Can He Change the Game?: August 2009 Issue

ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON E-GOVERNMENT

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INTERVIEW

Kapil Mohan Director (Distribution), Ministry of Power Government of India

www.egovonline.net - Asia’s Leading Portal on e-Government VOLUME 5

ISSUE 8

ISSN 0973-161X

FOCUS: ANDHRA PRADESH

AUGUST 2009

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COVER STORY

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CAN HE CHANGE THE GAME? 12

FOCUS: ANDHRA PRADESH

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INTERVIEW

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DR. RAJEEV SHARMA; DIRECTOR GENERAL, CENTRE FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE, ANDHRA PRADESH

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DR. R S PRAVEEN KUMAR; DIG &IT DIRECTOR, ANDHRA PRADESH

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DR. K T ARASU; DIRECTOR ALTERNATIVE FOR INDIA DEVELOPMENT, CHENNAI

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SHATTERING AUTHENTICATION MYTHS; SHEKHAR KIRANI, VICE PRESIDENT, VERISIGN INDIA

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INTEROPERABILITY THROUGH STANDARDS IMPLEMENTATION; MICHAEL MUDD

FEATURE

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STATE OF COMMON SERVICE CENTRES IN ANDHRA PRADESH

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INDIRAMMA- PROJECT MANAGEMENT THROUGH ICT

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PRAGYA KENDRA TURNS AROUND THE LIFE OF IMAMUDIN KHAN

ICT IN POWER INTERVIEW

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FEATURE

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FEATURE

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POLICIES AND GUIDELINES FOR EFFECTIVE EGOVERNANCE; GOPALA KRISHNA BEHARA, SR. ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT, WIPRO AND MADUSUDHANA RAO; PRINCIPLE CONSULTANT, WIPRO

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KAPIL MOHAN; DIRECTOR MINISTRY OF POWER, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

POWER REFORMS: CHALLENGES OF TECHNOLOGY STANDARDISATION; JAYANTI SINHA; DGM (IT/ APDRP), UTTARAKHAND POWER CORPORATION LIMITED, DEHRADUN

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COVER STORY

Can He Change the Game?

Nandan Nilekani has been given the charge of the one of most important eGovernance projects -UID. Can the National ID card Project create a backbone upon which governance and economic development rest comfortably?

t was a pleasant surprise to know that the UPA government after getting a fresh mandate from the people of India thought it fit to pick a professional like Mr Nandan Nilekani and appoint him for one of the most important eGovernance projects such as the National ID Card (NIDC) Project. A tough road lies ahead for Nandan and we wish him a successful stint in this new role.

The idea of National ID Card is nothing new. it has been there for quite sometime and already pilot projects had been initiated in at least two states at huge costs. The issue

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became a talking point during the elections when BJP announced in its manifesto the implementation of the “Multi Purpose National Identity (MNIC) cards”. Now Congress has capitalised on this opportunity as the ruling party and one should appreciate the need of urgency shown by the Government regarding UID after taking charge.

While Nandan as an experienced IT professional can be expected to lead the project team to the most optimal solutions and deliver the goods. But it needs to be watched how would he address the issues of

building and maintaining a reliable data base, security of the data, budget and neutrality of technology and vendors. Another major outcome that needs to be seen is that the purpose and need for a national id can range from country to country. Some countries have suggested the national id to fight terrorism and control illegal immigration.

Some countries have suggested the same to control tax evasion. There are other countries which have proposed the scheme for citizen identification in order to distribute the various Government schemes. The national id is also proposed in order to eliminate multiple ids in various Government departments.We need to watch how does our UID shape up in months ahead.

Nilekani while speaking at a felicitation ceremony said,“The key issue is to ensure there are no duplicates. The problem with existing identity systems is that there are a lot of duplicates.” He further said his job was restricted to creating an identity system and not to ensure that government benefits reach people. “It’s about the infrastructure. However, value added applications, central, state or private, can be built on the identity system.

For example, the Karnataka government may decide to implement the public distribution system using this identity system,” he further added.

Lets hope bureaucrats, politicians and support of people of India all add momentum to UID project under the able leadership of Nandan Nilekani.

brushed aside the opposition voiced by the Election Commission of India (ECI), which pointed out that electoral identity cards were “good enough” proof of identity. Incidently by that time EC had spent INR 1,000 crore over a decade, yet didn’t manage to cover the country’s 600 million but the Home ministry insisted that the MNIC was required for purposes of national security, and that the EC’s identity cards could easily be duplicated and the MNIC will provide a credible and unique individual identification system.

UNIQUE IDENTIFICATION AUTHORITY OF INDIA

NANDAN NILEKANI ASSUMING OFFICE OF UIDAI

NANDAN NILEKANI’S PROFILE Till recently Namdan Nilekani was the CEO and Managing Director of the Infosys. He was conferred the Padma Bhushan in 2006. Nilekani was born in Bangalore. His father Mohan Nilekani was a manager in Minerva Mills. Nilekani had his initial schooling in Bangalore. Due to his father’s transferable job Nilekani moved to his uncle’s place at Dharwad at the age of 12. This taught Nilekani to be independent. In 1973, at the age of 18, he got into IIT Mumbai. After graduating in electrical engineering in 1978, Nilekani joined Patni Computers. Here he worked under Infosys Founder Narayana Murthy. Three years later in 1981, Nilekani along with Murthy and five other co-founders founded Infosys.

While Murthy stayed in India, Nilekani shifted to the US to take care of Infosys’ interests there. He was the company’s marketing face. In 1980s and 90s Nilekani and his team worked hard to build Infosys. Today Infosys’ success story has become a legend in India’s corporate history. Nilekani is recipient of several honours and awards. In January 2006, he became one of the youngest entrepreneurs to join 20 global leaders on the prestigious World Economic Forum (WEF) Foundation Board. He figures among one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine, 2006. In 2005 he was awarded the prestigious Joseph Schumpeter prize for innovative services in the field of economy, economic sciences and politics. In 2006, Nilekani was conferred the Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian honours of India.

Way back in the year 2002, the Multipurpose National Identity Card (MNIC) project was initiated under the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led NDA government. It was an initiative of the Indian government to create a national ID for every Indian citizen with the objective of increasing national security, managing citizen identity and facilitating e-governance.

In May 2007, the Indian government launched a pilot project on MNIC and issued cards in selected regions of the country in contemplation of later implementing a nation-wide identification system. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) claimed that the identification system will strengthen national security while facilitating efficiency in e-governance. MHA further said that the system will gather the personal data of Indian citizens - including gender, age,

marital status, permanent address, names of family members - into a national register, the maintenance of which will be outsourced to a group of technology corporations. Each citizen will be assigned a specific number that will be used as a reference for various socioeconomic databases including passports, driving licenses, and for accessing health care and education.

At that time the government was calling it the “mother of all cards” because it was pitched to be the the most definitive proof of citizenship ever, overriding your passport, ration card, even your prized electoral card.

Government was planning to spend around INR 5000 crore on it. The card would contain the personal details, photograph, finger biometry and blood group. The MHA was so keen on the MNIC project that it

In Februrary 2009, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was established by Government of India for implementing the envisioned Multipurpose National Identity Card or Unique Identification card (UID Card) project in India. The authority aims at providing a unique number to all Indians, but not smart cards. The authority would provide a database of residents containing very simple data in biometrics.

The UIDAI is part of the Planning Commission of India. Nandan Nilekani, former co-chairman of Infosys Technologies, was appointed as the first Chairman of the authority holding a Cabinet rank. R S Sharma, an IAS Officer of Jharkhand Government cadre has been appointed as the Director General and Mission Director of the Authority.

He is known for his efforts in working for e-Governance projects for Jharkhand due to which the state received a number of awards for Best Information Technology Trends State in India.

MERGER OF MNIC AND UIDAI The MNIC project is now integrated with the UIDAI project. An empowered group of ministers (EGOM) under the leadership of the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee approved the decision on November 4, 2008. The Department of Information Technology issued a press release confirming the development on November 10, 2008.

The necessity for a centrally issued ID is accentuated by the growing problems of illegal immigrants in various parts of the country. The ID is expected to serve as a unifying document to identify the citizens of India. The events of November 26 in Mumbai have hastened the set up of the National Authority for Unique Identity. The body was set up on January 27, 2009.

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The MNIC project is now integrated with the UIDAI project. An empowered group of ministers (EGOM) under the leadership of the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee approved the decision on November 4, 2008.

the benefits do not reach those they are not meant for.

GOALS It is believed that Unique National IDs will help address the widespread embezzlement that affects subsidies and poverty alleviation programmes such as NREGA. Addressing i l l e g a l immigration into India and NANDAN NILEKANI BEING CONFERRED PADMA BHUSHAN IN THE YEAR 2006 terrorist threats BT THE THEN PRESIDENT OF INDIA, DR. A P J ABDUL KALAM is another goal of the programme.

The initial phase of the project is expected Most reports suggest that the plan is for each to cover nine States and four Union Territories. Indian citizen to have a unique identification The UID will be issued to people living in the number with associated identifying biometric coastal villages of Gujarat, Maharashtra, data and photographs by 2011. The Authority Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra is liaising with various national, state and local Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal. The government entities to begin this process.

Union Territories of Dadar and Nagar Haveli, The Union Labour Ministry has offered its Lakshadweep, Puducherry and Andaman & verified Employment Provident Fund (EPFO) Nicobar Islands shall also be covered in this database of 42 million citizens as the first first phase expected to deliver the identity database to be integrated into the unique ID cards by early 2010. system.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF UIDAI

BUDGET

The UIDAI will have the responsibilities to lay down plans and policies to implement the Unique Identification Scheme. It will also own and operate the Unique Identification Number database, will be responsible for its updation and maintenance on an ongoing basis, will identify the targeted groups for various flagship programmes which are National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, National Rural Health Mission and Bharat Nirman. The unique identification number would ensure that any lacuna in these schemes is removed so that

The Interim budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on February 16, 2009 allocated INR 100 Crore towards the establishment of the National Authority of Unique Identity under the National Planning Commission. The government has earmarked INR 100 crore to establish “a comprehensive system of unique identity for the resident population of the country”.

ADVANTAGE UID

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This is not for the first time that the government is thinking that all Indians

LEGAL AMENDMENTS MADE TO FACILITATE THE MNIC PROJECT The Citizenship Act, 1955, was amended and a specific section on registration of citizens and issuing cards had been included. In addition the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 had been notified in the Government of India Gazette Vide GSR No. 937(E) dated December 10, 2003.

IMPORTANT AMENDMENTS TO THE PROVISIONS OF THE CITIZENSHIP ACT, 1955 Section 14A The Central Government may compulsorily register every citizen of India and issue national identity card to him. The Central Government may maintain a National Register of Indian Citizens and for that purpose establish a National Registration Authority. On and from the date of commencement of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003, the Registrar General of India, appointed under sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 shall act as the National Registration Authority and he shall function as the Registrar General of Citizen Registration.

The Central Government may appoint such other officers and staff as may be required to assist the Registrar General of Citizen Registration in discharging his functions and responsibilities. The procedure to be followed in compulsory registration of the citizens of India shall be such as may be prescribed. In sub-section(2) of section 18 (ia) has been inserted after clause (i) the procedure to be followed in compulsory registration of the citizens of India under subsection (5) of section 14A;In sub-section (3) of section 18 the following proviso has been inserted “PROVIDED that any rule made in respect of a matter specified in clause (ia) of sub-section (2) may provide that a breach thereof shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months, or with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees, or with both”.

HIGHLIGHTS

PROTOTYPE OF MNIC CARD

should have a Unique Identification Number.

The idea has been floating around for a few years, sometimes in active mode and at other times in hibernating mode, with even a few pilots launched here and there, mostly to no avail. This time, however, the government appears to be serious. Shaken by the terrorist attacks, the government has gone ahead and appointed former Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani to head the Unique Identification Authority of India.

The corporate world has been particularly hearty in cheering Nilekani’s appointment, seeing this as a new direction in which ‘skill’ and ‘management techniques’ may at last be starting to be welcomed in governance too. But we must remember that this is just a beginning, one needs to watch out how this project shapes up as we would not like to count the eggs before they hatch.

The most powerful argument for the Multipurpose National Identity Card (MNIC) have been around security. But there are good reasons not to get carried away by this rhetoric. There are many developed countries that do not use a national ID card - Wikipedia currently lists Australia, Denmark, Ireland, Japan and the UK among countries without a national identification scheme.

Australia recently even shelved its plans to create one, in the face of opposition. And the American Social Security Number, which is the most commonly cited example of the kind of system we ‘need’, is not really a system for the ‘identification’ of individuals,

although it is used in that way by certain sections of American society. In the US, Social Security numbers were introduced for a pension programme based on employer contributions, and were not intended for broad ID purposes. And despite this limited focus, it took five years for the programme to get off the ground. Even today many agencies of the US government and the states do not use it to establish identity at the point of delivering services or benefits An additional difficulty, in the case of the UIDAI, is the expectation that it should deliver something within two or three years. This may be too much to expect, given that much of the ‘implementation’ would need to negotiate its way past the countless array of programmes that the Centre and States have, each with its own well-guarded administrative and political turf. In the optimism over Nilekani’s appointment to the UIDAI, we should not forget the complexity of the challenge ahead.

The Unique ID certainly has the potential to transform the delivery of public services in important ways. But this is not the only plus point.

The major benifit of UID to watch out in the future will be to see if it can create a backbone upon which governance and economic development rest comfortably. The ID should be a catalyst for such change, rather than merely a tool for authentication. \\ Sandeep Budki sandeep@egovonline.net

// UID has been santioned INR 120 Crore in the interim budge and is likely to get INR 200 crore more in the Union budget for 2009-10. // About 150 professionals are being hired, mostly from outside the government, to function as the core team and kick-start the massive project, which was in the offing for the past six years. // The project will be implemented over the next three years, and estimates by industry sources have put the cost at INR10,000 crore. // The new authority will have the flexibility to draw talent from the private sector and build on the core team’s strength.

