eGov June 2015 :: Go Goa for IT

Contents

June 2015 volume 11 n issue 06

CM’s Message

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Goa: Vying to Re-draw

IT Map of India

LAXMIKANT PARSEKAR CHIEF MINISTER, GOA

government

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R K Srivastava

Ameya Abhyankar

Revati Mujumdar

Nila Mohanan

Kartik Kashyap

Sunil K Barnwal

Chief Secretary, Government of Goa

Director, Department of Tourism, Govt of Goa

CEO, Goa Electronics Limited

Collector and District Magistrate, North Goa

Superintendent of Police, Crime Branch, Goa

Principal Secretary-IT, Government of Jharkhand

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Naveen Jain

D P Wahlang

Aman Kumar Singh

Dr K V Raman

Vijay Kalantri

Subrat Sahoo

Mission Director & Spl Secy, NHM, dept of Medical, Health & Family Welfare, Govt of Rajasthan

IT Secretary, Government of Meghalaya

Principal Secretary Chief Minister, Energy, Electronics & IT, Govt of Chhattisgarh

Director– Health, Dept of Health & Family Welfare Services, Govt of Puducherry

Chairman & Managing Director, Dighi Port, Government of Maharashtra

Secretary, Department of School Education, Government of Chhattisgarh

BFSI

CORPORATE

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26 Kamal Nath

Dr K Shivaji CMD, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI)

Ulhas B Phaldessai Chairman, Goa State Cooperative Bank

special feature

Chief Executive Officer, Sify Technologies Limited

Sudhir Dubey Chief General Manager (Mumbai Circle), State Bank of India

news

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PM Modi launches three key social security schemes

52 Karnataka MobileOne Pride of India 4

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editorial

Let IT Happen!

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tiny emerald land on the West Coast of India, Goa has long been the tourist’s paradise. It attracts perhaps the largest number of tourists, with nearly 40,58,226 of them visiting the State in 2014 alone. Offering services in a seamless manner to such a large number of visitors was proving to be a herculean task until the advent of IT tools. Now, with a number of tourist services going online, it not only saves a lot of time and effort for both tourists and the government authorities but it has also curtailed much of the paper work.

Similarly, as a number of citizen-centric services like police verification and issuance of various basic certificates are also being offered online, the entailing elements of accountability as well as speed are changing the overall governance scenario in the State for the better. eGovernance in Goa has proved a boon especially for the rural folks, who would earlier keep going around the government departments to get their works done. Several IT-based initiatives undertaken in the recent past have made their life easier in true sense.

But that is not all. With a forward-looking Government in the saddle, now the State also aspires to have a lion’s share in the IT products and services market of the country. That being the reason, the State Government is soon going to come up with an IT Investment Policy, which would woo investors—both domestic and international—to invest in the State. If the State is able to attract investors for setting up electronics manufacturing units and other IT-related businesses, it would not only enrich its economy but will also generate lot many white-collar jobs, which Goan youths have always looked forward to.

As one of the most peaceful states in India boasting of 88.7 per cent literacy rate, Goa today offers an industry-conducive environment.

With a view to highlighting the pluses of the State, as also to set the tone for IT revolution in the land known for the nature’s bounty, Elets Technomedia, in association with the Information Technology Department, Government of Goa, is organising “Elets Knowledge Exchange-Goa 2015 Summit” on May 22-23, 2015. The event will serve as a platform for exchange of knowledge between key stakeholders active in the fields of Governance, Urban Development – with special focus on Smart Cities, Education, Health and BFSI. The two-day event, which will also focus on the Government of India’s vision of transforming India through its ‘Digital India’ programme, will serve as a catalyst for an inclusive IT revolution in Goa. We dedicate this special issue of eGov magazine to the zeal and enthusiasm exhibited by the State in the recent years to emerge on the IT map of India. Happy reading!

ravi guptA Ravi.Gupta@elets.in

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ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON E-governance

June 2015 volume 11 n  issue 06

Assistant Editor: Kartik Sharma, Rachita Jha Senior Correspondent: Souvik Goswami, Gautam Debroy Correspondent: Poulami Chakraborty Junior Correspondent: Sneha Mejari Trainee Sub-Editor: Akanki Sharma Programme Manager: Seema Gupta

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2015

LAXMIKANT PARSEKAR CHIEF MINISTER, GOA

MESSAGE I am delighted to know that the Department of Information Technology, in association with Elets Technomedia, is going to organise the Knowledge Exchange summit in Goa. The State of Goa has prioritised implementation of Digital India initiative and we have pursued various IT programmes at a very high scale for the last few years. We are already in the process of ensuring higher level of eGovernance, facilities and public utilities.

Goa is a modern and forward-looking State with highly impressive achievements in social, economic and industrial sectors, including Information Technology. The Government of Goa is deeply concerned about an effective utilisation of IT for promoting good governance.

With the aim to facilitate service delivery, encourage citizen participation in decision making and make the governance ecosystem people-friendly, transparent and accountable, we have initiated a number of eGovernance measures over the years.

The Government of Goa is unveiling its IT investment policy with a special focus on setting up a strong base for IT/ITeS and EMC hub in Goa, as the State is an ideal destination for IT investment owing to its non-polluting nature.

An attractive policy, along with excellent rail, air and road connectivity, would be a great help to the IT sector. The Government of Goa plans to make the State the most preferred destination for investors, so as to ensure mutual growth.

We are determined to create a world-class IT infrastructure in the State, thereby, promoting investment in IT/ITeS/ESDM industry.

The Government is also looking to promote AVGC industry, as it is a potential sector to attract IT/ITeS/ESDM industry. We are determined to promote a modern, clean and green Goa. We also believe that more investment would create more employment opportunities in the State.

I am sure that Elets Knowledge Exchange, Goa, which will bring on one platform the key stakeholders, like Government, Industry, Investors and Civil Society, will provide further impetus to eGovernance in bringing key services to the doorstep of the common man and strengthening the investment scenario in the State. I wish Elets Knowledge Exchange a great success and hope to benefit from its valuable deliberations.

Laxmikant Parsekar

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Cover Story

Goa

Vying to Re-draw

IT Map of India Known globally for its immense tourism potential, Goa’s soon-tobe-announced IT policy has all the elements required to transform the State into one of the most favoured IT investment destinations, writes Manish Arora of Elets News Network (ENN)

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aving been one of the most favourite tourist destinations since ages, Goa now seems determined to create a niche for itself in the field of Information Technology as well. Apart from its vision to turn the State into an IT hub by attracting large investments, the Government of the day also intends to get a fair share of the IT products market.

One of the obvious advantages for the State remains its low tariff rates of power and water, which is claimed to be lowest in the country. Besides, some recent initiatives like ‘single window’ clearance system further boost the chances of the State of Goa to become an investment-friendly destination. After all, hassle-free clearance systems have always got favour with the investors — be they domestic or as international.

The State Government of the day, led by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, is also laying due emphasis on the concept of ‘Make in India’. Some of the provisions of the soonto-be-unveiled IT Investment Policy of the State seem directed towards attracting foreign companies. The policy has been envisioned not just to give a fillip to the industrial scenario

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in the State and earn huge revenues therefrom, but also to generate never-before employment opportunities in Goa, say government functionaries.

Officials in the State suggest that the Government is making an all-out effort to provide world-class facilities to IT/ ITeS for setting up businesses here, which

cover story

would also go on to strengthen the IT infrastructure in Goa. And, if anything, the upcoming IT investment policy would do just that.

Apart from making the State mostpreferred destination for investors, start-ups, IT/ITeS and ESDM sector, the Government also plans to promote audio-visual gaming and comics industry in Goa, thereby, leading to the growth of the State’s economy and employment generation.

Why Goa? The State of Goa holds special recognition as a tourist destination. There are various factors, which make it worth an investment destination. In terms of basic amenities, the State has all to offer to the industries for setting up their businesses.

Over the years, Goa is has emerged an established destination for industries, as there are about 22 industrial estates and areas, which have been operating under a pro-industry government and a peaceful society, claim the officials to the Government.

Connectivity is a big plus for the State, as it has got the highest density of road connectivity through NH-17, while the Konkan Railways connects it with other western cities. In terms of air connectivity, one airport is already there at Dabolim, while an international airport is proposed at Mopa in North Goa. It is likely to become operational by the year 2020.

In addition to the rail-road connectivity, port has also been a big advantage in terms of excellent sea routes for good investments.

Another major factor, so very crucial for the growth of industries, remains quality

human resource capital. As per the 2011 census, the State boasts of 88.7 per cent literacy rate with English-speaking population.

Plan of action The Government of Goa, according to the proposed policy, is committed for the overall development of IT/ITeS and ESDM industry, with special focus on development of remote and under-developed areas. To attract IT industry in the State and develop an Electronics Manufacturing Cluster (EMC), the State Government has also made an elaborate plan of action.

Under the plan, the proposed site for EMC is in the village of Tuem of Pernem taluka of North Goa. The site is just five kms away from the national highway, at a short distance of six kms from Pernem Railway Station and approximately 40 kms from the Dabolim Airport. Similarly, it would fall

One of the obvious advantages for the State remains its low tariff rates of power and water, which is claimed to be lowest in the country

within around 14 kms radius from the new proposed international airport.

The proposed site for IT Park is Chimbel village of Tiswadi Taluka of North Goa, which is around four kms from Panjim city and nine kms from the nearest railway station.

The Government has also planned to ensure composite development of these areas with adequate power and water supply and better connectivity.

In the proposed policy, the Government of Goa has also expressed its willingness to work in close coordination with the private sector for development of the IT Park and EMC areas.

However, to avail the incentives offered by the Government, the applicant units would have to get certified as IT/ITeS/ESDM units and those should further be located in the notified areas.

According to Chief Minister Parsekar, “The policy will also discuss assembly line area in the IT sector, which would offer whitecollar jobs to local youth as desired by them.”

Incentives offered The Government of Goa also proposes to offer a slew of incentives in the upcoming policy, which would surely be fruitful for the IT companies. From commencement to smooth running of IT companies, the Government would offer various reimbursements that would help June 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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Cover Story

these firms establish in their initial days.

These offerings would also encourage the start-ups in setting up their new IT businesses in Goa. In other words, these crucial steps would surely help Goa emerge as the next IT destination of India.

Talking to eGov magazine, Goa Chief Secretary R K Srivastava said, “The priority is to encourage investment and boost the ESDM sector, so that it may add to the GDP of the State. The demand of technology product has registered a significant growth.

We understand that the demand of electronic products will increase by $400 billion by 2020.

We would endeavour that a major chunk of it comes to Goa. The State is expected to be the next destination to cater to the domestic as well as the international market.�

Another incentive proposed is concessions on stamp duty. All eligible units would be entitled for 100 per cent reimbursement of stamp duty on lease of land/office building on commencement of operations.

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The (IT investment) policy aims not just to give a fillip to the industrial scenario in the State but also to generate neverbefore employment opportunities in Goa There would be on exemption of CST as well. All eligible units setting up their business in notified places would be entitled for a 100 per cent reimbursement on CST for a period of 12 years from the date of commencement of operations, or till the time GST is introduced in the State.

Apart from these, there would also be Entry Tax-related benefits. All eligible units would be entitled for 100 per cent reimbursement of Entry Tax up to 12 years, paid on raw materials for self-consumption by the unit (expect Schedule-G goods) from the date of commencement of operations, or till the time GST Bill is introduced in the State.

Land-related incentives Under the land-related incentives, highly subsidised land would be made available on the rates notified by the Revenue Department. All IT/ITeS/ESDM units established within the notified areas would, most likely, be eligible for 20 per cent rebate on the rates notified by the Revenue Department.

The land would be given on a long-term lease basis. The period of lease would be 30 years for the first year which could be extended up to 99 years later. Lease rent would just be two per cent of the premium amount for the first 10 years.

Other Incentives Additionally, there are various other incentives proposed to be offered on power, land use, fasttrack clearance mechanism, quality certification, skill-gap training, special incentives for Goans, and outstanding Contribution Awards and Incentives on case-to-case basis.

In terms of early bird incentives to the first three eligible units with a capital investment of `5 crore or higher, a special incentive of `5 lakh each is another bait to be offered by the State.

In short, the pro-active approach of the State Government and the favourable industrial environment prevailing there, coupled with an upbeat mood of the Government functionaries, the stage seems set for emergence of Goa as the next IT destination of India.

Special Interview

R K Srivastava

Striving to Become

Next IT Capital Having been one of the top tourist destinations for ages, now Goa is making an all-out effort to earn the reputation of also being the most favoured IT destination.

R K Srivastava, Chief Secretary, Government of Goa, dwells on the IT opportunities in the State and the new IT Policy to be announced soon in an interaction with Nabin Sinha of Elets News Network (ENN)

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R K Srivastava

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n the backdrop of the Digital India programme announced by the Government of India, what are the fresh initiatives and opportunities in Goa?

