LIVE R Chandrashekhar on connecting panchayats through broadband p33
ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON E-GOVERNMENT
December 2010 > ` 75/VOLUME 06 n ISSUE 12 n ISSN 0973-161X www.egovonline.net
face2face is way to
open govt
social media as a potential goldmine for g2c interactions p36
The five-sense cities!
ICT has constructed pockets of efficiencies into governance; it’s now wiring up the pieces to build a pulsating entity pg1
A Notch below
the cloud?
unless you virtualise, you can not move towards private clouds p42 p50
editorial
In urban millennium, with smart cities
T
here has been a rapid growth of urbanisation worldwide in the past 50 years. According to the UN State of the World Population 2007 report, a majority of people worldwide will be living in towns or cities, a phenomenon the UN referred to as the arrival of the ‘urban millennium.’ The UN World Urbanisation Prospects report finds that the proportion of urban population rose dramatically from 13 percent (220 million) in 1900, to 29 percent (732 million) in 1950, to 49 percent (3.2 billion) in 2005 and is likely to rise to 60 percent (4.9 billion) by 2030. The increase in urbanisation creates vast pressure in the capacity of the cities to provide services such as energy, education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation and physical security. There is an urgent need for cities to apply advanced information technology and analytics to develop a more citizen-centric approach to services in the competitive economic environment of today. While industrial infrastructure such as rails, roads, and telephone lines were the cornerstones of development in the previous centuries, 21st century is marked by growth of information technologies. Today, urban planners and developers, and governments and industries can use technologies to transform their cities for enhancing the quality of life of citizens and for sustainable urbanisation. It is in this backdrop that the concept of ‘smart city’ has evolved to deal with the challenges that rapid urbanisation is posing. A smart city is about the use of technologies and new models to make cities more productive, efficient and responsive. It envisions the use of information and the network as the underlying platform, to plan and build an efficient city that touches every aspect—transportation, commerce, education, public safety and security, water, sanitation, healthcare, environment and governance. Smart cities are therefore, the future cities that countries are aspiring for, where everything will be connected, intelligent and green: from office buildings, homes, cars, public transport, hospitals and schools to policing. The world’s most advanced city is being constructed in Portugal. An important feature of this city is that the road pavement is specially treated to allow it to use as energy the natural sunlight and the friction heat that is generated by cars travelling on it. The roads are also equipped with sensors that measure the amount of traffic. India, too, is on the road to building smart cities—world-class, self-sustainable habitats with minimal pollution levels, maximum recycling, optimised energy supplies and efficient public transportation. The pilot projects to develop the ‘smart communities’ are underway in Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra. In this endeavour to transform the rapidly growing urban areas into smarter cities, a collaborative partnership between government, industry, academia, and civil society will the pave way for attainment of this dream.
From the history Email at subscription@elets.in to get previous issues
September 2010
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October 2010
November 2010
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03
Contents december 2010
second grid grid name issue 12 n volume 06
42
technology A notch below the cloud? Why adoption of private cloud and virtualisation is going to increase
46
focus End of the pillar-to-post runs
18 | cover story
Coming, the five-sense cities!
A single-window G2C service requires interdepartmental data exchange
ICT has constructed pockets of efficiencies into governance; it’s now wiring up the pieces to build a pulsating entity
07
34
BI is the tool for decision makers in the government sector
Un-spun govt data, mixed with IT, yields rewarding solutions
26
36
gov talk sanjay mehta
interview Stela Mocan On Moldova’s e-Transformation Project
33
interview R Chandrashekhar On the role of mobile governance
04
egov / www.egovonline.net / December 2010
technology It’s best served raw
technology Face2Face is way to open govt How government organisations can benefit from social media
further reading Editorial 03 india News 10 industry News 12 news world 14 mastek feature 17 news 16 shreenath feature 25 cisco feature 40 india egov2.0 awards 2010 50 log off 58
December 2010 issue 12 n volume 06
INbox President Dr M P Narayanan Editor-in-Chief: Dr Ravi Gupta
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Managing Editor: Shubhendu Parth VP - Strategy: Pravin Prashant
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Editorial Team Dr Prachi Shirur, Dr Rajeshree Dutta Kumar Divya Chawla, Sheena Joseph, Yukti Pahwa, Pratap Vikram Singh
Interesting Edition!
Bharat Kumar Jaiswal, Anuj Agarwal
Receiving the November edition of eGov was interesting. Also, it was interesting to read cover story as well as various articles on applications of ICT. The editorial has rightly pointed out that the inability of banks in seeing a business proposition in financial inclusion has been one of the bottlenecks, while the leveraging of technology for conducting micro transactions is yet to pass the litmus test. It’s an excellent magazine on e-Government. I really enjoy it.
Vishal Kumar, Rakesh Ranjan
Sanjay Jha, Patna
Sales & Marketing Team Debabrata Ray (+91-9899650692) Arpan Dasgupta, Fahimul Haque
(sales@elets.in) Subscription & Circulation
Towards All Inclusive Society
Priya Saxena, Manoj Kumar, Gunjan Singh
This is in reference to “Lending them a banking hand” article published in Nov 2010 issue. The article has rightly pointed out the importance of ICT in financial inclusion in India. Unfortunately, 45.9 million farmer households in India do not access credit. Moreover, despite the vast network of bank branches, only 27 per cent of total farmer households are indebted to formal sources. In fact, ICT can be a big enabler of financial inclusion. So, with the advancements made in ICT, the extension of banking services is feasible even in remote and countryside regions in India. While ICT is an enabler, the UID project would accelerate the process of financial inclusion.
(subscription@elets.in) Graphic Design Team Bishwajeet Kumar Singh, Om Prakash Thakur Shyam Kishore Web Development Team Zia Salahuddin, Amit Pal, Sandhya Giri, Anil Kumar IT Team Mukesh Sharma Events Vicky Kalra Editorial & Marketing Correspondence egov – G-4 Sector 39, NOIDA–201 301, India Phone: +91-120-2502181-85, Fax: +91-120-2500060 Email: info@egovonline.net egov is published by Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd in technical collaboration with Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS). Owner, Publisher, Printer: Ravi Gupta, Printed at H T Media Ltd, B-2, Sector-63, Noida 201307 , U.P. and published from 710 Vasto Mahagun Manor, F-30, Sector - 50 Noida, UP Editor: Ravi Gupta © All rights reserved. No part of this publication
B Krishnan, Bangaluru
Proper Standardisation Must The egov interview with Loknath Behera gives us in-depth knowledge about role of information technology for the improvement of law enforcement and cyber security in the country. Indeed, Crime & Criminal Tracking Networking and Systems will increase the efficiency of the Police through better management of data. I fully agree that Loknath Behera that mindless use of technology without proper standardisation causes more problems than it sorts out. Every police force and law enforcement agency should have an R & D division to keep abreast of developments in technology. M K Rao, Hyderabad
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic and mechanical,
Securing the Cloud
including photocopy, or any information storage or
Cloud computing results in cost savings, more reliable backups and increased scalability. IDC esti-
retrieval system, without publisher’s permission.
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egov / www.egovonline.net / December 2010
mates that the market for cloud computing in Asia Pacific excluding Japan will grow to about $ 1.3 billion this year and will continue expanding at a rate of about 40 percent a year until 2014, as pointed out in the article “Can it rain for the govt?” (November 2010). It’s encouraging fact that IT organisations are developing standards and protocols that seek to extend security into public cloud environments. Rajesh Srivastava, Lucknow
Interactive Boards Market Expanding Interactive white boards (IWBs) and audiovisual equipments are emerging as powerful tools in modern teaching. They can also be used to interact with online shared annotation and drawing environments. The article “A market in the making” (November 2010) highlights the emerging markets of IWBs and their importance. As per the data, one out of every hundred classrooms had an IWB globally in 2004, the ratio has gone up to nine per hundred at present Prasant Suri, New Delhi
RFID for Healthcare? RFID technology can greatly contribute to the healthcare industry with Wi-Fi and voice over IP (VoIP), creating a single information system and cut costs to improve efficiency. The article “Too many positives to ignore” (November 2010) highlights the benefits of RFID. RFID systems reduce the time employees spend looking for assets, improve asset utilisation and enhance ability of the hospitals to perform scheduled maintenance. Minakshi Taneja, Chandigarh
gov talk
sanjay mehta ceo, maia intelligence
Insights (un)Ltd For the business of governance to be less of a hassle and more of an accomplishment, BI is the tool for decision makers
T
oday, public sector organisations increasingly function in a corporate manner. Their challenges are no less than a private sector enterprise. They face unprecedented pressure to improve service quality while they are needed to progressively lower costs. At the same time, they are expected to become more accountable, transparent, customer focused and responsive to stakeholder and citizen needs. Government agencies are tasked with more than simply reducing costs and increasing service levels. They also face increased scrutiny from legislators, executives and even the public in the wake of the Right to Information Act. The scams that keep surfacing from time to time bring additional challenges for the public sector organisations. Since asset misappropriations are at the centre of the scams, there is a need to increase transparency, accountability and performance as well as solve operational challenges, improve customer service, maximise resources and elimi-
nate fraud, abuse and excessive spends. Business intelligence (BI) technology has valuable applications in all areas and levels of government. If rightly implemented, BI systems provide executives, administrators, managers, outside contractors and citizens the crucial information necessary to perform their jobs and make decisions more effectively, resulting in better governmental service and more productivity for every rupee of tax collected. BI applications can be used to improve financial management and compliance, program oversight, procurement and logistics processes, and government-to-citizen communication. And, it helps identifying scams at an early stage as an alert.
Getting data that matters There is a wealth of information and data in public sector repositories, but making sure that information is of high quality, accessible and accurate is paramount to improving and measuring performance across the organisation. The importance of accessing up-to-date and accurate information in a timely
manner cannot be underestimated, but how can one accurately shift through the massive volumes of available information to uncover the best decision support? Historic reporting doesn’t give the full picture. Also, understanding information availability risks and protecting high-value information are critical. With BI, it is possible to define which information is appropriate for which department. With the emphasis on the public sector to improve efficiencies, it is important that information flow is seamless. BI spans a range of technologies, not all of which may be applicable to every agency or situation. Individual BI components can be assembled into customised applications and solutions to meet specific needs. For the last few years, BI has consistently ranked as a top priority for government CIOs. By collecting and analysing data, BI creates detailed reports that provide invaluable system analysis. The insights can improve performance and lower the cost of a service delivery, among other things. Using the
must Read Straight from the gut Author: Jack Welch Publisher: Hachette India Price: `350/The book talks about his greatest victories, devastating failures, and his most important secrets to success— in business and in life.
December 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov
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gov talk
dashboard, decision makers can have immediate access to data that is most important to them.
Why public sector
requires BI
Improving service delivery Public agencies can elevate their performance with the unprecedented visibility and control provided by BI. In particular, they will benefit from operational BI that can be scaled down to hundreds and thousands of government employees. No matter where they are or what political structure they adhere to, government agencies around the world grapple with a common challenge: finding ways to improve their interactions with constituents while managing the pressure of constantly rising case loads. It is essential in a public sector to know exactly who its customers are, what they are buying, and whether they are satisfied or not. The only way to discover and understand these dynamics is through BI. Here, the customer is a person or an agency that has to deal with the government body. Improvement in customer services can be achieved by building a greater understanding of the customers and their needs. Intelligent profiling can help government bodies improve their service delivery and also rationalise delivery channels while making best use of resources and improving performance. BI technology has useful applications in many different areas of the public sector, including financial systems, health and human services program management, citizen relationship management, anomaly detection, and education and campus management. Government agencies can apply BI to improve their understanding of their constituencies, their ability to serve, and to provide accurate measurements of the effect of their actions.
Taking efficiencies to new levels BI captures organisational data from disparate sources and presents it to decision makers and stakeholders in a simple, meaningful way via a user
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egov / www.egovonline.net / December 2010
l To measure, manage and report on performance, logistics, policy formulation, planning and budgeting, statutory reporting and best value
BI applications can improve financial management and compliance, procurement and logistics, and G2C communication in government
lTo assist in the improvement of public information, inter-agency liaison, including single view of citizen l To explore hidden
friendly tool. Effective use of BI can provide tangible benefits to departmental processes, the bottom line and operational efficiencies and can be used in many different ways to improve the management of day-to-day work processes. BI is based on using the information held by the organisation to improve performance. Defined information searching and reporting systems will lead to a more efficient, business like public sector. The public sector generally works in partnership with NGOs and private sector organisations to deliver services. Freely available data as well as appropriate measures for comparison are vital if all parties are to thrive. Data does not automatically lead to intelligence, nor does technology. BI helps you get highquality, accurate and timely data, using an effective framework to deliver appropriate intelligence. This improves the quality of data shared between public sector organisations and their partners. Reporting and analytics are important for spotting trends. The public sector is critically in need to improve decision making and choose the best technologies for modernisation. BI tools can ensure operational efficiencies and performance improvements, thereby helping policy-level decision making. With BI, a public sector agency can have all the information at its disposal for decision making, planning and monitoring. BI is the cornerstone of decision making based on facts rather
relationships in data for disease surveillance and public health, identifying tax fraud and money laundering, homeland security, crime prevention
than perceptions. With BI, government can ensure that the public sector meets its key performance indicators (KPIs) and manages its resources well.
A dashboard approach The need for BI in the government sector has the potential to dramatically impact service delivery and national security. By leveraging BI capabilities, government agencies can more effectively share and analyse data, resulting in improved agency mission capabilities. There has been a discussion around the need for having a CEO for Mumbai, who would be accountable to the people he or she would serve. An empowered CEO would be guided by a council of specialists, including one member each from government department, agencies such as MMRDA, MHADA, Mumbai Police, BEST and MSRTC and from NGOs. He would be entitled to get reporting from such different authorities. The CEO would have highly diversified tasks in terms of measuring the performance of the services delivered by various government entities, based on data made available. Assuming that a BI system is in place, to support decision making, the adjoining screenshot shows how the Mumbai City Dashboard for CEO will look like. If you are the CIO of the city of Mumbai, imagine how BI can help improve efficiencies and achieve transformation and how the use of BI will gain importance in future.
