egov March 2013

ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON E-governance

Shri Naveen Patnaik

` 75 / US $10 / ISSN 0973-161X

Hon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha

march 2013 | VOLUME 09 n ISSUE 03 n ISSN 0973-161X egov.eletsonline.com

Secure and Adaptable

e-Governance ideas to transform our lives

Bijay Patnaik Chief Secretary, Govt of Odisha

Madhusudan Padhi Commissioner cum Secretary, Department of IT, Govt of Odisha

Pradeep Jena Commissioner Cum Secretary, Department of Energy, Govt. of Odisha

Rajiv Gauba Additional Secretary, DeitY, Minsitry of Communication & IT, Govt of India

Dr Chandra Shekhar Kumar Commissioner cum Secretary, Employment & Technical Education & Training Dept Govt of Odisha

Basant Kumar Gupta Additional Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Govt of India

4th Annual

eGov Magazine

Secure IT

6th March 2013, Swosti Premium Bhubaneswar, Odisha

Rajesh Aggarwal Secretary IT, Govt of Maharashtra

P K Mohapatra Principal Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Govt of Odisha

Ravinath Raman Additional Secretary, Information Technology, Govt of Uttarakhand

Muktesh Pardeshi Joint Secretary (PSP) and Chief Passport Officer, Ministry of External Affairs, Govt of India

2013

Securing the Nation in Cyber & Natural Domain

8th March 2013, The Oberoi, New Delhi

S N Tripathi Principal Secretary, Rural Development Department, Govt of Odisha

Dr P M Nair Director General, National Disaster Response Force & Civil Defence (NDRF & CD)

Dr Gulshan Rai Director General, CERT-In, Govt of India

Arun Chaudhary Director General, Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB)

IT agility. Your way.

march 2013

Contents issue 3 n volume 09

grid name

second grid

10

25

in person

in person

Raghunath Mohanty

Arti Ahuja

12 in person

Bijaya Patnaik The Rising IT hub

in person

Rajiv Gauba Developing Secure Systems for e-Governance

50 in person

Towards A Digital Economy

Towards a Brownfield Electronic Cluster

46

Extending care to women & children

Rajesh Aggarwal Building e-Governance Standards

54 in person

28 Financial Management

Aswini Kumar Mishra

Ravinath Raman e-Governance in Dev-Bhoomi

Digitisation of the Finance Department

58

30

Basant K Gupta

in person

18 in person

Madhusudan Padhi Integrated Governance our vision for future

Good Governance

S K Panda Making a Difference with e-Governance

60

20

32

Rural Development

in person

S N Tripathi

Mona Sharma

e-Initiatives by Rural Development Department

The Pleasant Experience of Getting Passports

in person

Dr P M Nair Managing the aftermath of disasters

Elections in Odisha

64 22

34

in person

in person

Dr Chandra sekhar Kumar

Dr Pramod Kumar Meherda

Jobs for all

in person

Dr Gulshan Rai Securing the Nation’s Cyber Space

Odisha Healthcare Connecting with the people

66 23

36

Electricity Sector

CCTNS

P K Jena

Maximising Security with IT

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40

Effective Healthcare

in person

P K Mohapatra The Vision for Healthcare in Odisha

4

M Akhaya

Em-Powering Odisha

egov / egov.eletsonline.com / March 2013

Manoj Ahuja Efficient ways of Collecting Taxes

in person

Muktesh K Pardeshi Speedy Resolution to Passport Related Grievances

68 in person

Arun Chaudhary Guarding the Nation’s Frontiers

e-Governance for Inclusive Growth

W

hile presenting his Budget 2013 speech, the Finance Minister, P Chidambaram, made very pertinent points about the need for ‘inclusive growth’. The budget has, to a large extent, focused on higher growth and financial inclusion. In fact, e-Governance is all about bringing financial inclusion and enabling different sectors in the country to grow at a healthy rate.

Case in point is the MCA 21 programme from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. A Mission Mode Programme under the National e-Governance Project, the MCA 21, is enabling the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to provide efficient services to lakhs of corporate entities.

Another good example of an e-Governance project that has led to vast benefits to the nation is the Passport Seva Kendras project. In the current issue of eGov, we have interviews from two leading officials from the Ministry of External Affairs. The interviews shed light on the various ways by which it has become possible to provide passports in a timely, transparent, more accessible and reliable manner.

The current issue of eGov is taking a broad overview of the e-Governance implementations from Odisha. We have interacted with a range of officials from the State to gain an insight on the major achievements and also the challenges in the areas of e-Governance. A lot of work is being done in the State, especially in the areas of education and healthcare, to facilitate the creation of a financially inclusive society.

The next theme that we have in this issue is that of security. As e-Governance systems are online, security is an important area of concern. We have interview of Dr. Gulshan Rai, who is the man at the centre of the effort to develop a comprehensive security framework for the nation. In the interview, Dr. Gulshan Rai has said, “Cyber security is an endless journey.” This is undeniably true.

The cyber security systems have to keep evolving with the new technology in order to be effective.

On 6th March, 2013 we are having the eOdisha Summit at Hotel Swosti Premium, Bhubaneswar.

And on 8th March we have the SecureIT 2013 at The Oberoi, New Delhi. Both are national level events in e-Governance. Many important officials from major government departments from the Centre and States will be participating. We look forward to seeing you at both the events. After all, it is very essential that all sections of society participate in the discussions on the ways by which we can broaden the scope of e-Governance and security in the country.

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In Person

Raghunath Mohanty

Hon’ble Minister, IT, Housing & Urban Development, Odisha

Towards a

Brownfield Electronic Cluster 3 States in the country, in terms of successful implementation of e-Governance projects and delivery of government services at the doorsteps of the citizens.

The IT industry in the state has been growing at a healthy rate and the state is being looked at by many as an investment hub. What kind of contributions interms of enacting new policies, has the govt. in the state made for development of IT industry?

Raghunath Mohanty, Hon’ble Minister, IT, Housing & Urban Development, Odisha

P

lease share with us your vision for further developing the governance structure in the State through the use of ICT.

The Citizens of Odisha when deal with government in their day-to-day lives, expect speedy service, courteous treatment, and quick disposal of their grievances. Therefore, Government, today is expected to be transparent in its dealings, accountable for its responses. This has made the use of ICT imperative in any agenda drawn towards achieving good governance. My vision is to position Odisha in the league of top

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The Government of Odisha is giving high priority for promotion of IT & ITES sector in Odisha.

There is tremendous growth of IT Industries both large and SMEs at Bhubaneswar in last 6-7 years. The IT exports from Odisha has crossed Rs.1611 crores during the last financial year 2011-12 with a growth of 17% in comparison to 2010-11. Odisha has some inherent advantages that would attract investors from the IT/ ITES sector. Apart from technically qualified workforce and low attrition rates, the following conducive factors exist in the State: • Surplus power supply • Adequate IT infrastructure including high speed data connectivity at affordable cost.

• Low cost of living • Well connected to all major cities in the country by air, rail & road.

• Attractive ICT Policy & IPR policy

How open is the environment for investment from industry and foreign investors to come and participate here.

The Odisha Govt. is very committed in creating an open environment to attract investment from industry and foreign investors. For all IT/ITES project proposals the single window clearance mechanism has been made operational since long. In order to promote such Investments, IT Special Economic Zones (SEZ)

are being established at Infocity and Infovalley in Bhubaneswar. To accommodate future development of IT sector in odisha, the Govt is developing one IT Investment Region (ITIR) to be developed on the southern part of Bhubaneswar as per ITIR Policy-2008. Developing Brown field Electronic Cluster at Bhubaneswar under the ESDM policy will definitely create an environment for foreign investors to come and participate here.

It is an accepted belief that IT industry is concentrated mainly in the urban areas, so what steps that you are taking to develop IT industry in Rural areas?

In my opinion, IT has no boundary of urban or Rural. It extends to the entire cyber space.

In odisha after Bhubaneswar, Rourkela and Berhampur now IT industries are expanding to other semi urban areas. It is an accepted fact that quality power and connectivity/bandwidth which are the two important components for any IT industry is still a major concern in Odisha. System is improving day by day and Govt. is also thinking to create more and more IT parks & ITIR across the state to attract IT industries in Rural space too.

Given the fact that technology keeps evolving at a very rapid pace, where do you see the governance in next 10 years.

Odisha would be a model state in e-Governance implementation during next 10 years. I foresee major overhauling and refinement in governance as the citizen get more used to delivery of services through electronic and online mode.

Mobile Governance services could emerge as the key players and game changers in few critical areas of governance. There will be greater concern amongst people on environmental issues and there would be emphasis on adopting Green IT concepts in next 10 years.

in person

Bijay Patnaik, IAS

“The goal of the SSB is to not only guard the nation’s frontiers, but also to bring the border population closer to the heart of the nation,” says Arun Chaudhary

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in person

Bijay Patnaik Chief Secretary, Government of Odisha

The Rising it hub

A

s far as the state of Odisha is concerned, which have been the major areas for the integration of IT? To what extent has ICT been able to transform the governance in the state?

Odisha is using IT enabled services for basically providing citizen services to people. We would like to apply IT in those areas, wherever government has maximum interface with people. We have chosen a range of services which are now brought under the purview of Public Services Delivery Act, e.g. driving license, birth and death certificates, education, permits, all kinds of certificates given by revenue offices, etc. Many of these services have also been IT enabled, in the sense that people can log in and get the service promptly. In this, we are going to utilize the common service centres for G2C sercives.

Apart from that we have also been using IT for improving our internal efficiency. One program is the work flow automation which is at various stages of implementation in Secretariat. This intends to reduce the paper work, and help in tracking the letters, files, etc. Similarly, we have different IT enabled tools which are used for various transactions, including cash management.

How much of the focus is being put on the development in the domain of education and healthcare in the state?

As far as health and education are concerned, we would like to project Bhubaneswar as a ‘Destination’ for education, health facilities and other healthcare related matters. Today, we have IIT, NISER, IIIT, AIIMS; in addition, we also

have a number of private engineering and medical colleges. We are positioning Bhubaneswar as a ‘Knowledge city’. We are also inviting institutions from all across the country to have their set up in Bhubaneswar. Birla Institute of management is coming up. Manipal group has also shown interest. Ravi Shankar University is a near possibility.

Our effort is also made towards skill development. We have a target of empowering a million people with various skills, during the 12th plan period. We are also toying with an idea of ‘Skill University’. The skill university will follow the example of the community colleges. This will be like a two ways traffic- allowing people with only theoretical knowledge to add skills and vice versa.

We have the Employment Mission headed

by Honourable Chief Minister. We use that as the umbrella for pushing all our initiatives as far as employment is concerned.

Odisha, in spite of being not so developed, is recently seeing fairly good investments when it comes to IT. To what extent will it accelerate the development process?

We are positioning Bhubaneswar as a tier-II city as far as IT is concerned. We have all the four big players in Bhubaneswar, Infosys, TCS, Wipro and Mahindra Satyam. And we are finding that the number of professionals is going up. At present there are about 15 000 professionals and our vision is to have 50000 professionals in next 3 years. They are the driver of the growth for the city.

Our focus is also on Electronic System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM). We have earmarked 600 acres of land just outside Bhubaneswar. We are aiming to position Bhubaneswar as the hardware destination,

Particularly in Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM). Eastern India has not seen any development in ESDM and so we would like to project Odisha as the destination for this. It is going to be a manufacturing hub as well as a R&D hub, which will subsequently be attached to premier institutes like IIT, IIIT, NISER, etc which could be the incubation centres.

Odisha is an agrarian state with about 70% of its population coming from agriculture background. This would be heartening to know that this year the agricultural growth is 16 %, which is very high. During the 11th five year plan period, we were consistently above 4% which is above the national average. So our vision is to continue and maintain this growth rate.

What is your vision for the state?

Odisha has seen huge investments in large industries, basically the mineral based industries. Now the investments which are in the pipeline or at MoU stage are up to the tune of INR 8 lakh crores. That is the kind of investment Odisha has invited and this drives the growth of the state. Our average growth rate during 11th plan period was about 9%, which is higher than the national average during that period. We would like to sustain that during the 12th plan. This is how we portray our growth vision.

Our aim has been to maintain a growth rate, on a sustainable basis, taking into account our own strengths. Our strength is our natural resources; and our human resources. So we are trying to make maximum utilization of both; not in an over-exploitative manner, but on a sustainable basis. Since we have demonstrated our capability to grow, we are confident to maintain it in next 20 years.

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Glimpses in person

eGovernance@Odisha iOTMS A comprehensive treasury Management software caters to the requirements of treasury/sub-treasury operations, consolidation of accounts at directorate of treasuries and allotment distribution from various departments including Finance department and offices of the controlling officers. e-Dharani Implememnted to achieve IT enablement of complete workflow of a sub-registrar office in Odisha.

SAMS Student Academic Management System (SAMS), a platform for college admissions through eAdmissions and several other services in the education sector.

i3MS i-Minerals and Mines management Systems (i3MS) is an ERP system for Government where in all associated Government departments and agencies have a single access to information pertaining to mining by usage of ICT.

VATIS A back office internal application running in Commercial tax Department brings in efficiency and transparency to the e-Services designed to provide various online services.

OSWAS An application intended to automate the functions of the Government Departments

e-Municipality This improves efficiency and effectiveness in the interaction between local government and citizens and is rolled with Department of Housing & Urban Development and Department of Health & Family Welfare.

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e-Despatch Immensely useful for Government Administrators, elected representatives and citizen, e-Despatch facilitates instant communication at Government and gives a facelift to the electronic letter dispatch process. eBlood Bank Making Blood Bank services citizen centric to improve the management, functioning and quality of blood transfusion services in Odisha. e-Abhijoga A speedy and transparent grievance redressal system working in the Chief Minister’s Grievance Cell.

Mamata A conditional cash transfer maternity benefit scheme implemented by the Women & Child Development Department.

Rastriya Swasthya Bima Yojna dashboard: The biometric authenticated chip based smart card allows the beneficiaries to exterminate health challenges. e-Recruitment The online recruitment system for Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd OPSC Online The Odisha Public Service Commission online is the online application submission system for applying for different govermnet jobs ATMA Centralized Banking Application for ATMA (Agricultural Technology Management Agency) technology dissemination at district level and below in order to move towards an integrated extension delivery

e-Result An automated examination, evaluation and result publication procedure implemented by the State Council for Technical Education & Vocational Training. e-Entry Pass Allows citizens to apply online requesting entry to the Secretariat at specified time, HRMS (Human Resource Management System) Automating transaction of personnel matters, employee leave, loan, pension paper, Payroll etc.

Sanjog Helpline The multi-lingual grievance registration and redressal system that works on free telenetwork and web interface.

Prerana Post-Matric Scholarship Registration Release And Network Automation (PRERANA) enables the SC/ST students receiving Post Matric scholarships State Load Information Management System (SLIMS) An online management Information System covering various aspects of load scenario in respect to different distribution companies. e-Procurement Major G2B eGovernance initiative to bring transparency in public procurement process. It facilitates all kinds of procurement needs such as good, services and works by all govt offices.

WAMIS All financial transactions pertaining to the State/Central Plan Schemes/Projects are accessed by the Executive, Legislature, Internal Audit, External Audit and the Citizen at large

National Internet Exchange of India

INRegistry

How to become “.in” Accredited Registrars?

To become accredited, one must begin by submitting an application. (Refer link: www.inregistry.in/registrars/ become_a_registrar/step_1). When the application is accepted by the registry, the applicant needs to sign a contract with the registry, set up a financial account, and prove his/her technical ability to interact with the registry system. Each registrar will use the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) client to connect to the “.in” registry database. The registry provides an EPP toolkit to selected parties.

Where to find “.in” Registry Policies?

The registry has formulated new policies for the registration and administration of .in domain names. The goal is to make .in domain names easier to use, and a way of making the Internet available to more Indian citizens. The general policies are listed on the website (Refer link: http://www.inregistry.in/policies/)

Domain Levels The Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) is the word or abbreviation to the right side of the final dot in a domain name, such as .com, .net, .org, or .in. The gTLDs presently available for the Internet users are .com, .net, .edu, .gov, .int and so on, the Country Code Top level Domains (ccTLDs) correspond to the top level domain pertaining to that country.

“The policy followed by NIXI is basically focussed on addressing the concerns of the large as well as the small ISPs, while at the same time keeping the larger national interests in mind. The idea is to promote domestic hosting of content as well as saving foreign exchange by keeping domestic traffic within India” Dr Govind, Senior Director, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communications & IT, and CEO, National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI)

in person

Madhusudan Padhi Commissioner & Secretary, Department of IT, Government of Odisha

Integrated Governance

our vision for future

B

efore leading the IT department, you have been associated with many technologyrelated interventions in the state for the past several years. How would you rate your state’s progress towards an e-Ready state?

Odisha’s progress towards an e-Ready state will get a boost with new technologies & new concepts coming in. The broadband network is improving and more people are getting connected to internet, Similarly the mobile network has covered about 85% of the State with a large section of the population having access to it.

At present we have several applications operating in silos; we hope to integrate them by tagging them to a common denominator, either to NPR (National Population Registry) or UID. For example, the ration card database would get connected to electricity consumer database, NREGA beneficiaries bank accounts , driving license, etc.

As far as infrastructure is concerned, the State Data Centre( SDC), the Odisha State Wide Network (OSWAN) are already operational . Now we are going for horizontal expansion of OSWAN where we will be connecting offices at the cutting edge like tehsils, sub-registrar offices, hospitals, municipalities, police stations apart from the blocks. This will enable us to have all online transactions at these offices routed through OSWAN. We are going to all Gram Panchayats with optical fiber through NOFN in about two years time.

The growth rate in ICT sector during 2011-12 was about 17% over last year and this growth rate has been hovering between 14-17% for the last 7 years. Madhusudan Padhi, Commissioner cum Secretary, Department of IT, Government of Odisha speaks to egov in a candid interview

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What are the steps being taken for a better user experience (e.g. localisation, etc.) in CSC program? The e-District Project could also lead to lot of benefits

In inperson Person

flowing down directly to the people in the rural areas. Please provide us with details of the project situation. e-District project is being piloted in two districts in our State- Ganjam and Mayurbhanj.

As far as e-Districts project implementation is concerned , we are slightly different from other states. While the e-District application is available till taluks/tehsils across the country, we have used the state fund to provide laptops to all revenue inspectors. As a result, we are able to provide services to citizens at the CSC level.

S/he does not have to travel to taluk / tehsil in order to get services like various certificates, required for education, scholarship, bank loan etc. This model of e-District is going to be rolled out in remaining 28 districts over next twelve months. We are getting ready to add four more services to the existing seven by end of March’2013. Fifteen additional services will be added in the e District rollout. As more G2C services would be available, CSCs would become vibrant and active. We are planning to relocate the CSCs to the Gram Panchayat offices which is frequented by citizens on regular manner. Our objective is to reduce the citizen interface with the Government offices/ functionaries as far as possible and to provide services to the citizen in a seamless manner.

What was the growth rate the ICT sector experienced in 201112? What role have external investors played in developing the sector? What vision and business opportunities are available for the private sector in your state?

The growth rate of ICT sector during 201112 was about 17% . The growth rate has been hovering between 14-17% for the last 7 years despite the global slowdown in last four years.

The export in IT/ITES sector was Rs. 1611 crores from about 50 units registered with STPI and located in the SEZs. External investment units play a big role in this growth rate because most of the export earning comes from the big players like Infosys, Satyam & TCS. Regarding the availability of opportunities in the IT/ITES sector, the ICT Policy of 2004 has played a pro active role . However, now we are revisiting the same and drafting a new policy in consultation with NASSCOM, local industry players and other stakeholders . We are going for a composite ICT policy covering both the IT/

ITES sector and the ESDM (Electronic System and Design Manufacturing) sector. We are earmarking land in the upcoming Information Valley located in the outskirts of Bhubaneswar for the ESDM units.

What are the evaluation and monitoring techniques you are adopting to monitor the progress and to assess whether the proposed benefits are being delivered to the citizens?

What are the sustainability impediments?

Recently the State has enacted the Right to Public Services Delivery Act 2012 which has become operational from 1 January 2013 with 34 notified services. The Act assigns the responsibility of providing services to the citizens within stipulated time period. This will give us a big impetus for e-Governance as citizen centric services can be effectively provided with intervention of IT along with proper monitoring .More and more departments are now working towards integrating IT in their workflow so as to provide services efficiently .

Regarding the sustainability impediments for proving e services, we face challenges such as connectivity, especially in rural areas. Electricity is another one. With the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojna (RGGVY) , most of the un electrified villages are getting electrified.

What strategy has your department set to increase internet and broadband penetration?

With about half dozen mobile companies in

the State, most of the locations are connected with GSM network. This is facilitating internet connectivity by use of data cards/dongle. With NOFN to all 6236 Gram panchayats a strong possibility by end of 2014, we hope that online services will catch the imagination of our rural masses in near future as internet will become reliable and fast. Departments are developing mobile applications for data collection and information dissemination to take benefit of huge mobile penetration.