The State of Goa has well received the Digital India initiative. Fortunately, the State has pursued various Information Technology-based programmes on a very high scale for the last several years now. We have provided connectivity to all Panchayats and government departments, apart from bringing Education, Tourism and a number of other services online.

The government is in the process of ensuring a higher level of eGovernance in terms of making available facilities and public utilities. The IT Policy, which will be announced shortly by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, is aimed to boost investment in the IT sector. The State of Goa would soon become biggest hub for IT sector, investment and other facilities.

What are going to be the salient features of the IT Policy? Can you throw some light on its highlights?

The elaborate policy would be announced by the Hon’ble Chief Minister. But yes, I can tell you that the State Government’s idea is to create an investor-friendly environment, so as to attract more and more investments. There is going to be a ‘Single Window’ system for projects and other clearances, so as to put in place a hassle-free system. This would also take into account the allied facilities. These steps are bound to attract both national and international IT companies to the State.

Goa is going to create a state-of-the-art IT Park for software development, while a huge Electronic

‘Goa is going to create a stateof-the-art IT Park for software development, while a huge Electronic System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) park has also been cleared by the government and land acquired for the purpose’ System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) Park has been cleared by the government and land has already been acquired for the purpose. We are also in the process of granting a large number of incentives to the IT sector, so that Goa offers a better deal to the companies than other states. So far as development of the IT sector is concerned, political leadership cutting across the party lines is on the same page.

Talking about the land for setting up ESDM Park, approximately 140 acres of land has been acquired for the purpose with all clearances.

All other infrastructure facilities have also been planned, including electricity. Tenders for providing road infrastructure have been floated as well.

In what ways these initiatives will benefit the State?

The priority is to encourage investment and boost the ESDM sector, so that it may add to

Special Interview

the overall GDP of Goa. The demand for technology products has registered a significant growth. We understand that the demand for electronic products will increase by $400 billion by 2020. We would endeavour to ensure that a major chunk of it comes to Goa. The State is striving hard to become the next IT destination, catering to both domestic as well as international market.

What is the present state of affairs of IT services in the State?

The state has the distinction to have achieved cent-per-cent IT-enabled services. We have broadband connectivity with village Panchayats and two-way communication system with Gram Sabha and other local bodies across the State. All government programmes are being announced well in advance and are displayed on the State Government’s website. The digitisation and IT-enablement of services are among the highest priorities of the Chief Minister, in line with the policies announced by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. We have 74 IT-supported public utility services under the eGovernance mode.

How do you think this is going to help people?

Goa has been one of the most favoured tourist destinations across the globe since ages.

Recently, it was also ranked 6th in the list of ‘Top 10 Nightlife Cities’, thereby earning the distinction of being a ‘safe tourist destination’.

That being the reason, in the days ahead, we are expecting still larger volumes of tourists to the State. So, we have enabled several online services like booking of hotels, motel transport and other facilities for tourists, including sea-

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Special Interview

R K Srivastava

greater investment and more job-opportunities for the youth of Goa. The focus of the Chief Minister is that apart from being a top Tourism destination, Goa should also register its presence as the best IT and Digital destination in the country.

‘We understand that the demand for electronic products will increase by $400 billion by 2020. We would endeavour to ensure that a major chunk of it comes to Goa.’ The State is striving hard to become the next IT destination’

based water sports and numerous other services. It not only facilities tourists as they save lots of time but also provides assured employment to the local people.

The recent linking of services with the Geo Information System (GIS) has helped people at large. The State’s IT development has been hailed by several national and international forums like NASSCOM and others.

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soon have mobile-based services in Goa. In the field of Education, all schools have been connected with broadband and tablets have been provided to each and every student. In other words, students of Goa are experiencing the new-age education. It is one reason that the standard of education in government schools are at par with the international standards.

What other public utility services are available online?

What is the future roadmap for growth and expansion of IT services in Goa?

There are quite a few of them. Everyone benefits from services like Public Distribution System (PDS), which has helped in eliminating pilferages and other issues.

The land records, transport facilities and lot many citizen-centric services are on e-Governance mode. The governmentcitizen interface is very quick and on your fingertips. We are planning to have entire services on Mobile network; so, we will

Our Chief Minister has fully synchronised the State’s IT activities with the PM Modiannounced Digital India mission. The State aims to go now for the second and third-generation of digitisation, like putting online all land records, government files, etc.

All these initiatives are aimed at giving more facility to people and to create a vast potential for IT-enabled services, so as to get

egov / egov.eletsonline.com / June 2015

Dr K V Raman Shilpa Shinde

Healthcare face to face

IT push for

Smarter Growth Shilpa Shinde, Secretary-Director IT, Government of Goa shares with Kartik Sharma with Manish Arora of Elets News Network (ENN) how the new IT policy will ensure that Goa becomes a prime destination for IT investments

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hat are the major initiatives being undertaken by Department of IT (DoIT), Government of Goa? Department of IT, Government of Goa has alreadyundertakenanumberofinitiativeslike GoaBroadBandNetwork,SDC,ITKnowledge Centres, Broad band connectivity to schools andinstitutesandvariouscitizencentrice-servicesthroughe-governanceproject.Presently DoITisfocusingonSoftwareTechnologyParks andElectronicSystemDesignManufacturing.

In what way is the Government trying to attract IT companies to the state?

GovernmentofGoahasalwaysbeenaninvestor friendly pro-industry state. In order to ensure Goa as a prime destination for IT investments,

statehascomeupwithanITInvestmentPolicy whichcontainsnumberofattractiveincentives related to taxes, power, land, training, quality certification etc.

Is there any special package of incentive being offered to IT companies who want to invest in your state?

Yes,companieswithlargeinvestmentsandalso the companies who can create employment opportunities for the locals in large numbers wouldbeconsideredforspecialincentivesover and above stated in the Policy.

Government of India has initiated Digital India initiative.

What according to you is the importance of this programme?

Digital India Programme provides a comprehensiveroadmaptobringeverybodyonadigital

platform.TheninepillarsofdigitalIndiafocuson allaspectsofInformationandTechnologywith ultimateobjectiveofcreatingknowledgesociety.

The benefits of this society can be availed by everypersonbeitstudent,acommonmanora farmer or a government department.

What is your vision for the state in terms of e-governance through which government can reach services to the citizens?

State of Goa is already way ahead in terms of providing e-Governance related services to its citizens. Its objectives are very much in line with those defined under Digital India and Make in India. As a Secretary-Director of IT Department,mymandateistobringmoreand more people under the fold of e-governance bydeployinginnovative,costeffectiveandsustainableITsolutionswhichwouldenableusto transform state into a smart state.

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Secretary, DeitY, Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India

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Dr Nirmal Kumar Singh Deputy Chief Minister Jammu & Kashmir

R Chandrashekhar President, NASSCOM

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Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India

Cover Story Proposed ‘Pro-Industry’ measures announced in the Union Budget 2015 generate hopes of ‘Acche Din’ in the IT sector

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CEO, MyGov, DeitY, Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India

Sanjay Jaju

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Rajesh Aggarwal

Joint Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Government of India

Ameya Abhyankar

face to face

Wifi at Beaches‌ It’s Tech-Goa Now In order to attract more tourists and further improve tourism services, the Government of Goa is in the process of introducing new technologies and mobile applications. Ameya Abhyankar, Director, Department of Tourism, Government of Goa, in an interview with Manish Arora of Elets News Network (ENN), speaks about various initiatives undertaken by them to improve e-services for tourists

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tive on how the tourism industry should grow.

We are also planning to make all beaches in Goa equipped with free wifi facility.

hat are the technology initiatives the Department of Tourism has undertaken?

We have a system of registering different kinds of tourist activities online like water sports, hotel, cabs and adventure sports. These things always used to happen manually, which, apart from creating a lot of papers, were also very much time taking. It also resulted in delayed services, which was completely unacceptable.

In order to ease the process of registration of these services, we are coming up with a process of online registration from the comfort of your home. That would be like taking the registration service to your doorstep. A person would need to just file all the documents online and he would be given a token number. He would later receive an SMS about the status of his registration.

When the registration process is completed,

Has technology also improved connectivity between your teams?

Technology helps in quick transfer of messages as well as documents, which in turn keeps delay in tourism services at bay. We would also be bringing in a system called TIME. This system is meant to capture tourist arrivals in Goa. Apart from that, we are soon going to come out with a special feedback plan form, wherein tourists would be able to give their feedback on the services offered. This would be immediately passed on to the teams and the problems would be sorted out as soon as possible. his document would be couriered to his address or he can collect it from the office directly. So, that would save a lot of time of the tourists.

We are also planning to roll out a Tourism Master Plan that will build a 25-year perspec-

How do you keep the Department of Tourism personnel updated on latest IT tools?

We are quite an IT-savvy State, so we keep training our staff about the technology we implement in the Department. We organise training exercises and workshops at regular intervals, so that our teams are fully updated on IT. We are now looking for an outsourcing model, like vendor facility, to manage all our implementations.

How much important is mobile services with regard to the Department of Tourism in Goa? Goa Tourism already has an app, which received a lot of feedback and queries from tourists. We will be building a multilingual app where people can easily book their services and get approvals over phone only. This app would benefit all tourists whether domestic or coming from other countries.

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face to face

Revati Majumdar

Setting Tone for IT

Development in Goa

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hat is Goa Electronics Limited (GEL) all about?

The Goa Electronics Limited (GEL), a subsidiary of EDC Limited, was started way back in 1978. It was originally involved in the manufacturing of CCTVs, B/W television sets and audio sets. Later, GEL diversified into the Information Technology sector and now provides IT support to the government departments in the State of Goa. GEL has its focus on three critical areas of IT – Business Consultation, Providing Software Solution, and Hardware Supply and Maintenance. GEL’s capabilities include areas like IT- Project Management, Business Analysis, Application Development, Database Administration, System and Network Administration, Hardware Supply and Maintenance, etc. Software technologies supported by GEL encompass Web Development, Client Server, ObjectOriented Development, Legacy System, Project-based Development, Conversion and Integration.

Share with us some of the recent initiatives undertaken by GEL. Some of our recent initiatives are PRISMS, Griha Aadhaar and eAgri. PRISMS is a jail booking and management system that provides information on incarcerated adults and juveniles. It is designed with easy-to-use menus and a comprehensive security system, so that even non-technical personnel can also use.

Without any unnecessary repetition, data is entered in a natural flow. Further, the design is compatible to meet the requirements of any correctional facility and agency-defined code tables facilitate efficiency and accuracy of data entry.

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GEL’s idea of ‘Plan, Build, and Manage’ provides a cohesive solution that enables government departments to focus on business and ensure success, says Revati Mujumdar, CEO, Goa Electronics Limited. In an interaction with Manish Arora of Elets News Network (ENN), the officer also talks about a number of ways to implement IT in administration domain

Revati Majumdar

Griha Aadhaar is a scheme introduced to address the problem of spiralling prices and to provide support to the housewives/homemakers from middle, lower middle and poor section of the society, to help them maintain a reasonable standard of living for their families. eAgri being a critical department of the Government, and considering its wide-spread activities, the Directorate of Agriculture intends to implement a complete technology-based system to monitor and deliver its services efficiently to the farmers.

The Directorate of Agriculture approached GEL for development and rolled out an enterprise software solution, which had a prime focus on registration of farmers and issuances of “Krishi Card” to each farmer. Another major component of the software would facilitate linking of the “Krishi Card” to the benefits availed by the farmers for effective management of the various schemes implemented by the Directorate of Agriculture, along with managing their subsidy availed.

Who all have been your major clients?

We are associated with many of the government departments in Goa and some other clients.

They include: l Office of the Chief Electoral Officer l Kadamba Transport Corporation Limited (KTCL) l Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education l Directorate of Women and Child Development

PRISMS is a jail booking and management system that provides information on incarcerated adults and juveniles. It is designed with easyto-use menus and a comprehensive security system, so that even nontechnical personnel can also use l Goa State SC & OBC Finance Development Corporation l Directorate of Transport l Directorate of Social Welfare l Department of Electricity l Directorate of Mines l Directorate of Information and Publicity

What are your views on ‘Digital India’ campaign?

Some clarity is still required regarding the Digital India campaign. The vision is praiseworthy, and the first focus of this plan is to develop infrastructure across the country. Some places are still facing the issue of poor connectivity. It

face to face

should be firstly taken care of and then only the Digital India plan should be implemented.

How do you plan to attract new IT companies to set up their businesses in Goa? There are many states which provide land to the IT companies at very low costs, so that the IT infrastructure in those places could improve.

But, if you sell them the land at a high cost, they would not be much eager to set up their businesses in that state.

Similarly, Goa needs to revamp the IT policy of the State, so that more and more IT companies show interest, come and set up their businesses here. That being the reason, the State Government recently came up with a number of initiatives to attract IT companies in Goa.

