m-Government - Can it work wonders? : December 2005 Issue

Volume I issue 9, December 2005

ISSN 0973-161X

Experiences from Africa PAGE 18 Farmers getting a fair price: Thanks to IT! PAGE 43 Click ‘n’ Ride: Indian rail comes of age! PAGE 46 WSIS Tunis 2005: A space for collaborations PAGE 39

The first Asian monthly on e-Government

www.egov.csdms.in

m-Government

Can it work wonders?

Potholes in the free-way Meeting e-Government challenges in Asia Pacific countries

Uttar Pradesh: Riding high on Lokvani success Zohara Chatterji IT secretary, U P, India

Banking on the ‘Unbanked’ Nachiket Mor ICICI Bank

egov Asia 2006 April 2006, Bangkok www.egovasia.net

e-Banking for e-Governance ...Opportunities and Synergies

20-21 February 2006 Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi, India Banking and finance is like oxygen to any democracy. Successful democracy can only be achieved by giving citizen effective, efficient and resourceful money management system. Internet banking is catching up in urban area and is also emerging as a viable model for rural areas. Rural banking is an opportunity for the government to cater to the less privileged citizens; banks to tap the untapped potential; and IT industry to provide the backbone of all such services.

Concept of e-Governance has gained momentum in last 5 years and India is one of front-runners, aiming to achieve fully integrated e-Governance. Many e-Governance initiatives were taken around the country with varying degree by various state governments. Certainly, banking has played a pivotal role in successful implementation of these services.

This conference will debate on some of the pertinent issues on integrating e-Banking and e-Governance. e-Governmental services can largely be described as Government-to- Business (G2B), Government-to-Government (G2G), Government-to-Citizen (G2C) and Government-to-Employee (G2E). Role of e-Banking is amiable in all of them.

This conference will throw light on some of the current initiatives and planned activities taken-up both by the government and banking sector in mainstreaming e-Banking for effective implementation of e-Governance projects.

The proposed conference will bring together the implementers, policy-makers and finance and banking specialists to share their experiences and discuss emerging ideas.

Who will attend?

Central and State Government Officials

Public, Private, Foreign and Co-Operative Banks

Corporates providing e-Government and

Micro Finance Institutions

e-Banking Solutions

Financial Regulatory Bodies

Insurance Companies

Financial Institutions

Self Help Groups (SHGs)

Academicians

Exhibition e-Banking for e-Governance Conference 2006 will have an elaborate exhibition of latest e-Government products, solutions suites, services, initiatives and case studies from all across India and beyond. Professional service providers, IT vendors, consulting firms, government agencies and national/international development organisations involved in the e-Government domain are encouraged to participate in this exhibition.

Call for Papers Full Paper Submission: Acceptance:

30 January 2006 07 February 2006

Registration Delegate Fees Rs. 5,000/- per delegate Early birds discounts of 20% till January 10, 2006.

For more details: Contact: Gautam Navin, +91-9818125257 E-mail: gautam@csdms.in

Conference Secretariat

Key topics to be addressed

Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS)

Eminent experts and senior government officers, heads from banking and financial sector and individuals from various parts of this country will discuss opportunity and challenges for e-Government developments in the country. The discussion will include but not limit to the following topics:

G-4, Sector 39, Noida (U.P.) 201 301, India

Smart Card Solutions for the poor Micro Finance Rural Banking Kisan Card

Treasury management in the government Micro insurance, Weather and Agriculture insurance Low cost rural ATMs Citizen Service Centres (CSCs)/Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs)

r e t s i g Re . . . y a d o T

Tel: +91-120-2502180 to 87; Fax: +91-120-2500060

Organisers

Media partners

ov knowledge for change

w w w. i 4 d . c s d m s . i n

CONTENTS

The first Asian monthly on e-Government

Cover Story

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42

Networking solutions for smarter government Interview: Sudhir Narang CISCO Systems - India & SAARC

m-Government: Can it work wonders?

V. Madhusudhana Rao et al.

Special Feature

18

Experiences from Africa

QUOTES “Technology is the most non-linear tool that can effect the fundamental changes in the ground rules of economic competitiveness.”

A P J Abdul Kalam President of India

Commentary

34

Potholes in the free-way Clay G. Wescott

In Practice

47

Farmers getting a fair price: Thanks to IT! Satyaveer Singh

50

Click ‘n’ Ride: Indian rail comes of age!

Amitabh Pandey

Banking

31

Banking on the ‘Unbanked’ Interview: Nachiket Mor ICICI Bank

Event Diary

43

WSIS Tunis 2005: A space for collaborations

Regional Focus: Uttar Pradesh

37

Uttar Pradesh: Riding high on Lokvani success Interview: Zohra Chatterji IT Secretary, Government of Uttar Pradesh

Industry Perspective

25

3Es of Good Governance Interview: Malcolm Walter Bentley Systems

International Perspective

45

Interview: Richard Kerby United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA)

Regular Features

6 News Review 52 egov by numbers 53 About Town 54 Facts and Data

“The main reason for investing in electronic service delivery is to enable people to access the service more easily.

Making technology more inclusive is hugely important for the social and economic well-being” Jim Murphy Cabinet Office Minister, UK

“One of the main challenges of eGovernment is the existence of anti-change people (both within the government as well as among the public) who believe in the proverb, “A known devil is better than an unknown one” Salem Al-Shair Director (e-services) Dubai e-Government

Read the magazine online at

www.egov.csdms.in 4

www.egov.csdms.in |

EDITORIAL

Vol. I, Issue 9

December 2005

President M P Narayanan Editor-in-Chief Ravi Gupta Assistant Editors Anuradha Dhar (New Delhi) Isa Seow (Singapore) Sub-Editor Dipanjan Banerjee Designed by Deepak Kumar Bishwajeet Kumar Singh Web www.egov.csdms.in Editorial and marketing correspondence eGov G-4 Sector 39 NOIDA 201301, India Tel: +91 120 2502181-87 Fax: +91 120 2500060 Email: info@egov.csdms.in Printed by Yashi Media Works Pvt Ltd New Delhi, India egov does not neccesarily subscribe to the views expressed in this publication. All views expressed in the magazine are those of the contributors. egov is not responsible or accountable for any loss incurred, directly or indirectly as a result of the information provided.

New Year, New Promises!

Many countries in Asia are passing through a period of economic growth, which looks more sustainable to many than the dot com boom phase we saw in 1999. With economic stability comes the focus on smaller luxuries in life, for example, the automation and efficiencies in public service delivery systems. e-Governance is emerging on the radar of many countries in Asia. From Pakistan to Sri Lanka to Vietnam, the message on e-Government is spreading fast.

After allocating massive investments in e-Government programs, the problem faced is implementation. Scarcity of experience in this sector coupled with lack of coordination in experience sharing in Asian countries in this subject is a huge problem being faced by most of the countries in Asia. There has been a tendency to ‘Look West’ for expertise in technology implementation, and in this changing age of rise of Asia, it is high time that Asians start talking to each other to help each other in e-Government deployment. Keeping in mind the need of a platform for sharing good practices in e-Government, we have conceptualized ‘egov Asia 2006’ which will try to fill this gap. We are partnering with key government and non-government agencies in this sector from all over Asia, and outside to make it THE event for leaders in e-Government implementation across Asia.

India is making rapid strides in the era of e-Governance at all levels. As e-Governance scenario progresses from dissemination of information to citizens to G2C transactions, the banks become an important players in the entire scenario.

We thought of focusing on the linkages between e-Banking application for e-Governance by bringing the key stakeholders in these two sectors together perhaps for the first time on a single platform at a conference in February 2006 in Delhi.

As you can see we are striving hard to track and help you navigate through the amazing world of the e-Government through our magazine, portal and conferences.

We would love to have your constant feedback which can help you serve you in a much better way.

Wishing you a Happy New Year 2006!!!

egov is published in technical colloboration with GIS Development (www.GISdevelopment.net)

Ravi Gupta Ravi.Gupta@csdms.in

© Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies, 2005 www.csdms.in

| December 2005

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NEWS REVIEW

e-Government

INDIA India portal: A onestop shop for Govt info, services

The Indian Minister for Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran, has launched the national portal of India, ‘www.india. gov.in’, which will act as a gateway for various Central and State Government online services, including applying for marriage certificates, downloading forms for passport, and also provide information relating to Government tenders, policies and schemes.

The portal will play a key role in the ambitious National e-Governance programme, as it can serve as the frontend for the 28 mission mode projects being proposed. The portal, developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), provides a single interface to all Government Web sites.It provides comprehensive information in sections on citizens, businesses, overseas, Government, and individual sector. The portal also acts as a one-stop shop for information pertaining to Government forms, maps and documents, and allows the content to be personalised on the basis of visitors’ areas of interest and profile.

India lags behind in global tech space India lags far behind its east Asian neighbours such as South Korea and China in bridging the digital divide as well as telecom penetration, despite its enormous efforts in information, 6

communication and telecommunication (ICT). Moreover, the cost of modern communication technologies in India remains far higher compared to these nations. However, India is expected to catch up with China in terms of mobile telephony by 2008 when the subscriber base is projected to touch the 150 million mark.

According to numbers available with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India has the lowest penetration of fixed telephone lines compared to Korea, Malaysia and China. Similarly, in the case of mobile telephony penetration, South Korea again leads with 75 per 100 persons followed by Malaysia, which has 43.9 out of 100 persons mobile. In the case of Internet connectivity, once again has 26 out of every 100 South Koreans connected to the world through Internet.

One major reason for lower ICT penetration in India could be the high cost structure, which acts as an entry barrier to the space.

Vizag police to go hi-tech Come June 2006, the Police department in the districts in Vizag region in India would have e-Cop system.

This will help in registering complaints online and monitoring their status through Internet. The system is already in place in Hyderabad and the results are quite encouraging. This would help in bringing greater transparency to the functioning of the police.

For the first time in India, Andhra Pradesh Police has also introduced ‘e-Challan’, an IT-based traffic control and monitoring system, in Visakhapatnam city on a pilotbasis.

Under this system, challans will be issued to offenders on the spot by using handheld terminals and the data will be transferred to computer servers of Police and Road Transport Departments. These devices have the facility for swiping credit/debit cards to pay the penalties.

Jharkhand on IT path Jharkhand is embarking on a mammoth e-Governance project to link panchayats

with State headquarters, aiming to bring transparency in its administration.

The State government has also taken up another important scheme - state natural resources management system - which is aimed at developing state-wide mapping and monitoring of natural resources in the mineral-rich State. Jharkhand is the first State to participate in the Rs 15,000 crore special national e-Governance plan, it would be implemented by Jharkhand Agency for Promotion of Information Technology.

Agriculture markets in India to get digitally connected The agriculture ministry in India will provide electronic connectivity to important wholesale markets throughout the country to ultimately put in place a national atlas of agriculture markets on the telecom-based GIS platform. The atlas will contain information on the entire agricultural marketing infrastructure, including warehouses, cold storages, markets and other related infrastructure. Besides, the commodity profiles indicating the postharvest requirements for each of them would also be available on the national agriculture markets atlas. Over 1,000 markets have already been connected to a central portal for collection and dissemination of prices and other marketrelated information.

‘India One’ may bring STD rates to below Re 1 STD calls made to any part of the country could be priced at a flat rate of less than Re 1 a minute with the introduction of the India One tariff from January 1, 2006.

Currently, the maximum STD rate is Rs 2.80 a minute, which incorporates the carriage cost and the Access Deficit Charge (ADC). According to the draft New Telecom Policy, the Department of www.egov.csdms.in |

NEWS REVIEW

Telecom (DoT) is considering a single uniform rate based on the weighted average cost involved in carriage of telephone calls.

According to the DoT’s draft New Telecom Policy, the India One tariff concept would apply to STD calls to anywhere in India.

State Poverty Eradication Mission sets up job Web site The Kerala State Poverty Eradication Mission, Kudumbashree in India, has set up an employment Web site called Keralashree (www.keralashree.org).

The site offers both job seekers and recruiters a range of services. Members of the Kudumbashree network who are looking for jobs can use the Web site’s resources to search for jobs, post their resumes, prepare for interviews and so on and then post their job listing. For corporates, the site offers a bouquet of services such as screening of candidates for employment.

Government schools in southern India go hitech with computer education The Government schools in three districts in southern India, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam, are at last going for hi-tech education, with the Government making computer education one of the compulsory subjects in its schools.

Two important missions—1,000 Schools Computer Education (1KSCE) and Computer-Aided Learning (CAL)—have been introduced in schools. The computer education programme will start in a majority of the schools in these districts from January next year. The District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) units, in association with the Andhra Pradesh Technology Service (APTS), Hyderabad, and Azim Premji’s Wipro Company, have taken up this project.

Nokia wins Rs 6350 mn BSNL deal Nokia has bagged a Rs 635 crore deal from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) for network expansion in the northern India mobile operations. As per the deal, Nokia will provide equipment for GSM/EDGE and GPRS network expansion project of BSNL in north India.

…releases wireless keyboard Writing text messages, e-Mails, meeting and calendar notes quickly and efficiently on the easy-to-use portable, wireless QWERTY keyboard now makes this the perfect tool for the mobile wireless office.

The Nokia Wireless Keyboard connects via Bluetooth to compatible Nokia Series 60 Bluetooth enabled mobile phones.

Mobile subscribers up 2 mn in October According to the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the number of cell phone subscribers jumped by a whopping 2 million in October, which is the highest since the service was made available.

The cumulative GSM subscriber base grew by 4.15 per cent to 52.98 million last month from 50.87 million recorded during the previous month. Among all the circles, Mumbai added the maximum number of subscribers at 2,03,500.

TRAI bags Telecom Award of the Year

NetDevices banking on e-Governance segment

Its efforts to stoke competition in the Indian telecom space and make telephones more affordable to the common man have earned Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) the Telecom Award of the Year 2004 conferred by Public Telecommunication Council of India Foundation (PTCIF).

NetDevices Networks, a networking technology products company, is targeting the e-Governance, banking, finance and insurance sectors in India.

The effective regulatory framework provided by TRAI coupled with the government’s initiaitves led to phenomenal growth in the subscriber | December 2005

base of mobile services from 33.69 million in March 2004 to 52.22 million in March 2005, registering an annual growth rate of 55 per cent. The regulatory initiaitves taken by TRAI also led to a decline in mobile tariff, STD and ISD charges in the year.

The company is in parleys with the governments of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, and expect a significant offtake for its products that ensure that offices located in multiple centres have trouble-free interface with the central office. The company competes with the likes of Cisco, Juniper and Entrasys.

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ASIA Nepal’s first e-Governance office computerising citizenship record District Administration Office (DAO) at Kavre district in Nepal has developed itself as a model e-Governance office, setting-up computerised system for official records and works.

As per the Government directives to keep government office records and activities computerised the DAO of Kavre has already computerised the records of all citizenship certificates. This is the first such office in Nepal to computerise the citizenship record of the citizens. One just needs to give two information such as name and the place or date of birth to verify the citizenship paper for passport or other purposes.

portal at www.el.edu.net.vn, providing an integral link in the EduNet education network.

Sri Lanka launches National ICT in Education drive The Sri Lankan Ministry of Education has announced a “National ICT Education Drive”, which is to be a key element of the Education Reforms process aimed at producing a global citizen with local values who can meet the challenges of the new knowledge-based society.

The National ICT Education Drive consists of three major components like ICT Education for Schools, ICT Education for Universities and ICT Education for All.

More Chinese are online but not embracing e-Commerce Kuwait Council of Ministers to establish portal

The country’s Council of Ministers (COM) has signed a contract to establish a portal to promote transparency and involve citizens in the governance process.

VoIP users in Asia to reach 20 mn by 2009

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the rollout of Turkey’s e-government programme, according to a report in the Bangkok Post. The SGD40.2 million (EUR20.1) project will involve the construction of an e-government portal for the Turkish government. The portal aims to provide a single point of access to e-government services for Turkey’s 70 million citizens, along with its 30 government agencies. “The project will help transform Turkey’s public administration into being more citizenand business-centric and facilitate Turkey’s entry into the European Union,” said Leong Peng Kiong, CrimsonLogic’s acting chief executive officer. The gateway will “lay the groundwork for Turkey’s participation in future pan-European egovernment services that require interoperability with services of EU nations,” he said. Turkish company Oyak Technologies will act as the local partner for the deal.

The market for VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) services in Asia, including Japan, is expected to grow at rate of around $1 billion per year between 2005 and 2009 to more than $10 billion, as the number of users more than doubles, according to market researcher In-Stat.

A survey of Chinese internet habits has revealed that Chinese internet users are wary of buying products online.

At the end of 2004, VoIP services revenue in Asia totaled $5.5 billion, with 8.7 million local VoIP lines. Service providers have been leading the VoIP charge in Asia through offering customers discount mobile phone or home rates on long distance calls that are transferred to the IP network. In-Stat forecasts the number of VoIP users in Asia will rise to over 20 million by 2009.

While internet usage is developing rapidly in China, growth in e-Commerce has been much slower. The survey also found that one-third of internet users do not use eMail, preferring instant messaging instead.

Many people do not trust the quality of goods bought online. China now has more than 100 million internet users, making it the second largest internet market after the United States.

Vietnam opens e-Learning portal

Turkey plans e-Government portal

The Ministry of Education and Training in Vietnam has opened its e-Learning

Singapore-based CrimsonLogic has secured a deal that will pave the way for

The new ‘E.Portal’ project will promote greater awareness of the decisions of the COM, and enable greater scrutiny by citizens. By publishing subsequent followup actions, the portal will also give a boost to accountability.

“We aim to develop and keep in track of today’s technologies by implementing the best information technologies to achieve e-government,” said Abdullah Ali Al-Duwailah Assistant Secretary General for Admin and Financial Affairs at Kuwait Council of Ministers, at the signing of a contract to establish the portal.

According to Al-Duwailah the portal will also help encourage other agencies of government to proceed with their own e-government initiatives, and foster greater awareness of the role of technology amongst the country’s civil service. www.egov.csdms.in |

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WORLD e-Governance creating example here!

Namibia presents one of the best cases of e-Government in Africa. Namibian government is empowering all vulnerable groups, including the unemployed and underprivileged, the elderly and those with disabilities to access information and to use ICT as a tool to lift themselves out of misery.

Rapid Internet growth is taking place here, as more than one out of every 15 people can access a telephone. Some ministries and government agencies, like the National Examination and Assessment, Funds Control, payroll, Inland Revenue, Social Welfare, Border Control and Passport and National Population Registration, already have electronic systems in place.

