e-Police Tool for Security in the Wired World: December 2007 Issue

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VOLUME 3

| ISSUE 12 | DECEMBER 2007

www .e go v o nl ine . ne t

THE E-GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE FOR ASIA & THE MIDDLE EAST

Policing in the Information Age Tackling Cyber Crimes Need for Stringent Laws

Police Ride on Technology to Nab Criminals A Case study of Chhattisgarh

M-CONNECT

SMART CARD APPLICATIONS IN E-GOVERNANCE

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

S U B SC R I B ER C OP Y NO T FO R SA L E

BUILDING APPLICATIONS AND INFRASTUCTURE FOR E-GOVERNANCE

STATE FOCUS: ORISSA

ICT FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF RURAL EMPLOYMENT SCHEME

IT Leader’s Forum

Rs 75

e-Police Tool for Security in the Wired World

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

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SOLUTION FOCUS

JANUARY 2008

APPLICATION FOCUS 3RD ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL ISSUE

FEBRUARY 2008

RFID & SMART CARDS

TRANSPORT, PORTS & SHIPPING

MARCH 2008

BIOMETRICS & IMAGING TECHNOLOGY

DEFENCE

APRIL 2008

PRIVACY AND INFORMATION SECURITY

E-BANK

Just like that!

Dealing with a Policeman?

Juggler, driving to his next performance, was stopped by the police. “What are those knives doing in your car?â€? asked the ofďŹ cer. “I juggle them in my act.â€? “Oh yeah?â€? says the cop. “Let’s see you do it.â€? So the juggler starts tossing and juggling the knives.

A guy driving by sees this and says, “Wow, am I glad I quit drinking. Look at the test they’re making you do now!�

Source: http://www.ahajokes.com/pol16.html

In Box

Dear Editor, Please allow me to congratulate Mr Madaswamy Moni for his excellent article Mainstreaming ICT for Judicial Delivery System in the November issue of egov He has made a brilliant analysis. His insight of paper-digital divide was a revelation to me and his emphasis on e-Forms is most timely. His recommendations are worthy of consideration by our policy makers at the highest level. We need more of such articles. Thank you for publishing it.

Dr D.C.Misra, (dc_misra@hotmail.com) Former Chairman, Task Force for IT Policy for Delhi, India

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ov volume 3 | issue 12 | december 2007 PRESIDENT

Dr. M P Narayanan

EDITORIAL e-Police for Crime Free World?

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Ravi Gupta GROUP DIRECTORS

Maneesh Prasad Sanjay Kumar SR. SUB EDITOR

Prachi Shirur RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Neha Sabharwal MARKETING

Gautam Navin mobile: +91 9818125257 email: gautam@csdms.in Debabrata Ray mobile: +91 9899650692 email: debabrata@csdms.in

T

THE police is an important component of the State machinery. Their role is to maintain law and order and establish the sovereignty of the state. In addition to the societal problems such as crime, mob violence, civil disturbances, terrorism, insurgency and so forth, several new forms of criminal activities like cyber crime, international crime syndicates internationally funded terrorism, spanning continents, etc. are emerging.

This has put the police force under greater pressure to improve their performance, measured against a stringent set of targets. Police forces across the world are being challenged to achieve many different service delivery and modernisation initiatives. These include efforts to improve performance and operational efficiency, to enable collaboration and shared services and to strengthen citizen focus. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) plays a vital role in this service transformation and is the key to enabling more efficient policing. As a result the police services, across the globe, is striving to exploit ICT’s potential to discharge its roles effectively.

DESIGNED BY

Bishwajeet Kumar Singh Om Prakash Thakur WEB

Zia Salahuddin Santosh Kumar Singh SUBSCRIPTIONS & CIRCULATION

Lipika Dutta (+91 9871481708) Manoj Kumar (+91 9210816901)

EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE

eGov G-4 Sector 39 NOIDA 201301, India tel: +91 120 2502181-85 fax: +91 120 2500060

e-Police is an important Mission Mode Project (MMP) under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) of the Government of India. It addresses the need to improve the efficiency of the police force. One major step, in this direction, is the creation and sharing of crimes and criminal database. In India, eCOPS has been conceptualised in Andhra Pradesh to computerise the total policing by utilising technology, which is catapulting the state’s police into speedy processing, increased efficiency, transparency and better interaction with the citizens. In this special issue of egov magazine on ICT use and police, we bring to you, these and various other initiatives that are being taken in India by police in its use of ICT tools. We have for you an exclusive interview of India’s first woman Indian Police Services officer, Kiran Bedi, who informs how her department, the Bureau of Police Research and Development, is using IT to disseminate information among police and citizens. We also have a case study on the Gainesville Police Department, Florida, USA, which informs how police has successfully employed Internet technologies to share the crime data as a tool to better engage the citizens of Gainesville in helping to make their communities a safer place in which to live.

email: info@egovonline.net

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Yashi Media Works Pvt Ltd New Delhi, India

Also, in this issue we bring to you the experience of the state of Orissa in India, on the use of ICT for effective implementation of rural employment scheme. Today, with the help of the satellite network called, GRAMSAT VSAT, each job seeker in this state is tracked on web and details of each project are verifiable by anyone.

egov does not neccesarily subscribe to the views expressed in this publication. All views expressed in the magazine are those of the contributors. egov is not responsible or

Wish you a happy reading. We look forward to your inputs and feedback on future issues of e-Governance that you would like us to cover.

accountable for any loss incurred, directly or indirectly as a result of the information provided. egov is published & marketed in collaboration with Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd. (www.elets.in) © Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies 2007 www.csdms.in

ov

December 2007

Ravi Gupta Ravi.Gupta@csdms.in 5

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COVER FEATURE: e-POLICE

Applying IT to Modernise the Police System in India http://bprd.nic.in

“Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) is using IT and Internet in a big way. BPRD website is the finest police site today. All the information of the department is available on the site.

All our researches and studies are online, even before the hard copy comes, the report goes online,” says Kiran Bedi, (IPS), Director General, Bureau of Police Research and Development, in an exclusive interview with egov magazine

What are the objectives and goals of the Bureau of Police Research and Development?

The Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) was set up on 28th August, 1970, in furtherance of the objective of the Government of India to modernise the police services.

In the beginning, the BPRD had two divisions: Research Division and Development Division. Thereafter, three more divisions were added to the organisation. They are viz., Training Division (1973); Forensic Science Services (1983); and Correctional Administration (1995).

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The BPRD was assigned the responsibility of promoting a speedy and systematic study of police problems in a changed society and bring about rapid application of science and technology to the methods and techniques of the police in the country. The BPRD has evolved as a multi-faceted consultancy. A number of additional responsibilities have been assigned to the BPRD over the time which is a reflection of the trust which the government and police forces have in the BPRD. The services of the BPRD have also been utilised by police forces of friendly foreign countries. www.egovonline.net

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At present the BPRD has four divisions as follows: Research Division: The Research Division is involved in identifying the needs and problems of police services in the country and initiate, stimulate and guide research in this field, in coordination with various academic and professional institutions. It also organises seminars, symposia, workshops and congress on various subjects of topical interests to the police forces in India to develop national consensus and draw actionable conclusions.

Some of the major functions of the Research Statistics and Publication Division of Bureau of Police Research and Development is analysis and study of crime and problems of general nature affecting the police, assistance of police research programmes in states, processing and coordination of research projects, organising Police Science Congress and other conferences and seminars relating to study of police problems, maintenance of all India statistics of crime, statistical analysis of trends of crime, documentation relating to Police Science and Criminology, publication of journals like Police Research and Development Journal; Crime in India and Indian Police Journal; publishing research reports and news letters and reports, reviews, other journals and books relating to matters connected with police work.

Development Division: The Development Division keeps itself abreast with developments in the application of science and technology to police work in India and other countries and studies new procedures with a view to promote induction of appropriate equipment and techniques. It constantly scouts for new technologies and scientific products and examines feasibility of their implementation in our country. It has been laying standards in procurement / application of number of equipments like body armours, bullet proof vehicles, weapons, motor vehicles, etc.

Training Division: The Training Division was established on 13th September, 1973 in pursuant to the recommendation of Committee on Police Training (Gore Committee) to function as Central Police Training Directorate to cater training needs to the police forces in the country. The Training Division overseas the three Central Detective Training Institutions established at Chandigarh, Kolkata and Hyderabad, which run courses for state police officers in the field of scientific investigation.

It is also involved in evaluating the existing programmes and designing training strategy and methodologies of the training establishments throughout the country by assessing the future needs of police training. This Division liaises with the State Police Training Institutions and other academic bodies and helps in preparation and circulation of syllabi and training materials of different specialised courses. It also conducts quality audit of police training institutions to facilitate their upgradation.

Correctional Administration Division: This division was established in the BPRD on 16th November, 1995, with specific charter of functions, which include responsibilities relating to the study of problems affecting prison administration and the promotion of research and training in this field. The division has not only been sponsoring research and training programmes through state governments and academic institutions but also undertaking on its own projects on issues deserving priority in this. ov

December 2007

How is IT being used by BPRD to reach its desired goals?

BPRD is using IT and Internet in a big way. BPRD website is the finest police site today. All the information of the department is available on the site. All our researches and studies are online, even before the hard copy comes, the report goes online. To make police and other citizens aware, on every first of the month, we give an advertisement in the newspapers, saying ‘Information of the Police is ‘Just a Click Away’. And we also say, ‘Please see the space next month for new...’ And whatever is new, we give it here. So every month this is the reminder.

On our website site we have different sections - articles, reports, presentations, e-Library, films on police, news, events, path breaking judgements, police station information, media on various police issues; news archives; all publications; police authors; articles on prisons; articles on Police leadership; BPRD colloquium; and more.

So whatever treasure of information this bureau has, it is available here. Now you can see every study here, you can go to authors, subject etc. For the first time the information is available to the media.

The postal address of police station with phone and fax numbers and residential phone numbers of station in-charges can be accessed through the Internet now. It also has the contact details of offices of assistant police commissioners and deputy superintendents of police of respective areas.

Some police stations have provided their e-Mail IDs also.

Providing contact details of police stations across the country would bring people and police together. This is a beginning to get police stations connected through the Internet which will improve connectivity and access and making policing in the country transparent. So, this way, we have utilised the the tool of information and technology. BPRD is a very 7

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small department, but its charter is very big. It is also the smallest in number and the smallest in budget. Although we may be the smallest in size but we are the only one who has got the material. So the decision I took when I took over the department, was to use the medium of Internet, the eRoute and that is why we have become truly global. Now we have every thing available on Internet (focus of the month, numbers of police stations, manuals etc). Every day we update our site and daily we answer to the eMail queries.

We also have positive reporting uploaded online, because people assume there no is positive reporting about police.

Although the number of such reporting is small, but we put it on the site.

We at BPRD envisage a scenario where all police stations across the country could be connected through e-Mails where people can send information to investigators and lodge complaints. We should develop such a software that a mail, which is a complaint or information, received at the police station is acknowledged automatically. Incidents like refusal by officials to file FIRs on missing children and women in Uttar Pradesh’s Nithari village could have been avoided if there was a ‘fool-proof’ mechanism to ensure accountability.

We should utilise available technology to plug the loopholes in the system and open it up.

What support is your department getting from the National Informatics Centre (NIC), which is the implementing body of the e-Police mission mode project?

I would give full credit to Dr. Gairola, Director General, NIC and his team at NIC, who did the BPRD portal for us. Even though we did not have the budget, we went to Dr. Gairola and told him that ‘we have full faith in you and we have no budget, and he said ‘budget will come later.’ He asked Dr. Neeta Verma, Senior Technical Director, and she did it for us. And then later on we gave them only INR 0.6 million.

They have given us a full time web master. So one young web master sits daily in our morning review meetings where we review our work and decide to upload something new. The information about this new upload is then circulated through wireless messages to every police functionary, whereby we request them to see the website. So we utilise newspapers, wireless messages etc. for disseminating the new messages.

What is the kind of response you are getting from the police functionaries? How do you ensure that the language does not prove to be a barrier?

We are now moving to translate the site and other material in Hindi. Recently, a police constable wrote to us and we uploaded this as ‘BPRD reaches its destination’. It was written

by Babulal (police constable): “My self constable I do job at

Gatodia police station, Ahmadabad city, Gujarat, I feel good to read some article on BPRD website”. We uploaded this on the website without any editing and called it as ‘BPRD reaches its destination’. He even got a reply from the Director General of Police, of Gujarat state, who said he was very happy that a constable of his state wrote. So in every thing of BPRD, we are using as much of the Internet as possible for the dissemination of information. Thanks to the support of NIC and our everyday homework, all our documents are available on the site. There is the latest news, a list of articles which you can look and for the first time we have put films, short films, which anybody can download. We have put road safety films. Then we have the police history films online available for the first time in both English and Hindi and very easily downloadable. We are getting 8 prison films and we will put all them here. The objective is whatever we create, it is for everybody. Similarly our training material, we keep updating it on our website. For the first time drill manual is here, workbook, feedback management, training need analysis, training material schedule etc. The first time we have put bugle tunes. It is not available in India and this is something which is rare. We have put the names of the people who have made these bugle tunes and their addresses for people to contact them. Now a days, no police man wants to become a bugler, as the art and craft, this is getting extinct.

So we have the tunes. We have 2 million hits, 50% are from the West and 50% from India.

We have put online all the police authors and their contributions. We also receive calls from the authors who are reporting that their names are not included in the list and request us to put their names too in this list. This is a very positive sign that people are reading our website.

For the first time we are organising the authors meet in November. The digitisation process is going on for e-Library (e-Granthalaya). Now you can just click and you get introduction of the book so that you can contact the publisher. We have also put presentations on the site. Any good presentation, we put it on the site, so that one can go through it and can benefit. Recently I gave one presentation in the Director Generals’ of police conference and put it on the site for everyone to see the presentation, download or take a print-out. This, for me, is the right to information. So this is the way we are using the IT. Since BPRD is small, I think the best way for us to disseminate the information is through the use of Internet. I find this as the most potent weapon, most useful tool but the tragedy is that not everybody is valuing this. This is why there is a difference between the different states of India in the use of ICT by the police department.

Some states are using the computers, some not. It will take sometime to change this scenario for the better.

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COVER FEATURE: e-POLICE

Policing in the Information Age Information Technology (IT) has created new opportunities to manage the police force better, and to investigate criminal cases more efďŹ ciently. At the same time, it has given rise to increasing cyber-crimes.

The police must gear up to face the increasing challenges on this front, and contribute to the healthy development of the IT sector in the country.

Barun Kumar Sahu POLICE AND IT

PERSONNEL MATTER

Internal security is an important sovereign function of the State, and policing is primarily the responsibility of the State agencies. In the planning process in India, policing was not regarded as having a developmental impact. As such policing was categorised as ‘non-plan,’ which meant lower priority in allocation of scarce financial resources. However, with several IT initiatives, computers and other electronic gadgets are becoming ubiquitous in the police system, down to the police station level.Indeed, police is an important Mission Mode Project (MMP) under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). Neglecting modernisation of the police will be perilous for the nation. However, the expenditure on IT in the police is still low.

IT in police has two major aspects.

One aspect is the use of computers and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions in the management of the police, such as in personnel management, financial management, inventory management, operational matters, communications, decision support systems, and data search and retrieval. The other aspect is the use of IT tools to gather evidences and clues in crime investigations to prevent and investigate cyber crimes, and to police the cyberspace and the cybercommunities.

The biggest stumbling block in e-Police is the scarcity of trained personnel.

The requirement of IT-savvy personnel in police has burgeoned in the recent years.

However, recruitment in the government set-up is a lengthy process. Framing of recruitment rules, recruitment of personnel, induction training and deployment take several years. Then, there is the problem of attrition, as trained personnel leave the police force for greener pastures elsewhere. Many police organisations are managing the requirement of personnel by the way of attachment from other wings of the police. But this can only be an adhoc arrangement.Perhaps a better option would be in-sourcing of skilled personnel from private firms. Since continuous updating of IT skills and knowledge is required in this emerging field (and which is difficult in the government set-up), an arrangement can be made with the private sector enterprises for in-sourcing of skilled personnel.

IT projects need constant nurturing of technological foresights, timely actions, and sagacious leadership to lead through uncertainties and rapid obsolescence. The high rate of failure of IT projects, obsolescence of technology, and absence of precedence in this emerging field increases the importance and indispensability

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of the leadership to lead the projects from start to finish.