The Government of India is now focusing on the use of mobile platforms for eGovernance services. How do you see the emergence and future of mGovernance?

Every project coming up these days has mGovernance aspect attached to it. We are passing through a transition period now, where things are fast moving from the web to the mobile.

People are now using their mobile phones for virtually everything — looking for ways to do a certain thing, solutions to their various issues, better opportunities, etc., apart from making financial transactions. The Government is also trying to roll out all their initiatives on mobile for better connectivity and ease of services.

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Face to Face

Nila Mohanan

Tech Tools Come Handy for Rural Population The Government of Goa has been trying to reduce the run of a common man to the government offices for getting various approvals and certificates. Nila Mohanan, Collector and District Magistrate, North Goa, talks about various initiatives introduced for rural people.

Excerpts from an interview with Manish Arora of Elets News Network (ENN)

S

hare with us some of the initiatives to take technology to the rural areas of Goa.

Village Level Service Delivery is an initiative that has helped the people of rural areas get services sitting at their homes. Talathidars, who collect the request from village people, do not have to run to head office again and again for forwarding their requests now, as we have computerised the Talathi office also. He scans the documents and forwards it to higher authorities. We issue the certificate and then send back the soft copy to the Talathi concerned, who issues the same to the people.

We are now planning to expand this service to all the villages in the district. We have got approval from the government for the purpose, so we would soon introduce it at remaining places.

You have launched a ‘single window partition’ system. What is it all about and how does it help people?

I realised that partition of land is one of

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‘Mobile services are becoming increasingly important these days… People can get status of their application through their mobile phones only, instead of running to the government offices again and again’ the subject-areas where intervention of ICT could help in sorting out various issues. Partition of land would take on an average eight to 10 months, creating lots of problems for the people concerned. They would run from one office to another again and again to enquire about the status of their files. But ever since the launch of the Single Window Partition mechanism, lots of their time and energy is saved. We collect the application and give a token number to the applicant, who can keep

track of the status of their file via an SMS.

How important is mGovernance in the areas you operate?

Mobile services are becoming increasingly important these days. People get status of their application through their mobile phones only, and they don’t have to run to government office again and again. This has also cut down time and expenditure for us. We would soon introduce more and more mobile-based services in the State.

How do you make people in villages literate about new technologies?

When we started these services, people from Panchayats were given complete knowledge about the technology initiatives. In turn, they educated the villagers about the new process that would benefit them. We also take help of newspapers and magazines for disseminating technology-related information among the masses.

Kartik Kashyap

face to face

Citizen’s Safety

Just a Click Away Goa Police has been using ICT tools for delivery of quality services to the citizens in the State and working continuously to improve its IT infrastructure, says Kartik Kashyap, Superintendent of Police, Crime Branch, Goa, in an interview with Manish Arora of Elets News Network (ENN)

W

hat are the various IT initiatives introduced by Goa Police?

Goa Police is launching mobile applications and web-based applications for police services. We redesigned our website recently and added some unique features for delivering better services to both citizens as well as tourists. The redesigning work was initiated by our own constables and police officials.

The first application is to provide an easy platform to the people for accessing services under various police departments and take services to every corner of Goa. After the web-based application is rolled out, people would be able to get police verification certificates online from the comfort of their home.

They would simply need to upload the documents. After verification of documents and personal verification by policemen online, police verification certificate will be sent digitally. Similarly, the web application will give lost certificate for lost items, all digitally.

We are working on providing more and more services online to the people, so that they do not have to run around the departments. Similarly, we would be soon introducing an iWatch application. Through this application, as soon as a person presses the panic button, a 30-second recording would come directly to us.

Given the current scenario, do you think there is a need to switch to mGovernance mode?

In today’s life, mobile is a basic need in everyone’s life and it has good penetration also among the masses. So, it is only desirable that

more and more services are shifted on to the mobile devices. There are some unique features of mGovernance, like a person can click and send us pictures from the place of crime, so that we can track down location of that person easily. Keeping this in mind, we are planning to launch an app that would help users file complaints through mobile phones.

How do you keep police personnel updated on the latest ICT tools?

We regularly organise training camps and sessions. Many experts from different parts of the country train our constables as well as senior officials on the use of ICT tools.

What are the unique features of the upcoming Goa police website?

The Goa Police website would have various unique services, like they would have the records of the closest police station or police booth on the website, so as to help tourists and citizens find those. It would also have details of all the services of police as well as the recent initiatives launched by us. We have also introduced a section, called ‘Tips for Tourists’, which would help the tourist to stay safe in Goa.

How do you ensure that your crime data remains secure?

We see to it that all our information is always secure. We keep on regularly doing audits for all our data in the police departments, so that it does not become unsecure. We are also planning to set up a cyber lab in Goa for cyber crime investigations.

June 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

23

BFSI

Dr Kshatrapati Shivaji

Nearly 5.77 crore small businesses in the country still remain underserved in terms of formal funding, and the government’s MUDRA plan is aimed at bridging that gap, says Dr Kshatrapati Shivaji, Chairman and Managing Director of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), in an interaction with Kartik Sharma of Elets News Network (ENN)

MUDRA to Serve the

Bottom of ‘Pyramid’

T

ell us about the government’s ambitious scheme of Pradhan Mantri Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Yojana.

The goal of Pradhan Mantri Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Yojana is to achieve a truly economically inclusive growth.

As per the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) report of 2013, there are 5.77 crore small business units, mostly proprietorships, running small businesses, trading or service activities, 62 per cent of which belong to SC/ST/ OBC category entrepreneurs. These units have

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hardly any access to formal credit facilities. Most of these ‘own account enterprises’ (OAEs) form the bottom of the pyramid of Indian economy, which still remains unserved and underserved in terms of formal funding.

These OAEs affect the country’s economy immensely. They feed large local and international value chains as well as domestic consumer markets as suppliers, manufacturers, contractors, distributors, retailers and service providers. The estimated gross value addition of this sector is `6.28 lakh crore annually. But, support from the formal banking system to this sector is meagre.

Mainstreaming these OAEs will not only help in improving the life of these entrepreneurs, but also contribute substantially towards

employment generation, thereby achieving higher GDP growth.

It was in this backdrop that the Union Budget 2015-16 announced setting up of MUDRA. The formal launch of MUDRA was done at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on April 8, 2015. This agency will be responsible for the development and refinancing of all Last Mile Financing Institutions (LMFI) like Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), which are in the business of lending to micro/small business entities engaged in manufacturing, trading and service activities, Societies, Trusts, Section-8 Companies, Co-operative Banks, small banks, scheduled commercial banks and regional rural banks. MUDRA will partner with state level/ regional level co-ordinators to provide finance

Dr Kshatrapati Shivaji

BFSI

to the ‘last mile financiers’ of small/ micro business enterprises. To begin with, MUDRA has started functioning as a subsidiary of SIDBI.

What will be the role of MUDRA in providing financial assistance to the ‘unfunded’ small entrepreneurs, who provide employment to a large number of people?

To start with, MUDRA would offer two basic categories of products, viz., refinance products for the micro units having loan requirements up to `10 lakh, and support to MFIs and LMFIs for on-lending. While, for the latter, MUDRA would start by lending to MFIs/NBFCs for creation of outreach, there is need for devising newer means of addressing larger outreach through intermediation, aggregation and franchisee mode, as may be considered suitable.

MUDRA will work with the state level/ regional level agencies to provide finance to end financiers of small/ micro business enterprises.

Moving forward, MUDRA is also expected to lay down guidelines for registration of MFI entities, their supervision, accreditation and rating them, laying down responsible financing practices to ward off over-indebtedness and ensure proper client protection principles and methods of recovery, development of standardised set of covenants governing last-mile lending to micro enterprises, promoting right technology solutions for the last mile, formulating and running a Credit Guarantee Scheme for providing guarantees to the loans/portfolios being extended to micro enterprises, supporting development and promotional activities in the sector, and creating a good architecture of last-mile credit delivery for micro businesses.

How will MUDRA help generate confidence among the small entrepreneurs, who have been prone to exploitation at the hands of money lenders so far?

As per the broad guidelines set up for MUDRA, a minimum of 60 per cent of support will flow to enterprises in the smallest segment. In addition, partner intermediaries of MUDRA are expected to encourage first-time entrepreneurs, youth entrepreneurs (aged up to 30 years) and women entrepreneurs, and design special schemes for such entrepreneurs. Further, emphasis shall be given to cash flow-based lending and not security-based one, thus avoid-

‘MUDRA would offer two basic categories of products, viz., refinance products for the micro units having loan requirements up to `10 lakh, and support to Micro-finance Institutions and Last Mile Financing Institutions for onlending’ ing any collateral security. The good news is that repayment obligations shall be flexible and framed keeping in view the business cash flow of the entrepreneur.

In future, MUDRA would attempt to offer innovative products like a pre-loaded MUDRA card offering a Portfolio Guarantee product, creation of resources for credit enhancement/ guarantee facility by way of a charge on the outstanding loans under refinance, lending through business/ banking correspondent model etc.

Since loaning will be done through all LMFIs, including MFIs, NBFCs, banks and Societies/ Trusts, it will be possible for the small entrepreneurs to get the financial assistance without depending on informal sources.

What can be the challenges in proper implementation of MUDRA, and how will you overcome those?

The challenges faced by MUDRA would be the vastness of the area to be covered and the large number of beneficiaries to be reached. This would be addressed through forging proper collaborations with partner institutions, including the LMFIs. The two challenges faced by the sector are availability of credit and making it available to the very small enterprises at a reasonable cost. And these two challenges will be addressed suitably by MUDRA by evolving suitable products and funding mechanism.

As per some estimates, size of the microfinance market, comprising the Self Help Group Bank linkage and microfinance institutions, is as large as `1.4-`2.5 lakh crore at penetration levels of 50-70 per cent and average ticket size of `35,000- `45,000 per household. With the announcement of upward revision in the eligible loan size and income levels under micro finance in the policy statement by the RBI on April 7, 2015, this market is expected to expand further. In addition, with economies of scale that is expected to accrue to the MFIs, reduction in operational cost of MFIs will also be seen. These will augur well for the sector and MUDRA. MUDRA is poised to meet the expectations of the sector, thereby creating an inclusive economic architecture. There is a lot of expectation from MUDRA and so are the challenges. Let me assure that while addressing the immediate challenges, we shall devise systems and procedures, and suitable policies to overcome the challenges that MUDRA will come across in its newly started journey.

June 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

25

Corporate

Kamal Nath

Govts Take Sify

Wings to Reach Cloud Sify provides end-to-end Cloud solutions to the government departments in various states. Kamal Nath, Chief Executive Officer, Sify Technologies Limited, talks at length about the company’s various products and services in an interaction with Manish Arora of Elets News Network (ENN)

H

ow is Sify Technologies Ltd different from its rivals operating in the Indian Cloud space?

Sify’s Cloud and Managed Services covers endto-end spectrum across advisory to service the provider of Cloud and IT transformation practices. The service portfolio is broadly categorised in the three-pillar approach, which differentiates us against most of our competitors.

The first is self service, enterprise Cloud platform “Cloudinfinit”, having capabilities for delivering I/II/III-tier architecture across Public Cloud and Private Cloud on heterogeneous systems or platforms (VMware, Hyper-V, RHEV KVM) enabling end-to-end orchestration, automation, reporting, metering, billing and chargeback. The portal is built indigenously by the Sify Engineering team, which is on open architecture over the last two years and currently runs the Sify Cloud and is also deployed in five Government State Data Centers (SDCs).

Integrated Solution encompasses SLAs covering IaaS, Network (MPLS/VPN), Data Center, Managed Services as well as Application Services. Sify is uniquely positioned to address end-to-end spectrum with singlewindow ownership and guarantees.

What sort of Cloud services has Sify offered to the Government departments so far?

Cloud enablement of the SDCs is the first thing Sify has deployed, and currently, we are managing Cloudinfinit platform and solutions in various SDCs. This has helped SDCs transform into an IT service provider to various govern-

26

egov / egov.eletsonline.com / June 2015

ment departments, and consolidate different applications, fasten infrastructure provisioning for projects, reduce IT procurement time, improve operations and governance.

The other one is Managed Cloud Services for state governments. A few services/portals of the

state governments are running on Sify Cloud.

For instance, the Department of Social Justice, Maharashtra and BOAT (Board of Apprenticeship Training) are some of the departments leveraging Cloud infrastructure, which is completely managed by Sify.

Kamal Nath

Besides, we have Cloud services for shortterm needs, too. Infrastructure needs like recently concluded Delhi Development Authority (DDA) scheme or the ones from the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) in the past are completely run on Sify Cloud, in a highly secure and agile fashion. The whole setup is ready in three-tofour business days, and testing trials are conducted. It then runs for a period of up to two months, providing huge cost benefits and agility to the government departments.