Angola going for e-Governance The government of Angola is working on one of Africa’s most ambitious eGovernance schemes. According to the action plan, the project includes mapping the identity and identification of all citizens to enrol all Angolans into a database of digital identities.

For this to happen, the government has put special emphasis on the security of electronic communications. Sceptics however say that there still is a lack of legislation regarding protection of privacy and that authorities are planning to censor the Internet.

SA to inject $500 000 into ICT project The South African government has signed a cooperation agreement with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) that will give rural populations easy access to technology. The South African government is to inject US$500 000 into the project.

Institutions such as schools, clinics and | December 2005

hospitals will be targeted. South Africa already ranks 48 out of 142 countries in connectitivity, according to the World Bank.

Half of EU citizens and businesses visit government sites

Irish government ponders prisoner tagging

Around half of EU citizens and businesses who used the internet in the first quarter of 2004 obtained public sector information online. According to figures released by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, 45 percent of citizens aged 16 to 74 who accessed the Internet in this time period used it to get information from government websites. Finland had the highest level of such access at 62 percent of Internet users, followed by Denmark (56 percent) and Luxembourg (55 percent). On the enterprise side, 51 percent of businesses with net access used it to obtain information from public sector sites, with the highest level of access in Sweden (94 percent). Sweden, Finland and Estonia recorded the highest levels among businesses for downloading government forms. The study also noted that services to citizens among the 25 EU Member States were most developed in the UK, Sweden and Austria, while services for enterprise were most advanced in Denmark and Estonia.

The latest amendments to the Irish government’s Criminal Justice Bill include measures to track criminals electronically, which could reduce the number of people in prison. Under the proposed legislation, the courts will have the power to make restriction of movement orders, as an alternative to putting offenders in prison.

Tagged individuals will be required to be in specific places at specific times. For example, some individuals will be monitored to ensure that they are attending classes or training courses.

Electronic tags may also be used to monitor prisoners when they are out on temporary release. Sources within the Gardai have welcomed the measure.

Tagging has been used in the UK since 1999 and has been under consideration by the Irish government since 2003.

Lebanon to roll out e-procurement system The government of Lebanon is implementing an e-procurement system for five ministries, it was announced at the recent World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia. The system is being rolled out with technical assistance and an e-government grant of USD 498,000 from the Development Gateway Foundation, in partnership with the Italian government. The Development Gateway Foundation is a non-profit organisation whose mission is to help developing countries make the most of the Internet. The e-procurement system, which will see the five ministries posting tenders on one website, aims to cut costs by streamlining procurement processes and creating a more competitive bidding environment. The Lebanon’s Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform (OMSAR) is the agency that has been charged with implementing the e-tenders system.

Government sites in Europe unusable by disabled people A report by the UK Cabinet Office found that 97% of official websites were unusable by disabled people, largely because they ignored wellknown techniques for making data accessible.

This is despite attempts by governments to put more services online. According to the study, 48.1% of Europe’s population of 460 million people use the net and approximately 39 million people in Europe have some form of disability.

The survey found that only 3% of the sites it looked at passed basic tests on accessibility set down by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). These ensure that the data in web pages can be translated by software into a form usable by deaf, blind or otherwise disabled people.

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ICT for Development

Microsoft puts British Library online

About 100,000 books in the British Library are going to be scanned and put online by software giant Microsoft.

The books, which are out of copyright, will be digitised from 2006 and put online as part of Microsoft’s book search service next year. A separate global digital library plan by Google is also under way.

Uganda first to get benefit of ARV technology Uganda has become the first country in the world to benefit from a healthcare information system that manages, measures and monitors the distribution of Anti retroviral drugs (ARVs). This product, expected to be in use in Uganda by mid next year, is the most advanced and complete system in the world.

to an e-Braille Library on wheels that will bring a variety of reading material in Braille script to their door step.

A Maruti van fitted with a multi-media computer system with special software package and radio cum tape-recorder will also enable the visually impaired students to operate the computer and the system will read out the books for them. The students can listen to programmes on radio or to cassettes of rhymes and songs of their choice on the tape recorder.

India among 30 countries at risk to meet literacy targets According to Unesco’s Education For All (EFA) global monitoring report 2006, of the 771 million adult illiterates in the world without basic literacy skills, South and West Asia together fare the worst, with the lowest adult literacy rate of 58.6%.

The number of illiterate people in India is more than 5 million, according to the report. Nepal and Pakistan also have similarly high rates. The report puts India among the 30 countries unable to achieve adult literacy targets by 2015, due to the slow pace of progress. The other countries at risk of not achieving the goal are Pakistan and Nepal, several countries of Africa and Latin America.

Indian classrooms with Smart whiteboards

Named ARVims Version 2.0, the system would enable public health officials to conveniently and accurately manage confidential information starting from when a patient registers for a programme.

It tracks all physician-patient conference information, monitors pharmacy inventory and produces reports for accountability and forecasting.

First e-Braille library on wheels Visually challenged students of Government schools in the Indian state Andhra Pradesh can now look forward 10

Smart Technologies Inc., the Canadianbased global market leader in interactive whiteboards and collaborative tools, has launched the new version of the easy-touse interactive whiteboard (Smart Board

600 series) for Indian educational institutions and business enterprises.

An interactive whiteboard is a touchsensitive screen that works in conjunction with a computer and a projector. Its collaborative tools like Smart pen tray and whiteboarding software are powerful yet easy to use.Among educational institutions, the Indian Institutes of Management, Indian Institutes of Technology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi Public School and INS Dronacharya, Kochi, have installed Smart’s whiteboards for imparting lessons in an interactive mode.

Tata Tele to cover 200 talukas in Gujurat Tata Tele Services Limited (TTSL) plans to cover 200 talukas of the Indian state Gujurat, while aiming for steady growth by increasing connectivity, customer base, STD PCO networks and retail outlets across the state in future.

Presently it is covering 150 talukas of the state and is likely to touch 200 talukas by end of this financial year.

The company had recently started setting up ‘True Value Shops’. Presently, it has 200 such outlets operational in Gujarat.

Computer literacy kiosks by NIIT NIIT Limited on the occasion of the World Computer Literacy Day (WCLD) 2005 is planning to set up computer literacy kiosks in 20 locations spread over the rural areas of the country and to train 20,000 village children free of cost.

Speaking at a function jointly organised by the Rotary Club, Calcutta Metro City to help bridge the digital divide, Tulika Sinha, vice president India east, NIIT said that there are already 40 such kiosks existing across the country and in addition to the above would also provide computer training to 50,000 people at a reduced cost. *In collaboration with i4d (www.i4d.csdms.in)

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Geo-Informatics

Intermap remaps State of Hawaii in 3D Intermap Technologies Corporation recently announced that it has completed the data acquisition of the state of Hawaii under its NEXTMap USA program. Eight of the Hawaiian Islands have been mapped with the coverage area including: Oahu, Kauai, Maui, Hawaii, Molokai, Nihau, Lania and Kahoolawe. The completion of Hawaii progresses Intermap’s plan to digitally map the entire continental United States and Hawaii in three dimensions.

Acquisition of the entire states of California, Florida and Mississippi has also been completed, as well as portions of many other states, bringing the Company’s total coverage to date to over 1,000,000 square kilometers, totaling over 15 percent of the entire USA. Collection of the data was partially funded through a contract totaling approximately US$340,000 from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Digital aerial photography of the Netherlands Recently Aerodata Internatioal Surveys successfully completed the countrywide digital aerial data acquisition of the Netherlands. The imagery will be used to produce a seamless orthophoto database of an area of 40.000 km2 and was acquired in a period of only 6 weeks time.

Aerodata’s digital camera UltraCam-D simultaneously recorded the colour and colour-infrared imagery and was mounted in the fast Fairchild Merlin survey aircraft.

The colour orthophoto mosaic at 40 cm ground resolution will be colour balanced and shows a very high level of detail. The use of the digital camera leads to significant improvement of the final product with respect to image clarity, brightness, contrast and visibility of details in shadow areas. With this product Aerodata sets a new standard for countrywide digital orthophoto | December 2005

databases. The complete product will be finished early 2006 and from then on the complete dataset or parts of it can be delivered to clients under the brand name aeroGRID NL2005.

Montana’s largest city adopts GIS MWH Soft, a global provider of environmental and water resources applications software, recently announced that the City of Billings, Montana, has chosen MWH Soft InfoWater and InfoSWMM ArcGIS-centric technology as the geospatial infrastructure modeling and management solution for its water distribution and sewer collection systems. The selection is the latest confirmation of MWH Soft’s marketleading momentum in advanced geospatial hydraulic infrastructure modeling solutions in North America.

Incorporated in 1882, the City of Billings is in Yellowstone County, the most populous county in Montana. The largest city in the state, its estimated population is 97,253. The city operates and maintains over 400 miles of water lines, 136 miles of storm drain pipes, and over 400 miles of sanitary sewer mains. Billings plans to leverage the power of InfoWater and InfoSWMM for its enterprise-wide GISintegrated infrastructure modeling and management programs, used to support its comprehensive water and wastewater master planning effort and optimize capital improvement projects. MWH Soft is a leading global provider of technical and infrastructure software and professional solutions designed to meet the technological needs of utilities, government industries, and engineering organizations worldwide.

2005 Europe Postal and Administrative digital maps available GfK MACON is now supplying the new 2005 version of the digital map edition “Europe Postal and Administrative”. The 2004 map set has been completely revised and expanded to include additional, detailed map levels for

Romania and Bulgaria. The Europe Edition comprises the postal and administrative territories of all European countries including Turkey. These territories are supplemented by a large selection of topographical map layers, such as roads, railway lines, city areas and elevations.

The maps are provided as vector data in the standard GIS formats. All map objects are fully inscribed and include the national as well as the international terminology and characters where necessary.

The complete postcode maps of Romania and Bulgaria are an entirely new and exclusive addition to the Europe Edition 2005.

IIT makes software for rail safety in India An IIT-led consortium of academic institutions, companies, and R&D outfits have developed the satellite imaging for rail navigation system named SIMRAN, as part of the Railway Safety Technology Mission.

SIMRAN, as the system has been named, is a traintracking system which enables monitoring every train in a certain geographical boundary for its location, speed, and the direction of movement. The information can be used for averting collisions. It involves a simple implementation of the geo-positioning system, GSM, and radio frequency-based instrumentation.

The system provides information on the arrival of a train at the station, its departure, the time taken to move from one station to another, the position of the train between two stations being updated every minute, etc.

This technology can be used not only by the railways but also a number of other transport modes where tracking is involved. The system is a train-tracking system which enables monitoring every train in a certain geographical boundary for its location, speed, and the direction of movement. The information can be used for averting collisions. *In collaboration with GIS@development (www.gisdevelopment.net)

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COVER STORY

m-Government: Can it work wonders? e-Government efforts to disseminate information, deliver services, complaints and grievances are now spreading the use of mobile and wireless technologies and creating a new direction: mobile government (m-government). m-Government is a subset of e-Government, which helps public information and government services available anytime anywhere to citizens and officials. This paper present the benefits of m-Government with a case study on “Grievance Redressal Mechanism” implemented in the ULBs of Ranga Reddy district of Andhra Pradesh, India.

The public and private investment in electronic government continues to grow rapidly and so does the demand for electronic government services.

Governments and their private partners are aggressively pursuing the delivery of government services via the Web. Currently, a majority of these efforts are focused on desktop PCs, reflecting the common computing environments. Today, use and development of “wireless to the web” technology is reaching a critical mass and are witnessing an explosion in the use of wireless Internet applications, including Internet-ready mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).

Citizen’s access to government information and services via handheld devices and wireless applications can improve governments’ fundamental functions includes dissemination of information, service delivery, complaints and grievances, and promotion and creates a new direction: mobile government (m-government). m-Government is a multifaceted approach for efficient utilization of all wireless devices (mobile phones, handhelds, PDAs, wearable PCs, Black Berry pagers, etc.) with maximal added value to all involved parties – government on one side and citizens and business on the other and reasonable and favourable ROI (return of investment), justifying extra spending on new technologies and mobilised processes.

Today, this technology has been demonstrated in various Government sectors like education, health, transport, internal functions and elections for information, communication, service 12

delivery, payment services and voting etc.

The framework announced under National eGovernance Action Plan of India (2003-2007) is also focusing on mobile technologies as a delivery mechanism for public services and citizen grievances.

Drivers of m-Government The forces influencing the move from egovernment to m-government activities include major changes in the technological infrastructure and the advances in mobile telecommunication services. The technological changes can be broadly described under three major trends: mobile device penetration; convergence of wired Internet and wireless telecommunication networks; and the move towards 3G services and higher data transfer rates. The following sections are the important factors, which form a strong foundation for the governments to build their mobile services: 1. Mobile device penetration 2. The emergence of mobile Internet 3. Mobile Net applications and services Mobile device penetration Mobile devices are now taking significant roles in our daily and business life. The percentage of people worldwide with a mobile telephone has soared from 0.3% in 1991 to more than 20% today. In India, mobile phone users (65.31 million) have outnumbered fixed-line customers (47.71 million) for the first time (Source: TRAI, August 2005). The gross subscriber base consisting of fixed as well as mobile has become 110 million which increased the

teledensity to 10.12 at the end of August 2005.

The emergence of mobile Internet The technology and the speed of the mobile Internet have evolved through various Gs (generations). Initially mobile telephony systems were analog, circuitswitched. Voice links were poor, capacity was low, and security was almost nonexistent. Then came the secondgeneration (2G) protocols using digital encoding such as GSM and CDMA. These technologies are in use around the world and support high rate of voice but limited data transfers. They offer auxiliary services such as data, fax and SMS. The next generation technologies and protocols, (2.5G) extend 2G systems to provide additional features such as packet-switched connection (GPRS) and enhanced data rates. Third-generation (3G) protocols support much higher data rates, and are intended primarily for applications other than voice. 3G applications, at a limited scale, have already started in Europe, part of Asia/Pacific, and in the US. Full fledged 3G is expected to support bandwidth-hungry applications such as full-motion video, video-conferencing and full Internet access.

Bringing the mobile Internet to the mobile devices is not an easy task. These devices have limitations in terms of size (small displays and keyboard) and low memory. Also, the technologies are yet to prove themselves with high speed and smooth transmissions without any disconnection. Various wireless standards and handset compatibilities remain to constitute important challenges. www.egov.csdms.in |

COVER STORY

Mobile net applications and services These services can be categorized into four types: Transaction, information, database and entertainment services.

The killer applications for mobile Net are mostly entertainment type where, for example, users may download screen savers, ring tones and play games.

Other services may include browsing information and databases such as news, stock prices, telephone directory and location based dining guides.

One important area that is yet to improve

is business applications such as mobile banking, ticket reservations and trading.

Short messaging service (SMS) is by far the widely used application on mobile phones. Presently, SMS is being predominantly used for entertainment related services. There are only a few good examples in banking, travel and location based services.

From e-Gov to m-Gov Services The coming age of m-Government raises

several interesting questions. Will mgovernment replace the e-government activities? Despite its significance mgovernment cannot be seen as replacing e-government and in many cases it will be complementary to e-government efforts.

The value of m-government derives from the capabilities of applications supporting mobility of the citizens, businesses and internal operations of the governments. Table 2 illustrates some of the m-gov implementations across various government sectors.

Table 1: Goals, objectives and associated benefits from public mobile services Goals

Key Benefits

Mobile services can be used as new and/or complementary (multi-channel service delivery concept) dissemination channel and means of access to public information.

Public information could be of various nature: • general public information • broadcast of critical information (emergencies, traffic) affecting the community to registered users • notifications with information according to user specific interests (registered users)

Service efficiency • Dissemination of information to a larger number of people (mobile access) at a very short time Citizen-authority relationship • enlarged accessibility • transparency • citizen satisfaction Public Image • improved image of town, city

Mobile services can generally be seen as communication channel between the authority and the citizen (as well as the private entity).

Service efficiency • reduction of average service processing time, mainly for correspondence concerning simple notifications • ubiquitous and instant contact Service economy • reduction of costs Service quality • more time freed and spent on particular cases Citizen-authority relationship • satisfaction of citizen and private users

The most evident application of this concept relates to the context of particular cases and processes (e.g. requests for certificates) where at least part of the correspondence (notifications on the status of a process) could be done through mobile means.

This kind of service could also encompass the delivery of particular information to registered users.

Mobile services can particularly stimulate the participation of the citizen in local community matters and be applied as channel for the submission of complaints, suggestions etc., accessible to the public. This kind of service also encompasses the communication between the authority and the citizen during the follow-up of the complaint/suggestion.

Problem awareness • early detection of problems reported by the citizens Authority-citizen relationship • enlarged accessibility • transparency • increased participation of citizen in community matters • citizen satisfaction Service efficiency • ubiquitous and instant contact

Within the context of general public information services, mobile services can also be used as vehicle for promotion at local (cultural, fairs) events.

Service efficiency • Dissemination to a larger number of people at a very short time Service Economy • reduction of costs • contribution to sustainability Economical development • promotional support to local businesses

The promotional effect would be particularly useful for local businesses with limited financial and organizational capabilities to otherwise announce their presence at a timely and geographically limited event such as a local fair.

| December 2005

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COVER STORY

Table 2

14

S.No

Category

Type of services

Technology

Examples

Challenges

1

m-Communication

Two types of services 1. SMS/ SMS e-mail/ e- 1.Information about 1.Easy to ‘hack’ offered: mail alerts a mobile energy shortages 1. general information or 2. Other enhancements phone number, at California, USA alerts that are not of this service could 2.Current issues which could legally binding for include the provision cause serious affecting the local citizens, businesses or of WAP information difficul-ties bodies at Central government on any topic or files, 2.Low Europe 2.important or legally modified for viewing penetration of binding communication on other wireless capable and information, providevices (PDAs, handdevices ded by businesses or helds etc). GPRS and individuals to governdata-based billing ment and vice versa. with new WAP specification give further opportunities to this technology at least till 3G comes.

2

m-Payment for information and services

1.Fees for official inform- Fees for the documents 1.Central Europe for ation are currently charged general fees 2.Issue of certificates through various mobile 2.PKI implementpayment methods: ation at UK with • Digital Wallet (mtechnology provicash): mobile phone der “Secartis”. as an entry point to 3.Public parking at proprietary cash US systems • Premium SMS messages: SMS messages of distinct tariffs, differing from general SMS message tariffs • Premium-rate phone lines (calling a given phone number with extra charges for the calling party) • SIM-toolkit application, such as GSM banking.