The ICT Policy in the state is undergoing revision. What visionary changes are expected with that?

The new ICT policy will focus on targets with respect to revenue generation, employment, training , R&D etc. within specific timelines .

To achieve the targets, the policy will provide incentives for investors both from within & outside the country. It will also incentivize the local industries by providing some kind of preferential market access. The incentives will be designed in such a manner that their implementation becomes easy and transparent.

Moving up the value chain, what is going to be your main focus for the next few years?

Focus will be to integrate governance in days to come by integrating databases available in silos to make it transparent and targeted. We would strive to have seamless transfer of data between departments so as to make the life of citizens easy and simpler. With this vision, we would be able to improve the governance and make a difference to the common man.

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Rural Development

e-Initiatives by

Rural Development Department Rural Development Department is responsible for improving the quality of life in rural areas by developing infrastructure for better connectivity (roads and bridges) in rural areas and providing safe drinking water and sanitation S N Tripathi, Principal Secretary, Rural Development Department, Government of Odisha

T

he construction of roads and bridges are being done under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and Biju Setu Yojana (BSY), Constituency-wise Allotment (CWA) and few other schemes. The installation of water supply sources are being done under National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) and the installation of toilets are being done under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA). For effective implementation of schemes, the Department is having two wings namely Rural Works and Rural Water Supply & Sanitation Organisation. There are near about 1,200 sub-ordinate offices under this Department.

An array of initiatives For effective and efficient monitoring of all the above activities, the Department has taken many e-initiatives to ease the governance and citizen-centric service delivery. That apart, as per Section 4 of Right to Information Act, 2005, every public authority shall maintain all its record duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and the form, which facilitates the right to information under this Act and ensure that

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Online Management and Monitoring of Accounting Systems (OMMAS)

S N Tripathi all records that are appropriate to be computerised within a reasonable time and subject to availability of resources and connected through a network all over the country on different systems so that access to such records is facilitated.

The e-initiatives taken by the Department are meant to answer the above need and cover the threat into an opportunity to automate the processes that can be done by using the latest Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

The basic public services being provided through electronic mode by Department of Rural Devlopment in the State of Odisha include the following:

For monitoring PMGSY and web-based application i.e. Online Management and Monitoring of Accounting Systems (OMMAS) is being in use since 2007. The URL of the same is http://www.pmgsy.org/. All information both physical and financial details like name of the road, district/block to which it belongs, estimated cost, awarded cost, amount spent, agency executing etc. are updated online. As roads are the major factor for development of any area, the Department has taken initiative for its better planning by developing a GISbased road database through C-DAC, Pune with assistance of ORSAC, Odisha.

Integrated Management and Information System (IMIS) The details of every water source like the quality and quantity (yield), the habitation covered by the source, the amount spent on that source are entered online (http://indiawater.nic.in).

The Monthly Progress Report is being generated through this software online. Similarly, the households having Individual Household Latrines (IHLs), the School Toilets and the Anganwadi having toilets, covered through Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, are also entered

Rural Development

online through http://tsc.gov.in/tsc/NBA/ NBAHome.aspx. All data-entry works are being done at district level/division level. This software facilitates generating any report for proper monitoring of the RWS&S system.

e-Procurement Rural Development Department has implemented e-procurement system. It has provided IT infrastructure for e-procurement facility like computers, internet connectivity, scanners and Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) for Chief Engineers, Superintending Engineers, Executive Engineers, Divisional Accounts Officers and Assistant Engineers. It has also facilitated procurement of DSCs for bidders.

All works of above 50 lakhs are being hoisted on e-procurement platform. By adopting this, RD Department became the first Department in the State to adopt e-procurement.

Electronic Clearance Services (ECS)/ National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) Like ECS, NEFT facility is available at all the bank branches having Core Banking Solutions. Here, advice is sent to the bank for debiting our account by an amount. Basing on which the amount is transferred to the account of contractor within 24 hours. RD Department has introduced ECS and NEFT for payment to contractors under PMGSY at Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, respectively.

e-Desptach In order to streamline various activities, a web-based e-despatch system was introduced in the Department (http://www.edodisha.gov. in/) during the year 2009. Not only the Department itself ,but also all field level offices up to district level are using the e-Despatch system.

Through this platform, all letters are being issued by the field offices, which not only facilitate in despatching of letters at faster way but also in receiving the same at the destination through e-receipt. This has not only eliminated the problem of dislocation of letters both at despatching and receiving end but also automated the logbook of diary and despatch.

e-Betan Software The pay bill for the employees of near about 100 subordinate offices of the Department is being generated through web-based Betan software.

The WAMIS system is workflow-enabled and comprises of various building blocks like the following • • • • •

Budget Management System Works Management and Billing Accounts Management System Management Information System (MIS Integration with AG Accounting System

Integrated Grievance Redressal System (IGRS) An electronic Integrated Grievance Redreassal System namely Sanjog Helpline (www. sanjoghelpline.in) has been implemented in the Department. It is an IT solution to handle the grievances, which informs about the grievance of people to the right authority in real time through SMS, e-mail and fax. A dedicated BSNL toll-free telephone i.e. 1800-345-6770/155335 has been installed. Through this telephone, any person can register his complain on water supply & sanitation and PMGSY works undertaken by this Department.

Odisha Secretariat Workflow Automation System (OSWAS) Odisha Secretariat Workflow Automation System (OSWAS), an e-filing system, has been implemented in Rural Development Department since January, 2012. Now all files in the Department are being processed online.

Works and Accounts Management Information System (WAMIS) WAMIS is a web-based integrated system of Division Automation System along with budget and work management. It helps the departments in planning, designing and monitoring construction activities. It presents an efficient compilation of details of a typical infrastructure project and allows officials at various levels in the government setup to track and monitor various aspects of a project right from its inception to its final completion.

WAMIS is now being used by four engineering departments like Rural Development, Water Resources, H&UD and Works. Around 300 Working Divisions are feeding their vouchers and near about 4 lakh vouchers have been entered in WAMIS. A dedicated team of C-DAC have been in job for Development, Enhancements, Modifications of software in

a controlled manner under the guidance of suitably empowered core committees at the Department level. Trainings have been conducted at regular intervals and regular monitoring is being made of the usage of the system at appropriate levels and subsequent follow up actions by the department (Relevant reports are generated through the system). The server of WAMIS is placed at SDC, OCAC, and both software and data backup are being taken regularly as a step towards disaster recovery.

e-Nirman e-Nirman is an online project monitoring system to track and trace the physical and financial progress of different projects undertaken under different schemes. The online system is assessable through http://www.rdodisha.in/e-Nirman. asp. The application has the facility to integrate all construction activities like forecasting, tender processing, bill processing of different works like roads, buildings and bridges. E-Nirman is being used by the Department of Rural Development since December, 2012. All major schemes executed under RIDF and Biju Setu Yojana are being monitored through e-Nirman.

Department website (http:// www.rdodisha.in/index.htm) The information relating to the Department is being uploaded to the State Government website http://www.rdodisha.in/index.htm.

The website of the Department acts as an index of all departmental activities. Links have also been provided to other URLs used for online reporting like PMGSY, NRDWP and TSC. It contains all publications made by the Department, including Annual Reports, advertisement, Outcome Budget, etc. The letters dispatched through e-Despatch by the Department are also being webhosted. The information supposed to be exposed under Right to Information Act are also being updated and available in the website.

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In Person

Dr Chandrasekhar Kumar

Commissioner cum Secretary, Employment and Technical Education & Training Department, Government of Odisha

jobs for all lier employed in the agricultural sector are now moving to the secondary sector or the manufacturing sector, construction and mining. Some of them are also making a move to the services sectors like the tourism, banking, finance, transport.

A lot of migration is taking place from the rural area to the urban area in search of jobs. But unless and until they have proper skills they cannot take up until and unless jobs in industry or services sector. What we are aiming at is to provide useful skills to the youth who want to get absorbed in these sectors – primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. We are trying to give them better training so that they have better participation.

Dr Chandrasekhar Kumar outlines the vision of the Government in Odisha with regards to the education and training of the youth for making them job-ready. In conversation with Nayana Singh

T

ell us about the initiatives that the department is taking to bring improvement in the employment status in Odisha?

Government of Odisha has created a separate department for Employment Technical Education & Training in 2012. The main mandate of this department is to enable modern youth to find fulfilling jobs. With this purpose in mind the youth are being provided with jobs related training. The department is also working on the goal of promoting technical education and vocational education in the state.

Please throw some light on employment related figures in Odisha.

See there are two-three issues. The structure of employment is changing. People who were ear-

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What ICT initiatives are you taking to make knowledge exchange easier and improve the transparency of the administration?

We are putting ICT solutions to good use. In our polytechnic institutions ICT is being used for various processes like registration, educational in classrooms, examination, migration and much else.

This department is coming up with an employment portal very soon with the help of NIC. All sorts of information regarding various employment opportunities, various skills, training will be there. The youth will be benefitted from this.

What skill development techniques are you adopting for bringing improvement in the jobrelated skills of the students?

The students are getting jobs related training in our Polytechnic and engineering colleges and various vocational colleges. This is for people who have gone through formal education, like the people who have passed Class X plus two and who are pursuing higher education. But there are large numbers of youths who are dropouts right from Class V, Class VIII, Class X and also they are not interested in further education. So for them, we

have skill training programmes called, Placementlinked Training Programmes. And that we are riding through various skill partners. And we are roping in training partners, who have been empanelled by MSTC of various ministries. So that is the main approach in this department. So far, this department has entered into agreement with 15 such training partners to impart skills to the youths and place them.

Are you giving certain benefits for students who are hailing from economically backward families and to women?

In many ITIs and Polytechnics 30 percent of seats are reserved for women and for the poor people whose annual income is below the prescribed level. SC/ ST students get scholarship from SC/ ST department and for our placement and skill training programme. This is fully subsided and paid by the government. There are bodies - for ITIs and Polytechnics, there is CBT and there is DTET. It is the job of these two bodies to upgrade the syllabus, every two-three years in line with what AICTE, DGTE prescribe. As of now the syllabus is quite up-to-date.

Please outline for us the vision of the government of Odisha in the areas of education and employment.

The vision of the Government in Odisha is to promote good quality education and employment opportunities. There is large number of youths who need to be trained and provided employment. Our mandate is to train 1 million in the next five years. So that way we will train 2 lakh students every year. But to provide proper employment to this many youth, we need a larger industrial base. We also have to ensure that the training of the youth is of world class. This is a challenging task, but for sake of our youths we are trying our best to achieve it.

Electricity Sector

Em-Powering Odisha Pradeep Kumar Jena, Commissioner cum Secretary, Department of Energy, Government of Odisha

O

disha is the first state in the nation to introduce power sector reforms. People started talking about reforms only after the Central Electricity Act came in 2003. But Odhisa came up with an Act in 1995 - this is the Odisha Electricity Reforms Act. This is the first state to have an electricity regulation commission in 1995-96 and it is the first sector to privatise the electricity distribution sector.

The distribution sector is the most vital and weakest link in the entire value chain of the power sector. If the distribution sector doesn’t become financially viable, the transmission and generation will be seriously affected. It is, therefore, necessary that all out efforts should be made to strengthen and to ensure the financial viability of the distribution sector. Good governance is one of the important pillars of the reforms of power sector.

Electricity Distribution In the State of Odisha, the entire distribution business is managed by the private sector. So we can say that Odisha is the only state after Delhi where distribution sector is fully privatised. In other states, some only cities are privatised. We can think of major metros like Mumbai, Kolkata and Agra. Now some other cities like Baroda in Gujarat are taking the privatisation route. But the wholesale privatisation of entire electricity distribution business has only taken place in Odisha and Delhi.

However, despite the reforms, the distribution of power in the state is not functioning as well as we would have expected. In terms of supply of power, Odhisa is still one of the best places in the country when rated in terms of annual average units of power supplied per day. The power-cuts in most areas of the State is less than the national average. But in spite of all these things, the distribution sector has not performed well. The aggregate technical and commercial loss is very high. It is in the range of 42 percent, which is not acceptable.

the scheme is Rs.3593.75 crore out of which 90 percent is grant and 10 percent is loan to the State Govt.

Need for more investments

Pradeep Kumar Jena Why are the losses so high? It is because of lack of investment in this sector and lack of adoption of technology. The distribution companies are not investing in new technology because there seems lack of means to recover the cost. It is a vicious cycle. Lakhs of new consumers have been created in the last two years under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY). But many of these electricity consumers do not have proper electricity metering systems. This leads to lot of losses. We are thinking of installing RFID based metres that do not need physical presence to be read.

In Orissa all the districts have been included under RGGVY, A quadripartite agreement has been signed between Central Public Sector Undertakings(NTPC, NHPC and PGCIL), Distribution Companies (CESU, NESCO, WESCO, SOUTHCO), Rural Electrification Corporation(REC) and State Government for implementation of this scheme.

The CPSUs are the implementing and executing agencies of the scheme. Out of 30 districts, 4 districts like Angul, Nayagarh, Ganjam and Gajapati were covered under the 10th Plan and remaining 26 districts have been covered under the 11th Plan.

Under the scheme 17895 un-electrified/deelectrified villages, 29222 partially electrified villages, 40706 of un-electrified habitations, 31,85,863 of BPL households will be covered for electrification. Total sanctioned amount of

The discoms that are managing the distribution business in the state are unable in to invest the substantial amount of funds that are needed. We are working with them on developing ways of introducing high-tech reading of electricity metres. One area in which the State has to do some work is the area of energy accounting. Energy accounting is very much absent in the State. Energy accounting will provide us figures for how much power is being provided to the discoms through any particular sub-station. Such information will allow us to find out how much energy is being accounted for in any particular line.

The Government of India has restructured the R-APDRP (Restructured Accelerated Power Development & Reforms Programme).

The focus of the programme is on actual, demonstrable performance in terms of sustained loss reduction. Establishment of reliable and automated systems for sustained collection of accurate base line data, and the adoption of Information Technology in the areas of energy accounting will be essential before taking up the regular distribution strengthening projects. Odhisa has been eligible for getting about Rs 1,500 crore for systems. The entire money is being spent on technology like smart metering, metering devices, billing system, ERP introductions, etc.

As the lack of maintenance of distribution network on time coupled with poor awareness about the safety aspects very often lead to electrical accidents, with new investments it will become possible to have a system of regular inspection of the distribution network and timely maintenance of the lines and substations. Uninterrupted supply of quality power to important medical institutions such as Government medical colleges and hospitals and District Headquarters Hospitals will also be ensured once there is substantial improvement in the infrastructure.

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Effective Healthcare

The Vision for Healthcare in Odisha P K Mohapatra, Principal Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Odisha

T

he Government of Odisha recognises that investing in health results in invaluable gains in the area of human development. The improvement of health of the state’s citizens and equitable access to good quality healthcare are primary goals. Health & Family Welfare Department, Government of Odisha, has been making constant and concerted efforts to formulate and implement schemes to ensure adequate health care services to the people of the State in line with National Health Policy.

Major IT initiatives To take the health facilities to the doorstep of the people many new IT initiatives have been taken. These include, E-Swasthya Nirman for

monitoring construction activities, E-Sanjog for GPS based MHU tracking, Contraceptive Logistics Management Information System(CLMIS), OVLMS (Odisha Vaccine logistic Management System), ITEM (Integrated Training and Evaluation Management System), E-attendance, HRIMS (Human Resource Information Management System), E-blood bank, Grievance redressal system for JSSK scheme, OSMIS (Odisha state malaria information system).

In addition to the above, the Department has signed MOU with National Institute of Smart Government (NISG) for implementation of Hospital Management Information System both for the major Hospitals and District Hospitals.

This project is most ambitious project of the Department to be implemented very shortly.

The objective of using IT enabled services is to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation system, to assess the gaps and rationally priotrise resource allocation, etc. Due to active initiative by government the health budget is

Some of the major IT initatives with respect to service delivery in remote areas: e-Sanjog • GPS based MHU tracking: To improve the quality of service delivery in unreachable areas, a web based GPS application is set up to track mobile health units to monitor and ensure service delivery on time.

Human Resource monitoring and management • HRMIS ( Human Resourse Management Information System) : In the State of Odisha, the Doctors database is automated with all functionalities of HR management, districtwise incumbency and vacancy monitoring system is in place to support in improving rationale transfer and posting of Doctors.

Citizen centric applications • e–blood bank: The biggest advantage of this automation process shall be for the general public as all the blood banks in the state are linked through internet, thereby making the information of blood stock available in the public domain with a simple sms, ivrs and web.

• Telemedicine: It is an emerging mode of delivering health care services in places there is none and improving the quality of health care where some kind of health care service is available. Currently, all 3 medical colleges of the state alongwith all DHHs and Rourkela Govt. hospital are interconnected to provide services through telemedicine covering all 30 districts. PG trainees also benefit through online teaching facility.

Supply Chain Management • Vaccine logistics management system: A web based management system to ensure timely indenting, stock management and rational distribution of vaccines across the State.

• Drug Inventory Management System: A web based management system to ensure timely indenting, stock management and rational distribution of drugs across the State.

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increased to 6.1 percent from 4 percent of the last year and a significant contribution goes to IT initiatives.

Special benefits to expectant mothers Current IMR of the state is 57, out of which 2/3rd is due to neonatal mortality. For focused attention to reduce neonatal mortality, the State Government is establishing NBCC along with NSSK training, establishment of SNCU and NBSU for treatment of sick new born, IMNCI implementation in the community, establishment of Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) with extra manpower for nutritional counselling.

Beyond NRHM initiatives such as ASHA, JSY, JSSK and VHND on mother and child care, there are many state run initiatives that provides special benefits to expectant mothers.

AIIMS in Odisha AIIMS Bhubaneswar is one of the six AIIMS like apex healthcare institutes being established by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna (PMSSY). With the aim of correcting regional imbalances in quality tertiary level healthcare in the country, and attaining self sufficiency in graduate and postgraduate medical education and training institutions in underserved areas of the country.

The institution will impart both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education in all its branches and related fields, along with nursing and paramedical training to bring together in one place educational facilities of the highest order for the training of personnel in all branches of health care activity.

the author is Principal Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Odisha

In Person

Arti Ahuja

Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Women & Child Development Department, Government of Odisha

Extending care to

women & children

Arti Ahuja provides her inputs on the steps that are being taken to ensure the welfare of young mothers and infants in the State of Odhisa. In conversation with Nayana Singh

W

hat is your vision for the women and child development in State of Odisha?

A number of things have to be done; we have to take a holistic view of the living conductions of the majority of the women and children in the State. In Odisha, we have taken up number of initiatives, which target women right from the moment of conception and till the time when their children turn into adults. We are doing a number of things to provide protection and facilities to the women and children. While providing such services, we also need to taken into the society’s perception of women and children. There are lot of issues that need to be addressed.

How are you addressing issues such as IMR? Please highlight the challenges which are hindering development?

What are you doing to address the problem of child labour, which is quite alarming in this part of the country?

I would like to inform you that IMR is coming down in the state due to the concerted efforts of various departments. Infant mortality rate is impacted by various factors, which are mostly are related to neo-natal mortality. We now have the conditional cash transfer scheme called ‘Mamata’ where we make direct cash transfers to the account of the woman subject to her fulfilling certain conditions. We are also discovering that the acceptance of health services have gone up as a result of Mamata Scheme. In one year of its operation we have been able to cover nearly six lakh women through the scheme; the money goes directly into their accounts through transfers. So there is hardly any leakage, it’s been a successful scheme and I think we will be able to achieve considerable success in bringing down IMR and MMR.

The issue of child labour is being handled by the labour department. As a part of our child protection programme, we seek to bring better synergy between the labour department and other departments. We are trying to map the areas from where most of the child labourers are coming. We are trying to do all we can to ensure that every child in the state gets proper education and other facilities.

Tell me more about the benefits that are being provided to expected mothers and to infants?

We are providing cash transfers for prenatal and post-natal checkups, getting the immunization done, and other areas where urgent healthcare is needed. We also have programmes for providing supplementary nutrition to the mother and child. The programmes for supplementary nutrition are decentralised to the village level.

The nutrition to expecting mothers and to the children of less than three years is being provided through self help groups. To ensure that there the meal is healthy, we provide specific guidelines and recipes to the self-help groups, which operate at the village and community levels. It is a successful model as it leads to the involvement of many members of the village community. There is total decentralisation and the local people have more say in it.

What sort of ICT initiatives you are adopting for the purpose of ensuring better service delivery to the remotest village?

I would like to tell you about Mamata, one of the largest social sector projects of its kind in the country. Under this scheme cash transfers are made directly to the bank accounts of the women.

We are using the e-pragati, our website very well.

The details of all our schemes and other relevant information are available on the website. We have the dashboard monitoring system through which we monitor all the districts for various indicators and parameters. We have a ready checklist for supervisory officers and all of that is monitored in website. We also have an e-group of our field level officers. Lot of information dissemination and communications take place through the e-group.

What sort of the assistance are you getting from the NGO’s?