Apart from that, there are DR (Disaster Recovery) sites on Cloud. Our firm has setup fully managed DR sites for some of the government departments. Sify’s team completely manages the DR replication, recovery and reverse recovery from Cloud to DR site. The proposition is highly unique and provides government departments with resiliencies and business continuity with highest efficiencies.

As a Cloud service provider, how do you combat the issue of network and data security?

Sify has undertaken SSAE-16 (SOC-2) Audit and Certification to ensure controls related to operations and compliance. The SSAE-16 (SOC-2) compliance reports on controls at Sify Technologies covering security, availability, processing, integrity, confidentiality and privacy. The controls are applicable for attributes that operate, collect, process, transmit, store, organise, maintain and dispose of information for customer entities. This applies to all enterprise customers, who outsource IaaS, PaaS, managed services, or entire functions built on Sify Cloud platform across data centers covered under certification.

Sify Cloud security is entrusted with a core team of security experts to cover both physical infrastructure securities as well as logical infrastructure securities.

What are your views on Digital India campaign, PMJDY and ‘Make in India’ mission.

Digital India is an initiative by the Government of India to integrate the government departments and channelise their functioning. It aims at ensuring that the government services are made available to citizens electronically by reducing paperwork. The initiative also includes plan to connect rural areas with highspeed internet networks by creating digital infrastructure, delivering services digitally and digital literacy.

Corporate

Sify Services / Features Proposed for 2015-16 1

Sify Government POD in New Cloud sites

Multitenant Infra Public Cloud only for Govt departments, Security compliances as required by the Government, Government Departments can seamlessly burst to the same and adopt Hybrid Cloud Services with Same security comfort

2

PCI Complied Cloud infra / App specific infra (SAP cloud)

Multitenant Infra Public Cloud Complied with PCI Compliances, Ensures Security and Compliances as needed for PCI needs

3

Hyper Scale Cloud

Scalable Open Architecture deployments with Container Support

4

Storage Services- Object Storage, Archival, File Sync & Share

Transforms Enterprise Storages architectures & Backups with Structured & Unstructured data types

5

PaaS services - DB as a Service, Data Warehousing

Allows customers to Run Analytics Cost effective, Security and Agile

6

Security Services – WAF, SIEM

Advanced Security Services for the customers to host critical data

The Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is a national mission for financial inclusion to ensure access to financial services, namely Personal Banking, Remittance, Credit, Insurance, Pension, etc., in an affordable manner.

PMJDY focuses on coverage of households as against an earlier plan, which focused on coverage of villages. It focuses on coverage of rural as well as urban areas. The previous plan targeted only villages above 2,000 population, while under PMJDY, whole country is to be covered by extending banking facilities in each sub-service area consisting of 1,000–1,500 households, so that the facility is available to all within a reasonable distance, say about five kms. It is a major national programme designed to facilitate investment, foster innovation, enhance skill development and build best-in-class manufacturing infrastructure.

What kind of opportunities do you see for yourself and the IT industry in the wake of these initiatives?

Our network expanse of 40,000 PoPs (points of presence) currently reaches 13,000 cities and towns across India. Adding to that, we have already connected 27,000 locations as part of the “India Post 2012” initiative. This gives any digital initiative the required headstart in India.

From the government end, we are seeing increased interest in our network as a means of reaching out to the under-served sections of the society while eliminating the process leaks.

From the industry standpoint, a comprehensive digital movement means we will have to move towards collaborative platforms while synching our respective strengths. The government’s push for automation was long overdue and hence will be a major kickstarter for the infrastructure and managed services industry, especially with the focus on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

June 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

27

BFSI

Ulhas B Phaldessai

Pioneers in Co-op

Banking in Goa With a large number of branches operating at the village level, the Goa State Co-operative Bank has been trying its best to reach out to everyone in the State. Ulhas B Phaldessai, Chairman of the Bank, tells Manish Arora of Elets News Network (ENN) that in the coming days, his organisation will undertake several technology initiatives to further improve its services

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egov / egov.eletsonline.com / June 2015

Ulhas B Phaldessai

G

BFSI

ive us a brief background of the Goa State Cooperative Bank.

On 7th November 1963, the Goa State Co-operative Bank Ltd was founded as an apex financing agency in the co-operative sector in the Union Territory of Goa, Daman & Diu with S. Khushaldas as its first Chairman.

The Bank was initially set up to help the members in distress. Its objective was to provide finance to the needy members in the then Union Territory of Goa, Daman & Diu and help improve their financial health. The Bank offers more interest on deposits and easier loan facility to agricultural and allied activities.

The Bank also offers various loan schemes like urban loans, consumer loans, loan against gold, loan against NSC, non-agricultural loan, loan for weddings of dependent members of a family, loan for repayment of debt, loan to meet expenses of medical treatment, etc., apart from the loans to fulfil the dreams and desires of the members.

Which other areas the Goa State Cooperative Bank is active in?

We are primarily focussed to providing financial assistance to the agriculture sector, as also for land allotment. Besides, we also fund small entrepreneurs for commercial projects and small industries.

Secondly, we provide services to the Government of Goa. Schemes introduced by the government under the Dayanand Suraksha Scheme are financed by us at the village level.

We also provide crop loans at lower interest rates to the farmers.

What are the latest technology measures implemented by your organisation?

We have developed our own data centre in the Bank with all types of facilities. ATM facility, mobile banking, internet banking and CBS system – all of these are in place, thanks to an improved connectivity in Goa. We have around 58 branches in Goa, with most of them being located in the rural areas. The latest system of RuPay debit cards, announced by the Government of India, has also been introduced for sthe benefit of everyone at the village level.

We have already tested our software for implementing financial inclusion at the Panchayat level. All types of bill payments and

‘We have around 58 branches in Goa, with most of them being located in the rural areas. The latest system of RuPay debit cards, announced by the Government of India, has also been introduced for the benefit of everyone at the village level’ mobile recharge services are provided at the village level, so that they do not face any problems in getting services. We have sourced our software from a company called Info Dynamic.

How important are mobile services these days?

Mobile services and internet services nowadays have become a need of all citizens, especially the youth, who need these services more than any other segment of the society. We have introduced mobile banking and internet services, so that our consumers do not need to visit the

branches for every small work. The acceptance of these devices among the consumers has been really good. We are continuously working to improve the mobile and internet services to the benefit of people at the village level.

Hove you undertaken any initiatives under the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)?

Under the PMJDY introduced by the Government of India, we have already opened thousands of accounts and we are trying to implement it across the villages of Goa. We are also educating the village people about these initiatives launched by the Government of Goa as well as the Government of India.

Please share some of the initiatives the Goa State Cooperative Bank plans to undertake in the coming days.

We want to provide maximum services to all the people across the State, as we are the only bank that provides loan to village people. So, we are improving services for the people, to make it easy for them to use our banking services. This is one plan that we will be pursuing very aggressively in the coming days.

Next, we are also in the process of improving our technology infrastructure, so that services as well as banking connectivity get a boost throughout the State of Goa. June 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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BFSI

Sudhir Dubey

‘Banker to Every Indian’

Thrives on IT Tools

The State Bank of India has been consistent in adoption of IT across the branches in Goa. Sudhir Dubey, Chief General Manager (Mumbai Circle), State Bank of India, tells Manish Arora of Elets News Network (ENN) how technology has helped the Bank in improving its costumer services

H

ow has been adoption of Information Technology in the banking industry so far?

Basically, adoption of ICT tools has entirely changed the working of banking industry. The number of accounts being handled by banks was increasing at a fast rate. So, handling of all these accounts manually was becoming difficult for bankers. We have adopted technology in several ways, including one in our internal working and second one in our customer interface to make it more user-friendly.

Around 65 per cent of the transactions happening in the banks are done through alternate channels like ATMs, Internet Banking or Mobile Banking. If these 65 per cent would have also been done with people standing in queues, it would have been very difficult for the banks to handle the situation.

So, IT has helped the consumers as well as the bankers equally in reducing time framework.

What is the concept of SBI InTouch branches? Please tell us something about that.

On 1st July last year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitely inaugurated one of the six digital branches of SBI InTouch in Delhi. Other

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Sudhir Dubey

branches are situated in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.

In SBI InTouch branches, one can open an account in barely 10 minutes using the ‘Account Opening Kiosk’ having smart interactive machines enabled to do all necessary formalities, be it taking photographs or scanning documents.

Customers can also get personalised ATM debit cards instantly using another machine there. Besides, remote expert advisors are always available to entertain the queries of the customers regarding products, such as mutual funds, life insurance, etc., and instant loan facility is available for home and car loans.

These branches are called ‘Digital Stores’, and the employees are given tags, such as Go Digital Manager, Go Digital Lead and Go Digital Assistants. Branches are equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure. The complete area is divided into five parts: Smart Table (Initial point equipped with tablet devices with all the products related information), Online Booth (to get Internet Banking services), Dream Zone (to display information about all upcoming products and schemes on touch screen LED devices), Expert Pod (for connecting with expert advisors) and Express Banking (Account opening kiosk, personalised ATM printing device, Smart ATM, Money Depositing Machine, etc.).

The idea behind this initiative is to generate leads and cross-sell various banking products offered by the bank, apart from providing quicker and more efficient services to attract the rising users of such facilities, especially among the younger generation, in the country. The organisation wants to capitalise on the increasing use of technology. Internet Banking, both as a medium of delivery of banking services and as a strategic tool for business development, has already gained wide acceptance in India, with more and more services and features being added every day.

What kind of challenges do you face in implementation of Information Technology in your organisation?

Our biggest challenge is that we have a very large user base, and technology acceptance among these diversified users is a matter of concern for us. So, making sure that whatever we are implementing is glitch-free for all consumers is the biggest challenge for us.

BFSI

State Bank of India, Panaji Branch

‘The initiative of ‘Chhota ATM’ has turned out to be a big success towards reaching out to remote areas. The State Bank of India and Ezetap, the mobile pointof-sale service providers, have ensured availability of Chhota ATM in various states of the country’ For example, if a technical error occurs in the server, a large number of complaints flood the customer care centres, which at times becomes very difficult for us to handle.

What best practices does SBI adopt to reach out to remote areas?

The initiative of ‘Chhota ATM’ has turned out to be a big success towards reaching out to remote areas. The State Bank of India and Ezetap, the mobile point-of-sale service providers, have ensured availability of Chhota ATM in various states of the country.

Chhota ATM helps grocery store owners, taxi drivers, small businessmen, traders, etc, who have to deal with customers, turn their mobile device into both a cash withdrawal point as well as a credit/debit card payment terminal.

How do you keep bank staff updated about the latest technology innovations?

Before introducing any service in the market, we organise training sessions for our staff giving them complete knowledge about the upcoming initiative, so that they could become a helping hand for the people coming to banks as well as in remote areas. They teach consumers about end-to-end solutions.

How do you view the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) initiative?

It is a wonderful scheme available to every citizen. It takes into account people of all ages between 18 and 70. Under three social security schemes launched recently by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the pre-launch week in Goa alone, a total of 1.18 lakh applications were received by various banks.

June 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

33

Face to Face

Sunil Kumar Barnwal

Where IT Grows in

the Lap of Nature The National eGovernance Programme (NeGP) is largely successful in Jharkhand, as the State has created most of the core IT infrastructure for the purpose, says Sunil Kumar Barnwal, Principal Secretary-IT, Government of Jharkhand, in an interview with Gautam Debroy of Elets News Network (ENN)

W

hat led to the creation of Jharkhand Agency for Promotion of Information Technology?

The Jharkhand Agency for Promotion of Information Technology or JAP-IT is an agency created under the Department of Information & Technology, Government of Jharkhand. It was conceptualised to accelerate the growth of IT in Jharkhand and implement policies of the State Government in the field of IT. Since its inception, it has been implementing various IT infrastructure projects in the State of Jharkhand.

The broad objectives of JAP-IT are to provide IT inputs to the government departments and agencies and to assist them in computerisation and network-

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Sunil Kumar Barnwal

ing, to co-ordinate with investors and industry, trade organisations and financial institutions in public and private sector. That way, this is the nodal agency in implementing various eGovernance and IT projects in Jharkhand.

It is geared up to implement the projects assigned to it, and successfully disseminated information with regard to the strides made by the Department of IT, Jharkhand through participation in various exhibitions, seminars, etc., among the leading IT players of the country, thereby attracting them to the State.

How successful is the National eGovernance Programme (NeGP) in Jharkhand?

NeGP in Jharkhand is successful to a large extent, because under the programme we have created most of the core infrastructures.

Only in the case of having a data centre, we are somewhat lagging behind, but we are using our alternative centres. Jharkhand is one of the few states which have launched the State Wide Area Network (SWAN). We are trying to do all government works through the eGovernance mechanism. In fact, Jharkhand is the first state where biometric attendance system was implemented. We have already put in place the integrated financial system module.

We can proudly say that our government has been trying its best to develop its IT front, and have met with success to a great extent.

There are several places in Jharkhand where the fruits of IT are yet to reach. Are you giving any special attention to those remote areas of the State?