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news
projects people policy events products
Jharkhand BPL families to get incentives for Aadhaar The Government of Jharkhand has decided to give incentives to families living below the poverty line (BPL) to get the Unique Identification Development Authority of India (UIDAI) project rolling. A token amount of `100 will be given as a financial incentive to BPL families to get each of their members enrolled for Aadhaar. Further, the state UIDAI is also said to be considering the possibility of giving incentives to introducers who would aid in the identification of BPL families and the illiterate. The incentives will
be credited directly in the bank accounts of Aadhaar card holders. UIDAI will be issuing the Aadhaar cards in five districts of Jharkhand—Ranchi, Hazaribag, Lohardaga, Dhanbad and Deoghar—where the project has been launched initially. The rural development department, registrar department for the project, has planned to offer Aadhaar cards to about 38 lakh Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) workers and BPL families in the first phase. The
plan is to make payments of wages to MGNREGA workers through Aadhaar numbers. Jharkhand is
land records
Goa dept to offer e-tracking for all land record details
The Directorate of Settlement and Land Records (DSLR) in Goa is planning a Web-based system where all survey numbers of land in Goa and their details will be visible on the Internet for viewers. The facility will allow anyone, anywhere in the world to log on to the Website and access the land
records in Goa. This would be especially beneficial to non-resident Goans who can track any parcel of land of interest to them and even print the records through a payment gateway. In particular, nonresident Goans who own properties in Goa, will be the immediate beneficiaries. In case of any change in the details of their property such as ownership, they can track the changes immediately because of the computerisation of the land records
in Goa and the online updating of records. DSLR had recently bagging the national level ‘Land Records Information System’ award. Goa bagged the award among 140 other entries because of the unique features of the system such as the integrated land records which are a combination of text and graphic data. Another unique feature of the system is that it instantly updates the records when land acquisition takes place.
one of the few states where issuance of cards began soon after the formal countrywide launch of the project.
health records
Haryana to e-track expecting mothers’ health As part of a pilot project in the rural areas of Kurukshetra, Kiathal and Rohtak districts of Haryana, children up to the age of five and expecting women are being issued a 16-digit unique identification number to keep track of their health. The pilot has been taken under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), and will gradually be extended to the entire state. Initially, the unique identification number will
be used for keeping track of ante-natal and post-natal vaccination and immunisation schedules. As of now, immunisation schedule of pregnant women and children and other health related-data of every village are maintained manually in registers. The modalities of the project are reportedly being worked out for the state of Punjab too.
Haryana SIC to launch SMS service for case status queries The State Information Commission (SIC) of Haryana, in association with Hyderabad-based Centre for Good Governance will be implementing an SMSbased system to provide status of RTI cases filed
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egov / www.egovonline.net / December 2010
with SIC. Upon completion of the project, citizens will be able to instantly get replies to queries like status of appeals, complaints, decision and the date of hearing for their respective cases. The required train-
ing has reportedly been imparted to the SIC staff on the use of the software. The Commission will be issuing a set of numbers on which people would be sending their queries. The information commission in Andhra Pradesh
already has this SMS-based service in place for similar queries. SIC in Haryana will be the second such body to provide the service to appellants. SIC Haryana is also in the process of revamping its Website so that appeals are filed online as well.
news
India Transport card to arrive next year A common transport card, which can be used for all modes of travel—buses, trains, metros, and taxis, excluding airplanes—is being planned by the Union Urban Development ministry. The card, which is also being called the India Mobility Card, could see initial deployments as early as the next
year. The ministry will soon hold a nationwide competition on the design of the cards, their logo and their final name. While the card will be introduced in chosen cities across various states to begin with, officials say that the goal is to have a single ticketing system tying the country. This
would obviate the need to buy tickets. Delhi, Bangalore, Jaipur, Bhopal, Indore and Mumbai have reportedly been chosen for the launch. A similar ticketing system is already in place in many cities across the world, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Seattle, San Francisco,
card system. UTITSL is a government agency and a non-banking financial institution under the Reserve Bank of India. The ministry plans to extend the use of the card further to payment of tax on national highways, and even finally for utility payments, car parking, and shopping.
security
education
MHRD to use UID for tracking child development According to a MoU signed between Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and Unique Identification Development Authority of India (UIDAI), the Government of India is planning to provide unique identification (UID) numbers to all
Stockholm, Gothenburg and Rome. Earlier this year, the Ministry engaged UTITSL, a fully owned PSU of the Ministry of Finance, to work on the concept of the Common Mobility Cards as well as the Automatic Fare Collection system, which is to be linked to the
school children above five years age to track their progress at every stage. The basis of the MoU is that while fingerprint stability begins at the age of 15, the iris stabilises at the age of five. Therefore, children above five can be mapped biometrically and issued UID numbers.
Biometric data collection will be done through enrolling agencies. Ministry of HRD will be using the database to keep track of students’ progress on the basis of parameters such as attendance and grades. Students’ movements from primary and secondary to higher education will be tracked and movement from one institution to another will also be monitored. Additionally, the UID numbers can be used to track children immunisation programs and can also be used to weed out bogus entries from welfare schemes like the mid-day meal scheme.
Govt sector demand to push India CCTV market growth A recent report by market research and information analysis firm RNCOS has indicated that the Indian CCTV market is poised to grow at 34 percent CAGR during the 2010-12 period. According to the report titled India’s globalisation and rising security concerns demonstrated the importance of electronics security equipments and services. “This diversified requirement of security applications was driven by the strong demand from government and other entities,” the report said. It further stated that government establishments in India were gearing up to install video
surveillance systems at public places and sensitive government buildings. An end-user analysis pointed out that the government and public sector demand was high for overall security systems, followed by industrial and commercial sector, the RNCOS release said. The report estimated the Indian electronics security market at around `1,600 crore in 2008, with CCTV accounting for more than a third of the market. This segment has been growing at a much faster rate than other segments such as access control, intrusion alarm or fire detection alarm.
Kerala plans more G2C services through Akshaya centres The Government of Kerala will soon be piloting new citizen services through the state-wide network of Akshaya centres. The pilots are expected to be launched in Kannur and Plakkad districts. The government will reportedly designate
Akshaya centres as the front-end for governmentto-citizen (G2C) services of all departments. “A total of 40 such new services are expected to be rolled out under the e-District programme through Akshaya centres,” informed Dr Ajay Kumar, Principal
Secretary IT, Kerala. He further informed that the FREES software developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) will help the state add new G2C services in real time. The project is expected to be completed by March 2011.
December 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov
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news
industry
TCS bags UP state data center project
IT services company Tata Consultancy Services has said it has won a contract for establishing and managing the State Data Centre (SDC) for the state of Uttar Pradesh. The state-of-the-art SDCs will enhance the infrastructure required to
consolidate the state level applications and will be interoperable with the existing infrastructure. TCS will help us consolidate services, applications and infrastructure to provide efficient electronic delivery of government-
to-government, government-to-citizen and government-to-business services, Chandra Prakash, Principal Secretary, IT and Electronics, Uttar Pradesh said. “TCS has demonstrated its proven methodology and expertise in implementing data centers for various state governments and other central government agencies. We are delighted to partner with Uttar Pradesh to establish a reliable and efficient State Data Center (SDC). This is the third State Data Center (SDC) project TCS is implementing after Karnataka and Pondicherry under National e-Governance Plan,” said Tanmoy Chakrabarty, Head and Vice President, Government ISU, TCS.
IBM, IITs to make power grids smarter
power
Spanco bags `160 crore Bihar R-APDRP deal Spanco Ltd has won the IT modernisation project of the Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB). This project is under the larger Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Program(RAPDRP). R-APDRP is an initiative driven by the centre in collaboration with the state with a clear focus to bring in actual, demonstrable performance in terms of sustained energy loss reduction. This is Spanco’s third consecutive win in this space. It has already bagged the states of Punjab and Maharashtra and has been declared lowest bidder in Goa. The size of the current order is about `160 crore and strengthens Spanco’s R-APDRP related order book to about `550 crore. The objective of the R-APDRP program is reduction of AT&C losses to 15 percent in project
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areas. The program is divided into two parts. The first part will include establishment of baseline data and IT applications like meter data acquisition, meter reading, billing, collections, GIS, MIS, energy audit, and so on to get verified baseline AT&C losses. The second part will include distribution strengthening projects. The current win comes under first part of the program. Spanco will supply, install and commission one integrated solution within the broad framework provided in the system requirement specification (SRS) document. The SRS Committee under the guidance of Ministry of Power has finalised a detailed document which covers all the components of the project including hardware, software, networking and GIS, among others, to help the utilities improve their performance.
egov / www.egovonline.net / December 2010
HCL Tech bags smart-grid deal worth USD 100 mn In a first of its kind deal, IT services company HCL Technologies will be implementing smart grid solutions in the power sector in the country. Under the terms of the USD 100-dollar sign-up, HCL will reportedly be setting up a network that can intelligently integrate the supply and demand side systems, to enable greater robustness, efficiency and flexibility in power distribution networks. Smart grids are a part of the company’s newly formed Ecosystem and Business Incubation initiative under which it will incubate five ideas in different technologies. The company is aiming for large deals where it can act as a turnkey integrator. A smart grid uses a two-way digital technology to deliver electricity to customers’ homes and to control appliances to increase energy efficiency and reduce power use.
IBM has reportedly entered into an agreement with IIT Madras and IIT Kharagpur to carry out research for the development of smart power grids systems. The joint research with the two IITs will aim at developing open system designs that can boost the potential of Phasor Measurement Units (PMU), a new type of sensor on power grids. The IBM researchers and the students will develop network architectures to collect data from PMUs as well as analytics tools that process the collected data to provide valuable information to the grid operators. Governments and businesses around the world will be able to take advantage of the PMU technology, as the research insights are to be made public.
industry
news
Cloud computing
Microsoft talks to HP, Uttaranchal for cloud-based e-Gov rollouts Software major Microsoft has said it is in talks with the governments of Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal to help them roll out e-Governance projects on cloud computing platform. Microsoft has already facilitated launching of e-governance services like making death or birth certificates, trade licenses in Jammu and Kashmir via cloud computing whereby
it enabled the state to use various IT applications developed by the state government of Madhya Pradesh.
In an earlier project, Microsoft had facilitated launch of e-governance services like making death or birth certificates and
green tech
trade licenses in Jammu and Kashmir using cloud computing. The company enabled the state to use various IT applications developed by the state government of Madhya Pradesh. In addition, using the private cloud model, Microsoft has proposed the Union IT Ministry to develop State Data Centres.
infrastructure
Punj Lloyd, Hopetech to offer e-toll collection solutions Hopetech Sdn Bhd, a provider of integrated solutions in automated revenue collection, and Punj Lloyd Group, the diversified global engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) conglomerate have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to offer cost effective and robust integrated solutions for automated electronic toll collection (ETC) and a
central toll clearing house in India. SS Raju, President and CEO, Buildings and Infrastructure, Punj Lloyd said, “Hopetech’s expertise in providing a wide spectrum of automated toll revenue collection systems, and road telematics will complement our capabilities to execute toll road projects and will open up new opportunities for us. Use of ETC systems will
play a key role in successful implementation of Indian Government’s decision for use of RFID cards in all vehicles.” ETC systems increase user convenience and would also benefit the toll operators and National Highways Authority of India. It would also mean less operating cost for toll operators, better audit control through centralised user accounts,
improve transparency of toll transactions and reduce revenue leakages.
inTarvo to solar power BSNL cell sites As part of a BSNL plan to tap solar energy instead of diesel generators to power cell sites, inTarvo Technologies, a provider of integrated lifecycle management services has bagged a tender from BSNL. InTarvo will be powering a certain number of telecom sites with solar power in the Western Uttar Pradesh region. This arrangement of powering the energy sites using renewable resources will bring down the dependence on diesel generators that power telecom towers in the country. This will lead to reduced carbon emissions. This initiative is part of an effort to promote renewable energy, particularly solar, in Western UP, a region that suffers from a severe power deficit. More usage of renewable resources will have multi benefits including cutting down the operational expenditure by providing a viable alternatives to fossil fuels.
Hitachi unveils enterprise-class solid state drives Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) has announced its new Ultrastar solid state drive (SSD) family, in 100 GB, 200 GB and 400 GB capacities. The models come in both 2.5-inch 6 Gbps Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and 3.5-inch 4 Gbps Fibre Channel (FC) interfaces. As the world’s first jointly developed SAS and FC enterpriseclass SSDs, the Ultrastar SSD400S family combines Hitachi’s enterprise hard disk drive expertise with Intel’s extensive capabilities in developing high-endurance 34-nanometer
single-level cell NAND flash memory and advanced SSD technology. This joint offering is aimed at customers who are increasingly looking to tiered storage as a method of managing the escalating performance, capacity, endurance and reliability demands of today’s data centres. The enterprise SSD market is growing at an estimated 73 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2009-2014.1 Social networks, mobile applications, Web TV, online video services and new tablet-like devices are fuelling the
need for faster storage solutions and improvements in high throughput and input-output performance. The 400GB SSD can endure up to 35 petabytes of random writes over the life of the drive, which is the equivalent of writing 19.2TB per day for five years. The new Ultrastar SSD400S family is the first to reach up to 535MBps read and 500MBps write throughput with 6Gbps SAS, and 390MBps read and 340MBps write throughput with 4Gbps FC.
December 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov
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news
world
Bangladesh links village-level govt units to the Internet Bangladesh has launched Rural Information Service Centres to connect villages via the Internet to give ordinary people the benefits of information technology. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
Wazed opened the Union Information Service Centre (UISC) for 4,501 local government units across the country. The centres will provide all government forms, public notifications and
citizen service
connectivity
Brunei’s MoD signs infrastructure network contract
The Housing Development Department of the Ministry of Development in Brunei has signed an infrastructure network contract with Dinamik Giat Trading Company, with the objective of making housing development services more accessible to the general public through an e-Government network. The e-Government project is meant to enhance the infrastructure network that will connect the Housing Development Department headquarters with the department’s branches using EG Bandwidth technology.
gazettes, birth and death registration information, passport and visa support, information on public examinations, new jobs, laws, health, agricultural, and disaster management among others.
These centres will also provide commercial services and social services to the residents. All unions, the lowest rung of local government, are now linked to the Internet.
World Bank proposes ICT infrastructure program for Cariforum member countries
The World Bank has presented a program that would support initiatives for improved information communication technologies within the Caribbean Forum of African Caribbean and Pacific States (Cariforum). It is titled as the Caribbean Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (Carcip). Carcip is designed as a broad umbrella program to include all Cariforum member states. It will be anchored within the Caribbean Community’s ICT agenda and will be closely coordinated with the Carib-
bean Knowledge and Learning Network, the Caribbean Tourism Organisation, the Caribbean Association of National Telecommunication Organisations, the Caribbean Telecommunications Union, the International Telecommunications Union and other initiatives in the region. Among the proposed objectives are to increase access and affordability of broadband communications networks within the region and countries; contribute to the development of the regional IT industry; and contribute to improved government efficiency and transparency through the delivery of e-services, including e-government and e-society applications. The World Bank’s lead IT specialist has said that following a formal expression of interest by a Cariforum member state, the Bank would field a team of experts to design the country program.
security
Bahrain’s e-Gov Authority gets ISO certified
The island country of Bahrain has become the first country in the Middle East to win an International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) certification in the e-Government sector. The e-Government Authority (EGA) has been awarded the Information Security Certification - the international standard for protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data. The assessment and certification was awarded by Belgium Group Bureau Veritas, which specialises in auditing, testing and certification licensing.
power management
Ericsson to deploy LTE smart grid for EnergyAustralia As part of an agreement between Ericsson and EnergyAustralia, Ericsson will design and integrate a multi-vendor wireless access network based on LTE technology that will enable two-way communications between electrical control devices, back-end systems and households. The network will be rolled out across
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150 sites in New South Wales in Australia. This will be part of Australia’s leading smart grid rollout and will transform EnergyAustralia’s electricity network into a smarter, greener and more efficient network. The telecommunications network will transmit data between 12,000 smart monitoring
egov / www.egovonline.net / December 2010
devices being installed on the electricity distribution network, up to 3,000 mobile field computers, and 200 zone sub stations. EnergyAustralia will conduct trials of an LTE platform commencing in 2011, with the intent to migrate to a full LTE network. Under the agreement, Ericsson will provide equipment,
software and services, leveraging the Melbourne-based Ericsson Global LTE Competence Centre and its expertise in network design, planning and integration. EnergyAustralia was
recently chosen by the Australian Government to lead the Smart Grid, Smart City demonstration project to test Australia’s first fully integrated, commercialscale smart grid.
