Gujarat Leading the e-Readiness Race: December 2011

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

DECEMber 2011 > ` 75/VOLUME 07 n ISSUE 12 n ISSN 0973-161X www.egovonline.net

Leading the e-Readiness Race 14-16

“Gujarat, with its all inclusive, sustainable and rapid growth, is emerging as a globally preferred place to live in and to do business.”

Over the years, the Gujarat has emerged as one of the most dynamic, prosperous, investor friendly and fastest growing states of India. The importance of well thought governance initiatives with significant use of technology in this success cannot be overemphasized.

Good Governance is the key to sustainable development. The state has been constantly innovating, aiming at excellence in governance. The opportune understanding of the importance of technology in effective and efficient delivery of services has enabled the state to take up many innovative steps for empowering people.

While the State’s emphasis has been on building educational infrastructure, training of teachers and computerization of schools, we have successfully been able to come up with 11 new universities, 400 colleges, 1.25lakh new teachers, 38000 new schoolrooms and to double the seats for technical courses. The State has witnessed a massive reduction in the dropout rate at all primary levels.

Improvement in the health and nutritional status of the population has been one of the major thrust areas of the social development programmes in the state. Over the years, Gujarat has developed good health infrastructure and human resources. The state has initiated a wide variety of Public – Private collaborations, involving NGOs/Private Sector practitioners. Gujarat is now emerging as a global medical tourism destination.

It gives us immense pleasure to share with you that Department of Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat and Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd are jointly organizing eINDIA 2011, an annual ICT conference and exhibition at Mahatma Mandir International Convention Centre, Gujarat from December 15 – 17, 2011 as one of the prelude/precursors and warm up exercises to Vibrant Gujarat 2013.

The vision roadmap that we have carved for the state will certainly get reflected in various thematic conferences under the umbrella of eINDIA 2011.

We warmly welcome all delegates and look forward to participating in what promises to be an immensely enriching event.

(Narendra Modi)

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Contents December 2011

second grid grid name issue 12 n volume 07

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industry voice Sunil Kakkad Talks about the Gujarat Govt has been proactive towards citizens

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spotlight A GIFT to the Nation One of the most ambitious projects of the nation is taking shape

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interview R M Patel Talks about rural development in Gujarat post eGram initiative

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Analysis Building a Better City the AMC Experience From city to e-City project, AMC is transforming Gujarat

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Analysis Modernising Gujarat Police

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Why Gujarat Leads India With a strong structure of DNA – Devices, Networks and Applications – in place, Gujarat has emerged as one of the most e-ready states in the country. The central focus is efficient delivery of services to citizens

Read about state police’s initiatives to keep up with the high-tech age

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Spotlight Empowered

by Technology Dept of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt of Gujarat goes online

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interview K R Gururaja Rao GIL’s innovative efforts have made Gujarat e-ready

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interview Raj Kumar Read about the PDS reforms in Gujarat

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special feature Tryst with e-Governance GIL is changing the way the government functions

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special feature CMO – Chief Minister Online Use of ICT has made Gujarat Govt citizen friendly

further reading guest Editorial 05 Editorial 07

project showcase Swagat 37 Craft of Gujarat 38 XGN-Xtended Green Node 39 Works Monitoring System 40 Online Voting System 42 mGovernance 43 RCMS 44

Guest Editorial

Intent Inside

W

inston Churchill has famously said, “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference”. The Gujarati attitude of seeing possibilities where others might see difficulties is best exemplified by two of the greatest sons of India – the first son played a leading role in galvanising the nation against foreign rule and the other helped transform our centuries-old culturally united social structure into a vibrant and modern nationstate. The Gujarati trait of always being willing to turn a challenge into an opportunity has thrown up entrepreneurs par excellence, and the Gujarati entrepreneur has been a true standard bearer of the message of vasudhaiva kutumbakam espoused in the Hitopadesha. To the Gujarati, the whole world is the karmabhoomi, and hardly any outpost of the world has remained untouched by the spirit of Gujarat.

Mahatma Gandhi has prescribed a simple test to resolve a dilemma – he said that when faced with a dilemma, we should think of the antyodaya and the likely impact of our actions on such people. Set up with this ideal, the Public Distribution System was visualised as a vital social security mechanism for providing succour to the poor. Unfortunately, the PDS has become notorious for leakages and corruption. It has become a mechanism for cheating the poor out of their entitlements, meagre as they are. Gujarat has adopted ICT in a bid to reform the PDS and our model has been commended for emulation across India by the Hon’ble Supreme Court. The eGram project, as Additional Chief Secretary (Panchayats and Rural Housing), R M Patel, said, in one of his interviews, has the potential of realising Gandhiji’s vision of Gram Swaraj. The 108 EMRI service has successfully handled 16,500 deliveries inside the ambulances and over 6,000 on-site, and has facilitated scores of institutional deliveries. eMamta has been such a success that it is now being replicated nationally as the Mother and Child Tracking System. The CMO initiative, SWAGAT, which uses ICT to address citizen’s grievances in a time-bound manner, has now been rolled out from the village level onwards. In primary education, state-of-the art facilities at BISAG are used for transmitting quality programmes for school children over the ku-band.

Gujarat has shown that the power of technology can be harnessed to act as a force multiplier and help the state in surmounting limitations of resources, infrastructure and manpower. Imbued with the same can-do spirit, as any average citizen of this extraordinary state, the Government of Gujarat has emerged as one of world’s leading practitioners of e-governance. The state has shown how modern tools of information and communication technology can help bridge many of the divides that plague Indian society. ICT can provide governance that is citizen-oriented, responsive and full of empathy.

As Voltaire said, “God has given us the gift of life, but it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.” In a large, populous and geographically diverse state like Gujarat, governance will always be challenging. By forging an alliance with technology, and by doing so in a well-thought-out and strategic manner, the state administration is trying to secure the gift of a good life to all residents of Gujarat.

Having recently celebrated the Golden Jubilee of our statehood, we are now gradually building up a musical symphony that will reach its crescendo at the Vibrant Gujarat 2013. As part of this build-up, it is our pleasure to host eIndia 2011 – India’s largest ICT event showcasing the power of technology for development. With the hope that the Conclave will help in furthering the cause of citizen-centric governance, I present this special commemorative issue to you.

Ravi Saxena Additional Chief Secretary Department of Science and Technology, Gujarat

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Columnists

President Dr M P Narayanan Editor-in-Chief: Dr Ravi Gupta GM Finance Ajit Kumar DGM Strategy: Raghav Mittal Programme Specialist: Dr Rajeshree Dutta Kumar

Contributors for the issue

partnerships & Alliances Sheena Joseph, Shuchi Smita, Ankita Verma EDITORIAL Divya Chawla, Rachita Jha, Dhirendra Pratap Singh, Anand Agarwal, Sonam Gulati, Pragya Gupta, Shally Makin (editorial@elets.in) Sales & marketing Fahimul Haque, Mob: +91-8860651632, Jyoti Lekhi, Rakesh Ranjan, Ragini Shrivastav, Amit Kumar Pundhir, Neha Mishra, Garima Singh (sales@elets.in) subscription & circulation Jagwant Kumar, Mobile: +91-8130296484; Gunjan Singh, Mobile: +91-8860635832 subscription@elets. in

Dr Neeta Shah Director (e-Governance), GIL On page 18

Rajnish Mahajan State Informatics Officer NIC, Gujarat On page 45

Design & Creatives: Bishwajeet Kumar Singh, Om Prakash Thakur, Shyam Kishore

Sunil Kakkad CEO, SIS On page 30

Web Development Team Zia Salahuddin, Anil Kumar IT infrastructure Mukesh Sharma, Zuber Ahmed Events Vicky Kalra human resource Sushma Juyal legal R P Verma accounts Anubhav Rana, Subhash Chandra Dimri Editorial & Marketing Correspondence egov – G-4 Sector 39, NOIDA–201 301, India Phone: +91-120-2502181-85 Fax: +91-120-2500060 Email: info@egovonline.net egov is published by Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd in technical collaboration with Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS).

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

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Guruprasad Mohapatra Municipal Commissioner Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation

Manoj Agarwal Inspector General of Police State Crime Records Bureau, Gujarat

On page 51

On page 53

write back Your views and feedback matter to us. Tell us what you think of the stories in the magazine or what more you would like us to cover.

Write back to the Managing Editor at editor@elets.in

ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON E-GOvERNANcE

December 2011 / www.egovonline.net / egov

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cover story

Gujarat Leads India WHY

With a strong structure of DNA – Devices, Networks and Applications – in place, Gujarat has emerged as one of the most e-ready states in the country. The central focus is efficient delivery of services to citizens

By Dhirendra Pratap Singh

G

ujarat has been called “India’s Guangdong”, which translates to ‘growth engine’. Gujarat’s growth rate is faster than overall growth rate in the country; 16 percent of India’s industrial output and 22 percent of its exports are generated in the state. The state is fast becoming a refineries and ports hub and it is anticipated that exporters might soon switch from China to India, giving Gujarat’s textile industry a huge boost. From infrastructure to agriculture, Gujarat has been an inspiring success story. Offering a combination of good governance, speedy implementation, brisk decision making, abundant and undisputed resources and easy availability of power, Gujarat has successfully positioned itself as a model state.

According to Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat, “Good Governance is the key to sustainable development. The state has been constantly innovating, aiming at excellence in governance. The opportune understanding of the importance of technology in effective and efficient delivery of services has enabled the state to take up many innovative steps for empowering people.”

The Gujarat Model When it comes to e-Governance, there is no doubt that Gujarat is one of the top states in the country.

With a strong structure of DNA – Devices, Networks and Applications, and effective execution of policies, Gujarat has emerged as one of the most e-ready states in the country with efficient citizen service delivery as the central focus.

Ravi Saxena, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, Government of Gujarat, says “Every village panchayat in Gujarat has internet connectivity and is also connected by the Gujarat State Wide Area Network (GSWAN), and power is available 24X7 across Gujarat. This is essential for success of e-Governance initiatives as without reliable connectivity

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The Government recognised that in order to make governance effective, it had to reach the taluka level and beyond. It was with this objective that the concept of Village Knowledge Centres was promoted

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The visionary under whose leadership the state has prospered to be the most e-ready state in India

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and power supply, it is very difficult to provide ICT-based services.”

Not only is the bundle of services offered to citizens huge, but the results have also been tangible and widespread. The Government recognised that in order to make governance effective, it had to reach the taluka level and beyond. It was with this objective that the concept of Village Knowledge Centres was promoted. All of the 13,693 village panchayats in the state are not only bandwidth-enabled but are completely equipped to generate birth and death certificates, income certificates, applications for schemes etc. for citizens so that they don’t have to make a journey to town in order to secure these basic documents.

The state has launched Apno Taluko, Vibrant Taluko (ATVT) in order to empower people locally and guide the growth process through Taluka Sarkar – a sub district citizen-centric approach where governance and development is activated at the grass root level. It provides all end-to-end government services under one umbrella at the Taluka itself. The decentralisation of administration up to sub-district (taluka) level makes it speedier, effective, transparent and citizen centric. This will lead every taluka to aspire to develop faster and instill a sense of belonging to give a new stimulus to the development process.

The 50,000 kms of optical fibre in Gujarat equips functionaries with a robust platform to stay connected 24x7, with all citizens, accessible at every Gram Panchayat Office. The Citizen Facilitation Centres at major centres of Gujarat have connected the entire state from Taluka levels to district level including 14,000 gram panchayats, facilitating the establishment of easier, effective and transparent governance.

The GSWAN is one of the largest in Asia and has been operational since 2001. It connects 26 districts and 226 talukas including all the offices in those places. In addition all

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Ravi Saxena Addl. Chief Secretary, Deptt. of Sc. & Tech, Gov. of Gujarat

“Every village panchayat in Gujarat is connected by the GSWAN, and power is available 24X7 across the state. This is essential for success of e-governance initiatives” 14,000 village panchayats in Gujarat are connected through broadband through the project e-Gram. The Government has extended the use of mobiles in governance also in health, education, pollution control, election

commission, disaster management and citizen service sectors.

Akhtar Badshah, Senior Director-Global Community Affairs, Microsoft, says “Information technology today plays an important role in all aspects of development. The challenge is how to get technology resources in the hands of the underserved to spur development and part of the discussion then becomes whether Intellectual Property (IP) has any value or not and whether intellectual property helps generate revenue, helps generate development, helps generate economic activity and how do you manage the two issues – one of costs and the other one is economy because people that create anything have a right to benefit from that creation.” Gujarat has managed these issues successfully with efficient citizen service delivery as a central focus.

“We began with the Informative phase in 2002-03 and created simple websites aimed at information dissemination. The strategy moved to the Interactive phase and applications based on two-way database queries were implemented. One example is information on examination results based on roll number and date of birth,” highlights Ravi Saxena.

He adds, “In 2006 we moved into the transactional phase with paid services and one-day governance being delivered online. People could go to civic centres and make payments of dues, get subsidies and get land records

Source: Department of Science & Technology, Government of Gujarat

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certified, for example. Presently, we are in the transformational phase which aims at providing 24X7 faceless government. In this phase, online portals with 130-140 services would be made available to the citizens.”

Dr Neeta Shah Director (e-Governance), GIL

“We are not following the project approach, we are following the framework approach and this is actually the success mantra behind the state’s e-governance policies”

Gain at Grassroots Last year, when agricultural production in most other states was plummeting, Gujarat, with large semi-arid tracts that were alien to good crops, offered a turnaround story. In 2009, it posted an agricultural growth of 9.6 per cent against a national average of 2.9 per cent. As per Planning Commission of India, the state’s annual agro output (including production from animal husbandry) now revolves around `49,000 crore, from just `18,000 crore in 2000-01.

The state has given soil health cards to farmers so that they could assess the quality of land.

Steps were also taken to improve the quality of seeds, raise the groundwater table by building almost a lakh check dams within a decade in Kutch, Saurashtra and north Gujarat with extensive use of technology by bringing scientists and farmers on one platform.

Judicious use of water for farming got a major fillip in 2003 when the state Government floated the Gujarat Green Revolution Company to encourage drip irrigation. From Akhtar Badshah Senior Director - Global Community Affairs, Microsoft

105 lakh hectares in 2000-2001, the state’s cultivable area now stands at 120 lakh hectares.

Besides this, agro financing was done with a purpose. Gujarat Agricultural University was also split into four universities, each dedicated to a particular crop.

Says Dr Neeta Shah, Director (e-Governance), GIL, “New techniques are workable to address governance issues in our country, and I believe that each state government will notice a lot of potential in the ICT tools, in the years to come.”

“We are not following the project approach, we are following the framework approach and this is actually the success mantra behind the state’s e-governance policies,” She added. The framework approach was the biggest challenge for the IT visionaries in the state.

Rural Governance

“Information technology plays an important role in all aspects of development.

The challenge is how to get technology resources in the hands of the underserved to spur development” 14

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Gujarat’s pioneering projects like e-dhara, e-mamta, State Wide Attention on Grievances with Application of Technology (SWAGAT) are empowering the rural population and allowing the government to address all kinds of challenges of the people. SWAGAT has been running systematically since 2003 and has resolved 92.45 percent of grievance cases effectively and transparently.

Swagat project is hosted on 4th Thursday of every month in the presence of the Chief Minister. In his presence with all the department heads and the district representatives, the grievances of the common man are addressed through video conferencing and solutions are provided online to the common man immediately.

