egov March 2014 (eBihar Edition)

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

MARCH 2014 | VOLUME 10 n ISSUE 03 n ISSN 0973-161X

Empowering

Citizens Through

e-Governance

Emerging IT Destination

19-20 February 2014, Patna, Bihar

Nitish Kumar

Chief Minister, Bihar

egov.eletsonline.com

Shahid Ali Khan Minister of State Minority Welfare & Information Technology Government of Bihar

march 2014

Contents volumesecond 10 n  issue 03 grid grid name

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Shahid Ali Khan

Hukum Singh Meena

Minister for Minority Welfare and Information Technology, Government of Bihar

Ram Sewak Sharma

Chief Secretary, Government of Jharkhand

Secretary, Department of Revenue & Land Reforms and Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Government of Bihar

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Nitish Mishra

Chanchal Kumar

Minister for Rural Development and Social Welfare, Government of Bihar

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Secretary, Building Construction Department, and Art, Culture & Youth Department, Government of Bihar

16 Social Inclusion Engineering Social Inclusion Through Tablets

38 BSEIDC

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N K Sinha

Atul Sinha

Commissioner, Commercial Taxes Department; Principal Secretary – Information Technology, Government of Bihar

Managing Director, Bihar State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd (BELTRON)

Concurrent Monitoring Through ICT

39 Passports

Computerisation in RPO Patna

44 NIC

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Abhayanand

Vinay Kumar

Director General of Police, Bihar

Managing Director, Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation Ltd and Director, Science & Technology, Government of Bihar

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Dr S Siddharth

P K Sinha

Secretary, Urban Development & Housing Department, Government of Bihar

Improving Transparency and Delivering Quality Services with iBhuGoal

46 Project

Management

Agile Project Management in an eGovernance Project

CEO, Astric Computers (I) Pvt Ltd

further reading

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Pratyaya Amrit

Shailendra P Sinha

Secretary, Road Construction Department and Information & Public Relation Department, Government of Bihar

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Chairman, Bihar State Council, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Bihar Hotels Ltd

Editorial 05 CM Message

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Digital Literacy collage

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e-Haryana collage

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Bihar – India’s Fastest Growing State

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iving in a remote village in Bihar and you are in need of a passport! You don’t have to come to Patna; you may soon be able to apply for the important document in your village through the Common Service Centre. The Ministry of External Affairs is now finalising a plan under which the Passport Department will be able to reach out to the rural residents so that they can apply for their passports online. This initiative will make life easier for millions of Indians who are living in the remote regions of the country.

This is one more example of how e-Governance is enabling government departments to reach out to the citizens everywhere in the country. The growth of e-Governance in the last two decades has been spectacular and historic in the world. e-Governance has changed the entire set-up of governance and altered the thought process of the bureaucracy. Today the instances of e-Governance have become the shining beacons of good governance in the country, but a lot of work still needs to be done.

The stakeholders of e-Governance need to build up their strengths and effectively leverage their new technologies and trained man power to create even better systems for good governance. They need to create an atmosphere of efficiency, transparency and accountability. The idea of e-Governance has already taken root, what we now need to work on is providing further push for creation of infrastructure and training of the manpower so that people from all sections of society can enjoy the convenience of having services at their doorstep.

We are organising eBihar event in Hotel Maurya, at Patna, on 19-20 February, 2014. The purpose behind the event is to showcase Bihar as an emerging destination for world’s big and small IT companies. We will also be highlighting the work on e-Governance that is being done by various government departments of Bihar. There is no doubt that Bihar is now on cusp of a turnaround in the field of IT, we can expect a significant increase in the investments by the private sector in the IT landscape of Bihar. The economic survey report, tabled recently in the Bihar Assembly, shows that Bihar’s average annual growth rate has been 12 percent in the last seven fiscal years, one of the highest among all Indian states.

Then on 22nd February 2014 we are organising eJharkhand event in Ranchi. Jharkhand, as all of us already know, is another emerging state in the country. We look forward to having you in both the events, eBihar and eJharkhand, where we will be having invigorating round of discussions on the development of IT sector in these states.

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March 2014 volume 10 n issue 03

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IN PERSON

Message Bihar is one of the fastest growing states in the country. According to the State’s Economic Survey Report for 2013-14, Bihar’s average annual growth rate has been 12 percent in the last seven fiscal years, one of the highest among all Indian states. This high growth rate has been achieved on back of growth in the agriculture and allied sectors. Besides, advancement has also been made in healthcare and education. The Survey Report states that the rate of growth achieved by the economy during 2006-13 is not only much higher, but also one of the highest among all Indian states.

Today Bihar is focusing on development of necessary infrastructure and human capital to create conducive environment for development of Information Technology industry. We seek to initiate proactive engagement with investors and effective policy implementation to enable Information Technology industry in the state to grow and flourish. The Government of Bihar is taking many new initiatives to encourage private investments in knowledge based industries.

The availability of numerous technical and manpower centres of excellence makes the state suitable for setting up of IT industry. It is a matter of satisfaction for us that the state is now enjoying a steady flow of investment from many domestic and international Information Technology companies.

It gives me immense pleasure to share that the eBihar event is being jointly organised by Department of Information Technology, Government of Bihar, and Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd, on 19-20 February, 2014. I welcome the thought leaders, think tanks and officials from government and private companies, who have arrived in Patna for attending the event. You possess the technological expertise to facilitate change and make society better and you must endeavour to implement all your ideas in Bihar.

Let us all participate in eBihar, an event that is dedicated to celebrate the rise of Bihar as an emerging destination for Information Technology companies. The eBihar event is envisaged to be the pathway through which the Information Technology companies can arrive in the State and set up their development centres. I wish the event a great success.

Shri Nitish Kumar Chief Minister, Bihar

November March 2014 2012 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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IN PERSON

Shahid Ali Khan

Minister for Minority Welfare and Information Technology, Government of Bihar

Promoting IT Industry for

Inclusive Development

Y

ou came out with ICT policy in 2011. What progress has been made on various initiatives that you have envisaged?

ICT Policy 2011 is a framework under which we aim to provide various developmental projects related to Information Technology in the state. Our main objective is to provide good governance through IT enablement, and thus encourage a holistic development of the state by attracting investments in the IT sector as well as in other allied sectors. When you look at Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and to some extent Maharashtra, they have done outstanding work in IT sector. We are the late comers, but the late comers do have benefits too. We should use the best of technologies and initiatives which have been already tested.

As far as progress on the various initiatives is concerned, it has been little slow and steady.

We have been able to attract investments.

Other allied industries are also moving in right direction. Through ICT policy 2011, we have focused on seven important areas – human resource development, employment

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generation, IT infrastructure, investment promotion, e-Governance and regulation. In the area of e-Governance, there has been a substantial achievement, now the information is easily available to the public. This has brought transparency, accountability and reduction in the service-delivery timeline. Skilled human resource is also one of the challenges for the state government, and therefore we are promoting computer literacy at school level, and also there has been focus on using mobile technology to reach the last mile.

Compared to other cities in the country, there is infrastructure deficit in Patna? Don’t you think that it makes difficult for IT companies to set up their bases here?

I agree with you that a lot needs to be done when it comes to creation of a world-class infrastructure for IT companies. But it is also true that there has been a significant improvement in several key areas like law and order, education, healthcare, etc. Today, we are keen to promote IT industry and we are ready to come up with polices and measures that will ensure that there exists a healthy infrastruc-

ture to support the IT industry in the state.

In fact, policies are already in place, it is just that all the stakeholders will have to honestly come forward and work for a better and more prosperous Bihar. The industry needs good infrastructure, conducive environment and appropriate legal and regulatory framework.

The government of Bihar is committed to provide these things; there may be little bureaucratic delays, but in principle we are for promoting various industries and creating jobs in the state. To address the infrastructure need, we are planning to create IT City, IT Cluster, EHDM Corridor, IT Park, etc., across the state. There is an ample opportunity for investments into Bihar today. If there is any innovative idea or plan, any organisation has, it can share with us. We are the facilitator, and we shall help them.

You are also heading the Minority Welfare Department.

There have been reports of modernisation and computerisation of Madrasas across the state. Please tell us about this project.

We have heavily focused on overall develop-

IN PERSON

“We are focusing on key requirements of the industry such as human resource, IT infrastructure, conducive environment, appropriate legal and regulatory framework� says Shahid Ali Khan. In conversation with Mohd Ujaley

Shahid Ali Khan

March 2014 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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IN PERSON

ment of the state including the minorities.

There has been tremendous achievement in education sector, be it Madrasa or school education. The state government has ICT at school scheme, under that scheme computer education and computer-aided education is being implemented in 1,000 secondary and higher secondary schools of Bihar. As far as Madrasas is concerned, as of now, we are actively working on it. I strongly feel that Madrasas must be modernised and computerised. It is very important to do that because large section of young students, belonging to Muslim community, attend Madarsa, If you are not able to make them digitally literate, then you can’t achieve your goal of making Bihar an IT hub. Bihar Knowledge Society has done some good work, but lot more needs to be done.

Please tell us about some of the major areas where Information Technology is being used in the state.

Government of Bihar has taken few major initiatives, which are now being expanded.

The projects such as ICT @ School, e-Shakti, e-Procurement, e-District, etc., have huge potential and shown good results. For example, e-Shakti, today, it is in functioning mode in Patna District. About 7.5 lakhs e-Shakti cards have been given and there has been disbursal of Rs 7,02,202 among 1,840 beneficiaries. Also, Department of Revenue and Land Reforms is using modern technology to survey the land. Aerial photography is being used to survey the land. On pilot basis, five districts have already been covered. Once the work gets completed, it will bring a lot of transparency in land records management, and will surely reduce land disputes across the state. The Urban Development Department has started a project called ‘e-Municipality’ which has everything integrated and interconnected, right from accounts to building plan approvals, birth and death registrations, grievance handling, human-resource development and solid-waste management. Across various departments of the government, IT interventions are happening.

Bihar has acquired the reputation for good governance, state GDP is also consistently in good bracket, but manufacturing

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industry is still showing dismal performance its contribution to GDP is lowest in the country. In your opinion, what are the areas where Bihar should focus on for consistent economic growth?

Manufacturing has been the neglected area in our country, and Bihar is no exception.

According to projections in 2013-14, due to demand slowdown the contribution of manufacturing sector to India’s GDP is going to be little lower compared to previous year. I think, we need to provide assurance and right framework to the industries which have halted or are little hesitant to invest in Bihar. Today, lot of things are in place and it is the right time to overhaul the manufacturing industry in

UIDAI through e-Shakti, and on February 1 the Hon’ble Chief Minister had launched Food Security Act in the state. Nearly seven crore people in rural Bihar, and 70 lakh people in urban areas are expected to benefit. Under the scheme, each person will get 5 kg of food grains every month at the rate of Rs 2 per kg for grain and Rs 3 per kg for rice. Over 44,000 ration shops at Panchayat level will be used to implement the scheme. To reduce the corruption, vehicles that deliver the ration will be GPS-monitored, and a call centre with tollfree number has also been opened to register grievances.

The economic growth and development of a country

“ICT Policy 2011 is a Framework Under Which We Aim to Provide Various Developmental Projects Related to Information Technology in the State” the state. The manufacturing industry is also facing problem due to unavailability of concrete policy in favour of states where the pace of the growth has been slow. For consistent growth, special focus should be given to location specific agriculture resource endowment which is in abundance, but scattered.

There are lots of Central Government flagship programmes such as Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), MNREGA, food security.

What is the status of their implementation and has the state been able to use them for the welfare of the people?

Not only these flagship programmes, the state government also has various other state plans for the welfare of the people, and we have been able to use them for the benefit of the state.

For MNREGA the state government has been awarded, very recently, Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) is already happening even before

depends on the integrated equitable development of all its citizens. What are you doing for minority communities to bring them at part with majority?

I agree that the overall development of a country depends on the integrated equitable development of all its citizens. Our Government being well aware of the fact has always been the forerunner in protecting the legal rights of the minority communities and ensuring their share in education, employment and economic benefits. Our department is still relatively new.

Our budget has substantially increased. We have been still raising infrastructure for the department that had been taking good shape.

Our welfare schemes include scholarships to meritorious students of colleges, grants for state Waqf Boards and Bihar Urdu Academy and coaching for students for civil services, and monetary help for women. We have also recently appointed 38 minority welfare officers, one in each district.

IN PERSON

Nitish Mishra

Minister for Rural Development and Social Welfare, Government of Bihar

“There has been remarkable turnaround in Bihar. There is significant improvement in key indicators of growth like roads, transportation, power, law and order, infrastructure,� says Nitish Mishra. In conversation with Mohd Ujaley

There is Remarkable Change in Bihar now 12

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IN PERSON

Y

ou wrote a dissertation “External Alienation and Internal Apathy – An Analysis of Bihar’s Backwardness” in 1999.

In your opinion how have things improved since the time when you wrote that book?

At that time, it was a united Bihar. Bihari pride was not present at that time. No one used to say that we belong to Bihar. People outside Bihar used to look down upon Bihar and Biharis.

Now, there is a sense of pride. Bihar was mostly in news for all wrong reasons. Now, people have started taking positive view on Bihar. There has been a significant turnaround in the state under the leadership of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

This is a remarkable change. In 1999 or 2000 most people, including me, were not hopeful that things would change. And I never thought that many of those people of Bihar, who had moved out of the state for better job opportunities, would start returning back to their homeland. Things are totally different now.

Once Bihar had been criticised

by CAG for poor utilisation of MNREGA funds, but within a year you have won two national level awards for excellent work in MNREGA. How you have been able to improve the situation to such an extent?

One has to understand that MNREGA scheme was launched in 2006. This scheme has been open to criticism everywhere because it involves huge amount of money and your implementing agencies are gram panchayats, which are really large in numbers. In Bihar, there are more than 8,400 gram panchayats.

Definitely it was a gargantuan task to manage this scheme. It was a problem and CAG had done a performance audit on request of Ministry of rural development, Government of India. They pointed out few things, which were not proper. But I have always admitted at every platform that MNREGA had problems of middlemen and corruption. It was a challenge. It was a big responsibility that I took up as it was entrusted to me by the Chief Minister.