News
Delhi meet focuses on EU-India sync-up Euro-India participants explored joint research possibilities in areas of ICT for healthcare and development By Nicholas Ferguson and Juanita Kakoty
I
CT is seen as a key enabler in developing the market for affordable healthcare. The social significance of this could be widespread as benefits reach underprivileged and rural sectors of Indian society for whom affordable healthcare is often not a reality. ICT for healthcare, and the broader issue of how ICT can address societal challenges, were the two key topics discussed at the EC-funded Euro-India Spirit and Synchroniser ICT policy events held on November 10 at Surajkund in Delhi. The event saw ICT experts and stakeholders from Europe and India deliberate upon issues that have direct bearing on ICT policies formulated in the two geographies. The insights that emerged outlined a roadmap of thematic concerns for future collaborative research, and pronounced the strong need to engage the respective governments and industry practitioners in an active ICT policy dialogue.
In a build up to the workshop, an intensive meeting of ‘Euro-India Spirit’ experts took place focusing on shaping EU-Indian ICT policy in three main areas: ICT for addressing societal challenges, audiovisual media and the Internet, and emerging technologies and e-infrastructures. The group consolidated and built upon the findings and results of previous meetings to leverage joint cooperation between EU and India in areas that offer mutual benefits for both sides. Areas recommended for future collaborative research include: boosting e-healthcare capacities, investing in secure and dependable ICT infrastructure, broadband research capacities pertinent to both EU and India, ICT applications in disaster management, e-services like multilingual content and
Working groups will draw expertise and knowledge from the industry practitioners, to pinpoint real challenges on the ground 16
egov / www.egovonline.net / December 2010
cloud computing, data acquisition, dissemination, storage and management, issues of security and trust, and empowering end users. Comprehensive discussions on policy measures to fund and promote research kept the experts’ discussions animated, as did the talks that stressed the importance of addressing a validation scenario right at the stage of formulating research proposals. The importance of adding local depth to a global infrastructure was also repeatedly highlighted during the course of the meeting. The ICT workshop saw participants from the Indian Government, European Commission, academia, industry, civil society, researchers and practitioners. They discussed and reflected upon joint research possibilities in the domain of ICT for Development between the European Union and India. With a keynote presentation on Indian ICT policy issues by Dr G Narendra Kumar, Joint Secretary, Performance Management Division, Cabinet Secretariat, the exclusive invitation-only forum aimed to maximise the effects and benefits of policy dialoguing among stakeholders and experts from EU and India. Alvis Ancans, International Relations Officer, European Commission, highlighted the structure of Seventh Framework Program (FP7), including a breakdown of funding areas focusing on ICT. He outlined various types of support that the European Commission offers for international collaboration and listed the Indian organisations that have been successful so far in FP7 ICT Calls including FICCI, IBM India, IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay. As an outcome of the two-day intensive exercise, Euro-India Spirit re-aligns its priority to drawing expertise and knowledge from the industry practitioners. This would allow real case scenarios to be discussed, showcasing benefits and pinpointing real challenges on the ground. Euro-India Spirit will actively participate in a series of ICT events to be hosted in India in 2011. The key next steps include the preparation of a document of policy recommendations that will be submitted to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India and to the Directorate General for Information Society and Media, European Commission. The document will highlight themes for joint EU-India research collaborations and innovation in the field of ICT for Development which can have farreaching effect in healthcare and beyond.
mastek
special feature
Orissa moves up on e-taxes curve With e-registration and filing of commercial taxes going live in Orissa, 1.3 lakh dealers and vendors stand to benefit
T
he Department of Commercial Tax of Orissa has launched the electronic filing of commercial tax returns and electronic application of registration for Tax Identification Number (TIN) and Small Registered Dealers Identification Number (SRIN) through its Website www.orissatax.gov. in. This service, coupled with the earlier launched electronic payment of taxes, empowers the manufacturers, dealers and merchants to regularly interact and transact with the Orissa Commercial Taxes Department from the comfort of their premises. The system was launched by Prafulla Chandra Ghadai, Finance and Excise Minister, Government of Orissa. Orissa Commercial Taxes Department and its IT partner Mastek Ltd, a leading IT solutions player providing IP-led enterprise technology solutions to government, insurance and financial services organisations worldwide, have worked together to make this vision a reality. This launch is the culmination of creating a centralised solution, with centralised data and application connecting all Orissa Commercial Taxes Offices, to enable the provisioning of this electronic and real-time solution. Mastek has been supporting the Orissa
Mastek solutions have helped Orissa Commercial Taxes Department to be positioned among the most IT-enabled departments in the state
Commercial Taxes Department to provide these innovative solutions since 2003. This has resulted in Orissa Commercial Taxes Department emerging as one of the most IT-enabled government departments in Orissa, and also an IT-mature department among peer departments in other states. The solution brings about manifold benefits to the department as well as to dealers and merchants. It helps do away with the long queues and time spent at the department office, thereby increasing the convenience of dealers and merchants in their interaction with the department. Speaking about the e-services initiative and electronic registration and returns-filing solution, Vilas Kanyal, Head, India & APAC, Mastek, said, “We are honoured to work with the Orissa Commercial Tax depart-
ment. This front-office solution, combined with the back-office solution developed by us earlier, helps the department to reduce total turnaround time to deliver the registration certificate, collect tax returns and identify the defaulters. This solution also reduces manual record keeping and chances of error.” Nikunja Bihari Dhal, Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Government of Orissa said, “With the launch of the electronic filing of tax returns and registration, we have fulfilled the expectation of trades and individuals. The e-services initiative also takes us a step closer in preparation of the upcoming GST regime. Mastek team has designed, developed and implemented this solution. They continue to work with us since 2003 to transform the tax administration system in the state, right from sales tax regime
to value added tax regime.” Kanyal added, “The Mastek team has worked closely with the department for this milestone achievement which will result in complete transparency of interactions and transactions and will enable the dealers, manufacturers and merchants to focus more on their respective businesses and contribute to the growth of Orissa’s economy.” With its principal offshore delivery facility based in Mumbai, Mastek operates across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific regions. With over 20 years of in-depth government and public sector domain experience, Mastek collaboratively works with the central, state and public sector units, offering innovative IT solutions in niche segments in the government vertical. These include tax administration, public distribution, social justice, prison management, education and social enterprise management.
December 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov
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cover story
Coming, the five-sense cities! ICT has constructed pockets of efficiencies into governance; it’s now wiring up the pieces to build a pulsating entity By Prachi Shirur Illustration: Bishwajeet K Singh
I
magine a city where information systems of different government agencies talk to each other for better service delivery to citizens; where public safety system allows real-time video surveillance and faster response to emergencies, and where advanced analytics can interpret large amounts of data to improve healthcare. Imagine a city where traffic congestion is eliminated and pollution is reduced; where people get timely insight into their own water use to locate inefficiencies and decrease unnecessary demand, and where smart power grids smooth up consumption and lower energy usage. No, this is not a city of tomorrow. It is a vision of city of today and such cities are already in the making in many parts of the world.
What’s driving their arrival? City administrations are responsible not only for core services such as energy, water, environmental sustainability, urban planning and architecture, but also needs to focus on reducing congestion in transport systems; improving public safety by reducing crime and emergency response time; improving education and training delivery, and enabling wider access to healthcare. The application of advanced information and communication technologies can help administrators better understand, predict and intelligently respond to citizen needs.
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cover story
Prakash Rane, Managing Director, ABM Knowledgeware, says, “The term smart city encompasses a fairly wide canvas. A smart city would mean clean city with easy and timely access to critical civic services ranging from health, education, disaster management, affordable housing for the urban poor, adequate water supply and sanitation, solid waste management and so forth. Each of these domains would have abundant scope for deploying technologies such as SCADA, GIS, wireless communication, wide area networking for any time anywhere service; suitable application software for automating business processes with different Web services and a service-oriented architecture; mobile computing, RFID, biometrics and other such technologies.” On the advantages of a smart city, AK Mehta, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, says, “A smart city delivers goods and services more efficiently and at a lesser cost, increases productivity per capita and lowers human and financial costs. So there is no option for governments worldwide but to adopt the concept of smart city.” Talking about the technology trends in the smart city domain, Mathew Thomas, Vice President, Strategic Industries, SAP India Subcontinent, notes, “Technology drivers for smart city point at virtualisation and consolidation of technology assets like computing devices, networks and storage, usage of the Internet and user-friendly interfaces such as kiosks and the emergence of shared services through service orientation.”
The experiences worldwide The smart city concept has been triggered by the rapid growth of urbanisation. A number of cities across the world today are on way to become
AK Mehta Joint Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development Government of India
“ICT lowers costs and improves service delivery. We need to look at the city as a system, with all stakeholders sharing the same basic backbone of IT” ‘smart cities’, combining technology and urban policy for streamlined urban systems. This is leading to the transformation of public safety and disaster management, education, healthcare, transportation, water and power sectors. Transport officials in Brisbane, Singapore and Stockholm are using smart systems to reduce both congestion and pollution. Public safety officials in major cities like New York are able not only to solve crimes and respond to emergencies, but also prevent them. City managers in Energy Australia and IBM are working together to apply 12,000 smart sensing devices throughout the electricity distribution network in Australia to make power grids. New York, Syracuse, Santa Barbara and St. Louis are using data analytics, wireless and video surveillance capabilities to strengthen crime fighting and coordination of emergency response units. Malta is building a smart grid that links the power and water systems, and will detect leakages, allow for variable pricing and provide more control to consumers. Ultimately, it will enable this island country to replace fossil fuels with sustainable energy sources. Masdar City is being built from scratch near Abu Dhabi, in the Mathew Thomas Vice President, Strategic Industries, SAP India Subcontinent
“Technology drivers for smart city are virtualisation of assets like computing devices, networks and storage, and usage of the Internet and kiosks”
United Arab Emirates. Planners are working with top scientists, engineers and innovators to create interconnected systems and manage them through an integrated city dashboard to be able to fine-tune their metropolis in real time. This is shaping up what could be the world’s first economically and environmentally sustainable city, with zero carbon emissions. India too is on way to develop smart cities and has initiated pilot projects to develop ‘smart communities.’ The pilots have been initiated in Haryana (Manesar Bawal region), Maharashtra (Shendra industrial region) and Gujarat (Changodar and Dahej). These eco-friendly cities would provide world-class facilities with 24-hour power supply and drinking water, mass rapid urban transportation, with bicycle and walking tracks, complete waste and water recycling, systems for smart grids, and digitally managed systems to control energy consumption.
What planners are thinking The government realises the importance of ICT for more liveable, citizen-centric, connected and smart cities. According to Mehta, “ICT use is very important in city administration since it lowers costs and helps in better service delivery. We need to look at city as a system, and all its verticals should have the same basic backbone of IT, which should be shared by all stakeholders in city management.” He emphasises the significance of planning ahead, “The city planning should be done keeping in view the infrastructure needs of the city 20 years from now and not as per needs of today. The cost of planning ahead is much less than doing it all over again 20 years later.” The city infrastructure also needs to be developed at a faster pace. The current state of the infrastructure is dismal, remarks SR Rao, Additional Secretary, Department of InformaDecember 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov
19
cover story
SR Rao Additional Secretary, Department of Information Technology, MoCIT, Government of India
SAFE City With an increase in attacks in public places and other economically important
“It is imperative to provide digital connectivity to rural areas so that residents don’t have to go to urban areas for availing government-tocitizen services” tion Technology. He says, “Before we move towards the next level of cities, it is important to understand the current level of urbanisation. It is interesting to note that 40 percent of the treated water is unaccounted for. Forty percent of the urban population lives in slum areas. A mere 50 percent of the total garbage produced is scientifically treated. Almost 80 percent of the electricity consumption is on water and sewage. The turbines and propellants used are age-old.” This necessitates the urgent need for ICT enabled integrated cities. Mehta recommends, “We need to create 21st century cities, characterised by inter-connectivity of governance, health, education, security, water and energy. For achieving this goal, there is a need for laying cables in the cities urgently. The wireless technology does not have the necessary bandwidth.”
A framework is in making With the goal of achieving fast-track and planned development of identified mission cities, Ministry of Urban Development in the year 2005 launched the flagship programme, Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (Jnnurm). Under Jnnurm, the National Mission Mode Project (NMMP) on
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egov / www.egovonline.net / December 2010
architecture called Horizon.”
infrastructures, security threats
protection, detection,
have extended beyond national
containment of threats, along
borders and have percolated to
with a reporting and effective
intelligence by integrating
the streets. Frequent terrorist
response module. It focuses
and analysing inputs from
attacks and security breaches
on a layered security solution
multiple solutions and provides
have necessitated the need for
implemented in phases and
a single-window output giving
enabling robust security across
integrated through centralised
the enforcement agency an
the cities. In this backdrop, HCL
command and control centres.
enhanced decision making plat-
Securities has come out with
Its benefits accrue not only to
form. Unlike other command and
an indigenous robust security
security but affect day-to-day
control centre modules, which
framework called Safe City.
operational activities like
are exclusive for standalone
traffic management, crowd
solutions like CCTV, baggage
Bhattacharya, CEO, HCL Security,
management, and intelligent
scanners and PIDS, Horizon
“Safe City integrates disparate
surveillance. Moreover, the
integrates every possible solution
technology devices with the
concept is custom-made
incorporated in security and sur-
existing security processes and
for cities where the footfalls
veillance architecture and offers
local security machinery such
are maximum. We have also
a single-window approach for
as police, to offer a proactive
designed the first of its kind
viewing all the solutions through
system that aids in prevention,
command and control centre
a single monitoring solution.