The positive impacts realised by the State level SWAGAT gave drive to expand the system to 225 Sub-District offices in 2008, for greater accessibility to the public. Presently, the geographical scope of SWAGAT is 60

million citizens and 225 Sub-District of the State. Path breaking success of the SWAGAT has given it nation-wide recognition and prestigious awards like United Nations Public Service Award 2010 for improving transparency, accountability and responsiveness in the public service category. Moreover, the Commonwealth Telecom Organisation and University of Manchester have considered SWAGAT as an excellent model of e-transparency.

For any e-Governance initiative to be completed, the projects need to talk to each other. It is crucial to avoid any duplication of work and simplify processes for citizens. Executing such projects in any Indian state is a mammoth task by itself. However, the way that Gujarat did it was to start small, experiment and once a scheme proved to be successful, it got implemented on a larger scale­. According to Dr Neeta Shah, “What it basically implies is that projects are not taken up in silos, rather the entire framework is taken into account before implementing a project.

Most e-governance initiatives in the past have had limited impact as the projects were implemented in isolation. One department was not aware of the steps or plans of other departments and there was little or no coordination and information was stagnant.”

In common perception, India is governed from New Delhi. In reality, all state capitals have begun to matter more. A second generation of economic reforms to follow the abolition of the licence-permit raj that began in 1991 requires massive investment and effective delivery in governance, education, health and transformation of agriculture. In all of these, states are key actors.

The Centre may control the purse strings but it is up to states to design effective implementation strategies. The industrial powerhouse of West India, Gujarat has already grasped this.

in person

K R Gururaja Rao Chairman and MD, GIL

The Backstage

Manager of e-Governance IN GUJARAT Gujarat has acquired the status of a state ‘ahead of its time’ by initiating innovative services for its citizens through Gujarat Informatics Limited (GIL). GIL is the backbone that supports the economic and human resource structure of the state.

K R Gururaja Rao, Chairman and MD, GIL, talks to Anand Agarwal & Sonam Gulati about GIL’s vision for the future

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P

in person

Please share with us the vision with which GIL was established.

The mandate for GIL is to have better driven departments in formulating the policies, guidelines and to have a focussed and dedicated team for various projects’ implementation. Another reason for a separate corporation for e-Governance is that in a proper government setup, none of the people are permanent for a particular project, people go on changing at all levels. There is no continuity in the though-process and direction of projects and in the technology sector, continuity is a basic requirement. And for these reasons GIL was formulated.

What is the mandate for functioning of GIL? Please also share with us some of your successful e-Governance projects.

GIL is basically technology-based company having two main mandates. Firstly, it is a nodal agency for procurement of all hardware and software in the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat. GIL is also a consultant to the department. The department can conceptualise a project and GIL helps them to transfer that concept into technology-based definition.

Requirements of the departments are converted into a tender and floating of the tender and all processes are handled by GIL. Execution is not seen by GIL but GIL is available for any technical guidance needed by department. Timeframes, evaluation and monitoring are although managed by GIL as the project manager.

In finance department, total financial management of all departments is fully computerised. Today, a taxpayer can pay all taxes online and all tax evaluation and acceptance is online and everything is available online. There is that level of transparency and accessibility. The officials can just sit on their desks and check online how much of a particular budget for any said project has been used and how much is left.

Which project’s budget is over run and which one is still available. eMamta is another important project. It is a child and mother tracking project. Whenever a lady is pregnant she is identified and enrolled in this project and there is regular continuous

interaction between the mother-to-be and the assigned doctor or mentor to check the progress and monitor the pregnancy. Even after the child is born he/she is provided with nutrition related guidance upto the time when the baby is 5 years old. Nutrition and growth of baby as well a mother is closely monitored. The Child mortality rate has been substantially reduced and so is the mother mortality rate. This program has also won many awards at national

What can the rest of the country learn from the state?

The great visionaries in Gujarat realised that e-Governance is the future of the country as early as 1999. At a time when the country was busy in using desktops and tabletops Gujarat had a vision to create a backbone for the entire state in the form of GSWAN. There was a server available in Gujarat for various applications like data acquisitions, data management and various other tasks

“More and more

officials are realising that technological progress is in their interest as much as the public’s interest” level. Government of India has adopted the model for a national level project.

What are the challenges that the organisation faces in executing such large level projects? How does GIL deal with the challenge at the human resource level, when acceptance of the technology becomes difficult?

The challenges faced are on project basis. As per the project there are various corrective measures required majorly in dealing with the software. The checking of the software and then implementation of it, pilot run, reevaluation, continuous activity requires continuous monitoring. Maintaining timelines is difficult and also coordination between various stakeholders.

As far as acceptance of technology is concerned, technology is in turn reducing the effort for the officials and ensuring more transparency and speed. This realisation is bound to happen soon and then the acceptability and adoption of technology both will rise exponentially. More and more officials are realising that technological progress is in their interest as well as the public’s interest.

In your view, what makes Gujarat one of the pioneering states in the country overall and also specifically in the field of e-Governance?

in 1999-2000. GSWAN is now the largest data network in the country. This is probably Gujarat’s biggest achievement, having a data centre which is most modern and has a very strong base of network. Due to this asset, 13,500 villages have got broadband connectivity and in 15,000 schools in remote villages computerisation is taking place.

The strength of Gujarat is investment in IT and creating a very strong backbone in terms of data centre and network. Probably this is one area wherein the other states can share our experiences and replicate our achievements.

How has e-Governance fared in the past 5-6 years and what would be future plans for GIL in terms of increasing its reach across the country?

The biggest example of impactful e-Governance is booking of railway ticket, how it has changed and transformed we all know. This is the benchmark and all of us should see it as our vision. To ease public services in a way that each and every citizen is affected by a positive development.

GIL is very keen to share our experiences with other states. Many of our projects like eMamta have already been picked by GoI and we have been asked to share our whole experience on it.

We want to get involved application management as well as website maintenance for the whole country; GIL would also like to share the expertise in converting data centre and network in commercial model.

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special feature

Tryst with

e-Governance e-Governance rides on advances in Information and communication technology, which have led to the sprouting of systems like SWAN, SDC, mobile-as-a-delivery-channel and various internet based applications that improve the effectiveness and efficiency of service delivery

By Dr Neeta Shah

“I

n a democratic nation of over one billion people like India, eGovernance should enable seamless access to information and seamless flow of information across state and central government in the federal set up. No country has so far implemented an eGovernance system for one billion people; it is a big challenge for us.”

These words, spoken by former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, capture the essence of India’s eGovernance journey. e-Governance is slowly, but surely, making its presence felt across all government departments in India. e-Governance rides on advances in information and communication technology, which have led to the sprouting of systems like SWAN, SDC, Mobile-as-a-delivery-channel and various internet based applications that improve the effectiveness and efficiency of service delivery.

We are in for seminal change. There is focus on enhancing the scope of IT to streamline government’s functions. The government had launched the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) 20032007 with a specific focus to turn the scheme into a catalyst for IT adoption in government. This was followed by the state wide-area network (SWAN) and common services centre (CSC) policy announcements that have brought e-governance to the forefront.

By implementing e-governance initiatives, government departments align their processes with that of all the stakeholders. The cost of ownership is reduced, and there is improvement in the delivery of services. Implementing e-governance projects aims at achieving several objectives and goals that adhere to the following principles:

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• Improvement and enhancement of service delivery in government services • Enablement, engagement and empowerment of citizens through greater access to government information and the ability to interact and participate • Transparency and higher accountability of the government • Improvement in G2G functioning e-Governance provides the common framework and direction in the implementation of government policies for mainly the following: • Government Sectors (G2G) • Government and Business (G2B) • Government and Citizen (G2C) One of the critical challenges being faced is the prevalence of legacy infrastructure and legacy applications that need to be re-aligned and pooled together to enhance their effectiveness. The scale of the projects poses a challenge,

special feature

as some of the projects extend across different geographies. There is a need to bring about a change in our approach towards the use of technology at the workplace. Service Oriented frameworks enable nonintrusive loose coupling of various legacy applications and create services that can be delivered through an easy to use interface.

The emergence of new standards and framework has changed the way technology is viewed. A shift in approach for e-Governance that better aligns technology with service delivery goals and enables various government departments to re-use developed assets is need of coming generation. We have to build a solution for governing, integrating, deploying, securing, and managing services —irrespective of the platform on which they were created.

We need to build solutions that reduce the dependency on back-end applications and the need to write code every time there is a change in policy. The idea is to foster direct collaboration between citizens and government departments irrespective of the delivery model.

Cube of e-Governance Cube of eGovernance has three main components which are Citizen Requirements, Government Requirements and Principles of e-Governance.

Citizens Requirements The citizen requirements, delineates what a citizen needs to avail through an e-Government application. The most imperative requirements are: Multiple access channels: The citizen needs to have many ways of fulfilment of a service.

The more choices are there the easier it will be for a citizen to go for a service that suits his/her needs.

This requirement can be addressed by separating the presentation layer from the application layer in proposed architecture. Certainly, the presentation layer is accountable for providing the access interface to the services and the application layer presents their business rules and process. Such a separation enables the presentation layer to have several windows (Web server, WAP server), without having to carry out any modification at the application layer.

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The Cube of e-Governance

Online information and services: Vis-à-vis the development of information and communication technologies, the citizen needs to be benefited from e-services, without having to go anywhere. Nevertheless, few citizens can avail them manually. For that, the e-Governance applications must provide online information regarding the way of availing those services.

To provide citizens, the various departments and businesses with eServices, we mainly use web services.

The presentation layer of proposed architecture offers them information they wish for. By adding an orchestration engine to the application layer of proposed architecture, we can offer e-services involving more than one department.

This collaboration is possible since we use a service-oriented framework.

Privacy Constraint/citizen data confidentiality: eGovernnace applications often sit on mountain-loads of personal data about various citizens. This data needs to be safeguarded. In providing services to the citizens and carrying out various functions, governments collect and use a wide range of individual information about citizens. More and more government data is being put onto applications and this is raising privacy related concerns.

The data sent to the presentation layer will have to be encrypted with the public key enclosed in the digital certificate of the concerned administration. For this, we propose to employ the SSL protocol, which makes it possible to implement an encrypted session for the data exchange.

Ease of use: Citizens want an easy to understand user interface with multilingual support. At the same time, citizens don’t want the same information to be reproduced multiple times. Also, we should try to devise means and ways so that the user doesn’t have to come to information. It is information that should seamlessly travel to the user.

Government requirements Requirements relating to the government will have to be incorporated within the application, as well as the adopted architecture.

Interoperability: Every government department is responsible for the development of its own IT system. Therefore, heterogeneity in the technologies and the platforms used becomes inevitable in the eGovernace ecosystem.

This heterogeneous nature of ecosystem can be overcome by using the service oriented approach, along with the use of semantic web

special feature

GIL: Enabling e-Governance

concept. Moreover, such approach allows for seamless co-operation between heterogeneous systems, as it is independent of platform and language on which the application has been created.

Citizen authentication: The government departments must be able to authenticate a citizen, who is asking for a service. A guideline for the same has been issued by Ministry of information and communication technology, Government of India. In most cases, the usual set of username and password will facilitate interaction between the application and the citizen.

Department authentication: In system of integrated department for service delivery, a government department should be able to authenticate another department which requires a service. With service-oriented framework based on web services, different departments will be able to communicate using SOAP. So, the authentication can be assured through a digital signature enclosed in the exchanged SOAP messages. The signature will be carried out as per the WS-Security standard such as not to interfere with the interoperability constraint of proposed architecture.

Moreover, when abiding by this standard, the blocks of SOAP messages should be signed in a standardized way and they remain comprehensible by the required departments.

Data integrity: The government will have to be sure of the data integrity. It should confirm that service request has not been modified or manipulated. A digital signature attached to a SOAP message can be used to make it possible to ensure that the data contained in the service request was not modified/altered. This signature will also be injected in the SOAP message in accordance to the WS-Security specifications.

Data confidentiality: The data residing in the application’s data layer and exchanged between the different departments must remain confidential.

Regarding the data layer, it has to be protected by a firewall, as in the present case. This will filter the connections requests by their IP address.

The data contained in the exchanged SOAP messages will have to be encrypted in order to ensure confidentiality. Encryption of data will also be carried out following the WS-security specifications.

Principles of eGovernance User Centricity: Citizens are the reason why we do things. We need to understand the need of citizens and businesses – kind of services they want and in way they want. A study of these needs will explicate what public services have to be provided and how these services can be delivered.

We need to build systems considering the following concerns of citizens and business houses: • Access to user-friendly services in protected environment and flexible manner allowing customization and personalization.

• To present any given information only once to the government; • To have a single contact point even when multiple departments have to work together in order to provide the service; • Anyhow, anywhere, anytime delivery of services through multichannel touch points.

Interoperability: There should be a consistent flow of information between citizens, business and the government. To enable with, we need to have specifications that are relevant to systems’ interconnectivity, data integration, e-services access and content management.

The integration of existing applications and data is conceivably the most confounding challenge faced by any IT organization. Several billions have been spent over the past decades on enterprise application integration, but the results are mixed. Too often, fragile and substandard solutions have been put in place and that leads to creation of a rat’s nest of point-topoint connections over a variety of different technologies and protocols.

Standards such as Service Oriented Architecture and semantic web standards promise to simplify integration by providing unified connectivity to existing application and data. But, as with everything else, technology is only a small part of the solution. We should no longer be connecting individual applications directly with point-to-point connections. Rather the focus should be on providing services that connect each and every application into the overall enterprise.

The toughest part, however, is getting the new application interfaces to the existing applications right. Often the tools we use are our own worst enemy. It might be seductive to use a Web Services Description Language (WSDL) generator that can take an existing schema or application programming interface (API) and generate a service interface.

However, it is not the suggested approach.

We should not be exposing the APIs or data models of 10-year-old applications directly as services. This will not make our job easy. The chances of these 10 year old APIs representing what we need today, at best, are slim. Instead, we should try and transform them into new December 2011 / www.egovonline.net / egov

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special feature

interfaces that meet the current strategy, goals, and requirements of the State and department.

An almost similar situation exists in the case of data integration. We do lack a state-wide data model. More often, either the applications don’t retro-fit to the model or the cost of change comes out be too high or departments don’t go along with the changes. Yet, for all the services to be integrated together into a common government process or to be composed together in a meaningful way that enhances value proposition, we will have to share a common data model and semantics.

The difference, however, is that this framework doesn’t agree on every single item and field of data. We only have to agree on what the shared, state-wide data would be. Then, each application, owned by certain department, can translate between its own, internal version of the data and the shared, state-wide representation of the data.

We need to have the following necessary architectural requirements for integration: • State-wide common semantic model for the shared information.

• Reference architecture that defines common patterns for integration.

• Infrastructure capabilities that enable semantic transformation between existing systems and the state-wide model.

Scalability: With more and more ICT penetration, the scalability of the deployed application is also a growing concern. With the use of layered architecture we envision the application that has been built must ensure the usability, adaptability and responsiveness as requirements change and demands fluctuate.

Reusability: Reusability is also going to be a key growth driver for efficient development of government Public Services.

A large number of E-Governance applications developed in isolation result in self-contained islands of information. This is because an application can follow its own standards of delivering process-centric results, irrespective of other applications. Hence, at the outset there is a need for an overall architecture that is aimed at reuse and customization.