IT INFRASTRUCTURE

There have been several notable initiatives on creation of IT infrastructure in the police in the country. On the communication front, POLNET (http:// dcpw.nic.in/contents/Polnet.htm) was set-up. POLNET links all the district units of the state police with the units of the central paramilitary forces for voice and data. Below the district level, there is voice communication upto the police station level. However, because of inadequate bandwidth in POLNET for the present level of requirements, many e-Governance projects are now looking for alternative communication networks, such as state wide-area network (SWAN), and leased line etc.

Computerisation of police records has been receiving attention since early 1970s. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) plays a leading role in empowering the police in India with information technology and criminal intelligence to enable them to effectively and efficiently enforce the law and improve public service delivery. It also coordinates with police forces at national and international levels on crime analysis technology, crime database and developing IT capability and IT-enabled solutions. www.egovonline.net

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NCRB conceptualised the Crime Criminal Information System (CCIS). Its roll-out was at the district and state levels, with the central data repository at the national level. The present initiative of NCRB is called Common Integrated Police Application (CIPA). It is being implemented in three phases as a centrally-sponsored scheme through National Informatics Center (NIC). CIPA does not only provide funding to police IT project, it also provides uniformity and interoperability across the country. It is being implemented on Open Source Software (OSS) platform. The data entry and data storage are envisaged primarily at the police station level. All the crimerelated data generated in police station are captured. The servers are located in police stations, which will be linked to the district and upward for data integration and back-up.

The scheme is already in operation in Delhi, and some states have made substantial progress in the roll-out of the project.

ARCHITECTURE OF IT SOLUTION FOR THE POLICE

Policing is not the work of a single organisation. Each state has a state police force, which has several wings such as armed wing, and investigation wing etc. The central government also has central police forces. The police have to work in close cooperation with different state agencies. Moreover, policing ultimately means dealing with the people, so interface with the people is central to the architecture. Thus, the IT solutions for the police have G2G, G2C, G2E, and G2B components.

Given the kind of pressure on crime investigation and the stakes involved, the police IT infrastructure is extremely much vulnerable to intrusion, cracking, malware and identity theft Moreover, there is also the threat of damage to data by insiders. Even the Right to Information Act recognises the need for heightened secrecy of information in the police and crime investigation. The IT infrastructure of the police must have very tight security and counter-intelligence measures through state-of-the-art firewall, intrusion detection and prevention system, antivirus and fingerprint system, regular monitoring and auditing the network performance and management of network. Indian Computer Response Team (CERT-In) issues general guidelines on security in the wired world.

The police and the defense forces always use communication system that is mobile, or has a mobile component that can be set up and dismantled quickly. Criminal investigation requires creation of databank of biometrics of the criminals, and also advanced image processing and analysis capabilities.

Computer systems are also used in the simulated firearms training, surveillance and GPS-based systems.

POLICING THE INTRANET AND THE INTERNET

The Internet has opened up new opportunities, which when exploited by people with malicious intent can and do create havoc. The apparent anonymity and absence of visible monitoring lull many people into indulging in activities on the intranet and the Internet that are criminal in nature. As ov

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a result of the rapid adoption of the Internet globally, cybercrimes include not only hacking and cracking, but also data theft, extortion, money laundering, fraud, credit card fraud, fraudulent withdrawal of money, piracy, espionage, identity theft, obscenity, invasion into privacy, malicious propaganda, cloning, cyber-stalking, spamming, violation of intellectual property rights, sale of narcotics and banned substances, planting viruses and worms, phishing, spoofing, pharming etc. India and the world now increasingly depend on computers. Computers are used to store and process vital information. Such computers and computer networks are very vulnerable to attacks. Convenience has given rise to new vulnerabilities. NCRB data shows that there has been exponential rise in the cyber-crimes in the last few years.

Many organisations are reluctant to report the incidents of cyber-crime owing to the fear of losing public confidence through adverse publicity.

Privacy is a big casualty in this information age. Data on our activities are continually being collected and compiled, be it our expenditure pattern, medical history or our friend circle. These data are sold to be used against us. The call centers also have to protect the data of their clients from being stolen.

Hacking for fun has grown into full-fledged cyberterrorism. Terrorist groups are increasingly using IT tools and the Internet to formulate plans, communicate securely, launch propaganda and raise funds. The cyber-terrorists hide behind the high level of security created to guard against unwarranted intrusion. They use steganography to camouflage their communication. Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one apart from the sender and intended recipient even realises there is a hidden message. Hoax, chain mail, malicious propaganda, hatred campaign, inciting disaffection against the government, planning to commit crime; all these are now done on the Internet. Breaches to our defences are occurring more and more through the networks, than through national boundaries.

Cyber-crime enforcement, is the area of legal jurisdiction.

Often the criminal resides in a different country or region than where the impact of the crime is felt. Curbing cybercrime requires international cooperation, and cooperation not just among government bodies but also among private corporations. Cyber-crime is a white-collar crime, and requires a different skill set to tackle in comparison to the conventional crimes. Even though privacy of the individual and right to freedom of expression are important, some form of policing the intranet and the Internet, and lawful interception and analysis of communication over the Internet and the telecom networks are essential. Of course, policing the Internet should aim at healthy growth of the cyberspace, and it should not stifle well-behaved cyber-communities and deprive people of the new opportunities.

Most cyber-crimes are booked under the Information Technology Act and the Indian Penal Code. Of course, the law and the legal procedures lag behind the technological advancements, and they have to catch up with the technological advancements and the use of technology by the criminals and wrongdoers.

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CYBER-FORENSIC

The national level forensic organisations are: the Directorate of Forensic Science, National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science (NICFS), Central Forensic Science Laboratory and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). There are also state level forensic laboratories. Traditionally, forensic science laboratories deal with examination of questioned documents, handwritings, signatures, chemicals, blood and other organic samples etc. However, increasingly, the evidences and clues in criminal cases are now in electronic forms—whether it be cyber-crime or normal crime. It may be in the form of eMails, data files, IP addresses, log files, SMSs, steganography, cryptography, digital trails, deleted files or data packets etc.

Most economic and high profile crimes and frauds need examination of electronic evidences. This has led to the development of a separate field of “cyber-forensic.” Centre for the Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has developed useful cyber-forensic tools.

The workload on cyber-forensic has seen rapid increase in the last few years. The increase has been so much that cyber-forensic laboratories simply do not have the capacity to handle them. Most white-collar crimes and economic offences now require examination of contents of laptops, electronic communications, cracking of passwords, examination of system log files, audit trails, disguised and deleted files etc.

There is a need to have cyber-forensic cells in each district, and full-fledged cyber-forensic laboratories in each state.

Cyber-forensic requires ability to gather clues and evidences without any unintended alteration of, or harm to data. Search and seizure of electronic gadgets and software, requires sophisticated skills. The criminals use more and more sophisticated tools to evade detection and trace.

Therefore, the tools for cyber-forensic are to be improved continually, and the skills of the personnel need to be updated regularly.

PRESENTING ELECTRONIC EVIDENCE

Traditionally, the evidences produced before the courts in criminal cases have been in the form of paper documents and materials (such as weapons etc.), used to carry out the

crime. However, in many criminal cases now the evidences produced before the court are in the electronic form. In traditional criminal cases, the courts decide, based on material evidences, oral depositions and cross examination of witnesses. However, now the courts have to decide cases based on print-outs from electronic gadgets. Even capital punishment may be awarded based on these printouts.

Definitely, the electronic evidences will be challenged, and the courts will have to satisfy themselves about the authenticity, reliability and accuracy of the electronic evidences. This calls for a fresh look at evidence collection and prosecution in this information age.

Many police officers have developed the capability to shift through electronic evidences as a hobby, and by using unauthenticated software tools. Since the proceeding before a court is a formal process, and the criminal can get away by challenging the qualification of the personnel who investigated and vetted the electronic evidence and the authenticity of the tools used, it is necessary to set right this emerging field. The prosecutors will have to be qualified enough to successfully plead the case before the court against a knowledgeable defence lawyer. Qualification of the personnel will also have to be prescribed for collection and authentication of evidences in cyber-crimes.

CONCLUSION

Information technology has made an impact on all aspects of our public life. IT has created new opportunities to manage the police force better, and to investigate criminal cases more efficiently. At the same time, it has given rise to increasing cyber-crimes. The evidences and clues are increasingly in electronic form. The police must gear up to face the increasing challenges on this front in the interest of the healthy growth of the Information Technology sector in the country.

Barun Kumar Sahu (barun_sahu@yahoo.com.) is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of 1992 batch. He has written four books. His latest book ‘Make Computers Speak Your Language’ is on text processing in multilingual environment. At present, he is posted as Director (Personnel) in Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.

CCTV Helps Police Catch Couple Stealing Diamonds A professor couple at a management institute in Delhi pulled off a neat theft at a MMTC jewellery exhibition at Ashoka Hotel, New Delhi, recently, after which they planned another robbery at an exhibition held by the same company.

Once the first theft was discovered by the exhibitors, the police were informed and they swung into action. Making use of the technology of a close-circuit television (CCTV) which is used for surveillance, the police were able to catch the couple.

“After registering a case, we asked for the CCTV footage of the exhibition. While analysing the footage, a couple at the overcrowded counter (No. 7) attracted our attention. It was seen that the man asked for the jewellery on display and passed it on to his wife who was standing next to him. The woman put it in her purse,” said DCP (New Delhi) Anand Mohan.

The police got the pictures of the two developed and alerted the security personnel, anticipating that the duo would strike again. But till the end of the exhibition on November 4, there was no breakthrough. But the cops did not give up. Realising that a similar MMTC exhibition was to be held at Hotel Park Royal from November 8, they alerted the security personnel at the hotel on the couple. When the couple walked into the hotel, the staff immediately identified the duo and alerted the cops.

“We reached there and both the accused were arrested. Later, a raid was conducted and the missing diamond and necklace were found at their residence in C block, Greater Kailash,” the police officer said.

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COVER FEATURE: e-POLICE

e-Police Around the Globe POLNET: Modernising Police Communication Police Telecommunication Network or POLNET (http://www. dcpw.nic.in/contents/Polnet.htm ) is a satellite based integrated network for the modernisation of police communication implemented by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. It is an exclusive communication network for police providing direct communication link from the national capital to the state capital and the district headquarters on voice, data, fax and computer communication and further extend the communication connectivity upto the police stations on voice. Conceived originally by the late Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the project was cleared by the Central government in 1996.

POLNET consists of 833 VSATs (Very Small Aperture Terminals) at each state capital, district headquarter and selected locations of CPMFs (expansion of CPMF) with the HUB at Delhi. The police stations are to be covered with MART (Multi Access Radio Telephone) systems, extending connectivity from state capitals and district headquarters upto the police stations by installing 11,502 MART systems.

This will facilitate direct Thana (police station) to Thana dial up direct connectivity through out the country, which would lead to instant sharing of criminal records among all police districts, besides free and effective telephone and FAX facility.

Singapore Police Online The Singapore Police Department (http://www.spf.gov. sg/) provides various e-Services to its citizens through which people can access information and lodge reports online, anytime and anywhere. The e-PC (Electronic Police Centre), an e-Service provided by the Singapore police department since 2002, takes about 15 minutes to complete reporting, and lost property reports or crimes that do not require immediate police action can be lodged online by the citizens of Singapore.

The public can access the e-PC through the Spinet or e-Citizen web-site. All reports lodged via the e-PC are channeled to a central e-PC Unit under Radio Division. At the e-PC Unit, the reports are read, classified, filed and/or referred to the right SPF (Singapore Police Force) unit or external agency for follow-up. The e-PC Unit also forwards an official copy of the police report to the complainant for retention within 48 hours from the time the report was received. Another e-Service provided by the Singapore Police Department is Electronic Driver Data Information and Enquiry System (EDDIES). It is an online enquiry system that allows members of the public, insurance and car rental companies to check a driver’s/ motorist’s driving licence status and eligibility for Certificate of Merit.

Metropolitan Police Online Crime Reporting New Scotland Yard or Scotland Yard, informally known as The Yard and NSY, is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service, responsible for policing Greater London, UK. The Metropolitan Police provides citizens with the online crime reporting system. It can be accessed at https://online. met.police.uk/. The website is for reporting non-emergency crime and hate crime / incident reporting. The service is available for incidents in the Greater London area. One can use this service to notify the Metropolitan Police of the following crimes committed within the Greater London Authority Area: • Theft - excluding: Robbery (where the person reporting or the person about whom one is reporting for was subjected to

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violence or the threat of violence) Burglary (a building has been broken into) Criminal damage Theft from a motor vehicle Criminal damage to a motor vehicle Hate crimes and hate incidents The website also defines when not to use this service.

These are in situation when: the police service is ready to help, with trained call operators available 24 hours a day, if the crime is serious (i.e involves vulnerable, elderly or young victims or it is of a violent or sexual nature), if the crime is happening now, or if offender is still there or nearby, someone saw the crime being committed and the evidence has been left at the scene.

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COVER FEATURE:e-POLICE

Tackling Cyber Crimes Need for Stringent Laws India is one of the few countries that has constituted the Information Technology (IT) Act. What are the implications of this Act for e-Governance in general and curbing the cyber crimes in specific?

The Information Technology Act, 2000 has got maximum utility and relevance for any person or any legal entity that is involved in the use of computers, computer systems or computer networks or anyone who uses data or information in electronic form. This is so because this is the only legislation has granted legality and legal enforceability to the electronic contract. This is also the only legislation where a legal framework has been provided for promoting e-Governance in the country. The section 4 of the IT Act talks about the legality of the electronic format, provided that you comply with certain requirements. We also have various provisions by means of which the facilitation and use of electronic format in the government agencies and for official purposes has been statutorily notified. This law, which came into effect from 17th October, 2000, provided a launching pad on the basis of which e-Governance could grow and has indeed grown in India.

As far as the question of cyber crime is concerned, the law is of particular relevance, primarily because under the IT Act, certain activities have been classified as cyber crimes. These are made punishable with imprisonment, which could extend from 3 years to 10 years and a fine of INR 100,0000 or more.

Some of the cases that are covered include hacking, damage to computer source code, publishing obscene electronic information, breach of protection system, breach of privacy and confidentiality. However, some of the activities have been covered, a very large chunk of cyber crimes are still not covered under the IT Act. Although cyber crimes are covered in the IT Act, a lot of other crimes are still not covered. For instance, social networking crimes, cyber terrorism, cyber nuisance, are effectively still not brought within the ambit of either the IT Act or the proposed amendments. Things like phishing and identity thefts are not directly covered under the IT Act or under the proposed amendments either. So, I think it is high time that the government has a more comprehensive look, and tries to cover as much as it can, under the IT Act. Some of these are now proposed to be covered by the virtue of the proposed amendments in the IT Bill 2006, which was introduced by the Indian Parliament in December 2006.

In lieu of the recent technological developments, what are the amendments that are required under the IT Act? The IT Act, when it began in the year 2000, was primarily a law meant for promoting e-Commerce. It was never meant to be a law for regulating cyber crimes, however, when the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology was examining it, in the year 2000, the ‘I Love 16 }

pduggal@gmail.com

“We have some very remarkably intelligent police officers in the country but if you look at the police force as a whole, you realise that the force is inherently lacking in its tools, in its orientation, in its awareness and in its ability to investigate, prosecute, crack and prove cyber crime,” says Pavan Duggal, Advocate, Supreme Court, in an interview with egov magazine

www.egovonline.net

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You virus had hit the world. This’ virus is said to be one of the most expensive crimes in human history causing about 10.2 billion dollars of damage. That is what set the mind of the Standing Committee thinking, and they proposed certain acts to be made and brought within the ambit of penalty.

However, what has happened is that technology has not waited for long. Cyber criminals have been roughly tensteps ahead of the law enforcement. So, we find that this law is not in tune with the times and thus the government is always under pressure to amend it.

The government appointed various committees and came up with an amendment bill. The amendment seeks to address some major concerns under the IT Act. For example, IT Act is a technology specific law, in the sense that it only talks about a particular technology which is legal in our country for authentication purposes. Some of them are asymetric crypto system and hash function or public infrastructure technology which has been legally recognised for electronic authentification purposes. Similarly it is sought to make it far more broad by not merely referring it to digital signatures but also using generic terms like electronic signatures. It has also sought to add some cyber crimes like cyber stalking, cyber harassment or sting operations. These are the things that were not covered in the existing law. They are now sought to be brought under the ambit of penalty.

What are your comments on the Lakshmana Kailash, the man who was arrested and jailed for 50 days, because of incorrect information given by the ISP to the police?