According to Rothin
e-Governance in municipalities has also been taken up, under which the urban local bodies (ULBs) get funding from Government of India for upgrading their civic infrastructure with use of technology. The ministry has done a mid-term correction in December 2009, modifying the implementation approach for e-Governance under Jnnrum. The entire focus of current monitoring of e-Governance of ULBs is now ’outcome’ based. “This approach, by
Horizon offers actionable
design, is in contrast with the past initiatives in government computerisation, which were focused on providing requisite budgetary support and monitoring its quantitative utilisation, while leaving the implementations details to the respective government organisations,” opines Rane of ABM Knowledgeware. In an effort to build internal efficiencies and build on transparency and effectiveness, ULBs in India and abroad are keenly adopting the
Shrikant Shitole Vice President, Transformational Business, Cisco-India and SAARC
“Municipal projects would bring about a positive change by developing urban infrastructure and also encourage accountability of ULBs to citizens”
national conference on ict in urban governance March 04, 2011 The Claridges, New Delhi
• Integrated Urban Infrastructure
• Public Utilities & Services
• Public Safety & Disaster Management
• City Survelliance & Monitoring
• Transportation & Traffic Control
• Energy Conservation & Carbon Control
• Waste Recycling & Reclaimation
• Water Quality & Conservation
• Housing & Habitat Control
• Urban Ecology & Aesthetics
Presented By
Partner Publications
Target Audience
Focus Areas
technology for smarter cities..
• Policy Makers from Central, State & Local Government Bodies • Heads of Urban Development Agencies & Municipal Corporations • Urban Planners & Developers • Citizen Welfare Groups • Civil Service Providers • Technology & IT Vendors
Supporting Partner
Organised By
For Sponsorship enquiries: Debabrata Ray, Email: sales@elets.in, Mob: +91-9899650692 For Programme enquiries: events@elets.in
www.smart-city.in
cover story
NDMC on IT Way Massive deployment of hardware and networking had to be done over a period of time. Upgradation of technology had to be done to keep up with the latest trends to ensure stability and security of the servers. All these have resulted in high computer literacy in NDMC. How is NDMC adopting GIS technology, in view of its important role in city planning? Parimal Rai, Chairman, New Delhi Municipal
We are already in the process of putting most
Council
of the information on a Geographic Information System (GIS) platform. This includes all utility ser-
What has been the user experience of online
vices like electricity, water, sewerage network and
utility services provided by New Delhi
other major critical assets. We are also creating
Municipal Council (NDMC)?
layers for buildings with their sanctioned plan,
The feedback is that users are finding it
trees and shrubs, along with all NDMC assets on
convenient to pay property tax and electricity
roads and streets of NDMC. This will facilitate
and water bills, and checking the status of Barat
better and timely planning of resources.
Ghar (community centre) bookings online, among other such services. We are now in
How do you envisage the future of IT
advanced stage of implementing a world class
services at NDMC?
customer care and billing system with a call
We plan a homepage for each customer which
centre that will help enhancing customer experi-
will be a single window for one’s interaction
ence and satisfaction level while availing various
with NDMC. Citizens should be able to pay their
utility services of NDMC.
dues, make queries, and see various orders notifications. We also intend to make the
What are the challenges that have cropped
internal processes like inventory management,
up while implementing IT services?
accounting and building plan approval system
There have been numerous challenges during
more efficient and less time consuming. This
the entire process of implemention. Efforts have
will reduce the number of visits of citizens to
been made to train the staff for using systems.
various NDMC offices.
Commercially-off-the-Shelf (COTS) approach in their information application infrastructure. Also, the Ministry of Urban Development has taken steps for adoption of state-level software applications for all ULBs to ensure uniformity and compliance to standards. In this regard, Mehta, points out that for upgrading of the ULBs, state-level solutions rather than municipal level solutions are needed. “State level IT architecture for ULBs will ensure interoperability and synergy, and bring down the cost,” he notes. Lalit Kumar Gupta, Vice President, Public Sector and Higher Education, Industry Business Unit, Oracle Asia Pacific and Japan, suggests, “Municipal governments need to ensure transparent and consistent citizen services.
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egov / www.egovonline.net / December 2010
They also need to provide the right mechanisms to attract business investment into their municipalities. Legacy systems need to be updated. ICT can play an important role in this transformation of municipal governance.” Talking about the significance of e-Municipality MMP, Shrikant Shitole, Vice President, Transformational Business, Cisco-India and Saarc, is optimistic, “The municipal projects would definitely bring about a positive change through their increased focus on developing urban infrastructure, and would also encourage community participation and accountability of ULBs towards citizens.” He lays stress on the network as the underlying service delivery platform and envisions interconnected government
agencies, which would result in containing cost, better service deliveries and effectiveness of public safety systems, and improvement in quality of life and workforce productivity.
Early building blocks Some successful projects for providing e-Government solutions to municipalities are being implemented in states. These include, Smart Parking (Spark) at the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation parking complex, property tax management system using GIS in Kanpur Municipal Corporation, State Urban Bodies Integrated Data Handling and Access (Subidha) in Bhubaneswar, municipal reforms through Municipal e-Governance Project in Pune, MAINet project in Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation, Complete automation of birth and death registration certificates in Chennai, birth and death certificates through e-Seva centre in Hyderabad, and integrated ERPbased solution implementation in the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, among others. MAINet: MAINet is an end-to-end computerisation program for creating an e-Municipality involving all departments and over 100 citizen services to be rendered in a time-bound manner through citizen facilitation centres (CFCs) in Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation Vibha Agrawal Senior Director, CA Technologies
“Municipal reforms through service level benchmarks and e-Governance are here to stay and will be much more than just digitisation of a few services”
national conference on ict in Public safety & security January 28, 2011 The Claridges, New Delhi
securing citizens through technology 1 01 t2
1
• Access Control & Identity Management • Critical Infrastructure Security & Control • Cyber Security & Internet Governance
ei
• Disaster Management & Recovery
1
01 t2
• Emergency Response System • Fraud Detection & Mitigation
1 01 t2
e ur ec
r cu e s
i
1 s
01 t2
ei
t ei
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01 t2
• Homeland Safety & Border Security
11
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r cu e s
Presented By
Partner Publications
re cu e s
i
Target Audience
Focus Areas
ei
r cu e s
Supporting Partner
• Senior Officers from Key Government Defence Establishments • Heads of Police Departments & Intelligence Agencies • Security Experts & Defence Analysts • Technology Providers & Suppliers
Organised By
For Sponsorship enquiries: Debabrata Ray, Email: sales@elets.in, Mob: +91-9899650692 For Programme enquiries: events@elets.in
www.secure-IT.in
se
cover story
(KDMC), Maharashtra. MAINet is a robust server-centric system, which provides real-time information management for all departments, ward offices, division offices and beyond. Prior to the implementation of e-Governance at KDMC, availing any service from KDMC meant inconvenience and loss of working days for citizens. Business process re-engineering was carried out for more than 400 processes, followed by a successful implementation of e-Governance at KDMC. Using best practices, KDMC today serves a citizenry of about 1.3 million people to provide more than 100 civic services like water supply, electricity, urban infrastructure of roads, drainage, birth and death certificate and a host of other services. Smart Parking: Implemented by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Smart Parking (Spark) solution is a sensor-based system, executed under the National Ubiquitous Computing initiative of the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India. Sensors are deployed in each parking lot to detect the presence of the vehicle. This information can be availed in real time. There are guiding nodes, which assist the drivers in finding a vacant lot in the parking area, thereby easing a commuter’s search within parking complex. The system uses latest and cutting edge technologies. It is currently functional at GHMC Parking Complex, Abids, Hyderabad. Real-time parking information can be accessed anytime, anywhere. Finding a parking lot effortlessly increases customer satisfaction and builds customer rapport with the parking management system, thereby stimulating positive responses from customers to return and reuse the facility. Congestion control and possible jams are minimised, especially at peak hours, available parking status updated and dis-
played in real time. Customers can reserve their parking lots for specified durations of time on any given date. The reservation can be booked well in advance through either online internet reservations or SMS reservations. The project has resulted in reduced fossil fuel emissions due to smoother commuting within the parking facility, optimal revenue generation and reduced manpower within the facility. Rane suggests, “Government should identify some matured e-Governance projects in the state and incubate them as anchor projects to demonstrate proof-of-concept of how the proposed core infra can be leveraged for expediting e-Governance in India.” Vibha Agrawal, Senior Director, CA Technologies, is very optimistic about such urban reforms, “Going by the positive quality of service changes happening in many a municipal bodies across India, it is expected that municipal reforms through service level benchmarks and e-Governance are here to stay and will be much more than just digitisation of a few services.”
A way forward Implementation of e-Governance projects demands mindset changes and re-prioritisation. Resources limitations in view of the fact that there exist 5,000 ULBs, selection of an effective monitoring mechanism, bureaucracy, costs and lack of sufficient broadband penetration are some of the other challenges. Agrawal opines, “A thorough understanding of the municipal processes, well designed software, willingness to learn from failures, pragmatism in business process re-engineering, and firmness of leadership at municipal level can be helpful in overcoming these challenges over a period of time.” Governments are under pressure to improve quality of services despite rising costs and Lalit Kumar Gupta Vice President, Public Sector & Higher Education, Industry Business Unit, Oracle Asia Pacific &Japan
“Fragmented procedures that evoke slow response times to requests from citizens make governments less competitive and therefore must be improved” 24
egov / www.egovonline.net / December 2010
Prakash Rane Managing Director, ABM Knowledgeware
“Governments should identify some matured e-Governance projects to demonstrate how the infra can be leveraged for expediting e-Governance in India.” reduced budgets. Metropolitan governments that are creating smart cities are empowering their city officers, managers and employees with superior technology tools and service delivery capabilities, making it easier to manage budgets, respond to demand, and improve the overall service offered to communities. While some governments are well on their way to developing ‘smart cities’, there is still a lot of work to be done before they can truly deliver more consistent and transparent services. Thomas of SAP feels that concentration towards capacity building, change management, adoption of a standards-based approach, alignment with best practices and performance-based monitoring will lead to achieving the dream of smart cities in India. Providing urban amenities in rural areas is also a step towards achieving urban reforms. Rao of Department of Information Technology suggests, “It is an imperative to provide digital connectivity to rural areas so that residents may not have to go to urban areas for availing government-to-citizen services.” Mehta of Ministry of Urban Development, opines, “Though time is running out with regard to making Indian cities smarter and be globally competitive, India does have a huge opportunity, being a leading country in area of IT.”
SHREENATH SMART TECH
special feature
Made for e-Gov? Scosta is a platform of choice in govt sector, due to a good support for interoperability and vendor independence By Nakul Patel
E
-governance is the key to successful and sustainable development of the country. It also provides good scope for the growth of various IT companies. E-governance and citizen-centric services are best delivered when coupled with SCOSTA-based smart cards. It is important that every citizen gets his due benefits for life time, irrespective of which part of country he moves to. Smart card is the best way for citizens to carry their own history and registered details along with them. The Smart Card Operating System for Transport Applications (Scosta) has been widely accepted across all government domains, mainly due to a support for a common inter-operable platform, which is even smart card vendor independent. This is the reason that various ministries have used Scosta smart cards as the way to deliver citizen services and implement their respective schemes successfully and many more are expected to adopt Scosta cards. Let’s look at some of the schemes that have been implemented. Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), Ministry of Labour and Employment: India,
the success story of e-Governance begins with the RSBY project, which provides free medical insurance facilities to BPL families. It targets approximately 40 million beneficiary families all over India and so far more than 21 million families have already been issued the cards. In RSBY scheme, a 32k Scosta card is being issued to each BPL family. They can access medical facilities in empanelled hospitals anywhere in India through the smart card. RSBY smart cards store data of the complete family with photographs and biometrics of all family members. In case a family has migrated from one district to another or even to another state, it can get the medical facilities in any nearby empanelled hospital. The case history is also available on the smart card. Financial Inclusion, Ministry of Finance/RBI/Nabard: This scheme has a wider scope through smart card. It intends to bring the un-banked rural population of India under the banking umbrella. Since banks cannot afford to open branches in every nook and cranny of the country, RBI, with the technical guidance Institute for Development and Research in Banking
(IDRBT) and support of various PSU Banks, decided to issue Scosta smart cards to the rural un-banked village population. Mobile terminals will be used in each village to transact on the issued smart cards. Villagers can deposit and withdraw money, get loans or pay installments using the smart card. The mobile terminals will then transfer the transaction details to relevant bank servers. Financial inclusion is the availability of banking services at an affordable cost to disadvantaged and low-income groups. It is good for the economy of the country as 66 percent of India’s population, which doesn’t have access to banking services, will now gradually be covered and their savings will come into the main stream of economy. Public Distribution System (PDS), Ministry of Food, Consumer affairs and Distribution: In PDS projects, through smart cards, fraudulent activities
Many ministries have used Scosta cards to implement their schemes successfully and many more are expected to follow suit
can be controlled. The aim of this scheme is to ensure food security for the poor and also to ensure that only the deserving gets the required rations. Scosta smart cards, which store citizens data along with their biometric templates, ensures that food rations are not taken by unauthorised people. The ration shops will also be equipped with biometricsenabled smart card terminals to authenticate the cards properly. Good success and phenomenal growth is feasible in various e-Governance projects through use of Scosta smart cards. India will be at par with other countries in terms of e-Governance implementations.
the author
is Managing Director of Shreenath Smart Technologies, a company that specialised in smartcard chip modules and its operating systems. He is successful entrepreneur with an Engineering degree in Computer Science.
December 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov
25
in person
The e-Transformation agenda requires us to change the way we do business, specifically in the public sector. It’s not just another reform initiative
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grid name in person
Stela Mocan
Executive Director, e-Government Center, Moldova
“We are
determined and don’t have the luxury of
not succeeding”
M
oldova is the first country to join the World Bank’s e-Transform initiative. What is the vision and strategy of the Governance e-Transformation Project of Moldova?
The USD 15 million project aims at increasing availability, efficiency and quality of public services to citizens and businesses in Moldova through improved governance and innovative use of ICT in the public sector. It is to be implemented during 2010-2014 and will contribute to the development of an enabling environment and the e-Government Centre, and establishment of the shared infrastructure and e-services in Moldova. Government of Moldova created the e-Government Centre in August 2010 to drive the e-Transformation Agenda. The centre has started to develop the e-Transformation master plan, Moldova e-Government strategy and the roadmap. The e-Government Centre’s priority is to drive the implementation of the Open Government Data initiative, aimed at making the government data open for citizens and improving governance and service delivery. The project will support the Government of Moldova in the establishment of a shared cloud-based e-Government infrastructure, M-cloud, which will target government ministries, departments and agencies, small and medium enterprises engaged in the development and delivery of IT services and solutions, and universities. Development and delivery of high-impact e-Services for citizens is a key priority of the government.
