eGov July 2012

R Chandrashekhar Secretary, Department of Telecommunication, and Chairman, Telecom Commission

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

July 2012 | VOLUME 08 n ISSUE 07 n ISSN 0973-161X

J Satyanarayan IT Secretary, DeitY, Ministry of Communications and IT

Niraj Kumar Gupta Chief General Manager, Financial Inclusion Department, NABARD

eWorld Forum 2012

Maj Gen R C Padhi Additional Surveyor General, Surveyor General’s Office

A Coverage

Managing Governance Data

p52

State Data Centres

Solutions for

Urban Governance

p24

p48

The Digital Roadmap for Financial Inclusion Sanjay Jaju Secretary to Govt. of Andhra Pradesh, Information Technology & Communications Department

Dr S S Garbyal Principal Secretary to the Government of Mizoram, Department of Information and Communication Technology

P H Kurian Principal Secretary (IT), Government of Kerala

Renu Budhiraja Sr Director & HOD State Data Centers, e-Governance, DeitY

Kavindra Kiyawat Collector & District Magistrate East Nimar, Khandwa

Sachin Pilot Union Minister of State, Communications and Information Technology

Nand Kishore Chief Auditor, Municipal Corporation of Delhi

A P Hota Managing Director & CEO, NPCI

www.egovonline.net

Contents july 2012

second grid grid name issue 07 n volume 08

46

interview Niraj Kumar Gupta On expanding the scope of financial inclusion

50 interview

32 | cover story

Prakash Kumar

India’s Journey on the road to Financial Inclusion

On Cisco’s solutions for government

60 interview

With focus on inclusive growth, the Indian government has been encouraging opening of bank accounts for the nation’s huge unbanked population by providing government benefits through such accounts. ICT solutions have made such initiatives possible at relatively low cost

10

20

On plans for bringing broadband connectivity to rural areas

On implementation of e-Governance projects in Kerala

interview R chandrashekhar

12

interview J Satyanarayana

29

On ideas for expanding the scope of e-Governance

interview Ranjit Nambiar

14

41

interview Maj Gen R C Padhi

On new printer technologies

interview Abhishek Sinha

On the importance of GIS Solutions

On providing banking solutions to rural areas

16

42 interview

interview Dr S S Garbyal

Kavindra Kiyawat

On implementation of e-Governance projects in Mizoram

On good governance at local levels

18

44

interview Sanjay Jaju On implementation of e-Governance projects in Andhra Pradesh

4

interview P H Kurian

egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2012

interview A P Hota On creating retail payment system in India

Sachin Pilot

On his vision for efficient e-Governance

22

eGov 2.0 e-Politics

24 data centres

Private Cloud Computing Enablement in State Data Centres

45

viewpoint This Cloud….may appear dark to Brand India ITES Cos

38 microfinance

The Microfinance Route to Financial Inclusion

48 viewpoint

e-Governance and g-Governance

52 eworld forum

Governance in the Information Age

further reading Editorial 05 news 28

India’s Unbanked Poor

L

ack of access to financial intuitions and services is not an India specific problem, but a global one. It has been estimated that almost 2.5 billion people in the world, or approximately half of the global population, does not use any kind of banking services. Of these unserved people, approximately 2.2 billion reside in Asia, Africa, Middle East and Latin America.

In India’s policy circles, the importance of an inclusive financial system is now being widely recognised. Financial inclusion has become a policy priority in the country. The Finance Ministry and the RBI have during the last decade come up with many policies for providing people from marginalised sections of society with a safe, affordable means of entering the financial net.

There has been a good increase in the number of bank branches. In 1969 the country had only 8000 bank branches, and today we have more than 89,000. There has also been a significant improvement in the number and scope of the insurance and microfinance institutions that are engaged in serving the poor. The banking and insurance sectors are key Mission Mode Projects under NeGP (National e-Governance Plan).

However, despite the policy initiatives and efforts of non-governmental institutions, significant proportion of the nation, primarily those who dwell in rural areas, continue to be outside the coverage of the formal banking system. RBI’s own reports suggest that almost 40 percent of Indians lack access to even the most basic kind of financial services.

In this issue of eGov we have made an in depth exploration of the role that government entities and also the private players are playing in the financial inclusion space. Factors like lack of regular income, poverty, illiteracy and also the lack of reach are some of the major obstacles in financial inclusion.

Solutions from ICT are being used in a big way to provide financial services to the poor, but in this lack of proper infrastructure for connectivity often plays spoilsport.

Many of the stakeholders in the financial space that we have interacted with are of the opinion that financial inclusion does not have to be an obligation. By making use of low cost solutions from ICT to lower the cost of transactions, it can be profitable to the players who are providing these services. The range opinions that we have collected in our special feature on financial inclusion shatter many old beliefs and lead us to some interesting ideas on the subject.

We hope you will find the feature informative and entertaining.

The issue also has coverage of the eWorld Forum, 2012, that took place at the Le Méridien Hotel, New Delhi, on 15th and 16th June, 2012. The event was highly successful and it served as a venue for a vibrant discussion on e-Governance. Now we look forward to the World Education Summit, which is scheduled for 23 and 24 July, 2012. We hope that you will be there to interact with the leading stakeholders from the global education community. ravi guptA Ravi.Gupta@elets.in

Email at subscription@elets.in to get previous issues

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july 2012 issue 07 n volume 08

President: Dr M P Narayanan Editor-in-Chief: Dr Ravi Gupta Consulting Editor: Ashis Sanyal

Editorial Team Group Editor: Anoop Verma (editorial@elets.in) governance Manager – Partnerships & Alliances: Manjushree Reddy Assistant Editor: Rachita Jha Research Assistant: Sunil Kumar education Sr. Research Analyst: Sheena Joseph Senior Correspondent: Pragya Gupta Research Assistant: Mansi Bansal Health Product Manager: Divya Chawla Principal Correspondent: Dhirendra Pratap Singh Research Assistant: Shally Makin

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visionary officials

Two Leaders who are Shaping the e-Governance Landscape in India

R Chandrashekhar Secretary, Department of Telecommunication, and Chairman, Telecom Commission, R Chandrashekhar is responsible for all matters relating to the Telecom sector.

It was in 1975 that he joined the Government of India as a member of the Indian Administrative Service.

Since then he has held a variety of key assignments in the ICT sector, both in the Government of India and the State Government of Andhra Pradesh, which is one of the states where the IT revolution first took off.

Credited with establishing the first Department of Information Technology in the country, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, R Chandrashekhar was Secretary of the Department from June, 1997 to December, 1999.

Currently he is responsible for formulation of policy in the nation’s telecom sector.

J Satyanarayana A 1977 batch IAS officer, J Satyanarayana currently serves as the Secretary at the Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Ministry of Communication and IT. He has taken over from R Chandrashekhar, who was handling the additional role of IT secretary.

Popularly known as ‘J Sat’, Satyanarayana is not new to IT projects. In his earlier role, he founded the National Institute of Smart Governance as its CEO. Till last year he had been serving as the chief commissioner of land administration (CCLA) in Andhra Pradesh.

When he was part of former Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu’s e-Governance team between 2000-2003, he implemented the CARD Project, which led to the computerisation of registration department of Andhra Pradesh.

July 2012 / www.egovonline.net / egov

9

visionary officials

R Chandrashekhar

Secretary, Department of Telecommunication, and Chairman, Telecom Commission

Connecting

all the panchayats in the country

T

ell us about your plans to bring connectivity to the rural areas.

The Government is taking many initiatives to connect the panchayats in our rural areas. The Union Cabinet approved the creation of the scheme called National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) in October 2011.

The scheme aims to connect all the panchayats in the country with high-speed optical fibre lines. The core infrastructure of the optical fibre will extend to every corner of our rural areas and it will enable the service providers to cater to large number of new subscribers. The scheme to bring broadband connectivity to rural areas will approximately cost `20,000 crores, as we are talking about covering approximately 2,50,000 panchayats.

What kind of speed can we expect from optical fibre network?

R Chandrashekhar, Secretary, Department of Telecommunication, and Chairman, Telecom Commission, in an exclusive interview with eGov magazine, talks about the initiatives that the government has taken to improve connectivity in the rural areas and give rise to a range of citizen friendly online and mobile based services

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egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2012

The speed will be fairly high. The aim is to have 100 megabits in the initial stages. After that it can go up to multiple gigabits. An outstanding feature of the optical fibre network is that it is scalable to any extent. It is not necessary for all the service providers to create this kind of infrastructure, as the outlay is fairly high. That is why the government has made provisions for USO (Universal Service Obligation) fund. This will lead to service becoming available to all service providers on a non-discriminatory basis, up to the panchayat level.

We are also doing our best to ensure that the entity does not acquire competitive aspirations, as that will lead to conflict of interests.

visionary officials

Can you tell us about the funding issues that are part of this massive project?

quality systems to ensure that the consumers get the best possible quality of services.

Normally it is the USOF (Universal Service Obligation Fund) that funds all the rural infrastructure projects. But this is a project of such massive magnitude. It is going to all the 2,50,000 gram panchyats, so the USOF route might not be the best way of doing it. We have decided that it is in everyone’s best interests if the entire project got funded by the government. Therefore a new company called Bharat Broadband Network Ltd has been created to execute this project. Now to work on this massive project, BBNL would have required a massive organisational structure. This was not feasible. So it was decided that BBNL would act as a lead organisation and it would get its work done primarily through outsourcing. Three main companies to whom the work is being outsourced happen to be names like BSNL, RailTel and Power Grid. These companies have already done lot of work with optical fibre networks.

A project of this magnitude must face many problems. Please tell us about these.

How is the project progressing?

The project involves lying of optical fibre along the roads, and also along the railway lines. We are talking about huge geographical areas, so some kinds of problems at local level will always be there. Some local bodies and even state governments tend to get short sighted and they charge huge amounts for laying these optical fibres.

Such behaviour has led to a slowing down in the development of the project. In the draft of the new telecom policy it is clearly mentioned that telecom is critical for the nation’s economy. Revenue generation is important, but it cannot be the sole focus of government policy as far as the telecom sector is concerned. In order to ensure a hassle free development of the project, a tripartite agreement has been signed between the state governments, the DOT and the USOF Administration. I must also add that many states have been very supportive of the project. They have realised the value of e-Governance, e-Commerce, e-Health and e-Education.

According to you what are the key features of the project?

One important feature is that optical fibre will not be laid in a place where it already exists; however, the fibre will be taken from the existing owner of the infrastructure in order to ensure that there is no duplication or redundancy. Secondly, the services from the project are being made available to everyone on a non discriminatory basis. We are incorporating various service

We are facing quite a few problems. The foremost amongst these has to do with deadline. It is quite difficult to complete such a large project in two years that the cabinet has allotted us. Even bigger problem is one of utilisation of resources that are created through the project. The data services have to be used for tele-education, tele-health, skill development and such critical areas. Currently data services account for 10 percent of the revenues, which could go up to 50 percent in the coming years. So the idea of creating a broadband network is not limited to just laying down the fibre

is the need for reliable backbone. That is precisely what the optical fibres are there to provide. Lot of broadband applications require landline connection. In fact, the scope of 3G availability in rural areas is bound to get enhanced by this project.

Very high quality broadband can also be made available in the village levels at very low cost.

What can be done to encourage manufacturing of hardware in the country?

It is true that we are not that advanced when it comes to manufacturing hardware for telecom and electronics. There is a challenge of ensuring that domestic manufacturing of equipment takes place at affordable costs and under technological standards that are at par with global ideas. The support from government on the electronic

“high quality broadband can be made available

at village levels at low cost”

optic cables, you also have to build an entire ecosystem of applications and services. The private sector companies can take this industry forward as they have the capabilities for developing the entire eco-system. The idea is also to stabilise the broadband space, while the creation of the ecosystem goes on.

Is there any option for auctioning of bandwidth to enable services in rural areas?

Auctioning of bandwidth might not be a good idea in this case, as it might lead to a derailment of the entire project. The whole idea behind the project is to make the service available at most affordable cost, so that there is value addition in terms of connectivity and costs. The affordability factor can be easily calibrated to whatever extent required, as it is the government money that is being utilised. The priority for the government is not to earn significant returns on the investment.

The priority is to create positive impact on the society and on the economy.

What about mobile broadband services in rural areas? How will mobile services be impacted by the Optic Fibre network?

For high quality mobile broadband services, there

policy front has been carefully structured after taking the international obligations into account.

What kind of impact will broadband connectivity in rural areas have on financial inclusion?

We are working with other government departments to ensure that the telecom sector gets to play a major role in furthering the agenda of financial inclusion. We are in the process of developing the linkages between credential inclusion, the ID, the mobile number and the bank account. The work is under progress. We are also working closely with the IT department to ensure the development of e-health, e-education and a range of e-Governance systems.

Do you think that the cancellation of some of the telecom licences could have an effect on the quality of services we are having in the country?

Even though some of the licenses have been cancelled, the policy is being weaved in such a way that a level of competition is assured. The level of coverage in urban areas is almost 70 percent.

Expansion into the rural areas is guaranteed. The coming up of optical fibre networks will serve the purpose of keeping the costs down.

July 2012 / www.egovonline.net / egov

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visionary officials

J Satyanarayana

Secretary, Dept of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY)

Creating better infrastructure for e-Governance

I

n your opinion what are the most significant achievements of NeGP (National e-Governance Plan)?

NeGP has completed six years. Its most important achievement is that it has awarded a kind of renewed recognition to the IT sector. The realisation has now dawned on the administrative setup that IT can lead to better outcomes. The second most important achievement of NeGP is that it has led to the creation of processes that enable many departments to efficiently deliver all kinds of services to stakeholders. There is now a marked transformation in the system of governance.

Nowadays there is no resistance to implementation of new IT projects. Successes have been achieved at all levels, be it in the central ministry or at the state levels.

Various projects have been successful, be it the MCA21, the Passport Sewa Project, or the immigration project.

Thirdly NeGP has contributed to a lot of knowledge and capacity building on the subject of e-Governance.

Technology management capacities have also increased due to NeGP. Now e-Governance is entering into the manifesto of political parties.

What remains to be achieved as far as NeGP is concerned?

“We are trying to figure out the best ways by which the CSCs can be made conducive for more vibrant and efficient interactions with the citizens,� says J Satyanarayana, Secretary, Dept of Electronics & Information Technology

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In NeGP 1.0, we have not only accomplished the above mentioned points, we have also created an environment of good infrastructure, environment, enthusiasm, expectation, hope and commitments.

Now we are going to focus on how to create services that will accelerate outcome. We are intently looking at

visionary officials

how many citizens we are touching every day, every month and every year. The NeGP 1.0 has been all about creating the environment, the infrastructure, and having in place the trained manpower. The NeGP 2.0 will be pushing the agenda more broadly in direction of outcomes and reaping the fruits of the previous efforts.

Everybody from top to bottom will start concentrating on the number of citizens whose lives get touched by e-Governance. I have the intention of touching five crores of citizens every month and I believe that this kind of goal is entirely achievable. Not only the central ministries, but also the state ministries should make an assessment of how many people can they reach out to every month.

Tell us about the role of the CSCs? In case of CSCs, we have identified certain areas of improvement. We are trying to figure out the best ways by which the CSCs can be conducive for more vibrant and efficient interactions with the citizens. We need to discover more efficient ways of reaching out to people in the urban area, in the rural area and in the tribal zones.

The needs of each of these places vary. We have an understanding of the ground realities and we are coming up with a new set of benchmarks.

We have to figure out what kind of services have to be provided, which ones are the most important services, which are the services that will have the biggest impact, from the angle of the number, the reach and the spread. These are the most important aspects which need to be taken into account if we wish to achieve the goal of having as many as five crore transactions every month. A good number of these transactions will need to be delivered through the CSCs. NeGP 2.0 will have the vision of electronically touching many more citizens per month. The CSCs will be the main delivery channel for all such initiatives.

Please shed some light on the roadmap of the EDS bill?

The Electronic Delivery of Services bill (EDS) has been referred to the Standing Committee of the Parliament. We are hoping for it to get cleared quickly. The thing is that there are many disjointed pieces in the overall e-Governance infrastructure. There is CSC, e-district, SSDG, State Portal, Data Centre, SWAN, etc.

These pieces are like a jigsaw puzzle. They exist in different parts of the country in various dif-

ferent degrees of maturity. The projects have been sanctioned, approved at different points of time in the last four to five years. Eventually these projects have to be synthesised, in order to derive benefits.

We have been through a lot of brainstorming regarding how to synthesise these different policies. Hopefully, through the EDS bill we will have a solution to this problem. Some states have already accomplished this fusion, whereas some of them have not yet been able to do so. We are also working on a framework that will eventually lead to quick replication of success stories.

What are the main obstacles in the path of e-Governance?

Tell us about the roadmap of your new MMP projects in crucial areas of health, education and others.

When it comes to policy towards electronics hardware, what is the role of DeitY?

We are still at the conceptualisation and project development phase for many new MMP proj-

It is quite difficult to translate ideas into reality. There are problems related to capacity and procedures. There are also the problems related to security and accuracy of data. Then we have to face problems of ownership, problems of establishing the right delivery mechanism to the concerned state. These issues have to be evaluated in a precise manner and in most cases they have to be resolved at a local level in the states. The bottom line is that there are no shortcuts.

The focus on electronics is definitely going to improve. We are waiting for the new policy to be approved. It will change the work profile of

“My idea of e-Governance is that “1+1 = 35”; in other words success of a project in one state should be used to build platforms for replication in other 35 states and union territories” ects under the NeGP. As far as education is concerned, there has been a great deal of progress in the MMPs. The general layout of MMPs will become visible to us in two months from now.

As far as health sector is concerned, things are still in the planning stage.

the departments. In whatever we are doing, there has to be a drive towards achieving better outcomes, which implies an increased stress upon reaping the fruits. We need to extract the maximum benefits of the infrastructure from what is already available.

In your opinion how important is technology in e-Governance?

Tell us about the role that NIC has been playing.

e-Governance is about governance and not technology. It is important to look at ways by which technology can bring about change in the delivery mechanisms of governance and create transparent and integrated services. The Aadhaar cards are going to lead to a fundamental change in the way we approach governance and e-Governance. It will lead to integration of services around the concept of a single identity and enable us to re-jig existing services. My idea of e-Governance is that “1 + 1 = 35”; in other words success of a project in one state should be used to build platforms for replication in other 35 states and union territories.

