RFID and Smart Cards in Government: June 2007 Issue

ov Societal Benefits of ICT through RFID The Golden Card Asset Tracking and Identification Immigration Gates also go â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Smartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

IS s n 0 97 3 -1 61 x

volume 3

| issue 6 | june 2007

www .e g o v o n l i n e . n e t

the e-government magazine for asia & the middle east

country focus: sri lanka

the potential of e-government in sri lanka industry perspective

S U BS C R I B ER C OP Y NO T F OR S A L E

seamless service delivery for government regional focus: delhi

e-delhi works information system in pwd delhi EVENT DIARY

navigating rfid adoption roadmap

Rs 75

RFID and Smart Cards in Government Embracing Technology Touching Lives!

w w w . e g o v o n l i n e . n e t | volume 3 | issue 6 | june 2007

Cover Features

6 10 14 16 18 19 21 22

Societal Benefits of ICT through RFID Preeti D. Kulkarni and Nupur Giri

The Golden Card Frank Xu

Contactless Smart Cards Interview: Greg Pote, Chairman, Asia Pacific Smart Card Association

Asset Tracking and Identification Anitha Sarathy

Immigration Gates also go ‘Smart’

Kemal Bajramovic

Cutting Edge Affordable Technology for Access Control

Interview: Harish Vellat, Managing Director, HID India Pvt. Ltd.

e-Passport and Smart Card Initiatives in India

Secure Identification through Chip Technology Interview: Ashok Chandak, Director, Sales and Marketing, NXP Semiconducors

industry perspective

Seamless Service Delivery for Government

Interview: Peter Moore, Region Managing Director, Public Sector APAC, Microsoft

commentary

e-Government: Treating Citizens as Infants or Adults?

Richard Heeks

‘India.gov.in’

Neeta Verma and Sonal Kalra

regional focus: delhi

e-Delhi

Rajendra Kumar

Works Information System in PWD Delhi

S. Jethwani

country focus: sri lanka

The Potental of e-Government in Sri Lanka Devaka J. Punchihewa

EVENT DIARY

Navigating RFID Adoption Roadmap

29 26

NEWS REVIE W

World News 36

Business News 44

REGULAR FEATURES

numbers 45

June 2007

What’s On 46

Editorial Guidelines egov is a monthly magazine providing a much needed platform to the voices of various stakeholders in the arena of e-Government, apart from being a repository of valuable information and meaningful discussion on issues of e-governance in general, and e-Government in particular -- both to the specialist and the generalist. Contributions to egov magazine should be in the form of articles, case studies, book reviews, event report and news related to eGovernment project and initiatives, which are of immense value for practitioners, professionals, corporate and academicians. We would like the contributors to follow these guidelines, while submitting their material for publication.

Articles / Case studies should not exceed

2500 words. For book reviews and event report, the word limit is 800. An abstract of the article/case study not exceeding 200 words should be submitted along with the article/case study. All articles / case studies should provide proper references. Authors should give in writing stating that the work is new and has not been published in any form so far. Book reviews should include details of the book like the title, name of the author(s), publisher, year of publication, price and number of pages and also send the cover photograph of the book in JPEG/TIFF (resolution 300 dpi). Book reviews of books on e-Governance related themes, published from

ov year 2002 onwards, are preferable. In case of website, provide the URL. The manuscripts should be typed in a standard printable font (Times New Roman 12 font size, titles in bold) and submitted either through mail or post. Relevant figures of adequate quality (300 dpi) should be submitted in JPEG/ TIFF format. A brief bio-data and passport size photograph(s) of the author(s) must be enclosed. All contributions are subject to approval by the publisher.

Please send in your papers/articles/comments to: The Editor, egov, G-4, Sector 39, NOIDA (UP) 201 301, India. tel: +91 120 2502180-85, fax: +91 120 2500060, email: info@egovonline.net

Editorial Calendar 2007 Month

solution focus

application focus

APRIL

meta data and data standards

e-procurement

MAY

network and information security

national id

JUNE rfid & smart card passport & visa JULY localisation and language technology land records AUGUST

e-forms and document management income tax/commercial taxes

SEPTEMBER interoperability and open standards

central excise

OCTOBER

wireless

municipalities

NOVEMBER

e-governance architecture

courts

DECEMBER

mobility police

Keep discovering... Everything on the Indian ICTs at the development front What goes behind it? India's Premier ICT4D event

Registration Open and On Tap Early bird fee- INR 5000 before 30th July INR 7500 for Spot Registration www.eINDIA.net.in/register }

www.egovonline.net

ov volume 3 | issue 6 | june 2007

president

Dr. M P Narayanan editor-in-chief

Ravi Gupta sr. editor

G Kalyan Kumar SR. sub editor

Prachi Shirur Marketing

Gautam Navin mob: +91 9818125257 email: gautam@csdms.in Debabrata Ray mob: +91 9899650692 email: debabrata@elets.in designed by

Bishwajeet Kumar Singh web

Zia Salahuddin circulation

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

editorial correspondence

eGov G-4 Sector 39 NOIDA 201301, India tel: +91 120 2502181-85 fax: +91 120 2500060 email: info@egovonline.net printed by

Yashi Media Works Pvt Ltd New Delhi, India egov does not neccesarily subscribe to the views expressed in this publication. All views expressed in the magazine are those of the contributors. egov is not responsible or accountable for any loss incurred, directly or indirectly as

EDITORIAL The Need for Hiking Trust Levels

n all participatory democracies, government, businesses and services rely

more on the trust of the business partners and citizens. This motivates credible and transparent transactions of services that need to be legally sound and rich in value. In a knowledge society, the trust levels are to be continuously scaled up as e-Governance changes the collective mindset towards citizen-centered service provisions and institutional re-engineering. The current issue of the magazine has RFID and smart card as solution focus and passports as application focus. No doubt, technology infusion has changed the face of vital public utilities like passport offices from the rudimentary stages and many of the tech solutions we have identified here can bring further changes in these systems.The element of trust which I was referring to earlier is the very essence of that mature attitude that treats citizens as adults and not as infants when it comes to service delivery. This aspect is reinforced in most of the articles that discuss this theme. So all public offices embracing e-Governance need to reassert their credentials in shoring up and ensuring the trust levels with the citizens. This is more true of passport offices where technology applications are enhancing the quality and quantity of service delivery. In India pervasive applications in RFID is going to be the order of the day, in the coming years. Topping the chart will be e-Passports or bio-mteric passports. Bio-metric passports will be the answer to the gross abuse of paper passports. The recent incidents involving some MPs who allegedly misused their passports to indulge in human trafficking have further strengthened Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s case for going all out for it. Delhi-Noida Direct (DND) flyway, which uses RFID technology to help pay tolls, is the tell-tale example of its success. Incidentally, the first smart card making plant in the country has been set up in Hyderabad by Bartronics India and is upstream now. This Indian company is noted for its turnkey execution of bar-coding, RFID and biometric technologies and draws bulk of its revenues from the RFID solutions space. In fact, Frost & Sullivan has identified that the emerging demand for smart cards in India as somewhere in the region of 150 million units this year and set to grow 40% per annum. The telecom and banking sectors are to throw up the maximum demand. The banking sector is going in for aggressive switch from the current magnetic tape cards as the Visa/Mastercard deadline is set to expire in a few years from now. The multipurpose National Identity Card (MNIC) mooted by the Centre is also in the pipeline. Thus it goes without saying that the situation is very conducive for smart card and RFID technology-providers to flourish.

a result of the information provided. egov is published in collaboration with Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd. (www.elets.in) ÂŠ Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies 2007 www.csdms.in

Ravi Gupta Ravi.Gupta@csdms.in ov

June 2007

COVE R F EAT U R E

Societal Benefits of ICT through RFID Global Trends and Potential in India Radio frequency identification (RFID) is one of the most promising and anticipated technologies in recent years. This article explains the technology behind RFID and its societal benefits for e-Governance applications. It presents some existing scenarios of successful implementation of this technology for the same, globally, and elaborates on its potential in a few other e-Governance applications, typically suited for India. Preeti D. Kulkarni and Nupur Giri

adio frequency identification, or RFID, is a generic term for technologies that use radio waves to automatically identify people or objects. RFID works by assigning a unique serial number to a microchip. The chip sometimes may contain some information of the object and is attached to an antenna. The chip and the antenna together are called RFID transponder or RFID tag. The antenna enables the chip to transmit the identification information to a reader. The reader converts the radio waves reflected back from the RFID tag into digital information that can then be passed on to computers that can use this information in various applications. RFID and Barcode are two different technologies, which sometimes overlap. The differences are that bar codes are line-of-sight technology, that is people usually have to orient the bar code towards a scanner for it to be read, uses optical signal to transfer information, does not identify the unique item i.e bar code on one milk carton is the same as every other, making it impossible to identify which one might pass its expiration date first. Where as RFID, does not require line of sight, RFID tags can be read as long as they are within range of a reader. It uses RF signals to transfer information from the RFID device to the reader. The device can contain data about the item, such as what the item is, what time the device travelled through a certain zone, perhaps even a parameter such as temperature. RFID is different from smart card in that RFID are for identification and tracking of objects, have less security & store less data. The article presents application of technology for e-Governance. It discusses the technology, need of RFID in e-Governance and market estimates of this technology respectively. It also looks at a few case studies of use of RFID, in global and also typically in Indian environments. RFID and e-Governance

e-Governance, is often referred as Digital Governance. In }

simple terms, it refers to the governance processes in which Information and communications technology (ICT) play active and significant role. It uses technologies to facilitate the operation and the disbursement of government information and services. e-Government deals with not only internet but also non-internet applications to aid in governments such as large-scale use of telephones and fax machines, surveillance systems, tracking systems such as RFID tags, and even the use of television and radios to spread government-related information. The use of radio waves to spread disaster warnings, or to give information on voting, are well known applications of e-Government. Media has been used to spread pro-government messages. Applications such as tracking systems for citizens, ubiquitous surveillance and bio-id have many privacy issues concerned about the growing role of eGovernment. Governments, and various departments and agencies, globally, need a fast, authentic and secure mechanism to identify citizens to ensure that the benefits offered via various government schemes are enjoyed by the rightfully privileged citizens. RFID offers governments the right tool to take technology to the rural areas and bring them into the main stream through assimilation of data and disbursement of benefits to the authorised individuals resulting in increased efficiency and reduced pilferage. Global Market Estimates for RFID

RFID is viewed as an emerging technology with the potential to disrupt currently used systems for cataloguing operations in the manufacturing, retail, and service and transform sectors of the economy. Estimates of market size for RFID over the next 2-3 years vary significantly. â&#x20AC;˘ The International Data Corporation (IDC) estimated that the RFID market for related consulting, implementation, and managed services were expected to grow 47% in 2004 and reach $2 billion worldwide by 2008. IDC also www.egovonline.net

reports that almost two third of enterprise organisations considering RFID applications in 2004 indicated that they would rely on external resources in implementing RFID. IDC also points to future growth in the IT services and data management sectors from RFID-related implementations. The Wireless Data Research Group says that spending on RFID was about US$1billion in 2003, and will triple by 2007. The Yankee Group estimates that RFID technology will be a $4.2 billion market by 2008. A further breakdown of these estimates shows that, over the next three years, manufacturers will spend $2 billion on RFID tags and another $1-3 billion on related infrastructure. Another high-tech market research firm, In-Stat, estimates that worldwide revenues from RFID tags have jumped from $300 million in 2004 to $2.8 billion in 2009. However, as the costs of RFID tags continue to fall, use of the technology for inventory control will likely increase.

• •

•

Existing Global Scenarios: Applications of RFID in e-Governance

1. National ID and Specific ID projects: RFID based National ID Cards are issued with a view of identifying authentic citizens. The multi-application functionality of a smart card expedites lengthy identification processes, virtually eliminating paperwork and manual data entry, thus playing a pivotal role in providing government benefits to the targeted population. RFID based National ID includes security options like Biometrics and Digital certificates, to securely authenticate and enable multiple applications on the same card. The strong capability in conceptualisation, system design and integration can help the Government to rollout customised ID applications. 2. High Performance RFID in Parking: Long range RFID for convenient and secure access in parking. The new compact sized LR-3 reader is a 2.45GHz long-range RFID reader, specially designed for parking applications. It identifies ID-tags at ranges up to 3 meters. It may be mounted on a pole or directly on lane equipment. The reader has several communication alternatives and is easily integrated using the most commonly used interfaces. Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI) is the solution to secure and convenient hands-free access control. The operating frequency, 2.45GHz, and low output power allows for license-free installation worldwide. Examples of installation sites include commercial and corporate parking areas, gated communities, airport parking, university parking and hospitals. The advantages of which are manifolds. 3. RFID Passports and Traveller Tracking: The USA State Department’s Passport Office had planned to issue some RFID Passports to airline employees and to USA diplomats by the end of 2005 and to the general public in February 2006, according to August 2005 press reports. USA Department of Homeland Security is also testing ov

June 2007

longer-range RFID chips embedded in I-94 (immigration entry/exit) cards which visitors are required by law to keep in their possession at all times throughout their stay in the USA, as part of the US-VISIT for logging visitors’ movements across borders. This is the first case in which anyone in the USA (even non-citizens), other than convicted criminals or those subject to specific restrictive court orders issued following adversary and evidentiary legal proceedings, will have been required by law to carry remote radio tracking devices. But the greater emphasis in transit “security” seems to be on identification and tracking of passengers, rather than searches. 4. RFID in Disaster Management: At Gulport, Mississippi, as body counts mounted and missing-person reports multiplied after Hurricane Katrina, some morgue workers began using RFID tags to keep track of unidentified remains. RFID tags - slender red cylinders about half an inch long - were implanted under the corpses’ skin or placed inside body bags .Each tag comes packaged in a white plastic injector that looks like a bulky pen attached to a thick hypodermic needle. The chips were implanted in the corpse’s shoulder or placed inside the body bag and handheld scanners read the radio signals. The beige plastic scanners, which resemble TV remote controls, have screens that display a 16-digit number when passed within six inches of a chip. RFID allows the technicians to accurately and quickly identify the remains inside the body bag without having to open the body bag at each step along the process, enabling morgue workers to quickly locate and catalog the remains, speed the morgue-management process and reduce errors. With 48 of the 133 bodies recovered in Harrison and Hancock counties still unidentified after two days, the chips have been a boon to the Disaster Mortuary Operational Recovery Team. 5. Waste Management: Technology is beginning to play a big role in managing the millions of tons of trash generated every year. As communities are faced with government restrictions on amount and type of waste generated, employing RFID for volume based garbage collection pricing can help manage this problem by using RFID tags for garbage barrels and readers for garbage trucks. Transponders are attached to waste bins. As a trash receptacle is lifted into a collection truck, the transponder returns a unique code - which is sent to an onboard computer - allowing for instant identification of the trash container. For residential solid waste collection and recycling, Trash carts fitted with RFID transponders are allowing cities and towns in North America and Europe to convert from per-household payment to payby-volume systems -- and encourage recycling in the process. Edmond, Okla., has already distributed 18,000 RFIDequipped bins as part of a six-month evaluation. This will allow the city to charge residents for collection based on garbage weight per household. Fully- automatic trucks will lift each plastic bin, identify its owner, weigh and empty the garbage, and later upload the information to a computer. The system will also help the city save money through more

cover feature

S o c i e t a l B e n e f i t s o f I c T t h r o u g h RFI D

efficient collection routes and reduced worker injury, because employees will no longer have to leave the truck. With the automated system, the towns have been able to open transfer stations 24 hours a day. Opportunities in Indian Market

India is emerging as a strong global economy with a wide Industrial base. It also possesses globally recognised and well respected IT skills. Indian industry has evinced keen interest in adoption and deployment of RFID technology. It would be of immense use across numerous industries like shipping, defence, aircraft, pharmacy, automobile and IT. Implementation of RFID can also help eliminate unnecessary stock, enhance productivity, arrest theft, pilferage and is a big opportunity for IT companies Existing Indian Scenarios: RFID in e-Governance