Ensuring security and bringing trust among citizens for mobile payments

3

m-Voting

Virginia, US 1.Locating polling station 1. SMS using Mobile devices with PKI 2.Information on election implementation results 2.e-mail, WAP and web froms also present opportunities

• Lack of knowledge about mobile phones (text) among older people.

• Lack of security – fear of ‘fixing’ the vote.

• Costs–potential voters were not willing to spend money www.egov.csdms.in |

COVER STORY

S.No

Category

Type of services

Technology

Examples

Challenges on a procedure that is generally free. • Psychological barriers – British people generally use SMS messages for leisurely communication with friends thus the official nature of voting is not suitable for SMS.

4

Internal m-Govern- 1.Internal operation of 1.Handheld devices government institutions with wireless ment issues like Bill data updation, modem or means vehicle inspection by to upload motor vehicle inspector etc.,

1. US, Texas-based State Board of Barber Examiners 2.CPDCL, AP Transco, INDIA (pilot basis)

5

Location services & 1.To locate the device user so as to inform commer- SMS m-Government cial, emergency service details like poisonous gas leakage or catastrophe in that specific area

1.Traffic jam infor- Insecure since the data is sensitive mation, India 2.A n t i - p o l l u t i o n reporting mechanism in Phillippines

6

m-Government for 1.Road Safety purposes 2.Providing alternate transportation destination routes 3.Remote diagnostics of broken vehicles

SMS, GPS services

1.OnStar (General Motors), US is implementing a system on trail basis to inform drivers of incidents in a 15-mile radius of their vehicle location that may pose difficulties on their journey 2.Reporting danger-ous driving thro- ugh voice comm-ands at UK for truck vehicles

Participation of public private partners in adoption of these technological developments

7

m-Government for 1.Communication between parents and education school authorities these 2.Wi-Fi networks on university campus

SMS, web services

Texas University, US

Strategic planning and procurement of resources

8

m-Health

SMS, IVRS

1. Informing blood donors to donate when need arises in Malta

Return on investment for such services are difficult to measure.

| December 2005

1. Calling ambulance for emergency situations 2.Guiding person through a situation basis via an automated IVR system

Acceptance of process reengineering and change management procedures by department officials

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COVER STORY

Case Study: The online Grievance Redressal Tracking System (OGRTS), Ranga Reddy district, Andhra Pradesh, India Grievance Redress Mechanism is part and parcel of the machinery of any administration. No administration can claim to be accountable, responsive and user-friendly unless it establishes an efficient and effective grievance redress mechanism. In fact, the grievance redress mechanism of an organization is the gauge to measure its efficiency and effectiveness as it provides important feedback on the working of the administration.

Nowadays, the empowered and enlightened citizenry is far more demanding services in convenient and comfortable channels. And the government, therefore, has to develop, evolve and enable itself to meet the evolving demands of the society.

District Collector, Ranga Reddy district, Andhra Pradesh has made an attempt to automate the process of grievance redressal and to reduce the overhead for the government and citizens, thus creating value for the economy. The grievance given by the citizen is the felt need and this automation helps in expediting redressal process which reduces the frustration level among the citizens and to that extent increases the satisfaction level.

The Online Grievance Redressal Tracking System (OGRTS) is being developed & implemented by Centre for Good Governance (CGG), Hyderabad in

the State of Andhra Pradesh for redressal of citizen grievances. It is being implemented in ten Urbal Local Bodies (ULBs) of Ranga Reddy district. SMS (Short Messaging Services) technologies are adopted for communication across functionaries and citizens duly taking the citizen charter of ULBs into consideration.

This is only one of its kinds of mGovernment initiatives under Mission Mode projects of State Government.

Objectives Public Grievances consists primarily to undertake citizen-centric initiatives in the fields of administration reforms and public grievances in the Government so as to enable the Government machinery to deliver quality public services to the citizen in a hassle-free manner and eliminate the causes of grievance.

• To provide adequate ICT facilities for all users to ensure optimum usage of resources • To provide an excellent and effective user support / help desk.

• To provide access to information based on user privileges • To archive essential information for later retrieval and analysis.

• To connect the entire state in a single network • To provide effective automated monitoring system.

• To integrate various communication channels – SMS, Web, e-Mail and Post • To reduce delays due to the physical transmission of the files.

Steps Involved

16

• •

To use open source technologies.

To communicate various government activities efficiently and effectively to public.

• To help common man to fully utilize various policies of Government and hence increase the standard of living.

The five steps involved in grievance redressal tracking system are represented below in the table.

This system went live this past May’05 and has been successfully implemented in Ranga Reddy District, Andhra Pradesh and extended to other municipalities in the State. This system has incurred negligible software costs as only open source technologies have been used for the development of the software.

The strength of the system is that it is operational in the municipalities in the State and adapted itself to the changing user requirements and been successful as effective decision support system which is evident from the increase in response to public grievances and needs.

Challenges for OGRTS as m-Government application Implementation of m-Government for citizen complaints and grievances brings a series of challenges. Some of the typical challenges of e-government are shared by m-Government efforts. Infrastructure development, privacy and security, legal issues, mobile penetration rate and accessibility, compatibility are some of the m-Government challenges. i. Infrastructure development: The IT resources utilized in implementation Service channels

1.

Registering a grievance: Citizen register grievances using any of the service channel. As far as internet is concerned, a web based application with customized home page is provided for all registered citizens.

Telephone (Call centre), email, Internet and Mobile

2.

Automatic forwarding to the functionary: The registered complaints automatically forwarded to the respective functionary of ULB on both the modes SMS and internet application (based on privileges)

SMS, Internet

3.

Automatic escalation as per citizen charter: Timelines are defined as per citizen charter and stored in the database. These timelines are tracked in the backend and escalates as per the figure 2 using both the modes i.e., SMS and internet

SMS, Internet

4.

Updation of action taken: The functionary updates the action taken using either of the modes i.e., SMS/ internet

SMS, Internet

5.

Knowing status: The citizen can see the status through any of the modes i.e., SMS, internet, email or Telephone to the call centre

SMS, Internet, email and Telephone

www.egov.csdms.in |

COVER STORY

of e-government must be required for m-Government. In addition, m-Government needs mobile technology supporting packages for its effective implementation. ii. Privacy and Security: These are the most significant concerns citizens have about m-Government. The general fear is that their mobile phone numbers will be traced, when they send their opinions and inquiries to the government. The government must overcome the mistrust, and assure mobile users that people’s privacy is protected and the information will not be sold to third parties. Although encryption of SMS messages is relatively safe, mobile phone numbers and mobile devices are relatively easy to be hacked.

Wireless networks are vulnerable because they use public airwaves to send signals. Because of interception in all traffic on the Internet, there is a big chance for outsiders to attack on wireless networks to steal important information and tamper with documents and files. Therefore in the planning stage of the m-Government project, privacy and security issues should be considered so that developers will be able to select appropriate mobile devices. iii. Accessibility: The success of mobile government will depend on largely the number of its users: government functionaries and the citizens. But socio-economic factors such as income, education level, gender, age, handicap, language differences and regional discrepancies will affect the citizens’ attitude towards mobile government. In order to increase citizen participation and provide citizen-oriented services, governments need to offer easy access to m-Government information in alternative forms, possibly, using video and voice communications.

(OGRTS providing web, voice, email channels to register and track the status) iv. Legal issues: The Law of Fair Information Practices have not yet adopted in many countries. This law speaks about the rights of data subjects (citizens) and the | December 2005

responsibilities of the data holders (government). In some cases the law does not recognize mobile documents and transactions. There is no clear legal status for government’s online publications, no regulations and laws for online fillings, online signings, and on online taxable transactions.

Conclusions Despite its early stage, m-Government seems to have a substantial influence on the generation of set of complex strategies and tools for e-government efforts and on their roles and functions. m-Government is inevitable. The number of people having access to mobile phones and mobile internet connection is increasing rapidly. The mobile access anywhere any time – is becoming a natural part of daily life, and the governments will have to transform their activities according to this demand of convenience and efficiency of interactions for all stakeholders. The developed and developing countries shall have to synergize e-Government and mGovernment based on their potential for wireless devices and networks to provide value-added features for the integrated and flexible data communication and exchange mechanism among government units.

References 1. Ibrahim Kushchu & M. Halid Kuscu: From eGovernment to m-Government: Facing the Inevitable

2. Dirk Tilsner, EDISOFT, S.A.: USability-drivEn Open Platform for MobilE GOVernment 3. Government unplugged: Mobile and wireless technologies in the public service by CENTRE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE INNOVATION 4. Andrzej Bassara, Marek Wiœniewski, Pawe³ ebrowski: USE-ME.GOV – A Requirementsdriven Approach for M-Gov Services Provisioning 5. Global Information Technology Report 2002-2003, World Economic Forum, infoDev and INSEAD.

V. Madhusudhana Rao Project Manager (eGovernance) Centre for Good Governance

P. Srinivasa Rao, Project Manager (eDev Cell) Centre for Good Governance

P.K.Mohanty Director General & Executive Director Centre for Good Governance Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh www.cgg.gov.in

Syed Murtaz Ali Rizvi Joint Collector, Ranga Reddy District Andhra Pradesh, India

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SPECIAL FEATURE

e-GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

Experiences from Africa This special feature presents a series of locally written articles on e-Government initiatives for development from the countries of Africa. The countries focused are Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. We present this in collaboration with the iConnect platform of International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) and i4d (Information for Development).

Can ICT improve public service delivery in Burkina Faso?

By Ramata Soré In Burkina Faso, a country with very low ICT penetration, some government services have been put online, but the lack of access by the majority of the population means that e-government must be balanced with traditional means of disseminating public information.

Overcoming obstacles Access to advanced ICTs in Burkina Faso is very low due to infrastructure limitations and a lack of training and financing for such tools. In less developed countries like Burkina, traditional media such as print, radio and TV are still indispensable for reaching the public and must be part of the government’s information and communication strategy. Otherwise, egovernment will result in “two-tier” government, with a large part of the population left with less access to government information, not more.

The perception that Burkina Faso is not totally ready for e-government extends even to DELGI, the informatics ministry responsible for the overall strategy. One official there said that Burkina is responding to outside pressure in instituting e-government: it was “an international imposition. We had to put information online because the Westerners did it and asked us to do the same.”

To put the Burkina Faso online presence in context, a UNDP study of 190 countries showed that 169 of them had government websites. Of these, 17 were sophisticated enough to handle electronic payments, 32 of the sites were simply a web presence with information about such things as government ministers, and 18

55 sites allowed people to download documents and interact with ministries by email.

The Burkina Faso government’s online presence falls into this intermediate category. Although it is not very interactive and does not include facilities for applying for identity cards and paying taxes, for example, the sites are nevertheless helping to improve transparency and efficiency. The Ministry of Finance has published on its website various useful documents including forms and information about its operations.

“E-government is in an embryonic state in this country,” says Augustin Coulibaly, a senior staffer at the Ministry of Finance.“Complex transactions like online payment and applying for identity papers require a high level of security, confidentiality, and verification of identity. At the minimum, the information online needs to be absolutely accurate and up to date, or the web site is worthless.”

DELGI is responsible for putting in place a programme of modernisation of government services. It is installing a public service intranet/extranet and rolling out a national network to respond to the communication and information needs of a public administration that is undergoing a decentralization process and that therefore requires good information links between the capital and the regions.

Eleven public institutions now have Internet access. The more this resource is used to deliver better quality public services, the more ICTs will be appreciated by the Burkinabè public.

A tool for democracy ICTs can make it possible to carry out participatory consultation processes with citizens and business regarding administrative and political decisions. For this to happen, Burkinabès would have to undergo a change in mentality.

Representative democracy needs ICTs in order to enable a fluid public discourse.

“ICTs can enable elected officials to better fulfil their role as representatives of local constituencies by allowing them to monitor legislative processes from a distance,” says Professor Augustin Loada, executive secretary of the Centre pour la bonne gouvernance (CGD).

In November 2005 there will be elections in Burkina Faso. Only four out of 136 political parties have websites. The information on these sites is similar: history of the party and an account of current activities. After the elections, parliamentary websites will be able to publish information about the winning candidates, including biographical and contact information. This objective information is not to be confused with the political websites posted by individual candidates and elected officials designed to sell his or her message to voters.

ICTs are a tool for public participation and can change the relationship between government and citizen from one of master and servant to one of service provider and client. This process is still proceeding slowly in our country. The State still has problems of capacity, content, management and regulation to overcome before it can fully adopt ICT into its operations. www.egov.csdms.in |

SPECIAL FEATURE

e-GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

The Government portal project: e-Governance in Ghana

By John Yarney In Ghana today, anyone can sidestep the hindrances associated with bureaucracy and access government information such as the country’s budget statements via the Ghana government’s portal at www.ghana.gov.gh. This access is one of the benefits of the government portal project, according to Alphonse Koblavie, Deputy Director of Information of Ghana’s Information Services Department and leader of the team implementing the portal project. “The public can access government information anytime and anywhere provided they have net access,” he explains.

Government services go online The portal project has operated on a pilot basis since 2003, when Ghana’s Ministry of Information entered into an agreement with the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) to enhance the existing official National website at www.ghana.gov.gh, creating online delivery of government services to the people. The portal’s managers are now on the verge of executing the first phase of the actual portal project, which will include enhancing the content of the portal, adding more pages, and networking all the regional information offices of the Ghana’s Information Services Department.

The project’s implementers defined two objectives for the pilot: first, to demonstrate how the government of Ghana could make effective use of web technologies to disseminate government information; and secondly, to examine the potential demand for government information and other e-government services among citizens and to consider how that demand could best be met at the local level. The project leaders would then advise government on appropriate strategies and actions to be taken to extend e-Governance at the national and local levels.

Currently, the portal provides briefs on all branches of government and links to institutions that have websites. It also has an archive of draft policies, reports, | December 2005

speeches and other official documents in addition to its news pages. And it displays general information on events, visiting, investing and studying in Ghana.

Citizen Interest vs Cost Barriers According to the project’s implementers, the reaction of the Ghanaian citizenry towards the Ghanaian government portal has been favourable. On average, at least 15 enquires are directed daily to the government through the portal.

Increasingly, the portal is also serving as a link between would-be foreign investors and Ghana’s Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC). Managers of the website say they receive a significant number of investment enquiries, and they suggest that foreign investors find the site credible because it originates from the national government.

But despite these positive reactions, the bulk of the citizenry cannot access the service because of illiteracy or lack of connectivity to the Internet. Most Ghanaians receive information via the radio. A survey — the third round of the Afrobarometer survey conducted in Ghana by the Ghana Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) — confirmed this reality. The survey, which measures indicators such as governance, economic reform and quality of life, found out that 67 per cent of respondents received their information from radio, and 83 per cent of respondents said they trusted that source, and especially the national broadcaster. Newspapers and TV followed radio respectively.

“A lot more people have access to radio than to other media. We did not even include the Internet [in the survey], but if we had it would have made a poor showing,” said Edem Selormey, Afrobarometer Team Member. Selormey notes that very few people have access to the Internet, whereas radios are inexpensive and people can listen to programmes in their local dialect, thanks to community radio and local language programming on most FM stations.

Ghana’s portal project has made some arrangements to deliver its services to

citizens who do not have Internet connectivity, but so far these plans do not reach far enough. However, all of the country’s ten regional information offices can use the portal to locate and provide information to disseminate by other traditional means in their jurisdictions.

Project challenges There are fundamental issues beyond combining traditional and new media to deliver government information and services to the citizenry. Of course, funding remains a key issue. According to the portal’s managers, the first phase has stalled because of the delay in receiving funds from partners.

ss

Human resource issues also remain critical to the project’s survival. According to managers, remuneration and motivation for staff of the project could be much better, and there remains the need to develop the technical competencies of the team. “You can bring new ideas,” stresses project leader Koblavie, “but you still need a team to implement and sustain it.”

Furthermore, equipment must be regularly updated to keep to the project afloat. Implementers reason that because of the 24-hour operation of the project, it is essential to replace equipment every one and a half years. Finally, gathering information from the relevant governmental institutions remains a significant challenge. However, the advances made to this point suggest that with support the project will continue to provide important benefits.

19

SPECIAL FEATURE

e-GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

The right choice for development: e-Governance in Mali

By Almahady Moustapha Cissé Mali’s ambitious government ICT project seeks to use the new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as a development and anti-poverty tool for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The main objective: to make ICTs an instrument of good governance.

According to Gaoussou Drabo, the Minister for Communication and New Information Technologies, ICTs can serve as tools for opening up isolated areas of

Presidency of the Republic, the Primature (Prime Minister’s Office) and the government’s General Secretariat – making a total of 30 entities to be connected. “If we complete this task, a large proportion of all government administrative work will be done on-line,” he noted. This huge project will be spread over three years, from 2005 to 2007.

The Managing Director of AGETIC reveals that the project in fact began in 2004-05, using domestic financing.

For the next three years, 2006-08, the European Union will provide funding in the amount of 6 billion CFA francs.

ICTs foster good governance

The Minister of Communication and ICT, Mali, Gaoussou Drabo

the country to the outside world, thus contributing to the fight against poverty and helping the democratic process to take root. This vision drives the government’s ICT project.

The project has two components.

The first is the modernisation of government and the establishment of a network encompassing all ministerial departments and public services, including their subordinate directorates at national and regional level. The second involves connecting the country’s 703 municipalities to the Internet.

According to Moulaye Sidaly Haïdara, Managing Director of the Implementing Agency for Information and Communication Technologies (AGETIC), the first objective, creating a government network, is well under way: “To date [September 2005], we have connected 14 departments and central services…. By the end of the year, we expect to have completed the 16 remaining departments.”

Mali has 27 ministerial departments and three central services – the 20

“In development circles, we are always talking about good governance, and this notion is included in the government’s Intranet project,” says Touré Aïssata Lady, an AGETIC official. By way of Mr. example, she points to the contribution made by ICTs in managing the locust invasion that afflicted Mali in 2004: “ICTs made it possible to localise the invasion of desert locusts thanks to the GPS system.”

According to Ousmane Bamba, a lawyer and expert on ICTs, these technologies can facilitate the democratic process. “With ICTs, we can ensure fair elections through the use of an electoral database based on biometrics.

The financial advantages will also be substantial”, says Bamba, citing a study showing that in Mali the state spends the colossal sum of 6 billion CFA francs per year on communication via telephone and fax.