It will help to identify beneficiaries of schemes such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Public Distribution System. // Database of residents from various sources will be used for biometric identification. // The first set of unique identification numbers is expected to be issued within next 12-18 months. // This unique identity number will soon eliminate the need for existing identification cards for opening bank and post office accounts or taking electricity connections // The identification number, which will primarily help to “authenticate” an individual in the country, will be issued to Indian residents on voluntary basis. Any Indian can get the number by showing a residence proof. // The UID project plans to create unique identification numbers for all Indians by 2011. Currently, India does not have any standard identification card or number to authenticate an individual’s identity. // UID number would help the government in identifying targeted beneficiaries for PDS, extending subsidy on kerosene or for providing new LPG connection.

Departments can use the number for issuing cards. // The statement by Nandan Nilekani that the ambitious Unique Identification card will be for all residents of India, including non-citizens, triggered a controversy with BJP demanding a statement from the government. // Bill Gates, chairman and co-founder of Microsoft said that the Microsoft wants to be a part of the project.

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e-Governance www.cgg.gov.in What was the objective behind setting up of Centre for Good Governance? How much of it has been met?

The Centre was started some eight years back; mainly with the assistance of DFID to not only act as a think tank, but also to take new initiatives and design tools and processes for implementing governance reforms.

The main issue was that in those days, there were problems involving economic restructuring, and the World Bank suggested that apart from economic reforms, the governance reforms should go hand in hand, with equal priority being given to the latter. This institution was carved out on a unique pattern where intense involvement of concerned departments in focus areas of reform was ensured.

CGG created two wings with in the institution. The first one was to provide the research part or the knowledge part of it, and the second was the IT implementation part. This is a unique model because usually in the IT sector, the technology part is given more importance than the process part comes from outside, as it requires domain knowledge. The understanding of govt. processes should actually precede IT solution and that is what we are doing here.

So, we have been fairly successful in creating reasonably good models in public service delivery in certain important areas, which can improve the functioning of government.

DR RAJEEV SHARMA DIRECTOR GENERAL, CENTRE FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE, ANDHRA PRADESH

“The e-Governance policy should be a sequel to the policy on governance reform. We should bring governance reforms in focus first and then move on to executing e-Governance to achieve those objectives.”

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Can you elaborate on eJustice, which was implemented

by CGG? eJustice was a UNDP supported pilot programme to create awareness about access to justice. Its focus was women in rural and semi-urban areas. Our trained volunteers would visit villages, talk to groups of women and inform them about various laws and legal mechanisms through which they could address problems.

We also put up kiosks in specific locations in some districts, which were managed by facilitators with para-legal knowledge. They would counsel people visiting these kiosks. We also had linkages with the district legal aid societies so as to provide legal assistance in case a villager wanted to approach the court. Moreover, a help line was also established for assistance in case the facilitator could not be of much help. The details of such calls would then be forwarded to the legal aid societies.

Can you tell us about CGG’s involvement in government project management?

Project management is a very cumbersome affair in the government.

We are into creating simple and relevant web enabled tools, that even provide access to beneficiaries of government programmes. In Indiramma scheme, particularly the housing programme for weaker sections, we have been able to create a good support system which not only provides MIS report to the department but also gives visibility

// INTERVIEW

in terms of making online actual records of the department. This tool takes you right up to the district, mandal and village level and even the beneficiaries. You can see details of funds released for the house, at what stage is the construction, how much cement has been provided, etc.

So one doesn’t have to take recourse to RTI or other information gathering mechanism as information is proactively disclosed here.

Normally, MIS is available only to implementing agencies, and not those at the receiving end.

Whereas, our system puts information in the public domain, thereby removing mystery surrounding the government projects.

What are the other projects being handled by CGG? Recently we did a budgeting project for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, which involves the concept of P-budgeting or pro-poor budgeting. P-budgeting determines the proportion of budgetary allowance that has gone to the kitty of the poor.

Recently there were reports of a data operator allegedly caught siphoning nearly INR 2 crore from the Indiramma project. How can such manipulations be avoided?

In order to avoid such manipulations, you need to eventually migrate to proper security system and online financial transactions.

Without security enabled features, the risk will always be there.

Tell us about the agriculture portal being developed by CGG? The agriculture portal is an important initiative, which would give farmers inputs from allied departments concerning agricultural practices. The intention is to make it accessible to various stakeholders for their inputs. The content may then be edited and put in understandable format. A model kiosk will be set up in CGG in a month or so and we will test the pilot and then scale it up.

We are also developing a consortium, comprising allied departments like fertilizer, marketing, seri-culture, fisheries, etc, research institutions like agricultural university and ICRISAT, and so on.

Do you perceive e-Governance as a step towards administrative reforms?

I would say you need to introduce technical reforms by changing your practices, processes, manual systems and then let the transformation stabilise. Only then should you bring the ‘e’ element. It is not feasible

to introduce technology and e-Governance solutions and then scratch your head to say “we made a mistake in this and that process”.

Mostly, we are in hurry to complete the project and do not devote sufficient time to study the processes and process re-engineering. The involvement of the top management in the programme formulation and analysis is very important, as projects fail to create any impact in the absence of it.

Do we need a national or a state policy on e-Governance first?

More than a state policy, we need to have a national policy framework for eGovernance. We need to go into the process of administrative reforms. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission has come up with a detailed set of recommendations.

We need to start with that as a basic building block and then create a policy around that and bring in ICT in terms of implementation. The e-Governance policy should be a sequel to the policy on governance reform. We should bring governance reforms in focus first and then move on to executing e-Governance to achieve those objectives. The reforms need to be multi-level and multi-sectoral and at the core of that should be the administrative reforms. I would say we should take stock of what is happening with NeGP and bring in the perspective of administrative reforms in that. At the state level, not only do we need a state policy framework but also short, mid and long term strategy for implementing e-Governance projects in departments.

We should create decentralised centres of change within each departments. People should be sensitised about the need of having a paperless office. How file monitoring or public grievances can be handled with eGovernance applications?

Don’t you think availability of G2C services and opening of service outlets should go hand in hand?

Ideally both should go hand in hand. If you provide infrastructure and services do not come, then the whole effort becomes pointless, and vice versa. Very often the critical test lies in migrating from existing form of service provision to an ICT enabled system.

Parallel running of both the systems does not always help as it may not be economically viable due to low transactions. Ofcourse, there is a migration period and people need to be given both the choices. But it is always ideal to set up a deadline for complete switch over.

What hampered the successful implementation of electronic land records in AP? Continuing the age-old system with the new system won’t help. As far as services like land records are concerned, resources should be allocated and a time frame should be set for complete migration to the alternative system.

But for a mass scale change, we require a legislative framework. The US and many other countries have a legislation for e-Governance.

Formal legislations and executive instructions help in successful implementation of a policy.

For example, the use of PAN number has been made mandatory by law, hence its usage has increased.

Is PPP the right approach for e-Governance projects?

A PPP model certainly helps, provided it is customised to suit the given situation or project. You need to see the viability of the project and how much PPP participation is required and what should be the ratio. We should not fight shy of providing the viability gap funding or bundling it with some other services to make it viable.

Do we require a national framework for impact assessment of these projects?

Be it an e-Governance or any other infrastructure project, we need to have a regular feedback and monitoring mechanism for getting desired results. It should also lead to corrective steps, not only when the project is complete but also during its implementation.

The culture of including the monitoring and evaluation and getting a comprehensive 360 degree feedback, is not part of our functioning. For example, while running a public school, do we get feed back from the parents, do we take corrective measures, school by school? Right now we have concepts like expenditure and performance audit, but we need to have a proper assessment of the impact of the investment committed in a project.

Where do you see CGG after ten years?

In future, I see CGG as a lead institution, providing practical, affordable solution in governance reform, including e-Governance.

It would have a niche area for itself, taking suo moto interventions, doing research to develop specific tools, methods and processes to improve governance. We will also strive to extend our presence in other states as well as beyond India. \\

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State of Common Service Centres in Andhra Pradesh INTRODUCTION Department of Information and Technology (IT), Government of India launched the National eGovernance Plan (NeGP) in 2006, with the prime objective to deliver “government services to citizens at their doorsteps”.

More than one lakh CSCs (nearly 1,13,000) will be covering 6 lakh villages of the country.

Out of the total cost of Rs. 5,742 Crore, the Centre would be contributing nearly Rs. 856 crores and the state governments about Rs.793 crore and the rest will be from the private players.

Within one year of signing the deal between the state government and the bidder or the state implementing agency, all the stipulated number of CSCs have to be put in place and made operational. Unfortunately, in many of the states where CSC deal has been finalized, even after couple of years of it, the case has not been so. Moreover, as is the case in many other states, CSCs in Andhra Pradesh too are struggling with the issues like financial viability and long-term sustenance.

STATUS OF CSC IN STATE Pan India, till date, nearly 36000 CSCs are operational. Two states, namely, Haryana and Jharkhand have implemented the required number of centres. But the actual issue is not the delay but the reason behind the delay. Even in many of the 36000 centres, the availability of services is an issue, neither government to citizen (G2C) nor business to citizen (B2C). And Andhra Pradesh is no exception. Till this date, in Andhra Pradesh, out of the total 4,687 CSCs covering 28000 villages, nearly 319 CSCs are operational, according to the data made available by the IT & Communication Department.

In early 2008, two bidders were finalized out of the bidding process as state implementing agencies for CSC implementation, namely, CMS, which has 3 zones, and 3i Infotech,

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having one zone. Apart from these two, TIMES and BEL were given a zone each because of their involvement in establishing RAJiv Centres in rural Andhra Pradesh, which are being subsumed into CSCs. BEL did not take up the given zone and that zone has been given to TIMES, since no other private player appeared during the bidding process even after scheduling time for it at least two times. Out of the total operational 319 CSCs, 309 has been done by TIMES and 9 by CMS, reportedly. 3i Infotech has planned to quit, failing to erect these centres in the existing situations.

Highly placed sources in Department of IT and Communication commented on the appropriateness of the provision of setting up of all number of CSCs after 12 months of deal finalisation. “It’s a false assumption to have all CSCs operational within an year, while most of the departments are still far from digitization and BPR. To have the desired result, policies should be realistic and consider field reality, he added.

BANK GUARANTEE AND PENALIZATION To set up CSCs in each zone, the state implementing agency has to deposit Rs.1.8 crore as bank guarantee with the IT and Communications Department. This amount

is kept as security money, which in case can be deducted if the service level agreements related with CSCs are not kept as per the deal. One of the provisions in the SLA also discusses the case of delay in implementing CSCs in the stipulated timeframe that is within one year. CMS has three zones, so it has kept Rs.5.4Crore as bank guarantee.

However, TIMES has been relieved of this security amount because of reason that it is a non-profit organization, which has worked, in rural Andhra Pradesh in crop insurance and training of youth in IT and Communications.

So, now the implementing agencies are at the mercy of the government, and they have already put their requests to the government table to not to penalize.

E-SERVICE AVAILABILITY, OWNERSHIP AND BPR ISSUES According to government agencies, it’s the business to citizen (B2C) services that would bring income to these centres and make them sustainable. However, they admit to the need to ensure a minimum number of transactions, with the availability of G2C services.

Echoing same concerns more firmly, the implementing agencies tell that the rural masses are rarely affected by the availability of B2C services. It’s the government services like land records, birth and death certificates, caste certificates, utility bills, filing grievances, driving license and many others which attracts masses to these centres for which they have to shell money and time for visiting the respective offices in town and cities.

Moreover, the agencies are more concerned on the lack of willingness to e-Enable services in many of the government departments. Most of the departments are yet to be digitized, data centres are still to be put in place and with the given situation the assumption of the

extension of services to rural areas is nothing else but false.

As in the case of RAJiv Centres, where the opening of service outlets had not gone hand in hand with the availability of electronic government services, the situation has rarely improved. In the given condition, it can be easily gauged that Business Process Reengineering in government departments is still a distant dream, at least in AP, if not in other states, which again will be a too optimistic assumption.

A senior official related with ICT implementation in government departments in Andhra Pradesh described the issue, which has been grossly undervalued in the NeGP and said, “The key issue of process re-engineering has been clearly ignored, without which the technological deployments may not give their desired results.” He stressed on the need to transform the way government departments work, in dark shade, hiding information, and opined that the issues can only be addressed with process re-engineering and not just bringing in technology.

VIABILITY GAP FUNDING AND 3i-INFOTECH’S NEGATIVE BIDDING DIT, Government of India has smartly included the provision of subsidy of Rs.3,000 to operators, as a viability gap funding, because of the unavailability of government services in the initial days. But this has not translated into a smart move for most of the states, including AP, since the private bidders, mesmerized by the lucrative Request For Proposal (RFP), and with assumptions of making money immediately after setting up these centres, rejected the subsidy amount at the time of bidding and had even gone to the extent of making their bids in negative. Now,

the private players have a strong feeling that it may not be a viable business, with the existing situations. Resultantly, the enthusiasm with which they entered into CSCs have faded and this has made the implementation rate of CSCs considerably slow.

A live example of this can be found in AP. Out of three bidders for CSC, CMS made its bid at zero. 3i Infotech went many steps ahead and made its bid in negative, precisely, - which means that the company would be paying to the government Rs.351 per centre.

Now the situation is that reportedly 3i Infotech is planning to quit the CSC project in the state. CMS is struggling in setting up centres, and till date it has to its credit just 10 centres (by June 2009) out of the total 2344 in a year, by which it was supposed to complete all of them. On its part, TIMES has been able to set up 309 centres (by June 2009), more than any of the other implementing agencies. However, a fresh commitment and interest has been shown by CMS and TIMES to continue with CSCs and in the coming months they are planning to come up with many more centres.

DECENTRALISED AND NEED SPECIFIC BOUQUET OF SERVICES A year after signing of deal, the stakeholders are increasingly realizing that a solution can be a bouquet of services (especially B2C, given the fact that even in coming years there are doubts if the government services will be made available to these centres), improvised according to the local needs and necessities of the people, if the centres have to be made viable. CMS and TIMES are working, on coming up with such services, which can be bundled with these centres to make it viable at least in non-IT services area.