This case, once again states how IT Act 2000 can be misused against a common man. First and foremost, this law has given tremendous power of entry, search and arrest to any police officer, not below the rank of a District Superintendent of Police (DSP). On top of that, there is an absolute blanket immunity granted to the police under the section 84 of the IP Act. It says that in case any action is taken by the police, there will be no legal suit or legal proceedings of any kind what so ever against the police, if the police officer says that he acted in good faith and whatever he did was in pursuance of performance of his efficient duties. So once these two things are said by the police officer, he is behind a complete, absolute, impregnable wall of immunity. So when such cases take place, the blame goes back to the service provider. The recent case of Lakshman, which you have mentioned, is a classic case of a service provider goofing up and that goof up being further magnified by the complete lack of sensibility in handling such a case by the police. A man put behind bars for 50 days because the service provider gave the wrong address.

This could happen to anyone. If that happens, we are in for a major problem. We could virtually see a break down of the entire society. A case like this also shows that there is a need for ensuring that this kind of blanket immunity should go off from the police. Also, if the service provider has done something wrong, there should be effective remedies to go after the service provider. Currently the service provider is liable under section 79 of the IT Act for all third party information made available by him. Only in two conditions he is not liable- he can either prove that he had no knowledge of the contravention of the law or if he can prove that despite ov

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exercise of all due diligence, he still could not prevent the commission of any offence or contravention of the law.

Now, technically, if the service provider is deficient, I see, within the IT Act, two possible ramifications that have not been explored till now. A victim of a wrong address or being given a wrong address by a service provider, could actually sue a service provider, both for compensation by the way of damages up to INR 10 million, under the section 43 of the IT Act and could also invoke the criminal liability for the top most management under section 66 of the IT Act, which is basically the offense of hacking but which evokes the penalty of 3 years imprisonment and a fine of INR 0.2 million. This is still untested but this is the way, I think the situation could go, if these kinds of faux pas keep on taking place by the service providers.

Who, do you mean, when you say service provider?

The word service provider is very strange. Section 79 of the IT Act has come up with a concept known as ‘the network service provider’. A network service provider means any person who is an intermediary and who is providing services on the network. So, in that sense a website owner is a service provider, a website is a network service provider, when you are providing any actual services on the Internet, you become a service provider. More importantly, the way the law is defined, even a company that provides connectivity to its employees also becomes a service provider because the company is providing connectivity to its employees. So almost all the social networking sites are service providers and your liability is being made for third party information. Third party information is defined under the explanation B to section 79 of IT Act to mean ‘any information dealt with by a network service provider in his capacity as intermediary’. So currently it is a very vast section and it is time that we rationalise the section.

What are the major cyber crimes and offences that the governments and police machinery is faced with today?

The major cyber crimes that the government and the police are facing are four in different categories. The first category can be of cyber crimes against persons, like cyber-stalking, cyber harassment, cyber-nuisance. The second category is cyber crimes against property, where a particular property is targeted - a computer, a network, a data base, or some information. Hacking and cracking, are typical cyber crimes against property. The third category is of cyber crimes against nations- where a particular nation is the target. Cyber-war, cyber-terrorism are examples in that regard. The fourth emerging category is that of Internet 2.0 cyber crimes. These crimes come in a different category all together because unlike the other 3 categories, the user becomes the publisher.

Another category, to be noted, is when the criminal activity is targeted at a particular destination but the user may not be the publisher. A remarkable aspect of this particular activity is that the user invariably is generating content. On social networking sites like Facebook and Orkut, a lot of misuse is taking place but there is no affective remedy.

So cyber crimes are constantly increasing, but we need to make our laws at least as broad and generic so that as far as 17

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possible, emerging cyber crimes could be covered in some broad language that we can provide.

actually talk in terms of having some cyber police force for every state that could become a specialised force. Currently what happens is that cyber crimes get investigated by any police officer not below the rank of a DSP, who may or may not have the appropriate skills. So I think they need to be constantly equipped with tools, mechanisms and material.

Please elaborate a bit on cyber terrorism.

Cyber terrorism is one of the biggest challenges India is facing. The cyber terrorist today is an extremely intelligent mind who’s only job is to try and destabilise a particular country, its institutions or its networks for the purpose of What technologies are available with the police to deal creating terror in the minds of the people. A cyber-terrorist with cyber crime worldwide? and his ambit of activities is much larger than a normal There are various technologies available and various technical terrorist activity. A normal terrorist bomb in a particular area tools that law enforcement agencies are utilising across the may kill a hundred people and its impact may be slightly world and in India. Government has the power of interception localised. A cyber terrorist, who is jamming or effectively de- of any electronic communication that passes through a stabalising the network could have far bigger ramifications computer, that is physically located in India, and through and that is where I think India really needs to work hard that interception, the law enforcement agency is able to do a in terms of coming up with distinct lot. But the cyber criminals are much laws on cyber crimes. Currently we smarter, earlier they would send ehave the existing terrorist law which Mails, now, to give a classic example, does not deal with cyber terrorism. today, a gang of cyber criminals The IT Act is silent on terrorism; the would open a free web based e-Mail proposed amendments are silent account and everyone of them would know the user name and password. on terrorism too. Consequently, if One person will log in, create a we get a cyber terrorist, we would message and save it in the drafts, be forced to convict or book him and another person would open the under the existing terrorist law of e-Mail address, read the draft, make the country and clearly that is not changes and save it further. As logs enough. A bigger question arises only keep information of the sent and in the context of Internet because received mails, and not of the drafts, jurisdiction is a big issue. We do not the information gets disseminated want India to be in the same situation across various boundaries and once as Philippines after the ‘I Love You’ the work is done, the information virus was spread in the world. The Source: http://tweakers.netexti.dsp1146916348.gif is deleted. So this is how cybervirus was spread by a Philippino criminals are circumventing today. who released it from his computer causing billions of dollars worth of damage. However, he Thus, we cannot have one particular technology, it has to be could not be convicted because at that time there was no law a cumulative approach. that prevented doing such a thing. So it was not an offence.

Please tell us about some of the cyber crimes cases that How equipped (both technology-wise and human you handled. resource-wise) is the police machinery in India to deal I have handled various cases, I was the council for the with such crimes? What are your suggestions to improve complainant in India’s first cyber crime conviction in 2003.

On the website of a major electronic multi-national company, the situation?

We have some very remarkably intelligent police officers in a person working in a call centre in Noida in Uttar Pradeshhad the country but if you look at the police force as a whole, you misused the credit card of an American. We got the Central realise that the force is inherently lacking in its tools, in its Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to register the case and the orientation, in its awareness and in its ability to investigate, criminal was arrested and punished for on-line cheating. prosecute, crack and prove cyber crimes. Let me give you an Another case was when we sued an IP address.

In India, under reporting of cyber crime cases is the norm example. Internet was commercially introduced in India on 15th August, 1995. Today, more than 12 years later, in a of the day. People do not report cases for the simple reason country of a billion plus, only two cyber-criminals have been that, firstly, police is not efficient in dealing with cyber crime, convicted. This is a sad commentary of how well equipped and even if you report, chances of it getting registered is 1 the police and the law enforcement are for dealing with in 100. Also people are vary of harassment at the hands of the police and lastly they are also concerned of negative cyber crimes.

So I think the Government in India, needs to allocate more media publicity.

We did a survey last year and found that out of every 500 resources, more budget on creating awareness and training amongst law enforcement agencies about different types of cases of cyber crime, only 50 are reported. Out of the 50 cyber crimes. When we talk about law enforcement, it is reported cases, only one gets registered as a FIR with the the country as a whole. Merely having some brilliant law police. The ratio of 1:500, I still believe is a conservative enforcement officers alone may not suffice. Ideally, we should figure. The reality is much more gruesome.

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COVER FEATURE: e-POLICE

Engaging Citizens for Enhancing Public Safety Gainesville Police Department, Florida, USA

www.gainesvillepd.org

The Gainesville Police Department istaking full advantage of the internet and web technology in a way that allows citizens to gather the information they need so that they can become informed and involved citizens without leaving the comfort of their homes or businesses.

Lt. Ed Posey and Chuck Georgo

The majority of citizens in our country will never come into contact with their local law enforcement officers, let alone have exposure to the inner workings of police and sheriff’s departments in their region. The Gainesville Police Department in Gainesville, Florida, wanted to change that.

They sought out and successfully employed easily available internet technologies to share the wealth of crime data they routinely collected as a tool to better engage the citizens of Gainesville in helping them to make their communities a safer place to live. More specifically, the police department wanted to: • Demystify law enforcement operations to the citizens of Gainesville; • Motivate community groups to have a stronger hand in addressing crime; and • Enable individual citizens to better protect themselves from criminal activity.

Before the Internet era and the advent of law enforcement websites, citizens had to watch the evening news or read the newspaper to know about the major criminal incidents that occurred around them. News reporters had to literally drive to the local police station and read a paper blotter, or they had to call the station and have a supervisor tell them about what was happening.

Incidents not reported on by the media were very difficult for the average person to find out about. Even if a citizen did find out about an incident, they had to either come to the station or at least call to get a copy of an incident report. More often then not, the citizen had to wait three days and either come back to the station to pick up the report or they had to wait until the report was mailed to them.

Then the internet arrived. This provided law enforcement agencies with an electronic way for its citizens to become a) more aware of crime public safety issues in their communities and b) more involved in helping their local police department address those issues. Even the simplest law enforcement websites let citizens see the ‘police blotter’ for their community and show photographs of missing persons or local criminals ov

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who had been arrested.

The Gainesville Police Department is agency is doing these things, and more. They are taking full advantage of the internet and web technology in a way that allows citizens to gather the information they need so that they can become informed and involved citizens without leaving the comfort of their homes or businesses.

The Department has two websites. The first site provides citizens basic information about the Gainesville Police Department. Information like: • What District and Zone do they live in?

• Who is the Chief of Police?

• What officer works in my area of the City?

The second website is called the ‘Police to Citizen’ or P2C website. P2C was developed by Sungard OSSI, the technology vendor that provides the police department’s Records Management System (RMS). Sungard OSSI developed the P2C website using Java and Microsoft Application Server Pages. The project took 6 months to develop and implement at a total cost of US$10,000.00 to the department. The same software now sells for approximately US$30,000.00.

The P2C site permits citizens to create a police blotter ondemand, and to plot crime incidents on a map. By entering a local Gainesville address, citizens can create a map of the city around that address and view accidents, incidents, and arrests that occurred in that neighbourhood for the last 30 days. Individual incidents are colour-coded, red, yellow or blue, to distinguish the different types of events.

Citizens can ‘click’ on any dot for more detail about a particular event. What is particularly innovative about the P2C interface is that the maps are computer generated at the time the citizen requests the information, they are not static maps manually created by an analyst in the department. To comply with state and local privacy laws, not all police reports are shown on the blotter or on the map. Reports that are not public record, such as sexual battery reports are kept off the P2C website. A sample map is shown below.

Why are the maps so important to citizens? Gainesville is 19

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the very proud home to the University of Florida with an average enrollment of 50,000 students. Before students relocate to the Gainesville area, they want to know where in the region are the best and safest places to live. In the past, our agency would receive many telephone calls from students and concerned parents, asking the department if an apartment complex or residential area was safe area for their son or daughter to live.

Unfortunately, because of legal reasons, the department was not permitted to recommend a particular area of the city, nor could the department suggest a student not live in a particular area. Now, through the use of the P2C website, students and their parents can use the interactive maps to find safe areas in which to live. We have also found that full-time citizens of Gainesville quite often use the P2C website and maps when relocating within the Gainesville region.

The P2C website has also been a valuable tool for Gainesville citizens to be actively involved in crime watch or neighborhood watch activities. They currently use the website to stay abreast of criminal activities in their respective communities and to notify affected neighbours, either in person, via the phone or via email, about those crimes and what they can and should to protect themselves from future occurrences.

The information relayed to Gainesville citizens does not stop with just crime data. The P2C website also allows citizens to learn about traffic citations that were issued and the locations of vehicle crashes in the region. Citizens can use that information to see if officers are writing citations in areas that they have identified as potential problems or hazards. They can also use the maps to identify roadways and intersections where traffic light or signage may need to be improved to reduce vehicular injuries and deaths.

In this era of the Internet, citizens now have the ability to be more aware of the criminal activity occurring in the

Screen capture of Gainesville, Florida, Crime Incidents and Location

neighbourhoods where they live and work. The Gainesville Police Department’s P2C website has proven to be a lowcost, effective e-Government tool to provide these citizens with the information they need to not only better protect themselves, their families, and their property, but to also become more involved keeping their own neighbourhoods and communities safer.

Lt. Ed Posey is a 23 year veteran of the Gainesville Police Department.

He is involved with several data-sharing projects and currently is the Executive Lieutenant of District 3 in Gainesville, Florida. He may be reached at poseyej@cityofgainesville.org Chuck Georgo is currently the Executive Director of NOWHERETOHIDE. ORG, a small firm in Baltimore, MD, USA. For the last twenty-eight years, Chuck has been helping government agencies and industry to implement process improvements and advanced technologies as a means for achieving meaningful public safety results. He may be reached at chuck@nowheretohide.org

e-COPS in Andhra Pradesh, India The concept of e-Governance has made its way into the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, leading the country in the field of technological advances. As part of the VISION 2020, the state’s focus on modernisation of law and order and crime takes the shape of eCOPS (e-Computerised Operations for Police Services).

The country’s first statewide online police network connects the police stations and police offices in the state making it accessible for the citizens, as FIR could be lodged in any police station in the state.

Once the case is registered in the nearest police station and a printout of the FIR is given, nothing can be altered.

Work on a case cannot be delayed either, as e-COPS is programmed to send alerts across the State Police hierarchy on cases that stay inactive for long. Also, cases can be viewed and case progress checked from any place over the Internet.

This software supporting English, Telugu and Hindi languages, was designed to reduce paper work substantially

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and help the police enhance the performance and eliminate redundant procedures. All records of Crime and Criminals are shared across the e-COPS network and finally documented at the Crime Records Bureau. These records and data are accessible online by numerous other departments establishing a stronger communication network between the police and other departments.

To cite one success story of e-COPS, the vehicle crews with the track record of accidents and the data relating to vehicles, helped the West Godavari district police achieve a breakthrough within a few hours after a road accident.

The Bhimadole police could reach the scene of accident only after the shifting of the injured persons for treatment.

When the police were groping for clues, they chanced upon a number plate, on a road margin. With the details available on the number plate, the police logged into the e-COP website and secured full details about the vehicle and its owner-cum-driver. http://www.apstatepolice.org/html/ecops.htm

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COVER FEATURE: e-POLICE

Police Ride on Technology to Nab Criminals A Case study of Chhattisgarh Rajinder Kumar Vij

Finger-prints, the oldest biometric sign of identity, have been used for about 100 years. Scientific studies on finger-prints were initiated in the late sixteenth century, but the foundation of modern finger-print identification was established by the studies of Sir F. Galton and E. Henry at the end of nineteenth century.

Henry’s study examined the global structure of fingerprints and established the famous ‘Henry System’ of fingerprint classification, which is an effective method of indexing finger-prints and is still in use in most identification systems.

In the early twentieth century, finger-prints were formally accepted as valid signs of identity by law-enforcement agencies.

system was adopted for the conversion of finger-print records to prepare the database. The system is based on a simple procedure wherein; all the known and accepted finger-print patterns have been divided into ten types, and allotted a 2digit numerical code from 01 to 22 (Code No. 14-15 merged with 13). Similarly, the ridge counts of the patterns from appropriate delta to its core is taken and expressed in terms of two digit code, from 00 to 30. Thus, for each finger, the finger-print pattern and its ridge count could be expressed in a 4-digit numerical code. However, the limitations of the 40-Digit Code System are that, it requires results, which are dependent upon the subjective expertise of individuals classifying and codifying the finger-print slips. This system may be all right for small database, but it is slow, involving huge manpower and man-hours with uncertain accuracy.

INDIAN LAW ON FINGER-PRINTS

NEED FOR AUTOMATION

Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920 empowers the lawenforcement authorities to secure finger-prints of convicted and non-convicted arrestees in specific cases. Section 3 of the Act provides that ‘Every person who has been convicted of any offence punishable with rigorous imprisonment for a term of one year or upward or of any offence which would render him liable for enhanced punishment on a subsequent conviction shall, if so required, allow his measurements to be taken by a police officer in the prescribed manner.’

Section 4 empowers police officers to take finger-prints of non-convicted arrestees in connection with an offence punishable with rigourous punishment (RI) for one year or more.