As Mamadou Iam Diallo, technical advisor to the Ministry for Communication and New Information Technologies, notes, “The lntranet allows the government to communicate both internally and with users.” Diallo contends that ICTs are the right strategic choice for development, since, as he argues, the main costs incurred will be those for the initial investment. His conclusion: information technology, and

ICTs in general, are tools that can foster good governance and development.

Connecting municipalities The second major component of Mali’s ICT project involves connecting the country’s 703 municipalities to the Internet. Wiring all local communities is a long-standing dream first voiced in 2000 by former President of the Republic Alpha Oumar Konaré. “This dream is now becoming a reality,” declares AGETIC head Haïdara with a smile. Connecting towns to the Internet will give users direct access to information on their civil status and to many other kinds of data that they can currently obtain only by going through a multitude of bureaucratic procedures. In view of the size of the country, the government has broken down the project schedule into phases.

“Our connection to the Internet is a wind of modernity blowing through our town. I am sure that it will resolve our communication difficulties and make up for the shortage of information that we experience every day in managing municipal affairs,” said Souleymane Dougnon, the mayor of Commune VI of Bamako District, thanking the Ministry for Communication and New Information Technologies.

His counterpart in Kati, Yoro Ouologuem, expressed the same feelings of satisfaction and gratitude. In his view, connecting municipalities to the Internet means the dawn of new era for local authorities. The initiative should be encouraged and there is a need to extend it to all communities in the country, he asserted.

The availability of electricity and telephone service, but even more importantly the involvement of the local population, were the selection criteria used for the test phase of the “Internet in local communities” project. “Above all,” says Minister Drabo, “we are strengthening the decentralisation process while at the same time reducing the isolation of local communities and authorities by bringing citizens closer to government in order to establish practices of good governance.” www.egov.csdms.in |

SPECIAL FEATURE

e-GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

Successes and Challenges: e-Governance in Tanzania

By Aloyce Menda Tanzania resembles most developing countries in being faced with a myriad of economic challenges and extensive rural poverty. However, unlike many African countries, Tanzania can boast of peace since attaining political independence from Britain four decades ago.

The Kinondoni Municipal Council Project Tanzanian e-Governance is in its infancy.

The central government website (www. tanzania.go.tz) was inaugurated in 2000 and since then some government branches and local government authorities have focused on e-Governance initiatives. Currently, an elaborate egovernment strategy has been approved by cabinet and is awaiting implementation.

The e-Governance project was the brain child of the Tanzanian Commission of Science and Technology (COSTECH), intended as a follow-up to the recommendation of the 1998 national ICT round table on Governance facilitated by IICD. The project proposal followed a feasibility study of August 1998 conducted to investigate, identify and recommend possible areas for sustainable computerization in the local governments.

The feasibility study identified data flow patterns and their reporting mechanisms within and across various government sectors. The COSTECH director of information, Mr. Theophilus Mlaki approached the Kinondoni Municipal Council (KMC) administration in 1998 to propose that it host the pilot egovernment project. KMC is one of three municipal councils that forms Dar es Salaam City Council (DCC), the top authority of the de-facto capital of Tanzania.

Mlaki and his team from COSTECH faced a challenge in illustrating to key KMC officials how ICT and the egovernment project would improve the KMC performance in all departments. The main concerns of KMC were cost saving and improvement in tax revenue collection, so theCOSTECH team had to demonstrate how the e-Governance project would boost good governance as | December 2005

well as revenue collection and service delivery without excessive costs and extra burden to tax payers. They succeeded and the pilot project took off in 1999 with financial and technical support from IICD and COSTECH. Thus the KMC became the first of the 126 local government authorities of Mainland Tanzania (municipalities and districts) to initiate an e-Governance project.

Discussion meeting in Tanzania “At that time there were only two office computers at the headquarters,” certificates is now ten times faster than says Mlaki as he explains the challenges before the project inauguration. The encountered in presenting the e- project has also enhanced the manageGovernance idea to the KMC leadership. ment and processing of matters pertaining Computers for the project were provided to foreign trade and investment in

by IICD - and today there are more than Kinondoni district.

120 computers in use, most with Internet access, according to Mr. Joash Nyitambe, Creating transparency and the IT consultant for KMC. efficiency As one of the three municipal A vivid example of e-Governance’s councils of the major city of Tanzania, capacity to boost transparency in governKMC has many political, economical, ment operations at the local level and to social and administrative responsibilities. minimize the loopholes for corruption can These include social (education and be found in the realms of business health) services delivery, tax collection, licensing and tax collection, which were business licensing, council elections extremely cumbersome before the esupervision, basic infrastructure (roads, Governance project. Business licensing water supply, etc) construction and was contaminated with elements of maintenance, waste management, and the corruption due to the slow manual maintenance of security, law and order. processes – often a week or more - that However, the COSTECH feasibility study lacked transparency. Today such elements had earlier revealed that most of these are almost eliminated and businesspeople tasks were manually processed and were can process a license in one day. largely ineffective and inefficient. Furthermore, KMC administration has Transparency was limited by a slow flow publicly started that the project is of information which impeded direct boosting revenue collections in all sectors access to KMC public services. and has reduced to the minimum public Moreover, due to lack of a compute- complaints about victimization, favoritism rized Management Information System and corruption in taxation procedures.

(MIS), the KMC resources were poorly Today few IT experts can talk about managed, which translated into poor e-Governance in Tanzania without public services. The KMC project thus referring to the KMC. The project bears established a pilot MIS for the top those characteristics which mark modern administration. Databases for various ICT as a new engine of development: services and records, such as health, efficient interactivity, permanent (24 hour) education, birth, marriage and death, are network availability, a global reach computerized to facilitate good gover- through the Internet, and reduced costs. nance and to accelerate public services The project embodies exactly what the and the compilation of various social United Nations’ Millennium Development services reports. The process of registe- Goals (MDGs) specify: “People centered ring and issuing birth, marriage and death development”.

21

SPECIAL FEATURE

e-GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

Transforming local government: e-Governance in Uganda

By Davis Weddi In response to the high costs and inefficient labour involved in running a government, some forward-looking Ugandans have developed the concept of e-Governance to minimize the expenses involved in the local administration of the country’s districts. Participants in various sectors are striving to use ICTs to prompt changes in the standards and delivery of local government services and, more importantly, in the way citizens interact and participate in governance.

Local government transparency via district net Uganda’s e-Government initiative, known formally as The District Administrative Network Project and more commonly as District Net, was designed for Uganda’s Ministry of Local Government. As current National Project Coordinator Engineer Stephen Dagada explains, “This project was born during a round-table conference in 2002, when we realised that there was a need for transparent governance in the Ministry of Local Government.” It immediately caught the imagination of central government and international donors who provided support for its pilot phase. Among the external funders were the International Institute of Communication for Development (IICD) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID), who have followed this project from its start.

With external funding for one and a half years, District Net was initially implemented in 2002 in four districts Mbarara, Lira, Mbale and Kayunga, representing the country’s west, north, east and central regions, respectively with the hope that, if successful, it would be extended to the rest of the country. The project set out to remove obstacles to communication links among the district headquarters, central government agencies and other stakeholders working with districts, and to address problems of inadequate ICT basic skills among the district staff. The Local Government Ministry states that the District Net project was created “to improve performance in the Local Governments by 22

establishing functional data/ information management and public communication systems for effective and efficiency service delivery in decentralised governance.

Hence, this project was created under the slogan ‘ICT for Rural Development!’”

According to Constantine Bitwayiki, who has worked on the project, “Districts were faced with challenges in funding routine administrative expenses. For interoffice communication, staff travelled to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, to deliver and collect routine documents. In addition, data and information for planning and other decision-making functions were often inaccurate or unavailable when needed.”

International observers have followed Uganda’s e-Governance developments closely. Major media and news teams have streamed to Kayunga District to interview people about one of the most successful pilot projects, and the District Net project has even been nominated for the Stockholm Challenge.

By the start of 2005, the project had entered into a mainstreaming phase, and has now acquired private sector partners in addition to government, IICD and DFID. Today, Ugandans are coming to realise that e-Governance can bring individuals into close contact with decision-makers and officials in the government.

Connecting constituents Soon after the District Net project’s 2002 kick-off, implementers began installing Local Area Networks (LAN), Wide Are Networks (WAN), e-mail and internet systems, as well as data and voice communication links between District headquarters, the pilot sub-counties and the central government headquarters.

Through the project, the Ministry of Local Government established computerized databanks and information dissemination systems, and initiated an extensive training programme for users (mostly district officials) in basic ICT skills and the use of basic computer applications.

So far, the districts where the project

was implemented have made savings in administrative expenses, “freeing these funds to be used to other pressing economic activities geared towards economic development initiatives,” says Bitwayiki. “In addition to improvement in communication channels, we are seeing that users are accessing useful information for planning purposes. In social terms, the communities in the districts covered by the project have been sensitized about the usefulness of utilizing ICTs and how these technologies can bolster development,” he adds.

The future of district net Implementers of the pilot phase have learnt an important lesson: “Think big but begin small. Piloting is the way!” The pilot activities are now being replicated in other projects and programmes and implemented in other districts.

In order for District Net to work, it must be supported by human capital and an enabling environment. “Change management is critical,” Bitwayiki stresses. Whether ICTs prove to be a sustainable solution for enhanced communication and information flow “depends on the willingness of the human capital to tackle the challenges in a sustainable manner.” Although the ICTs introduced are user-friendly, new technologies will inevitably require time for people to adapt to them. And, of course, the financial cost of implementation is daunting. While the local beneficiaries have tried to contribute, they have confronted difficulty because their tax base is still very small.

But the costs of failure would be greater. Dagada, the current project leader, emphasizes that ICTs are essential.

“The challenge is that ICTs may be expensive, but they are necessary and useful. We need to find all means of mainstreaming the project in order to lower operating costs like transport and production of documents. Our ability to replace the traditional methods of operation and to beat the bureaucracy in local governments will extend the life of District Net.” www.egov.csdms.in |

SPECIAL FEATURE

Boosting local authorities: e-Governance in Zambia Countries around the world are striving to incorporate e-Governance as a means of improving transparency and good governance in the public sector. Sadly, this trend has eluded the Zambian public sector, where the potential for e-Governance is not being fully utilized.

information and thus to open dialogue among municipalities and the local communities they serve. In addition, the project strives to improve access to information required for decision making,

Promoting efficiency and transparency In order to promote efficiency and transparent governance in the African public service, UNESCO and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) conceived a three-year pilot project on “e-Governance for African Municipalities”. This pilot project began in 2001 and involved selected municipalities from five African countries: Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Tanzania, and Zambia.

Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, was the country’s representative in this project.

The project’s promoters noted thatAfrican municipalities are often heavy bureaucratic structures with unclear procedures and processes for treating requests from city residents. Furthermore, these municipalities tend to function in isolation and fail to benefit from the experiences and best practices of other municipalities within their country or region. The project aimed to ensure transparency and citizen participation in governance, and, while building on existing community facilities, also involved developing websites so that municipalities could share and exchange experiences.To meet these goals, the pilot emphasised two major components: developing a multimedia training package for municipal personnel; and developing pilot applications in the selected municipalities. The equipment and training ncessary to achieve these goals also formed a critical element of the project.

to communicate effectively with citizens and to establish a municipal information system using ICTs. “There has been a spirit of teamwork on the project from representatives of the departments within the City Council,” says Beene. The e-Governance project has transformed the LCC into a knowledge hub and could be used as a tool for service delivery and revenue generation, as well as a teaching and learning centre for ecommerce, she says.

As the local government has a profound impact on the lives of citizens, the governance processes and structures that accompany it must be – and are becoming - participatory, transparent, and

e-GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

By Kabukabu Mambwe

accountable. “These objectives are becoming a reality in Lusaka City Council through the newly-built website, which will open dialogue between the Council and the community it serves,” Beene says.

The LCC can now use ICTs as a means of improving responsiveness and reliability in its services. As Beene explains, ICTs could improve economic opportunities, lower the cost of delivery of public and private goods, help streamline the bureaucracy, enhance the transparency in the institution’s administration, and improve productivity.

For instance, internet connectivity has boosted the Council’s operations by improving communication among the workers, about 50% of whom are now using ICTs. The local network has also streamlined the operations of the Rates Department, as they are able to update their records on a regular basis.

In the past, citizens had to walk to the LCC headquarters to access information; today, Beene says, the project has opened municipal services to the city’s population. In time, she says, the minutes for the full council meetings will be posted online, enabling members of the public to know what transpires in these meetings. Through the website people can come to know their councilors in the wards, to learn of development projects and to explore the Council’s

The Lusaka City Council Project The Lusaka project, involving the Lusaka City Council (LCC), is headquartered in the city’s civic center building. According to LCC IT Manager Judy Beene, also the LCC project supervisor, the project’s objective is to promote free flow of | December 2005

The website of Lusaka City Council

23

SPECIAL FEATURE

delivery of services. However, the website has not yet been launched for full public access

Funding challenges Unfortunately, the LCC project suffered a set back when the funders did not release the last parcel of funding for training council workers in e-Governance.

According to Beene, there has been little feedback from UNESCO and DANIDA, the project’s initiators. The shortage of funds has also stalled the creation of the Public Information Center, and further budget constraints, owing in part to escalating prices of equipment, have meant that staff was not properly trained for network administration and web design maintenance.

Project results “There has been a spirit of teamwork on the project from representatives of the

departments within the City Council,” says LCC IT manager Judy Beene. The eGovernance project has trans-formed the LCC into a knowledge hub and could be used as a tool for service delivery and revenue generation, as well as a teaching and learning centre for e-commerce, she says. The project has achieved significant results as the Council can now communicate with other countries through the Internet.

The LCC has about 1500 workers but so far only those who work at the headquarters have access to the Internet.

“We require more computers for use at other sites, so we will need supporters to come to our aid,” says Makanta, who explains that the City Council intends to use the website (www.iicd.gov.zm) to post calendars of events and other initiatives that would assist donors who wish to help the LCC in expanding the eGovernance initiative.

e-GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

As the local government has a profound impact on the lives of citizens, the governance processes and structures that accompany it must be – and are becoming - participatory, transparent, and accountable. “These objectives are becoming a reality in Lusaka City Council through the newly-built website, which will open dialogue between the Council and the community it serves,” Beene says.

The LCC is searching for financing alternatives to help establish an Information Centre to improve interaction with the public and to enlighten people on the benefits of e-Governance, still very much in its infancy in Zambia.

Although e-Gov has opened a window on new opportunities for the LCC, its workers need training sessions both to improve their basic computer and ICT skills and to help educate the public on how to use ICT to interact with the LCC effectively.

For the full text of the articles, please visit www.iconnect-online.org.

Vacancies@egov ●

Business Manager: Candidates with management qualification and good communication skills, a team player and ability to handle assignments independently will be preferred.

The candidate should have 3-5 years of experience, part of which should be in corporate selling, advertising sales, and concept selling in the media, IT or the service industry. The incumbent should have profit center approach to business and good leadership skills.

●

Manager (Government Alliances): Candidates with 5-7 years of experience, part of which should be liaisoning with government departments for alliances/partnerships.

Graduates having additional management qualification will be preferred.

●

Visualiser/Graphic Designer: Candidates with 2-4 years of experience in print media/ advertising agency and having knowledge of designing s/w such as Corel Draw, Photoshop, PageMaker, Quark Express etc.

●

Sub-editors (Magazine): Post Graduates in English/Sociology/Economics/Journalism/ Management with minimum 2 years experience, part of which should be in editing and content development. Candidates having work experience with reputed national newspaper/magazine and having a background and interest in ICT for development/egovernance related issues would be preferred. Freshers can also apply for the post of trainee.

Remuneration will be the best and as per industry standards.

All positions are based in Noida, India Apply within 3 days to hr@csdms.in, with position mentioned in the subject line.

24

www.egov.csdms.in |

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

3Es of Good Governance Bentley Systems Inc. (www. bentley.com) provides software for the lifecycle of the world’s infrastructure. The company’s comprehensive portfolio for the building, plant, civil, and geospatial vertical markets spans architecture, engineering, construction and operations. With 2004 revenues exceeding USD 300 million, Bentley is one of the leading providers of high-end engineering software. Bentley’s Geospatial solutions are being used by a large number of mapping organizations, national governments, local and regional governments, public works organizations, water and sewer utilities, civil engineering firms, communications service providers, power companies and utility firms.

Malcolm Walter Chief Operating Officer Bentley Systems

Bentley’s solution suites for the government and the public sector emphasizes the concept of 3EGovernment. What exactly is 3E-Government and what is the concept behind it?

Bentley’s 3E-Government is based on the idea of transforming ordinary information into an intelligent resource to facilitate modern governments to provide superior public services. It concentrates on what governments do, not whose tools they use, and provides technology solutions that result in improved government operations, better information flow, and more effective response to constituent needs.

The three Es stand for Engineer, Enable, Empower – which, in a nutshell, traces our key deliverables for reforming government processes. In the last few years, information needs of governments and citizens alike have increased greatly.

Modern communication technologies and automation tools have raised public expectations with respect to delivery of government services. For governments to keep up, they must leverage and maintain their spatial information – from simple engineering drawings to complex project plans to sophisticated Web-based | December 2005

In an exclusive interview with egov, Malcolm Walter, COO, Bentley Systems communicates his views and perspectives on transforming traditional governments through innovative solutions like that of Bentley’s 3E-Government. information portals. Put simply, they need precise and on-time information to facilitate administrative processes. And this is where Bentley’s 3E-Government solutions come in, providing a cohesive solution for efficient decision-making and Web-based publishing.

For governments to keep up, they must leverage and maintain their spatial information – from simple engineering drawings to complex project plans to sophisticated Web-based information portals.

3E-Government assists in the development of sustainable future plans through detailed mapping of public utilities and by integrating existing databases of facilities and resources. It meets the information needs of public works and government engineering departments such as roadways and

highways, water and sanitation, land administration and housing; enables them with sophisticated information management tools; and empowers the government and the public alike with information availability and transparency.

Could you cite a few examples/case studies where Bentley’s applications have been implemented and put to use?

Bentley’s applications and solution suites are being used all over the world. On the one hand, Honduras has developed the entire land management system of the country, virtually from scratch, using Bentley applications. In the Czech Republic, Bentley solutions have streamlined cadastre and land administration practices that had developed over centuries but were terribly inefficient. Government departments running Bentley applications have reaped great benefits in terms of developing intelligent decision making systems and enjoying the convenience of effortless analysis of complex developmental issues.

What are your views about the potential of Asian countries in adopting technology tools and intelligent solutions such as 3E-Government for improving public infrastructure and services?