NIC has been playing a key role in the state government level, as well as in the ministry. They have done some excellent projects. Few days back, we have seen the immigration project that they have framed. NREGS has an excellent track record. The question is how to fine tune and match the requirements of the NIC with the requirements on the field. There is the need to create resonance. For example there are number of vacancies. They need to be filled quickly and new posts need to be created. Also the process of re-skilling has to be taken up at a certain level. It is imperative to formulate better strategies and plans for success of projects.

July 2012 / www.egovonline.net / egov

13

GIS Solutions

Maj Gen R C Padhi

Additional Surveyor General, Surveyor General’s Office

“GIS solutions

enable better monitoring of large projects” which is also called NUIS project covering 152 towns and cities in the country. These towns and cities are being surveyed on a 1:2000 scale to collect the data on which GIS will be applied.

How is GIS helping in mapping work?

Maj Gen R C Padhi, Additional Surveyor General, Surveyor General’s Office, provides us with an overview of the role that GIS

A normal map is basically a line map having two dimensional drawing. In GIS, the information that comes forth is much more detailed as compared to what we can have from any normal map. Through GIS we can have much more detailed information in 2D and 3D formats. For instance, a normal map will only provide the information about the distance of a road. But on a GIS map, the road width, the type of road, road classification and a lot of other information can be linked. Therefore a GIS solution can also be seen as a value added product of a live map.

solutions can play in improving the structure of governance in the country

T

ell us about the GIS solutions being used in Survey of India?

The Survey of India is using GIS solutions for three important objectives. Firstly, for generating the GIS base data. It is generated on 1:50,000 scale and on 1:25,000 scale. Secondly, for collecting the actual information that can serve as an input for GIS. Thirdly, for providing support to the GIS Delhi division. We also provide support to the National Urban Information system,

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What are the key advantages of using GIS solutions in large government projects?

GIS solutions enable better monitoring of large projects. In projects like the National Highway project, one needs to have information on the location and ownership of the land, and the profile of the land (it could be agricultural land; it could be a waste land). These answers may be available at different places. Some answers may be available in railway offices; some may be answered by the forest departments and other government offices. All these information can be obtained in a compiled form from GIS. Another important advantage of GIS is that it provides information that is scientific and is created on the basis of a common data standard and in a format that is universally recognised.

It to better integration between government departments and working groups.

What are the ways by which GIS solutions can lead to more local participation in large projects?

The first step consists of data collection. Then comes the aspect of putting the data in a network, and finally there is capacity building. Industrial participation is also a vital step, without which modern technology cannot come in. There has to be collaboration between the government and the industry. Right now, there are many companies in India and abroad that are directly involved in these projects. Government should come out with good policies which help us in our work, encourage industry participation.

What are the main challenges that you face?

Our policies are very old; they are not in tune with modern times. The bureaucracy does not understand the importance of technology. The government servants can read the language of the policies, but they do not understand the spirit.

The policies should cater to the concerns of the industry and they should be industry friendly. Of course, some policies are getting amended such as the remote sensing data policy. The national data sharing policy is also getting amended.

Policies are not static, they are dynamic in nature.

Policies need to undergo repeated modification, taking into account the needs of the time.

What kind of innovations are you expecting in GIS space?

The quality of hardware and software is becoming much better. There is vast improvement in storage. Resolution being offered by the different systems is much better. For disaster management, you need higher resolution over a limited area. Digital technology keeps getting better and so the scope of GIS is getting enhanced all the time.

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in person

Dr S S Garbyal

Principal Secretary to the Government of Mizoram, Department of Information and Communication Technology

Mizoram has Huge potential in

IT and ITES sectors

T

ell us about your vision for the state’s IT department. Tell us about your mandate.

Also tell us about the initiatives that your department is taking to bring about growth in the state’s ICT industry.

Essentially, the vision of the IT department in the state of Mizoram is to create a world class environment where major ICT companies can conduct their business and generate employment. Mizoram has one of the highest literacy rates in the country. The state has a huge potential in IT and ITES sector. But there are also the challenges. The most major challenge is the state’s geographical distance from the major industrial hubs in the country. Recently we have signed MOU with Department of Electronics and IT, Government of India, and Mizoram University to setup Software Technology Park in the University Campus. I am confident that this will lead to a boost to the IT industry in the state in the fields of software development, software exports and ITES.

Your state has taken many new initiatives in e-Governance. How would you rate the state’s response to e-Governance?

Dr S S Garbyal, Principal Secretary to the Government of Mizoram, Department of Information and Communication Technology, talks to eGov magazine about his vision for development of ICT sector in Mizoram. He also sheds light on e-Governance projects in the state...

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egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2012

Ever since the National e-Governance Plan came into being, the Government of Mizoram has been engaged in implementing various e-Governance projects. At the end of this year, the core NeGP infrastructure is expected to be in place and we are hoping to catch up with all those states that are considered

in person

to be the champions of e-Governance. There are quite a few MMPs that have been taken up by departments such as Home, where we have implementation of CCTNS, and the Commercial Tax Department, where COMTAXMMPS has been implemented. I will also like to mention that our Hon’ble IT Minister Shri.

Zodintluanga is keen on the development of IT sector in the state. Several proactive steps have already been taken to enhance the growth of the IT sector.

According to you what are the main e-Governance projects of the state that have been immensely successful and have the potential to be replicated?

Large numbers of e-Governance projects have been launched in Mizoram. The most outstanding of these are the e-District and Commercial Taxes projects, which have been conducted under the NeGP. These two projects have earned appreciation all over the country. Vahan & Sarathi, Land Record Computerisation and Property Registration Computerisation projects are also very successful. All these projects have the potential of being replicated.

In today’s scenario where there is a big boom in IT, what are the main challenges being faced by the officials in the position of IT secretary?

In a world where technology has started moving at the speed of thought, the primary challenge is to cope up with the pace of technological change. We are now planning to use mobile technology in governance as it has higher penetration. Mobile technology has already reached the remotest pats of the country. This technology has tremendous potential to achieve good governance objectives. Other challenge is change management amongst the officials when government process is required to be re-engineered.

What are the main challenges that you face in the implementation of e-Governance projects? What are the solutions for these challenges?

Connectivity and bandwidth are major issues in implementation of e-Governance Projects in Mizoram. This is mainly due to the

fact that the state has a difficult terrain. The existing underground OFC (Optical Fibre Cable) is frequently cut due to landslide and widening of roads in various places. Until and unless these are replaced with overhead OFC, the problem will continue to persist. We are thinking of taking the fibre cable out of the ground, and laying it alongside the electric transmission lines. Alternatively, we can also extend international fibre connectively through Bangladesh. Unreliable internet connectivity is the biggest bottleneck we face while undertaking e-Governance initiatives in Mizoram.

Online security is an area of concern. Many governments owned sites have been hacked

ment. The scheme is being implemented by General Administration and Postal Department. Not much progress has been made. As of now, there is no application developed based on Aadhaar number. But in times to come there can be fascinating developments on this front.

These days we are having the issue of malicious content on the Internet. In your opinion what are the best ways of tackling this problem? Does Internet need regulation?

Ever since Web 2.0 has become an omnipresent reality in our world, every internet user has acquired the freedom to use Internet access accesses and post all kinds of data. There is not

“We are planning to use

mobile technology in governance as mobiles have higher penetration” in the past. What steps do you think should be taken to ensure that the best practices are implemented while hosting of important state government sites?

Online security is a cause of concern in case of every government owned website. This is because the government owned websites are often repositories of huge amounts of data that is critical for national security. There has been an exponential increase in instances of hacking.

In Mizoram every government department has formed a Website Management Team and these teams have been trained by the ICT Department to come up with innovative ideas for encountering various security related activities.

Department of ICT, Government of Mizoram, has been constantly monitoring all the website activities under gov.in domain to avoid instances of hacking.

Please shed some light on the progress of UIDAI scheme in your state. In what ways do you think the UIDAI will be beneficial to the people in the state? Are you developing some applications based on Aadhaar numbers?

In our state the nodal department for UDAI scheme is General Administration Depart-

much that the governments can do to regulate the Internet. The Internet is too vast to be regulated. We had done awareness campaign in six districts of our state by involving an NGO two years back. This has had tremendous impact in reducing malicious content in the web and cybercrime. IT Act 2000 and its amendment, which came out later, have provisions that directly deal with spread of malicious content on the internet. We do realise that in the digital world what flows in the internet is difficult to regulate.

In your opinion what kind of experiences and sensibilities as an administrator, must an IT secretary bring to his job?

The best results can be achieved by an IT secretary who can look at new technologies with an opens state of mind. Things are changing in the IT sector at a very fast pace, new technologies are emerging all the time. The IT secretary should have the vision for recognising the potential of all the new technologies.

He must also have a spirit of collaboration, as the IT department has to engage with many other departments in the state. It is a fact that technological issues can only be resolved when we have collaboration with all the stakeholders.

Every initiative or project needs to be managed with a proactive attitude.

July 2012 / www.egovonline.net / egov

17

IN PERSON

Sanjay Jaju

Secretary to Govt. of Andhra Pradesh, Information Technology & Communications Department

e-Seva

to Mee-Seva

T

ell us about your vision for the Department of IT in Andhra Pradesh.

The Department of IT in Andhra Pradesh is fully focused on archiving the goal of bringing growth to the IT sector in the state. IT as a sector is a big growth multiplier; it leads to the creation of millions of jobs. Every year we have about 45,000 crore of IT related exports from the state of Andhra Pradesh. So on one hand the Department of IT is doing its best to implement policies that will lead to more investments in the sector and fuel growth in jobs, and on the other hand the department is also mandated to provide responsible and cost-effective e-Governance solutions that will enable citizens to access a range of services in a timely and seamless manner. e-Governance does not only bring benefits to the people, it also enables respective organs of the state to discharge their duties in an efficient and transparent manner. That is why the importance of e-Governance cannot be denied.

In your opinion what are the main e-Governance projects of the state that have been immensely successful and have the potential to be replicated?

Sanjay Jaju, Secretary to Govt. of Andhra Pradesh, Information Technology & Communications Department, provides his views on various aspects of e-Governance projects in the state of Andhra Pradesh

18

egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2012

One project that I would like to talk to you about is a project called Mee Seva, which is a flagship initiative of the government for providing a range of benefits and services to the people residing in the state. It has been estimated that by the end of this year we could start having up to 2 crore transactions every year at the Mee Seva centres. As of now 30 services have been

IN PERSON

departments. So what we really need is a push from different government departments to implement the e-Governance ideas that come under their domain. Basically we need better support mechanisms from the government to make e-Governance a reality. It is also true that different projects face different kinds of challenges so it might not be possible to club all the projects with each other. As the obstacles in each project are unique, you need unique solutions to tackle them.

Please shed some light on the progress of UIDAI scheme in your state. In what ways do you

ests. But the thing is that the internet has now become so vast that it is really not possible for anyone to control or regulate it. It is not possible for any entity or even government to police the Internet. To my mind one great danger is that certain governments may start using cyber tools to wage wars on their national enemies.

Recently we had an incident where the nuclear systems in Iran were targeted by a highly sophisticated computer worm called Stuxnet.

It is alleged that the Stuxnet was designed by another country in the region. There exists the danger that in days to come nations might start waging destructive cyber wars. However, as far as Internet regulation for safety, privacy

“The IT department can

only be a facilitator of the e-Governance projects...”

brought under the purview of ‘Mee Seva’. The services related to revenue and registration department such as adangal, ROR-1B, FMB, integrated caste certificate at the centres are covered. Towards the end of this year, the number of available services could reach as high as 100. Citizens will be able to use the fast and transparent system for accessing a range of government services. Eventually the Mee Seva centres will also be able to provide digitally signed certificates to applicants. J Satyanarayana, Secretary, Dept of Electronics & Information Technology, who mentored this project saw great value in Mee Seva initiative and he felt that the e-Governance project was fit to be replicated across all the states in the country.

What are the main challenges that you face in the implementation of e-Governance projects? What are the solutions for these challenges?

The biggest challenge in the implementation of e-Governance projects is that we have to deal with large number of government departments.

At times there is multiplicity of authorities.

Problems also crop up when there is lack of awareness about new systems, and there is also the resistance to adoption of new technologies.

The IT department can only be a facilitator of the e-Governance projects; the actual execution has to happen through other government

think the UIDAI will be beneficial to the people in the state? Are you developing some applications based on Aadhar numbers?

In UIDAI we made good amount of progress.

The enrolment started on the 8th of October 2010 and it has been on-going since then. Large numbers of Aadhaar cards have already been issued. We are coming up with initiatives to use Aadhaar numbers for providing e-Governance services to the citizens. The health department, the education sector, the rationing departments and many other departments will be targeting the beneficiaries of their schemes through Aadhaar numbers. Even the urban middle class is going to benefit from UIDAI, as it will become easier for government departments to reach out to the targeted groups. There will be less scope for pilferage and loss and the subsidies will always reach the deserving sections of the population. Aadhaar will eventually lead to acceleration in the effective and efficient delivery of services to all groups of citizens.

Online security is an area of concern. Do you think the Internet should come under tighter regulation?

There is no doubt that cyber security is a big cause for concern. Large numbers of critical systems have started operating in the cyber space, and these can be targeted by vested inter-

and intellectual property rights is concerned, this is a sensitive issue. The Constitution of India guarantees the Freedom of speech and expression for an individual. As important as this is, it may be noted that it does not confer an absolute right to express oneself without any responsibility.

In your opinion what kind of experiences and sensibilities as an administrator, must an IT secretary bring to his job?

The most important quality that an IT secretary must have is complete understanding of the field of IT. Unless there is understanding of the technological and social significance of IT, the secretary will not be able to discharge his duties in an effective manner. Other than that the IT secretary also needs to have the right kind of management skills. The field of IT is highly competitive, new technologies are being introduced all the time. The IT secretary must be capable of taking a judicious view of the new technologies so that the same can be used for maximum possible benefit of the society. More than anything else, the IT secretary needs to be fully committed to the cause of e-Governance and good governance; he should be deeply passionate about bringing real efficiency in the operations of various departments. The bottom line is that I see the IT secretary as a catalyst of change for the better.

July 2012 / www.egovonline.net / egov

19

IN PERSON

P H Kurian

Principal Secretary (IT), Government of Kerala

Transparent

Responsive and Accountable

Governance through IT

T

ell us about your vision for the state’s IT department.

My vision is to bring about a convergence in every governance initiative in the state into an integrated, optimised and unified framework by utilising IT. Essentially this translates into a citizen focussed approach to government services wherein the emphasis is on the benefit to citizen while technology, processes and procedures are just means to it. We are working with the desire of reinstating Kerala in its rightful position among the Top IT enabled and leveraged states of India. We have to prepare and present Kerala as the right destination for IT investors/companies and institutions across the world.

There is the need for creation of an ecosystem of development that leverages the potential of Kerala in Skilled Human resources, existing IT businesses, service Industry orientation of the state and electronically enabled governance.

Tell us about initiatives that your department is taking to bring about growth in the Kerala’s IT industry.

The IT department and associated agencies like Technopark, Infopark, Cyber Park, KSITL (on IT infrastructure and IT investment promotion) Kerala State IT Mission (e-Governance initiatives) IIITMK, ICT Academy, SeMT (on human capacity building ) have been working hard to utilise the opportunities in the IT sector to bring about benefit to the state and its citizens. Technology and business incubation centre in Trivandrum and the innovation village in Kochi are major initiatives in the paradigm shift in the mindset of Kerala as such i.e. from a salaried employee concept to that of an entrepreneur. The successes in these fronts and the initiative and vigour shown by the younger generation in these ventures are laudable.

P H Kurian, Principal Secretary (IT), Government of Kerala, shares with eGov magazine, his vision for the development of IT sector in Kerala. He also sheds light on different aspects of the e-Governance initiatives that are being launched in the state

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egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2012

Your state has taken many new initiatives in e-Governance. How would you rate the state’s response to e-Governance?

In the State of Kerala, the introduction of ICT in Government-citizen interaction has been incremental over the years. Kerala experimented and piloted many IT initiatives like Web based services, ICT based Call Centres, mobile governance

IN PERSON

and similar newer technological advances. The need for strengthening Government to Citizen (G2C) interfaces has been the primary focus of the State and this led to the launch of “Akshaya” brand of citizen Service Centres. The State has made Strategic investments in the E-governance enabling infrastructure fronts like the State Data Centre, Kerala State Wide Area Network (KSWAN) to address the Connectivity, and Akshaya which acts as a bridge between the “digital divide” by virtue of its literacy campaigns and also through various socially oriented activities.

What are the main challenges that you face in the implementation of e-Governance projects? What are the solutions for these challenges?

The issue of interoperability of various standalone systems in government is the greatest bottle neck in any seamless roll out of electronic governance – The SSDG ( State Service Delivery Gateway) , a National Mission Mode Project currently being deployed , shall act as a solution to this. Further the Government of Kerala shall also adopt the open standards for e-Governance solutions being brought out by DeitY and this will ensure that the systems would talk to each other irrespective of their platforms/technologies. Another challenge we face is that of duplication of efforts and multiple solutions and databases for the citizen services across various departments. In this case the solution is to identify the common requirements and share the data from existing applications. The state resident Data Hub (SRDH), a pilot project being undertaken as part of the UIDAI rollout shall act as a common citizen data base and shall nullify the effects of these duplications.

What steps do you think should be taken to ensure security of online systems in the country?

Security is as much a concern for us as it is to any other government. With more and more applications going into the public domain there is significant rise in security related concerns. The state data centre and the State Network are well protected and monitored and the websites hosted in the SDC are under close surveillance for suspicious activities. However, the vulnerabilities of the solutions have been the cause of the hackings that has been reported thus far and these have been rectified immediately. Proactively it has been made mandatory that the applications are hosted only after proper security testing.

Kerala ranks among the top Indian states as far as the implementation of the national Mission Mode Projects is concerned: E Governance Aspect Rating 1. Infrastructure Good basic infrastructure

Good

IT infrastructure (connectivity, storage/computing)

Good

Delivery Infrastructure (CSC, Portal , Mobile)

Excellent

2. Capacity building Excellent User level (E-literacy )

Excellent

Service Provider level ( Employee training)

Excellent

Technology adoption

Excellent

3. Electronic Delivery of Services Average Department/service level applications

Good

Back end digitisation

Average

Interoperability of systems

Average

What are the main challenges being faced by officials in position of IT secretary?