Similarly section 5 empowers a magistrate to order a person to be finger-printed for the purpose of any investigation or proceedings.

The Act also empowers the use of necessary means to secure finger-prints, the refusal of which is an offence under the Indian Penal Code.

The manual and semi-automatic system of finger-print (FP) identification has not been able to keep pace with the rate of increase of the FP records and the increasing number of queries that are to be answered every day. Long search time and low positive identification rates, that is, poor tracing of criminals, are the major problems in the manual system. The need for a computer based Automated finger-print Identification System (AFIS) was, therefore, felt by the police department and FP experts in India. A few systems, which were available abroad, were assessed and it was found that the cost of importing such a specialised system was very high. Moreover, no technology transfer could take place. Thus, the indigenous development of AFIS was thought of and as a result, in January 1985, CMC’s research and development center started preliminary work for the development of AFIS. Finger-print Analysis and Criminal Tracing System (FACTS) and CMC, a Government of India enterprise, was entrusted with the task of developing an indigenous AFIS system.

After developing a prototype and holding deliberations with senior police officers in 1985, a team of experts visited CIMSA-France (now SAGEM-MORPHO) and LOGICA-UK to study the available systems and adopt an approach to meet the requirements of the Indian Police. It was observed that all four known suppliers of the AFIS in the world namely, Printrak, USA, NEC, Japan, CIMSA, France and Logica, UK

INTRODUCTION

40- DIGIT (SEMI-AUTOMATIC) CODE SYSTEM

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had certain commonalities in terms of organisation of fingerprints, their use and legal implications associated with them.

Yet, each country had a certain amount of uniqueness in its operations. AFIS had been developed in close association with their respective police departments. As these countries had shown no interest in transferring technology to India, it was felt necessary to launch a national indigenous effort to meet the requirements of Indian Police.

The project envisaged technology development, systems integration, testing and documentation. The technologies developed were algorithms for feature extraction and matching of finger-prints. After testing the sample database, the project was completed in June 1989. Thus, CMC Ltd. (India) was successful in developing FACTS, which was capable of performing automatically, digitisation, feature extraction and comparison of finger-prints among its other assigned tasks.

As of today, more than a dozen Indian states have FACTS installed and working in their Finger-print Bureau (FPB).

CENTRAL FINGER-PRINT BUREAU AND COMPUTERISATION

Computerisation of finger-print record has been vigorously pursued in Central FPB since 1992. Starting with FACTS 1.0, it has successively been upgraded to FACTS 4.0 which is a fully automated version of the system and much more efficient compared to the earlier ones. As on 31st December, 2004 as many as 7,32,281 finger-print slips had been updated into the FACTS database. The storage capacity of FACTS 4.0 is to be upgraded to hold and process 10,00,000 finger-print slips and the average daily output is expected to be around 1250 slips per day.

CHHATTISGARH AND AFIS

Finger-print Bureau of Chhattisgarh Police took a big stride in computerisation when, the then Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, Dr. Raman Singh, commissioned a computerised AFIS on 16th August, 2005 at the police headquarters of Chhattisgarh, Raipur.

The police did away with its long time companion, the Henry’s classification system of finger-print identification, at least partially. AFIS has now made it possible for the cops to get the demographic details of a criminal in a few minutes if the finger-print record already exists in the database. This will not only help the police to trace the habitual criminal faster but will also facilitate to administer enhanced punishment for a repeated offence without searching for the paper records.

Dr. Raman Singh, while appreciating CID’s efforts, reinforced that it was high time for the police to modernise itself, if it wished to keep pace with the latest technology.

Chhattisgarh is a novel state that emerged as a separate entity on Indian map on 1st November 2000 when the erstwhile Madhya Pradesh was bifurcated into two states, in accordance with The Reorganisation Act, 2000. About 16,000 convicts’ finger-prints were transferred to Chhattisgarh. The State Police soon decided to install an automated finger-print identification system. The Government of India allocated INR 22

0.3 million for the project under the Police Modernisation Scheme.In the meantime, the CMC Ltd. (India) lost its privileged position of being a government agency. Four more companies namely SAGEM SA (France), SecureMantra Technologies Pvt. Ltd (Lucknow, India), Telepost India Pvt. Ltd. (New Delhi, India) and Zygox Software Pvt. Ltd. (Bangalore, India) also became eligible to participate in the tender to compete with CMC Ltd. and were benchmarked by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB). Three of these five companies participated in the tender and SecureMantra emerged as the successful vendor.

VISION OF THE PROJECT

Maintenance of law and order is the main responsibility of the police. With the passage of time, public expectations with regard to efficiency have increased manifolds. The police cannot afford to compromise on efficiency now. Therefore, AFIS was introduced to facilitate efficient policing by: • Using latest standard technology tools, • Using transparency, • Minimising manual errors and subjectivity and • Reducing inordinate delay in procedures

HOW AFIS FUNCTIONS?

AFIS is essentially based on the pattern reorganisation theory.

It involves: • Selection of characteristic features to be identified from the ridge patterns.

• Extraction of these features from a set of reference patterns and storing them on a computer to form the database of known patterns.

• Extraction of similar features to be identified from a given pattern and comparison of these features against those of known patterns in database, to decide if a match exists among the latter.

The following diagram shows how AFIS works: Each finger-print is made up of unique ridges and furrows and it is this feature, which makes it possible to differentiate various finger-prints. The police, generally, use finger-print Taking Kit to record (rolled) ten digit finger-prints of an arrested person or a convict. The finger-prints found on the scene of crime are first developed using various powders and then lifted with the help of finger-print Lifting Kit and a Camera. This single finger-print is classified in accordance with Herry Battley’s System. Whether it is a ten digit or single digit finger-print, the scanner captures specific features of the Finger-prints called minutiae. These points are places where ridge lines end, bifurcate or rejoins after lake formation. The manual system requires comparison of at least eight such points along with their relative position. However, more the number of such points of comparison better the results.

The flat-bed scanner, used to scan documents, works on the principle of optical scanning and has a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) sensor. The CCD array, a collection of tiny light sensitive diodes called photosites, captures image www.egovonline.net

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(500X500 biometrics) of the scanner, is capable of scanning a letter-sized document. It supports 24bit colour depth and is sufficient to reproduce the true colour of the document.

The scanned image is then transferred to the computer A composite pattern of finger-print through USB. highlighting ridge end, lake and bifurcation The algorithm used in the AFIS also needs eight numbers of minutiae to be matched for the print to be accepted. Matching is a fairly complex process. The algorithm calculates and stores total curvature of ridge patterns. It is this value, in addition to minutiae position and orientation, Technology Used Client-Server technology

of the finger-print document with the help of a series of mirrors, filters and lenses while a Xenon lamp illuminates the document. The 300x300 dots per inch (dpi) resolution

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Database and Tools Used Java, Visual Basic 6, Crystal Report 9.02 MS-SQL 7.0

Environment Used Windows 2003 Server Windows XP Languages Connectivity Dial-up networking

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that ultimately gets matched with the suspect’s finger-print ridge curvature value and minutiae parameters.

CHALLENGES FACED

It was not an easy task to transform this project into a reality.

Initial bottlenecks like financial constraints, a well-equipped building for housing the system, and a staff with negligible computer know-how, were overcome with a constant and consistent efforts made by the management. A major hurdle was the reluctance on the part of the staff to change from the conventional manual system to a computerised AFIS. The first step in overcoming these hurdles was to break the walls of convention by imparting basic training on computers to the existing meagre staff.

Persistent encouragement from the top brass worked wonders and charged in them - the spirit of technological transformation. Though training in AFIS was a herculean task, it was also successfully accomplished on account of Bureau experts’ enthusiasm and extended interest of the vendor.

BENEFITS OF THE SYSTEM

AFIS has endowed many benefits to the experts in rendering opinions on matching of finger-prints. Some of the major achievements are: 1) User-friendly Interface on Account of : • Ease of operation and shorter learning curve due to the labeled buttons in the graphical user interface.

• Easier and faster editing of chance prints due to additional feature of eraser-style skeleton deletion with multiple eraser thickness.

• Common interface for chance prints and rolled prints reducing learning time.

• Integrated Henry Code Check available as an option enabling easy detection of errors in marking pattern classes during rolled print slip input.

• Temporary storage of chance print during input thus, allowing work to be temporarily suspended if necessary.

• Flexibility in image magnification during quality control and editing, thus improving system usability.

• Improved accuracy in placement of finger-print box resulting in better resolution and larger onscreen displays.

2) Local Finger-print Encoding: Encoding of finger-prints is carried out locally. As a result, the processing power of the server is no longer a limitation on the number of remote query terminals that can be connected.

3) Ease of Scalability: In light of the local encoding of finger-print, the AFIS can easily be scaled from a small system to larger configurations without the need to reconfigure the entire system.

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4) Operating System: AFIS RQTs are built on Windows platform. This enables easier RQT management, wider option with printers including colour printers.

5) Fast and Accurate Matching: Now, experts no longer have to examine innumerous records.

They only have to scan the finger-print in question and send it to the matcher server for comparison. If the finger-print already exists in the database, the result can be obtained only in few minutes.

6) No Wear and Tear: As digital record is not a victim of usual wear and tear, literally there is no maintenance cost involved in the system. However, proper back ups are necessary to avoid any disastrous loss of database.

CURRENT STATUS

Since installation of AFIS, Chhattisgarh Police has achieved following milestones: • Approximately 18,000 convicts’ finger-prints digitised.

• Pilot RQT at capital Raipur commissioned.

• FPB experts’ initial training successfully completed.

• FPB experts’ confidence increased. They are computer savvy now.

• Matching of finger-prints is in progress.

• Installation of RQT at more locations to be done shortly.

LIMITATIONS OF AFIS

•

• •

It does not specify any reference print to be an exact oneto-one match against the query print. It gives a short list of probable matches and requires an expert’s aid to verify the listed individual prints visually, Chance prints with eight or more minutiae can only be submitted for matching.

Palm prints and sole prints are not stored in the system.

CONCLUSION

SecureMantra Technologies Pvt. Ltd., claims its indigenously developed algorithm to be one of the best as compared to other such software currently in use in other FPBs to search for a chance print. But it has yet to make a dent on our experts’ mindset by successfully proving its point with time. Undoubtedly, a new era of computerisation has already begun in Chhattisgarh. It might have made a little headway in the police department, but this initiative will go a long way in metamorphosing the policemen.

Rajinder Kumar Vij is an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of 1988 batch. He is currently the Inspector General of Police, Bastar Zone, Jagdalpur (Chhattisgarh). He did a stint in United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1997-98 and was recipient of a UN Medal for his contribution to this mission. He may be reached at vijrk@hotmail.com

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COVER FEATURE: e-POLICE

Policing the Cyberspace Governing cyberspace by just applying old solutions to new problems will not help us in providing the public goods required for sustaining elementary conditions of local good life. If local governance and policing are to remain meaningful activities, effectively pacifying local environments, new ventures in systems thinking are now required.

Vignesh Sornamohan INTRODUCTION

Internet, the magic buzz word in the modern world, is facilitating the emergence of new forms of human interaction in what is becoming to be known as cyberspace: a computergenerated public domain which has no territorial boundaries or physical attributes and is in perpetual use. Internet is undoubtedly one of the greatest technological advances of all time, but has a grey side too. Internet allows users to engage in electronic commerce, research, entertainment, communication and to find myriad information on just about anything imaginable. It not only provides great opportunities for those with good intentions, but is a haven for criminals as well.

Enabling people to exchange and gather information from an almost infinite number of sources around the world is one characteristic that makes the Internet such an attractive resource. There are essentially three inherent factors that make Internet such a wonderful place for bad guys. One, the Internet protects anonymity, two, it is constantly changing, and three, it is interactive.

CHALLENGES INVOLVED

The special abilities of cyberspace enable individuals, or ‘netizens’, to reach a potentially infinite number of people across a wide range of jurisdictions almost without censorship.

The same qualities not only make many existing forms of governance harder to effect, but also create new situations which require altogether new forms of control. Consequently, the Internet, and particularly the cyberspace it creates, is not just a case of ‘old wine in new bottles’, or for that matter ‘new wine in new bottles’, rather many of its characteristics are so novel that the expression ‘new wine, but no bottles!’ becomes a more fitting description.

Traditional policing and peace keeping activities were performed on, and limited to, a determined (national or local) territory. The mind-set related to territorial boundaries of action and influence is still very strong.

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of regulation need to be adopted. Regardless of perspective, nearly all have argued that some form of regulation is required. Most of the current debates discuss the application of a legal model of governance that is underpinned by a body of substantive law.

WHO IS CURRENTLY POLICING THE INTERNET?

Internet Users: The main group to be involved in policing the Internet is the Internet community itself. ‘Virtual community policing’ has yet to be formalised, but a number of examples have already occurred. In addition to the various complaint ‘hotlines’ and the development of software to screen out undesirable communications, are a few recorded attempts to organise Internet users. The Internet Rapid Response Team (IRRT) is a voluntary group which polices the Internet to remove offensive material. They came to prominence when an e-mail message advertising a collection of child pornography was received by thousands of Internet users all over the world.

Another Netizen group who actively ‘police cyberspace’ are the CyberAngels (Jex.com), a 1000 strong organisation of net users who are also based, as their name suggests, along the Guardian Angel model. Divided into ‘Internet Safety Patrols’, they operate in the four main areas of the Internet: Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Usenet, WWW, America Online 206 David S Wall (AOL). Their function is to actively promote, preserve and protect netiquette which ‘is the collection of common rules of polite conduct that govern our use of the Internet’.

The Internet Service Providers: During the past six or so years, the prevailing mood towards the Internet has changed from wonderment to suspicion. The moral panic surrounding the Internet during the mid-1990s over the perceived threat of widespread pornography, and the subsequent threats of legal action, has forced Internet service providers to consider the possibility of controlling some of the activities that are taking place on their servers: especially the news discussion groups.

State Funded Non-Public-Police organisations: A number of governments, such as those in Singapore, China and Vietnam, have actively sought to control their citizen’s use of Internet, either by forcing users to register with the authorities 25

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or by directly controlling Internet traffic coming into their countries by becoming the Internet service providers. Within Europe, Germany has set up a regulatory agency, the Internet Content Task Force, and has passed new telecommunications laws requiring Internet service providers to provide a back door so that security forces can read user’s electronic mail if necessary. The Internet Content Task Force also has the power to force German Internet service providers to block access to certain materials, such as the Dutch site ‘xs4all’.

The French Government has also passed legislation to set up a central regulatory agency. The US Government has taken a more formal stance by introducing legal measures and developing technological devices to regulate cyberspace in order to ‘protect the interest of US industry’.

State Funded Public Police Organisations: State funded public police organisations tend to be organised locally or nationally, depending upon the jurisdiction. In the United Kingdom, the public police have no formal mandate to police the virtual community, but it is nevertheless the case that numerous specialist groups of police officers monitor the Internet with regard to the areas of criminal law for which they are responsible. For example, a computer crime unit was established by the Metropolitan Police and a smaller, but a similar unit was set up by the Greater Manchester Police.

THE PUBLIC POLICING MODEL AND CYBERCRIMES

It is almost certain that the incidence of cybercrimes will rise considerably as the population of cyberspace increases and the range of activities carried out there expands. This trend is confirmed by research carried out by the National Computing Centre, a private organisation, which revealed that the proportion of respondents reporting computerrelated thefts rose by 60% during the two years between 1996 and 1998. However, even accounting for this increase, it is very likely that the major policing functions will continue to take place by the methods outlined above. Consequently, it is highly likely that the public police will not be involved in the ‘patrolling’ of cyberspace, or for that matter in the actual investigation of cybercrimes. It is however, likely to be the case, that the public police will still perform an important gate-keeping function by being the first point of call for members of the public against whom cybercrimes have been committed.

A study of the policing of computer crime by Thackeray in 1996 found that out of five countries studied, Britain was the least sophisticated in its approach. Certainly, the general ‘level of education and understanding of computer crime’ was far more advanced outside Britain. It would appear that the root of the problem is a cultural discord or dissonance between the existing police, occupational and operational cultures and the skills required to deal with cybercrimes. It was argued that British police forces have shied away from even attempting to investigate computer crimes, to the point that experienced detectives lose all interest in pursuing cases where computers are involved.

Steele has argued that ‘Not only are the police ill-equipped to deal with the growing and ever-changing criminal activity 26

on the Internet, but most of the world either has no criminal laws for these crimes, or retains outdated ones that are in need of updating’. Whilst Steele perhaps overstates the role of the (state funded) police in the policing of the Internet, he nevertheless identifies the discord that exists.

