5th eINDIA-IT Leaders Speak!: October 2009 Issue

ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON E-GOVERNANCE

DE INSI ve nsi Exte age of er Cov IA 2009 eIND

www.egovonline.net - Asia’s Leading Portal on e-Governance VOLUME 5

ISSUE 10

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IT Leaders Speak!

OCTOBER 2009

VOLUME 5 ISSN 0973-161X

ISSUE 10

OCTOBER 2009

RNI NO. - UPENG/2008/25234

TOWARDS INTEGRATED AND INCLUSIVE GOVERNANCE (EGOV INDIA2009 CONFERENCE REPORT)

EINDIA2009 AWARD WINNERS

CALL FOR A CONCERTED EFFORT

(EAGRICUTURE INDIA2009 CONFERENCE REPORT)

TOWARDS OVERCOMING THE KNOWLEDGE ISLAND SYNDROME (TELECENTRE FORUM INDIA2009 REPORT)

CHILD ONLINE PROTECTION (CHILD ONLINE WORKSHOP REPORT)

APPREHENDING INNOVATIONS (EURO-ICT WORKSHOP REPORT)

TOWARDS UNIVERSALLY APPLICABLE INTERNET POLICY

(ISOC WORKSHOP REPORT) INTERVIEW:

T KRISHNA PRASAD, INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF POLICE (POLICE COMPUTER SERVICES), ANDHRA PRADESH POLICE

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IT Directory

November 2009 Issueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Egov magazine is coming out with first of it kind directory of IT companies and System Integrators for the Government community. This directory is aimed at providing IT related information to government department, public sector units, and autonomous bodies of the government. The directory is aimed to create a comprehensive compilation of companies offering hardware, software, networking and communication solution as well as those offering specialised Government IT solutions.

For success, it is critical to be at the RIGHT place at the RIGHT time. Brand your company in this issue to be seen by RIGHT people. Your potential customer... GOVERNMENT.

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss this RIGHT opportunity! For details, contact: Gautam Navin (gautam@egovonline.net) at 9818125257 Debabrata Ray (debabrata@egovonline.net) at 9899650692

EDITORIAL

Another Year, Another Success! The 5th eINDIA2009, co-organised by the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and IT, Government of India was a great success, achieving record attendance and further establishing eINDIA a reputation as Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest ICT conference and exhibition. It took place at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre, Hyderabad, from 25th-27th August 2009. The event was hosted by the Department of Information Technology and Communications, Government of Andhra Pradesh and supported by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and the Department of Administration and Reforms and Public Grievances, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, in partnership with several Government agencies and departments, civil society organisations, international bilateral and multi-lateral agencies, the academia, and private sector companies.

President Dr. M P Narayanan Editor-in-Chief Dr. Ravi Gupta Assistant Editor Prachi Shirur Research Assistant Gayatri Maheshwary Correspondent Pratap Vikram Singh Dy. General Manager - Marketing Gautam Navin mobile: +91 9818125257 email: gautam@egovonline.net Sr. Manager, Marketing Debabrata Ray mobile: +91 9899650692 email: debabrata@egovonline.net Sr. Manager, Govt. Relations Anaam Sharma mobile: +91 9910597744 email: anaam@egovonline.net Sr. Executive, Business Development Santosh Kumar Gupta mobile: +91 9891192996 email: santosh@egovonline.net Anuj Agrawal mobile: +91-9911302086 anuj@egovonline.net Sr Graphic Designer Bishwajeet Kumar Singh Graphic Designer Om Prakash Thakur Web Zia Salahuddin, Amit Pal Subscription & Circulation Lipika Dutta +91-9871481708 Manoj Kumar +91-9891752931

eINDIA2009, through its five seminal conferences, focussed on the various application domains of ICT for Development - e-Governance, Digital Learning, Telecentres, ICT enabled Health services and e-Agriculture. The eINDIA conference saw around 320 speakers across seven thematic tracks and more than 3,000 delegates representing more than 35 countries. Partakers soaked up the latest opinions, trends, and insights from the government, academia and industry thought leaders, shared experiences with colleagues, made new contacts and strengthened existing relationships, and honed their ideas and knowledge. The eINDIA exhibition showcased a wide array of the latest technology, IT, telecom, technology products and solutions especially designed for the government, businesses and end-users. The visitors were awed by the sheer size and magnitude of the exhibition, which had Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top 100 IT companies exhibiting at eINDIA. The eINDIA Awards programme was held alongside the eINDIA 2009 conference proceedings. The awards were conferred to the distinguished professionals and institutions working in the domains of: e-Agriculture, e-Governance, Digital Learning, e-Health, Municipal IT and Telecentre. The event also saw three thematic workshops organised in collaboration with various international organizations such as Internet Society, United Nations Solution Exchange and Euro-India ICT Cooperation. In this issue of the magazine, we are covering the event reports of e-Gov, e-Agriculture and Telecentre Forum Conferences, which captures the deliberations of the panelists and their recommendation for the future ahead. This issue also covers the award winners in different categories with a brief introduction and achievements of the award winning initiatives. Our aim is to share the wealth of knowledge accumulated in the three-days of active conferencing, with all our readers.

Dr. RAVI GUPTA Editor-in-Chief Ravi.Gupta@egovonline.net

Editorial & Marketing Correspondence egov G-4 Sector 39, NOIDA 201301, India Phone: +91 120 2502181-85 Fax: +91 120 2500060 Email: info@egovonline.net

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egov INDIA2009 REPORT

Towards Integrated and Inclusive Governance INAUGURATION The eIndia 2009 conference was held at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre in Hyderabad from 25th-27th August 2009. This is an annual event organised by Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS) along with the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and IT, Government of India, in partnership with several Government agencies and departments, Civil Society Organisations, International bilateral and multilateral agencies, the academia, and private sector companies. This year, the event saw 320 speakers across seven thematic tracks and more than 3,000 delegates representing more than 35 countries. The inauguration of the event was graced by D Purandeswari, Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. Other guests of honour included: Subhash C Khuntia, Joint Secretary, Ministry of HRD, Government of India; S R Rao, Additional Secretary, Department of IT, Ministry of Communication and IT, Government of India; Reshan Dewapura, COO, Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), Sri Lanka; Charles Clarke, Member of Parliament and Former Education Minister and Home Secretary; Prof V N Rajasekhar Pillai, Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), India. Dr MP Narayanan, President, CSDMS welcomed the dignitaries and the participants. The luminaries inaugurated the event by the traditional lighting of the lamp. D Purundeswari Devi also inaugurated the eIndia 2009 Exhibition, another popular component of the eINDIA conference, which showcased the latest e-Solutions, services, initiatives and case studies from India and beyond of more than 100 exhibitors that comprised a diverse group of professional service providers, technology vendors,

D Purandeswari lighting the lamp at the eINDIA 2009 inauguration

consulting firms, government agencies and national and International development organisations. In her speech, Hon’ble Minister, D Purundeswari congratulated CSDMS and its associates on a job well done in organising the international ICT summit which was a sign of India’s growing role in the world ICT and development networks. She announced the launching of a National Information Highway Authority (NIHA) with the main aim of increasing various e-Activities of the government. As the apex body for such initiatives, NIHA would clear and monitor all future projects and budgets and would become an ideal vehicle to promote such initiatives effectively in a time-bound manner. S R Rao in his speech elaborated on the potential of India’s growing economy and the valuable role that IT will play in further fueling the process. He announced that it is the intention of the government to reach out to the length and breadth of the country in the next three years by connecting it through technology.

Reshan Dewapuran his speech elaborated about ICTA and eASIA2009. The eASIA 2009 brochures were presented to the Chief Guest and the dignitaries giving way to the official launch of eASIA2009 , which will be held from 2nd-4th December 2009. Charles Clarke talked about effective strategies for bridging the digital divide. He said, “We need to join hands to bring technology to all...laptops can be made affordable and we need to ensure that we can bring one laptop each to every child. Subhash C Khuntia opined that by integrating technology in a wide array of services including health, education, governance and banking facilities, the provision of all these essential services can be made simpler, faster and more citizen friendly. Prof V N Rajasekhar Pillai underscored the importance of IT in several sectors including skills training and improving the quality of education. Dr Ravi Gupta, Executive Director, CSDMS and Convener of eINDIA2009 thanked the Hon Minister and the eminent dignitaries for their gracious participation.

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KEYNOTE SESSION: ACHIEVING HIGH IMPACT E-GOVERNMENT: KEY SUCCESS FACTORS The egov INDIA 2009 track began with the keynote session on Achieving High Impact e-Government. Dr. Debesh Das, Honorable Minister, Department of Information Technology, Government of West Bengal, began the session by defining e-Governance as the transformation of the government to provide efficient, and transparent services to the citizens and businesses through Information and Communication Technology (ICT). “The acceptance of technology depends upon the geography, culture, and heritage and hence the applications should be developed in a way they are utilised by masses and is not limited to small groups of people,” Dr Das said. As 70% of population in India lives in rural areas, e-Governance must focus on rural areas by introducing e-Governance to the panchayat system. He recommended Internet video conferencing, online submission of data from gram panchayats to the state, online guidance to students as some of the immediate projects, which could be implemented. He also pointed out that the main concern was to provide and expand the existing services, rather than looking for new job opportunities through introduction of e-Governance. S R Rao, Additional Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of India, in his keynote address elaborated on some essential aspects of e-Governance. He articulated that the basic objective of e-Governance is to reduce the waiting period for citizens in availing government services. He pointed out that those states where transformation of services from manual to electronic was done without the intermediaries were much better as compared to the states, which still followed the manual procedure. Adiare Fox Martin, Vice President- Public Services, SAP Asia Pacific and Japan explained the audience about the enterprise approach and said it was essentially seen from two perspectives- firstly, to consider the best practices and secondly, to apply them to the required projects. She noted that enterprise approach should have a strong platform at the back end and the front end and both need to be integrated. Speaking about SAP, she stated that SAP’s role is to help the government articulate and refine the value of what can be delivered to the citizens from operational, financial and

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(L-R) Adiare Fox-Martin, VP, Public Services, SAP Asia Pacific & Japan; Dr. Gisela Fuchs - CEO Public Sector, Siemens IT Solutions and Services; Dr. Debesh Das, Hon’ble Minister, Department of IT (DIT), Government of West Bengal; SR Rao, Additional Secretary, DIT, GOI; Sameer Sharma, Secretary IT, Govt. of AP; Satish Kaushal, Country Manager, Government & Education, IBM India/South Asia; Oleg Petrov, Coordinator, e-Development Thematic Group, World Bank Group

social perspective and Business Intelligence is part of finding that value. Dr. Sameer Sharma, Secretary IT and Communications, Government of Andhra Pradesh, emphasised on the use of ICT in development, and especially in rooting out corruption through removing the physical interaction between the government officials and the citizens, possible through a web based solution or by introducing citizen facilitation centres. He talked about the success of e-Seva project and apprised the audience about his department’s plan of linking Common Service Centres (CSC) in the state through eSeva centres for making the former, much more sustainable and profitable. Quoting Heeks, he stressed on the importance of ‘integration’ in e-Governance, with the movement from existing e-Government to i-Government. Gisela Fuchs, CEO-Public Sector, Siemens IT Solutions and Services, narrated e-Governance as the interactions between the government, government and the citizens, government and businesses. She informed about the ‘Organisational Reach’, which requires strong political backing along with the involvement of the stakeholders. “It’s important to bring in people who have successfully managed the e-Governance projects and therefore training and education should go parallel to the technical implementation, creating skilled resource pool”, Gisela said. Satish Kaushal, Country Manager, Government and Education, IBM informed

that the participation and awareness of the citizens was the key to success for any e-Governance project, besides bringing transparency in to the system. Though there are a variety of expectations from the citizens, a common denominator of the requirements should be developed to make the project successful. He also felt that the participation of all the stakeholders is equally important for good governance. Oleg Petrov, Project Coordinator, The World Bank elaborated on leveraging ICT in transforming - service delivery through making information widely and easily accessible and increasing participation and transparency in government processes, and governments through providing cost effective solutions to improve service quality. Corroborating the above statement, he cited examples from Ghana and Korea where after the IT intervention in the customs and procurement department, respectively, the revenue increased by 50% and the processing time reduced, substantially. Articulating the shortcomings of the Government 1.0, Petrov said that it had limited role in back end integration, data sharing, process re-engineering, citizen participation and change management. He advocated the principles of Government 2.0, which includes a shift from citizen centric to citizen driven approach, inclusiveness, whole of government perspective, re-engineering before automation and greater role of eLeaders / Chief Information Officers as key enablers and change agents.

Project

VIKAS

CAD/CAM training session in progress

New Opportunities Microsoft recognized the potential in the world’s largest diamond manufacturing cluster in Surat, Gujarat, which comprises over 2200 units. We saw people with dreams to grow bigger and be successful. We understood that this would happen faster with greater access to computers. Microsoft started imparting computer and CAD specific skills to the community, which gave them the confidence to train more people. Today, diamond jewellery manufacturing units across the district are enabled & empowered with CAD skills, driving employment & efficiencies. In the words of Kiran, Keen Diamonds, “After I attended the Project VIKAS CAD/CAM training, I was convinced that I can grow my business through new opportunities like jewellery design & manufacturing. Within a week of training, I implemented CAD/CAM in my company. And I have already started getting new customers. Thank you Project VIKAS.” We at Microsoft see potential in everyone. For more on our efforts to unleash India’s unlimited potential, like Project Vikas, visit www.microsoft.com/india/unlimitedpotential /

Vikas - 21cm (w) X 27cm (h)

SESSION: ENTERPRISE APPROACH FOR E-GOVERNMENT: PROVIDING A PARADIGM SHIFT The second session focused on various perspectives on how the enterprise approach could be implemented and the challenges faced while implementing it. The session was chaired by R Ramakrishnan, Program Director, SAP India. He began the session by stating the need to have IT with a strong foundation. According to him, there was a need for a vision, which could fulfill the purpose in the long run along with meeting the technological changes besides fulfilling the needs of the citizens. Also it was important for the government to adapt itself to the enterprise approach and look it as a solution to offer good services to the citizens in an efficient manner. Siddharth, Principal Secretary IT, Government of West Bengal, opined that enterprise approach is the desired approach having a systematic infrastructure and certain core policies. According to Siddharth, the dream of having an enterprise approach could only be achieved when the successful applications or technologies of one state was developed in the other states as well, by the initiative of the concerned state governments. Sanjay Jaju, Commissioner, Department of Food, Civil, Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Government of Andhra Pradesh, discussed about the computerisation project of the ration cards based on iris recognition technology in the state of Andhra Pradesh. He informed about biometrics, which is a