In my opinion two of the most basic mantras

for successful implementation of government schemes is transparency and accountability.

As far as possible, bring all the information in public domain. Make information accessible to people, increase people’s participation and fix the responsibilities of the persons who are delivering the schemes. Since 2011-12, there have been a series of reforms from my department. It definitely takes time to come up with results. However, now I am very happy to see that things are changing. This Government of India also acknowledged our efforts by giving us an award for transparency and accountability in MNREGA work being done in Bihar.

I think that with time all the problems that are associated with MNREGA will vanish.

We are quite positive that the development plans the Government has made will ensure that Bihar becomes self sufficient in power during the next five years

You have also headed other departments in the past and presently taking care two very important ministries – Rural Development and Social Welfare.

How challenging is to develop adequate infrastructure to attract industries for fulfilment of the goals of these two ministries?

Attracting investments for industries has become an important issue now. Till few years ago we were mainly focussed on ensuring that there is improvement in law and order situation. To improve law and order we have ensured that about 83,000 miscreants have been convicted and sentenced by the courts. Road infrastructure is also a big issue. Thanks to the efforts

of this government, we now have connectivity to most of the rural areas. It used to take 8-9 hours to reach Madhubani from Patna. But now you can go in the morning and return in the evening. The things have improved. Power is at the highest of priority at present. The situation in power sector is also improving. Power availability in rural areas has increased. We are quite positive that the development plans that the Government has made will ensure that Bihar becomes self sufficient in power during the next five years. We might even become an exporter of power to other states in the country.

What sort of progress has been made in National Rural Livelihood Mission?

In 2007, the Government of Bihar had developed a programme concerning self help groups, and with the help of World Bank we initiated a programme called Jeevika. Initially, it was confined to six districts (about 44-45 blocks) and after Kosi flood, it was further extended to three more districts. Government to India also had a programme called Swarn Jayanti Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY), which was closed in January 2012. And they started a new scheme National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), which was named as Aajeevika, which is similar to Jeevika started by Government of Bihar. I think in coming years, the rural economy could start revolving around these women SHGs. At present, they are handling more than Rs 200 crore of credit. And we have more than one lakh selfhelp groups. Each group comprises of 10-12 women. By end of 2017, we plan to have about a million SHGs and we would be reaching to about 1.25 crores rural households. It’s a big thing and you can see the changes particularly the villages and tolas, where these SHGs are functioning. The confidence with which they undertake various projects is commendable. I think the best way for women empowerment is their economic empowerment, which will be achieved through NRLM. We would be covering all 534 blocks of state under NRLM. And NRLM also has one important component of skill development. Bihar has a very young population and what we lack in our state is opportunities for our youngsters. So, government under Rural Development department has to target to train about 1.5 million youth by bringing them under skill development programme. In this, we have indentified about62 traits in which we would be giving them trainMarch 2014 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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IN PERSON

ing. We would also be helping them in placement. And apart from this, Government of Bihar has set up a target to train about 1 crore young people in coming five years. We are also promoting self employment through the Rural Self Employment Training Institute (RSETI).

In RSETI any person can get training from one week to six weeks duration by availing funding through banks. After successful completion of training, bank will provide them credit so that they can start their own work.

You promised to bring the error-free list of below-povertyline people in the state, but that there is still time in that project getting completed.

Have you been able to achieve substantially on that front?

Actually, there is lot of debate going on in the correct methodology to detect the population living below poverty line. Different committees, commissions have different interpretations. The Government of India goes by the Tendulkar Committee or Saxena Committee reports and at times we have different interpretations of poverty. The Government of India has recognised that population below poverty line population in Bihar is of around 65 to 70 lakhs. But we believe that the figure is much higher. So under the instruction of Government of India, we conducted a new survey by the name of Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC), once the new list comes out, the older BPL list will become obsolete. The Food Security Programme will be based on the new BPL list.

The common man is mostly unable to benefit from welfare schemes as there are to many procedural delays and even corruption. How can technology be used to resolve such matters and ensure that the benefits reach the common man?

Earlier the Government of Bihar was unable to take adequate funds from Government of India. But now the situation has changed. We are demanding fund, but they are not able to give it. My department handles Indra Awas and MNREGA, for these two schemes, I have been writing to the Minister, Government of India, for release of more funds. But they are not able to release it on time. So this goes to prove that

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now Bihar is not only utilising the funds allocated to the state, it is even asking for second instalments. There is timely utilisation of the funds that are meant for common citizens. For instance, there is the scheme called Mukhya Mantrin Balika Cycle Yojana – this is one of the first schemes of this kind to be launched in the country. In this case the direct transfer of benefits was done to the beneficiaries.

Your personal initiatives during the Kosi Flood catastrophe were appreciated. What lessons has the State learnt about using technology to save lives in such a situation?

Till date, I think it was one of the biggest rescue operations - more than a million people were rescued from the villages and moved to secure

website, you don’t need to file an RTI for getting any information from us. I have developed online software for my own department to help us keep track the applications from common citizens. There are people who come to meet me. I can track their application and give unique ID to it. Then, whatever instructions I give is sent to the applicant through an automatic SMS. If people ask me about the status of an application, I am able to tell them. Through IWDMS, I am able to tell them the entire file movement. I am able to see which officer is keeping the file for how many days.

How challenging was overhauling of sick sugar factories when you were Minister for Department of Sugarcane Development?

For the first time I have taken charge of office

“We are also Promoting Self Employment through the Rural Self Employment Training Institute (RSETI)” locations. The flood management information system, which gives alert and tracks the flow of the river, played a seminal role in helping us in managing the aftermath of the flood. There is immense scope for using new technologies for water management, disaster management and helping the people.

In the ministry are you using any technology to enhance the quality of administration for monitoring the schemes?

I can proudly say that Rural Development department is using technology much more than any other department in the government.

Every minute detail of MNREGA is on the website. The information regarding job card number, payment or scheme detail, everything is online. We have been You Tube for exposing corruption. Every bit of data is recorded using laptop and transmitted to secure servers. Our programme officers in Block levels have Internet connectivity. I do video conferencing with Block Development Officers. Not only that, entire information of our department is on the

in capacity of a Minister in 2005. During that time we conceptualised and framed the Sugar Industry incentive policy for establishment of new sugar complex and capacity expansion of existing units. We took initiatives for clearing the arrear payment of sugarcane farmers of the Bihar State Sugar Corporation pending since 1997. Also, the Research and Development facility at Sugarcane Research Institute Pusa was strengthened. As a result of such initiatives, Proposals worth `20,000 cr. was received by the department for establishment of New Sugar complexes within two years after the announcement of the incentive policy. Capacity of existing sugar mills was also expanded.

We had closed sick sugar factories. I initiated the process of privatisation and we privatised two units successfully. One was in Sugholi and one in Lodia, they were successfully transferred to HPCL. Some other units were also taken by other companies. Entire system to privatise the sick government sugar factories was done way back in 2006-07. It was a big challenge.

Social Inclusion

Engineering

Social Inclusion Through Tablets N K Sinha, Commissioner, Commercial Taxes Department; Principal Secretary – Information Technology, Government of Bihar

Many Indians are finding themselves cut-off from the digital revolution that is currently underway because they lack the financial capability for gaining access to the hardware, software and the connectivity. Hence it is important that the government should take steps for ensuring that digital exclusion does not become deeply rooted in society and the common citizens, especially those from the socially backward and economically deprived sections, have equal opportunities for accessing modern devices and even going online

M

odern digital technology has brought great advantages to our society, but it has also heightened the risk of social exclusion. It is the poorest of poor who face the gravest risk of digital exclusion. Digital exclusion is something that we should not take lightly as it can lead to the perpetuation of poverty. Lack of access to the digital technology is related to deprivation of other basic items such as medical treatment, social contact, good education and appropriate housing. Digital exclusion can be an indicator of deep social and economic inequality.

An ability to know how to use any particular device is a boon by itself. However, mere access to a device and the knowledge of how it works does not guarantee learning; a learner can be like a child, who can waste hours before the dig-

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ital device without learning anything new. In our view, it is the “social envelope” in which the device comes that is more important than just the hardware and the software. The “social envelope” is the factor that relates to critical needs of the rural population to whom the device is being provided.

Taking Digital Technology to the Grassroots Levels Today we are living in a world which is growing ever “smaller” and where, as a result, it would seem to be easier for us to come up with hardware and software solutions that are not only small enough to be held in the hand, they are also reasonably priced and versatile.

The Government of Bihar recognizes the fact that digital technology is capable of delivering changes unimaginable. We see computer proficiency as a fundamental learning skill. In the initial stages the poorest citizens could be provided tablet devices that can provide them the facility of some fundamental learning skills and information on most critical social, financial, and healthcare related issues. The point is that if the tablet device has the qualities that will enable it to serve certain needs of the local population, it will be deemed useful by the common citizens and it will serve the purpose of curbing digital divide.

A Paradigm Shift Such innovatively designed tablets will serve as vehicles for engineering a paradigm shift for jumping straight away from illiteracy to digital literacy. These devices can serve as tools for providing digital literacy to 3 crore households. The Department of Information Technology in Bihar is currently working for developing a project for promoting digital literacy and social inclusion through tablets. Under this programme, innovatively designed tablets will be distributed to women from poorer sections of society.

Social Inclusion

These will not be ordinary tablets that we find in the market today. These tablets will be incorporated with a range of features that will make the devices most useful for rural women.

The home screen will have apps that are tailored to serve certain needs. For instance, there will be apps for telling the village women how to teach the children, or how to cook, or how to find the remedy for some common ailments. By launching the relevant app, the village woman will be able to ask questions in her own language and the tablet will provide the answer in the same language.

The variety of learning tips and information that will be provided through the tablets might not seem too important for someone who is living in urban areas, where all kinds of services are available, but it will certainly seem helpful to the rural folks whose options are quite limited.

N K Sinha

Training for Digital Literacy We realize that the women will have to be taught how to use the tablet and how to ask the proper question. For that we can rope in the Common Service Centres, Aasha workers, and volunteer groups like Jeevika and others. In any case, our experience shows that the illiterate village women are capable of picking up the skills for operating a tablet within a matter of few hours. Common Service Centres, Aasha workers, and volunteer groups like Jeevika, can be given some preliminary training about the ways by which they have to impart training to the village women. In other words, they will serve as the master-trainers.

We have already tried to train the illiterate village women in use of modern digital technology and in this we have achieved some astounding results. In fact, we have now engineered a paradigm shift from the idea that there should first be literacy and only then there can be digital literacy. We have gone about exposing these totally illiterate women from Jeevika groups in Bihar to tablets for one or two days and we are surprised with the results. These women are capable of mastering the art of using tablets in a matter of few hours. We are thrilled by the response. Each one of these ladies is able to operate and navigate through the tablets.

The village women are highly enthused and willing to use the tablets in their day-to-day lives for dealing with issues likes education, animal husbandry, agriculture practices, healthcare related information, etc. They don’t need to read the text in order to navigate through the tablets.

They can navigate by seeing the icons that are present on the tablet’s home page. But we also must realise that only three-four items will not be needed for this device to start playing an important role in the life of the village women.

The device will have to be incorporated with hundreds of applications. But if the village women are not able to shift through the maze of hundreds of these applications, then they will find themselves uninterested in this campaign for digital literacy of women through which we also intend to enhance their quality of life and their literacy levels.

Once the village women get trained, they can help in imparting training to other women living in their villages. Thus the system becomes self perpetuating, as one set of women train another set of women, and so on and so forth, till complete digital inclusion is achieved.

Voice Activated Systems So what we are planning to have in the tablets is voice activated presentation of choice of icons on the tablets. For instance, if some lady tells

in Hindi, “Pashu-Palan,” then, depending on the accent of the woman, the device may be able to recognise that she needs information on ‘Pashu-Palan,’ or ‘Pashu-Chikitsa,’ or something else, which are all similarly sounding words and the relevant apps will become highlighted on the home screen of the device. With this method it will be easier for the lady to find out what application is best suited for her needs.

The tablet that we are envisaging will also have the dialling facility to put the village women in touch with the call centre, where trained workers can answer their queries on agriculture, healthcare, education and any other issue. It is indeed a fact that good communication helps us to know one another in a better way and grow in unity. The walls which divide us can be broken down only if we are prepared to listen and learn from one another. The tablet in the hands of the women living in the remotest areas will be helpful in not only providing the right answers to the village women, it will also serve the propose of bridging the urban and rural areas closer.

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17

Social Inclusion

It is possible that the lady may not be in a position to dial the doctor. So the tablet should have features that will allow it to understand voice commands for dialling particular numbers. When the lady says, “dial the doctor,” in her local language, the tablet will connect her to the call centre that has access to the doctor. Also, we are moving away from text based inputs in the device to voice based, picture based and video based inputs. In case of someone being sick in the lady’s house, there can be some symptoms that she may not be able to decipher or describe. The requirement would then be that with very little bandwidth, which may be provided either through GPRS or WiFi, available at the nearest Panchayat Bhawan, she should be able to transmit the picture or video of the sick person to the doctor. The doctor also may give instructions online by sending pictures or videos.

Under the National Mission for Education Through ICT we have already developed a software that is capable of facilitating high quality video conferencing even in situations where very little bandwidth is available. This system can be used for providing Internet facility to these tablets.

The Government of Bihar recognizes the fact that digital technology is capable of delivering changes unimaginable Information on the Fingertips The tablet will have other features for receiving text based messages regarding agriculture, weather and other things on which the lady might need information. Then there is the issue of fulfilling some of the most common needs –

like booking a train ticket. How does a lady in a village book a train ticket by using the tablet?

The call centre is available. She can simply tell the device, “Connect to train ticket booking,” in her local language. She will be taken to the call centre where she can request for the train ticket to be booked. How does she pay for the ticket?

We have already issued biometric cards under the e-Shakti initiative. There can be integration between the e-Shakti cards and the tablet so that the money for the train ticket can be directly debited to her bank account.