1. RFID to Track Wagons: The Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) of Indian Railways plans to use radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to improve the wagon management system of the railways. CRIS proposes to have a RFID tag or chip embedded in all wagons, and provide sheds with handheld devices that would read these chips and thus register the data. Following this, the details can be fed into the Indian railways system to help track wagons accurately. A pilot project will be run in the East Coast Railways. 2. Vehicle Tracking Project Launched: The Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, T.R. Baalu launched a pilot project for radio frequency identification (RFID)-based vehicle tracking project on the Delhi-Jaipur highway of India on July 21 2005. Under the project, 68 buses of Rajasthan state road transport corporation (RSRTC) plying on the highway have been fitted with RFID tags and readers have been placed to track the vehicle movement along the highway, whereby their movement is being tracked, monitored and managed. RFID grids have been placed along with very small aperture terminal (VSAT) at four places that are about 50 km apart from each other. 3. Milking using RFID : The Rs.150 crore Chitale Dairy Farm, located at Bhilawadi, around 240 km from Pune, handles about 60 million litres of milk per annum.An orange tag keeps track of the numbers of buffaloes. A blue tag is the metallic cover under which the RFID tag has been locked to prevent damage to the card inside. At the time of allocating the electronic ID, a link is created with the physical ID. The card stores a host of information on the buffalo mainly on three countsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; Feeding: The total ration is fed over 24 hours in small amounts from half a kg to two kg. Milking: Every time the buffalo enters the parlour, the transponders in the strap (blue tag) is identified. On the milking point controller (MPC), a warning lamp lights up at

the appointed symbol if the buffalo is not milked or if the milk is not directed to the tank. If the buffalo has not produced as much as expected, the warning lights will glow. Breeding: This contains information on the genetic stock of the animal and all aspects related to animal rearing related to pregnancies, vaccinations and, any diseases. This has resulted in 15 to 20% improvement in total milk yield. The national average of buffalo milk yield in the country is 8001000 litres in 300 days. At the Chitale dairy farm, they are able to achieve 2500 litres in 300 days.] Potential of RFID for Indian e-Governance Applications

1. Mail Tracking and Security: RFID in Postal service will enable us to reap its real benefits. RFID reader could be installed at post offices, all the parcels and other goods that is to be tracked could be sealed with RFID tag on them. Thus as soon as the parcel comes to a post office the reader will identify it through radio waves and the processing unit could store this identity at a database along with the code number of the office itself as well this information could be updated onto the website. This will enable the sender of the parcel and/ or the postal employees to determine where a particular parcel has reached or about its misplacement. Also it could be determined if the seal was tampered anywhere during transit. The Initial cost of such system could be high but it will definitely prove to be a value added service . 2. Hazardous Materials Management: RFID tags could be attached on hazardous material containers with SensorBased Services to capture, manage, analyse and respond to any movement or other change of the chemicals. Using the real-time information in database to make informed decisions about the transportation and storage of hazardous materials, and provides automatic alerts text messaging, voice alerts and e-mails - to professionals in security, safety, health and environment to warn them of any changes with the chemicals. Utilising the data captured by RFID mobile readers and fixed www.egovonline.net

RFID readers, and temperature sensors ensure that managers always have access to critical chemical information. For example, security professionals could be notified if unauthorized access attempts are made to obtain highly hazardous materials, and environmental professionals could be alerted when the storage limit of a hazardous chemical locker is close to exceeding capacity. 3. Automatic Toll Collection: Automatic toll collection by means of RFID technology could be implemented on the vast network of highways constructed across India. Electronic toll collection (ETC), will be an adaptation of “aircraft identification of friend or foe technology” and will aim to eliminate the delay on toll roads. It will determine whether the cars passing are enrolled in the programme, alert enforce for those that are not, and debit electronically the accounts of registered cars without their stopping, or even opening a window. 4. RFID for Bird –Flu Tracking: The news of the death of 36,000 birds in Nawapur taluka of Maharashtra’s Nandurbar district has made waves recently. The government has ordered 8 lakhs chickens within the taluka to be slaughtered in the 48 hours. Employing RFID for bird flu tracking could have provided help as it has shown immense potential in livestock tracking and monitoring earlier and thus it definitely provides solution by monitoring the spread of the disease and probably preventing further massacre and saving human lives.

activity like output or productivity growth. Increased efficiency in activities related to monitoring the movement of objects, animals, for example birdflu monitoring, and possibly even people, are some of the benefits of this technology. Several challenges must be overcome for this technology to reach its fullest potential. Interoperable standards for hardware/software and wireless spectrum operations, privacy and security concerns, and implementation cost barriers are few of the issues in sight. Mitigated of these challenges will see RFID as choice for global commerce. References

• • • • • • • • • •

www.rfidjournal.com/article/articalview; www.tutorial-reports.com/wireless/rfid/technology.php; www.thehindubusinessline.com; www.cnn.com/2005/Tech/09/28/katrinabodychips.ap/index. html; www.i4donline.net/aug05/news.pdf; www.egov.mit.gov.in; www.dassnagar.com/Software/AMgm/it_RFID_pod_desc. htm; www.aimglobal.org/technologies/rfid/resources/papers/ applicationsofrfid.htm; www.dqindia.com/content/top_stories/104033103.asp; www.rolta.com/RIL/eS/services/eS_egov_a.asp Preeti D. Kulkarni (Preeti_d_k@yahoo.com) is pursuing post graduate Engineering Program in Information Technology at Vivekanand Education Society’s Institute of Technology, affiliated to Mumbai University, India.

Conclusion

Prof. Nupur Giri (nupur.giri@gmail.com) is Assistant Professor, Computer Engineering Department, VESIT. She is active in the fields of Mobile Computing and wireless communication and its applications in e-Governance.

Use of RFID is likely to increase in India in the near future. At present, it is unclear whether the effects of the use of RFID technology will be evident in broad measures of economic

Now Chips in Millions of Hands, U.S. The Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) in the United States (US) requires all government agencies and departments to issue a smart card identity credential to all new federal employees and contractors by October 2007 and all existing employees by October 2008. HSPD-12 identity programs are now up and running and the “Government will be issuing millions of smart cards by next year,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. On the other hand, the e-Passport programme of the government is putting millions of smart cards in the hands of U.S. Citizens. According to Anne Barrett, assistant secretary passport services for the Department of State three million e-Passports have been issued so far and by early June all passports issued will be e-Passports.” Barrett reported that passport demand is 44 percent higher this year than last, in large part due to the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), which, effective January 23rd, required air travel passengers returning from the Caribbean, Mexico or Canada to have passports. The U.S. Department of State began issuing biometric passports to government officials and diplomats in ov

June 2007

early 2006. The new passport combines face-recognition and chip technology. According to State Department documents, the chip securely will store the same data visually displayed on the photo page of the passport (name, date of birth, gender, place of birth, dates of passport issuance and expiration, passport number), and will also include a digital photograph. The inclusion of the digital photograph will enable biometric comparison, through the use of facial recognition technology at international borders, officials say. The driving force of the initiative is the U.S. Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 (also known as the “Border Security Act”), which states that such smartcard IDs will be able to replace visas. As for foreigners traveling to the U.S., if they wish to enter U.S. visa-free under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), they are now are required to possess machine-readable passports that comply with international standards. Additionally, for travelers holding a valid passport issued on or after October 26, 2006, such a passport must be a biometric passport if used to enter the U.S. visa-free under the VWP

COVER FEATURE

The Golden Card Government Driven IC Card Projects in China Golden Card projects started for immediate implementation with the positive efforts from the State Council and the relevant ministries, targeting to select 12 cities as pilot cities to set up the bankcard network service centers in these cities and establish one national center. Frank Xu

986 saw the first bankcard issued in China by Bank of China, that was Great Wall Credit Card of RMB. Thereafter the bankcards came into the daily life of the general public, but there were a few bankcard issuers, and there were limits for applicants. The card acceptance situation was not as good as we have now. Not until June 1993, the Golden Card Projects were launched by Jian Zhemin, the former president of China. The main focus of promoting bankcard has been put on agenda. In fact, golden card projects started for immediate implementation with the positive efforts from the state council and the relevant ministries, targeting to select 12 cities as pilot cities to set up the bankcard network service centers in these cities and establish one national center. This aims to achieve the interoperable operations and transactions between bankcard networks for the 12 cities in order to improve the acceptance of cards and sharing of information, data and market. By 1996 and 1997, these 12 cities have successfully built up the cross-banking network within the same city. In December, 1988, the Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bank of China (PBOC) called together all the commercial banks to set up the Bankcard Information Switching Center, which was put into trial operation. At the same year, joining hands with VISA International, PBOC organised the local merchant banks to stipulate and issue the China IC Card Specifications for Financial IC Cards in view of the unique situation in China and following the principle of international standard compliance. Based on these specifications, some more technical standards and specifications were stipulated, such as the Unified Technical Specification of Bankcard Networking, the Unified Business Specification of Bankcard Networking.

The golden card Projects have played an important role of promoting the bankcard business, speeding up the flow of capital, preventing the economic crimes and assisting the macro-economic control as well as enhancing the national economic and social development. The year 2006 witnessed a stable growth of IC card market in China. The major industrial sectors have gained tremendous records, such as banking, telecom, national ID, social welfare, public utilities, tourism, petrol, chemicals. And one impressive record is the RFID driven market. The following figures will help you understand more about China. Banking Sector

In 2006, the bankcard applications gained an outstanding achievement. By September, 2006, there were 175 bankcard issuers in China, with a total issuance of 1.03 billion bankcards. Over 336 counties and cities have been connected via Internet and, there are 95,800 ATM installed and 450,000 merchants with 750,000 POS terminals installed. Between January to September 2006, China Unionpay (CUP) issued 102.24 million CUP cards and had 87,000 new merchants. There were 1.36 billion cross-banking ATM transactions with a transaction value at 366 billion Yuan, and 760 million cross-banking POS transactions at a value of 855.9 billion Yuan. More transactions have been done

Website: http://www.scfc.org.ca/world/gk_e.htm Started: 1993 Current Status: 1.03 billion bank cards issed by September 2006 Source: SCFC

10 }

www.egovonline.net

Source: SCFC

outside the country at a value of 17.783 billion Yuan with 13,100 overseas merchants agreed to accept the bankcards issued from China. More than 255,000 cashiers are able to accept CUP bankcards. Five countries and regions start to handle the Renminbi (RMB) business. By this date, China Unionpay has its business operations in 23 countries and regions, which paves a good foundation for Chinese RMB towards the global market.

able to accept CUP cards in the world, with CUP Internet connected networks at 898,000 POS terminals and nearly 400,000 ATM machines to handle CUP cards. Within 2006, CUP networks had been set up connecting to six more countries in Holland, Switzerland, Australia, Hasakestan, Italy and Russia. There are over 24 regions that are connected with CUP network, covering the frequently traveled regions by the Chinese tourists. And CUP had 25,200 new merchants to add up to a total of 55,000. There are 300,000 ATM in total with newly installed 35,100 ATM and 80,000 POS terminals outside the Country. Telecom Sector

The telecom is the largest market of IC card applications in China, taking the No. 1 position of all industrial sectors by

Records released by CUP

In 2006, China Unionpay increased the issuance of 144 million new standard bankcards, among which there were 3.13 million credit cards, a five-times increase against 2005, and 141 million debit cards. The new standard CUP bankcard has taken 68% of the total cards issued. Outside China, there are 403,200 CUP cards issued, increasing by 180% in comparison with the previous year. Up to this date, 25 Source: China Unionpay international bankcards have started to issue the CUP standard cards, at a total of 624,7000 cards, among which there are 143,700 credit issuing 2 billion telecom cards, among which 900 million cards and 481,000 debit cards. issued by China Telecom, with a new roll-out at 25 million By the end of 2006, there are 570,000 merchants that are cards for 2006, 400 million by China Mobile and 200 million by China Unicom, a 60% increase comparing with the same period of the last year. The memory capacity of mobile SIM card has been extended from 3K to 128K, with big variety of services supporting mobile value-added services ranging from the single voice and identification to phone books, SMS and multi-contents. Public Security

Source: SCFC

June 2007

In 2001, approved by the state council, China new generation of national ID card adopted the contactless IC technology to replace the old ID cards. By October, 2006, over 370 million new 11

cover feature

the golden card

ID cards have been issued, and another 270 million cards are to be rolled out in 2007. It is expected that the total of 900 million new ID cards will be rolled out by 2008. As approved, the whole technology for the ID card has been developed and supplied by the local vendors, ranging from chips, modules, IC card bodies, readers and the system. Between 2005 to 2006, 400 million modules were supplied so as to secure the smooth issuance of such huge project and application.

Tourist Sector

During the 10th Five-year plan, the State Tourist Administration started to introduce the IC cards for the tour guides with the objective of conducting dynamic supervision of the tour

Public Utilities Sector

The IC card technology has been introduced to the public utilities, such as urban public transport, public utilities, residential household areas, the supply of gas, water and

Source: SCFC

guides and of upgrading the informatization level of the tourist sector. By December 5, 2006, 330,000 tourist guides have got the tourist IC cards and there are 2300 supervisors who conducted the effective checks over 210,000 times for the tourists. There are new 30,000 tourist guides enrolled and 50,000 guides upgraded. The dynamic supervision has become the important measures for restructuring the tourist market and improving the service quality. Source: SCFC

heating, the toll gates and parking slots and the tourist resorts etc. By the end of 2006, over 100 cities have built up the IC card systems for the urban public transport, with a total issuance of 100 million cards. And over 300 cities have implemented IC cards in the public utilities sectors, with 6 million IC cards issued and 4.5 million IC card meters installed.

Petrol Chemicals sector

SinoPec has stipulated the Application Regulation for the

Social Welfare and Labour Sectors

The social welfare cards are the e-ID proof for the social labours to handle their applications in the sector and check for the working information. The applications are in the employment services, labour contracts management, salary management, professional qualification, pensions and medical insurance

Source: SCFC

etc. By September, 2006, 53 cities in China have completed the registration of social welfare IC card and application for private keys. There are 20 million card holders nationwide. 12

Source: SCFC

www.egovonline.net

SinoPec IC Card, and planned to implement IC card gas system to realise the e-Payment and transaction data collection in 19 provincial branches, 170 county level companies and 20,000 petrol gas stations. By June 2006, 15,000 gas stations have been built into the connection of IC card system with 3,400 card issuance locations. There are 13.35 million SinoPec IC cards issued.

Market Trend of RFID

Other emerging Market

The other emerging market is the RFID application in China, which has gained the remarkable achievements. The following charts show the present status and future forecast for RFID market by 2010. Market Size of RFID

conclusion

We shall say that China is one of the few nations in the world that has achieved the tremendous progress in the IC card implementations in the related sectors. And it illustrates the successful case of e-Government project under the governmental coordination efforts to gain such fruitful achievements. Frank Xu (frank.x@263.net. cn)is Executive Director of Smart Card Forum of China (SCFC), of a national affiliation to China National Registration Center of IC Cards. Frank has been invited as VIP speaker in various international conferences for smart cards.

Belgium Personal Identity Card Scheme uses Infineon Technology

expected to select suppliers in later 2007, and France and Poland in 2008.

Infineon is claimed to be the sole chip supplier for the Belgium Personal Identity Card (BelPIC), Europesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; largest nationwide electronic identity card scheme. Infineon Technologies AG, the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading supplier of integrated circuits (ICs) for chip cards. BelPIC is a multi-application smart card used for personal identification at home and abroad. The card is embedded with an electronic signature authentication which can be used for e-Government services like, address change, civil record, birth certificate, tax return, and private-use Internet services. The card body is manufactured by Gemalto, based on polycarbonate and using laser engraving technology. Gemalto also provided the Java-based operating system as well as the ID applications and the digital signatures. The Belgium ID card incorporates the highly-secure contactbased smart card controller SLE 66CX322P of Infineon. Other countries that are issuing these cards include Italy, Finland, Estonia, and Sweden. Germany and the United Kingdom are

June 2007

COVER FEATURE

Contactless Smart Cards Technology of the Future

http://www.apsca.org

What are the roles and objectives of Asia Pacific Smart Card Association (APSCA)? The Asia Pacific Smart Card Association (www.apsca.org) serves the smart card industry and its markets in the Asia Pacific. Established in 1997, APSCA is the only regional, non-profit, independent association for organisations in the smart card business in Asia Pacific. The Association’s core value is the ability to bring key decision-makers in the smart industry together to meet, face-to-face on a regular basis. APSCA has over 40 members in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia and Pakistan. The Association delivers information, consultancy, guidance and networking to corporations and government organisations, including smart card scheme operators and suppliers, providing an unparalleled opportunity to solve problems, facilitate smart card initiatives and generate increased business development. Apart from organising more than 100 events, seminars, trainings and conferences covering all aspects of smart cards, APSCA has assisted government smart card projects, national card payment policies and produced increased business for APSCA members.

For the public sector, there may be different attitudes to the introduction of smart cards for citizens applications. In many of the developing countries there is less interest in privacy issues from citizens and their governments whereas in the developed countries these issues of data privacy a major focus for both citizens and their governments. Says Greg Pote (greg.pote@ apsca.org), Chairman, Asia Pacific Smart Card Association, in an interview with the egov magazine.