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(L-R) Rajendra Dhavale, Director â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Technical Sales, India & SAARC, CA; Mahabaleshwar Hegde, Vice President, National Institute of Smart Government; Amitabh Tripathi, Deputy Controller General of Accounts, GoI; Sanjeev Kapoor, Head Government & Telecom Sectors, Infosys Technologies Limited; Sanjay Jaju, Commissioner, Dept. of Food, Civil, Supplies & Consumer Affairs, Govt. of AP; Siddharth, Principal Secretary IT, Govt. of West Bengal; Amod Kumar, Special Secretary Revenue, Govt. of UP; R Ramakrishnan, Programme Director, SAP

unique automated method to confirm an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s identity and it helped in thwarting the duplication of records. As per Jaju, iris recognition technology is superior over other choices of biometrics because of high degree of reliability, stability, accurateness and less intrusiveness than other biometric tools. According to him, the issuing of the computerised cards, to the people of Andhra Pradesh, resulted in a purified and a unique database, which could be used as the mother database by all the other departments to efficient, transparent and access of services

to all. Amitabh Tripathi, Deputy Controller General Accounts, Government of India, informed about the Central Plans Monitoring Scheme, which aimed to track expenditure for more than 1000 central plan schemes of the Government of India, having an outlay of approximately INR 200,000 crores. He underlined that there was a difference between the point of disbursement and its ultimate spending at the implementing level. As all the schemes differ in the scheme design, likewise they differ in the implementation hierarchy, too. The objective was to have an appropriate management system and an internal decision support system with efficient transfer of the funds by ensuring transparency and accountability. The centralised repository, having 1500 registered users and 800 implementing agencies, tracks the plan sanctions in all civil ministries which receive the funds from the Government of India. He also felt that it was difficult to entirely change the existing infrastructure, hence difficult to have the transformational/enterprise approach. The approach should be incremental, and feasible to modify and spread the existing structure. Mahabaleshwar Hegde, Vice President, National Institute of Smart Governance, (NISG), discussed on the difference between the enterprise approach and enterprise application. He said the enterprise approach was required for the efficient delivery of the services to the citizens, where as the enterprise application was important because

it helped to build in the enterprise approach. Speaking about the challenges, he said, “The biggest challenge faced is the challenge to retain both the enterprise approach and the enterprise application, as enterprise approach is the challenge of imagination and enterprise application is the challenge of equipment.” Amod Kumar, Special Secretary Revenue, Government of Uttar Pradesh, emphasised that no politician today opposes the transformation of the system. He discussed how the manual maintenance of the land records was completely banned in state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) from 2005 and the entire system had been computerised. “Though UP has made good progress in the land records system and the e-Districts, it still has a long way to go in the police department.” Though enterprise approach is very important, yet having the enterprise approach in the government department was difficult because of the negative attitude of the government officials, Amod Kumar opined. For the successful implementation and the execution of the enterprise approach, the younger generation should be given priority. Rajendra Dhavale, Director-Technical Sales, CA, talked about the use of enterprise approach or the transformational approach right from the planning stage to the building up of the infrastructure till the execution of the services. He explained the 4 P’s, to which the enterprise approach is closely connected. These 4 P’s include Processes, the best practices that have to be in place to deliver the services on time; Products, the utilisation of the appropriate technology for the delivery of the services; People, skilled human resource jointly from the public and the private domain; and Partners. According to him, the ultimate criteria was that the enterprise approach not only had to be implemented in the planning and the building stage, but had to be there till the execution stage so that the benefits were seen for a long time. Sanjeev Kapoor, Head, Government and Telecom Sector, Infosys Technologies Limited, informed that in the enterprise eGovernance, government was the enterprise, sharing the common interests and goals of the citizens. The enterprise approach needs enterprise architecture, which involves documenting the processes and creating cross-level dependency that exists between the departments and within the departments for an efficient system. The discussion, which followed focused on the difficulties to avoid the duplication

(L-R) Jeby Cherian, Director, Strategy, IBM; Herald Jung, Head Business Segments, Civil and National Security, Siemens; N Vijayaditya, DIT, GoI; Rajendra Mishra, Madhya Pradesh Police

of records through the use of Iris, and the other challenges faced to gather the data of the huge population and make the project a success. SESSION: PUBLIC SAFETY AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT The second day of the event began with the session on Public Safety and Disaster Management, moderated by Dr. N Vijayaditya, Controller of Certifying Authorities, Department of Communications and IT, Government of India, who necessitated the need to accept that cyber space is not static, it is dynamic where changes keep on happening. Thus, the technology needs to be upgraded, time to time, to protect the cyber space and resolve the issues of cyber crime. However, he pointed out that cyber space can be very dangerous as the editions and modifications can be made, as a result the systems need to be strengthened to ensure that originality is maintained. Rajendra Mishra, Inspector General of Police (State Cyber Cell) Madhya Pradesh, Government of Madhya Pradesh, talked about the upcoming use and involvement of the cyber world in all trades. Cyber Investigation with the help of digital evidence is emphasised and given importance. However, he pointed that very few police offices are aware of the crimes happening in the cyber cell, thus making it difficult to solve the cyber crimes. Talking about the disaster management, he asserted that disasters take place not only in the cyber space but also everywhere in the form of natural and manmade disasters.

Harald Jung, Head of Business Segments, Civil and National Security, Siemens, briefed that cyber space is like a sea of data and information which is difficult for the police department in India to analyse and react to the situation, because of lack of awareness of cyber space. It is important to prevent and protect the environment and the physical locations from the emergency situations for which the training of the staff is required along with the inclusion of the complete IT solutions and the IT experts in the team. He emphasised on the need for each country to have its own complete set of IT systems and cyber space security and adapt to certain global solutions to maintain security, depending upon the local requirements. He pointed the need to modify, redesign and optimise the resources in view of the environment. Talking about his company Siemens, he informed that it aims to help the organisations to provide solutions as to equip them for the situations of disaster. Jeby Cherian, Director, Strategy, IBM, explained the importance of moving from a paradigm of need to know to a paradigm of need to shift and on the integration of the systems. Along with the ability to react and respond to a situation in a dynamic manner, it is important to predict and pre-empt the planning of the operations. Integration of the processes and technology is required, besides the collaboration and strong communication with the defence forces to equip for emergency preparedness. Anil George, Senior Associate, Value Engineering, SAP India, recommended the use of IT to bring down the situations of disaster in the country. It is important for

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the country to endow itself to prevent the disasters and be prepared to immediately respond and react to the situations along with having a proper investigation management system to be carried out after the disasters. He informed about his company, SAP, which provides solutions to the public sector with the aim to fully equip and empower them for the situations of disaster. The discussion that followed after the panel presentations focused on the importance of digital evidence for the crime investigations, how the various departments are equipping itself to use it and the problems and challenges faced by the police department across to get accustomed to the use of digital evidence. SESSION: DATA UNIFICATION AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT The session was moderated by Chandraprakash, Principal Secretary, Department of IT, Government of Uttar Pradesh. He shared his views on the importance of data unification in any kind of planning and unless there is basic demographic data regarding income, literacy, unemployment and so forth, it becomes quite difficult for government to do the right kind of planning. Acknowledging that Unique Identity (UID) is not an end-in-it-self, but a tool that can be used by and for different departments for various purposes, Chandraprakash said, “There are numerous problems facing the country, like poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and lack of basic health services. The UID project will help in right kind of planning. It is a database, which is first step towards policy transformation and successful implementation of any project.” Ashis Sanyal, Senior Director, Department of IT, Ministry of Communication and IT, Government of India, told the gathering that the setting up of Unique ID Authority signifies that the government is committed to unification of data, of more than one billion Indians. Quoting Nandan Nilekani’s address at Department of IT, New Delhi, Sanyal informed that five to six things are unique to an individual - date of birth, father’s name, mother’s name, place of birth, nationality at the time of birth, PAN number and the driving license number. He “Though the earlier project, MNIC did not get through, UID project is slated to succeed. It has a timeframe for implementation. UID project was started so that Below Poverty Line (BPL) population could access and benefit from the government schemes started on their names. A number of new

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(L-R) Harish Grama, Vice President, IBM India, Dr. Akshay Kumar, Reader, School of Computer and Information Sciences, IGNOU; Rathan Kelkar, Director IT, Kerala IT Mission; Ashish Sanyal, Sr. Director, DIT, GOI; Chandraprakash, Principal Secretary IT, Govt. of UP; UK Ananthapadmanabhan, President, Kovai Medical Centre and Hospital; Bharat rele, director, solution engineering, SAP

schemes for BPL population are on the way. The Consolidated Fund of India (CFI) will go towards these schemes’ implementation.” Supporting government’s decision to give unique number rather than unique ID card to all citizens, he expressed confidence that “government will give a unique number to all citizens, instead of ID card, within the stipulated 18 months. If this was not so, and if ID cards were to be given to 1200 million people, then the process of printing and delivering of the cards would have overshadowed the entire programme.” Harish Grama, Vice President, IBM India, agreed with Ashis Sanyal on the government’s decision to give a unique number rather than a card as a right move. Speaking about his experience of Social Security Number in the US, Grama informed although the number was printed on a thick paper and people were provided with cards, they often use the number rather the card itself. “Treating information as a valuable asset is important for any organisation, institution or even a county, and best example for this case would be the implementation of the UID,” he said. Though conceding to the fact that getting single view of the citizen is a tough task, he expressed hope that once this task is accomplished than all the other tasks including income tax, BPL schemes, driving licences, property tax, and so forth, will become easy, because the government will know to whom it is administering the services, and thus will ensure that right people are getting the benefits at the right time. He also apprised the audience that IBM is implementing a lot of UID projects in different parts of the world and the key to

its implementation is the trusted information base. The way to do this is to identify all the different sources of information, and merge all this to create a unique list of all the citizens, across India. Bharat Rele, Director, Solution Engineering, SAP, India, shared his experience on Unique Identification (ID) and how Information Technology Act can help understand the data unification and information management. “UID is required to streamline, unify and harmonise our country. This will ensure good governance and compliance,” Bharat said. Enumerating the benefits of people getting unique ID number, he pronounced that this unique number could be printed in the passport, ATM card, ration card, driving licence, or anything, which is very unique for the citizens. It could also be the household number, which will help in mapping the locality and movement of a citizen. “UID is also the technical solution to address the security and terrorism threat.” It will prevent leakage in terms of fiscal deficit because it is going to get integrated with taxation, banking system, and with insurance companies. UID will help the government in identifying the people who are below poverty line, in order to give them subsidy. Moreover, UID will help in making India a developed nation. Dr Akshay Kumar, Reader, School of Computer and Information Sciences, Indira Gandhi National Open University, told about the case from IGNOU history of 20 years. This university started with 500 student s strength and has reached a strength of about 2 million students. The kind of infrastructure that is supported by IGNOU to take care

of needs of the students, the challenges faced and how the data unification process is helping IGNOU, is something he informed in detail. The information flow in IGNOU is: Headquarter, Regional Centre and the Study Centre. There are multiple levels of data generation: at study/ admission centres (student’s information), regional centres (teacher’s information) and the headquarter (curriculum design). All this information is utilized at the headquarter, for information and analysis of this information. Thus, there is federated system of database management, to be utilised to produce unified information. Rathan Kelkar, Director IT, Kerala IT Mission, Government of Kerala, expressed some doubts on implementation of UID. Do we have all the commitment in implementing UID? Do we have commitment by the people to abide by the UID? Are we saying that once the unique number is given to each one of us, all the beneficiaries will be getting all the benefits of all the schemes, which he/she is entitled to? He noted that more than 70% of the population in India donot have access to any kind of information, forget about UID. U K Ananthapadmanabhan, President, Kovai Medical Centre and Hospital mentioned that the privacy issues must be taken care of while sharing data across departments for UID project. SESSION: ICT INFRASTRUCTURE AND DATA CENTRES IN GOVERNMENT S P Singh, Senior Director, Department of IT, Government of India, moderated this session. According to SP Singh, data centres are the digital nerve centres for the government. He pointed out the several issues in implementation of data centres like participation of different stakeholders involved in implementation, planning, optimum utilization of the capacity stated in data centre, data security, business continuity, disaster recovery mechanism. Neeta Verma, Head of Department, Data Centre & Web Services Division, NIC informed that for effective delivery of citizen services, a well planned and a well-thought data centre can take the applications to higher level. Based on her experience of implementing data centre, Verma suggested that one should be a visionary in planning for data centre in terms of storage capacity, heat density, cooling technology, and one has to plan really big, implementation can be phase wise. Physical infrastructure in data centre, if planned well with redundancy, generally works

(L-R) Neeta Verma (HOD), Data Centre & Web Services Division, NIC; SP Singh, Sr. Director, DIT, GoI; K. Bala Chandran, CMD, ADC KRONE India & Neighboring Markets; PJ Nath, Executive President , Enterprise Solutions, Sify Technologies Limited; Orcun Tezel, Technical Director, Asia Pacific, 3Com Corporation; Amod S Ranade, Program Manager, IBM India/South Asia.

well. Coming to ICT infrastructure part, the core of which includes storage, networking switches, or back-up systems, should have state-of-art infrastructure, highly reliable systems and these should be planned with as much redundancy as possible because even if data centre stops working for 10 minutes, it will affect all services, and this is something governments cannot afford. Verma opined that the third layer comprised of servers, the investment should be done carefully and implementation could be done phase-wise, as per budget. As far as applications are concerned, she said that it was necessary to do functional and performance testing of the applications. “The fourth layer is services- help-desk services, back-up services, ICT operations and applications-supported services. While implementing a data centre, one must calculate the yearly cost of running the data centre and try and minimize the cost,” Verma said. Dr Neeta Shah discussed the issues related to implementation of data centres in the state of Gujarat, including effective capacity planning, project monitoring and management, technology and solutions selection, clearly defined Service Level Agreements for both physical infrastructure maintenance and the ICT infrastructure. She also elaborated on application hosting, application management, application security audit and service orientation. Amod S Ranade, Program Manager, IBM India/South Asia. talked about the energy efficiency issue in data centre. He pointed that while operating data centre, it was important to have benchmarks and efficiency

monitoring practices. Apprising the audience that IBM worldwide was operating, building and managing more than 300 sq feet of data centres, he said that there were technologies in power, cooling and so forth, available, whereby one could reduce power consumption and increase data centre efficiency. He noted, “A programmed approach to energy efficiency is very important. We need to do the assessment, set a benchmark, compare this benchmark with the industry standards, and then workout the programmed approach to periodic revisiting and revamping the data centre to improve efficiency.” K Balachandran, began by saying “Cabling to a Network and more so to the Data centre is like what Roads are to a transport system. Good roads ensure a smooth and safe transport. Good cabling guarantees an error free transmission of data”. Referring to government priorities, he asserted that more and more governments were focusing on improving services to citizens, non-citizens, businesses and civil servants by leveraging the country’s ICT capabilities and making it more efficient and reliable. As this happened, he said, “It needed to complement more and more intergovernmental services efficiently, because governments want to extend a single consolidated face to the user across multiple services. So the networks will need to be more transactional, multilingual and diverse as opposed to enterprise grade networks and Data Centers. This proactive governance model is driven by high user expectations, ever reducing costs and a necessity to

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maintain a very high service level.” In this scenario, Chandran said, the peripheral infrastructure which was once considered a distraction was turning critical with a high reliance on specialist partners and vendors and hence demanding more serious attention and understanding by the IT decision maker. And when it comes to mission critical Data Centers it even extends into the realms of facility management. According to Chandran, one could classify the key infrastructure in a DC into 5 categories: physical security and fire prevention installation; power and cooling equipments; other structural infrastructure; active equipments; and cabling and racks. He highlighted that in a high density Data Centre there is a lot that cabling/rack designs play towards power and cooling efficiency and therefore the total electricity costs. SESSION: IT SECRETARY CONCLAVE (VISION FOR STATE) From suggesting an eGovernance project, identifying champions in each department, being a technology consultant, till providing its assistance in project evaluation, IT department and the Secretary have been the backbone of ICT implementation in government. The vision of eliminating the need of physical interaction between a citizen and public official, and rather popularising virtual interactions was one such point, inter alia, commonly shared and agreed upon by IT secretaries in the IT Secretary Conclave on the second day of eINDIA 2009 Conference. Dr. Sameer Sharma, Secretary to Government, Department of IT and Communications, Government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP) moderated the session. Articulating the vision of Tamil Nadu in eGovernance, PWC Davidar, Secretary, Department of IT, Government of Tamil Nadu said, “Our vision is a connected Tamil Nadu, with integration of government, private sector and other players in the ecology, providing citizen centric services, leveraging the public private partnership model.” In Tamil Nadu, we are trying to manage three things for better implementation of e-Governmenttechnology, people and processes, he added. Speaking on the ‘integrated and inclusive’ approach of the state government and the usual challenges confronted, Davidar stated that the main focus of the department is on maintaining a balance of priority between the Central and state government projects. He added: “Besides, we are trying to accommodate several state departments