It is also important to ensure that the tablet has biometric authentication systems so that those people who do not have the authority to use the tablet are unable to access it. This will also help us ensure that there is less likelihood of theft or deliberate sale of these tablets. As of now we have lot of work to do in terms of developing the right kind of software and the content that can go inside these tablets. Once we are able to do that we will be able use these devices to revolutionise the rural areas of Bihar by digitally empowering the village women, many of whom are illiterate, through these devices.

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Digital Literacy

Training Programme in Digital Literacy for Illiterate Women Conducted during 10-13 February 2014 at BELTRON Bhavan, Patna

The tablets have specifically been configured for the use of academically illiterate and semi-literate women of Bihar. As a proof of concept, training programmes were conducted for two sets of women from different JEEViKA groups. The ease and speed with which these women were able to understand and learn to use the little computers (STAMP tablets) was not only amazing but an eye-opener for all concerned.

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Digital Literacy

In a training programme of one and a half days, the women were able to operate the STAMP tablets and learn to comfortably navigate to different folders to select and run the videos of their choice. It was the unanimous opinion of all these women that these devices would be extremely useful for them and their children.

March 2014 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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IN PERSON

N K Sinha

Commissioner, Commercial Taxes Department; Principal Secretary – Information Technology, Government of Bihar

Bihar is on

Cusp of IT Revolution

Y

ou have often expressed the opinion that time is now ripe for IT Industry to grow rapidly in the State of Bihar.

Today the IT industry is mainly concentrated in cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, etc., what makes you think that Bihar can replicate the success of these cities?

Today, every state in India is trying to come up with policies that will lead to higher investments in the IT sector. Due to heightened global competition many IT companies are looking towards cost cutting and efficient operations. Cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune are becoming increasingly high cost operations with high attrition rate of employees. It is now quite obvious to everyone that the requirement of alternative locations for expansion and relocation of the IT industry, in next couple of years, will be quite massive.

Bihar enjoys the advantage of being home to a large number of educated youth who have the kind of skills that the modern Information Technology industry requires. The State has a good opportunity to attract IT investment by leveraging its huge young talent pool and the cost advantage. The Bihar Government’s focus is to create an enabling IT Eco-System within the next two years, to take advantage of this immediate opportunity.

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“Bihar enjoys the advantage of being home to large number of educated youth who have the kind of skills that the modern Information Technology industry requires. The State has a good opportunity to attract IT investment by leveraging its huge young talent pool and the cost advantage,” says N K Sinha

IN PERSON

The Government of Bihar has formed an ‘IT Mission 2020’ for ensuring the rapid growth of IT sector in the state. Throw some light on this Mission.

First of all, let me give you the background information on the ‘IT Mission 2020’. The Government of Bihar has formed a Core Committee, which has visited Bangalore and met a large number of people ranging from top executive of IT firms, Office bearers of different IT associations and senior officials of academic institutions, to find out what steps can be taken in Bihar for developing the IT industry. A Mentor Group has also been formed to advise on the policy initiatives that the Government of Bihar can undertake for promoting IT industry. The Mentor Group emphasized that the IT industry can grow only around a conducive Eco-System and not in isolation. Therefore it is imperative to develop an IT eco-system with a holistic approach, comprising suitable Urban Development (city infrastructure), Tourism & Development of Technical Institutions. Based on the suggestions of the mentor group and information gathered from various stakeholders of the IT industries, the ‘IT Mission 2020’ has been developed to ensure sizable IT investment in Bihar in next 2 to 7 years. The ‘IT Mission 2020’ aims to set an ambitious, but realistic, target for growth of the IT sector in.

A list of parameters has been suggested in the ‘IT Mission 2020.’ What is the idea behind these parameters?

We need to monitor the pace at which we are able to develop the IT industry in Bihar. The parameters will allow us to do that. Some of the important parameters that we can use are related to revenue targets. We can set annual revenue targets that have to be achieved by the domestic IT industry. We have to ensure that we create world class IT Park and buildings with large amount of space every year.

Jobs can be the most important parameter. We have to ensure that the domestic IT industry is generating certain amount of jobs every year. It is also important that we keep a keen eye on the social impact and the value addition that the IT industry is brining to Bihar.

There is today a scarcity of world class space for IT companies to set up their development centres. What steps are you taking to ensure rapid development of infrastructure in Patna?

able to get first few call centres/BPOs/KPOs on the condition that they would start operation in Bihar within 6 months of agreement with minimum 80 percent employees from Bihar, and out of these 80 percent employees, 30 percent have to be women. Such a policy will encourage the IT industry to come to Bihar and set the basic environment for Patna as an emerging IT destination

In fact, one of the top priorities for Government of Bihar is to create ready to move in space with world class facilities and ambience at an affordable rate. This is the most important requirement for growth of IT industry.

To start with the core group has advised that the government should construct at least 5 lakh sq.ft. IT park at prime location in Patna, with world class IT infrastructure.

There has also been a talk of the Government of Bihar setting up an Incubation centre for enabling the local entrepreneurs to start flourishing. Please tell us about it.

Even if you are rapidly able to grow the much needed infrastructure, the leading IT companies may take time to enter. The IT industry is already flourishing in major cities, why should they come to a new place?

Yes, we are planning to have an IT incubation centre of 100 seats. This incubation centre will have the modern facilities that a new IT entrepreneur will require and will be given to start-up entrepreneurs at very nominal charge of about `5000 per seat. The management of this incubation centre can be vested with STPI or an Engineering college.

This will encourage young entrepreneurs

“Emerging Cities Like Patna offer Excellent Advantage of Good Infrastructure and much Lower Costs” As I already said, the IT industry is now looking to cut costs due to global competition.

Emerging cities like Patna offer excellent advantage of good infrastructure and much lower costs. It is also a fact that the Call centre/ BPO/KPO industries are place agnostic in the sense that, given proper ready to move in space, stable power and bandwidth, they are self sufficient and do not need other supporting IT industry. Therefore they can easily migrate to any city based on cost advantage and availability of human resources. We understand that in order to set the environment for growth of higher end IT industry, like Software Development or ESDM, it is important to offer ready to move in space with basic facilities absolutely free for say three years. By offering free space we will be

to start their work in Patna, thus leading to the development of a healthy base of small/ medium IT enterprises. Bihar Government could bear the capital and operational cost on the IT incubation center. Some IT industry expert must be attached to the IT incubation center to work as mentor for young entrepreneurs. It will help in developing Bihar own entrepreneurial strength and send positive message to IT industry. Also, in order to develop local entrepreneurs and the IT business in Bihar, preferential market access of government business could be made available to local entrepreneurs as a matter of policy. There is also a proposal for setting up an autonomous ‘Angel Fund’ through a SPV to encourage local young IT entrepreneurs.

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IN PERSON

Abhayanand

Director General of Police, Bihar

Modern Technology is Must for Better Policing “The induction of new technology has led to vast improvement in the way the police functions today. We should try to bring in even better technology in the times to come,� says Abhayanand. In conversation with Mohd Ujaley

Y

ou joined Police Service in 1977 and occupied several key positions during your career of four decades.

Your contribution in academics as well as in policing has been appreciated. In your opinion what are the major areas which need our focus?

In last 8-9 years, we have been able to make substantial progress in the area of law and order. Police being part of the government has the mandate to restore peace and order in conjunction with justice. Earlier kidnapping for ransom was a major issue afflicting the state of Bihar. In fact, it was an issue all along during the election campaign also. We wanted this menace of kidnapping for ransom to be checked at all cost. Now this menace has been curbed to a large extent. The next area that we need to focus on is corruption; we need to stem the tide of black money that keeps getting generated in our country. Black money is the root cause of

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much of this country’s problems; we need to curb all instances of it.

Every social indicator shows that there has been a significant improvement in law and order. But cyber crime is one area where we are seeing many new challenges.

Is the police in Bihar equipped to deal with instances of cyber crime?

Technology keeps evolving all the time and to some extent, police forces are not able to keep pace with the advanced systems that some cyber criminals are deploying. But during the last two years we have made some serious efforts to train our personnel in dealing with cyber crime. I am happy to say that now we have with us things like cyber forensic and data analytics. We have also entered into the area of big data analytics with the purpose of countering the menace of cyber crime.

Some pockets of state have been affected by Maoist related violence in the past. What is your strategy to control them and how

successful have you been?

Maoist problem is a very old. It has changed shape and has expanded into various parts of the country. We first tried to understand the problem so taht we may be able to device the right kind of policing solutions to combat it. The government has also come up with policies for tackling Maoism. The police is trying to deal with the problem by improving its intelligence gathering operations. We want to ensure that in the name of Maoist operations, we do not end up harming the innocent citizens who are living in that area. The better the intelligence, the more effective will be the police response.

You have spoken in length about the strict adherence to Indian Penal Code (IPC) while dealing with the cases related to women or women modesty. Where do you put Bihar when it comes to women security?

According to statistics and data, we are fairly well placed in terms of women security. I am saying this after taking into account the fact that this is such a populous state and still even when it comes

IN PERSON

and order, follow this system. What is your view on this issue?

I wholeheartedly agree with this concept of separating investigation from normal day-to-day policing. In fact, I have already implemented it in the towns of Patna, Bhagalpur and Gaya on experimental basis. The results of such separation have been quite good. Many more crimes have been detected with cooperative or team effort of the officers. Earlier what we use to do was to get case investigated by a particular Investigating Officer (IO), but team work of Investigating Officers give definitely better results than individual IO.

Modern technology is playing seminal role in the area of governance. Do you agree that in policing technology has huge role to play?

“We have Entered into the Area of Big Data Analytics for Development of Effective Systems for Better Law and Order� to women’s perception about their own security, they put us ahead. The very fact that in places like Patna, Gaya or Bhagalpur which are our towns in the state, you can find girls moving around late in the evening and moving not necessarily with their parents, this only indicates that the fear among the women and the girls are not as much as it used to be about 10 years ago.

Most experts on policing agree that India cannot have high quality law and order until there is extensive policing reform. What is your view of the issue of police reforms? What steps do you think should be most urgently taken by the government?

At a very personal level, I would suggest that if

the purpose of the police reform is to improve our law and order situation then a better idea would be to go for reforms of the entire criminal justice system. If the purpose is to just improve upon the functioning of the police, a police reform concept is useful. Right now, I personally feel that the country needs criminal justice system reform in which police would be part of that reform process. And just police reform does only a part of job. The entire job of reform has to be done through criminal justice system.

Experts are advocating a separation of the investigative machinery from the rest of the policing system. Many advanced countries, which have better law

The induction of new technology has led to vast improvement in the way the police functions today. We should try to bring in even better technology in the times to come. We have practiced it in the area of forensic science and in the area of gathering intelligence, interrogation of the people, and analysis of data that we have collected. Huge data is collected every day and that needs to be warehouse, processes and analysed. We have already entered into this area.

In his book Imagining India, Nandan Nilekani talks about population dividend which India enjoys because of its younger population, but one of the challenges is to channelize their energy in right direction. Since you have been guiding our youth with various initiatives, Let me ask you, in your opinion are we on right track or do we need to shift the gear?

I think shifting gear is the very mild word; this nation needs very drastic change. Our system wherein we groom young children lacks imaginative process; it is incapable of inculcating the inquisitive spirit in our children. I have been in the field of teaching young people and guiding them in the fields of Physics and Mathematics. As a teacher, I know that the youngsters should not be made dependent on bookish learning; they have to be encouraged to think for themselves. That is what we have not been able to impart in our young minds through whatever the process we have in this country.

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IN PERSON

Dr S Siddharth

Secretary, Urban Development & Housing Department, Government of Bihar

Smart Cards for Connecting Rickshaw Pullers, Self-Help Groups & Street Vendors “We are discussing to set up Federation of Rickshaw Pullers, Self-Help Groups and Street Vendors.

They will all be electronically interconnected. Everybody would get a smart card, information of rickshaw puller or vendor will be electronically connected. The services of microcredit will be available through an electronic card. This is going to be one of the first such projects of the country,� says Dr S Siddharth. In conversation with Mohd Ujaley

Y

ou have served in the Ministry of IT and Communication, Government of India and have good exposure on the state of IT and Communication in the country. In your opinion, has Information Technology been able to revamp our governance system?

Yes, I worked at Government of India in 2002, and I did have a good exposure on the state of IT and Communication in the country.

The progress has been so fast that the e-Governance system has not been able to catch up with that pace. The most important thing that

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IN PERSON

technology has brought in is increased transparency in governance and making information easily available to the people. That has been the biggest challenge and achievement.

Today, more and more information is being demanded by the people. The e-Governance system has been created to cater to these demands. And, it is a good sign for a healthy democracy.

Housing is one of the most essential things for people and increasing urbanisation creates demand for these facilities. Doesn’t urbanisation require heavy investment in e-Governance also to streamline the process?

I agree with you, basically there are two wings of urbanisation: one is regulatory and another is development. Development involves infrastructure road, sewage and water supply.

Regulatory involves approval of building plans, permissions, etc. It gives a shape to the whole township how it evolves? As far as e-Governance is concerned, regulatory plays a very important role because people have to seek for permissions, licences, approvals, etc.

Every work has fixed time-frame also, which have to be complied with. True, this part of urbanisation requires heavy investment in e-Governance.

How department has been able to use Information Technology for the better administration and integration?

Presently, we have a portal called ‘Nagar Seva,’ which has few modules like grievance-handling system and property-tax module. The grievance-handling system is a module which has a back-end call centre, but the canvas of the department is so huge that we decided that we should have an integrated module to cater to all departments. And, there should be cross sharing of information across all the departments. So, we came up with the project called e-Municipality. It’s got 22 modules in it. And, it has everything right from accounts to building plan approvals, birth and death registration, grievance handling, human-resource development and solid-waste management. The development has already started. We expect to roll it out on April 1. The most important part of the system is that it has got inter linkages between

each other. Suppose, something is being done with solid-waste management, it will automatically reflect in finance module, and similarly, something with building-plan approval will have automatic reflections in the master plan.

It is a system where people can know about the status of their requests. For sure, it leads to better monitoring and administration.

There are some missionmode projects of the central government. How far Bihar has been able to utilise the mission-mode project such as JNNURM? As far as JNNURM is concerned, we started late but we had late-comer advantage such as

can retrieve information through mobiles, is something we should aim at. As far as the younger generation is concerned, they have an access to internet and computers, but the other generation did not have the chance to sit on the computer.