There is no dearth of examples of bundling of non-IT services to CSCs in many parts of the country. Like in Palamau district of Jharkhand, the Deputy Commissioner has utilized the centres in the election times, for making videos and appointing the operators as civil monitors of the elections campaigns.

Besides, DC also provided the work of digitization of some departments to these centres, which resulted in new lease of life to the centres, which were struggling with same reasons of unavailability of G2C and lack of interest for B2C in rural areas.

Gujarat is another place where e-Kiosks set up by dairy authorities, popular as Dairy Information Service Kiosk (DISK) have been used to sell milks and have an up to date account of the sales, reducing time of the each farmer in selling to these centres and people purchasing milks at reasonable rates to these centres. Earlier the queue of people coming for purchasing purpose was longer, but after the setting up of thousands of kiosk, the queue of farmers selling milk to these centres increased and queue for purchasing decreased with speedy and fair business.

Similar things can be done anywhere, viewing the local needs of the people.

FNANCIAL INCLUSION (FI) AND CSC Financial Inclusion is a fascinating concept for many of the academicians but linking of it to CSCs has not been given much importance. Also, reportedly, the banks are not very interested in opening up zero balance savings accounts for the rural masses, besides opting an indifferent attitude in providing micro credits and loans to the masses. Though, through CSCs the banks can opt for branch less banking, and can have these centres as business centres, but its all easier said than done.

CONCLUSION The potential of an ICT enabled kiosk in providing employment, business, education, services, information on health and agriculture are quite apparent and huge. But this can not be realized until issues surrounding CSCs like - lack of basic infrastructure; slow pace of BPR and lack of digital data, lack of will in e-Enabling the processes in government departments; viability gap funding, unavailability of need specific B2C services, and lack of awareness about the ICT4D concept – are resolved.e. \\ Pratap Vikram Singh, pratap@egovonline.net

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FOCUS: ANDHRA PRADESH

‘Delete’ Cyber Crimes www.apstatepolice.org

DR R S PRAVEEN KUMAR DIG & JT DIRECTOR, ANDHRA PRADESH POLICE ACADEMY, HYDERABAD

“With the IT Amendment Act 2008, most of the issues like cyber cafe regulations, privacy issues, email abuse, cyber stalking, terror sites and so on will be addressed. Here after, even an inspector rank officer can investigate offences under IT Act” 16

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“Hundreds Hun r d off citizens Hundreds t z n are r no now freely r e writing t n too us ttheir e r views ws about b ut our ur fun i n n and functioning nd reporting e o t n crime r m through h o g our ur crime r m buster u t r link i k wh which ch iin normal r al situation i a i n wo would lld no not hha havee bbeen e n ppossible.” s ibl bl b e” Can you tell us in brief about the initiatives taken by the Hyderabad City Police to contain rapidly increasing cyber crime?

At the outset, there was hardly any awareness about cyber crime in Hyderabad, people didn’t know how to report such incidents, whom to approach, what evidence to preserve and how to protect themselves from such crimes. On the policing front too, it is a very nascent field, hence, they didn’t know how to investigate such crimes. In fact there was no clarity as to what can be called a cyber crime and what sections of penal law are to be applied.

First we set about creating awareness.

With the encouragement of the present City Police Commissioner B Prasada Rao, we started a City Computer Training Centre where the officers were exposed to the emerging challenges of cyber crime.

We also started a Cyber Crimes Cell in the Detective Department of the city police to assist all the investigating officers. Our official website – hyderabadpolice.gov.in – launched with the help of AP National Informatics Centre, serves as a good forum to share our views with the citizens and vice versa. Then we also started an SMS service 9010100100 so that citizens can report to us any incidents even if they are offline.

How did the Delete campaign start? How successful have you been in realising its objectives?

Delete campaign is an unique concept.

When we analysed the pattern in cyber frauds, we realised that cyber frauds happened through unsolicited emails or SMS. Most of the victims didn’t have computers of their own and hence accessed net through cyber cafes and money was deposited in genuine bank

accounts. Indian urban youth would be used as money mules and the chief perpetrator would always be a foreigner, in most cases Nigerians on visiting or business visa, and so on. The point here is that the crime starts with a mail/sms. Hence to prevent it we must either read it, without responding to it, which is difficult, or the second option is to just delete it. We decided to concentrate on the second option. Our cyber cops, cyber administrative teams (IT core teams in other words) regularly visit cyber cafes, public and private offices, banks, ATMs etc to spread the message. So we have already covered 1/4th of the cyber cafes in the city.

How skilled and equipped is your team to tackle this newly evolved crime?

Capacity building is a continuous process. Our knowledge initially was minimal.

As we realised that this is going to affect our endeavours, we started training our officers in AP Forensic labs, GEQD, CFSL, etc. On top of it, we also got first hand experience dealing with the victims and cyber criminals.

Since cyber crime is a highly dynamic field, we continue to learn.

Do we need a good number of ethical hackers working closely with security agencies, to tackle this menace?

Yes, of course. Ethical hacking is a highly focussed activity. We take their help only after verifying their antecedents and for crime investigation only. We also take the help of many private cyber security agencies and freelancers in the investigations.

Do you think ICT can be used to transform the way police departments work in our country and make it more sensitive towards the citizenry, besides

bringing transparency and accountability within the organisation?

Absolutely, it adds ease to life, removes hassles, improves efficiency and adds quality. For example, hundreds of citizens are now freely writing to us their views about our functioning and reporting crime through our crime buster link which in normal situation would not have been possible. This is only a beginning. We will harness its real potential in the days to come.

Do we have enough legislation to deal with this issue? Please elaborate.

Till recently no. But with the IT Amendment Act 2008, most of the issues like cyber cafe regulations, privacy issues, email abuse, cyber stalking, terror sites and so on will be addressed. Here after, even an inspector rank officer can investigate offences under IT Act. This itself is enough to make a huge change.

What kind of challenges do you encounter while working in this area?

The most important challenge is with regard to Application service providers. There is tremendous scope for further improvement in this regard. Secondly, international cooperation is needed as cyber crimes know no borders. Thirdly, cooperation among all LEAs (law enforcement agencies) is a must in the country. Public Private Partnerships in capacity building of police forces and improving quality of investigations are other two requirements. Lastly, there is a need for lot of investment in generating awareness about cyber crime in the public. What we are doing now is solely our initiative. May be, government departments and agencies like NASSCOM, DSCI, CDAC, etc should lead the way. \\

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FOCUS: ANDHRA PRADESH

INDIRAMMA – Project Management Through ICT www.indiramma.com

ccording to the 2006 Census, there are 65 lakh houseless popluation in Andhra Pradesh – of which 52 lakhs fall in rural areas and 13 lakhs in urban areas. Recognising the right to adequate housing as a basic right of this population, the State government in 2006 set out on an ambitious programme called the Integrated Novel Development in Rural Areas & Model Municipal Areas (INDIRAMMA).

INDIRAMMA is aimed at achieving a slum-free and hut-free state of Andhra Pradesh in three-year period. Apart from the most important component of housing, INDIRAMMA also aims to deliver a package of 8 other services like pensions, drinking water, roads, elementary education, electricity, ICDS, health and sanitation to the rural and urban poor.

The overall allocation for the programme is to the tune of INR 20,000 Crore, out of which nearly INR 10,000 crore has been spent resulting in construction of 25 lakh houses, of the allocated 73 lakhs.

A

L-R CGG TEAM, DAMODAR ABBAI, M SRINIVAS AND P HEMANTH.

MONITORING THROUGH E-GOVERNANCE For a programme as massive and decentralised as housing, a tight monitoring system is required to arrest irregularities, which can only be possible through an IT enabled system. The top management of the AP State Housing Corporation felt that with such huge number of beneficiaries, the tracking of every single penny, cementing of each walls, could not be done without the application of information and communication technology.

The e-Governance system, developed by the Centre for Good Governance for the project, facilitates making online

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payment, internal banking system, monitors house-wise progress and follows up on complaints. It comprises mainly of online database, payment gateway and real time MIS. ONLINE DATABASE With special attention on the collection of database, the housing department made mandal wise teams, which went house-to-house and verified nearly 80 lakh beneficiaries. These teams captured images of the beneficiary and her dwelling. This data would then be uploaded to the central server

through Internet. Once uploaded, the data is frozen, restraining any chance of further editing or tampering. Most importantly, the complete database is available on the housing department website, which provides the option for cross verification.

R Subrahmanyam, MD, AP State Housing Corporation, said, “Database has been developed with a very painstaking effort by large number of interdisciplinary teams and finalised by a transparent process, where we go to the doorstep of each beneficiary. The team goes to each house, assess whether the house needs reconstruction and if it requires, they take a photograph, fill up

documentation and virtually do the sanction and then bring it to the mandal level, and the database gets stored in the central server and is locked.”

PAYMENT GATEWAY Payment to every individual is done through the central server with the help of Internet with mandal centres as the access points to the data entry operators. The payments for each stage of the programme is fixed, independent of the place it is being done in the state. With the online payment system, the delivery of payments have been made speedy and ensured that they are going into right the hands. Till date, more than INR 6,000 crore has been delivered to beneficiaries through this online mechanism, which makes it “largest disbursement gateway” in the field of e-Governance. “We have a system of making payments through corporate net banking system. I have been told that we are the biggest users of corporate net banking in the country, because thousands of crores gets transferred to the beneficiaries, using the latest technology,” Subrahmanyam said.

REAL TIME MIS The payment gateway has been synchronised with MIS, and so when ever you promote an individual from a housing stage to the upper stage, the MIS automatically gets updated. With beneficiaries spread across the state in huge numbers, the MIS has

proved to be a good tool, facilitating speedy decision making in the organisation.

Explaining about the benefits from the MIS, the managing director said, “Several financial reports and general reports comes through this channel, so we know how much is paid where. If any excess amount is transferred to some account it is highlighted immediately.”

CURBING RAMPANT CORRUPTION Earlier in the manual system, corruption was rampant and there were delays in payments to actual beneficiaries. Some officials, in charge of beneficiary database, exercised illegitimate discretionary powers and demanded bribes from eligible beneficiaries for disbursement of payments. In case their demands were not met, the beneficiaries name would be replaced with someone ready to shell money out.

But now, “the online posting of database has helped us to a great extent and the process has become simpler. Earlier, the concerned official would manually make a payment order, so there was more scope for corruption as it was his discretion whether the beneficiary would be paid INR 5,000 or INR 20,000 for the work”, Subrahmanyam said.

TRANSPARENCY POST ICT The deployment of ICT applications has facilitated better control among the top management over the project implementation.

R SUBRAHMANYAM,MANAGING DIRECTOR, STATE HOUSING CORPORATION, GOAP.

It has also helped a great deal in pegging responsibility and accountability at each level of the department. Earlier, under table deals were reportedly a routine business with corrupt officials.

Pointing to the transparency brought on with ICT application, Dr Rajeev Sharma, Director General, Centre for Good Governance said, “In INDIRAMMA, we have been able to create a good support system, which not only provides MIS report to the department to implement the programme but also provides visibility to beneficiaries in terms of actual records of department which are online.”

“Once you open that particular page you can see full details of how much money has been released for the house, at what stage is construction, how much cement has been provided, etc and all these bring transparency. So if there is any discrepancy, any one can raise question. So this system provides transparency and also access to poor people through technology,” he added.

ROLE OF SHGS It is almost impossible to open a bank account for each beneficiary, viewing the number and the monetary capabilities. So the daunting task of transfer of payments has been addressed with the help of Self Help Groups. In a village, eight to ten SHGs join and make a Village Organisation, which is headed by one of the SHG members.

Now, a bank account is opened in the name of every VO. The payments for each group member is done through this bank account, which is further distributed within the SHG members. The involvement of groups and group-wise distribution makes way for third party auditing too.

Commenting on the critical role of SHGs, Subrahmanyam said, “We ride on the shoulders of our SHG movement, comprising 8.5 lakh groups, covering almost of one crore families. A woman from each family is the member of SHG. We are very closely associated with the SHG network, in terms of disbursement of payment, monitoring and even manufacturing of the materials like bricks, door frames, etc.”

Explaining further, he said, “We nominate the Village Organiasation, which is the apex body of SHGs at the village level, as disbursing agents. So if in a particular village, 789 people are beneficiaries, and payments have to be disbursed, the amount will first come to VO’s account. So instead of having 789 accounts in the bank, we are doing the

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payments (of that particular village) through one account. So the VO head goes to the bank, collects the money and then distributes among the 789 members.”

NON-INVOLVEMENT OF CONTRACTORS An interesting fact abut this housing scheme is the non-involvement of contractors, for the construction of houses or even for manufacturing of housing materials. Apart from reducing cost, it has also dwindled the number of issues cropping up due to involvement of external party in the implementation.

However, the direct involvement with people demands great attention, since one has to look to every individual problem and issues, and this is considered as one of challenges in the implementation of the scheme.

The housing department senior official said, “Basically our scheme runs with the people. It is for the people and by the people.

We don’t encourage any contractor system and is purely implemented by the people. So that is our greatest strength, as there is no middleman. But yes, sometimes it becomes a weak point too, because we have to handle lakhs and lakhs of people. We have to monitor the progress of every single person.

Every person has got some problem or the other, which demand redressal.”

EXECUTIVE WILL AT SUCCESS Whenever things are done in a different

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manner, especially against the existing legacy set-up, one has to face lot of resistance within the organisation. The sanctioning of computing devices to each of assistant engineers and opting for ICT for project monitoring demands strong will at the top executive level, and this can be seen in INDIRAMMA. Damodar Abbai, Senior Project Manager, CGG, who looks after INDIRAMMA ICT application, said, “Getting sanction orders for laptops for each of the assistant engineers in 1200 mandals and getting the most appropriate ICT applications for monitoring the project has been possible only because of the resolve of the senior management of the housing corporation.”