Stela Mocan currently bears the twin responsibilities of Advisor to the Prime Minister and Executive Director for the e-Government Centre in the Republic of Moldova, the East European country tugged between Romania and Ukraine. She is regarded an expert in the areas of democracy building and governance, women’s empowerment, and civil society and local economic development in Moldova. In an exclusive interview with Prachi Shirur of eGov, Mocan talks at length about the e-Transformation project and the challenges and opportunities it presents for the country that looks forward to joining the European Union. Excerpts:
Tell us about the progress made in e-Transformation project? The e-Government Center, in partnership with the World Bank team, has launched a series of consultations with key stakeholders in the government, private sector, civil society and academia on issues related to the Governance e-Transformation project. It is paramount for us to involve key stakeholders in the project implementation from its early stage. Together with the World Bank December 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov
27
IN PERSON
in being part of the e-Transformation journey, and we have just launched the consultation process with representatives of the business community on better defining their role and contribution in this process. It is our priority to reach out to citizens, young people and academia and explain them the e-Transformation agenda. The success of this challenging endeavour depends on making Moldovan citizens co-
interests. But we are determined to succeed in this journey. We have excellent mentors and advisers, the World Bank e-Transformation high level experts group, best practices from countries like Singapore, South Corea, India, United Kingdom, Estonia, US and Canada, to name a few. And we have the young generation that is eager and keen to embark in the e-Transformation journey. We don’t have the luxury of not succeeding.
We run workshops and
knowledge sharing activities to develop the change agents,
and to catalyse and implement the e-Transformation agenda owners and partners of the ICT-enabled development process and governance e-Transformation.
e-Transform initiative, we run workshops and knowledge sharing activities on Open Government Data, cloud computing, and innovative Governments to develop the change agents, and to catalyse and implement the e-Transformation agenda in Moldova.
What is the response from various stakeholders—government officials, private players and citizenstowards this e-Transformation initiative? The response so far has been varied. The government has expressed strong will in driving the e-Transformation agenda. High-level government officials have been supportive and along with the civil servants have actively participated in the e-Leadership and knowledge sharing programs. The e-Government Centre will have to ensure that government officials both at the central and local levels are fully involved in the process at each stage. Private players are also interested
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getting personal QUALIFICATION Master in Public Administration from Harvard University experience Advisor to the Prime Minister, November 2009-present Government of the Republic of Moldova AWARDS John Smith Fellow, June 2005 Kokkalis Fellow 2007, Harvard Kennedy School of Government FAVOURITE BOOK Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
What are the major challenges you envisage in implementing the e-Transformation project? What is the strategy to overcome that? The major challenge is and going to be in reaching out to all the stakeholders and align them toward this innovative development goal. We have to explain how the e-Transformation agenda is going to benefit each of them so as to get their commitment and make them part of the change process. We see e-Transformation as the most efficient and speedy tool to change, modernise, reengineer and innovate the governance process and government in Moldova. The resistance is coming from the people working in the government institutions and not willing to admit that change is actually going to happen and it is not just another reform initiative. The e-Transformation agenda requires us to change the way we do business, specifically in the public sector, and it could happen that we will ‘clash’ with existing and well-embedded organisational cultures, stereotypes and vested
I would like to thank all our partners, who believe in us and are supporting Moldova to advance in achieving our goal of e-Transforming Moldova.
How do you position Moldova in the context of e-readiness? According to the results of the United Nations e-Government Survey 2010, Moldova moved up 13 positions since 2008 and ranks 80th globally. The Global Competitiveness Report 20102011 by the World Economic Forum ranks Moldova 89th globally (out of 139 countries) in terms of technological readiness, and 123rd in terms of innovation and sophistication. But the most important are the political will and the determination of the government of the Republic of Moldova to change the existing development paradigm. The leadership of Moldova is committed to drive an ambitious and complex e-Transformation agenda, which would enable and sustain Moldova’s well-being and prosperity, based on knowledge, innovation and effective governance. To achieve this far-reaching goal, we are to collaborate and build partnerships inside and outside Moldova and be innovative and adaptive in responding to existing challenges.
in person
R Chandrashekhar
Secretary, Department of Telecom and Chairman, Telecom Commission, GoI
“Broadband
connectivity to all gram Panchayats is a goal” R Chandrashekhar, a 1975 batch Indian Administrative Services officer, has held a wide variety of key assignments, both in the Government of India and the State Government of Andhra Pradesh. He has been the driving force behind formulation of various national policies, agendas, strategies and action plans for e-Governance in the country, as CMD of AP Industrial Infrastructure Corp., and later as IT Secretary, Department of Information Technology (DIT), Andhra Pradesh and as Secretary, DIT, GoI. Chandrashekhar has recently been appointed as the Secretary, Department of Telecom and Chairman, Telecom Commission, GoI. Having deep understanding of the issues and problems related to IT implementations in the country, expectations are high from him in his current assignment. In conversation with Ravi Gupta, and Pravin Prashant, he talks about his Department’s focus on broadband-enabling the gram panchayats
R
and on the role of mobile governance.
ecently, you have moved from Department of Information Technology to Department of Communications. What would be your focus in your new role?
The top agenda for Department of Communications will be connectivity and e-Governance. We have some connectivity limitations in rural areas. Clearly, there is a need to expedite role of connectivity. Certainly, we need broadband connectivity for Gram Panchayats.
What is the approach of the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) in chalking out a time-bound action plan for ensuring broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats? Broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats is on and we will put in place the details
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by the end of the current year. The broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats is not only for e-Governance but also for a lot of other things. The connectivity will support things like telemedicine, teleeducation, financial inclusion, gaming and entertainment. So, the rollout of broadband has an important purpose of integrating rural and urban areas, thereby spreading economic opportunities evenly in both the areas. In general, it has been observed that 10 percent increase in broadband would have 1.4 percent increase in per capita GDP growth. It will also lead to growth in governance and development.
What is the plan being worked out for connecting Gram Panchayats in the country? The 2G voice services are quite satisfactory in rural areas. In terms of Gram Panchayat connectivity, logistically as well as economically, it will be a combination of OFC and wireless.
We have a good pan-India OFC backbone. Wireless will be used for providing last mile connectivity to public institutions and also for providing backhaul. In terms of wireless connectivity, we are looking at area connectivity and not point to point connectivity so that the bandwidth is shared by all government institutions.
What changes do you foresee with the rollout of 3G and BWA services by private operators in bringing citizen service delivery through mobile and small form factor devices? BSNL, the incumbent operator had received spectrum earlier and has already commenced services. This will get accelerated with private operators rolling out 3G and BWA services in different circles. The services in rural areas will increase and a whole host of mobile applications will come in to create a new ecosystem.
TECHNOLOGY
OPEN DATA
It’s best served raw
Un-spun govt data, mixed with Internet technologies, often yields solutions that are instantly rewarding for societies By Tariq Khokhar
F
orward-thinking governments have been turning to open data as a way of increasing transparency and for adding economic and social value to the information they hold. This is leading to development of new kinds of interaction between the state and the society. But what is open data? Does open government data (OGD) really matter? What are the big ideas in the current debate and what are the opportunities that lie ahead?
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In the developed world, government data includes information on budgets, demographics, education, and public services, typically with geographic and historical detail. The Open Knowledge Definition states that this data is open if it can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone. OGD expert David Eaves builds on this: data needs to be findable (clearly published and indexed by search engines), usable (available in a sensible format) and shareable (licensed appropriately). Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and vocal open data advocate, notes the distinction between the carefully curated
statistics and messages that governments usually publish and the raw, un-spun source data behind, most of which is never seen. BernersLee’s message is to release “raw data now” because raw data made open, as we’ll see, is tremendously useful. If you find a Website that’s full of public datasets in open, standard formats all licensed to encourage use and innovation, chances are it’s an OGD portal such as the USA’s data.gov or the UK’s data.gov.uk.
Freedom to push and right to pull When discussing government transparency
OPEN DATA
By opening up its data, the state is able to improve the way problems are dealt with at a city, state or national level and openness, the freedom of information (FOI) laws usually come to mind. The Open Data Study published as part of the Open Society Foundations’ Transparency and Accountability Initiative, is an excellent primer on the subject as a whole. It can be found on www. soros.org. On FOI laws, the study notes, “There is a gap between initiatives that are based on governments giving out things that they want to give out, and governments creating rights that mean that they give things out all the time that they may be don’t want to give out.” With FOI, if I want information, I have a legal right to request for it and to expect a response from someone in the government. With open data, there’s typically no legal right, but the government is proactively disclosing data and putting it online in a form that is findable, usable and shareable by anyone at any time. This data is published on OGD portals from the international to the hyper-local level; that’s when the public’s interaction with it begins.
Why does OGD matter? Opening up government data multiples its economic and social value when it is made freely accessible to the public. This is the heart of Tim O’Reilly’s vision of government as a platform. This idea revolves around the theory that by opening up its data, the state is able to improve the way problems are dealt with at a city, state, national or international level. In this way, the state should be a convener and an enabler of the civic action, that can take place when modern Internet technologies are combined with government-provided data. Now, even in Europe and North America where OGD initiatives have been making progress for much of the past decade, the idea of government as a platform still seems a little abstract. For those starting to think about OGD, there will immediately be concerns around the risks of releasing data in the first place, and inevitably, reasons for not doing so.
The risks of releasing data At the CeBIT Australia Gov 2.0 Conference
this year, Andrew Scott, the UK’s outgoing Director of Digital Engagement led a workshop that had participants listing the top reasons for not releasing government data. To some, these reasons read more like excuses with readily workable solutions, but any new OGD initiative will need to address the issues they raise. My favourites from the list include: “There’s no business case,” “We’re unsure about data quality,” “They can FOI it” and “It’s not in a useful format.” Let’s consider these for a moment. The business case is simple for a government with electronic data: the marginal cost of distributing it is zero, and its free availability leads to economically and socially beneficial innovation. Examples include using road accident data to produce a map of the most dangerous cycle routes in the UK; a site theyworkforyou. com providing British citizens with detailed information on their politicians, and a study of how openly available tax records saved Canada $3.2 billion offer a flavour of what has already been achieved. A proven way of improving the quality of closed data is to open it to public scrutiny. From that point onwards, knowing it will always be openly available is a powerful incentive to improve the quality of data as it is produced, and indeed, to think about the policies and actions that have shaped it. A similar behavioural change occurs when it comes to the format used to publish data. Berners-Lee discusses the idea of a five-star rating system for open data. A first step can be as simple as putting data online in any format—spreadsheets, images or PDFs. This act, if successful, involves overcoming key social and political barriers and paves the way for using more sophisticated, standardised, machine-readable interlinked data formats.
Thinking global and acting local The individual actions of governments play a collective role in regional and global issues. It follows that governments could mutually benefit from opening their data. For example, The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) involves bilateral and multilateral donors, as well as recipient countries publishing the details of aid funding in an open, standard format. This has the effect of making aid more effective by making it easier to administer, reducing the risk of diversion and improving coordination between donors. While the focus of OGD was initially on
TECHNOLOGY
national-level data, it is data on local services and government institutions that shows the most promise. This hyperlocal data, when timely, tangible and geographical, helps people to engage with the parts of government that most affect their daily lives.
Data is necessary but not sufficient Tim Davies at the Oxford Internet Institute authored the report ‘Open data, democracy and public sector reform,’ which tries to rebalance the OGD debate towards civic, over technological or economic concerns. The report notes, “Data is not just for developers—direct access to trusted facts is valuable for many individuals in society; OGD changes the information gatekeepers—individuals, companies, the media and different parts of government can each advance their own interpretations of data; and OGD supports innovation in public services with social and commercial entrepreneurs playing a central role.” It’s still early days for OGD. There are impressive examples of what is already possible when governments make finding, using and sharing their data easy for the public. There’s a mature debate around the initial risks and ongoing rewards of OGD initiatives, as well as high-profile open data portals, conferences and community groups. My worry is the risk of viewing open data and the technology around it as an end in itself. It can be a big task and a significant cultural change for a government to start releasing good data across the board, but without the additional work of supporting citizens to use it, it might amount to little more than a political gesture. Taking a focused approach, by releasing the most asked for data first and engaging with the demand from users, may be a better option. In this age, if the goal is to make a nation prosper and to improve the lives of its citizens, open data is necessary, but it’s the action people take when empowered by the information they hold that’s important.
the author is Technology Innovation Analyst at aidinfo and a Director at Bond— the UK umbrella organisation for international development NGOs
December 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov
35
TECHNOLOGY
SOCIAL MEDIA
Face2Face is way to open govt
Govt can use social media as a potential goldmine for to-and-fro exchange of citizen views on public and policy matters By Pratap Vikram Singh
A
social network signifies the relationships and affiliations among individuals, especially relating to their families, works, interests or hobbies. The evolution of Web-enabled social media has broadened its horizon, and the network now also includes fans and followers of celebrities, institutions, leaders and politicians. Social media started with users opening up accounts primarily for reaching out to friends
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and families and sharing with them ideas, images and videos. In fact, the popular social networking site Facebook was started in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, then a Harvard student, for rating students in terms of how handsome or beautiful they were. Social networking has got phenomenal acceptance among people across continents. Facebook, now, has more than 500 million users across the globe. After getting started in July 2006, Twitter has more than 190 million users in 2010. While being used for networking by teens
and college goers, social media has emerged as a strong platform for branding and marketing for businesses. It is also being capitalised by government bodies and institutions, investigative and counter terrorism agencies, healthcare organisations, scientific and research and development communities, and political leaderships. Social media has provided a significant platform for businesses to connect with their stakeholders, channel partners, suppliers, and customers. A McKinsey report notes that advocacy leads to better sales. Given the way di
SOCIAL MEDIA
Heads of states are using it Governments in the West visualise social media as an opportunity for strengthening the state and citizen interface, getting citizens’ feedback and crowdsourcing inputs on policy matters and practical issues in public life. Many heads of states have social media accounts, wherein they provide regular updates about their current engagement and future plans. In the 2008 US Presidential Election, Barack Obama had a 100-people team working on social media campaigns. Obama’s followers outnumbered those of the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and the Republican contestant John MacCann.
SatYendra Garg Joint Commissioner of Police, Delhi Traffic Police
“The response from Facebook users was phenomenal. People started uploading images on their own. We have been trying to live up to citizens’ expectations”
Bharati Arora Deputy Commissioner of Police, Gurgaon Traffic Police
“We got lot of calls from citizens querying whether we had a Facebook page. As a result, we started on Facebook a month ago and we already have 1,194 followers” The 2010 general election in UK also saw politicians having presence on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. In Latin America, Chile’s president Sebastián Piñera is on Twitter, and his is one of the most followed Twitter accounts in the country. He has even asked all his cabinet members to start tweeting. Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuala is also active on Twitter.
Reaching out to citizens In a broader perspective, use of social network by governments is seen as step towards an open governance culture. Open government refers to an accountable and transparent form of government, which accepts public scrutiny and which keeps citizens at the focus of its policies and actions. Reaching out to citizens and getting their feedback has been an uphill task for governments around the world. Interestingly, there has been novel usage of social networking sites by government agencies in some countries. Courts in Australia and New Zealand have used the popular social networking site Facebook for posting summons. Given that a sizable part of the Indian population is on social networking sites—more than 26.2 million Indians have Facebook accounts while around 3.02 million are on Twitter—social media is being seen as a channel of communication between the government and citizens. The departments leading in their social media efforts for effective interface with citizens include Public Diplomacy Division at Ministry of External Affairs and Traffic Police in cities like New Delhi, Gurgaon, Chennai and Mumbai. The ease of accessibility through social media raises the hope for a more responsive and citizen-centric governance. An example is
Photo: Joe
cussions are done through postings on walls, comments and live chats, social media has offered a powerful branding tool in the hands of businesses. Gradually, search engine optimisation is being taken over by social media optimisation. For small businesses and start ups, social media is a reaso able mode of marketing and branding.