Since its inception in the late 1830s, one of the dominant characteristics of the public police organisation has been its continued ability to adapt to the demands of modernity.

Indeed, the very birth of the full-time police was motivated by the need to deal with the knock on effects of rapid industrialisation caused by technological advancement.

However, what marks out cyberspace from previous technological eras is the disembedding of time, space and place. Even the development of the automobile, telephone, radio and more recently the fax relied upon physical rather than purely electronic technologies. Cyberspace, by contrast is unique in the sense that it is a virtual environment and the links within it are virtually instant and purely electronic, which means that there are no physical boundaries to temper criminal activities.

CONCLUSION

There are two different sets of action patterns through which initial efforts to curb cyber crimes are made, the first of these pattern is regulation, the second being conscious design of large socio-technical infrastructure systems. Regulatory action is normally taken at the immediate level of concern.

It is addressed at the symptoms of a disease, and not at its roots. European data protection legislation attempts to outlaw certain types of misuse of information, instead of looking for other levels of intervention. It is seldom asked whether it would not be better to let information flow freely, tolerating its misuse while neutralising by other means an adverse consequence of such a free flow of information. A more promising approach is rational and purposeful design of information infrastructures. Some infrastructures may indeed be designed in a way such as to prevent misuse, or to restrict their use to determined purposes only.

REFERENCES Steele, Jim et al. (2007), Cyber Crime Investigations: Bridging the Gaps Between Security Professionals, Law Enforcement, and Prosecutors, Syngress: Rockland.

Thackeray, Gail (1996), “A study on policing computer crime”, USA Barlow, John Perry, “Selling wine without bottles: the economy of mind on the global net”, http://www.eff.org/pub/Publications/John_Perry_Barlow/HTML/idea_economy_article. html.

Denning, Dorothy, (1990), “Concerning Hackers Who Break into Computer Systems”, A Presentation at the 13th National Computer Security Conference, Washington D.C. Wall S David (1998), “Catching Cybercrimnals: Policing the Internet”, International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, Volume 12.

Brian D.Loader (ed) (1997), The Governance of Cyberspace, Politics, technology and global restructuring, London and New York: Routledge.

Singh, Y.K. (2005), Cyber Crime and Law, New Delhi: Shree.

Vignesh Sornamohan, (vignesh@csdms.in), has done Master of Philosophy in Law and Governance from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi Some of his research papers include, Cybercrime and its impact on Indian Economy, Policing the Cyber Space, Telecom Regulation in India and Rural BPOs.

Sornamohan www.egovonline.net

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Building Applications and Infrastructure for e-Governance www.microsoft.com/india

rohitk@microsoft.com

“Our worldwide goal is to be a ‘technology partner’ to the governments and be significant partners in building whatever applications are to be built within the areas of e-Governance or defence. Most of the important applications that are relevant to these governments are built on the Microsoft platform,” says Rohit Kumar, Country Head, Public sector, Microsoft India, in an interview with egov magazine What are the goals and objectives of Microsoft’s e-Governance initiative in India and how is it aligned with the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP)?

The National e-Governance Plan’s stated mission is to make all government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such ov

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services at affordable costs to realise the basic needs of the common man. This directly correlates to the Microsoft global mission of reaping the benefits of IT to the five billion people currently underserved by technology and help them achieve their potential. The NeGP seeks to lay the foundation and provide the impetus for long-term growth of e-Governance within the country and Microsoft India is committed to 27

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support the government to achieve this goal. Our aim is to be a technology partner to governments and help in building applications in the areas of e-Governance and defence.

We are the only company that provides end-to-end solutions required for running a whole host of e-Governance applications.

Our solutions include Windows server, the database, the security infrastructure and the web based front.

If you look at land records, for instance, 11 states in the country today are running land records using Microsoft SQL server, Microsoft Windows server and looking at the next generation of land records. Historically too, a number of applications – like online treasuries – have been running on Microsoft. The Police and National Crime Records Bureau also runs on Microsoft. Online services over the past 5-6 years have been increasing in every state like- AP online in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar online is coming up in Bihar, ‘Nayee Disha’ in Haryana, ‘Lok Vani’ in Uttar Pradesh are all running on Microsoft technology. A number of school applications in the country, too, are running on Microsoft technology.

The State Wide Area Network (SWAN) in the states of Himachal Pradesh and Haryana have selected Microsoft as the messaging platform as well as for security.

Please tell us about Microsoft’s initiative in the Common Service Centres (CSCs), one of the important pillars of the NeGP ?

The simplest explanation of Microsoft’s role is to say that every PC is going to use some Microsoft software. While that is true, it is not the most important part of our association. The important question here is, how we can help the kiosk owners. We have built an entire ecosystem around these partnerships to provide them the applications and we plan to build some pilot applications, along with a few partners, that they can use to provide services.

A study that we undertook showed that a typical kiosk is used for education, entertainment, e-Mails and chat etc, for which they just use a browser. So it is in providing the applications where we can play a role. At this point of time, we 28

are essentially providing the technology that can be used to build the applications they want to use in their kiosks.

What are some of the Microsoft security solutions?

Our Windows server R2 was released in November 2005. It was meant to essentially upgrade the security of our platform, of Windows server, as well as to provide integration to the new server products that have been launched in the last year. So we have Forefront security as our security product.

Another successful product is the IPSA. This is essentially used in schools to restrict the sites that children can visit.

Using this product, you can actually configure the server, so that, for instance, pornographic sites, can not be accessed.

This product becomes very important for schools and education – and we have seen successful implementations of it in several states. This can be used for the state data centres as well.

Anti-virus is an important element for everyone, and we have our own antivirus solution now, which is very price competitive. If you think about security leaks, they primarily happen through e-Mail. That is one aspect. What happens if somebody sends you an e-Mail with an attachment that contains a virus?

The entire network suddenly stops as everyone’s e-Mails get corrupted. To tackle a problem like this, we actually have an anti-virus blocker in our exchange server now, so every e-Mail that comes in, gets scanned and only then sent on. In case of an infected message, you just receive a message that says that this e-Mail had a virus attached to it and it has been blocked.

That is our focus on anti-virus and very few companies provide this today.

Besides this, we are making sure that the e-Mails are phishing-proof, spy-ware proof. As for the PC user, we provide security on the desk top itself.

Windows Vista in itself is a big security upgrade.

What are the global trends in e-Governance.

What are the opportunities and challenges of e-Governance in India?

The way I look at it, e-Governance can be of two types: It can be about making the government more efficient

in its operations for internal efficiency, which people outside may see as the process moving faster. The second is about government reaching the people, and the people being able to reach the government through electronic channels.

Compared to most developing countries, I think we are far ahead of the rest. Our National e-Governance Plan, is much more visionary and broader than any other country. The Ministry of IT is doing a commendable job in implementing the plan - it has been very successful wherever implemented.

If we look at the challenges, they would depend on the culture, the people, the structure and the process.

In India, I think the opportunities for moving forward are in the world of making the government more efficient in their internal processes. That is the single biggest opportunity at the highest level. The mission mode projects under NeGP are focused on this very aspect.

The e-Biz project, CSCs and other e-Governance services aim to achieve the same objective. So I would think it is a huge opportunity for the country and will also drive the country’s spending on infrastructure and IT solutions. So overall, I think there is a very bullish scenario from the government.

Please tell us about the public sector initiatives of Microsoft.

One of our key public sector initiatives is Project Shiksha, in which we have entered into a partnership with state governments and set up eleven academies so far to offer a spectrum of education resources, including tools, programmes, and practices across ten states, with an aim to promote the use of IT in education.

Also as a part of the project Shiksha, we recognise teachers who have done an outstanding job of using computers for teaching. We have a programme called, ‘Innovative Teachers Leadership Awards’ and we give out these awards in January/ February every year. What we found last year was that more winners came from government schools compared to private schools. That gives us a sense of how teachers are using computers to teach mathematics, geography, biology, which is very encouraging to see. So that is project Shiksha. www.egovonline.net

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We have another project called Bhasha, which is our local language programme, under which our products have been made available in 14 different languages now. Windows Vistas comes with a number of these languages out of the box at no additional cost. We also have Office, that works in all these regional languages like Marathi, Gujarati, Hindi, Tamil, Telegu etc. Our products work with all these different languages. I think the efforts now are on getting different state governments to use the computers in local languages itself so that more people start using it and that is starting to happen now.

The third area where we are relatively new is the area of health. So besides e-Governance, we have Shiksha, Bhasha and then health. We also do a lot of work in defence.

What is the current share of Microsoft, in terms of the overall e-Governance market in India?

This depends upon how you qualify the market. If you look at the number of applications running on Microsoft, we probably have 50% to 55% applications running in India. I am talking about small as well as big ones in the public sector. The revenue share is only 20% to 25%, because the other applications from all our competitors are far more expensive and then there are a number of open source applications which do not show up in the revenue metric.

How important is it for systems, platforms and software to be interoperable.

Interoperability is a very important aspect and we have invested a lot of research and development into making our systems interoperable. So we have products wherein you can actually have one application running on Microsoft, another running on LINUX and BB2 or LINUX and My SQL or LINUX and GES, information can be exchanged across all. This is something for which we have invested in.

What are the change management issues in implementing e-Government projects? How can they be overcome?

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technology. There is still fear in people that technology will take their job away. Or people say things like, “I do not want to use this system, I will just use my file” or Government saying, “I will only recognise official letters, not e-Mail”, which is still the case. Where we have seen things changing is like in the Ministry of Company Affairs, where they have said that there is no other way a return can be filed unless it is online.

Or look at the attempts to make offices paperless. A lot of government offices have a file tracking mechanism in place online where the documents are online

We are the only company that provides end-to-end solutions required for running a whole host of e-Governance applications. Our solutions include Windows server, the database, the security infrastructure and the web based front and there is no paper file, making it easier to track the progress of a file.

But I do not think, things will metamorphose overnight – it will take time - simply because people have been used to a certain system. A paperless office, for instance, is a radical concept where everybody has been used to comments written on the file. The mindset change on the process will take time. This is true, even for the private sector, however, as you see the officers getting younger and younger, you will also see this process getting adopted faster. The demographic change will also help bring the change faster. If you look at it, a lot of the change is made by the younger officers, supported by senior officers who have the vision and who encourage the younger officers but the real speed up will happen in another 10 years, when the next generation comes in.

How is the Right to Information (RTI) Act complimenting e-Governance initiatives in India?

RTI is having an indirect affect in terms of information that needs to be tracked.

But since the majority of this information is lying on the files, it is not making a direct impact, it could, but it is not. It is having a profound affect on the way the government works. I believe, people are filing applications under RTI and getting responses fairly quickly, and that is making a tremendous impact on the transparency within the government.

Coupled with e-Governance, I think it can have a phenomenal impact on the country. Three years from now, we will be discussing how it has really made a difference, because we would have made much more examples to share.

What role can the public-private partnerships play in e-Governance project implementation in India?

The public-private partnerships (PPPs) are best done by organisations such as TCS and such companies who have an ability to actually provide this service end to end.

We are a technology partner to those PPPs, like to those providers who provide those services, just as we would with the Government directly. They become the customers for us and we have to help them meet their needs.

An interesting analysis for us was analysing PPPs, considering that they have to spend their own money and recover money on a transaction basis, what technology they are using. And we found that they are using Microsoft too. This is an interesting aspect. As we look at MP online, AP online, Bihar online, all these applications are running on Microsoft.

If open source was indeed so low cost, then PPPs would use an open source. For me, it is a part of the proof of why people use certain technologies.

It is because it meets their needs and it also balances out their requirements for the cost.

Any suggestions for the government regarding PPP implementation?

I think that the PPP model is successful.

On the whole, I think that the Government should ensure that people are not undercutting one another to win the contract and therefore impacting the quality of service. I think the priority needs to be on quality and long term cost rather than just the up-front price.

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

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Smart Card Applications in e-Governance INTRODUCTION

Smart card technology has come of age. It provides real opportunities for improving the delivery of services and reducing the cost of administration. Smart cards are becoming an affordable solution to the requirements for a transportable, secure, reliable communication. Smart card applications are rapidly expanding beyond the areas that have historically made the most use of them - banking and mobile phones. The banking sector introduced smart cards to reduce losses from card fraud and to improve card security. In many countries smart cards are increasingly being used as portable personal files for health records to store and update details of eligibility for benefits.

A smart card, a type of chip card is a plastic card embedded with a computer chip that stores and transacts data between users. This data is associated with either value or information or both and is stored and processed within the card’s chip, either a memory or microprocessor. The card data is transacted via a reader that is part of a computing system. Smart card enhanced systems are in use today throughout several key applications including healthcare, banking, entertainment and transportation.

Although the cost of smart cards is higher than magnetic stripe cards, it is falling rapidly and they are becoming affordable. At the same time the processing capability of smart cards is increasing. The building blocks for a smart card infrastructure are already available. Cards that are in use now can allow a number of applications on the card and have built in security features. Organisations that are already using smart cards have reported significant savings in administration through simplified procedures, in addition to the benefits of increased security and reduced transaction costs. Anything that involves exchange of information or value can be done cost-effectively.

There are several types of cards known as magnetic stripe cards, optical cards, memory cards and microprocessor cards. A magnetic stripe card has a strip of magnetic tape material attached to its surface. This is the standard technology used for bank credit/debit cards and can only store data which cannot be updated. Optical cards use some form of laser to read and write to the card. Memory cards can store a variety of data, including financial, personal, and specialised information, but cannot process information.

Smart cards with microprocessors look like standard plastic cards, but are equipped with an embedded Integrated Circuit (IC) chip. They can store information, carry out local processing on the data stored, and perform complex calculations. Although they can be classified on the basis of various parameters, however smart cards are broadly classified on the basis of basis of card components, card interface, and card OS.

TYPE OF SMART CARDS

Smart cards are mainly classified on the basis of the method of their communication and data transfer with the reader device. Based on this criterion, the smart cards are classified as contact cards, contactless cards, and hybrid/combi cards. Contact cards must be inserted into the reader, while contactless cards are powered by a radio-frequency. Smart cards are also classified on the basis of the method of their communication and data transfer with the reader device.

Based on this criterion, the smart cards are classified as contact cards, contactless cards, and hybrid/combi cards.

Contact cards must be inserted into the reader, while contactless cards are powered by a radio-frequency.

APPLICATIONS OF SMART CARDS SMART CARD TECHNOLOGY

A smart card is a standardsised plastic card with an embedded integrated circuit chip which has memory and/ or microprocessor functionality and complying with ISO 7816 standards. Smart cards support multiple applications such as vending, fare collection, parking on a single cards and provide high level of security. These cards have enough memory capacity to store data and biometric templates and information can be written to them in real time.

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Smart card-enhanced systems are in use today throughout several key applications, including physical security, network and information security, e-Commerce, communication, healthcare, banking, entertainment and transportation. To various degrees, all applications can benefit from the added features and security that smart cards provide. In the U.S., consumers have been using chip cards for everything from visiting libraries to buying groceries to attending movies, firmly integrating them into our everyday lives. Government of India and several states have smart card programmes www.egovonline.net

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in progress for government applications ranging from the Department of Motor Vehicles to Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT). Many industries have implemented the power of smart cards into their products such as the new GSM digital cellular phones to TV satellite decoders.

Information and Network Security and Physical Access: Smart cards achieve greater physical security of services and equipment, because the card restricts access to all but the authorised user(s) only. e-Mail and PCs are being lockeddown with smart cards. Information and entertainment is being delivered via smart card to the home. Home delivery of service is encrypted and decrypted per subscriber access. Digital video broadcasts accept smart cards as electronic keys for protection. Smart cards can also act as keys to machine settings for sensitive laboratory equipment and dispensers for drugs, tools, library cards, health club equipment. Business to business Intranets and Virtual

can carry personal account, credit and buying preference information that can be accessed with a click of the mouse, instead of filling out forms and cards can manage and control expenditures with automatic limits and reporting.

Personal Finance: As banks enter in competition in newly opened markets such as investment brokerages, they are securing transactions via smart cards at an increased rate.

Smart cards increase trust through improved security.

Two factor authentications insure protection of data and value across the Internet. Threats such as the “Man in the Middle” and “Trojan Horses” that replay a user name and password are eliminated. Customers can use secure smart cards on 24x7 basis for fast electronic funds transfers over the Internet. The transactions that normally would require a bank employee’s time and paperwork can be managed electronically by the customer with a smart card. This will reduce cost and improve customer service. Health Care: The explosion of health care data brings up new challenges to the efficiency of patient care and privacy safeguards. Smart cards solve both challenges with secure storage and distribution of everything from emergency data to benefits status.