“The interface of the INDIRAMMA website meant for updating information about various beneficiaries, is so user friendly that no special change management or training was required to develop the ICT skills among the data entry operators,” he added.

24X7 CUSTOMER SUPPORT Another reason behind the popularity of this scheme is the 24x7 customer support for addressing the queries and grievances of the targeted people, which is quite rare in any of the government institutions, leaving aside telecommunications and some other departments. Interestingly, a unit of the call centre has been equipped with an SMS facility, through which grievances are forwarded to concerned officials.

Elaborating on the call centre facility,

Subrahmanyam said, “We have a 24x7 toll free number, a call centre, which registers complaints from any body. One just needs to dial 1100 and we have a comprehensive programme, which registers the complaint, transmits it through an SMS to the concerned official. If not resolved within a particular time frame the complaint is forwarded to a higher level.”

“Till date we have received 4000 complains. Out of this, 1000 are pending, some are incorrect, and rest has been resolved. You can click on the pending ones, and check why they are pending, see where the delay is. This has helped us to monitor the programme. So as I said, the fact that we work with millions of people is both our strength and weakness,” he added.

CHALLENGES IN ICT IMPLEMENTATION Despite the ICT inclusion in project monitoring, there are some components of the programme, which are yet to be made completely online, mitigating any chance of manipulation.

In mid-July this year, a news report appeared, claiming that a government official had siphoned away nearly INR 2 crore.

Although the case was tracked down without much delay, but the issue of manipulation is still there and is quite apparent with this incident. “As we still depend on the manual system of transferring money, the possibility of fraud is always there,” Dr Sharma said.

The target of constructing another 50 lakh houses by 2011 is not an easier task for either the Housing department or the CGG technical team, which has been responding to every minute changes, synchronising them at the ground and policy level. Thanks to the vigilant Housing department and the technical team, the initial list of 80 lakh beneficiaries has been corrected through determined inspections bringing down the actual beneficiaries to 73 lakhs and curbing money pilferage. Further achievement demands continued ‘will’ on the part of the senior management, till the very last beneficiary has been facilitated with a ‘pucca’ house. \\

FOCUS: ANDHRA PRADESH

e-Revolution with Common Service Centres www.aidindia.org

DIRECTOR, ALTERNATIVE FOR INDIA DEVELOPMENT (AID), CHENNAI

Why did AID choose one of the most poorest districts of India for setting up Common Service Centres (CSC)?

Palamau zone is a hard core naxalite area. It is also one of the poorest and drought prone regions of India with high degree of distress migration. The delivery of government services in the region is also lackadaisical. We went ahead with establishing CSC’s in the region as we have been working in Palamau zone for more than 23 years, implementing various development programmes under community empowerment, basic and adult education, basic health and livelihood missions. We are aware of the culture and ethos of the region. We conceived Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a means to drive forward our above mentioned four missions for ensuring rural prosperity and better quality of life of the rural masses.

“CSCs should not be viewed merely in the conventional business terms. This is an investment in rural ICT infrastructure similar to road connectivity to connect the unconnected villages with the government and business services.

The investment will yield high social returns in terms of various benefits to the rural masses”

Achieving financial viability is a challenging task in rural areas.

What has been your experience?

As you know, every business has a cycle with specific gestation period. We started our CSC enterprises in April 2007 and have completed two years. The first year was the roll out phase, in which our energy was spent in setting up of CSCs in 600 panchayat locations in Palamau, Garwah and Latehar districts. In the second year, we paid attention on building up of our portals and creating networks for CSCs for starting various services. We have not reached a stage of financial viability and we foresee at least two more years to make it a sustainable business. We have few successful stories of running CSCs on profitable basis, but most of the CSCs are yet reach a sustainable level. The organisation has invested its resources and we expect revenue flow in the years to come.

We are also of the view that CSCs should not be viewed merely in the conventional business terms. This is an investment in rural ICT infrastructure similar to road connectivity to connect the unconnected villages with the government and business services. The investment will yield high social returns in terms of various benefits to the rural masses in the form of fast track government, banking, postal, education, health, information and communication and business

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// INTERVIEW

services. Further, through CSCs, we are now laying another service layer at Panchayat level to provide fast track services to citizen through decentralised access points. This service point would ease the life of the rural masses as well as add greater rural prosperity value.

The government has included a provision of financial support to CSC operators.

Has it helped in your case?

Yes, the government has a provision for support to SCAs, which is called ‘revenue support’. This is intended to make up for the loss in the early phase of the implementation of CSC project. The quantum of amount depends on the deal agreed through bidding process under Public-Private Partnerships.

The core issue is that we have not yet received the revenue support from Jharkhand Government. This is a matter of big concern for us. Being an NGO, we could not succeed in getting loan from any of the banks. Despite these hurdles, we are trying hard to make our CSCs successful.

We are strongly of the view that the government should be facilitative and proactive in supporting SCAs to implement the CSCs. We have not received the required support in the early phase. They left everything to us. It was their argument, “you know the problem and knowingly made an agreement and hence it is your liability and responsibility to implement it”. Such a stance from government created many problems for us.

However, we could see a new dispensation with evidence of more facilitation and support from government in recent times. If we could have had similar support from the Government to facilitate banks to lend loan to set up CSCs and linked up CSCs with various other government programmes, we could have overcome the initial teething problems.

Similarly, with support for providing electricity, Internet facilities and roll out of e-Nagarik Seva (issuance of various certificates) and making the citizenship grievance redressal system functional at the district level in the beginning phase, the progress could have been faster.

How do you think the viability and success of the CSCs can be insured?

Recently, we got success in getting helping hand from Garwah Deputy Commissioner (DC). For instance, during Parliament election, Garwah district DC engaged all our Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) as election micro observers, photographers and videographers. This is

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a bold decision from the head of a district.

The result proved success. The head of the district appreciated the VLEs role and contribution. After tasting success, Garwah district organised e-prepared events such as workshops and frequent meetings with the Block Development Officers and various line departments in the district. Garwah District administration also entrusted the data entry and digitisation works to us.

The DC is a champion for CSC and introducing e-governance in this backward region. These positive and supportive actions infused greater confidence among the VLEs. The opening up of CSCs in rural areas have raised some hopes for financial inclusion and the availability of micro credits to farmers and the poor residing in the countryside. What is your assessment on this?

With regard to hopes for financial inclusion and availability of micro credits to farmers and poor, we experienced mixed responses. From the government point of view, we got encouraging response and they want branchless banking or IT kiosk banking to become a reality. In the context of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the banks are not able to serve large number of small ticket NREGS wage seekers. Hence, government wants banks to immediately respond to the needs of NREGS wage earners. However, the banks have insufficient staff to provide these services.

On the other hand, our effort in the past two years have resulted in us becoming a Business Facilitator (BF) to provide noncash services to one Nationalised bank and they recommended us for Business Correspondent (BC) services for extending banking services to the unbanked masses. In the case of another leading big bank, though we have been trying for two years to extend banking services to rural masses using the e-governance kiosk banking services, we could not get positive responses. The financial inclusion is still an agenda on the top and the rural bank branches are not interested to deliver the banking services at the doors of the masses, though Reserve Bank of India made BF and BC services to provide banking to every citizen. Further, the rural bank branches in Jharkhand are yet to be computerised and are not prepared for branchless banking.

What are the other challenges you faced while setting up and operationalising CSCs?

Challenges are many. Firstly, high operational costs of running CSCs due to lack of electricity and high investment costs in the form of solar panels and generators, is one of the challenge faced by us from day one. Lack of readily available accommodation to house CSCs, poor quality of Panchayat Bhavans and lack of security for CSCs in Panchayat Bhavans, was another issue we confronted. Thirdly, some departments are still living in ivory tower and are not coming forward to delegate their services down the line. For instance, though we have made an agreement with Department of Postal Services, due to the existing bureaucratic system within DOT, providing postal services have not materialised through the CSC. Yet another challenge we came across is the insensitive and intrusive nature of banks in supporting VLEs with loan support. Also, being a “disturbed district”, the rebel outfits blasted few cell phone towers which caused problems in getting network.

Don’t you see backwardness in rural areas as a hurdle in the way of greater acceptance of electronic service delivery in general and CSCs in particular? What is your roadmap for tackling this issues?

With regard to the purchasing power of the rural masses, we do not see it as a big barrier. CSC works on the basic premises of aggregating the services. If the volume is more, there is greater likelihood that the CSC will thrive on similar micro credit story in the world. Our experience has shown that rural masses want more government services through the CSC and are willing to pay. As long as such services are assured, we see greater business potentials for CSCs. As far as the roadmap is concerned, first and foremost requirement is that CSC and its services should be mainstreamed within the government line departments. An interministry and inter-departmental plan of action can be evolved to deliver part of the services through the CSCs. For instance, government can deliver tele-health and tele-education service through the CSCs. Through these centres, government can also roll out financial inclusion schemes and part of the postal services. Massive campaign similar to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and National Rural Health Mission is required. The present pace of rural broadband services through government telecom companies is slow. We need to speed up the roll-out of rural broadband services on war footing. \\ Pratap Vikram Singh pratap@egovonline.net

FOCUS: ANDHRA PRADESH

Pragya Kendra Turns around the life of Imamudin Khan n Palamau Zone, the life of young people living in rural areas is always turbulent. On the one end, they are drifted by centrifugal forces working against the interests of the government. On the other hand, government is far away from them, with limited support forthcoming, which drove them to lead a hopeless and helpless life. Many young people were caught unaware in the vortex of these two forces.

Imamudin Khan, a post-graduate of Okhargra Panchayat, Meral, Garwah District, Jharkhand is one such young man, whose unemployment, vulnerability, frustration and discontent was fueled and exploited by the rebel forces working against the government.

With each passing day, he felt frustrated with his life. His aspiration for an employment to lead a life of his own did not materialize for long, though he had a post graduate degree in hand. His craving for a life at his own terms ended in disappointment. Being hurt and hit by unemployment, he wasted his youthful days. He felt angry and annoyed with the system for having no option for employment.

His discontent and depression due to unemployment ran deep which was capitalized by the rebel forces. Slowly, he felt that he reached a dead end and was turning to the forces working against the government. At that time, a ray of hope came in the name of Pragya Kendra (PK), the rural Information and Technology (IT) kiosk programme (which is also called Common Service Centres (CSC)) of Government implemented through Alternative for India Development (AID)/Vikalp Multimedia (VMM).

He had many concerns and fears about the success of it, as his village was 20 kilometers far away from the block head quarter, Meral.

He was also afraid of taking it up, because his village had irregular supply of electricity and

I

nobody knew about computer and its uses. He was quite hesitant in taking it up. However, his yearning for an independent life, pushed him forward. Further, the confidence and support infused by AID/VMM personnel made him to take up the task of running PK. With great difficulty, he mobilized some working capital and with further support from AID/VMM, he set up a PK. He was formally trained for 15 days and after that he started his engagement with PK. In the first few months, no business came in, which did disappointed him . But, since nothing is permanent, slowly table turned and business started flowing in. First photography brought some revenues, then, videography, computer coaching, railway ticket reservation and opening bank accounts increased his return of investment.

The success of making a remote CSC successful drew the attention of other Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLE) who, were running similar enterprises. He became a role model and a mentor for other CSCs. He is now full of confidence and has optimism in life.

Looking back he repents for his oscillation towards the rebel side. Now he not only gained recognition within the village, but also his participation in various meetings with the District Administration and VMM reassured him.

Knowing his commitment, drive and enterprising attributes, his panchayat Okhargra Panchayat was chosen by the Deputy Commissioner of Garwah for piloting one of the e-governance services, the issue of various certificates. The panchayat was also chosen for the reason that the villagers

have been facing problems in getting the caste, income, residential, birth and death certificates quickly. They have to forgo daily wages and spend at least Rs.80-100 to shuttle between Meral and their panchayat to get these certificates.

Okhargra Panchayat is fortunate for the reason that this is the first pilot on egovernance certification services in Palamau Commissionerate in Jharkhand State. This new experiment and trial run in Okhargra Panchayat will be forerunning for scaling it up in other panchayats in Palamau Zone.

The moral of the story and learning from the above case is that public-private partnership’s (PPP) entrepreneurial initiative such as CSC/PG not only reformed the rebels, but also brought in new lease of life to the young people. This is not the lone story of Imamundin Khan in the region. There are so many youngsters like him who are part of the PG and many are interested to mainstream themselves. It is the opportune time for the government to render support to such young people under Backward Region Fund so as to bring as many young people like Imamudin Khan to the centre of grassroots governance. \\

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Subash C Khuntia Joint Secretary Ministry of HRD Government of India

Shankar Aggarwal Joint Secretary DIT, Ministry of Communications & IT Government of India

N Ravi Shankar Joint Secretary e-Learning Group, DIT Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India

Dr Rajashekharan Pillai Vice Chancellor Indra Gandhi National Open University (GNOU)

Charies Clarke MP for Norwich South United Kingdom

Ajay Mishra Principal Secretary Department of Home Government of Andhra Pradesh

B K Chaturvedi Member, Planning Commission Government of India

S Abbasi Secretary, Power Government of Assam

Kapil Mohan Director Ministry of Power Government of India

R S Sharma CEO Unique Indentity Authority of India (UIAD) Government of India

Sanjay Jaju, Commissioner, Consumer Affairs, Department of Food and PD Civil Supplies, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh

Vivek Bharadwaj Special Secretary Department of Urban Development Government of West Bengal

G Narendra Kumar Secretary Department of Higher & Technical Education Government of Delhi

J Satyanarayana Principal Secretary Health, Medical and Family Welfare Department Government of Andhra Pradesh

A Babu CEO Arogyasree Health Care Trust, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh

Sharda Prasad Director General Ministry of Labour Welfare Government of India

Sam Carison Lead Education Specialist, World Bank

Siddharth Secretary IT, Government of West Bengal

Narenderajit Singh Secretary IT, & MD PUNSUP Government of Punjab

Aman Kumar Singh Secretary IT & CEO, CHIPS Government of Chattisgarh

V K Bhaskar Secretary IT, Government of Assam

DP Wahlang Special Secretary IT, Government of Meghalaya

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Neeta Verma Sr Technical Director, National Informatics Centre Ministry of Communications & IT Government of India

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FEATURE

Policies And Guidelines For Effective e-Governance GOPALA KRISHNA BEHARA, SR. ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT, WIPRO MADHUSUDHANA RAO,PRINCIPLE CONSULTANT, WIPRO

INTRODUCTION TO E-GOVERNANCE POLICIES The aim of e-Governance is to transform the Government into a knowledge society and make the benefits of information technology available to all citizens.