Software reuse must become a key factor in the software architecture. The continuing need for speeding up the software development life cycle and reducing the cost of development to manageable proportions exists in all large software projects. Component ware Architecture enables efficient reuse of existing application assets, faster deployment of new

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By implementing e-governance government departments align their processes with all stakeholders. cost of ownership is reduced, and Delivery of services improves

applications, and improved responsiveness to changing business needs. Reusable software components are the building blocks that make a system able to respond quickly to change.

Systematic techniques for reuse and adoption must therefore be enabled. Planning for reuse must begin at the architecture stage itself.

There is need for openness and flexibility. A central repository of reusable components provides foundation to this concept.

Openness: Interoperability involves the sharing and collaboration of information and knowledge between different departments and organisations; hence it implies a certain degree of openness. There could be varying degrees of openness.

Software and software development methods that promote integration or collaboration and can be freely accessed, reused and shared are considered to be open. They lie at one end of the spectrum while proprietary specifications, software that cannot be reused or shared lie at the other end. Between both the spectrums of extreme approaches there lies that we term as openness continuum.

We are in favour of selecting widely adopted open standards in place of propriety alternatives. Adoption of open standards will not only make significant contributions for achieving interoperability, it will also allow flexibility in the selection of technology and solutions. It does not bind the user to a particular vendor or technology. Compatibility with open standards should be one of the major criterions for selection of software.

However, the exact situation may vary, on a case-by-case basis, depending on the needs, sizing, criticalities, priorities, legacy, budget, and a number of other factors. There is a clear cut correlation between interoperability and

use of open standards and methods, but it is also true that interoperability can be obtained without openness.

Security and Privacy: Citizens and businesses must be assured that they interact with government applications in an environment of trust and in full compliance with the relevant regulations on privacy and data protection. This means that government application must guarantee the privacy of citizen’s data and the confidentiality of information provided by businesses.

Agility and flexibility: Governments usually compile huge amounts of information, often solely because of legal obligations, which is of no direct benefit to citizens and on many occasions is unnecessary. This includes a considerable amount of paperwork as well. It is also widely recognised and accepted that there is a high redundancy in information that the citizens provide to government departments.

Repeated requests by different government departments for the same information place a burden on citizens as well as government staffs who waste their time in compiling data and filling up of forms with the same information over and over again.

We need to eliminate the need to request for unnecessary or redundant information and this may require reconfiguration of processes and reorganisation of back-offices.

the author is the Director, e-Governance, Gujarat Informatics Limited (GIL)

in person

Raj Kumar

Secretary Food & Civil Supplies Department, Govt of Gujarat

How has the

target beneficiary group reacted to Smart PDS?

W

hat are the aims and objectives of the Public Distribution System (PDS)?

PDS was established with an objective of ensuring food security of the common people in the country. This is to be achieved through the provision of subsidised foodgrain and other essential commodities, sold through Fair Price Shops (FPS). Under the PDS, the Central Government procures grain from farmers and then allocates it to states, which in turn, are responsible for identification of beneficiaries and delivery through the Fair Price Shops. The country moved from a universal PDS to a targeted PDS (TPDS) in 1997 with an objective of maximising benefits for the most needy, categorised as Below Poverty Line (BPL) households.

The Above Poverty Line (APL) households also receive certain benefits, subject to conditions.

Please discuss the major problems faced by PDS.

Gujarat Food and Civil Supplies Secretary Raj Kumar talks to Anand Agarwal and Sunil Kumar about the

Why did Gujarat decide to use ICT for reforming PDS?

important features and challenges in the state’s

Under the proposed National Food Security Bill, a legal entitlement to food would be created. This will make it imperative for governments to be able to track every single transaction in order to be able to confidently say that a particular beneficiary has been covered. Such transaction-wise monitoring is possible only with use of ICT-based solutions as manual systems cannot provide the degree of reliability and concurrency needed for this purpose.

much-applauded reform of the Public Distribution System (PDS), which has now been transformed into a biometrics-based Smart PDS

24

Inclusion and exclusion errors, leakages and diversion of foodgrain and other commodities meant for PDS beneficiaries to open markets are the major problems that the PDS is facing today.

As per a 2005 report of the Planning Commission, 58 percent of the foodgrain meant for PDS is diverted to the market. This is not only a huge loss to the exchequer, it also has extremely high social costs as this means a large proportion of people are not having access to required nutrition.

egov / www.egovonline.net / December 2011

in person

In addition, adoption of ICT has helped us transfer control into the hands of the beneficiary and thus control leakages of PDS grain to the open market.

progress, after which the information would be authenticated. It can be expected that a significant number of bogus cards would be detected in this stage as well.

How is the Gujarat model of PDS addressing the issue of bogus ration cards?

How have you ensured that the beneficiaries get their quota of foodgrain and other commodities under the PDS?

In Gujarat, we are currently in the pilot stage of an ICT-based system under which approximately 120 pilots are running across the state. The Biometric Based Barcoded Coupon System of PDS delivery seeks to integrate ICT to improve service delivery, empower beneficiaries, reduce corruption and increase transparency in the system.

As I said earlier, illegal diversion is one of the major issues facing PDS. In our analysis, we found that the existence of bogus ration cards is the main reason for diversion of foodgrain.

Bogus cards themselves are possible because as of now, there is no unified mechanism of identity management. Therefore, the challenge is to manage identity. While work on a nation-wide UID is going on, we cannot wait for that to be completed and then say ok now we will start reforming the PDS. We decided not to wait for the UID but to develop a system that would be UID compliant, so that the day UID is rolled out, we are ready to integrate it with our systems.

In order to establish identity, we made the Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC) a basic document, as electoral rolls are regularly revised and updated.

In addition, we also made it mandatory for each card holder to furnish us with copies of the other documents that contain identity, such as the LPG connection no., electricity connection no. etc. Doing so would minimise the chances of fake identity as it is unlikely that the same person would have multiple set of such documents for each purpose.

In 2010, we developed special set of forms for consolidating the information in each of these identity documents and asked all existing ration card holders to fill these forms and supply the documents. As a result of this exercise, in the first stage itself, out of the 1.25 crore ration card holders only 1.12 crore existing card holders filled the form. Thus, 13 lakh cards were eliminated in the first stage itself.

We have obtained data from other Departments in electronic format and built a custom application to authenticate the information furnished by the beneficiary against Departmental records. Presently, digitisation of the forms is in

The real problem in PDS is ensuring delivery to the beneficiary. Issues such as bogus cards are mere distortions that can be corrected with appropriate steps. The removal of such distortions, by itself does not guarantee delivery however.

In order to ensure delivery of commodities to real beneficiaries, we have started issuing ration cards with 2D barcodes. At the time of issue of such cards we capture photo and bio-metric details of at least one member of the beneficiary household.

In order to take delivery for the month, any one of the beneficiaries whose details have been captured in the barcode has to first visit the designated eGram Centre (Common Service Centre). After online verification of biometric details, individual coupons for each commodity that the beneficiary is entitled to are generated. Each coupon has details of price, commodity, dealer etc The beneficiary then goes to the FPS and hands over the coupon and is given the commodity in return. The coupon is proof of transaction and the dealer would get commission only on the coupons that he submits for reading at the e-Gram centre. There is a separate coupon for each beneficiary. This way, the beneficiary has been empowered to authenticate each transaction. This system would also help us meet our obligations under the proposed NFSA as we can track every beneficiary household and ensure that it is receiving its due entitlements.

At present, there is a perverse incentive available to the FPS dealer to indulge in corruption as there is no monitoring or control. Adoption of the Biometric Based Barcoded Coupon System of PDS delivery will help address this issue and control corruption and improve transparency in the functioning of the system.

How has the target beneficiary group reacted to Smart PDS? Teams from the World Food Program and the Central Vigilance Committee headed by Justice Wadhwa have inspected the pilots currently underway and have interacted with the beneficiaries. In their interactions, the beneficiaries have stated that they don’t mind the extra step of going

to the eGram centre to get their coupons as this has led to overall improvement in service delivery.

The system has assigned a default FPS to each beneficiary household, but they would be given the freedom to choose another shop at the time of coupon generation if they are not satisfied with services at the designated shop. In this way, monopoly of FPS shopkeepers over beneficiaries could be reduced, and competition among FPS shops can also be encouraged. This has also empowered the beneficiaries and control has shifted to their hands from the FPS shopkeepers earlier.

The Wadhwa Committee talked about the economic unviability of the PDS. It also recommended that the scheme of Model FPS be taken up on a larger scale. What is the status on the same?

We are now undertaking a review of the FPS viability in order to make it more rewarding for the shopkeepers. Some of the proposals under consideration are: • To compensate the shopkeepers for each transaction in addition to the commission they earn • Popularise the Model FPS scheme and permit sale of non-PDS items at FPS

In your view, what are the major challenges that the state-wide rollout of Biometric Based Barcoded Coupon System of PDS delivery might face?

A very ambitious timeframe of March 2012 has been set for the state-wide rollout of Biometric Based Barcoded Coupon System of PDS delivery. Meeting this deadline is going to be a stiff challenge but we are confident of being able to do so as we are fortunate to have a very stable, visionary and reform oriented leadership of the State government and the team work.

In some areas, the eGram centres are not in the proximity of the habitations. We would look at authorizing private kiosks to provide authentication and coupon generation in such areas.

Capturing, efficiently storing and authenticating the biometrics of such a large population is a challenging technical job, connectivity of eGram centres via VSAT links is at times unreliable. Challenges would be always present in any endeavour that you undertake, but we have prepared a comprehensive strategy to ensure timely rollout of Biometric Based Barcoded Coupon System of PDS delivery.

December 2011 / www.egovonline.net / egov

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special feature

CMO – Chief Minister Online Use of ICT for better workflow management has enabled the Gujarat CMO to bring new efficiencies in its operations. Schemes like SWAGAT are popular with citizens. The models of service delivery implemented by the state are winning accolades at national and international levels

By Anand Agarwal

T

he Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) is the fulcrum around which any state government revolves. It provides secretarial and administrative assistance to the Chief Minister, keeps track of actual implementation of the promises that the CM has made to the electorate, and it also plays a role in developing coordination between different arms of the government. An efficient CMO can contribute greatly in improving the overall standard of governance in the state.

In keeping with the dynamic and tech-savvy image of the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the state CMO is a picture of efficiency. It is the first CMO in the country to have received ISO 9001 certification (for Quality Management Systems). 80 percent of the operations are paperless.

The Gujarat CMO is involved in managing SWAGAT (State-Wide Attention on public Grievance by Application of Technology), which is an application for grievance redressal, and the Gujarat State portal (www.gujaratindia. com). The CMO has also been instrumental

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A SWAGAT session in progress

in implementing an Integrated Workflow and Document Management System (IWDMS) that has resulted in considerable improvements in efficiency. It has also improved transparency and enabled better monitoring of the progress

of individual files through the administrative hierarchy.

360° Web Presence The CM’s official website is the central hub of

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all things related to him. It is a comprehensive repository of information on his activities, plans and views. The portal is available in five languages – Hindi, English, Gujarati, Marathi and Sanskrit. It also features public service messages and a large collection of photographs, audio and video clips of the CM’s engagements, as well as 21 downloadable books written by Modi.

The blog narendramodi.com is regularly updated with posts on an array of topics, including commentary on developmental issues, ongoing political controversies, newsworthy events and even obituaries. As with the website, the blog is also available in a number of languages – Hindi, English, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali, Oriya, Telugu and Tamil.

The CM is equally active on social media.

Modi’s official Facebook page is ‘liked’ by over 3.5 lakh Facebook users, and every single status update typically receives hundreds of likes and comments. The story on popular micro-blogging site Twitter is no different – the handle @narendramodi has over 4 lakh followers and every tweet sets off a chain of replies and re-tweets. The YouTube channel is regularly updated with videos of Modi’s speeches and public appearances. The Gujarat CM’s web team has clearly mastered the art of using modern ICT tools; they have been successful in projecting Modi as a technologysavvy modernising administrator.

E is for effectiveness In one of his most-quoted comments on e-governance, Narendra Modi has equated it to an “easy, effective and efficient government” that will remain incomplete without the integration of citizen-centric delivery processes. Nothing can better demonstrate the effectiveness of e-governance in ensuring citizen centricity than the much-feted SWAGAT. The landmark application has won numerous awards, including the United Nations Public Service Award in 2010.

Engaging Citizens online – the major initiatives l www.narendramodi.in l www.narendramodi.com l Twitter (@narendramodi) l Facebook (www.facebook.com/narendramodi.official) l YouTube ( http://www.youtube.com/user/ narendramodi)

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Ideas to execution

SWAGAT – a welcome initiative l 8496 Offices connected to the system l 23,017 Officers are registered users l 4 Mbps internet connectivity for seamless videoconferencing l Videoconferencing centres at

— 26 Departments

— All 26 District Headquarters

— 239 Taluka Headquarters

l Disposal rate of grievances: 92.45%

SWAGAT was launched in April 2003, making Gujarat the first Indian State to use ICT for grievance redressal programme. The SWAGAT system comprises of an online public portal and video-conferencing setup that connects the Chief Minister to all the district and sub-district level officers, as well as the complainant in real time.

The system has an integrated grievance tracking module that tracks the progress of each complaint from the time it is filed. When a grievance gets resolved, it is marked as such. Grievances that are not resolved at a particular level for a specific period are automatically forwarded to the next higher level. Similarly, officers at a particular level also forward a complaint they cannot resolve to the next higher level.

In this manner, a set of complaints can ultimately reach the Chief Minister himself who conducts a hearing via videoconference on the 4th Thursday of every month. All Taluka and District-level officers and all secretaries join the hearing, along with complainants whose grievances are yet to be resolved. The best thing is that the system has an inbuilt analysis module that raises a flag if issues of a certain type are routinely cropping up. This indicates the need for a deeper look, and perhaps even a change in existing procedures or policy. SWAGAT is a great illustration of how the power of technology can be used to provide a humane government.

Undoubtedly, the programme has made a huge impact on the way the citizens and the government departments interact. SWAGAT won the UN Public Service Award 2010 for improving transparency, accountability and responsiveness in the Public Service category.

It won the Gold Icon at the 14th National eGovernance Conference for outstanding performance in citizen-centric service delivery category and has been recognised as an excellent model of e-transparency by the Commonwealth Telecom Organization and the University of Manchester.

With the rollout of Gram SWAGAT, in February 2011, the system has now reached villages. Once the integration of GSWAN and PAWAN networks is complete, citizens from

special feature

across the state can lodge their grievances at the eGram centre located in the Gram Panchayat.

Other Initiatives The CMO has undertaken a number of ICTbacked steps to serve the requirements of the CM in a better manner. A comprehensive system of time management takes care of the CM’s scheduling. A special scheduling team is responsible for overall time management of the CM. Every month-end, the team and Modi himself analyse the usage of his time and strategise on how to optimise the CM’s time utilisation. A detailed pie-chart shows breakup of the time that the CM spends in various activities. It will show the time he spends with senior officials, time he spends with sundry visitors, time spent on public engagements, time spent on travelling and so on.

Similarly, a system to capture the myriad ideas that Modi receives from the public during his interactions on various channels has also been devised. After the idea has been received, the system assigns any relevant department to track its feasibility through a module called the

‘Ideas to Execution’, which is a part of the online Integrated Workflow and Document Management System (IWDMS).

Another component of the IWDMS tracks commitments made by Modi at various forums and ensures that they are acted upon.

