of 5 years, it involves 35 different units and more than half-a-dozen other stakeholders in the government. It has been a challenge to get the stakeholders to agree upon diverse issues that are thrown up from time to time.

Every stakeholder has their own perspective on how the project should evolve. Now getting the entire thing aboard and moving is a major challenge.

The project has faced some criticism on aspects such as delay, growth and so and so but the overall vision and the roadmap that has been laid down for the project, has to an extent, been working out well. It is going on according to a certain plan and in a measured manner. Hopefully we should see the implementation stage being completed in the coming couple of years. Any project of this

Raj Prem Khilnani, DGP (Homeguard and Civil Defence), Maharashtra The Policing establishment is primarily citizen centric and public centric service setup. The idea is to have an efficient and satisfactory system. With technology interventions, policing services have become more efficient. There has to have a process excellence built around the system. In Maharashtra, we have been working on the computerisation of the police force and the police department for quite some times now. Earlier we were working on Common Integrated Police Application (CIPA) and then we switched over to CCTNS. The progress has been slow but gradual. But nevertheless we

“The project has faced some criticism on aspects such as delay, growth and so and so but the overall vision and the roadmap that has been laid down for the project, has to an extent, been working out well� scale would in my view start as a small pilot and then grow into the wide area network encompassing many cities, many states, probably get onto the Internet and maybe become worldwide in scale.

The issue of security is definitely one of the major issues to be addressed in any policing project not just CCTNs. It is just a project

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cannot get disheartened. The problem that I see is that the technology advances very fast and administrative setup like the police, which tries to adapt the technology and integrate with its traditional working systems, cannot match up with the pace and time.

The other issue that I would like to highlight is we seem to reinvent the wheel again and

S K Basu, Vice President, NIIT Technologies The government is spending a large amount of money on police modernization. On CCTNS alone, it is supposed to spend Rs 2000 crore.

There can be another 500 crore spent on upgrading general IT infrastructure. If one takes paramilitary organistions like CRPF, BSF, ITBP, SSB, NSG, etc into consideration, it will be another 500 crore being spent.

Modernisation will make available all data in time, so that senior hierarchy can analyse and take informed and timely decisions. FIRs can be processed faster & tracked easily. Response to queries of citizen will be faster and more accurate. Criminals can be profiled and crime type can be analysed to track criminal faster/ predict type of criminal to solve cases faster.

In order to further improve the rate of technological advances in police forces, the National Crime Record Bureau should make available access to data from any state across India, from a central database.

Criminal profiling should be done so that predictive policing can be implemented for all critical crimes impacting society & good living. Police officers should be provided gadgets like Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) so that police can note the details of finding at

police modernisation

a location on the system for faster data capture and processing.

NIIT Technologies is involved in modernisation projects with the BSF and CRPF, and with state police in Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Odisha for CCTNS. We would start working with Uttar Pradesh Police shortly.

The Police Department and Government Agencies lack Effective Mechanisms to Absorb Technology

Breakup of CCTNS Budget Component

16

Hardware at higher offices

07

Specialised infrastructure

17

Specialised solutions

12

Application software development

02

Data Center at National/State HQ

11

Network infrastructure

05

Handholding support

06

Project management

06

Monitoring

01

Capacity Building Digitization

Rajvir P Sharma, Additional Director General, Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force Issues related to public safety and security of vital infrastructure have been vigorously deliberated after 9/11. After 9/11, most of the countries introspected on their security apparatus and started working on mechanisms and effective databases as well as developing the capacity to analyze and use the data.

The 9/11 review concluded that although intelligence about the terror attacks, action could not be taken due to lack of analytical capabilities.

Following this, the US government invested in building this capacity and today the American have made themselves reasonably safe.

In India, the police department has passed through three phases i.e. documentation of data, the present one, CCTN , and CIPA which was tried earlier. The cost involved in keeping these system alive and updated is going to be much higher than expected what we probably need is a proper documentation of plan work.

We conducted a survey to measure the level of technology adoption in police, and found out that the police department and government agencies lack effective mechanisms to absorb technology; the Police and government machinery are not sufficiently security enabled and that there is lot of wastage of resources in absorbing or by absorbing outdated technology.