Rapid identification of patients, patient’s medical history, improved treatment, reduction of records maintenance costs, insurance eligibility are few of the examples.

PROJECTS IN INDIA:

The Smart Chip

Private Networks (VPN) are enhanced by the use of smart cards. Users can be authenticated and authorised to have access to specific information based on preset privileges.

Additional applications range from secure e-Mail to electronic commerce.

Government, businesses and universities of all types need simple identity cards for all employees and students.

Most of these people are also granted access to certain data, equipment and departments according to their status. Multifunction, microprocessor-based smart cards incorporate identity with access privileges and also store value for use in various locations, such as cafeterias and stores. Employee access cards with secured ID and the potential to employ biometrics to protect physical access to facilities.

Communications Applications: The secure initiation of calls and identification of caller (for billing purposes) on any Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) phone and subscriber activation of programming on Pay-TV are some examples of communication applications. e-Commerce: Smart cards make it easy for consumers to securely store information and cash for purchasing. The card ov

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According to Smart Card Forum of India (SCAFI), the Indian chip card market, comprising GSM, payphone, driving licenses, National Identity Cards, vehicle registration, banking and e-Purse applications is likely to grow from the current 15 million smart cards to 400 million in the next few years. The Indian smart card market growth rate is at around 25-35 percent. These growth rates are based on the assumption that the GSM-SIM cards subscriber base itself is likely to grow at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of about 60-80 percent, as stated by the Cellular Operators Association of India. What will boost the market further is a slew of e-Governance projects on smart cards, especially in the areas of transport applications and National ID card projects.

Realising the potential benefits of smart card technology, the Government of India and many state governments have launched several projects involving smart cards. Recently microprocessor based cards for multi-purpose national identity cards (MNIC) have been distributed to the residents of Delhi. Nearly 0.3 million people of 11 states and two union territories will get the smart cards, which contain as many as 16 personal details of an individual along with a unique national identity number, within a month. The entire population of the country will be covered by 2012. These identity cards are based on a sophisticated application called SCOSTA (Smart Card Operating System for Transport Application), the Smart Card Operating Systems Standards.

SCOSTA are basically secured electronic devices that are used for keeping data and other information in such a way that only authorised users are permitted to see or write the 31

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

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data. In future same cards can be used for as voter identity cards, driving licenses, ration cards. Besides being used as a credible individual identification system, the smart cards will also act as a major deterrent for future illegal immigrants. Delhi Metro plans to issue multi-purpose smart cards that a commuter can use to avail of its various facilities. The smart cards will enable passengers parking, eating and commuting facility without any hassles.

Looking at the benefits attached to smart cards based transactions; Mumbai bus transport system, BEST, has launched smart card services for its commuters. These cards come as the counterpart of railway passes offered by the suburban railways.

The card contains the details such as the route permitted and validity of the card. These smart cards are checked with the help of a handheld device by the conductor. If the card is valid, the conductor gets a green signal and card is authenticated. To help the commuters in the best possible way, BEST and the Indian Railways are joining hands.

A collaborative project is underway to offer a common smart card for both bus and train journeys for commuters in Mumbai. This RFID enabled smart card will work as a prepaid card which will allow citizens to travel in any mode without worrying about cash in their pockets.

State Governments of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Jharkhand, Nagaland and Rajasthan have come out with tenders for SCOSTA compliant smart cards with 4Kb storage space for driving licenses and vehicle registration documents. While some other states have gone in for smart cards with optical strips. The optical strip provides additional information storage capacity of up to 4 MB, which could be used to store information about vehicle insurance, pollution control, biometrics, ownership records, and the signature and chassis number image, which is not erasable. For tamperproof security, the optical strip on the smart card could also have a laser encoded vehicle number, readable with the naked eye. These additional features should be welcomed as they supplement the information on the microprocessor chip of the smart card, providing added security, both to the Government and the vehicle owner.

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) will soon launch a smart card system, first of its kind in the country, for about 13 lakhs students pursuing higher studies in the varsity. The smart card will carry information on the student’s admission, projects, assignments, attendance, practical’s and semester results. The smart card will help to keep an authentic record of the academic activity of a student in the varsity and also help in the monitoring of students on an individual basis.

Canteen Stores Department (CSD), Ministry of Defence has introduced the Smart Card based canteen service to authorised users. Under this scheme the user having smart cards only will be able to buy the items worth entitled amount from CSD. Defence establishments have introduced the smart cards which are very secure and are impossible to breakthrough.

The cards are used for multiple applications like time attendance, access control, canteen, employee benefits etc.

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One can define any number of time zones and access zones for each employee. For example for an employee “x” we can define time during which, he is allowed entry or exit and also define his access zones within the premises say if he is allowed entry into zone “x” of R&D centre then he can be denied entry to other zones of the centre. The system can be can be integrated with fire alarm systems etc. so that in case of fire all the doors will open automatically or in case of theft doors can be closed with a single command from the host software to all the readers. Detailed reports with time stamp for each entry and exit can be generated giving details such as Date, Employee Number, Name of the employee, Time of Entry, Time of Exit and No of hours spent in the zone. The readers need not be connected to the PC all the time as they are capable of to work in off-line mode. The need for the computer arises only when the data needs to be downloaded or the readers need to be updated.

State Bank of India, Andhra Bank and Jammu & Kashmir Bank are among the institutions that are working with the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) and IIT Mumbai in a pilot project for biometric smart cards, aimed at rural inclusion into the banking system.

The roll-out will take place in the next few weeks and will initially be confined to the North-east region. With these smart cards, all kinds of government payments like pension, utility payments such as healthcare, crop insurance, life insurance etc. would be channelised. This common infrastructure is expected to cut down the cost of delivery of these services. ICICI and a few other banks have issued about 200,000 cards, with plans for rolling out 4 millions in next few months. Among the real benefits of the cards is to make the service electronic, compared with other micro-finance scheme which is paper-based. It also offers a second factor of authentication, fingerprints, avoiding the need for distributing PIN codes or requiring signatures from consumers, many of whom are illiterate.

Some of the smart card projects in the toll collection area are by Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, Hubli-Dharwar bypass, Vadodara-Halol bypass and Narmada toll bridge.

Government of India is planning to introduce e-Passports, also known as bio-metric passports. The e-Passport will be introduced initially for diplomats and officials as a pilot project later in the year 2007. By the end of 2008, ePassports in the ordinary category may be issued, based on the experience gained from this pilot project To this effect, a Technical Committee has been constituted to finalise the technical specifications of the e-passports. The cost of converting ordinary into bio-metric passports will be worked out on the basis of the technical specifications that will be finalised.

The recent standardisation of the operating system (OS) for transport applications, called the Smart Card Operating System for Transport Applications (SCOSTA) will also propel uniform growth in this market. The other major application area, which will provide thrust to smart card market growth, is the financial and banking sector. The www.egovonline.net

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Smart Rupee System (SMARS) pilot project sponsored

by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has set the foundation for usage of smart card-based financial applications. As of today, while IDBI bank has introduced its smart card called MoneySmart, Corporation Bank has issued CorpSmart, and Bank of India has issued its E-purse cards. SBI, ABN Amro and Bank of Baroda have also launched smart card-based banking solutions.

Loyalty and health-care applications are also being seen as upcoming application areas in smart cards. e-Governance will be one of the major catalysts for smart cards adoption in the country with transport, financial, telecom, ID and loyalty programmes being the major application areas.

SMART CARD SECURITY

Smart cards greatly improve the convenience and security of any transaction. They provide tamper proof storage of user and account identity. Smart cards also provide vital components of system security for the exchange of data throughout virtually any type of network. They protect against a full range of security threats, from careless storage of user passwords to sophisticated system hacks.

The contactless cards include a secure micro-controller, or an equivalent intelligence and internal memory and have the unique ability to securely manage, store and provide access to data on the card, perform complex functions and interact intelligently with a contactless card. Applications using contactless smart cards support many security features that ensure the integrity, confidentiality and privacy of information stored on the card.

Mutual authentication is a common practice in key-based encrypted communications. The card and the reader each need to make sure that the other has matching keys, so that the reader can verify that the cardholder is legitimate, and similarly the card can verify that the reader is authorised to read its information. If the card and the reader simply transmitted the keys to each other for comparison, anyone with technical skills and a receiver tuned to the reader’s frequency could capture the information, and make his own smart card to obtain access.

The contactless smart card technology is extremely difficult to duplicate or forge and has built-in temper resistance. Smart card chip include a variety of hardware and software capabilities that detect and react to tempering attempts and help counter possible attacks.

CONCLUSION

Smart cards clearly will bring convenience to consumers, much as credit and debit cards have done, and in many cases may reduce the need for paper money and small change.

Contactless smart card technology is an excellent privacy enabling solution for the applications that need to protect personal information and ensure that communication with contact less device is secure.

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various industries on a single card which was bottleneck earlier. Open card standard created by Sun Microsystems provides for interoperable smart card hardware and software products. The real success of smart cards in India is the need to have a single smart card capable of multiple applications.

Carrying multiple cards is very cumbersome and cannot solve the purpose of smart cards. Hence, it is very important that a single card should be able to handle multiple tasks like ID card, driving license, vehicle registration, and credit and debit cards.

In the future, smart cards could handle multiple tasks for their owners, from providing access to company networks, enabling electronic commerce, storing health care information, passports, providing ticketless airline travel and car rentals, and offering electronic identification for accessing government services such as benefit payments and drivers licenses. Smart cards of the future may even stop resembling “cards” as smart card technology is embedded into rings, watches, badges, and other forms factors that will make them remarkably convenient to use.

REFERENCES: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

1.http://www.smartcardalliance.org 2.http://www.research.ibm.com/topics/popups/smart/commerce/html/ smartcard.html 3.http://www.smartcard.gov 4.http://www.cardwerk.com 5.http://www.scosta.gov.in 6. http://www.cardforum.org 7.http://www.smartcardbasics.com 8.http://www.samrtcardsource.com 9.http://www.smartchip.com 10.http://www.gemplus.com 11.http://www.javaworld.com 12.http://www.scfai.in 13.http://www.idcardindia.in 14.http://www.xceedid.com 15.http://www.smartchiponline.com 16.http://www.scia.org 17.http://www.hidcorp.com 18.http://www.multos.com 19.http://www.alibaba.com 20.http://www.abacussoftechltd.com 21.“Government Smart Card Handbook” ,US General Service Administration , 2004

Mizaji Lal (mizaji@yahoo.com), Working as Scientist-‘E’ at Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (Deemed University), Pune , Maharashtra, India. Has also worked as Assistant Director/ System Analyst in Department of Income-tax. His areas of interest are mobile computing, computer networks, programming languages and web development.

Pravin S Gawari, (pravingawari@rediffmail.com), is currently working as the Senior Technical Assistant at the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology, Pune, Maharashtra.

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COVER FEATURE

NEWS DOT PREPARES REVERSE SPECTRUM NORMS The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) of India has prepared an internal note on reverse spectrum allocation norms by giving new applicants of telecom licences preference in spectrum, due to be released by the defence forces early 2008.

The current allocation norms give priority to incumbents awaiting for additional spectrum followed by licenceholders who are awaiting spectrum to launch services, and applicants for dualuse technology (GSM and CDMA services).

New licence applicants come last on this list. Now, the DoT note proposes that three new operators should be allocated 4.4 Mhz of each of the 20 Mhz of spectrum that will be freed up by the defence services. The note also discusses the sharing spectrum with other operators for the utilisation of spectrum.

NEW RULES REGARDING INTERCONNECTION AGREEMENTS IN PHILIPPINES The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has proposed new rules regarding interconnection agreements between telecom carriers and voice over IP (VoIP) providers in the country. NTC Chief Jorge Sarmiento has said that the proposals are aimed at addressing mounting complaints coming from VoIP firms, which need to ‘negotiate’ separate interconnection agreements with local telephone carriers.

According to a news article by Inquirer. net, the Philippine telecommunications regulator said the rules will tackle the ‘easing of requirements for interconnection agreements’ that VoIP firms are required to sign with telecom carriers before these VoIP providers can offer the service. One major problem that the VoIP vendors have is the ‘difficulties in sealing’ the interconnection contracts with the telephone carriers,

PLAN OUTLINED FOR COUNTY-WIDE WIRELESS ACCESS IN COLUMBIANA Columbiana County Port Authority is planning for countrywide wireless Internet access. The council has formed a group to promote technological advancement in the East Liverpool area. The Port Authority plans to develop wireless access using a fibre-optic network already in place.

The Port Authority plans to develop wireless access using a fiber-optic network already in place. Twenty-six school districts in Columbiana and Mahoning counties joined together in 2002 to purchase the fiber-optic network, called ACCESS. As it was developed, the schools ran into cost overruns and found that the system was more robust than necessary for their use, so the Port Authority stepped in to purchase two of the 12 fiber optic strands.

The Port Authority’s plan is to hang wireless transmitters from water towers, other state structures or telephone poles.

County residents would need to purchase between $50 and $100 of equipment for their home to receive the wireless signals, then they would probably pay from $15 to $30 per month for service.

There will probably be tiered service, with more bandwidth available for a higher fee.

PROPOSAL TO ENCOURAGE WI-FI DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA The Chinese government will work with ICT companies to formulate a proposal encouraging the development of Wi-Fi applications for leveraging on the government’s free Wi-Fi services.

The Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Frederick Ma stated that more than 60 bureaux and departments have deployed wirelessmobile technologies in about 200 IT systems. The government will continue to leverage Web 2.0 technologies to enhance interaction with and receive feedback from the public. The government is encouraging bureaux and departments to follow the Web 2.0 development and make use of the applicable technologies to engage the public and improve public service delivery in their specific policy areas.

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Sarmiento said. Under the regulator’s new set of rules, VoIP providers will only need to sign a single interconnection agreement with a telephone carrier.

ALASKA POWER & TELEPHONE BRINGS BROADBAND TO RURAL VILLAGE Alaska Power and Telephone Company (AP&T) has collaborated with the Organised Village of Kasaan (OVK) to provide wireless broadband technology that will bring telemedicine, distance learning and other benefits to the people of Kasaan in Alaska.

The project will enhance the local quality of life, business and tribal members will be encouraged to return to or stay in Kasaan. OVT will provide Internet access for the rural community. The OVT procured US $1 million in grant funds under the Federal ‘Community Connect Broadband

Grant Programme’ that helped build the infrastructure necessary for the village to gain high-speed access to the outside world. Under this project AP&T will provide variety of technologies such as access to telemedicine, distance learning, connection to other tribal organisations, reduction of travel costs and personal skill-set training in computer and data technologies.

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TRAI REPORT SAYS TELECOM SUBSCRIBERS CROSSES 7.64 MILLION Around 7.64 million telephone connections have been added in India during September 2007. The telecom Authority of India (TRAI) stated in its press release that the number of subscribers have already crossed 250 million.

TRAI is expecting that the reach of telephone subscribers will cross 500 million by 2010. The gross number of telephone subscribers by September 2007 is 248.66 million as compared to 241.02 million in August, 2007, the overall tele-density reached 21.85 % in September 2007 as against 21.20% in August, 2007. While in the wireless segment, there is an addition of 7.80 million subscribers in the month of September 2007 as against 8.31 million subscribers addition in the month of August 2007. The total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA and WLL(F)) base reached 209.08 million at the end of September 2007.

In the wireline segment, subscribers base decreased to 39.58 million in the month of September 2007 as against 39.73 million subscribers in August 2007.

RCOM, SHYAM, HFCL GET DoT NOD FOR OFFERING GSM SERVICES The Reliance Communications (RCoM) along with two other CDMA players, has received approvals to offer GSM services in their respective circles of operation from the Department of Telecom (DoT).

Now, Reliance Communications can offer GSM services nationwide under DoT’s existing Unified Access Service Licences (UASL). The other two companies that received the approval are: Mahendra Nahata-promoted HFCL and Shyam Telecom. Meanwhile, the association of existing GSM players, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has strongly opposed the move saying it is illegal to give permission to these players. COAI stated that without prejudice to all submissions that such crossover/dual allocation of spectrum cannot and should not be permitted, it can only be done through change in both policy as well as licence as also after following the law. RCoM offers its services in different circles across the nation, while Mahendra Nahata-promoted HFCL is a operator in Punjab, and Shyam Telecom operates in Rajasthan circle.