Government is committed to build people-centered information society, where everyone can create, access, utilise and share information, and which enables individuals, communities and people to achieve their full potential in promoting sustainable development. This can be achieved by setting up the standards/policies for the eGovernance.

The objectives of the eGovernance policies are improving economy, employment creation, citizen-centered governance, and globally competitive government.

This paper consolidates the purpose of various components and the policies to be adapted for achieving better e-Governance based on the author’s experience on national/ state government portal and e-District Portal work. The following component policies have been highlighted and articulated in this paper: Human Resource Development & Management, Data and Content Management, Meta Data Management, Security, Front End, Middleware, Back End &

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stakeholders and users through sensitisation, orientation and motivation. It provides individuals the necessary competence and increases their work effectiveness through skills training and transfer of knowledge.

The training programme for policy makers and CIO’s should be based on specific IT modules in projects as well as on general IT skills so that they can support the capacity development of the government portal and its integrated departments.

S i m u l t a n e o u s l y, individual participants also need to be trained to meet the portal’s capacity building objectives.

The training programmes should be demand oriented and custom tailored, catering to the thrust area activities under the government portal.

Department Automation, Integrated Services, and Process Re-engineering.

DATA & CONTENT MANAGEMENT POLICIES

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT & MANAGEMENT POLICIES

Policies for data and content management address what kind of content can be included in the portal, formats in which they can be added, attributes and type of information to be provided for each content element and their review and exit policies, etc.

A web based secure Content Management System (CMS) needs to be developed, to

Human Resource Development for government portal (national/state/e-district) includes building training programmes in e-Governance for IT qualified manpower.

It creates awareness among the portal

Documents, schemes, services, forms, websites and contact directory need to be reviewed as per the Content Review Policy.

result cards, land records, certificates, etc.

Digital signature is used to verify the identity of the sender. Care should be taken to verify the authenticity of the message and the claimed identity of the message. Information should be encrypted and decrypted to protect it from unauthorised use. It should be verified whether information that is received across the network is the same as that was sent. There should be no scope for any changes like deletion, addition or any other modification when the document is sent or received. Overall, digital signatures are used to settle the integrity of the message. Data and transaction security ensures the privacy and confidentiality in electronic messages through cryptography. Policies should also address Password Schemes, Biometric System, Smart Card Authentication, etc. Firewalls should be used to control and monitor all traffic that flows across the network.

POLICIES FOR FRONT-END

THE FRAMEWORK FOR THE E-GOVERNANCE POLICIES

facilitate contribution of content for the portal.

Each user of the CMS is provided with a User ID and a password to access the CMS modules. Authorised CMS users are grouped into different classes and each class of users are assigned specific roles and access to content categories.

Content should ensure a unified picture of the government information and be up-to-date along with periodic reviews.

Content categories are accompanied by the Meta Data, source and the validity date.

Documents, schemes, services, forms, websites and contact directory need to be reviewed as per the Content Review Policy.

Care should be taken to archive the content that has expired.

METADATA FRAMEWORK POLICIES Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, retrieves, uses or manages an information resource.

Metadata standard can be used to classify and categorise portal information and services. It allows identification of services and information intelligently. It helps in interdepartmental information exchange.

Metadata should be independent and flexible to meet the information retrieval and records management needs of any information held in any format. It should also meet the information retrieval and management needs of citizens. The standard must be readily applicable by those with varying experience of preparing resource descriptions. It should be compliant with e-Governance standards and policies, such as the Government Data Standards Catalogue. It should be stable and extensible. The Content Management Metadata scheme should minimise the need for rework of existing products.

A policy on front-end should include policies related to front-end services like CSC and integrated service centers. The decision on front-ends range on several options like Citizen Service Centers, e-kiosks, home PC’s etc. It addresses how services of a government portal can reach the intended beneficiaries in a cost-effective manner.

CSC’s can serve as a front-end for most of the government services for a nominal fee as they are broadband enabled, connecting rural citizens through the Internet. Mobile phones are also another option.

POLICIES FOR MIDDLEWARE A policy on middleware addresses policies related to government portal, gateway

SECURITY POLICIES A security policy is a set of rules stating what is permitted and what is not permitted in a system during normal operation.

The security policy helps in achieving reliable and stable administration.

The documents that are sent across the network can be of sensitive nature like

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middleware, data centers, ownership of VPN’s, and inter-connection.

Acting as a nerve centre, the gateways can handle large number of transactions across the entire network, provide a common set of specifications, and a single point access for departments.

Standards based messaging and routing switch ensures secure and guaranteed delivery of services between the front-end portals and the back-end departments and also intra-department. The back-end departments can be de-linked from the front-end service delivery mechanisms.

Infrastructure can eliminate the need for departments to have multiple linkages with various SCA’s providing citizen services through the CSC’s. Each department will connect only once to the middleware and transact with multiple CSC’s. It can capture audit logs and time stamping of transactions going through the middleware, while also supporting shared common services like authentication, payment gateway, interface, etc.

POLICIES FOR BACK-END & DEPARTMENT AUTOMATION A policy on back-end includes policies related to the broad issues of service provision, to establish clear guidelines to distribute IT equipment and provide IT services to users based on written request.

Data collected by or for a government agency under statutory provisions or by contract or through an information-matching agreement under the Privacy Act, is owned by the government, not the individual agency.

A Data Administrator should be appointed with a government-wide mandate to manage and develop the portal data and document assets in accordance with established policies and standards.

Every item of data and every business document held by or maintained for a government portal should have a Business Custodian and a Physical Custodian. Access rules should be based on the principle of public and equitable access to information unless explicit reasons preclude this.

Data and business documents need to be managed to preserve and demonstrate their authenticity, integrity to meet business and statutory requirements. Data elements and business documents must be defined in a consistent manner and stored in a consistent format across all stores. Data and business documents need to be managed within a defined retention process.

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POLICIES FOR INTEGRATED SERVICES Integrated Service Delivery is regarded as the logical objective of e-Governance. In many cases, the policies are implemented through the delivery of services to citizens, businesses and other entities.

There is a need to define the service levels for various services and identify the processes that need to be changed or re-engineered to meet the defined service levels. The service delivery channels in place should be included to meet the service levels. There should also be some engagement with the citizen both in the definition of the requirement (what service) as well as the delivery mechanism (how it works). Agencies should offer the same service in a common manner, sharing data definitions and at best sharing data, but excluding technological integration between the services. Services should not be inherently integrated, or even with a common look-andfeel, but should be grouped to aid discovery and promote comprehensive completion of necessary services. Specific services should be provided by the agent with the integration being hidden from the customer (eg: two department operations).

Services should be technologically integrated into a pseudo-supply chain application. They should be inter-operable and address cross jurisdictional service delivery. Service needs to meet the citizen’s expectations in terms of speed, transparency, affordability, reliability, and accessibility, etc.

PROCESS RE-ENGINEERING POLICIES & FRAMEWORKS Lot of services are used for business operations of the government. The IT

services need to be allocated to users based on business requirements and relevant authorisation.

Process re-design, is the critical analysis and radical re-design of work flows and processes within and between government departments.

Review should also be undertaken of the Objectives and Performance Metrics of the services in comparison with the current level.

Assessments should also be carried out regarding whether deficiencies in service metrics can be met through changes in the current set-up, especially those relating to centralised data availability, process points, functions and tasks performed and delegation of power at each of these points, and so on.

The re-designed processes should be enabled and implemented with appropriate changes by way of amendment to the rules, acts, administrative orders, etc.

Demand for targeted services, estimated adoption rate and revenue must also be estimated.

The levels for each offered service should be evaluated and a methodology for continuous measurement and reporting should be proposed. Explanation should be given on various categories of risks which are most likely to impact the performance of delivery of services. Process re-design must clearly detail out the proposed channel for delivery of services and plan for integration with the CSC scheme.

Sensitive information should be protected from unauthorised disclosure or intelligible interception. Care should also be taken to safeguard the accuracy and completeness of the information. \\

FEATURE

Authentication Myths SHEKHAR KIRANI VICE PRESIDENT, VERISIGN INDIA

Growing dependence on online business hasn’t gone unnoticed by opportunists looking to exploit this convenience of consumers.

very day, people are finding new reasons to go online to access goods and services. Transacting online avails to consumers convenience and the kind of broad selection that local businesses just can’t touch.

And there’s another important reason: transacting online keeps consumers out of their cars. A recent survey of adults who use the Internet found that fuel prices prompted them to transact online more often, and for a wider range of goods and services.

Unfortunately, this growing dependence on online business hasn’t gone unnoticed by opportunists looking to exploit this convenience of consumers.

Identity theft and online fraud are on the rise. Between December 2007 and February 2008, researchers measured a 70% increase in such fraud acts as phishing, in which ecriminals use convincing-looking emails to lead consumers to fraudulent, but just as convincing, Web pages. When Internet users fall for phishing scams, they can unwittingly hand over an array of sensitive personal information, including user names, passwords, credit card numbers and Social Security Numbers.

The costs are dear. A Gartner study reported that businesses lost US$ 3.2 billion due to phishing in 2007. In addition to monetary costs, the targeted company also suffers immeasurable damage to its brand.

E

BEYOND USER NAMES AND PASSWORDS Facing

a

climate

in

which

both

opportunities and threats are growing daily, online businesses are looking for ways to strengthen the authentication they provide online.

Among these is two-factor authentication (2FA), a stronger form of verification that has been successfully implemented within enterprises for 15 years.

Two-factor

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“Today, with increased mobility, diverse user-base, internal threats, and regulatory requirements, the security scene has become complex lending to a greater need for stronger authentication.”

authentication combines what the end-user knows — user name and password — with what he has – such as, a one time password (OTP) generated by a physical device. A user can’t successfully log in without both.

It’s a combination that makes it very difficult for e-criminals to gain authorised access to accounts and information, because the thieves must possess not only the username and password, but the consumer’s physical credential as well.

To use 2FA, consumers acquire a credential – available in a variety of convenient formats – that generates an OTP for every login. During an online session, this OTP is entered along with the user’s usual account name and password. Users achieve strong authentication and secure their identities when the site verifies the OTP and matches it to the user.

It’s true that the models implemented over a decade ago to deliver 2FA to the enterprise don’t meet the needs of today’s complex and convenience-oriented consumer environment. Yet 2FA for consumers is not beyond the reach of organisations seeking to protect their customers from fraud – and to differentiate themselves from competitors by offering state-of-the-art online security.

Still, concerns about the convenience and cost of this protection seem to stubbornly cloud most discussions of 2FA. It doesn’t take long, however, before a little research reveals that these perceived shortcomings amount to little more than a fragile set of five myths. Let’s visit each, and discuss where the myth ends and reality begins.

Myth No. 1: Consumers will need to carry dozens of credentials with them to log in to all their online accounts, and this will make 2FA a burden for users and impractical for site operators.

This is the so-called “token necklace effect” that critics claim has haunted 2FA, but the spectre of a single consumer laden with multiple credentials isn’t inevitable. A shared network of member organisations could make 2FA easier and more convenient than ever by allowing users to carry a single, portable credential that is recognised on all member sites. (Credentials today are available as a

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key fob token, credit card sized credential, or even software that’s downloaded to a user’s cell phone – all of which generate an OTP.) When companies join a 2FA network, much like an ATM network, the dreaded necklace of tokens is unnecessary.

Myth No. 2: Judging from what enterprises have spent on their implementations, 2FA is just too expensive for the consumer market.

2FA is now available through managed services and shared network models, which have allowed strong authentication to break out of the premise-based enterprise model and cost-effectively scale 2FA protection to a consumer audience.

Online businesses now can take advantage of third-party hosting of the infrastructure needed for 2FA, along with easy integration of Web services, to reduce deployment expenses and share maintenance costs with other network members. This reduces both short and long-term investment requirements.

Myth No. 3: It’s risky to invest in a 2FA platform based on today’s consumer preferences, when tomorrow’s consumer preferences could be totally different.

Organisations can “future-proof” their 2FA offering by choosing solutions that comply with the open standards of the Open AuTHentication (OATH) reference architecture. With an OATH-compliant 2FA solution, companies can avoid becoming locked into one vendor’s authentication credentials. OATH-compliant systems can support any similarly compliant form factor, including tokens, cell phones and PDAs. More than 70 manufacturers produce OATH-compliant solutions today, providing organisations an enormous variety of options for the consumers they serve.

Myth No. 4: Whatever advantage the 2FA network model may offer, it’s not enough to draw new members into these alliances.

Aside from the obvious benefits to consumers – using a single credential across thousands of sites – and the cost advantages that come with sharing network expenses with other members, signing on to a 2FA member pays other business dividends. For instance, the ability to transfer the trusted

relationship across all network members can be leveraged to strengthen online affiliation and build sales channels. For example, eBay and PayPal both belong to the same 2FA network, an online retailer can notify those companies’ communities that the same tokens consumers use for eBay and PayPal can also be used at the retailer’s site. That represents a competitive advantage in a market where differentiation can be tough to achieve. And by leveraging their reputation as an innovator who puts the security of customers first, businesses can burnish their own brands in ways that can generate new sales opportunities.

Myth No. 5: Consumer 2FA is long on hype but short on real-world successes. The brief history of consumer 2FA has certainly not rewarded organisations using premise-based, proprietary systems and credentials – in other words, credentials that can only be used at a single online business. If consumer 2FA implementations have stalled, it’s because these models have not delivered the results, efficiencies and scale they promised. That’s not the case with managed service providers such as VeriSign, which have successfully implemented the network delivery model and have brought on an impressive number of online brands.