14 }

Could you brief us about smart card and RFID technologies and its application in the public sector? Smart card applications now include: • SIM cards for mobile telephony, including Near Field Communications (NFC) and contactless mobile payments • Financial credit, debit, pre-paid and ATM cards, including contactless payment cards • Stored value cards and retailer loyalty cards • Transport cards for automated revenue collection • National smart identity cards and e-Passports • Smart health cards and social security cards • Smart cards for enterprise ID and identity management • Registered traveller and frequent flyer smart cards for airlines Many of the smart card applications are now based on contactless smart cards or introducing contactless smart cards. (Note the term “RFID” is not typically used to refer to smart cards and is widely accepted as referring to the identification of items which typically involve very low security RFID. RFID for personal applications of identity and payment require stringent security and referred to in the industry as contactless applications). www.egovonline.net

The key applications of smart card and contactless smart cards in the public sector are e-Passport, national smart identity cards, national health cards, national driving licences, government (government employees including military and also or service workers) identity cards. Of these the most rapidly growing sector is the e-Passport due to the international interoperable standards developed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for the next-generation of machine-readable travel documents based on contactless chips and including biometrics. The next largest sector is the national smart identity card. While national smart identity cards are a growing market they have been hampered by the lack of any common standard (different countries have been developing their own proprietary systems and standards for their national smart identity cards). This is now changing as the ICAO standards and specifications for contactless e-Passports are beginning to influence the development of national smart identity cards, which should make it easier to launch this national identity documents in the future. The third-largest application in the public sector is national smart health cards which, like national smart identity cards, are also typically issued to most citizens in a country where they are launched. National smart health cards have also been hampered by a lack of international interoperable standards for medical informatics and e-Health. The market for national smart health cards has considerable potential for further development. Could you share some of the successful deployment of smart card in the public sector? Countries that have already implemented e-Passports include: Andorra; Australia; Austria; Belgium; Czech Republic; Denmark; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Hong Kong; Hungary; Iceland; Ireland; Italy; Japan; Liechtenstein; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Macedonia; Monaco; New Zealand; Norway; Poland; Portugal; San Marino; Singapore; Slovenia; Somalia; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Thailand; The Netherlands; United Kingdom; and United States. There are at least another 25 countries currently implementing e-Passport projects. Countries that have issued, or are rolling out national smart identity cards are: Malaysia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Macau, China, Thailand, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar. A number of other countries are currently planning to roll out national smart ID cards. Countries that have issued, or are rolling out national smart health/smart social security cards: Germany, France, Belgium, Austria, Slovenia, Finland, Taiwan, China. Several other countries currently planning to roll out national smart health cards. What is the political buy-in for smart card technology in the Asia-Pacific region? It is fair to say that most public sector and private sector organisations have now accepted that the introduction of smart card technology is inevitable for a wide variety of reasons and applications.

June 2007

What is the difference between the developed and developing countries in the deployment of smart card technologies? There are a number of reasons. For the public sector, there may be different attitudes to the introduction of smart cards for citizens applications. In many of the developed countries there is less interest in privacy issues from citizens and their governments whereas in the developing countries these issues of data privacy is a major focus for both citizens and their governments. In terms of the implementation of smart card deployment in the public sector, developed countries are far more likely to manage this through open tenders and bidding to obtain best of breed implementations. Developed countries may be more likely to assign a project to a single organisation, often a national organisation with strong links to government. Do you think, multi-application smart cards will be a solution for better public service delivery? In theory yes. But combining applications from different government departments on a single card for citizens is fraught with many problems. These problems are related to political issues and the business case for multi-application cards and not with any smart card technology issues. Quite simply, it is very difficult to get government departments to agree on how their respective applications should be implemented on a single card. In practice, it looks increasingly likely that the major applications (identity, health, driving license, etc) are unlikely to be combined on a single card for citizens. What is the amount of security risk involved in the smart card applications? Security is a key aspect in the design of all identity and payment applications. Security needs to be designed from the bottom up and includes not only the card itself but the systems which support and interact with smart cards. In any well-designed smart card scheme, the security risks need to be managed appropriately and this requires a certain amount of knowledge from end-users. End users in many business sectors are beginning to learn of the security issues to be addressed. Unfortunately the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading smart card solutions providers have many years of experience in developing such security solutions to address these issues. What will be the future development in the smart card technology? There is a clear trend towards the introduction of contactless smart card technology in most business sectors. In some cases this will include the introduction of contactless smart card technologies in mobile phones which will further widen the scope and application for smart card applications. There is also a clear trend in the introduction of biometric technologies for public sector applications. In many cases biometric applications work best with smart card technologies and we are likely to see the two combined increasingly in the future. In the long-term it is likely that biometric and smart card technologies will also make their appearance in the private sector for consumer applications.

COVER FEATURE

Asset Tracking and Identification Radio Frequency Identification Solutions for Government RFID solutions for the government can address a wide range of applications. Government agencies around the world are using RFID and sensors for tracking a variety of assets like shipments, high-value equipment and personnel. There are solutions to address national security issue involving emergency response systems.Other major initiatives at government agencies that use or propose to use the technology include physical access control and tracking of assets, documents, or materials. Anitha Sarathy

FID is arguably a very useful and interesting technology with far reaching implications and wide range of applications. At the core, RFID is a tracking technology which can help track and identify an asset uniquely. This technology when combined with sensors and actuators like the ones that can detect and record temperature and pressure of an asset, can be effectively used in cold chain applications by generating and sending alerts when such items move through the supply chain. Also, with the advent of standards like EPC Gen 2, RFID technologies offer many more features which enable the reader to identify multiple tags in its vicinity. This is especially useful in large production environments where there is a high traffic of asset movement. The technology has moved away from hype cycle and is being considered as the next mainstream application. This has been made possible by the madantes by organizations like Wal-Mart and U.S. Department of Defence (DOD) to their suppliers to tag their products. Also, the acceptance of RFID is more evident with companies across verticals deploying RFID pilot projects and evaluating areas to position this technology to enhance their business process and realise Return on Investment (ROI). Its worth noting that US and UK governments have enforced compliance regulations like Sarbanes Oxley, which requires businesses to keep a record of all electronic transactions and communications to reduce fraud and improve financial transparency using Auditing techniques. Businesses which have to compy to these regualations are turning towards RFID which provides visibility and transparency. RFID Solutions in Action

Asset Tracking: RFID solution has been widely used in many 16 }

industries to track high-value assets. In fact, asset tracking and inventory management can help organisations limit the problems related to inventory management, material tracking and supply chain processes. Not only at the factory floor where real time data needs to be pulled out and fed into the backend databases and ERP systems, but also, the system can be used to know a productâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exact location, serial number, colour and even place of assembly to help eliminate instances when an item is out of stock. These solutions also provide immediate productivity benefits by automating data capture and verification to streamline inventory management at the case and pallet level. Government agencies across the world are piloting the asset tracking application for electronically tracking and streamlining their in-bound and out-bound logistics. A good example of this is the United States Department of Defence who was an early adoptor of this technology and has deployed RFID for streamlining its supply chain and improving business process in collaboration with their suppliers. Transportation and Logistics: RFID solutions has a huge impact in the travel and transportation industry and can cover a wide range of applications ranging from supply chain management for assets such as railway wagons, trucks/trailers, containers, pallets/cases, racks and bins to help agencies access more accurate and timely data to manage their assets. These solutions are available to help companies improve efficiencies or enhance services and are also applicable to shipping and container transportation business. One of the early adoptors of this technology in transportation sector has been the railways. Railways in US and Germany are using RFID for tracking wagons and cargo by embedding RFID chips inside them, which transmit to the readers that are strategically placed near the tracks. The information is then collated by a centralised server and allows the rail yard employees to get in-transit visibility, sequence, maintenance status and to analyse freight utilisation. The system in www.egovonline.net

conjunction with sensors can also help monitor the health of the wagons and also doubles up as security mechanism to indicate if the lock of the wagon is compromised because of theft. Emergency Response System and Security: Solutions involving RFID, wireless, sensor networks and mobile computers can provide automated data capture to make critical information available for fire, police and other emergency teams to rush and co-ordinate their responses during an emergency. Several trials are already underway where all the emergency teams (hospital, ambulance services and police) are networked and special RFID cards (RFID wrist bands) are given to patients during an emergency. The para-medics hold a mobile computing device with a RFID reader near the card and thus obtain critical patient information required to administer immediate medical treatment to stabilise a patient in critical condition during transport to the hospital. When the patient arrives at the hospital, the card is again scanned and the right doctors and nurses are intimated to provide their services. The hospital management systems can also be integrated to automatically capture the patientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s details and track the patientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s progress. Real time location tracking solutions involving RFID and wireless can help monitor the location of employees, contractors and visitors for security reasons and in case of emergency situations. The technology is also being employed to monitor the location and condition of key assets for maintenance purposes and to ensure that equipment is up and running safely. Information gathered from these RFID devices provides critical data to aid in compliance of stringent regulations for safety and security industry-wide. Location awareness and safety solutions can also enable you to remotely track the location of many different kinds of high value assets. RFID tags can be attached to critical tools, materials and other items and gauge when and where the assets are being used. With the help of such solutions, you can know as to which approved ID badges are in a problem area and which of them are not. Should there be an emergency, rescue personnel will be directed to isolated parties more quickly. Companies like British Petroleum have deployed RFID technology to get plant wide tracking of the employee in real time for security reasons. Recommendations and Roadmap

RFID represents a significant, transformational change and adoption of the same is increasing now, thanks to lower costs, good understanding of this solution, and the need for new technology levers. However, it is not without its challenges and choosing the right deployment approach is a critical factor. The recommendation is to follow a three phased approach for a successful RFID deployment. There are other challenges as well pertaining to readiness of the backend infrastructure to accept the volume of data that RFID generates. The RFID readers scan continuously for nearby tags, several times per second. As a result, many ov

June 2007

networks produce an abundance of raw data every day, much of which has little or no value. While there are various approaches to solving this problem, it is evident that an effective means of filtering and managing meaningful data is needed to realise the value of RFID. While there is a plethora of options available in the market for RFID middleware products, care should be taken to evaluate their different features apart from the core features of filtering, routing and reader integration. The middleware product should be open standards based and auto-id (Barcode/RFID) hardware agnostic. The application platform should follow a holistic distributed architecture which helps you align your business process and needs to be scalable enough to deploy a small pilot translating it to a full fledged implementation. The multi-tiered architecture will provide flexibility and scalability to maximise business value capture. RFID middleware providers can be classified into four categories, RFID pure play vendors, application vendors, platform specialists, integration experts. Choosing the right type of provider depends on the architecture that enables integration and business process management, which is vital factor for RFID deployments. Summary

Although there is a significant amount of applications available for RFID, every government agency is faced with questions on privacy issues and has to deal with budget constraints to pursue this technology. The recommendation is to learn by piloting, ramping up knowledge and organise for success. Also, determining the economics and optimal deployment strategy to suit your business is essential and can be achieved by defining new process to take advantage of new data visibility. Until policies on security and privacy evolve, focus on clearly articulating your execution roadmap is important. Anitha Sarathy (spanitha@in.ibm.com) is an IT Specialist in IBM India. As subject matter expert in wireless and RFID solutions, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been with IBM for the last 5 years and has been responsible for designing and execution of these solutions.

COVER FEATURE

Immigration Gates also go ‘Smart’ Smart immigration gates provides enhanced border security, ability to process increasing numbers of passengers and deter the use of forged or stolen passports. Kemal Bajramovic

“Come my son, come to the machine…” It seems that in the near future at least similar to these words the future travelers will hear as they approach the immigration gates. Since the introduction of electronic passport scaled globally, airport security should be upgraded to allow electronic passport bearers to clear immigration controls faster and therefore benefit the introduction of this technology. Malaysia was the first country in the world to issue electronic passports in March 1998. In December 2002, thumbprint data was added to the biometric data on the passport RFID chip. Similar technology is used in the Malaysian national Identity Card called MyKad (Government Multi Purpose Card). Malaysians developed the Autogate system which is designed to facilitate exit and re-entry of Malaysians holding passport or MyKad at Malaysian immigration checkpoints. Passport information stored in MyKad increase the efficiency of immigration clearance through the Autogate system without compromising the national security. The process is quite simple: Malaysian citizens coming back home approach to the Autogate system and place their passports on the passport reader machine and wait for an estimated time of 7-10 seconds. The system deploys fingerprint verification technology for authentication of a person’s identity. To get good fingerprint image, people just need to place the thumb flat on the centre of the scanner. In 2-3 seconds the system will perform 1:1 fingerprint verification. When the verification process is complete, after enjoying convenience of self-processing, they remove their passports and proceed.

18 }

Australians developed similar system called SmartGate. It is a secure and simple system that performs the customs and immigration checks normally made by a Customs Officer when a person arrives in Australia. SmartGate takes a live image of the face and using facial recognition technology compares it with a mathematical representation of his or her facial features stored on the electronic passport. If there is a successful match, the traveler is cleared through the customs control point. Otherwise, the traveler is to be referred to a Customs Officer. Eligible International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) compliant electronic passports from other countries will be able to use SmartGate too. With previous introduction of electronic air-tickets and electronic check-in, electronic passports and now electronic immigration gates, RFID technology makes air transport becomes even faster and simpler.

Kemal Bajramovic (kemal.bajramovic@ads.gov.ba) is Head of IT Department of Civil Service Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

www.egovonline.net

COVER FEATURE

Cutting Edge Affordable Technology for Access Control HID India What are the aims and objectives behind establishing HID India Private Limited. What are the strategies being adopted to fulfill these objectives. HID was experiencing very large and consistent business from India as a market which justified HID Global to invest in this market and establish a local presence. The challenges faced by both end users and the channel (System Integrators) are availability of products with a short lead time. Having a presence in India allows us to supply most of our products within 3 – 5 working days. As the market gets more sophisticated in its requirement and with large number of channel partners entering into the electronic access control industry, it was important for HID to provide with product training on smart cards, biometrics and even enable applications such as canteen, time and attendance with local software/ hardware partners. Our products today are available across 20 – 30 cities which allows us to offer cutting edge affordable technology for access control to any end user. Finally, having a local support team which is in the same time-zone, speaks the same language and understands the nature of doing business in India was important.

http://www.hidcorp.com

“As the market gets more sophisticated in its requirement and with large number of channel partners entering into the Electronic Access Control industry, it was important for HID to provide with product training on Smart Cards, Biometrics and even enable applications such as canteen, time and attendance with local software/ hardware p artners”, says Harish Vellat (hvellat@hidcorp.com), Managing Director, HID India Pvt. Ltd., in conversation with egov magazine

What verticals do you see as ideal for your products? The early adopters for Electronic access control were IT/ITES (Call centers/BPO ). Over the years banks, financial services, insurance, service industry, government agencies, public sector undertakings, ministries and manufacturing sector use HID card and readers.

installations, some of the high profile ones are – Indian Oil Corporation across 260 sites, NPCIL has introduced and is rolling this across India, Bharat Petroleum, BSNL, ISRO, ONGC, GAIL, Ministry of Defense, etc..