Ideas to execution The adoption of IWDMS has resulted in a number of tangible gains for the CMO. The Integrated Mail Management Module has increased processing times by as much as 80 percent, manpower requirements have come down and 6-8 percent of the clerical staff has been reallocated as their functions have been automated. The entire path of a file through the administrative hierarchy can now be tracked online. Every file has been assigned a unique identification in the form of a Unique File Number using which the progress of each file is tracked. As a file is the basic unit of workflow in the government, an audit trail for any decision is always a click away. This increases transparency, accountability and efficiency of administration.

The CMO is also going to incorporate digital signatures for online authentication of documents and transactions, further improving decision times and document security, as chances of documents falling into the wrong hands can be minimised by using encrypted files which do not have to be transferred from one place to another physically. With email and SMS alerts for document tracking under implementation, 24X7 government is soon going to become a reality, at least in the CMO. The IWDMS has a number of other features, such as dashboard, with ability to drill down to the level of individual files, moving from a synoptic to a specific view in a matter of clicks. The system also allows for Dynamic Priority Management of files, based on parameters such as ageing, subject matter etc. It also supports the generation of automatic notification when a file’s priority changes. The major e-Governance initiatives such as IWDMS CMO and SWAGAT have been completely integrated with other Departments for the purpose of achieving efficiency. The Gujarat CMO must be congratulated for its effective and visionary usage of ICT.

December 2011 / www.egovonline.net / egov

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industry voices

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industry voices

Putting Citizens First Gujarat Government has been proactive in developing services that are completely transparent and are easily accessible to all the citizens of the state

By Sunil Kakkad, CEO, SIS

G

ujarat has slowly and steadily grown into an economy that has realized the importance of technology and ICT-enabled services for the citizens. Technology as such currently provides a huge opportunity for Gujarat as well as the whole nation, be it business-wise or in terms of service delivery.

I personally believe, currently we are utlising only a fraction, say 10-15 percent of the business opportunity that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) provide in infrastructure as well as applications vertical. So, there is already 85 percent of opportunity waiting to be tapped and developed. As of now, from getting a birth certificate to getting issued a death certificate and everything that comes in between (driving license, passport, marriage certificate, etc) personal verification is required to attain the documents. However all is changing with the current advent of technology. Many services are already available online and much more is bound to transform in years to come.

Especially with reference to projects like UID, the whole process will transform completely. Once you have a UID number the stage of personal interface will be eliminated. This is where the opportunity lies for the government and the private sector alike. ICT is one area where neither private sector nor the government department can exist or manage it in isolation, they are equal stakeholders in any given project.

On Challenges for e-Governance There are two major challenges that are faced in implementing eGovernance. First is awareness and second is platform. Gujarat is the only state where we have 13,000 remote villages connected with GSWAN but the challenge is the awareness amongst the beneficiaries of that project. On the other hand, the kind of awareness that we have for the 108 ambulance service is something that needs to be replicated across the state for all the projects. There are lots of services available, but people don’t know about it.

You can’t push the people to use these services; there should be appropriate awareness so that the services pull people towards them.

The second challenge, availability of a platform for e-Governance services is a big obstacle nationally. In Gujarat we are blessed with the vision that was there in beginning of 21st century and whose benefits we are reaping now in the form of GSWAN and other such connectivity platforms that have been established. On a national level, though, there is still need of proper platform. Gujarat is picking up very rapidly. The last state IT Policy 2006-11 did not deliver as much as it was expected to. This time a marathon exercise is going on for next IT Policy so that the Gujarat IT Industry can flourish with it.

The Gujarat Experience As a Gujarat-based company, we can feel the kind of pain the government has taken to make the citizens’ life easier. The way Gujarat has taken a lead and created a platform like GSWAN is not only commendable but also a model or a benchmark which can be taken as learning for other states.

Gujarat was the first state to have a state wide network. And through eGram all villages are connected through 2 mbps connectivity under this project. Through this development, now the platform is ready and can be used for education, health or any other public services, the infrastructure is there and now we can build over it. Any govt has to be proactive in citizen handling.

Future of SIS As far as future plans for SIS are concerned, by 2015 we would like to be a billion-dollar company with global reach. Today our 90% of revenue is coming from domestic market. By 2015 we would like to have 40% of our total revenue from overseas markets. We want to grow geographically as well as in terms of our offerings in next decade to emerge as a global player. However convergence will be the mainstay of this expansion plan and we may pursue acquisition route too if opportunity is right for achieving this goal.

On eIndia 2011 In Gujarat business is a part of the culture and people start early. Thereby the kind of national or global exposure doesn’t come very soon.

Events like eIndia are that platform for those businessmen to interact, share and network with people from all over the country to share experiences and knowledge. So, in a way, eIndia will be very beneficial for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) wherein they would be able to meet top government leaders as well as corporates at the same platform, hear what t hey have to say about the latst development in the IT world and learn from it.

December 2011 / www.egovonline.net / egov

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spotlight

A GIFT to the Nation GIFT, a Public Private Partnership between GUDCL and IL&FS, is currently giving shape to a new dream, one that is marked by audacity, and is focussed on making Gujarat one of world’s most hospitable places for living and conducting business

By R K Jha, Director, GIFTCL & Prakash Gaur, Vice President, GIFTCL

T

he Government of Gujarat is developing a globally benchmarked hi-tech International Financial Services Centre in Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar region through a joint venture between Gujarat Urban Development Company Limited and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS). The venture known as GIFTCL(Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Limited) is empowered to undertake the development and implementation of Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) Project.

GIFT will sprawl across an area of about 886 acres and its total built-up area will be about 92 million square feet. It will have a high-quality city environment and world-class infrastructure.

The project has been globally benchmarked with International Financial Centres and is expected to become a hub for IT/ ITeS for Financial Services and other multi-service sectors. It has the potential for generating around 0.5 million direct jobs and an equal number of indirect jobs.

Considering the global status and recognition to be achieved by GIFT, the project would inherit some unique identities by way of its planning and scalability factors.

The preliminary design envisages development along the Sabarmati River. There will be green belts interspersed with the concrete structures. With lot of green areas, the city will be bewitching to the beholder. A common theme will run along the entire landscape, while maintaining the individual character of different zones.

Mostly it will be the Movement Axis and a Recreational Axis that will define the city’s structure.

The Movement Axis will divide the city into SEZ and non-SEZ regions and Recreational Axis will demarcate the areas between SEZ Processing and SEZ Non-Processing areas.

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GIFT Infrastructure Development To maintain the quality of life and facilitate the functioning of the myriad businesses, GIFT will have access to high quality infrastructure and services. It will be equipped with amenities like: • Multi-modal transport with modern design • 24x7 power supply with a host of power backup arrangements • District cooling system for supplying chilled water for cooling the buildings • State-of-the-art water supply system, • An advanced sewerage treatment plant that will ensure maximum water conservation • A city-wide rain harvesting system • An automated solid waste management system that will entail minimal human intervention • Piped gas to keep all the buildings supplied

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spotlight spotlight

An artist’s impression of how GIFT will look

•

An advanced social infrastructure comprising of healthcare, educational, community, recreational, club and hospitality facilities.

Gift ICT The proposed GIFT ICT Vision is to “Create cutting-edge infrastructure, services and platforms and offer financial services enterprises a significant competitive advantage for operating regionally and globally”.

Five major elements that showcase the value GIFT holds for companies include: 1. Gateway to Financial Markets 2. Secure and Resilient ICT Environment

GIFT USPs l Multi Services Special Economic Zone (SEZ) l Robust Urban Planning (Unique skyline, Urban form and façade and self-sustainable city) l Infrastructure (Modern and multi-modal transportation system, district cooling system, automated solid waste management, environment-friendly water system) l Developed, modern ICT infrastructure (data centre, shared infrastructure, security, scalability) l Energy conservation and environmental measures incorporated in city plan

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3. Pre-enabled on-demand infrastructure 4. Cost-effective ICT and the “Best in Class” Customer Experience.

GIFT provides a unique opportunity to introduce cutting edge technology, unencumbered by the need to preserve legacy services, which often run on obsolete technology. New applications will emerge to take advantage of the cheap and abundant bandwidth that will be available.

Data services Data services available at GIFT will encompass the entire spectrum of requirements of potential businesses, residents and visitors.

The Managed Data Network Services umbrella will include all the services that are critical for data transfers and communications, whether local, national or international. Public WiFi will enable residents and visitors to access the Internet in city hubs, captive locations and many other sections of the city. Corporate WiFi will allow creation of wireless networks specific to corporate environments.

Financial community extranets will provide access to information and applications related to financial sector. Facilities to estab-

Components of the GIFT ICT system

lish closed user groups will allow creation of VPNs. Data Centre Managed Services – of both types – tele-housing services and data centre managed - will provide secure, accessible, highly-reliable, high-performance and low-latency environments. These services will also have provisions for business continuity management and disaster recovery. TV services at GIFT will be integrated with the city infrastructure plan and will enable end users to watch free to air, premium and ondemand content.

spotlight

The core domain includes a number of areas which are critical to the support of the ICT services which include Fibre (in-building and City-wide), Structured cabling, Data centre, Telco rooms.

A financial extranet will enable GIFT to provide global connectivity to tenants who require electronic reach to a desired community of established venues beyond GIFT, ISVs and service providers. It will also allow service providers such as exchanges to connect the financial community to a GIFT-based service provider platform.

Intelligent buildings GIFT will feature Intelligent buildings, which boast of high level automation and control features for reducing operating costs, and conserving energy. The working environment is enhanced by the constant monitoring and control of factors like heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), indoor air quality (IAQ) and power.

Traditionally, buildings rely upon multiple autonomous systems and infrastructure to manage everything from ICT to heating, lighting and security. With intelligent buildings (IB), the complexity and cost of having multiple systems gets significantly reduced. In practice, IB boundaries can be defined by two distinct and complementary functions. These are: • ICT infrastructure: facilitating the connectivity of sensory data from an IB to an intelligent building operations centre.

• Facility management: providing maintenance and management of IB using an integrated IB management system.

An IB solution helps reduce capital and operating costs through shorter commission time and simpler management.

Central Command and Control Centre The GIFT Central Command and Control Centre (CCCC) will be developed to control various services and provide security and assistance to users. The Objectives of the planned CCCC are: • Ensuring efficient services to the users • Ensuring safety and security • Co-ordination and integration among various service providers & users • Disaster management & emergency services • Record keeping / documentation.

GIFT Central Command and Control Centre

City Services The GIFT domain encompasses all of the IT and communications requirements of the city, not only for the introduction of services to attract customers and generate revenue, but also to support the efficient and secure running of the city itself. These services will include the monitoring and management of core services from the verticals (transportation, power distribution, solid waste management, district cooling, intelligent buildings, landscape and water distribution.)

The ICT needs of City verticals will vary, but most will need to communicate to/from remote sensors, monitoring units, such as closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras, alarms, temperature sensors and other devices to a central management station. The infrastructure would be synchronised with the introduction of city services in terms of its availability, capacity and capability, and that connection and usage guidelines would be produced for the verticals and service providers.

Environmental Focus By adopting several means, such as ensuring technical design considerations and procurements are based on constrained power and cooling demand; designing and operating the complete platform at peak utilisation capacities; innovative use of technologies such as virtualisation and liquid cooling, and through implementing globally recognised green standards and achieving associated certifications, GIFT hopes to be a truly green city.

Urban Infrastructure Integration through GIS It is intended to create a technology platform

that enables creation of spatial data information system as a part of Urban Information Infrastructure by GIS application.

The overall objective shall be to develop an advanced urban information infrastructure and digital framework of the urban system by integrated GIS and Information & Communication Technologies (ICT). It shall also serve for real time monitoring, database creation, effective information exchange, service convergence and centralized management bringing operational effectiveness.

This would enable to improve working efficiency, make intelligent and sound development and management decision, Improve quality of the services to the public and enhance city efficiency to ensure sustainable urban development.

A Gamechanger Gift will be fully integrated Geographical Information Systems (GIS), which will facilitate planning, designing, development, management, operation and maintenance and future expansion. GIS will also serve the purpose of real time monitoring, database creation, effective information exchange and service convergence. The operation will be centralized as far as possible to make the operation effective.

GIFT is going to be a game changer in the story of India’s urbanisation. It is expected to create a new benchmark for urban development in the country. Hopefully India’s future urban areas will be more or less like GIFT - friendly to residents, beneficial to businesses and benign to environment. GIFT, in every sense of the term, is Gujarat’s gift to modern India.

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company profile

Mastek Company Profile Mastek is an INR 614 Crore (FY 2011) publicly held, global enterprise technology solutions and systems integration provider to customers across Government, Insurance and Financial Services.

For over 28 years, we have combined our leading products, people, and processes to drive business impact and competitive advantage. Mastek uniquely combines its wide intellectual property base, domain expertise, mission-critical program management abilities and complex solutions capabilities to help customers unlock business value. With employee strength of around 3000 people, we operate across India, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Europe and North America. Mastek has eight world-class global delivery centers in India and Malaysia.

Product and Services

Sudhakar Ram CMD, Mastek

contact Company Name Mastek Ltd Management Team • Sudhakar Ram, CMD • Ashank Desai, Non-Executive Director • Vinay Rajyadhyaksha, Head – Asia Pacific • Vidyesh Khanolkar, Head – Government, Asia Pacific Head office #106, SDF IV, SEEPZ Andheri (East), Mumbai - 400 096, India Tel: +91-22-66952222, Fax: +91-22-66951331 Major regional Offices New Delhi, Pune, Chennai Contact Person for Clarification Sanjay Mudnaney, Head – Corporate Communications, Tel: +91-22-66952222

Tax Administration Suite– effectively manages all critical operations relating to tax collection, administration and dealer services. It complies with the existing VAT laws/procedures, and can be upgraded to meet the GST laws/ procedures in future.

Social Welfare Suite– manages all schemes designed for social welfare, offers end to end processing from application to disbursement of benefits to beneficiaries. It also includes a dashboard feature for effective planning and perennial capacity building of the department.

Urban Local Bodies Suite– caters to key functionalities within any Municipal Corporation/ Municipality with integrated suite for GIS based Works Management and e-Tendering, Local Body Tax, Property Tax, Town Planning, Water Billing etc. These meet guidelines and recommendations made under JNNURM program.

Public Distribution Solution– supports management of entire back-office needs of Food and Civil Supplies Department and also those of the fair price shops.

Prison Management– e-Prison Solution is a comprehensive solution for the effective management of prisons and its inmates and caters to all the functionalities relating to Prison operations and Prisoner Life-cycle management. eGovernance Services– help state departments improve their internal processes and deliver services to the citizens and businesses effectively.

Targeted Verticals Mastek has enabled both central and state governments and PSUs transform their governance vision to deliver quick and efficient services to citizens and businesses. Mastek offers eGovernance solutions and services in the areas of Tax Administration, Social Justice, Urban Local Bodies, Public Distribution, Prison Management, Power, Education

Website www.mastek.com Customer Support helpline number +91 -22- 66952222

Achievements and USP • • •

• • •

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20+ years of government experience Demonstrable expertise in designing and developing mission critical applications in complex and multivendor environments Department of Commercial Tax, Government of Odisha, won the jury award for the Best Project in the Government to Business (G2B) category at the eWorld Forum 2011 for the ‘e-Services’ solution developed by Mastek Received the “Maharashtra Information Technology Award 2008” in the IT Software category.