Yes, there are several challenges. Jharkhand is one such state, which is with a large forest cover.

There are threats of Left wing extremism and the terrain is also very hilly. So, there are cer-

‘We are following the (smart city) initiative undertaken by the Central Government. In fact, three cities, namely Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad, have been selected to be developed as smart cities in the State’ tainly a few challenges with regard to reaching out to the people located in remote areas due to net connectivity-related issues.

However, to a large extent, we have solved these issues with the use of SWAN and Common Service Centers (CSCs). We are now trying to adopt alternative solutions. We are also trying to get connected through V-Sat. In short, we have accepted these challenges and are trying our best to solve it. In our bid to reach out to the remotest corners of Jharkhand, we have gone beyond NeGP through the use of our own resources.

As far as attracting IT investment is concerned, we are trying to develop some IT parks.

We have a Software Technology Park at Ranchi.

A similar IT park has also been proposed at Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and a few other places.

In fact, the new government led by Chief Minister Raghubar Das has been supporting the different IT initiatives and has directed the department to make IT central to the governance. We are going to get a good chunk of land for having IT city in the capital of Jharkhand.

So, lots of initiatives have been made and

Face to Face

people will definitely get their benefits over a period of time.

What is your take on the concept of smart cities?

We are following the initiative undertaken by the Central Government. In fact, three cities, namely Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad, have been selected to be developed as smart cities in the State.

Of course, we will be waiting for the allocation of resources by the Centre, but with the help of Urban Development Department of the State, we have already started work on several IT applications for municipal services, city administrations, etc.

In fact, the Government of India through NIC has approved a pilot project for Ranchi Municipal Corporation—eMunicipality—to improve municipal administration.

Smart city is one such area where the IT and Urban Development departments would work together. In Jharkhand, while large areas are under forest cover, there are also industrial areas, and around those industrial areas are located several urban settlements. In such a scenario, smart city becomes a big priority for the State.

Do you face any financial crunch while implementing your IT projects?

More than the financial constraint, we face capacity constraint. Therefore, our focus is more on creating capacity, which includes capacity of the government, government officials as well as the capacity of resources. As far as the budget part is concerned, we have a substantial budget allocation for IT implementation in the State.

When we talk about challenges, there are several IT projects, which can have lots of investments. For that, we are also framing some policies which would be investor-friendly, so that they (IT companies) feel inclined to come to Jharkhand.

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healthcare

Naveen Jain

AshaSoft Raises

Hopes in Healthcare With the introduction of AshaSoft software and a number of Asha Sahyoginis working in the health domain in Rajasthan, the State is all set to make strides in effective delivery of healthcare services.

Naveen Jain, Mission Director & Special Secretary, National Health Mission, Department of Medical, Health & Family Welfare, Government of Rajasthan, in conversation with Kartik Sharma of Elets News Network (ENN) talks about how the sector is witnessing a phase of transformation

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hat all in terms of eGovernance is happening in the healthcare sector of Rajasthan?

A number of initiatives have been undertaken in Rajasthan since the ascension of Modi Government at the Centre and quite a few programmes have also been launched. Primarily, our emphasis is on two things: one is how to use our limited resources in a better manner by using IT, and secondly, how to make our employees learn to use these IT tools effectively.

We are providing facilities to our patients by using various software.

In addition to it, we are also using software and programmes for various services. For example, for our free drug scheme, we have an e-Aushadhi software. To make online payments and managing ASHAs online, we have

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Naveen Jain

healthcare

ASHASoft, and to take care of the children who are discharged from various nutrition treatment centres, we have a voice messagebased software. Thus, we are using various programmes in various fields.

Rajasthan’s experiment with ASHASoft software has worked out well. What makes it such a successful initiative?

The reason behind the success of this software is that we have 46,000 women working for it. These are known as ASHA Sahyoginis in Rajasthan, who get incentives based on their performance on 26 different parameters. When I was Collector in one of the districts, I found that making payments to ASHAs was not a very smooth affair. It was made in several parts and there were complaints regarding lack of transparency. This was telling adversely on their morale.

Also, when I asked these ASHA workers about what they were doing, the parameters and other dash-boarding details on which their work could be evaluated, I came to know there was no such mechanism.

Basically, there were two issues: one was lack of payment on time and the other, lack of monitoring parameters. One could see these two as problems, but we saw one problem as the solution to the other. We re-engineered the entire process of incentive payment. We brought out an ASHA incentive claim form, for which ASHAs were given training. Later, a software was devised with the help of NIC. We also issued various circulars and compiled them in a manual called ASHA Manual. It is very informative and anybody wanting to know about ASHASoft can go through it and learn about its programming.

ASHASoft was developed nicely and implemented brilliantly. The best thing was done by our team including the district-level ASHA coordinators and supervisors, who indeed worked hard. This team work made it actually possible to implement such a huge software in just three months’ time.

ASHAs are, perhaps, the most basic unit of any healthcare system. How challenging it was to raise such a structure starting with this basic unit of healthcare delivery?

Firstly, it is a basic unit, and secondly, the limitation is that out of 46,000 ASHAs, 26,000 are just Eighth standard pass or even below. So, it was a real challenge to train them in implementing a

‘We are providing facilities to our patients by using various software.

In addition to it, we are also using software and programmes for various services.

For example, for our free drug scheme, we have an e-Aushadhi software’ system which is based on IT. There could have been various apprehensions and confusions.

However, ASHAs were so much fed up with the existing system that they were ready to experiment with just anything. So, we started off with their training programmes.

We anticipated that one day there would be a shortage of these claim forms. So, we published six lakh forms in advance. 12 of these forms were compiled in a booklet and 50,000-plus booklets were printed, which were distributed

among the 46,000 ASHAs. We are hopeful now that more and more people would get involved in the process in the future.

English language could be a problem for ASHAs. How did you overcome this?

There is no issue of language, as the form is in simple Hindi and quite compatible with our software; whatever data one feeds is easily accessible.

Can you tell us a little about your voice-based initiative?

In childcare, we were facing a very big challenge, as Rajasthan is known for malnutritionrelated problems. While SNC is a software approved by the Government of India, we developed another software called NPC with the help of UNICEF. Now, both these software have been integrated with an existing application. As parents take away their children after they are discharged, we feed their mobile numbers in our software. Prior to the day they are supposed to visit the hospital again, four messages are sent to them just to remind that such and such is the date for their child’s follow-up in that particular hospital.

However, sending text messages was not considered a foolproof method, especially for those coming from villages, as people found it difficult to read the messages. So, we have now June 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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healthcare

Naveen Jain

Healthcare e-Initiatives in Rajasthan ASHASoft: ASHASoft is an online system which facilitates the user to capture beneficiary-wise details of services given by ASHAs to the community, online payment to ASHAs in their bank accounts and generate various kinds of reports to monitor the progress of the programmes. To ensure their timely and seamless online payment, ASHA software popularly known ‘ASHA Soft’ has been conceptualised.

It was rolled out in all districts of Rajasthan for 47,000 ASHAs on 26th Dec, 2014. e-Aushadhi: It monitors the overall drug distribution chain in the state up to Primary Health Centre level (covering over 2,500 govt. health institutions) and makes real-time data easily available to stakeholders at various levels for facilitating the strategic decision-making process. e-Shubhlaxmi: It has been introduced to simplify the process and increase utilisation of the 2nd installment of Shubhlaxmi Yojna, which remained unclaimed by mothers due to lack of awareness, complex processes or other problems.

Arogya Online: It is an electronic management of health information to deliver safer, more efficient, better quality healthcare to the citizens of the state. It is operational in 15 District Hospitals.

PCTS and HMIS: The Health Statistics Information portal facilitates the flow of physical and financial performance from the district level to the state headquarters and the centre using web-based Health Management Information System (HMIS) interface. Pregnancy, Child Tracking and Health Services Management System (PCTS) is an online software used as an effective planning and management tool for improving the health service delivery up to the grass-roots level.

IMPACT Software: Integrated System for Monitoring of PCPNDT Act helps in online monitoring of effective implementation of PCPNDT Act, 1994.

RJSSY: The RJSSY (Rajasthan Janani Shishu Suraksha Yojna) system is designed and developed to help the online monitoring of health services delivered to the pregnant women and children (up to 1 year) under RJSSY. e-Upkaran: Aimed at improving public health facility through centralised inventory management system, e-Upkaran is being utilised to monitor the status, usage, repair, maintenance status of equipment and rationalisation of logistics.

switched to voice messages. Messages have been fed into the system and people will start getting alerts soon. We have already checked the prototype and are now ready with our system. Only a formal inauguration by the Chief Minister is awaited.

Do you use technology for the provision of medicines as well?

When the Rajasthan Medical Services Corporation Limited was incorporated in 2011, those behind it also took care of the

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future IT requirements. C-DAC came out with the solution, which is now known as e-Aushadhi. The software and its implementation were simply up to the mark.

Further, it was implemented starting from our warehouses up to the drug distribution centres level. So, whenever a medicine comes to the Corporation after purchase, it is entered in the software. Also, when a medicine is prescribed by a doctor to the patient, an entry of issuance is made in it.

In this way, the software also takes care of

the availability of stock at various centres, in the warehouses of the Rajasthan Medical Service Corporation and at different PHCs and CHCs. It is a mandatory practice to make an entry of every drug purchased by the Corporation or sent to warehouses for distribution to various centres.

What are the upcoming initiatives in the field of healthcare in Rajasthan?

We have been instructed to make two programmes: one regarding our equipment purchase mechanism, as we purchase a lot of equipment to be supplied to different healthcare institutions; and the second one, to address complaints from the end-users with regard to the quality of services these equipment deliver.

Using technology, we have devised a system called e-Upkaran. This covers all the 2,500 facilities of Rajasthan, including medical colleges and hospitals. e-Upkaran is able to give information about the number of equipment that are not functional, the ones sent for repair, status of repair and the likely time required for it.

Tracking of repair and maintenance is the first module. The second module is the usage module. Sometimes, we see that a machine is working perfectly, but due to some mischief or some other reason, hospital administration is unable to use it. So, it is important to know how many equipment were not used at all. In this way, we can take stock of the equipment under maintenance and the ones not used at all.

What is your vision for eGovernance in health?

We are thankful to our Hon’ble Chief Minister, Ms. Vasundhara Raje Scindia, because she has a vision of IT and she always says that governance is more important than government. We have taken it in the real spirit and our department, with a very limited workforce, is trying to implement this.

Whatever innovation technology can bring, we will ensure that it is implemented properly so as to impact the system positively.

One of the weak aspect of governance, however, remains that although we create data, we do not necessarily analyse it. But we have decided that whatever system we will use, we will ensure that the data are used for taking informed decisions.

SUMMIT RAJASTHAN CONFERENCE & EXPO

May2015, 2015,Jaipur Jaipur June

Face to Face

D P Wahlang

Meghalaya Ready to Ride

‘Digital India’ Wave The State has some inherent strengths, like a skilled Englishspeaking population with developed education infrastructure, salubrious climate and a government, which is focused to IT, D P Wahlang, IT Secretary, Government of Meghalaya, tells Gautam Debroy of Elets News Netwoks (ENN) 40

egov / egov.eletsonline.com / June 2015

D P Wahlang

services to citizens. These services range from issuance of various certificates to disbursement of social welfare assistance to the target population. The aim of e-District project is to provide end-to-end services to citizens. This means that they can apply for various services using the internet and receive the desired service again through it.

The State has also taken IT initiatives for students and teachers. Under the Student Digital Learning Aid scheme, in the last two years (2013-14 and 2014-15), about 50,000 mobile tablets have been distributed to students of Class-XII. This year onwards, we will be extending it to Class-XI as well. Further, tablets for teachers of higher secondary schools are also provisioned from this year. As a pilot basis, three schools in the State are ready with Digital Classrooms to be launched during the upcoming Digital India Week.

Tribal artists perform a folk dance during a festival in Meghalaya

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hat are the new IT initiatives that you have undertaken in Meghalaya?

In Meghalaya, we have been trying to leverage IT in as many sectors as possible to enhance efficiency and maximise the government’s reach to its citizens.

To accomplish our goals, we have been consciously approaching the issue in a planned manner. So, we started off by building up our core IT infrastructure like the State Wide Area Network (SWAN), State Data Centre (SDC), State Portal and the Common Services Centres to bring government services closer to citizens. Side by side, we developed citizencentric applications that will help government departments provide quality and timely services to its citizens and stakeholders. The Commercial Tax, Meghalaya Public Service Commission, Electricity Billing systems are only few such applications that have been well received by citizens and stakeholders alike.

However, the one project that we anticipate will bring large-scale changes in the way government departments work and benefit citizens in a major way is the e-District project, on which work is going on. In a couple of month’s time, we expect to roll out at least half a dozen

‘In Meghalaya, we will take planned and phased approach for mGovernance on the lines of eGovernance projects. To reap the benefits of mGovernance, we intend to make it an integral part of eGovernance’ Do you think that your initiatives really reach all, even those living in the remotest area of the State?