TECHNOLOGY
the unprecedented response from citizens on the Facebook page of Delhi Traffic police.
A citizen watch area Even though Delhi Traffic Police (DTP) neither intended nor asked citizens to upload images of people violating traffic laws on the road, the citizens started uploading such images on the DTP Facebook page and requested for legal actions. Slowly, the practice caught up so much that within six months, DTP had more than 39,000 followers on Facebook. On the Facebook initiative, Satyendra Garg, Joint Commissioner of Police, Delhi Traffic Police says, “The idea of getting on Facebook had come from Special Commissioner of Police, Delhi Traffic Police. In May 2010 we opened a page on the popular social networking site, Facebook. Seeing the great potential of interacting with myriad number of people [the road users] on such web enabled social platform, I started taking note of all the things happeing on our Facebook page, with the help of a small team comprising an inspector level officer and some constables. Initially, the thought was to inform and educate our followers on the traffic rules, and the norms and behaviour expected of road users. But the response from Facebook users was phenomenal. People on their own started uploading images. We took it as a very positive development and have been trying to live up to citizens’ expectations.” Following Delhi, residents in Gurgaon started ringing up the Gurgaon traffic police, asking if they had a Facebook page. As a result of repeated queries, the Gurgaon traffic officials decided to have one. The residents have reciprocated well enough and within a month, the city traffic police have got a good number of followers. December 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov
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TECHNOLOGY
SOCIAL MEDIA
“Our experience with social media has been remarkably positive”
Photo: Joginder
Navdeep Suri, Joint Secretary, Public Diplomacy Division, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India
What was the initial thought process that brought Ministry of External Affairs to the social media fold? It was the recognition that much of our public diplomacy effort was subconsciously aimed at ‘people like us.’ We were broadly targeting our type of demographics and were making conscious efforts to reach out to the younger generation. We felt that in the first instance, use of social media would at least get us into the space inhabited by the Internet-savvy youth. Beyond this, there are three other elements that argue strongly in favour of using social media from a public diplomacy perspective. First, it provides us with powerful new channels of communication. Second, its interactive format allows us to receive feedback and to engage better with our citizens. Third, it works to improve the interface between the government and citizens.
Social media has provided a new platform for the government and citizen interface. Can you share the MEA experience so far? Our experience so far has been remarkably positive. When we started our Twitter account in July (www.twitter.com/indiandiplomacy), there was an immediate and spontaneous
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egov / www.egovonline.net / December 2010
response from the Twitter community welcoming our entry into this space. We use the Twitter channel to provide authoritative information on foreign policy-related issues. In doing so, I think we provide a useful service to those who are following us, especially since they now see the possibility of contacting us directly if they have a strong opinion to express or a pressing issue that they want to raise. We similarly use our YouTube channel to share information about our documentary films and events organised by our diplomatic missions. Our Facebook page has started to provide firsthand accounts and information about some of our activities. Our Blogspot page provides the space for more substantive discussion on foreign policy issues since we have linked our foreign policy lectures to this page. We have also started to place our India Perspectives magazine on Scribd and Issuu and these have started to get a fairly good response.
Many countries in the West have opted for ‘open government’ strategy. Social media is one tool for bringing such openness. How do you see ‘global best practices in social media’ being adopted in India? Well, from a foreign affairs standpoint we certainly observe the use of social media in the US State Department, the UK foreign office and in other open societies. We have been in touch with them to get a sense of their experience and this is useful because we are all in a zone where you don’t see too many established models. Although some countries have a couple of years of head-start on us, the whole field is so new that each country is trying to evolve systems and practices most conducive to its own environment. It may take a while before any of us can take a definitive view on global best practices in use of social media by governments.
Bharati Arora, DCP, Gurgaon Traffic Police says, “We got lot of calls from citizens querying whether we had a Facebook page. The Delhi Traffic Police presence on Facebook had raised hopes among citizens. As a result, we started on Facebook a month ago, and interestingly we already have 1,194 followers. We had the support of top officials and so we took the step with confidence. This move has led us towards following the community policing model. Now it has become very popular.” Responding positively, traffic police of these two cities started issuing notices and challans to violators based on the visual evidence posted on Facebook. The cops have started posting the list of vehicle numbers on which challans have been issued. While the ‘Facebook effect’ has added to the work pressure for DTP and Gurgaon Traffic Police, it has also brought in public goodwill for the police department.
Concerns around the media Education and awareness on use of social media is quite critical within the government, when the intent is to move towards adopting an open government culture. Right now, the understanding about social networking sites is insufficient, and a section of people still view it as a waste of time. It is a mindset barrier that needs to be overcome. The governments and administrators who fail to do so face the threat of being left behind. Navdeep Suri, Joint Secretary, Public Diplomacy Division, Ministry of External Affairs, who is also driving the social media initiative of the Public Diplomacy division, says, “I think the bigger challenges stem from irrational fears that emanate from lack of awareness of the media and from outmoded concerns that use of social media can have an adverse impact on security. Industry associations can play a much greater role in addressing such concerns and creating more awareness.” Privacy is one of the biggest concern for social media. Users pour in lot of personal information to open account with social networking sites. According to a Wall Street Journal report on privacy issues with Facebook, the most popular applications on the social networking site have been transmitting identifying information—in effect, providing access to people’s names and, in some cases, their friends’ names to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies. Even after promises by the social media sites
SOCIAL MEDIA
ov
Kirthiga Reddy Director, Online Operations and Head, Facebook India
“Our technical systems have always been complemented with strong policy enforcement, and we will continue to rely on both to keep people in control of their information” strong policy enforcement, and we will continue to rely on both, to keep people in control of their information,” she added.
The India potential Even though a mere 5.2 percent of the country’s population is using the Internet and the penetration of PCs in India is abysmally low at about 26 percent, the future potential of social media
Photo: Joginder
including Facebook and MySpace that user data will not be shared without their consent, personal data reportedly continues to reach advertising companies. Answering to the privacy concerns related with Facebook, which often get headlines in national dailies, Kirthiga Reddy, Director, Online Operations and Head, Facebook India said, “As part of our work to provide people with control over their information, we’ve learned that the design and operation of the Internet doesn’t always provide the greatest control that is technically possible. For example, in spring it was brought to our attention that Facebook user IDs may be inadvertently included in the URL referrer sent to advertisers. Here, WSJ has uncovered the same issue on Facebook Platform where a Facebook user ID may be inadvertently shared by a user’s Internet browser or by an application delivering content to a user.” She further clarifies that while knowledge of user ID does not permit access to anyone’s private information, Facebook plans to introduce new technical systems that will dramatically limit the sharing of User IDs. “Our technical systems have always been complemented with
TECHNOLOGY
in government cannot be understated. As education spreads in sub-urban and rural areas and as ICT penetration grows, the demand for social media will also grow. Crowdsourcing is another trend that’s gaining acceptance in many countries, as social media provide the opportunity for the government to ascertain common man’s views on issues, events and services.
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39
special feature
cisco
The network’s spectacular show If CWG was India’s sporting feat, its high-definition broadcast to a global audience was a networking marvel By Sandeep Raina
T
he 19th edition of the Commonwealth Games (CWG), hosted by India for the first time in October 2010, served as a platform to demonstrate the rapid progress that the country has achieved in technology. With over 4,000 athletes from 72 nations participating in 285 events, the Delhi edition of the Games was clearly the country’s biggest sporting spectacle. From a technology stand point, high-definition video broadcast coverage (BVN) was deployed for the first time during the CWG 2010. Huge vol-
40
umes of uncompressed video (~400Gbps) were broadcast to a global audience of around three billion. Robust technology networks that powered the operational and security set-up during the Games added to the benefit.
Prerequisites for the Games Most modern day global sports meets require a robust network backbone to support various applications that are used for timing, scoring, ticketing and administration. Being connected to the cyberspace is
egov / www.egovonline.net / December 2010
a prerequisite for every participant in such events. For the CWG, this meant that Internet access had to be provided to the guests across various training and games venues and had to necessarily ride on a high speed, next generation network. Security is paramount for an event of the magnitude of CWG and the authorities had to put in place all the required measures. Transmission of CCTV/ video surveillance feeds from all games and training venues to the central security control center and other national security and vigilance agencies, demanded a high-speed, next generation security data network (SDN). High-definition video broadcast coverage (BVN) to a global audience required a separate, dedicated, secure, reliable and highly resilient transmission network to support video contribution and primary distribution. Person-to-person communication was paramount, not just for the participating teams and delegates but also
for the organisers who had to ensure a flawless execution of the event. A communication and collaboration solution that provisioned for voice, Web and video conferencing was an important requirement. MTNL, the official telecom provider for CWG 2010 had the mandate to provide a reliable, high-quality communications network that addressed all the above challenges. Cisco was chosen as a key MTNL partner to design, build, operate and thus meet the various technology demands.
Unified communications leveraged The IP NGN telecom infrastructure provided at CWG had two separate networks – Managed Data Network (MDN) and Broadcast Network (BN). Both the networks were built on IP/ MPLS technology for delivering
cisco
special feature
CWG 2010 saw the first worldwide deployment of inline video monitoring for uncompressed high-definition video
unified video conferencing) for voice, web and video conferencing, Cisco Unity voice mail system, Cisco analogue gateways and ISR routers for PSTN connectivity.
Many networking firsts
multiple services concurrently while meeting specific requirements of each service. CWG 2010 leveraged the power of unified communications through the state-of-the-art Cisco Unified Communication and Collaboration solution. Approximately 3,500 IP phones including high-end video phones and
third-party SIP based PAY phones were provided to the officials and visiting delegates at games venues for closed user group and PSTN-based communications. The Cisco solution included Cisco Unified Communication servers, IP phones, rich media collaboration suite (Meeting Place and Cisco
The sheer volume of highdefinition video broadcast over the network during the Delhi CWG was unprecedented. It is expected that this breakthrough will change the future of sports video transmission in more ways than one. For the first time in the history of broadcasting, Cisco deployed a disaster recovery site for the main studio (IBC) and for the HD uncompressed contribution service by leveraging IP multicast technology. CWG 2010 also saw the first worldwide deployment of inline video monitoring for
uncompressed high-definition video. The Games deployed All-High Definition video contribution and distribution solution over IP NGN infrastructure for the first time in the APAC region, along with breakthrough architectures for live lossless video delivery, Multicast-only FRR, Inline VidMon and IPoDWDM proactive protection. CWG 2010 witnessed a fine interplay of data, voice, video and mobility, with professional broadcast and enterprise conferencing that thrilled audiences across the globe in ways like never before.
the author
is Senior VP, Government & Defence for Cisco India & SAARC
December 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov
41
TECHNOLOGY
VIRTUALISATION
A notch below the cloud?
Since cloud computing is the buzz word today, the trend towards adoption of private cloud and virtualisation is going to increase over the next few years, as unless you virtualise, you cannot move towards private clouds By Prachi Shirur
I
n the 1960s, when Christopher Strachey, the first Professor of Computation at Oxford University and leader of the Programming Research Group, brought the term virtualisation to life in his paper, ‘Time Sharing in Large Fast Computers,’ little did he realise that forty years later there will be an intense interest from governments and enterprises to implement the virtualisation technologies in their environments. Virtualisation concept is understood to
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have been first used in the 1950s and 60s by logically partitioning mainframe computers into virtual machines. These partitions allowed mainframe computers to perform multiple tasks and applications at the same time. During the 1980s and 1990s, the use of desktop computing and x86 servers became more popular. Due to the high cost of their maintenance, management and insufficient disaster protection, a need was felt for x86 platform virtualisation. In the late nineties virtualisation solutions came up, which trans-
formed x86 systems into a fully isolated shared hardware infrastructure. Today, the virtualisation technology is being deployed in server, storage, networking, as well as in client-server environments.
Leveraging existing resources Organisations are increasingly looking at virtualisation as one of the cornerstone technologies. With virtualisation, they can simplify their energy costs and increase server flexibility, while simultaneously increasing availabil-
VIRTUALISATION
ity, security, and compliance infrastructure, and by deploying multiple virtual servers on one physical server. As Neeta Verma, Senior Technical Director, Data Centre and Web Services Division, National Informatics Centre puts it, “Using virtualisation technology, organisations are able to meet their service objectives with less amount of hardware.” She adds, “In an organisation, applications are either CPU intensive or memory intensive. With virtualisation, one can strike a balance between the two and make good and efficient use of the existing IT infrastructure.” Virtualisation makes an organisation very agile. Using virtualisation technology, an organisation can go live in much less time, since it reduces the need to buy hardware and software and saves the deployment time. Power and cooling consumption too remain contained in a virtualised environment. Vivek Malhotra, Vice President, General business, North and East regions, IBM India South Asia, refers to virtualisation as the “Engine of the green data center.” According to Malhotra, “Virtualisation offers a rapid return on investment (ROI) through decreased management costs and increased asset utilisation. Organisations can enhance system availability and lower the cost and complexity of disaster recovery solutions by virtualising resources to get a flexible and dynamic infrastructure. Also, virtualisation supports the pooling of resources that can be centrally managed through an enterprise hub to better support dynamically changing business requirements.”
A growing market All these benefits are leading to increased adoption of virtualisation technology both
TECHNOLOGY
Advantages of virtualisation l Server consolidation and containment: It reduces server sprawl by deploying systems into virtual machines
enterprise desktop environments hosted on servers
l Business continuity: It
l Standardised desktops:
reduces the cost and complexity of business continuity by encapsulating systems files that can be replicated and restored onto any target server
It can provide standardised
l Legacy application
l Rapid provisioning: It enables quick provisioning and re-provisioning of servers
by enterprises and government globally. IDC predicts the virtualisation services market to reach $11.7 billion in 2011. This has been partly triggered by the recent economic recession, which prompted many organisations to leverage the consolidation benefits of virtualisation technology to lower short-term capital costs. IDC predicts that the most successful vendors in the virtualisation market will be those who can automate the management of an ever-escalating installed base of virtual machines as well as provide a platform for long-term innovation that enables customers to continuously make improvements to their operations. According to a recent survey by Forrester Research of 2,600 technology decision-makers in the US and Europe, a majority of organisations has adopted server virtualisation, and a small but growing number of firms are piloting cloud computing initiatives. Gartner forecasts that the spending on x86 server and desktop Neeta Verma Senior Technical Director, Data Centre and Web Services Division, National Informatics Centre
“Applications are either CPU or memory intensive. With virtualisation, one can strike a balance between the two and make efficient use of existing IT infrastructure.”
re-hosting: It can help migrate legacy operating systems and software applications to virtual machines running on new hardware for better reliability Source: http://www.ece.neu.edu/ conf/isca2006/docs/Herrodkeynote.pdf
virtualisation software technologies is slated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23.7 percent through 2014.