Ranked in Best 20 leaders Global Outsourcing by IAOP in 2011 Quality Certifications and Assessments: SEI CMMi Level 5 (version 1.2), ISO 9001-2008, ISO 27001:2005 (Information Security Management)

project showcase

Grievance no More State Wide Attention on Grievances by Application of Technology (SWAGAT) an online portal connecting the Chief Minister District with Sub-district level officers serves the purpose of solving grievances of citizens

about the Project SWAGAT offers the citizens of Gujarat a fair opportunity to personally present their grievances to the Chief Minister. This system has all the stakeholders connected in real time leaving no chance for either the aggrieved citizen or the concerned officer to hide or manipulate the facts of the case. Apart from providing satisfaction to citizens, SWAGAT ensures high levels of accountability and transparency in the administration process. The grievances are first presented at the Sub-District or District level so that they are resolved locally. If they remain unresolved after that too, they are referred to the Chief Minister.

SWAGAT has served as an effective tool and feedback mechanism to bridge the gap between citizens and administration enhancing the level of understanding for smoother functions.

The State Wide Attention on Grievances

by Application of Technology (SWAGAT) was launched in April, 2003. Gujarat became the first Indian State to launch a combination of digital and communication technology in the form of a grievance redressal programme.

SWAGAT serves as an online public portal and video-conferencing set up connecting the Chief Minister and all District and Sub-District Level Officers to solve grievances of citizens.

How it Works The Chief Minister’s Office in Gujarat operates a SWAGAT centre, where video conferences are held once every month. This practice has been followed for the past eight years.

On the 4th Thursday of every month applicants arrive at the Chief Minister’s Office in the morning. Grievances are scrutinized, registered and instantly transmitted online to the concerned authorities at the Secretariat, District and Sub-district level. The authorities then register their replies by afternoon on the same day. From 3.00 pm, the Chief Minister personally listens to the applicants one-by-one.

The grievances as well as the replies of the concerned authorities are available through the

Advantages • • • •

Citizens can access the highest authority of the State to resolve the most challenging cases Citizens have the facility to know the status of their case from their nearest internet access point at their location or at the local Government office It saves time and cost of public as travelling to different offices and waiting for a long time for settlement of grievances is avoided SWAGAT has had a powerful indirect impact in encouraging state officials to resolve grievances before they reach the SWAGAT stage

Achievements • • • • • •

225 Sub-District of Gujarat covered under SWAGAT Population covered 60 million citizens served through the project and targeted population is entire population of the state Won United Nations Public Service Award 2010 for improving transparency, accountability and responsiveness in the public service category.

Won Gold Icon Award in 14th National eGovernance Conference for Outstanding Performance in Citizen-centric Service Delivery category Commonwealth Telecom Organization and University of Manchester have considered SWAGAT as an excellent model of e-transparency

system on a screen. The concerned secretaries are present along with the Chief Minister, for direct interaction with the aggrieved citizen and district authorities are connected through video-conferencing.

After going through all the aspects of the case, necessary instructions are given for resolving the grievance. A record and separate

log is maintained in the SWAGAT database for each case. Monitoring cases is the prime focus of SWAGAT to ensure that solutions are implemented according to instructions given by the Chief Minister. Citizens can view the status of their application online, using their allotted password and login at local Government Offices and at any internet access point.

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project showcase

Craft of Gujarat Here comes a unique web portal to connect rural craftsmen with consumers and vice versa

About the Project In a first ever initiative, INDEXT-C (Industrial Extension Cottage) envisaged a web portal to connect rural craftsmen to consumers across the globe. The project was started with the idea of giving opportunities to all the artisans of Gujarat to exhibit their talent to a large section of potential customers & art connoisseurs across the world. The thought eventually took shape as www.craftofgujarat.com, a platform that allows consumers to navigate through various craft forms, product categories, and geographical location; and connect with artisan directly.

Since this is an online portal, it is beneficial to artisans in terms of cost saving, in setting up physical stores and selling their art products.

The portal also provides a holistic exposure to artists whose talent was hidden behind fairs and exhibitions only. The website has been developed and currently maintained by Cybersurf (India) Pvt. Ltd.

Need for the Project In order to provide the expert craftsmen of the state their due recognition and enhance the popularity of traditional arts and crafts traditions, Government of Gujarat has given priority to make the development of cottage and village industries more employment oriented. With this aim, the INDEXT-C (Industrial Extension Cottage) has been created to provide information and guidance & organizing Cottage & Rural Industrial sector as a catalyst. And now, taking the efforts in this direction much beyond the usual fair and festivals, a completely novel approach has been undertaken.

The portal has been developed after extensive research of the various types of handicrafts and artisans in Gujarat. Currently, the portal showcases 62 different types of craft. The structure of the site is designed in such a way that it offers the visitor novel ways of exploring the portal. The visitor can search the portal either by the craft form, product category or by the geographical listing. The visitor also has an option to explore all the products crafted by a particular artisan.

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How is this portal unique?

The uniqueness of this project lies in the fact that it gives strong online presence to the people, who are in no way connected to the information technology advancements. Forget about web 2.0, these people are completely unaware about the reach and effectiveness of a web presence. And still, with the platform, they are reaping benefits of the web and now the whole world has become their market place. The inquiries from interested customers are sent to the artisans directly by means of SMS. More interestingly and unlike other online shopping portals, this portal connects the visitor, who is exploring a particular product, with a short profile of the artisan who has crafted that specific piece. Thus it lends completely human touch to the whole experience. The visitor also has an option to explore all the products crafted by a particular artisan. The structure caters to the needs of diverse visitors from across the globe, ranging from art-loving individuals to artefact collectors and dealers.

Benefits Government: Platform for weaker section, large scale employment opportunities, chance to revive old and dying art forms.

Artisans: No middleman, global exposure of unique art, shops never closes, direct deals, chances of large scale orders, recognition of talent.

Buyers: Cost effective, location independence, 24x7 availability, product reliability, trustworthy and genuine Platform

Features Platform Initiative - SMS Comprehensive Design Seamless Structure & Navigation SEO Optimized Content Search Engine - Artisan Services Offered Artisan Search Comprehensive Catalogue Browsing

Expression of Interest via SMS Detailed product guide with image gallery Description about various art forms of the state State wise guide about practiced art forms

Reach Currently, the portal has around 300 registered artisans and more than 900 products are listed on the platform.

project showcase

XGN-Xtended Green Node Web enabled software for smooth conduction of day to day operations at any State Pollution Control Board in India About the Project XGN, developed by NIC (National Informatics Center) for the Gujarat Pollution Board, facilitates day to day operations at field office and industries in the state. XGN helps the board in implementation of Pollution & Environment Acts (air, water and hazardous waste). End users are the 300 technical and scientific staff at 13 field offices in Gujarat and 100 personnel at GPCB (Gujarat Pollution Control Board). Other stakeholders are the industries, hospitals/clinics, bio medical waste handlers, common effluent treatment plants.

Any expansion of the industry, changes in finished products, modification in air pollution control measures, change in treatment process of the effluent released by industries, increase in hazardous waste-is always preceded by online application on XGN for an consent to operate to be issued by the board.

Any application is followed by an inspection in which air, water, hazard related samples are drawn and tested for the critical parameters in PCB laboratories.

All the functionalities are carried out through XGN. XGN enables legal actions like showcause notices, closure directions and revocation orders after bank guarantees by the industries / hospitals.

Innovation Factor The core of XGN lies in the e-Movement and online processing of e-files leading to stoppage of physical files. Average daily users are approximately 75 technical staff, 70 scientist, and 652 industries.

85 percent of the online application for NOC/consent is cleared “in principle” before it actually physically lands at the field office. All Transactions, location of e-file details or even status of various returns are preserved in e-Box. e-Communication Module i.e. SMS, e-Talk, e-Message Box and timely alerts is the core of XGN. Also, there is effective usage of e-TALK between various stake holders. Queries are in form of SMS and immediate reflection of replies results into speedier disposals.

Need for the Project • Very high pendency of NOC, consent applications due to rapid growth of industrialisation in Gujarat.

• Maintenance and updating of manual records/files, information retrieval was quite tedious and time consuming.

• Monitoring Teams’ bulk time consumed by monotonous and repetitive work flows, leading to not-enough-time for inspections, samplings, legal actions and other daily chores.

• Manual tracking of consent defaulters, payment defaulters was a lengthy process and un-accurate.

• Identification of industries in particular sensitive category was not possible due to

non- availability of accurate, precise, bulk, decision making data available at one-go.

• Physical file movement and manual compliances of queries at various stages took its toll on speedier disposal of files.

• Apart from final decisions, the delivery and communication of final decisions may lead to corruption and manipulations.

• Staff too much bogged down with the monotonous and tedious report writing.

No quality time for actual monitoring of pollution control measures by industries.

Scalability It had been developed for Gujarat Pollution Control Board. In the last year replicated for

Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Goa. The Goa project is already underway, in addition requests from three more states have been received.

18 regional offices in Gujarat, 10 in Himachal Pradesh, two in Uttaranchal and Goa have been using XGN in totality. All head offices of the states are a part of XGN. A total of 34,000 industries and 36,000 hospitals / clinics and 320 PCB staff take the advantage of XGN spread all over these three states. On an average, daily, the project is used by approximately 75 technical staff, 70 scientist, and 652 industries Various NGOs have been given authorisation login IDs to retrieve XGN data and use it for their research purposes.

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project showcase

Works Monitoring System This application helps Roads and Building Department, Government of Gujarat, to update all the works in progress

About the Project The new RNB-WMS started operating from 2010 with the civil works of R&B (State). Since then the budgetary, expenditure and progress details of all civil works of R&B State is available in the system. Later the works of R&B (Capital Project), R&B (Panchayats) were added. The access to the application is granted to all the Executive/Superintending Engineers at the field offices and all the officers in the Secretariat Officers through the NIC Gujarat State SSO (Single Sign On). The R&B Department is in charge of all activities pertaining to planning, construction and maintenance of all categories of road and all government owned buildings in the state of Gujarat.

Need for the Project The tracking of the progress of the project, both physical and financial is a very laborious and time consuming as it has to the compiled every time from the earlier statements and current status received from the field offices in various formats. In year 2009 chief engineers mainly concerned with the works in consultation with National Informatics Centre (NIC) decided to replace the existing monitoring system with a simple web based system.

Innovation Factor Under this system, the Secretariat Office will setup the budget details and work allocation to the office of the Executive Engineers at the beginning of the FY. The Respective Executive Engineer has to update the approval and progress details of the work under them at the field and the details are available for Superintending Engineer/Chief Engineers for monitoring of Progress. Various reports are made available for making decisions as required for the Secretariat Office. Reports pertaining work under progress is available Department wise, Legislative / Loksabha Constituency wise can be generated on the fly. Other custom reports can also be made by exporting the date in the predefined/selective excel file format.

Reports on expenditure till date and probable expenditure are available in the system.

How it works System assigns to each work a unique code. It stores for each work time series data, procedural stage marking data and proposal flow charting amongst various hierarchical levels.

• Time series data e.g. References, Expenditure Debit Heads and Monetary Provisions of the work mentioned in the yearly budget books published by the Finance Department.

• Preconstruction clearance stages e.g. Land availability, Encumbrances, Preliminary drawings, Estimates, Administrative approvals, Technical approvals, DTP approvals, Tendering and work order.

• Construction stage data e.g. physical and financial progress.

• Post construction stage data e.g. commissioning date, Maintenance Guarantee

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Future Scope Schedule of Rates (basic rates and the rate analysis of all items) along with the specifications of the items to be made available through WMS. Data collections like traffic census, road safety, etc. are to be carried out through WMS and the data collected is to be exported to the existing GIS application of R&B Department.

and Handing over of asset in respect of buildings.

• Administrative data establishing ownerships of work with implementing agency, administrative region and constituency.

System mandates data capturing at the hierarchical level where data is first generated. Budget book references, provisions and debit heads are entered by Data Administrator every year when State Assembly passes the annual budget of the state. System has facility to flash important messages/ news / notices on log in page itself. System

has number of custom tailored reports useful for the monitoring of works. It has over 18 formats in which data and information could be published.

Being a workflow-based system, the reports of progress in project is restricted to works under their purview. Apart from being a monitoring application for civil works this system also works are an inventory system for mechanical and electrical equipments with facility to update utilization returns online. The system also has a module to monitor Estate details (viz., Occupant / Rent Recovery Details).

project showcase

Online Voting System The State Election Commission in Gujarat has developed this novel project

About the Project With the introduction of OVS, State Election Commission, Gujarat (SEC) intended to ensure maximum participation of voters by providing a new platform which is user friendly for voters and being accurate and efficient for election staff in managing the election process. The entire system is designed and the procedures amended thereof keeping in mind the privacy of the voter and privacy of the ballot.

SEC envision computerisation of all key processes related to local body elections, with the intention of ensuring participation of as many citizens in exercising their basic constitutional right of voting. A gradual and systematic application of IT, starting from addressing the basic functional requirements in Municipal Corporation Elections and gradually involving for other local body (such as municipality, district panchayats, taluka panchayats, village panchayats), was preferred by SEC as an approach to their efforts in this direction. This approach, besides addressing the basic functional requirements had also resulted in an increased acceptability and receptivity by the citizens. SEC had implemented OVS in general elections of six municipal corporations (namely Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Bhavnagar, Rajkot, and Jamnagar) in October 2010 and subsequently in Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation in April 2011.

Innovation Factor • • • • • • • • • •

First of its kind project in India for conducting Local Body Elections; Innovative in its nature itself in India to Vote from home; Strong authentication of voters to uniquely identify before casting votes; Compliance to legal requirements of State Election Commission; End to end security right from voter registration-through vote casting process-counting process; Computerised and automated process for Election Staff to conduct and monitor Elections and accurately publish election results within minutes; Cryptography implementation in the application software to encrypt the vote cast and hence insuring privacy of the ballot; Multiple layer of security implementation using firewall, IPS/IDS, Anti Virus, SSL, etc at DC and DR sites; Integration with SMS gateway to send one time password (OTP) on the voter’s registered mobile for second level of authentication; Near DR site implementation for zero data loss.

Need for the Project It is general observation that candidates get a voting pattern from the EVM Machine results and hence are indifferent to people of area from which they had received a low vote count.

With the above mentioned system, it became but imperative, to devise a system which would not only address the attitude of a voter but would also ensure that centralized processing of voting results would not affect a candidates attitude towards the voters in his/her ward.

Objectives • Ensure completeness and adherence to the voting protocol as applicable to Internet based voting system; • Ensure availability and reliability of the voting

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Achievements • • •

• • •

New voting channel is implemented for the first time in India; Voter participation is high compared to other voting channels (EVM, Ballot paper & postal ballot); System is more secure, fast, reliable and cost effective compare to other voting channels(EVM, Ballot paper); Project implementation completed within a record time with zero anomalies; Voters and stakeholders are completely satisfied by the system; Higher voters’ participation using OVS compared to EVM (in terms of percentage).

system (i.e. protection against denial-of-service attacks, hacking, and phishing attempts).