Percentage Budget

Hardware site preparation

Merely cosmetic adoption of technology is not going to help. We need to ensure real adoption of technology if the true effects are to be realised. When we look back at our computerisation of the police department, we had been changing the mechanism of data collection every time in all three systems. We should have had a policy which should be relevant and valid for at least a decade or two.

We would be able to Catch People Sitting on Computer

Sharat Kaviraj, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Jaipur West, Rajasthan At the time of my posting as a Superintendent of Police in the Crime Branch, our Director General instructed that we have to bring down the pendency of cases and I was asked to monitor pendency of cases in Rajasthan.

11 05

The report data was outdated and unreliable.

With the help of friends in the IT Department, we started with a very small project. This was a very simple application and we invested practically nothing. Once the forms were online, reports started being sent by email and within 15- 20 days of this project, I was getting pendency report across Rajasthan on daily basis. So this was major success.

Another initiative that comes to mind is the work we did with standing warrants. When we started, we had 55,000 standing warrants lying open across Rajasthan. We started with a very simple idea that if every police station could apprehend the standing warrantee living in his own area, this could lead to good results. We put a basic online system in place and in two months we closed more standing warrants than we had been able to in the preceding 5-6 years!

Policeman were still policing their own area, one simple IT application changed the whole game.

One often comes across crimes that have been planned in jails. Criminals have access to mobile phones inside jails and in the absence of a proper infrastructure, the police cannot detect such cases. A huge number of SIM cards have been activated on false addresses and there is no system in the country to tell whether these addresses are genuine or not. There is no system to track patterns and trigger alarms. We don’t have systems that can trigger intelligence related alarms and alerts the police when an ATM stops April 2012 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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police modernisation

working. Similar for power theft, the power grid knows this particular section of the line has been tripped but we won’t know and there is transmitter theft which is taking place.

For proper security, and efficient policing, all the related systems need to come together on a common platform. CCTNs, when it becomes operational, would be something like the Aadhar for police applications. One is really looking forward to the CCTNS. Once the whole application is online, I am sure in some years, things would reach a state when it would not be a fairy tale to say that we would be able to catch people sitting on computer.

different biometrics like face and others. Trust and accountability will be achieved when we really bring out and bring success to the system.

The NCRB is implementing a change management system and helping states move from the traditional methods of working to sophisticated systems. Lack of security awareness and capacity are some major challenges that one faces when working on change management, and these issues have to be addressed systematically. Interoperable standards that are common across the country also need to be devised, as in the absence of standards, the whole network would be of not much use.

Boundaries are no more Barriers for Criminals

Modify Police Forms to include Information about UID and Mobile Number

enhance importance of ICT and provision of smart phones for the constabulary. These will help in better information management, capacity building and ready access to data and more effective monitoring.

We also need to move aggressively and develop Indian language computing protocols and standards for mobiles and enforce interoperability across Service Provider Networks and access devices, with mandatory disclosure of subscription to these standards.

Modern GIS technology should be integrated in crime management, jurisdiction planning and determining location of new facilities in order to optimise returns on investments and deliver better services to citizens. Similarly, much greater use of technology can be made in police recruitment. This will speed up the process and also make it more transparent.

CCTNS Applications would work in Offline Mode

Purushottam Sharma, Inspector General of Police, Madhya Pradesh CCTNS is the focal point of e-Governance initiatives in police forces across India. The project has been conceptualized as having three layers – at the bottom layer are the assets – the hardware and some software, and the database. The middle layer is business intelligence logic which is nothing but core application software. The top layer is the user environment which is nothing but access control where public will come and access and enter into the second layer get the information and get the whole thing done. This will be in nutshell is a core model for the CCTNS. We are now laying emphasis on integrating all the states because boundaries are no more barriers for criminals. Criminals are moving from state to state and committing crimes. It is basically to provide good governance in terms of connecting all the states, the whole country will be one police station. Once the system is in place, we would be able to track criminals throughout the country. The tracking will be done by having fingerprint biometrics, by using

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Ranjan Dwivedi, Inspector General, Police Recruitment Board, Uttar Pradesh The CCTNS is going to impact police operations in the country in a very positive manner.