As per 2011 census, mobile penetration in Meghalaya was 50.68 per cent, whereas as per TRAI report in September 2013, nearly 38.1 per cent villages in Meghalaya have no telecom coverage. Since reaching citizens in the remotest part of the state is indeed our ultimate objective, we do need to intervene in certain areas to mitigate challenges like poor connectivity and low telecom penetration, which severely impact the citizens’ ability to

Face to Face

access eGovernance services. The government is, therefore, taking pro-active measures to facilitate projects like the National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN), wherein about 2,400 villages in the State will be connected by broadband in a couple of year’s time.

What is the success rate of National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) in Meghalaya?

Meghalaya has speedily implemented important projects under NeGP, immediately after its inception. As a result, today all the core IT infrastructures are operational in the State.

We are proud that our SWAN and SDC are fully functional for the last four years. We have 225 vibrant Community Service Centers (CSCs), popularly called as Rainbow Centers by our rural folks. The State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG) is also operational which helps in integrating various eGovernance services seamlessly through the Meghalaya State Portal. Various other Mission Mode Projects like Commercial Tax, eProcurement, Treasury Computerisation, etc., have also been implemented. Other MMPs in the pipeline are e-District and CCTNS, among others. We are indeed happy that all of the NeGP projects have been by and large been successful.

Simultaneously, we have stressed on Capacity Building of the State Government employees. Meghalaya was one of the few states in the country, which had undertaken Capacity Building trainings till district levels under the Capacity Building scheme of NeGP. Apart from IT trainings, we also emphasised on project management trainings.

How do you find the transition from eGovernance to mGovernance?

The transition from eGovernance to mGovernance is inevitable given the proliferation of smartphones and mobile devices that are affordable and reliable. However, as I said earlier, states like ours where the telecom penetration is just about 50 per cent (compared to the national average of 75 per cent) need to focus on connectivity by taking a pro-active role in projects like NOFN. In Meghalaya, we will take planned and phased approach for mGovernance on the lines of eGovernance projects. To reap the benefits of mGovernance, we intend to make it an inteJune 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

41

Face to Face

D P Wahlang

gral part of eGovernance. The first step in this direction is our proposed e-District project, wherein Mobile number is mandatory for citizens, so that status and information related to the applications may be sent through SMS. For citizens, who may not have mobile number, the number of the nearest CSC operator (VLE) may be provided.

Also, we intend to use mGovernance for increasing awareness about major government schemes and other initiatives, so that citizens may easily benefit from them. Attendance of teachers using mobile devices is also planned on an experimental basis. This application will help boost discipline in the educational institutions.

What is the status of Aadhaar implementation in Meghalaya?

Aadhaar has taken the country by storm because of its usefulness as a single source of truth for authentication of a person’s identity.

However, implementation of Aadhaar in states like Assam and Meghalaya with long international border needs to be approached with utmost care because of the demographic and historical issues related to influx and the wrong perception of the common people that Aadhaar confers citizenship to such people. We are confident that the general population will see the merit of enrolling themselves in Aadhaar and take advantage of the various Aadhaar-related applications like Digital Locker, e-Sign, etc.

What is your take on Narendra Modi’s ‘Digital India’ campaign?

The concept of transforming the country into a digital society has been captured well by our PM in two simple words - Digital India. The coverage of the programme is all encompassing, and if planned and executed properly, it will truly bring about a revolution in our land.

Meghalaya has already put in place the core IT infrastructure like SWAN, SDC, CSC and SSDG. We have also taken necessary initiatives that will now be part and parcel of the Digital India programme. The State of Meghalaya is indeed ready to ride the Digital India wave driving the country towards a better tomorrow.

Tell us something about your IT Vision 2020.

I feel that IT in Meghalaya in the next five years will be more of ‘Technopreneurship’. The upcoming Technology Park in Shillong will be

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Tourists enjoy an evening boat ride in Ward’s Lake in Shillong

‘IT in Meghalaya in the next five years will be more of ‘Technopreneurship’. The upcoming Technology Park in Shillong will be an opportune landmark for the budding minds to venture out and flourish in the NE region’ an opportune landmark for the budding minds to venture out and flourish in the NE region.

What is the difference between State’s IT Policy 2014 and the Government of India’s IT Act 2000?

Fundamentally, the Central Government’s IT Act 2000 is a statutory law, providing legal status to electronic documents, digital signatures, offences and contravention, and justice dispensation system for cyber crimes.

On the other hand, the State’s IT Policy 2004 is a formal document outlining the intentions and strategies of the State in the IT sector. It is also supplemented by the State’s Industrial Policy 1997, wherein special incentives are provisioned for IT-enabled industries. In view of the upcoming Technology Park in Shillong and the special emphasis for NE states in the Centre’s IT Policy, we are currently revisiting the State’s IT Policy.

Some people often misuse the social media. Do you think that the Meghalaya Cyber Café Rules 2012would be able to stop its?

The Meghalaya Cyber Café Rules 2012 had been drafted at a time when the social media was yet to gain the rage that it has become today. Its provisions are limited in scope and intent. Further, the fact needs to be appreciated that in March this year, the Supreme Court

struck down Section 66A of the IT Act 2000, as the provisions were ‘open-ended’ and ‘undefined’. The Court termed Section 66A arbitrary.

For monitoring the social media, I think first priority should be given to the existing provisions of the IT Act 2000 and its amendments.

What is the scope of IT industry in Meghalaya?

For a State that has been seriously looking to adopt IT in all sectors in the past two decades, we have indeed come a long way. We have learnt along the way how to implement projects and successfully manage their operation and maintenance. On-boarding the right kind of partners did help us in the long run.

The State has some inherent strengths like a skilled English-speaking population with developed education infrastructure, salubrious climate and a government, which is focused to IT. Through careful planning, strategy and sustained effort, these strengths can be leveraged to attract investors to the State to generate wealth for themselves and create employment for the local youths.

Realising this, the State Government had allotted 80 acres of land in New Shillong Township to build a Technology Park. The IT Department appointed a consultant to prepare a DPR and to chalk out strategy for implementation. Our leadership is committed to make the Technology Park a dream come true for the young people of our State and the region.

Aman Kumar Singh

Face to Face

Layout of a part of Naya Raipur project, touted to be the first green field smart city of the country

Direct Connect Mantra

to Woo IT Investors

Instead of going for the big-bang approach, we have taken the path of focused, customised and targeted strategy to get IT investment in Chhattisgarh, Aman Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary - Chief Minister, Energy, Electronics & Information Technology, Government of Chhattisgarh, tells Souvik Goswami of Elets News Network (ENN) in an interview

W

hat is your strategy to woo investors for making investment in the IT sector in the State of Chhattisgarh?

We have adopted a different strategy to get IT investment in the State. Instead of going for a big bang, carpet bombing approach, we have taken the path of focused, customised and targeted strategy. We are trying to reach out to the target segment directly. That is the reason we organised “Opportunity Chhattisgarh 2015” recently in Raipur. The State’s Chief Minister, Raman Singh, also went to Mumbai recently to address the Executive Council of NASSCOM. The same day, we also invited them (NASSCOM members) to hold a meeting. Similarly, he attended a meeting in Bengaluru as well. In short, we are focusing on the target segments directly and reaching out to them by having a direct connect with them.

Do you think that the State has the right measures in place for attracting investment by IT majors?

Chhattisgarh is trying its best to create the right

kind of ecosystem for attracting investment. Be it physical infrastructure, social infrastructure, cost advantage or availability of manpower — all these together make too formidable a combination for any company to ignore Raipur as an investment destination.

Naya Raipur is coming up as the first green field smart city of the country. What are your plans for this mega project?

It is the first green field smart city project of India.

It will be a model for the rest of the country. We

are giving attractive incentives to the companies interested in investing in Naya Raipur. Not only this, we are also focusing on a new kind of approach, wherein we can customise the terms of investments as per their requirement in case huge investments are going to flow in.

Naya Raipur will have some unique features, which are not available in any other city of the country so far. For example, there we will have unified utility bills facility. That is, unlike the present practice of generating separate bills for electricity, water, telephone, etc., we are trying to bring them all on one platform. Once that starts, every consumer will get a single bill, where all these bills will be integrated. Also, one would also be able to pay such bills through app or online, apart from the traditional mode.

What is your vision for eGovernance in the country?

Talking about eGovernance, with the advent of technology, particularly with the mobile apps, we are witnessing a second wave of Government to Citizen (G2C) services being offered by various government departments. This will further enhance the quality as well accountability of the services.

June 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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egov / egov.eletsonline.com / June 2015

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Healthcare

Dr K V Raman

NHM Streamlines Health

Services in Puducherry Despite Puducherry being already rich in healthcare services, the National Health Mission has helped make the delivery of services still more effective and faster, says Dr K V Raman, Director, Department of Health & Family Welfare Services, Government of Puducherry, in conversation with Souvik Goswami of Elets News Network (ENN)

A

s the Mission Director of the National Health Mission (NHM), Puducherry, could you elaborate on the initiatives that are there to provide better healthcare services?

The Health Department in Puducherry exists for more than 50 years and some of the hospitals are nearly 200 years old. Owing to the French legacy, Puducherry was famous for its healthcare services and people from other regions used to come in. When NHM came, it did not have much of an impact because all the services were already being provided by the government.

However, it did help fill the gaps, which had not been taken care of by the State Government.

For example, there are some technical positions such as treatment supervisors, treatment laboratory supervisors in tuberculosis and data entry operators in NHM, which cannot be solely taken care of by the State Government.

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Dr K V Raman

Healthcare

Puducherry has eight major hospitals, four Community Healthcare Centres (CHCs), 39 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) and 81 sub-centres for a population of 2.5 lakh people.

Given the rich healthcare facility, people from other regions also visit Puducherry for healthcare services. We have done a networking of PHCs, as they are now equipped with computers and internet connections that enable them to give feedbacks or reports. This also makes the working of PHCs more streamlined.

How NHM has helped in streamlining the healthcare services in Puducherry?

Puducherry is divided into four different regions with its small pieces stretching up to different states, thus making the administration difficult. But now under NHM, we are able to streamline things with the advantages of speedy monitoring. Earlier, manual reports from all hospitals would come, but now with online reporting facility, it is easier to move ahead with the facility-based reporting (sub-centre level) and the data is monitored very closely.

Now, through NHM, the Government of India is able to monitor the health facilities of the states. Prior to this, each state used to have a different level of healthcare, but now they are bridging the gap and creating an average or even a better healthcare system. The NHM monitoring is so good that they find the districts with below par immunisation and family welfare, and prioritise them accordingly. Similarly in immunisation, wherever deficit is there, they are covered under a new scheme called ‘Indradhanush’.

What are the major initiatives of NHM in terms of providing healthcare services in Puducherry?

We have brought down the infant mortality rate because NHM has supported the antenatal care and also the pregnancy and delivery care. They are funding and giving facilities to patients to visit the hospitals and go back, and also bringing children to hospitals. A major advantage to the people is that now they are visiting major hospitals instead of going to PHCs for delivery. This is because of the good transport services and the level of care hiked up in these institutional deliveries, making people opt for hospitals. The institutional deliveries have gone up beyond 99.5 per cent.

‘We have brought down the infant mortality rate (in Puducherry) because the National Health Mission (NHM) is supporting the antenatal care and also the pregnancy and delivery care’ Moreover, we are looking after the smallest of things to decrease child mortality rate. For instance, children born with congenial diseases, unless they are treated in the first year, are likely to die. To prevent this, we have started a unique process in Puducherry, called Cardiac Screening Care, where every child born is screened for cardiac defects. We also have tie-ups with Chennai hospitals, who visit thrice a week to screen and diagnose children with cardiac defects, and those with defect are taken to respective hospitals for treatment. We also have a revolving funding at NHM to pay for it.

Another initiative that we have undertaken is for non-communicable diseases by screening every person above 30 years. The non-communicable diseases were alarming in Puducherry.

We did a pilot study of three PHCs and were able to get the basic data of 16 to 33 per cent infection. After this awareness, people are visiting us for screening. Our requirement for drugs has gone up, for which the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) is supporting us.

Besides, the complications of the non-communicable diseases are being planned to be taken care of as well. We have also opened a diabetic clinic in the major hospitals and in every PHC, operating twice a week. Under NRHM, we are going to set up a cardiac care unit, a geriatric care unit and a palliative care unit to the terminally ill patients.

What are the initiatives undertaken in Puducherry in terms of providing mHealth services?

All the pregnant ladies are registered under mother-child tracking system and their check-ups are channelised through mHealth mechanism every three months. Mobile numbers of the patients are fed into the computer that is connected to the headquarters.