What are some of your contact and contactless card solutions for public sector in India? There are in excess of few hundred

Tell us about HID’s Secure MultiAccess Ready-to-Ship (SMARTS) programme. SMARTS is a unique programme wherein

June 2007

we offer any volume (10 – 999 or more) of combi-technology card which combines contactless technologies (125 kHz and/ or 13.56 Mhz) with contact chip technologies (Gemalto, G&D, etc.) in a short lead time. The reason we introduced this programme is that conventionally whenever a user wants to offer a combination of contactless (for Access Control) and contact chip (for IT Security – PKI, etc.) they need to either order in bulk or the cost per card is very costly, compounded with lead times of 6-8 weeks or more. HID instead offers any user large or small to introduce combi cards which is affordable and easily available. This offers all teams within a public sector organisation (IT, security and administration and Finance) a hassle-free secure card technology from HID. HID is the premier manufacturer of contactless access control cards and readers for the security industry. How do your cards have an edge over other market players in this field? HID has been a pioneer in the industry since its inception. HID introduced 125 kHz Proximity technology to be integrated with Wiegand Control Panels (which is was prevalent as a de facto standard); HID introduced secure formats (Format is a Card Identification number, this is typically used in Access Control to identify a user) such as Corporate 1000 Format which is an End-User reserved format which is unique in the world, this ensure no duplication of card formats worldwide; HID offered Mifare Readers on a worldwide basis much before anyone else in the industry. Today we have one of the best and widest range of Mifare & DesFire Readers and Cards. 19

cover feature

cutting edge affordable technology for access control

HID introduced iCLASS which is a pedigree 13.56 Mhz Contactless Smart Card technology specifically for Access Control, this includes high secure Key Management and Encryption standards which are the best in class of other Smart Cards for Access control. HID offers high security card printing with Embedded Holograms, UV Ink, Guilloche printing, Micro-fine printing – all of this makes it impossible to physically duplicate a card. HID is more than just a Card/Reader company it is a de facto standard for Access Cards/ Readers by being the only company available in over 100 countries through more than 10,000 channel partners. No other brand can claim such a global footprint. Please tell us about how you are incorporating security features in the cards, especially for the public sector to keep the sensitive data secure. HID cards and readers are currently deployed globally across various sensitive sites such as Airports, Defense establishments/ bases, Police, Nuclear Installations. HID’s combination of products, services, and know-how with unique attributes that deliver trusted solutions for secure identity-related applications for the end-users under HID Trusted Identity Platform™: a. Secure Technology: 1. For government sites that wish to have more than a basic level of security – In the Proximity technology HID offers a service called Corporate 1000 Format (unique format for an end user which ensures no card duplication). This is ideally suited for government offices such as refineries, banks, telecom, etc. 2. For government sites that want Moderate security –In the 13.56 Mhz technology HID offers HID Elite Keys (Keys which are known only to HID) which secures the Access Control Information residing in the Card. This allows a Card to work only with the readers on site and vice versa. This is best suited for Airports, Ports, Police Station, Correctional Facilities, Government Mint, etc. 20

3. For government sites that wish to have very high security – In the 13.56 Mhz technology HID offers Custom Keys (Keys which are known only to the End User) which secures the Access Control Information residing in the Card. This allows a Card to work only with the readers on site and vice versa. This is best suited for Intelligence, Defense, Nuclear and other sensitive facilities. b. Card Printing: HID offers secure card features such as Embedded Holograms, UV Ink, Guilloche printing, Micro-fine printing. This makes it impossible for a person to duplicate a card using available card printing technology. c. Secure Communication Reader: HID Readers can be configured to communicate securely with any third party system on a protected RS 485 network. This is done to ensure that no one can “listen” to the communication between the reader and the access control system or replay this communication with any unauthorised device. d. Biometric Technology: HID offers Biometric technology wherein an end-user can deploy a multi-factor authentication such as Card + Bio and even Card + Bio + PIN to ensure that unauthorised entries are not made into a secure facility on account of card getting stolen. e. Physical plus Logical Security: HID offers Combi Cards, through the use of these cards a user can use the card during the course of the day at work. At 9:00 AM the user flashes the \ contactless part of the card onto a long range reader for gaining access into the parking facilities At 9:10 AM the user shows the contactless part of card at the door reader to enter the Building, registering time and attendance, At 9:15 AM the user can authenticate on to the secure IT network using PKI or HID’s Windows compatible product Crescendo which offers secure authentication such as Microsoft® Windows® Smart Card Framework (WSF) and supports applications such as Windows Domain logon, VPN, Single Sign On, etc.

At 1:00 PM the user can log-off and use the contactless part of the card for e-Cash at the canteen replacing a paper based token system. At 2:00 PM the user can enter a high security door which has a finger print reader for multi-factor authentication. The reader compares the user’s finger print presented real-time with the template stored in the card (at time of card issuance). Once the match is successful, the user can enter into the high security area. At 5:00 PM the user can exit out of the building by flashing his contactless part of the card on the door reader and at this time the time and attendance is captured. This is uploaded on to the Human Resource Management System for capturing payroll information. What is your opinion about National e-Governance Plan of India? What are the initiatives you are doing in partnership with the central and state governments in India? HID has dedicated a Strategic Account manager within its team and is in parallel working with its channel partners to advise various government agencies and key people within the government. We have conducted in the past PublicPrivate Partnership seminars in large and small groups which enable us to be a trusted advisor and show case leading technologies and benchmark projects on a worldwide basis. We have clearly seen the benefit by engaging the government in this process as it helps educate the key personnel. Through this education process, there is a better understanding on what technology is needed and a more pragmatic approach on deploying technology. In the past, due to the lack of such communication, the technology specified were inappropriate, resulting in known cases of early obsolescence. There are also cases for a system’s failure to support users which encouraged them to by-pass or override the system. All of this is a net loss for the user, exchequer and the industry players. Fortunately, there are a critical mass of good installations in the private and public sector within India which is becoming a reference site. www.egovonline.net

COVER FEATURE

e-Passport and Smart Card Initiatives in India India to soon have e-Passports

Government of India is planning to introduce e-Passports, also known as bio-metric passports. This was informed recently by the Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs, Shri E. Ahamed in the Upper House of the Parliament. Replying to a query on whether the government is envisaging introduction of e-Passports he stated that the e-Passport will be introduced initially for diplomats and officials as a pilot project later in the year 2007. By the end of 2008, e-Passports in the ordinary category may be issued, based on the experience gained from this pilot project To this effect, a Technical Committee has been constituted to finalise the technical specifications of the e-passports. The cost of converting ordinary into bio-metric passports will be worked out on the basis of the technical specifications that will be finalised. NXP Semi-conductors a Stong Contender for e-Passport Project in India

NXP president and Chief Executive Officer Frans Van Houten told a press conference that NXP semi-conductors is one of the contenders for the electronic passport system project, a plan Indian government is seriously considering. The company founded by Philips is

already NXP chips are being used in over a million smart cards for Delhi Metro. The company, founded by Philips, is one of the leaders in RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technologies. While unveiling the company’s new technology campus at Bangalore (India),

Houten said, “Eighty five per cent of the countries in the world use NXP chips in electronic passports. By 2008, the pilot project should happen. It will be initiated with diplomatic passports and then be rolled on for the others”.

Multi-purpose smart cards arrive

The Government of India (GoI) has started much awaited multi-purpose National Identity Card (MNIC) project in the country. The government has selected Narela area in north Delhi to distribute the National ID cards. The registrar general and census commissioner, D K Sikri will launch the card delivery operation by handing over hundreds of cards to villagers Narela in northwest Delhi on May 26, 2007. The government will distribute these smart cards to approximately 30 lakh people of 11 states. The National ID card will contain 16 personal details of an individual along with a unique identity number. Besides comprising name, sex, permanent and present residential addresses, marital status, place of birth, names of spouse (if ever married) and photograph, the card will also have ‘finger biometrics’ and ‘visible identification mark’ of an individual. These records would be kept as a part of the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC). The register would be continuously updated by linking it top the compulsory registration of births and deaths. Under this plan, citizens do not need to have separate ration card or driving license. The government will offer the MNIC is other regions, including Karimganj in Assam, Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir, Kutch in Gujarat, Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, Pithoragarh in Uttrakhand, Maharajganj in Uttar Pradesh, West Tripura in Tripura, Murshidabad in West Bengal, north district in Goa, Medak in Andhra Pradesh, Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu, Northwest district in Delhi and Puducherry district in Puducherry. The government has planned to cover entire population of the country by 2012.

June 2007

COVER FEATURE

Secure Identification through Chip Technology http://www.nxp.com

“In almost more than 50 countries NXP identification technologies have been deployed in mass scale projects. Till date more than 1 Billion chips have been shipped and used worldwide for various projects”, informs Ashok Chandak (ashok. chandak@nxp.com), Director, Sales and Marketing, NXP Semiconductors, in an interview with egov magazine Please tell us about NXP secure identification technologies for the public sector? NXP has several secure identification technologies targeted towards eGovernment projects such as: Secure contactless smart cards chips, Secure smart MX controller chips, RFID’s, Reader IC’s and Near field communications. e-Government is 22 }

about using technology to improve the way citizens use public services and exchange ‘official’ information. Its benefits include faster and more convenient access to services, as well as simplified and more secure transactions. Its scope goes beyond national and local government departments to cover all kinds of institutions, agencies and companies. From online tax returns to electronic voting, from healthcare to road traffic control, e-Government makes things more convenient, easy and secure.

of governmental smart chip technology based projects.

What are the pillars of NXP for e-Government projects? e-gov pillars Insightful: We have a deep understanding of the sensitivity and complexity of governmental applications and projects. NXP is striving for the development of best-in-class secure chip technology to address today’s and tomorrow’s needs of governments and citizens. Engaging: We are constantly improving the way of working within our teams in order to establish an interface to the customer that is easy to work with and fully supporting the goals of respective governmental application and projects. Dedicated resources in the sales and marketing organisation are a key pillar for our success. Inventive: NXP constantly improves design methodology and features of its leading secure chip solutions to guarantee strongest protection of sensitive private data along with highest performance in terms of transaction speed, power consumption, interface options as well as convenience for endusers. Excellence: NXP is fully committed to deliver best-in-class product solutions and application know-how to address and even exceed all needs

How is your company responding to the increasing need for capability and security in multi-application cards? The success of multi-purpose cards depends on two things - security and privacy. Our NXP solution based on Smart MX answers to those concerns! Developed from secure banking cards over the past 30 years, the NXP secure identification chip technology has now reached a stage that enables highly secure electronic documents. Encouraging the paperless society and minimising red tape, these ID credentials and publicservice access tokens contain a thin, secure smart chip which can also hold and run various applications securely separated by a hardware firewall. Our latest smart chip platform with its state of the art encryption hardware and data protection mechanism are being used in e-Government documents and ID credentials.To ensure that identification technologies are interoperable on a global scale, as a member of the International Standards Organisation, Philips/NXP helped to develop ISO 14443 for contactless identification and ISO 7816 for contact smart cards. NXP also ensures its solutions to conform to emerging regulations and requirements

Which are the countries where your identication technologies have already been deployed? In almost more than 50 countries NXP identification technologies have been deployed in mass scale projects. Till date more than 1 billion chips have been shipped and used worldwide for various projects. The list of countries include the continents of USA, Europe, Asia including India.

www.egovonline.net

such as those from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for e-Passports and the GSC-IS specification from the US government and Indian government Smart Card Operating System for Transport Application (SCOSTA) needs. NXP is the leading supplier of the chips for the multi application smart cards. For instance, NXP is the sole supplier for the pilot project of multipurpose ID cards in India requiring 2 million units of Multi application citizen ID cards. Can you share with our readers about your smart passport solution? The world is moving to electronic (chip) based passports. NXP is the leading company with more than 80% of the countries use NXP chips for the passports. In fact, we are the only company that has close to 100% success rate at the interoperatability test. We work very closely with the ICAO for implementing the chips based on these standards. NXP has the most mature contactless technology that ensures the interoperability and reliable operation in stringent environment. Worldwide, security and privacy are big issues for e-Government service providers. But our ID solutions and secure smartchip platform are ahead of the rest in addressing them. • Winning more than 80% of e-Passport projects globally (status as of February 2007) • The world’s first Evaluation Assessment Level (EAL5)+ certificate • The first CC EAL5+ security-certified triple interface chip • Various memory options (from 09 to 144kb) • Various security hardware options • Thinnest smart chips delivery types available in the market today How, in your opinon, can smart cards help improve efficiency and convenience in some of the other areas of e-Government such as healthcare, education, and public and social service? Sure, smart cards can make a major difference in the lives of the consumers and public sector agencies. There are already use cases of smart cards in these segments, e.g. health cards in ov

June 2007

Indian Defence Services, Taiwan, Germany. Some implementation on the Public distribution system. The smart cards can capture the identity of the person including the biometrics information. And then this can be used to make sure that the right person is able to receive the benefits entitled to him or her. NXP is a global leader in silicon solutions for the identification market and leads in contactless chips. Can you elaborate on the advantages of contactless versus contact chips? For a country like India, contactless chips are the best option. It gives consumers a great experience of making the transaction with just waving the contactless chip card in front of the reader. There is no need to insert in the card slot and no need to worry about the direction of the card. It’s easy to use. And Indian environment of dust, humidity, oil, hot weather, may lead to contact chip malfunction. While for contactless chip the electronics is embedded in the card and not visible as such it is safe from the hostile environment. The chip cannot be spoiled due to electrical current through the contacts. When it comes to security, operating range and communication speed there are huge differences between our secure contactless smart chips, like SmartMX, and other types of contactless chips commonly known as RFID chips or tags, Our e-Government chip solutions based on ISO14443, are highly sophisticated, intelligent devices that securely store personal data, helping to identify individuals and grant secure access to services. Contactless technology has already proven in various citizen credential applications such as ePassport, National ID, government and corporate identification cards. Chips based on this standard can: • Secure communicate within a 10 cm range. • Uniquely and securely manage, store and access data on the chip • Perform complex functions such as data encryption and transfer • Provide security features and counter-measures against physical attacks and remote hacking of the chip

•

Interact securely and intelligently via the contactless interface with standard contactless terminals

What have been the key issues facing smart card solution providers in the smart card industry? Though, smart card industry is still at an early stage of industry maturity cycle, there are myriad of opportunities and more than hundred pilot projects have been done in India. Due to boom in the mobile telephony, SIM cards have created major demand for the smart cards/chips. In addition, driving licence and vehicle registration continues to be another key application of usage of the smart cards.The major challenge is to scale up. Industry needs to find ways and means to solve the problems of the consumers and government. Return on Investment needs to be justified. Political implications to be managed. Interoperatability need to ensured. What is the political buy in for smart card solutions in India? What are some of your initiatives in partnership with the government of India? Various departments of Governement of India are actively considering the smart cards deployment considering the value proposition. We have supported one of the initiative of local standards for smart operating system in India. The Operating system is known as SCOSTA. We continue to engage with the government departments to develop the market, expand the pie of the market size wherein many companies can coexist and do the business. What are some of your future initiatives planned? We need to step up the market development activity, create new markets for the smart cards deployment. In addition to SIM for mobile phone and DL/RC application, several other applications such as identification, banking, tagging, fare collection, loyalty holds enormous potential. We need to take up major actions on the awareness and selling value proposition of smart cards to end users and bodies. I am looking forward to much more vigorous efforts from industry partners. Together we can achieve more. 23

India's Premier ICT4D event 31 July - 03 August 2007 Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi, India

eINDIA 2007 is an inclusive, consultative and constructive Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) forum - the largest and only one of its kind in India - promoting and propagating the use of ICT4D through its seven seminal, different but interrelated conferences. The event will address the implications of the digital divide and identify and explore opportunities for a resurgent digital India. Along with the conferences and exhibitions, eINDIA 2007 will also host for the first time, the i4d Film Festival. The festival will focus on the visual representation of the impact of ICT4D.

Organiser

knowledge for change

Co-organisers

Department of Information Technology Government of India

Learning Partner

eGovernance Solution Partner

Gold Sponsor

Silver Sponsor

Knowledge Partner

UN DP

AG R I

BU SI NE

SS P

I NDI AN SO C I E

SI O NALS F ES

速

Supporting Partners

ISAP

Exhibitors

a CL

Media Partners

ov www.eINDIA.net.in

L CATION

news review

Tokyo’s Ginza Area to be covered with RFID Tags

The Tokyo Ubiquitous Network Project seeks to install RFID, infrared and wireless transmitters throughout Tokyo’s Ginza area, which is the most famous shopping area in the capital. The project is supported by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MILT). It is one of several such projects that are currently taking place in Japan. The system has a 3.5-inch organic light emitting diode (OLED) touch-panel display and a host of networking interfaces.

There is RFID, infrared and 429MHz wireless for interacting with the beacons in the trial, wireless LAN for connection to the Internet and a Bluetooth link. It works by matching a unique code sent out by each beacon with data stored on a server on the Internet. The data is obtained automatically by the terminal using wirless LAN and requests the server, data relevant to the beacon that is being picked up. According to Ken Sakamura, Professor, University of Tokyo and the leader of the project, “The tags and transmitters will provide location-related information to people carrying prototype readers”. It is being developed by Tokyo’s Ubiquitous Computing Technology Center, which is a joint venture between the Japanese government and some of the country’s largest high-tech companies including Fujitsu, NEC, Hitachi and NTT East.

Smart Card Alliance for Identity Management With the increasing security breaches around the globe, private and government organisations are recognising the need to strengthen IT security through smart cards, tokens and new software solutions. A full-day educational session on trends in cybersecurity and identity management was organised by The Smart Card Alliance on May 16th 2007 at the SecurTech 2007 conference, part of CardTech/ SecurTech (CTST) 2007. Vanderhoof, Executive Director, Smart Card Alliance, moderated the session, ‘Advance ID management and cybersecurity’, with speakers from top solution provider and user organisations. Some of the key topics discussed included: Smart cards, tokens and software, identity management on desktops and servers, shared services for identity management, card management systems, department of defense Common Access Card (CAC) program etc. The session was attended by smart card alliance members and top IT professionals. CardTech/SecurTech is America’s largest advanced card and biometrics conference, covering secure transaction technology, contactless cards and IT/physical access security convergence. CardTech focuses on transaction technology used by the identification industry while SecurTech addresses every aspect of logical and physical access security.

26 }

Taiwan aims for More Private Sector Investment in RFID Taiwan government aims to get 11.4 percent more private investment with more focus on radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies this year. According to the report released by the government, the major focus of the government in attracting private investment would be on RFID technologies, including chip modules and Gen2 Tags, or ultra-high-frequency chips developed around the EPCglobal standard for second-generation EPC technology. EPCglobal is a non-profit group set up to maintain barcode standards and commercialize related technologies. Taiwan made New Taiwanese (NT) $ 814 million worth of RFID products last year which is up by 15.3 percent compared to the previous year. The report also predicts that the chip and liquid crystal display (LCD) industries are expected to boom in the high-tech sector in the coming years. Various major private high-tech companies of the island are planning to increase their investment on RFID and other latest technologies.