• Ensure Authenticity of the voter (or the voting client acting on behalf of the voter, respectively);

• Ensure Authenticity of the vote caste and digital non traceability of the casted votes by citizen; • Support the concept of secret ballot; • Ensure Non-duplication of the votes.

project showcase

mGovernance: Reaching the Masses Use of mobile technology and ICT for information dissemination and knowledge sharing is on the rise owing to the growing popularity of mobile phones and their ability to reach masses like no other

About the Project m-Governance can usher in approach to deliver Governance services at the doorstep of the citizens. In the context of urban local bodies, the use of advanced tools such as the ICT and Mobile Technology for information sharing enables the service providers to incrementally add services quite easily. The wide spread usage of mobile technology and easy to understand text messages has enabled us to lower the barriers to acceptance of these services. The m-Governance in urban local bodies is replicable and captures the required skill levels through the technology to deliver quick and quality services at the doorsteps of the citizens by minimizing the transaction costs. m-Governance at RMC is Convenient Communication Point for Time Bound Service Delivery powered by pre-defined process-cycles and Back-office Computerization. To meet the Expectation of Citizens the process of m-Governance is acting as a major tool for immediate and transparent service.

RMC has started different m-Governance services, to provide efficient, timely information to Citizens of Rajkot.

The main feature of m-Governance project at RMC is • Truly online operations, not a single batch mode operation • Effective back office integration of all citizen centric services • Centralized Server Architecture • m-Governance is backed by successful and effective implementation of e-Governance

Need for the Project Initially the main objective of the project was to reduce the delay to get property tax and water charges related information. RMC has thought of applying ICT and mobile technology both to resolve the problem.

Necessity is the mother of innovation. Earlier people used to stay in queue for 1-2 hours to get the property tax details and then they have to stand in another queue for payment of property

Innovation Factor • • • • • • • •

A fully automatic service retrieves data from centralized live server Fully integrated system involves Back office and Citizen Centric Services Covers almost all the municipal corporation services Efficient Approach in the e-Governance of different services Standardization of multiple services on a single point access Transparency in work is increased to utmost level and so is reliability of the administration Queuing for seeking information is eliminated Officers are encouraged to improve efficiency through pro citizen approach

Achievements • • • • • • •

Presently as soon as birth or death registration is entered in database of RMC, SMS is sent to the Relative of registrant along with unique id Regular Vaccination Alerts to the parents whose child age is between 7 days and 16 years based on National Immunization Programme.

Citizens can know their municipal dues by just sending SMS to RMC Grievance redressal has become more efficient and interactive by m-Governance.

RMC has started payment reminder service for the municipal dues.

RMC is providing number of alert services, which has brought transparency in the overall administration.

tax. To pay municipal dues was in that way the toughest job for any citizen. This also resulted in low recovery of property tax. 18 percent interest is charged on pending dues of property

tax/water charges by the municipal corporation and hence every day the total due is different.

With implementation of m-Governance this problem is answered effectively.

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project showcase

Revenue Cases Monitoring System (RCMS) Through eGovernance tools the major problem of land disputes can now be addressed

about the Project As a part of Swantah Sukhay Project, district administration decided to introduce e-governance in process of hearing land appeal case at collector level. With the help National Informatics Centre, Junagadh has developed this web based system within the time of 2-3 months. Initially, it was hosted on local district server and access was limited to intranet users.

To extend this facility to end users, district administration decided to open it on internet.

On 11th June 2008, in presence of Honorable Minister Revenue, the system has been made public by hosting it on State NIC Server with internet access. Looking to the gravity of impact on public, this office has received a request from other districts of the state for adopting the same. Users have been created for all district collectors accordingly.

Different type of cases i.e. RRT Revision, Appeal, Revision, Breach of Condition forms part of the system. Respective branch will take care of registering new case online and see for timely update of case status. A hearing board will be prepared and will be able to access it online. At the time of hearing, case wise history will also be available to Collector.

Future date of hearing is updated online to enable applicant and lawyer getting it through net. Once case is closed and decision is taken, a copy of order will be uploaded on net by the respective branch of the collectorate.

Need for the Project Under Land Revenue Code –1879 and Land Revenue Rule – 1972, Sub Divisional Magistrate takes decision on applications related to land case matter. Against this decision applicant can lodge appeal / revision in court of collector at district level. Being an agriculture land is main stay of line for farmers; quick solution to dispute on land rights is anticipated. To ensure adequate disposal compare to number of appeals admitted and maintain priority to older cases first,

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NIC, Gujarat has initiated the RCMS project which is bringing much needed relief to citizens

Innovation Factor • • • • • •

Applicant or Lawyer can get status of case through Internet.

Anyone can download copy of judgment.

Collector can view hearing board for respective dates.

The system is developed in web based platform with Unicode (Gujarati) support.

Accessible through Intranet & Internet.

Any person can search details of case and download copy of order by providing any keywords pertaining to Name, Village, Survey No., Case no. etc.

Achievements • • • •

Online Status: It is available on Intranet and Internet as well. People can get information pertaining to case online which includes decision taken or next date of hearing.

Print of Judgment/Order: Copy of any order can be downloaded and printed through internet.

Search Engine: On providing some basic details of Type of case, Case no., or Year, person can find required information about the case.

Hearing Board: Office will also be able to have a hearing board ready on computer screen.

an e-governance is only best possible tool. The urban and rural areas can be completely transformed by e-Governance initiatives like these.

In a country like ours, where land has been a second name of dispute for decades, such project bring in a lot of relief.

gov talk

Rajnish Mahajan State Informatics Officer, NIC, Gujarat

Hand in hand with Technology

S

ince its inception in the early 1970s, NIC has achieved great successes. Today NIC is focussed on hardware, software development and solution consultancy. NIC is represented in almost all technical committees of government; It helps in framing RFPs, monitoring program execution, hosting government sites and looking after their maintenance. In Gujarat, NIC is actively involved in the much feted e-governance initiatives taken up by different state government arms.

NIC plays a big role in ensuring sustainability of projects, which in my view is more important than application development. It has dedicated manpower and wide network reaching down to the district level. The support provided by NIC ensures that e-governance projects do not remain mere pilots, and are scaled up to cover a large group of stakeholders. There should be sustainability not only in terms of continued technical support, but also in terms of working as per the systems and guidelines. Solutions developed by the NIC work to replicate the processes in government to the maximum extent possible and hence are sustainable in terms of user acceptance and integration with existing workflow mechanisms.

The National Informatics Centre (NIC) has been playing a seminal role in the evolution of e-Governance systems. In Gujarat, the NIC has had maximum success in creating a robust network capable of supporting a range of services

GSWAN – connectivity for development Infrastructure has grown by leaps and bounds in Gujarat, and the Gujarat State Wide Area Network (GSWAN) has brought broadband connectivity up to the taluka level. Using this infrastructure, support can be provided from the state headquarters, without the need of visiting the Taluka level office. NIC has developed e-learning solutions using which such support and training is regularly provided.

Troubleshooting to the extent possible is also performed using the available infrastructure, reducing the need to travel to individual locations, and also improving response times and system uptime. .

e-governance in Gujarat Gujarat has a number of success stories to showcase. There are so many government projects that have been rolled out across the state.

Take land records, for example, it is rolled out completely across the state. With GSWAN fully operational, the land records are completely centralised. There are very few localised databases remaining in the state, almost all data has been centralised and resides at the State Data Centre. This is a great milestone, to have consolidated such huge volumes of data.

Coming back to a point I discussed earlier, because of the domain knowledge, NIC is capa-

ble of providing the right solutions which work in a seamless manner. Take land registration, or eMamta (which is now being replicated across India as MCTS), XGN (eXtended Green Node) – a paperless Pollution Control Board system.

XGN is also being replicated across many states – Goa, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh and a couple of other states have also shown interest.

Similarly, the FDCA state solution has also been replicated in many states. The work of NIC has helped saved quite a lot of duplication by cutting development costs by as much as 50-60 percent. The only major costs involved are in customisation. This is a matter of great satisfaction, saving precious national resources, reducing the time in which solutions can be put online, and overall helping states move to the next stage of e-governance.

Take the example of Smart PDS. A different level of e-governance would be achieved through this project. The focus is on empowering the beneficiary – power is transferred to the beneficiary, and the way the system has been planned is a classic example of the business process reengineering. This is where the government of Gujarat is different. The ration card data is more or less digitised now. The system is designed to make use of data from other datasets, for example the data from elecDecember 2011 / www.egovonline.net / egov

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gov talk

toral rolls, for the purpose of authenticating identity. When there is linkage between different sets of data, chances of fraud are reduced and authentication of identity is much more reliable. When work done by one public agency is utilised by other agencies, the nation saves resources.

By moving to the biometric bar-coded system, control is shifted into the hands of beneficiary, and chances of foul play are reduced to a great extent. Bogus cards get eliminated and genuine beneficiaries are empowered. Admissions process for many courses, such as MBA, MCA and Engineering, Diploma, etc., have been moved online. The system has inbuilt provisions for transparency. The entire merit list gets presented online, along with the information on what college who has to attend.

Gujarat has been successful in e-governance primarily due to its visionary leadership, which endeavours to put in place a robust infrastructure and provides the much needed support in terms of resources and manpower.

The Next Phase of e-Governance As governments move towards adopting new technologies such as Cloud Computing, sharing of data will be the next level we aspire to reach.

Having consolidated data to a large extent, it will now be possible to use the same dataset for different users by sharing data across environments and stakeholders. Even users outside the government could be allowed to use this data with proper safeguards and regulations. Mobile governance will also come up in a big way. Governance will become increasingly faceless and most services will be available online.

Take the example of recruitment. NIC has developed the OJAS application, which facilitates the recruitment process for a number of departments. Applicants need not run around for getting application forms and making submissions. Advertisements are placed in the newspapers and applications filled online.

The system has required filters and information is validated by the system at the time of filling itself.

In the recruitment process, we do not need to authenticate every candidate’s document at the first stage itself. When there is freedom from needless delays, the department as well as the candidates benefit. The recruitment time-cycle is reduced to a considerable state.

The OJAS application also helps in planning the examinations by integrating availability of exam halls and matching it against candidates, and developing a seating plan. Call letters for exams are also generated by the system and candidates can download the same. OJAS has been an immense success and it is one of the most popular websites in the state.

A satisfying journey Working in a progressive state is a highly satisfying and challenging experience. One gets the chance of being part of the team that develops world class infrastructure, and comes up with innovative solutions. But there are also the times when one has to let go of some ‘dream project’ due to paucity of time and resources.

industry voices

Gujarat to be the Most Favored IT Destination Whether it is an education application, a healthcare application or a public service delivery technology, the current scenario offers huge untapped opportunity to the government

Opportunities and Challenges in eGovernance The challenge lies in the manner in which technology is being used and deployed to deliver applications and services for the citizens of the country.

Whether it is an education application, a healthcare application or a public service delivery technology, there is a huge opportunity that lies in front of the government to leverage in the present scenario. Technologies like cloud computing and unified communication are to be watched out for. Moving forward, the ICT based delivery for citizens should be focusing on concepts like ‘education on cloud’ or ‘healthcare on cloud’. Cloud definitely provides for a lot of opportunities as well as challenges, they are both two sides of one coin.

Lessons from and for Gujarat Undoubtedly, Gujarat has become a big IT hub from where the whole of India can take inspiration and learn. Projects like e-Gram, e-City, e-Dhara hold special importance because of the way these programs are able to initiate and sustain that all important connection between the citizen and the government.

On the other hand, other states like the state of Andhra Pradesh or the state of Kerala have done commendable work when it comes to successfully reaching out to the common man. Projects like e-Seva in AP and the weather fore-

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cast project for fishermen in Kerala are some of the projects which should provide inspiration to other states.

Can Gujarat lead the Eric Yu Way? President, Huawei Enterprise The state of Gujarat is already having a lot of initiatives that are presently attracting investment from the IT sector. The state already has a lot of IT and ITES focused companies and is giving a lot of incentives to the ones who plan to move there. And, yes in the near future we will see a new ICT hub and the most-favored business destination in Gujarat.

Why eIndia 2011 in Gujarat? eIndia 2011 will provide an ideal platform to the Gujarat-baed companies, majorly SMEs, to interact and network among their peers from all over the country. eIndia 2011 would surely boost the spirit of IT sector within the state of Gujarat.

in person

R M Patel

Additional Chief Secretary, Panchayats, Rural Housing and Rural Development Department, Govt of Gujarat

“eGrams will help realise

Mahatma Gandhi’s

vision of Gram Swaraj”

e

Gram initiative in Gujarat has been one of the most successful e-governance endeavours in India.

Please share with us its vision.

eGram is all about bringing empowerment to the people by ensuring popular participation towards peace, prosperity and sustainable development in rural areas. The objective is to develop Gram Panchayats by providing necessary infrastructure for ensuring that they become the focal point for various e-services. The idea is to infuse the five E’s - ease, economy, efficiency, effectiveness and ethics - into governance. By bridging the rural-urban digital divide, we hope to implement the objectives of the 73rd Amendment in letter and in spirit.

The eGram project is the result of CM’s vision, he is the main driver behind the successful implementation of the programme. Even the logo of the eGram Vishwagram Society – the SPV that runs eGram - has been conceptualised by him. The eGram project became operational in March 2003.

At that time, we started by providing computers to Panchayats in the districts of Anand and Kheda. In January 2008, we rolled out Asia’s largest VSAT network and connected all Gram Panchayats in the state to broadband.

What were the challenges faced in execution? How were these overcome?

The eGram programme is one of the most lauded initiatives in the field of rural development. In conversation with Anand Agarwal, the state’s self-effacing Additional Chief Secretary, Panchayats, Rural Housing and Rural Development Department, R M Patel, talks about the idealism that drives the eGram project. He sheds light on the plans that are afoot for taking this ground-breaking programme to a higher level

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The geographical spread of the programme is the main challenge. It is spread over more than 13000 Village Panchayats across the state. This includes tribal areas, hilly areas, remote areas, coastal areas and basically all the difficult areas in the state. Coverage wise, this is a major challenge.

Another challenge was finding PPP partners. The Village Computer Entrepreneurs (VCEs) - have to work without any salary, as the entire model is based on per-transaction commissions. Technical manpower to run the system is difficult to get in required numbers. Securing the involvement of Panchayats in running the system is also not easy.

in person

Because of the well-planned mechanism, we were able to surmount these challenges. We made the District Development Officer the officer-in-charge of the eGram centres in districts, and District Statistics Officer was assigned to assist him. Now this has been transferred to the Deputy DDO. To offer technical support, a strong network of executives has been created across the state.

To tackle manpower needs, we used Rozgar Talim, ITIs, and also got trained people from the teaching community at polytechnics, ITI faculty etc. In this way, we got a list of potential candidates for VCE and then we could select from this pool.

We have transferred technical tasks to professional agencies. Airtel is providing broadband connectivity. Few other professional agencies are undertaking supervision of the system on our behalf and are providing technical support wherever required. Six agencies have got representatives at the state level. Similarly, there are representatives at the district (District Coordinator), taluka and village level. For every 30 VCEs, 1 TLE is looking after their needs. In addition, IL&FS is supervising the system and performing Third Party Audit (TPA).

How would the recognition of eGram Centres as CSCs by the Government of India benefit rural areas?

As far as the basic CSC idea is concerned, we are far ahead of Government of India. The Centre’s CSC scheme targets 1 CSC per 6 villages, but we have already covered more than 13,000 Village Panchayats. In Gujarat to date 13,685 Gram Panchayats have been covered by the VSAT-based network, which goes by the name of PAWAN. We have already covered all village Panchayats with broadband connectivity and we are now moving towards providing broadband connectivity to every single village in the state.