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(L-R) Amod Kumar, Special Secretary, Revenue Govt. of UP; C S Rao, IT Advisor to Chief Minister, Govt. of AP; Sameer Sharma, Secretary, IT& Communications, Govt. of AP

under the roof of eGovernance. We are trying to be inclusive, but it is easier said than done, because every bureaucrat has an independent way of looking at things and moreover, officials don’t like external interference.” “So when you go to some state departments, and suggest them an appropriate technology and software application, their instantaneous reaction would be – so what! So we are using clever terms like ‘facilitator’ for ourselves, while approaching other departments. It’s already bearing fruit. Cautiously, we opt a very casual approach while we go to these departments for showcasing the potential of any e-Government project,” he further opined. Speaking on the challenges confronting eGovernment implementation, Davidar said, “ Re-engineering, a word though often used, is the biggest challenge right now. We can’t just carry our existing methods when we are switching to ICT mode. Re-engineering is the major work that is yet to be done in government.” He acknowledgedrightly that putting departments on ICT mode is quite a difficult task and is yet another major challenge for IT Secretaries. He added that identifying champions in each department and motivating these change agents as owners of e-Governance projects, demands a good home work on every individual department. Greeting participants on behalf of Andhra Pradesh government, Dr C S Rao, IT Advisor to CM, Government of Andhra Pradesh stated that the vision of state is “bringing transparency and accountability in administration and establishing a citizen centric delivery system” In order to achieve this, GoAP in 1995-96,

planned for promoting IT industry in the state, Rao said. He informed that for attracting more IT and Communications giant to AP, the government’s focus has been on developing infrastructure and establishing technology parks. Mentioning the phrase, very much popular in bureaucratic circle – before you retire- in the context of rooting e-Governance in the country, Amod Kumar, Special Secretary, Revenue Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh (GoUP), also ex -Secretary to Government, Department of IT, GoUP, asseverated, “Individually, as IT Secretary, we have a motivation that before retirement, he or she may create a situation where the physical interaction between a citizen and public official is occasional and most of the interactions may happen virtually.” Speaking to the eminent panelists and audience about some of key ICT projects taken up in Uttar Pradesh, he said, “In 2005, we computerised all of the land records across the state. It was all done in a short span of six months. No manual copy of land records were accepted in courts and only the electronically generated copies were given legal acknowledgement.” “We are among the India states, which did the computerization of treasuries way back in 1999-2000. We currently have 71 districts, and all of the transactions in these districts are being monitored online,” he added. He further informed about another major project - online scholarships and widow pensions- through which the financial assistance is being delivered directly in the hands of beneficiaries. Earlier, in the scholarship list, there used to be the list of

lakhs of non-existent students, on whose name some people used to siphon away substantial amount of scholarships. Now the process has been streamlined and the possibility of monetary pilferage has been curbed to great extent, and the beneficiary data has been made available on website. SESSION: ROLE OF IT IN POWER SECTOR Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (RAPDRP) was introduced for central and state power utilities in India, because of the limited success of the APDRP, which was envisaged in the 10th plan, primarily meant for reforming and revamping the distribution system across states utilities. Under R-APDRP, sustained loss reduction in the power sector through comprehensive reforms, which includes establishment of reliable and automated systems for sustained collection of accurate base line data, and the adoption of Information Technology in the areas of energy accounting, are the prime goals. The challenges and possible solutions with Restructured - APDRP were the key discussion points in the session on Role of IT in Power. M K Goel, Director, Institutional Development and Administration, Power Finance Corporation Ltd., Government of India moderated the session. According to Goel, distribution is the weakest link in the power sector. Till date, aggregate technical and commercial losses are 30 %, which means one-third of the energy, which is being produced, is wasted, without any return on investment, making the system non-viable and sustainable in the long term. “To reform and revamp the distribution system- the Government of India launched APDRP in 10th Plan – with an investment of Rs.12, 500 Crore.” However, the programme had limited success. Some utilities showed improvement- but majority of them did not come up with positive results, he added. Speaking on the challenges surrounding the APDRP programme, Goel said, “The first and foremost important thing is to have a baseline data, which may show the position from where things have to start. This data was not established in APDRP.” No uniform method of calculating AT&C losses was in place. Each utility has been measuring losses in its own manner. No fool proof IT system was in place to calculate losses. Nevertheless, the 11th plan was designed accordingly and therole of IT was envisaged to greater extent.

(L-R) Srinivas Rao, Executive Director, HR and Commercial, APCPDCL; Jayant Sinha, DGM (IT), Uttarakhand Power Corporation Ltd.; M K Goel, Director, Institutional, Development & Administration, Power Finance Corporation Ltd., GoI; Rajat Sud, Head, Energy Vertical, Siemens Information Systems Limited; Rupendra Bhatnagar, Director, Energy & Utilities, Microsoft Corporation India

Acknowledging the need for process reengineering for opting IT, Jayant Sinha, DGM (IT), Uttarakhand Power Corporation Ltd. said, “We are still working on legacy systems – which may not be useful in an integrated framework – whereby we are integrating all applications over service oriented architecture, instead of having piece meal solutions. “Time has come when we opt for an end to end solution (a meter to cash solution), which integrates our consumer indexing, asset management, consumer services, workforce management, and internal business processes like HR, accounts,” He recommended. Service delivery is another major focus where IT intervention is needed. Through use of ICT, customers can have access to their bills and can make their payments, online. Also, there is an application, where customers can log complains. Most importantly, it will help in generating MIS reports, Sinha opined. Rajat Sud, Head, Energy Vertical, Siemens Information Systems Limited conceded that there is a definite need for more energy and for that efficient grids are needed, which can transmit the power, profitably. Elaborating on IT Solutions offered by Siemens Information Systems Ltd, Sud said, “We have a suite of products for power generation companies, which basically works in reducing carbon emissions and increasing the efficiency of the generation plants. We are amongst the foremost players in smart metering, as well.” Grid Asset Management Solutions is one such solution. “It actually integrates SCADA information, ERP information, which typically covers work orders and maintains schedules and it integrates GIS.” The second solution

Rajat talked about was ‘advanced metering and infrastructure solution’ (AMIS) and EnergyIP. Lastly, he explained the solution around loss reduction framework. Srinivas Rao, Executive Director, HR and Commercial, APCPDCL said the entire power sector scenario is changing, with the implementation of IT. APCPDCL started automation in many directions. “We have started using GIS and applications like Transformer Information Management System and Monitoring and Tracking System. Also, APCPDCL was the first utility to start the spot billing system in the state, which reduces the chances of the customer either getting wrong bills or receiving somebody else’s bills since the meter reading is taken right in front of the customer’s eyes and the bill is generated and issued on the spot,” Mr. Rao said. Rupendra Bhatnagar, Director, Energy & Utilities, Microsoft Corporation India threw light on the challenges faced by the IT companies in deploying solutions for utilities. He talked about three challenges in the power sector – firstly, the financial sustainability issue. Need for continued investment is another challenge. Like, for example, for generation 1000 Megawatt, it requires a billion dollar and that’s a huge investment. Aging work force is yet another challenge. Further, Bhatnagar talked about the application of Geographical Information System and Automated Meter Reading in utilities. He said that though these novel technologies could do wonders in the power sector, in terms of increasing the productivity and profitability of utilities, there are challenges across way, demanding substantial focus

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and priority from the utilities. Importantly, he also emphasised on the need of IT in asset replacement, asset cost optimisation, operations optimisation and better budget planning. SESSION: URBAN GOVERNANCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE Mostly the argument related with urban governance and infrastructure is confined to the citizen service delivery and that too limited to issuing of birth and death certificates and downloading of taxation forms. Nonetheless, issues related with sustainable and good governance are far more complex and huge. Besides, there are more than 4000 municipalities in the country, with their own unique characteristics. What is more needed is a uniform set of ICT applications or customized solutions, which do not tamper the uniqueness of the particular local city government. The panelists contemplated on these issues, and drew some useful conclusions. Dr. Rajeev Sharma, Director General, Centre for Good Governance moderated the session. Initiating the discussion, Dr. Sharma touched upon issues concerning the urban governance and opined that the major constraint across its way is the limited role of the municipalities in over all development and administration of respective urban areas. To name a few, the transport, power supply, infrastructure, trade and economy are handled by different agencies of the government and these are the areas where municipalities have hardly any role to play and so an integrated approach towards development becomes smiley, he pointed out. “Unfortunately, these services do not come under one umbrella as far as administration is concerned and hence as far as urban governance is concerned the issue of convergence remains a major issue in the eGovernance solutions that we tend to provide. Because these services are dealt with various wings of the government, which some times have a silo like approach,” Dr Sharma said. Voicing his concern over the ignorant attitude of administration by large, in nurturing social capital – encompassing masses with education and developing quality human resource – Dr. Sharma stated, “Since our cities are growing and urbanisation is on a rapid growth spree, we require looking into how we are going to develop the social capital in cities. It has to do a lot with providing a system of education; basic inputs for upgrading human resource.” This is the

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(L-R) Niraj Prakash, GM, SAP India; Rajesh Khullar, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Gurgaon, Haryana; Dr. Rajeev Sharma, Director General, Centre for Good Governance, Andhra Pradesh; Sunil Jain, DGM, Public Sector, Asia, Siemens Information System; Anirudh Srivastava, Director- Solutions, Microsoft Corporation India.

area where ICT can play role of an enabler. Ironically, this is some thing, from which the agencies of urban governance have been largely staying away and so it is the need of the hour to improve the social capital, Dr Sharma further added. Niraj Prakash, General Manger, SAP India, primarily focused on issues related with urban planning and sustainability, and need of integrated applications and shared system for municipalities. Also, he emphasised on the recommendations related to urban governance originating from JNURM, which has identified eight areas of e-Governance reforms in municipalities including citizen services, back end accounting, and human resource system. He also elaborated on setting up an IT system, which can integrate the existing IT systems in the Urban Local Bodies. Stressing on the need for having a shared system, Niraj said: “Having common set of applications, running centrally in the bigger municipality, and allowing other smaller municipality to ride on the same infrastructure and run the applications on the same network, can be an opportunity for smaller municipalities to streamline their processes.” Further, giving recommendation to the municipalities on the integrated approach, Niraj said whenever the detailed project reports (DPR) are sent to the JNNURM cell, the need for integrated and sustainable approach should be taken note of.

Anirudh Srivastava, Director- Solutions, Microsoft Corporation India talked about the relevance of IT intervention in government. According to Srivastava, some areas where IT can provide solution are - File tracking, case management solution, document management solution, interactive forms, which could be available for citizens – which can be downloaded, filed and submitted back or filled online. Notifying on use of Intranet portal in government, Srivastava said, “It is an integrated system- that could be leveraged by the government departments, and which would provide a platform where the departments can exchange information seamlessly. It’s a tool through which more communication and collaboration can be done between departments.” Rajesh Khullar, Commissioner, Gurgaon Municipal Corporation commented that ICT should not take away the basic democratic structure of the city government, through needless uniformity. However, he strongly supported that ICT intervention can be used in fixing responsibility and accountability in government. In the words of Khullar: “Posting complete information on web, which includes complete contact details and responsibilities of the government officials, along with information of the people in the upper hierarchy, having command over the executing officials, can be a solution for smart governance. Later, he advocated marriage of

RTI with e-Governance and re-engineering of internal processes and empowerment of ULBs. Articulating his views on issues in urban governance, Sunil Jain, DGM, Public Sector, Asia, Siemens Information System, said that there is a need for greater collaboration across government departments, mainly functioning in tight compartments. Also, he commented on the need of cities, being more pro-active and responsive to ever changing environment. Further, he informed the participants about the solutions being offered by the Siemens IT across the world under two categories: administration and new public management. In administration, the modules included citizen relationship management, case management, public administration and accounts and revenue, expense and social services. Budget management, cost performance accounting, consulting method – e-Government framework and commissioner’s cockpit, are the modules that are being offered by the Siemens IT under new public management. SESSION: ANDHRA PRADESH GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES Andhra Pradesh took a decade’s time before it reached the current level in e-Governance, where ICT is being used by most of its departments in project monitoring, increasing accountability, curbing corruption, pro-active information disclosure through websites, and social auditing of some flag ship projects. In ‘AP Government Initiatives’ session under the eGov India 2009 track, speakers from nine state departments shared their long and rich experience of implementing e-Government in their respective domain. Delivering the keynote speech of the session, C D Arha, Chief Information Commissioner, AP Information Commission, Government of Andhra Pradesh elaborated on RTI relevance in a democratic set-up, and said, “This instrumentality was passed in the parliament with no other objective but one – we must make our democracy strong; the roots of democracy must go deep. The power must comprehensively shift from the fore walls of establishment to the sunshine of public.” RTI, essentially, means, he added, “the right of citizens to have access to information from diskettes, floppies or in any electronic form or through printouts.” Speaking on the close and complimentary relation that exists between RTI and eGovernance, Arha averred, “In its very nature,

(L-R) Sanjeev Gupta, Project Director, MAUD, Govt. of AP; Dr. R S Praveen Kumar, DIG & Joint Director, AP Police Academy; Ahamed Babu, CEO, Aarogyasri Health Care Trust, Govt. of AP; N S Sathya Sai Baba, Project Coordinator, NIC; Shanti Kumari, Commissioner, Rural Development, Govt. of AP; Sam Kishore, Additional IG, Revenue Department, Govt. of AP; Munindra, Executive Director, AP State Housing Corporation, Govt. of AP; Sameer Sharma, Secretary, Department of IT & Communications, Govt. of AP

the more we go towards suo moto information disclosure, uploading of government records and other relevant information on websites, the need for RTI would be invoked and the need for following laborious procedure to approach council for arguments being heard, judgments being announced, I think that will be receded.” Ahamed Babu, Chief Executive Officer, Aarogyasri Health Care Trust, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Andhra Pradesh articulated on the monitoring of Aarogyasri - the state flagship programme on health insurance for families living below poverty line, under which a BPL family can avail medical treatment of upto Rs2 Lakh in any of the 450 networked hospital across the state - through a web based solution based on a central architecture, having data repository of seven crore people (beneficiaries). Elaborating on the IT solution being used in the health insurance programme, Babu averred, “The beauty of any IT system is to simplify the processes at the user end. To treat a patient, the case has to flow to 18 people in the system. It means a case acceptance starts from a Primary Health Centre (PHC) Aarogya Mithra, and then it ends at the accountant, who clicks in his computer system and makes the payment. It includes doctors and nurses. Each of them have been given a small part in the IT system. If a fraud has to be done, these 18 people have to sit together and do it with consensus, which is practically impossible.” Shanti Kumari, Commissioner, Department of Rural Development, Government of Andhra