One hopes to see it in place soon. The core CCTNS module can be enhanced through application plugins that address specific functions, some of which are: Talash for missing person reports; motor vehicle coordination; automated fire-arm coordination; automated finger print identification system and Seva 100 for coordination of Police Control Room functioning and response. An automated ballistic identification system is should also be developed on the lines of these applications.

In order to enhance the benefits accruing out of investments being made in police modernization, some steps need to be taken.

The important ones among these are: move to open standards and software; integration of the communications and IT wings into a ICT Department; modifying forms to include fields for UID (Aadhar) and mobile number; reworking of the training curriculum to

P R K Naidu, Joint Director, National Crime Records Bureau CCTNS applications are being developed in a way that they work offline as well. While BSNL would be providing connectivity across the country, since power is the huge problem in the country, there is no guarantee that we will have robust network all the time, looking at all 21,000 locations in the country.

That is why the applications would work in offline mode and when the network is up and running then all the data can be synchronised with state data centres and the national data centre. We don’t have adequate resources for networks – only 5 percent of the project outlay has been approved for the network whereas industry standards say it should be 15 percent.

The DIT is helping out in a big way and have offered us the use of their SWANs that have been built at a cost of Rs 3,500 crore.

e-governance in action

Information Security in Government

A Primary Key Utility of Good Infrastructure Monitoring for Nepal Systems

Sanjiv Mital, CEO, National Institute of Smart Governance, Government of India

Rajan Raj Pant, Controller, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of Nepal

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s more and more data moves from the physical to electronic form, suddenly the need for security becomes very critical and different challenges come in. The Ministry of Home Affairs has a large number of documents with various classification as secret, top secret, confidential, restricted, regular etc.

There are in all five categories and for all these documents they have different security policy. The policy governs handling, access and also procedure to be followed for destroying the document. However, there are as of now no such guidelines for information security. At a time when all documents are being prepared on computer, the absence of such policy seriously threatens security.

We are presently talking with the Ministry of Home Affairs for developing a manual on information security so that the security classification can be enforced in the electronic sphere as well. There is a need for using secure servers for creating and storing documents in place of workstations.

These and a number of other elements are presently being considered as information security is becoming a mainstream concern.

P

rimary Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a framework for creating a secure method for exchanging information based on public key cryptography. The foundation for PKI is the Certifying Authority (CA), which issues digital certificates that authenticate the identity of organizations and individuals over a public system such as the Internet. PKI is a vital tool for information security, reliable and secure e-commerce ransactions, e-governance services etc.

Nepal enacted the Electronic Transaction Act in 2006 and the Electronic Transaction Regulation was passed by the Cabinet in 2007.

The Controller’s office was created for the effective implement Electronic Transaction Act and we have recently established the PKI Datacenter having Root Certifying Authority As with other developing countries, we are also struggling with some common problems such as lack of technical knowhow in government, e-Governance being a low priority area, poor infrastructure, lack of a security orientation among end users, lack of established ICT governance protocols, lack of IT experts among the professional class and inadequate budgetary allocation, to cite a few. But we are hopeful of achieving our objectives and with this faith, the work is going on.

V S Prakash, Director, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre

T

alking of applications for public benefit, one feels that the best application would fail to perform to the required level in the absence of a good dataset. A good dataset in turn can be generated only out of reliable and efficient monitoring systems.

Karnataka faces a number of weather-related natural hazards such as floods, droughts, cyclones, hailstorms etc. We have installed GPRS-enabled censors to monitor rainfall and all data comes to our central servers in almost real time. Information is mined from data almost instantaneously and this goes back to the community within a couple of minutes to their mobiles and also as maps to their Facebook accounts and email.

Our target is to customize this information as per needs of end users. In Karnataka, we have 500-700 villages and each village grows 8-10 type of crops. Each type of crop requires different advisory, so customization is a big challenge.

Networking and collaboration are very important if we are to achieve this and we work with the industry and entrepreneurs extensively.