25

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

There is great potential for Asian countries to benefit from modern technology-based planning of public infrastructure and services. To sustain the impressive economic growth of this region, governments need to rapidly develop basic infrastructure and improvement of the general quality-of-life, making the delivery of services more efficient. Asian countries like China, Singapore, Japan, and a host of MiddleEast nations have pulled ahead of others in terms of developing world-class infrastructure and bringing a high level of professionalism and expertise in government operations and services.

Much of this has been achieved through

role in transforming conventional planning process by public departments?

The fundamental approach of Bentley in transforming the conventional planning process is to move from 2D to 3D mapping solutions. In fact, one of the biggest strengths of Bentley solutions lies in 3D integration, simulation, and visualization.

Until recently, the entire infrastructure development and geospatial industry around the world was solely dependent on 2D solutions. However, the advent of the latest 3D spatial solution suites, such as those of Bentley, have revolutionized the entire planning process. 3D solutions give governments much more decisionmaking and analysis power. Realistic

and high-end visualization and analysis tools, the use and dissemination of 3D data is getting easier all the time.

Asian countries like China, Singapore, Japan, and a host of Middle-East nations have pulled ahead of others in terms of developing world-class infrastructure and bringing a high level of professionalism and expertise in government operations and services.

However, some governments are apprehensive about publishing 3D data in the public domain. Some conservative countries are already raising their voice against putting such information in public hands and are vying for information secrecy. Hopefully, the worldwide trend of information liberty and universal accessibility will dissuade such efforts and advance progress towards a true information society.

large-scale technology deployment, IT integration, process automation, and the application of efficient management tools.

Growing economies like India, Philippines, Malaysia, and other Asian nations need to act promptly to improve their existing facilities and services.

Solutions like 3E-Government would put a lot of decision-making power in the hands of local authorities, going a long way to assist the overall developmental plan of this region.

According to you what are the crucial advantages of Bentley mapping solutions for infrastructure and development planning? How do you perceive Bentley’s 26

depiction and near-perfect replication of the physical world works amazingly well in removing the traditional information gaps in planning. It also provides exceedingly good results in the field of emergency planning and disaster response.

How do you perceive the growth in use and propagation of 3D geo-spatial data in government and public domain of Asian countries?

There is a great demand for 3D data from different sectors and departments of government and public organizations.

With the emergence of high-speed Internet access, advanced Web browsers,

How do you foresee the future of the mapping industry and its potential for contributing towards leveraging government capacities?

Mapping has always been critical for increasing the developmental and planning capacities of governments.

With liberalization and recent policy reforms on mapping work in progressive countries like India, the potential is virtually unlimited. More professional enterprises in the mapping industry will surely lift up the standards of available data and applications. Precise data with engineering-level accuracy is of the utmost importance today, and the professional geospatial and mapping industry has a clear-cut edge in providing it. The entire industry is poised for huge growth in the coming years. Governments around the world will soon be able to enhance their planning capacities by tapping that expertise. www.egov.csdms.in |

The largest Asian conference and exhibition on e-Government

egov Asia 2006 April 2006, Bangkok, Thailand

www.egovasia.net

egov Asia 2006 Introduction

Content Management, Data Standardisation and GUI

Asian countries are witnessing a dramatic change in their economy.

Public-Private Partnerships & Service Level Agreement

So is the scene of e-Governance! Some countries are already

Emerging trends in Mobile Government

topping the international charts of e-Governance, some have just

Government Process Re-engineering & Change Management

begun their journey, while there are a few others who are yet to step

Project Monitoring, Evaluation and Auditing Mechanisms

into the e-Governance arena. The scope for these countries to learn

e-Democracy through e-Government

from their advanced Asian neighbors is immense and opportunities

e-Security & Cyber Laws for efficient Governance

are unbound. The present need is to create a common ground of

ICTs and Rural e-Governance

equitable learning which facilitates a process of overall

Exhibition

development of the region.

egov Asia 2006 will have an elaborate exhibition of latest eGovernment products, solutions suites, services, initiatives and case

The Event

studies from all across Asia and beyond. Professional service

egov Asia 2006 - the international conference on e-Government,

providers, IT vendors, consulting firms, government agencies and

aims to provide a knowledge-sharing platform and a forum for

national/international development organisations involved in the

policymakers, practitioners, industry leaders and academicians of

e-Government domain are encouraged to participate in the

Asia-Pacific nations to carry forward the e-Government vision of

exhibition.

the region and consolidate them into actionable program, through

Call for Papers

collaborative learning and partnerships.

Eminent experts and senior government officers from various

Abstract submission: Abstract Acceptance: Full Paper Submission:

parts of Asia and outside Asia will discuss the e-Government

Important Contacts

developments in their respective countries. The discussion will

Registration: Papers: For Sponsorship: For Exhibition: For General Information:

Keynote Sessions

include but not limit to the following topics: e-Government trends in Asia e-Government strategies of Asian countries Leadership reflections in e-Government

Technical Sessions

15 January 2006 30 January 2006 15 February 2006

registration@egovasia.net papers@egovasia.net sponsorship@egovasia.net exhibition@egovasia.net info@egovasia.net

egov Asia 2006 Secretariat

e-Government Country Plans

Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS)

Policy & Technology Framework in e-Government

G-4, Sector 39, Noida (U.P.) 201 301, India

Funding and Financing Mechanisms in e-Government

Tel: +91-120-2502180 to 87; Fax: +91-120-2500060;

projects

Organisers

Co-Organiser

Media partners

ov knowledge for change

w w w. i 4 d . c s d m s . i n

www.egovasia.net

BANKING

Banking on the ‘Unbanked’ Both the Indian financial and the e-Governance sector are passing through interesting times. The banks are exploring newer niches to expand their services to newer clients day by day. In this background, ICICI Bank has initiated a host of services to cater to the rural population of India. Apart from offering access to financial, agricultural and health-care services, it is now coming up with a network of rural Internet kiosks across states. With a strong commercial focus, innovation and technology is the key to their social objectives.

Nachiket Mor Executive Director, ICICI Bank

In an interview with egov, Nachiket Mor, Executive Director, ICICI Bank, elaborates its projects aiming to transform the rural face of India.

What role do you think ICICI Bank has in the implementation of National eGovernance Plan of India? e-Governance allows greater transparency and involvement of citizens in governing processes through use of information and technology. When combined with a host of essential services such as access to financial services, health care, market information and linkages, it promises to transform the overall quality-of-life of citizens, especially for the rural poor. It is with this conviction that we have been actively promoting Rural Internet kiosks as our distribution channels in various parts of the country.

ICICI Bank is in the process of rolling out about 3,000 Rural Internet kiosks at the national level that would cater to the financial needs of the rural populace across Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Efforts are on to deepen the coverage in these states and also extend it to rest of the country.

In addition to customised financial product suite, ICICI Bank would offer a range of services through these Rural Internet kiosks and e-Governance would feature prominently among them.

Can you elaborate on some of the key eGovernment projects ICICI has been involved in? What is the role of ICICI in these projects?

ICICI Bank has participated in a number | December 2005

of e-Government projects with various state governments of India. e-Seva in Andhra Pradesh, Akshaya in Kerala and e-Mitra in Rajasthan are some these prominent initiatives. These projects have enabled people within the respective domain to register public grievances, apply for land record copies, certificates, permits, affidavits etc.

In such partnerships, ICICI Bank brings cost-efficient technology solutions that enable interactions between government and the rural populace. Each of these projects benefits from the various financial and non-financial services that ICICI Bank has pulled together. This has been possible through our collaborations with solution providers such as n-Logue, Drishtee and COMAT on one hand and with corporates like EID Parry Ltd. and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. on the other.

The network of Rural Internet kiosks acts as a single window for provision of these services to the rural customers. We plan to significantly scale up the number of kiosks, which would in-turn provide the government with many such ready platforms to roll out e-Governance services.

Other Public Sector and Private Banks are doing a number of projects in the PPP model with various government agencies.

How do you compare your engagement with respect to competitors?

It is good news that public sector and

private banks have come together in their effort to reach out to the ‘unbanked sections of the society’. To bring all sections of the population into the formal financial set up and mainstream economic process, no amount of effort is too much.

There is a need for more such collaborative efforts between private and public players.

Meanwhile, where ICICI Bank is concerned, all our rural initiatives, in addition to the social aspect, have a strong commercial focus. Innovation and technology are key elements of our business strategy. Initiatives like the Rural Internet kiosks speak for us. The aspect that probably sets us apart is that the kiosks are in the process of transforming into one-stop shop for multiple service delivery. In addition to the products and services already discussed, more sophisticated ones like online commodity trading, agricultural help line, online agrocommodity based information and live market prices would soon be introduced through the kiosks.

Through our experience in setting up and running Rural Internet kiosks across several states in the country, we have developed competencies in the area of bringing partners from various sectors onto one platform. We have tied up and are in the process of partnering with corporates in the field of agri-inputs, FMCG, petroleum products, healthcare, education and many more. Such tie-ups 31

BANKING

would allow kiosk operators to sell multiple products and services, thereby enhancing the viability of this channel.

This has led to sustainable rural ventures that assure easy and affordable access to a complete suite of financial products for all our rural customers.

remain the same, there are specific concerns that call our attention. As of now, eGovernance services that are being provided through our kiosks mostly involved applications for land record copies, ration cards, certificates, permits, affidavits and registration of public grievances.

Most rural areas of India are It is obvious that poorly served and have a dire considering the huge scope need for financial services. for using kiosk as a platform What are your service to offer a range of eofferings for the rural Governance services, we still masses?

Rural Internet kiosks in Jhalawar, Rajasthan, India have a long way to go. Only While it is believed that access when we bring in online ICICI Bank is in the process of rolling out to financial services could be access to many more services an important link in the process like Income Tax, Passport, about 3,000 Rural Internet kiosks at the of poverty reduction and Visa, Immigration, MCA 21, economic growth, it is true that national level that would cater to the National Citizen ID, Central most people lack access to Excise, Property registration, financial needs of the rural populace. financial services in India and Administration etc., as this problem is more acute in intended in the National erural areas. In response to this Governance Action Plan, we state of affairs, ICICI Bank has initiated a reached out to over a million households can consider ourselves successful. For separate group called ‘Rural, Micro- through our partner NGOs and this to happen all the concerned banking and Agri Business Group’ that Microfinance institutions throughout departments need to organise and align works towards our vision to provide India. Savings, investments products like themselves to make their services increased access to all financial services bonds, mutual funds etc. along with accessible through Internet. in rural India. insurance products are also part of our What policy reforms would you like to We offer a range of retail and product suite for rural households. wholesale financial products that cater to We also believe that access to see to encourage higher involvement of the rural masses in all the important financial services has to do equally with financial institutions in e-Governance sectors like infrastructure, horticulture, distribution channel accessibility and projects? food processing, dairy, poultry, seeds, convenience. We have a combination of Any institution and more so financial fertiliser, agrochemicals and marketing branch and non-branch channels like rural institutions need to perceive a long-term federations. Our wide-ranging customer branches, branches at major agricultural commercial viability for playing a base includes farmers, agri business markets, credit franchisees, rural Internet pro-active role in e-Governance projects. traders/processors and rural non-agri kiosks and microfinance institutions that ICICI Bank’s involvement in rural segment.

Internet kiosk is driven by our commitment enable us penetrate into the rural areas Our bouquet of products has been that were hitherto left out. to transform them into cost-effective and designed keeping in mind the divergent scalable service delivery channels that financial needs of these customer What challenges are you facing to make provision of all financial services segments. While direct farmer financing implement your services in e-Governance even in the remotest areas possible. and farm equipment financing address projects?

In order to encourage similar initiatives credit requirement of the farmers and agri- The challenges that we face while rolling from other financial institutions, the entrepreneurs, traders as well as out rural Internet kiosks are quite broad Government will have to invest in rural processors can avail working capital loans in nature. They are more to do with issues infrastructure. and commodity based financing. To help like absence of requisite infrastructure, On the other hand, the regulation farmers tide over cashflow problems or connectivity, identification of right will have to allow for financial services meet immediate need for liquidity, we also partners and entrepreneurs and lack of to be offered through non-branch offer products like jewel loans. products/ services customised to online channels such as kiosks. Friendly regulation for offering savings and Microfinance is another one of our format. significant offering especially for the rural As far as e-Governance projects are investments products through nonnon-agri customer segments. We have concerned, though the broader issues branch channels would go a long way in 32

www.egov.csdms.in |

BANKING

increasing the effectiveness of these Internet kiosks.

Payment of transaction fee charged for availing the bank’s payment gateway is not seen as a viable option in eGovernment projects, especially for rural areas. How do you propose to resolve this issue?

Technology and innovation have enabled low cost distribution channels like kiosks and ATMs. Moreover, the number and volumes of transactions would further drive the costs down. A payment gateway that offers only limited number of services would of course have difficulty in sustaining its operations. This problem can be easily overcome by offering multiple applications through the kiosks.

People willingly pay for easy access to financial products, agricultural extension, health, education and many such services.

There is opportunity for off-line application such as the use of the computer for word processing, desktop publishing, computer education and entertainment (photography, games and movies) as well. Value added services like online commodity trading, helpline to address farming related queries, online agro-commodity based information and live mandi prices through price tickers would further add to the kitty of kiosk operators.

What are the partnerships ICICI bank is entering into, for offering its services in semi-urban and rural areas?

Internet service providers, public-private partnerships and agribusiness corporates are promoting an infrastructure of villagelevel kiosks across the country. Several participants have been engaged in this task. ITC, n-Logue, Drishtee, COMAT and Development Alternatives (Tara Haat) have built Internet kiosks using technologies such as Wireless in Local Loop (WILL) and VSAT Terminals. ICICI Bank has partnered with some of these organisations for the creation of a large number of such kiosks. In partnership with these kiosk network owners, ICICI Bank finances individual entrepreneurs (usually high-school graduates) who own and operate the kiosk. Partnerships with corporates like Bharti Tele Ventures, Indian Oil Corporation, EID Parry, Hindustan Lever and Hewlett Packard lead to varied | December 2005

Agri Input Store in Baramati, Maharashtra, India

portfolio of products and services.

Agricultural universities, health care institutions and extension service providers are also part of our collaborative efforts to bring advisory and support services to rural households.

ICICI Bank has launched its Social Initiatives Programme. What are your objectives under this programme?

The Social Initiatives Group was formed in the year 2000 and is a not-for-profit department within the bank and works with a mission to “identify and support initiatives designed to improve the capacity of the poorest of the poor to participate in the larger economy.” This mission translates into our work in the areas of Early Child Health, Elementary Education and Micro Financial Services, corresponding to three fundamental capacities of health, education and access to money. The SIG has a sectoral focus and is not guided by immediate profit consideration of the bank.

In Early Child Health, a focus on impacting indicators of chronic undernutrition, in particular, low birth weight and stunting in three year olds, the SIG’s health practice works on strategies to strengthen the abilities of households and health systems to improve maternal and child health in India.

In Elementary Education, improving the quality of elementary schooling (3 -14 years) received by poor children in India is the focus of the SIG’s education practice. It works to strengthen institutions and systems involved in aspects of pedagogy, curriculum development, school organisation and evaluation.

The SIG’s micro finance practice aims to reduce household level vulnerabilities by maximising the access of the poor to a range of convenient and relevant basic financial services. It works with commercial teams of banks and other financial services companies to innovate on cost effective delivery channels as well as appropriate products.

The SIG’s assistance in each of these sectors is focused on advancing the status of knowledge and practice by supporting much needed research and innovation as well as developing the institutions required to mainstream this work. In its approach, the SIG aims to combine micro level contextual perspectives with macro level imperatives attempting to address issues of effectiveness, relevance as well as scale. The SIG works in partnership with non-governmental organisations, researchers, academia, state and central governments as well as the corporate sector.

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COMMENTARY

Potholes in the free-way Meeting e-Government challenges in Asia Pacific countries Introduction Asia-Pacific countries are adopting public sector reforms to better compete in the regional and global economy by strengthening markets and individual choice and in turn economic growth and poverty reduction. As part of these reforms, AsiaPacific countries are making headway in e-Government: the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to promote more efficient and cost-effective government, facilitate more convenient government services, allow greater public access to information and make government more accountable to citizens. The following will examine two issues: (i) recent e-Government progress and challenges in Asia-Pacific and (ii) the practices regional governments follow to meet the challenges, while maximizing the benefits.

E-Government is expanding in the region on the back of rapid increase in penetration of ICT. There are over 250 million Internet users in Asia-Pacific, more than any other region and growing at close to 40 percent a year. There are 560 million mobile phone subscribers, more than twice the number in 2000. Republic of Korea is ranked number one in the world in broadband use, with Hong Kong, China, Taipei and Japan also in the top seven.

Yet despite the rapid growth, ICT access is highly uneven across and within countries. Hong Kong and China has 13,500 times the international bandwidth per inhabitant as compared to Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Internet access costs 15 times more in Solomon Islands than in Iran. Relative to incomes, the cost is 1250 times more in Cambodia than in Singapore . A similar disparity exists with respect to mobile phone usage. Philippines, for example, has 3 times the number of mobile phone subscribers as Indonesia, relative to population. If this gap in mobile penetration continues, the result of this factor alone would be a one per cent higher long-term growth rate for Philippines.

Differential access to ICT is mirrored by wide dispersion in e-Government.

The Republic of Korea, Singapore and New Zealand are rated by the United Nations among the top 13 nations in terms of e-Government readiness, while the five lowest are all Pacific Island countries.

Asia Pacific countries

solar-powered computers in rural areas by short wave radios with a server connected to an Internet link in the capital city.

One challenge facing many countries is that English is the lingua franca of ICT; there are an estimated 2200 languages used in Asia and only 20% of Asians can use English.

Making e-Government widely accessible to citizens requires addressing this challenge.

Asian writing systems are varied and far more complex than English and designing digital fonts for any one of them is a massive challenge. Yet progress is being made.

For example, in 2003, a character-based font was released for the Urdu language. This potentially allows 60 million speakers in 20 countries to use their language in computer applications.

Recent e-Government progress and challenges Many e-Government case studies have provided anecdotal evidence of a number of positive results that emerge out of it. Amid all of these, five most important results that are being identified are - citizen participation, efficiency, effectiveness, service integration and combating corruption. The following paragraphs will emphasize on each one of these results with an in-depth look into the opportunities and challenges involved.