Recognition of eGrams as CSCs will help the Government of India in reaching their countrywide target. This will also help the eGram centres to avail benefits of applications/services developed for CSCs, which are under the Government of India. In this way, any application developed for CSCs in any state will also be available to eGram centres in Gujarat. Similarly our applications will be available to all the states across India. eGrams are already offering G2C services and some B2C services. A framework for B2C services is under consideration, which will allow such services on a larger scale

What are the services presently being offered at the eGram centres? Are there plans to offer more services in future?

the two. We will also be covering the remaining 5000 villages with broadband connectivity – a feat that no other state in the country has been able to achieve. Expansion in the number and type of services available over eGram network, both from government and from businesses is taking place, and this will make rural areas much more dynamic and liveable.

A number of services are presently being offered at the eGram Centres. Some of the G2C services available at these centres are: issuance

What has changed in the last six years in e-Governance in India?

across all eGram Centres. Eventually, we can also introduce C2C services over the eGram network.

The most important

target for us at present is ensuring integration of PAWAN and GSWAN of important certificates such as birth, death, farmer’s status, caste, income etc. In addition, several application forms for various development schemes are available through Gujarat portal.

Some B2C services are being provided by enterprising VLES. These services include: e-ticketing for train, GSRTC, flights, utility bill payment,; online results, computer education, matrimonial services, resume writing, DTP jobs, recharge of mobile and DTH, etc.

We are presently developing a comprehensive framework for B2C services through eGram Centres. Once finalised, this framework will ensure uniform availability of a wide range of services. This will increase the public utility of eGram Centres, as well as substantially improve the economic prospects of the VLEs. Overall, one can expect a sustained increase in the number of both G2C and B2C services available at these centres.

What are the other major e-governance initiatives the government is planning for rural development?

The most important target for us at present is ensuring integration of PAWAN and GSWAN networks. GSWAN has connectivity upto the taluka level, whereas PAWAN has connectivity at state, district and village level. Integration of the two will help in extending the reach of both networks and ensure seamless connectivity across

Where do you see e-governance moving in the next six to ten years?

We have been able to penetrate rural areas and establish our presence. This is a major achievement. The rural-urban digital divide is in the process of being bridged.

I see inclusion as the major issue of concern, and within it financial inclusion, to be more specific. As eGram centres (or CSCs elsewhere) become more sustainable economically, VCEs and VLEs would benefit and these centres would offer remunerative employment at the village level itself. Benefits of growth will percolate down to rural areas and we will be able to realise objectives of inclusive growth, which is the core concern of the 11th Plan, as well as the 12th Plan.

The Government of Gujarat is developing the Gujarat Portal, which will provide more than 50 services from line Departments, including Panchayats at a single site. Birth, death, income, caste and other certificates will become available at the click of the mouse. Social security schemes such as old age and widow pensions, ration cards etc., will be available online through the eGram centres in rural areas. Additional services such as payments of taxes and revenues, applying for passports and licences etc. will also go online. We can go on adding more and more features, so that no one will have to venture out of the village for accessing basic services. This will help realise Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of Gram Swaraj.

December 2011 / www.egovonline.net / egov

49

Analysis

e-city

Building a Better City the AMC Experience Ahmedabad, India’s 7th largest urban area, is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has undertaken wideranging initiatives for providing better services to citizens and it has planned city’s future too

By Guruprasad Mohapatra

A

hmedabad, with a population of more than 5 million, is the largest city of Gujarat. The city enjoys the distinction of being the commercial capital of the state that has been witnessing rapid economic growth. The decade between Census 2001 and 2011 has brought dramatic changes in the composition of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC)-administered areas. The adjoining table presents some of the major changes in the period between the two censuses.

In order to meet the increasingly complex task of urban governance, the AMC has undertaken a number of initiatives, some of which are listed below: • AMC is the first ULB (Urban Local Body) in the country to cover the entire range of municipal activities and services like birth and death registration, building plan, primary health and education, city cleanliness, water supply, sewage, road, street-lights,

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Demographic profile Census 2001 Census 2011 Area

190.84 sq km

466 sq km

Population 35,20,085 55,68,695 Decadal Growth Rate

22.36%

26.61%

Population Density

18445 persons/sq km

9707 persons/sq km

Male population

18,67,249

29,34,087

Female population

16,52,836

26,34,246

Sex Ratio

885 females/1000 males

897 females/1000 males

Administrative Zones

5

6

Wards 43

parks and garden through e-governance to the 55 lakh citizens of the city.

• In 2002, AMC started its first Civic Centre at Law Garden. At present we have established 40 City Civic Centres located in six zones of Ahmedabad.

• New software modules like Engineering Module, Inventory Management System,

64

Financial Accounting Systems, Payroll and Personnel Information Systems and Computerization of Municipal Hospitals and Colleges have been added to the existing system.

• As part of a comprehensive e-governance solution, we propose to implement the following: a new website, a Video Confer-

Analysis

encing system, a SMS-based complaint redressal system, and integration of all modules into a common platform. For this, AMC appointed PWC as a consultant for DPR, which has been submitted to Govt. of India in December 2010. The cost of the proposed project is Rs.38.38 crore.

National Awards for e Governance 2008-09 Exemplary horizontal transfer of ICT-based Best Practice - Gold Award International Best Practices-2004 Community Service Revolution City Civic Centre & E Governance Ahmedabad by International City/County Manager’s Association Washington DC eINDIA 2009 in the category

From City to e-City Project The eCity Project has the following motto “To make use of Information Technology in mobilization of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation resources and utilization of these scarce resources with an aim to provide better “ONE SPOT – NON STOP” services to citizens and provide ICT tools to its’ employees for back office automation.” This project is a major initiative undertaken at AMC. This has led to marked improvements in the level of citizen satisfaction.

After a comprehensive analysis of various tasks being done in different departments we came up with the list of processes involved in delivering any service. This became the flow chart for every activity of each Department.

Subsequently, the AMC appointed a total solution provider (TSP) through Gujarat Informatics Ltd., a Government of Gujarat company.

The TSP joined AMC’s task team to analyze the flow charts, volume of data transactions, required processes, based on which detailed System Requirement Specification (SRS) documents were developed. The e-governance

ICT Enabled Municipal Initiative of the Year

project preparation commenced in January 2002, and in September the same year, AMC started its first civic centre at Law Garden.

City Civic Centres City Civic Centres, established as a component of the eCity project, are an important initiative.

They provide one spot solution to citizens for accessing many of the services provided by AMC. AMC had started with six civic centres in 2002 and currently we have 40 centres across the city. Services available at these centres include: • Registration of Complaints • Payments of All Municipal Dues such as Property Tax, Professional Tax, TDO fees etc.

• Issuance of Birth and Death Certificate • Issuance of Licenses for Shops and Establishments, Hoardings fee • Issuance of Health Licenses • Issuance of Hawker’s License • Collection of Property Tax Application

eCity- comparing the state of affairs

before and after implementation Before

After

• Citizen charter was not effective. Citizens felt harassed.

•

Higher citizen satisfaction.

•

AMC is more responsive and transparent.

•

Higher revenue and better cash flow.

• Inadequate infrastructure to provide services.

•

No interaction with citizens; Red tapism.

•

Absence of effective collection mechanism.

•

No single point of service.

•

Very little accountability and many discretionary powers. Little transparency

•

Lack of connectivity led to minimum use of IT resources. Dependence on physical files.

• Chances of corruption are eliminated.

•

Accountability at each stage has been enhanced.

•

24 hour internet/intranet access for AMC information.

• Right to Information Application Module • Issuance of Building Plan Permissions The centres provide a host of benefits. Citizens can visit any centre irrespective of their place of residence; every centre has 24 hour internet/intranet access for AMC information; citizens can avail of facilities for online self assessment of property tax etc.

The utility of these centres are best illustrated by some statistics: • The number of transactions made at these centres increased 7 times in nine years.

(1.97 lakh transactions in 2002 and 15.58 lakh in 2010-11) • Tax collection at these centres increased from 38% in 2002 to 80% in 20010-11.

• Increased collection of taxes & other charges from Rs 68 crore in 2002 to Rs. 807 crore 2010-11.

• We started with just three services and now 14 services are available under the single window system in Civic Centres.

Tackling the Transport Challenge Ahmedabad is the first Indian city to have built a full-fledged Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS).

The BRTS is operated by a separate company Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited (AJL).

Our transport strategy is focused on “moving people, but not on personal vehicles.”

Public transit should be safe, reliable, efficient and an affordable mode for the citizens. To emphasize this, the system has been named as ‘Janmarg’ meaning ‘people’s path’. BRTS strives to encourage more people to use the public transit system, which provides high quality service. It is about equal access and equitable sharing of road space for people.

To provide affordable solutions, cross subsidy mechanisms were evolved. Transit investments often contribute to increase in land value and hence mechanisms for capturDecember 2011 / www.egovonline.net / egov

51

Analysis

ing the value of sustenance of the system operations were required. We have made extensive use of PPP models and technology to build an efficient and sustainable system. One of the highlights of the BRTS plan is the adoption of a network based approach rather than a corridor based one. The city’s road network was restructured sequentially and bridges, RoBs, and flyovers etc. were constructed to complete the network as a precursor to BRTS. We have also made extensive use of Intelligent Transport systems such as electronic and off-board fare collection, Passenger Information Systems, and Vehicle tracking systems along with Area Traffic Control Systems for ensuring smooth traffic flow. A dedicated Janmarg control centre has been established to ensure reliable faster and efficient service, and extensive public outreach efforts have been undertaken to ensure that citizens adopt that system.

Overall, we are working with the vision of creating an ‘Accessible Ahmedabad’ and are working accordingly for redesigning the city structure and transport systems, so that there is greater accessibility, efficient mobility and low carbon future.

Gearing up for the future The Ahmedabad Metropolitan region is one of the largest urban areas (7th largest as per Census 2011) in the country. The process of urbanisation is developing newer roots at a rapid clip; Ahmedabad is already the 16th fastest growing city in India. This rapid urbanisation and concomitant inequitable growth in the city is one of our biggest challenges. Our sources of income would have to be diversi-

Ahmedabad Janmarg (BRTS) – at a glance Parameter October 2009 November 2011 Total BRT Network (length in km)

12.5

45

Buses on road

18

83

Average Daly Passengers

17315

135000

Average no of passengers/bus/day

962

1745

Average Revenue per bus per day (Rupees)

4502

10346

Average payment per bus per day

7140

10823

fied beyond the existing tax system. We need to evolve a financially sustainable system for managing affairs of the city. Creating and maintaining a high level of public awareness and ensuring public involvement for effective delivery of municipal services is another major challenge. We also need to start charging users for most of the services offered by AMC, so that our finances can be brought into a better shape. Another major challenge would be to devise a system to ensure effective use of our Human Resources in the service of the city.

We are aware of the multiplicity and magnitude of challenges that confront us, and we are working in order to surmount these difficulties.

In order to meet the needs of a rapidly growing city, we are focusing on developing infrastructure such as roads, water & drainage network,

Ahmedabad

Municipal Corporation e-Services available online • Registration of Complaints • Payments of All Municipal Dues: Property Tax, Professional Tax, TDO fees etc • Issuance of Birth and Death Certificate, Licenses of Shops and Establishments, Health Licenses, Hawkers’ licenses • Property Tax Application • Right to Information Application Module • Issuance of Building Plan Permissions

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hospitals, parks, lake development, markets etc. The particular focus of our work is on the less-developed areas of the city.

In order to diversify our income sources and increase inflows, we are trying to monetize assets such as – hoardings and kiosks in different parts of the city. We charge user fees for services, we also charge license fee, impact fee etc. The recovery of Operation & Maintenance (O&M) costs incurred in the delivery of the municipal services is not adequately planned in the current system. Thus, the user charges are required for financial self-sufficiency of services delivered by ULB. In order to improve efficiency, we are moving towards an automated system that will require less human intervention. We have also planned a comprehensive IEC activity through citizen participation, and by involving NGOs, as well as the print and electronic media. We are about to undertake a comprehensive analysis of the existing system. There will be audit of the man-hours utilised in the functioning of each Department with a view of addressing productivity issues. Through these steps, we hope to overcome myriad challenges and lead the glorious city of Ahmedabad into a new era of better quality of life.

the author is the Municipal Commissioner, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation

Analysis

Police

Modernising Gujarat Police Gujarat, a powerhouses of dynamism in India, has a state police that is taking a number of steps to be in tune with the times. New technology is being adopted in order to serve the mandate in the best way possible

By Manoj Agarwal

I

n the modern information society, knowledge is power, and crimes are no more committed only on the streets by weapon-wielding shady characters. As the nature of a society changes, the role and capabilities of its protectors must evolve in step, so that peace and tranquilly prevails, and development can be ensured. Keeping this in mind, Gujarat Police have embarked upon a comprehensive modernisation plan that will help the police carry out their responsibilities to the best satisfaction of citizens. Modernisation of the Police Control Room – the nerve centre of operations of a police force – is one of the important projects underway in the state. The project has several modules such as: Control Room Automation; adoption of Geographical Information System; Automatic Vehicle Locator; Computer Telephony Interface; CCTV monitoring of control room activities; Access Control System; SMS Gateway Communicator and integration with the 108 Call Centre.

Computer Aided Dispatch Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) is a module for call taker and call dispatcher to create incident reports and fill related details as per

conversation with distress caller. The CAD System provides real‐time data acquisition and control through user‐friendly graphics display with an easy to use operator interface system.

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53

Analysis

The system consists of two sections: Call taker and Call dispatcher. Call taker collects information related to incident from the distress caller and creates an incident report, whereas the call dispatcher locates the nearest vehicle on the GIS map and communicates with PCR or patrolling vehicle and assigns police vehicle to the incident location.

The CAD system is a flexible telecommunicator aid that helps ensure the accuracy of dispatching, along with an easily understandable user interface for viewing critical data in real time. CAD provides help to the telecommunicator and dispatcher in recording activities, setting priorities, and identifying who is available to respond; what vehicle and officer are already dispatch to an active call.

Access to information is useful in increasing the safety of the emergency responder.

GIS for policing The state police are implementing a Geographical Information System known as GEO911, which is a module that shows geographical details of city like highways, landmarks, streets, vital installations as per the layers and also provides real time movement of vehicles on map as well as incident details.

The GIS-based information may include agency defined layers that commonly include hospitals, roads, houses, airports, etc. GIS updates are handled via standard ESRI products. InterAct’s Geographic Information System is the hub for integrating caller location as well as incident location.

Automatic Vehicle Locator The Automatic Vehicle Locator (AVL) module consists of automatic locater device installed in the police patrolling vehicle and software module which interacts with control room and device. The system is a combination of hardware, software and networking subsystems that tracks the location of vehicles within a network using a combination of GPS/GPRS. The real‐ time tracking, movement and location of the vehicle is projected onto a map and displayed onto a PC screen for monitoring. Each vehicle equipped with the GPRS /GPS (AVL system), will have its location and identity continuously transmitted.

Computer Telephony Interface The Computer Telephony Interface (CTI)

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provides an interface between system and telephony equipments at command centre location, An effective interface handles all call related module including pop-up, ACD call forwarding , call waiting, conference and reporting at any given time.

Video Surveillance and Biometrics system for Control Room All the activities in the control room are being monitored & recorded using IR CCTV cameras. Biometric fingerprint based access control system is being used to restrict unauthorized access to control room as well as to track attendance.

Mapping Wireless Conversation All the wireless conversations are being recorded with date and time stamped so that proper records of each incident are maintained.

The complete wireless communication protocol is illustrated in the adjoining diagram.