OTI Captures Kenyan Smart Card Market The Fort Lee, U.S based On Track Innovations Ltd. (OTI) has entered smartly into the Kenyan smart cards market. OTI has received order for 100,000 smart cards and 200 smart card readers from Smart Applications International Ltd. of Kenya, a health-care solutions company. The card will contain the personal, portable database of medical information which will act as an alternative to the paper records. “The cards are much like credit cards but contain a microprocessor instead of a magnetic strip that needs to be swiped. In the Kenya deal, OTI is paid a set amount per card delivered and a monthly license or user fee” said Oded Bashan, OTI Chairman. OTI entered into Africa six years ago when it started it’s South African office to work on a project that used contactless technology to record gas sales to vehicle fleets, he added.

Royal Bank of Scotland goes for Xiring Smart Card Readers Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) will distribute handheld authentication solutions developed by French vendor Xiring to its online retail banking customers. Xiring will provide Xi-Sign 4000 for Apacs portable standalone EMVenabled smart card readers to RBS’s customers. It can be used to access web banking accounts. Whenever the smart card is inserted into the reader, it asks for the four digit PIN code for verification. After the verification, the reader displays a eight digit one-time-password valid for a single transaction when accessing web banking accounts. Xiring will provide fulfilment services and distribution to RBS retail customers. According to Xiring, RBS contract is a key milstone in its development strategy. Earlier, Barclays bank announced that it was issuing handheld chip and PIN readers developed by Gemalto to its customers to enable online banking.

www.egovonline.net

Industry perspective

Seamless Service Delivery for Government Microsoft Opens-up Opportunities

http://www.microsoft.com Could you brief our readers about the broad vision and mission of public sector initiatives by Microsoft? Microsoft’s mission is to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realise their full potential. One way we fulfill our mission is by developing innovative software that transforms the way people work, learn and communicate. Another way is by using our resources and expertise to help expand social and economic opportunities in communities around the world. The initiatives that my team drives here in Asia Pacific (APAC), together with similar teams across the rest of the world, play an important role in helping us realise our mission. By partnering with governments and educational institutions around the world, Microsoft is committed to finding technology solutions that help to improve the operations of government and the delivery of services to its citizens, expand the quality and reach of educational opportunities and find new ways to grow local economies.

“We are hearing from governments that they need a lot of help in technology automation. And if put in place rightly, the opportunities that can be offered through e-Government initiatives are tremendous. In my view, small countries are often those that do the best at e-Government as it is a lot easier in terms of working to break down the barriers between the departments”. Says Peter Moore, Region Managing Director, Public Sector APAC, Microsoft, in an exclusive interview with egov magazine ov

June 2007

What are the major activities you have done in the public sector, particularly in the Asia Pacific? In Asia Pacific, we have developed a lot of campaigns and initiatives that reach out to governments and educational institutions. For example – we recognise that teachers play a very crucial and important role in determining or changing the lives of young students. We also acknowledge the role that technology can play in schools and in learning especially if teachers are equipped with the right technology skills. With that in mind, we have a programme called the Innovative Teachers Conference that we organise every year. This event brings together all the innovative teachers across the region. We hope that with this get-together, teachers are able to establish a network and are able to exchange information or learn from each other, new or innovative ways and methods of teaching in schools and in their countries. We have gone one step further this year by launching the Innovative Teachers’ portal where we are able to, through our software and technology, provide a central network portal where teachers are able to interact, communicate and share information across the region. We recently held the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum (GLF) in Asia, an annual event that we put together for government leaders across the region. The event, which was held in Beijing, China, provides a dynamic discussion 27

industry perspective

seamless service delivry for government

platform for government and education leaders across Asia to exchange experiences and discuss issues related to governance and service delivery through interactive panel discussions, practical case studies and presentations by visionary keynote speakers. Similar GLF events are also organised in other regions as well. At this same event at GLF Asia, we also recently announced SoftwareAP. net, an initiative for bridging the gap between entrepreneurial high-tech growth companies, venture capitalist and government ecosystems to give small companies access to the cross border growth in the Asia Pacific region. This joint initiative shows Microsoft’s commitment to growing local software companies and is aimed at accelerating the growth of software and web service providers. The programme will also provide access to qualified funding networks and government assistance, as well as low cost, high value business development services. This is just an example of some of the work that we do across Asia Pacific that will help drive software companies in the countries to thrive, with the assistance from governments. Do you think e-Government initiatives are necessary for the developing countries to serve their citizens better? Do you have any specific e-Government projects for the developing countries? We are hearing from governments that they need a lot of help in technology automation. And if put in place rightly, the opportunities that can be offered through e-Government initiatives are tremendous. In my view, small countries are often those that do the best at e-Government as it is a lot easier in terms of working to break down the barriers between the departments. It is breaking down the barriers between the different levels of government. It is also about getting the people who work in the government to exercise leadership so that they are excited about these improvements and so that the measures that they look at, the reduction of paperwork, the increase of responsiveness that their readers get them to feel like those are great things and show them the product, show them 28

the opportunity that, as they embrace these changes, that will be something that they get credit for as they deliver in a new way. Pulling this technology together, connecting up to the existing government systems requires great software approaches. It requires standards for interoperability; it requires very clever ways of making sure that the transition can be made easily. Our strategy that talks to this is a seamless service delivery to reduce red tape, and we have created an e-Gov framework that allows existing applications to be plugged into that one at a time, so that you can do this in an evolutionary way, although with a model of where you want to get to and making sure that everything fits that. What are the major obstacles you are facing while working with the governments in both the developed and developing countries? It is mostly about the mindset of the people who run the organisation. We need to have a group of people who are willing to drive change and structure of the organisation to accommodate and embrace the technology change. Often, we have governments come to us to say, I would like to embrace technology automation but I’d like everything to be status quo. That is not possible. embracing technology change means embracing a change in mindset. Tell us about the Microsoft Unlimited Potential programme in India (MUPP) and the impact it created? Our Unlimited Potential programme aims to accelerate our commitment to facilitate sustained social and economic opportunity for the more than 5 billion people living in every country around the world that do not today benefit from technology. We recently announced at our Government Leaders’ Forum recently, an expansion of the programme which looks like extending, renewing and accelerating Microsoft’s longterm commitment to use technology, training and partnerships to transform education, foster local innovation, and enable jobs and opportunities to sustain a continuous cycle of social and economic growth for everyone. The expanded programme aims to focus on

three areas – education, innovation and jobs and economic opportunity. In India, we have a programme called Project “Shiksha” which is focused on delivering access to technology in education. Project ‘Shiksha’, aims to accelerate computer literacy by providing an end to end solution which includes software solutions, comprehensive training for teachers and students, IT curriculum development, and scholarships for teachers and students across India, reaching out to over 80,000 school teachers and 3.5 million students across government schools. Can you share your experiences in the public sector around the world in the context of e-Readiness? This goes back to my earlier point about what I commonly hear as the main issue raised by the governments I speak to. They are ready to embrace technology automation and ready to look at e-Gov infrastructure and network. However, they also need to remember that this also means that they will need to be ready for it from a mindset perspective. This requires a whole new shift in thinking as well as restructuring the organisation for better efficiency and operations. What are your future plans for the public sector, especially for emerging markets in Asia? We are making big bets in driving strong government initiatives in the next few years. An example is the recent Unlimited Potential announcement we made. Through the Partners in Learning programme, Microsoft announced the Microsoft Student Innovation Suite, an affordable and reliable software package for governments purchasing and giving Windows-based PCs to primary and secondary students for their personal use at home and for schoolwork. The education suite includes Windows XP Starter Edition, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Microsoft Math 3.0, Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office, and Windows Live Mail desktop. Available in the secondhalf of 2007 Microsoft will offer this suite for US$3 to qualifying governments that purchase and supply PCs directly to students. www.egovonline.net

event diary

Navigating RFID Adoption Roadmap A

conference focusing on RFID implementation- standards, best practices and future context was organised recently at Mumbai, India. Titled as the ‘Navigating RFID Adoption Roadmap’ , the conference was one of the most successful and informative RFID Adoption conferences in India. Organised by Informedia India Pvt. Ltd., the ‘Navigating RFID Adoption Roadmap’ conference proved to be an exhaustive well of knowledge meted out by RFID industry leaders.

Eminent speakers from top-rung organisations in India like Ashok Leyland, Pantaloon Retail India Ltd. AVAANA, Infosys, etc. spoke on the future and implementation of RFID Technology in Indian industries. Senior distribution and marketing services manager of GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals spoke on the identification of the essential technology components and stated “There is a future for RFID implementation in Indian Pharma.” The need for e-Pedigree technology and the importance of RFID technology in the Indian pharma scenario was also discussed. Speaking on the conference he said “The conference had a good mix of topics from very wellexperienced and qualified speakers from the industry.”

Also present among the eminent delegates was Akash Deep Batra from Infosys Technologies Ltd. who discussed the advantages an organisation will have in extracting business

value from RFID generated data. Mr. Akash has helped one the biggest retailers in the USA with RFID implementation. Day two of the conference saw more of the industry top players discussing key issues especially relevant to Indian businesses such as data delivery to the end-user, team building for RFID project execution, RFID vendor management, etc. There was also a case study on the implementation of RFID in Pantaloon Retail India Ltd. which provided a practical insight into how RFID could enable a business

June 2007

to track its assets globally, technical insight on web based RFID solutions, etc. Bimal Sareen, CEO of AVAANA, and president of RFID Association of India spoke animatedly and effectively on the importance of achieving Return on Investment (ROI) in one’s business and how this ROI could be achieved with the help of RFID technology. The panel discussions at the conference were most effective and valuable for any queries that the delegates had with regard to RFID technology, execution and implementation. Eminent panel speakers discussed key RFID related issues especially relevant to the Indian industries such as government mandates or barriers, consumer privacy with the implementation of RFID tags and readers, legal frameworks required to encourage the use of RFID for the growth of commerce and development while protecting consumer rights, learning from western RFID experiences etc. This value packed conference proved to be successful on several fronts enabling both delegates and speakers to gain insight on the future of RFID in Indian businesses.

For details refer to: http://www.informedia-india.com/client/index. aspx?id=conference&sub=program&ConfID=72

commentary

e-Government

Treating Citizens as Infants or Adults? Richard Heeks

How do e-Government projects treat citizens – as infants or as adults? e-Government means any use of information technology in the public sector. But e-Government is most associated with G2C – web sites that provide information and online transactions for citizens. When most such sites are designed – unwittingly perhaps – they treat citizens as infants; as red-in-the-face, temper-tantrum toddlers sitting at their PCs screaming “I want it now!!!”. So G2C projects are constructed around the instant gratification of the citizen-infant. They must make things quicker for the citizen-infant. They must make things easier for the citizeninfant. Responsibilities and efforts are to be lifted from the citizeninfant’s shoulders. With luck it might respond with a gurgle as its car tax or passport is renewed, but that will soon be forgotten. Longer-term it will be developing many other infant traits in its relation to government – dependency, passivity, impatience, incompetence, trivialisation. So do not then be surprised when these instant-gratifiers shriek in frustration if their ideas do not become policy tomorrow, or when they toddle off to play computer games or read the Hollywood gossip rather than engaging with politics. Eric Berne, the founder of transactional analysis, would recognise this situation well. Most G2C takes the form of a parent—child transaction, with all that implies about the infantilisation of citizens. But he also points the way to an alternative; transforming e-Government into adult—adult transactions. Designed in this way, e-Government would treat citizens as adults. It would require them to make an effort. It would require them to take responsibility. It would help to turn them into active, independent, competent members of society. What would this mean in practice? Some examples: e-Democracy: not the push-button stupidity of supposedly expressing your view as a citizen by clicking your mouse or, at best, filling your name on an e-Petition. Instead, deliberative democracy: a structured interaction with others that takes time, thought and commitment. e-Learning: not the spoon-feeding of the didactic models inherent in many systems. Instead, a monitored peer-to-peer

30 }

learning approach that means you can only take out if you’re prepared to contribute in a meaningful way. e-Services: not the passive immediacy of current online systems treating citizens as infant consumers. Instead, development of e-Government systems that allow selfmanagement and self-assessment, treating citizens as adult “prosumers”. A few countries allow this with taxation but the potential to extend – to health, to education, to participatory budgeting – is great.

e-Government is but a symptom of two broader pathologies because it sits at the intersection of bureaucracy and e-Business. From bureaucracy it inherits the tendency of public institutions to paternalism; treating citizens as cases not people; treating citizens as recipients not participants. From e-Business it inherits the race to the bottom that insists the easiest click will win the competition for the most business. Recognising these pathologies could be the first step to taking a different route with e-Government: not infantilisation but “adultisation”. This route would design e-Government initiatives to increase rather than decrease citizen responsibilities. And it would focus not on reducing effort for citizen-infants but on helping to build the active citizenship of citizen-adults. Richard Heeks, (richard.heeks@manchester.ac.uk) Sr. Lecturer, Development Informatics Group, University of Manchester, U.k. http://www.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/dig

www.egovonline.net

regional focus: Delhi

e-Delhi Marching Ahead to Bridge the Digital Divide The advantage with Delhi is the e-Readiness of its citizens, which helps to achieve the goal of the eGovernance. The major hurdle in achieving the e-Governance is capacity building - it is a huge challenge due to the lack of skilled manpower that can conceptualise, implement and effectively rollout e-Governance initiatives. An assessment of the current capacities and skill sets and the future requirements of the same to successfully implement the e-Governance initiatives is underway. Rajendra Kumar

overnment of NCT of Delhi aims to create a state where all citizens can transact with the government electronically, with most of the services being provided online while ensuring that there is no digital divide. Delhi had initiated its first e-Governance project in 1995-96 by computerisation of Transport and Sales Tax Department. Government started driving license preparation on (Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model in 1997 for the first time in the country. Delhi government announced its IT policy in August 2000 with the objective of using IT as an enabler for the people. Currently, Delhi government is ensuring information dissemination through the 100+ websites of its various departments/corporations in a user-friendly manner. The website of Delhi government namely, http://www.delhigovt. nic.in enables citizens to log in and send their complaints online. The portal has been designed keeping the citizen in focus, which also enables people to file applications online. Use of technology for monitoring citizen services in Delhi is at an advanced stage and will be realised through implementation of the Centralised Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System. This initiative, which is at the testing stage, would combine in itself a call centre and a computerised grievance monitoring system. This system will provide citizens with the facilities of finding information and lodging complaints through a variety of channels including Internet, mobile phones, telephones and paper based system. The system provides for automatic escalation of the grievances from one official level to the next higher level, if the grievances are not redressed at the lower level in a timebound manner. The 34 Citizen Service Bureaus (CSBs) are functional, wherein the services of the various departments Website: http://www.delhigovt.nic.in Major Initiative: To provide citizens with the facilities of finding information and lodging complaints Succesful Project: Centralised Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System, Indraprashtha Bhulekh, Online Khatauni, Delhi Online Registration Information System, e-Praman Patra

June 2007

are provided to the citizens. It is proposed to increase the number of CSBs from 34 to 134. Smart card based ration cards is envisaged. Driving license is also being automated. The web based application for preparation of ration card is also under implementation. Some successfully implemented e-Governance projects are Indraprastha Bhulekh (for automation of revenue records and is being used to record changes in ownership (mutation), Online Khatauni (Record of Right of Agricultural Land), Delhi Online Registration Information System, e-Praman P (for issuing of various types of certificates issued by the district administration), Student Performance Tracking System of Government Schools etc. The advantage with the state of Delhi is the e-Readiness of its citizens, which helps to achieve the goal of the e-Governance. The major hurdle in achieving the e-Governance is capacity building â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it is a huge challenge due to the lack of skilled manpower that can conceptualise, implement and effectively rollout e-Governance initiatives. An assessment of the current capacities and skill sets and the future requirements of the same to successfully implement the e-Governance initiatives is underway. It is proposed to setup an e-Governance centre for providing the training on the change management, business process re-engineering etc, which is essential to achieve the goal. All the projects identified under the National e-Governance Plan are being implemented. The computerisation of the land record, property registration, treasuries, employment exchanges and trade & taxes has been completed. Delhi state wide area network (DSWAN) is under execution, wherein 31 departments have already been connected with the Delhi secretariat with leased line connectivity, By May 2007, another 31 departments would be connected. An important upcoming initiative is Delhi online, The objective of the Delhi online is to provide front-end services like bill presentment, bill payment and accounting of receipts through the use of the latest technology On the pattern of some of the world class cities, it is proposed to develop wi-fi zones having wireless hot spots in Delhi, where internet facilities will be available free of 31

regional focus: delhi

e-delhi

cost or at nominal charges. Connaught place is expected to be developed as the first such wireless Internet hot spot on pilot basis. It is also proposed to setup Urban knowledge centre to strengthen the urban knowledge system to provide information to disempowered segments of the society in over 3000 slums in Delhi. The Urban knowledge centres will provide educational facilities while also serving as information dissemination and eGovernance interfaces. It is proposed to implement this project through the non-government organisations (NGOs). The work for computerisation of all the Hospitals of the Delhi Government and smart card based driving license is under progress. The Out Patient Department (OPD) services of most of the hospitals are computerised on outsourced model. The web based tender notice information system (TNIS) was implemented in February 2003, which allows publication of all tender notices at one location which can be viewed by any one at any time. On publication of the tender, this system provides free email notification to those who have registered themselves on the site. Govt. of NCT of Delhi has very recently got Data Quest’s “Best e-Governed State in Northern Region” award in 2006 and 2007.