Information Technology is a fast changing and highly dynamic sector and the decisions required for the successful exploitation of opportunities in this sector would have to be long term consequences. The Administrative and technical prudence of the officials should not be under radar owing to less significant and petty issues. There is also a delicate balance between the needs of a highly sophisticated sector and the real needs of a common man. IT, as one should understand, is a great enabler and the sector offers immense growth potential, but considerable effort is required to ensure equitable and inclusive development of all sections of people and this will be a major factor for sustainability of the sector in the long run.

Please shed some light on the progress of UIDAI scheme in your state.

UIDAI enrolment in the state is progressing very well. We have enrolled around 80 Lakh people and expect to cover the remaining 2.1 cr population by March 2013. Although a steep task, we are confident of attaining this target by initiating more enrolment agencies into the state. Currently we have two enrolment agencies namely Akshaya and Keltron of which Akshaya, the CSC which is

spread across the state has been carrying out the bulk of the enrolments. Kerala is the second state to be identified by UIDAI to set up the State Resident data Hub (SRDH). Simultaneously, the state is gearing up to extend Aadhar based services to citizens. Welfare pensions, Kerosene subsidy distribution etc are the pilot projects that will be rolled out soon. The advantage to the citizen will be that the benefits will reach the targeted individual and the advantage to the Government will be stemming the loss to the exchequer by weeding out duplicate, fake and ghost entries.

Does Internet need regulation?

Freedom, as one should understand, comes with responsibility, so the freedom to information also comes with responsibility, responsibility on the part of the information provider, the application provider, the information seeker etc. You cannot track down all the internet users who propagate and read these contents as what is malicious to one is comic or interesting to another. There is no possibility of any regulation which would be able to control this type of propagation of unwanted content. But yes regulation will create awareness among the general public who might be unknowingly participating in the propagation of an illegal content.

Personal and defamatory content creation and propagation is illegal even today and is a punishable offence.

July 2012 / www.egovonline.net / egov

21

eGov 2.0

e-Politics We are in the cusp of change when it comes to the manner in which politics is conducted politics but growing at a rapid pace. In 2011, almost one-third of Internet users described the web as an important source of political information, compared with less than 15 percent in 2007 according to the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM).

We are in the cusp of change in the manner in which politics is conducted. Tweets from a twelve year old girl had galvanised the population of Seoul to converge at the Town Hall to protest against beef imports from US. A few years later, similar mobilisation over the Internet had started toppling governments, starting with the Government of Egypt. Nearer home, civil society has effectively used the Internet to create one of the Dr Jaijit Bhattacharya, President, Centre for Digital largest people’s movements Economy Policy Research; Director, South Asia, since independence. People Hewlett Packard notwithstanding their geographical location have joined the fight against corruption through the Internet. We have also seen how Internet is being used to run political campaigns and to also reduce the cost of camith the advent of paigning. The presidential campaign run by Internet, there has Barack Obama in US was highly dependent on been a significant the Internet. Digital media gives any politician democratisation of the “baseline” pulse thus knowing when people the ability to distrib- favour or disfavour the candidate and his/her ute and consume information. The power to policies. Thus, the internet allows trends of distribute information and the ability to reach people’s expectations to be mined that will help out to the people is no longer being controlled politicians and policymakers to target people’s by a few in the society. This has had dispropor- need more effectively.

Most importantly, we are witnessing the tionate impact on all walks of life and society.

However, this change in the asymmetry of metamorphosis of democracy itself. Democpower to distribute and consume information racy is slowly morphing from being an Indirect is only just beginning to impact the business of Democracy to a Direct Democracy with peo-

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egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2012

ple’s views being factored in for most policies that are being adopted by the government and also for most legislations being passed by the parliament. No longer do the elected representatives have the sole prerogative to unilaterally decide on what is the appropriate legislation and appropriate policies for the entire nation without any further consultation with the citizens. Thus politics is moving towards a more collaborative leadership model. Waves of ICT applications in politics have empowered groups of political neophytes (‘netizens’, ‘cyber-libertarians’), extending the power of people who are from the disadvantaged layers of society to shape and transform conventional politics into a stage of ‘virtual democracy’. This transformation is being expedited with the advents of Internet access over mobile phone which gives citizens new opportunities to mobilize and be heard.

Increasingly net savvy citizens share political content in real time. This can lead to phenomena such as the ability of the new-found tools for mass political mobilization. Internet was used as a tool in the Egyptian anti-government protests which further provoked a series of uprisings. In the case of Myanmar, where there are limited avenues to express dissent, the recent protests and their global impact were only possible through extensive use of mobile phones and the internet.

However, the disconcerting aspect of ePolitics is that in a society with an urban-rural digital divide, how do we ensure that we also do not have a divide over which sections of the population can express their opinion? What level of political dissent will be tolerated? In a world of government censorship crackdown, will citizens and smaller political parties succeed in finding alternative routes to safeguard their cherished freedom of expression? Such questions and the value of the internet to Politics will shape how politics will evolve with the power of Internet.

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data centres

Private Cloud Computing Enablement in

State Data Centres SDCs being established in the States/ UTs shall provide better operations & management control; minimise overall cost of Data Management, IT Management and Deployment through use of common infrastructure Renu Budhiraja, Sr Director & HOD State Data Centers, e-Governance, DeitY

T

he State Data Centre (SDC) is being implemented across the country to provide common IT infrastructure to host Government applications. SDC is one of the three infrastructure pillars structured by the NeGP to facilitate web-enabled Anytime, Anywhere access. SDC is conceptualised with the objective of providing a common enabling infrastructure to the States / UTs to consolidate services, applications and infrastructure to provide efficient electronic delivery of G2G, G2C and G2B services.

SDCs being established in the States/ UTs shall provide better operations & management control; minimise overall cost of Data Management, IT Management and Deployment through use of common infrastructure, which broadly includes: i. Compute Infrastructure: To cater to the needs of application hosting at the State, an initial compute infrastructure consisting of web, application and database servers with different flavours of OS & database software’s has been provisioned in the SDC. ii. Storage Infrastructure: Centralized storage with flexible and secure configuration

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egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2012

Private Cloud Computing in SDCs:

shall be available in the SDC including backup facilities. The same shall be leveraged by different line departments for their data storage requirements in shared manner. iii. Network and Security Infrastructure: Core network infrastructure that is a requirement of every Data Centre has been provided for every SDC’s and has been designed with sufficient capacity to meet the basic needs of the State data centre.

Substantial progress has been made in the SDC project where 16 State Data Centres are functional and it is expected that majority of the SDC shall be operational by Dec’12.

SDCs have been equipped with infrastructure which will enable State /UT departments with seamless, highly reliable/robust, secured infrastructure.

However, during last few years’ technology has evolved and a need has been felt to integrate the matured technologies in the current SDC to enable: • Optimal sharing of infrastructure • Elasticity and Agility • Better Management and Monitoring • Disaster recovery readiness

NIST defines Cloud computing as a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.Over the years the usage of IT environment is on an increase and will continue to be so, leading to increase in considerable load on IT infrastructure in terms of number of applications/servers/network resources which is becoming harder to manage, difficult to scale particularly with persistent demand of enhanced performance notwithstanding the enormous cost.

Vision: To bring a paradigm shift in the way IT resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) are delivered over a network in the State Objectives: The objectives of the cloud based delivery system are: a. Faster Roll-Out of Services b. Infrastructure Optimisation c. Increased usage and acceptance of SDCs d. Sharing of applications within and across States to optimise cost and infrastructure e. To be able to share IT resources across State Clouds

data centres

•

•

•

• • •

•

•

Proof of Concept A POC to check the efficacy and validation of functionality of cloud solutions in SDCs through the leading OEMs with different cloud solutions was conducted in 4 SDC’s namely Karnataka (VMware), Gujarat (Microsoft), Tamil Nadu (CDAC), Andhra Pradesh (Eucalyptus) which also include running of certain applications in production environment. Comprehensive guidelines were prepared prior to conducting PoC with due deliberation with States and OEM’s. The objectives of the PoC was to test all aspects of features available in the solution as well as evaluate the benefits of applications running in cloud environment and to understand/validate distinct advantages derived through new technology, following are some of the features which have been accomplished in the PoC: • Ease of operations/on demand access/elasticity in cloud environment • Integration/extension of existing management solution with cloud solution • Scrutinize security implications/integration of cloud solution with existing security devices • Checking DR functionality • Distribution/shifting(VMs) of work load on different machines and performance parameters during simulated peak load • Interoperability/capability of managing multiple virtualization layers within the data centre by the Cloud Solution

Core network infrastructure that is a requirement of every Data Centre has been provided for every SDC and has been designed with sufficient capacity to meet the basic needs of the State data centre Though the functionality could have been tested in a lab environment, the decision to conduct PoC at SDC’s has been taken to observe performance in an operational environment where difference in performance would be discernible to end user leading to better adaptability. The outcomes of the PoC are enumerated as follows:

Outcomes and Absorption from the PoC •

Cloud solutions were able to utilise existing security devices for providing security in cloud environment in addition to physical environment thereby ensuring no additional cost is incurred for procuring additional security devices for cloud environment.

Data segregation between different VMs of different applications running on single physical machine was demonstrated Management of multiple hyper V/multiple OS demonstrated to cater for heterogeneous environment existing in SDCs Provisioning/de provisioning of resources on the fly, elasticity simulating peak load conditions successfully demonstrated in automation mode Compatibility of cloud solutions with different Storage system demonstrated DR functionality with/without replication solution demonstrated.

Though this was a PoC set up, states got encouraged and ported live applications on the cloud set up in due course and monitored performance On completion of PoC, states proactively shown interest in going ahead with cloud solution in respective SDCs. Existing EMS in the SDCs was able to get successfully extended to cloud environment thereby optimizing investment

Technological advantage from cloud Cloud computing can provide an inherent technological advantage to the government in terms of increasing efficiency, agility, scaling up IT operations while optimizing investment quickly by leveraging cloud infrastructure without having to acquire hardware which often lead to considerable procurement delays. This significantly reduces both time and cost barriers to deployment thereby providing faster and reliable services to citizens.

It also addresses the present deficiencies of low utilisation, duplicity in terms of hardware/ Applications, fragmented IT assets across the states and delay in delivering common citizen services. The extensive PoCs at 4 states with different solutions/ different virtualisations/ state specific use case scenarios have proved both the functional advantages as well as end user adoptability/acceptability of cloud computing.

Based on the lessons learnt and improvement required, a strategy is being planned to roll out cloud enabled services in the SDCs.

the author is Sr Director & HOD State Data Centers, e-Governance, DeitY

July 2012 / www.egovonline.net / egov

25

viewpoint

This Cloud….may appear dark to Brand India ITES Cos

S

ince few years back, as the pressure to reduce the cost of IT and IT-enabled services and to use the IT resources most optimally was increasingly getting harder, the technologies of CPU sharing, thin client, edge computing, virtualization, all followed one after another. Further, the fact, that 40% or more of the total cost of running a full-fledged tier-4 Data Centre is attributable to cost of power, led to invention of various alternate cooling techniques, energy efficient servers etc for Data Centres. However, culmination of all such developments took place through emergence of cloud computing, which is now believed to disrupt all current practices related to computing techniques and efficient use of computing resources. It is further observed that this non-linear technology for IT outsourcing, is expected to bring formidable threat to traditional business models for IT outsourcing, BPO and so on. And India, having the its impressive BPO global market share, 51% in 2009, 55% in 2010 and 58% 2011, has all the reasons to seriously consider the impact of this emerging technology on its current IT revenue of USD 100 Bn and projected USD 400 Bn by 2020.

Cloud computing, having three broad service delivery models, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS), is perhaps the most potent among the non-linear technologies, including others like Business Analytics, Software Testing, Intellectual Property Rights, Automation and so on, to bring in paradigm shift in the IT and ITES eco-system.

There are various noted advantages of cloud com-

26

egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2012

Ashis Sanyal, Consulting Editor, egov

puting : by adopting any of IaaS, SaaS, PaaS, or all of them, IT cost may come down even by 40%; IT assets may be more efficiently managed with deployment of standardised servers and software ; better business model, as pay per use like sulabh, or on the basis of subscription. By adopting all these, SMEs would then be spending much less resources on IT infrastructure. NASSCOM Strategic Review Report 2012 also predicts that by 2015 Public Cloud Services spending would outpace the growth of overall IT spending by about 4 times. But how this non-linear technology may become a threat to the traditional IT and ITES outsourcing business activity?

The tier 1 Brand India IT and ITES companies had adopted the head-count-related business model for long, as their primary growth vehicle.

However, in the emerging cloud computing environment of IaaS, SaaS and PaaS, linear growth business model, solely dependent of adding more

employees, is not expected to sustain. On the contrary, the tier 1 companies with high head count would appear to be less agile in this dynamically changing business environment. Added to this woe would be the expected salary hike per year by the IT and ITES employees. This common feature, being observed for the last few years, perhaps explains the high attrition and ‘poaching’ rate in this industry. Further, leading world players have increasingly started operating their R&D and business units from India. Earlier the Tier 1 Indian IT and ITES companies remained globally competitive for a long time, due to advantage in HR cost component in INR and the prevailing exchange rates. Now, with the current lenient policy regime for doing international business from India and significant presence of global players competing from their respective Indian units, the earlier cost advantage of Indian tier 1 companies is slowly disappearing. On the top of it, global super actors like Amazon, Google, are opening up their large scale cloud computing and IT outsourcing activities globally, which may force the Indian tier 1 IT and ITES companies to take a relook in their Strategy and Business Models.

They have to resolve many conflicting situations.

Due to higher wage expectations, they would like to increase operating margin per employee, by putting higher pricing. But due to prevailing slow down in global economy, they cannot afford to do the same. Fortunately, in last two years or so, some of them have already exhibited strategic change in their business model, perhaps in response to Gartner’s observation that ‘to stay competitive, IT Service Providers will have to increase non-linear revenue to around 35-50%, from less than 10% as of now’. Let all these desired changes happen asap lest this cloud looming large on the IT and ITES sky would appear really dark for them!

news

projects people policy products

e-Voting compulsory for top 500 Firms : SEBI

PMO sets `20000 crore for broadband rollout at village level

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) declared it mandatory for top listed firms to provide for electronic voting facilities wherever shareholders need to vote through postal ballot.This will enable accuracy in counting of votes, elimination of postal ballots getting

The Government is set to speed up the National Optical Fibre Network distribution to provide broadband connectivity to two and a half lakh gram panchayats. A coordination committee headed by the Telecom Secretary has been set up by The Prime Minister’s Office for the purpose. It is believed that the initiative will benefit nearly 25 crore people.

The programme will cost `20,000 crore. Bharat Broadband Network Ltd, a company set up for the purpose on February 25 this year will implement the project.

lost in transit and sufficient time for shareholders to

Railways

vote till the end of voting period.

rural development

infrastructure

Locate your Train Via Mobile Phone

SIDCO takes measures to improve e-Governance The Tamil Nadu Small Industries Development Corporation Limited familiarly known as SIDCO is taking measures to computerise its activities, a significant move to foster industrial development.

Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has proposed to revamp the district industries

Locating a train is made easier than ever as now trains can be tracked via mobile phone. A joint team of railways and IITKanpur has developed a technology – the real-time train running information system – which enables a mobile user to access information about the

exact location of a train.

The train number has to be texted to 09415139139 or 09664139139 for knowing the exact location of a train on real-time basis. The service is currently available for 36 pairs of premier trains, including Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto.

urban development

BMC e-Governance Project to Start in July Municipal Administrative System (MAS), an e-Governance project, will get functional from July this year. The project is being implemented under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). It is aimed at improving services of the civic body such as facilitating online payments of property taxes, water cess, registration of birth and death and building permissions.

IT and ITeS sector will grow over $300 bn by 2020: Sachin Pilot Union Minister of state for IT and Communications, Sachin Pilot, stated that the demand for Indian IT and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) sector will cross the $ 300 billion mark

28

by 2020. Pilot said as the mobile penetration in the country was increasing, time has come to create local language content applications so that people in rural India can easily access

egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2012

centres in all the 32 districts by taking up appropriate civil works in various district headquarters. The DIC would be provided with modern IT enabled communication facilities and those centres functioning from rental buildings would have their buildings.

information and entertainment. The Union government is spending Rs 20,000 crore to lay optic fibre cables so that 2.5 lakh panchayats across the country are connected.

Over one crore residents in Delhi get Aadhaar numbers Delhi is the fastest city when it comes to getting an Aadhaar numbers with more than a crore residents of the city already having a unique identity number. Officials

in the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) say 1.06 crore people in Delhi now have an Aadhaar number. This is the highest percentage of people in any state being enrolled under Aadhaar.

tech file

Ranjit Nambiar

Director of Sales, South Asia, HID India Pvt Ltd

The world of printers extended-run, high-throughput and high-dutycycle requirements of government ID card programmes, laborious service bureaus conditions, universities and large enterprises.

What kind of features do customers look for when they buy your printers?

“HID Global is keen to extend its reach to second-tier and third-tier cities,” says Ranjit Nambiar, Director of Sales, South Asia, HID India Pvt Ltd

G

ive us an overview of your top selling printers in the Indian consumer market.

One of our top selling printers is the advanced generation of FARGO® Direct-to-Card DTC1000 printers that address the need of instant, ondemand printing and offers added benefits of addressing end user concerns. The new DTC printers include the embedded Swift ID™ application, enabling users to print cards right of the box.

Also, the DTC1000 printers are capable of being accommodated in any space. Recently, we have introduced HID Global’s FARGO® HDP8500 Industrial Card Printer/Encoder, the industry’s highest capacity and most rugged and secure printing/encoding solution that is designed for the

29

Customers look for quality, usability, including integration with existing databases, plus ease of use and speed through dual-sided printing capabilities. They also need modular flexibility, including the ability to print both RFID and proximity cards.

Then there is issue of sustainability and security, including incorporation of higher-security printed visual elements and migration of 13.56 MHz contactless technologies. Visual elements include registered embedded holograms, holographiclaminates, smart card contacts and personalised record data and variable graphics, and the use of various printing techniques including both standard and sub-surface lithographic and digital printing, embedded anti-counterfeiting, and over-the-edge high-definition printing (HDP).

Sustainability is optimised through the use of the latest card materials that degrade up to five times faster than standard plastic cards, and print solutions that are ENERGY STAR-rated, providing organisations high-performance, energy-efficient solutions for producing professional quality colour ID cards with security encoding.

What is the next innovation that we can expect in the printer cartridge technology?