TATAS APPLY FOR GSM SPECTRUM After Reliance, the Tata group has applied for GSM spectrum in 20 circles across India.

The company has applied through two Tata-promoted companies Tata Teleservices Ltd, and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd. The Tata Teleservices Ltd has applied for spectrum in 18 circles. Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd. runs CDMA services in Maharashtra and Mumbai. The Tata application follows permission from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for operators to receive dual spectrum that enable operators to provide mobile services for both CDMA and GSM services on the same licence. But still there is no clarity on how the Tata application would be assessed in terms of priority. This would place the Tata group between number two and number four in the queue for spectrum allocation in most of the circles for which it has applied, just behind R-Com.

Connecting the Next 500 Million A conference on ‘Connecting the Next 500 Million: Telecom Roadmap for the 11th Five Year Plan 2007 - 12’, was organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Giving the key note address, R R Shah, Member Secretary, Planning Commission, stated that the next phase of telecom growth will be driven by broadband paradigm.

A majority of the next 500 million customers in telecom will be in the rural areas, through rural connectivity. The approach to enable this will require the government to review the strategy pursued so far, and bring substantial change in policy framework followed, to enable the growth of the Telecom industry during the next Plan period according to Shah. He informed that the Government is planning to develop villages as knowledge centers.

There is a whole set of need at the rural level which has to be converted into opportunity in which Information and Communication technologies will have a major role. Local content has to be encouraged to implement e-Governance applications and connect rural India for the overall inclusive growth. Sanjeev Aga, Chairman - CII National Committee on Telecom and Broadband and Managing Director, Idea Cellular Limited said that telecom industry is facing the challenges of interconnectivity as well as growth and expansion within the sector. He emphasised on the need that the government should instill confidence of the telecom industry by planning standard policies for the sector. Aga suggested that telecom policy should be integrated with national planning process undertaken by the Planning Commision.

D Shivakumar, VP and Managing Director, Nokia India Pvt. Ltd. said that telecom sector in India has grown because of innovative schemes offered by Indian operators. Growing economy, consumer spend, consistency of policy framework, operator’s innovation and affordable handset will enable the telecom sector to reach the target of 500 million connections by 2010. The telecom growth will bring prosperity in rural areas and push the productivity in all the sectors. Affordability and availability of infrastructure will be key challenges for telecom industry to reach the rural customer. Value added services (VAS) industry is going to reach Rs.77,823 crores in 2012 which would be around 25% of mobile telephony market.

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STATE FOCUS:ORISSA

ICT for Implementation of Rural Employment Scheme S. N. Tripathi, R. N. Dash and B.P. Mishra

GRAMSAT VSAT network played a vital role in the implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). The availability of Internet connectivity at the block level through GRAMSAT provided the facility for online data entry and report generation. Today each job seeker is tracked on web and details of each project are verifiable by anyone.

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of Union Parliament received the assent of the Hon’ able President of India on 5th September 2005.

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OBJECTIVES The Act provides:

At least one hundred days of guaranteed employment in a financial year to every household in the rural areas (as notified by the Central Government under Section 3(i) of the NREGA), and whose adult members, by application, volunteer to do unskilled manual works, • Creating durable community assets in the rural areas, and • Strengthening the livehood resource base of the rural poor.

Government of India has identified 19 districts of Orissa consisting of 205 blocks covering 3672 gram panchayats (the smallest administrative unit at village level) that covers more than 33000 villages under this act.

Orissa Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (OREGS): Government of Orissa launched a scheme, ‘Orissa Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (OREGS) and started its implementation on 2nd February, 2006. Hon’able Chief Minister of Orissa inaugurated the scheme at Nadiali Gram Panchayat of Dhenkanal district by distributing the jobcards.

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RULES UNDER THE NREGA ACT

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Collaborative Partnership and Public Accountability : The Act envisages a collaborative partnership between the central government, the state government, the panchayats and the local community. At each stage of implementation such as planning, supervision and monitoring, the concerned authorities are accountable to the community.

Community Participation: The gram sabha/palli sabha

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are the statutorily mandated institutional mechanism for community participation. Local vigilance and monitoring committees, jobseekers group, local beneficiary committees, self-help groups, user groups and other grass-roots organizations can be involved in implementation for ensuring transparency and public accountability.

Role of Panchayats: The panchayats at each level will be the ‘Principal Authorities for planning and implementation of the Scheme.

Coordination among Agencies: The panchayats at different levels will need to coordinate with each other for the effective implementation of the Act. Similarly, the panchayats and the district/block administration will have to work together.

Resource Support: The central and the state governments will facilitate the implementation of the Act through timely and adequate resource support.

Orissa Employment Guarantee Council (OEGC): Orissa Employment Guarantee Council (OEGC) has been set up under section 12 of NREGA. It advises the state government on the implementation of the scheme and evaluate and to monitor it. It has the responsibility to prepare an annual report on OREGS to be presented to the Orissa Legislative Assembly.

Orissa Employment Guarantee Fund (OEGF): Orissa Employment Guarantee Fund (OEGF) has been established to ensure timely resource support to the scheme. It ensures that the State share of the OREGS budget is released in time. www.egovonline.net

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CAPACITY BUILDING : OFFICIALS

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The state level collector’s conference was organised on 16th January, 2006 wherein revenue divisional commissioners / secretaries of departments / heads of departments were present. Chief secretary / development commissioner / agriculture production commissioner were also present, which was chaired by the Hon’ble Chief Minister.

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A video conference review was held on 5th May, 2006 with all collectors and project director, District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs).

Division level workshops of Project Directors (PD), DRDAs / District Project Officers (DPOs) / Additional P.D, DRDAs / Block Development Officers (BDOs) ware organised.

Workshop of P.D, DRDAs on 23rd February, 12th April and 3rd May, 2006.

Two day workshop-cum-training programme of additional bdos / assistant engineers / junior engineers / computers programmers of 205 blocks in 10 batches at the state institute of rural development from 23rd Jan to 10th March, 2006.

Workshop on ‘NREGA online’ for program officers / computer programmers on 6th February and 3rd May, 2006.

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System (DRS) were conducted for creating awareness among the job seekers and PRI officials.

NREGASOFT

National Informatics Centre (NIC)-Ministry of Rural Development has developed an Internet based MIS, NREGAsoft (http://nrega.nic.in) for efficient and transparent management of the scheme, that ensures the information availability in the public domain.

Among the 3-tier panchayats namely district panchayat, block panchayat and village panchayat, village panchayat is the most important stakeholder in the NREGA implementation.

All the major functions have been given to the village panchayats. It includes • Registration and issue of job-card • Selection of projects • Receive demand for work from the job-seeker • Allocation of work and issue of notice to the job-seeker • Receive muster roll from the Program Officer (PO) and filling of muster roll for payment of wage i) Registration of job-seeker is done at the village panchayat level. Government of Orissa decided to use the Rural Household Survey 2002 data as the base for registration for two simple reasons: a) it reduced the huge data entry burden resulting almost zero cost on registration, b) checked the fake registration due to online validation of the job-seeker.

The data were handed over to the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India for uploading on to the NREGAsoft. The register of job-seekers was generated for each village panchayat from this data and handed over to the panchayats. Because of non availability of the IT infrastructure at the village panchayat level, the registration on the prescribed form is done at the village panchayat level and the forms are carried to the block for online registration.

The photographs were taken using a digital camera. The whole process generates a unique id for each family e.g. OR26-001-001-001/12345. For each family a job card and job slips for each registered member are printed and issued. ii) The projects to be taken up under this scheme is decided by the village panchayat through pallishabha.

CAPACITY BUILDING: NON-OFFICIALS

• • •

One day workshop of member of legislative assemblies Special zilla parishad meeting on 21st January, 2006.

Special panchayat samiti meeting on 24th January, 2006.

• Special grama sabha on 26th January and 2nd February, 2006.

• One day sensitization / awareness workshop at district level with senior officers of department from 27th January to 1st February 2006 for panchayat functionaries.

• Job-seeker’s gram sabha on 21st April, 2006.

Because of low cost and high visibility, a number of Interactive Training Programmes (ITP) over GRAMSAT Direct Reception ov

December 2007

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STATE FOCUS: ORISSA

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iii) The next task of receiving the demand for work from the job seekers is with the village panchayat. The job seekers submit his/her demand in a prescribed form or in the form of a plane application mentioning the dates of demand. iv) After a receipt of the demand has been received, village panchayat allocates the job to the job-seeker and accordingly serves the notice to join at the work site.

DPC can approve or reject the project at this stage. If the project is approved, then the execution of work starts.

GRAMSAT VSAT network played a vital role in the implementation of NREGAsoft. The availability of Internet connectivity at the block level through GRAMSAT provided the facility for online data entry and report generation. Today each job seeker is tracked on web and details of each project is verifiable by anyone.

RECOMMENDATIONS

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v) Village panchayat receives the muster roll from the Program Officer (PO) and looks after the payment to the job seeker after taking the signature / thumb impression on the muster roll.

Projects: The projects to be implemented under NREGA/ OREGS are divided in to 5 different categories namely • Flood control • Rural Connectivity • Water Conservation • Drought Proofing • Other Works The formats designed by the Chief Secretary, Orissa for National Food For Work Programme (NFFWP) are used for the project details data entry of NREGA. The project details are entered by the village panchayat.

For each project a unique code is generated by taking state code, district code, block code, panchayat code and category of work e.g. 2426001001/WC-Tank/01.

After the project details data entry is done by the village panchayat, the project is available online to District Program Coordinator (DPC) for technical sanction and financial sanction.

Technical Sanction – The detailed estimate of the project prepared by the Junior Engineer / Assistant Engineer is fed to the software. This is broadly divided in two different categories namely, labour component and material component. Under the material component the details of the materials like cement, sand etc and the quantity and prices etc are entered.

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To attract job-seekers other below poverty level (BPL) benefits should be given on a priority basis.

The national housing scheme, Indira Awas Yojana, could be given to NREGA worker household, if they are houseless and had worked for 30 days or more.

NREGA card should be enough proof for getting social security benefits like priority on admission, mid day meal etc.

A computer proficient junior engineer working for gram panchayats can make a sea change in project formulation, measurement and on the spot payment of wages to the jobseekers instead of Gram Rozgar Sevak with non technical capabilities. A gram panchayat (GP) with junior engineer can deliver all works programs including NREGA where as a GP without technical hand can not even effectively supervise rural development programs.

In Common Services Centre (CSC) being opened in all GPs under NREGA, web based panchayats can have Internet connectivity under NeGP. GP with a laptop and a civil engineer can spend every rupee with transparency and can perhaps use ICT tools for rural development.

Use of GPS meter to identify location of projects in terms of lattitude and longitude to be placed in citizen centric web page to facilitate visual appreciation using Google Earth.

Separate entry formats may be incorporated to enable job card holders to seek job using IT kiosks.

S. N. Tripathi, IAS Commissioner-cum-Secretary Rural Development and Information Technology Government of Orissa R. N. Dash, IAS Commissioner-cum-Secretary Panchayati Raj Government of Orissa B. P. Mishra, Scientist-D Government of India National Informatics Centre Bhubaneswar, Orissa

Read All egov Articles Online@www.egovonline.net 38

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IN PRACTICE

Technology for Easy Accessibility of Information Web GIS “We work with a large network of partners and knew that a single web-based system that allows our stakeholders to download spatial information directly from our database would greatly help reconstruction efforts.

Therefore, we focused on designing and establishing a long-term solution” says Pak Mulyanto Darmawan, Head of the Geospatial Task Force at Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Board (BRR- Badan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstruksi), Aceh and North Sumatra, Indonesia

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What is the vision and mission of Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Board (BRR)?

Following the Asian earthquake and Tsunami on December 26, 2004, the Indonesian government created the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Board (BRR) to manage all state and international aid for rebuilding the Aceh and North Sumatra (Nias) regions. As the executing agency, the vision of BRR is to build a reliable, dignified, prosperous and democratic Aceh and Nias. In the Indonesian government’s Master Plan for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Aceh and Nias, we further have the mission to provide housing for displaced Tsunami victims, and to rebuild destroyed infrastructure systems, including transportation, water and waste management, as well as communication systems.

How is geospatial technology beneficial for providing easy accessibility of information between departments?

We work with a large network of partners and knew that a single web-based system that allows our stakeholders to download spatial information directly from our database would greatly help reconstruction efforts. Therefore, we focused on designing and establishing a long-term solution that would enable us to share information efficiently and ensure that everyone involved always has the most current geospatial information and data.

The resulting Autodesk web GIS (geographical information system)

solution has helped our unit effectively manage, acccess, and distribute up-to-date spatial data across all relevant parties. We can now effectively provide our geospatial data to the various government agencies, international donors, and more than 150 non-government organisations involved in the reconstruction project. We are also proud to say that we have successfully improved our efficiency, response time, and customer satisfaction since using and deploying the web GIS solution.

How advantageous is Autodesk geospatial technology in compiling geographical data?

Autodesk geospatial solutions offer innovative model-based design and 2D and 3D mapping and management tools.

Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise was the easiest and most impressive software we evaluated, and the web-mapping software allows us to instantly distribute and share geospatial data, high-definition maps and images directly from our centralised database. This has saved us at least four hours a day.

Autodesk geospatial solutions enable users to work within their existing systems and comply with industry standards by facilitating access to essential geospatial information across the organisation, regardless of the format or location in which it is stored. By centralising information, we have improved and standardised the quality of data and reduced the cost of disseminating spatial information within and outside our organisation. Project backlogs have also been greatly reduced as staff can now distribute spatial information to an expanded audience.

We also use AutoCAD Map 3D for basic mapping tasks so our staff can apply their basic AutoCAD skills and training to take advantage of traditional GIS tools and functions. This means that the learning curve is short and our staff can focus on 39

COVER FEATURE

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other tasks rather than shuffling hardcopy maps. One of the biggest advantages of Autodesk geospatial technology is that it is easy to use. After working with GIS software from other vendors, such as Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), we decided to design our interactive web GIS system on Autodesk geospatial software. In addition, our staff used AutoCAD or AutoCAD Map 3D to create much of our data, but many of our thematic maps were produced in ESRI ArcGIS. With Autodesk Feature Data Object (FDO) data access technology in MapGuide Enterprise, an open source software tool that provides seamless data integration for multiple proprietary GIS formats, we can easily integrate these disparate files for a complete view of our data. As the Autodesk web GIS system is very user-friendly, staff throughout the BRR and our partners can quickly understand what they are seeing and operate the application without the hassle of data translation or conversion.

What are the cost effective features of using Autodesk Geospatial technology?

When evaluating technology options for sharing of geospatial data using the web GIS system, we examined a similar system built on .Net software, but it was far too costly to build and launch.

When testing Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise, we saw the rich

tools included with the software, and thought that we could implement it right away. With Autodesk, we not only saved 95% on development and implementation costs, but also had much more functionality.

In what aspects is this technology beneficial in improving interface between government and citizens?

One of the key benefits of the web GIS is that it enables our partners and stakeholders to instantly view and print-out the selected thematic data. Furthermore, users can request or download spatial data and high-definition maps directly from BRR’s centralised database through a FTP (File Transfer Protocoal) server. This ensures that the users always have the latest information on the status of the reconstruction project, and has helped to significantly improve and standardise the quality of data available.

Moving forward, we expect the Autodesk web GIS to continue to play an integral role in helping us meet the current and future housing needs of the local communities. We also expect the web GIS, which is currently available through an inter-agency intranet, to be fully operational online by the end of 2007. By the end of 2009, the BRR will transfer all operations and systems to the Aceh and Nias governments so that these regions will be able to use the systems to continue our reconstruction efforts.

http://www.euindiagrid.eu/events/bangalore-conference/view

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BOOK REVIEW

e-Goverment in Korea Principles and Experiences Korea, as is widely known, is strong in IT infrastructure but is it also strong in eGovernment? This is the central question which the author, Dr Kuk-Hwan Jeong, who was directly involved in e-Government development in Korea in its crucial phase of years 2000-2005 has raised. Dr Jeong, currently Senior Research fellow at the Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI), a government-funded IT think tank set up in 1985, was responsible for vision, strategy, direction, and oversight for e-Government as Director General of Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs (MOGHA) and later Assistant Minister in charge of e-Government issues (2000-2005).

The experience of Korea is, according to the author, of interest in case studies of implementing e-Government not only because it is among the group successfully diffusing Internet infrastructure preparing the base for eGovernment, but because the challenges it faces could be of relevance to other newly informatising countries (p-15) (emphasis original). Korea’s remarkable success in Broadband Internet adoption, which is among top ten in 2007 at 27.4%, has drawn worldwide attention.