Secondly, is infrastructure deficiency, although a lot of things from law and order to infrastructure, power etc. have improved over the years. However, we still have to heavily focus on infrastructure development for attracting industries, investments and raising the standard of living in the state. Third, is skill development and education, we need to train our people for various skills. In education, we have made a tremendous progress, however, skilled manpower is still a challenge for us.

“Literacy is Still a Challenge for us. We should move from Computer Literacy to Mobile Literacy” availability of better and tested technologies.

Today, we have centralised control room for tracking the buses, their uses and security system for women. We also got approval from Nirbhaya Fund for setting up of CCTV cameras and other security systems for safety and security. In urban transport, we are in the process of approving an integrated traffic light system in the city. It will be based on centralised control room and will have automatic centralised control of all traffic lights of the city. So, we will be able to monitor the traffic density. And, in case of any Dharna or any disturbances on the road, traffic can be diverted.

Urban Development & Housing Department is a huge department and has important role to play in the reform agenda of the state. What are the major challenges, you see in the state?

First, literacy is still one of the challenges. For using modern technology it is desired that you understand and use technology for bringing best of it. I think, we should move from computer literacy to mobile literacy. Any system, which can integrate with mobile and people

There is huge requirement of skilled manpower in various sectors in the state.

Department was awarded for outstanding work in the area of skill development, now you are focusing on interconnecting the self-help groups, rickshaw pullers and street vendors.

What progress has been made on that front?

Yes, we are discussing to set up Federation of Rickshaw Pullers, Self-Help Groups and Street Vendors. They will all be electronically interconnected. Everybody would get a smart card, information of rickshaw puller or vendor will be electronically connected. The services of micro-credit will be available through an electronic card. This is going to be one of the first such projects of the country. We are planning to roll out within 10 days.

Apart from that, as you mentioned we have got award for skill development. In this area, we had recently sanctioned schemes for upgradation of 1,402 slums across the state. We are also focusing on housing for poor various schemes are being planned for the same.

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IN PERSON

Pratyaya Amrit

Secretary, Road Construction Department and Information & Public Relation Department, Government of Bihar

Better Roadways for Improved

T

Quality of Life

oday there seems to be an enabling and conducive environment for development in Bihar. In your opinion, how have things have improved over the years?

There are two ways to look at this. If you ask me as an officer, I personally believe that irrespective of the time and the government that is in power, if an officer wants to work and deliver, there is nothing that can stop him.

Earlier also there were officers who were keen on doing good work in the state. The only difference is that the atmosphere is conducive in a sense that receptivity and acceptability of ideas are better and high. Therefore, things are happening in the state if you see post 2006 especially in the field of roads, health, law and order and education. Although the officers were also working earlier, but the enabling environment post 2006 has been conducive for development.

You have been responsible for turning around the Bihar State Bridge Construction Corporation.

In 2011, Government of India awarded you with Prime Minister’s Excellence award in Public Administration. Please tell us about the work that you did in the Bihar State Bridge Construction Corporation?

When I joined Bihar State Bridge Construc-

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“For any engineering organisation, it’s very important to have thrust on capacity building in modern technologies,” says Pratyaya Amrit

IN PERSON

tion Corporation I had not imagined that this would be the turnaround story. I had been given a clear mandate to reform this is a defunct and sick organisation. Can we do something to make it like Uttar Pradesh Bridge Construction Corporation? And I am a student of arts, not science. So for me it was a very interesting experience. This is the beauty of the IAS that there is lot of variety in work that you do. We followed a two pronged strategy. First of all we completed all the pending bridge projects. Secondly we tried to bag many new orders to ensure that the organisation’s long term future was secured. We ensured that there was the right person at right position in the company. There was decentralisation of power so that decisions could be taken quickly. We started mobile inspector software. We enabled our engineers with GPS enabled phones and vehicles were outsourced. The entire design part was outsourced. We also introduced the concept of supervision consultants. Lot of thrust was given to quality, monitoring and field visit. I must have travelled more than 40,000 km in three-and-a-half years. Between April 2006 and June 2008 all the pending bridge projects were completed. We also bagged projects of almost `6000 crore and started working on that. From 2006 to till date, we have constructed more than 1500 bridges.

You are using technologies like mobile inspector or android applications for monitoring various road construction projects across the state. Please tell us about that.

This idea of mobile inspector software is very unique and new. We were the first ones to try it in the country. It so happened that I realised that the number of bridges being executed was more than 200 and we were working for the one fourth of our strength. In any infrastructure project, it’s very important that quality check must be conducted through a field visit.

One of the complaints in initial days I used to get was that many of the engineers mostly stationed at headquarter and never used to go out. So we implemented the idea that any engineer on field visit must click photos with GPRS camera and send it to the central server.

To click the photograph, they had to reach the spot. This made field visits important. Once they used to click the photograph and send me in a customised format, we started getting the

real time report sitting in Patna or anywhere else. This initiative also led to vast decrease in complaints from the MLAs.

You have also created a lab in Patna. What is the role being played by this lab?

For any engineering organisation, it’s very important to have thrust on capacity building.

This is one area where things are changing on a day-to-day basis. So, we got a state-of-the-art lab and computerised everything. We sent lot of our engineers abroad and in other parts of India a part of incentive package. I still remember when this Mumbai bridge-Worli Sea Link was inaugurated, I sent 12 of my engineers for three days. They were taken around and a presentation was given by Mumbai State Road Development Corporation. We have grabbed these opportunities. We have in-house train-

have seen improvement from 2006 to till date, but this is one thing which needs lot of funds and thanks to the ADB funding and some support from World Bank for making lot of bridges. It’s a conscious effort of the government that for last five years or more, we have consistently got almost 20 percent budget of the state government. And more money means more and better roads and definite improvement in this figure.

Very recently chief minister said “Our next target will be to make travel time from any village in the state to the capital Patna by roads within 6 hours,” How you are going to do it. Isn’t it huge task?

We must understand the background of this. I am looking after the road construction depart-

“There Must be

Decentralisation of Power so that Decision Making Gets done Efficiently and Quickly“ ing system. And I think in Road Construction department, more than 100 engineers have been to US, Canada, Singapore, Australia and other places. This has hugely impacted their style of working. I can proudly say that many of my engineers are quite well conversant with the latest techniques and thoughts. For instance, we are executing public private partnership (PPP) projects. In Bihar in 2004, people could not distinguish between pothole and road, but today we are taking about PPP and have more than 3000 crore projects underway.

The road density in Bihar has gone up to 126.13 km from the 111-km mark of 2008, but it is still below the national average of 322.77 km. What are you doing to bring improvement in the road density of the State?

We have worked consciously on this issue and

ment, there is another department that looks after rural works department. What CM meant was now there is lot of thrust on rural roads and he has sanctioned lot of money. So, what he is telling is that once these roads are constructed, then it would take less time to reach from one block to another block or Patna.

With the number of many bridges which we have constructed or are in the pipeline, things will definitely improve. We are going for Rs 500 crore work from Gopalganj to Sahibhganj in Muzaffarpur. Now, it takes four hours to reach Gopalganj from Patna, once this bridge is constructed, it will take you two-and-a-half hours.

Similarly in Aurangabad, we are making an Rs 500 crore bridge. People use to take 9-10 hours to go to Saharsa. Now, it’s taking four-and-ahalf hours. So, it’s absolutely achievable. And I think five hours target is very reasonable. And I think in maximum two years, it should be achieved.

March 2014 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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IN PERSON

Hukum Singh Meena

Secretary, Department of Revenue & Land Reforms and Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Government of Bihar

Technology for Integration

H

ow has been your overall experience, and how do you look at Information Technology in modern governance?

When I joined the service in 1992, things were at its nascent stages every process was manual.

Now, there is an increasing trend towards using IT applications in the service-delivery system because it smoothens the process, brings transparency and puts accountability, and therefore to some extent, limits the corruption in the system. For example, in my department, that is, revenue and land reforms the biggest challenge is to update the land records. Earlier, the process was so cumbersome and manual that by the time we updated the entire record, the previous data had already become obsolete, as the whole process used to take about 30 to 40 years. However, with modern technology, one can complete the survey within three years. We are updating the records, and have planned to complete it within three years.

The government is doing aerial survey of the land, and there is a plan to use technology to make the process error-free and make it people friendly, how has the development been on that front?

Yes, we are using modern technologies to make the process error-free and people friendly. Aerial photography with ground truthing is being used to survey the land. On pilot basis, five districts

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In the Department of Revenue & Land Reforms we are incorporating modern technologies to provide error free services to the people

IN IN PERSON PERSON

have already been covered, and now we are planning to move to other districts too. We are still at initial stage, so the data which have already been captured, processed and verified are yet to come in public domain. By using high technology, we are aiming to achieve fours things: first, people should have access to their revenue maps and land records from any part of the country, secondly, the data must be linked with registry offices, so that the moment a person sells a piece of land, the record should automatically be updated, third, no one should be able to do fraud as system will not permit to sell a piece of land parcel if it is not in the name of the seller. As of now, if a person wants to sell a piece of land, he needs to submit the certified copy saying that he holds the land and wants to sell it. On the basis of certified copy, registry office starts the process of execution of sale deed. In the present system, there are certain grey areas, like the records are not available with the registry office. So, whatever records a person submits, registry office takes decision on that. And sometimes, it is quite possible that somebody may play the mischief with the system, for example, there are four brothers who have not divided the ancestral property, one of them can sell the land by submitting a false affidavit stating that he has only two brothers.

And, it has turned to be a usual problem in the state. However, now with the help of technologies, everything is being done automatically and online. Fourth, online mutation, mutation means cancelling the land in seller’s name, and entering it into buyer’s name. It is a very lengthy process and also generates lot of land disputes.

But with the online process, as soon as one registers a piece of land in the name of somebody, the mutation takes place automatically.

Use of modern technologies for streamlining the process is indeed commendable, however, what about the infrastructure?

Do you have adequate infrastructure in place and skilled staff to handle this?

As far as infrastructure is concerned, we have already constructed about 203 modern record rooms where the data will be stored at the Anchal level. Also, we have put Wide Area Network (WAN), internet connectivity and other basic things in place and a technical person has been assigned to handle it. We call it Kisan Seva Kendra― it is already operational in 203 blocks, and by June end, all 534 blocks will be covered.

All the records have been digitised, and it is now available online.

At the block level things have improved, however, challenge lies with villages. We need to provide good connectivity and adequate power supply to villages. Also, available skilled manpower is not adequate in number. We have requested SC/ST Welfare Department to train people to serve our purpose. After doing aerial survey, we can’t use traditional ways to handle the data, so we need trained skilled manpower.

Banka, Nawada, Jamui and West Champaran have dense forests; aerial survey may not give the best results, so how have you planned to cover these districts?

The four districts which you have mentioned have more than 40 to 50 percent coverage of forest. Initially, we decided to opt for the

What are the major initiatives the department has taken or planning to take?

Getting information of the land is very difficult, so we have introduced the MIS system of reporting. Under the system, we have given passwords to the field offices. They are supposed to fill it up on daily basis. This has helped us in updating the land records.

Secondly, we are planning to make a very exciting innovation in the future and that is the disaster management through the digitised data. As soon as we complete this aerial survey, we will have XYZ co-ordinates. Scientifically, this information is very helpful for understanding and the management of the frequent floods. Bihar loses major revenue in flood management. With the help of this technology, it will be easier to understand the level of major rivers and requirement of immediate evacuation or relief. It is all about linking all the digitised data to the disaster management. We are

“We need to provide good connectivity and adequate power supply to villages” manual method, but when we have given this offer to the agencies, they surveyed the field and presented a technical report which says that about 50 to 60 percent survey will be done aerially and the rest manually. So, for these four districts, it is going to be both aerial and manual mapping.

Large numbers of cases of land disputes are pending in various courts in Bihar. What are you doing to reduce the dispute?

We have taken reports from the districts and there are about 8,000 cases in our Public Grievance Redressal Cell. I have analysed the data, and basically they are of two types. One is that plot has been sold to more than one person, while another is that farmers don’t know about the boundaries of their land. The first problem will be taken care of as soon as we integrate the registration and revenue offices. We have already put records of nine districts on the website, and land disputes have substantially gone down in these districts. I feel, as soon as revenue management becomes transparent and available to every person, the land disputes will reduce sharply.

supplying data to 9-10 departments. The department like forest may use it to check how much deforestation has taken place on a particular day by superimposing the present satellite data with the survey data. Similarly, the Road Construction Department is already using it for the information of encroachment area. And Water Resources Department is using it for the information of catchment area, and if a dam is washed away then in which way the run-off will take place.

It is hard to find the actual status of a particular co-operative society in the state. What are you doing to streamline them?

We have about nine thousand co-operative societies. Their accounts are not in proper order. It is true that nobody can find the actual status of a particular co-operative society. We are planning to put all the co-operative societies on computerised system so that we can monitor it from the central server. Right now, it is at a nascent stage. At the end of this, or the next financial year, we will be in a position to implement it.

March 2014 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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IN PERSON

Chanchal Kumar

Secretary, Building Construction Department, and Art, Culture & Youth Department, Government of Bihar

Building New

Infrastructure in Bihar

Y

ou have been in Chief Minister’s office from 2005 to August 2012. What kind of transformation has Bihar seen during the last few years?

“The improved road connectivity to remotest villages in Bihar has enabled the rural population to access government benefits more easily,� says Chanchal Kumar. In conversation with Mohd Ujaley

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The state government has taken many new initiatives for improving law and order. The improvement in law and order has given confidence to the common man; it has also enabled a series of new investments to come in the IT sector and other sectors. There has been substantial improvement in education and healthcare. The infrastructure sector, like roads and electricity, there has been significant advances.

The vision was to connect all the villages with population of up to one thousand, but now the State Government has gone a step ahead and is now connecting habitations of up to 250 to 500 also. The improved road connectivity to remotest villages in Bihar has enabled the rural population to access government benefits more easily. The agriculture produce can be brought to the market efficiently because the transaction cost is decreased. More than 2.11 lakh teachers have been appointed to improve the quality of education in rural areas. Many new hospitals have been built to provide free and subsidized room to the citizens. The quality of life in all parts of Bihar has become much better as a result of these initiatives.