Over the last 10 years, Karnataka has suffered losses of around Rs 70,000 due to weather related hazards. So far, the government has invested only Rs 40 crore in monitoring systems, but impressed by the returns, it is now investing in big way in improving monitoring systems.

April 2012 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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public safety & security

Analytics to Fight Crime NSN Murty, General Manager, Smarter Planet Solutions – India/ South Asia, IBM

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riminal activities and terrorism have become increasingly organised.

These are no longer unplanned actions and are often planned several months or even years in advance. These events might be sudden, but they are predictable. There are methods which are very repetitive. We live in a society which faces multiple threats on a daily basis. We need to evolve mechanisms to deal with these on a systematic basis.

In recent times, some high profile fugitives have been apprehended using analytics capabilities that tracked financial transactions, movements of key people and couriers

etc. IBM tools were extensively deployed in tracking down one of the world’s most wanted – Osama bin Laden. In India, 19 Police Departments are using our tools and systems for investigations and analysis.

Using analytics, investigators can develop a holistic view of various relationships, correlate call data and movement of key people, identify key addresses out of a heap, analyse financial data to mine intelligence, link UID data to ballistics reports and so on. These tools bring in massive intelligence mining capabilities to investigators. As of now, not only police departments, but also banks and financial institutions are adopting such tools in a big way. For example, the Financial Intelligence Unit in the Union Ministry of Finance has installed an analytics solution which can identify correlations, patterns etc., in data and

can then also predict behaviour of people who withdraw an Rs 50,000 or more from their bank account.

As departments move online, there will be disparate sources of information. There will be problems of interoperability, but the analytics that run on top of all these systems will be able to compile all this information, mine intelligence out of it using historical patterns and real time analysis and help in a big way in investigations.

Criticality of Software Components in System Solutions

I

Col (retd) Vishu Sikka, (Retd) General Manager – Defence, Aerospace & Public Security SAP India & Subcontinent

n present times, government departments and other agencies have embarked upon massive deployment of ICT. However, one of the fundamental issues related to government procurement is that the budget for software is set unrealistically low. For example, the CCTNS project has a meagre two percent of the total project cost earmarked for application development. One can buy the best hardware services, establish the best networks, but if the applications to run on it are second grade or worse, the whole project would fail.

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Software needs to be treated as a critical component of the system that lies at the very heart of the project and outlays for the same need to be fixed accordingly. Systems need

to evolve with changing times and changing requirements. Therefore, organisations worldwide are shifting from a custom-developed system approach to a modular approach as the latter is scalable, upgradable, changeable according to needs while also optimising costs.

SAP provides services in five major areas related to public security. These are: intelligence gathering and analysis; border management; emergency services; justice management and law enforcement. A large number of user departments across the world use our suite of products and more than 80 police organisations from the New York Police Department (NYPD) to the London Metropolitan and the state of New York run SAP applications.

data security

Data Security, Cloud and the Legal Framework Ruchin Kumar, Principal Solution Architect, India and SAARC, Safenet India Pvt Ltd

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hen one talks about data privacy, it has to be clear that complete protection to all data is not possible and not everything is confidential. So the data elements that are sensitive as per the business being handled have to be identified. Documenting a policy around identifying the sensitive data/information elements and securing the same and demonstrating through regular audits the successful implementation of the defined policy thus becomes essential. Data retention or the need to retain the data as per prescribed norms and yet protect it is important, and so is data destruction - data that is not required shall not be retained longer than needed. Removal of

data shall be demonstrable. Kill the Data and any copy of Data residing anywhere irrespective of its location becomes inaccessible.

The IT Act puts substantial legal liability on the companies and requires companies to implement reasonable security measures for protecting sensitive personal data or information. Such legal liabilities, if not mitigated, may erode public confidence in the company; substantially affect profitability and even lead to imprisonment of the officials and directors of such companies.

Today, the Cloud is everywhere. Most enterprises are moving towards the Cloud.