Flavours of virtualisation Organisations that are aiming to lower their total cost of ownership and increasing their IT efficiency are driving the virtualisation market. Aman Munglani, Principal Research Analyst, Gartner, says, “The big trend in the last three years is towards X86 or server virtualisation. The reason for this is that a lot of organisations had a very low utilisation rate of servers and they looked at virtualisation to increase the utilisation of their servers.” Historically, if we look at the utilisation rate, it is 20-30 percent. Virtualisation is expected to increase this to 60-70 percent. In India, large enterprises, including the banks, telcos and big manufacturing companies started with virtualisation of their server infrastructure. Now, the SMB segment is also looking at virtualisation in a significant way. The objective is pretty much the same—to increase the utilisation rate of servers. Storage virtualisation is very nascent in India. Munglani of Gartner illustrates the rationale behind this, “The reason for lower adoption rate of storage virtualisation is that it is very expensive, if you take into consideration the storage cost involved. At the same time, not too many organisations really need storage virtualisation as they have not reached the level of complexities in their environment to use storage virtualisation in a big-way. For these organisations, consolidation is a much better bet than storage virtualisation.” Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is going to December 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov
43
TECHNOLOGY
VIRTUALISATION
Jaijit Bhattacharya Director Government Affairs, HP India
“It is imperative to have an efficient and effective transformation plan in place before beginning the migration to a completely virtualised environment.” be the next big thing in virtualisation, though not much is happening in VDI. “Given the fact that organisations would like to control the outflow of information to the employees, VDI virtualisation is the best bet to consider,” Munglani says. Since cloud computing is the buzz word today, the trend towards adoption of private cloud and virtualisation is going to increase over the next few years, since without virtualisation one cannot move towards private clouds.
State of adoption in the government The key drivers for virtualisation are optimal usage of infrastructure, sharing of best practices across applications, provisioning of multiple platforms to meet different user requirements, reduction of cost and an increased agility in terms of infrastructure expansion. The drivers specific to government include leveraging existing investments in infrastructure, proliferation of e-Governance standards across multiple applications in different government departments, reduction in incremental costs, and scalability of infrastructure. For e-Governance, virtualisation offers integration management with automated problem resolution, end-to-end management of security, and budgeting based on actual usage of data. Full blown virtualisation can help the government to reduce duplication of efforts and increase effective utilisation of resources. Virtualisation also solves some security issues related to data at the user level. Since all data should reside in the backend in a fully virtualised environment, the scale and frequency of data compromise at the user level can be
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reduced as no bulk data will reside on the end-user PC. In addition, other process implementations such as restricted use of external devices for data transfer, such as USB drives, and enforcing all bulk data transfer to within the government network will significantly enhance data security. However, Jaijit Bhattacharya, Director Government Affairs, HP India, recommends proper planning before migrating to a virtualised environment. According to him, “It is imperative to have an efficient and effective transformation plan in place before beginning the migration to a completely virtualised environment. The ideal approach in this regard would be to build a road map for virtualisation adoption and then proceed with the same.” The adoption level of virtualisation by governments is still low. Most government agencies have already looked at x86 virtualisation in a big way, but the level of
infrastructure virtualisation is fairly low, to the tune of 10-20 percent, as per Gartner research. Munglani of Gartner is optimistic about adoption of virtualisation technology in government. He says, “The trend towards spend on virtualisation by governments is likely to continue. I think it has pretty much reached [the stage] that governments in India are considering virtualisation as a must-have technology. Among a lot of CIOs in the government, the level of interest in virtualisation is very high. Some have adopted it, and some are yet to adopt it.” A good amount of work is happening in the State Data Centres (SDC), which are meant to host e-Governance applications. SP Singh, Senior Director, Department of IT (DIT), Ministry of Communications and IT, and Incharge of SDC mission mode project considers SDC as an opportunity to adopt virtualisation. In fact, virtualisation is now becoming a very acceptable methodology in SDCs. According to Singh, “The DIT is now considering making all the SDCs virtualisation ready so that the existing infrastructure could be optimally utilised. We have seen that many of the applications may not be using entire computing power of the server. So it becomes all the more important that the server is optimally utilised. For this, virtualisation becomes very important.” Virtualisation in SDC could be at the server level, storage level, or at the applications or database level. Singh adds, “We would be looking initially in SDC at server and storage virtualisation and the associated implementation methodologies for the same. Virtualisation technology adoption in SDC will also reduce
Prashant Chaudhury Manager, Technical Sales, CA Technologies
“Considering the current state of infrastructure deployment in the government, the server and the OS virtualisation may be most relevant to the government.”
VIRTUALISATION
SP Singh Senior Director, Department of IT
“The DIT is now considering making all the State Data Centres virtualisation ready so that the existing infrastructure could be optimally utilised.” DIT’s requirement of the line departments in the states to bring in their own infrastructure in the data centre. So essentially virtualisation enables optimal utilisation of the existing resources put in SDCs.” Talking about challenges, Singh says, “The challenge will come only if different linedepartments in the states are asked to share their infrastructure. That is where the the state IT departments, or the composite team for the data centre will have to get in the buy-in of the line departments to come on to the virtual servers for their applications.” Currently, not many states have started using virtualisation technology. “To give a concerted thrust to virtualisation in SDCs, the DIT has undertaken an exercise and has come up with an implementation strategy to bring in virtualisation in SDCs across all states and union territories as part of enhancement of SDC. The work is under progress and we expect that within next two months, this will be finalised and sent for the technology selection,” adds SP Singh.
The cloud factor As far as other government departments are concerned, a lot of e-Governance applications are in the process of building. The government is thinking in terms of simplifying the governance and making it transparent by launching various IT initiatives. This will lead to a large number of such projects rolling out in the next one or two years. Bhattacharya of HP feels, “One of the key issues for the government is to attract IT talent to work dedicatedly for the government within the constraints of the government. This is a difficult proposition given
Vivek Malhotra Vice President, General business, North and East regions, IBM India South Asia
TECHNOLOGY
Virtualisation is picking up in the government and is going beyond server virtualisation towards storage and desktop virtualisation. Prashant Chaudhury, Manager, Technical Sales, CA Technologies, opines, “Considering the current state of infrastructure deployment in the government and the possible scenario in the next four to five years, the server and the OS virtualisation may be most relevant to the government. However, a full-blown virtualisation strategy may not be very relevant now because technologies have emerged faster than the current pace of infrastructure deployment, both in the government as well as enterprises. It is time now to directly plan for a cloud platform instead of taking a step-by-step approach of server consolidation (through virtualisation), data center automation and cloud enablement.” According to Chaudhury, the ideal approach for the government would be to leverage its existing infrastructure as well as the infrastructure that is going to be deployed in the short term by directly developing a cloud platform over the infrastructure. This will automatically provide all features as well as benefits of virtualisation and automation. “This way, government will be able to quickly offer its infrastructure (in the form of either infrastructure or platform or application) as services to the user departments and citizens. The good part is that the cost of a complete cloud platform is very competitive and it makes a complete economic sense to go for a cloud platform,” he adds.
Areas of concern
“Virtualisation is the engine of green data centre. It offers a rapid return on investment through decreased management costs and increased asset utilisation.” that the market demand for such professionals is very high. Virtualisation helps in reducing the need for a large number of IT people, thus easing a key constraint of the government.”
There are still areas of concern when it comes to hosting mission-critical applications in a virtualised environment. “When it comes to mission-critical applications, the parameters like security, disaster recovery, back-up and storage are issues of concerns. And one should not lose sight of these while adopting virtualisation,” cautions Singh. A dedicated infrastructure is almost always built whenever it comes down to hosting mission-critical applications such as income tax or railways reservation. According to Verma of National Informatics Centre, most of the virtualisation maintenance specific software, barring few, is vendor specific, so much so that user needs to learn different vendor virtualisation interfaces. Thus, she quips, “There is a need for some standardisation in the interface as far as virtual server configuration and management is concerned”. December 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov
45
focus
CITIZEN SERVICE DELIVERY
End of the pillar-topost runs One-window citizen services can be a reality—the first step is to set up an interdepartmental data exchange By Praful Gharpure
U
rban service delivery in Indian cities is fragmented due to multiple entities. Further, e-Governance initiatives in different departments are carried out independent of each other, which dilutes the impact of the initiatives. Even though IT is on the agenda of all departments, an integrated approach to its rollout and effective sharing of information and IT infrastructure is lacking. The present e-Governance initiatives need to be looked at from a service management perspective where information exchange among various departments is a vital element for service delivery and support assurance to the end customer, the citizen.
A peek into the scale of operations The Department of Registration and Stamps has a presence in all the states and is the second highest revenue earning department in most of the states. In a large state like Maharashtra the department has more than 400 offices managed by over 2,500 employees, according to the department’s official Website. The department is primarily responsible for registration of documents under the Registration Act, its mandate being the registration of deeds or instruments and their preservation. The registration process encompasses the sub-functions such as receipt generation, valuation, recovery of evaded stamp duty, refund of excess stamp duty, adjudication and issuing of notices. As per statistics posted on the Website, in Maharashtra alone close to 2.2 million documents have
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been registered and of Rs 5,000 crore has been handled. Approximately 8 million people are direct beneficiaries of the services annually in the state. The above figures give an idea of the user base in allied departments. This calls for a comprehensive and innovative application of the public-private partnership to improve the quality of service given to millions.
Need to create a single touchpoint The functions of Department of Registration and Stamps mainly cover two things—an endto-end process where documents are finally registered to close a deal, and beginning of another set of processes where the end-user initiates updating of a record with multiple departments.
CITIZEN SERVICE DELIVERY
These processes cut across multiple departments and even touch upon IGR itself for certain validations and checks before the final document registration takes place. Further, these interdepartmental touch points often result in lot of rework for end users as well as for the concerned departments. The touch-point departments include urban local bodies, utilities like electricity and telephone, land records and survey departments, RTO, postal departments and so on. There are implementation challenges when we think of a common solution and define processes to cover all the services. The primary reason is that IT implementations are carried out at the process level of a department while the individual initiatives are at different levels of maturity. As a result, the dependent information from other departments for citizen users has to be provided by users themselves. This leads to multiple handoffs of the data and manual efforts by the user as well as the department. It is important that a user gets to use the service through a single touch-point without being forced to visit different departments.
A transformation is needed The intent of e-Governance is to accelerate the current processes by automating them and making them accessible to the end-user. Accessibility to the end-user is still in infancy in majority of cases, and interdepartmental information sharing can transform the process performance. It will also lead to value enhancement for both the process owner department and the customer of the process. It is equally important to provide a seamless navigation and maintain the linkage of identities created for a user with each provider. This can be achieved in a phased manner. Today, a citizen user is required to work with multiple processes in different departments to get the records updated. This leads to a series
A citizen service request typically triggers multiple processes in different departments, which leads to a series of rework loops
focus
KPI-driven approach for
service delivery Key performance indicators (KPIs) can play a vital role in the governance of IT services. For urban services, KPIs can provide useful information to city managers to plan, finance and implement city-level infrastructure initiatives and maintain the level of services performance. A few important ones are listed below: l Gauge the building activity in areas
l Property rates as inputs for town planning and valuation department l Infrastructure development plans in potential areas identified through sale trends l Online services for document requests as channel of revenue For purpose of monitoring, the below list can be handy: l Information on volume of service requests with break-
of rework loops for gathering information and updating the records. It’s ironical that departments have got the processes IT enabled partially but the cycle time of transactions carried out has not improved significantly. The diagram outlines how a new IT solution can transform the process wherein the online information exchange among departments accelerates the overall transaction and significant reduction in rework is achieved. With the transformed process, a user can log on to an application and get the required validations done from other departments in order to avail a desired service. Conversely, in order to fulfil a service request received, the provider department can also get the required validations done from other departments in order to fulfil the requested service. Once the service catalogue is defined and adopted by the provider departments, the interdepartmental data exchange process shall lead to reduction in overall transaction time. This process transformation will require some decision making to bring out certain changes to existing infrastructure or to put a new infrastructure in place in some cases. Some of the key elements would include a GIS mapping of assets in
up by type and nature l Cycle time and first level resolution of service requests l Monitoring of incidents or complaints and their resolution cycle time l Information on frequency and details of changes to city infrastructure l Record of outages of the services l Record of SLA breaches in service provisioning
city limits, IT implementation in utilities departments covering municipal limits, and creation of citizen and assets data at municipal corporations. For instance, in the current scenario a potential real estate customer doesn’t have the information to start his search or plan his visits. An integrated data exchange and geo referencing solution shall facilitate retrieval of all the information based on the area of interest to the customer in a given city. The user can query for highlevel details and submit a service request for specific details, which can be shared on the payment of prescribed fees to the concerned department. The solution requires a robust workflow management tool to be able to interface with organisational hierarchy and spatial information database. Such initiatives will bring in a variety of benefits for citizens in terms of improved quality and transparency of information, expeditious response to queries and complaints, and single-window service for all their requirements. The benefits for departments will include shortened service fulfilment cycles, optimised IT infrastructure, improved interdepartmental teamwork, and reduced paperwork.
December 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov
47
75 countries
65 Sessions
driving digital excellence
150
21–23 JULY, 2011 INDIA EXPO CENTRE, GREATER NOIDA, DELHI NCR
Exhibitors
Held in conjunction with
event
400
highlights
Speakers
eWorld AWARDS eindia AWARDS it minister’s conclave education leader’s conclave focused workshops
Organisers
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www.eworldforum.net
government to government Best Social Media Initiatives
Praja.in
JURY Award
p Pranav Jha receiving the social media initiative award from Kerala IT Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar (centre) and Ministry of Home Joint Secretary Shambhu Singh (left)
raja aims to be a bridge between those who serve us and those amongst us who care and want to participate through its online initiative Praja.in that also has an active discussion forum. It also has a Facebook page and Twitter account to share information. Set up as an online initiative to serve as a bridge between the government and the citizens it captures voices and opinions from the ground. The organisation uses web based tools—blogs, discussion forums and social media tools to connect with all stakeholders as well as for collaboration and coordination amongst its members spread across different geographic regions. Praja’s only medium of interaction is through its website Praja.in–all the project co-ordination, ideation and implementation is done through the site. This way the members do not have to meet-up regularly and this translates to significant savings in terms of time and money for the members. The praja model of online existence has been very effective to a large audience, with very minimal capital investments.