Pradesh briefed delegates on the project monitoring of National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) scheme and the recently initiated Rural Financial Inclusion system in the state. Rashtra Gramina Abhivridhi Samacharam (RAGAS) is the software that runs on these. PCs, developed in collaboration with TCS – which delivers all key functions of NREG programme. “We have a NREG website, where data is transferred on a day-to-day basis. All the details related with the work are kept in the public domain through its posting on website,” she said. She added: “This entire process is uploaded on website and any one can drill down to the last job cardholder. Currently, the department has data of 1.2 crore wage seekers and 40 lakh muster rolls in our system.” Dr. R. S. Praveen Kumar, DIG & Joint Director, AP Police Academy informed about the ICT initiatives taken by the Hyderabad City Police in traffic management, containing cyber crime, creating in-house resource pool and disseminating awareness about several crimes. As one of the prime initiatives, the City Police launched an e-Challan system, through which department is now getting revenue of Rs. 74 lakh in a month. However, the figure for earlier months was as low as Rs. 5 Lakh a month. In a move towards providing traffic information to citizens, Praveen Kumar said, “We launched www.htp.gov.in, the website for Hyderabad Traffic Police, which gives citizens real time information through live

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traffic updates on the state of traffic in the city, at any given time and this is all done with help of 150 cameras positioned at several locations of the city.” Apprising the delegates on the online presence of the city police and the web based solutions being used by the department in curbing crime, Praveen said, “We launched Hyderabad City Police website – www. hyderabadpolice.gov.in with the help of NIC, a couple of years back. On this website, one can check the status of passport and lost vehicles. There is a particular section on this site known as crime buster link, where one can upload information related with any fraud or crime, with complete anonymity. With the help of this application, we have been able to bust many flesh trade related cases, and economic frauds.” Munindra, Executive Director, AP State Housing Corporation informed delegates that the department has responsibility to provide housing to below poverty line families, in villages and urban areas. Munindra elaborated: Initially a list of beneficiaries is prepared and then the department releases a unit cost of housing to each of the beneficiary. However, there were serious issues like the names of beneficiaries were often changed and the amount went in to the wrong hands. Department lacked a system to keep track of the beneficiary payments. In 2006, State government launched a comprehensive housing programme, called Indiramma, under which every eligible beneficiary has to be given a house. “We consulted Centre for Good Governance for developing a full proof Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solution for the implementation and monitoring of this huge programme. Now with the deployment of the web based solution, we have curbed the monetary pilferage to great extent,” Munindra said. Sanjeev Gupta, Project Director (eSuwidha), Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh told audiences about eSuwidha project, which was started way back in 2002, for providing friendly Government to Citizen and Citizen to Government services, for the purpose of supervision, monitoring and guidance of Urban Local Bodies, online Government to Government data transfer, single window municipal services to citizens. “In eSuwidha application software, we have 16 modules for the purpose of G2C services and internal administration. Besides, it has also got Management Information System, which generates reports

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Participants listening attentively to the speakers

and aids the management in decisionmaking,” Gupta said. These modules are related with issuing of certificates like birth and death, trade licenses, filing taxes, and grievance redressal. These data centres are linked to the state DC for centralised monitoring. All the data is maintained with 21 District Data Centres hosted at district head quarters, which have a link-up with eSeva centres and concerned municipalities. According to Gupta, by the end of year, the department will be launching web-enabled services on a central architecture to provide the online services to citizens including registration of birth and death certificates and submission of taxes. Sam Kishore, Revenue Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh notified the audiences on the CARD project that was initiated by the department in 199899. The novelty of the project is that all the legacy system of transactions has been computerised. All the property transactions from 1980 to till date have been made available on website. “As you know the process of registration is too cumbersome. However, after computerisation, the whole process has been made simple and even a layman can go through the whole process quickly,” Kishore said. Speaking about the GIS application is utilities, N S Sathya Sai Baba, Project Coordinator (GIS in Utilities), NIC, said: The objective was to have a base map, obtained with the help of Geographical Information System (GIS) technique, hosted on central server, and then share it across

the departments, especially the utilities. In property tax collection, the plinth area is often under valued, many times, deliberately, and because of which the municipalities have to undergo huge revenue losses. But with the base map, officials can easily measure the exact area. In a pilot, it has been noted that adopting this GIS technique, the revenue can be increased by more than 30 per cent. Jacob Victor, Joint Director, eGovernance, Department of IT and Communications, Government of Andhra Pradesh talked about online Issuing of Government Orders (GO) and Scholarships for school students in the state of Andhra Pradesh. “Under this initiative, all the GOs are posted on the website, www. ap.gov.in/apgo, from where one can easily select the particular department and can see the all the GO issued from year 2008 to till date. One can even search the GO with some key words related with subject and officers name.” To make the process more simple this searching of GO has been backed by a call centre with number 1100, where one can inquire the customer executive about GO related to a particular subject. In response, the executive search and reads the GO for the caller. “In the online scholarship project, we have made available all information on the website, www.ap.gov.in/sbms. Earlier, there were many fake names and the substantial part of the scholarship was siphoned away by the miscreants. However, all of the information has been put online, and the transaction has been made more transparent,” Victor added.

The valedictory session in progress

VALEDICTORY SESSION The grandeur of eINDIA2009 fanfare came to its logical conclusion with the Valedictory session which brought together the organisers, speakers, delegates, exhibitors and sponsors, from India and abroad, to introspect and put forth their thoughts and ideate over the culmination of the event. The curtains went down on eINDIA2009 with panache at the conference finale, on 27th August, after 3 days of jam-packed itinerary and back to back business sessions. The concluding assembly was chaired by Dr Ravi Gupta, Convener of eINDIA2009, with the panel consisting of all dignitaries who have collaborated with Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS) to make the event a grand success. The eINDIA2009 also organised eINDIA2009 Awards ceremony on 26th August 2009 to felicitate the winners of jury and public choice awards. The awards were conferred to distinguished professionals

and institutions working in the domains of: e-Agriculture, e-Governance, Digital Learning, e-Health, Municipal IT and Telecentre. Major highlights of the event were summed up and the audience was taken through a brief journey, that of eINDIA2009 - from its inception to its epoch reaching stage; the efforts and the hard work; the enriching role of delegates and speakers; the enthusiasm of the exhibitors; and the poignant role of the participants – which were all ceremoniously acknowledged and applauded. Activities of the three day conference were concluded in a befitting ceremony and the organising team got their share of appreciation from the audience as feedback came pouring in one by one. The inputs received at the session added to the glory and splendor of the conference. FEEDBACK “I am pleased to say that the turnout at the event was much better than I had expected!

Shankar Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, DIT, Ministry of Communications and IT, along with CSDMS Team

The presence of Charles Clarke at the event helped to raise its international profile, with his speech during the opening ceremony being quite visionary and relevant....” - Peter Ormerod, Vice President, Promethean “Thanks for a nicely executed and coordinated event!” - Amod Kumar, Manager, Panasonic “It has been my privilege to be associated with the eINDIA2009 and eAgriculture sessions for three years in a row. The discussions have brought together diverse perspectives which have been explored and ruminated on. One impressive observation was that this year, there were lesser number of power point presentations, with the focus more on speaker-audience engagement. The outcome of the sessions in this format proved to be much more valuable and interactive. Dr Ravi Gupta and his team have done a splendid job at the event.” - Dr Gopi Ghosh, Assistant FAO Representative, New Delhi “Participating at the School Leaders’ Conclave and the School Education Forum was a pleasure. I have been a part of eINDIA since the last 4 years and the notable and positive difference this year was the wider representation of school teachers and principals. The presence of the practitioners at the conference has helped highlight the real problems and challenges encountered during teaching-learning processes and ways and means of addressing the same.” - Simmi Kher, Director, The Indian Heights, India “The display of various ICT infrastructure and content development solutions have been commendable. At the same time, the government needs to set up standards for the software and hardware products in education and other fields. There has to be a customised measure for the proper and effective utilisation of such solutions. The conference has highlighted the need for bringing together various stakeholders in ICTs and making efforts to bridge the digital divide across domain.” - Kiran Rao, eINDIA2009 Delegate “The power point presentations made during the session have been hugely informative. Conferences such as these help in bringing together ideas from across domains. The discussions have proved to be useful and relevant in today’s context where ICTs have become a buzzword for future growth.” -K. Shashikant, Student, eINDIA2009 Delegate. \\ Prachi Shirur, Gayatri Maheshwary, Pratap Vikram Singh

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

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

year 2002 onwards, are preferable. In case of website, provide the URL. MANUSCRIPTS should be typed in a standard printable font (Times New Roman 12 font size, titles in bold) and submitted either through mail or post. RELEVANT FIGURES of adequate quality (300 dpi) should be submitted in JPEG/ TIFF format. A BRIEF BIO-DATA and passport size photograph(s) of the author(s) must be enclosed. ALL CONTRIBUTIONS ARE SUBJECT TO APPROVAL BY THE PUBLISHER.

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

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J Satyanarayana, Principal Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Chief Guest of eINDIA 2009 Awards Ceremony along with Dr MP Narayanan of CSDMS

eINDIA2009 Awards ceremony was held on 26th August 2009 at Hyderabad International Convention Centre, Hyderabad, India, to felicitate the winners of jury and public choice awards. The awards were conferred to distinguished professionals and institutions working in the domains of: eAgriculture, e-Governance, Digital Learning, e-Health, Municipal IT and Telecentre. The eINDIA Awards programme was held alongside the eINDIA 2009 conference proceedings. The objective was to encourage institutions and individual leaders to use and apply ICT tools in various developmental and sector-specific projects and to identify and popularise emerging leaders and innovative projects from different sectors of the development community, including the grassroots organisations. The Award selection process went through a dual process of Jury as well as public voting system. There was a huge response in each Award category in terms of sending nominations and online voting of nominations. We thank our esteemed Jury Panel who had a tough time in selecting the best entries from the huge number of nominations we had received. We also thank the nominees as well as the public for their enormous response to the eINDIA 2009 Awards. The awards have helped identify and felicitate projects that exemplify the kind of implementation that can be easily replicated and at the same time prove efficient and sustainable, especially projects implemented in India and the South Asian region. It has also helped promote the most innovative initiatives in the domain of ICTs for Development and has spread awareness about the role of ICTs in addressing social concerns. In this issue of the magazine, we are covering the details of the award winners from different categories. The information is also available online www.eindia.net. in/2009/awards/eindia2009-awards-winners.asp

Ashis Sanyal and Prakash Kumar at jury meet

Dr Gopi Ghosh during the award selection process

Dr. Ashok Kumar working on the jury award process

JURY PROCESS The Jury members for each award category were chosen based on their expertise/specialization in the domain. Jury members who extended their support to us and evaluated the nominations received were Ashis Sanyal, Senior Director, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India; Prakash Kumar, Director, Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), Cisco Systems India; Dr Rajashekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University; Ashish Garg, Asia Regional Coordinator, GeSCI, Madhuri Parti, Head, Learn India; Rajen Varada, Resource Person & Moderator ICTD

community, UN Solution Exchange; Dr. Ashok Kumar, DDG & Director, Central Bureau of Health Intelligence, Government of India; Sajan Venniyoor, Country Representative (India), Deutsche Welle; S N Goswami, MD and CEO, Media Lab Asia; Dr. V Balaji, Global Leader, Knowledge Management & Sharing, ICRISAT, Patancheru, Hyderabad and Dr. Gopi Ghosh, Assistant FAO Representative, India. A Jury Meet was organised on 21st August 2009, in Delhi, with the agenda to: shortlist nominations; finalise results and sign the Jury Decision Form. The Jury members met on the stipulated date, discussed and gave their verdict.

ONLINE VOTING PROCESS

The online voting process started from 1st August 2009 and closed on 20th August 2009. After registering to vote through online filling of some basic personal information such as name, organization, sector, to validate that the voter is genuine, anyone could vote online. We received a whopping 16,788 votes for eINDIA2009 Award Nominations! The response thus, was overwhelming. Total votes cast category wise, include: // ICT Enabled Agriculture Initiative of the Year- 1612 // G2C Initiative of the Year- 981 // G2B Initiative of the Year- 891 // G2C Initiative of the Year- 673 // mGov Initiative of the Year- 436 // Civil Society eGov Initiative of the Year1339

// ICT Enabled School of the Year- 2446 // ICT Enabled University of the Year-812 // Government/Policy Initiative of the Year in Digital Learning- 601 // Civil Society Digital Learning Initiative of the Year- 713 // ICT Enabled Hospital of the Year- 419 // Government/Policy eHealth Initiative of the Year- 1087 // Civil Society eHealth Initiative of the Year- 268 // Innovative Grassroots Telecentre of the Year- 298 // Civil Society Telecentre Initiative of the Year- 230 // ICT Enabled Municipal Initiative of the Year- 1503

egov OCTOBER 2009

WINNERS - G2C JURY AWARD E-TANSIK e-Tansik is related to the admission to public universities and institutions in Egypt that operates through a centralized office, University Enrollment Co- ordination Office (UEC). This office enrolls over 450,000 students yearly. The purpose of the e-Tansik initiative was to replace the old paper process through a comprehensive webbased application, hosted on the Egyptian Government Portal, that accepts student’s university enrollment application, backed by a 24/7 call center for students’ support. The Portal’s operation team was responsible for service operation, security and technical support. e-Tansik proved to be highly beneficial for both citizens and government. It resulted in huge cost savings, higher efficiency and much better services for the citizens at no cost. In addition, it helped building trust in e-Government services. The e-Tansik application was developed by the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University. The team developed the online form and tested the application according to the business rules set by the Ministry of Higher Education for acceptance, taking into account geographical distribution.

Dr Ahmed Mouhmed Tobal, General Manager, Education Project, Ministry of State for Administrative Development, Egypt

• ACHIEVEMENTS • The initiative taken was replacing the paper process by a comprehensive web-based application, hosted on the Egyptian Implementor: Public Universities Enrollment Project, Cairo, Egypt Website: www.egypt.gov.eg

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Government Portal and supported by a 24/7 call center for student support. Students are able to access the application with their student IDs and a special PIN code received along with their secondary school certificates. The online application was offered entirely free of charge. The automated process allowed extra features over the old paper forms. It helped build trust in the e-Government services. A flexible and scalable system design was implemented to allow future consolidation and aggregation.

PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD NATIONAL PORTAL OF INDIA that take place through the Portal. Also facilitated through the portal is the key component of citizen participation in the processes and policy formulation by the government as in the case of RTI Complaint and Appeal, Central Pay Commission and NGO Partnership. The Portal has exclusive section dedicated to the citizens, business, overseas, government and know India, sectors.

Neeta Verma, HOD, Data Centre & Web Services Division and Alka Misra, Technical Director, from National Informatics Centre, Delhi

National Portal of India is the official portal for the Government of India. It provides a single window source for alleviating entrée to all information and services that is provided by the various constituents of the Indian Government to its citizens and other stakeholders. The India portal www.india.gov.in, an aggregator of more than 5000 distinct Indian Government websites (of various different domains and owners), has a cohesive interface. The Portal provides a flawless access to a wide variety of services for all Indian citizens, thus acting as a gateway to a superfluity of information and services provided electronically by the different departments of Indian government. The primary objective of e-Government is fulfilled as interaction takes place between the citizen through electronic delivery and exchange of information and services

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ACHIEVEMENTS india.gov.in provides a single window gateway to over 5000 • Indian government websites, a feat that is unique in its own right. The Portal has also proven to be an effective medium for • the participation of common citizens in the process of governance. Publication of information and documents over the Net, online • delivery of citizen services as well as the facility to know the status of applications submitted for various government services has not only led to benefiting the end-users or common citizens but also fulfills one of the basic objectives of good governance namely enhancing transparency and accountability in the government functioning.