Citizen Participation There are many cases where ICT systems help enable citizen participation. For example, the Philippines Center for Investigative Journalism posted in 2003 on its website a study pointing out extravagant houses and luxury vehicles owned by government officials who can’t explain how they paid for them. Partly as a result, over 100 officials are being investigated, with charges filed against some of them.

There are many innovative approaches to increase Internet access to poor citizens. “Radio browsing” is used in Sri Lanka and Philippines, where listeners call or write in their questions and the answers obtained online are broadcast in local languages. The People First Network in Solomon Islands links 18 34

Efficiency E-Government innovations often promise cost savings and/or increased tax revenue and there is evidence that this is being achieved in some cases. For instance, in the Indian state of Gujarat, pre-paid cards, electronic weighbridges, video cameras and computers were installed to improve assessment of road taxes and penalties for overloading of trucks crossing the border and to reduce corruption.

As a result, revenues have increased to pay for the IT investment in four years. The gains could be much greater if further reductions in corruption could be achieved.

Efficiency gains can also accrue to citizens in terms of reduced waiting time and less money spent on bribes. The Department www.egov.csdms.in |

COMMENTARY

of Revenue in the state of Karnataka in India has computerized 20 million records of land ownership and makes them available at kiosks throughout the state. The state government paid the investment cost and a small fee charged by the kiosk operators covers running costs. Citizens save time and save from not having to pay bribes. The system is being expanded to include other information such as ration cardholders, pensioners, wholesale market prices and weather information.

Effectiveness In addition to efficiency gains, ICT-enabled reforms have yielded other benefits, including faster and more accurate response. For example, in Central Asia a national epidemiology service introduced ICT systems for public health data. Shortly after being introduced, the system uncovered a rise in diphtheria cases. By increasing coverage of the vaccination program and introducing revaccination, coverage levels rose from an average of 88% to 99% by 2000 and diphtheria case levels had returned to normal.

In a different type of example, the Beijing city government’s website allows visitors to select from categories such as government services, laws and regulations, news center, links to other government departments etc.

Users can join an electronic forum to get answers to questions such as how to move ones’ official residence to Beijing in order to work there. ICT can also play an important role in coping with disasters. For example, in the recent Tsunami, fatality rates were reportedly found to be much lower in Indian villages that had ICT penetration.

Service integration Jurisdictions such as Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and China have comprehensive systems where web-portals or smart cards integrates information and services from various government agencies to help citizens and other stakeholders get seamless service without needing to know about the responsible government agency. Thus, users can obtain services across different geographic levels of government within the same functional area as also across different functions. As an example of the latter, a citizen can submit a change of address on her driving license and the change is automatically registered with the health, elections and tax departments, thus avoiding the need for multiple filings.

New systems also allow direct access to | December 2005

For successful e-Government, countries need to adopt the right policies and practices with coherence among different areas, along with supporting organisations and work force. transaction or customer accounts held in different parts of government. For example, Ho Chi Minh City in Viet Nam has taken the lead in that country in working to simplifying administrative procedures faced by businesses, as a way of promoting investment. A “one stop shop” for business license applications has been established, whereby businesses can apply online and thereby initiate action from all the concerned agencies. These ICT-enabled reforms have inspired simplification of administrative procedures in many other districts and communes throughout the country through “one-stop, one-door” models.

Combating corruption Many think that e-Government can reduce opportunities for corruption. While this is sometimes the case, it can also have no effect at all or may provide for new corruption opportunities.

Enhancing e-Government can reduce opportunities for corruption by helping to measure performance better, facilitate outsourcing and contestability of public functions, reduce transaction costs, enforce rules more strongly, reduce discretion and increase transparency. However, computerization may also provide new sources of corrupt incomes for ICT professionals. For some staff, new systems may instill the fear of getting caught and restrict their access to sensitive information.

Yet, same systems may provide new opportunities to ICT-savvy staff.

With these caveats, there are some promising, anecdotal cases. For example, in Seoul, Republic of Korea, the OPEN system helps to get transparency in city administration by preventing delays in processing of licenses and other government documents. Prior to introduction of the system, applicants often had to pay speed money; now processing is a matter of public record on the web. If officials are unnecessarily delaying documents, citizens can complain against them.

In another type of example, the Hyderabad (India) Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board uses its Single Window Cell (SWC) to reduce corruption for new connections. The application process is centralized in one, public place, with applications recorded on computers that are difficult for corrupt officials to alter.

Staffs are motivated to provide good service with distinctive uniforms, modern offices and individual computer terminals. The service improvement has been praised extensively in the media, which further improves staff motivation.

Meeting the challenges, while maximizing the benefits The biggest challenge faced by the countries of Asia-Pacific region in promoting ICT and e-Government is getting the institutional and policy environment right.

Each country needs to consider elements such as leadership, regulation, financing, human resources and political acceptability. For successful e-Government, countries need to adopt the right policies and practices with coherence among different areas, along with supporting organisations and work force.

Heads of state and other top officials have a crucial role in putting reforms on the policy agenda and in determining its relative importance as compared to other priorities. The focus should be on the decisive factors of maximising political advantage and minimising political risk. This principle is true for e-Government initiatives as well. Other, related success factors observed in e-Government initiatives in the region includes a capable and sufficiently funded office to oversee implementation, a data collection system to monitor progress and assess impact, proper benchmarks that are reviewed regularly to ensure relevance for changing needs of technology, management and common IT standards.

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COMMENTARY

Countries need to consider a number of other issues in order to increase ICT access and ensure success of e-Government. This includes an integrated policy approach and an appropriate level of regulation to ensure affordable ICT access and an attractive environment for private investment in the sector.

A key determinant of e-Government success is the level of competition achieved in telecommunications. Progress towards competitive markets is typically fostered by a competent ICT regulator, which to some degree is independent from the operators and from the government policymakers. Some regulators get financing independent of the government budget and are able to recruit and retain competent staff.

Although regulatory capture is always a risk, particularly in small, lessdeveloped economies, some Asia-Pacific countries have built up effective regulators and highly-competitive ICT markets, thus lowering e-access costs and helping to get a critical mass of users. Philippines, for example, made significant progress in liberalizing its economy in the early 1990s and hence today it has highly competitive providers of mobile cellular and Internet services along with a rapid growth in mobile penetration, as cited earlier. On the other hand, fixed-line telephone service in Thailand is provided by a government monopoly, with productivity levels less than half of that in USA and having highest long-distance call rates in the region. Partly as a result, Thailand is ranked lower than Philippines in the UN e-Government survey, although its per capita GDP is more than twice that of the Philippines.

Adequate financing is another requirement for e-Government and there are many ways to achieve it, including support from official donors, private sector, ICT and e-Government implementation is most effective when appropriate skills and HR systems are developed in government and user organisations support it. central agencies, user agencies, NGOs, advertising and fee-based revenue. Annual telecommunications investment in the Asia-Pacific region is estimated to be close to $36 billion for 2003 and government spending on information technology just over $10 billion. The main funding is raised by telecommunications companies and governments themselves, with only a small portion financed by aid. In the next few years, it is expected that Asia-Pacific countries will increasingly follow the example of other regions and set up electronic production networks, where, information requests, license renewals, tax payments and e-procurement are outsourced to specialist public and private organisations. For instance, the Hong Kong government web-portal is entirely financed and maintained by a private company, thereby reducing the cost and risk to the government. Malaysia’s e-Perolehan government procurement system is a build-operate-transfer scheme led by a private company - Commerce Dot Com Sdn Bhd. Countries in the region may also want to consider the experience of the US government, where public and private partners share the savings and revenue coming from privately-financed, ICT investments.

ICT mainly benefits citizens who are healthy and literate, as already suggested above through the case studies presented. At higher levels, ICT and e-Government implementation is most effective when appropriate skills and HR systems are developed in government and user organisations support it. Viet Nam, for example, faces considerable challenges in raising skill levels of the work force to make the strategy work. A recent survey rated Viet Nam’s workforce second from the bottom of 12 leading Asian countries in terms of high-tech proficiency. Prospects may improve because of the strong value placed on education by families and efforts of the government programs to train 50,000 ICT professionals at university level by 2010 and rapidly expand Internet connections to schools and villages.

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Organisational factors are also important to make effective use of ICT. In addition to the need for computer literacy and management support as discussed already, employee involvement in implementation is critical, along with an organisational culture fostering trust, experimentation, teamwork, information sharing and participation.

The hierarchical, command-and-control, collectivistic cultures in many government organisations in the region may help to explain the slower adaptation of ICT by governments in comparison to private businesses and nongovernmental organisations. Other factors slowing down adoption in the region’s public sector include work habits such as the paper trail required for approval processing; concerns about security; confidentiality of information; and resistance to organisational change.

Conclusion The e-Government experiences in Asia-Pacific have improved our understanding of what works and what doesn’t, what practices are transferable and under what conditions.

However, rigorous evaluation of reforms is rare, with few scholarly works measuring the performance improvement and citizen empowerment attained or the value-for-money achieved by necessary expenditures. Fully cognizant of the methodological challenges, greater investment is needed in more extensive research on how to achieve high performance by the public sector through e-Government in Asia-Pacific. Such research would lead to better prescriptions and a better return on the considerable investment in reform by governments and international agencies.

Clay G. Wescott Capacity Development & Governance Division, Regional and Sustainable Development Dept.

Asian Development Bank Philippines www.adb.org

www.egov.csdms.in |

REGIONAL FOCUS UTTAR PRADESH

Uttar Pradesh: Riding high on Lokvani success

Zohra Chatterji IT Secretary Government of Uttar Pradesh

Going by the general notion Uttar Pradesh (UP) is not a state in India to look for IT advancements. But this myth has been broken now. After the success of its unique model for citizen grievance redressal system, Lokvani, the government has aggressively embarked e-Governance. Moreover, the number of initiatives started by the state government in e-Governance over last couple of years towards establishing backbone network, delivery of IT services to masses and its proactive policy measures shows government’s serious engagement in the concern. Uttar Pradesh came out with its Information Technology Policy in 2004, which clearly outlines the establishment of IT Pool fund for e-Governance projects. Lokvani, which was initiated in one district of Sitapur is now being replicated in 70 districts of the state.

Uttar Pradesh government’s IT Secretary, Zohra Chatterji, shares with egov the success and plans of e-government projects of the state.

What have been key achievements of Uttar Pradesh (UP) government in terms of e-Governance till now?

The projects initiated by U P government (see the box) have been the main achievements. In general the major achievement of the e-Governance initiative of the State has been to break down mind barriers and implement systems such as land records across such a vast state despite challenges. It has thus opened the way to decentralise information dissemination, decisionmaking and reducing the face-to-face citizen official contact. Another major achievement has been opening up the way for public- private partnership and put ICT initiatives in the rural areas. e-chaupal run

by ITC and other such private initiatives have been very well received. The sheer geographical and population size of the State however over shadows the e-Governance initiatives so far, which though not glaringly visible have nevertheless affected, the socio-economic structure. The Lokvani model has become a successful model for prompting rural employment at no cost to the Government.

Some kiosk owners of Lokvani are earning as much as Rs. 50,000/- per month.

Could you provide the highlights of SMART CITY Project?

The Smart City Project initiative is being launched under the name of “E-Suvidha” in Lucknow. Initially 5 centres in Lucknow will be made operational and enable payment of house and water tax, electricity and phone bills, issue of temporary driving license etc. This will be extended to 20 centers in 2004. Other major cities will also be covered in 2006.

Do you have any e-Governance framework for UP? If yes, could you elaborate?

An institutional framework has been put in place for driving the e-Governance initiative in the State headed by an IT

Advisory committee under the Chief Minister and an Apex committee under the Chief Secretary. Departmental Mission teams have been set up and are in the process of identifying and preparing projects with public interface, which can be rolled out quickly. The e-Governance framework is being developed further and the government has commissioned a consultancy organisation of International repute to prepare a framework of eGovernance initiatives and Road Map for the next 5 years for the State. In addition to promoting e-Governance, the State is actively looking towards the development of IT Industry in the state as a whole. To this end, the Chief Minister has

Important Links www.upgov.nic.in http://infotech.up.nic.in | December 2005

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REGIONAL FOCUS UTTAR PRADESH

The major e-Government projects initiated in Uttar Pradesh, India •

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DAMA based Video conferencing network for live monitoring of government programmes - A DAMA based video conferencing network covering all 70 districts in U.P. has been installed to monitor the development schemes/programmes of the State specially those which are citizen centric and infrastructure oriented. The network is being extensively used by GoUP official to monitor the schemes/programmes live.

Treasury and budget: Uttar Pradesh was the first state to fully computerise Treasury operations till tehsil level, prepare computerised Budget.

Computerisation of Land Records:- All Khatauni land records in the 70 districts, 300 Tehsils, and about 813 blocks of the state have been computerised and they are being made available through internet to the land owners.

Lokvani:- An internet based complaint redressal system developed by the District Magistrate, Sitapur, after extensive field trials has been extended by GO of IT department of the State government for implementation in all 70 districts of the State. The Lokvani project has the capacity to register complaints online, route disposal of complaint, and monitor progress of the complaint. The project also features IVRS in Hindi to read out the status of the complaint. Other assets being added to the basic Lokvani project include status of Arms License, Provident

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fund information of teachers of Department of Basic Education, Trade Tax Checkposts details, Works done under Sansad / Vidhyak Nidhi Yojana etc.

Online counseling: The UP Technical University and the department of Technical Education have conducted online counseling of the students desirous of obtaining admissions to various technical colleges and universities in the State Results on Internet: The Board of High School and Intermediate Education declare all their results on the Internet to help Lakhs of students who appear every year for the High School and Intermediate examinations.

Telemedicine:- The State was among the first in the country to start Telemedicine project. The Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences have successfully implemented the same in rural areas of the state. A commercial version of the same is also being tested at the IIT Kanpur, under the aegis of Media Lab Asia for extending the same on a larger scale.

IT enabling the transport department:- The State has computerised the working of 18 regional transport offices e.g. the registration and certificate generation, payment receipt generation, License issue and commercial permission issue. RFPs are being located for computerisation of check posts and Smart Card based driving licenses.

constituted the UP State Development Council under the chairmanship of Shri Amar Singh. The council has in turn taken up IT as a key focus area and formed an IT sub-committee under the Chairmanship of Shri Nandan Nilekani, Managing Director of Infosys. The IT subcommittee has come up with the UP IT Policy 2004, which has been greatly welcomed by entrepreneurs and has given a boost to IT Investment in the state.

Could you brief our readers on the progress of State Wide Area Network (SWAN) in UP? Uttar Pradesh was one of the first States in the country to propose setting up of a 2 Mbps SWAN. The proposal was designed by NIC and has been approved by the centre and given the shape of a national scheme. An advance of Rs. 9 crores has been made available to NIC by the government of India for the first phase.

Work is in progress.

Do you envision any advantage being derived from the recently announced national e-Government Plan (NeGP) of India?

GoUP sees NeGP as an opportunity to substantially increase in scale by replication our tried and tested eGovernance applications and at the same time make a focused effort to enter into new and promising areas of eGovernance. Under the NeGP the states are required to develop a State eGovernance Plan. This is a good step, which will help the states to develop a well focused vision for overall development of e-Governance in the State.

What is Uttar Pradesh IT department doing for building an effective system of redressal of public grievances?

After extensive field trials the Lokvani Complaint redressal system developed by UP- was approved for replication in all 70 districts of the State. The Lokvani system uses pre registered computer kiosks to register public complaints, guides the complainant on the progress of his query and for the illiterate uses Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) facility in Hindi to read out the messages or information.

A Government Order (GO) of the IT department has been issued under which

the system is now being replicated in all districts through societies formed for this purpose. This has proved to be an effective system of grievance redressal and we are satisfied with it.

With all these IT projects in pipeline, can you explain how these IT projects are going to help the Government to bring transparency? Will these projects reduce the operation costs of the Government in the future?

The basic objective of any e-Governance project taken up by the State is to help create a SMART State. The “T” of the SMART state stands for “Transparency”.

IT projects inherently introduce transparency as the transaction flow is logical and human subjectivity minimized.

Their implementation is sure to reduce optional costs and bring the additional benefit of increased revenue though more efficient collection of dues and taxes.

What is the allocated e-government budget for UP this fiscal year? What are your budgetary plans for future?

The current budget for e-Governance in the State is around Rs. 10 crores. Future www.egov.csdms.in |

REGIONAL FOCUS UTTAR PRADESH

Lokvani: Successful citizen grievance redressal system

Plans shall depend on the projects generated and the e-Governance Road Map and State e-Governance Plan against which funded will be attracted from Government of India.

What are the strengths of UP as an IT Destination?

Even before the IT Industry had begun to be widely recognized as the “Sunrise� industry in India, the sun had already risen on it in Noida! Though it was a quiet unpublicised sunrise. UP still continues to be a premier IT destination and Industries continue to be attracted to set up base at

Greater Noida and Noida. The proximity of these destinations to the National Capital together with highly developed infrastructure remains unmatched. UP is a gold mine of knowledge workers with more than 1 lakh technical graduates every year. It is also home to premier institutions like IIT (K), IIM (Lucknow) and IIIT (Allahabad), IIT (Roorkee) PG center, Noida. It also has 141 Technical colleges, 94 polytechnics and 20 multidisciplinary universities.

We have a progressive IT Policy and a number of special benefits are available to IT Industry such as preferential allotment of land, continuous power supply, extended working hours for women, IT Industry permitted in residential area, 100% exemption from stamp duty etc.

UP is the largest market in India and given the scale of the e-Governance initiatives involved in reaching its 97,942 populated villages it makes sound sense for IT vendors and manufacturing companies to set up shop in U.P.

GIS Institute page 33 AD

| December 2005

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Networking solutions for smarter government What are the key initiatives of Cisco in e-Government in India?

Cisco is a key partner in most of the eGovernance successes in the India. In India, Cisco’s networking equipment is at the core of all major e-Governance projects in the country, which include the Akshaya, E-seva project among others.

In the past, Cisco has undertaken several initiatives with the aim of generating awareness for ICT and its relevance in India. In February - 2005, Cisco along with The National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) jointly hosted ‘South Asia Public Sector ICT Summit 2005’. Recently, Cisco also announced a major investment of $10 million in the National e-governance plan.

The modalities of the investment will see Cisco collaborate in establishing a SWAN Advanced Technology Enablement Program, in the State government headquarters in India. These centers will serve as Pilots/Proof of Concept Labs which will enable the demonstration of technologies such as LAN/WAN, IP communications, wireless and security.

They will also serve as test beds for State Governments to test applications and services before they are rolled out on the SWAN Network.