Enterprises require maximum credential efficacy which means credentials should be durable and provide clear visual evidence of attempted tampering. Retransfer print technology provides distinct advantages here, and can deliver additional security and durability through the use of specialty films that incorporate visual, anti-counterfeiting security elements, including custom holograms,

fluorescing images or micro-text. Retransfer technology also improves card abrasion resistance, additional in-line card lamination may be applied over the retransfer film to further extend card life while enabling varying levels of overt or covert visual security elements. Other desirable features include enhanced material handling systems can prevent ribbon breaks and film errors, and finelytuned consumables cartridges with precision rollers and aluminium spindle shafts that can ensure consistent print image production.

What is the next milestone for your company as far as the Indian operations are concerned?

There are two key focus areas for HID Global in India – the first is to penetrate into emerging vertical markets and the second is to extend our reach into second and third tier cities in India. In terms of vertical markets, HID’s strategy is to focus on those verticals where we believe have strong growth potential, such as the enterprise, utility, telecom, transportation, building infrastructure, finance and government markets. HID Global is keen to extend its reach to second-tier and thirdtier cities such as Ahemdabad, Kochi, Coimbatore, Vizag, Jaipur and Lucknow, as we see a growing need for security solutions in these areas. However, technicians in these cities often have little knowledge on high security access control system. Therefore, HID Global is building a local distributor and system integrator network and provide them technical trainings for customer support.

Tell us about your expectations from the government.

Government should come up with more market friendly and constructive policies. Nowadays, most organisations see access control systems as a ‘good to have’ component. It’s necessary for the government to take the lead and formulate guidelines to bring about improvements in the security standards across the country.

July 2012 / www.egovonline.net / egov

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special feature

cisco

Journey from IPv4 to IPv6: Cisco Leads the Way “IPv6 extends us that flexibility, exponentially increasing the quantity of unique IP addresses available to networked devices to an almost infinite number,” says Mahesh Gupta, Vice President, Sales, Borderless Networks, Cisco India & SAARC What is IPv6? IPv4 and IPv6 coexistence — what does that mean?

IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6) is the latest version of the network layer Internet Protocol.

IPv6 is designed to be the successor of IPv4, which is predominantly in use today.

IPv4 was adopted in 1981, but a lot has changed in the last 25 years. Internet Population across the globe has skyrocketed and people are increasingly demanding access to information anytime, anywhere and on any device.

Today most of the Internet content is accessed via IPv4. And many hosts, and most applications in customer, residential networks, including older PCs, game consoles, CCTV Cameras, building systems, consumer electronic devices like HDTVs etc. have started to use IP addresses. As per Cisco Visual Index, in Asia Pacific there will be 1.7 billion total Internet users in 2016, up from 935 million in 2011 and IPv4 address pool has already been exhausted in APAC region. Department of Telecom (DoT) is also targeting 160 million broadband users by 2017 and 600 million by 2020.

IPv6 extends us that flexibility, exponentially increasing the quantity of unique IP addresses

30

egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2012

available to networked devices to an almost infinite number— and providing us the foundation to radically change the way we communicate.

So, while the move to IPv6 is necessary to accommodate the continuing explosion of Internet space requirements, migration to IPv6 cannot happen overnight as it will require user applications, databases, middleware, Servers and Network Infrastructure to support the transition. While this transition will start from Network layer for Internet Edge to start with, IPv4 and IPv6 networks will co-exist to allow accessibility to both types of users, for now and the foreseeable future.

Tell us about the ways in which IPv6 brings simplification to the systems used for reachability and end-toend security of network devices.

IPv6 quadruples the number of network address bits from 32 bits (in IPv4) to 128 bits or approximately 3.4x1038 addressable nodes. This not only allows for ready network expansion, but also meets the requirements of emerging networked applications.

The use of globally unique IPv6 addresses simplifies the mechanisms used for reach-

Mahesh Gupta

ability and end-to-end security of network devices. The functionality is crucial to the applications and services that are driving the demand for the addresses.

IPv4 addresses are exhausted in APAC, and global pool is also almost exhausted. Moreover, with the broadband era, as government has mandated 600 million internet connection by 2020, IPv6 adoption has become not only important but urgent as well. To ensure the Internet can continue to grow and connect billions more people and devices around the world, thousands of companies and millions of websites have now permanently enabled the next generation of Internet Protocol (IPv6) for their products and services.

What kind of role is Cisco playing in implementation of IPv6?

As the leader in the Network

Infrastructure space, we seek opportunities to expand our use of IPv6 alongside IPv4 traffic.

World IPv6 Day (8th June 2011) was a unique occasion where major technology companies came together to provide significant backing to IPv6.

Cisco, like many other participants, collaborated with its ISPs to activate IPv6 in our primary website www.cisco.com. From a hardware perspective, the company has committed to enabling IPv6 across a range of products.

Cisco Services created an online World IPv6 Day, an IPv6 transition forum, where customers and partners continue to exchange information on issues and best practices. Cisco has had IPv6 capabilities in a broad range of products, services and solutions for years. We have been instrumental in establishing specifications, the development and delivery of IPv6. We first offered IPv6 in our Cisco IOS software in the mid-1990s.

Cisco has an architectural approach to IPv6 migration, aligning product capabilities and customer use cases with transition strategies. Cisco recently announced Cisco nV (network virtualization) technology, which intelligently blends the network edge, aggregation and access layers into a single Cisco ASR 9000 system for the next-generation Internet to simplify operation, increase network capacity and accelerate IPv6 services.

For the last 10 years, Cisco, as the world’s networking leader, has been promoting a forward-looking, thoughtful, and network-tested pursuit of the development and integration of IPv6, along with the co-existence of IPv4 and IPv6. Cisco has achieved this movement through its thought leadership

cisco

in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) while standardizing the IPv6 protocol specifications; the phased integration of IPv6 into its product set, best practices, and training; and network architecture planning and support—which make a thoughtful, secure, and business-driven integration to IPv6 a reality.

Some sample Cisco IPv6 contributions include: • Cisco IOS® Software with IPv6 deployed in the 6Bone network in 1996 • Founding member of the IPv6 Forum in 1999 • Cisco engineers function as co-chairs in multiple IETF working groups Many currently shipping Cisco routers and switches support IPv6, as Cisco focuses on enabling IPv6 in all its next-generation hardware platforms. To enable customers and partners to transition securely to IPv6, Cisco has received many product certifications (e.g., IPv6 Ready Logo, US DoD IPv6 certification, etc.) and has developed a phased IPv6 architecture integration plan that moves both our products and our customers’ networks forward into the IPv6 future.

In what ways will the e-Governance projects, healthcare projects, education sector benefit from IPv6 implementation?

For the Internet to make use of the advantages of IPv6 over IPv4, most hosts on the Internet, as well as the networks connecting them, need to deploy the IPv6 protocol. Some of the benefits of IPv6 include: National and State Governments: IPv6 networks could lessen the cost of public services by reducing the transaction costs of interacting with the populace.

Healthcare: IPv6 could increase the efficiency as well as effectiveness of medical systems and decrease the cost of healthcare amenities. It will also enable efficient collaboration among professionals without limitations of location, increasing efficiency and reducing response time.

Education: IPv6-based online learning is a boon since it would reduce transportation cost in educational environments and facilitate global outreach initiatives by offering courses to anyone in the world.

As per the DoT policy guidelines, all major Service Providers (having at least 10,000 internet customers or STM-1 bandwidth) will have to handle IPv6 traffic and offer IPv6 services from December 2011. All central and State government ministries and departments, including its PSUs, shall start using IPv6 services

by March 2012. DoT has setup Decdember 2020 timeline for substantial transition to IPv6.

What really happens to my company’s Internet access if my ISP network doesn’t transition in time?

India has a rapidly growing Internet market, and an IP address is essential for Internet connectivity. IPv4 addresses are getting exhausted at a fast rate both globally and in the India market. The introduction of new wireless technologies will in fact increase the number of devices connected to the internet, which will further drive the demand for IPv6.

Moreover, the current version of the internet is facing several challenges which are impacting consumers and businesses alike.

Some of the key challenges include - level of security on the network, eradicating spam and viruses, improving capacity of the network infrastructure,

improving the efficiency of high-speed data transfer, improving the accuracy of search engines, building more efficient and high-capacity data centers, and reducing the unit cost of Internet services.

Scaling the network to meet an ever-expanding agenda of more users, more devices, more traffic, more services, and more policies is becoming extremely critical. What is missing in today’s network is an abundant supply of new addresses that will allow the network to scale up in size by a further factor of at least 1 million, and hopefully more than a billion. Hence IPv6 adoption has become extremely important for us.

Transitioning to IPv6 is the only option to ensure long-term business continuity. The effort requires unifying IPv4 and IPv6 across networks, software and applications. To address the unique challenges this presents, Cisco has a broad portfolio of switches, routers and security devices that have passed both international IPv6 testing as well as U.S. government testing (“USGv6” compliance).

Deployment of IPv6 in the backbone networks of major telecommunications carriers is a prerequisite to actualization of the envisaged value proposition

What kind of role is Cisco playing in helping government departments migrate to IPv6?

Cisco Services has helped large enterprises, government agencies, and some of the world’s leading service providers with IPv6 migration.

We accomplish this with: • A phased migration plan to preserve, prepare, and prosper • Migration design and support

special feature

•

More than 10 years of IPv6 experience Our proven processess enable customers to proactively budget time, money, and resources, as well as prioritize critical areas of the business and network.

As part of your IPv6 transition, Cisco helps implement dual-stack, tunneling, and translation services. These are the main integration techniques required by all environments;

Dual-Stack Network: Dual stack is a transition technology in which IPv4 and IPv6 operate in tandem over shared or dedicated links. In a dual-stack network, both IPv4 and IPv6 are fully deployed across the infrastructure, so that configuration and routing protocols handle both IPv4 and IPv6 addressing and adjacencies.

Tunneling: Using the tunneling option, organizations build an overlay network that tunnels one protocol over the other by encapsulating IPv6 packets within IPv4 packets and IPv4 packets within IPv6 packets.

The advantage of this approach is that the new protocol can work without disturbing the old protocol, thus providing connectivity between users of the new protocol.

Translation: Address Family Translation (AFT), or simply translation, facilitates communication between IPv6-only and IPv4-only hosts and networks (whether in a transit, an access, or an edge network) by performing IP header and address translation between the two address families. AFT is not a long-term support strategy; it is a medium-term coexistence strategy that can be used to facilitate a long-term program of IPv6 transition by both enterprises and ISPs. July 2012 / www.egovonline.net / egov

31

COVER STORY

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COVER STORY

India’s Journey

on the road to

Financial Inclusion With focus on inclusive growth, the Indian government has been encouraging opening of bank accounts for the nation’s huge unbanked population by providing government benefits through such accounts.

ICT solutions have made such initiatives possible at relatively low cost

W

hile the growth, that India has seen during the past decade has been impressive, there are some concerns about the dimensions related to financial services. Lot of work needs to be done before the concerns of absolute poverty can be addressed. The low income households in India have very little awareness of banking, credit and insurance related services through which they can enhance and protect their financial resources during times when they are unexpectedly struck by illness, natural disasters or death of the primary breadwinner.

The extent of Financial Exclusion in India For the Government of India, inclusive growth has always been a priority. The agenda of inclusive growth is reflected in the kind of policies and regulations that the policymaking and regulating institutions, like Government of India, RBI, IRDA, PFRDA (for micro-pensions), have been developing over the past decade.

The banking sector has taken a lead role in promoting financial inclusion. There has been in multi-fold increase in the number of back branches, especially in rural areas; the branch network was around 8,000 in 1969 and now it is

The Banking Mission Mode Project under NeGP covers the following services: 1 Electronic Central Registry under Sarfaesi Act, 2002

2 One India One Account-for Public Sector Banks

more than 89,000, spread across the length and breadth of the country.

However, these initiatives for strengthening financial inclusion are yet to have a substantial impact on the lives of the excluded population.

Over half the Indian population is unbanked.

Only about 55 percent of the population in the country has deposit account and around 9 percent have credit accounts with banks. According to data from Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India is the home to largest number of unbanked families (more than 145 million). There is only one bank branch per 14,000 people. The total number of villages in the country is estimated to be around 6 lakhs, but the number of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) stand at only 33,495.

A recent directive from Reserve Bank of India has acknowledged the need of stepping up opening of branches in rural areas so as to improve banking penetration and financial inclusion. Banks have been advised as part

3 Electronic Mass Payment System

of risk management to adopt ICT solutions including biometric identification of the customer. The domestic Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) have been directed to allocate at least 25 percent of the total number of branches to be opened during a year to unbanked rural centres (Tier 5 & Tier 6 centres). When it comes to insurance, we have financial exclusion on an even larger scale. Less than 20 percent of the population has any kind of life insurance.

What is financial inclusion?

Dr K C Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, has defined Financial Inclusion in these words, “Financial Inclusion is the process of ensuring July 2012 / www.egovonline.net / egov

33

COVER STORY

Banking on Rural India pay back in instalments. We are trying to ensure that every family has access to GCC and KCC. What kind of role can ICT play in improving the scope of financial inclusion?

Anurag Jain Joint Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance In your opinion what are the broad challenges to financial inclusion?

When it comes to financial inclusion, the most important thing is to ensure that financial services should reach each and every person. Currently we are attempting to bring every village with a population of over 2000 under the ambit of financial services.

Once this target is achieved, we will attempt to cover those villages that have a population of over 1000. The special focus areas are the North Eastern regions, the tribal areas, the hilly areas, and also Jammu & Kashmir, where the reach of the banking services is meagre, mainly because the population density is small and the cost of delivery is quite high. Another major challenge to financial inclusion is that banks typically ask for lot of information from the customer. At times the rural population is unable to furnish all the information that is required. We are planning to implement General Credit Card (GCC) and Kisan Credit Card (KCC) schemes. If a person has a credit limit of, let’s say `5000, he will be able to simply walk up to the ATM and withdraw money directly. After that he can

34

egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2012

The costs of providing financial services to all citizens can be brought down by enabling financial institutions in the country with innovative solutions from ICT. We have come up with the innovative model called the Ultra Small Finance Model. The Business Correspondent (BC) model is already in place to enable banks to provide financial services in rural areas. The attempt is also being made to use Common Services Centres (CSCs) for financial services. The people from village could go to the CSC on any appointed date and interact with bank officials who would also be present there. Eventually the ultra small operations could be upgraded to full-fledged branches for providing larger number of services in designated areas. We are also having the system, where a bank official with a laptop can visit the office of the BC and provide the rural population with facilities for applying for a loan and other banking services. Large numbers of new ATMs are expected to be installed in rural areas in times to come.

What can be done to enable people without kyc documents to open bank accounts?

The KYC norms for bank accounts with smaller sums of money have already been relaxed. In rural areas we have a system where the new account holders can be introduced by local citizens. Aadhaar can also be very useful for financial inclu-

sion, as it provides all the citizens of the country a rather foolproof way of proving their identity in an easy and seamless manner.

What kind of initiatives is the finance ministry taking to facilitate payment through electronic means in rural areas?

In case of NREGA, many workers are already being paid through electronic means. In almost every scheme from the government, we are ensuring that there is large-scale usage of technology to electronically transfer funds to the beneficiaries. Electronic transfer

“The costs of providing financial services to all citizens can be brought down by enabling financial institutions in the country with innovative solutions from ICT”

of benefits brings down the cost of transaction to a large extent, and it also ensures that the benefits are actually reaching the deserving beneficiaries. These days all the banks are deploying some kind of Core Banking technology, and this is conducive for enabling electronic transfers to a very large extent.

What steps are being taken to increase the number of bank branches in rural areas?

The authorisation policy of the RBI for opening new bank branches in rural areas has become quite liberal.

Banks, excluding foreign and rural regional ones, are free

to open branches in tier 3 to tier 6 centres without prior permission. There is also the provision where after opening certain number of branches in smaller towns, the bank gets the permission to open a branch in a bigger city. We are having large number of such policies to encourage banks to move into the rural areas. We are also looking into the issue of converting the Business Correspondent (BC) operations in rural areas into ultra small bank branches. So far, Business Correspondents - agents appointed by banks to provide banking services to the financially excluded in rural India - reached out to individuals on their own and operated from home. As per the present data, the banks have appointed more than 1 lakh business correspondents covering over 70,000 villages.

What kind of initiatives is the finance ministry taking to facilitate microfinance segment?

We have already introduced the Microfinance Institutions (Development and Regulation) Bill in the Parliament. It aims to bring micro-lenders under the RBI’s oversight. The broad framework will facilitate and encourage micro lending in rural areas and this will lead to improvements in financial inclusion. All Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) will have to register themselves with the RBI. The central bank can specify lending rates and margins that can be charged by an MFI, the recovery methods to be followed, the processing fees, the tenure and ceiling of the loan.

niit technologies

special feature

BankingEasy

NIIT’s future ready cloud based Core Banking Solution

N

IIT Technologies Ltd has introduced BankingEasy, a core banking solution for Cooperative Banks on cloud model. The CBS application is a proven, time tested, comprehensive functionality for cooperative banks, it facilitates online real time transaction with its web enabled software. Apart from Banking functionality, the application is fully secure, sturdy and highly efficient in operations. The front end is Java and backend is on open source e.g. Linux with the option of Windows and Oracle RDBMS. Its functionalities like NPA engine, RBI reporting module, AIMAS, Share & Member Management, Auto IBR, Parameterization, ALM reporting and much else make it the best choice for banks in the Cooperative sector, be it at Urban or State/ District level.

The company is currently targeting markets in the North and

•

East India, with the intention of gaining an entry. It is gaining market share rapidly. NIIT Technologies has already delivered the benefits of the cloud based CBS offering to cooperative banks in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan.

The scope includes Data Migration & Validation, BankingEasy CBS Implementation, Training, Reporting (including all Regulatory & Statutory functionalities), WAN connectivity and Support.

Data Centre services and DRC services are also integral to the scope. Interfaces to value added services like CTS (Cheque Truncation System) have also been implemented.

Cooperative Banks need cloud based solutions, as they cannot afford to have in-house systems which are not only hugely capital intensive but typi-

cally have long implementation time. These traditional systems also need IT skills and support systems resulting in unbearable operational costs. The BankingEasy solution on the cloud allows banks to start Core Banking on the fly and has almost NIL capex, low operational cost by way of fixed rentals and it does not require any IT skills or such resources in-house.

BankingEasy is a future ready Core Banking Solution. The Key value proposition for BankingEasy is: • Minimal cost of ownership.