The data is saved in the server on a daily basis and the ANMs receive alerts on when to call the patient. The payment of their services is done through NRHM. We have submitted a proposal of `400 crore eHealth project to the Ministry of Health that includes every electronic facility for health starting from recording all the data at the PHC level, transmitting the data to any hospital and providing smart cards to the patients, using which they can access any hospital which can further access their data through any PHC. We are hopeful to get the project this year. Prior to this, on a trial basis, we are trying to provide five PHCs with tablets having enabled software to record the patient data quickly. The data can be shared with the patients over e-mail and the patients would be given a unique number through which they can access their data at any hospital.

June 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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Ports

Vijay Kalantri

Dighi Port will support a wide range of economic and infrastructure activities, thereby giving fillip to growth and development of the region, says Vijay Kalantri, CMD, Dighi Port in an interaction with Poulami Chakravarty of Elets News Network (ENN)

Dighi Port Set to Push Economic Development

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ow important is the concept of port-led development?

Ports play a pivotal role in international trade. With steady and consistent growth in international trade, port development and modernisation across the world have assumed a great importance. International trade is recognised as a key driver of economic growth of a nation and port-based economies enjoy the advantage

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of ease of access to goods from across the world.

It is estimated that around 90 per cent of the world’s merchandise and commodity trade is transported by ship. This further strengthens the importance of ports in international trade.

Ports not only facilitate movement of goods to the hinterland but also cater to neighboring land–locked countries, thereby spurring a host of economic and infrastructure activities such as roads, railways, telecommunications, power, etc. Ports create jobs and generate large

scale employment. Thus, ports support a wide range of economic and infrastructure activities, thereby providing fillip to growth and development of the region it serves. All the mega cities around the world are port cities – a clear example of port-led development.

What measures or steps are being taken by Dighi Port to initiate and enhance the module?

Dighi Port Ltd is setting up the first private port

Vijay Kalantri

Ports

in the public-private space near Mumbai and is also establishing a special economic zone (SEZ) inclusive of a Free Trade and Warehousing Zone (FTWZ) around the port with modern infrastructure. The port is equipped with state–of– the-art facilities and forms an integral part of the Delhi–Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and will have access to the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC). The company’s growth prospects hinges on sound infrastructure policy supported by pragmatic investment policy. The speedy infrastructure development in the country in terms of roads, railways, ports, power and telecommunications will provide the necessary impetus to Dighi Port and enable the company to improve the overall economy of the region. Dighi will, thus, become a key catalyst in the growth and development of a vast stretch of the region it serves.

How do you view the growing competition in the private port sector?

Port development has been opened up to the private sector as well as under public-privatepartnership (PPP) mode. Several major and minor ports with private sector participation are being set up in the country. In recent times, private sector participation in ports has increased. Port Pipavav, India’s first port in the private sector, is situated on the West Coast of the country. The country’s biggest private port at Krishnapatnam in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh opened a new gateway to South India through the East Coast. Adani, Essar are among other private ports in the country.

The entry of the private sector into the port space has no doubt intensified competition among the players. Port developers are trying to keep abreast of the dual factors of changing needs of port operations in keeping with the demands of ever-growing international trade. Ports are being equipped with modern and sophisticated equipment in accordance with international standards and there is increasing focus on streamlining port and logistic operations to ensure speedy and smooth movement of goods.

Keeping in mind seamless connectivity, what steps are being taken by Dighi to ensure seamless connectivity for cargo transportation? What kind of investments are being made for the same?

Dighi Port accords great emphasis to the develop-

‘International trade is recognised as a key driver of economic growth of a nation and portbased economies enjoy the advantage of ease of access to goods from across the world’ ment of infrastructure to ensure seamless connectivity for cargo transportation. With the gateway ports in Mumbai currently working at full capacity and even at stretched capacity, Dighi Port with its strategic location and well-planned infrastructure is geared and ready to handle the cargo generating from North, West and Central India in a hasslefree and economically viable manner. Dighi Port offers entire value chain under one umbrella.

An investment of approximately `1,500 crore in the road and rail connectivity projects has been envisaged.

What measures are being taken to develop the Port further? How will this ensure progress and development of the State?

The current status of Dighi Port and other related facts are as follows:

Current Status: The Dighi Port recently commissioned longest operational quay length for a non-major port in Maharashtra at an investment of approximately `2,500 crore in Phase-1 encompassing five berths with an installed capacity of 30 million tonnes and 14.5 meters depth across a land bank of 1,600 acres.

Expansion: Dighi Port is being developed in a phased manner to facilitate handling of 100 million tonnes of cargo. It is the only other port to have the permission to build an LNG terminal and also a port-based SEZ inclusive of a FTWZ giving all the characteristics to become a Transshipment Hub. Rail: The Ministry of Railways approved implementation of Dighi Port-Roha Rail connectivity through JV route between RVNL and DPL in Feb 2015. Estimated cost of the 34 km long Dighi Port-Roha Rail project is `800 crore.

It will have provision for running of doublestack container trains and heavy freight trains, and will be constructed as a feeder route to DFC linking JN Port to Ludhiana.

Road: An MoU has been signed with the Government of Maharashtra for widening and strengthening of 100 kms of road (SH-92 & 96 and SH-97) connecting both the banks of Dighi Port with NH-17 for smoother movement of port cargo.

Connectivity to Economic Corridors: The development of rail and road connectivity will provide seamless connectivity to all the important economic corridors, such as DMIC, NMIZ, Sagarmala project, Coastal Economic Region, etc, to connect with the Southern, Central and Northern parts of the Country .

June 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

49

education

Subrat Sahoo

Towards Giving

Education a Lift Chhattisgarh is focused to devising newer ways to improve the quality of teaching in schools by employing ICT tools. Subrat Sahoo, Secretary, Department of School Education, Government of Chhattisgarh, in conversation with Souvik Goswami of Elets News Network (ENN), talks about the initiatives undertaken by the State Government in this direction

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For example, our training module; for this, we are using online platform to reduce the paper burden and carbon footprints. Training material is available to all those who attend it. They can also offload their training preferences and the system will decide in which slot and time a person can attend the training class.

We are also doing a free web-page enabling of question banks. This will be operational in a couple of months. In this programme, any child anywhere within or outside Chhattisgarh can access the web-page and select a sample paper of his own choice depending on class, subject and level of difficulty. This step will reduce dependence on guide books.

hat are the major initiatives undertaken by your department to enhance the quality of education in schools of Chhattisgarh?

We are amending the schedule of academic calendar which normally starts from 16th June until 30th April. From next session onwards, the calendar will start from 1st April until 31st March, in tandem with CBSE and other boards.

We are also going to start online teachers’ management system, so that we can track them and their salary would also be credited through a payment gateway to avoid any delays. It will be an online management system applied to all the schools in Chhattisgarh. The project is in its initial stage now and is likely to be rolled out by the end of this financial year.

How do you keep track of other districts or blocks’ workflow?

We have migrated to an electronic mode, in which messages including letters, circulars and orders are delivered instantaneously, and we can also track the movements of the documents.

For instance, the number of times it is seen, the number of copies that have been printed and so on. It also provides us leads about the defaulting districts or blocks.

What initiative is your department taking towards teachers’ training?

We have rolled out a programme on compulsory training for all teachers and have trained around 40,000 teachers so far. However, 5,000 more teachers are still to be trained. We will complete their training by the end of this finan-

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cial year and none of the teachers will remain untrained on completion of this programme.

The Government of India is focusing on quality education.

What is the contribution of Chhattisgarh Government in this regard?

We are in the process of becoming Vocational Training Providers (VTPs) and are already a part of the training schedule. There are some issues on which we are working. Overall, it has been a positive experience for us.

How important is the role of ICT in education?

For all our programmes, we are using ICT only.

How important digital learning would become in the coming years?

Digital learning is here to stay and it won’t vanish. It’s a paradigm shift and we have to keep pace with time. However, since there is limitation of resources, it can be done only in a phased manner.

What is your vision for the School Education Department in the State?

My vision is to improve the quality of education which is not very satisfactory at present.

We need to improve the level and capabilities of teachers and also the general environment in the State, where children can be promised a better future.

Special Feature

Karnataka MobileOne

Pride of India Exploiting the advancements in mobile technology as well as ever-expanding mobile phone user base in India, Karnataka takes the lead in providing citizen-centric services in ‘anytime, anywhere, anyhow’ fashion, writes Akanki Sharma of Elets News Network (ENN)

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hen the world is still busy talking about responsive, responsible, inclusive and instant governance, the State of Karnataka has actually done it with the launch of ‘Karnataka MobileOne’ service.

Certified by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) as the world’s largest multi-mode, multi-channel mobile governance platform, MobileOne has nearly 4,500 services integrated to it. These citizencentric services can be delivered ‘anytime, anywhere, anyhow’, defying the time limitations, geographical barriers and restrictions of the kind of mobility device.

eGov to mGov What has fuelled the mobile governance is primarily deeper penetration of mobility devices like smartphones, iPads and tablets, more so in India. Today, almost 70 per cent of the Indian population boasts of mobile phone connectivity, which is actually huge even from the global standards. Another factor adding to the mGovernance revolution is the tech-savvy younger generation, which would prefer getting things done faster and without the hassles of standing in queues.

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According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)’s data, in March 2014, there were 933 million mobile subscribers in 2014 and 233 million Internet users in India.

Also, Karnataka ranked 6th in the country with 52.45 million mobile subscribers. By May 2014, India had 910 million mobile subscribers compared to 65 million broadband subscribers.

Karnataka registered 43 per cent growth in the mobile Internet users last year.

Karnataka MobileOne services are available even on simple low-end phones, so that the common man can also easily get access to these services So, that justifies India’s shift from eGovernance mode to mGovernance mode, and also why Karnataka has emerged a clear

leader in mGovernance among all the states.

The country’s first mobile governance platform has been given shape in association with the technology partners IMImobile — one of the world’s largest mobile value-added services companies.

The vision In most parts of the country, the governance infrastructure is yet to fully evolve. Although a shade better, accessibility even in the rural Karnataka areas did not only take time, but it also involved huge cost to take the government

Special Feature

services there. So, the State Government decided to exploit the boon of technology to the advantage of the citizens, and embarked on the MobileOne project.

Brainchild of IAS officer Gunjan Krishna, the project was envisaged in 2010. The all-in-one app finally reached its culmination in December 2014, enabling the departments to deliver services to the citizens on mobile phones, round-the-clock and in any corner of the State. “In India, only 10 per cent of the people use the Internet on desktops, while a majority of them have mobile phones. The idea behind developing this app was to give a platform that provides easy access for the general public to various government services,� Krishna said, speaking at the app launch ceremony last year.

The app brings equality in the delivery of services since it is a single platform for each and every person. There is no scope for socio-economic, language or literary divide.

People can avail the services through channels such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) and mobile browsers or Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).

The services at Karnataka MobileOne platform are available even on simple low-end phones, through IVR, Short Message Service (SMS) or Mobile Web, so that the common man can easily get access to these services.

Major Services on Minor App Mpower: This app, meant especially for women, enables them to store three emergency contact numbers to alert their families and friends in case of any emergency. At the press of a button, an SMS will be sent along with the GPS location to the three numbers.

Icare: This app helps the citizens to complain about civic issues like garbage, water supply, streetlights and others.

Utility services: Citizens can use the app to pay their electricity bills and water bills.

Banking services: The app helps to do banking transactions with prominent banks like SBI, ICICI, Axis, Canara Bank and others.

Police services: Using the app, one can get updates on traffic flow, payment of penalty, filing FIR (this feature will be added after getting an opinion from the legal department).

Health services: Citizens can have information on doctors available in their locality. They can also rate the doctors through the app.

Other services: Income tax and property tax can be paid by using the app, bus tickets and rail tickets can be obtained and cabs can be booked by using it; one can also listen to music and access newspapers online.

Harbingers of Mobile Government

eTransactions ePayment is one area that MobileOne plays a major role in. The app supports the traditional ePayment mode as well as various newer ones like Immediate Payment Services (IMPS) and mWallet. IMPS enables payment using mobile phones without the need for an Internet connection. Similarly, the prepaid mWallet service enables the non-banking population to pay for services through MobileOne without the need to open bank accounts.

Through this initiative, citizens of Karnataka are able to pay utility bills and property tax, book railway and bus tickets, file income tax, mPassport, driving licences and avail many more citizen-centric services with their smartphones.

lakh downloads of the Android app and over 14,000 downloads of the iOS app. Moreover, the MobileOne IVR number 161 has received over 25 lakh calls accounting for over 10 million minutes. Nearly, payments worth `3 crore have been made on MobileOne, with an average payment of about `2.5 lakh happening per day towards payment of utility bills, mobile bills, KSRTC bookings, RC/DL extract download and so on.

People’s response

In the offing

Since the launch of this app, more and more citizens are accepting and adopting Karnataka MobileOne. So far, there have been 83 lakh hits on the MobileOne platform, with about 1.2

In the days ahead, some more services are likely to be integrated with MobileOne platform.