IN PERSON

Please tell us about the work that you are doing in the Building Department?

Before the year 1982, Road Construction, Building Construction and Rural Engineering Organisation were all under the Public Works Department (PWD). In the administrative view, Public Works Department was split into three different departments named: Road Construction Dept., Building Construction Dept. and Rural Engineering Organisation Department by the Cabinet Secretariat and Co-ordination Department’s. Our main objective is to plan and design building network to provide optimised connectivity to residential and non-residential government buildings of different departments. We also take care of construction, renovation, upgradation and maintenance of residential and nonresidential government buildings of different departments. We try our best to complete every construction project on time. Many new projects have been started, like construction and expansion of legislative assembly and secretariat building. These projects are progress-

page located at - http://eniwas.bih.nic.in/ is fairly simple to understand. Frequent inspection, training, proper utilization of human resources, and inspire the officials with great sense of enthusiasm, connecting and visualizing for multiple latest techniques are the basic instinct for development of our organization.

Problems and grievances of staff are being addressed through efficient and scientific manner.

You have worked in many different departments in Bihar government for many years.

What are the main challenges that you see in the State?

If there are challenges in Bihar, there are also the opportunities. It is the job of an administrator to turn a potential challenge, into a potential opportunity. This is already happening in Bihar. We have brought many reforms in critical sectors like education, healthcare, social welfare, infrastructure, etc. The condition of roads is much better. The urban local bodies have become more efficient and now a

“e-Niwas Yojana is Bringing Transparency in the Allotment of Houses to Government Employees and Ministers” ing as per the schedule. The work for creating the Bihar Museum has already been started and the project is expected to be completed in near future.

Please provide us an overview of the e-Niwas Yojana.

The e-Niwas yojana was started with the objective of bringing transparency in the allotment of houses government employees and ministers. We are getting reports that many of the places are under illegal occupation by people. So we thought that we should have a computer based system that can keep track of all the vacant lodiging places, and people will be allowed to make bookings online. Through this process we have already allocated new houses to many deserving citizens. The home

concerted effort is being made to bring IT to all parts of the state. When I go to villages, I often ask the villagers – I ask them how much electricity they are getting. The usual response is 17hrs, 19hrs sometimes 20hrs of electricity per day. Of course, we would like electricity to be available 24 hours a day, but even if electricity is there 17 hrs to 20 hrs, it is an achievement.

You are also looking after youth and culture department. Please tell us about the work being done by this department?

Today majority of the citizens in the country are youth and it is important that we tape the energy of our young population by giving them good jobs where they can apply their

talent and take the country forward. But good jobs can only be available when the youth have good working skills. The State Government has started a programme for skill development. The department is working in a planned manner to provide basic facilities and training for the youth of Bihar. My view is that the 21st Century belongs to the young generation. About 70 percent of the total population is of the age group ranging between 15 to 30 years. Today the youth are more conscious about their feature. For the proper channelisation of the energy and vigor of the youth several activities like Sports, NCC, NSS, Scouting and different other activities are very helpful. The directorate organizes sports tournament of various discipline and age groups including NCC, NSS and scouting activities. The Directorate also provides coaching facilities to the talented sports persons in various sports discipline.

We are also making efforts to encourage and promote study and research in the fields of Music, Dance, Drama, Painting and other fine arts and applied arts.

While renovating old buildings how do you ensure that heritage and legacy of the building design is safeguarded?

The heritage and legacy of the building design are being taken care through efficient and skilled engineers, architects, interior designer etc. Their strategic, integrated approach will consolidate to manage their plans and maintaining standard of good governance and welfare state’s duty of care and affirmative result, reduce exorbitant cost of establishment.

Authorities have to demonstrate through implantation of their prescribed task within stipulated period and to do and work for the betterment of the Corporation. In addition, the establishment of fair values of assets in accordance with high accounting standards has become an intrinsic part of recognizing the commitment that can sustain the financial viability to the authorities. Frequent inspection, training, proper utilization of human resources, and inspire the officials with great sense of enthusiasm, connecting and visualizing for multiple latest techniques are the basic instinct for development of our organization.

Problems and grievances of staff/officials are being addressed through efficient and scientific manner..

March 2014 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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IN PERSON

Atul Sinha

Managing Director, Bihar State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd (BELTRON)

Bihar Aims for High Growth in

Information Technology

P

lease provide us an overview of the work of BELTRON is doing in Bihar.

Bihar State Electronics Development Corporation (BELTRON) caters to the technological needs of the government and carries out conceptualisation and implementation of IT projects for State Government Departments and corporations.

BELTRON is engaged in businesses related to Electronics, Computer goods and IT training services. BELTRON was constituted in 1978, with basic philosophy of doing some electronic work. Initially it started with the manufacturing of black and white TV, in the name of BELTRON only. In 2006, the State Government nominated BELTRON to serve as the nodal agency for IT procurement and execution of IT projects.

BELTRON started its journey as a manufacturer of black and white TV. Is there a chance that the organisation may once again diversify into the electronic products manufacturing?

We have been looking at some products that have high consumption in Bihar, essentially in the government sector. For instance, currently we are working on a project for promoting digital literacy by distribution of around 3 crore tablets to household women of Bihar. This is a huge project.

We are expecting that the manufacturers will start their units in Bihar to cater to the demand of so many tablet computing devices. BELTRON would definitely look forward to facilitating them and partnering with such manufacturing units.

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“Today it is possible for us to cater information related needs of rural population, including illiterates, through videos packed in handheld tablets. Why not do so! And bring the hitherto left over population in the mainstream of Digital revolution. Simply sending modern computing technology to the rural areas might not work, the more sensible goal is to determine how best to use technology to promote bottom-up development,� says Atul Sinha

IN PERSON

BELTRON has been a loss making body for many years, but now it has been revived. What is the current financial status of BELTRON? Yes, BELTRON has been making losses for more than three decades since it was created in 1978.

But in the last three financial years, it has made profit. The organization has been turned around completely and all the accumulated losses have also been wiped out by BELTRON. I am very happy to inform you that few days back, the Cabinet approved the End of Liquidation for BELTRON. About a decade back, along with 19 other companies of State Government, BELTRON had been put into the list of companies to be liquidated. BELTRON has now fulfilled all the criteria for coming out of the list. It is quite rare for any company to emerge out of the list of companies to be liquidated, but BELTRON has managed the feat. This is like a rebirth for the organisation and we are now even more determined to take it forward to new highs.

How did BELTRON become a profit making body from being a loss making body for decades?

I would like to credit the entire staff at BELTRON for making the company profitable. We follow a very disciplined and rather consistent and painstaking process to ensure the success of any project entrusted to us. In any government organization, taking quick and appropriate decisions is very important. And we follow this principle of taking decisions on any issue as quickly as possible. We start our work early in the morning and we work till late in the evening for completing the projects on time. Earlier new projects did not come to BELTRON as the organization was unable to complete them. But now large numbers of new projects have started coming to us as we are able to deliver on time.

What is your vision for BELTRON? I believe that BELTRON should emerge as a company that not only assists the Government of Bihar in creating the IT roadmap for the future, it should also empower and transform itself in such a way that it is in a position of executing all the IT projects for Government of Bihar, according to the roadmap. It is quite normal for most Government departments to keep evolving their IT roadmap as per their current needs, but for consistent growth and development it is important that there should be a long term vision of where we want to be, say,

in next 5 years. BELTRON can play the role of an organisation that assists various departments in the creation of their IT roadmap. This kind of a system will ensure that there is very little room for uncertainty or lack of proper planning in the IT roadmap of the departments. There will be more efficiency and the IT implementations will get executed within a set time frame.

As chairman of ICT Core Committee in Bihar what is your vision for growth of IT industry in the state?

The Government of Bihar is taking lot of steps to ensure that there is significant growth of IT industry in Bihar. We have set up highly ambitious targets. The targets relate to year wise revenue for each sector of the IT industry, building of world

how best to use technology to promote bottomup development.

What is the status of SDC and BSWAN in Bihar?

I would like to tell you that Bihar is one of the first states to have completed the State Wide Area Network (SWAN). BSWAN has been fully implemented in the SHQ at Patna, all 38 DHQs and approximately 500 BHQs. Different services such as Video Conferencing between the Government officials, IWDMS, VAT MIS and e-District are currently running successfully on BSWAN. On the other hand, State Data Centre (SDC) started little late in Bihar. But it is now days away from being inaugurated by the Chief Minister. Currently we are using the BRAIN-Data Centre (Bihar Revenue Administration Data Centre) to meet the State’s

“Bihar is all Set to Emerge as an Attractive Destination of World’s Information

Technology Companies” class IT Park and IT Building, creation of significant number of jobs and also the enhancement of many societal values. Very soon you will find many good IT companies opening up their development centres in Bihar.

The State Government is currently working on a project for distributing tablet computers to illiterate village women. What is your view of using modern digital technology for promoting social inclusion?

You see, it is important for us to find a solution to the digital divide that exists in the society.

This is because digital divide is a symptom of deeper, more important divides, related to income, development and literacy. Today it is possible for us to provide information related to healthcare, education, social factors, agriculture, animal husbandry through handheld tablets. So why not do so! Why not empower our illiterate rural women by providing them tablets that have easy to understand apps for delivering all kinds of critical information. Simply sending modern computing technology to the rural areas might not work, the more sensible goal is to determine

needs. This is also managed by BELTRON. All the important applications of Bihar government like- CTMIS, VAT MIS, e-procurement, INDMS, SSDG, e-District, etc., are running from there only.

Let me tell you that, Bihar State Wide Area Network is one of the very few networks in the country that are being used so extensively for video conferencing. More than 900 sessions are being organized every day. All the District Magistrates are doing video conferencing with the block level officers.

How are you are using e-procurement to bring in transparency and efficiency in the procurement process?

The e-procurement platform of BELTRON is serving the purpose of Bihar government quite well. A total of 17446 tenders with estimated cost of Rs. 72 thousand crores have been floated till 31st January 2014. The e-procurement system is very successfully serving all the departments of the state government. Bihar government has already issued orders that any tender worth more than 25 lakhs must compulsorily be done through the e-tendering platform. To bring even more efficiency to the system we are shortly introducing a system of e-Payments.

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IN PERSON

Please shed light on the other e-Governance initiatives that have been implemented in Bihar?

The State Government has undertaken lot of initiatives for having effective e-Governance.

However, it is possible that we have not been able to project our initiatives on the national level and that is why many people outside of Bihar don’t know about the work that has been done here.

The pilot e-District rollout has been very successful in four districts of the State, namely Nalanda, Gaya, Aurangabad and Madhubani. In this project we are providing digitally signed certificates.

A citizen does not have to go to the respective government offices for getting his work done.

They can go to the local CSC and submit their forms and collect their certificates. If they have registered their mobile number with us, they will even get an SMS alert. It is a matter of pride for us that Bihar has issued highest number of digitally signed certificates in the country. The work flow is electronic from end to end, this saves lot of paper and thereby trees. This system is bringing Bihar close to its objective of having paperless offices in the government. After successful completion and execution of the project in the first four pilot districts the scheme would be launched in rest 34 districts of Bihar.

Please provide us with an overview of e-Shakti initiative. e-Shakti project is an flagship IT initiative of Government of Bihar. This project seeks to leverage the advances in Information and Communication Technology for ensuring transparent and efficient implementation of MGNREG for the benefit of common persons, especially the rural poor of the state. The project, first of its kind in India, has introduced “Electronic Benefit Transfer” for the MNREGA workers. Under this project, demographic and biometric data of rural adult population between the ages of 18 years to 60 years is collected and after de-duplication of the data, polycarbonate based smart cards are issued to the beneficiaries. The muster roll at the work site is generated electronically after taking the biometric attendance of the beneficiaries using a Hand Held Machine supplied to field officials. Wages are calculated automatically by the software application and are credited into the linked bank accounts of the beneficiaries, thereby reducing the manual intervention and increasing the transparency in the implementation of the scheme. At present, the project has been completely rolled out in all the 23 blocks of Patna District and in the next phase

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Projects Under BELTRON [ BSWAN

[ e-Procurement

[ SecLAN

[ CTMIS

[ BRAIN-DC

[ SEC ID

[ VAT MIS

[ SDC

[ IWDMS

[ e-PDS [ e-Shakti

[ City Survillence & Dial 100

[ Vasudha Kendras (CSC)

[ e-District

[ ICT@School

[ SSDG

[ Modernisation of Prison Security

[ Jankari Call Centre

it will be rolled out in the other districts of state. A people centered Call Centre has also been started whereby people can seek information and get their grievances redressed.

What are the special features of the e-Shakti initiative? In what ways is it different from the UIDAI programme of Government of India?

Under e-Shakti project, the bank account of each and every beneficiary is being opened using “Financial Inclusion” program of the banks. This account is a “Zero Balance Account” where residents are provided with banking services at their door step. Secondly, the projects provides the facility of both online and offline authentication of the beneficiary for the purpose of marking his/her attendance unlike UID, where only online authentication has been planned. Thirdly, smart cards are being issued to each and every beneficiary while no smart cards are being issued in UID program.

Fourthly, concept of Geo fencing using the Geo Positioning by the satellites has been used to ensure that correct muster roll is generated at the work site only. Fifthly, the de-duplicated data will be used to create “Bihar State Resident Registry” that will be used later to provide benefits to eligible residents under various other schemes of the Government of Bihar. Beneficiaries would be able to avail the services of Social Welfare and PDS department by using the smart cards issued to them.

Please tell us about the City Surveillance and Dial 100 project?

This project is currently under trail run in Patna will be inaugurated by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of the State shortly. Under this project, entire city has been covered by close to 150 cameras. It is

covering almost all the main roads with cameras.