Completely Opex model and eliminates Capex • Faster time to market • Comprehensive reporting (450 canned reports) and customisable report writer • Best in breed solution • RBI Compliant

Maintains data security and confidentiality Amongst nearly 1650 Urban Cooperative Banks, as many as 700 are unit banks (single branch). BankingEasy is the perfect solution for these banks because with the implementation of CBS, banks will give better services to customers, which will result in low churn and hence high growth. This will also mean improved compliance to RBI regulations and accurate on time reporting.

Banks will get higher ratings in RBI audits and hence will be encouraged to open up more branches and even value added services like ATMs, SMS and Internet to name a few.

Therefore, higher revenues due to increased advances and deposits, low transaction costs, plugged revenue leakages are assured for Cooperative Banks and hence this will mean growth for the UCBs from unit entities to multi branch operations.

July 2012 / www.egovonline.net / egov

35

COVER STORY

access to appropriate financial products and services needed by all sections of the society in general and vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low income groups in particular at an affordable cost in a fair and transparent manner by mainstream institutional players.”

In an emerging economy like India, financial inclusion becomes a question of both access to financial products and also the knowledge about their fairness and transparency. Many people who fall in the unbanked category are not adequately informed about the nature of the financial services that might be available to them. Having proper delivery systems and information sharing mechanisms are important for promoting financial inclusion, but at the same time we can’t afford to ignore the demand side factors. Many regions, segments of the population and sub-sectors of the economy have a limited or weak demand for financial services. Their level of inclusion can only be enhanced once issues related to demand side have been addressed.

The Scope of Financial Inclusion V Leeladhar, renowned banker and former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, has said that “the scope of financial inclusion can be enhanced in two ways - (a) Through state-driven intervention by way of statutory enactments. (b) Through voluntary effort by the banking community itself for evolving various strategies to bring within the ambit of the banking sector the large strata of society.” The regulator has to step in only when the goal of financial inclusion is not being achieved through normal banking mechanisms. That is what RBI has been doing through its numerous policy decisions.

The overall strategy of the government of India for having an inclusion financial sector in the country is primarily based on the following: • Effecting improvements within the existing formal credit delivery mechanism; • Suggesting measures for improving credit absorption capacity especially amongst marginal and sub marginal farmers and poor non-cultivator households; • Evolving new models for effective outreach, and • Leveraging on technology based solutions.

Currently the focus of financial inclusion initiatives in India is to ensure that people have access to bare minimum or no frills savings accounts through which payments can be made or received. One significant area, where we found that regulation can pose as a challenge in achieving greater financial inclusion is in regard to Know Your Customer (KYC) norms. Most of the low income and poor people do not have any document of identity or proof of address and this makes it very difficult to have KYC norms that insist on such documents.

In order to ensure the integrity of financial transactions, while also making it possible for the marginalised sections of the population who do not possess complete set of KYC documents, RBI has mandated that in rural areas the account holders can be identified by local officials. In big towns and cities where there are a large number of migrants who do not have any documents, fulfilling KYC norms and opening a bank account continue to be a challenge. Hence, RBI has mandated simpler KYC norms for small value accounts in urban areas. The UIDAI initiative of the Government of India is going to play a major role in enabling the banks to provide services to everyone in the country.

According to the

guidelines formulated by the RBI, the BC model is as follows: • While an organisation can be a BC for more than one bank, at the point of customer interface, a retail outlet or a sub-agent of a BC or Customer Service Point (CSP) shall represent and provide banking services of only one bank.

• The terms and conditions

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governing the contract between the bank and the BC should be carefully defined in written agreements and subjected to a thorough legal vetting.

• While drawing up agreements, banks should strictly adhere to instructions contained in the guidelines on managing

risks and code of conduct in outsourcing of financial services by banks, issued by Reserve Bank of India on November 3, 2006.

• The banks will be fully responsible for the actions of the BCs and their retail outlets / sub agents.

The Financial Inclusion ecosystem Several outreach activities have been undertaken by Government of India at remote unbanked areas. Some of these steps are: • Facilitation of no-frills accounts • Business Correspondent (BC) Model based on solutions from ICT to encourage low cost doorstep banking services in remote villages • Board approved Financial Inclusion Plans (FIPs) of banks for 3 years, starting April 2010 • Roadmap to cover villages of above 2000 population by march 2012 • Issuing of General Credit Cards (GCCs) and Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs) for small deposits and credit • Availability of minimum four banking products through ICT model has been ensured • Mandatory opening of 25 percent of new branches in unbanked rural centres • KYC documentation requirements significantly simplified for small accounts • Guidelines for convergence between Electronic Benefit Transfer and FIP have been issued • Pricing for banks totally freed. Banks have been given the freedom to price their advances.

Interest rates on advances totally deregulated “RBI in its latest report states that more than 103 million No Frills Accounts were opened till March 2012; FINO opened 40 percent of these accounts,” says Shweta Aprameya, VP – Business Management Group, FINO. The disbursement of NREGA payments and social security pensions to beneficiaries, pension in remote locations is already being done through the BCs in many cases. The FINO platform has been sized for 12-50 million customers at the moment, but can be expanded if the needs are larger.

Founded in year 2006, FINO has emerged as a leading implementer of integrated technology solutions for financial institutions to enable financial inclusion environment for the micro customers.

FINO’s solutions, developed from cutting edge ICT, encompass Core banking solutions, which is built as a shared back end banking engine that provides accounting, MIS, reporting and monitoring facility for all asset and liability products. There is a distribution component that enables ‘online’ data capture from

COVER STORY

end user. This is specific unique, biometric enabled hybrid multi-application Smart Cards.

These smart cards can hold up to 15 different types of end consumer financial and nonfinancial relationships on a single card.

Banking Correspondents On September 28, 2010, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), as part of its Financial Inclusion mandate, announced in the Annual Policy Statement for the year 2010-11, that it has decided to permit banks to engage companies registered under the Indian Companies Act, 1956, excluding Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), as Business Correspondents (BCs) in addition to the individuals/entities permitted earlier, subject to compliance with its existing guidelines for engaging BCs. According to the guidelines formulated by the RBI, the BC model is as follows: • While an organisation can be a BC for more than one bank, at the point of customer interface, a retail outlet or a sub-agent of a BC or Customer Service Point (CSP) shall represent and provide banking services of only one bank.

• The terms and conditions governing the contract between the bank and the BC should be carefully defined in written agreements and subjected to a thorough legal vetting.

• While drawing up agreements, banks should strictly adhere to instructions contained in

the guidelines on managing risks and code of conduct in outsourcing of financial services by banks, issued by Reserve Bank of India on November 3, 2006.

• The banks will be fully responsible for the actions of the BCs and their retail outlets / sub agents.

The list of eligible individuals and entities that can be engaged as BCs is being widened from time to time. Currently the list of individuals and entities allowed to be appointed as Business Correspondents (BCs) for banks in rural and semi-urban areas include: • Individual kirana/medical/fair price shop owners, Individual Public Call Office (PCO) operators • Agents of Small Savings Schemes of Government of India/Insurance • Companies • Individuals who own petrol pumps • Retired teachers • Authorised functionaries of well run Self Help Groups (SHGs) linked to banks • Non deposit taking NBFCs (non-banking finance companies) in the nature of loan companies whose micro finance portfolio is not less than 80 per cent of their loan outstanding in the financially excluded districts as identified by the Committee on Financial Inclusion.

“The business correspondent model has emerged as the most successful way of branch-

less banking for the poor globally. FINO has been able to source and service millions of micro transacting customers through a tech enabled agent assisted model. Established in 2006, FINO has setup over 27,000 transaction points catering to 50 Million customers across 419 districts and 26 states (estimated 50,000 villages). We have a deep presence in the hinterlands of India and complement the conventional brick and mortar model, thus working to achieve the objective of complete financial inclusion. Knowing well the challenges and ground realities of doing business, our philosophy is built on three pillars namely financial literacy, reach to customer and bouquet of product offering,” says Shweta Aprameya, VP – Business Management Group, FINO. “Today BASIX runs one of the top 5 Business Correspondent (BC) network called Sub-K. It uses mobile phones, fingerprint authentication and a small printer for giving receipts, all costing less than Rs 10,000,” says Vijay Mahajan, BASIX Group CEO and Chairman.

“BASIX is not just a national, but an international pioneer in financial inclusion. The UNCDF selected BASIX as among the top 10 MFIs in the world and invited us to work in several developing countries. So far, we are working in Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste, Bhutan and Ethiopia and we are about to start in three other African countries - Mozambique, Rwanda and Cameroon,” Vijay Mahajan adds.

Life and non-life insurers can play a vital role in financial inclusion In your opinion what kind of role can insurance companies play in financial inclusion?

Financial inclusion has been at the forefront of RBI and Union Government agenda and introduction of social schemes and regulations - no-frills accounts, priority sector lending and the business correspondent model are some of the efforts towards this end. Yet lack of access has driven the poor to rely on informal sources, often falling prey to exploitation and exorbitant interest rates. Both life and non-life insurers can play a vital role in effectively delivering insurance solutions to the said customer segment thereby assisting them in managing major financial risks like demise of the

bread earner, loss of income owing to critical illness, other uncertainties like poor crop output due to adverse weather conditions, disability due to accidents and so on. In fact, insurance companies can play a pivotal role in providing financial security to people trapped in low income and low - productivity sectors, together with the initiatives driven by banks as an extension.

Tell us about the financial services that your company is providing in rural areas?

We have been significantly overachieving our regulatory targets in rural and social sectors. We sourced close to 25 percent of our total policies sold in the financial

Vishakha RM Director – Sales & Marketing, Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company

year 2011-12 from rural locations.

Further, the company also overachieved its social sector regulatory targets by covering close to 19000 lives in the FY 2011-12.

Our triumph in successfully reaching out to this segment can be accredited to a sizable presence of two of our distributing banks Canara Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce in the rural and semi urban locations. Moreover, we have also tied-up with three Regional Rural Banks - Pragati Grameen Bank in Karnataka, Shreyas Grameen Bank in Uttar Pradesh and South Malabar Grameen Bank in Kerala - to distribute affordable insurance products by way of leveraging on their vast rural reach and an analogous business model. With close to 800 branches of these three RRBs, we additionally reach out to over 7 million rural customers.

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microfinance

The Microfinance Route to

FinancialInclusion Microfinance has now become a movement that envisions an inclusive world in which low-income households have permanent access to a range of high quality and affordable financial services offered by a range of retail providers of financial services

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microfinance

I

n May 2012, the Union Cabinet approved the bill to regulate microfinance industry and bring micro lenders under the purview of the Reserve Bank of India. The bill has now been sent to the parliament for its consideration. The draft Bill, which was circulated for public comments in July last year, had proposed making RBI the regulator for the sector. As per the draft, it will be mandatory for micro finance institutions (MFI) to be registered with the RBI and have minimum net-owned funds of Rs 5 lakh.

In addition, a Micro-Finance Development Council will be set up to advice the government on formulation of policies, schemes and other measures required in the interest of orderly growth and development of the sector with a view of promoting financial inclusion. The council will comprise of members not below the rank of executive director of NABARD, National Housing Bank, the RBI and SIDBI. The microfinance initiative in India has been described by NABARD as relationship banking rather than parallel banking elsewhere in the world. In this experiment, there exists a link between Self Help Groups (SHGs), NGOs and Banks. The public banks network has been roped in to provide microfinance in rural and semi-urban areas. The commercial banking network, which has grown with phenomenal speed in terms of geographical

According to RBI, provision

of credit to the Microfinance sector is based on the following postulates:

•

•

•

It addresses the concerns of poverty alleviation by enabling the poor to work their way out of poverty.

It provides credit to that section of society that is unable to obtain credit at reasonable rates from traditional sources.

It enables women’s empowerment by routing credit directly to women, thereby enhancing their status within their families, the community and society at large.

•

•

•

Easy access to credit is more important for the poor than cheaper credit which might involve lengthy bureaucratic procedures and delays.

The poor are often not in a position to offer collateral to secure the credit.

Given the imperfect market in which the sector operates and the small size of individual loans, high transaction costs are unavoidable. However, when communities set

spread and functional reach, has also been roped in for microfinance. The microfinance entities can also serve as Banking Correspondents for different banks.

“It must be understood that microfinance is much more than micro-credit. We have done over Rs 4500 crore of that. We begin with financial education and then through our own local area bank, as also as BCs of other banks, we offer savings services. We are also a player in microinsurance jointly with insurance companies Aviva and Royal Sundaram - over 4 million covered - for life, health, crop, livestock and productive assets

•

up their own institutions, such as SHG federations and cooperatives the transaction costs are lower.

Transaction costs, can be reduced through economies of scale.

However, increases in scale cannot be achieved, both for individual operations and for the sector as a whole in the absence of cost recovery and profit incentive.

like pumps. Third, we offer micro-pensions jointly with IIMPS and the UTI Pension Fund. Fourth, we offer inter-location money transfer services through our Sub-K network. Fifth, through our affiliate CTRAN, we offer aggregation of micro carbon credits,” says Vijay Mahajan, BASIX Group CEO and Chairman.

The Indian regulators view microfinance as an initiative that not only enables financial inclusion, but also works towards reducing dependence of poor borrowers on various informal sources of credit that are often notorious for the onerous terms at which they offer credit. An effective financial inclusion is possible only with the accomplishment of the second.

“MicroGraam helps connect people in villages to those in urban centres through the use of mobile and internet technologies, to enable easier exchange of funds and interactions.

Specifically, MicroGraam enables urban professionals to find, select and provide microcredit to underprivileged borrowers in rural India at terms that reflect the purpose of a loan – resulting in a larger impact on the borrower’s life,” says Ragan Varadan, CEO & Founder, Micrograam.

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microfinance

microfinance

appropriate tool for financial inclusion. The fact that we have been able to reach out and serve more than 3.8 million poor women in a span of 10 years is encouraging. We envision reaching out to 10 million by 2020. We at Bandhan believe that Financial Inclusion goes hand in hand with Financial Literacy. Imparting financial literacy is not in vogue in rural India. Bandhan implements its microfinance activities by way of individual lending through group formation model. Bandhan places a great deal of importance on the weekly group meetings. They are not just meant for financial transactions, the emphasis is also on sensitising women on important issues, financial Literacy being one of them. Presently, more than 10,000 such ultra-poor families have been covered under our ‘Targeting the Hardcore Poor’ (THP) Programme. Some of the beneficiaries who are on the threshold of graduation have already been linked with banks and post offices operational in their adjoining areas. Savings accounts have been created individually for these women who hail from backward districts of West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Bihar.

Targeting the Hardcore Poor “We at Bandhan believe that Financial Inclusion goes hand in hand with Financial Literacy,” says Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Chairman & Managing Director, Bandhan in conversation with Nayana Singh With micro-finance and inclusive banking are you seeing a silent revolution happening in rural India?

The microfinance revolution is already on.

Rural India of 15 years back is completely different from what it is today! Many factors are behind this dynamic change, including microfinance and inclusive banking. MFIs are complementing the banks in the deeper pockets where the banks are not being able to reach due to infrastructural reasons and highcost factor. The easy availability of credit due to MFIs and the additional efforts of the banks in the domain of financial inclusion have made the rural folk self-reliant and self-employed to a certain extent. In fact, people who were

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financially excluded previously are now getting included. The MFIs have helped them to stay away from the clutches of the moneylenders to an appreciable extent. The increase in the family income has invariably led to elevation in the aspirational instincts of the underprivileged households. They have started recognising the important of education, health and the like.

If the MFIs and the banks continue to deliver similar services, we’ll see a makeover of the rural India 10 years down the line.

What are your best achievements in the financial inclusion space?

We have been delivering microfinance services for 10 years now and we believe that it is an

Tell us about the micro financing solutions that you are offering in India?

Bandhan has been engaged in the delivery of microfinance services for 10 years now. We are operating in the wide geography of 18 Indian States and Union Territories with special focus on Eastern and North Eastern part of the country. We are catering to more than 3.8 million poor women through a strong branch network of over 1,600 branches with a committed work force of nearly 10,000 employees. Our loan book stands at `37,356 million and we have a consistent repayment rate of over 99 percent. We offer a host of services to the underprivileged section – beginning from small micro loans for starters to micro enterprise loans of slightly large amounts for those looking at expansion and also Micro Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) loans to potential entrepreneurs. Besides the above business loans, we also extend support for emergency health needs and child education requirements in the form of health and education loans respectively. Apart from these, all our borrowers are covered with LIC. We offer remittance services in association with Western Union and pension services in association with Pension Fund & Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA), Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

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in person

Abhishek Sinha

CEO, Eko India Financial Services Ltd

Banking

through Business Correspondents conduct all kinds of banking transactions. We also offer mobile, DTH and insurance payment services. Eko has its presence in Delhi, NCR, UP, Bihar, and in Jharkhand. We cater to about 1.5 million customers. We have transactions of 3 to 4 crores on a daily basis.

Tell us something about the SBI mini savings account.

“In an EKO counter, a no frills SBI account can be opened in just 15 to 20 minutes,” says Abhishek Sinha, CEO, Eko India Financial Services Ltd, in conversation Nayana Singh

G

ive us an overview of the range of services that

Eko is providing.

Eko is involved in branchless banking. In 2006, RBI came out with a business correspondent regulation, which stipulates that a special agent, who operates from beyond the bank premises, can serve customers on behalf of the bank. Eko has partnered with SBI and ICICI. For providing business corresponding facility to the customers of these two banks, we are taking advantage of many retail shops, cyber cafes, telecom shops, pharmacies and travel agencies. One can walk into these shops, open a bank account, and

41

The SBI mini savings account is a great concept.

Normally opening a bank account takes lot of time. But in an EKO counter, a no frills SBI account can be opened in just 15 to 20 minutes.

This type of account has a limitation in terms of the value that can be transacted and the balance that can be maintained. Once this account is created, the customer can walk into any SBI branch and upgrade the account. Thus the bank account will have the same benefits as that of a regular savings account, but the process involved is much simpler. These are interest bearing accounts. The deposit insurance is of up to Rs.100,000.

Please provide us with an overview of your Financial Literacy drive.

Eko does not subscribe to the idea of Financial Literacy. The term ‘financial literacy’ gives an impression that the customer is a beneficiary, instead of being a real customer. Our marketing strategy is focussed on communicating a certain value proposition. In case we fail to live up to the promise, the customer comes back to us and protests. We have created a comic that sheds light on our savings bank account products. We also have a user manual explaining how one can open an account at an Eko outlet; how mobile transactions can be carried out. Our marketing is mainly through various street plays, we also distribute leaflets, and we typically find new customers at rural haats, which are the marketplaces.