Our department works in very close coordination with the NGO’s in the whole ICDS programme, our social audit is done by the NGO. They only have found that the decentralization model has been quite effective. Similarly in other fields we run lots of women homes, special schools for children with disabilities, old age homes all these are run through NGO’s, so there is strong partnership with them in this department.

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www.nixi.in

Contact IRINN: Indian Registry for Internet Names and Numbers C/o National Internet Exchange of India Incube Business Cenre, 5th Floor 18, Nehru Place, New Delhi - 110019

www.irinn.in

Phones: +91-11-64670009/24363126/30614624/25 Fax: +91-11-24361464 Email: helpdesk@irinn.in

IPv4

6

IPv

The Government of India, Department of Electronics & Information Technology, earlier endorsed the operations of the National Internet Registry (NIR) to the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI). NIR is an entity under the umbrella of the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) which is the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC). The NIR is entrusted with the task of coordinating IP address allocation with other Internet resource management functions at the national level in the country. NIXI was recognised by APNIC in March 2012 to become the NIR for the country. The NIR has been named as the Indian Registry for Internet Names and Numbers (IRINN). Collective efforts of NIXI and ISPAI have led to the formation of IRINN in the country.

IRINN is a division functioning under NIXI, and provides allocation and registration services of Internet protocol addresses (IPv4 and IPv6) and autonomous system numbers to its affiliates to the Indian Internet communities. It is a not-forprofit, affiliates-based entity, with the primary goal of allocation of Internet resources to its affiliates. It also encourages/promotes activities related to research, education and training covering the areas of Internet resources.

IRINN structure IRINN is a division within the administrative structure under NIXI. IRINN Policy is allied with the Global and Asia Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC) policies and following bottom-up process for any policy changes. IRINN affiliates have the freedom to choose the registry (IRINN/APNIC). It operates in a way that is consistent with regional and global resource management policies. IRINN will be developing local policies and taking public positions in the best interest of its affiliates and participating in regulatory consideration where ever appropriate.

Who can become an IRINN affiliate?

F To become an affiliate, an organisation/ individual must submit their allocation proposal with supporting information (documents like copy of company registration documents, PAN, TIN and TDS registration details; PAN in case of an individual, who is a resident of India) to justify the requirement F The affiliate should provide the required information to IRINN for registering Whois database. The affiliate should use MyIRINN portal to register information in the IRINN Whois database and ensure the information is correct and up-to-date F For any support/queries, the affiliate can open a ticket through MYIRINN portal or can send an e-mail to helpdesk@irinn.in

Financial Management

Digitisation of the Finance Department Aswini Kumar Mishra, Special Secretary, Finance Department, Government of Odisha

There has been significant achievement in utilising information communication technology for different activities of Finance Department. Finance Department is responsible for formulation of fiscal policy, mobilisation of resources, framing of budget, allocation of funds to different Departments and enforcing financial discipline in government expenditure.

Besides improving efficiency and transparency in financial administration, computerisation of different activities of Finance Department facilitates the public interface and catalyzes the decision making process. What follows is a compendium of the leading achievements of the department.

Treasury Computerisation: Integrated Odisha Treasury Management System (iOTMS) • Introduced initially in 2007 as an online Odisha Treasury Management System, the present web based application (iOTMS) came into existence in 2009.

• iOTMS allows all stake holders of Treasury namely; Administrative departments (AD), Controlling officers, Drawing and disbursing officers (DDO), taxpayers, Accountant General, Reserve Bank of India(RBI) and the agency banks to access the system through internet.

• Fifteen public and private sector banks are integrated with treasury portal for electronic receipt of government taxes and dues facilitating the taxpayers and citizens.

• Presently 80 percent of total receipts on account of Commercial taxes and Mining royalties are received through e-receipts.

• Collecting banks remit the electronic receipt through the RBI enabling faster remittance of funds to government account and easy reconciliation.

• The entire budget distribution exercise involving the Grant controlling authorities and Budget controlling officers is made through the Treasury portal.

• All payments including the payments for public works expenditure issued through cheque by the cheque drawing DDOs are processed through iOTMS. While authorising payments, system checks ensure availability of funds against allotment

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and other controls embedded into the system.

• Using the pensioners’ database, pension is now credited to the account of the pensioner electronically. The pensioners do not come to the treasury/ bank every month to collect pension.

• Since August 2012, e-payment to payee account in respect of ADs and Heads of Department has started through iOTMS using RBI platform in respect of all disbursement, like salary of staff, suppliers’ payments, payment to beneficiaries of different schemes, etc.

• Real time generation of reports on revenue and expenditure through the centralised web-based architecture has facilitated faster decision making.

• iOTMS is winner of CSI-Nihilent e-governance ‘Award of Appreciation’ for 2010-11.

• Winner of Gold under the category ‘Best Government Portal’ at National awards for e- governance for 2011-12.

• The road ahead include: o Extension of e-disbursement to whole of the state by September 2013 o Online bill submission o Online submission of accounts to AG o Mobile-based transaction and reporting system o Sanction order repository

Financial Management

Online Budget Compilation System: • Online Budget Compilation System was introduced in Odisha during the year 201112. The entire budgetary process starting from proposal initiation by different departments to budget finalization is done only online.

• Following broad advantages are derived by using the Online Budget Compilation System for Budget preparation: o No need to enter the full chart of account. Only figure against existing chart of account are to be entered – Error in account head & mis-classification minimized o The system automatically calculates the minor head-wise, major-head wise and voted/charged wise total figure – Minimize calculation error o Transaction time is substantially minimised. o Easy to handle- User friendly o Saving man-days/hours – 15,000 man-hours saved annually. o Paperless transaction (Green Initiative) - Save about 500 rims of paper annually o Can view/ download any budget-related documents • The re-appropriation module has been introduced during 2012-13 as part of the Online Budget Compilation System. All the re-appropriation proposals are processed and approved only online, which is saving substantial amount of transaction time.

Aswini Kumar Mishra

Computerisation of Commercial Taxes: e-services project • Introduced Centralised Value Added Tax Information System in 2005, which was an internal application having no interface with the stakeholders.

• The Commercial Tax Department’s e-services project was initiated in April 2010 • The following services are provided to the stakeholders: o e-filing of returns registered dealers o e-payment facilities to the stakeholders by integration through iOTMS o system generated e-waybill by the dealers without going to the Commercial Tax office o system generated e-transit passes by the transporters and dealers of other states o Passing of vehicles at check gates by swipe of the e-transit pass with bar code o Return on utilisation of way bills discontinued as it is automatically generated o Dealers of other states enabled to print e-way bills by using their respective TIN and the e-way bill number provided by the dealers of Odisha o Dealers are enabled to generate different registers pre-

scribed under CST rules through the CTD portal • SMS-based Value Added Services (VAS) have been rolled out for the reconciliation of e-payments, generation of e-way bills based on transit passes issued by Mines Department and online feedback/complain facilities, etc • Real time MIS enables the Government for an improved and informed decision making • e-reconciliation reduces the work load and the paper usage • Prevention of Tax evasion by cross verification with the use of ICT • Future Road Map: o Simplified registration process to ensure faster disposal and easy registration by new business entities o Introduction of electronic application and issue of VAT clearance certificate and no-deduction certificate o Integrated audit and assessment process on scrutiny of e-returns o Integration with external agencies like customs, excise and NSDL for data sharing

March 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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Good Governance

Making a Difference with e-Governance S K Panda, Deputy Director General and SIO, Odisha, National Informatics Centre (NIC)

N

ow there is call for better e-Governance, people everywhere in the country have started demanding more services from the State Government and the Central Governments. The government machinery too understands that there is a burgeoning demand for affordable and high quality public services. Only technology can help the government meet the agenda of inclusive growth. So implementation of ICT enabled services in the most transparent way is a must.

When it comes to implementation of e-Governance ideas at the local level, we can lead by example. If one department is doing good work in certain area, others can follow. e-Governance should be seen as a services that is being provided to the people. Only when we see e-Governance as a service, we can develop the best possible systems.

Conditions in Odisha Odisha is rich in natural resources and the state has a vibrant cultural heritage. But the state continues to be backward. A vast majority of the Odisha’s population does not have access to electricity. A number of people are still using firewood to meet their cooking needs.

Despite there being welfare programmes from the government during the last six decades, nearly half the population continues to have a BPL status. Rural tele-density in Odisha is just 28 percent, where as in urban tele-density is 146 percent.

Today a number of people prefer the urban areas as government services are far more

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S K Panda easily available in urban areas. In order to inspire people to stay in rural areas, the quality of services in these areas has to be improved.

Enabling better governance A number of e-Governance initiatives have been launched in the state. About 150 website are being developed, hosted and maintained by NIC Odisha. A National Data Centre is coming up in the state; the State Data Centre is already there. We have the Video Conferencing facility, National Knowledge Network and we have got the Virtual Training lab also. One of the major areas is the land records computerisation. This is a web-enabled, online application and so far we have delivered services to many individuals.

We are also developing scholarship programmes for SC/ST and OBC students. In the area of transportation lot of work has been done. We have the service called Vahan Sarthi, an online application for the registration of the motor vehicles. The moment you pay the dealer

for purchasing a vehicle, the vehicle registration process automatically gets initiated. One of the major flagship projects of NIC in is the e-Procurement system (GEPNIC). This system also brings in better Accountability, Increased Authenticity, confidentiality and enhanced Availability during the whole tender activities.

Through GEPNIC we have managed thousands of tenders for Government of Odisha.

The cost of these tenders runs into tens of thousands of crores and it covers all urban local bodies, state undertaking public sector units and IT development agencies. We are also providing e-Procurement services to the coal sector, port sector and steel sector. Mahanadi Coal Fields Limited, Eastern Coal Fields Limited, Vishakhapatnam Port Trust, Hindustan Shipyard Ltd and many other organisations.

The road ahead For a country like India, there might be need to explore more human-oriented non-technological governance. Human-oriented nontechnological governance entails certain cost; you see when we speak of IT a lot of investment is required and to sustain the infrastructure. It is a recurring expense. Along with having the latest technologies we also need to have fully trained manpower.

In Odisha, we are taking ample initiatives to ensure that e-Governance services are being provided in the local language, which is Oriya.

About 73 percent of the population speaks Oriya. We are also making attempts to scale up our operations in the area of cloud computing. Cloud computing is especially conducive for e-Governance, as it is cost effective and efficient. Medium and small sized vendors can also participate in cloud computing platforms without facing any difficulty.

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in person

Mona Sharma

Chief Electoral Officer & Ex-Officio Commissioner-cum-Secretary to Government Home (Elections) Department, Odisha

Elections in Odisha

Mona Sharma provides her views on policy issues and the technological issues that lie at the core our electoral system. In conversation with Nayana Singh

P

lease provide an overview of the initiatives being undertaken by your department to ensure that elections are conducted smoothly in the state.

The conduct of elections for the Parliament and Assembly is governed by the rules, regulations and procedures prescribed by the Election Commission of India. It is quite well-greased machinery and the systems are well set all over the country including in our State. At present we are focusing on improving the quality of electoral roll. This includes enrolment of all the eligible voters especially the young voters and the socio-economically backward and marginalized sections of the society, and deletion of names of the voters who have died or shifted from their original place of enrolment. Steps are being taken to ensure that the citizens have their name at one place only in the electoral roll in the State.

What kind of ICT solutions are you using to bring more efficiency in the functioning of your department?

ICT is the extensively and effectively used in the conduct of free and fair poll. The entire

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electoral roll is available on the website of the Department i.e. www.ceoorissa.nic.in. Any voter can get the details of the enrolment using the search facility provided in the website. Further all the polling stations have been shown on the Google map giving the contact details of the officials and functionaries responsible for maintenance of electoral roll. Any citizen can apply online for addition, deletion or correction of his name in the electoral roll utilizing the above facilities in the CEOs website.

What steps are you taking to ensure that you have adequate support of all political parties that are participating in the democratic process?

For more effective and active participation of political parties in the electoral process, regular interactions with the political parties are taken up at the level of Chief Electoral Officer, District Election Officers and Electoral Registration Officers.

All the political parties are also supplied hard and soft copies of the Electoral Roll. The list of all the voters who are either added or deleted in the electoral roll are shared with the political parties at the appropriate level in addition to its detailed display in the website of the Department The political parties also appoint their booth level agents at the time of revision of the electoral roll and polling agents at the polling station level at the time of election.

What is your view of the kind of impact that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) are having?

With the electronic voting machines (EVMs), the electoral process including counting has become easier. Use of EVMs for election through out the country is an important milestone.

There is a popular mindset among the people that voting will not change anything.

Fortunately in Odisha voter turn out at the time of elections has been encouraging over the years. SVEEP activities are being taken up throughout the State to motivate the voters to

enroll and actively participate in the election process. 25th January is being celebrated as National Voters Day from the year 2011. 22 lakh voters were issued EPIC after the summary revision 2013 on the National Voters Day.

During election times we keep hearing about problems and even violence happening in certain constituencies. What can be done to make elections peaceful?

At the time of election, a detailed election plan is prepared by the District Election Officers for peaceful conduct of election. The sensitive polling booths are identified in advance and there is additional deployment of force in the sensitive booths. In addition, there are Supervising Officers in the Mobile Squad and Mobile Police Force are deployed at the time of election to prevent any untoward incidence.

It has been suggested that voting can be done through mobile phones. Do you think that is feasible?

Not in the immediate future. At present we only have the system where people come to the polling stations to cast their ballot. Postal ballots are cast by defence personnel, state armed forces, persons working in foreign embassies.

People with criminal backgrounds are coming and exercising their voting rights, what steps are you taking to ensure that only decent people come to vote?

The Representation of People Act, 1950 and the rules there in define who are eligible/not eligible to vote. All the citizens who have name in their electoral rolls and are not debarred by the related act and rules can cast their vote at the time of election. On the issue of criminals getting elected, there is need for amendment in the Representation of People Act for which Law Commission constituted by the Government of India has already given its recommendation to the Union Government.

Higher Education

e-Governance in Higher Education Dr Mihir Kumar Das, State Performance Tracking Cell, Department of Higher education, Government of Odisha

I

t is beyond doubt that for the quantity and quality of output of our education system to improve, there is no option but to introduce e-Governance in this vital social sector.

Through e-Governance we can bring about an improvement in the efficiency of various departments dealing with education and there will be much needed transparency.

Bringing Good Governance Before delving into e-Governance, the first step should be to define governance and lay down its scope and objectives. The age-old concept of governance has been reintroduced into modern discourse, focusing on how to achieve good governance. Good governance is the ability to differentiate between right and wrong, just and unjust, fair and foul, and moral and immoral.

In the Arthshastra, Kautilya says that the person who governs should realise that his achievement or success is a measure of the happiness of his subjects and that what is good for the subjects should be undertaken.

Governance standards should be improved not only at the government level but in all areas of society.

As a concept, it is important that governance should include all stakeholders such as school and college authorities, teachers, parents, children and even government bodies such as CBSE, UGC, CSIR, etc. Instead of merely being consultants, they should be part of the active decision-making process.

But this simply is not enough. It is important to ensure that governance is not only

Dr Mihir Kumar Das participatory but also accountable and transparent. For the smooth functioning of the system, it is imperative that responsibilities and accountabilities be clearly laid down for all stakeholders.

Improving Performance This is crucial as we need to have not only procedural accountability but also performance accountability. In addition, there should be an effective grievance redress mechanism in place.

It also goes without saying that this structure would work only if it were allowed to be flexible, implying that the institutions should not impose rigid regulations on schools, colleges, universities and teachers In this respect, technology can act as a great enabler by making it easier for all parties concerned to be able to have access to meaningful information. Implementing e-governance will help us to monitor academic standards. It can help in continuous monitoring, assessment and meaningful evaluation of the teacher and the pupil.

Constant feedback to the persons concerned — be it administrators, faculty, parents and students — and appropriate timely control and correction mechanisms can be easily undertaken. It may also be possible to analyse the reasons of dropping out of the system while, at the same time, it can make teachers more accountable. Add-on features such as online testing tools can help appraise the performance level of students and that of teachers.

It can send SMS or e-mail message to parents, if their children are absent at school, enhancing parents’ involvement in their children’s schooling activities. Such a comprehensive and integrated system can also enable authorities to analyse the performance of one of the best performing institutes and compare it with other schools and colleges to identify the gaps.

Also, the system can obtain feedback from students to modify course curriculum if deemed appropriate by the authorities. This will allow all the low-performing schools and colleges to reduce the gap with better-performing institutes. It will help in the betterment of the higher education in the country and increase the number of employable students.

Conclusion The advent of myriad innovative e-Governance practices has the potential of revolutionising the governance in higher education.

This has the capability of improving quality of higher education and increasing number of employable students. Despite its great potential to help the higher education in India, the ultimate success of this concept will to a large extent depend on the level of coordination and support from governing bodies and the universities and colleges.

March 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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in person

Dr Pramod Kumar Meherda Commissioner-cum-Mission Director (NRHM), Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of Odisha

Odisha Healthcare

Connecting with the people

H

ow do you think ICT is helpful in Health & Family Welfare Departments?

The Health Department deals with a lot of complex systems. Added to that, every task here is urgent and has to be done in a time bound manner. For instance, whether you are procuring drugs or dealing with logistics and supply of consumables, vaccines etc, you need to know whether they have reached the desired destination within the desired time or not. In my opinion, ICT is very important for Health & Family Welfare Department to manage complex systems with the much needed accountability and transparency.

How has Health & Family Department in Odisha leveraged ICT to manage these complex systems?

Under the initiative, which we call e-Swasthya, we took up several e-innovations in the last few years. One of our major accomplishments has been e-Blood Bank, the first of its kind web based MIS to improve management and functioning of blood banking system.

By linking all the blood banks in the State, the public interface under this initiative allows real time accessing of data relating to availability of desired blood group. By doing away with the manual system of accessing information on required quantity of blood units from specified blood banks, the initiative has brought in the much needed transparency in the blood banking system.

Likewise, we also have Odisha Drug Inventory Management System (ODIMS). Here, we track, in real time, if all the procured drugs have reached the destination, the stock position of various drugs at any given point of time, information on expiry of drugs, further requirement of drugs, etc. Similarly, the Drug Testing and Data Management System, a web based application has helped automation of the day to day work processes of the State Drug Testing and Research Labarotary.

technology is all invasive as it can help healthcare reach the masses In

We have also launched Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) and e-Attendance to manage and keep track of employees. HRMIS facilitates a GIS based HR planning and management.

conversation with Nayana Singh & Manjushree Reddy, ENN

In Odisha, we have the State Malaria Information System, a GIS-

Dr Pramod Kumar Meherda, Commissioner-cum-Mission Director (NRHM), Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of Odisha, thinks

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In in Person person

based application, which helps in providing information on epidemiological and surveillance parameters related to malaria. Apart from this, with the help of C-DAC, we have introduced telemedicine facilities upto District Headquarter Hospitals.

We are now in the process of integrating all these initiatives with a more comprehensive Hospital Management Information System (HIMS).

Please tell us how you manage the order requirements?

The entire planning is being done through web based applications, integrating them with GIS platforms. GIS has very strong foot forward in public health management under NRHM. I have already mentioned about ODIMS, the drug testing and data management system, and e-Blood Banking, which help us in managing order requirements in their respective fields.

We have placed adequate staff at various levels for timely data entry and analysis.

How can we address the consistent challenge of connecting to the people in remote and rural areas in terms of public health service delivery?

This requires a multi-pronged strategy. In Odisha, we have tried to provide differential incentives to doctors to encourage them to serve in rural health centres. Besides, we are taking care of the need for adequate and quality

your daily cup of hot tea with hot

e-governance news!

infrastructure at our delivery points, including staff quarters for health personnel serving in rural areas.

It is also important that we reach our rural and tribal population at their doorsteps to reduce their out of pocket expenditure on health and to build their confidence in public health systems, such as through Mobile Health Units (MHUs). At present, 354 Mobile Health Units are operational to provide primary health care services at the community level in 7850 most difficult villages on a fixed day every month. A Mobile Health Unit has five persons: a doctor, an ANM, pharmacist, attendant and a driver. These mobile units take care of minor ailments and if there is anything beyond their control, they refer them to the senior doctors. We already have two such units in all the blocks of tribal areas.

Free referral transport services through 466 Janani Express and 422 Ambulances have helped us in providing access to rural population during critical situations. More than four lakh pregnant women and 35,000 sick newborn babies are being benefitted annually in this way. We have also set up maternity waiting homes (Maa Gruha) in remote tribal areas, where mothers arriving early for institutional deliveries are kept under medical supervision till they are shifted to the health institution for actual delivery.

Similarly, over the years, steps have been taken to provide health care services through active involvement of the people. This has been

achieved with the help of more than 43,000 ASHAs and formation of Gaon Kalyan Samitis in all the revenue villages. To cite an example; last year, at the village level, 2.50 lakh persons were diagnosed and treated for Malaria by ASHAs. Likewise, in the same period, ASHAs successfully followed up 20,000 TB patients and 2500 suspected Leprosy patients at village level. Community involvement has now become the mainstay for public health service delivery in rural areas.