Rajendra Kumar (secyit@nic.in) Secretary, IT, Delhi Government

Kedah Marching Towards ‘Info Technology-Ready’ State Kedah (Malaysia) puts itself in the fast track to be an “IT-ready” state. Datuk Nawai Ahmad, Chairman, State works, energy, information, information and communication technology (ICT) and environment committee, said “plans were being made to provide high-speed broadband of upto 100 mbps and discussions were ongoing with several companies to use wireless fibres to provide Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP), Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and video conferencing.” He also announced the upcoming biggest state-level ICT carnival. The theme of the carnival is ‘IT Ready’. Some of the activities to be lined up in the carnival include ICT exhibition, PC Fair, Mentri Besar ICT Innovation Award competition, among others. He said, the state was aggressively promoting the “Broadband in Every Household” campaign to increase the broadband usage from 5.1 percent to 70 percent of the 490,000 households in the state within the next three years. The state was also collaborating efforts with Stacks Integrator Sdn Bhd to create a pool of ICT entrepreneurs in every Mukim (subdistrict), he added.

Dell enters into e-Government Market

Dell, a leading global provider of systems and services, is aiming for government business in India. The company has identified government, public sector and education as areas to achieve stronger growth in India. While speaking at the discussion titled, ‘Democratising Technology in Government, Public Sector and Education’, Rajan Anandan, vice president and general manager said that the government is the largest buyer of computer systems in India. The company is delivering IT infrastructure to institutional customers. Dell is offering to deploy optimized solutions, traffic value over the long term and technology to its customers. Dell is helping clients to deploy mission critical applications from the data centre to the end users. 32

www.egovonline.net

regional focus: Delhi

Works Information System in PWD Delhi Revolutionising Information Accessibility

www.pwd.delhi.govt.nic.in

The web based works information system has been developed by the Public Works Department, Delhi for this purpose. The web based platform provided in the Works Information System enables the field executives to report on the works by feeding information from their respective offices, at their convenience. This involves no duplication of efforts, it provides an instant access to the required information S. Jethwani

t any given moment of time, hundreds of works under thousands of contract agreements are in progress in Public Works Department (PWD). Besides these there are several sanctioned works yet to start and there are other works in pipeline i.e. in planning/conceptual stage. All stake-holders involved viz., client departments, Departments of Finance and Planning, Government of Delhi, even public in general crave for information in respect of all these works. For monitoring and managing of these works, periodic reports in the prescribed format have been specified. For preparation of these reports, information flows from the primary level of field executives viz., sub division/ division office through circle i.e. Superintending Engineer/ Project Manger and zones i.e. Chief Engineer to the head of the department viz., Engineer-in-Chief (PWD). PWD headquarters then compile the same for providing reports to the government. viz bureaucrats and political masters.

June 2007

In the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;information ageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; this process proves to be highly unsatisfactory, because the reports can not be compiled unless the information has been received from all the agencies concerned, then by the time that is accomplished, these reports are already time expired. Besides this, it is a very unuser friendly means to access information from voluminous bunch of paper records and tables. As a result thereof, the reports which are prepared after considerable efforts and time consumption are seldom referred to for deriving information therefrom. At the same time, it leaves information seeker completely dissatisfied. A computerised information system is thus not only a valid expectation, it is rather an absolute necessity for any such organisation. The web based works information system has been developed by PWD Delhi for this purpose. The web based platform provided in the Works Information System enables the field executives to report on the works by feeding information (including visual information viz., site/

regional focus: delhi

Works Information System in PWD Delhi

construction photographs) from their respective offices, at their convenience. This involves no duplication of efforts, no physical transfer of reports required to communicate to higher offices, no manual compilation efforts required at any level; it provides an instant access to the required information in the manner desired by the user. PWD Delhi

Any Public Works Department in India, typically caters to an annual work load of millions of INR. PWD Delhi at present caters to an annual work load of approximately INR 100,00 million over various works. These works fall basically in two categories: i) Road infrastructure works ii) Buildings infrastructure works. Besides the works regarding construction of new assets and upgradation of existing ones, PWD Delhi have approximately 2000 kms lane length of prime roads in Delhi alongwith several flyovers, bridges and pedestrian facilities thereon. It also has approximately 7.5 million sqms. of non-residential and residential buildings plinth area, spread over hundreds of different campuses all over Delhi, for maintenance .

Design of the Works Information System: The PWD works are further sub-divided into convenient classification viz.,: Road Sector: 1. Road works (i.e. road widening/resurfacing/lighting/ footpath/railing etc.) 2. Flyover works (including underpasses, road over bridges etc.) 3. Bridge works (Bridges over river ponds, drains etc.) 4. Pedestrian subways 5. Foot over Bridges (with and without escalators) Building Sector: 1. Hospitals 2. Dispensaries 3. Schools 4. Colleges 34

5. Fire stations 6. Police Stations etc. Structuring of works in this manner provides the facility to the information seeker, who may be an official of a particular department or a member of public, to see the category of work of interest to him; without having to fish out the relevant works from a long list or voluminous reports. This arrangement is therefore found to be very convenient because the user is not burdened with unnecessary information load. The Life Cycle of Works: The works database gets built up gradually, as a work progresses in its life cycle from ‘concept’ to ‘completion’ over different stages viz; 1. Work in planning stage 2. Work in sanctioned stage (but not yet in progress) 3. Work already in progress and 4. Completed work The system categorises ‘works’ into this classification automatically, based upon the inputs gradually built in by the executives over the life cycle of the work. This facility lets the viewer derive the information in respect of any selected group of works e.g. Fire stations in progress or Hospital works sanctioned but not yet started etc. The user can provide any selection as per his information requirement. Building up the Works Database: As soon as any work is conceptualised, its available details and attributes are fed into the ‘Work Basic Information’ module of the system. Thereby a new work gets created in the system. Now, as the planning process of the work moves on, its details are captured in the ‘Planning details’ sub-module of the ‘work basic information’. Further when the work passes through the sanction and tendering process, the details thereof are input in the relevant modules of the ‘work basic information’. Besides this, the associated information in respect of PWD works, which is required for different monitoring processes, such as land encroachment details, Rain water harvesting details, Flyash usage details etc., are also fed in the ‘other details’ sub-module of the work basic information. This gradual build-up of database is found very convenient by the information providing executives, who fill up the required details into the web based system from their offices by and by. The same comes very handy for deriving the required information online by the management on various aspects of the projects such as: i) Building Plans pending for sanction with civic agencies with reason/details thereof ii) Details of sanctioned works that have not yet started iii) Flyash usage by PWD for its different works iv) Encroachment details on PWD land v) Rain water harvesting for different projects etc. Progress viz a viz Targets: At the start of any financial year, the annual physical & financial targets for various PWD works are fed into the system by all the executives for their respective projects, by utilising the ‘quarterly targets’ module. www.egovonline.net

As the works progress, monthly physical and financial progress is fed in against the pre-planned targets in the ‘monthly progress’ module. Besides physical progress in percentage terms and financial progress in the form of expenditure, the executives can upload the latest site/construction photograph also. Descriptive status of work and more importantly the hindrances experienced by them for smooth/timely execution of the project are also indicated. The activity-wise detailing/ programme is provided for each sub-work in the form of milestone charts into the system. There is a separate module ‘Milestone Reports’ for the same. Works Reports: The reporting structure is designed to be a graduated one. ‘Brief report’ provides broad/basic information in respect of selected group of works. Selection of works can

be specified by the user on the basis of: a) Cost of works e.g. all the works above INR 50 million or any other selection by user etc. b) Classification of works e.g. hospitals, fire stations, police stations, flyovers etc. c) Executing authority e.g. PWD Zone/Circle/Division d) Stage, e.g. In progress, sanctioned but yet to started, planning stage etc. Brief report provides brief information in respect of selected group of works for a chosen work, from the brief report on a selected group of works, the user can access comprehensive details including latest photograph of the work by seeing the ‘Complete Status Report’ of a given work This also provides the facility of a photo gallery, that stores the photographs of the project uploaded at different times in the past thereby showing how the works has progressed over the period of time. Yet another level of detailing is provided in the form of ‘Milestone Report’ which depicts the activity – wise details of a given work or its sub-works. Intelligence in the system

The system has been provided with essential validations and a little intelligence e.g. when the descriptive status of work is ov

June 2007

fed into the system, it ask for ‘as on date’ first and the user cannot feed a future date for the same. Similarly the ‘Expected Date of Completion’ of a project is picked up by the system as the latest date from amongst various dates of completion fed in by the user for different components/sub-works and activities of the project e.g. if a user inputs the expected date of completion as March 2008, whereas the detailing available in the system contains the latest date say ‘lifts’ to be provided by June 2008, the system will show the expected date of completion as June 2008 ignoring the users incorrect input as March 2008. The system also keeps the history of change of dates and remarks. This provides a very useful information and a potent tool to the manager/ bureaucrats monitoring the projects e.g if the activity-wise detailing originally shows the programme of completion of foundation work as January 2007 but because of slow progress and hindrance it was revised twice as March 2007 and then June 2007. The current programme viz., completion by June 2007 will be seen with the ‘history’ mark against this date showing that what were the earlier dates input into the system for this activity and when were these revised by the user. Access Control: The input into the system is access controlled through ‘Login’ module, thereby the executives are able to access the works under their jurisdiction only for adding or modifying information thereto. However the output i.e. reports on the works are accessible to all including the members of public through ‘guest login’ feature. Conclusion

The Works Information System in PWD Delhi has truly revolutionised the information accessibility making the latest status available online. The same is used for all the monitoring meetings including upto the level of the Chief Minister and is accessed by public including people from media for deriving information in respect of PWD works. The use of web based platform, thus provided, is not limited only to the works Information; the system is utilised for monitoring the inventory of PWD assets, court and arbitration cases etc. And the further development are also going to integrate the annual plan, budget and accounting system with the Works Information System. S. Jethwani (sjethwani_11@hotmail.com) is Director (Works) Public Works Department, Delhi. He has an experience of 29 years in (Central) Public Works Department.

news review

World

South Africa moving towards m-Government

e-Payments System Expands in Azerbaijan

Citizens of South Africa can now check the status of their documents filed under the Department of Home Affairs via SMS. According to Dr. David Mashao, chief technology officer for the State i Information Technology Agency (SITA), “people used to travel long distance paying large amounts of money in some instances just check their documents, but now they could spend only R1 to check on their applications.” He added that this would benefit majority of South Africans as many people have cell phones. He said currently the system processes 10,000 enquiries per day, and he urged the people to use the system widely and get benefited. Dr. David Mashao also announced about the SITA’s new e-Imbizo, a customer relations portal for government. The portal will allow the people to send an SMS to the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) about the problems of service delivery in all government services or spheres. The DPSA will categorise these complaints and send the same to relevant departments for further action. Dr. Mashao also unveiled the e-Health initiative of the government. One of the lessons learned from its introduction was that it should be done for the convenience of people. “We should allow people to access government services through cellphones,” he said. Hafsa Mossi, Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Burundi, said that her government, which does not have e-Government systems, could learn from South Africa on how to establish such systems.

e-Payment system has started to progress and reach rural areas of Azerbaijan. Earlier, there were 1,100 ATMs and more than 2,000 POS-terminals while just 10 percent of them were located in the regions. The e-Payment system will kick off after the delivery of pension benefits in the country. International Bank of Azerbaijan leads in the application of e-Payment systems followed by Kapital Bank, Bank Standard, Azerdemiryolbank, and Technikabank. The most popular e-Payment system among the Azerbaijanian are payment of utilities and mobile phone bills. Baku Telephone Communications unit presented its own payment system and other telecom units like Aztelecom, Azerpocht are also expanding their coverage and increasing the quality of payment systems. Aztelecom plans to reach all regions of Azerbaijan this year. To make non-cash payment system possible throughout the country, it is expected to install over 30,000 POS-terminals by 2008. The e-Payment system will give benefit to both buyers and sellers on Azerbaijan’s market.

First Office in SmartCity Malta by 2009 Fareed Abdulrahman, executive director of SmartCity Malta, has said the development of the project will proceed in phases up to 2021 and the first offices within the SmartCity are expected to be open for business by 2009. SmartCity Malta will attract investments of about US$300 million, according to Fareed. Malta was chosen for the SmartCity project because it met TECOM’s key criteria and it has the potential to develop into a knowledge-economy hub for the Southern European and North African region. “At least 46 per cent of the gross built area will be used for the ICT and media business park; 29 per cent will be used for commercial purposes; and 25 per cent will be used for lodging purposes. About 33 per cent of the land will be allocated for public spaces,” he added. He also welcomed companies who are interested in a long-term investment in Malta and the Southern Europe and North African region. He further stated “apart from Malta, SmartCity is looking at strategic investments at three cities in Europe by 2010. The idea behind having more than one SmartCity in Europe is to have a network of knowledge-based industry townships that will complement, not compete, with each other.”

36 }

China Launchs Nigerian Communication Satellite (NIGCOMSAT-1) China launched the first communications satellite for Nigeria. The launch was the first of its kind for Africa and the first time a foreign buyer has purchased Chinese satellite and its launching service. China secured this US$ 311 million deal in 2004. The satellite programme will revolutionise telecommunications, broadcasting and broadband multimedia services in Africa. It will create more than 150,000 jobs for Nigerians, broadband users will save more than US$ 95 million per year, and it will connect the remote rural villages, as well as save more than US$ 660 million on phone call charges. It is also expected to play key roles in e-Commerce, improving government efficiency and promoting the development of the digital economy in Nigeria and throughout the entire African continent.

Public Sector Bodies Claim £7 million e-Auction Savings Public sector bodies in United Kingdom have clubbed together to save millions in their cost of IT hardware and software. Six National Health Services (NHS) trusts and 14 councils have come together to form a combined e-Procurement solution, cutting almost £7 million of a bill which could have cost £13.7 million. According to the government, the auctions are

the latest round of procurement exercises to be run by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) and the London Centre of Excellence, and have saved more than £21million since their inception. The first e-Procurement auctions were run in 2005 and have regularly seen savings of millions of pounds on hardware and software.

www.egovonline.net

country focus: sri lanka

The Potential of e-Government in Sri Lanka

http://www.priu.gov.lk/

Digital Government in Sri Lanka began in 1970’s with ICT application in various government organisations. Four decades after many countries in the world are now using ICT to change the way government works, the author discusses e-Government in Sri Lanka by reviewing the potentiality and usage of ICT in selected government sector organisations. Devaka J. Punchihewa

igital Government in Sri Lanka began four decades back. Today, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has radically changed organisations, businesses, and societies in the world. Many countries in the world are now using ICT to change the way government works. As a result now people are expecting the same kind of service from their own governments. Many innovative governments in the world have identified the need and try to deliver excellent service by adopting ICT in government operations. This process is called Electronic Government. Various organisations and individuals define e-Government in various means. In simple terms, e-Government is the process of government organisations working collectively to use ICT as to provide citizens and enterprises with government services and information in an unprecedented manner. Sri Lanka

This study discusses e-Government in Sri Lanka by reviewing the potentiality and usage in selected government sector organisations. The study also assesses the awareness of e-Government and its technologies in public sector organisations. It also focuses on eGovernment readiness of public institutions by highlighting strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats with regard to electronic government in the country. 167 different institutions that have web presence were selected for the study to cover the total of 572 government sector organisations. ICT and Electronic Government

e-Government has been defined in various ways. Simply put, e-Government is all about government agencies working together to use technology so that they can better provide individuals and businesses with government services and information. According to this definition the ultimate objective of e-Government is to provide better information ov

June 2007

and services to individuals and businesses. Traditionally government organisations provided information and services based on manual systems. The Center for Democracy and Technology and InfoDev (2002) states, that there are three phases of e-Government: Phase One: Publish - Using ICT to expand access to government nformation Phase Two: Interact – Broadening civic participation in government Phase Three: Transact – Making government services available online. Impact of e-Government on the Public Sector

Effective utilisation of ICT in government sector would result in higher productivity, low cost and customer satisfaction. As Prof. Samaranayake explains, “Exploiting Information and Communication Technologies to serve the citizen is one major objective of e-Government”(Ref: Global Information Technology Report, Oxford University Press, 2002). According to him the other objective of e-Government is improving efficiency, effectiveness, transparencey and accountability of government. Rather the impact of e-Government is on every segment of the society. First of all e-Government increases government efficiency and will empower civil servants by ICT applications. As a result general public will get quality, speed, transparency and responsiveness to services from the government. e-Government should make citizens’ life easier by providing anytime, anywhere and anyhow services and information to the public and businesses. In this context, e-Government is all about redefining relationships among government, government organisations, citizens and businesses by systematic utilisation of ICT technologies. About the Research

Sri Lanka initiated e-Government endeavours in 2003 by introducing the e-Sri Lanka Program. 37

coiuntry focus: sri lanka

The Potentiality of e-Government in Sri Lanka

The data was derived from a survey of government sector institutions undertaken between April and August 2004. The aim of the survey was to reveal e-Government readiness in public sector institutions and to identify factors associated with strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in respective organisations. The questionnaire was developed according to the author’s literature review and knowledge gained by studying e-Government models of different countries. The institutions in the sample were selected from the official government web site: www.priu.gov.lk Institutions from ministries, departments, and statutory bodies having web presence were included in the sample.