Tell us about your ideas for reaching out to marginalised sections of the population.

For best results the Financial Inclusion initiatives should be like the telecom networks, which seek to connect every citizen in the country. The mistake that we made in Financial Inclusion was that we stored and housed an account in a particular place that was separate from mainstream banking. Thus, we created small islands of customers. Business Correspondent is a good model for enhancing the scope of Financial Inclusion. For effective promotion of Financial Inclusion, we have to have the right infrastructure and right products. All operations have to be connected with mainstream banking.

How do you see the e-Governance projects that have been launched in India?

The e-Governance projects that have been launched by the government are positive moves as they bring accountability and transparency to the process of governance. The Right to Service is a great framework which has been implemented by various state governments, such as the AP state government. As a citizen, I would love to interact with the government directly, rather than through bureaucrats.

Tell us about your involvement in the devising of e-Governance solutions.

Eko is focused on providing financial services.

We undertook a project in Sheikhpura Village of Bihar with the help of which almost 500 health workers could receive their incentives directly in their bank accounts. They have complete control over their bank account and can walk into any local retail store and withdraw money.

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in person

Kavindra Kiyawat

Collector & District Magistrate East Nimar, Khandwa

Inclusive banking in rural areas to the backward classes in rural areas. It is a rule to pay these labourers through bank accounts.

But as the number of banks is quite less in the villages, due to less number of banks in the villages, these labourers are often forced to travel for long distances of almost 25-30 kms to secure their wages. In order mitigate the problems that these poor people face, we have developed a new method for paying NREGA wages. We are paying via mobile banks available at the Zilla Parishads. This facility has started from July 17, 2011 in Khalwa district. The same facility came up at Anuppur district, in Madhya Pradesh, in January 26, 2010.

According to you what other initiatives can be taken to promote financial inclusion in rural areas?

“As of now we have managed to help about 40,000 job card holders to secure payments of approximately Rs. 30 crores,� says Kavindra Kiyawat, Collector & District Magistrate, East Nimar, Khandwa, in conversation Nayana Singh

T

ell us about the financial solutions that are being used for bringing efficiency to NREGA payments.

People who seek jobs in NREGA scheme are those who fall in the BPL bracket; they belong

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Under special schemes, we have introduced pensions in Kharwa district. We have linked pensions to mobile banking, as a result of which widowed ladies, physically disabled people have been immensely benefitted. Earlier they had to avail these facilities from post offices and banks, now the same services have become available to them at their doorsteps.

People in rural areas have the option of getting their wages, pension in the village itself.

This initiative is also allowing us to attract more and more villagers to banking and we can achieve our target of achieving 100 percent financial inclusion. The social security scheme is having good feedback from local residents.

You have also opened accounts of all the villagers at district branches.

We have opened bank accounts of all the villagers at district branches of the state banks.

We have also opened accounts of all job card holders at the same banks. So now most of the operations can be made from the same banks.

Issues related to collection of cheques also get resolved. Earlier when the job cards holders used to go to the banks to collect their wages, they would be told that their cheques were yet to reach the branch. At times, lot of workers would get gathered at the bank to withdraw their wages. Also, in each district we have created a separate ledger for financial inclusion, so that the normal transactions of the bank are not hampered. To make it even more convenient for labourers to withdraw their wages, we have created a system of mobile van, which is affiliated to the bank and arrives at the Panchayat Bhavan to disburse payments.

Can you elaborate on the ways by which these solutions are helping the people in rural areas?

I would like to highlight that as of now we have managed to help about 40,000 NREGA job card holders to secure payments of approximately Rs. 30 crores. Previously they used to withdraw all the money that was deposited in their account, as they wished to avoid the trouble of going to the banks repeatedly. Thus the entire savings in their accounts would be depleted and at times spent on unnecessary things. The new facilities in place have enabled them to take out as much money as they need and leave the rest for future usage. Thus they have some savings at hand. As they are having banking services in their doorstep they don’t have to waste time and money travelling to larger towns for accessing the bank branch. Earlier the labourers had to take a day off from work and travel to obtain their wages. Now, they are gaining at both ends.

The system introduced is convenient for them and it encourages people to save also.

in person

A P Hota

Managing Director & CEO National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)

Facilitating

Digital Payments payment network. Three more lines of payment services are under execution – Automated Clearing House (ACH), Aadhar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) and Touch & Go Contactless Payment System. We at NPCI have been working with the goal that in the next five years, every Indian citizen will be able to use one or the other electronic payment service from NPCI at least once every month. We aim at digitisation of payments and we encourage customers to move away from cash and cheques.

Tell us about the initiatives that NPCI has undertaken for creating retail payment systems for rural areas.

A P Hota spoke to eGov about the major intiatives that NPCI is taking for creating an efficient system of retail payments in India

T

ell us about your vision for NPCI.

NPCI as an organisation was envisaged by RBI way back in 2005 as the umbrella organisation for all the Retail Payment Systems in the country. By, “umbrella organisation” I mean RBI expects that NPCI to build the central infrastructure for inter-bank settlement of all kinds of retail payments in the country except the RTGS system which is usually operated by the central bank. With the efforts of Indian Banks Association and support of RBI, NPCI started operations in January 2010. Since then, the organisation has grown rapidly with four distinct lines of payment services – ATM switching, Mobile Payments, Cheque Truncation System and RuPay domestic card

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Among the many services that we are planning, the one that is ruralfocused is the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS). This Payment system has two components – one for crediting the accounts of bank customers in rural areas for government benefit transfers (like NREGA payments ) and the other for day to day access to bank accounts for cash deposits, cash withdrawal, balance enquiry and remittance. In both the components of AEPS, Aadhaar number and the bank account number are linked and the biometric signature is used for authentication of the account holder. Money transfer from one UIDAI number to another is also seamless, easy and secure.The UIDAI server and our server are already connected to facilitate seamless operation of AEPS. The implementation of AEPS has started in Jharkhand state, where NREGA payments have been made through this system in three districts. We aim to reach out to all sections of retail payment systems in the country.

Another payment service with rural focus would be the issuance of RuPay branded debit cards by the Regional Rural Banks (RRB) and Kisan cards by all the banks. At the instance of Ministry of Finance, Government of India, all public sector banks are gearing up to empower their kisan credit card holders with a debit card (to be called Kisan Card) which will be accepted on all ATMs and POS terminals in the country.

NPCI will provide inter-bank settlement service for the card transactions.

Is RuPay card only for Rural areas? In what way is the RuPay different from other payment networks?

In plain terms, RuPay is the domestic equivalent of Visa and MasterCard.

This project originally conceived by RBI was taken forward for implementation by Indian Banks’ Association. After setting up of NPCI, the task was legitimately passed on to NPCI for making it a reality. It is argued that for a country of India’s population and growing volume of economic transactions, it will make eminent sense to have a card payment network where banks

in person

the process of rolling out to all clearing houses in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry by March next year. RBI plans to have clearing houses in the country on a Grid mode at Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi. It will transform the cheque clearing process in the country and would facilitate faster clearing, automated reconciliation and electronic processing of paper based system which can in due course be made fully electronic.

What kind of response is RuPay seeing from domestic and foreign banks operating in India?

Launch of RuPay debit card by Shri G Padmanabhan, Executive Director, RBI

in India will have full control and the payment service can be availed of at a cost efficient price in rupee terms. The Card payment service can also be made available to banks of all sizes and structures whereas the internal schemes are focused on mainstream banks. Currently, RuPay is focused on co-operative banks and regional rural banks.

Mainstream banks have also started issuing Kisan cards to their customers in rural areas. But, the goal of RuPay is to be a universal card scheme with full range of services meeting the needs of all banks and offering products for various segments in the society. Orientation would, however, be “domestic” compared to international orientation of other Schemes. RuPay cards would be accepted on all ATMs and Point of Sale Terminals in the country. RuPay cards can also be used for e-commerce online transactions on internet.

Tell us about your Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS).

NPCI is also playing a vital role in facilitating mobile based money transfers. Launched in November 2010, Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS) is now available to customers of 44 banks. A few more banks are in the process of joining the service. Using the IMPS platform of NPCI, banks are in a position to offer interbank electronic fund transfer service through mobile phones. Customers with ordinary handsets can also access their bank customers and make remittances through SMS based instructions. Remittances can be made instantly even on Sundays and holidays and the beneficiary can utilise the funds immediately. Recently, RBI has permitted remittance between bank customers to mobile wallets issued by non-banks and vice versa.

IMPS, is also getting channel neutral with per-

mission of RBI to make IMPS remittance from ATMs and internet. The primary requirement for a bank customer to avail of IMPS facility is to register his/her mobile number with the bank and get a number called Mobile Money Identifier (MMID). Nearly 33 million customers have already registered for this service.

Of all the services which NPCI is offering, which one has stabilised ?

ATM switching is the stabilised service of NPCI. In January 2010, we started with 37 member banks with a daily average transactions of 2 million. Just last week, the number of member banks reached 100 with daily average volume of 5.5 million. Nearly 90 percent of all inter-bank ATM transactions ( customer of Bank-A using the ATM of Bank-B) are routed through NPCI. The number of ATMs in the country is around 1 lakh and nearly 99,500 ATMs are part of NPCI’s ATM network.

Tell us about your role in cheque clearing system in the country.

Currently, cheque clearing is done in three ways – through Cheque truncation system at New Delhi and Chennai, through automated sorting system ( called MICR Clearing ) at 64 major centres and through a manual sorting system at the remaining 1100 locations in the country. RBI plans the whole country to move to Cheque truncation mode by the end of next year. The task has been entrusted to NPCI. Once cheque truncation system is fully implemented, the cheque will not move beyond the branch of first deposit. Clearing will take place on the basis of cheque images. NPCI implemented cheque truncation in Chennai and is in

Response has been positive. Currently we are targeting only those sections of the banking community, which are not using the card payment system. So at this phase of our operations we are going only to the areas that have been neglected by the card payment networks so far. Access to RuPay’s domestic network is free of charge, and this is only going to increase its appeal with people and entities who cannot afford the highly-priced networks of Visa and MasterCard. Any bank can start initiating RuPay based transactions, if they are under core banking solutions.

In your opinion what are the broad challenges to financial inclusion? How can NPCI help in overcoming these challenges?

Our work in financial inclusion space consists mostly ofAEPS and Kisan Cards. AEPS is a bank led model which allows online financial inclusion transaction at PoS (MicroATM) through the Business correspondent of a bank using the Aadhaar authentication. Currently the AEPS services can be availed by customers at their respective bank business correspondent outlets.

The Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS) from NPCI can also be an excellent solution for financial inclusion, as it can enable many people in rural areas to conduct secure banking transactions using their mobiles. Another way by which NPCI can help financial inclusion is by supporting inter-operability of transaction processing by the business correspondents. RBI has recently permitted inter-operability at BC level for the purpose of cash deposits, cash withdrawal, balance enquiry and remittance. We provide interbank clearing and settlement. But transactions are yet to take place in a big way. Pilots are being run to experiment the idea.

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in person

Niraj Kumar Gupta

Chief General Manager Financial Inclusion Department, NABARD

Providing Financial Inclusion Services to Rural India

I

n your opinion what are the broad challenges to financial inclusion?

Firstly, there is the issue of demand-supply mismatch. RBI and NABARD have been trying to strengthen the supply side, by creating a favourable policy environment like relaxation of KYC norms, nofrills accounts, BC points in each village, CBS for weak RRBs, Ultra Small Branches, EBT for government payments etc, while the demand side has been lagging behind. This can be addressed through financial literacy which is so critical since we are talking about that vast chunk of poor population with diverse socio-cultural backgrounds which is yet to see the usefulness of banking services. Secondly, in spite of the policy push, or maybe because of it, the entire financial inclusion programme is seen as just another government programme with set targets to be achieved.

Bankers need to go beyond the targets and look at the whole programme as a business opportunity and not just a CSR. Thirdly, technology which perhaps was at the core of the programme, is far from being the vehicle it was supposed to be and has, on the contrary, become a hindrance.

There’re far too many players with too many technological issues, like lack of integration of servers, change of TSPs by banks, poor quality machines, lack of support maintenance services etc which all add up at the field level.

Does NABARD see a business potential in financial inclusion?

Niraj Kumar Gupta, Chief General Manager, Financial Inclusion Department, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development

At NABARD, we believe there is a huge business potential in financial inclusion. There is demand for easy and transparent financial services in rural India. The supply of money to and from farm level has been on a rise as has been the interest of rural Indians in financial products which are provided through the formal banking system. It may be invisible, it may be untapped, it may take a shape with financial literacy, but it exists. A new generation technologies and systems have been developed to provide these services at competitive prices. The rural banking system is slowly but definitely moving towards a CBS enabled eco-system which will relay information on a real time basis. The combination of these three developments can only lead to a vibrant business atmosphere.

(NABARD), talks about the important role that NABARD is playing in

46

ensuring access to all kinds of financial services at affordable cost to

What is the future of Kisan Credit Card Scheme?

vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low income groups

Consider the variants and facilities linked to credit cards in urban areas to

egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2012

in person

understand the future of KCC in India. Imagine a scenario in which each bank is able to provide a host of facilities in a tech-enabled agri-rural economy through a simple card. Our studies show that farmers, in large parts, are both ready and willing to pay for services. So we essentially need to spend on capacity building, connectivity and technology.

These are the three background pillars that will make KCC a truly meaningful financial product for the farmers. As far as profitability is concerned, we are talking about a product which has a ready market for 70 percent of the population. Volumes are guaranteed if we are able to go and micro plan the product still further.

What kind of initiatives is NABARD taking to provide boost to the microfinance segment?

nabard Major Activities •

Preparing of Potential Linked Credit Plans for identification of exploitable potentials under agriculture and other activities available for development through bank credit.

•

Refinancing banks for extending loans for investment and production purpose in rural areas.

•

Providing loans to State Government/Non Government Organizations (NGOs)/Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) for developing rural infrastructure.

•

Supporting credit innovations of Non Government Organizations (NGOs) and other non-formal agencies.

•

Extending formal banking services to the unreached rural poor by evolving a supplementary credit delivery strategy in a cost effective manner by promoting Self Help Groups (SHGs)

•

Promoting participatory watershed development for enhancing productivity and profitability of rainfed agriculture in a sustainable manner.

•

On-site inspection of cooperative banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and iff-site surveillance over health of cooperatives and RRBs.

Microfinance has been an integral agenda of NABARD. Apart from pioneering the Self Help Group (SHG) movement in the country, we have also been promoting Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) which are groups of people coming together explicitly for the purpose of availing credit on a joint basis. These two platforms, in our view, have a huge potential of addressing the financial inclusion agenda. The SHG bank linkage project was started by NABARD as a pilot in Rajasthan. The success of a Pilot lies in its adoption by other policy framers and we are proud to say that the NABARD’s association with SHG Bank has led to the creation of the largest micro finance project in the world. As a new initiative, NABARD is now focusing very pointedly on LWE and BC districts. We have also modified the funding scheme in that the NGO is engaged with the SHGs on a permanent basis on a percentage basis, almost like a BF. The loans to SHGs can today come in the form of both term loans or cash credit limit. NABARD also has been extending Revolving Fund Assistance to MFIs for lending to SHGs or their individual members.

on the KCC platform. Today, these efforts have made it one of the most dynamic financial products for the farming community. In the year 2000 the total KCCs issued by the banking sector were just 7,84,165 whereas the same system issued 100,73,157 cards during 2011-12.

The cumulative credit under the KCC Scheme which was just Rs. 2310 Crore in the year of launch has today gone up to Rs. 72,246 Crore.

To what extent has the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme been useful in extending financial inclusion to rural areas?

job is to encourage RRBs and CCBs to adopt technology and provide them hand holding support for doing the same. We have accordingly used funds available to us under FITF (Financial Inclusion Technology Fund) to provide support grant based to RRBs in establishing CBS networks, purchase POS devices and install ATMs. We have also invested in training the line staff of these banks in understanding technology.

The latest initiative of NABARD in financial technology has been the establishment of a CERFI (Centre of Excellence for Rural Financial

NABARD began the KCC scheme in 199899. It was an effort, based upon our field level studies, to provide a farm-based analysis of credit requirements factoring in both, on-field and off-field expenses of a farmer. And we note with a huge amount of satisfaction both the acceptance of the product and the area specific innovations which individual banks have tried

Tell us about the technological solutions that NABARD is using to promote financial inclusion?

The growth of financial inclusion is intrinsically linked with the growth of technology in this sphere and its acceptance by the various stake holders. At NABARD, as a policy framer, our

Institutions). The main idea behind this move is to develop a technology platform among these institutions which will enable them to provide Aadhaar based financial services. CERFI, through a nation level Pilot will test check mobile linked cashless transactions, new KCC guidelines about card based credit services as well as other Aadhar enabled financial services.

NABARD has been playing a key player in the promotion of selfhelp groups. Please tell us about the main achievements in this space.

NABARD has been continuously at the forefront in this movement and providing active support to all our partners in the banking and

“We believe there is a

HUGE business potentiaL in financial inclusion” development sectors. Till date, NABARD has had an active collaboration with nearly 4000 NGO partners in this sector while almost every bank has developed its own micro finance sections and departments.

The outreach of this project is phenomenal from the financial inclusion perspective. If we were multiply each SHG by a factor of say 12 we are looking at 97 Million women representing 97 Million households! This is a big achievement within itself and for these reasons has been accepted as an effective tool for inclusive growth.

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viewpoint

e-Governance and g-Governance “For citizens g-Governance, or good governance, means ease in dealing with government departments. Good governance is needed, for humanising the existence of a large section of society,� says Nand Kishore, Chief Auditor, Municipal Corporation of Delhi

T

he IT systems may facilitate speed and transparency in government functioning, but streamlining of business rules and procedures cannot happen automatically. Quite often, in a hurry to look techno-savvy, government departments put in place expensive IT infrastructure and transplant the messy dysfunctional manual systems and procedures onto the IT systems. This results in heavy expenditure, without commensurate benefits. It may even result in disruption of working as at times effective controls available in the manual system are not migrated to IT systems.

Towards Speed and Transparency Unit area method of property tax assessment is a good example of good governance. Many municipal corporations in the country have adopted this system. It has given immense relief to property tax payers. In Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), this system was introduced w.e.f. 01 April 2004. Prior to this, property tax was levied on the basis of rateable value. As per Section 116 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, the rateable value was the Annual Rent at which such property might reasonably be expected to let from year to year less certain percentage of such annual rent towards repair and maintenance as well as less certain

48

egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2012

taxes. For vacant land the rateable value was five percent of the estimated capital value.