Please tell us about the training for the IT. Are Ayush doctors being considered for those programmes for telemedicine?

Not yet but sooner or later they will have to be trained in ICT. At present, they have been trained in other maternity and child healthcare services and outreach programmes like school health, mobile health units, etc. As part of another ICT initiative, we are putting GPS on all our vehicles to track how they move.

Tell us about your ICT initiatives ahead.

I have already mentioned about the comprehensive Hospital Information Management System (HIMS). The backward linkages under e-blood bank, linking of prescription audits with ODIMS and an integrated referral transport system, tracked in real time through GPS are other initiatives that we are currently engaged with.

log on to egov.eletsonline.com

March 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

35

CCTNS

Maximising Security with IT M Akhaya, IG of Police, Director, State Crime Records Bureau, Bhubaneswar, Odisha

O

disha Police is taking a major step for facilitating delivery of better services to the citizens by launching the pilot implementation of CCTNS project.

This project will enable the police to maintain all its crime and criminals data in online system. Citizens will be able to access policing services online in a hassle free manner. Hon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha, Sri Naveen Pattnaik, inaugurated the pilot launch of CCTNS project on 12th January 2013 in 56th Senior Police Officer’s Conference in the two pilot districts of Angul and Kendrapada. Implementation in other districts of Odisha is under progress; by end of the year the policing systems will go online and policing services will be available on click of button.

Citizens Centric Services CCTNS project implementation across the country will enable the citizens to have better access to policing services. Citizens will not have to visit the police station multiple times to register their cases. Sitting at home a citizen can log into the citizen portal and register their complaint and grievances. Citizens can submit requests/services, which include passport verification services, general service petitions such as No Objection Certificate (NOC) for

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job, NOC for vehicle theft, NOC for lost cell phone/passport, licences for arms, processions, etc. Citizens can track the status of their passport verification, etc.

In Odisha Right to Public Service Act will be implemented, under which 13 police services will be covered, and police departments will provide services to citizens within a time frame. CCTNS will enable the citizens to request for these services online and police department will have to provide the services within time frame else fine will be applicable on the individual responsible for the delays. Application will give triggers and alerts to the responsible police personnel to execute the work and deliver the service in time to the citizens. Citizens will get benefits in terms of better and quick services.

In Odisha special emphasis has been given to keep track of Naxal-related problems and state is developing system to manage information related to Naxal crimes and incidents, track the movement of Naxal and their hideouts using the GIS-based maps. Also Odisha Police is developing traffic management, which will assist state in planning for the traffic movement in major crossing, CCTVs are being installed and these will be integrated with traffic management system to keep better surveillance of roads and manage vehicular traffic.

Implementation of CCTNS In Odisha, the CCTNS project is being imple-

M Akhaya mented by State Crime Records Bureau. The bureau is being guided and advised by other top officials from Government of Odisha and police department. Implementation is being done as per the MHA guidelines and implemented as bundle of services.

State has selected NIIT Technologies Ltd for delivering the “bundle of services” comprising • Hardware (supply, commissioning, implementation and maintenance) • Digitization of legacy/ existing data and migration of existing electronic data. All historical records last 10years will be digitized by SI.

CCTNS

• Customization and enhancement of Application software provided by NCRB • Management of Data Centre & Disaster Recovery Center • Training and Change Management • Handholding Support to police stations Network Connectivity is being provided

by BSNL in coordination with SI and other stakeholders. BSNL will be providing connectivity at 784 locations through either Point to Point Leased Line through Odisha SWAN, VPNoBB, or VSAT connection. Special emphasis has been given to connect all naxal affected area in Odisha with VSAT connectivity. Deloitte has been appointed as State Project Management Unit (SPMU) for monitoring, review and coordination of implementation of CCTNS in Odisha.

Pilot Implementation Pilot implementation has been undertaken in Angul and Kendrapada district covering 46 locations including police stations and higher offices. Each of these locations has been provided with IT infrastructure and network connectivity to perform work electronically.

Police personnel from these pilot districts are being provided training on CAS and other infrastructure so that they can work on system.

Working on the online system will bring holistic change in the approach of working of the police department and special emphasis has been given in providing training to the police personnel in IT system. This will also enable police personnel to improve their skills in IT and in future enable them to handle the online frauds and other cases.

Now FIRs are being registered in the CAS online and other policing services will be taken up online by March 2013. Citizen portal is currently under testing and will be launched soon for the citizens to access to the policing service online.

Under the project, historical case records will be digitised for the 10years. Data digitisation of the case records has been started in the pilot districts to keep digital records of all cases. This will help in quick search of historical data and generation of analytical reports and statistics.

CCTNS Data Centre Odisha State Data Centre in OCAC is hosting the centralised infrastructure of Odisha CCTNS project wherein different facilities are

available such as high security both physical and data security, 24 hrs power backup, high speed network connection, etc.

Centralised servers will host the Core Application Software in high availability mode with proper backup plan and Disaster Recovery Centre at different seismic zone at New Delhi.

In case of any damage to the data centre the disaster recovery centre will have repository of all data and planning for business continuity is to be taken in subsequent phase.

Security aspects in CCTNS Keeping the type of data being handled in police department, security has been the most important and critical factor for CCTNS project from the planning phase itself.

CCTNS Odisha core data centre infrastructure has been installed in a state-of-the-art tier-II data centre (Odisha State Data Centre, OSDC) of international standard owned by

By end of the year the policing systems will go online and policing services will be available on click of button

IT department of Government of Odisha.

Multiple security aspect has been taken into consideration during the implementation of CCTNS project.

Firewall and IPS has been installed which will protect servers and application from any unauthorized access from outside the world and within the department.

Anti Virus and Anti Spam has been installed to keep the application and client systems secure from the attack of virus, Trojans and spam. This will also act as a centralized system for updating the virus definitions on the systems across Odisha police offices.

Core Application Software (CAS) is an enterprise class client/server application, which authorizes user login through formbased authentication and role-based authorization. Web connections are through powerful Secure Socket Layer (SSL). CAS users IDs are linked with Active Directory (AD) to map

one-to-one mapping with system IDs to CAS user IDs. Hardware security module is used, which will digitally sign and encrypt critical data, to secure the application, databases, data in transit, etc.

CCTNS setup in Odisha is planned for ISO 27001 certification to match with the industry standards.

Managing Change The police department is undergoing a massive transition period, where a significant change is coming due to the CCTNS project. In the CCTNS, Odisha project, the change management initiatives are focusing on acceptance and willingness of the police officials to accept this project. To build the acceptance and willingness of the police officials, they need to gain knowledge on CCTNS application, which will build the skills. Henceforth, the same built skills will help to develop attitude for using the new application.

Currently, the identified SI is doing continuous rigorous training (hands-on) on application usage and support. Few change management workshops along with motivational exercises have been conducted at the pilot districts to build the acceptance and attitude. It has been a prime focus of SCRB for carrying out and ensuring effective trainings and change management workshops for police officials at Odisha.

CCTNS once implemented across the state will help citizens to get policing services electronically, including lodging complain online, getting general services such as requests for certificates, verifications and permissions.

Police personnel will get enhanced tool for investigation and they will have reduced burden to entering data repeatedly at multiple registers. Police personnel will have enhanced tool to analyze crime patterns, modus operandi, analyze accidents and other road incidents. Centralized crime and criminal information repository along with the criminal images and fingerprints with advanced search capabilities. It will bring about transparency into the system with lesser chances of manipulation.

Electronic records will help is sharing crime and criminal information across the state and help in analysing the problems at central level and provide tools for better decision making at the top.

March 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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in person

Manoj Ahuja

Commissioner, Commercial Tax Department, Government of Odisha

Efficient ways

of Collecting Taxes becomes very important and it has helped us a lot by simplifying the process of filling taxes.

People can easily file the taxes, and their transactions. We can analyse all these from our backhand, this helps us in minimising the leakage and removing the bottleneck and we have quite successful on that front.

“Our essential aim is to collect taxes in a manner which does not cause any impediment to anyone and that is only possible, if we make the processes such as enforcement, and ensuring compliance noninclusive and hassle free,� says Manoj Ahuja.

In conversation with Mohd Ujaley

I

t has been said that properutilisation of Information technology can streamline the process of tax collection and minimise the leakage. How successful have you been in doing so?

If you want to improve the governance, streamline the process, meet your goals and monitor the development then use of information technology becomes necessary. It not only helps you in providing better services to the people in hassle free way, but also raises your efficiency and thus brings better results. In the Tax Department, our essential aim is to collect the taxes in a manner which does not cause any impediment to anyone. That is only possible, if we make the processes such as enforcement, and compliance non-inclusive and hassle free. Any wrong decision at our part may adversely affect the business of other parties. In such a scenario, role of IT

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Commercial tax arrears of the Odisha government is almost Rs 4694.45 crore (as on April1, 2012), this includes Rs 4344.61 crore of sales tax (Odisha sales tax, Central sales tax and value added tax) dues pending on different organisations.

Why you have not been able to realise that money?

This is basically long pending issue and we are aware of it. The arrears are accruing since more than one and half decade. We do not have a centralised database for all these arrears. To solve this problem, we are getting all these data together. Hopefully, once we get the data, will do the analyses and have proper perspective about arrears.Thereafter, we can have specific strategy to collect these arrears.

In FY 2012-13, you have collected Rs 7003.46 crore by way of sales tax till January end, which is 17.62 per cent growth over Rs 5954.29 crore achieved in the corresponding period of previous fiscal. What are you expectation for next financial year?

We are hopeful that we will do better in next financial year. We are bringing more information technology intervention in our process and I believe that will improve compliance and should raise the tax collection. We are also making our internal process online, wherein system of award, assessment, appeal, and recovery will be streamline, which will improve efficiency of our organisation.We will also use business intelligence

tools to enhance the efficiency and taxes. We already integrated our data with mining department data, the fact that we have the same data helps in ensuring compliance and raising collection. I am hopeful that we will perform better.

What are the major challenges?

Is it tax reform, leakage or unawareness about tax and taxation?

One of the most challenging aspects is that things should be in organised manner and should be apparent to everybody because then only people respond to it. I agree that tax laws should be simplified and there shall be little scope for any ambiguity. There should be little scope of different interpretation of same law. Awareness is really important. Simplifying the process helps people in filling their taxes and process should be such that an honest tax payer should not have to worry about tax department.

How has been department experience working with private organisations. Does the PPP model at various level works?

First of all we need to mark out the areas where private intervention is required. Taxation is a regulatory function and has to be done by statuary body. However, other areas such IT and manning helpdesk etc., can be outsourced.

We have done so. This does help the quality and raises standard of our services.

What are you vision in terms of implementation IT initiative and effort in your department?

We have a vision document, and also tax payer charter. We want to collect taxes in a manner which does not create barrier to business. A businessman should not worry about tax department, if he pays his tax honestly. We want the process to be as easy as possible for everyone.

Transforming Governance.

Transforming Lives.

Mastek’s eScholarship solution won the Computer Society of India (CSI) award for Excellence in IT 2012 in the Education & eLearning category.

For over 20 years, Mastek has enabled both Central and State Governments and PSUs to transform their governance vision to deliver quick and efficient services to citizens and businesses.

We offer e-Governance Solutions and Services in the areas such

Maharashtra Information Technology Award 2008 & 2011 Awarded the Best IT Company in 'Software Category' in 2008 and in 'e-Governance category' in 2011 by Government of Maharashtra

as Tax Administration, Social Enterprise Management, Electronic Food and Civil Supplies (eFCS), e-Municipality and Education.

Mastek is currently collaboratively working with various government departments across Maharashtra, Odisha, Gujarat

Mastek and its client, Department of Social Justice & Special Assistance, Government of Maharashtra, won the jury award for 'Best ICT in Financial Inclusion Initiative of the year' at the eIndia 2011 Awards for the e-Scholarship solution developed by Mastek

and Kerala - partnering with them right from concept & design to delivery of innovative IT solutions and services.

To know more, visit www.mastek.com | email: info@mastek.com Call: +91- 22- 6695 2222 +91- 11- 4368 0404

India | Asia Pacific | Europe | North America Š2012 Mastek Limited. All rights reserved. The Mastek logo and product and services mentioned herein are either registered trademark or trademarks pending registration of Mastek Limited, or its affiliated entities.

Mastek and its client, Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), Government of Maharashtra, won the jury award for 'Best Urban ICT Initiative of the year' award at the eIndia 2011 Awards for the Integrated Housing Lottery Management System (IHLMS) solution developed by Mastek

Mastek's client, Commercial Tax Department, Govt. of Odisha, won the jury award for the 'The Best Project under the Government to Business (G2B) category' at the eWorld 2011 Awards for e-services solution developed by Mastek

in person

Surya Prakash Madrecha

Chairman & Managing Director, Trimax IT Infrastructure & Services Ltd

Conducting

Business as a Social Responsibility

P

lease provide us with an overview of the role that Trimax is playing in the e-Governance space.

We are a system integration company. Our core competence lies in the areas of Managed IT Services, Data Centre and Cloud Services, customised industry specific solutions, turnkey solutions and application services. Having managed critical projects for numerous State Governments we have by now proved our expertise in handling large and complex projects. We are constantly enhancing our strengths in the application and the mobility space. We are creating many new applications in the transport space. Trimax is already working with four state governments in the country to create and manage transport applications that work on revenue based models. We do all the investment and we get our revenue on a basis of the tickets that get sold using our platform.

Your transport related applications are being used

by Maharashtra government and few other states.

How does your application work?

“The various e-Governance projects that have been launched in the country present the government and the private sector companies, like ours, a range of novel opportunities to create systems that can bring lot of benefits to the common citizens,” says Surya Prakash Madrecha

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We started the implementation of our transport applications from the state of Maharashtra. Up to 60 lakh passengers travel per day by using ticketing and passenger management systems developed by us. We manage the entire backend of the system. We have also developed solutions for BEST in Mumbai. One of our solutions is Smart Card. You can buy a Smart Card that will be valid for one month or three months. The Smart Card can at a later stage develop into a Common Mobility Card that will work on different kinds of transportation networks. You can use it in a bus, in a train and even for payments at toll stations. We design and develop smart applications like e-ticketing, online reservation system, fleet management, application hosting, laying network connectivity between transport hubs, and supplying and integrating hardware, including electronic ticketing issuing machines. The ETIM – ORS (Electronic Ticket Issuing Machine – Online Reservation System), developed by Trimax, is being appreciated by many stakeholders in the transportation space. The solution has been deployed in BEST and MSRTC. The ETIM – ORS offers the benefits of

In inperson Person

centralised administration and revenue assurance. It leads to fleet optimisation and business re-engineering. There is effective cash management and the customers have access to many new conveniences. We are implementing our solutions at the Rajasthan State Road Transport and we are also in the stage of taking our solutions to Uttar Pradesh.

In India it has often been said that it is difficult to do business with the government . In your opinion what are the major challenges in working for the government?

There are challenges in whatever you do. In government too there are challenges. For instance, while creating the RFPs (Request for Proposals) all the issues are at times not taken care of. So when the project comes to the implementation stage, new issues emerge and this can lead to escalation of costs. And when we are working in the rural areas the problems that come up are basically due to lack of infrastructure. We can manage connectivity related issues on our own, but we can’t do anything about the issue of power. If the power is not there, then your IT systems cannot work. e-Governance can only takeoff in the country, when there is availability of good quality electricity in every part of the country.

A project cannot be completed if the government starts insisting that they have done their part of the job and the IT company insists that it has done its part of the job. A project cannot be considered complete unless and until, it starts delivering results on the ground level.

Before launching any new project, we have to proactively think of the ways by which we can resolve all the basic issues that might emerge at some point of time.

You started the company in 1995.

How has the journey been so far?

We started in 1995 with zero capital. Today we have more than 3000 employees on board.

We now have about 12 regional offices all over India. About 35 percent of our business comes from the government side, and rest of it comes from the enterprise, banking, PSUs and the SME segment. The SME customers don’t have to go to multiple vendors for multiple solutions. We can serve as a one-stop-shop for the solutions for all kinds of needs. Our basic advantage is that we have now developed

a Pan India reach through our 600+ support offices, which are strategically located to enable us to reach any customer location in just four hours. A part of our revenue also comes from the banking side. For last four years we have been the partner with BSNL for providing Managed Network Services in India. We count many leading PSUs as our customers. Trimax has developed and it currently operates a Data Centre in partnership with ITI Ltd. We are the sole provider of services to the customers of this Data Centre. The partnership is based on a PPP model. We are looking forward to a turnover of over Rs. 950 crore in the coming financial year. We have enjoyed the journey so far, we have had lot of interesting experiences and we have built many valuable relationships.

Is there any chance of the company going public in the next few years?

That will also depend on the market conditions. As of now we don’t have any funding related issues, so we are not planning to go public for the time being. But that can change in the future, if the market conditions become better, we might take a re-look at our position.

When you think of an IT company, you usually think of multinational corporations. But Trimax seems to be an exception in this space, as its business is mostly concentrated within India. Are you planning to launch operations in other countries?

Slowly we are trying to explore other nations.

But we are essentially going to be extremely focussed to managing and growing our business in India. In the next 10 years, the IT business in India, especially in the e-Governance space is going to grow at a healthy pace. The kind of IT revolution in governance that we have witnessed in USA and Western Europe in the last 20 years, is going to come to India in the next 10 years. We plan to bag a share of this business in the country. Four years ago we had started some offices in China and Hong Kong, but we have closed those offices, because we believe that India is a country with maximum amount of potential. As we are from India, it is our responsibility to serve the nation, so we will continue to grow our business in the country and thereby serve the nation.

Trimax is currently handling many e-Governance related projects for the Government of Rajasthan. Please tell us about the work that you are doing in the state.

We have implemented the SWAN project in Rajasthan with Airtel. We have been instrumental in creating the infrastructure for the Rajasthan Excise Department. In fact, I would like to point out that for the last four years Rajasthan has been a key focus area for Trimax. We have a team of more than 200 people based in the state. In each district we are having people on board who are engaged in providing e-Governance related services to the people.

Trimax has a good track record in Data Centre space. Tell us about the work that you are doing in this area.

We have set up 31 Data Centres for a leading insurance company in India. We have also been chosen to operate these 31 Data Centres for the next five years. The state of the art Data Centre that we operate and manage for ITI Ltd is located in Bangalore in an area of 1,20,000 sq feet. We have also launched our own Tier III Data Centres in Airoli, Navi Mumbai. Due to our wide ranging experience in building, hosting and co-locating Data Centres, we have bagged the project to establish the State Data Centre in the State of Jammu & Kashmir. We will also be providing the operation and support related services to the SDC in Jammu & Kashmir for the coming five years.

As you are active participant in many e-Governance projects launched by the government, can you provide us your view of the initiatives.

I would say that the various e-Governance projects that are being launched in the country the government and the private sector companies like ours will lead to news systems that can bring lot of benefits to the common citizens. We must not loose sight of the end customer when we are launching e-Governance projects. Public satisfaction is a must. If the public is not satisfied, then the initiative has very little value. The good thing about e-Governance projects that have been launched in the country is that the pubic is responding very positively.

March 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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In Person

Rajiv Gauba

Additional Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India

Developing

Secure Systems for e-Governance Rajiv Gauba is a 1982-batch IAS officer of Jharkhand Cadre. He has more than 25 years of experience in Central and the State Governments, at the District level and in multilateral financial institutions. He has worked in the Ministry of Environment & Forests as Director in-Charge of Policy & Law. He has also worked in the International Monetary Fund for four years.Before becoming the Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Communications & IT, Rajiv Gauba served as the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Environment & Forests.

There he was looking after the work of Hazardous Substances Management Division and the National River Conservation Directorate.

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W

ith the progress of e-Governance in the country lot of government data is being put online. In your opinion what kind of security related issues are there in placing data on to the public domain?

The security issues are actually very real. We have to be fully alive to the challenges that lie in the cyber domain. You see, the electronic files, or the electronic data, can be erased or wiped out far more easily as compared to paper records. While the electronic data does facilitate a better system of service delivery, analysis and storage, it is also vulnerable. Therefore a very comprehensive system of security has to be developed and deployed. A high level of security can only be achieved when people who are managing the system are fully sensitised of the challenges that are there. Keeping that in mind, a national framework for cyber security is now being developed. CERTIn is the organisation that is currently engaged in developing the cyber security framework. Within this framework of security developed by CERT-In, the e-Governance programmes will continue to provide various services to the citizens. In rollout of these programmes, NeGP has to ensure that the best security related practices are followed. Now that e-Governance is being extended to a large number of departments and states, there is even more need for building capacity and sensitising people in the area of cyber security.

How good are the security systems that we are following as of now?

It is not as if security systems that are being followed currently are not good enough. We are taking all the precautions. In times to come, we need to make our security systems far more comprehensive and organised. In fact, NeGP is also developing its own cyber security framework that will be finalised and implemented in the current year. This framework for security will function under the overall framework developed

by CERT-In.

There have been instances where sensitive public data has been downloaded by different entities for their own benefit. What steps can be taken to safeguard the public data?