A state-of-the-art control room has been created to monitor the feed from the cameras. One important point is that we are not connecting these cameras onto the private network of any telecom operator, we have created government’s own network for connecting the cameras across the city. In case of the ‘Dial 100’ we are providing the facility of keeping track of 140 vehicles of Patna police. All the vehicles are incorporated with GPS equipments; whenever any stressed caller calls 100 number, he will get connected to police vehicle nearest to the incident through operator. Another unique point is that we have achieved the integration between the City Surveillance and Dial 100 projects, so the location of all the police vehicles and cameras can be seen on digital map of Patna in the control room. Automatic number plate recording systems (ANPR) have been installed in all roads going out of Patna to detect any particular vehicle, which may be unauthorised or stolen, moving in or out of the city.

City WiFi Project has become talk of the town. Please tell us about the Project.

This project have been conceptualized for the establishment of Mobile (Cellular) authentication based free Wi-Fi access facility for citizens of Patna over an stretch of approximately 20 Kms from Saguna More to NIIT College along Bailey Road. Students will be encouraged to access huge multimedia educational contents freely available on internet through low cost tablets or mobiles. It would also encourage common citizen to use internet and thereby improve their quality of life. It will certainly help in bridging the digital divide. Due care has been taken for the security aspect. It would be probably world’s longest WiFi stretch.

IN PERSON

Vinay Kumar

Managing Director, Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation Ltd and Director, Science & Technology, Government of Bihar

Inculcating Scientific Mindset in the Masses

Y

ou have served state in various capacities.

You were also the head of BELTRON. In your opinion what are the best ways of ensuring rapid implementation of IT in the state?

Information Technology has huge potential for Bihar. This industry can flourish in very limited amount of land and it does not require any natural resources. Over the years, many things have improved in the state, even when you look at ICT Policy and Industrial Policy, the major thrust have been given to promoting industries including IT industry in the state. But the area which we need to focus upon is development of better infrastructure, and creation of a conducive environment for private companies to flourish.

The Department of Science & Technology strives to facilitate promotion of research and development in areas of science and technology. What are the major initiatives have you taken?

We are doing lot of activities for the promotion of Science and Technology in the state. The Bihar Council on Science & Technology has established District Science Centres (DSC) and also upgrading the established ones. Our IGSCPlanetarium is functioning since 1993; we are also upgrading the equipment’s at IGSC-Planetarium which is playing an important role in the area of inculcating scientific temper among rural and urban masses. Our Bihar Remote Sensing Applications Centre (BIRSAC) is helping in assessing the natural resources management and development needs of the state by considering

“We are taking many initiatives for promoting a spirit of science and technology in the rural and urban masses,” says Vinay Kumar

an integrated development plan for the state on a regular basis. BCST is also working to establish Science Library at Government High Schools in the state. We have also established a satellite based Edusat Hub and co-located SIT in the premises of IGSC-Planetarium in association with ISRO to provide satellite based distance education to our students. We are also working on the area to establish Science City in the Patna, similarly, there is plan to open planetariumcum-science museum at Darbhanga and Gaya.

Also, we are actively working on the establishment of Astro-Tourism Circuit at Taregna (Masaurhi), Taregna Top and Khagaul and development of Aryabhatta Astronomy Activity Centre at Khagaul, Patna.

You spoke about remote sensing application centre. Have you been able to use it for managing natural resources, urban settlement and planning and in other social sectors?

Remote Sensing activities are being coordinated through the National Natural Resources

Management System (NNRMS) set up under the planning Commission which is in place for over 3 decades and ISRO serves as the nodal agency for implementing this. The Planning Committee PC-NNRMS provides guidelines through Standing Committees on different themes headed by Secretaries. For Bihar Remote Sensing Application Centre the objective is to assess the natural resources management and development needs of the state by considering an “integrated” development plan for the state on a regular basis. The centre also coordinates the establishment of GIS based spatial information infrastructure for the state in tune with national efforts. The centre has done good work in generatingregular report on existing natural resources in the state – as a bench mark for change monitoring and further development.They have been able to provide inputs in managing natural resources, urban settlement and planning.

You are also heading Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation. Please tell about initiatives that you are taking to promote tourism in Bihar?

In an effort to boost tourism in the state we are promoting lot of things such as religious Ramayana, Shakti, Sufi and Buddhist circuits. We are also promoting river cruises, bird watching activities, litchi festivals, rural tourism, Pitripaksha Mela, the ropeway in Rajgir. Our budget has also gone up and we have seen substantial increase in the numbers of tourist who visited Bihar. We are targeting over three crore tourists every year. The government is also focused on building international standard airports and accommodation, seamless road and rail connectivity to tourist sports and sites, telecommunication and electricity supply to make the experience a memorable one.

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37

BSEIDC

Concurrent Monitoring Through ICT Monitoring is a challenge for most organisations, especially when the projects that are supposed to be monitored are located at remote locations Sanjiwan Sinha, Managing Director, Bihar State Educational Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (BSEIDC)

I

38

n Bihar State Educational Infrastructure Development Corporation (BSEIDC) there are two major areas of operations where existence of remote locations and the need for concurrent monitoring have been felt. The corporation is entrusted with construction of Physical Infrastructure in Educational institutions in Government of Bihar.

There are schemes for Model School Building Constructions, Girls Hostel Building Construction, Higher Secondary School Building Construction, etc.

The number of sites spread all over Bihar number more than 1500. The Corporation has gone for a mix of centralised and decentralised models. Planning, Tendering and Payment have been centralised at headquarters. The physical execution supervision has been decentralised.

There are one Executive Engineer, 2-4 Assistant Engineers, 15-20 Junior Engineers in each of the nine Divisions of Bihar. To ensure an effective supervision system in civil works, a mobile based monitoring system has been implemented.

photograph is uploaded against each site by the Executive Engineer, Assistant Engineer and Junior Engineer concerned whenever they visit the site.

Based on above updating by the field engineers, various managerial reports have been incorporated in the software. This in turn resulted in nearly real-time reports available at headquarter for better monitoring GEO stamping ensured authenticity of the photograph.

Again, plotting the photograph in the reports with GEO stamping data and date and time data produced in effect tracking of the movement of the field engineers.

Monitoring System

Paperless work

All the site-wise details with landmark of physical progress is uploaded over the software which is available on the cloud. Executive Engineers have been provided with User ID and Password through which they update the site-wise physical progress on every Monday. Same progress is there for the Work-wise Measurement Book movement from Consultant to Division and to Accounts section which is again updated by the Executive Engineer concerned. Further GEO stamped and Date with time stamped

Again, the corporation field officers (in 9 Divisions) started to work only on the Laptops and Mobiles. There was no use of Paper.

This helped organization in going for ISO 14001:2004certification.

Another attempt towards Concurrent Monitoring using ICT was made in the field of ICT@School scheme which is a BOOT Model Scheme for computer education / computer assisted education in schools. One inherent problem of this scheme was to ensure running

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Sanjiwan Sinha

of computer because under the BOOT model running of computers including source of energy (Genset’s diesel) was to be provided by the BOOT operator.

To address this issue School Computer Access Network (SCAN) software was got developed. In this software, Processor Id linked system of sending email on daily basis from the school location was introduced. This ensured that the email is sent from the designated Computer.

The program checked the authenticity of the source. Further self generated SMS was attached to be sent to the concerned Principals, BOOT operators and officials to report about the email sent from different computer or non-sending of emails (not reported working). Through MIS one is able to seeschool wise computer running status.

The SCAN software brought a major change in the way monitoring was happening. Monitoring became concurrent in real sense. There was the issue of connectivity. But this software motivated the BOOT operators to address the problems of connectivity in an effective manner. Sitting in headquarters one was able to see the status of computer use in remotely located schools. The corrective measures were more timely and more effective.

Experience with these two IT enabled monitoring systems was such that it changed the organizational thinking and culture substantially. The Mobile based monitoring system for civil constructions became part and parcel of the organization. Likewise SCAN transformed the way everyone was looking upon the ICT@ School scheme. Today both these concurrent monitoring tools are integral part of the working of BSEIDC.

Passports

Computerisation in RPO Patna Anand Kumar, Regional Passport Officer, Patna

R

e-Governance for better services

egional Passport Office (RPO), Patna, was initially opened in 1979. At that time, entire work, entries and records were maintained manually. Even Passports were being written and issued in a manual manner.

Steps towards Computerisation Computers were purchased and installed in Regional Passport Office Patna in 1998 for the first time. Then, Computer was used in accessing mails, sending mails and in preparation of some detailed reports.

Computerization in Regional Passport Office Patna came into being with effect from 12 June 2002 in co-ordination with NIC. This enabled the RPO to generate computer printed receipts, and seamless uploading of data. All this made it possible for us to check previous references through PISON (Passport Information Service on the Net). Computer-printed passports came into being. With availability of e-mail facility with all the PIA’s in India and missions abroad, circulation of circulars on lost, impounding, deletion, cancellation and revocation of passports became convenient. This was further made easier through DRIL entries in respect of lost and damaged passports. NIC had also started uploding FTP incremental data in this respect.

Scanning of old records including Index Cards were commenced in the year 2004 and it went on smoothly up to 2012. Online registration of passport application form in respect of applicants was initiated in December 2006.

Some of the appointments were fixed for online passport applications on daily basis and

Anand Kumar a specific counter was opened for the same.

Necessary information related to this office was updated in the website in the year 2007.

Existing NIC system comprising of Passport Control Issuance System (PCIS), Passport Index Retrieval System (PIRS) and Prior Approval Category (PAC) was not so smooth and it was realized to upgrade the system with a view to streamline the increasing workload of the office. Therefore, a new computer system Passport Management System (PMS) was installed in January 2011. In PMS, Servers, Hardware items and Printers were changed accordingly and the up gradation of system made the entire functioning very fast and smooth.

In order to show transparency and disseminate information, RPO Patna carried out uploading of all relevant information, list of officers, RTI details, list of Holidays, Budget of office, Tender related notices and other important circulars with office orders.

Passport Seva Project is a Mission Mode Project of the National e-Governance plan to deliver passport services to citizens in a timely, transparent, more accessible and reliable manner. The idea is to serve the people in a comfortable environment through streamlined processes and committed, trained and motivated workforce.

Passport Seva Project (PSP) was implemented in February 2012. In due course of time, Legacy NIC System, was replaced by the new Passport Seva Project system to be operated by Tata consultancy Service (TCS).

Now from Online Registration to Dispatch of Passport, entire process of workflow has been fully computerised. Employees and Officers are working through dongles issued to them. Of late, sincere efforts have been taken to streamline the sending of police verification reports with receiving of the same in the online process. 34 out of 38 District Police Headquarters have been connected with the system to download the personal particulars forms and to submit the approved reports online. This has made the process faster and easier through curtailment of the number of days taken for issue of personal particulars forms and feeding of manual Police Verification considerably.

Online fee payment for passport or related services has been introduced. This can be done using Internet Banking, Debit Card or Credit Card. In addition to this, SMS file tracking system has been introduced to provide regular updates on the mobile phone of the applicant.

Recently, Mobile app (mPassportSeva) has also been launched through which an applicant can get specific details on aspects like location of centres, fee, application status, contact information and other general information.

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IN PERSON

P K Sinha

CEO, Astric Computers (I) Pvt Ltd

Bringing IT

Revolution in Bihar

Y

ou have started an initiative called “Centre of Excellence.”

Please tell us about it.

Centre of Excellence is an initiative of Astric Computers (I) Pvt. Ltd., to enable seamless flow of IT enabled services in Bihar. It fashions the involvement of entrepreneurs in honing the skill sets of the youth of Bihar, capacity building of government employees and under privileged classes. We have collaborations with various leading knowledge and technology partners and have approved and customized course modules and rates. This is not just a business initiative, our main focus is on promoting entrepreneurship; we hope to play a pivotal role in creating a band of first generation entrepreneurs who recognize the inherent disadvantages rooted in the society and come out with innovative rectification measures that re-shape the social and economic landscape of Bihar.

What kind of infrastructure have you developed in Patna for promoting your initiatives?

We have a setup of training and capacity building Centre of Excellence (CoE) at Khajpura on Bailey Road in Patna which is a state of the art resource centre spread over 10000 sq. feet.

The training centre is centrally air-conditioned and Wi-Fi enabled. It has multiple training classrooms, online and virtual computing facility rooms. The facility is equipped with online network and video surveillance system, biometric entry, hybrid (Solar + Wind) energy power system apart from the conventional inverter and 24X7X365 generator backup. The same facility has a BSNL tower hence availability of high speed internet, in addition our association with Tata Teleservices.

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“The facility run by Astric Computers in Patna is equipped with latest systems and is powered by a hybrid system of solar and wind power. This is not only good for the environment, it also proves more economical than conventional power,” says P K Sinha

How did Astric get started? Tell us about your journey in the world of IT. Astric was started in 1992 by three young and enterprising engineers, I being one of them.

Today after many years of ups and downs and hard work, the company has got established as a trustworthy IT company in Bihar. It has huge scope and we see lot of potential for future growth. I would also like to add that Astric is today one of the fastest growing IT company’s in Bihar. I would also like to add that there are many other companies in Bihar like Astric and if we have support from Government, the state can have an IT revolution. There will be unprecedented growth in the IT sector in the State.

You have also been offering Capacity Building Courses for employees of the State Government. How is this project going?

We offer various training programs related to

building ability and capacity of government employees at all levels. These programmes help participants with their existing as well as in acquiring new skills to promote their professional development and to strengthen the capabilities of organizations that support the reform of public administration at various levels. Our focus is to strengthen the departments and corporations in which the employees work to make them as vehicles for reform. Our aim is to enhance the effectiveness of Government Departments so that the citizens of the state can enjoy good governance. It is only IT that can lead to redefining of rules for work procedures in the government through our well designed and customised modules. Also, we are offering courses to enable our students to develop linguistic skills. No matter how intelligent we are, our communication skill is the only attribute that helps us to convince our target audience and reap success in life. Hence our programme lays stress on the need to be precise and lucid. Moreover the art of effective listening forms an important part of our module.

IN IN PERSON PERSON

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IN PERSON

Shailendra P Sinha

Chairman, Bihar State Council, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Bihar Hotels Ltd

Promotion of

IT Industry in Bihar

I

n many other states in the country, IT Industry seems to be doing quite well, but Bihar is unable to attract investments in IT. What is your opinion of the IT Industry in Bihar?