Implementor: National Informatics Centre, New Delhi Website: www.india.gov.in

WINNERS - G2G JURY AWARD CENTRAL PLAN SCHEME MONITORING SYSTEM The Project envisages tracking of expenditure for more than 1000 central plan schemes of the Government of India having an outlay of approximately Rs 200,000 Crores. The sanction identification process that has been established enables tracking of fund flow under these schemes for various implementing agencies. Accordingly around 70,000 sanctions were captured during the financial year 2008-09. Expenditure under different components of schemes was captured through expenditure filing on a pilot basis from the lowest level of implementation i.e. village for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan and National Child Labour Project in the states of Karnataka (Bangalore-Rural) and Punjab (Ludhiana). Information on all sanctions issued under the plan schemes for release of funds to various organisations/implementing agencies is available on the system. ACHIEVEMENTS • At present the central plan scheme monitoring system is under implementation in all the departments of the Government of India, which are implementing the central plan schemes with some exceptions.

Amitabh Tripathi, Deputy Controller General of Accounts

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• Implementor: Controller General of Accounts, Delhi Website: cga.nic.in

The system has stabilised and demonstrates the capabilities to track the funds on the parameters which cannot be captured through existing accounting system. Thus the same model can be replicated in the state governments for tracking of similar plan scheme releases to various organisations. Tracking of financial sanctions issued by various programme divisions in the ministries and its payment status. Thus it also works as the bill tracking system. It has provided MIS to top level management for expenditure management.

PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD E-LEKHA - A STRIDE TOWARDS A CORE ACCOUNTING SOLUTION General of Accounts (CGA) to update and monitor daily reporting of expenditure and revenue of the Government of India, in sync with the budget allotted to a ministry and its sub units and schemes. This software is positioned at the lowest level of accounting and helps in optimum utilization of financial resources.

Dipankar Sengupta, Technical Director and Punit Srivastava, Senior Systems Analyst from Accounts Informatics Division, Office of Controller General of Accounts, National Informatics Centre

e-Lekha, a prudent financial management application provides an electronic payment and accounting information system for the Civil Accounts Organization of the Government of India with the objective of improving efficiency and accuracy of the accounting process. Built in and around the COMPACT application running at pay and accounts offices and other offline interfaces, it provides a system of core accounting with integration of daily, monthly and annual accounting processes for near real time value added reporting and financial monitoring and control. e-Lekha is being used by all Civil Ministries of the Government of India covering over 400 Pay and accounts offices and 47 ministries /departments. It is developed by the Accounts Informatics Division, National Informatics Centre for the Controller

ACHIEVEMENTS eLekha is currently operational in all 52 ministries covering • 462 pay and accounts offices of different ministries and Union Territories of the Government of India. Centralised management and online availability of chart of • accounts of GOI (over 1 Lakh heads of accounts, grants, object head, categories and their interrelationships, over 70 controller codes, over 500 PAO codes and over 6000 DDO codes ). Full integration of payment and accounting functions. • Accuracy of Accounts – online validation, no audit qualifications. • Rejection of erroneous and invalid data at the lowest level maintaining data consistency and integrity at all different accounting tiers. Data integrity – through a single database at the Controller and • CGA Level and having interfaces with COMPACT at PAO level.

Implementor: Accounts Informatics Division, National Informatics Centre, delhi Website: www.acid.nic.in

egov OCTOBER 2009

WINNERS - G2B JURY AWARD e-BIDDING The Ministry of Finance, Malaysia recently introduced Government electronic procurement mode named eBidding. eBidding was introduced in selected Government agencies on a pilot basis in November 2006 as part of the ePerolehan, solution under the eGovernment initiative. ePerolehan provides a virtual marketplace to cater for Government buyers (2,500 offices with approximately 12,000 users) and suppliers of products and services totalled 140,000 suppliers. There are 5 procurement modes in ePerolehan which are direct purchase, central contract, quotation, tender and eBidding. All of these procurement modes are web-based and can be accessed by users online. eBidding is a procurement mode that is based on a reverse auction concept where sellers offer their items and compete for the price which the buyer will accept. In this scenario, the Government agency, as the buyer will set up an auction event to receive bids from suppliers.

Implementor: ePerolehan, Malaysia Website: www.home.eperolehan.gov.my

ACHIEVEMENTS During the pilot implementation, more than 100 transactions • have been carried out involving 8 Ministries. eBidding drastically reduces end-to-end procurement process • in comparison with other modes of procurement. In average, the procurement cycle is only within 3 weeks compared to tender which takes an average of 20 weeks in order to issue the letter of award to the respective supplier. The bidding result is straightforward and is based on the lowest • bid price offered. This results in faster and less complex decision making. Commonly, suppliers enjoy faster bidding results. Government agencies avoid tedious process of examining • different suppliers with different specifications. • It fosters broader business participation as all qualified suppliers will, be competing with each other on a level playing field.

PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD E-PROCUREMENT IN ORISSA to works related to tendering activities, which covers almost 85% of Orissa Government’s procurement budget.

S K Panda, SIO & Senior Technical Director and Nihar Ranjan Biswal, Scientist, from National Informatics Centre, Orissa

With the objective of bringing reforms related to public procurement under the administrative reforms, Government of Orissa with World Bank, formulated an agenda out of which e-Procurement was a priority area. Accordingly, NIC was entrusted by Govt. of Orissa to undertake the automation of procurement practice. With the principle that what is good for citizen is good for the government, Government of Orissa and NIC committed to adopt e-Procurement as a major e-Governance initiative during late 2006 to bring transparency and accountability in public procurement process. With introduction of GePNIC (Government e-Procurement Application of National Informatics Centre) by NIC during 2007, achieving the goal became a reality. GePNIC, being a Mission Mode e-Governance Project, caters

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ACHIEVEMENTS Department officers have been enabled to create and publish the • tender online along with corrigendum. Department bid openers, open technical and financial bids online • in stages. The bids can only be opened after the designated time and only by the pre-selected bid openers. The financial evaluation is done automatically and comparison • chart is generated indicating the L1 and other bidders. The award of the project is automatically intimated to the bidder by mail and through the portal and public can see the results of the tendering. The application facilitates free online portal registration by any • bidder from any place and is a self-registration process. The bidder also has to register his Digital Signature Certificates to • get access the bidding process. The bidder could search, prepare and upload his bid documents • that are stored in encrypted format thus not revealing the bidders price and identity.

Implementor: National Informatics Centre, Orissa State Unit Website: www.orissagov.nic.in

WINNERS: mGOVERNANCE JURY AWARD AND PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD RAILWAY SMS SMS 139 Service, offered by Spice Digital Ltd in collaboration with Indian Railways (IRCTC) and Bharat BPO, is used to provide railway information. SMS Service is used to provide railway information like PNR enquiry, train arrival / departure, time table, fare enquiry etc. on a single short code 139 which is accessible Pan India from All major telecom operators. Users can send their 10 Digit PNR number to 139 in the form of an SMS to get the required information online. ACHIEVEMENTS • Railway Service on 139 is now available on SMS and voice (IVR and Agent) from anywhere in India. • More than 1 million indian citizens use this service across India • Created a pool out of the defined resources and handled the activities on a priority basis.

Laxminarayan, Group General Manager, SCZ, IRCTC, Anil Chopra, Deputy General Manager, Rail Sampark and Pankaj Gupta, Business Head (Enterprise), Spice Digital Ltd

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Only authorized officials can perform the critical tasks because of features like role based access, encryption and locking / unlocking at every stage of randomization.

Implementor: Indian Railways Website: www.indianrailway.gov.in

WINNERS: GRASSROOTS TELECENTRE JURY AWARD AND PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD VISION CENTRE Vision Centres are aimed at providing comprehensive primary eye care services to the rural and remote population and thus create access to quality eye care. Each Vision Centre covers a population of 50,000 to 60,000. These centres are equipped with ophthalmic equipment such as slit lamp, streak retinoscope, direct ophthalmoscope, trial sets, schiotz tonometer, basic sterilizers, BP apparatus, 90D lens, digital camera, and a computer with a webcam and high bandwidth (4 mbps) point to point wireless (802.11b - license free spectrum) or BSNL broadband connectivity. These centres are run by well trained ophthalmic assistants who perform slit lamp examination, refraction, treating minor ailments and a counselor to counsel the patients and manage the vision centre operations. All investigation results are directly entered into computer using electronic medical record software and medical images taken are attached to the medical records that are accessed by the ophthalmologist at the base hospital while providing consultation. ACHIEVEMENTS Vision centres are providing eye care at the door steps of the • rural areas. It has reached and served nearly 80% of those in need of eye • care within a period of two years which highlight the changes in the health seeking behavior. The conventional camps could screen the cataract cases and • could not help other eye diseases like diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and others, but these centres are permanent and could provide comprehensive eye care to the community.

B.S.Ganesh Babu, Senior Manager-IT & Systems, Aravind Eye Care System

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Availability and supply of medicines and spectacles at the centre ensure the compliance rate of treatments advised. Only 7 to 10% of the people gets referred to base hospital for further treatment otherwise nearly 90% of the people could gets treatment at these tele-centres.

Implementor: The Aravind Eye Care System Website: www.aravind.org

egov OCTOBER 2009

WINNERS: CIVIL SOCIETY JURY AWARD ICT SOLUTION FOR SOCIETY FOR ELIMINATION OF RURAL POVERTY (SERP) Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) has formulated and implemented successfully new schemes in the areas of insurance and pensions, dairy, health and nutrition, gender, disability, Non-Pesticide Management (NPM), jobs and education for empowerment of rural women in particular and rural poor in general. Besides, it is also responsible for implementing co- contributory insurance and pension scheme called “Abhaya Hastham” announced by the government of Andhra Pradesh. SERP assigned the responsibility of developing and implementing IT solution to TCS for implementating an ICT solution to automate all the functionalities of SERP and capture all transactions of SHGs and their federations. The major objectives for implementing this project is to capture all Self Help Group (SHG) transactions at their origin, solution to make program monitoring easy for the government, performance monitoring of different SHGs and fast and ready flow of correct and right data to all the stakeholders ACHIEVEMENTS • ICT solution to SERP covered all the functional areas related to SHG and bank linkage program. • The functional areas covered in the ICT solution are for monitoring

Representatives from SERP

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the whole SHG movement and successful implementation of microcredit scheme in Andhra Pradesh. SHG and VO wise loans – target, achievement and repayment. Government can compare performance SHGs, Village Organisation & Women Group and MSs by setting parameters. Banks and financial institutions can check the performance of SHG online and disburse the loans. All the transactions like savings, loans received, loans repaid, and so on are made transparent and visible to outside world.

Implementor: Tata Consultancy Services Website: www.rd.ap.gov.in

PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD COMMON SERVICES CENTER PROJECT

Mukesh Hajela, CEO & Vice Chairman, NICT-INDORE

The Common Services Center is a project initiated by Government of India for providing better citizen services in rural areas under NeGP initiatives. It is basically a uniform and unified large scale project of various such e-Governance Project like Gyandoot, Rajasthan School IT Project, Lok Mitra and many more. The key at this time in implementation is not the number of CSC but the focus of NICT is to provide such a business model which will become continual and sustainable process rather then a piloting model Its business model includes various B2C and G2C services. Its emphasis is to bench mark those services immediately, which are of daily need to immediately start cash flow at these kiosks in order to make them sustainable. It has started business facilitator services, apart from this electricity online bill collection service is one of thier best USP

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ACHIEVEMENTS Sustainable functioning of CSC kiosk because in past also there • were efforts to open such kiosk but due to lack of G2C and other B2C services they could not succeed. Utilizing the digital opportunity through CSC project launched • by Government of India for rural development and poverty eradication. Implemented automated Gram Panchayat Software individually • at each Gram Panchayat and started providing Birth Certificate, Death Certificate, basic MIS of Gram Panchayat, documentation of Gram Panchayat and providing MIS in soft copy to Tehsil and Collectorate. • They have roped in Electricity Bill Payment and Insurance, Banking services in CSC’s.

Implementor: NICT (Network for Information and Computer Technology),Indore Website: www.nict.co.in

WINNERS: MUNICIPAL IT JURY AWARD AHMEDABAD MUNICIPAL CORPORATION To eliminate corrupt practices, the e-governance system was built to to provide better services to citizens. Success of e-Governance depended on use of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) in mobilization of Government resources and utilization of these resources. e-Governance enabled the City Government to re-engineer the processes in delivering speedy and better civic services. It eliminated discretionary powers vested with employees and removed human interface in decision making process to ensure transparency. It also eliminated lengthy and cumbersome procedures involved in storage and retrieval of information. The integration of all the departments have made free flow of information across and has in built audit trial. It has brought corporate culture to city government employees.

Implementor: Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation Website: http://www.egovamc.com/

Capt Dilip Mahajan, Deputy Commissioner and Dr Kamlesh Patel, Leader, from Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, along with Dr. Neeta Shah, Director, Gujarat Informatics Ltd.

ACHIEVEMENTS Revenue collection jumped from 38% to 85% in 5 years time. • All departments were integrated. • As Municipal Corporation were more responsive and transparent, • chances for corruption were eliminated. Quicker services were provided to the citizens. • 24-hour remote access to AMC transactions and services. • Payment gateways and electronic transactions eliminated • manual intervention.

PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD MONOFEYA PORTAL

Dr Ahmed Mouhmed Tobal, General Manager, Education Project, Ministry of State for Administrative Development, Egypt, receiving the award on behalf of Monofeya Portal

Monofeya has become the first governorate in Egypt to have applied the electronic system in performing services for citizens and present an online service considered as a direct contact between the citizens and the governorate leaders to enable the citizens send their complaints, opinions and suggestions through the portal. From the aspects of development and utilizing the telecommunication and information technology, unemployment is eliminated and various job opportunities are created for the youth. The portal also enabled the youth to obtain a registered flat from the government through Mubarak National Project of youth housing through the advertisements on the portal established by the governorate.

ACHIEVEMENTS The departments of the governorate interacted via the internal • communication network to save time and speed performance. Reporting through the portal databases to provided access to • all people, what has a positive effect on decision making in the right time. Availed interactive service for people through the internet. • • Electronic services were presented by municipalities, directorates for the native citizen without getting to the service place. • Use of information and communication technology to disseminate the results of the local certificates, saved transportation time and money.

Implementor: Monofeya Governate Website: www.monofeya.gov.eg

egov OCTOBER 2009

WINNERS: e-AGRICUTURE JURY AWARD KISSAN KERALA PROJECT KISSAN Kerala – is an integrated, multi-modal delivery of agricultural information system, which provides several dynamic and useful information and advisory services for the farming community across Kerala. It is one of the citizen centric e-governance projects of the Department of Agriculture, Government of Kerala. The project was conceived, developed and managed by the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management- Kerala for the Department of Agriculture, Government of Kerala. Objective of this project is to provide “right information to the right person(s) at the right time in the right place(s) and in the right context” dynamically using a combination of advanced technology portal, television based mass media programs, telephone based call centre, mobile SMS based advisory and broadcast service. ACHIEVEMENTS The core deliverables and achievements of the project is an • integrated multi-component, multi-modal delivery of Agriculture Information Services system that is accessible anywhere anytime by all concerned. • A weekly agriculture television program - in local language that provides selective information dissemination of best practices, success stories, departmental news, news on various schemes,

R Ajith Kumar, Chief Coordinator and K R Srivathsan, Former Director, Kissan Kerala (IITM-K) along with Rathan Kelkar, Director IT, Kerala IT Mission, Government of Kerala

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market analysis, cultivation methods, analysis of current issues, etc. Care has been taken to ensure that KISSAN Krishideepam is authentic and totally produced in-house by agricultural and media experts. The project has launched the country’s first online video channel in Agriculture. More than 100 selected videos (telecast quality) were made available through the channel.