It is for the different departments to decide what kind of security the data, that they own, must require. The departments usually take into account the kind of service that they are providing, for deciding the level of security that they wish to have. They can decide if the data should have limited access, or it should be seen only by the concerned citizen, or it can be made fully public. Each department has to conduct its own research to find out the extent of security that can or should be provided to the data that they are using for providing electronic services. In most cases there are well defined laws to regulate the management of data. Once there is clarity on

In Person

Rajiv Gauba

the level of confidentiality that is required, the technological resources can be brought in to create the necessary safeguards. The e-Praman framework has already been developed by the Ministry. This framework provides necessary system for the security of the various departments, as well as the user. Once e-Praman is fully implemented in the country, it will, to a large extent, be able to manage the security and privacy related concerns.

e-Governance is paving way to m-Governance as more and more people are using their mobile devices to access services from the government. How do you see this development?

In my opinion, m-Governance is a very-very promising area. It has far greater potential, because the number of mobile devices is much larger in the country. The Internet access, and the access to desktops and laptops, is much limited as compared to mobile phones. The mobile phones are far more ubiquitous. We are shifting towards m-Governance with the hope that such a shift will lead to a phenomenal rise in the reach and scope of the e-Governance services. Many more people will be able to access the services and thus the agenda of NeGP to provide easy services to vast majority of the people will get fulfilled. The mobile service gateway has already been launched. A large numbers of government departments in Centre and States have already integrated their e-Governance systems with the mobile service gateway. An app store for m-Governance has already been launched. It has lot of useful apps that can be downloaded. Now we need to bring all departments that are providing electronic services on to the m-Governance platform.

How do you plan the achieve the objective of bringing the departments on the m-Governance platform?

This is something that is going to be achieved through the national rollout of MSDG (Mobile Service Delivery Gateway). For this lot of new infrastructure will have to be created. We are already working on that with C-DAC. We are also talking to various government departments and asking them to make their electronic services compliant to mobile platforms.

In the first stage, the informational services will become mobile complaint, and in the second March 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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In Person

stage the transactional services will become mobile complaint.

How do you see m-Governance developing in the times to come?

What is your personal vision for m-Governance?

My vision is the same as the vision of the NeGP. I am here to implement the vision of the National e-Governance Plan. We are working for a system of governance where people can access a vast majority of government services at their doorstep by using their mobile devices or laptops. They don’t have to go to government offices and stand in queue for hours.

They can get things done from their home or office. The most important challenge is that the services should be really available in the electronic mode. For this, a comprehensive backend digitisation and application development of all departments is a must. So it is not just the front end, which presents a picture of computerisation and efficiency that is important. The backend is equally important. If the front end is electronic, while the processes at the backend remain manual, then an e-Governance or m-Governance will not be reality.

One of the most successful Mission Mode Projects is the Passport Seva Kendras. What are the reasons due to which this particular e-Governance project has been able to notch such high degree of success?

You see, when you have 31 Mission Mode Projects, all will not be uniformly successful.

There are a number of factors on which the relative success of any project will depend.

One factor could be linked to the priority that was attached by the department to the Mission Mode Project. The presence of a dedicated Mission Mode Team would certainly be of help. Whether they really went into the nitty-gritty’s of the processes involved!

Whether they used this opportunity to relook and re-engineer their various processes.

So there are number of factors that can lead to a faster or slower pace of implementation.

But those Mission Mode Projects, that have not been able to deliver adequately till now, are also moving forward and in times to come they will also be as successful in bringing out services that the citizens can access in an easy and seamless manner.

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It is also possible that some of the Mission Mode Projects could be unable to deliver on their promises because of capacity related issues. What are you doing for capacity building?

The issue of capacity requirement has been well-recognised. The need to have adequate numbers of trained personnel is a must if e-Governance initiatives are to be implemented successfully. The success of the Mission Mode Projects also depends on availability of a trained and motivated mission team. All these issues have been fully deliberated upon. The Nandan Nilekani committee was set by the Hon’ble Prime Minister last year. The committee has now come up with its recommendations, which we will share with all the Ministries and State Governments. Now we are trying to get an umbrella approval from the government at the Cabinet level so that it becomes easier to implement the recommendations. We will be able to create senior positions within the departments

ing of environment clearances was put on the website. We made it possible for people to file for environmental clearances through the online route.

There was no need to file it in the paper mode, or for that matter to come to the office of the Ministry of Environment. The entire process through which the application was considered by the Ministry was available on the website. This, in my opinion, was a major initiative for improving the transparency in the process of environmental clearances.

The Ministry of Environment has also developed a system for web based tracking of e-Waste. Can you tell us about it?

We developed a system for tracking of hazardous waste from the point where it has been generated to the point where it is finally processed or disposed of. As per law, hazardous waste has to be processed in an authorised facility or it has to be sent to a secure landfill. It can’t be sent to

“We are also talking to various government departments and asking them to make their electronic services compliant with mobile platforms” of “Chief Technology Officer” and through these; we will be able to implement ICT initiatives in a far more effective manner.

Earlier when you were at the Ministry of Environment, you have done lot of work on effective management of e-Waste. Please tell us about the ways by which ICT can be used for managing e-Waste.

ICT initiatives and e-Governance initiatives are being implemented by all government departments. Such initiatives are taking place even outside the NeGP. Earlier the NeGP had 27 mission mode projects, now there are 31 MMPs. But these 31 MMPs do not comprise all the ICT initiatives that are being taken up by the government departments in the coun-try. For instance, in the Ministry of Environment, we undertook the digitisation of the data pertaining to the environment clearances. All files, all records, were digitised.

All information pertaining to the process-

a municipal landfill where it can get mixed with the normal waste and cause environmental problems. This is the requirement of law. In order to ensure that this happens, you have to be able to track the movement of the hazardous waste. We developed a system with the help of NIC; it is a web based GIS system that is being used today.

What kind of impact is this initiative having on the ground level?

Well, it is a new initiative and implementation is an ongoing process. The system is still evolving. In some states, where the State Pollution Boards are active, the implementation of the hazardous Waste tracking is fairly good. In some states, there are capacity related constraints. It is one thing to build a system, but its actual implementation depends on a number of factors. There are capacity related issues, and there are also issues related to compliance, prosecution, etc. A regular system of monitoring is required.

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In Person

Rajesh Aggarwal

Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Maharashtra

Building

e-Governance Standards “In our country, the lack of adherence to a clear set of e-Governance standards is a big issue,� says Rajesh Aggarwal

U

nder e-Governance, lot of common infrastructure has been created that can be used by various departments. How far has the State of Maharashtra succeeded in creating such infrastructure?

We are doing lot of work in e-Governance space. In the area of common infra, we are often told that lot of infrastructure has been set up, but I would like to differ on this account. When it comes to State Data Centre, we are the only state in the country to have a Cloud setup, which essentially leads to huge amount of savings. After spending about 2 (TWO) crore rupees, we have actually saved about 50 crore rupees. Other States continue to buy servers even after setting up a State Data Centre, we are not doing that. You will find that in many states different departments are signing Memorandum of Understanding with many different companies for setting up SMS gateway, payment gateway, etc. We have set up a common gateway for SMS, payment and even for GIS tools, Business Intelligence and things like that. We offer this service at dirt cheap rates from our State Data Centre. What we are basically doing is setting up a common infra that can be used by various departments, thus saving costs that would have been incurred if each of these departments were to set up their own infra.

But this common infra could have much more beneficial impact if we had e-Governance standards of some kind. You have yourself been talking about the importance of e-Governance standards in different forums.

What should be done in this area?

In our country, the lack of adherence to a clear set of e-Governance standards is a big issue. Here a lot of work needs to be done.

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Unfortunately even the Government of India projects are not following proper e-Governance standards. You see, even in the Mission Mode Projects we have names of the persons written different styles. Personally, I am amazed to observe that despite there being so many highly paid consultants in the e-Governance area, we are still unable to follow the basic e-Governance standards. Due to lack of e-Governance standards, different databases cannot talk to one another. This is a big wastage of resources. In Maharashtra we are focusing on implementation of proper e-Governance standards in a big way. We have trained our staff in a very thorough manner; we are also training the private companies about the standards that need to be followed.

It is also the case that the government websites are not following WCAG guidelines.

Why is this so?

We are definitely lacking when it comes to compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). I am sorry to say that there exist only one or two websites of government departments in the country that are truly accessible to the visually impaired people. Now these WCAG standards were declared four years ago by Government of India, but we have not done much work in actually implementing them. However, in Maharashtra we are taking this up seriously, and are going to the extent of even re-writing some of the applications to make it WCAG compliant and you will see lot of action on this front in the next few months. A common infra does not mean that you set up data centres, common services and things like that. It is much more than that. A common infra also means adherence to a clear set of e-Governance standards. The government departments should talk to each other, their databases should talk to each other, so that there is actual rise in productivity levels.

UIDAI is a success story in Maharashtra.

What kind of e-Governance possibilities do you see emerging from UIDAI? When it comes to UIDAI, we are one of the leaders in the coun-

In Person

try. In the matter of enrolment, we are number two after Andhra Pradesh, but when it comes to making actual usage of UIDAI, we are at the forefront. I can very proudly state that we have developed many innovative ideas on the ways by which UIDAI can be used for public benefit. Currently we integrating lot of other databases with the UIDAI and across different government schemes we are detecting bogus beneficiaries – somewhere 20 percent, somewhere 30 percent and somewhere as high as 40 percent. This could, in fact, be the situation across the country. It is possible to detect and remove the bogus beneficiaries by making use of UIDAI. This will result in great saving for the government. Now we are using UIDAI to de-duplicate the data, but if the proper e-Governance standards were being followed and all the databases had been talking to one another, we could have completely resolved the problem of bogus beneficiaries. This is an opportunity missed, because we did not follow proper standards.

Rajesh Aggarwal

What about launching actual applications based on UIDAI in Maharashtra? There is lot of talk about having UIDAI based applications, are we going to see some of them soon?

UIDAI is such a useful project that we come up with new uses of UIDAI on a regular basis. Recently I told my team working on the e-District project that instead of making simple forms, they should be making smart forms. Now the column for entering UIDAI is available across all the software, so the moment someone enters his or her UIDAI number, the other data gets picked up directly. The user does not have to waste time and effort in entering all his data. The data gets automatically picked up from the State Resident Data Hub and is incorporated into the online form. In fact, I would like to point out that Maharashtra is the only state to have a State Resident Data Hub. Currently the State Resident Data Hub has the details of about 4.2 crore citizens, along with their photograph. This is labour saving also, you just have to put in your UIDAI number and your entire form gets filled. We have now gone beyond State Resident Data Hub, and created a new application named USRDH, which contains clean and standardized data. USRDH is now the backbone of seeding activity in Maharashtra. We have launched the SADM application, which is the first UID linked application in the country benefiting the differently abled people.

In your opinion what are the ways by which sharing of databases can lead us to smarter systems of governance?

Let’s say someone comes to a government office asking for a senior citizen certificate. Let’s say he is March 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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In Person

claiming that he is 65 years old, but when you key in his UIDAI number, you realise that he is only 52 years old. At that stage the process should freeze. If a person is trying to get a senior citizen certificate, but the UIDAI database shows that he is only 52, then the process should not be allowed to proceed. For instance, now we have linked the MSEB database with the UIDAI number and that is leading to lot of interesting information. If someone is paying electricity bill in the tune of Rs. 5000 to Rs. 10,000, then obviously he is not BPL. If someone is applying for an income certificate of Rs. 15,000 in e-District, but his MSEB bills, while talking to UIDAI, show that he is paying high electricity bills, then we know that we need to investigate this further. When databases begin talking to each other, then all kinds of useful information becomes easily available. Every database becomes smarter, when they are talking to one another. In case of databases, the sum is greater than the parts.

The CSCs have been conceived to provide e-Governance services to the vast number of digitally illiterate citizens of the country.

But questions are being raised about their financial viability.

What steps are being taken to ensure that they remain financially viable?

The CSCs are doing reasonably well in Maharashtra. Now they are also being encouraged to undertake B2C kind of transactions. Much before CSCs we had in Maharashtra a scheme called SETU. It was launched from Thane district in 1998. We are one of the pioneers in this area. We are now having very well managed SETU kendras in district level and taluka level.

It is because the SETU kendras were doing very well in Maharashtra, when the CSCs came up that the CSCs could not rise very quickly.

People continued to take their business to the SETU centres that were already very popular.

Some the services that are being provided by CSCs take two or three days to be delivered to the user and that is also one of the reasons why their business could not grow at a faster pace.

But now we have standardised many of the services and we are encouraging them to provide the services like utility bills payments, delivery of land titles, etc., so now they are seeing a reasonable growth in their business. We are trying our best to help the CSCs deliver proper

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e-Governance services to the common citizens of the State. However, we are also focussing on promoting online services. A citizen sitting at his home should be able to access government services through his computer or even the mobile phone.

today is that even at taluka level you hardly have reliable connectivity. How they are going to scale up to the villages, it is a big challenge. In some districts the speed you get is 2 kpbs, you can’t even operate a simple email account on this kind of speed.

Capacity building is also an area of concern when it comes to e-Governance projects. How do you ensure that your e-Governance projects are not struck due to lack of trained manpower?

Is m-Governance the answer then? Should we concentrate of providing e-Governance services through the mobile devices?

See when it comes to implementing cutting edge e-Governance projects, we need highly trained manpower for preparation of RFPs, evaluating them and even for the implementation. The consultants, whether they are from NISG or from private companies, need to be highly competent in their area. So we have started an e-Governance certification course for them. We are having an objective test, a subjective test, a face to face interview to test not only their skills, but also to teach them the skills

That is already being done. The advances in technology have obliterated the difference between e-Governance and m-Governance.

Both mean the same thing. About six months ago, the number of people in country accessing Internet through their mobiles has exceeded the number of people who are accessing Internet through their desktops. So now there is really no difference between e-Governance and m-Governance, I can access Internet and the online services from the government as easily from my mobile device, as I can from my computer. In Maharashtra, we have started using

“The government departments should talk to each other, their databases should talk to each other� that are most important for success of the projects. This kind of strategy has led to a dramatic improvement in the skill levels of my consulting teams. We encourage everybody reading this article to visit our website http://egovtraining.maharashtra.gov.in and take the Test.

Many e-Governance projects are unable to give good results due to lack of proper connectivity in the country. Do you think that the NOFN project will mitigate the problem of connectivity to a large extent?

NOFN can obviously be helpful, but the project is going to be challenging to execute on the ground. You see, the laying of fibre optic cables through the length and breadth of the country is not going to be easy. The cost is proving to be very high in the urban areas. In some cities the charge for laying the cables per kilometre is very high. In the rural areas there are other issues. I do hope that the project becomes successful but it is not going to be easy. The ground realty

various Android based applications for surveys, audits and inspection, which has yielded good results for us.

Finally what is your vision for e-Governance in times to come?

What new ideas in e-Governance are you pursuing?

We are using UIDAI for de-duplication of data in order to root out the menace of bogus beneficiaries and include those who are left out.

We are currently focussing on bank transfers very thoroughly. We aim to make the money transfers to and from the government totally electronic, totally paperless. All money going out of the government kitty to the beneficiaries, vendors and employees, or being paid to the government by different individuals or entities, should be done in electronic fashion. This is the most dramatic idea that we are pursuing currently. Once we are able to make the process of money transfers totally electronic and transparent, the e-Governance systems in the country will get strengthened to a large extent.

In Person

Ravinath Raman

Additional Secretary, Information Technology Government of Uttarakhand

e-Governance in Dev-Bhoomi

Ravinath Raman, a 2004 IAS officer, of Uttarakhand Cadre, is presently posted as Additional Secretary, Information Technology, Government of Uttarakhand.

Other than IT Department, he is also looking after Food & Civil Supplies and Medical Education Departments

P

lease provide us with an overview of the IT initiatives that you are taking in Uttarakhand.

Uttarakhand, as you know is known as Dev-Bhoomi, or the Land of Gods; the State has a very salubrious climate, and we have a strong power sector. The State also has a substantial English speaking population, and in view of all these aspects, we can say that the State is ideal for IT industry. We have a Chief Minister, who is very IT oriented. Under the leadership of the Chief Minister, the government is coming up with new policies to bring growth to the IT Industry. We are having a major expansion of the IT Park in Dehradun. Very soon we will have a very vibrant and functioning IT sector in Uttarakhand.

As you said Uttarakhand is the DevBhoomi. What are the ways by which the Dev-Bhoomi can benefit from IT? IT has a tremendous potential in Uttarakhand, particularly from employment perspective. It is also important because Uttarakhand is a hilly State. The geographical distances are large, and due to the hilly terrain, it is difficult to reach certain areas. It is also a state that is very prone to natural disasters. The rainy seasons bring lot of big and small disasters in their wake. Between July and September, when there are very heavy rains, the road connectivity is cut off at many places. There is huge damage to crops and there are unfortunate losses of life and property. In such a scenario, IT can play a very critical role. The IT initiatives that are currently being undertaken by the State Government and the Central Government are steps in right direction.

What kind of basic infrastructure are you creating in Uttarakhand to serve as a backbone for all your e-Governance initiatives?

We are working on several fronts. The creation of State

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Data Centre is progressing at a fast pace. We are also coming up with our own building in the IT Park in Dehradun; here the offices of the State IT Department will be located. The foundation laying ceremony for the building has already been done by the Hon’ble Chief Minister. In all probability the building will be up within a year. We plan to house the State NIC, the IT Directorate, and the State Data Centre within the same building. This will bring efficiency in our operations, as the most important arms of the IT infrastructure will be located in close proximity. We have budgetary provisions for setting up a temporary data centre, till the time that we have a full fledged State Data Centre. I would also like to tell you about the website of the State of Uttarakhand. The website is designed to provide lot of necessary information on e-tendering, various departments, etc. The RTI related information is also being provided on the website. The Government of Uttarakhand has mandated that various departments should must suo moto provide all the necessary information through their online platforms. The SWAN is already in place; we are having connectivity from the State headquarters, right up to the tehsil and block levels. The connectivity is being provided

by BSNL. We are also working on the aspect of horizontal connectivity between various departments.

The e-District project is expected to take ultimate fruits of various e-Governance initiatives to people in all parts of the country. What kind of progress is e-District making in Uttarakhand?

Earlier there had been some problems in the e-District project due to lack of manpower, but now we have sufficient manpower and the project is progressing at a healthy pace. Under NeGP, the Central Government has provided us with a very strong team of consultants. We are using the services of the consultants to implement the various aspects of the NeGP project. We are working with various other government departments in the State to develop the

In Person

“In order to provide useful services and solutions to other departments, the IT Secretary should have an adequate understanding of the workings of every department in the State,” says Ravinath Raman

legal framework under which we can provide online services under the e-District project.

Initially we have around identified 25 services that we can provide under the e-District. For instance, under the revenue department, we will be providing the caste certificates, the domicile certificates, the income certificates, the solvency certificates, etc. Then we have the old age pension, the widow pension and the handicapped pension. Under the Ministry of Urban Development, we have the services like birth and death registration. There are several other services; under the Panchayati Raj Ministry, you have the family register service.

Under the Food & Civil Supplies department, you have the Ration Card service. Right now the respective departments are charting out the modalities under which the e-Governance services will be rolled out; the fees structure that can be charged by the Common Service Centres is also being decided. Once all the policy level decisions have been taken, we will be in a

position to roll out the e-District project with the help of NIC or other private vendors.

The success of e-District project is also linked to the presence of large number of Common Services Centres (CSCs). What is the state of CSCs in the state?

Currently there are two companies that are providing us with the CSC related facilities – one is Reliance (ADAG) and other is Comat Technologies. Comat Technologies was responsible for four districts and for the remaining nine districts, Reliance was responsible. Reliance seems to have done a good job; all the CSCs that are related to Reliance are doing well.

But Comat Technologies has not been able to give us good results, so their contract has now been terminated and we are going for another vendor. The tendering process for picking up new vendor has already started. However, the success of the CSCs also depends on the legal

framework under which online e-Governance services can be provided. Even if you have good backend integration with the CSCs, and all the technological systems are there, you can’t provide actual services to the end consumers until the legal framework under which the services are being provided has been decided. Even if the caste certificate or any other certificate gets issued by the CSCs, they won’t amount to much, until such certificates are given a legal validity. In case of Reliance CSCs, they were not taking any money from the government. The only economic interest of the company affiliated CSCs lies in providing of G2C services to the citizens. The fee structure had already been decided. The CSCs would be charging Rs. 10, out of which they would pay Rs. 5 to the government. But because of the fact that adequate number of services are yet to be rolled out, this business model is not working. Even though few CSCs are present on the ground, they have been forced to venture into B2C kind March 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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In Person

of services like paying utility bills, insurance premium, etc. The CSCs will become economically viable once all the services of the e-District project have been rolled out and are available to the general public through the CSCs.

What about the urban areas?

How are the CSCs faring in the urban areas?

In urban areas the CSCs are doing much better. Even though the G2C services are not available, the CSCs are providing services like railway bookings, airline bookings, paying utility bills, insurance premiums, etc. They are more economically viable in the urban areas.