BATTLING THE IRRELEVANT These five myths all mirror outdated perceptions of 2FA, perceptions based on decade-old enterprise models that are irrelevant to today’s consumer paradigm.

Today, successful online businesses are leveraging industry standards, managed services and shared networks to deliver comprehensive two-factor authentication for consumers.

Poking holes in these myths merely requires a balanced assessment of the risks faced by consumers, the cost of implementing 2FA, and the resulting quality of the consumer’s online experience. Doing so will reveal why it makes good business sense to protect a company’s customers – and its own vital interests – with a strong two-factor authentication solution. \\

FEATURE

Interoperability through Standards Implementation MICHAEL MUDD

REALITIES AND OPPORTUNITIES In its purest form, the objective of standards in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) area is to establish a common mechanism for two systems to interoperate through the implementation of a technical specification. The specification can cover data formats, protocols or other interfaces and practices, but the objective is essentially the same in each case. While standards can in some cases fulfill this objective, this is not an automatic, mechanical process guaranteed to succeed, and there are usually many challenges to achieving interoperability between different implementations of an ICT standard. Once these challenges are fully understood, the collaborative efforts of different implementers can often navigate these challenges and enhance interoperability.

INTEROPERABILITY BETWEEN IMPLEMENTATIONS OF AN ICT STANDARD IS INHERENTLY DIFFICULT The Basic Case.

Even in the most straightforward case, interoperability between different implementations can be quite difficult.

There are a number of reasons for this. First, the standard may have gaps, leaving it up to each implementer to choose how to enable a missing feature, which can result in conflict between approaches. Second, the standard could be written vaguely or have other errors that would lead implementers to take different approaches to a particular element of the specification. Third, the standard could offer multiple choices as to how to approach an element that could cause conflict between

different implementations.

Fourth, implementers could choose to take different technological approaches to implementing a particular element, causing subtle (or not so subtle) conflicts between the different implementations. Fifth, there could be bugs in different implementations that impair interoperability between them.

Sixth, implementers may choose to implement different parts of a standard based on different views as to what is going to be appropriate in the marketplace, which can lead to interoperability gaps between implementing products. And seventh, there is often asynchronous evolution of standards and the products that implement them.

It is worth exploring a couple of these points further.

As noted in the first and third points above, specifications often give implementers choice with respect to different elements, and the ability to extend the specification in their products to incorporate additional functionality. By incorporating such additional functionality, extensions can often enable a better user experience. However, because different implementers may incorporate different extensions, there is a risk that extensions may not interoperate with one another. For implementers, this trade-off between functionality and interoperability is often a difficult one, and it is driven primarily by marketplace needs and demands.

Another key point is that standards change over time as proposals are made

and adopted to fix errors, fill gaps and evolve the specification as the broader technology landscape evolves. At the same time, products that implement a standard are evolving and changing, sometimes by extending the standard to reflect new innovation ( extensions are sometimes proposed as evolutionary modifications of the standard). The cycles of evolution of the standard and the products that implement it are rarely in sync, leading to different products implementing different aspects of different generations of the standard at different times, in turn leading to interoperability challenges between applications. This is particularly

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In some markets, interoperability means that all products have passed some external conformance test, usually against some “reference” software.

challenging in rapidly evolving areas of ICT, where difficult choices need to be made about what will be successful in the marketplace.

by customers between implementations in the marketplace, without necessarily needing to know how it is done.

THE TYPICAL CASE.

ENHANCING INTEROPERABILITY BETWEEN IMPLEMENTATIONS WITH MULTIPLE TOOLS

The challenges noted above are compounded in the ICT area because in many cases ICT standards are interdependent and nested. ICT standards often incorporate other ICT standards by reference, which could in turn reference other ICT standards, and so on. This leads to a significant increase in complexity and the risk of interoperability challenges arising. For example, in the relatively straightforward case of one standard incorporating three other standards, there are risks that the primary standard may interpret those referenced standards differently from other implementations, that it will be out of sync with the evolution of those referenced standards and the products that implement them, and that it will introduce errors into the implementation of the referenced standards.

As a result, interoperability between different implementations of ICT standards is usually quite complex and difficult to achieve because of the typical interdependency between different standards.

THE NETWORK ENVIRONMENT FACTOR The ICT area is increasingly characterized by the interconnectedness of products and services. This creates a challenging environment for interoperability because a significant number of connection points between a technology and other parts of a network or ecosystem increases the number of tradeoffs and choices that implementers must make. Any single choice has the risk of creating interoperability challenges in the marketplace.

CUSTOMERS ARE LOOKING FOR REAL WORLD INTEROPERABILITY Customers for most part look beyond all this complexity and demand that products and services in the marketplace work well together, regardless of how that interoperability is achieved. They look to vendors to navigate these challenges and deliver the level of interoperability demanded

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As customers become more focused on and vocal about interoperability, many vendors are trying to determine the best way to achieve this objective. While there are tools to do so, there is no sure-fire or automatic way of achieving interoperability, and each possible path has its benefits and limitations.

Two important tools include: Conformance tests.

Standard setting organizations sometimes develop tests (or recognize third party tests) that try to verify whether an implementation of a standard conforms to the requirements of that standard. Conformance tests usually include test specifications for a test harness (hardware and software used to run the tests), test cases (inputs and expected outputs), and/or test procedures for running the tests.

While they can be helpful, there are limitations in this approach. Conformance tests may (a) test only a subset of the elements of a standard, (b) vary because of gaps or flaws in a standard, (c) interpret parts of a standard differently, (d) contain bugs, (e) reflect the commercial or technical motivations of their creators, and (f) be out of sync with the evolution of the standard or the products that implement it. Each of these may mask differences in implementations or create false conflicts. Put another way, products that interoperate in practice don’t always show up as conforming in tests and products that are determined by a particular test to be conforming don’t always interoperate. So, while conformance tests can be helpful in driving interoperability, they are not a panacea and their shortcomings must be recognized and addressed.

Interoperability testing. Vendors also look to “plugfests”, “labs” and other practical mechanisms to achieve interoperability.

These efforts may be more labor intensive than conformance tests, but they are typically more effective in driving real-world interoperability between implementations. These usually involve different vendors coming together to test whether their respective implementations

interoperate in practice. This can take many different forms depending on the technology involved. In the case of document formats, for example, it would typically involve multiple vendors testing their implementations against a common library of documents. The goal is to identify where there are differences in behavior, identify why they are occurring, and then determine how best to address them.

At the end of the day, achieving interoperability in practice requires a good faith effort on the part of all relevant implementers. Also, it is worth recognizing that interoperability often involves tradeoffs with respect to functionality. Thus, while plugfests can result in important improvements to interoperability, they are part of a dynamic process, the goal of which is real-world interoperability in important areas. For the reasons noted above, perfect interoperability is rarely achieved at any point in time.

“It should be noted that interoperability means different things to different people. In some markets, interoperability means that all products have passed some external conformance test, usually against some “reference” software. This type of testing, however, usually doesn’t bring much value to the customer because the tests are usually for a small subset of features that everyone who has paid for the testing can pass. Testing a product against reference software instead of competing products also leads to pairs of products that both pass the test but do not interoperate.”

CONCLUSION Customers want interoperability between different implementations of standards in the marketplace. Achieving this is difficult given the complexity and ever evolving nature of technology in the ICT area. Nevertheless, vendors have tools at their disposal to enhance the level of interoperability between implementations. \\

MICHAEL MUDD

Director of Public Policy for Asia Pacific, CompTIA

FEATURE

Power Reforms: Challenges of Technology Standardisation JAYANT SINHA DGM (IT/ APDRP), UTTARAKHAND POWER CORPORATION LTD, DEHRADUN

INTRODUCTION Power sector reforms were first initiated in India in 1992 by the Ministry of Power (MoP) to invite private investments in power generation to bridge the demand-supply gap. However, private investments failed to yield much benefit due to serious deficiencies and losses in electricity distribution in most of the State Electricity Boards (SEBs).

To reduce such operational costs, strengthen electricity distribution network and minimise distribution losses due to theft and operational inefficiency, the Government launched the Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (APDRP) during the 10th Five Year Plan (2002-07).

Continuing its support for power distribution reforms, the Government launched the Restructured APDRP (R-APDRP) in the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12) with revised terms and conditions.

R-APDRP aims at reducing AT&C losses, strengthening of the distribution network and improving the commercial viability of the state distribution companies (DISCOMs). To avail of the financial support under R-APDRP, the utilities would however need to demonstrate measurable performance improvement.

OBJECTIVES OF REFORMS INITIATIVES DISCOMs face the challenges of setting up standards-based, reliable and automated systems for process automation, operational efficiency and total energy accounting, with ICT as an enabler. There is a need

for standardisation of technology for ICTenabled power reforms for the sake of system scalability, interoperability, interface compatibility, investment protection and reduced total cost of ownership.

In the present business environment of increased competition, open access and availability-based tariff, the complexity and challenges of power distribution sector have increased manifold. As a first step towards reforms implementation, it is essential for DISCOMs to conduct an ‘As-is’ study of the

existing ICT infrastructure (hardware, software and network) and software applications to ascertain the extent of system usability, compatibility and possible integration with ‘To-be’ systems proposed.

In general, the main objectives of ICTenabled distribution reforms are: 1.

2.

3.

AT&C loss reduction Metering, billing and collection efficiency Total energy accounting

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Under the Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (R-APDRP), State energy utilities are required to adopt measures for reducing Aggregate Technical & Commercial losses, while also taking steps to strengthen distribution network and improve commercial viability. This article discusses the emerging role of ICT in reducing AT&C losses, distribution system automation and in overall reform processes in India’s power sector. It also talks about some of the key technologies adopted extensively under R-APDRP in Uttarakhand Power Corporation Ltd.

4.

5.

Improved consumer services Effective Management Information System (MIS)

2.

TECHNOLOGY STANDARDISATION FOR DISTRIBUTION REFORMS To sustain reforms in business process and business growth, it is imperative to select appropriate technology based on long-term strategic and business continuity perspective.

For enabling ICT in power reforms, the following factors need to be considered: 1. Open system architecture and adaptive communication network, based on proven standards and specifications: It is important to have a robust, scalable, adaptive, standards-based and open systems computing and network architecture for total life cycle management of ICT solutions.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Consistent infrastructure for data collaboration, data communication and data interoperability: The best practice approach is to have a modular design, integrating various applications through a common interface or ‘dashboard’, with secured access, multi-level permissions and audit trail.

Authentication and role-based access to the network: The applications must be secured with role-based authentication for securing databases with large volume of transactions.

Robust and scalable architecture to support large volume of transactions: Choice of hardware platform, OS, database and front-end tools should be based on the type of applications and volume of transactions.

N-tier architecture for ease of deployment and managing business rules: N-tier architecture makes it easier to deploy software changes and apply business rules centrally, without affecting the clients.

Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning: Automated data backups are essential for the protection of vital data and their recovery during catastrophic failure. Clustering at both OS and database level is recommended, along with RAID support and data replication facility.

The technology specifications must meet the requirements to enable operations at the transaction level, providing in-built process control checks, role-based authorisation, secured and automated work flow, single point of data capture, audit trail and MIS

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support, for timely and productive decision making.

ORGANISATIONAL ISSUES IN REFORMS PROCESS One of the pressing concerns of DISCOMs, in general, is the increasing average age of the employees. New inductions are very few and a sizeable chunk of experienced employees retire every year. The experienced older employees, nevertheless, do not adapt to the demands of new technologies. It is a big challenge to transform them into technologysavvy employees.

Moreover, there is often a dearth of institutional programmes for organisational capacity building. Most of the DISCOMs still continue to have a monolithic structure, thus creating information silos. Bridging of the

silos is important to make business process work flow more systematic and efficient.

The implementation of distribution reforms calls for organisational restructuring backed up with suitable administrative changes and proper delegation of powers, to reap the maximum benefits of reforms.

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN DISTRIBUTION REFORMS A plethora of emerging technologies are playing increasingly significant role in distribution system automation and reforms process in India’s power sector. Some of the key technologies extensively adopted by UPCIL in power distribution reforms under RAPDRP are: 1.

GIS-based consumer indexing and electrical network mapping: GIS is envisaged as a tool for the development of consumer and electrical network database, used by various applications like customer information system, asset management, billing system, customer services, energy audit and load flow

2.

3.

4.

studies. Several Indian DISCOMs are using GIS technology to map their HT/ LT consumers and electrical network assets. This involves conducting GPS survey of consumer households, connected electrical feeders and distribution transformers. All the consumers are then indexed and given a unique electrical address (Consumer Index Number or CIN), making it possible to segregate consumers for energy audit and accounting purposes. The geo-referenced data is further mapped on the underlying satellite imagery of appropriate scale.

Automated Meter Reading (AMR): The amount of data read by electronic meters has increased manifold and meters have to be read more often for load profiling and analysis. AMR has become a necessity for effective energy management, energy accounting and to overcome the problems of manual readings. The preparation of electrical network database, consumer indexing and documentation is the first step for effective AMR and correct energy accounting. The quality of AMR data depends on the quality and health of electronic meters used in the system.

Energy Audit and Accounting: The advantages of AMR can be further leveraged in correctly identifying the areas of low voltages, over-loading and causes of high energy losses. AMR also helps in bringing accountability and operational efficiency, thus significantly contributing to improved revenue realisation.

Load Flow Analysis: For total energy accounting, it is essential to capture energy consumption data and load pattern of consumers during various time

5.

6.

7.

8.

intervals for analysis purposes. This also emphasises the need for an integrated meter data management system interfaced with AMR. Meter Data Logging System: The system must be capable of controlling the energy consumption by setting load threshold at the meter which when exceeded trips the meter circuit breaker.