Besides this, Cisco will also partner with the Indian government to establish “Common Service Centers” (CSC) across more than 100 villages in India. Cisco will support this initiative by providing networking equipment necessary to build networking infrastructure.

According to you, what is the level of progress made by India in the past five years in e-Governance?

The last few years have seen India take rapid strides in the e-governance space.

Today, most states in the country have drafted state-specific IT policies and are in different stages of implementation.

Furthermore, the government at the center has taken several initiatives to advance ICT usage across all government bodies.

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These include – roll out of the National e-Governance plan (NeGP), launch of mission 2007 as well as formation of e-Panchayats across the country, among others. Clearly, the Indian government is taking greater cognizance of the benefits of technology across all government functions and state machinery.

What is your agenda in the e-Government arena in India for coming years?

State governments in the country are intensifying their ICT expansion drive and are investing heavily in setting up IP based Next Generation Networks such as IP MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) at the core, as well as State WANs. Cisco is actively engaging with all the state governments and partnering them in this endeavour. Cisco will also be expanding the scope of its highly successful Cisco Network Academy Program across the country, to train the next generation of networking professionals, capable of manning these networks.

Cisco has announced to invest $10 million in e-Governance in India over the next 3 years.

What are the present challenges India is facing against fast-forwarding e-Government implementation?

The obvious challenges that need to be addressed in this context are: • Literacy Rates : India is characterized by low literacy rates especially in rural India. Hence, benefits of ICT enabled governance get restricted to the literate few, who can access and utilize information.

• Infrastructure bottlenecks: Connectivity in some parts of the country still remains a challenge. Hence, large belts of population do not have

Sudhir Narang Sr. Vice President - Service Provider & Government, CISCO Systems India & SAARC

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access to advantages offered by the internet / telecom facilities.

Cost of Service: With low levels of income levels, availing ICT based services may not be viable at all.

Hence, popularity of e-governance as a means of improving citizen welfare gets restricted.

Where do you see India in relation to other Asia-Pacific countries?

According to a World Economic Forum report released earlier this year, India is ranked at 39 among the world’s most networked ready countries. Singapore, Japan and South Korea are the leading APAC nations in this regard. However, India has significantly improved its position from the 45th position last year – a clear sign that ICT adoption is on the rise. Going forward, I expect India’s ranking to improve even further, given the thrust for ICT expansion in India.

Do you think government is doing enough in bringing more Public-Private partnerships?

Success of e-Governance in any country has to be seen in the context of a joint industry-state partnership. In India, e-Governance is still in a nascent stage and its adoption will increase only over time. This would obviously require a more intensive effort on the part of the industry and the state in order to make it a success story. Cisco is working and will continue to work closely with the government in this regard. www.egov.csdms.in |

EVENT DIARY WSIS 2005, TUNIS

WSIS Tunis 2005: A space for collaborations The Tunis phase of World Summit of Information Society (WSIS), which took place from 17th to 19th November 2005 at the Tunis Kram Centre, saw eight plenary sessions, 308 parallel events organized by 264 organizations and 33 press conferences attracting around 19,000 participants from all corners of the world. The crowd was an interesting mix of world leaders, high-level government, civil society representatives, media and private sector.

There were national delegations from 174 States and participants from more than 800 entities including UN agencies, private sector companies and civil society organizations, the Summit was convened in Tunis to tackle the problem of the “digital divide” and harness the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to drive economic and social development. The massive exhibition was like one big fair, with country, civil society and corporate pavilions showcasing their respective work in ICTs. Addressing delegates at the 8th and final Plenary session, Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of the Summit, said “Uniquely, WSIS was a Summit held in two phases. Through this approach, WSIS took place in one developed and one developing country. This helped ensure that the full range of issues of the Information Society were addressed, while highlighting the critical need to bridge the digital divide. The first phase of WSIS was held in Geneva in 2003.

The high point of WSIS was its enormity both in size and numbers. Not only it gave a humongous opportunity to network, meet people and foster new partnerships but also to learn about what others are doing. The only drawback was that much more was happening than anyone possibly could attend and comprehend. But that was also perhaps its beauty – huge showcase and gathering with enormous opportunities to learn.

Three key issues dominated the preparatory process leading to the Tunis Summit: Internet governance, financing | December 2005

strategies, and implementation mechanisms for the Action Plan developed by the first phase of WSIS in 2003, in Geneva.

Did anyone hear e-Governance?

Since ICT for poverty reduction and Internet governance were the key themes, e-Governance somewhat took a back seat.

Though each country highlighted their e-Governance efforts in a big way in their own pavilions, only 10 percent of the total number of workshops reflected on eGovernance related issues. Few countries for example Tanzania, Austria, Italy, Egypt conducted their respective e-Governance workshops where they talked about their own e-Government projects and these workshops turned out to be very useful learning experience for others.

Interestingly one could get a glimpse of the enthusiasm with which eGovernance projects are taken-up by different countries around the globe.

Accolades were given to best eGovernance projects and many new initiatives and partnerships were launched. Overall if one wanted to look out for e-Governance activities in WSIS, one could but the task was not that easy.

The outputs An important element of the Tunis output document is the creation of a new Internet Governance Forum (IGF), to be convened by the UN Secretary-General, to foster and enable multi-stakeholder dialogue on public policy and development issues.

The new Forum is expected to be established in the first half of 2006, with an inaugural meeting to be hosted in Athens at the invitation of the Government of Greece.

The WSIS outcome texts reaffirm the Geneva agreements that Information and Communication Technologies are a key tool in national development strategies.

The document welcomes the creation of the Digital Solidarity Fund and also identifies areas where existing financing mechanisms could be improved.

43

EVENT DIARY WSIS 2005, TUNIS

World Summit Awards: Glimpse of the winners In a wonderful ceremony at WSIS Tunis, the World Summit Awards (WSA) were presented to recognize the work of some of the best multimedia applications and projects that focus on narrowing the content gap. The awards were given in 8 categories of e-Government, e-Health, eLearning, e-Entertainment, e-Culture, e-Science, e-Business and e-Inclusion. It is a global contest, which was started in the framework of and in cooperation with

for payment for and processing of visas for travel to Bahrain (www.evisa.gov.bh).

The application uses connectivity to the GDNPR systems and databases to automate the processes as much as possible within policy and security constraints.

Many groups of people benefit from the service: individuals who intend to visit the country, residents of Bahrain who are looking for multiple re-entry visas, and companies in Bahrain who want to interview an applicant from abroad. The system can also save biodata electronically; thereby reducing the data capture process at check-in. The service provided in this portal demonstrates the strategic vision of the government of Bahrain to promote tourism, by making all pre-application processes for visas as easy as a click away.

Vancouver.ca, Canada

the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). A strong international jury of 35 experts evaluated 750 projects out of 168 countries.

Under the category of e-Government, the 5 winners are as follows.

Brisbane City Council Green Home, Australia The purpose of the project was to provide visitors to the Brisbane City Council’s corporate website, www.brisbane.qld. gov.au with a 3D interactive house, viewable over the Internet, in which participants can interact with objects to explore practical building tips and energy efficiency. It showcases one of the first uses of Shockwave 3D technology on any local government website in the world. It demonstrates best practice and innovation in e-Content to strengthen participation of local citizens in smart decision-making.

Bahrain eVisas, Bahrain The primary function of Bahrain eVisas is to provide an online application service 44

Vancouver.ca is a comprehensive website produced by the city of Vancouver, which promotes content designed to inform, educate and engage its citizens in local issues.

While the website does provide convenient online services, such as the ability to purchase business licences through the Internet, the city’s priority has been to develop a website that contains a wide range of detailed content. The purpose is to promote awareness for and access to keep citizens informed and engaged in debates on issues that impact their day-to-day lives. The website is not only very user-friendly and well organised keeping in view the residents in mind but also engages citizens on the issues, debates and projects that affect the community.

Municipality Meeting Online, Netherlands In collaboration with the Municipality of Eindhoven and Omroep Eindhoven, Noterik developed the Municipality Meeting Online (BestuurOnline) application. Council meetings are

transmitted live over the Internet, with unique rich media features, providing citizens and journalists with new ways to interact with local politicians. In addition, webcasts are enriched with metadata, enabling advanced retrieval of recorded council videos, using the system’s search engine. The project is to date the most advanced online video application for council meetings in the Netherlands. It demonstrates the potential of new technology in providing transparency of governance. It also ensures that disadvantaged people are not left behind and thereby avoids new forms of exclusion.

Directgov, United Kingdom Direct.gov.uk puts users straight through to public services without them having to understand government. People who prefer not to use the Internet can get to Directgov through Digital Interactive Television (DiTV) or 6000 public kiosks.

The application uses freshly written content to form a complete, coherent picture of the central government services.

It aims to make all service-delivery easier, quicker and cheaper for users, to drive the take-up of the government’s online transactions, to proactively present users with other relevant services and to help

de-duplicate and rationalize the government’s web provision. It is a good effort to bring e-Government services into a single portal with full interactivity for citizens.

Some special mentions were Panamacanal (www.pancanal.com), Place2Lease (www.place2lease.com) and Cape Gateway (www.capegateway.gov.za). www.egov.csdms.in |

INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

“Government just cannot dictate what they want to put online”

Richard Kerby, UNDESA

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) coordinates the economic and social work of the United Nations and the UN family of organizations. As the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues and for formulating policy recommendations, it plays a key role in fostering international cooperation for development. As one of its important area of work, it also examines the role of e-Government as one component of a knowledge system and a tool for meeting public sector reform and good governance objectives. Recently at WSIS Tunis, UNDESA with World Bank and others announced the launch of an International Task Force for e-Government Collaboration in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In an exclusive interview with egov, Richard Kerby, Interregional Adviser on e-Government Knowledge Management Branch, Division for Public Administration and Development Management, UNDESA (www.un.org/esa/ desa) tells us about the focus and future plans of UNDESA in e-Government.

How is UNDESA focusing on eGovernance?

One of our flagship products is the UNDESA e-Government Readiness Index and the E-participation Index. The eGovernment Readiness Index is composed of the Web Measure, Telecommunications Index and the Human Capacity Index, which measure the online availability of information and services. The eparticipation index, which measures how relevant and useful these features are from the point of view of the citizens. These two products are an annual participation ranking of all the countries from best to not so good in terms of the access and relevance to the services for the citizens.

In addition, UNDESA does a great deal of capacity building through workshops and seminars aimed at training and assisting governments to become more efficient and transparent. UNDESA helps governments in developing and implement their national e-Government policies and methodologies. UNDESA provides expertise and consultants to assist government in preparing an inventory of existing e-government tools, services and assets then, uses this expertise to work with government to produce a project document that will bridge the existing digital gaps and | December 2005

develop a plan of action that will meet those objectives.

The UNDESA e-Government Compendium Portal, which is in the process of completion, will provide a forum and allow access to best practices and adaptable e-services and e-application worldwide. There will be a pre-screening and confirmation process to ensure that these are really best practices and are able to be transferred to governments in search of new ways of doing business.

Which are the regions of your focus?

Our focus is global. UNDESA focuses Africa, Latin America, Middle-east, Southern Asia, essentially all the regions that have developing and emerging countries. Specifically under capacity building programme, we are working in Africa with Mozambique, Tunisia, and Morocco. In Caribbean, we are working with Belize, Jamaica, St. Lucia and St. Vincent, Jamaica. We are currently looking for opportunities in Asia and are planning to work the e-Government leaders in the Asia to develop best practices that could be shared and implemented as seamlessly as possible.

What are going to be the objectives of the recently launched ‘International Task Force on Latin America and Caribbean’?

One of the goals of this partnership is to allow the institutions like Development Gateway foundation, Inter-American Development Bank, Organization of American States, UNDESA and the World Bank to work closer together, sharing expertise and resources. One of the criticisms that all international institutions have heard is that we do not cooperate very well and essentially duplicate efforts done in the region. This is wasteful and not very productive. In effect, the five institutions implement a number of similar projects, workshops and seminar. For example, one institution might be developing one capacity building project in one country, while another institution is developing a similar capacity building project in a neighboring countries with little interaction among the institutions or countries.

With this partnership in place, if a country makes a request to any one of the five institutions, all the institutions will be aware of it and we can work together to one common goal to better assist the country. Therefore, the partnership gives an integrated approach and solution e-government problems in the region. It also gives access to five different sources of information and expertise. We should bear in mind that 45

INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

each institution has its own capacity, expertise, knowledge and information, which now can be shared in a more efficient manner.

What is the future plan of UNDESA in eGovernment?

We are planning to create a model of partnership similar to one created in Latin America and the Caribbean in Asia, Africa and Middle-East, where we can bring different institutions together and build synergies and partnerships. We have learnt that one institution cannot everything by itself and by working together with other institutions that complement each other one can increase the impact on a much greater scale.

How is UNDESA helping in transfer of learning experiences of countries ahead in e-Governance to countries, which are not?

We conduct workshops that particularly showcase successful e-policies, eapplications and e-services that are useful and adaptable. In addition, UNDESA is always in search of new e-policies, eapplication and e-services that will continue to keep us on the cutting edge of e-Government solutions. Once these best practices have been identified, UNDESA tries to ensure their adaptability to the culture of the country. For example, a great e-application or e-service could be developed in the Republic of Korea that could be used in Jamaica, Burkina Faso or Bhutan.

How are countries in Latin America and Caribbean faring?

In Latin America, there are five countries, which are doing extremely well – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay. They are in the top 25% in the UNDESA e-Readiness Index. But Caribbean is lagging behind.

UNDESA has seen first hand that the countries that have invested on eGovernment solutions and platform have been positively affected. One should note that if e-Government solutions and applications are not adding to the public value of its citizens, then the investment will not bear much fruit. UNDESA believes that public value is important and here, we are not just talking about creating a government website with information on 46

International Task Force Launched for e-Government Collaboration in Latin America and the Caribbean The launch of a new international task force to harmonize e-government efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean was announced on 18th November at the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) – Phase II, in Tunis. “e-Government effectiveness (eGe) InterAgency Task Force” includes the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), the Organization of American States (OAS), the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the World Bank, at the behest of the Development Gateway Foundation.

Recognizing that an efficient and transparent public sector is critical for good governance and democracybuilding, and recognizing the continued potential of e-government initiatives in this regard, the task force responds to the need for international and regional institutions to support country strategies in a more integrated manner.

The founding members have agreed to an Action Plan that leverages the core capacities, expertise and resources of each organization. The task force will have an initial duration of two years, “The formation of this inter-agency Task Force reflects a true commitment by these organizations to better assist the e-government needs of Latin American and Caribbean countries,” said Alan Rossi, Chief Executive Officer of the Development Gateway Foundation.

“This Task Force provides a formal, collaborative mechanism for us to work together to achieve greater results in the area of e-government. We want to reduce the burden of coordination that is often placed on our partner governments and – ultimately – to maximize the impact of our financial support,” said Danilo Piaggesi,Chief of IT for Development Division of the InterAmerican Development Bank.

it. But more importantly, any eGovernment service, application or solution should improve the life of its citizens and be easy to access online.

greater. There has to be a demand driven approach. Government just cannot dictate what they want to put online, but they need to find out what is important for the customer, in this case the citizen. Having a driving license online might be important in developed countries but it might not be as important for rural areas in developing countries. However, getting information and knowledge about agriculture issues or health related services might have more importance in rural areas. Therefore getting the request or the requirement of people that are being serviced is critical.

Any successful practice, which you would like to share with readers?

A case, which comes to my mind for example at this moment, is ‘e-Dinar’ in Tunisia. A citizen can buy an e-card from post office for 100 dinars or more and that card can be used for paying bills online and other purchases. It can be used as essentially debit card that can be replenish at the post office. It help introduces every citizens to the e-commerce world at a basic level.

Could you suggest any critical success factor for e-Government project?

I believe that governments must have a clear understanding of what its citizens want. The citizen has to be the main focal point of any e-Government service or application. If there isn’t any citizen participation, the chances of an eGovernment project being under-utilized and in some case not utilized at all are

How is India progressing in eGovernance?

If I am not mistaken there are essentially two Indias in term of e-Government implementation. One is doing extremely well in and other parts but lags behind. I believe that India has a great deal to offer to countries in search of practical affordable e-Government solutions. It has a number of excellent best practices that will be highlighted in the UNDESA e-Government Compendium. www.egov.csdms.in |

IN PRACTICE

Farmers getting a fair price: Thanks to IT! It is an established fact that if agricultural marketing has to succeed, it must have a sound and effective marketing information system. The actual need is to provide farmers with live market information for informed decision-making.

The rapid spread of Internet and information communication technology has created tremendous opportunities in making information available instantly and economically. Use of this medium is highly suited to empower the farmers with information. IT can play a significant role in providing timely information for the farmers in a cost effective and commercially viable manner. As Internet is highly interactive, this technology can be optimally used for agricultural marketing. It is very important that information technology reaches rural areas where agricultural production takes place. Apart from its role in information dissemination, ICTs also facilitates in data support for better research and sustainable planning, bridging the gap between knowledge and practice, commissioning judicious land use resource surveys, implementing efficient management practices and promoting sustainable use of natural resources.

The current agricultural marketing scenario in India is characterized by the situations of plenty and scarcity which is are detrimental to the interest of producers and consumers. One of the major factors attributable to these situations is inadequacy of proper marketing information to producers.

The producers require continuous flow of information on current prices, market arrivals, welfare schemes of governments, credit facilities and forecasting on marketing trends.

Simultaneously, farmers are in sheer need of information about access to a specific market to realize remunerative price and supportive information like storage, transactional methods, quality requirements, post harvest handling requirements etc.

It is an established fact that if agricultural marketing has to succeed, it must have a sound and effective marketing information system. Our regulated markets need to be strengthened so that they may be able to provide live marketing information to the farmers on arrivals, current prices, likely price | December 2005

trend, market practices etc. To supplement the above, there is a need to open up information kiosk at village/block level. Such kiosks are supposed to keep up to date marketing information and pass on the same to the farmers for their benefits.

In order to achieve this objective, a number of thrust areas have been identified where IT can play a crucial role in leveraging traditional methods of agricultural marketing. Some of these are: 1. Agricultural Market Intelligence System (AMIS) 2. Price Forecasting Application 3. Creation of National Market Atlas 4. Electronic Auctioning System 5. Electronic Display Boards (Rural Connectivity) 6. Creation of e-Catalogues for Commodity Profiles 7. E-commerce in Agricultural Marketing

1. Agricultural Market Intelligence System (AMIS) Agricultural marketing essentially deals with post harvest management of produce and finding competitive markets for getting best available returns. In order to reduce the risk of marginalisation and vulnerability of small farmers, who constitute about 76.3% of total farmers of the country, it is necessary to develop an ‘Agricultural Market Information System’ that is accessible to the resource poor farming community. Internet technology based applications on agricultural resources are expected to facilitate agriculture-based development of rural and economically backward areas in the country. Design of agricultural market information system is crucial for the support of various management systems at the national, state, district and village levels.