IndianWildlifeclub.com
i Susan Sharma receiving the social media initiative award from Kerala IT Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar (centre) and Ministry of Home Joint Secretary Shambhu Singh (left)
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ndianWildlifeclub.com is an online ‘community of practice’ of nature lovers created by harnessing the power of the Internet and social media to bring together nature lovers in a manner that makes it easy and interesting for each individual to contribute to, as well as learn from the diverse experience of others. It has a mission to bring together the environmentalist and the nature enthusiasts, in order to broadbase the dialogue on, as well as concern for environmental sustainability. Promoting the site with Facebook is time saving and cost saving. While Facebook allows direct promotion, other social media services help spread the word. The “like” tab on Facebook is a good way to promote content to friends. Social networking and Web 2.0 technologies have given the community the opportunity to easily connect to people who share similar interests. Blogs on Google blogspot by members of IndianWildlifeclub. com help in attracting more audience and also encourages users to register on the site and showcase their blogs.
outcome n Has helped to reach out to more number of people n Recording of all RTI filings on the website n It has become a vast repository of data, which is used by many government departments and general public
JURY Award
outcome n The feedback is used to create a framework for environment education online. n A dynamic user base help us keep in touch with user interests and activities. n User generated content in the blogs and trip reports decides the character of IndianWildlifeClub. com as an online nature club.
government to government Best Social Media Initiatives
CGNet Swara
JURY Award
t Representative from CGNet Swara receiving the social media initiative award from Ministry of Home Joint Secretary Shambhu Singh (centre) and Kerala IT Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar (left)
his voice-based community news channel was developed as a research project to create an alternate mode of information dissemination in remote areas allowing citizens to report and listen to stories of local interest. Reported stories are moderated by journalists who make them available for playback over the phone. It also uses other social media tools to meet its users’ needs. CGNet Swara is a voice-based citizen news portal, freely accessible via mobile phone, that allows anyone in tribal communities to report and listen to stories of local interest. Reported stories are moderated by journalists who make them available for playback over the phone. Previously, the CGNet organisation delivered reports about tribal issues only via the Internet. Most of those reports were developed by people outside the tribal areas. CGNet Swara makes it possible for the tribals to provide information themselves by adding an audio interface over mobile phones, since mobile phones are increasingly prevalent amongst the target users
Narendra Modi
outcome n Represents the first source of news in tribal languages n Received more than 7,000 phone calls and 250 news reports n Creates anecdotal impact on the local political process
EDITOR CHOICE
g Hiren Joshi, OSD to Gujarat Chief Minister receiving the social media initiative award from Ministry of Panchayati Raj Adnl Secretary Sudhir Krishna, (left) and Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi (centre)
ujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi uses a mix of online initiatives, blog, twitter, Facebook—to reach out to the citizens. The initiatives are aimed at giving people opportunity to share their views, suggestions and faster dissemination of public messages. Users can post comments on these ideas and make them more refined and feasible. Moreover, the comments and response received on social networking sites are also a rich source of feedback from citizens. Social media networking enables the CM to feel the public pulse. Here is an example to cite. In April 2010, Sultan Alimuddin, a student from Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU) in Gandhinagar, used the social networking site Twitter to express his desire to meet the CM and discuss issues concerning Gujarat. Modi granted his wish and asked officials to arrange for a meeting with him. The student was largely impressed by the pro-activeness of Modi’s social media networking.
outcome n Speedy exchange of information n Increased public participation in state governance and decision-making n Transparent, direct and proactive governance n Inducing people’s trust in the state mechanisms
December 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov
51
government to government Best Social Media Initiatives
Public Diplomacy Division
EDITOR CHOICE
s MEA Joint Secretary Navdeep Suri (right) and Under Secretary Abhay Kumar (centre) receiving the social media initiative award from Panchayati Raj Adnl Secretary Sudhir Krishna (left) and Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi (extreme left)
et up in year 2006, Public Diplomacy Division of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, has the mandate to put in place a system to help India engage its citizens and global audiences more effectively on issues related to foreign policy. The organisation was set up to address the challenges posed by a rapidly changing global environment. It has been using a slew of social media tools to project a effective and positive image of India. Public Diplomacy Division uses Twitter channel to provide authoritative information on foreign policy related issues. It also uses the YouTube channel to share information about documentary films and events organised by the Indian diplomatic missions. Division’s Facebook page has started to provide first hand accounts and information about some of its activities. Blogspot page provides a space for more substantive discussion on foreign policy issues, linking the foreign policy lectures with this page.
Delhi Traffic Police
outcome n Interactive format allows to receive feedback and to engage better with citizens Improved interface between government and citizens
EDITOR CHOICE
t
he Delhi Traffic Police has taken up the online initiative through it portal that provides all important information to the citizens and vehicle owners. The DTP initiative on Facebook has enabled it to get information on traffic violation and traffic situation. DTP has a huge responsibility of managing the traffic of the Indian city that has the highest number of vehicles and an equally higher number of pedestrians. The Facebook page is also used as a medium for gathering evidence against any traffic violation through community participation. Based on these evidences, subsequent challans are issued to violators. The ‘Facebook effect’ has added public good will to DTP, which is often slammed as one of the corrupt department, across states. Being widely noted for the prevalent corruption at lower levels of the department, DTP’s top management has got another tool to keep a check on the law enforcement activities of the field staff. As of now, DTP has more than 39,800 followers on Facebook.
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outcome n Increase in number of traffic challans n Strengthened law enforcement n Citizens feel empowered
January 14, 2011 The Claridges, New Delhi
..nurturing the
business
of
healthcare
Focus Areas
• Current market opportunities of healthcare industry • Investment trends in healthcare sector • Policy initiatives and economic factors for success • Medical devices and Technology • Emerging business models in healthcare • Human resource and workforce development
Target Audience
Indian healthcare industry is growing at a phenomenal pace. Be it hospitals, diagnostics, biotech, pharma, health IT or medical technologies - growth is underlining all segments of the ecosystem. A key element to extend this success story lies in creation of appropriate business environment to nurture sustainable leadership and inspire entrepreneurial ventures. Here is one such opportunity to connect with all those who wish to be a part of the emerging healthcare growth story.
• CXOs, senior leaders and entrepreneurs from healthcare industry • PE Investors and venture capitalists • Policy makers and government regulators • Industry experts and analysts • Medical equipment manufacturers, IT solution providers and suppliers
• Future trends and analysis
Organiser
Presenting Publication
Supporting Partner
For Sponsorship enquiries: Debabrata Ray, Email: sales@elets.in, Mob: +91-9899650692 For Programme enquiries: events@elets.in
www.healthcareleadersforum.in
government to government most user friendly Websites
www.keralatourism.org
JURY Award
i
t is an online initiative aimed at marketing the state as a major tourist destination nationally and internationally. The site offers info in 7 international languages—English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Chinese and Russian—besides Hindi and Malayalam, catering to the needs of tourists and the hospitality industry as well in a user friendly manner. The site contains around 20,000 pages indexed in search engines. The primary objective of the organisation is to market the destination globally. The department uses Internet to identify and enroll industry partners / tourism service providers like tour operators, tourist guides, home stay providers etc. The site has become one-stop option for information requirements of those who plan to visit Kerala. It also serves as a platform connecting travelers and tourism industry. Since the variable cost involved in the use of email or accessing website is minimal, it has reduced the cost of service to a negligible level.
Kerala Resident Commissioner UKS Chauhan (left), receiving the award for the most user friendly website award from Department of IT Joint Secretary Shankar Aggarwal (right)
www.rtiorissa.gov.in
outcome n Has around 20,000 pages listed in search engines n It gets around 2 million visitors in website and one million visitors in social media channels n Equipped the travel industry to adopt new media for communication and promotion
JURY Award
t Representatives from Orissa Information and Public Relations Department receiving the most user friendly website award from Department of IT Joint Secretary Shankar Aggarwal (right)
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his website has been set up to inform, educate, ensure and monitor RTI implementation of all the government departments and agencies. The Information and Public Relations Department is the nodal Dept. of the State to implement and monitor Right to Information (RTI), serves as a link between people and the Government and informs the public on the plans, policies and on the implementation of different developmental programmes. Citizens are able to apply online and receive information from any office under Govt. of Orissa by sitting in any corner of the world without travelling to the respective office. All the government offices find it extremely helpful while transferring the case history/e-filing account from existing Public Information Officer (PIO) to the new PIO by simply transferring the log in details. Department saves lot of time by clicking on generating comprehensive annual report made out of data of all offices under that department.
outcome n More than 2000 offices are connected to RTI CMM including 25 Collectorate offices, 90 Urban Local Bodies, 50 Tahasils, 100 Blocks and 20 District Information & Public Relations Offices
February 5, 2011 The Claridges, New Delhi
exploring frontiers of
technology in higher education.. Discussion Topics Technology road map for higher education Institutions Role of technology in improving academic quality Smart class rooms and smart campuses Online assessment tools and associated technologies Virtual learning environment Distance education and remote learning
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Target Audience Vice-Chancellors of leading universities Principals, Directors, and Deans of colleges and higher education institutions Academicians and Education experts Policy makers from central and state education departments Education technology vendors and solution providers
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government to government most user friendly Websites
www.pib.gov.in
JURY Award
p NIC Senior Technical Director Subodh Shukla (centre) receiving the most user friendly website award for PIB from Department of IT Joint Secretary Shankar Aggarwal (right)
IB is the nodal agency of the Government of India to disseminate information to the print and electronic media on government policies, programmes, initiatives and achievements. It functions as an interface between the government and media and also serves to provide feedback to the Government on people’s reaction as reflected in the media. The portal gives all the information including graphic and audio visual contents free of cost to the press and other web surfers. The organisation does not need to send content to the press as handouts/photo prints/ CDs etc as was done earlier. The content is uploaded on site instantly 24×7. Live webcast is also done for important press conferences. The service of uploading content is available 24×7 and officers in the organisation post content immediately whenever required. It is updated about 40-50 times every day.
www.bharatpetroleum.in
outcome n Saving of paper & no need for photo printing/ making CD etc n Instant delivery of content to press n Delivery of high-quality photographs online n Online alerts
EDITOR CHOICE
f Meera Singh from BPCL receiving most user friendly website award from Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi (left) and BJP General Secretary for Assam Prodyut Bora (centre)
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or this large Public Sector oil major, the online initiative is a step towards meeting customers and partners needs. It has also helped the organisation reduce its communication cost in a big way. It is a Fortune 500, with Forbes 2000 listings. It is the 2nd largest in the marketing of petroleum products. All the information on the website is readily available in a customer friendly manner and updated regularly. For citizens and customers this is a great benefit. The hyperlinked micro sites give their business partners /retailers/ dealers and distributors all the information like their current online real time status of transactions both financial and for products. The organisation has developed the site in a customer centric manner. Since all the communication is now online there is a huge saving on the cost of mailing etc both within the organisation and outside and also updated status is readily available. Since all the communication is now online there is a huge saving on the cost of mailing.
outcome n Direct access to stakeholders n Transparency and accountability has increased within the organisation n Quickened response time n Improves brand value
government to government most user friendly Websites
www.gujaratindia.com
EDITOR CHOICE
s Gujarat Adnl Chief Secretary Ravi Sahai Saxena receiving the most user friendly website award from BJP General Secretary for Assam Prodyut Bora (left) and Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi (centre)
et up as an access point for e-Governance and Government to Citizen services, this portal provides information on everything about the state– history, fact file, tourism, culture, literature, projects, initiatives and policies. The state portal focus on all about Gujarat history, fact file, why Gujarat, tourism, culture, literature, sports, getting to Gujarat and more on business with highlights to projects and initiatives of the government. Also, Gujarat state important functionaries and department profiles give data and information to readers. Making it a global presence, any person can surf the Portal and find complete details on Gujarat portal which deliver the objective. Business resources, investments, opportunities, MoUs, etc. and major projects and initiatives are the highlights for growth development to decide Gujarat as destination for Business. Over 5, 00,000 plus visits came till date from 166 countries after revamping and re-launching this state portal.
www.mponline.gov.in
outcome n Single point access for e-Governance and G2C information and services n Provide in-depth Information on Government administration n e-Readiness Initiatives in all departments with IT Action Plan with a one year focus
EDITOR CHOICE
i Representative from MP Online receiving the most user friendly website award from Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi (left) and BJP General Secretary for Assam Prodyut Bora (centre)
ts initiative has helped the state government achieve its mission of providing anywhere, anytime delivery of government services, leading to over 55 lakh transactions worth `430 crore. MPOnline Ltd is a joint venture between the Govt of MP and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. In the traditional counseling, students would travel to one of 5 centers, walk to one or more of the stalls set up by colleges and explore the options the college offered. After the initiative, students can now participate from home or from a neighbouring kiosk, eliminating all travel and accommodation expenses. Candidates: 15,781 Expenditure/student (Manual Counseling): `2,200.00 Expenditure (Online counseling): `100 Total Savings: Rs 4.2 Crores. The staff deployment has gone down to 2 or 3 people at each of the help-centers established by the dept. Routine academic sessions continue unaffected. MIS reports are available online, on-demand.
outcome n Anywhere, anytime delivery of government services n A shift from ‘Citizen In-Line’ to ‘Citizen On-Line’ n Increased transparency between citizens and government n Reduction in the number of intermediaries between the Government & citizens
December 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov
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Shubhendu Parth Managing Editor eGov
Making of a knowledge superpower
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Linking student data to UID will yield a goldmine of insights for MHRD, for educational policy making and regulation
he education sector in India, particularly the higher education segment, is going through a very exciting phase. Not just is investment pouring in, the country’s ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is driving major policy changes that would have a long term impact on the overall education sector in years to come. Sample this: While HRD minister Kapil Sibal recently indicated that India’s higher education enrollment will move up to 4.4 crore from the current 1.4 crore by 2020, an Ernst & YoungFICCI report suggests that the segment will grow nearly 13 percent annually during this period. The report also predicts that India’s higher education spend that is currently pegged at `46,200 crore would grow at an average rate of 12.8 percent to cross `150,000 crore in the next 10 years. It also highlights that the country’s higher education system has the highest institution to student ratio—25,951 institutions for 1.36 crore students.
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Compare this with the world’s other two largest nations and we are in for a mega surprise; the US has just 6,700 institutions for over 1.78 crore students, while China has 4,000 higher education institutes that serve the needs of its 2.53 crore students. Interestingly, experts suggest that India still needs to set up 1,000 more universities to meet the needs of three crore students that it expects to enrol over the next decade. Going by the existing interest of private sector investments in the segment, and the doubts raised by the Centre itself in the case of the 44 “deemed universities” earlier this year, the nation needs to put in place a stringent mechanism to monitor the performance of these institutions. The good news is that MHRD has already signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to bring school children under its umbrella and track their progress at every stage. While the primary objective of this arrangement is to make Aadhar number an identifier on all performance records—from mark
sheets and merit certificates, to migration certificates—and help prospective employers and educational institutions avoid fakes, the initiative will also enable the government to create a strong tracking mechanism once these students join higher education institutions. In fact, smart data mining and analysis will also help the MHRD map the performance of each of these institutions—in terms of how their pass outs are getting placed and where, the specialisation and trends in each of these organisations—parameters that could help a central agency grade these institutes. The initiative assumes further significance with the introduction of the Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) that aims to change the existing examination system in schools, to a more holistic process-driven monitoring system that includes both summative and formative assessments. Link all these data to a central manpower repository, map it using a GIS platform and the country is on its way to set up a powerful human resources planning tool.