As per the DMC (Determination of Rateable Value) Bye Laws 1994, while annual rent of rented properties was fixed at actual rent paid or payable unless collusive, the annual rent of self occupied properties was to be arrived at notionally and was dependent upon factors like the cost of premises, prevalent market rent, cost of construction, type of use etc.

Reasonable annual rent, estimated capital value, actual rent received or receivable unless collusive, prevalent rent, cost of premises, cost of construction etc. had inherent scope for disputes and vested the MCD officials with significant discretion in determination of rateable values of properties.

The system also suffered from a basic flaw that it placed no obligation on the property owner to pay the property tax. The property

viewpoint

owner was only obliged to file property tax return and non filing of property tax return attracted only meagre penalty. Quite often it made financial sense not to file return at all since MCD could not realise tax for the period prior to the financial year in which notice to pay tax was issued.

This system of determination of property tax also led to inequity in the property tax of properties in the same locality. For instance, the owner of a large self occupied property built up on a plot of 500 sq. Mtr (plot purchased and constructed in 1970) in a locality will pay meagre property tax whereas an owner of a much smaller self occupied property built up on 100 sq. Mtr plot (plot purchased and constructed in 2000) in the same locality might pay a substantially higher property tax. The efficacy of system from the revenue collection angle largely depended upon the physical inspection of tax evading properties by the property tax inspectors to be followed by issue of notices to property owners. No wonder, while honest property tax payers suffered harassment at the hands of MCD officials, the manipulative ones avoided paying these taxes altogether with impunity.

Governance online The unit area method of property tax was introduced in Delhi from 01 April 2004. Under this system property tax was to be levied based on the annual value of the property. The system, the localities were classified in eight different categories based on general development parameters of the localities like civic and social infrastructure, access to roads, land prices etc.

Unit area values per sq. mtr were assigned to the vacant lands and buildings of different localities depending upon their categorisation.

The annual value of a building is arrived at by multiplying unit area values assigned to its locality by covered space of the property and the values assigned to factors like occupancy (self or rented), use (residential, commercial, hotel etc.), age of structure, etc. The property tax payable is a certain percentage of the annual value so arrived. The system was also accompanied with creation of facilities like on line payment of property tax.

The system has also addressed the problem of evasion of the tax and placed onus of payment of tax on the tax payer and tax if not paid remains payable with interest and penalty as when detected. So it did away with constant surveillance by property tax staff. It is not to

Good governance requires • Rules and regulations to be fair and equitable

• Efficient and quality delivery of services,

to the citizens

information and other deliverables

• Simplified procedures- citizen friendly

• Transparency and Accountability

procedures: unnecessary documents not to be

• Citizen friendly attitude in government offices

insisted upon , minimal processing points

suggest that this system as operational in MCD has no drawbacks as the required follow up has not been done; the data base of properties is still sketchy, the property wise ledger is not maintained, even the previously maintained register called demand and collection register is not maintained.

Yet this has made life much simpler for an honest tax payer as he can calculate his liability himself and can pay either on line or by cheque or even by cash. In fact online system also calculates the amount of property tax payable once the tax payer inputs data like category of locality, covered area of property, use factor, age factor, occupancy factor etc. This system has made property tax assessment and payment very simple, transparent and citizen friendly.

This is thus an example of good governance by use of e-Governance structures. Had the focus been limited only on creating IT structures, then huge expenditure would have been incurred on providing network of computers to property tax staff and the old dysfunctional system would have been transplanted on to the IT structures. The result would have been huge expenditure for the organisation but without any relief to honest property tax payer while evasion of tax and loss to corporation would have continued unabated. The good governance was achieved not by simply transplanting the existing business rules and procedures on to IT infrastructure but by first changing the business rules and then aligning the business processes to the new rules and then creating e-Governance structures.

• Review and streamline the existing procedures so as to eliminate unnecessary irritants and meaningless requirements which add no value to governance process but become tools of harassment of innocent citizens.

• Review existing checks and controls form the point of view of their relevance in the IT environment and retain, revise or eliminate existing checks and controls or add new checks and controls as deemed necessary.

• The perceptions and views of the target citizens as well as operational level government functionaries should be gathered and given due consideration while reviewing and streamlining rules, procedures and checks and balances.

• While broad organisation level plans for migration from manual to IT system should be prepared, actual execution should be activity wise or function wise. It has been noticed that massive large-scale installation of IT system with revolutionary slogans like ‘paperless office’ or ‘ leap into future’ quite often lead to chaotic situation and sometimes even to derailment of existing operations.

To sum up e-Governance structures if devised with focus on good governance would help deliver good governance efficiently. Therefore it is imperative that business rules and procedures of manual systems are first reviewed and modified as well as streamlined so as to make them fair and equitable and citizen friendly and then the re-engineered business rules and procedures are suitably fine-tuned and then transported to IT environment.

Effective e-Governance For effective e-Governance following steps have to be taken: • Review and streamline the existing rules to make the obligations placed on the citizens fair and equitable.

the author is Chief Auditor, Municipal Corporation of Delhi

July 2012 / www.egovonline.net / egov

49

in person

Prakash Kumar

Director of Internet Business Solutions Group, (IBSG) Cisco Systems, India

Betting

on e-Governance

T

ell us about the e-Governance solutions that you have developed?

We have been involved in the government sector and are constantly looking for innovative and effective technology solutions that will boost the operational efficiency and productivity of the Public Sector. We have contributed significant amount of technology applications for sales tax in Delhi, land acquisition management, and management of land records. We have also worked closely with government entities for development of customised solutions for driver’s license and ration cards. We are also developing solutions for electricity billing and payment systems, employment exchange registration and renewal. It is an ongoing journey as we explore new challenges of the public sector and innovate for better practices for governance.

What is your response to the e-Governance policy that is currently active in the state?

Tell us about your expectations from the government.

“As governance is about citizens, the future models of citizen-centric service delivery in India will be based primarily on mobile platforms,� says Prakash Kumar, Director of Internet Business Solutions Group, (IBSG) Cisco Systems, India

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egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2012

While most of the states in India have an ICT infrastructure in place, the related applications are yet to be fully rolled out.

Service delivery as expected has not yet started on a pan-India scale. Hence, there is strong need to concentrate on application development. As a step forward, we right away begin to replicate success stories of applications from other states for service delivery models. Taking into consideration the progress made by states in implementation of SWAN, I look forward to seeing the states move towards horizontal con-

in person

nectivity so that all field offices are connected to the SWAN. Another upcoming technology platform that we cannot ignore is the use of use of mobile as an alternate mode of service delivery. The state governments should make the most of the high penetration of mobile and telecom services.

What new trends in e-Governance are you witnessing?

The telecom revolution has transformed the way the people in the country communicate and connect with each other. Today, the reach and penetration of mobile phones has touched new benchmarks. As governance is about citizens, the future models of citizen-centric service delivery systemes in India will be based primarily on mobile platforms. India is an exciting country, considering the scale and diversity of population, and my dream project will be those that will make it possible for people to get services using their phone. With changing landscape of technology, similar trends are being reflected across many different e-Governance projects worldwide. In India, the path breaking technologies include mobile based apps and phone based service requests for certificates/patta, so that these can be downloaded on demand.

Newer developments in ICT have radically changed the world.

What kinds of developments do you see ahead?

In this connected world, the scope for collaboration has increased vastly. People are using social media to work, play and learn.

Bring your own device (BYOD) has become one of the most influential trends that has or will touch each and every IT organisation. It has started making slow and steady inroads into the government sphere. It is changing the paradigm of productivity and mobility.

Another upbeat technology trend is in the field of cloud based service delivery, especially with big data and storage concerns. By adopting a cloud-based IT strategy, governments will fundamentally change the way IT services are delivered and how they are consumed while at the same time realising tangible operational and financial benefits, such as reducing costs, improving organisational agility, and transforming government service delivery. And, of course, mobile devices will transform servicedelivery platforms and video will arrive as the next mode of interaction after success of voice.

What are the main challenges that you face while implementing new e-Governance projects? How are you planning to come up with solutions for the same?

There is a dire need for the government to invest on capacity building of personnel. A dedicated person is required at the senior level - Single Point of Contact (SPoC). This will improve the decision making process of government departments and projects will get implemented at a faster pace. Some key officials can be empowered to take decisions quickly. The guidelines for implementation of new projects can be made clearer. We can

governments around the world are constantly getting upgraded and bettered.

Please tell us about Cisco’s solutions for education and healthcare segments?

In the healthcare segment in India, the ecosystem is currently facing many challenges. This includes the huge shortage of doctors, especially in the North East states. Some significant trends include absence of surgeons from Community Health Centres in states of Mizoram and Manipur. Similar shortage trends are being seen in case of gynaecologists and paediatricians. Overall, there is marked scarcity

“By adopting a cloud-based IT strategy, governments will fundamentally change the way

IT services are delivered” also have a system of CIOs, basically a support team, to support mission leaders in e-Governance projects. This will help in addressing many challenges that often come in the way of smooth implementation of projects across myriad states.

The field of ICT is highly competitive, with new innovations continuously coming into the fray. How do you ensure that your products and solutions continue to remain in demand?

Technology is changing the ways by which we lead our lives, conduct our business and are governed. Government officials around the world are exploring new ways of doing things in order to cope with the challenges of globalisation, economic uncertainty, emerging technologies, and a more connected citizen base. Innovation is at the heart of aspirations for good government as it envisions entirely new ways of achieving the public outcomes for which those systems were established.

We, at Cisco, have been ahead to identify the market transition before others can do. We believe that a successful innovation strategy lies at the heart of every successful business.

The technology solutions that we provide to

of trained medical professionals, IT can be used to provide healthcare remotely. Globally regulation is driving automation in healthcare and this process has already begun in India with the formation of an expert industry body to study feasibility of automation. The availability and reach of doctors can be addressed by telemedicine. We have solutions available that can connect doctors to patients in any part of the world through mobile based solutions.

Cisco is using the network as a platform to help bring remote healthcare and education services to a number of villages in the country.

Tell us about your views on providing digital education.

Public-private partnerships will play an important role in the transformation of global education systems. E-Schools initiative to help bridge the digital divide by providing technical skills training to primary and secondary school students, teachers, and administrators. Cloud-based video and collaboration technologies are helping India’s youth prepare for life and jobs in the global workplace. Cisco is working with the Indian state of Karnataka to deliver curriculum-based teaching to five government schools using a platform called Cisco Education Enabled Development (CEED), which is based on technologies such as video and WebEx collaboration.

July 2012 / www.egovonline.net / egov

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eworld forum

eWorld Forum 2012

N Ravishankar, Dr M P Narayanan, J Satyanarayana, Dr Sudhir Krishna, Som Mittal and Caitlin Wiesen at the Inaugural session of eWorld Forum 2012

J S Kochar, Frederika Meijer, S Regunathan, Anil Shrivastav and Srinivas HR at eWorld Awards 2012

Rita Teaotia addressing the session on ICT for Inclusive Growth at eWorld Forum 2012

J Satyanarayana addressing the inaugural session of eWorld Forum 2012

J Satyanarayana visiting the exhibitors at eWorld Forum 2012 Delegates at eWorld Forum 2012

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eworld forum

Governance in the Information Age The eWorld Forum 2012, one of India’s most prestigious events on e-Governance, transpired at Le Méridien Hotel, New Delhi, on 15th and 16th June, 2012. A bevy of Senior Officials representing the Centre and State governments in India and other countries attended the event along with Representatives of Eminent International Institutions, Political Leaders, Industry Leaders, Thought Leaders, Policy Makers, Academicians, Researchers and Technology Vendors.

Many Important Delegates from all walks of governance, business and social space arrived at the event to interact with the key speakers and to gain new insight into the new e-Governance ideas that are being launched and developed. The eWorld Awards 2012, which recognises excellence in the field of e-Governance, were distributed at the event. The 31 winners of e-Governance awards received their trophy and citation from the hands of: • S Regunathan, Advisor, National Knowledge Commission & Former Chief Secretary, Govt of Delhi • Anil Shrivastav, Joint Director General, Civil Aviation & CMD Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd • Frederika Meijer, Representative, United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, India, and Country Director, Bhutan

“Right to information is based on the ideal that it is the citizen who in real sense of the term is the owner of information” J Satyanarayana, Secretary, DeitY, Ministry of Communication & IT, Govt of India

“Traditionally, we have been very proud of our rural population, but this pride is not based on rational analysis. In order to increase productivity of the country, people should migrate to urban areas” Dr Sudhir Krishna, Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India

“In order to build a smart nation, it is just not enough to have smart cities, we must also have smart villages” N Ravishankar, Administrator, USOF, Dept of Telecom, Government of India

“Technology is not merely about automating things, it is really about bringing out transformations and ensuring that the process we use in the government keep becoming more efficient” Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM

“The disparity and diversity of our country poses challenges in the path of inclusive growth. However, the rate at which we are growing gives rise to aspirations” Rita Teaotia, Additional Secretary, DeitY, Ministry of Communication & IT, India

“Inclusive growth can only be achieved in a sustainable manner when all the three dimensions of development economic, social and environmental - are addressed in our policies, programmes and partnerships” Caitlin Wiesen, Country Head, UNDP India

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eworld forum

“Public awareness is the most important factor in disaster management” Anil K Sinha, Vice Chairman, Bihar State Disaster Management Authority

“My office is the only commission in the whole country where there are no paper files. Yet, I manage to do ample amount of work” Shailesh Gandhi, Central Information Commissioner, Government of India

“In the digital age do we really need a birth certificate, a caste certificate, school leaving certificate, an income certificate? What is the use of that piece of paper? ” Sanjiv Mital, CEO, National Institute for Smart Government

“There is a gap between conceptualising e-Governance projects and execution of the same. This gap comes into being as different departments are not motivated to carry out e Governance projects on a large scale”

Anil Srivastava, JDG, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA); and CMD, Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd

“The latest project for providing broadband connectivity to the village panchyats addresses the issue of digital divide. Hopefully in the coming two, three years there will be a solution”

Dharmarajan Krishnan, Additional Director, Directorate General of Systems, Custom and Excise

Dr Rajendra Kumar, Jt. Secretary-DeitY Government of India

“Inclusive growth can only be a reality when there is empowerment of people through a process of data sharing”

“ICT can provide us with ways of conducting administrative reforms for providing better services to the citizens”

R Shiva Kumar, CEO, NSDI, Dept. of Science and Technology, Government of India

Hossam Ragheb, Minister’s Advisor & Executive Director, National Management Institute, Ministry of State for Administrative Reform, Egypt

“Up till a year ago IT was looked upon as a minor department and the traditional departments such as Agriculture, PWD, Public Health were given more importance. But things are changing now”

“The need of the hour is to have a system for Coordinated, real-time communication between the first responders at any incident, the public and the various organisations that are tasked with handling the emergency”

Anurag Goel, Secretary, Dept. of IT, Government of Assam

54

“e-Governance leads to transparency, which in turn leads to more efficiency in governance. However, the core issue is not e-Governance, it is good governance. The “e” is only a tool for providing good governance”

egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2012

Dr Rajvir P Sharma, Additional Director General of Police, Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force, Karnataka

3

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“For me as a Police Officer IT is nothing but a tool for providing better law and order” Purushottam Sharma, Additional Director General of Police, Madhya Pradesh

“I want to see a cloud that rains government services, which could eventually become pay-as-you-use model. It is a long journey” Renu Budhiraja, Scientist-G, DeitY, Government of India

“In GIS the information that comes forth is much more detailed as compared to what we can have from any normal map” Maj Gen R C Padhi, Addl Surveyor General, Military Survey, Government of India

“The initiative of Delhi Traffic Police to make use of social networking sites like Facebook for reaching out to the people has been quite successful” Satyendra Garg, Joint Commissioner of Police, Delhi Traffic Police

“Delivery of information and services are important aspects of e-Governance initiatives. Most of the information is pre packaged and is created from a singular perspective”

“Empowering people through technology helps them in improving their earnings, making them more responsive to their family, to their society and to the government”

Dr Neeta Verma, Senior Technical Director, NIC, Government of India

A K Jain, Managing Director, Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments Ltd

“Financial Inclusion has to be one of the main thrust of the policy. People need empowerment, access to finance, and the basic forms of transfer of transactions”

“Our government does not have technically equipped manpower to build cloud services for different departments”

Santanu Sengupta, Director, Corporate Affairs and Finance, ACMFI

“With so many e-Governance initiatives being undertaken, management of e-waste becomes imperative” Dr Sandip Chatterjee, Additional Director, DIT

Rajan Raj Pant, Controller, Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of Nepal

“Financial Inclusion means bringing banking services to the unbanked millions and to the underserved areas. 51 percent of the rural households are financially excluded” A V V Prasad, Additional Commissioner, (admin, IT, Smart Cards), Government of Andhra Pradesh

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eworld forum

“India already has RTI in place, but open data is about creating economic value out of the information you receive” Waltraut Ritter, Director, Knowledge Dialogues, Hong Kong

“We are close to 1000 million mobile connections in the country. Government is the major force behind introducing the technology, sustaining the technology and taking the technology to the people” Anil Kumar Jain, Sr. GM, BSNL

“The main challenges being faced in e-Governance projects are usually related to technical issues, economic or financial issues and social issues” Jagdeep S Kochar, Executive Director – IT, (n)Code Solutions- A division of GNFC Ltd

“e-Governance is all about delivery of electronic services in a timely manner” Prakash B Rane, Managing Director, ABM Knowledgeware

“After the rollout of 77 Passport Seva Kendra’s, it has become much easier for citizens to gain access to passport related services” Golok Kumar Simli, Principal Consultant and Head Technology, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India

“Our budget allocation for e-Governance is increasing by the day, yet we are telling our citizens to be inline and not online” Vikas Aggarwal, Director, KPMG

“Whether you like it or not we are all politicians, and ultimately it is politics that brings change to society” Prabir Purkayastha, Research Unit of CPM

“Social Media is very democratic medium, one that is capable of inspiring social movements” Shivendra Singh Chauhan, Team Anna

“A cyber democracy is a democracy in true sense, because everyone is on same platform, has the same choices and can share their opinion at the same level”

“Internet is required, people want to be a part of Internet to understand what the government is doing but accessibility is not as much”

Nishant Baranwal, Director (Development & Policy Research), Office of Sh. Naveen Jindal, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha

Vaishali Ali, District Convenor NGO Cell - Uttar Pradesh Mahila Congress

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eworld forum

“India is filled with young people who are comfortable with new technology. Students studying in village schools are now getting educated through digital means” Arvind Mehrotra, President-APAC & Middle East, NIIT Technologies Ltd

“Essentially e-Governance is adopted for ensuring that there is good governance and there is a certain degree of improvement in the quality of people’s lives”

“People use a wallet while doing transaction at a retail shop. There is a certain time and motion associated with it. We had to replicate the same in our service” Abhishek Sinha, EKO Services

“In order to be successful, any business has to be connected to the livelihoods of the people” Sanjay Panigrahi, CEO, SREI Sahaj

Dr Jaijit Bhattacharya, Director, Government Affairs, HP India

“There are five key drivers of visual communications that will shape where, when, with whom, and how we work.