The Agricultural Marketing Information System (AMIS) model will be an informatics model aimed towards developing a reliable and integrated system, wherein all the information associated with marketing is readily available. This informatics model is based on – multi-database information system; knowledgebased expert system; geographical information system; and on-line distributed query capabilities. Informatics for agricultural marketing information system requires coordinated inter sectoral approach and application of appropriate information technology tools in the area of agricultural marketing (involving storage, packaging, infrastructure), agricultural extension and transfer of technology, agro-meteorology, agri-business, quality assurance and agricultural inputs (viz. seeds, fertilizers, manures).

2. Price Forecasting Application Agricultural producers and agribusinesses face a diverse array of marketing and production alternatives. Each time a marketing or production decision is made, farmers or agribusinesses must estimate what impact this decision will have on their risk management plan. Under this scenario, agribusinesses must determine the price expectations beforehand, in order to know what forward price to offer.

In the agricultural sector, prices affect the quantum of total production, the crop mix that a farmer decides to grow and the investment for capital formation.

The relative level of agricultural prices influences the allocation of production resources and hence the level and pattern of agricultural production.

47

IN PRACTICE

Price fluctuations cause investment in agriculture to be low. For given levels of price, the larger the price fluctuation, the larger is the depressing effect on output and productivity. Too low prices have a dampening influence on the investment.

If they are too high, they adversely affect consumers in the short period.

Thus it is important to develop effective and accurate price forecasting applications, which takes into consideration multiple parameters, and datasets to give realistic price forecast output. Computer based database and statistical package provides considerable convenience in such forecasting analysis on a real-time and continuous basis.

National Institute of Agricultural Marketing (NIAM) in collaboration with Karnataka State Agricultural Marketing Board has developed an application to workout future prices for agricultural commodities to safeguard the interest of the farming community by providing suitable base for market intervention both by central and state government authorities.

The Atlas can also be of great help while finding out the most optimal route for transporting agricultural commodities, satisfying various geographical and commercial parameters, along with perishability of agricultural commodities.

Ministry of Agriculture, NIAM and National Informatics Centre are working closely in this project. Knowledge part of the Atlas is being done by the NIAM and technology part is being taken care of by NIC. Data collection and digitisation work has already been completed for three states namely - Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttranchal and very shortly they will be available on-line.

Training part has been completed for five more states namely - Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir and their data collection work is in progress. A detailed plan has been designed for a covering all states and union territories of India over the next one year.

4. Electronic Auctioning System

3. Creation of National Market Atlas Substantial structure and policy changes have swept the agricultural marketing system in the context of economic reforms of 1991 and more so, after establishment of WTO. Many committees have reviewed the system thoroughly and put forth various recommendations to make it more conducive to the change environment.

The common thrust of the working groups is on developing infrastructure facilities, identification of new markets, modernization of existing markets, assessing movement of marketable surplus, developing sub-markets and matching the infrastructure with output availability.

The application of National Market Atlas will mitigate much of these problems and will help in prioritizing the category of markets that need to be developed first (i.e. whether it is primary market, secondary market or rural market).

National Market Atlas is of immense use in identifying the imbalances between magnitude of production and availability of market centers in that area (mass production and inadequacy of selling points or low level of production and density of marketing network). Under these circumstances Atlas is an effective tool to out grow such infrastructure imbalances by suggesting appropriate combination of these two parameters.

The Atlas also goes a long way in contributing and exploiting the natural endowment with the view to explore possibilities of producing cash and semicash crop in areas having uncultivated land. It can also help us to judge whether the virgin land can be cultivated for food grains or commercial crops and if it is feasible to develop markets in near future. It can also be used to determine which are the areas where processing can be taken up and marketing linkages can be developed.

48

The electronic auctioning system (EAS) is a system to perform electronic bidding of agricultural produce in wholesale markets. It is the first time in India that EAS has been implemented for Azadpur mandi (Asia’s largest vegetable & fruit mandi) of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC), New Delhi. EAS helps in automating the highly chaotic and unsystematic way of bidding done in wholesale agricultural markets. The system aims to minimize paper work in the bidding process, automate the billing and revert system, improve the efficiency and transparency of the process, provide a disciplined structure for the bidding system, provide easy, efficient and summarized information and ensure data security.

Under this system, traders perform the bid with the help of miniature wireless keyboards, which they use for entering their bid amount into the computer system. An electronic display board (generally mounted at a prominent www.egov.csdms.in |

IN PRACTICE

place) highlights the bid amount, as and when they are entered. This helps every one to be aware about the current prices in the on-going bidding process.

EAS also provides the facility of bidding and delivering bid information through SMS. The buyer can bid for his desired material by sending SMS from his mobile. Similarly, farmers/producers in far-away places can enquire about prevailing market rate of commodities through SMS.

5. Electronic Display Board (Rural Connectivity) IT applications such as rural connectivity through electronic display boards can be of great help for the agricultural community of the country. Although the current thrust of information technology is on data support for better research, better results and sustainable planning, it is equally important to ensure that farmers get remunerative prices for their produce and consumers get fresh produce at fairly reasonable rates. With this objective, National Institute of Agricultural Marketing (NIAM) has decided to prepare a pilot testing of agricultural information dissemination model at the doorsteps of producers at gram panchayat level through electronic display boards. The pilot testing is proposed to carry out the objectives such as - providing market related information in regional language through electronic display boards at the panchayat level; providing state level and national level market information; providing commodity exchanges future prices; providing software/hardware technology for updating data on regular basis and providing important government messages in rural areas.

The primary objective of the study is to provide a way of easy access of information for the users and remove all types of corruption in the process. Site for mounting the display board is usually identified by discussing with Secretary, Agricultural Produce Market Committee, Chaksu and the villagers. A village, which is a junction point of 7-8 adjacent villages, is usually selected for this model.

Display boards are installed on roadside (as per the guidelines of Supreme Court) for proper visibility and information is updated into the system by GSM or CDMA technology.

This helps in disseminating the much-needed market information to the rural producers and assists them in taking informed and timely decisions for optimising the returns. | December 2005

6. Creation of e-Catalogues for Commodity Profiles In the present time of export competitiveness, each and every agricultural product needs publicised highlighting of its characteristics on nutritional values, chemistry, quality standards, seasonality, shelf life, bi-products, supply/availability, prices etc.

A brief commercial profile of the commodity would help the buyer in making comparative analysis on account of cost and margins. Therefore, it is necessary that each commodity have specific commercial profiles. All such profiles need to be communicated to international markets through websites. In addition, commodity profiles containing entire market related information for important commodities should be put on CD for mass dissemination in areas where there is no Internet connectivity. Information in CD should be in local languages with multimedia features to enable transfer of knowledge to producers/traders.

The CDs will contain information such as - important producing areas and volume of commodities grown; important varieties in demand in national and international markets; phyto-sanitary, grading, standards and packaging requirements; wholesale, retail outlets and important trading and consuming centers; marketing regulations related to the commodities; facilities for direct marketing to consumers and processing units; availability of institutional credit, storage, cold storage and warehousing; professional agencies providing marketing services; and marketing related schemes of the government and public sector organisations.

7. e-Commerce and Agricultural Marketing There are unexplored potentials for electronic media in domestic as well as international agricultural marketing. An agricultural producer faces unrelenting pressure for efficiency, myriad choices and marketing volatility brought on by discerning consumers, quality- conscious buyers and a global marketplace.

In order to compete and thrive in an era of constant change, there is a requirement of a pro-active marketing mindset, an intimate knowledge of production costs and a detailed knowledge of the quality of commodities produced. The rapid spread of Internet is ushering in a new era of agricultural marketing using web-based electronic storefronts and on-line marketing through e-catalogues of commodities.

The major activities of e-commerce as applicable to agriculture involves - bringing products to markets, easy networking and communication between buyers and sellers and delivering information to potential consumers. However, in India, there are very few players in the domain of e-commerce in agriculture. The foremost requirement for successful electronic commerce is the access to market information system. In the long run, electronically linked producers and retailers will be able to lower their costs and increase transactional efficiencies by reducing intermediary operations.

With all these initiatives in place, the agricultural sector is poised to undergo a revolutionary change by harnessing the invaluable resource of information through use of technology.

IT has the potential to cure the most critical ailment of agro-producers – the ‘information gap’, arising out of geographical separation and isolation of producing areas. Once information Satyaveer Singh flow is ensured across all regions, producers will no longer run the high Assistant Director (IT) risk of uncertainty in agriculture and National Institute of Agricultural neither will they lose out on getting the Marketing (NIAM), India best returns for lack of market www.niam.gov.in information.

49

IN PRACTICE

Jaipur, which opened its account with 55 tickets in the first month (January 2003) and reached 1030 tickets in October 2005; Allahabad began with 42 tickets and reached to 372 tickets; Patna began with 45 tickets and was at 294 tickets in October 2005. Many more such examples are available which demonstrate that smaller cities are extremely responsive to service offerings on the Internet.

Another important parameter in this context is the age profile of the citizens who use the Internet and make online payments.

Conventional wisdom would suggest that most of the customers are urban, net savvy youth in the age group of 16 – 20 years, who have grown up with computers at home and

school. Our experience at IRCTC shows that this conclusion is too limited and restrictive.

As a matter of fact, 35% of our transacting users are in the 18-30 years age group, 36% in the 30-40 years age group and 17% in the 4050 years age group. More than 60% of our transacting users are above the age of 30 years. The point to be noted out here is that while the urban young may well constitute a big chunk of net savvy space, the ‘market’ is in fact much larger and the older generation is both willing and able to transact on the Net, if they find value in such transactions.

An interesting characteristic of transacting users on our website is that every month about 25% of those who transact on the website are new transactors i.e. people doing their first transaction on the site, while 75% are those who have already done one or more transactions.

Thus, once a customer gets a reasonably satisfactory experience on the Internet, he returns to transact again and despite the conservative bent of mind that characterizes the Indian customer, especially in the context of new modes of doing business, significant numbers of people are ready to get on-line and pay on-line, if they get value there from.

To conclude, government can implement citizen friendly Internet based services quite quickly and cheaply as well, if it so desires. The Amitabh Pandey technology is available and the citizen is responsive.

Group General Manager (IT Services) As Matsuo Basho, the greatest Indian Railway Catering and Tourism of Haiku poets, observed Corporation Ltd., India Spring too, very soon www.irctc.co.in They are setting the scene for it Plum tree and moon

Editorial Guidelines egov is a monthly magazine providing a much needed platform to the voices of various stakeholders in the arena of e-Government, apart from being a repository of valuable information and meaningful discussion on issues of e-governance in general, and egovernment in particular – both to the specialist and the generalist.

Contributions to egov magazine should be in the form of articles, case studies, book reviews, event report and news related to e-Government project and initiatives, which are of immense value for practitioners, professionals, corporate and academicians.

We would like the contributors to follow these guidelines, while submitting their material for publication.

• Articles/ Case studies should not

| December 2005

•

•

•

•

exceed 2500 words. For book reviews and event report, the word limit is 800.

An abstract of the article/case study not exceeding 200 words should be submitted along with the article/case study.

All articles/ case studies should provide proper references. Authors should give in writing stating that the work is new and has not been published in any form so far.

Book reviews should include details of the book like the title, name of the author(s), publisher, year of publication, price and number of pages and also send the cover photograph of the book in JPEG/ TIFF (resolution 300 dpi).

Book reviews of books on e-Governance related themes, published from year 2002 onwards, are preferable. In case of website, provide the URL.

•

The manuscripts should be typed in a standard printable font (Times New Roman 12 font size, titles in bold) and submitted either through mail or post.

• Relevant figures of adequate quality (300 dpi) should be submitted in JPEG/ TIFF format.

• A brief bio-data and passport size photograph(s) of the author(s) must be enclosed.

• All contributions are subject to approval by the publisher.

Please send in your papers/articles/ comments to: The Editor G-4, Sector 39 NOIDA (UP) 201 301, India Tel +91 120 2502180-87 Fax +91 120 2500060 Email: info@egov.csdms.in

51

numbers 90

percent of public service providers in EU countries now have an on-line presence.

10.12 is the teledensity level achieved in India, as up till August 2005.

48 57

percent of basic public services of EU countries are fully interactive.

cities of south Indian state of Karnataka have gone live with website and online public grievance & redressal system.

758 million pounds of Government IT spending make Scotland the biggest IT spender among all EU nations in the current financial year.

97

percent of public websites in EU nations do not comply with the minimum standard of accessibility, under the internationally accepted W3C guidelines.

16,00,000 Internet users make Nigeria the most net savvy nation of Southern Africa.

250 14

million Internet users are there in Asia-Pacific countries.

52

million is the expected level of PC penetration in India by the end of the current fiscal.

Source: 48 http://europa.eu.int/comm index_en.htm 250 ITU Indicators 2004 758 http://www.kablenet.com 90 http://europa.eu.int/comm index_en.htm 57 http://www.egovernments.org 97 http://www.cabinet office.gov.uk 100,000 http://www.khaleej times.com 14 http://www.mit.gov.in 10.12 http://www.mit.gov.in 16,00,000 http://www.itu.int/home.

www.egov.csdms.in |

ABOUT TOWN

This section lists upcoming e-Government conferences, exhibitions, and other public events for the benefit of our readers.

December 8, 2005

7-8 March 2006

April 24-28, 2006

Fusion 2005 Honolulu, Hawaii

EGov Summit London UK

2nd International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies: from Theory to Applications - ICTTA’06 Damascus, Syria

http://www.govtech.net/events/ conference.php?confid=300

http://www.egov.worldtradeco.com/

8 December 2005

8-9March 2006

eGovernment Conference 2005 Copenhagen Denmark

2006 Government & Health Technologies Conference and Expo Ottawa Canada

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId= IDC_P8554

http://gov.wowgao.com/

March 8-11, 2006

9-11 December 2005 rd

3 International Conference on e-Governance (ICEG) Lahore Pakistan http://web.lums.edu.pk/iceg2005/

The 4th ACS/IEEE International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications (AICCSA-06) Dubai UAE http://www.cs.utk.edu/aiccsa06

December 12-13, 2005 Massachusetts Digital Government Summit Boston, Massachusetts http://www.govtech.net/events/ conference.php?confid=247

March 28-29, 2006 E-Government Evolution 2006 Canberra Australia http://www.iqpc.com/cgi-bin/templates/ singlecell.html?topic=592&event=8611

4-7 January 2006 39th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 39) E-Government Track Kauai, Hawaii

5-6 April 2006

http://ictta.enst-bretagne.fr/ index.php?PAGE=callforpapers.php

April 27-28, 2006 ECEG 2006: 6th European Conference on e-Government Marburg, Germany http://www.academic-conferences.org/eceg/ eceg2006/eceg06-home.htm

May 15-19, 2006 Government Technology Conference West 2006 Sacramento, CA USA http://www.govtech.net/gtc/index.php/ GTCWest2006

June 6-9, 2006 4th International Conference on Applied Cryptography and Network Security (ACNS’06) Singapore

local e-gov London EXPO 2006 Docklands London

http://acns2006.i2r.a-star.edu.sg

http://www.ctg.albany.edu/conference/hicss/

http://www.localegovnp.org/ default.asp?sID=1133363230094

June 26 - 27, 2006

30 January-2 Febuary, 2006

10-13 April 2006

GTC Southwest 2006 Seventeenth Annual Government Technology Conference Austin, TX

2nd International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies (WEBIST-2006) Portugal

http://www.govtech.net/gtc/?pg= conference&confid=276

http://www.webist.org/cfp.htm

13-14 February 2006

19 - 22 April 2006

Scandinavian Workshop on e-Government Kristiansand

Eastern European e|Gov Days 2006 Prague (CZ)

http://www.hia.no/oksam/inf-vit/eGov%20Workshop/callforpapers.html

http://www.uni-koblenz.de/FB4/ Institutes/IWVI/AGVInf/Conferences/ eeegovdays2006

International Conference on Mobile Business (ICMB) 2006 Copenhagen Denmark http://www.cbs.dk/forskning_viden/ fakulteter_institutter_centre/institutter/ oekonomi/inf/h_jreboks/arrangementer/ 1151309100_icmb_conference_2006

4 – 8 September 2006 International EGOV conference 2006 Krakow (Poland) http://www.uni-koblenz.de/FB4/Institutes/ IWVI/AGVInf/Conferences/egov2006

Tell us about your event at info@egov.csdms.in | December 2005

53

FACTS AND DATA

It pays to be Open!

Going by the general perception, open source software (OSS) or GNU/Linux are considered ‘not-being-mainstream’. Contrary to this belief, there is excellent evidence that OSS has a significant market share, particularly for web servers. Since the time such data have been collected, the most popular web server has always been an OSS.

Figure 1: Market share for web servers across all domains, Aug 1995 - Nov 2005

According to the latest web server survey of Netcraft (www.netcraft.com an Internet research enterprise), Apachean OSS, has remained the most widely used public Internet web server, since April 1996. It has over three times the market share of its next-ranked (proprietary) competitor - Microsoft.

Before 1996, the NCSA web server (Apache’s ancestor) dominated the web from August 1995 through March 1996.

The survey report published in November 2005 (covering results through October 2005) polled as many as 74,572,794 sites and found that Apache had a staggering 70.98% of the market share, followed by Microsoft

with 20.24%, Sun with 2.52% and Zeus with 0.78%. The illustration in Figure 1 shows a comparative analysis of market share held by Apache, Microsoft, Sun, NCSA and others (grouped together) between August 1995 and November 2005. It is evident from the illustration that over the years, Apache’s market share is increasing, while for others it is showing a decreasing trend.

While counting only on ‘active sites’, Apache does extremely well. In the Netcraft’s study on active sites, Apache was Figure 2: Market share for active web servers, Aug 2000 - Nov 2005 found to control 69.36% of the web server market, Microsoft had 24.31%, Zeus had 0.66%, and Sun had 0.60%. The illustration in Figure 2 shows the market distribution of web servers for active web sites between August 2000 to November 2005.

Source: http://news.netcraft.com http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html#market_share

54

www.egov.csdms.in |

2006

Connecting Rural Communities

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