Sample of Government Institutions by Category Category Sample Size Institutions Responded

Percentage

service delivery and, as a part of its e-Government strategy, Government of Andhar Pradesh initiated an innovative broad based, enterprise wide approach to service delivery In Sri Lanka the excessive number of employees in these institutions was definitely a disadvantage and even be a threat when implementing e-Government in the country.

Average computer usage Category

Ministries

404

187

2.6

15164

546

1255

3.5

Statutory bodies 18342

1535

6384

Departments

A = Total Number of employees (all levels) B = Total Number of computers

Ministries

17%

C = Number of employees who have access to computers

Departments

27%

D = Average computer usage (B*8/C)

Statutory Bodies

105

16%

Total

167

20%

Issues of e-Government in Sri Lanka

The application and usage of ICT in public sector of Sri Lanka is minimal due to several issues. The worst scenario is, even government institutions presently using computers do not really integrate them into their operations. “The government already uses computers in a modest way. Much of this is for traditional stand-along workstation applications, or for application within a single department. As a result, the applications do not sufficiently yield productivity, effectiveness gains or enhanced service to the public” In what ways could e-Government be implemented in the country and what strategies should be adopted? This is the major issue and the challenge that face Sri Lanka today. Challaneges and Opportunities of e-Government in Sri Lanka

e-Government readiness refers to the ability of government to successfully implement and carry out government services over the Internet. Government readiness describes the readiness of government to participate in and drive e-Agenda. The measurement of readiness is done through investigating awareness and usage of technologies related with e-Government. According to table titled Average Computer Usage, computer usage among government sector employees is low due to lack of resources. This is partly a result of the excessive number of employees in government sector. In addition there is no clear vision and strategy towards e-Government in these institutions. However in successful implementations like that in Andhra Pradesh (India), from the very beginning they planned everything on the stated vision and objectives of the e-Government. Recognising the need for technology-enabled 38

In general, government organisations, besides few exceptions, are not the front-runners for new technology. According to table, the highest computer usage per day is 3.5 hours by department’s employees. The lowest figure is 2 hours by employees in statutory bodies. However more than one third of statutory body employees (6384) have access to computers. It is apparent that public sector organisations in the country are not in the front using most of the tools in e-Government. This is a result of lack of proper leadership in public sector institutions with regard to e-Government. One reason for this situation is that e-Government in Sri Lanka is most often an externally driven process. Majority of respondents in the survey did not know much about the usage of e-Government, WAN or LAN. The lack of support, enthusiasm and encouragement from prevailing organisational structures, for higher studies and lack of professional qualifications in IT were major bottlenecks to develop ICT in government sector, according to some participants. However government institutions, which use these tools already, gained the competitive advantage by having IT savvy culture within the organisation. The research on the web survey of government institutes revealed that some of the institutions are taking a more innovative approach to doing business with their citizens. This situation is an advantage for e-Government implementation. Very low rate of Internet and e-Mail usage in government ministries and departments is a weakness on the other hand. However there are possibilities to further strengthen ICT application in these institutions. Government sector organisations’ policies may negatively affect on application and usage of new technologies in public sector. However some tools in e-Government are widely used by statutory bodies. Government ministries’ and departments’ adoption to e-Government is slow, as a result of lack of utilisation of new technology related tools. Table titled Readiness with e-Technologies, six different technologies were found to be important in using e-Government in Sri Lanka. For example www.egovonline.net

internet usage among government sector employees is at a minimum level because, it is restricted to access the internet. However it is important to note that 77% of government sector intuitions are using some form of automation. It is also important to mention that 74% of organisations under the study have web presence. However application of local languages is at extremely lower stage. Less than 5% of Sri Lankan public institutions provide information in Sinhala or Tamil languages. This is a major problem in e-Government of Sri Lanka, and that would create a barrier to take e-Government to the ordinary citizens of the country. Further more 74% of surveyed institutions had Local Area Networks. This is again a strength of government institutions transferring them to electronic world.

Readiness with e-Technologies Form

Usage as a Percentage

Office Automation

77%

E-mail

42%

Internet

Web Presence

74%

LAN

74%

WAN

There are encouraging developments amidst lack of resources as well as opportunities with underutilised resources in terms of e-Government in the country. The main problem here is that whether it is possible to create innovative eGovernment or empowered citizens in the absence of service provision over the internet. It is again significantly low figure when we look at how many organisations connected are to wide area networks. There is no real commitment to facilitate people with access to e-Government in remote areas. On the contrary in India, many successful e-Government applications by regional governments have focused their serious attention on remote access through networking. As far as Sri Lanka is concerned this is a major weakness in implementing e-Government as infrastructure readiness is at very lower level in remote areas. As a result there are opportunities to develop e-Government access to people in remote areas. Government sector institutions usage of Internet is low as 6% due to restrictions imposed by authorities. It is paramount important to expand the application of e-Government on service delivery and transaction facilitation for the public. Provision of online services and transaction facilitation are opportunities in terms of e-Government in Sri Lanka. Some institutions use Internet as a resource for their internal information requirements. However, these services are most of the time limited only to administrative and managerial level staff. Minor staff in some organisations were provided with training in computer usage. Some respondents mentioned that the training was a wastage of money. Majority of the administrative officers in the public sector did not have a correct idea regarding e-Government. Therefore ov

June 2007

as a priority, highly politicised and bureaucratic organisation structure should be reorganised in such a way to successfully accommodate e-Government in the country. There must be a collective effort to achieve this goal by academia, policy makers, lending organisations, researchers, business community and society as a whole to reap the benefits of eGovernment to the people of this country. Selected groups of employees in the public sector had frequent access to computers in their day to day work. Average computer usage for selected employees in government departments was high although other employees had relatively low access to computers. In the case of government ministries, the rate of computer usage was also low. For statutory bodies, the total computer utiliation was higher per employee usage was low. The study further revealed that statutory bodies and departments in the country involved in web enabled information provision and web enabled grievance services to the public. 74% of organisations under the study had continued with web presence. However as a whole, in Sri Lanka only 167 intuitions have web presence out of a total 572 public sector organisations. The majority of these institutions limited themselves to a provision of web based information and most of their web sites were not updated regularly. For an example Sri Lankaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s official web portal http://www.gov.lk/ has listed 42 government ministries but only 14 ministries do have real web presence. With the change of government in April 2004, no visible change is seen in e-Government activities concerned, though the e-Sri Lanka program has been continued with the support of the new government. It is envisaged that the re-engineering government program under e-Sri Lanka would help change the status and take Sri Lanka towards rapid development with e-Government success. Therefore, it is paramount important to change present governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attitude towards e-Government in a more positive manner in order achieve total transformation in the public sector. Conclusion

e-Government in the country is at an initial level therefore it is an urgent need to do more and more researches on eGovernment in Sri Lanka as to make sure that the country takes the correct path. In conclusion, we find that web presence and LAN connection alone do not guarantee public sector participation in e-Government. To be successful in e-Government, public sector organisations should have the correct vision, leadership, and selected strategies to implement e-Government with technologies such as wide area networks with access to internet, broad band access, mobile computing and more important wider usage of ICT through training and access to the community (employees as well as the public) in the country. Devaka J. Punchihewa, (djp@sjp.ac.lk) is lecturer in electronic commerce for the Department of IT and Decision Sciences, Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka.

commentary

‘India.gov.in’ Indian Government’s Answer to Single Entry National Portals Considering the global position enjoyed by India when it comes to progress in the field of Information Technology, the Indian Government has been amongst the frontrunners in its initiatives towards adoption of best practices and integrated delivery of information and services to achieve ICT led development in the Country. And a giant leap in this direction has been the launch of ‘india.gov.in’, the National Portal of India. Neeta Verma and Sonal Kalra

one are the days when one had to browse through several independent websites to reach the desired bit of information one was looking for. It is the age of ‘single entry’ portals and they have brought with them, a paradigm shift in the way online information is being accessed today. We hear of a new portal being launched every other day, and most of them are doing a good job of providing a gateway to multiple websites on a certain subject or area, of culling out useful information buried deep into these sites and in turn making life so simpler for an online visitor. The realm of Government or public sector is not untouched by this concept whose time has come and these days a large number of countries provide easy access to government information and services for their citizens, businesses, diaspora, as well as international community through their National Portals. Such portals, acting as gateways to information and services from the government, are now emerging as the standard single point platform to interface the e-Government initiatives with their intended beneficiaries. Besides, considering the popularity and credibility the national portal enjoys, it becomes defacto choice of the government departments/organisations for launching their new e-Governance initiatives so as to maximise the reach as well as impact. Multi-tier infrastructure set up for the national portal could also be leveraged by different departments to optimise their investments on technology, content and management. Thus a national portal assumes an important role in the e-Government programme of any country. Considering the global position enjoyed by India when it comes to progress in the field of Information Technology, the Indian Government has been amongst the frontrunners in its initiatives towards adoption of best practices and integrated delivery of information and services to achieve ICT led development in the country. And a giant leap in this direction has been the launch of ‘india.gov.in’, the National Portal of India. The earnestness of the Government in taking up this initiative is evident from the fact that the development and running of this portal has been accorded high priority ‘Mission Mode’ status in the much publicised National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) through which, our government has made its 40 }

intention clear of executing a comprehensive agenda to make e-Governance effective at all spheres to ensure efficiency, transparency, and accountability at the government-citizen interface. By providing a unified interface and acting as a logical front-end to the e-Government initiatives, the National Portal facilitates the foundation of a strong relationship between the Government and its citizens through the collaborative efforts of various ministries and departments. ‘india.gov.in’ has been developed by national informatics centre, as an extensive repository enumerating significant information about the country, concomitantly introducing citizens with all the services available for them at every level and relating to every department of the government. The first version of the Portal was launched around a year back and ever since, it has come a long way in firmly establishing its presence in the Web space as well as in the minds of millions of Indians who visit it regularly for their interactions with the government. How does the National Portal Help ?

Already, over 5000 websites of the various Indian Government entities including Ministries, Departments, state/UT governments, district administrations and organisations exist in the Internet Space. All these websites provide a variety of information and services which are beneficial to the common citizens and other stake holders. However, this implied that citizens had to visit a large number of websites for different services, with different websites following different technology standards, design lay-outs, navigation architecture etc. Accordingly, it resulted in a lot of inconvenience at the citizens’ end and requires a lot of learning on their part to even access these services. With the national portal now in place as a unified gateway, a one-stop source for all these services and information has been established. Besides providing indepth information about the country and its various facets for a wide range of target audience including the urban/rural citizens of varied demography as well as business and overseas www.egovonline.net

community, the national portal acts as a gateway to a variety of information and services being provided by different government departments. Whether a citizen has to pay utility bills or needs an access to the information on welfare schemes in different sectors, obtain licenses/certificates, apply for some business permits or even file tax returns online, the national portal is the answer. Beside this primary objective, of course, of making life easy for the common man, the national portal envisages establishment of the much needed standards for government websites and also provides a significant platform for public participation in governance, one of the very basic tenets of good governance. Main Features

National portal comes with unique features geared up to facilitate improved access, enhanced quality of services and convenient single window access for a variety of Government Information and Services: Comprehensive Content: The National Portal presents comprehensive information on all aspects and constituents of the government whether central, state or local bodies. Any information on an individual department’s website or any on-line services for citizens available anywhere in the country is accessible through the national portal. In other words, the portal does not belong to just one group or sector of government, its mandate includes complete and comprehensive information from the various entities including legislature, judiciary, Executive, apex institutions, local government bodies, public sector undertakings, government institutions, organisations, etc. Citizen Orientation: The National Portal has been built ov

June 2007

from the ‘users’ or ‘citizens’ perspective, rather than from the perspective of the government. In other words, instead of presenting and categorising the information and services on the basis of government departments, information is presented in a manner citizens would like. Distributed Content Management System: Since the nationalportal is the repository of a huge amount of content being sourced from / maintained by multiple sources and different teams at multiple geographic locations, a comprehensive Content Management System (CMS) to effectively manage the content has been developed for the portal which is useful for not only carrying out future modifications and updations of the portal content but also allows a convenient change in the content architecture of the Portal. The CMS also provides the facility for searching across the entire content base, presenting content in multiple formats and facilitating delivery of information through multiple channels. Further, an innovative feature of the portal is that a single point content repository with XML interface where the content shall be entered just once by any department and the same could be shared at a number of places, including the national Portal, as well as the respective website(s) of the department without having to duplicate the data, thus avoiding any redundancy. Directory of Services: A central repository of services under the ‘How do I’ module of the national portal has over 1000 services being provided by various Government entities at the central, state and district level. Services have been well classified based on their nature (applying for certificates and licenses, registration of land and property, online booking of travel tickets, filing tax returns, contributing towards relief funds etc), regional location, target users (G2C, G2B, G2E, G2G), audience profile and sector to which the service belongs. 41

‘india.gov.in’

commentary

State-of-Art Hosting Infrastructure: The portal is hosted on multi-tier, scalable, fully redundant state-of-the-art infrastructure at NIC’s Data Centre. Besides being accessible across a large number of browsers, software, devices, portal infrastructure and connectivity options, the portal is highly scalable. It caters to the peak traffic loads during announcement of budget, exam results etc with the same high quality of service. Bi-lingual Version: To reach out to a wider cross section of audiences in the interiors of the country, the portal has also been made in Hindi language, apart from English. Multilingual versions in regional languages of India is on the cards. Platform for Public Participation: The portal has also turned out to be an effective medium for the participation of common citizens in the process of governance since they are encouraged to voice their opinion on a number of national issues, participate in online discussion forums and provide feedback on important matters. Recently, the Portal was used as a medium by the sixth central pay commission to invite suggestions from public through a specially designed online questionnaire. The exercise proved to be a great success as the commission was able to generate a huge database of constructive suggestions from those who matter – the citizens of the Country. The tremendous popularity of the portal can also be gauged from the fact that it receives a large number of hits from all over the globe. Ever since its launch, millions of hits have poured in from all corners of the world and the number seems to be growing manifolds with each passing day. A carefully worked out mechanism is also in place for receiving and analysis the feedback of the visitors which regularly comes in the form of a large number of emails. Content Highlights

Citizens: Useful information for Indian Citizens residing within the Country on issues vital to their day to day living such as health, education, employment, housing, travel and 42

tourism, law and order, banking and insurance and taxes. Exclusive sections cater to special interest groups such as students, tax payers etc. Business: Meant for those wishing to start a business or currently involved in business and wanting to make it grow further in the country or abroad. Information is provided on topics such as how to set up a business, incentives offered by the government, doing business abroad, taxation, workplace issues, laws and legislations etc. Latest business news is also available at any time through this section. Overseas: A section meant both for Indian Diaspora living abroad and foreigners visiting/living in India. Here one can find information on Non-Resident Indians/People of Indian Origin, those visiting India, studying in India, regarding Embassies and Consulates and Travel Advisory. Government: This module provides information about the Indian Constitution, the Parliament, Who’s Who in Indian Government, Government Policies and Schemes. There is also a special section on Government Employees focusing on their information needs. Know India: This is a section to visit if one wishes to know about India’s profile, its unique culture and heritage, national identity symbols, states/union Territories (UTs) / districts. There is also a special section exclusively for the children to enrich their minds with the various facets of the country. A special section called ‘My India My Pride’ gives information about the National Days and their celebration (including live webcast of events), gallantry and other awards and on National Identity Symbols such as National Anthem and National Flag which can be downloaded in various formats. How do I?: This provides access to a variety of citizen services across sectors being provided by the government- right from obtaining a birth certificate to applying for a Passport. In addition, the services, which are being provided online either partially or completely, are prominently highlighted. Forms: A repository of important application forms required for availing various services and facilities provided by the government. There is an easy search facility to locate the desired forms. Spotlight: Periodically, a subject/theme of national prominence is taken and focused upon in this section so that citizens can understand its various facets. Attempt is made to provide a holistic view on the theme in this section. Government Tenders: This section provides comprehensive access to government tenders and their accompanying documents issued by various government ministries/ departments, states and UT Governments. India-Greetings: A facility to send personalised greetings featuring photographs on the myriad, colourful aspects of India. Greetings on various major festivals are also available which can be sent by visitors to their near and dear ones on festive occasions. Beside these, other useful information on the Portal includes access to the web directories of the government, facility to search for STD/ISD/PIN codes, documents and reports published by the government, latest national/international news and government press releases, web casts of national/ international events etc

www.egovonline.net

Summary

‘india.gov.in’ is the quintessential national portal which presents a kaleidoscopic view into the country’s myriad affairs, including all governmental operations, citizen information and services, Indian culture & heritage, and a host of other activities, within a state-of-the art technology framework. national portal is in fact, a one-stop center for information on any and every constituent of the Government of India. Simply put, the strength of the national portal lies in the assimilation of rich and comprehensive content amassed through meticulous study and investigation and a unique user-friendly way of presenting that information. From academic information and services for Indian and foreign students, recruitment and employment services, travel and

business related information, to information on the cultural extravaganza in the country, the national portal has it all – thus fulfilling the mission of ‘making life easy for the common citizen’! Neeta Verma (neeta@nic.in) is Senior Technical Director and heads Data Centre and Web Services Group at National Informatics Centre (NIC), New Delhi. She is also leading the National Portal initiative at NIC. Sonal Kalra (sonal@nic.in) is Editor of Informatics, an e-Governance Bulletin published by National Informatics Centre and a key member of the core team behind the development of National Portal.