But to my mind, the real challenge is to make them economically viable in the rural areas.

The population in Uttarakhand is very sparse, so ideally one CSC would not be serving a very large section of the population. It will only be serving a very small pocket of population.

In a hilly state like Uttarakhand it must be difficult to manage the information related to all the ration cards and Fair Price Shops. What kind of solutions are you developing for Food & Civil Supplies Department?

Under the Food & Civil Supplies department, we are mandated to computerise the entire PDS scheme within the State. We already have an alpha version of PDS solution from NIC. Now we are working with NIC to further improve it.

We have completed the process of mapping the entire database of the godowns that are there in the State. All the data related to the Fair Price Shops have also been captured. The data is now being verified by the district administrations.

Very soon we will be able to roll out the allocation. The allocation will be fully automated.

In fact, we plan an e-allocation, which can be rolled out as early as April this year. The computerisation of all the ration card holders will take some time, as being a hilly state, where many areas are difficult to reach, it is not that easy to capture the data of all the ration card holders. We are also planning to link the ration cards with Aadhaar.

What is the progress of Aadhaar in Uttarakhand?

The Government of India has mandated that Uttarakhand is going to be a NPR State. Currently the registration process for Aadhaar is

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on in the State. We have done the pilot project in a place called Purola, in district Uttarkashi.

The results of the pilot project are very encouraging. The number of redundancies and bogus ration card holders that have been identified is very less. Now the process of computerising the ration cards has been started in Dehradun also. Very soon we will be able to take it to all the districts of the State.

Uttarakhand is especially known for its places of pilgrimage and tourism. What special initiatives are being planned by the IT department to make it more convenient for tourists and pilgrims to come to the State?

Tourism is a very important sector for Uttarakhand; the Char Dham Yatra is of particular importance. We have two corporations that look after the tourism space in the two divisions of Uttarakhand. We have the Garhwal Mandal Vikas

there is a huge dearth of teachers and doctors in the hills where substantial part of the State’s population resides. The doctors and teachers do not want to work in the hilly areas. In my opinion, the IT department can do a lot for bridging the gap that exists between the demand and supply of trained doctors and teachers in the remote areas. For education we are developing e-learning solutions. We will also have solutions for online monitoring of attendance. It will become possible to monitor online how many students are attending the school, and how many teachers are reporting to the school.

This kind of attendance system has an impact on other departments also. For instance, if the attendance of the students is bogus, then that implies that there is diversion of funds in the Midday Meal Scheme also. Then there is the area of telemedicine. As good quality doctors cannot be available everywhere, we can provide good medical consultations to people in all parts of the state through telemedicine.

“IT has a tremendous potential in Uttarakhand, particularly from employment perspective�

Nigam in Garhwal and the Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam in Kumaon. They have their own online booking system, online information system, etc. But it needs some further technological inputs. Presently the payment gateway is working through a small group of banks; we plan to roll it out with all the other banks.

What about the security area?

What kind of working is being done in CCTNS? The RFP is in finalisation stage for CCTNS. Very soon the RFP will get rolled out and after that CCTNS will progress very fast.

Being in the IT department, you must have a very precise view of the kind of e-Governance initiatives that need to be undertaken urgently. Can you point out some e-Governance ideas that most urgently need to be implemented in Uttarakhand?

I am personally working on two projects that have to do with education and health. You see,

The IT department in any state has to provide IT related services and solutions to every other department. What kind of sensibilities should an IT Secretary have in order to be able to deal with the pulls and pressures that can be there when you are dealing with so many departments?

You have raised a very important issue. The first thing is that in order to provide useful services and solutions to other departments, the IT Secretary should have an adequate understanding of the workings of every department in the State. He has to be someone who is fairly senior and very experienced. He should have had the opportunity to have worked in many other departments before coming into the IT department. Fortunately we have Principal Secretary IT, who is very senior and who has a tremendous knowledge of IT and also a very good interest in IT. I also have a background in IT, so I feel that I am the right person for doing this job.

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in person

Basant K Gupta Additional Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India

The Pleasant

Experience of Getting Passports

T

he Passport Seva Kendras are a laudable initiative. What is your view of the initiative?

The Passport Seva Project was launched to streamline the passport delivery system in the country. It is designed to make the process of issuance of passports more timely, transparent, reliable and comfortable, through streamlined processes and committed, trained and motivated workforce. The Project has been launched in Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode with TCS as the service provider. A decade ago, the passport authorities used to have a huge backlog in issuance of fresh passports. This was due to various factors. Now things have become much better due to technological advancements. To put it in a nutshell, today it is possible for anyone to have a passport in about 30 to 35 days.

For those going by the tatkal route, the passport can be availed in less than 7 working days. This is a great achievement.

So would you say that it is primarily the technological advancements that have led to such improvements in passport related services?

Of course, use of new technology has a key role to play in the success of the PSKs. The people behind the technology are also important, as unless there is a proper policy framework, the right technology cannot be implemented. The success of the Passport Seva Project is by itself a demonstration of how innovative use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can transform the way citizens receive services from government institutions. The state of the art PSKs, the user friendly websites, the system of text messaging and emails, the frequently-asked-questions (FAQs) have made

“Mission Mode e-Governance projects like Passport Seva Kendra Project showcase how effectively a partnership model can work to provide world class government services to the citizens,� says Basant K Gupta

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In inperson Person

the task of getting passports much easier for the citizens in the country. Other than technology, the infrastructure is also world class.

Lot of new infrastructure and systems have been created to ensure the smooth functioning of the passport issuing system in the country. Tell us about it.

Under the Passport Seva Project we have started a number of very high-tech, ultra-modern, world-class offices in different parts of the country. 37 Passport Offices, 77 Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) and 16 Passport Seva Laghu Kendras(PSLK) are being established across the country as part of Passport Seva. These offices, equipped with the latest technology, are running systems that are based on the best practices from around the globe. We have online system to enable citizens to submit their passport applications and seek appointment through the PSP portal www.passportindia.gov.in at their convenience. The portal provides comprehensive and latest information on all passport related services. So it becomes possible for the citizens to plan their visit to the nearest PSK at the appointment date/time, thus avoiding long queues and inconvenience. Earlier the citizens had to bring their own photographs for the passport and at times the photographs would get rejected due their not being in the right size or being unclear.

Now the PSKs are having state-of-the-art technology infrastructure for end-to-end passport services to be delivered with enhanced security comparable to the best in the world. The photograph and biometrics of the applicants are captured when they visit the PSK. Their applications and supporting documents are digitised and stored in the system for further processing.

Do you think that the system of online appointments for submitting requests for new passports is working perfectly in the way it was expected to?

I would say that it is working quite well. The e-appointment facility has, to a large extent, discouraged the public from approaching touts, who earlier used to lure the public by making promises of getting their passports made in not time, but only to disappear with fancy sums. Most people like it that they are able to schedule their appointments at the passport office and there is very little wastage of time. At times hurdles do arise as some applicants miss their appointments after getting

confirmed appointment time through the online process. Due to this those with genuine need get delayed. My advice to applicants is that they should do their best to keep their appointments with the passport office.

The amenities at the Passport Seva Kendras are world class.

But these improved amenities must come at a cost. Is that why the charges of passports have been raised?

We take pride in the fact that the PSKs are providing world class ambience. Amenities in every PSK include helpful guides, information kiosks, photocopying, food and beverage facilities, public phone booth, baby care, newspapers and journals and television in a comfortable air-conditioned waiting lounge. The Electronic Queue Management System ensures the ‘first-infirst-out’ principle in application processing. The hike in passport fees has been very small. The Passport Act provides for charging of fee from citizens to recover the cost of the processing and dispatching of the passport. It was in 2002 that we revised the cost of passport services last time.

The current rise in fees is to cover the rising cost of the infrastructure. A vast majority of people who avail of passports in the country are happy with the improved services and they have no issues in paying the higher fees.

Are you planning to increase the number of PSKs in the country?

The Government of India is keen on providing more and more PSKs to cater to the needs of

the public seeking passports. The PSK concept has now taken root in the government and the public. It is now recognised as a significant step towards taking maximum advantage of the latest technological advancements. The system is not only convenient to the public, it is also facilitates better security. The state-of-the-art facility to scan and cross-check documents such as birth certificates, PAN numbers, etc., help the authorities in identifying bogus papers with much ease.

Your SMS facility for providing information to the citizens about the exact status of their passport applications is very popular.

I would say that the PSKs are one of the most successful e-Governance Mission Mode Projects in the country. Mission Mode e-Governance projects like Passport Seva Kendra Project showcase how effectively a partnership model can work to provide world class government services to the citizens. We have the SMS facility to remind the applicant about the various stages of the status of their application. For instance, when the application is dispatched to the local police for verification, the applicant gets the SMS – “Application dispatched for PV.” On receipt of the Police Verification report the applicant gets the message, “PV Complete.” At the final stage of the dispatch, the applicant is again sent a reminder. A clear mention of the mobile number in the applicant’s application form will clearly help in enabling us to disseminate the relevant information in a seamless and efficient manner.

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In Person

Dr P M Nair

Director General of Police, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) & Civil Defence, Government of India

Managing

the aftermath of disasters “What the NDRF has, above all, is a big heart.

We thrive in providing help to the public. We are always there for the people who have been impacted in anyway by natural or

W

manmade disasters,” says Dr P M Nair

60 egov / egov.eletsonline.com / March 2013

hat is the mandate of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF)?

National Disaster Response Force was constituted by the Government of India with the objective of providing a comprehensive and competent response to natural and man-made disasters. The Disaster Management Act, 2005, has made the statutory provision for the constitution of the Force. The act provides for three agencies, one is NDMA (National Disaster Management Authority), second is NIDM (National Institute of Disaster Management) and the third is NDRF. NDRF is the force for actual response in the time of disasters, NIDM is the research wing, and NDMA is the policy planning body.

We, at NDRF, are the ground soldiers. We currently have 10 battalions, which have been stationed in such a way that effective response can be provided in different parts of the country in a quick and efficient manner. Now two more battalions have been sanctioned, one will be stationed in Haridwar and second in Mysore.

with the kind of work that is generally expected from the forces. People keep moving after every five years, and as the soldiers come from different forces, NDRF has a combination of cultures. We are home to BSF culture, CRPF culture and the CISF and ITBP culture. Soon we will also have the SSB culture in our midst. We take pride in such amalgamation of cultures. I would say that NDRF is unique as it has personnel coming from different forces and joining hands to serve the nation in times of natural or manmade disasters. The beauty of the force is that we don’t have weapons. All forces have weapons, but we don’t. What we have is equipments that are cutting edge and are designed to protect and rescue life and property during the times of disasters. What the NDRF has, above all, is a big heart. We thrive in providing help to the public. We are there for the people who have been impacted in anyway by natural or manmade disasters.

NDRF has a focus on the most vulnerable areas and the most vulnerable people.

What is the procedure by which NDRF gets the personnel who can provide timely and efficient service during the time of disasters?

As many parts of the country get affected by flood every year, this is an area NDRF must be doing lot of work.

Tell us about the role that you are playing in helping the nation deal with the aftermath of floods and other disasters?

The battalions that we have today in NDRF come from different forces, BSF and CRPF contribute three battalions each, while CISF and ITBP provide two battalions each. The two new battalions that we are raising will come from Sashastra Seema Bal. The people who are deployed are fully trained soldiers; we don’t have to give them the training in basic discipline. The men are already familiar

We have a specialisation in flood management. We provide services like rescuing people trapped in floods, prevention of floods, improving the capacity of the people to mitigate their sufferings during floods. We take a pro-active attitude towards disasters. This means that we are providing people with the training of the ways by which they can stop disasters from happening,

In Person

or be better prepared to deal with the aftermath of disasters. At times disasters become inevitable, but if people are prepared in advance, they can survive in a much better way. We are also providing services in earthquake. Then there are the landslides. Major casualties can happen during the time of landslides in Northern India.

Flash floods, avalanches, tsunami are also the disasters where we provide rescue related services. The point is that all the battalions of NDRF are equipped and trained to combat all natural disasters. Some of our battalions are trained in combating nuclear, biological and chemical disasters. Across the country we have people who can deal with nuclear, biological and chemical disasters.

Dr P M Nair

Has the organisation had the opportunity to deal with nuclear disasters?

You will be surprised to know that 46 of our men went to Japan in 2011, when that country faced a series of disasters – an earthquake, a tsunami and a nuclear problem. So our boys went there, led by our commandant Mr. Avasthi, and they did magnificent work in Japan. We have a commendation from the Hon’ble Prime Minister of Japan himself. The Prime Minister of Japan is full of praise for the work done by the commandant and his team.

The management of disasters must entail the usage of all kinds of equipment. Can you provide us with an overview of the types of equipments that are being used

by NDRF? If we go by the numbers, then each battalion has about 310 pieces of equipment today. This is a mixture of low-tech and high-tech systems.

These are all kinds of useful equipment. Some of the equipment at our disposal can enable NDRF personnel to cut through rubbles and enter any building. The idea is to have the kind of tools that will allow NDRF to provide relief to the effected population in a seamless and easy manner. Sometimes you have to cut through piles of columns, which are huge and made out of reinforced concrete. We have the capacity to cut through any column in India. Some of the equipment we are using is imported. In case of train accidents, you may have to cut through entire compartment and lot of wreckage to reach the survivors. We have the capacity to do that. In major train accidents we have been March 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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In Person

called, and we have managed to salvage the situation. Railways have used our services. Different government agencies and private agencies have used our services. Even the army has used our services. The cutting and salvaging equipment that we have is amazing. We have a cushion like structure that can be pushed under huge pile of rubble and once the machine is activated, it can raise the rubble by as much as 20 metres. The machine can lift weights of up to 20 tonnes. With such power an entire railway compartment can be lifted up.

At the time of disasters medical care is often found to be in short supply. What kind of medical facilities does NDRF have?

We have doctors, we have paramedics, we have trained nurses – both male and female – and we have ambulances and all kinds of advanced medical facilities. Most of our medical equipment is world class. The personnel with NDRF are fully trained in the use of these equipments. We automatically know what kind of equipment and medical facility will be required in what kind of disaster. So when a bridge collapses, the NDRF people who rush to that spot for providing help will carry the kind of equipment that is most suitable for that kind of disaster. They will not be carrying equipment that might be required for tsunami relief. A detailed “Training Regime for Disaster Response” has been prepared by NDRF identifying the specific disaster response training courses and devising a unified, structured and uniform course module as well as syllabus for these training courses.

Chemical disasters could be quite challenging to handle.

What should be done in case of chemical disasters?

There is no doubt that the chemical disasters can be particularly challenging to handle. But we have the expertise to handle every type of chemical disaster. A chemical disaster is not that uncommon, you know. Even a gas cylinder leakage can lead to a chemical disaster. I remember one incident where tanker carrying cooking gas cylinders in Northern Kerala overturned on the road. One cylinder burst and lot of gas percolated into the atmosphere. Someone was preparing tea in a roadside stall, the gas caught fire and it started spreading. This led to a chain reaction and all the cooking gas cyl-

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inders that were in the tanker started bursting one after the other, leading to even more fire.

You can imagine the plight of the people in that area. Some people who came running towards the site of the accident, died due to the fire and the flying debris. Those who remained inside their homes survived. The entire accident transpired in a matter of few seconds or minutes, so there was not much time for anyone to do anything. When NDRF reached the spot, we tried to help the injured in the best possible ways.

We also told the locals that if such an accident happens in future, they should not rush to the site. They should remain inside their home or flee away from the site. Till the gas completely

the policy of adopting a village. Each battalion should adopt one, two, three, four or more villages, according to its capability.

What villages should be adopted by the NRDF battalions?

Naturally, the villages that are prone to disasters of any kind would be the ones that are most deserving of NDRF assistance. I have stated that the battalions should adopt the villages continuously for five years. During that period of time adequate systems can be built to enable the disaster prone villages to develop systems through which they can escape from the cycle of disasters.

So the 10 battalions of NDRF have adopted

“NDRF has a focus on the most vulnerable areas and the most vulnerable people” dissipates in the atmosphere, people need to be very careful.

The first respondents in case of a disaster are usually the local population. So are you taking some steps to teach the local populations in different parts of the country about the best ways of managing disasters?

Empowering the civilian population through knowledge on the ways of dealing with disasters is one of the major tasks that the NDRF is performing. We have made major advances in training people in managing the aftermath of disasters. We provide training on all issues related to safety. We have also developed a complete set of pamphlets, which have been revised and improved after my joining the NDRF. The pamphlets have comprehensive details on the kind of strategies that need to be used for tackling the aftermath of disasters like earthquakes, floods, chemical bursts, tsunami, and others.

There is one brochure on cooking gas disasters, one on earthquake, one on floods and so on.

The brochures are made in local languages and are designed to provide information in easy to understand ways. Wherever we go we distribute these brochures.

You have also started the policy of adopting villages.

After my coming to the NDRF, I have started

about 35 to 40 villages. For instance, there is village in Assam that is continuously under water.

There is a village near Bhuneshwar in Odhisa that goes under water every year when the Mahanadi gets flooded. The population is just 700, consisting of boys, girls, young and old men and women. They face terrible time during the flood situation. But now they are being looked after by NDRF battalions and their life has become much easier during the flood season.

By your initiatives like adopting the villages and training the local population must have endeared NDRF to the local population.

What is the feedback that you are getting?

We take this kind of work as a mission. NDRF has now been endeared to the grassroots population. We are liked by the locals wherever we do our work. And the role that NDRF is playing has also endeared the Government of India to the people residing in the far-flung areas.

We are also playing a major role in preventing stampede in popular places of worship. We have deployed two teams at the Kumbh mela.

Our boys are stationed right in the water so that they can rescue anyone who gets caught in the river current. The NDRF is busy all round the year. When there are disasters, we are in action protecting people, and when it is peacetime, we are busy in training people on ways of surviving major disasters.

in person

Dr Gulshan Rai

Director General, Department of Electronics & IT, Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India

Securing the

Nation’s Cyber Space

T

hese days we are having lot of discussions on cyber security in the country. What is your vision for cyber security?

My vision for cyber security consists of safe and secure surfing by the citizens of this country. Our aim is to ensure that all cyber infrastructures in the country are fully secured and people are able to conduct their transactions in the cyber space with complete freedom of mind. We need to have a long term vision for security. What kind of systems are we going to have let’s say two or three years from today? It is today that we have to prepare ourselves for the future. We have to encourage more technology development in the country. We need to build an entire cyber ecosystem where we can conduct our online activities and transactions without any fear of the data getting leaked, tampered or misused. That is the ultimate goal for which we are working.

The technology in the cyberspace is changing at a very fast pace. So what steps are you taking to ensure that the technological systems being used to safeguard our cyber infrastructure is up to date?

As you have rightly put, the technology is changing very fast and the threat landscape is changing very fast. New hardware and software products are constantly entering the market. Today we have more than a billion phones in the market. Whenever a new phone or any other device comes into the market, it brings with it a new vulnerability aspect that needs to be attended to. The point is that the more technology evolves the more changes it brings to the security landscape. So the systems of security must also keep evolving with other aspects of security. This is a very dynamic threat landscape; it is a real challenge to address issues pertaining to cyber security in today’s dynamic world. We need to be very careful about the security related issues; we have to keep watch on the ways by which different technologies are evolving.

“We need to build an entire cyber ecosystem where we can conduct our online activities and transactions without any fear of the data getting leaked, tampered or misused.” says Dr Gulshan Rai

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Is technology the only factor that needs to be looked into for protecting the cyber space? Because security can be jeopardized through physical means also.

Yes, the physical infrastructure must also be secured along with the cyber domain. We have to look at the technology and we also need to look at areas related to physical security, we have to take an overview of the vari-

In inperson Person

ous processes and systems, and we also need to look at the manpower that we have. After all, we are living in a world where there is seamless integration between the cyber systems and the physical systems. We can’t look at one, without taking an account the other.

Today we have technologies that make it possible for malicious individuals to fudge someone’s IP address. It is even possible to send SMS messages on behalf of someone else’s mobile phone number. In such a scenario it is possible that an innocent person can have his mobile or internet connection misused? What steps can be taken to ensure that the identification of the criminals is more secure?

You see, this is a major challenge. All the devices are not in our control. It is possible for malicious entities to get hold of a device make it function differently by rewriting its software, or uploading new software. In the end, this is only a question of changing few lines of the code, and

policy framework for engagement on the Social Networks. The framework is available on our website. The use of social media in our country is increasing day-by-day and I am sure that people will realize that this medium is meant to be used constructively and positively. Vast majority of the Social Networking users are not causing any harm to society, it is a very small section that is creating problems.

How do you rate the security system that is currently protecting the government data in the country?

The security system in the country is quite good. However, the technology is changing at a very fast pace. So the security system needs to be upgraded all the time. There is no destination for achievement of security. Optimal security is a journey. Cyber security, in my opinion, is an endless journey. It is often the case that the perpetrators are few steps advanced as compared to the people who are actually creating the entire cyber infrastructure. So we need to be mindful of the fact that security is an evolving concept and we need to be vigilant of all the

“Optimal security is a journey.