The system must incorporate business rules regarding meter data measurement, aggregation, validation, load estimation and exceptions handling. It must integrate seamlessly with other applications like customer information system, asset management, outage management, energy billing, revenue accounting and MIS. IVRS-based consumer call centre: For a distribution utility, a centralised, automated interactive voice response system (IVRS)-based call centre can be beneficial to improve customer services, increasing staff efficiency and single-window clearance of all types of customer complaints. The call centre is designed to address consumer complaints ranging from ‘no power’ or those related to wrong billing, payments, metering or connection-related.

Spot billing machines: Spot billing machines are hand-held computers (HHC) or Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) which captures meter data either manually or through optical or wireless interface. The in-built billing software processes the consumer details and metering information to generate bills on the spot at the consumer premises itself.

Prepaid Metering System: Prepaid metering system uses a smart card for a pre-set value of electricity that the consumers wish to consume. The amount paid along with other consumer information is encoded into the smart card. The consumer inserts the card in the prepaid meter, which reads the data and when the pre-paid energy is used up, the consumer gets the card recharged/

reprogrammed in the utility office.

It eliminates problems related to meter reading, bill distribution and billing disputes.

9. Any-time payment (ATP) machines: These machines are used for bill collection facilitation for the benefit of the consumers. ATP machines are kept at vantage points easily accessible to the consumers.

It may either operate in standalone mode or connected to the remote utility billing server via network. It uses customised software to access consumer database and billing details, accepts payments and generates receipt. The revenue collections are then updated in the main billing server through software.

CONCLUSION To avail of the Government benefits under R-APDRP reforms, the state energy utilities are required to adopt significant and demonstrable AT&C loss reduction measures, in a definite time frame.

This requires accurate measurement, aggregation, validation, communication and processing of energy data in order to identify, analyse and check sources of energy losses and revenue leakages. Organisational restructuring, administrative reforms and institutional capacity building with suitable focus on training and staff development are other key issues in successful technology implementation.

The monolithic organisation structure has to make way for a more adaptive, communicative and broad-based organisational set-up which helps to bridge the information silos, making information flow efficient, systematic and geared to embrace new and emerging technologies for maximum impact. This emphasises the need for technology standardisation in setting up a reliable and automated system for collecting energy data, energy metering, energy data processing, total energy accounting, improved customer services and effective MIS. \\

egov AUGUST 2009

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INTERVIEW

Improving Consumer Services in Power Through ICT www.powermim.nic.in

KAPIL MOHAN DIRECTOR (DISTRIBUTION), MINISTRY OF POWER, GOVT OF INDIA

“The Restructured Accelerated Power Development & Reforms Programme (APDRP) is a path-breaking scheme focusing on improving financial viability of state utilities and sustained reduction in losses.”

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// INTERVIEW

“ICT ICT ooccupies c pi s aan important mp rt n position o i i n in the he ppower we sector sector, et r particularly ar i u a l the h ddistribution tri t o sphere sphere. ph r .”

What role can ICT play in improving the power sector services in the country?

ICT occupies an important position in the power sector, particularly the distribution sphere. I am emphasising on distribution as it is an important aspect of power and ensures that the electricity finally reaches the consumers, thereby generating revenue for the whole sector. Here ICT has primarily two roles to play – to carry out electricity audit and accounting linked with GIS to track electricity flow to the distribution grid, and secondly to improve the consumer experience.

Electricity audit and accounting is useful to determine the electricity losses which account for one-third of our power generation. Where does this power go? It is either wasted due to bad technology and bad state of the distribution grid or most of it is stolen. Electricity audit and accounting helps us determine where the unaccounted power is going. Data collected through the metering and billing module which oversees the electricity and cash flow, can determine the amount of unaccounted electricity.

As far as services for our consumers are concerned, ICT has enabled host of citizencentric services like knowing the status of their applications, online payment of bills, checking their power consumption, etc.

In what ways does the Restructured APDRP seek to bring reforms in the power sector?

The Restructured Accelerated Power Development & Reforms Programme (APDRP) is a path-breaking scheme focusing on improving financial viability of state utilities and sustained reduction in losses. Under the R-APDRP, schemes would be undertaken for renovation and modernisation of substations, transmission lines and distribution transformers, augmentation of feeders and transformers, feeder and consumer meters, high voltage distribution system (HVDS), consumer indexing, SCADA, computerised billing, etc.

The INR 52,000 crore project will be implemented through a team of empanelled IT consultants and IT implementing agencies.

We sincerely hope that the scheme will bring about a substantive generational change in the power sector in the country and also lay down the foundation for a Smart Grid.

For the first time we are implementing the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition/ Distribution Management System (SCADA/ DMS) solution for real time monitoring and control of the distribution system. With this we will be able to do remote infrastructure management of the grid, sitting in a substation.

What has been the response from states to the programme?

After the initial reluctance, the response from the states have been very good. We have already sanctioned INR 3561 crore worth initial loan amount for projects in 1021 towns in 15 states in the last five months.

As I mentioned earlier, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan have already floated tenders. We have been vigorously pushing the project emphasising that it is in the interest of the states to curb power losses.

Lot of emphasis has been given on the use of ICT in the power sector and major budgetary allocations have also been made in this area. When will the customers get to see its benefits?

With major emphasis on the use of ICT in various programmes like R-APDRP, Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY), our consumers might start seeing lot of improvement in our services. Power wastage in transmission and distribution and power thefts are also bound to come down in the coming years. Since these projects involve major infrastructure, we can’t give any fixed timelines for results. But I can positively say that in the coming three to seven years the results will be there for all to see.

What challenges have you faced in the implementation of ICT in the power sector?

When we were chalking out the RAPDRP, we held extensive consultations with NASSCOM and 10-12 major IT industry leaders, Central Power Research Institute, other academic institutes, including distribution utilities regarding the ICT component.

One of the real time challenges is capacity building for distribution utilities so that they are able to operate the systems once launched. For this we have fixed a clause

that the company involved in the system integration would also have to maintain it for a period of three years. We plan to use this interim period for training our manpower so that they are able to realise its full potential.

What mechanisms have been adopted for progress monitoring?

The APDRP web portal has features for online project monitoring, fund releasing, quality control, and reporting mechnism.

The access to all these features is password protected. So we directly monitor project progress through the portal. We are also in the process of hiring third party evaluation agencies who will also monitor the progress independently. These agencies will report directly to the Ministry of Power. So we have a strong monitoring component built in our system. However, to be fair, we have not reached a stage where we can assess the project by its performance parameters and claim that we have achieved our objective.

The progress based monitoring mechanism piloted in RGGVY was your brainchild. Can you share with us some of your experiences in the project?

If you try to implant any feature midway in a project, the results are not bound to be favourable. But even then we went ahead with what is known as ‘milestone based monitoring’ system. So 286 districts undergoing electrification under the scheme are being monitored online on the basis of milestones achieved. The information for this is picked directly from the project sites.

Hopefully this system is expected to stabilise withing the next 3-4 months.

Few years back, Power ministry was working on a Broadband over Power Line (BPL) technology. What has been the progress on this front?

Carrying broadband over power lines requires uninterrupted lines. In the present scenario where our distribution lines are in such dilapidated state, BPL seems impossible, atleast in the coming three years. The BPL project is being handled by the Power Grid Corporation, although my department would have loved to do it since our reach is definitely better. \\

egov AUGUST 2009

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AWARDS

PUBLIC VOTING OPENS...

We Have Assembled The ‘Who’s Who’ of ICT Community, the strong contenders in the fields of: • • • • •

Government to Ciizen (G2C) Initiative of the year Government to Business (G2B) Initiative of the year Government to Government (G2G) Initiative of the year Civil Society/ development Agency Initiative of the year m-Governance Initiative of the year

Make your vote counted!

Make this the biggest peoples’ VOICE ever!!

Nominations are available online www.eindia.net.in/2009/awards

Glimpses of a few nominated projects...

Electronic Voting System used by Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts This year for the first time the elections were conducted through Electronic Voting System (EVS). The application for EVS was developed in dot net platform with SQL Server back end, hosted on a 128-bit secured server. The EVS provided to the candidates for putting their passwords to block generation of results and also provided the returning officer to put his password to operate the EVS.

Railway SMS The SMS service is implemented to provide Railway Information like PNR Enquiry, Train Arrival/Departure, TimeTable, Fare Enquiry etc., accessible Pan India from all major operators. Users can send their 10 digit PNR No. to 139 to get the required information. The service would be extended on USSD ( Unstructured Supplimentary Services Data) on a short code *139# soon across all GSM Operators in the country.

Implementation of Common Service Centre Project

The Common Service Centre (CSC) is a project initiated by Government of India for providing better citizen services in rural areas under National E-governance Plan (NeGP) initiatives. It is a uniform and unified large scale project of various such e-governance Project like Gyandoot, Rajasthan School IT Project, Lok Mitra and more. The key is not the number of CSC’s, but the focus is to provide a business model which will become a continual and sustainable process rather than a piloting model.

Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) has a mission to provide the best possible ocean information and advisory services to the society, industry, government and scientific community through suistained ocean observations and constant improvement through systematic and focused research.

Employment Generation and Marketing Mission

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enablement of Prisons

Employment Generation and Marketing Mission (EGMM) is a mission set up by the Department of rural Development of the Andhra Pradesh (AP) Government to provide employment/ employability of the economically and underprivileged rural and tribal poor from remote areas, especially the youth. Set up four years back, EGMM has emerged as of the largest jobs mission globally for the underprivileged youth. It works in a publicprivate partnership (PPP) mode with government companies and the rural communities as important stake holders.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) was initiated in the year 2003 at Delhi Prisons, Tihar. Managing the prisoner record and monitoring of prisoner/visitor was always difficult since most of the records were normally maintained manually.

In order to cope up with the increasing number of prisoners being lodged in the jail, there arose a need for centralisation of prisoner’s data to facilitate information exchange and data sharing to the users of the prison. The implementation was going to reduce administrative overheads, speed up responsiveness to users, reduce risks involved in inmate’s custody, eliminated obsolute processes and reaps costcutting benefits.

Online Filing of Right to Information Act Complaint The Online filing of RTI Complaint and Appeal with the Central Information Commission (CIC) has institutionalized the convergence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) with RTI Act 2005. The established provisions of the RTI Act regards for a practical regime wherein the citizens can have access to information which have been under the control of Public Authorities so as to promote transparency and accountability in the matters concerning with and working of the Public Authorities, Central Information and State Information Commissions.

E-Lokshahi With a view to provide citizen centric and transparent administration, the District Collector and District Magistrate, Jalgaon, developed an Integrated Voice Response System(IVRS) to provide a 24 hour online public grievance redressal system and FAQ forum being used widely through telephone and mobile. The citizens can access the service by dialing seven times 2. Except the ordinary telephone charges there are no other charges laid down for the service.

www.eindia.net.in/2009/awards

NEWS

INDIA TO AUCTION 3G BY DEC, EXPECTS INR 350 BILLION REVENUE India expects to collect INR 350 billion from the auction of third-generation (3G) radio spectrum, scheduled to happen by December this year. The auction would allow telecoms firms to offer services such as highspeed Internet and video downloads on mobile phones.

The government had initially aimed to get INR 200 billion.

The sale has been delayed from this January after high prices fetched by private telecoms companies for selling stakes prompted a review of the floor price. There will be heavy demand for spectrum in larger services areas and bids could be sharply higher than the floor price, according to an analyst.

average of just 48 days of work generated for each beneficiary against the promised 100.

While replying to a question on the functioning of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Rajya Sabha, Rural Development Minister C P Joshi said the onus of its implementation lay on the States, which were lax. “During 2006-07, an average of 43 days of work could be generated, in 2007-09 it was 42 days of work and in 2008-09, it was 48 days of work,” the minister added.

US DEPLOYS IT DASHBOARD TO TRACK IT SPENDING in Bhubaneswar with all the district headquarters and the block headquarters.

In an effort to help citizens keep a closer eye on how the federal government is spending money, Obama administration has launched ‘IT Dashboard’. This new tool is a one-stop clearinghouse of information allowing the American people to track federal

FM ANNOUNCES JOB PORTAL IN BUDGET

The Government proposes to set up a job portal, providing details on skills available and also job openings across all sectors in the country, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced while presenting the Union Budget for the financial year 2009-10.

“The job portal will connect all the employment exchanges in the country,” he said.

The minister also pointed out that the job creation in the country has been affected due to global financial slowdown. The government aims to create 12 million new jobs each year and reduce poverty by half by 2014.

information technology (IT) initiatives and hold the government accountable for progress and results.

The dashboard is part of a revamped USASpending.gov site, created through a 2006 law designed to foster greater openness about government spending and contracting.

The Dashboard gives people a chance to offer alternative approaches and provide direct feedback on technology initiatives.

NREGS NOT WORKING PROPERLY, ADMITS GOVERNMENT

BSNL TO PROVIDE BANDWIDTH FOR OSWAN

The Union Government has admitted to huge slips in the implementation of its flagship rural job scheme NREGS, with an

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the technical directorate of the state IT department. BSNL would provide dedicated leased lines to connect the state headquarter

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) would provide bandwidth services for the implementation of the Orissa State Wide Area Network (OSWAN) project, being taken up at a cost of INR 200 crore under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP).

OSWAN project is being executed by the Orissa Computer Application Centre (OCAC),

CHENNAI CORP TO START SMS ALERT ON VACCINATIONS

The Chennai Corporation will send text messages (SMS) to women who have registered with its healthcare facilities, informing them of the vaccination schedule for their babies. This is part of the e-governance initiative of the disease tracking system to be installed at health posts and dispensaries of the civic body.

“The development of the software has been completed. The hardware will be procured shortly,” Corporation Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni said. The disease tracking system would be the first such initiative by a Municipal Corporation in the country.

CHENNAI TO HAVE MASS PIS FOR ITS TRANSPORT SYSTEM Chennai would soon be the first city in the country to get a mass passenger information system for its public transport system. The state run passenger buses in the city are being fitted with GPS that will enable passengers to track buses on their mobile phones, bus stops and on the Internet.