Moving data to the cloud makes total sense from a financial and operations perspective. However, with this excitement also come challenges: security being the most important of these. The IT Security personnel say that the Cloud isn’t secure and they are right. They don’t trust the providers and they don’t know how to secure

that “thing” called cloud because it is not in the enterprise premise. They don’t even know where the servers are located. Not having full control of the server which they are responsible for makes them uncomfortable and rightly so. The second challenge comes from compliance audit groups are concerned about steps taken to ensure data security and that the architecture confirms to laid down procedures. These and other challenges have significantly slowed adoption of the Cloud.

This will change once more robust security offerings become available in the cloud but until then everyone would tread cautiously.

Sophisticated Malware Poses big Risk

T

he threat to enterprises arising out of malware can hardly be overemphasized. Trend Micro research has found that 70% of enterprise networks contain active malicious malware.

Advanced Persistent Threats are targeted attacks that persistently and effectively attack a specific entity. APT attacks can compromise data and resources and threaten all types of businesses.

Today’s advanced attacks use a multi-phase approach to achieve valuable data theft – gaining a point of entry, downloading additional malware, locating and compromising target systems, and uploading data. While an actual compromise can happen quickly, for example,

Manas Sarkar, Head Pre-Sales (India & SAARC), Trend Micro

data resident on an employee PC, the time span from entry to initial compromise is more often days or weeks. During this entire cycle the network is hosting an intelligent intruder

whose purpose is exfiltrating valuable data.

While social engineering and vulnerability exploits are the preferred method of initial entry, sophisticated malware is the key active agent at work during the lifespan of the majority of these advanced attacks. The good news is that evasive malware can be detected – by identification at entry, by its network activity, and by it effect on endpoints and servers.

Trend Micro Real-Time Threat Management solutions focus on these factors to reduce both the risk of APT attack and the impact and duration of any successful attack by minimising the likelihood of successful APT intrusion; shortening the time to attack discovery and expediting intrusion containment and remediation. The solution focus also includes automated vulnerability scanning and rapid virtual patching capabilities.

April 2012 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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Viewpoint

‘Know Your Government’ – a Ten Year Curriculum Moving ahead from the idea of e-voting-perceived as the ‘first step’ towards e-Governance, the new paradigm of information revolution is ‘Know Your Government’ or KyG Mangesh Desai

I

nterestingly, the origin of the word ‘curriculum’ as published in Wikipedia states - curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults. So while the universities, colleges and schools or any educational institutions may define curriculum as a course of studies or syllabus – the core objective of curriculum that is cultivating a certain level of maturity in the candidate, is not and cannot be deviated.

Essential Education ‘Know your Government’ can be conceived as a ten year mandatory curriculum to match our classical 1977 (10+2+3) education pattern and the RTE Act 2009 coverage of children in the age group of 6 to 14 years of age. So, now when at the age of 18 if a person is considered ‘matured’ enough to vote – then does our curriculum guarantees the minimum expected level of maturity? Does the person know anything about the Government for which he is eligible to cast his vote – does he know ‘the system’? While the RTE Act 2009 emphasizes on the right of every child to education, it is time in India that we also accentuate on inculcating in every child the right to know our Government as an essential component of education or moreover a mandatory curriculum.

To enlist a few imperatives that lead us to suggest ‘Know your Government’ as a mandatory curriculum include that in a democratic setup, it is unacceptable of a citizen being ignorant of the Government based on the Ignorantia juris non excusat or ignorantia legis neminem excusat (Latin for “ignorance of the law does not excuse”

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or “ignorance of the law excuses no one”) a legal principle. In addition, it is necessary that every person appreciates the Government setup, its machinery, its roles and responsibilities and most importantly his or her own role in ‘the system’.

Appreciation of more than 40 Ministries and their respective departments, corporations, etc. calls for an extended curriculum spanning across a ten year timeline.

How to Construct KyG The means to construct ‘Know your Government’ or ‘KyG’ as ten year curriculums are a. Theoretical 1. Between Std I and Std IV the child understands the basic structure of the Government in terms of the various Ministries and Departments, Centre and State hierarchical setups and finally the Block and Village level machineries.

2. Between Std V and Std VII the child is required to understand the functions of 50% of the total Ministries and their respective Departments 3. Between Std VIII to Std X the child is made to understand the functions of the remaining 50 percent of the total Ministries and their respective Departments b. Practical 1. Between Std V and Std VII the child is introduced to various essential processes that as a citizen he or she may encounter in near future. The child is also made to understand the Government budget and expenditure. The child is made aware of social welfare schemes rendered by the State and the Centre.