Cyber security, in my opinion, is an endless journey” you can make the device function in a different manner. It is a challenge to monitor a domain that is evolving and transforming so rapidly. Lot of technology developments have to be taken into account. Sharing of data is important. If the culprit knows that ultimately the cyber crime will be tracked back to him, no matter what technology he uses to hide his tracks, then he will think twice before committing an offence.

threats that are there. If there is enough awareness about the security related issues amongst all the organisations, we will have no problems in protecting out systems and our data.

Lot of malicious acts in the online space might also be happening because people who are active online do not know about all the laws or the code of conduct that must be observed online. So instead of only prosecuting the wrong doers, why don’t we join the Social Networks and provide guidance to all the Internet users?

In cloud there are lot of issues. There are issues of security, there are issues of ownership, there are issues of jurisdiction. If you look at many of the Western countries, you will find that they don’t allow there sensitive data to be put on the cloud.

In certain countries, they don’t allow users to use cloud that is being hosted in any other country.

So my point is that the apprehensions that are being expressed regarding cloud are quite real. If the cloud is being hosted in a different country, at times we have no way of knowing who is doing

The government has already pronounced a

In most government departments we see reluctance to putting their data on the cloud, even though such a move can reduce cost of operations.

what. Laws of what country will be applicable on the management of data that is being hosted on a particular cloud.

Some government departments that are handling sensitive data have taken the option of keeping their systems away from the Internet. But that is leading to a slowdown of their systems. Don’t you think that instead of cutting themselves always completely from the Internet, various departments should deploy better Firewalls and other safety measures?

As far as sensitive personal data is concerned, I would say that there is nothing better than isolation. The final decision should be left to the concerned departments. The departments should be left free to decide what strategy should be utilized to ensure complete safety of the critical data. However, I would like to add that today there is no option other than being connected to the Internet, either fully or partially. The technology penetration in our society is increasing on a daily basis.

You are performing a very difficult task of securing the vast infrastructure of cyber security in the country. Can you tell us about the challenges that you are facing?

This is a very challenging job. We need to be in touch with the technology, we need to be in touch with the all aspects of the security related issues. At the same time, we also need to realise that securing such a vast cyber domain cannot be the job of one person. You need to have a great team. There always is a shortage of manpower, but the manpower that is there should be rigorously trained, the manpower must be exposed to the threats and the new technologies. And it is also important that we act in a decentralised manner. All the threats that different organisations face cannot be handled by a single organisation. Different departments should have some basic training on the handing of security related issues. We have to provide all the facilities and the technologies that are required by different departments to handle the security related issues.

The people who are manning the systems should be able to conduct forensics, detect the vulnerabilities and address them.

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65

in person

Muktesh K Pardeshi

Joint Secretary (PSP) & Chief Passport Officer, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India

Speedy

Resolution to Passport Related Grievances

T

he new passport offices are swankier and much efficient than the earlier offices. This is a commendable achievement. But does this also mean that through this project the entire system of passport issuance has been privatised?

The issuance of passports continues to be a public service being rendered by the Government of India. Only limited numbers of functions have been outsourced with the idea of bringing more efficiency. As earlier, the decision to issue a passport to any citizen continues to be vested with the Government of India. In the Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs), the services are being provided by the Tata Consultancy Services and the Regional Passport Officer. There is complete segregation of activities.

To TCS, we have delegated the transit activities like the capturing and handling of demographic data, scanning and uploading of supporting documents, taking the applicant’s photograph and biometrics, and the acceptance of fees. The verification of the documents is being done by the Government Officials. And the decision on the eligibility of the applicants is also being decided by the Government.

As Chief Passport Officer, what role are you playing in the process by which Passports are allotted?

Actually I have two roles. As Joint Secretary, Passport Seva Project, I am the designated mission leader of this e-Governance project, which has been undertaken by the Ministry of External Affairs. Secondly, I also have to perform a quasi-judicial role as the Chief Passport Officer. As the Chief Passport Officer, I head the department called Central Passport Organisation. So I am the Chief Passport Officer of India. Under the Passport Act all the passport officers have quasi-judicial functions.

As the chief passport officer, I have appellate power. I act as the head of the department. I am also the cadre controlling authority of around 2,700 people.

What kind of role does the appellate authority play in ensuring that better passport services are available to the citizens of the country? What is your vision for the appellate authority?

My vision is the same as that of the Government of India. It is to ensure that passport related services are available to the citizens in a timely, transparent and more

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Muktesh K Pardeshi sheds light on the innovative measures that are being taken to ensure that passport related grievances of the citizens are resolved in a timely and transparent manner

In inperson Person

accessible manner. The citizens should be able to procure passports in a comfortable manner, without having to run around to various offices.

However, despite having the best systems some citizens in different parts of the country might face some difficulty in getting their passports.

So we have a system of grievance redressal.

Suppose someone applies for a new passport in Jaipur and for some reason, he is denied a passport by the local office. Then that applicant is free to appeal before me. It is a statutory procedure. They have to file an appeal with Rs 25.

Every month I have to hold hearings for around 20 people from all over India. The grievance can also be from people whose passports have been seized by any agency.

We have been told that a passport is a basic right of the citizen. It is also the ultimate proof of citizenship. How is it that at times, the passport service is denied to some people?

Under the Passport Act, the government can give you passport service, but it can also deny you the passport. Passport is the right of the citizens, but this right has to be read in conjunction with other legal structures. If somebody is convicted by a court or there is a summon, to appear before court, or if the security agencies feel that somebody’s going away may jeopardize national security, then the government can take a view. Such a view is taken after lot of deliberations and a comprehensive round of investigations. There has to be sufficient ground for denying a passport service to a citizen. If this kind of denial has happened, the citizen can appeal to the appellate authority.

and the wife and there are domestic violence issues, then they can drag one side to the court.

If the court proceedings are ongoing, then that becomes a basis of denial of passports

You said that people can also lodge an appeal if their passport has been seized by other agencies. What is the procedure in such cases?

In such cases, people lodge a complaint, not against the RPO, but against some other agency. You see, in the immigration, they are not empowered to keep the passport. If there is any doubt, the immigration authority will seize the passport and send it to the issuing authority. Even if the passport is issued from Trivandrum and it is held at the Delhi airport, it will be sent to Trivandrum. The applicant will then ask the passport office at Trivandrum to make an application with requisite fees. Then

request the applicant to give us certified copy. If the person has stayed abroad and some problem has occurred there, the reference will go to the embassy abroad. However, if there is an emergency, we can fast track the process. Sometimes, there are court orders, which say you have to do the hearing within a stipulated time frame.

Is there any scope of having grievance in the area of grievance redressal also? This may help people to get judgement quickly. e-Governance is already being used. So far as documentation is concerned, we are already using ICT. We have national call centre, which is toll free. Here people can seek the status of their application; they can ask information on how to apply for a passport or where their passport application is pending. The service is available in 17 languages. Every day the system receives 24,000 to 25,000 complaints or requests for

“Passport is the right of the citizens, but this right has to be exercised in conjunction with other legal provisions” those dossiers will be sent to the Chief Passport Officer. This may take some time. The RPO will send the application with a case history to us, and on receipt of the same we will slot a date for hearing. Under the Passport Act we have the power to register an FIR, and on conviction, the punishment can be up to two years and the penalty of Rs 5,000.

What are the most common reasons, due to which passports can be denied to any individual?

How much time does it normally take to reach a conclusion in such cases?

Most of the cases are related to any individual holding duplicate passports. In these cases, either they have applied for a second passport or there are allegations that they have been holding two-three passports under different identities. The facts about their multiple passports could have emerged through police investigations or through a process of matching data. If someone has gone abroad and sought asylum there, then that can become a basis for denying passport related services. Many times the problem may be the result of marital disputes. If there is problem between the husband

It can take a few months. The moment any case comes before us, we start the process of making a reference to the issuing authority, from which the passport was issued. This is because the reference authority would have all the details. Once the reference is made, in the passport office, somebody who is working in the policy section will retrieve the data and look through the file.

He will make a case history for the ministry, because when we take a decision we take it on the basis of all the facts. We have a legal consultant, who goes into the legal nitty-gritty’s of the case. If there are some court papers attached, we

information. They can also seek solution to their problems through emails by sending mails to: helpdesk@passportindia.gov.in. They can also write on the website of Department of Public Grievance. This department has a system of Centralised Passport Grievances System. You can select the option of ‘passport’ and register your complaint. On registration of complaint, they get a complaint number and the issue comes before us.

There has been lot of improvement in passport related services, but the public is expecting something still better from the department. So what can be the next level of e-Governance implementation in passport services?

It is in area of police verification that we have to do lot of work. Currently we are having three models. We are working on different models currently and we hope that in times to come the process of police verification will become much less time consuming.

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in person

Arun Chaudhary Director General, Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB)

Guarding the

Nation’s Frontiers

W

hat is the mandate of the Sashastra Seema Bal? What work Sashastra Seema Bal is doing?

It was in early 1963 in the wake of IndoChina conflict of 1962 that the SSB was set up. Earlier SSB was deployed in NEFA, North Assam, North Bengal, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, parts of Punjab, and in the Ladakh area of Jammu & Kashmir. Now deployment has been further extended to Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Tripura, Mizoram, Rajasthan, parts of West Bengal, and Gujarat. The basic mandate of SSB in the present form is to guard the borders of Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan.

We are here to ensure that nobody sneaks in from these borders and cause harm to our national security.

India has good relation with Nepal, people come and go, so kind of monitoring that is being done in Nepal border would be different from monitoring that is being done in our borders with some other countries. What kinds of special training is being provided to the personnel of SSB?

“The goal of the SSB is to not only guard the nation’s frontiers, but also to bring the border population closer to the heart of the nation,” says Arun Chaudhary

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After the Kargil War, it was decided that the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan borders, which were not manned earlier, have become very active. Malicious elements were using these borders to gain an easy entry into our country. Many cases have come to light when arms and ammunitions have been smuggled into the country through these porous borders. So after the Kargil War, the Group of Ministers gave SSB the new mandate of managing the borders of Nepal and Bhutan. Now both Nepal and Bhutan are very friendly countries, we have excellent relationship with them as far as their governments are concerned. We have excellent relations with the people of these countries living in the border areas. The SSB people have got the training to manage the border population. Our men are able to intermingle with the locals to gather local intelligence and to ensure that there are no subversion activities in the border areas. We are here to inculcate a sense of security and spirit of resistance in border population. We work for promotion of national awareness and security consciousness.

We are devoted to organising and preparing border population to resist enemy. What we insist in our training is that we have to be present there in such a way that we are able to provide unobtrusive type of security so that the people’s natural activity is not hindered in anyway.

In inperson Person

Can you provide us with some insight into the actual training that is being provided to anyone joining the SSB? There are two or three tiers in the training that we give. The first tier is the basic recruit training or the preliminary training. Whenever a person enters the force at the level of constable, subinspector and even at the level of assistant commandant, who are gazette officers appointed by UPSC, they have to go through the basic training. The primary focus of the basic training is to inculcate a sense of discipline in the candidates.

He is also trained in the usage of arms. He is taught about the law of the land, about the laws under which he has to work. Apart from all this, the SSB also lays emphasis on various aspects of intelligence collection, intelligence generation.

The ways of generating intelligence wherever we are working is also taught. The personnel have to be taught about the diverse problems that are being faced by the people residing in the border areas, so that they can better understand the local people, amongst whom they have to work. We are also emphasising on community development programmes. It is a matter of pride for us that our doctors are very popular in the border areas. We are providing both doctors and veterinary doctors in the border areas.

People arrive in quite big numbers and with our limited resources we are able to provide them with the best possible treatment.

What is the total strength of SSB as of now?

It is around 70,000, but the strength of the force will go up to 82,000. The SSB is divided into battalions. Currently we have around 48 battalions and some reserved battalions. The reserved battalions have been created in other forces also, so that the Government of India can use them during the

time of elections and also for combating internal security problems and dealing with the aftermath of natural disasters. We are now moving three battalions in the Naxalite-infected areas and five battalions in the Jammu & Kashmir region. Very recently after the problems erupted in Assam, we have rushed two battalions there.

Can you tell us about the technology and systems that are being used in SSB for better communication?

There are two aspects of using this kind of technologies - one is surveillance and the other is communication. How fast we can communicate with the border outposts, what could be the response of the border outpost to an incident, which has happened in and out of the AOR (Area of Responsibility). Mandated AOR of the SSB is 15 kms from the border. In the vicinity of 15 kms, the SSB is authorised to take action against any anti-national elements who are indulging in human trafficking, in arms smuggling, in drug pedalling and other such anti-national activities.

We try our best to prevent anti-national forces from operating, and once we capture anyone, we turn them over to the local police, or to the customs, and in case of drugs-related crimes we turn the suspects over to the NIA. The thing is that we have a very close association with the other organisations, which are doing part of the job as far as border revenue activity is concerned.

The SSB is also contributing to the welfare of the border areas by helping in the creation of infrastructure. Please tell us about the initiatives you are taking for creation of roads and other assets?

We are building roads and small bridges for helping people in the border areas. For girls

and boys, we have started fitness training programmes. Such programmes have become very popular with the border population.

Human trafficking is the big problem on the Indo-Nepal border and we are very conscious of that. We are trying to solve this problem through better patrolling of the border areas and by involving local NGOs that are active in this area. It has often been seen that the railway stations become the hub of human trafficking, so we are trying work with railway officials to prevent human traffickers from operating.

We are being well received in all parts of the country. Recently, I went to the border areas of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. There people came up to me and told me that the presence of SSB has brought a sense of security into their lives.

Due to the SSB, they are able to sleep peacefully at night.

You are also providing some of healthcare facilities in these areas. Tell us about it.

With our limited resource of doctors and veterinary doctors, we hold healthcare camps in villages. Here we provide OPD kind of healthcare services to the people. We also look after the cattle and suggest the kind of vaccination that will be effective. If we have the vaccination, we provide it to the villager. I would also like to point out the Indian Border Area Development Program launched by the Government of India.

We are participating in this programme and handling quite a few village level projects. We are also providing solar lamps to the people in border areas, where the electricity supply is not good. We have distributed computers, sewing machines, sports material and much else to the villages. The goal of the SSB is to not only guard the nation’s frontiers, but also to bring the border population closer to the heart of the nation.

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in person

Devices & Solutions

K Swetharanyan Managing Director, Kyocera Document Solutions India Pvt Ltd

Environment Friendly Document Solutions

K

yocera is a well known name in Japan. What kind of work are you doing in India? Please provide us with an overview on the

operations in India.

It was in 1948 that Kyocera was established in Japan. The company has pioneered the use of fine ceramics as an alternative to steel and plastics. Today with 40 manufacturing plants, Kyocera has more than 40,000 people employed in 25 countries all around the world. Kyocera Document Solutions India Pvt Ltd was formed on 4th March 2008 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Kyocera Document Solutions Corporation, Japan. The Indian subsidiary was established with the view that it will help in gaining a better understanding of the Indian consumer who is using Kyocera Document Solutions products. The Indian subsidiary is growing at a fast pace. From a turnover of `80 crore in first year of operations in India, we had already come up with `120 crores this year. In next three years, we expect the turnover to grow to `500 crore.

What kind of policies should the government come up with to bring further growth to the businesses like yours? Tell us about your expectations from the government.

K Swetharanyan, has been at the forefront of Indian Office Automation Market Development. In his past stints of over 25 years in the India Office Automation market, he has lead Indian Operations of MNCs. He has been a trend setter for India, especially in pioneering the launch of Digital Documentation devices in India

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You cannot change the policy only for office automation companies. Today office automation is a part of IT, printer and those kinds of systems. Naturally they should promote industry like ours. You see the growth in the IT sector is capable of fuelling large amount of growth in the overall economy, the people in the country will benefit from this. Our solutions are in demand from every sector.

Growth in retail can give huge impetus to office automation. The government should come up with a policy that favours the opening of more retail outlets. The power companies also need to grow. Basically we need to build lot of new infrastructure. Also, digitisation and e-Governance should be aggressively pursued in the government sector. Already lot of work is being done for e-Governance, so basically things are moving in the right direction. It is a matter of pride for us that our machines are installed in the Rajya Sabha. We also have our machines in the Railway Bhawan.

Devices & Solutions

In inperson Person

What kind of customers are you focusing on? Are majority of your clients from government sector or from the private sector?

I would say that in the office automation business, basically 45 percent to 50 percent of the clients are from the government side. The rest could be from the corporate side. In India, we are supplying solutions to BARC. In BARC we have around 600 to 700 machines installed. We have supplied machines to the Nuclear Power Corporation, and also to many PSU banks, private sector banks, insurance companies, etc. Many top players in the private sector use our machines. Companies like Adidas, Volvo, Coca Cola, to name a few. But thing is that lot of sales is also happening through our channel partners. They are selling to the government sector, to small and medium organisations and also to SOHO (Small Office/Home Office). Basically I would say that we are there in every customer segment.

Kyocera is known for its environmentally friendly concept of printing. Tell us about the ECOSYS concept.

ECOSYS is one of the basic concepts of Kyocera.

ECOSYS stands for Economy, Ecology and the Systems. We have developed this solution in view of the fact that all companies must struggle to balance ecological concerns while trying to minimise running costs so as to guarantee economic viability, all the while ensuring that their document management solution offers adequate network functionality. With regards to economy, I say that if you buy a device, the cost of the machine and the running cost during its entire lifespan should be lowest in the industry. It is possible that you might find a lower priced machine elsewhere, but the cost of running it will be much higher. The total cost in case of Kyocera machines is very less, as we follow a long life component concept. The toner that is used is of high yield variety. For instance, if a machine from another company yields 3,000 copies per cartridge, then our machine will give the double. With such efficiency and durability the machines are quite environment friendly.

Some of your office solutions come with a security feature. Tell us about it.

We do have software solutions that can be offered in the network. For instance, there is the issue of examination papers – we learn from the media that the papers are getting leaked on many occa-

sions. This leads to a big scam. So we can have a solution where the question paper for the examination does not get printed before the examination starts. The students arrive at the examination hall and only half an hour before the exams, the central command is given to the printer and the paper is printed. The examiner at the examination hall can identify himself with a secret code and he can print the papers to be distributed to the students. Such features can be embedded into the network. We have also developed printers that are incorporated with biometric features. Unless the user puts his thumb impression, the printer will not work. Many government departments that are handling classified information show interest in such printers.

India is considered to be a very cost sensitive market. So from the perspective of an international company like Kyocera do you think that there is enough potential in India for making a profit.

Absolutely. We see great potential in India. This is the world’s fastest growing market and Kyocera Document Solutions is growing a high pace in the country. However, I do agree that India is very cost sensitive market. People prefer to buy the low-end machines. If you look at the USA and Europe, there is hardly any demand for low-end machines;

they prefer to buy the heavy ones, which are much more efficient and durable. In India, people buy low-end machine and expect it to do the work of a high-end machine. The machine gets worked 24 hours a day. It is designed to bring out 5,000 copies and we try to take out 10,000 copies. As the economy grows, the demand for high-end products will also grow. So we are quite optimistic in the long run.

Technology is constantly evolving.

Can you give us a peek to new ideas in office automation we can expect from Kyocera?

We continue to innovate for new products, solutions and technologies. Our basic focus is to develop new series of efficient machines that are more durable and less costly, while being environment friendly. In fact, I would like to point out that the power consumption in our machines is the lowest. Our machines have the lowest power consumption, longest life, lowest running cost and are enabled with all kinds of useful software.

The modern printer is a multi-function device, it is meant to copy, fax and scan. Some clients have very unique needs, they might need security printing. In this case we have to have a system for user identification. As far as new technologies are concerned, I would say that sky is the limit.

March 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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In Person

John Torrie

CEO, Steria UK & India

Our 4-decade

Experience Can Help India Improve Transport Efficiency Headquartered in Paris, we have 20,000 people working across 16 countries in Europe, India, North Africa and South East Asia. With over 5,500 employees across three centres, Steria India has always endeavoured to create and implement innovative but relevant solutions that sharpen our clients’ competitive edge and strengthen your leadership status.

Transportation is one of Steria’s important business sectors.

Please tell us about some notable projects that you have done in transportation across the world.

John Torrie, CEO, Steria UK & India, in conversation with Nikita Apraj

T

ell us about Steria’s journey so far.

Founded in 1969, Steria delivers IT enabled business services and is the trusted transformation partner for private and public sector organisations across the globe. We combine our in-depth understanding of our clients’ businesses with expertise in IT and business process outsourcing, to take on our clients’ challenges and develop innovative solutions to address them efficiently and profitably.

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Steria has been a provider of safe and sustainable intelligent transport systems to the public and private sector, solving the everyday needs in the four core areas of passenger information, traveller security, green transport and mobility solutions.

The Steria Taxi Expert solution for British Airport Authorities at Heathrow Airport’s five terminals uses fixed and hand-held devices to monitor taxis equipped with radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags.