I have been involved in several endeavours to promote IT business in Bihar for more than a decade. First attempt was made when we created a platform through promotion of a chapter of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) in 2002. Thereafter series of events on promotion were held, in which many people, from various spheres of the industry, including several NRIs, participated. Most pledged their support to the cause of Bihar. The unanimous view was that ‘We will do something in the state.’ Many educated youngsters have to go outside the state for finding jobs; our idea was to bring them back to the state. The problem was that the administrative machinery in Bihar could not match the expectations of investors, and we were unable to make much headway in getting investment in the IT sector.

You have a feeling that you are on verge of achieving something good for growth of the industry in the state, when suddenly the situation changes and we have to go back to the drawing board. The biggest problem was the negative perception that the State generated in the mind of potential investors. The situation now has changed for the better, and the State now needs to showcase it’s potential in the IT sector, backed to with aggressive marketing.

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Don’t you think that the level of infrastructure that exists in Bihar today is also a cause of problem? How can IT industry flourish when we don’t have proper IT parks, roads, hospitals, etc., in the State?

Things are improving at a rapid pace. Today the condition of roads in the State is much better. I remember clearly, when Nitish Kumar became the Chief Minister, he used to say – “How could we invite industry to Bihar when there is no proper infrastructure?” As there were no proper lands, roads, education institutes, he had to start from scratch and build the system ‘brick by brick’. We were lacking in the implementation part, which I think is delaying the creation of

be to bring at least one IT major company, like, Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, etc., to the state. Such companies may have to be provided adequate land around Patna. But this can only be done is the decision making is being done at the highest level. The Chief Minister and Minister would need to speak to the top IT companies and persuade them to set up shop in the State.

You are part of a Core Committee for the development of IT industry in Bihar. Please tell us about it.

The Core Committee was formed in August 2013. The Core Committee, during their three days visit (from 20th to 22nd August 2013)

“Today Bihar stands at the threshold of takeoff in the area of Information Technology” the right eco-system. A more focused approach would, with active involvement of the stakeholders’ of the IT sector- both within the State and from other parts of the world, in my view, will lead to better outcome.

In your opinion what kind of IT companies can set up their bases in Bihar?

We need to move step by step. First step should

to Bangalore, met a large number of people ranging from top executive of IT firms, Office bearers of different IT associations and senior officials of academic institutions. The Core Committee briefed the salient features of IT policy of Bihar and the present scenario of the IT industry in Bihar. We briefed a select group of industrialists about the potential that Bihar offered in the area of IT. Cost to set up a development centre and it’s operations in the

IN IN PERSON PERSON

State is much lower compared to major cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad or Mumbai. However, the really large investments can’t come in until we have the eco-system in place. The Core Committee has also recommended that the State Government should focus on creating world-class software IT Parks and IT Towers.

The Chief Minister, I understand has already given his principal approval for these plans.

A major chunk of the youth of the State is working in other States. Do you think that it is possible to encourage them to come back to their own home State?

It is true that bulk of our talented youths are actually working outside Bihar, as they don’t find work environment conducive here. It is not easy to attract those people in the state unless we are able to create supporting infrastructure. You see, an IT Tower or IT Hub or IT park cannot exist in isolation. We also need to have good schools, colleges, townships, recreational centres. An entire ecosystem for enabling an IT professional to have a good quality of life must be created. Highest priority should be given to developing new urban centres and social structure. The truth is that the social structure in Patna and other towns of Bihar is weaker that what you have in most other states.

But land around Patna is a scare commodity? How will the land be provided to IT companies?

What these IT companies will want is, at reasonable rates. The investment for setting up an IT facility is so huge that no company can afford to pay too much for land. The problem is that in and around Patna we have had lot of unplanned development. The city seems so crowded. Perhaps some satellite townships can be created, but for that to happen the decision making will have to be done at topmost levels. There is also the problem of creating proper social infrastructure.

But one advantage that the IT companies will have in Bihar is that here people do not tend to change jobs frequently. So the people who gain employment in any company are likely to stay with the company for at least 2-3 years.

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NIC

Improving Transparency and Delivering Quality Services with iBhuGoal Santosh Kumar, State Informatics Officer National Informatics Centre (NIC), Bihar Shailesh Kumar Shrivastava, Technical Director, NIC, Bihar

i

BhuGoal was started with the objective of creating a geo-spatial database for the state of Bihar. It provides a single window for detailed information on topography, geography, infrastructure and socio-economic indicators. Planners and decision-makers can use the portal to know the assets available, view their spatial distribution and also view the socio-economic accessibility of these assets. For instance, planners can view school buffer zones and know the number of habitations, which fall within a specific buffer zone. Demographics can be analyzed on the basis of age, income, caste and other categories available.

Topographic indicators such as parliamentary and assembly constituencies and district, block and village boundaries are also mapped in the iBhuGoal database. iBhuGoal is the first GIS based system in the country that provides data upto a scale of 1:4000. Such detail, used mainly for cadastral purposes, is a pioneering effort and is all the more laudable as it has been implemented in a state with no prior GIS coverage. It also provides geographic information on various indicators such as soils, forest cover and watersheds.

This information, accessible on a single portal ( http://gis.bih.nic.in/), enables datadriven decision-making. It eliminates chances of errors which may occur due to lack of information. It encourages a scientific approach to planning and management leading to transparent civil administration. The system is dynamically updated through backend re-engineering as and when the user departments update their

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Major services offered by iBhuGoal • Geographical Maps of State, District, Block, Panchayats • Booth Details, ERO and BLO • Bihar ATLAS containing various thematic maps.

• Road and Habitations details of selected areas • Water Bodies, Rivers, Canals, Rivers and Jamindari Bandhs • Electricity Transmission Networks

• Optical Fiber Networks of Bihar • Urban Boundaries of major cities of Bihar • Integration of GIS maps with on-line GIS Services such as Google, Bing, ESRI etc.

• Profile of Rural Roads pertaining to their Physical and Financial progress • Assembly and Parliamentary booth distribution maps for Bihar

information. Citizens are also permitted to update the spatial database.

and informed decisions. In turn, large investments are incurred to answer specific queries frequently made from various apex forums and internal planning. More so, results may also vary for similar queries raised at different points of time.

District administration is accountable to the public representatives who voice the demands and needs of the public. Due to lack of proper information, sometimes genuine demands may be neglected. On the other hand, some of the public representatives may get away with serving their political goals by getting more than due share of public resources for their constituency due to undue influence. Such practices create regional imbalances and lead to lack of transparency in the civil administration. In the past, in the absence of appropriate MIS and GIS tools, district administration had no

The Birth of iBhuGoal There has been no concept of Spatial Data Inventory or Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) in the state of Bihar. Individually, some officers have been trying to map the existing MIS data pertaining to infrastructure using drawing tools etc. for their personal reference in a disintegrated manner. These data and maps, however, do not conform to any mapping standards as there was no such policy in Bihar state which defined the standard procedures of mapping and their maintenance. The main drawback of such practice was that, integration of these maps was not possible. Such practices also fail to reflect the current functional status of infrastructure and senior administrators do not get information support to make strategic

NIC

choice but to accept undue demands of local representatives. It was with this background that the Bihar government decided to develop a Geographical Information System(GIS) based solution. The State Government as part of plan discussion at Planning Commission, New Delhi requested for sharing of

iBhuGoal is aimed at • Creation of Spatial Database Infrastructure for use among various departments of the State of Bihar.

• Integration of Geo-spatial data and MIS data from different departments namely Education, Rural Works, Social Welfare, Election Commission, Building/ Construction, Irrigation etc.

• Integration of SDI maps with online mapping services such as Google, Bing, ESRI, etc.

• Development of Query facilities for Planning and Decision Making by various departments.

• Development of efficient and effective tools for planning rural road connectivity to habitations.

• Depicting coverage of habitations through various levels of Schools.

• Providing help in better management of facilities such as Schools, Anganwadi Kendra, PHCs, etc. which deliver citizen centric services.

• Achieve transparency and ease in planning and real-time monitoring of work-sites.

• Smooth and Effective Management of Election process through proper use of GIS maps.

• Offer scientific approach for irrigation facilities planning, flood management and management of embankments.

• Analysis of Forest Reserve and forest inventory so that clearance of schemes can be linked through GIS maps.

Left to Right: Santosh Kumar, SIO, NIC, Bihar; Shailesh Kumar Shrivastava, Technical Director, NIC, Bihar

digital maps available at NIC. Exhibit-1 shows major stakeholders of National GIS. As a continuation of this, a meeting was held under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary, Bihar on 04/02/2010. Principal Secretaries of various departments and members of NIC team attended the meeting. In this meeting, a presentation was made by NIC, New Delhi on potential of Development and Implementation of a GIS based solution for Bihar State.

And iBhuGoal was born.

iBhuGoal Impact iBhuGoal is an information generating portal used by the Bihar government to map, organize and manage data spatially on infrastructural and policy related services up to the village

level. It uses comprehensive GIS software which allows viewing, understanding, interpreting and visualizing data in ways that reveal relationships and patterns in the format of extensive maps, reports and charts.

In order to empower citizens and providing them visual tools for social audit, iBhuGoal can be very effective. Citizens can know about various schemes and their implementation status. Spatial analysis helps to understand distribution, coverage and access to these facilities. Introduction of GIS technologies bring in focus existing spatial reality which result in dynamism and transparency in the nature of working, in order to overcome problems related to planning, development, monitoring and decision-making.

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Project Management

Agile Project Management in an eGovernance Project Sastry Tumuluri, Information Technology Advisor & Chief Information Security Officer, Government of Haryana Rochak Chauhan, System Architect, IVISS Project (Integrated Village Information & Services System), Haryana

A

gile is not for everyone.

Certainly not for eGovernance Projects. This is so widely accepted in the IT industry, that any debate about it is always sparse and short.

Among the many reasons for this are: E Government procedures require a clear statement of what is being procured, how it will be inspected & accepted (audits & certification as needed) and how it will be paid for.

E Buyers usually don’t mess with this process – lest they attract undue attention from auditors.

E Even with guidance like the “Cult of the Done Manifesto”, Agile needs seasoned mentors to succeed.

E Large RFPs carry many inherent risks.

Part of the risk mitigation strategy is for a bidder to peg down every last bit of effort and every bit of risk to be understood and

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Sastry Tumuluri addressed. This means every “in-scope” item must be spelt out clearly; no changes allowed (without much procedure), and so forth.

E It follows then that bidders, not just buyers, too, want clarity and stability of requirements that are so antithetic to Agile.

E Project Managers have been taught for

Project Management

Left to Right: Sastry Tumuluri, Information Technology Advisor & Chief Information Security Officer, Government of Haryana; Ghan Shyam Bansal, State Informatics Officer, NIC Haryana; Y S Malik, Additional Chief Secretary, Electronics & Information Technology, Government of Haryana at eHaryana 2014

decades that “rework is evil” and that “It is a sign that someone didn’t plan wellenough early on”. As a result, it is practically an industry norm that “Software Requirement Specifications (SRS) must be signed off by the customer” before a single line of code is committed. Never mind all the ulcers this norm causes all round. Even the new breed of Agile PMs are afflicted by contractual constraints that they can’t freely practice their agility – unless they are in an internal product development environment (without contracts to worry about).

E So this is the third stakeholder (Buyers & Bidders being the first two) who is NOT in favor of Agile.

Does this mean that Agile won’t ever work for eGovernance Projects? We used Agile methods (a much better term than “methodology”) to such good effect in the Haryana Integrated Village Information System (IVISS) project, that it may be worth examining what made it such a success.

The thought behind this was that our eGovernance programs have seen several years of standalone application software. Citizens have become accustomed to the current levels of electronic service delivery and are eagerly looking for more.

However, you can’t deliver high-speed travel on roads built for bullock-carts. Thus it became clear that is time to move to a higher level of maturity – to integrated applications that create a whole new set of process improvement opporunities, both to the citizens’ delight as well as to enhance Government’s efficiencies. A multipronged integration architecture was visualized, covering Software-level Integration (through a light-weight middleware), Process-level integration (through process asset management), Operational integration (through a CSC governance framework), Data-level integration (through a State Resident Data Base that extends the Aadhaar concept significantly), Payments integration (through a VLE-collections Gateway), MIS integration (through a single GIS based crossdepartmental MIS platform), and more.

Introduction to the project

Was “Agile” a goal?

Haryana OneState was proposed as a vision to the State Technical Committee in 2012.

No. We had a problem to solve. We had a big vision. Nothing this big was attempted before.

We didn’t have crores of budget. We had to show something working in a very short period of time, to prove that it is worth going after. So Agile just happened to be the only practical choice.

We chose a small, visible, but demonstrable slice of our big vision and delivered it as a proof of concept (PoC) in about 6 weeks.

This is huge, considering that we had developed the foundations of an integration framework and 6 independent but integrated systems during this time.

Outsourcing Yes, there was some outsourcing. Bulk of it was to small organizations and in a “Time and Materials” model. This derisked the companies to some extent; allowing the buyer to share the risk with the companies.

This (sharing of risk) is a critical mind-set requirement for Agile projects. Buyers must both be willing to share the risk. This is also most unusual in eGov projects.

No single company could give us all the skillsets we needed. So developers from three different organizations were roped in. JumboLabs, WeExcel and Enterprise Mobility Xperts, all from the tri-city were the initial partners. All of them knew and accepted the risks - that this March 2014 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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Project Management

project may never see the light; it may never scale up; the payments and team sizes were too small to make sense. Yet, they shared the vision and the dream and decided to invest their time and their best developers in the project.

Larger organizations like Accenture, E&Y and Wipro jumped in after the PoC stage, by when it was clear that something big was brewing. Each of them contributed in their own ways, but voluntarily and at no cost to us; something that we deeply appreciate.

Convincing the Government The first challenge was to build a shared vision.

This isn’t something you can sell to a nonbeliever. We wouldn’t have been able to start if the foundation for the vision wasn’t already there.