Integration with 108 Call Centre The 108 Emergency Response service is presently providing services for emergency healthcare, fire and police. However, the service is presently not integrated with police systems and this at times leads to situations where police response times can be improved.

Consequently, the state police would be implementing a Dial 100 system that would also be integrated with the 108 service. The flow is illustrated in the adjoining diagram.

There are many cases such as mob attack, bomb blast, riots etc., where police help would be needed along with emergency health services. In such a scenario, relevant information would be acquired from the distress caller and fed into the 108 system by the call operator.

The same information would also be conveyed to the nearest Police Control Room.

Integration with SMS Gateway Communicator The system would be integrated with SMS Gateway Communicator to send incident details to group of officers as per the priority of incident code. Even distressed citizens would be able to send SMS for help to predefined control room number and operators at control room would respond immediately.

Components of Police Control Room modernisation • Control Room Automation • Geographical Information System • Automatic Vehicle Locator • Computer Telephony Interface • CCTV monitoring of control room • Access Control System • SMS Gateway • 108 integration

Further plans for Control Automation Control Room automation software consist of Computer‐aided Dispatch (CAD) system which provides leading edge technology to assist call takers, telecommunicators, dispatchers, and system administrators to receive and manage (Dial 100) calls and dispatch Police, Fire, EMS, and other types of agencies. The system designs takes care of every feature with the goal of split second response, ease‐of‐use, data integrity, and data security.

InterActDial 100 System will be able to handle Distress Call and can provide immediate response to the distress call with immediate help. InterAct Dial 100 System an integrated system with Computer aided dispatch system for call taking and dispatch process, Geo911 system for GIS map and AVL system for vehicle location along with other network and telecommunication modules. Dial 100 system is flexible in nature hence easy integration with other Public Safety Systems such as Mission Mode Crisis Management System, Record Management System, Court Management System, Fire Management System, CCTV Surveillance System with Analytics True Sentry. In this way, the state police hopes to utilise advances in ICT for better serving Gujarat and playing a role in ensuring good governance.

the author is the Inspector General of Police, State Crime Records Bureau, Gujarat

industry voices

Empowering the Common Man through ICT With ICT based tools governments can provide a variety of citizen-centric services in a transparent, democratic and efficient manner. Services like health, education, mother and child development, availability of various documents pertaining to identity and much more have now become accessible via few mouse clicks

By Pranav Pandya, Founder Director, Dev Information Technology

Opportunities and Challenges in e-Governance Most e-Governance systems that we have today are fairly complex and multifaceted. The people working for the government and the common citizens need to gain understanding of the technology. It is only when large sections of the population have a clear understanding of the system that the benefits can start percolating down to the grassroots level.

With deeper penetration of connectivity and increase in the number of mobile phones in our country, the ICT initiatives are bound to grow.

Overall, ICT can act as an enabler and lead to a smoother and speedier set of interactions between the government and citizens. The ICT initiatives can lead to benefits like: flexibility, vertical/horizontal integration, organization learning, and greater speed of service delivery.

Gujarat- from Manufacturing Industry to ICT hub According to me the fact that there is massive amount of industrialisation in state, with many domestic and foreign multi-nationals being present, the growth of ICT infrastructure is certain. Businesses realize that an investment in ICT infrastructure is compulsorily as it brings in incredible benefits. Thus it should be a foregone conclusion that as Gujarat industrialises, it will also transform into an ICT hub. This is my sincere belief. Currently much of the ICT infrastructure has been created by big and small businesses. Some of these businesses are from the government sector, others are privately owned. As the ICT infrastructure gets more

advanced, the human resource development parameters in the state will improve further.

On Lessons from Gujarat and for Gujarat With a really efficient ICT network already in place, Gujarat has started serving like an inspiration to other states in the country. The communication network in the state currently touches almost the entire landscape. It reaches out to the remotest areas.

The zeal that the Gujarat government is showing in accomplishing the ambition of internet access till the village level via its own network is paying huge dividends. The state government has encouraged private internet service providers to reach out to the remote areas. This has led to the creation of a really comprehensive digital highway. There is no doubt that the other states in the country can learn a lot from Gujarat’s initiatives.

However, Gujarat too can do with a little bit of learning from other states. Gujarat can learn about the importance of placing emphasis on development / propagation of relevant vocational and Diploma / Engineering education by encouraging partnerships between government bodies and private entities.

Can Gujarat lead the way?

Development of ICT related skill sets in the state’s local population of youths is, in many ways, going to be the key to Gujarat’s future development.

We need to set appropriate framework in such a way that the sheer demand of skilled workers for ICT related initiatives should be met from within

the state. For this I strongly believe that a regular interaction between government, education institutes and ICT players should be conducted every three months, during the next five years.

Such meetings will enable the government and the private parties to understand each other’s objectives and come up with better strategies for development of ICT in the state.

For such interactions to happen, the state can also be geographically divided into 4 zones.

When the government interacts with businesses from a particular area, there is scope for development of ideas that are more accurately targeted. Both macro and micro issues faced by different stakeholders can be sorted out.

More than anything else, it is important to get the citizens actively involved in the ICT initiatives. The citizens should have the requisite IT related knowledge to take full advantage of such systems and this can only happen through a broad based education. So, it is important that the state government should further intensify its efforts for enhancing the reach of the educational infrastructure. Newer, better colleges and schools need to be established. To reach more people in remote, inaccesible, backward areas through quality education is the call of the time.

Why eIndia 2011 in Gujarat?

An event like eIndia2011 is of utmost importance for highlighting the scope of technology to act as a catalyst for social upliftment. The eIndia2011 platform will evoke discussion and debate on the best roles that the government entities and the private players can play for taking the fruits of new developments in ICT to the grassroots level.

December 2011 / www.egovonline.net / egov

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industry voices

Gujarat’s IT sector booms Gujarat serves as an inspiration for the entire country.

One of India’s most industrialized states, Gujarat’s per capita GDP is almost twice the national average. The time is now ripe for the state to emerge as the country’s most vibrant ICT Hub

By Kishore Chitale, Head-India Domestic Business, Capgemini India

Opportunities and Challenges in eGovernance e-Governance, a multi-dimensional and complex concept, offers spectrum of tools for improving the social infrastructure. Once e-governance gets implemented in sufficient number of areas, people don’t have to run from one government office to another for getting their work done.

They can log in through easy to use interfaces and interact directly with the government branch of their choice through few taps on the keyboard.

There are several opportunities and challenges subsumed in the idea of e-governance. For the myriad opportunities to start bearing results, the challenges need to be addressed. Ultimately it is the common man who is main beneficiary when the government becomes transparent and smooth through the usage of ICT. Some of the major benefits that citizens can accrue from an ICT-based service delivery system are: • Better quality of service delivery to citizens and businesses.

• Increased transparency and accountability.

• Increased collaboration between government and semi-government agencies, citizens and businesses.

• The ICT initiatives can be kept open 24/7, unlike most offices, which have fixed working hours.

Similarly, there are many challenges that can come in the way of ICT- based service delivery: • Political instability. The coming and going of governments can have an impact on the e-governance initiatives being considered or already implemented.

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• Lack of ICT infrastructure.

• High initial cost for setting up e-government solutions.

• Resistance to change.

• Lack of clear vision and strategy.

Gujarat- the New ICT Hub Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Gurgaon and Pune are established ICT hubs.

The common themes running across these cities include an integrated IT policy, excellent infrastructure and a strong focus on human capital development. But these are the themes that can also be found in Gujarat. The state enjoys the added advantage of being home to a very enterprising class of people.

The state has to begin by identifying suitable government land, which can then be reserved for building an IT park. Computer education also needs to be projected in a big way. The investment climate should be made favourable to the ICT companies, which are willing to invest in the state. The good thing is that such policies are already being implemented in the state. The Gujarat government has a massive developmental agenda, which focuses not only on the manufacturing side, but also on the IT sector.

Lessons for Gujarat and from Gujarat The services that Gujarat offers to its citizens through its official portal (http://gujaratindia. com/index.htm) include basic facilities like VAT (Value Added Tax) information, hospital management, revenue records, e-procurement, public grievance portal, and much else.

The Gujarat State Wide Area Network (GSWAN), which connects the State capital with all its 25 districts and 225 block headquarters, is Asia’s largest Internet Protocol-based network. Gujarat also has an extensive telecom network with optic-fibre technology, cellular phones, and high speed Internet. The government has decided to install CCTV-based City Surveillance and Intelligent Traffic Management System (CSITMS) in major cities .

While serving as an inspiration for rest of the country, Gujarat can also learn a few lessons from states like Madhya Pradesh and Punjab. In Madhya Pradesh, Sehore -Cisco has launched its Cisco healthcare service pilot.

Through this initiative, community and primary healthcare centres (CHCs and PHCs) in Sehore and Gwalior are being linked to their district hospitals. Patients at these clinics will be able to communicate via video links with specialists and other medical staff at the district hospital. In Punjab, Global Positioning System (GPS) is being used to store the details of properties in the urban areas. GPS also shows detailed building plan of every property.

On eIndia 2011 The eIndia 2011 will highlight Gujarat’s ambition for becoming India’s most important ICT hub. The citizens of Gujarat are famous for their entrepreneurial spirit; if they have made their mind to excel in ICT, they are bound to find success. The exchange of views and the discussions that happen on the eIndia 2011 platform will lead to emergence of new solutions for excellence in ICT.

spotlight

Empowered

by Technology The Department of Social Justice & Empowerment is entrusted with the mandate of providing the disadvantaged and marginalized sections of population equal opportunities in fields of education, as well as economic and social areas. Today, it is possible to track, trace and monitor the benefits of each of the schemes announced by the department at the click of a button

By Rachita Jha

A

ccountability of the government has become much desired from the citizens, both at the centre and state level. Challenged by the daunting task of upliftment of disadvantaged and marginalized sections of the society, the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment (SJE) has announced several social, educational and economic programmes/ schemes for upliftment of SC, OBC, persons with disability, and senior citizens. Apart from these central government initiatives, the states also announce several steps.

It is an overwhelming task to track, trace and monitor the beneficiaries of so many schemes and map the success of each. However, with customised software, it becomes possible for state governments to conduct real time monitoring, assessment and evaluation of all the social benefit schemes . An easy-to-use, cost effective and time-saving tool, the software is designed to help state SJE departments in moving towards e-government and assist them in their commitment to bring the backward communities to the heart of the development agenda.

Governance Conundrum According to Census (2001), the target groups population of social justice and empowerment department includes 16.7 crore SC, 2.19 crore persons with disability, whereas OBC population is estimated at 41 percent of the total population by NSSO, and senior citizens 7.7 crore. Participation of these marginalized groups in the overall growth and development process has been the vision of the Eleventh Five Year Plan, 2011-12 that aims at faster and more inclusive growth. It seeks to achieve inclusiveness through significant improvements in literacy, education and health, greater employment opportunities, and greater focus on disadvantaged groups.

Inclusive growth yields broad based benefits and ensures equality of opportunity for all, especially the disadvantaged sections, like the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes,

minorities, persons with disabilities and women.

The multi-level operations and decision-making machinery of the government has been much critiqued over the years in this regard. In this governance ecosystem, it becomes even more difficult for a petite villager of the backward class to first have awareness of the many schemes that have been announced by the centre/state government and then avail the benefits of the same. “There are states that have more than 40 percent of the population in the backward class and hence for such states it becomes mission critical to monitor and assess the progress of such social upliftment schemes for good governance. We aim to build holistic, structured and process-oriented software designed in sync with the needs of any state Social Justice & Empowerment department. Gujarat is the first state to implement end-to-end solutions, which promise to synchronise more than 200 schemes for the target group that constitutes more than 50 percent of the state populace,� says Mangesh Desai, Group Manager, Government Sales Support (India & APAC), Mastek.

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spotlight

Technology Connect An end-to-end software solution that aims to re-engineer the governance model of the SJE department in Gujarat is underway. The core objective of the tool is to assist the state government in ensuring economic upliftment of backward classes through rendering of social welfare schemes and empowering them through training and other facilities as offered by the government. To ensure that the software acts as a last mile integrator for the government, it is incorporated with many features that address the challenges of large and variable number of beneficiaries, dispersed operations, traditional methods of disbursement, unique schemes, multiple beneficiary dimensions and voluminous increases in the number of schemes each year.

Moreover, the ability of the tool to connect and engage various core and linked department offices like sachivayala, corporation office, commission office and other line departments, facilitates a cohesive application verification workflow before an application qualifies for benefits. As much desired, the tool offers lastmile connectivity with panchayats and CSCs and is UID compliant in its beneficiary registration. The departments connected through technology gain significant savings on time, cost, and efforts in implementation and monitoring of all their schemes.

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The departments connected through technology gain significant savings on time, cost, and efforts in implementation and monitoring of all their schemes health and disability to gain intelligence on the overall performance for various beneficiaries.

Such data is crucial for the formulation of new schemes and allocation of funds to the lagging spheres of impact.

Application-to-Disbursement Cycle To ensure an ecosystem that has the beneficiary in the centre of all the activities of SJE department, an added feature of a beneficiary directory gives the department an integrated view of the benefits consumed by a beneficiary through

Mangesh Desai Group Manager, Government Sales Support (India & APAC) Mastek

the various schemes that are active in the state.

Designed to address the problem of dispersed operations and beneficiary dimensions, the repository aims to expedite the verification and approval process for sanctioning a benefit. It also helps in weeding out duplicate candidates.

The online platform of the SJE interface is designed such a way that it allows the beneficiaries to register themselves and apply for schemes online without the need of travelling to any government office. The software then takes the request through an electronic route of application acknowledgement, verification and approval, following which the benefits can be delivered directly to the beneficiary thus eliminating the menace of middlemen dealings and bringing-in transparency and accountability in the department works.

Modular approach

Governance Intelligence

A multi-beneficiary framework of the SJE unit and multi-pronged approach of interventions made by the department create a complex grid of the schemes and their route of disbursements.

The software has created seven core modules based on the type of beneficiary engagement Loan & Finance, Certificates &Licenses, Scholarships, Training & Stipend, Facility, ICAP and Works. This activity aims to significantly reduce the efforts of the department and government machinery. It also streamlines the activities in a particular scheme and provides an easy-tofollow mechanism for measuring the social impacts of the schemes in a particular module.

Overall, due to standardization, activating a new scheme becomes easier in terms of setting up a process for its rendition. The status of each scheme and key statistical data on each module can be accessed by the stakeholders in the department anytime. This is further detailed according to the sub-categorisation of the beneficiary into caste, gender, age, occupation,

The impact of the schemes and programmes are assessed and evaluated from time to time.

Towards the furtherance of its objectives, the Ministry of SJE provides financial assistance to State Government, NGOs and other implementation agencies for programmes meant for the target groups. It makes the provision of concessional loans (and in appropriate cases, subsidy) to members of the target groups for income generating activities through its National Finance & Development Corporations. In this process, access to intelligence on the schemes status and beneficiaries profile assists SJE in better predictability of demand from the target group in a particular state based on the demography. Therefore, precise forecasting and planning of budgets can be achieved based on the statistical evidence and analysis of the performance of on-going schemes in the state. It also facilitates expedited introduction of new schemes and identification of redundant administrative and operational costs.

egov / www.egovonline.net / December 2011

“Gujarat is the first state to implement the end-toend solution, which can synchronise more than 200 schemes for a target group that constitutes more than 50 percent per cent of the state’s population.�

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