2. Between Std VIII and Std X the child is imparted training on e-Governance in terms of e-registration, introduction to Gov-

ernment web sites and tours to State Data Centre and Citizen Facilitation Centres.

Mode of Education can include for Std I to Std IV books in comics form and cartoon videos and for Std V to Std X books in magazine forms, reference books and audio visual demonstrations.

Examination and Grading can include exams to be held in line with those held for other subjects and grading system will be used to convey the results though the marks will be not considered for promoting to the next standard.

Some of the direct benefits of the system includes that every child appreciates the role of the Government and understands his or her contribution in various functions of the Government also each child thus becomes mature enough to cast his or her vote. Every child is empowered.

An Eye Opener The premise for ‘KyG’as mandatory curriculum is that it is an easily implemental solution which addresses the core issue of the common man’s ‘indifference’ towards the existing ‘system’. ‘KyG’ as a mandatory curriculum may act as an eye opener for the masses to realize how their monies collected as taxes are meant also to be expended for various social welfare schemes – from feeding a child –to sponsoring his education- to funding his business. For in reason, someone said, all Government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery. ’KyG’ can be the only means to reduce voter absenteeism – to seek the consent of the governed – voluntarily!

the author is Head-Government Solutions and Presales, Mastek Limited

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public safety & security

Integrating Silos for Effective Response to Disasters Sandeep Sehgal, Vice President, Public Sector, India & South Asia, IBM

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ooking at better use of ICT for disaster management, public safety and security, one feels that the foremost need is to establish a common data pool that can be accessed by multiple agencies in place of the silo-based systems we tend to have, where multiple agencies are collecting information from multiple sources. There has to be a common system that can integrate these disparate sources and data into a common intelligence pool available to all agencies.

The city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil would host

the Olympic Games in 2016. It is a city has many common features with Mumbai - it is densely populated, faces heavy rainfall, traffic problems and heavy water-logging.

IBM worked with the city administration to develop a solution to handle the flooding problem. An integrated operations centre with a synoptic view of the entire city from a dashboard was set up. One of the key components of the centre is a solution with meteorological tools that can model weather conditions upto 48 hours in advance. The system can point to areas of potential flooding based on precipitation data, for example. 400 active cameras across the city monitor events form a security perspective so that agencies such as police and the fire department can respond quickly to any

incident. The centre has integrated 32 agencies of the city and all city departments are connected to the operation centre 24X7. The entire system has been built on a three tier approach – infrastructure, technology and processes.

It is important to integrate silos of information for effective response. Citizens also need to be educated on how to react to disasters, and disaster-related should be included in school education itself.

Collaboration for better ICT-readiness and Security

M

ost of the people draw an analogy that Information Technology is similar to that of human brain, if we could use it effectively then it would change the entire world but if we misuse, it would create havoc for everybody like 9/11 or other terrorist activities going in India or elsewhere in the world, it’s all about how you use it.

We do have laws but we cannot always enforce them. Sometimes one wonders if technology is always a step ahead of the law. The reason is that a process as complex as creating a law will be long, as it has to pass several tests

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Hemant Sharma, Vice- Chair, BSA India Committee

before it can get enacted. This is one of the main reasons for the lag between the rate of advancement of technology and evolution of the laws. It is very important that we have partnership from industries, government and the enforcing agencies. We have the manpower but

there is a need to train and equip it well enough to properly tackle the challenges thrown up by rapidly changing technology.

At the Business Software Alliance, we work closely collaborate with government in three focus areas: public policy, end user education and trainings. Our public policy activities are related to copyright enforcement, anti-piracy activities, open standards, cyber security framework, cloud computing, software patents and ICT policy for education. In the area of end-user education, we have forged partnerships with Central and State Governments to educate and enable enterprise users, SMEs, Government departments and PSUs on software asset management and IT governance. We impart training to personnel from law enforcement, customs and the judiciary, on issues related to IPR protection and management in software.

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