Implementor: Department of Agriculture, Govt. of Kerala Website: www.kissankerala.net

PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD E-VELANMAI Nadu. Its objective was to test and evolve an ICT enabled agricultural technology transfer model named as ‘e-Velanmai’ for addressing the problems faced by the farmers in selected command areas of Tamil Nadu.

P. Balaji, Assistant Professor (Agricultural Management) & Co-Principal Investigator of e-Velanmai Scheme, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Chennai

Less than 20 per cent of the technologies generated by Agricultural Universities were transferred to the farmers field in India due to the lack of an appropriate technology transfer model. Hence an action research was experimented to test verify and validate the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based agricultural extension model called ‘e-Velanmai’ (electronic Agriculture) for addressing the agricultural problems of farmers through ICT tool based dissemination of agricultural technologies from the Scientists of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) directly to the needed farmers. This action research was started during July 2007 with the support of the TN-IAMWARM project of the Government of Tamil

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ACHIEVEMENTS The farmers (members) or their children are trained to frame the • photograph of symptoms in a digital camera and to upload them for advice from the scientists of TNAU and receive the technical advice through internet or mobile. So far, 405 farmers joined the scheme by paying membership • fee. At least one individual from each farmer’s family was trained to handle ICT tools successfully. 1120 expert advices were offered to the farmers in all the three • sub basins to solve both problems and decision based queries. Twelve visits were made by the scientists to the farmers’ field to solve complex problems. The volunteer inspects the farmer’s field and frames digital • images using a camera and transfers the photo through www.fileflyer.com using the lap top and internet surfing device.

Implementor: Centre for Agricultural and Rural Developments Studies, Agricultural University Tamilnadu Website: www.e-velanmai.com

WINNERS: CIVIL SOCIETY/DEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF THE YEAR JURY AWARD TELECENTRE PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT Gedaref Digital City Organization (GDCO) is an NGO based at Gedaref in Sudan. GDCO is the founder of the first national telecentre academy in Africa, called the Sudan National Telecentre Academy or SuNTA, which is the 13th such academy in the world. This project gives the farmers the opportunity to be medically treated using information technology (telemedicine) to reduce the cost and provide the patients with high quality of treatments against serious diseases . ACHIEVEMENTS The project ensures environmental sustainability by preventing • over exploitations of the resources. This e-Farmer project is a great partnership where partners • (farmers, NGOs, PPP) from different parts of the world share experiences, best practices and knowledge to make the life more comfortable for farmers communities. • More than 13.000 farmer's information are installed in the system of Gedaref mechanized agriculture corporation (GMAC). • Farmers renewed their farm license annually and it was done manually in two to three days, but now they can renew in few minutes.

Zaki Aldeen, Master’s Student, Sudan receiving the award on behalf of Ahmed Eisa, Chairman, GDCO

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Farmers and traders can easily sell and buy crops. Reduction in the cost of. agricultural planning and Geographic coordinates (demarcation) because it is conducted by the trained engineers in GMAC.

Implementor: Gedaref Digital City Organization Website: http://gedaref.com

PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD PROJECT E3

Niranjan Meegammana, Managing Director, e-Fusion, Sri Lanka

Project E3, a Public-Private-Community Partnership, innovated an adaptable, scalable and replicable solution for sustaining Telecenter Networks (TCN). E3 stands for e learning, e business and e leadership, designed to serve emerging digital knowledge needs of rural societies, develop micro economic networks and to address MDGs through telecenter leadership. Aimed at scaling up to 587 Telecenters in Sri Lanka, In the first year, Project E3 helped in improving sustainability of 60 Telecenter network in Uva province of Sri Lanka by improving e services, visibility and usability. The impact of E3 shows that Uva TCN sustainability growth by 96% in an year reducing closing risks from 68.3% to 18.33%.

ACHIEVEMENTS The average number of users has grown from 28 to 101 (364%) • and average income grew from Rs. 7650.00 to Rs. 17597.00 (230%) with in a year. This is viewed as significant increase of performance in the network. E3 developed skilled telecenter operators to sustain • telecenters implemented e learning to improve 150 rural youth communities. Developed telecenter leadership forming telecenter community • helped securing more than $ 80000 funding for projects for the network created a knowledge network among 150 telecenters Initiated global collaboration for Telecenter Research in Sri Lanka Uniting Telecenter operators for professional development. • Established a common portal for sharing knowledge and discussion led to empowerment of grassroot telecenter workers.

Implementor: Niranjan Meegammana Website: www.telecenter.lk

egov OCTOBER 2009

WINNERS - ICT ENABLED SCHOOL OF THE YEAR JURY AWARD ‘FOR GREEN SCENE, STAY GREEN’ PROJECT ENABLED THROUGH ICT The school has taken up a project titled ‘For green scene, stay green’ and the following activities were identified for the same: (i) Waste Management (ii) Energy Conservation (iii) Recycling (iv) Eliminating Plastic & (v) Increasing green cover. The school project has extensively used ICTs for promoting environment friendly practices and promoting awareness among students. Through the use of e-mails, chat, videoconferencing, media, websites and telephones, the school has become an active learning partner with other schools. Students of the school have taken up the role of ‘Little Ambassadors’ to bring about a change in the school, neighborhood, and the community at large, through integration of technology for generating awareness. The school is the proud owner of two state of the art computer laboratories. Both are equipped with LCD projectors and fully functional systems with net facility. The school also has a bank of over 130 lesson modules in various subjects prepared by the teachers of the school. ACHIEVEMENTS • The project has helped inculcate environment friendly practices among students. • Students of the school are now more aware of the pressing Implementor: BVB Public School, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh Website: www.bvbpsjh.com

Chamala RamaDevi, (Senior Principal), A.G.Lakshmi Sujatha, (Science Teacher,) Arunasree Ganti, Mathematics teacher, Anuradha Chaganti (Mathematics teacher), Suvarni Rao (Academic Co-Ordinator)

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problems effecting the climate and taking appropriate measures to spread knowledge through ICTs. Technology awareness has also increased among students and IT has been successfully used by the school in socially relevant projects. The school has partnership with Charles Edward Brooke Girls’ School, London. The partnership aims to provide an international dimension to the participating schools. Global school partnership gives students fantastic opportunity to share their lives and learn from one another by working on joint projects with global themes including environmental concerns.

PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD INNOVATIVE ICT MODEL IN EDUCATION

R K Kapoor, Dean of ICT, Scindia School

The Scindia School has used a unique and innovative model to derive best results using ICT tools. Teachers use well researched web links/ digital content structures as per syllabus plan. The Math Lab is used to provide an understanding of difficult concepts in mathematics. Online testing tools are used to evaluate understanding of a student. Game based learning is used for fun Teaming and Collaborative activities. Unique mix of multimedia and threshold technologies ensures creation of 24x7 learning environment. Cost effective labs have been created using Ncomputing Solutions which helps accommodate students with varying learning styles and differences. The school computer-centre has a large network of Dell servers & 300 Pentium-based machines that have helped in addressing the technology training needs of students.

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ACHIEVEMENTS The Scindia School ranked on top in Computer Literacy • Excellence Award for Schools -2003 at State Level in a survey done at National Level. The School has the credit having a “School On Campus • Agreement” with Microsoft. Top-notch IT facilities allow students to surf the internet; research • information or check e-mail at their own scindia.edu e-mail address. The concept of “Smart Campus Cards” and biometric based • finger print scanner has been introduced for the students and being used extensively for their day to day campus life. All commonly used software as well as many special softwares • are installed to cater to students’ academic requirements. A large number of educational multimedia CDs are also available • as part of the school’s effort to provide all-round academic support through IT.

Implementor: The Scindia School, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh Website: www.scindia.edu

WINNERS - ICT ENABLED UNIVERSITY OF THE YEAR JURY AWARD GUJARAT COMMON ENTRANCE TEST, (GCET) 2009 GCET 2009 is the Entrance Test conducted by Gujarat Technological University (GTU) for admissions to Masters of Business Administration (MBA) and Masters of Computer Application (MCA) courses in all affiliated Institutions throughout Gujarat. This project serves the needs of the University in automating the examination delivery process and ensuring quicker turn around time for creating content, publishing question papers, evaluating candidate responses, and announcing results. This project also provides a fully technology based solution for student counseling through online allocation of college seats. This was the first time in India that any State-level (Government) Entrance Exam was conducted online. The exams were conducted from 1st July 2009 to 5th July 2009, at 37 Online Test Centers across 21 Institutions in 11 cities across Gujarat. The entire project used cutting-edge technology and offered innovative solutions to address the requirements with regard to Online Application Processing, Online Exam Delivery and Online Counseling for all professional courses in the state. ACHIEVEMENTS GCET has benefited the students by providing them: • An application system where students can apply online; • Easily downloadable “Admit Cards” for examination purposes; Implementor: Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad City, Gujarat Website: www.gtu.ac.in

Manish Bharadwaj, Director Census Operations, Gujarat( Project Champion), Prof Nilay Bhuptani, Registrar, Gujarat Technological University and Madan Padaki, CEO, MeritTrac Services, Bangalore

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On the spot submission of Score Cards containing test results; Online counseling for seat allocation which has proved to be very transparent & system driven.

Benefits for GTU: A system where daily reports of Application form status has been • made available; A system which ensures complete security of the question • papers; A system where candidates impersonation checks can be • carried out well.

PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD EDUNXT INITIATIVE EduNxt is to enable distance education programs to have the same degree of acceptance as conventional programs both in the minds of prospective employers and other educational organisations.

Atul Negi, Head, Distance Education, Manipal Eduation, Sikkim Manipal University

EduNxt initiative was launched by Sikkim Manipal University’s Directorate of Distance Education (SMU – DDE) in 2009 with the objective of providing the students with a plethora of resources. EduNxt functions on the principle of 3As + 4Cs. The 3 As of Affordability, Accessibility and Appropriateness are the guidelines for scaling up EduNxt across distributed learning. Meanwhile, the 4Cs of Content, Collaboration, Communication and Computing are the basis of developing EduNxt into a means of disseminating education among the not-so-privileged or the infrastructure – challenged. SMU has armed its DE students with industry knowledge and skills necessary to be industry-ready. EduNxt focuses on personalised learning and mentoring at a very large scale. The long term goal of

ACHIEVEMENTS The EduNxt environment is being used today by over 55,000 • students and will be made available to over 130,000 students from August 2009. The total cost of ownership of the EduNxt environment is very • low, and therefore, it has been used to help less privileged students achieve scholastic parity with others. It has succeeded in bringing together students and faculty • members by enabling more interaction in the learning process. The soft skills training along with the placement and internship • assistance through EduNxt has helped in the overall upliftment of the DE students through better employment opportunities. The EduNxt platform is also being used to train, certify and • orient 6500 counselors to technology based education and its benefits.

Implementor: Sikkim Manipal University- Directorate of Distance Education, Manipal, Karnataka Website: www.smude.edu.in

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WINNERS - GOVERNMENT/POLICY INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR JURY AWARD SAMS (STUDENT ACADEMIC MANAGEMENT SYSTEM) Student Academic Management System (SAMS) was introduced as an innovative initiation for providing an IT tool for simplifying the admission related concerns of the students, their guardians, the colleges and the authorities of the department. SAMS has two components i.e., e-Admission and e-Administration. e-Admission aims to use Information Technology to process common applications for admission into junior colleges for all students passing the 10th Board exam. The purpose of this initiative is to reduce time & improve efficiency for the college functionaries who have been doing this manually. SAMS aims to reduce cost and anxiety apart from making the process hassle free. Overall, the entire admission process is made transparent and citizen friendly. e-Administration manages the student information by accepting, adding, modifying or removing information about students and generating reports. Students, parents and faculty can share this vital information with each other.

S K Panda, SIO & Senior Technical Director, National Informatics Centre, Orissa, Nihar Ranjan Biswal, Scientist-C, National Informatics Centre, Orissa

• ACHIEVEMENTS • e- Admission of the SAMS project has increased the process efficiency of the admission process. • Application form & prospectus has been made available online, Implementor: Government of Orissa, Department of Higher Education, Bhubaneswar, Orissa Website: www.orissagov.nic.in

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thereby reducing the travel cost of students. The entire process has been able to reduce the time from about 75 days to 55 days and at the same time increased the transparency of the process. Prefixed datelines & use of queries through website has increased information availability and has reduced the anxiety in part of applicants/guardians. e-Administration captures the student attendance, marks scored in tests, class timetable and previous education qualification. It has also been used for purposes like Long Roll preparation, Matriculates Return, ID card & library card issue, etc.

PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD IMPLEMENTATION OF SHARED COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY

The Andhra Pradesh Government had envisaged an ambitious plan to bring computer access into 5000 government schools to benefit 1.8 million underprivileged children. The purpose of the project was to enable under privileged school children with computer skills in order to bridge the digital divide. To equip each of these schools with a computer lab of 10 seats, the Government of Andhra Pradesh, after serious evaluation chose to implement the NComputing solution to utilise the PC capacity by sharing the resources/PC power of 2 complete PCs with 8 additional computing stations, without compromising on the their performance. The uniqueness in the project has been its very fast implementation in a record time of 4 months. Government of Andhra Pradesh conducted an extensive evaluation and testing before its actual application. This decision resulted in not only a quick and problem free deployment but also saving a great deal of money.

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ACHIEVEMENTS 5000 Government schools in Andhra Pradesh today are • equipped with an up-to-date computer lab with the latest computer hardware, Microsoft and e-learning softwares, trained instructors, and reliable electricity support. The overall cost of the project was over 300 crores for 5 years; • with about 20% savings due to installation and deployment of the NComputing solution, allowing more schools to be equipped with PCs in the initial phase of the project. • Over 1.8 million students now have access to computer labs and regular computer classes. • The computing labs are being used to teach computer skills, office productivity (such as spreadsheets and word processing), as well as subjects like reading and math.

Implementor: Government of Andhra Pradesh Website: www.aponline.gov.in

WINNERS - CIVIL SOCIETY/DEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF THE YEAR JURY AWARD HOME ICT NETWORK PROJECT This project has aimed at preparing and helping the rural youth for Information Technology courses in the local language of Sri Lanka (Sinhala) and English with the help of social network, e-learning, self learning, and distance learning. Under this project, in the year 2005 / 2006 , preliminary computer literacy was provided to 4000 students of the school. Special feature of this project is that the membership fee charged from each student has been used in purchasing computers to be used by them. The project helped the marginalised and deprived students in procuring computer literacy. Through the network of 500 Telecenters, a minimum of 5 lakh school children and youth have been trained in ICT using Sinhala and Tamil languages. In addition, they have been able to study web designing to hone their vocational skills and improve their knowledge of the English language. There are three social networks that the members use to avail facilities of English learning, self learning and distance learning. The project provides the village youth with opportunities to learn web designing as a part of vocational training. ACHIEVEMENTS • The project has given an opportunity to the students of small scale computer training center to get an understanding of the IT Implementor: ICT Mini Campus Virtual Society, Sri Lanka Website: Not Found

Niranjan Meegammana, Managing Director, e-Fusion, Sri Lanka, receiving the award on behalf of Home ICT Network Project

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sector from an international perspective. The project also promises to provide opportunity of training various capsule courses like MS Office, Graphic Designing, Web Designing, etc. This project is implemented to enhance the digital learning rate of rural students and youth. They get training in the Nenasala in their own village similar to the training received in a town or a foreign country. The project has helped create a network of IT and web designing knowledge for the students thereby creating employment opportunities for them.

PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD HOLE IN THE WALL EDUCATION

equivalent to the skills of most modern office workers. Along with the stimulating educational games, curriculum related content is provided to help children with their schoolwork.

Suhotra Banerjee, Relationship Manager, Hole-in the Wall Education

HiWEL, a joint venture between NIIT Ltd. (IT Training & Development Company) and the International Finance Corporation (a part of the World Bank Group), was initiated as an experiment in 1999 to facilitate learning for the marginalised children, through unconditional and public access to computers; to improve the quality of teaching; motivate children to complete school; and to ensure that skills of youth meet the needs of India’s emerging economy. The computers, typically located in a government school playground or in the community are unsupervised and are available to the children for at least eight hours a day. Working in self-organised groups and helping each other, the children typically navigate within minutes and begin to browse in about an hour. Within three months they achieve basic computer literacy, and by nine months they have achieved the proficiency level

ACHIEVEMENTS There has been an increase in learning interest and higher • enrollments in the children, allowing them to concentrate on higher level tasks like mentoring students and leading class discussions. About 300,000 out-of-school and in-school children, in India, • Africa and Cambodia, have been directly impacted by HiWEL. HiWEL Learning Stations have also been able to boost the • confidence levels of certain children with special needs (CWSN) with the usage of interactive educational content in the juvenile homes. The project is the first attempt at applying the principle of self• organising systems to primary education, which is representative of a new area in theoretical physics.

Implementor: Hole-In-The-Wall- Education Limited (HiWEL), New Delhi, India Website: www.hole-in-the-wall.com

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WINNERS - BEST ICT ENABLED HOSPITAL OF THE YEAR JURY AWARD SIR GANGA RAM HOSPITAL, DELHI The hospital has installed an internationally acclaimed software, TrakCare, for implementation of HIS in its pharmacy. The system offers a tight integration between patient registrations, admissions, billing, discharges, ordering, prescription, pharmacy, laboratories, imaging, stock indenting, purchase, receiving, stores and finance modules. The pharmacy management system includes ordering of medication from the wards, with patient allergy alerts and drug to drug interaction warnings, intelligent drug substitution in the pharmacy from existing stock, inventory controls and MIS reports. Patient billing is automated so that the bill is always updated and available at all times with virtually no errors in billing. Tight integration between various activities relating to stock (purchase requests, receiving, consumption, etc.) have resulted in a tighter inventory control as well as smaller inventory holding at the hospital.

Dr. Karanvir Singh, Consultant Surgeon, and Dr. Rajesh Garg, Network Engineer, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi

ACHIEVEMENTS • Better patient management and inventory and cost control. • Instant availability of patient data to doctors via EMR module ensures continuity of medical care. • Integration of laboratory machines with HIS. • Single continuous electronic patient medical record. Implementor: Dr. Karanvir Singh, Head-Medical Informatics, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital Website: http://www.sgrh.com/

PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD HOSPITALS UNDER MUNICIPAL CORPORATION OF DELHI

folder with details of each patient visit has been made available at all of the 6 hospitals. This has enabled the doctors to have ready access to past episodes and information of the patient thus ensuring efficient patient care.

Dr. Venugopal, Medical Superintendent, SDN Hospital of Municipal Corporation of Delhi

Municipal Corporation of Delhi, has six major hospitals to provide tertiary patient care for the public. The HIS implemented at all hospitals helps in patient registration with demographic details, out patient visits, doctors appointment scheduling, admissions/bed transfers/discharges, order entry, laboratory/radiology/cardiology result reporting, operation theatre management, main stores, sub stores and pharmacy etc. Automation has also helped in generating timely census reports with accurate data. Various other reports, which are required for the government, can be generated easily, as the data is available electronically. Stock reports are now generated online and audits are done based on the system generated reports. Patient

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ACHIEVEMENTS Successful implementation of hospital information system at 6 • MCD hospitals. HIS caters to needs of out patient as well as inpatient • functionality. Better patient care by retrieval of records, reporting system, • control on inventory, availability of patient record online and generation of statistical reports online. HIS has also made medical records management much easier. •

Implementor: Dr. RC Patnaik, Chief Medical Officer (Health Informatics), MCD Website: http://www.mcdonline.gov.in/healthdetail. php?id=1

WINNERS - BEST GOVERNMENT/POLICY INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR JURY AWARD TAMIL NADU HEALTH SYSTEMS PROJECT The Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project (TNHSP) was set up to implement the World Bank aided project including the HMIS project under the TN Health Department. Thirty hospitals have currently started operating live with the online system, in a short period of 6 months. All respective end users are expected to use the system with NO data entry support. All registrations, stores, pharmacies, wards, laboratories and doctors’ out-patient (OP) processes are fully online and no manual records are maintained. The doctors are directly entering diagnosis, ordering lab tests and giving prescriptions online for all out patients. The HMIS reporting system covering clinical, program, administrative including finance, personnel, infrastructure modules provides for immediate online access to the health administrators at state level on various critical data sets. The HMIS project brought in the services of various agencies to provide a state-of-the-art solution. ACHIEVEMENTS • HMIS application is envisaged as a single state health IT system. • Currently, in 30 hospitals; over 300 doctors currently enter around

Dr. S Vijayakumar, Spl Sectretary, Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu and Project Director, Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project along with Dr. PK Amarnath Babu, State Co-ordinator, HMIS Project

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6,000 patient records per day, while before implementation, the hospital records were completely manual. The online system records show over 10,000 patient registrations, around 2000 lab investigations, and 8000 prescriptions being entered daily.

Implementor: Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu Website: http://www.tnhsp.org/

PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD AAROGYASRI HEALTH TRUST

for efficiency, transparency and accountability. An IT company is engaged to construct and maintain software, hardware and all data and medical records pertaining to the scheme.

Babu Ahmed, CEO, Aarogyasri Healthcare Trust

Under the Aarograsri Health Trust, initiated by the Government of Andhra Pradesh all BPL ration card holders (white card) are eligible for benefit. A pre-identified list of diseases have been covered under the scheme for providing treatment. Cashless arrangement with network hospitals is one of the key elements of the scheme whereby beneficiary once registered in network hospital does not have to pay at all for the entire process of treatment. The scheme provides coverage for meeting expenses of hospitalization and surgical procedures of beneficiary members up to Rs.1.50 lakhs per family per year subject to limits, in any of the network hospitals. Choice of hospital for treatment from among empanelled hospitals is also given to patient. The scheme is implemented online through an IT portal

ACHIEVEMENTS Since its inception 350 hospitals from the government and • private sector have joined the network and organized 11,375 health camps in rural areas 19,45,619 patients have been screened and 3,33,005 surgeries/ • treatments conducted at a cost of Rs.1063.46 crores 4, 60,107 patients are given medical consultation as outpatients, • free of cost.

Implementor: Babu A,CEO, Aarogyasri Health Care Trust, HM & FW Department Website: http://www.aarogyasri.org/ASRI/index.jsp

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WINNERS - BEST CIVIL SOCIETY/DEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF THE YEAR JURY AWARD AAROGYASRI HEALTH TRUST Aarogyasri Health Trust is a successful initiative of the Government of Andhra Pradesh in achieving good governance using ICT. The Government of Andhra Pradesh has covered more than 70 million people below poverty line through its Rajiv Aarogyasri Community Health Insurance scheme. The scheme beneficiaries do not have to pay anything to get treatment; it also covers all charges right from initial transportation to medication charges post-treatment. The model is a holistic approach to healthcare, ensuring that people are given free health check-ups by the network hospitals and 24-hour helpline, manned by 100 doctors and 1,600 paramedics that handle about 53,000 calls a day. Since the launch of the scheme on April 1st, 2007, 1,921,093 patients have been screened in 11,256 health camps organized at the village level in 23 districts.

Babu Ahmed, CEO, Aarogyasri Healthcare Trust

ACHIEVEMENTS Number of outpatients treated 541386 and inpatients treated • 450848 Number of patients screened till date are 2193249 • Number of surgeries performed till date 377795 • Number of medical camps organised 12738 •

Implementor: Babu A,CEO, Aarogyasri Health Care Trust, HM & FW Department Website: http://www.aarogyasri.org/ASRI/index.jsp

PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD HEALTH MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH INSTITUTE

diagnose only the complex cases. Effective capacity of the system is thus enhanced by 5 times. In case of emergencies direct transfer to emergency response system (ambulance service) is also available.

Balaji Utla, CEO, HMRI

104 Advice, the flagship initiative of HMRI, is a state-of-the-art health helpline that provides the 80 million people of Andhra Pradesh with round-the-clock, qualified and standardized medical information, advice and counselling in three languages—Telugu, Hindi and English. With technology and committed domain experts, who are ready to push the envelope and challenge existing paradigms, 104 Advice is available to anyone in Andhra Pradesh with access to a telephone. The scheme offers medical advice using triage (classifying the caller’s condition into ‘critical’, ‘serious’ or ‘stable’ states). It also offers counselling services. A decision support system is used to automate the diagnosis of the caller’s medical condition. Trained paramedics diagnose 80 percent of the calls using valid algorithms, while doctors

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ACHIEVEMENTS 104 Advice is currently the world’s largest health contact centre, • attending to an average 15,00,000 calls per month. 104 Advice has been able to identify certain epidemics in real • time and escalate them to the concerned authorities As of 13 May, 2009 – 104 Advice had registered 25,000 new • callers in a single day. On 24 March, 2009 – 104 Advice received its 20 millionth call • since inception.

Implementor: Balaji Utla, CEO, HMRI Website: http://www.hmri.in/

eAGRICULTURE INDIA 2009 REPORT

Call for a Concerted Effort eAgriculture is still at a nascent stage. Till the year 2007, the term eAgriculture was not even coined. During a global survey in 2006, including 3400 responses from 135 countries ‘eAgriculture’ as a new term was identified. Later in April 2007, the UN released a statement on what eAgriculture was and in the same year in July the very first eAgriculture conference, under eINDIA umbrella, was held in New Delhi. Since then eAgriculture has been an integral part of eINDIA. The third edition of the event held from 26-27 August 2009, had seven sessions to discuss recent ICT environment in agriculture, emerging technologies, applications of ICT in agriculture field etc. SESSION: PERSPECTIVE TO PRACTICE The inaugural session was moderated by Michael Riggs, Knowledge and Information Officer, FAO. He shared in detail the background of eAgriculture, how the concept has evolved and how it is even more relevant with the increasing information gap. The first speaker was Dr. KG Karmakar, Managing Director, NABARD, who highlighted the challenges for eAgriculture. Recognising the role of ICTs to help achieve the objectives of livelihood needs, he pointed rural credit and financial services to be the most important factors. He stressed that the Unique Identity Number could be an important thing if it could be integrated with the financial inclusion programme. Dr. PY Reddy, Director Planning and Monitoring, ANG Ranga Agricultural University mentioned about the role of ICTs in transfer of technology amongst various stakeholders in agriculture. The production base has grown four times since independence, which could happen through better varieties, irrigation facilities, extension practices. To achieve yet another level of production and productivity, the recent developed technologies have to reach the main stakeholder i.e. farmer. According to him another area where the role of ICT is very important for the farmer is in

Dr. T P Trivedi, Project Director, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) was of the opinion that ICT can reduce the gap between scientists, universities and farmers. ICT can reduce the transaction cost by 90-95 per cent and leverage the Dr. KG Karmakar addressing to a query, sitting to his right are transition of subsistence Dr. Rathan Kelkar and Dr. PY Reddy; Michael Riggs on the left farming to commercial one. He discussed the applications the area of price discovery, which can help of ICT in knowledge sharing and knowledge farmers decide the actual price of his produce management and highlighted the efforts of ICAR in this regard. and get better realization for the same. Dr. V P Sharma, Director National Institute Dr. Rathan Kelkar, Director, Kerala IT Mission gave an overview of eKrishi, a of Agricultural Extension Management project with a vision to establish a connected (MANAGE) highlighted the challenges before farmers’ community throughout Kerala eAgriculture. In the context of ICT penetration who have access to information on market in rural India, he was of the opinion that demand, prices, good agricultural practices, connectivity is highly skewed, and Internet quality agricultural inputs and is supported connectivity is even more skewed, Internet by technology enabled robust transaction penetration is still below the world average. platform. He mentioned about the critical He recommended that some issues need factors which were addressed while to be prioritized, for instance creation and maintenance of crop-specific knowledge implementing eKrishi project. banks, state-specific agri-information dissemination portals, mainstreaming SESSION: EDUCATION, RESEARCH of Common Service Centres and Kisan AND EXTENSION Knowledge Management system. Dr. V Balaji, Head, Knowledge Management The first speaker of the session, Dr. PY Reddy, Director Planning and Monitoring, and Sharing, ICRISAT argued that the real ANG Ranga Agricultural discussed the role challenge for the nation was to bridge the of ICTs in research and how simulation and widening gap between the farm families and other scientific models can be developed, scientific communities, credit and insurance based on the existing knowledge to help agencies of all kinds. He also agreed that the agriculture sector as such is not very IT agriculture research. Dr. M B Chetti, Dean, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, talked about the role and facilities that the university has been providing in the usage of ICT for agriculture sector. He informed the major initiatives taken by the university, to facilitate education and administration in context of (L –R) Dr. TP Trivedi, Dr. VP Sharma, Prof KR Srivathsan and Dr. P Kalaiselvan ICT and agriculture sector.