Soon, Bangalore Metro (Namma Metro) users will be able to pay for their ride from their

Dr Rathan Kelkar, IAS Chief Executive Officer, Centre for e-Governance, Government of Karnataka

Krishna Bajpai, IAS Srinivasulu Reddy, ITS Director, Electronic Delivery of Project Director, mGov & KSWAN, Citizen Services Directorate (EDCS), Centre for e-Governance, Government of Karnataka Government of Karnataka

phone itself. Also, once the legal formalities are completed by the judiciary, citizens can even consider filing FIRs from the comfort of their home or office.

According to Karnataka Chief Minister, Shri Siddaramaiah, in future, an auction system for agricultural market places would also be introduced on MobileOne, connecting farmers and artisans with larger markets in India.

Going forward, it is anticipated that the platform will continue to facilitate free flow of information between the government and citizens, also opening up opportunities for citizens to participate in decision-making processes that impact them directly.

June 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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news

PM Modi launches three key social security schemes

BSNL extends broadband service contract with UTStarcom

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P

rime Minister Narendra Modi recently launched three key social security schemes in a nationwide launch. The launch was carried out simultaneously across 153 places in the country. The schemes include accident insurance, life insurance and a pension plan that targets the people who never have any insurance or do not get any pension.

Speaking at the launch ceremony, PM Modi said, “The journey to development will be incomplete if the poor do not share its fruits”.

Banks were nationalised for the poor, but did we see the poor in the banks? About 80-90 per cent of people do not have access to pension

Govt tells CPSEs to enrol employees under Aadhaar

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he government has directed all Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) to enrol their employees under the Aadhaar scheme. According to a circular issued by the Department of Public Enterprises, Aadhaar should be used for various purposes, including attendance and salary disbursement. “Administrative ministries / departments concerned with CPSEs are requested to advise CPSEs under their administrative jurisdiction to adopt Aadhaar card for enrolment to CPSEs employees and contract / daily workers for various purposes like attendance / payment of wages, PF, ESI, etc.” the circular said.

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and insurance. So, it would be a great help for all of them.”

The accident insurance (Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana) will offer a renewable accidental death-cum-disability cover of `2 lakh for a premium of `12 per annum.

The life insurance scheme (Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Yojana) will offer a renewable one year life cover of `2 lakh for a premium of `330.

The Atal Pension Scheme, which will be between `1000 and `5000, will focus on the unorganised sector which does not pay any income tax.

harat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has reportedly extended its contract with broadband infrastructure solution provider UTStarcom.

In March 2014, UTStarcom bagged the contract to supply multi-service access network (MSAN) equipment and support design, engineering and installation for BSNL to upgrade its network to offer better multimedia services to its subscribers.

“This is an extension order for maintenance of BSNL broadband services with UTStarcom supplied products including B1000 IPDSLAM, RPR, EMS, LAN switches, BNGs, and various applications like AAA, SSSC and SSSS. UTStarcom will supply and maintain BSNL Multiplay, the broadband triple play network for the next three years till 2018,” according to an official press release.

Govt IT spending to reach $6.8 billion in 2015, says report

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overnment spending on Information Technology in India will reach $6.8 billion in 2015, an increase of 5.7 per cent over 2014, according to IT research firm Gartner Inc. The forecast includes spending on internal services software, IT services, data center devices and telecom services. The government comprises local government and national government.

“IT services, which include consulting, implementation, IT outsourcing and business

process outsourcing, will be the largest overall spending category throughout 2019 within the government sector,“ said Dr Anurag Gupta, Research Vice President at Gartner.

“IT services are expected to grow 10.5 per cent in 2015 to reach $1.7 billion– with the

business process outsourcing segment growing 21.2 per cent.” For internal services, IT spending will increase 8.8 per cent in 2015 to reach $1.6 billion in 2015. These are the services referred to salaries and benefits paid to the information services staff of an organisation.

news

DD launches mobile app for news

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nion Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley has launched the DD News mobile app.

Speaking about the Prasar Bharati app at the launch ceremony, Jaitley said its capability would depend on objectivity and constant updating. “Whichever event or news it is, it should be presented with details. The audience always look for newness, complete information and facts.”

He further said that it is an agenda of Prasar Bharti, Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR) to have the largest width of coverage and provide facts. “There is still wide scope to cater to those people who are starving for ‘facts’ and coverage

Madhya Pradesh Govt launches ‘digital locker’ facility

of events outside the national capital,” the minister said.

Jaitley also added, “We are flooded with channels, newspapers etc., which showcase events as news.

On the other hand, there are huge number of activities

happening all over. These can be presented before the audience with facts.”

Talking more on objectivity in news, the minister said it should never be considered a casualty. He added that while “competitive” or “anchor-driven news” has its own value, the fact cannot be denied that there is a huge need and “almost a starvation” for just knowing the facts. People want to go for facts, instead of just getting the information.

Haryana launches e-services, apps for graft-free administration

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he Haryana Government has launched seven e-services and software applications for graft-free administration.

The e-services launched by the State Chief minister, Manohar Lal Khattar, include Access to Common Service Centre, Services on demand, e-Stamping, Jeevan Pramaan, Revised State Portal, Aadhaar-enabled biometric Attendance System, CM Window, Mobile app and Aadhaarlinked registration of birth.

“The e-services would help turn the vision of ‘Digital Haryana’ into reality,” he said.

‘Digital Haryana’ would seek to provide digital infrastructure as a utility for every citizen, eGovernance and e-Services on demand, an official release said.

Govt won’t compromise on net neutrality

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he Madhya Pradesh Government has launched the facility of ‘digital locker’, enabling citizens to store digitalised copies of important documents.

“The facility of digital locker has been introduced to ensure paperless governance.

Through this facility, space will be available to every citizen on government cloud,” an official release said.

To avail this facility, one should register himself / herself with the help of Aadhaar number on www.digitallocker.gov.in or www. digilocker.gov.in.

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he NDA Government will not compromise on net neutrality, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in the Rajya Sabha.

“The Government stands for ensuring nondiscriminatory access to the internet for all citizens.

Blocking and deliberately slowing down or speeding up of lawful content on the internet should not be allowed,” he said.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has received more than one million petitions from the supporters of net neutrality to ‘keep internet free’.

TRAI had sought public comments till April 24 before making its recommendations on net neutrality and internet-based calling and messaging applications.

Cutting across party lines, members equated

net neutrality with the Constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and expression and asked whether the Government would consider bringing a legislation to give it a sound basis.

June 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

55

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news

Robbins elected to Cisco Board of Directors

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his is the perfect time for Chuck Robbins to become Cisco’s next Chief Executive Officer. We’ve selected a very strong leader at a time when Cisco is in a very strong position,” said Cisco Chairman and CEO, John Chambers.

“Today’s pace of change is exponential.

Every company, city and country is becoming digital, navigating disruptive markets, and Cisco’s role in the digital transformation has never been more important. Chuck is unique in his ability to translate vision and strategy into world-class execution, bringing together teams and ecosystems to drive results.”

Robbins joined Cisco in 1997 and has moved quickly through the company’s ranks.

He most recently served as Cisco’s senior Vice President of worldwide operations, leading the company’s global sales and partner team that drives $47 billion in business for the company. He has helped lead and execute many of the company’s investments and strategy shifts, including building the industry’s most powerful partner program, now worth more than $40 billion in revenue to the company each year. He was also a key architect of the company’s strategy for the commercial business segment, which grew eight per cent year-over-year last quarter, and now represents 25 per cent of Cisco’s total business. He has sponsored the security and collaboration businesses at the executive level and was a sponsor for the Sourcefire and Meraki acquisitions. As a member of the team that has led Cisco’s transformation for over three years, Robbins has driven the reinvention of Cisco’s sales organisation, cementing its place as the envy of the industry.

Every State to get one Smart City, says Venkaiah Naidu

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he Urban Development Minister, Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu, has said that every State in the country will be developing at least one city into Smart City under the initiative taken by the Central Government to develop 100 smart cities.

A Government press release quoted the minister as saying that the Union Cabinet granted approval for the Smart Cities Mission last week and guidelines for its implementation, which includes the criteria for selection of cities that are being finalised. The means for selecting the cities for developing them as smart cities will be initiated after the guidelines are issued to the States, he added.

According to Naidu, a Smart City would be having provision for basic infrastructure to give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of smart solutions, keeping citizens at the centre”. He said that the Smart Cities Mission involves ‘an area-based approach’ and it is meant to set examples that can be replicated both within and outside the smart city.

He added that the smart city aspirants will be selected based on a ‘City Challenge Competition’. The cities will be graded based on their revenues, expenditure, availability of

infrastructure relating to transport, drinking water, solid waste management etc. Naidu also emphasised the need for smart leadership and smart people to achieve the objectives of the Smart Cities Mission by undertaking the much-needed urban reforms.

Elaborating on the benefits of India-US Cooperation in making Visakhapatnam, Allahabad and Ajmer as Smart Cities, Naidu said that that the US will extend technical support for preparing Master Plans for these three cities besides assisting in capacity building and undertaking feasibility studies etc.

Gadkari announces road projects worth `15,000 cr for North-East

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nion Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari announced that the Government will award road projects worth `15,000 crore to the North Eastern States this year. “The Centre is committed to the development of the North East. The Government will award `15000 crore worth of projects to the North Eastern States this year. For speedy development of roads in the region, the States will have to facilitate early land acquisition and forest environment clearance,” Gadkari said.

“Of the total `15,000 crore road projects, `6,000 crore worth highways will be developed in Arunachal Pradesh; `2,000 crore projects each in Nagaland and Meghalaya and the remaining ones in other parts of the region,” he said. The Minister also emphasised upon the use of alternate fuel such as bio-diesel and ethanol. He added that water as mode of transportation is priority of the Government. He said that the decision of the Centre will have additional 101 Inland Waterways as National Waterways will greatly help the North Eastern region.

June 2015 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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news

50 crore internet connections by 2018: Ravi Shankar Prasad

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he government aims to achieve the goal of 50 crore internet connections by 2018, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

“Last year, we had 30 crore internet connections in India. The government is working to achieve the goal of 50 crore internet connections in India by 2018,” Prasad said.

“I am convinced that in the coming two to three years, India will become equal to China as an IT market of the world,” the minister said.

The government has digitally connected

Joginder Nagar to be Himachal’s first free wi-fi town

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imachal Pradesh’s Joginder Nagar will soon offer free wi-fi facility to all internet users, locals as well as tourists.

Chief Minister of the State, Virbhadra Singh said, “Free wi-fi facility will be operational within one and a half months time. CCTV cameras will also be installed at public places.”

The local panchayat had tied-up with BSNL to bring wi-fi facility at the door steps of rural population in the area.

Singh also announced that it would be the first town in the State to possess these facilities.

NRDC proposes to develop technology data bank

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20,000 village panchayats across the country under the Digital India programme.

he National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) has proposed to develop a technology data bank in the country. Minister of State for Science and Technology Y S Chowdary in a written reply in Lok Sabha recently said, “The Digital India programme requires all databases and information in electronic form. Hence, the corporation has proposed to develop an Indian technology data bank.”

He said that the NDRC has also proposed adoption of a Gram Panchayat and promote innovative technologies for socio-economic transformation.

NDMC plans 3D digital mapping

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he New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) is reportedly planning three-dimensional digital mapping of its jurisdiction areas in a bid to strengthen the disaster management.

The 3D mapping project was announced during the NDMC’s annual budget session last month. According to report, the civic body is currently identifying the manner in which it could be executed.

NDMC has already put in place a slew of disaster management measures such as 24X7 control rooms, teams of NDMC officials with gas cutters, etc.

“We are in the process of receiving

information about all strategic buildings that need to be mapped in detail and the kind of services which will be included on these maps. We are also looking at the existing analog maps for the areas,” an official said.

Social media power on full play during earthquake

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ocial media platforms have emerged as significant tools for communicating with the government during earthquake recently. Various agencies and individuals used Twitter and Facebook to connect and help people stuck in earthquakeaffected zones.

The government and agencies worked and disseminated information through social

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media. Some of the key hashtags being used on twitter were #NepalEarthquake #NepalQuake, #NepalQuakeRelief, #OperationMaitri, etc.

Twitter handles by various government departments including Ministry of External Affair’s @MEAIndia and @ MEAcontrolroom and Defence Ministry’s @SpokespersonMoD were also being used to spread

the information about relief operations. Moreover, various communities and organisations such as International Red Cross and Save the Children also used social media to connect with the victims.

Tech giants Facebook and Google helped families locate their loved ones trapped in earthquake-affected areas.

Facebook’s safety tool, Safety

App launched in October last year, allows people to check in to say that they are safe, thereby notifying people in their networks. “Safety Check is our way of helping our community during natural disasters and gives you an easy and simple way to say you are safe and check on all your friends and family in one place,” Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg had said in a post.