The book consists of seven chapters, a write-up on Korean Government in brief describing its structure, an introduction, an appendix and references.

In Chapter 1, ‘Information Revolution and e-Government’, the author deals with topics like IT revolution and the evolution of information society, deployment of IT revolution, speed of IT revolution and e-Government, and IT efforts towards e-Government in Korea.

In Chapter 2, ‘Backgrounds of Advanced IT Infrastructure’, the author describes motivations of IT efforts, notes Internet growth, and describes citizen expectations. The objective of ov

December 2007

e-Government-The Road to Innovation: Principles and Experiences in Korea, Seoul, Korea, Gil-Job-E Media, March, xii+197 pp

the national computerisation project of the late 1980s was, says the author, to take advantage of IT to improve competitiveness in the world market.

In Chapter 3, ‘Principles of e-Government’, the theoretical part, the author describes challenges facing government in the Internet era, e-Government as a new concept of public administration, government and technology, vision for e-Government, emerging stages of e-Government, information sharing and government portal.

In Chapter 4, ‘Experience of e-Government Initiatives’, the author describes the experience of e-Government projects like National Basic Infrastructure System (NBIS) started in 1987 and Korea Information Infrastructure (KII), which laid the national optical fibre backbone network.

In Chapter 5, ‘Case Studies’, Dr. Jeong describes a number of instructive cases. In the ‘Portal System for Citizen

Participation,’ he candidly notes that “Almost all government agencies have ambitiously opened websites as a channel for citizen participation in policy debates and online polls. But neither the take-up rate nor satisfaction of people is high at the moment.” (p-87).

In Chapter 6, ‘the author highlights a number of policy issues like coordination and political leadership’, funding mechanisms, IT investment and payoffs, and monitoring and evaluation, information resource management and enterprise architecture (EA) and security and protection of private information.

In the last Chapter 7, ‘Future Directions of e-Government’, ‘the author discusses a number of important issues like promotion of government innovation, encouragement of citizen’s engagement and participation, innovation of information resource management, protection of privacy and system safety, and acceptance of eGovernment service.

In conclusion, the answer to the central question posed in this book “Is Korea strong in e-Government,” shows, despite substantial investment in eGovernment infrastructure, a number of shortcomings in e-Government in Korea like acceptance of the e-Government service by the public has been much lower than it should be (p-157). The central lesson which emerges from this valuable work is that investment in information infrastructure is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the success of e-Government. A move from techno-centric to citizen-centric e-Government will surely help.

Dr D.C.Misra, Indian Administrative Services Officer (Retd.), Independent e-Government Researcher and Consultant, New Delhi. He may be reached at: dc_misra@hotmail.com

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PRODUCT SHOWCASE-EMERSON

The Next Generation Products www.emersonnetworkpower.co.in Emerson Network Power (India) Pvt. Ltd., has launched next generation products for the Air and Power divisions namely Liebert XD series, Liebert PeX, Liebert NXa and Super 400 D. Targeted mainly at the IT, BPO, Telecom, and Pharmaceutical verticals, these nextgeneration products will assist in extending Emerson’s leadership in the enterprise segment. With this launch, Emerson now offers more than 12 products in the UPS segment and over 6 products in the Precision Air Conditioner segment in India.

Liebert NXa and Super 400 D will be available through Emerson channel team and its business partners nationally

while the Liebert XD and Liebert PeX will be sold directly through the Emerson Air team.

Commenting on the launch, Sandeep Nair, Managing Director, Emerson Network Power (India) Pvt Ltd. said, “The NexGen products launched by Emerson are in line with our commitment to offer solutions that provide availability, performance and serviceability for critical applications. For instance, Liebert NXa

UPS has been specifically designed for critical networks that require protection against the full spectrum of input and output power disturbances. Liebert

KEY PRODUCT FEATURES: POWER PRODUCTS Liebert NXa • True-Online double conversion UPS with Digital Control Technology • GREEN Invisible Rectifier

Liebert Super 400 D • India first DSP based single phase UPS system with Unity Power Factor

• Vector Controlled Inverter

• Paralleling capability

• Scalability & Redundancy

• Wider Input Range

• Improved Battery Management

• Reverse Phase sequence operation

• Is available in the range of 30–120 KVA • Has a feature called Black Box that keeps track of all events occurred with UPS and help the user diagnosis if there is any fault occurred

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• IGBT Rectifier & Inverter

AIR PRODUCTS Liebert PeX

Liebert XD series

• Next generation environmental control system for critical IT & Telecom systems

• Specially designed to address the higher heat loads generated by tightly packed rack enclosures

• In-System Programming (ISP) Feature • Easy assemble & superior serviceability • Innovative belt drive system • Energy efficient • Compatible with advanced networking

• Individual system can improve interior airflow, cool hot air ejected from the enclosure or cool hot spots near the racks • Comprises of refrigerant based XDC, XDP, XDV, XDO and water based XDWP, XDWR and air flow enhancer XDA • Is configurable to provide cooling of heat load more than 3 KW per rack

Super 400 D is NexGen pollution free UPS that provides protection against critical load. It provides unity power factor and does not emit any harmonics to the power distribution unit. Liebert XD is a Precision Cooling for BusinessCritical Continuity and Liebert PeX is a cooling solution for critical applications in telecom, computer installations & pharmaceutical sites.” www.egovonline.net

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EVENT DIARY

Public Sector Summit 2007 Cisco, together with the National Institute of Smart Governance (NISG), hosted the 3rd Annual India Public Sector Summit on e-Governance between 29th and 30th October 2007, in New Delhi. The theme of this year’s summit was ‘Networked Nations: Transformational Change with e-Governance’. The summit focused on key priorities of the National e-Governance Plan, including e-Districts, unique identification, capacity building and leading transformational change. egov magazine was media partner for this event.

Inaugurated by R. Chandrashekhar, Additional Secretary (e-Governance), Department of Information Technology, Government of India, the summit saw the participation from various senior officials from the central and state governments in India and experts from around the world.

Speaking at the summit, Chandrashekhar said, “This forum provides an excellent opportunity with a backdrop of international experience for the Department of Information Technology to share and discuss its plans with leaders from the states and union territories who are responsible for implementing these plans in their respective jurisdictions.

This forum helps us to design and evolve approaches and solutions that take into account both the specific circumstances prevailing in states and international best practices in order to address felt needs optimally.”

John Chambers, Chairman and CEO of Cisco Inc., in his keynote address, following the inaugural session said, “Governments worldwide have made significant progress in moving services online by implementing a networkbased approach to increase access for citizens and improve productivity in national and local government. Effective collaboration with government and the development of universal broadband access lies at the heart of Cisco’s strategy to support transformation of public services and drive socioeconomic change across nations. The network truly can provide the platform for leading this transformation.”

The two day summit included three-phased plenary

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December 2007

John Chambers, Chairman and CEO of Cisco Inc.

sessions. The first phase included an introduction and update of e-District Pprojects, exploring the implementation issues including ownership, governance, process re-engineering and ongoing sustainability, by Syedain Abassi, Director, Department of Information Technology, Government of India. This was followed by discussions on e-Panchayat and a talk by Simon Willis, Vice President, Global Public Sector, Internet Business Solutions Group, Cisco on ‘Integrated Service Delivery: The Global Experience.’

The second day of the summit started with an introduction

by J. Satyanarayana, CEO, National Institute of Smart Government (NISG), and a key note address by Rajeev Ratna Shah, Member Secretary, Planning Commission, on a ‘Unique Identifier for India-The National Vision.’ The need to identify individuals arises for most government services, and the absence of a reliable system for such purposes has been an impediment in improving the targeting of development schemes and reducing leakages in the delivery system. This issue was addressed during the second phase of the plenary sessions that encompassed an overview of Technology Aspects of Unique ID (UID) implementation by Datuk Azizan bin Ayob, CEO of Commerce Dot Com, Government of Malaysia, after an introduction to UID initiative and the status of this project in India given by Radha Chauhan, Principal Consultant, Programme Management Unit, National e-Governance Plan (NeGP).

The final phase of the plenary sessions covered the capacity building plan for NeGP and next steps by R. Chandrashekhar. This was followed by a session on ‘Managing Change in a Transformational Program: MCA21’ by Y.S. Malik, Additional Secretary, Ministry Of Company Affairs and finally D.Scott Campbell, former CIO and Strategic Consultant, e-Governance (Canada) spoke on the leading transformational change.

The summit provided a platform for government decisionmakers, those responsible for leading implementation, and international experts to exchange views.

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EVENT DIARY

Knowledge Management and Enabling Technologies The National Seminar on Knowledge Management and Enabling Technologies was held at the Institute of Technology and Science in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh on 17th November 2007. e-Gov was a media partner for the event.

The seminar began with a welcome address by the Chief Guest and Keynote Speaker, Dr. D.P Agarwal, member U.P.S.C, followed by three sessions, broadly divided, on the basis of theme of knowledge management (KM) and how technology enhances knowledge management. During the first session, discussions were held on the role of IT and knowledge management in addressing the issue of digital divide. While ICT can provide opportunities for development, there are inequalities between countries and between communities in the access to and utilisation of ICT. During this session, Satish Kaushal, Country Manager, IBM emphasised on empowering learning in the digital age, while

Tanmoy Chakraborty, Global Head, TCS, spoke on bridging the digital divide through technology enablement. The session ended with Dr. S.N Rangnekar from IIT, Roorkee talking on the work force development.

The second session of the seminar was on knowledge management through innovation and technology. There are

various tools and techniques for capturing and disseminating knowledge and information today. Although these tools are not yet available everywhere in the world, they are spreading rapidly and present a unique opportunity for developing countries to benefit most from the technological revolution now unfolding.

During this session Dr. M.M Pant, former vice-chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi, discussed the importance of knowledge management in education, after which, D. B.K Murthy, Director and Head –Industry Promotion, Department of IT, Ministry of ICT, Government of India, spoke on semantic web, while G.S Krishnan, Group Head –IT and Secretary, National Knowledge Council spoke on innovation and productivity.

The final session of the seminar started with a panel discussion on the issues and challenges of knowledge management followed by V.K Jaitely, President STG (I) discussing industrial practices. Thereafter Dr. S.N Rangnekar talked about knowledge management and Shyam Motiyani, Project Manager, Innovation Department, CSC, Noida, on innovation and knowledge management.

The seminar ended with the distribution of certificates and scholarship cheques to the meritorious students of MCA from the institute.

Clarification “XML was mentioned only by way of illustration to overcome interoperability issues. This was a remark among number of many things that I had said.” Sanjeev Gupta, IT Secretary, Government of Himachal Pradesh (Reference: egov India 2007 Conference Report ‘IT to Stimulate Democratic Participation’ pg. 40-43, September 2007, www.egovonline.net)

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Executive Movements Vijay Sharma has joined the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India as Director. He is 1989 batch IFS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre.

Yeshpal Dabas has joined the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, as Deputy Secretary. He is 1973 batch ISS (Indian Statistical Services) officer.

Lt Gen (Retd.) Jeffrey B Kohler is the new Senior Advisor, US-India Business Council (USIBC). Jeffrey B Kohler is the former Director of Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA). As Director of DSCA, Gen Kohler became a stalwart architect of a deeper and strategic partnership with India.

V S Gopi Gopinath, currently Vice President of AT&T Asia Pacific, will relocate to Bangalore after a transitional period to lead AT&T’s global services business in India. AT&T has restructured Asia Pacific business. AT&T Corp., a subsidiary of AT&T Inc. has announced that it has restructured its Asia Pacific operations to better address the needs of multinational customers in the region, and fully capitalise on the burgeoning demand for telecom services in India. Effective from 1 Nov 2007, India will be a separate region reporting directly to John Finnegan, Senior Vice President of Global Sales.

Justice GS Singhvi has been appointed as the Judge in India’s Supreme Court. Justice Singhvi graduated in Science in the year 1968 from Jodhpur University and passed the L.L.B. Examination in the year 1971. He joined the legal profession in 1971, practiced in Rajasthan High Court of Jodhpur till

June, 1977 and shifted to Jaipur upon creation of Jaipur High Court Bench.

BL Joshi is the new Governor of Uttarakhand. Joshi, a retired IPS officer of 1957 batch, is the third governor of the new hill state after Surjit Singh Barnala and Sudarshan Agarwal.

He replaces Sudarshan Agarwal, who was appointed as the Governor of Sikkim.

BN Talukdar is now the Director of Exploration and Development( E&D) for Oil India Limited. B.N Talukdar has served as the GM of G&R (Geological and Reservoir Engineering) in Oil India Limited (OIL).

RK Amar Babu joined Lenovo as India Managing Director.

Amar Babu has worked for HCL as the Vice President, HCL Information Systems’ Operation. He also served as Intel Technology Sales and Marketing group’s South Asia MD at Intel. He was recently the Chief Service Delivery Officer of Idea Cellular and member, Idea Cellular’s Executive Committee.

TK Anil Kumar, Deputy Commissioner, Shimoga District, has joined as the Joint Managing Director, Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation, Bangalore, Karnataka.

Vijay Kelkar has been appointed as the Chairman of the 13th Finance Commission, Government of India. Kelkar is the former Secretary, Finance, Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

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WHATS ON

4 - 5 DECEMBER 2007 e-Government Summit Kinepolis, Brussels, Belgium http://ca.com/be/en/events/item.aspx?e=150821&eis=1

4 - 6 DECEMBER 2007 Vietnam e-Government Symposium 2007 Hochi Minh City, Vietnam http://www.egov.com.vn/

29 - 30 JANUARY 2008 Global RFID ROI 2008 M,O,C Munich, Germany http://www.rfid-roi.com

4 - 6 DECEMBER 2007

25 - 27 JUNE 2008

Mobility World Congress & Exhibition 2007 Hong Kong, China www.MobilityWorldCongress.com

6 - 7 DECEMBER 2007 Securing Your Organisation’s Information in the Digital Age Sydney, Australia http://www.arkgroupaustralia.com.au/events-b090infosecurity.htm

eINDIA2008 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India

4-6 FEBURARY 2008 Enhancing Search and Retrieval Capabilities and Performance Sydney, Australia http://www.arkgroupaustralia.com.au/events-b097search.htm

www.eINDIA.net.in

10 - 11 JULY 2008 8th European Conference on e-Government Ecole Polytechnique, Lausanne, Switzerland

11 - 12 FEBURARY 2008

http://www.academic-conferences.org/eceg/eceg2008/ eceg08-home.htm

SecurMiddle East 2008 Dubai, UAE http://www.securmecongress.com/

10 - 13 DECEMBER 2007 ICEGOV 2007 - International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance Macao SAR, China www.icegov.org

23 - 24 OCTOBER 2008 26 - 27 FEBURARY 2008 California CIO Academy - The 21st Century CIO Sheraton Grand Hotel, Sacramento, CA http://www.govtech.com/events/silo.php?id=129439

4th International Conference on e-Government 2008 RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia http://www.econference.com.au/4th-InternationalConference-on-e-Government-2008.html

12 - 13 DECEMBER 2007 27 MARCH 2008

Virtualisation Masterclass Sydney, Australia www.arkgroupaustralia.com.au

24 - 26 NOVEMBER 2008

Mobile Government 2008 London, UK http://govnet.co.uk/mobilegov/

TranSec India Expo Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai, India http://www.transec.com

17 - 20 DECEMBER 2007 4th International Conference on Distributed Computing and Internet Technology Bangalore, India

9 - 10 APRIL 2008 WiMAX Forum Congress Asia 2008 Singapore, Asia

http://www.kiit.org/icdcit2007

www.wimax-vision.com

28 - 30 DECEMBER 2007 Fifth International Conference on e-Governanc Hyderabad, India http://www.iceg.net/2007

25 - 27 MAY 2008 Cardex 2008 - 6th Digital Assurance Exhibition & Conference Cairo International Convention Center, Cairo, Egypt

21 - 22 JANUARY 2008

Opportunities for Digital India

http://cardex-middleeast.com

E-Commerce India 2008 Mumbai, India http://www.marcusevans.com/html/eventdetail.asp?eventI

25 - 26 JUNE 2008 TranSec World Expo PTA - Amsterdam

28 - 31 JANUARY 2008 GTC SOUTHWEST 2008 Austin Convention Center, Austin, TX http://www.govtech.com/events/silo.php?id=126027

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29-31 July 2008 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi , India www.eINDIA.net.in

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29-31 July 2008 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India

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