The first driver is mobile devices, the 2nd driver is network readiness, the 3rd driver is cloud delivery, the 4th driver is social connectedness, the 5th driver is the fact that the latest generation has been raised on video”

“Knowledge sharing is critical for inclusive growth, particularly at the grassroots level. Through knowledge sharing those at the grassroots level have wider choices” Dr Ramesh Kumar Jalan, Climate Change Community, Solution Exchange, United Nations Development Programme

Gagan Verma, National Head- Government Business for Polycom India

“Modern digital technology has changed the way we live, we work and the way we practice our politics” Paranjoy Guhathakurta, Senior Journalist

your daily cup of hot tea with hot

e-Governance news!

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egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2012

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

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Index of People and Organisations

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Featured in this issue...

Index of People A • A K Jain, Managing Director, Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments Ltd............................................................................................ 56 • A P Hota, Managing Director & CEO, National Payment Corporation of India................................................................................... 44 • A V V Prasad, Additional Commissioner, (admin, IT, Smart Cards), Government of Andhra Pradesh.............................................................. 56 • Abhishek Sinha, CEO, EKO India Financial Services Limited....... 41 • Anil K Sinha, Vice Chairman, Bihar State Disaster Management Authority ....................................................................................................... 54 • Anil Kumar Jain, Sr. GM, BSNL............................................................. 57 • Anil Srivastava, JDG, DGCA; and CMD, Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd.................................................................................................................... 54 • Anurag Goel, Secretary, Dept. of IT, Government of Assam.......... 54 • Anurag Jain, Joint Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Govt of India........................................................... 34 • Arvind Mehrotra, President-APAC & Middle East, NIIT Technologies Ltd........................................................................................... 58 C • Caitlin Wiesen, Country Head, UNDP India..................................... 53 • Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Chairman and Managing Director, Bandhan.......................................................................................................... 40 D • Dharmarajan Krishnan, Additional Director, Directorate General of Systems, Custom and Excise...................................................................... 54 • Dr K C Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank Of India.... 33 • Dr Neeta Verma, Senior Technical Director, NIC, Government of India................................................................................................................. 56 • Dr Rajendra Kumar, Jt. Secretary-DeitY Government of India..... 54 • Dr Rajvir P Sharma, Additional Director General of Police, Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force,......................................................... 54 • Dr Ramesh Kumar Jalan, Climate Change Community, Solution Exchange, United Nations Development Programme......................... 58 • Dr S S Garbyal, Principal Secretary, Department of Information and Communication Technology, Govt of Mizoram................................... 16 • Dr Sandip Chatterjee, Additional Director, DIT................................ 56 • Dr Sudhir Krishna, Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India................................................................................... 53 • Dr Jaijeet Bhattacharya, President C-DeP ; Director South Asia, HP... 22 G • Gagan Verma, National Head- Government Business for Polycom India................................................................................................................. 58 • Golok Kumar Simli, Principal Consultant and Head - Technology, Ministry of External Affairs, Govt Of India........................................... 57 H • Hossam Ragheb, Minister’s Advisor & Executive Director, National Management Institute, Ministry of State for Administrative Reform, Egypt................................................................................................................ 54 J • J Jayalalithaa, Hon’ble Chief Minister, Tamil Nadu........................... 28 • J Satyanarayan, Secretary, DeitY, Government of India................... 12 • Jagdeep S Kochar, Executive Director – IT, (n)Code Solutions- A division of GNFC Ltd.................................................................................. 57 K • Kavindra Kiyawat, Collector & District Magistrate, East Nimar, Khandwa......................................................................................................... 42 M • Mahesh Gupta, Vice President, Sales, Borderless networks, CISCO India & SAARC............................................................................................ 30 • Maj Gen R C Padhi, Additional Surveyor General............................ 14 • Maj. General R Shiva Kumar, CEO, NSDI, Dept. of Science and Technology, Government of India............................................................ 54 N • N Ravishankar, Administrator, USOF, Dept of Telecom, Government of India................................................................................... 53 • Nand Kishore, Chief Auditor, Municipal Corporation of Delhi.... 48 • Niraj Kumar Gupta, Chief General Manager, Financial Inclusion Department, NABARD............................................................................... 46 • Nishant Baranwal, Director (Development & Policy Research), Office of Sh. Naveen Jindal, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha........ 57 P • P H Kurian, Principal Secretary, Information Technology, Govt Of Kerala ............................................................................................................. 20 • Paranjoy Guhathakurta, Senior Journalist.......................................... 58 • Prabir Purkayastha, Research Unit of CPM........................................ 57 • Prakash B Rane, Managing Director, ABM Knowledgeware.......... 57

• Prakash Kumar, Director of Internet Business Solutions Group, CISCO Systems India.................................................................................. 50 • Purushottam Sharma, Additional Director General of Police, Madhya Pradesh........................................................................................... 56 R • R Chandrashekhar, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications and Chairman, Telecom Commission..................................................... 10 • Ragan Varadan, CEO & Founder, Microgram................................... 39 • Rajan Raj Pant, Controller, Ministry if Science and Technology, Govt. of Nepal............................................................................................... 56 • Ranjit Nambiar, Director of Sales, South Asia, HID India Pvt ltd.. 29 • Renu Budhiraja, Sr. Director & HOD State Data Centers, eGovernance, DeitY..................................................................................... 24 • Rita Teaotia, Additional Secretary, DeitY, Ministry of Communication & IT, India...................................................................... 53 S • Sachin Pilot, Union Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Govt of India........................................... 60 • Sanjay Jaju, Secretary, Information Technology and Communications Department, Govt Of Andhra Pradesh................. 18 • Sanjay Panigrahi, CEO, SREI Sahaj....................................................... 58 • Sanjiv Mital, CEO, National Institute for Smart Government........ 54 • Santanu Sengupta, Director, Corporate Affairs and Finance, ACMFI............................................................................................................ 56 • Satyendra Garg, Joint Commissioner of Police, Delhi Traffic Police..... 56 • Shailesh Gandhi, Central Information Commissioner, Government of India............................................................................................................ 54 • Shivendra Singh Chauhan, Team Anna............................................... 57 • Shweta Aprameya, VP- Business Management Group, FINO........ 36 • Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM....................................................... 53 V • V Leeladhar, Banker and Former Deputy Governor, RBI................ 36 • Vaishali Ali, District Convenor NGO Cell - Uttar Pradesh Mahila Congress......................................................................................................... 57 • Vijay Mahajan, BASIX Group CEO and Chairman.......................... 37 • Vikas Aggarwal, Director, KPMG......................................................... 57 • Vishakha RM, Director - Sales & Marketing, Canara, HSBC, Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company....................... 37 W • Waltraut Ritter, Director, Knowledge Dialogues, Hong Kong........ 57 Z • Zodintluanga, State IT Minister, Govt of Mizoram........................... 17

Index of Organisations A • ABM Knowledgeware.............................................................................. 57 • Amazon....................................................................................................... 26 B • Bandhan...................................................................................................... 40 • BASIX Group............................................................................................. 37 • Bharat Broadband Network Limited.................................................... 11 • Bihar State Disaster Management Authority ..................................... 54 • BMC............................................................................................................. 28 • BSNL............................................................................................................ 11 C • Canara Bank............................................................................................... 37 • CDAC.......................................................................................................... 25 • CISCO India & SAARC.......................................................................... 02 • Cyberpark................................................................................................... 20 D • DeitY, Government of India................................................................... 12 • Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Govt of India................................................................................................................. 34 • Department of Information and Communication Technology, Govt of Mizoram.................................................................................................... 16 • Department of Information Technology, Govt Of Kerala .............. 20 • Department of IT, Government of Assam........................................... 54 • Department of Telecommunications and Telecom Commission.. 10 • Directorate General of Civil Aviation................................................... 54 • Directorate General of Systems, Custom and Excise........................ 54 E • EKO India Financial Services Limited................................................. 41 • Eucalyptus................................................................................................... 25 F • FINO............................................................................................................ 36

G • Google......................................................................................................... 26 H • HID India Pvt ltd...................................................................................... 29 • HP................................................................................................................. 03 I • ICICI............................................................................................................ 41 • IIITMK........................................................................................................ 20 • IIT Kanpur.................................................................................................. 28 • Infopark....................................................................................................... 20 • Information Technology and Communications Department, Govt Of Andhra Pradesh...................................................................................... 18 • IRDA............................................................................................................ 33 J • Juniper......................................................................................................... 64 K • Keltron......................................................................................................... 21 • Kerala State IT Mission............................................................................ 20 • Knowledge Dialogues, Hong Kong....................................................... 57 • KPMG.......................................................................................................... 57 • KSITL........................................................................................................... 20 M • Microgram.................................................................................................. 39 • Microsoft..................................................................................................... 25 • Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Govt of India................................................................................................................. 60 • Ministry of External Affairs, Govt Of India........................................ 57 • Ministry of Railways................................................................................. 28 • Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of Nepal........................ 56 • Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India.................. 53 • Municipal Corporation of Delhi........................................................... 48 N • NABARD.................................................................................................... 46 • NASSCOM................................................................................................. 26 • National Informatics Center, Government of India.......................... 56 • National Institute for Smart Government........................................... 54 • National Management Institute, Ministry of State for Administrative Reform, Egypt................................................................... 54 • National Payment Corporation of India.............................................. 44 • (n)Code Solutions- A division of GNFC Ltd...................................... 57 • NIIT Technologies Limited..................................................................... 35 • NSDI, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India................................................................................................................. 54 O • Oracle............................................................................................................. 7 • Oriental Bank of Commerce.................................................................. 37 P • Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd................................................................... 54 • PFRDA......................................................................................................... 33 • Powergrid.................................................................................................... 11 • Pragati Grameen Bank............................................................................. 37 • Presto Polycom India............................................................................... 58 R • Railtel........................................................................................................... 11 • Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments Ltd........................................ 56 • Reserve Bank Of India............................................................................. 33 S • SBI................................................................................................................. 41 • Securities Exchange Board of India....................................................... 28 • SeMT............................................................................................................ 20 • Shreyas Grameen Bank............................................................................ 37 • SIDBI............................................................................................................ 39 • SIDCO......................................................................................................... 28 • South Malabar Grameen Bank............................................................... 37 • SREI Sahaj................................................................................................... 58 T • Technopark................................................................................................. 20 • Trend Micro................................................................................................ 15 U • UNDP India............................................................................................... 53 • Uniline Energy Systems........................................................................... 27 V • VMware....................................................................................................... 25 Z • Zebra Technoogies.................................................................................... 23

July 2012 / www.egovonline.new / egov

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leader speak

Sachin Pilot

Union Minister of State, Communications and Information Technology

“NeGP will expand

government’s capacity for

delivering essential services” “India has one of the most ambitious National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) to create a citizen-centric and business-centric environment for governance,” says Sachin Pilot, Union Minister of State, Communications and Information Technology

P

lease tell us about the initiatives that Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is taking to bring growth in ICT sector.

There are essentially two main components when it comes to ICT in India. Firstly we have to further consolidate our position on the software side and secondly we need to expand our capacity in hardware. The Draft Information Technology and Telecom policy are thus aimed at achieving the following objectives - diversifying our product/service offerings; enhancing domestic manufacturing in ICT and making India a hub for manufacturing; ensuring a profitable and competitive industry whilst ensuring that consumers are able to access telecom services and broadband at cheap rates; eliminating inequality in access to ICT. Various initiatives, in consultation with the industry, are being executed to achieve this goal. At the same time, we must also leverage ICT for economic growth and development by making ICT integral to service delivery in health/education/agriculture, etc. We have to enabling businesses (especially small and medium scale businesses) to expand, developing applications for use by critical groups like youth, farmers, and women. This can lead to elimination of corruption, delays, and leakages in government schemes. ICT is a great enabler and we must develop a conducive ecosystem for it to sustain India’s forward march.

Do you think that social networking sites can be a medium of social reform? What must the government do to optimise the capabilities of social networks?

Social networks are an important means of communication in today’s world, especially for the youth. These networks have become central for political activism, civil society, and other institutions, like universities, governments, public figures, etc. The government welcomes the growth of such networks in that it encourages peers to connect with each other. However, the government’s role vis-a-vis such sites is minimal given that these platforms exist primarily in the private sector domain and involve voluntary membership. If there are specific issues those networkings sites bring to our notice, we will definitely look into them. To the extent that there are laws governing the internet, we will work in coordination with social networking sites to ensure that the rights of users are protected, and the laws of the land are followed.

These days there is a lot of discussion happening on the subject of malicious content that is being placed on different outlets on the internet? In your view what are the best ways by which we can regulate the internet?

You are right in saying that there is a lot of undesirable content being placed on the internet. There are several issues that we must understand when we deal with such issues. The internet does not know any boundaries and as such it is not always possible to control or monitor the content that is being placed online. Yet there is a broad agreement that we must debate rules of behaviour on the internet, much like we do for print media, television media, etc. While the right of users to pose content of their choice is in line with the right to freedom of speech, we also have to respect the right of users who are consuming that content, especially when those users are not always in control. Here, we can think about internet education for the masses so

60 egov / www.egovonline.net / July 2012

leader speak

Date of Birth: 7 Sep 1977 Birth Place: Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh) Father’s Name: Late Shri Rajesh Pilot Party Name: Indian National Congress 2004: Elected to 14th Lok Sabha 2009: Re-elected to 15th Lok Sabha (2nd term) 2009: Union Minister of State, Communications and Information Technology

Sachin Pilot

Union Minister of State, Communications and Information Technology

July 2012 / www.egovonline.net / egov

61

leader speak

include – The National Optical Fibre Network (NoFN), Common Service Centres (CSCs), State Wide Area Networks Scheme (SWANs), State Data Centres (SDC), State Portal (SP) and State Service Delivery Gateways (SSDGs), and the National Knowledge Network (NKN). Altogether, these will lead to a significant expansion in the capacity at all levels of governance for delivery of essential services. It will also enable more citizens to access essential services.

a decision quickly to send out a strong signal that the Indian economy is moving along just fine. In the IT sector, we are trying to strengthen our traditional domain areas whilst building capacities in new areas. I think one of the key messages here is that Indian IT companies are evolving and are targeting new markets with more sophisticated products and services. This will insulate us from slowdown in select markets. The Draft Information Technology Policy includes measures that will expand the pool of skilled IT labour, provide

“India has an ambitious National e-Governance Plan to create a citizen centric environment for governance” that people are aware of the dangers of malicious content available online. What we are talking about here is not censorship, but a discussion with all stakeholders as to democratically deal with the problem of undesirable content online.

Therefore it is critical that the call for a discussion on this is not seen as an attempt to control. It is merely an effort to bring about consensus on the issues surrounding internet content. Malicious content has implications for security and privacy of internet users. The internet is integrated into our lives like never before, and we share a lot of private and sensitive information with various parties online. This can be misused, and we all must guard against it. Government agencies routinely issue security advisories and users are encouraged to pay heed to these warnings.

What is your dream e-Governance project? Please tell us about the e-Governance projects that you think will be the most beneficial for the common citizens of the country?

India has an ambitious National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) to create a citizen-centric and business-centric environment for governance. The NeGP was approved by the Government in 2006 with the objective of creating the right governance and institutional mechanisms, capacity building initiatives, core infrastructure, policies and standards and also the necessary legal framework for adoption of e-Governance in the country. The plan is comprehensive and is being implemented at all levels of the Government, be it central, state or local government levels. There are several initiatives being implemented currently, and these

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What are the ways by which modern IT can be used to awaken a sense of national pride amongst India’s youth and acquaint them with the nation’s history?

The online world is a rich source of information, and can be used to gather data and information on a variety of topics. By enriching the internet with content relating to Indian history, we can provide students, academics, and history enthusiasts with a rich data bank. Government websites already host a lot of interesting data that can give Indian youth an insight into India’s rich history, and this can be supplemented with other sources.

The world economy is suffering from an economic downturn. What steps is the government taking to revive the Indian economy, and especially the IT sector?

The world economy, especially the Euro zone, is going through some tough times. It may take a few years for it to get back on a higher growth trajectory. In the meanwhile, India must gear up for the challenges that come along with a weaker world economy. One thing in our favour is that the fundamentals of our economy are still strong, and the factors that have made India an attractive market still stand true (strong domestic market, good institutions, young workforce). Despite recent perceptions of policy paralysis, the government has been steadfast in its efforts to build broad consensus on reforms. It is with this idea that the Finance Minister has urged all political parties to cooperate in areas such as fiscal legislations and tax reforms. It is important that we are able to arrive at

various kinds of fiscal incentives for the industry to grow, establish India as a manufacturing hub in ICT, set up centres of excellence, and allocate funds for R&D and commercialization of products and services. These initiatives will stimulate the IT industry and bring about a second wave of IT revolution in India.

In your opinion what kind of experiences and sensibilities as an administrator, must a Minister in a country as diverse as India should bring to his job?

In a country like India, a Minister has to wear many hats to do his job effectively. First, one has to be conscious of the fact that there will be many different stakeholders that try to influence you during the course of your duties. These stakeholders often have different and competing motivations behind their efforts, and a Minister must consider all aspects carefully before making a decision. Second, a Minister has to often balance short-term political considerations, sometimes arising out of the compulsions of coalition politics, with long-term policy considerations. Third, there may be thousands of priorities in a Ministry. A Minister must have the vision and desire to identify those that have the biggest positive impact on the maximum number of people for every rupee spent. India is a complex country, and this is never an easy exercise. Fourth, Ministers are increasingly required to master soft skills to effectively carry out their functions which include an ability to handle interactions with the Media, Industry associations etc. Finally, a Minister must be able to guide and direct the team of civil servants at his/her disposal to ensure that targets are achieved.

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