It took many months of back and forth to articulate the vision in a concrete and mutually acceptable form. Once this was done, the rest became a matter of taking one small step at a time. Each time we asked only two things: E Believe in the vision E Approve a small investment in building towards that vision The Government’s belief in the vision as well as the desire to make it real was strong. That’s how it started. Thereafter, it just boiled down to delivering what we promised. Each time we delivered, the confidence grew.

Then came a point when it was possible to present the whole thing and ask for a one-shot approval for “let’s go for a state wide rollout”.

Here we had to give a series of demonstrations to most Administrative Secretaries and show them that this was worth building upon. The demos played a critical part when the project came up for discussions in the high-level committees. The stakeholders had something to relate to, instead of just papers written up to convince them.

Neither the beginning nor the big-approval would’ve been possible if the leaders weren’t deeply positive and already yearning for something like this. Having such progressive leaders is a fundamental pre-requisite to even start off anything like this.

Planning the sprints For planning sprints we stuck to the basics. Our first step was to listen to all the software specifications or wishlists, if you will.

Our next task was to convert these wishlists into possible user stories.

Then backlogs were created from all the user stories.

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Now came the important and tricky part.

Based on the priority, duration and dependency we assign the user stories in the current sprint. Needless to say we had to add tasks to all these assigned user stories.

The idea was to ensure that no task takes more than 3 hours to develop.

Tools and techniques Due to our Scrum approach the classic Webbased Project Management Systems were not an option. For this project we opted for KADOS, a Kanban Dashboard for Online Scrum. It has a simple and intuitive “drag-ndrop” feature to maintain backlogs and sprints dashboard.

We used four environments namely Development, System Testing, Staging and Production.

The first three were deployed in a Eucalyptus Cloud in our data center. Production environment is hosted in a BSNL Data Center.

Each user story is developed and tested on development environment. From Development environment the code is moved to our Source Code (SVN) Repository. All stages from there on only take code from the SVN repository. This ensures the necessary discipline that helps us deploy to production.

We introduced another big change (from the usual) here. We moved the Quality Assurance activities aka testing as close to the developers as possible. The intent was not to make the Testing Team as the gate-keepers, stopping bad code late in the process. Instead, they help detect and fix defects earlier in the process, so that QA steps become easy to pass through.

Development Platform The entire work is based on the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache MySQL and PHP).

Ubuntu was the flavor of choice; Yii Framework for PHP was a natural fit, with many productivity and security benefits. The middleware was written to RESTful API specs, consuming JSON objects. This not only made the whole framework very light-weight, but also served as a platform neutrality enabler.

We have one application that was developed completely on the .NET (Microsoft0 platform but is fully integrated with the rest.

Parting advice for Agile Managers Well its not just good enough to develop a web application quickly using Agile. It is important

Rochak Chauhan to create the DevOps culture. One of the most important persons in the process is the release manager – our “DevOps Borat”, who tracks and deploys the code after each sprint. If as in the traditional environment, each deployment takes weeks, the whole effort is for naught.

This demands that the deployment process is simple, quick and error-proof. Now we don’t want the hardwork of developers go wasted due some typo in the configuration file or some important file missing. It is imperative that developer is not missing out on securily and performance aspects in the race to meet the schedule (the sprint). This can be ensured either by pair programming or by putting some static analysis tools to use. A combination of human expertise and automated tools usually works best.

Where do you go from here?

Like most of the Agile projects, there is always room for improvement in the form of refactoring. We need to ensure the code in developed in incremental modules so that it is not a mammoth task to recode or refactor a part of code without breaking the entire application.

We try to automate as much as we can in the cycle from development to deployment.

Testing Automation is great to talk about, but implementing it still remains a goal for us.

There is huge demand for new services to be launched, new applications to be integrated and so forth. We have a state-wide rollout plan that we need to support too.

Events

Emerging IT Destination

KNOWLEDGE

Exchange, New Delhi 2nd Higher Education

e-Haryana

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e-Haryana

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e-Haryana

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e-Haryana

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e-Haryana

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e-Haryana

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IN PERSON

Ram Sewak Sharma

Chief Secretary, Government of Jharkhand

Aadhaar can be a Catalyst for New

e-Governance Initiatives

B

efore serving as Chief Secretary of Jharkhand, you were the Mission Director, UIDAI, where you played a pivotal role in the development of the Aadhaar initiative. In your opinion what are the key objectives of Aadhaar?

“Objectives of Aadhaar are to create an identity platform in the country which is inclusive, improves governance and service delivery and enables people access to formal systems of service delivery. More than two third of the population in Jharkhand has been enrolled in Aadhaar,� says Ram Sewak Sharma

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Before I delve into its objectives, let me talk a bit on the context. In India, there are a large number of people who do not have any formal proof of their identity. This results in denial of a number of services to them. They cannot open a bankaccount, they cannot get reservation in a train and they cannot get any mobile connection as some identity documents are necessary to avail these services. In other words, non-possession of any id document denies them the access to many services. Aadhaar fills this gap as it is mandated to provide unique identity to all the residents of the country. Slowly Aadhaar has also been recognized as a valid document for accessing many services including those mentioned above.

Secondly, its uniqueness property is very useful in eliminating duplicates and fakes from many subsidy and benefit delivery domains as multiple and fake identities in domains like PDS, Social Security pensions contribute a lot towards leakages and corruption in these programmes. Lastly, its capability of online authentication anywhere enables delivery of services more accessible, cost effective and transparent. Banking services can now be delivered at the doorstep of customers

IN PERSON

through business correspondences (BCs) using mobile devices which can authenticate identity using Aadhaar authentication. Hence the objectives of Aadhaar are to create an identity platform in the country which is inclusive, improves governance and service delivery and enables people access to formal systems of service delivery.

Today cyber security is an area of concern. How does UIDAI ensure that the huge database that is collecting on Indians is safeguarded from cyber attacks?

UIDAI, in the last four years that it has been in existence, has created a very robust eco-System which ensures implementation of this project in a time-bound manner. There are many partners in this eco-system like the State Governments, enrolment agencies, certification agencies, device vendors, software companies, printers, India Post, and Banks etc. At the technology level, UIDAI has one of the most sophisticated technology infrastructures in the world as it processes data of residents at a scale never done in the world before.

It uses sophisticated algorithms of de-duplication of both demographic and biometric data. It has used open source technologies which are generally more robust and also cheaper. In fact, these technologies are largely free and they are also capable of being customised to meet certain security related criteria.

Some other novel practices which the UIDAI has introduced are keeping only that data online which is needed for functioning of UIDAI and keep the important data off-line. Biometric data, which means the finger prints and the iris scans, are a case in point. After extraction of features from the biometric data, the raw images are kept off-line and are out of bounds for any hacker. Only features are needed for de-duplication. Another principle which has been consistently and strictly adhered to is the encryption of the data. No data in UIDAI data centre remains in unencrypted form.

Then there are strict physical controls on access.

Given all these techniques and processes, I am very confident to say that the data of the residents of India is fully safe with UIDAI.

Do you think that it makes sense to use Open Source solutions for creation of e-Governance initiatives?

Open Source is defiantly a very attractive solution. We need to adopt open source wherever it exists. In fact, the entire UIDAI scheme is based

on Open Source software. We had started with Linux operating system. It is always possible for us to take help of private tools in areas where Open Source technology is not available. For instance, for de-duplication technology private tools were used. My emphasis is to use open source wherever it is possible as it brings down the ownership cost. But where Open Source is not available, or is inconvenient to use, we can always switch to non Open Source.

service delivery. I am of the view that maximum numbers of government services that are being used by the citizens must be brought under the under the umbrella of Aadhaar. We have successfully enrolled two-third population of the state in Aadhaar. I am hopeful that we will complete 90 percent of enrolment by the year end. The major area where I have already started leveraging services is direct benefit transfer of subsidies. We are now focusing to use it for public distribution system.

Today there is lot of talk for using Aadhaar for Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to beneficiaries. In what ways can Aadhaar be helpful for executing of DBT projects?

You are very closely associated with Information Technology.

Please tell us about your vision for IT initiatives in Jharkhand.

Aadhaar helps in this area in many ways. Firstly, you can use Aadhaar to open a bank account, if you do not have one. Secondly, it uses Aadhaar as the address to transfer money. It ensures that the money goes into your account only. Thirdly, using Aadhaar authentication, you can withdraw your money – thus facilitating banking at your

Earlier I was associated with IT department in the state of Jharkhand. So I feel that I can still contribute by initiating various schemes related to Information Technology. We are currently focusing on some of the key areas of IT that can bring maximum benefit to the people. These are areas like Financial Manage-

“The State Government of Jharkhand Recognises the Power and Potential of New Technologies” door-step. It also ensures that only you can draw the money – as it requires your presence and finger-prints at the time of withdrawal. Lastly, it provides an end-to-end tracking of the money from the time of crediting into one’s account till the withdrawal. This simplifies the utilization certificate (UC) issue as now we do not need any certificate from anybody. The money has been successfully transferred to the beneficiary’s account. Government benefits from this in two ways. Firstly, the duplicates and fakes are eliminated, cleaning the delivery system. Government can now benefit more people with these savings.

How are you planning to leverage UIDAI experience in Jharkhand?

Aadhaar is a very important platform that can be used by citizens to access the much needed government services. As I am well acquainted with the benefits that can come from effective Aadhaar deployment, I am looking forward to leveraging this platform for enabling effective

ment System, Resource Management System, e-Payment, SMS Gateways and e-Procurement.

We are also working on some important departmental applications like e-Nibandhan, which is designed to improve the registration related services. In fact registration system of Jharkhand is one of the most advanced systems in India. We have also initiated various departmental schemes like e-Kalyan, which is scholarship distribution programme. e-Kalyan ensures monitoring of online status for awarding scholarships (namely Birsa Munda Technical Scholarship and Ambedkar Technical Scholarship) to the ST students of Jharkhand studying in a Technical College outside the state.

Information Technology is playing a very important role in shaping e-Governance in the country. How do you look at the overall role of IT in governance sector?

Few years back, people were not much aware March 2014 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov

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about IT services. But today I find that scenario has changed and people are more connected with the technology. People realize that they can have lot of benefits if proper IT implementations happen in the government. Earlier technology enhancement needed big machines but today everything can be converged in the data centre. One can now authenticate banking transactions with the help of UIDAI. Now I think we have a very clear vision about the roadmap for implementing e-Governance.

Things have really improved when it comes to deploying technology for better governance.

Many states in southern India have created a large impact in e-Governance. Some of their e-Governance solutions are now being replicated in other states. How do you compare e-Governance initiatives in Jharkhand with what is happening in other states?

There is no doubt that many states in southern India have done exemplary well in the area of e-Governance. Jharkhand too has lot of potential and now it’s time that we speed up the deployment of initiatives that will bring efficiency and transparency to the governance in the state. We have to create new systems for improving governance. I am sure that we can build as good systems as any other states in the country. So there is no reason why an e-Governance revolution should not happen in Jharkhand. I am looking forward to taking Jharkhand in the forefront of e-Governance in the country. We have taken several initiatives which have changed IT scenarios in the state. We have completely digitized pension scheme so that people can track their pension online. We are focusing to strengthening our productive tool. Training people who can use such tools can really bring a change. I am looking forward to introducing it in various engineering departments.

Government of Jharkhand has started a landmark project for registration called e-Nibandhan.

What impact has this project had in improving the process of registration in the state?

The e-Nibandhan Software was initially developed to automate the Registration Process in the District Sub-Registrar office at Ranchi.

After its successful implementation in the

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Ranchi Registration Office, it was decided that we should replicate the system throughout the state. e-Nibandhan is designed to eliminate the maladies affecting the conventional registration system by introducing electronic delivery of all registration services. The manual System of registration suffers from a number of problems like inordinate delays; people also feel harassed as they have to come all the way to the office for registering their documents. e-Nibandhan eliminates all these deficiencies and difficulties. e-Nibandhan has made it possible to return the original registered document to the persons concerned within a matter of minutes. As soon the process of registration is complete the owner can take his original documents back. It has increased transparency in the system. Now the details of registration, calculation of rates and other details are available freely. So people can be sure that they are paying the correct amount of stamp duty, etc., to the government.

services and other value added services. Web based software is being developed to disseminate information on essential Commodities dispatch to PDS Shops from the Food Corporation of India (FCI).

You have also done important work in the treasuries department.

That’s right. We have taken up the work of computerising and networking in the State Treasuries and sub-treasuries. The project seeks to computerise the functioning of all the treasuries and link them together and with Accountant General. This will ensure an extremely efficient system of financial management for the Government. It will completely eliminate the possibility of forged withdrawals. It will, in fact, ensure that the GPF accounts of all the Government employees are up-to-date. The GPF and Treasury

“Developments in the field of ICT can be leveraged to deliver a variety of services to the citizens effectively and efficiently” Tell us about some key initiatives which you have taken in the state of Jharkhand.

The State Government of Jharkhand recognises the power and potential of new technologies.

We understand how new technologies can lead to improvement in the quality of people’s lives.

We believe that the developments in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can be effectively leveraged to deliver a variety of information and services to the citizens effectively and efficiently. Government of Jharkhand is committed to use ICT to transform its functioning and build citizen-centric, inclusive and development oriented information society. We want to provide services to the common man in a cost-effective, transparent and easily accessible manner. Government of Jharkhand plans to set-up 4,562 Common Service Centres (CSC) throughout all the panchayats in the State in first phase and 872 CSCs in the second phase to provide e-Governance

administration could be integrated in a seamless manner. Every head of office could check the details of the withdrawals done by him head/sub-head wise. He could use this information to plan further office expenditure. He could also check the available allocation to him head/sub-head wise.

We have also embarked upon an ambitious project on computerization and networking of field offices as well as Headquarters of Commercial Taxes Department. It provides an efficient, transparent, responsive and citizen friendly public interface to users of the Department. It has helped in improving the efficiency and affectivity of taxes of administration. We have also initiated some key UIDAI projects in the state. We have launched a micro-ATM device that can enable beneficiaries of projects like MG-NREGA to withdraw money at their doorstep through the BC model. This will certainly help in connecting rural people with the banking service.

Department of Information Technolgy, Government of Jharkhand

Hemant Soren Chief Minister, Jharkhand

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