“That is just the beginning. What is envisioned is a full fledged modern passenger information system,” said Ashok Leyland (ALL) Telematics business unit president Jayaram Krishnan.

“This includes sensors at the entry and exit door steps, automatic ticketing, audio and video announcement systems at bus stops, driver alarms on vital engine parameters and recording of engine diagnostics for future reference.”

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NEWS

IAS OFFICERS IN MAHARASHTRA TO BE MADE ACCOUNTABLE FOR E-GOVERNANCE IAS officers in Maharashtra would be made accountable for providing services to people under the e-Governance initiative, with the State government deciding to consider these parameters for their yearly performance report. “Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has suggested that the annual performance of the concerned officer would be based on promotion of e-governance,” Secretary, Information Technology Department Ajay Bhushan said.

With increased use of e-governance, the State would be providing citizen-centric services online within five months, after which people need not come to Mantralaya for routine work, he added.

TRANSPORT MINISTRY TO TIE UP WITH SBI, ICICI FOR E-PAYMENTS

government’s Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund will provide broadband connectivity to around 50,000 villages in a phased manner.

“Out of about 2.5 lakh gram (village) panchayats across the country, 30,000 have been provided with broadband connectivity,” said Gurudas Kamat, Minister of State for Communications and IT in a written reply in Rajya Sabha. An agreement has already been signed between USOF and BSNL for subsidy disbursement for providing 90,000 wireline broadband connections including customer premises equipment and computer or computing devices in rural and remote areas.

CONSUMERS NOT PREPARED TO PAY FOR MOBILE BANKING: SURVEY

Truck owners in India will soon be able to pay the INR 15,000 fee for the national permit from any part of India. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is would be tying up with three banks in the country in order to facilitate e-payment of this fee.

While the deal with the State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank has almost been finalised, talks are also on with HDFC Bank, said an official in the ministry. In fact, the ministry proposes to make this e-payment facility available from April 1, 2010. Once implemented, it is expected to benefit about 4.5 lakh truck owners in this country.

BROADBAND CONNECTIVITY FOR ALL VILLAGES BY 2012 All villages in the country will be provided broadband connectivity by 2012. The

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Despite 59% of global consumers stating that online banking on their mobile phone is important to them, they are not willing to pay for it, KPMG’s third annual Global Consumers & Convergence survey reveals.

In order to understand the future for the mobile banking market KPMG surveyed over 4,000 consumers in 19 countries world wide. The survey revealed that only 19% of global consumers are currently conducting banking through a mobile device. This means that banks are missing out on the massive majority, some 81%, that have yet to be persuaded.

C-DAC TO SET UP INDIAARMENIA CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE IN ICT AT YEREVAN The Ministry of External Affairs has signed an agreement with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing for setting up of India-Armenia Centre of Excellence in IT (IACoEICT) in Yerevan for development of

human resources in IT in the entire CIS region.

Divyabh Manchanda, Additional Secretary (Eurasia), Ministry of External Affairs and Rajan T Joseph, Director General, CDAC signed the agreement.

The IACoEICT to be created by C-DAC includes the deployment of the PARAM Supercomputer and the training of nearly 1000 IT professionals per year.

HIMACHAL TO SET UP 3,366 LOK MITRA KENDRAS TO POPULARISE IT USAGE Himachal Pradesh plans to set up 3,366 Lok Mitra Kendra at gram panchayat level to provide local people all services they require at their doorsteps. Besides, the state government is working to computerise revenue courts as well as public distribution system and also extend HIMSWAN (state wide area network) to sub-tehsil level, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said at a workshop on National e-Governance Plan.

He said Himachal would soon be introducing Geographical Information System (GIS) to maintain vigil over invaluable forest wealth by checking illegal felling of forest resources and soil erosion.

GOVT WORKING ON E-DISCLOSURES TO KEEP TAB ON BIZ FRAUDS

The Government is working on a new eGovernance programme that would call for more disclosures from the corporate sector in electronic form and also ensure more effective monitoring for early warning on business frauds.

The initiative is part of the next generation upgrade to the MCA21 e-governance programme. The move comes as the government looks at ways to use data collected from regular corporate filings more meaningfully and effectively. The MCA21 programme was started in 2006 and enabled electronic filings, storage, retrieval, processing, and transmission of transactions.

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IT Directory

November 2009 Issue’ Egov magazine is coming out with first of it kind directory of IT companies and System Integrators for the Government community. This directory is aimed at providing IT related information to government department, public sector units, and autonomous bodies of the government.

The directory is aimed to create a comprehensive compilation of companies offering hardware, software, networking and communication solution as well as those offering specialised Government IT solutions.

For advertising opportunities in this issue, please contact: Santosh Kumar Gupta, santosh@egovonline.net, 9891192996 Anuj Agarwal, anuj@egovonline.net, 9911302086

NEWS

GHANA TO IMPLEMENT BIOMETRIC VOTING SYSTEM BY 2016

INFOSYS BAGS RAILWAY COACH MANAGEMENT PROJECT Infosys Technologies has bagged a pilot project to roll out an Integrated Coach Management System (ICMS) for the Indian Railways. As per the project, Infosys will roll out the ICMS in three different locations, including Waltair (Visakhapatnam), Khurda Road and Sambalpur in Orissa, with the cost expected to be around INR 3.5-4 crore.

Based on the success of the pilot, the Railways Ministry is planning to float the final tender for rolling out INR 210 crore ICMS in about 50-60 different centres and coaching depots in the country by the end of the current fiscal.

Ghana plans to implement biometric voting system by 2016. Minister of Communications Haruna Iddrisu said, “Government is ready to ensure that e-voting becomes a reality in 2016 but if things go well we may even start with it in 2012.”

The minister urged the Africa E-Governance Academy (AEA), hosted by the Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence, to carry e-voting on board their programmes.

He said the success of e-governance began with an effective e-voting system that would ensure that electoral fraud and malpractices were reduced to the barest minimum.

He added that the government was also committed to establishing e-legislature and e-judiciary systems beginning next year.

GOVT TO STRENGTHEN RTI ACT: CHAVAN

The Government is mulling on amending laws to strengthen the Right to Information (RTI) Act to enable easy access to information in non-strategic areas, Minister of State for Personnel and Public Grievances Prithviraj Chavan told Parliament in a written reply.

“In this regard, it is proposed to review the number of organisations in the second schedule to the RTI Act, 2005, and make rules for more disclosures of information by public authorities,” Chavan said.

He informed that a study was conducted to assess key issues and constraints in implementation of the RTI Act which pointed to several gaps in implementation of the Act.

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PRESIDENT JUST A CLICK AWAY FROM YOUR COMPLAINTS With the click of a mouse, your complaints, petitions and prayers will now reach the President’s Office, find their way to the departments concerned, get tracked as they are processed and the information stored for later use. Launched by President Pratibha Patil at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the new website http://helpline.rb.nic.in has been designed to simplify the process of grievance redress. “The Rashtrapati Bhavan mail box receives over 400 mails every day. The portal is expected to reduce the time taken to dispatch the mail to the Central and State government departments concerned, do follow ups and finally maintain the record,” said Secretary to the President Cristy Fernandes.

ONLINE DATABANK TO FASTTRACK ADOPTION PROCESS At a time when adoption figures paint a dismal picture, the government plans to put in place an online centralised databank to fast-track the process of adoption. Significantly, this comes at a time when bureaucratic delays and a time consuming process translate to a waiting period of six months to three years.

The databank under preparation will include details of children like their age, gender, date of birth and photograph. The Central Adoption Resource Agency (CARA) will also provide details about the child’s antecedents like physical or mental disability, whether the child is abandoned or an orphan among

other things. The databank will also link 71 government-run adoption agencies.

DELHI POLICE LAUNCH NEW WEBSITE The Delhi police has launched a new website — www.dpaciclaim.net — to cater to Motor Accident Claim Tribunal (MACT) cases and speed up their disposal. It has been posted on the existing website of the Delhi police.

At present all the police stations can access it and are posting information of accident cases on a regular basis. The website includes the programme for sending information related to MACT cases automatically as soon as the form is completely uploaded or within 30 days of the registration of the case. The module will help in monitoring by senior officers who will be notified for non-compliance of uploading of information on the website.

INFOPARK KOCHI NEARLY DOUBLES ITS IT EXPORTS FOOTPRINT

Infopark Kochi has added a feather to its cap by almost doubling IT exports in the year 2008-2009. Recent reports from Special Economic Zones and Software Technology Parks of India validates that the total gross turnover of Infopark Kochi rose up to INR 463 crore, nearly a YoY growth of 87%.

Including other ancillary units, the total turnover from Infopark touched an all-time high of nearly INR 600 crore. Kerala is one of the few IT states that buckled the global trend and registered a phenomenal growth.

The Infopark attracted a record number of leading world class companies namely, US Technologies, BlueLabs Technology Solution, UCI Technologies, Arbitron, Zerone Consulting, NHR Outsourcing, SIT Mobile, Alcatel Lucent and Tata Tele Services.

SIGN OFF

Setting up of new energy efďŹ ciency company Government of India is considering to form a new energy efficiency company, to be named as Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. (EESL).

Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. (EESL) will be a joint venture company with equity participation of 25% each from its promoters viz., the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL), Rural Electrification Corporation Ltd. (REC) and Power Finance Corporation (PFC). It will provide implementation leadership in the area of Energy efficiency and undertake implementation of energy efficiency schemes.

It will, therefore, act as an Energy Service company for certain schemes, as a Consultancy Organization for CDM projects for demand side

management and in the industrial sector and as a resource centre for

training and capacity building of utilities and other stakeholders. A consolidated business plan has been prepared taking into account the above role of EESL which indicates the economic viability of the company based on aforementioned schemes and with a projected Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 22%.

This information was given by Shri Bharatsinh Solanki, Minister of State, Ministry of Power in a written reply to a question by Shri Dharam Pal Sabharwal in the Rajya Sabha. \\

FLIP SIDE by Santulan Chaubey

Son, This is pen, our forefathers use to sign with this‌. No digital signatures were that time!!!!

egov AUGUST 2009

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ASK SAP

Shared IT Services for e-Governance As Vice President of the Public Services group for SAP’s Asia Pacific Division, Adaire FoxMartin oversees the strategic direction and activities in the area of public services in the health, education and defence sectors across the region and executive relationships with customers and partners. Ms. Fox-Martin is a key member of the SAP leadership team and plays a lead role in delivering SAP’s offering to public sector customers. A respected thought leader, Ms. Fox-Martin continues to be invited at seminars and conferences by the media and analysts to address public services issues ranging from e-Government transformation and reengineering of Government processes to public service policies. She is regularly featured and quoted in numerous publications throughout Asia and Australia. Ms. Fox-Martin has over 20 years of experience in the field of information technology and management.

Effective e-Governance can take information technology (IT) to the common man, while helping Governments to regulate their services in line with the changing needs of both citizens and stakeholders, as well as develop the economy. Recognizing the growing importance of e-Governance we have been bringing you a much needed, regular, interactive platform, where your questions on a pre-defined theme are answered by Adaire Fox-Martin, Vice President, Public Services, SAP Asia Pacific and Japan.

Increasingly government agencies are looking for mechanisms that can bring large scale efficiencies not only for their core operations and citizen services but also for the management of their ICT and E-Governance systems. They look out for various options including PublicPrivate-Partnerships (PPP) in various forms. One of the potential panaceas could well be sharing of IT services across different agencies that have a largely homogeneous set of requirements. This issue of “Ask SAP” addresses a few questions that help define the concept, way to deploy, and its benefits.

What is IT Shared Services? Is it relevant for government?

Sharing of IT Services in the private sector is very common and has resulted in enormous efficiencies, cost savings and achievement of higher service levels. It essentially is a mechanism to bring common services (eg. finance and HR) on centralized IT systems which is supported by a pool of specialists, and they serve multiple entities and geographies within an organization. Government organizations, Ministries and Departments are large and have several homogenous operations and services which can be commonly deployed, used and benefited from. Shared Services in various areas of government is quite widespread globally.

Could you provide examples of IT Shared Services in Government?

From a functional perspective all common operations of government like finance, personnel, procurement, works management etc. can be easily brought on to shared and centralized systems.

In fact, shared e-Procurement systems are available in many state governments. Additionally, even citizen centric services and other core operations like tax and revenue, health, education etc. can be shared by homogenous agencies and departments at the State and Local level. For example, it will be extremely effective and costadvantageous to get a set of 30-40 small municipalities in a State to ride on shared municipal administration and E-Governance systems.

How can Government expect to benefit from Shared IT Services?

Government organizations are large and there is a lot of homogeneity of services across departments and agencies. They stand to benefit hugely through shared services. Some key benefits that have been seen globally with government adoption of shared services are:

• • • • •

Increase in quality of services while cutting costs Achieving economies of scale Improvement in productivity due to reduction of administrative and IT intervention Resource reallocation to improve citizen services than focusing on back-office operations Increase in public trust and public value due to cost savings and better constituent services

Several research reports (eg. Confederation of British Industry, Hackett book of numbers, and eGov Monitor) provide comprehensive details about the monetized benefits of shared services What are the key references of shared services and how can it be deployed?

References exist not only for public administration and management but also for government core operations and citizen services. They are widespread across Central, State and Local governments. Some key examples are Postal Services in US, Revenue and Customs in UK, Queensland Government, several ULBs in UK, Transport for London and Unified Port of San Diego. Deployments of Shared Services essentially require a senior level mandate that cuts across many departments and geographies. For example, the Department of Urban Administration for State Municipalities, Finance and IT for State level e-Procurement and Commercial Taxes, Personnel and IT for State level HR, CGA for Central Ministries Finance and Accounts etc. Once this is achieved, world-class vendors including SAP can assist in providing such platforms. More information about Shared Services is available at http://www.sap.com/industries/ publicsector/sharedservices.epxx along with downloadable documents that can provide useful information on the approach, deployment and benefits. \\

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RNI NO. - UPENG/2008/25234

UP/GBD - 71/2009-2011