“In the Middle of Difficulty, Debate and Discussion lies OPPORTUNITY” Here is the opportunity for you. Join and Grab! www.eINDIA.net.in ov

June 2007

news review

Business

Microsoft, SanDisk Join Hands to Build a NexGen USB Drives Microsoft Corp. and flash memory maker SanDisk Corp. have partnered to build a new generation of USB drives and memory cards. This lets users to carry a personalised desktop and applications to any Windows PC. Microsoft will be responsible for the software side, while SanDisk will handle the hardware. While informing the usefulness of the new drives, Mike Langberg, Spokesman, SanDisk, said, “Think of this as taking U3 to the next level. Your whole computing environment will be on this drive and go with you”. In a joint statement, the companies said, the data will be encrypted, the drive or card contents protected from malware by integrated security software through the TrustedFlash technology, which secures content stored on the drive or card. “The new platform will allow applications that were not possible with U3: e-Commerce or personal finance or corporate applications storing data securely, or premium content, like movies, downloaded to the drive,” said Langberg. The companies have targeted the second half of 2008 as a launch window.

Hitachi Launches 200 gb Mobile Hard Disk Drive Hitachi has launched its latest mobile hard disk drive (HDD), the Travelstar 7k200. It offers a storage capacity of 200 GB and a spindle speed of 7200RPM. It can be equipped with hardware-level “Bulk Data Encryption” for protection of a user’s data. Shinjiro Iwata, chief marketing officer, Hitachi global storage, said “The 7200RPM Travelstar is the rock star of our mobile hard drive family both for its technical merits

and its desirability. As the industry’s only thirdgeneration 7200RPM product, we believe the Travelstar 7K200 will continue to accelerate this trend.” The HDD will be available with high-end laptops from Dell and Alienware and the first model to get this drive will be Aurora m9700 and Dell XPS M2010.

Split-screen Technology for Public Sector Researchers at Microsoft, Bangalore (India) are developing a software to split the screen into two halves in each side with its own operating system, desktop, cursor and keyboard. The new technology will allow two users to work independently on the same machine, sharing both the processor and monitor. Aimed at the developing country’s small businesses and schools, the technology will reduce the cost of computer. The solution comes in the form of a software, therefore, there is no need to buy new PC. Users have to install the software and a second mouse and keyboard. The software enables two session of Windows to share the processor. The software allows the users to move their cursor to the other of the screen and enables colloborating and sharing of documents. Even both users can open third area called ‘airlock’ where users can place their shared files and resources.

Celtel targets rural Nigerian communities CELTEL, Nigeria has launched the country’s first GSM ‘pay phone’ system in the south eastern commercial city of Onitsha with an aim to reach the rural communities. Austen Okoronkwo, General Manager (South Eastern Region), Celtel Nigeria limited, said “ The target for Celtel pay phone is the entire country, however, special attention will be paid to the rural areas, where many Nigerian’s lives and work.” We are also aiding in the Federal Government’s vision of empowering those who reside in rural communities through the provision of access to excellent communication services, he added. While addressing the gathering, he said, the product known as “Jembi Pay Phone” is a complete business tool. It offers the subscribers various services including: Voice calls, text messaging (SMS) and Value Added Service (VAS). According to Okoronkwo, the device has been specially tested and proven by Celtel’s team of engineers and key stakeholders. Celtel is introducing Pay phones to empower more Nigerians and give more people the opportunity to communicate with their friends, family and business associates at an affordable cost and conveniently.

3i Infotech Partners with FINO for e-Governance Project in India 3i Infotech join hands with Financial Information Network & Operations (FINO) to provide financial services through common service centres (CSCs), being implemented under the national e-Governance programme of the Indian government. CSCs aim to provide e-Governance services to rural masses.

44 }

The company has bagged CSC projects in two states. 3i Infotech will invest INR 0.3 million per centre and will man the operations. Through this partnership, the company will provide FINO services using innovative smart card based applications. Some of the G2C services planned are utility bill payments, land record certificates, e-Filing of tax returns, issuance of income certificates, birth certificates etc. Anirudh Prabhakaran, chief operating officer, 3i Infotech, South Asia, said “The government of India’s CSC project is extremely unique in its vision and aims to provide a wide range of services to the citizens, especially the rural population of India. We congratulate the governments of participating states on visualising such a project - using ICT for rural upliftment. We are honoured to be partnering FINO in making available financial services to the rural masses.”

www.egovonline.net

numbers

1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678 9012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456 7890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234 5678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012 3456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890 1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678 9012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456 7890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234 5678 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456123456

has been approved by the Government 3,334 crore indian rupees for the establishment of State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) over a period of 5 years. These SWANs would extend data connectivity of 2 Mega bits per second up to the block level in all States and Union Territories in India. source: http://www.mit.gov.in/annualreport2005-06.pdf

are there in Slovenia 880,000 monthly internet users that access the World Wide Web with PC, according to the RIS 2006 survey. There are 90,000 people who get online with mobile phone. More users are visiting e-Government websites, but respondents still complain that they are not sufficiently informed of the e-Government services and there are problems with usability and integration of certificates. Source: http://slovenia.ris.org/index.php?fl=1&nt=9&sid=222

1,782

5 bil

Source: http://www.insidepolitics.org/egovt06int.pdf

Source: http://www.newkerala.com/news4.php?action=fullnews&id=11

government websites in 198 different nations were analysed during 2006. 29% of government websites offered fully executable online services. 94% of websites provided access to publications and 72% had links to databases. 26% showed privacy policies, while 14% had security policies. 23% of government websites also had some form of disability access.

lion Indian rupees has been allocated by the Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram during the 2007-08 budget for improving the efficiency, convenience and transparency of e-Governance. The Government of India has announced that it would launch more ambitious e-Governance programmes to increase its service to the common man.

0942

51,000

are the number of His-B users i.e., there are three lucky persons in every 10,000 Pakistanis, according to the recent statistics of Pakistan Telecom Authority. In terms of percentage of total Internet users of the country estimated between 3 to 5 million, only 1.6% are currently using broadband, a disappointing figure even if compared to the standards of least developing countries. Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=45010

940,000

Estonians voted in the parliamentary election by casting their ballot online through the Internet. Estonia has pushed the boundaries of technology and democracy a step further by holding the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first parliamentary e-lection, in which voters can cast their ballots online. Source: http://cooltech.iafrica.com/technews/641307.htm

9.6 mil

lionEuro has been approved in funding by the European commission to develop the next generation of European powerline technology, which uses national electricity grids to carry data communications and provide Internet access. The funding is a part of the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6), and would go to the Open PLC European Research Alliance (OPERA) to support field deployments in Europe based on the first open specification for broadband access over Power Line Communications. Source: http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSI ON=&RCN=27191

50 bil

Korean Won would be invested in information security by Koreaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs. The Government would expand the information security infrastructure of e-Government and strengthen the punishment for misuse and abuse of personal information. Source:http://www.ddaily.co.kr/english/?fn=view&article_num=210830, 7204,21063915%5E26199%5E%5Enbv%5E15306-15319,00.html

June 2007

whats on

Some RFID/Smart Card Forthcoming Events 23-25 May 207

23 July 2007

Cards & Payments Australasia 2007 Hilton Hotel - Sydney

The first International Workshop on Web Mining for E-commerce and E-services Tokyo, Japan

www.terrapinn.com

29-30 May 2007

http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~derrick/WMEE2007

National Smart Cards Congress Lisbon, Spain

3 - 5 August 2007 www.ife.pt

12 - 14 June 2007

28-31 May 2007 World IC Card Summit 2007 China World Trade Center, Beijing, China www.scfc.org.cn/world/index_e.htm

Knowledge Process Outsourcing and Offshoring 2007 Raffles City Convention Centre, Singapore http://www.terrapinn.com/2007/kpo_SG

29-31 May 2007 Smart Cards & Smart Labels (RFID) Exhibition & Users Conference China World Center, Beijing, China www.ait-events.com

14 - 15 June 2007 The Third Annual Government Health IT Conference and Exhibition Washington, DC, U.S.A. http://www.e-gov.com/EventOverview.aspx?Event=GHIT 07&NoCache=633131329273813516

29-31 May 2007 3rd China International Payment Terminals Expo & Conference China World Trade Center in Beijing, China www.ait-events.com

30 - 31 May 2007

21 - 2 2 June 2007 ECEG 2007: 7th European Conference on eGovernment The Hague, The Netherlands www.academic.conferences.org/eceg/eceg2007/eceg07home.htm

NFC Asia Pacific Summit 2007 China World Hotel, Beijing www.pte-china.com

5-7 june 2007 Australian Smart Cards 2007 Sydney Convention and Exhibtion Centre www.acevents.comau/cards2007

EEE â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;07 - The 2007 International Conference on e-Learning, e-Business, Enterprise Information Systems, and e-Government Nevada, USA www.world-academy-of-science.org/worldcomp07/ws/ EEE07

11th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics Florida, USA www.mait.com/newsletters/news183-MAIT%20Events%2 0Guide%2023.pdf

7th International Conference on Web Engineering Como, Italy http://icwe.como.polimi.it/index.php?option=com_ frontpage&Itemid=1

22 - 25 July 2007

www.icsoft.org/index.htm

Near Field Communications World Australia 2007 Sydney, Australia www.eIndia.net.in

http://www.terrapinn.com/2007/nfc_au

3 - 7 September 2007 The International Conference of the EGOV Society Regensburg, Germany http://www.egov-society.org

18 - 19 September 2007 Global Biometrics Summit 2007 Brussels, Belgium

19 September 2007 World e-ID 2007 Sophia Antipolis, France www.strategiestm.com/conferences/we-id/07/index.htm

09 October 2007 eGovINTEROPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;07 - eGovernment Interoperability Campus 2007 Paris, France http://www.egovinterop.net/SHWebClass.ASP?WCI=Sho wDoc&DocID=2736&LangID=1

24 October 2007 http://www.echallenges.org/e2007/

09 November 2007 2nd Annual Data Protection Practical Compliance Conference Dublin, Ireland

27 - 29 November 2007 WIMAX Eastern Europe Eastern Europe

17 - 20 December 2007 4th International Conference on Distributed Computing and Internet Technology Bangalore, India http://www.kiit.org/icdcit2007

23 - 25 July 2007 2nd International Working Conference on Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering Barcelona, Spain www.enase.org/index.htm

46 }

http://www.terrapinn.com/2007/gtw_nz

http://www.wimax-vision.com/newt/l/wimaxvision/

23 - 25 July 2007

Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi , India

Government Technology World New Zealand 2007 Wellington, New Zealand

http://www.pdp.ie/

2nd International Conference on Software and Data Technologies Barcelona, Spain

31 July- 03 august 2007

20 - 22 August 2007

Challenges e-2007 Conference and Exhibition The Hague, The Netherlands

16 - 20 July 2007

ommun ty Rad o

www.pes.edu/mcnc/icemc2/index.html

www.biometricssummit.com

25 - 28 June 2007

8 - 11 July 2007

India's Premier ICT4D event

2nd International Conference on Embedded Systems, Mobile Communication and Computing Bangalore, India

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

www.egovonline.net

India's Premier ICT4D event

31 July - 03 August 2007 Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi, India

Exhibition Floor Plan eINDIA2007 brings together the right mix of quality delegates unparalleled at any other Indian forum. Unlike many other general IT fairs, it addresses the need to bring the region's top public sector buyers at one place, thus saving time and resources of focused suppliers. eINDIA2007 maximises the face-to-face time exhibitors spend with key customers and prospects, through informal meetings and structured appointments. Service Entry

12 m

16 m

20 m

16 Telelogic

20 m

12 m

15m

16 m

Upside Learning

12 m

42 16 m

12 m

51 12 m

31 10 m

12 m

50 12 m

12 m

16 m

12 m

48 16 m

4 12 m Hayagriva

Metalearn

Tea Stall

Designmate

12 m

80 m

11 7

8 12 m

12 m

9 12 m

24 m

Educomp

24 m

SMART Technologies

18 9m

26 12 m

27 16 m

12 m

28 20 m

Tea Stall

9m ACL Wireless

21 27 m

19 9m

Lounge

22 9m

23 9m

12 m

98 m

Entry

Indicates tentatively blocked

try En

For Exhibition Queries Contact egov Gautam Navin +91-9818125257 Email: gautam@csdms.in

mServe, Community Radio & Telecentre Forum Himanshu Kalra +91-9818485406 Email: himanshu@csdms.in

Digital Learning Siddharth Verma +91-9811561645 Email: siddharth@csdms.in

eHealth Dipanjan Banerjee +91-9968251626 Email: dipanjan@csdms.in

eAgriculture Anaam Sharma +91-9910597744 Email: anaam@csdms.in

Government Bharti Malhotra +91-9818300368 Email: bharti@csdms.in

www.eINDIA.net.in

Key Speakers at eINDIA2007 Ashis Sanyal

Aruna Sundararajan CEO, IL&FS

Amar Kumar Joint Secretary Department of IT, Government of Uttar Pradesh

Astrid Dufborg Executive Director GeSCI

Deepinder Singh Bedi Director, Tulip IT Services Ltd.

G Narendra Kumar Secretary, Department of Training & Technical Education and Higher Education, Government of NCT of Delhi

Senior Director, Department of IT, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India

Amit Goel Advisor, Ministry of Panchayat Raj, Government of India

Arvind Kumar Director (BP&L), Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India

Aakash Sethi Executive Director, QUEST Alliance, International Youth Foundation

Ajay Madan CEO Essar Telecom Ltd.

Basheerhamad Shadrach Sr. Programme Officer telecentre.org/IDRC, India

G P Sinha Deputy General Manager, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL)

Joselyne Josiah Advisor, Communication and Information for Asia, UNESCO

Gerolf Weigel SDC Switzerland

Capt K J S Brar CEO Designmate India Pvt. Ltd.

M Moni K. K. Gupta

M. Rajamani

General Manager, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)

Joint Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India

Maxine Olson United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in India

O Nabakishore Singh Commissioner, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, Government of India

Dr M C Pant Chairman, National Open School

Manish Gupta Vice President Aperto Networks

Pravin Srivastava Director Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Government of India

R Chandrashekhar

Dr. Ravinder Singh

Additional Secretary, e-Governance, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of India

Director, Ministry of Health & FamilyWelfare, Government of India

Subhash Khuntia Joint Secretary, Ministry of HRD Government of India

Deputy Director General , National Informatics Centre, Ministry of Communication & Information Technology, Government of India

Shashank Ojha World Bank

Richard Alvarez Canada Health Infoway

Rajat Mukarji Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, IDEA Cellular Limited

Sonjib Mukharjee CEO Metalearn Services Pvt. Ltd.

S Abbassi Shankar Nath Goswami Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Media Lab Asia

Trevor Hodge Canada Health Infoway

Department of IT, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India

Vishal Gandhi Vice-President Life Sciences & Technology, YES Bank

Vaibhav Magow Director, Marketing HughesNet Fusion Hughes Communications India Ltd.

Veena Joshi

Sajan Venniyoor Solutions Exchange, UNDP

Veerendra K. Jaitly President, Software Technology Group International Ltd. (STG)

Where are you?

SDC, India