In France, our Traffic Expert® solutions are used across 80% of road management systems providing real-time traffic information to the travelers. Our solution for the road network in France is the country’s most important road traffic system, managing 3.5 million vehicles a day and keeping road users informed on traffic conditions 24x7.

How do you see traffic scenario in Indian metro cities? How it can be improved?

The top five Indian cities constitutes to 20 percent of the total vehicular traffic of 140 million, with Delhi having over 7.5 million vehicles alone. The number of vehicles is supposedly increasing at a rate of over 10 percent

per annum. This significant growth in Indian road traffic presents a good opportunity for the ITS business, aimed at ensuring safe, secure and sustainable transportation.

Road and highway authorities are taking steps for the provision and maintenance of National Highways network to global standards, with the development of over 150 new national highways in progress. This calls for the need for deployments of area-wide signal control, parking information, advanced public transportation and toll collection systems amongst others.

Our intelligent Traffic Expert solution offers the ability to acquire real-time traffic information. Modular and scalable, Traffic Expert supports safer, smoother travel with traffic information and management, in-vehicle telematics services, tunnel control and management and speed enforcement solutions. It enables operators to perform real-time data analysis on the information gathered.

What are your plans for transport sector in coming years?

Steria’s India strategy is to establish a strong footprint for our solutions for safe, sustainable and intelligent transport management. Steria works throughout the transport sector, serving road, and urban transport providers.

With four decades in this sector, our experience has allowed us to develop deep business process knowledge in critical transport areas, including traffic management, parking and taxi management, automatic road violation enforcement, simulation for studies, and operational software validation.

In India Steria can help to improve transport efficiency and reduce traveler stress. And we have an aggregation capability that allows us to bring knowledge and expertise from one sector to the other so that we share best practices across the transport domain.

in person

A K Sharma Director, Delhi Fire Service

Making Delhi Safe from Fire

T

ell us about your vision for Delhi Fire Service. What kind of work is being done to bring further improvement in the fire fighting systems in the country?

Fire departments, all over the country, including the Delhi Fire Service department are dependent on conventional methods. The systems that are being used for planning for safety in the city are based on fire safety rules and regulations and legislations. Now Delhi is facing several new challenges as the population is growing with the population influx. There is infrastructure development happening at a massive level. Healthcare, entertainment, transportation, everything is expanding. It is not possible to meet these challenges through the use of conventional methods. In order to maintain our effectiveness and efficiency, we have to work on various platforms and one is how to streamline our work with respect to fire prevention activities.

What methods are you using to discover the areas in which the Fire Service needs to upgrade and improve?

We have to streamline our work with respect to communication. We have to streamline our planning process. For doing adequate planning, we need to know how many incidents are happening in the city every month. What type of incidents are happening? What is the demography of the people who are most effected? We can think of computer based

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A K Sharma provides his views on the initiatives that the Delhi Fire Service is taking to make the city safe from fire related accidents

In inperson Person

analysis as a tool for making sense out of all the data that we are able to collect. By using modern technology for communication and analysis we can bring about a vast improvement in the services that we offer. We are also planning to use GIS for fire fighting.

Please tell us about the ways in which you will be deploying GIS? Now, GIS as a response tool – as of now we are manually taking calls in our control room.

GIS and computers can help us improve the response time. For instance, when there is a call to the station, the address can automatically appear on the map, and simultaneously the data is also sent to the nearest station. This leads to a vast improvement in our efficiency.

We can also use GIS based systems to keep track of the schools and other buildings that have received NOC from our department.

Now Delhi is now growing vertically. There will be more high-rises. What type of systems are you planning to ensure safety of the upper class of the society? Do you have technology to take care of buildings more than 30 storey?

As of now the highest building in the city is of about 100 metres. No ladder is available to reach that height. The maximum length of ladder available is 92 metres. The maximum length of ladder with us is 70 metres. But there are building in planning stage that are going beyond 100 metres, may be 150-metres. In case of fire, such buildings cannot be managed from outside, it has to be fought from inside. The building has to be equipped with requisite fire safety arrangement, which should be in place, before the buildings are occupied. We are talk-

“increased use of computers, GIS, will enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of my department” The Delhi government has also come up with the “Eye in the Sky” scheme. Cameras are being installed all over the city. Under CCTNS many more cameras will come up.

I have requested the authorities to give Fire Department access to the feed from these cameras.

You remarked earlier lot of new infrastructure is coming up in the city. But what about the slums, what kind of initiatives are being taken in such areas?

There is challenge due to the new infrastructure. And we also have the challenge of fire breaking out in the slums. The slums are posing a different kind of challenge compared to the new infrastructure. But over a period of time, the slums have also taken a paradigm shift in terms of use of material for construction that they use. They don’t use combustible material for building their walls. But the roofs are still made with combustible materials like tarpaulin.

Also the slums have been moved from prominent places. The entire Yamuna belt was earlier prone to fire. Now at least they make their walls with non-combustible materials. The number of accidents has now come down.

ing of a water-tank on the top and the ground level; we are talking of the pumping arrangement of that water to be brought to the various floors. We are talking of sprinkler installation at each floor, room.

If you look back at the last five years, what was the situation in fire incidents? Is there any improvement? Has it gone down?

Barring one or two incidents, there were no such incidents where things have gone out of our hands. I am talking about incidents where he had to take help from other organizations. In the last five years, we had been able to defend all the incidents successfully that has happened in the city.

What kind of water based technologies are we using to fight fire?

There is water mix technology where water is not used in stream but modified into mist and then thrown on the fire. We are using it at limited scales. We are using it at our motorcycles, which are used for negotiating traffic and to tackle situation in congested areas. Apart from this our fire engines have got a high cum low

pressure pump, which are used in discharge less quantity of water but can tackle bigger fire because it is a mix of water. Apart from that no fire retardant chemicals are being used.

Fire service department is also performing the role of investigating the fire?

Right now we do not see ourselves in this role because investigation is basically in this country is police job. You can help them out in some case when some technical inputs were required from our side. Under the CRPC only police has the investigative power.

In the next five years what would be your vision for the fire service? Where do you want to take the department? What are the new technologies that you will like to bring in?

I would like to see, increased use of computers, GIS to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of my department. The legislation part we would like to make it stronger so that violations are dealt with, not only quickly but effectively as well. And constant training and updating my training techniques, so that people are abreast with the technologies, which are coming. So these are areas we would like to work on so that the department gets dimension to reach out to people.

Many new malls are coming up.

Are you satisfied with the quality of fire fighting?

It is not question of my satisfaction. It is a question whether they are law compliant. No mall is given permission unless they are complying with fire norms. It is the law. Today I can assure you, whatever malls are coming up are fire compliant.

Any message you would like to give to the young people in this city?

We are giving training to the school children.

It is a constant programme. My people are imparting basic training to these school children so that tomorrow when they become a member of the society, they are aware of life safety and fire safety requirements. The message is more precautions you will take, more preventive measures you will take, the less work for us and will add to the national wealth.

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In Person

K N Bhagat

Managing Trustee, Orissa Trust of Technical Education & Training (OTTET)

Odisha has adopted ICT as development tool developed on hierarchical manner will become the assets for such community which will have indirect reflection on the literacy rate.

This tribal belt due to poor sanitary living conditions, insufficient potable water, illiteracy and ignorance sometimes become endemic to Malaria, Dengue, Anthrax, HIV and other viral diseases through noninvasive blood tests by use of appropriate strips. The telemedicine technicians at the facility centre can quickly identify the situation of medical emergency so that doctors on specialist can reach the area with much reduce reaction time.

Odisha has gone ahead as it would be the first state in the country which has adopted ICT as a state development tool for providing healthcare services at the door step of the citizen says K N Bhagat, Managing Trustee, Orissa Trust of Technical Education & Training (OTTET) in conversation with Mohd Ujaley

I

t has been said that ICT can be leverage to reach the last mile, has Odisha been able to implement the ICT in healthcare in a right manner?

Odisha has gone ahead as it would be the first state in the country which has adopted ICT as a state development tool for providing healthcare services at the door step of the citizen. OTTET is implementing the ICT based Telemedicine project under PPP mode in collaboration with Govt. of Odisha and National Resource Center for Telemedicine & Biomedical Informatics at SGPGIMS, Lucknow in a systematic manner to meet all challenges.

What is the best way to provide healthcare in tribal and remote areas in Odisha?

Telemedicine network which Odisha has

Young doctors are reluctant to serve in rural areas, what is the best way forward to provide better healthcare services at grass root level?

While respecting the different levels of subjective and objective readiness of stakeholders within the system and in terms of available health technologies, the country is thinking to facilitate the transition, the information process etc. The existing system in NRHM should be reviewed and revamped in order to make the shift to new arrangements as smooth as possible with support of doctors where ever available.

Govt. of Odisha has taken proactive steps first of its kind by using telemedicine network in PPP mode and making it available at all health institutions and the linkage of doctors to the people at the remote end.

What is your vision for OTTET Telemedicine Network and how successful have you been so far?

OTTET Telemedicine Network envisaged for providing the healthcare services at the door steps of peoples. Pilot project has been successfully done in number of states like Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Karnataka and there is a plan to take it nationwide, and field deployment has been initiated after MOU

and SOP with Govt. of Odisha. The Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) for implementing the project on PPP mode has been developed. All the government & Private Medical College, District Hospital, CHC, PHC and registered private practitioner are taken into the network.

The success can be seen from the fact that what OTTET Telemedicine Network has been implementing since last 3 years in cooperation of Govt. of Odisha, the Planning Commission in the 12th plan is planning today.

The composite HIS developed and deployed in OTTET Telemedicine Network based on the PPP mode can regularly track the progress of the state in achieving the national health outcome indicators, and in identifying areas and populations which lag behind on health indicators, with sufficient accuracy, so as to enable remedial action. To achieve this goal, the HIS has to necessarily rely on universal vital registration and the networking of all health service providers, public and private laboratories. This is possible because of the deployment and installation of wireless Telemedicine devices using which data fidelity is assured by triangulation with data from periodic surveys and community based monitoring, which should continue with a greater frequency. Strict compliance with the right of privacy is also maintained.

A computer with internet connectivity should be ensured in every PHC and all higher health facilities in this Plan period. Connectivity can be extended to Sub-Centers either through computers or through cell phones, depending on their state of readiness and the skill-set of their functionaries. All District hospitals should be linked by tele-medicine channels to leading tertiary care centers, and all intra-District hospitals should be linked to the District hospital and optionally to higher centers. The availability of “Skype�, and other similar applications for audio-visual interactions, makes tele-medicine a near universal possibility and could be used to ameliorate the professional isolation that health personnel posted in rural and remote areas face.

March 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

77

Special Feature

NIELIT

A H Moon

Director, National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), Jammu & Kashmir

State of art

Forensics Lab in J&K

N

IELIT is implementing the project on establishment of computer forensics lab and training facility in Jammu & Kashmir. What is the background of the project?

This project came up as a consequence of the decision taken by Parliamentary Consultative Committee on IT during their visit to Srinagar in June 2010. The Committee observed that in a sensitive state like J&K, there is need for creating adequate Computer Forensics infrastructure. We also need to do capacity building of law enforcement agencies, so that we are able to effectively combat cyber crimes in the State. With this view in mind, CERT-IN (Indian Computer Emergency Team) sanctioned a project for Establishment of Computer Forensics Lab and Training Facility in J&K. Under the project two labs – one each in Srinagar and Jammu - have been established within NIELIT Centres at J&K State. The total grant-in-aid to the project is `199.50 lakhs for the duration of two years.

What is the present Status of the Project?

The project was initiated in October 2010. It was on 20th August 2011 that the Computer Forensics Laboratory in Srinagar was inaugurated by the then Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Communication & Information Technology, Shri Sachin Pilot. The lab at Jammu was inaugurated on 25th October 2012. Capital equipment to the extent of `83 lakhs have been procured and installed in these labs.

What kind of facility is being provided by these labs?

As a matter of fact, the obsolesce level of forensics tools, be it software or hardware is very high. Therefore, the Centre has procured the latest and the widely tested and used tools in computer forensics. This includes tools like

A H Moon provides information on the new forensics lab that NIELIT has set up in J&K. He also sheds light on the other areas where NIELIT is playing an important role

What are the main objectives of the project?

The objective of the project is to create a Cyber Forensic Lab Environment with appropriate tools for cyber forensic imaging, network forensics, mobile forensics and to analysis of online related crimes. Under capacity building, we have the agenda of training personnel of law enforcement agencies in the area of computer forensics and cyber crimes.

78

egov / egov.eletsonline.com / March 2013

Hon’ble Minister of State, Shri Sachin Pilot along with Shri Madan Lal Sharma, MP, Dr. Ashwini Kumar Sharma, MD, NIELIT, A.H. Moon Director, NIELIT, J&K and others on the occasion of inauguration of Computer Forensics Lab at NIELIT, Jammu.

NIELIT

Special Feature

Dr Hanuman Prasad Shukla Director, National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), Gorakhpur

Paraben’s device Seizure, Encase, F-response, Fred Server, Network Session Analyzer, Cyber Check-suite, True Imager, E-blaster, etc. The lab has full range of tools to cater to device, mobile and network forensics. Both the labs are being managed by NIELIT Professionals, who have undergone training at various places, including C-DAC Trivandrum, and are now well versed in all areas of computer forensics.

What kind of system do you have in place to ensure that there is a proper review of the project?

The project is reviewed by a high powered project review and steering group comprising of Officers of CERT-IN, IT Department, Government of J&K, J&K Police, J&K Judicial Academy.

At the institution level, the project is being monitored by a Management Group set-up under the Chairmanship of Secretary IT, J&K State.

What have been the deliverables of the project so far?

Under capacity building programme for law enforcement agencies, modular training pro-

NIELIT is reaching out to all law enforcement agencies in J&K to use the forensics lab facility effectively grammes have been designed and conducted for personnel of J&K Police, Judicial Officers, Indian Air Force and Indian Army in different batches. So far, these training programmes have been attended by around 300 personnel.

Previously no such facility existed in J&K State and people had to be deputed to Delhi and other places for getting appropriate training.

The investigating agencies have started using the infrastructure for investigating the cyber

crimes in J&K State. NIELIT has assisted J&K Police in the technical evaluation of CCTNS Project, as well as in setting-up their computer forensics lab.

During the next few years how do you see this project and other activities of NIELIT developing?

NIELIT is reaching out to all law enforcement agencies in J&K to use the forensics lab facility effectively. This includes organisations like J&K Police, J&K Judiciary, IB, etc. Our new Managing Director, Dr Ashwini Kumar Sharma, has the vision of taking this activity to the national level.

Ever since he took over as Managing Director, Dr Ashwini Kumar Sharma, has energised the entire organisation of NIELIT with his vision for capacity building in the field of e-security, and e-Governance besides our routine activities in the field of ESDM and ICT. NIELIT is also planning to establish and manage Computer Forensics Laboratory facility for SFIO (Serious Fraud Investigation Office). This facility will be used for investigating cyber crimes and corporate frauds apart from training their personnel.

March 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

79

Special Feature

NIELIT

Dr Hanuman Prasad Shukla

Director, National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), Gorakhpur

Developing Systems For Crime Detection While the role NIELIT is playing in the area of education and training is well known, we don’t know much about the organisation’s role in areas of cyber crime and forensics.

What is the role of NIELIT Gorakhpur in Cyber Crime and Forensic area?

NIELIT Gorakhpur has been playing a key role not only in education and training, but also in R&D and Consultancy in areas like electronics design, instrumentation, bioinformatics, information security and networking. Apart from education and training, NIELIT Gorakhpur is providing long term and short term value addition and training programmes in cybercrime and forensics.

It also provides consultancy services to government organisations for Secure IT infrastructure.

As a forensic expert what a skill a person must possess?

Dr Hanuman Prasad Shukla

80 egov / egov.eletsonline.com / March 2013

To be a Cyber Forensic Expert, person should have a wide range of knowledge and experience about- Cyber Forensics including Cyber Crimes, Hacking, Spamming, Viruses, Tracking user activity, forensic imaging & Verification, Data recovery and analysis, File types (extensions), Encryption, Password breaking etc with basic understandings about programming languages & Operating systems like- Windows, Linux, Mac, Java, Symbian etc, and also have knowledge about legal issues, acts, laws, responsibilities etc related to digital evidence. Person must have interest in Cyber Forensics, who enjoys the investigation process and have ability to work hours continuously.

NIELIT

Tell us about the skill development programmes that are being run by NIELIT in the area of Cyber Crime and Forensic?

NIELIT is running several short term and long term courses in the area of Cyber Crime and Forensics. We have the Advance Diploma in Cyber Law and Security, Certification scheme in Information Security, which is further divided into three Levels: LEVEL-1 Certified System Security Analyst (CSSA) LEVEL-2 Certified System Security Professional (CSSP) LEVEL-3 Certified Computer Forensic Professional (CCFP)/Certified Information Systems Security Auditor (CISSA)/Certified System Security Solution Designer (CSSSD) These courses are available in two modes: Regular Mode and Direct Mode (Distance Mode). Besides this, NIELIT, Gorakhpur also conducts one/two week’s courses on regular basis for Government Officials and Students.

It also conducts five days hands on practices workshop in the same area.

What is the main objective of the courses that are being provided

by NIELIT in this area?

The Government of India has launched the Information Security Education and Awareness (ISEA) project with the aim of imparting Information Security education at different levels in the country. One of the objectives of the ISEA project is to implement a robust certification mechanism in Information Security with technical experience and guidance from Resource Centres (RC- premier institutes like IITs and IISc.), which will set the international acceptable standards with NIELIT as the implementing organisation. With the above objective in the mind, the NIELIT has launched Certification Scheme in Information Security with three levels of certification scheme as a part of Information Security Education and Awareness project.

The “Advance Diploma in Cyber Law & Security” course is designed to enable learner to acquire critical understanding in cyber law, the emerging social and intellectual property issues, explore legal and policy developments in various countries to regulate cyberspace and to develop competencies for dealing fraud and deceptions using cyber space. It is a one year part time training program for legal and IT professionals who want to have a career in areas of cyber laws and IP laws in law. The course has been designed keeping in mind the requirement of Industries, Public and Government bodies.

Dr Ashwini Kumar Sharma

Managing Director, National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT)

“e-Governance projects will not be able to deliver at the ground level unless there is capacity building in a big way. By facilitating capacity building and creation of cutting-edge infrastructure, NIELIT can lead to contribute to the success of e-Governance in the country” Provide us an overview of the facilities available in NIELIT Gorakhpur for imparting training in computer crime and forensics area?

The NIELIT Gorakhpur has developed scenario based Virtual Training Environment (VTE) under DeitY funded project to provide the Information Security concepts to participants followed by practical approach. With the help of VTE the learners can learn at their own pace.

A simulated environment is provided through virtual machines. The user can create actual network security attacks and then can learn to design effective countermeasures against various types of attacks. Through VTE participants gain skills in various area of information security, such as information gathering, ARP cache poisoning and MITM attack, Brute force attack, Denial of Service (DoS) attack, IP Spoofing, rootkits, SQL Injection, Code Injection, E-mail spoofing & Phishing, E-mail security using PGP, configuring snort IDS, IPSec, IPtables, Hardening windows & Linux and finally evaluating Security.

Special Feature

The NIELIT Gorakhpur is also developing “Advanced Virtual Environment Based Interactive Information Security Training Kit for Advanced Level Information Security Skill Development”. It will provide Self-paced learning, Hands-on laboratories and role-based skills training. By using this system, real time attacks can be launched and escalated (simulation based) on organisation networks and systems and participants are trained to dynamically design countermeasures and test them. This environment would facilitate utilisation of various tools and technologies used for protection of information, networks and systems.

What is the status of your labs?

What kind of facilities are you providing?

The NIELIT Gorakhpur is well equipped with Network Lab, Security Lab, Microprocessor Lab, Advanced IT Lab, Computer Lab, Multimedia Lab, EDA Tools Lab, Repair & Maintenance Lab, Communication Lab, Project Lab, PCB Lab, Power Electronics Lab Industrial Design Lab, Analytical Lab, Analog & Digital Lab, Instrumentation Lab. His speed connectivity is being provided. The Centre maintains web server, mail server, proxy server, file server, oracle database server. It is also well-equipped with heavy duty Scanners, Laser Printers, DMP printers and portable as well as ceiling mount Multimedia projector. At present centre has more than 300 PC in its laboratory. We have deployed latest hardware.

Tell us about the new initiatives that are being taken by NIELIT in the area of Cyber Forensic?

NIELIT has been assigned responsibility of providing consultancy service for setting up forensic lab facility belonging to Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO). Under this NIELIT will provide assistance to SFIO for identification of hardware and software that is required for setting-up of Computer Forensics Lab Facility and Network Forensic Facility.

We will also train SFIO personals in the areas related to detection of online frauds. Dr. Ashwini Kumar Sharma, our new MD, has vast experience in the field of e-Governance and IT. His vision is to spearhead the NIELIT in the area of capacity building in e-Governance and e-Security. This is also the demand of the market and especially country.

March 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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