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savvy compared with any other development sector. It was felt that the digital content on issues related to agriculture was far from sufficient and this is not letting many other ICT based initiatives for development to happen. The need of developing para-professionals was stressed upon as there remained a wide gap between the existing number of farmers and the extension workers in India. Towards achieving this, both IGNOU and ICAR system need to work in close collaboration, Dr. Balaji said. Dr. P. Kalaiselvan, Director of Extension Education, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University highlighted the importance of agriculture for Indian economy. He appeared optimistic to the new ICTs which are empowering the resource-poor farmers with up-to date knowledge and information about agricultural technologies, best practices, markets, price trends, consumer preferences, sources of finance, weather, soil-moisture conditions and the environment. Keeping these issues as key objectives, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University has initiated ICT based Agricultural Education, Research and Extension for the benefit of all the stake-holders, he told. Session chair, Prof. Srivathsan, Pro Vice Chancellor, IGNOU, said the agri-ecosystem has several players impacting it including state governments, market, financial institutions, commodity exchanges, national & international agencies e.g. ICAR, FAO, CGIAR, WTO, etc. He informed about how Kissan Kerala and e-krishi act as web 2.0 of agriculture, integrating small producers by making virtual cooperatives and a virtual mandi to trade their produce. SESSION : ICT AND BACKWARDFORWARD LINKAGES IN AGRI-INPUT CHAIN The session was chaired by Aruna Sunaranjan, CEO, Common Service Centers and Digital Inclusion Initiatives and the panelists were BVS Prasad, AGM, NABARD, Hyderabad, Monirul Bashar, Group Manager, Services Group, Katalyst, Dr. Sapna A Narula, Assistant Professor, G B Pant University, Dr. C Kathiresan, Project Manager InDG, C-DAC, Ninvedan Sahani, Vice President, Enterprise Services, Bharti-Airtel Limited and Santanu Sengupta, CEO, Study and Jobs Worldwide. In his presentation, Prasad discussed the ICT and linkages in agriculture and agriextension, and the evolution of agri-extension since independence. He pointed out that a paradigm shift took place in 1990 in agriextension services as decentralisation and

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m-Governance, its objectives, benefits and Airtel’s role. Mobile services can be provided in e-Agriculture domain like grameen finance, disaster management and financial inclusion. The main benefits are dissemination of information to a larger number of people at a short (L –R) Dr. Sapna A Narula, Monirul Bashar, Aruna Sundararajan, Nivedan Sahani, Dr. C Kathiresan and Santanu Sengupta time, reduction of average service processing time and market driven approach was introduced. cost for services, reduction in number of Other remarkable development that took public complaints, increased transparency place in the agri-extension was the entry in the delivery system. The role of Airtel is to of private sector, the third sector- NGOs, draft detailed Mobile Governance strategy Agro–input industries in the Agro-processing for a state, identifying new services as well industries. Today farmers have access to a as user departments for the State Wide roll out of m-Gov services, prepare functional variety of agricultural technologies. Bashar focused on how the applications requirement specifications for the services, of ICT can enable agriculture sector in implementation of the entire project and Bangladesh. He maintained that poverty can managing the infrastructure in a managed be reduced by creating the productive asset services mode. Sengupta started with enumerating the and enhancing income and employment opportunities for the farmers. He talked about problems of Indian agriculture such as how Community Information Centers (CICs) irrigation, decreasing crop yield, low fertility were serving rural population with agricultural and rising cost of inputs. Decreasing access information and other basic services such to credit, high cost inputs, lack of awareness market intelligence, increasing as providing updated content, sourced and and despondency, etc are the other challenges to supplied by a commercial entity. Dr. Sapna’s presentation was focused on the Indian agriculture sector. He believed that the client perspectives on ICT and agriculture. there is a need of multi-pronged action plan She dealt on what farmers really want and to address these challenges. The increasing what sort of information they needed. She use of ICT will refine key areas of input recommended that Internet and mobile management to output. phone could be viable tools to disseminate the information to farmers and address SESSION: EAGRICULTURE-A BUDDING REALITY their needs. Dr. Kathiresan, while discussing about The first speaker of the session, Dr. Runa learnings from North East India, highlighted the problems and challenges of the particular Sarkar from Indian Institute of Management, region and argued that agri-extension Calcutta, made a detailed presentation on services consist of three Cs-connectivity, ‘agropedia’. According to her, there remains content and community participation. e-Arik a wide gap in agriculture where a large and e-Villages are the pilot initiatives of the people base was not a part of semantic ICT interventions in agricultural services in web revolution. Agropedia tries to address Arunachal Pradesh. The main challenges this concern so that people who are left faced are the lack of e-Awareness, diversified out of web 2.0 revolution can have its languages and culture in the eight states of North East, irregular supply of power, inadequate relevant content for North East, distance between villages, frequent connectivity failure, marketing, lack of transparency in disclosing subsidy schemes among Agriculture & RD departments. (L –R) Dr. Runa Sarkar, Dr. Rathan Kelkar, Raja Sekhar and Sahani discussed about N Rahman

fruits. They can obtain more specific search result to handle information overload, can network with like-minded groups, share their experiences, contribute content and make learning process more interactive by using this open platform. Raja Sekhar, Senior Technical Director, National Informatics Centre, shared various ICT driven initiatives of NIC to facilitate enhancement in productivity and reduction in cost. All the efforts are to bridge the information gap amongst various stakeholders e.g. commodity prices in different markets, agriculture census, quarantine, advisory services, weather information, etc. He also informed that the issues which hinder the full potential of ICT working for agriculture are illiteracy, content not being in regional/local languages, power issue, bandwidth issues, maintenance, affordability, scalability, etc. Naimur Rahman, Director, One World South Asia shared about LifeLines India and Bhoogyan.net, the two mobile based applications being used in the field of personal agriculture advisory, education and climate change. During his presentation, Rahman told that technology works if it provides knowledge on demand is simple for user and is robust at backend. He further added that farmers were willing to pay for a service if the value of that service was higher than what they need to pay for it. P Balaji, Assistant Professor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, made a presentation on e-Velanmai, which is an ICT based technology transfer model for the farmers. In this model the field level enquiry of a farmer, is sent to an expert team using ICT tools like digital camera, mobile, Internet etc., which is then addressed and the solution is provided using ICT channels or visit of the expert. While summarising the session chair, Dr. Rathan Kelkar, said that eAgriculture was not too much about technology, but about people. According to him, other ingredients of successful farming were consolidation of land holding, strengthening input system, scientific resource management, improved agronomic practices, bridging ICT divide, knowledge sharing, capacity building, effective policies and agricultural infrastructure. SESSION : EAGRICULTURE- ENABLING AGRICULTURE The first speaker of the session S Sivakumar, CEO, e-Choupal, ITC, explained that ICT, particularly mobile phone, are very useful in providing the information to the farmers. He emphasised on personalised

that prime impact of the ICT in the agriculture is the empowerment and improving the life style of the farmers. It helps to provide an easy access to many services ranging from education, health to marketing. Mobile phone can provide quality information and serve the (L –R) Sudhanshu Jain, S Sivakumar, M Moni, Michael Riggs, rural community in multiple Dr. Arun K Nair and Niranjan Meegammana ways, which was the main crop management advisory to farmers. He message of his presentation. He also shared maintained the approach would be to provide their new IVR based initiative called Krishi information regarding the health of soil, usage Vaani which provides quality information on of fertilizer, crop diseases, etc. He was also of weather, mandi (market) rates, education, the opinion that ICT infrastructure and training health, fisheries, livestock, finance, etc. During the discussions later session chair to the farmers would be useful for agricultural Seva Ratan M Moni, Deputy Director General, and rural development. Michael Riggs, Knowledge and Information National Informatics Center emphasized on Magagement Officer, FAO, Rome argued the fact that such conferences should act as that ICT is the only enabling factor in a control system to ascertain the progress the development process and helps to being made in what is being talked and what share the information. According to him actually is practiced. eAgriculture implies improvement in process of information dissemination, access and SESSION : EAGRICULTURE IN THE exchange, communication and participation, CONTEXT OF CLIMATE CHANGE and network building activities amongst the The session on agriculture in the context rural stakeholders. Since rural development is a broad and complex process, there is need of climate change was jointly organized with of ICT to enhance the development process ICRISAT. The panelists were Rosana P Mula, Coordinator, Learning Systems Unit, ICRISAT; and improve communications in rural areas. Arun Nair from Nokia Life Tools highlighted Dr. N H Rao, Joint Director, National Academy the benefits of mobile phone for rural of Agricultural Research Management development and in providing the agricultural (NAARM); Dr. Shaik Meera, Senior Scientist, services in remote and isolated rural areas. Directorate of Rice Research; Dr. Sreenath India is a huge market of low income people Dixit, Principal Scientist, National Agricultural with a variety of local languages and a limited Innovation Project (NAIP), CRIDA; and Ajith English acquaintance. He told that mobile Kumar, Principal Investigator and Project phones are better than other ICT tools for Coordinator, Kissan Kerala. While moderating the session Dr. V Balaji, the information dissemination in terms of the mobility, convenience, personalised Head, Knowledge Management and Sharing, information, hyper-local service offering, ICRISAT said that the climate change is no low cost of ownership, availability and self longer a distant possibility; it is here. The session aimed to explore how the emerging service. According to Niranjan Meegammana from paradigm of eAgriculture can address climate SriLanka, term ‘e’ refers to enhancement, change. ‘Can eAgriculture facilitate an alliance empowerment and enabling. For him, it that will enable the farming community, policy brings an attitudinal change to make a better society. He emphasised on the partnership at the various levels such as government/ community and the private sector. Involvement of academia and the role of telecentres funding are very crucial. Sudhanshu Jain, Manager( L –R) Ajith Kumar, Dr. NH Rao, Rosana P Mula, Dr. Sreenath Dixit and Dr Shaik Meera Marketing, Handygo said

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makers and researchers come together to address the issues that pertain to this phenomenon’, were some of the broad consideration addressed during the session. Rosana P Mula presented on ‘Relevance of ICT in climate change: A myth or reality?’, she pointed that earth has been gradually warming. Briefing the audience about ICRISAT’s experience in ICT-mediated agroadvisory, Rosana talked about the Virtual Academy for the Semi-Arid Tropics (VASAT) which has involved rural women volunteers to monitor and update rainfall data on to a wiki page. With the help of field investigator and village volunteers as also through the aid of ICT tools like video-conferencing, ICRISAT also provides drought awareness to the rural communities. Dr. NH Rao spoke on the ‘Geospatial knowledge management framework for eAgriculture in the context of climate change’. GIS provides a convenient framework for reviewing, monitoring and analysing the data on natural resources, climate and livelihoods down to the individual farm level against climate change knowledge. Dr. Meera’s presentation highlighted ‘Agricultural Knowledge Management in the Context of Climate Change’ through the Rice Knowledge Management Portal. His presentation focused specifically on the impact of climate change on rice cultivation in North India. He said that the need of the hour is the adoption of new ways of knowledge management through the development of an integrated system. This is what their rice knowledge management seeks to provide. Dr. Sreenath Dixit shared details about the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (SRL) project. The project seeks to provide appropriate ICT infrastructure at the village level and empower the village youth with the knowledge to run and manage them. In order to share all the research findings and learnings, they have developed a web portal. They are facing connectivity related challenges, but are using a combination of connectivity options to stay in touch with the clusters and provide them timely updates and information on water availability, weather conditions, drought resistant seeds, etc. Ajith Kumar presented on the Kissan Kerala: An Integrated Multi-Model Agricultural Information System. The main objective of the project is to provide the right agricultural information at the right time to the right person in the right context. The information is collected from various sources, then it is verified and analysed and finally disseminated

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through various platforms, such as web based online advisory services, television, tele- advisory services, SMS based advisory services and video channel. SESSION: ROLE OF ICT IN FORGING LINKAGES BETWEEN FOOD & NUTRITION

(L –R) Michael Riggs, Dr V P Sharma, Dr Prema Ramachandran, Dr Geeta Kutty and Dr Shankar Datta

To emphasise and communicate the importance of mainstreaming nutrition in the larger debate of food and agriculture to various stakeholders this session was jointly organized with FAO. It was an open ended discussion to facilitate explicit views and opinions from various participants and a set of distinguished panelist. Dr. Gopi Ghosh, Assistant Representative FAO, moderated the discussion. He introduced the session mentioning that while addressing the challenges of Food insecurity often we lose sight of nutritional security. There is a need to ensure dietary, culinary and household utilisation of foodstuff and the awareness levels at a household for a nutrition-driven decision making. Dr. Prema Ramachandran, Director, Nutrition Foundation of India stressed that information needs to be communicated horizontally across sectors. She looked at the desperate situation of hunger when India imported grains at subsidized rates to being self sufficient in food production through the green revolution whish was perhaps one of the best examples of effective communication across sectors, adoption of mission mode system for improving productivity and public private partnership to achieve a national goal in record time. Dr. Prema Ramachandran pointed out that fruits and vegetables provide essential micronutrients vital for nutrition and health. Vegetable and fruit consumption continues to be low in all segments including families with no economic constraints. Focus has to be given on cultivation & consumption of locally grown low-cost nutrient-rich vegetables. Trying to look at why agriculture could not give enough attention to nutrition Dr. V P Sharma, Director, MANAGE, provided for the lacunae in the research, extension and education. He confessed that pulses have not been a major part of the research and extension programmes. He mentioned that it is really the question of communicating the right messages. There are 1,20,000 extension functionaries and ICTs could be an

effective tool used for communicating these right messages. The fact that the production systems are demand driven and income opportunities needs to be considered, Dr. Sankar Datta, Managing Director, BASIX, highlighted on the grassroots challenges of mainstreaming. ICTs are available but the rural populace lacks the means to use it. The villages’ don’t have the basic food to survive, and therefore pulses and vegetables are not the priority. On other hand, there is huge wastage in urban households. This calls for an appropriate planning and communication process to reduce this huge divide and ICTs can play a proactive role including radio and television. While talking of the divide that exists for the have and have-nots Dr. Geeta Kutty, head of gender studies at the National Institute of Rural Development looked at the gender concerns of mainstreaming. The nutritional divide that’s further evident from the poor nutrition status of rural women. To her, women need to be a part of the planning process in different sectors of rural development including agriculture and other dimensions especially women headed households. This is important on the area of access to technologies and services for women also. It was quite clear that there is lot of efforts required in communicating the right messages to various stakeholders. To bring about this convergence, Michael Riggs, FAO, Rome looked at how ICTs could help in bridging this poverty, social, knowledge and technology divides. He mentioned the need to facilitate communication and knowledge among the agriculturists and nutritionist and the potential role of solution exchanges. The two day event was successful in initiating a debate on emerging Information Communication Technologies, challenges and opportunities, convergence amongst agriculture, livelihood, food, nutrition, education, communication and rural development sectors. \\ Anaam Sharma, Dinoj Upadhyay anaam@egovonline.net

TELECENTRE FORUM INDIA 2009 REPORT

Towards Overcoming the Knowledge Island Syndrome CONTEXT Following its predecessors, the Telecentre Forum 2009 held on 26-27 August 2009 at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre, Hyderabad during the eIndia 2009 conference, provided a knowledge sharing platform to telecentre stakeholders from around the world. The participants represented countries like Bangladesh, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and Sweden in addition to India. The forum was divided into five sessions with three overriding themes. These were: Common Service Centres (CSCs), digital inclusion through telecentres, and knowledge sharing among telecentre stakeholders. Apart from the distinguished chairs and panelists who graced the sessions. SESSIONS: COMMON SERVICE CENTRES (CSCS): OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES The CSC sessions occupied a central place in the Telecentre Forum. CSCs, under NeGP, are the delivery points for a number of G2C and B2C at the village level. Deviating from the usual practice of sharing only updates on the CSC programme, the sessions focused more on the Service Centre Agencies (SCAs) and their implementation based insights and experience. The sessions were chaired by Shankar Aggarwal, Joint Secretary and Ashis Sanyal, Senior Director, Department of Information Technology (DIT), Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT), Government of India (GoI), respectively. Representatives from several SCAs like D Sattaiah from BASIX India Ltd., Ranabir Das from Srei Sahaj eVillage Ltd, Mukesh Hajela from Network for Information and Computer Technology (NICT), Shilpi Varshney from All India Society for Electronics and Computer Technology (AISECT), and Sunanda from Alternatives

Shilpi Varshney, Director (AISECT) speaking at the CSC session. Also in picture: Shankar Aggarwal, Joint Secretary (DIT); Ashis Sanyal, Senior Director (DIT) and Anwar Sadath, IT@School Project;

for Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Development (AID) participated as panelists in these sessions. During Session III, they were also joined by some ICT4D and telecentre leaders, like Rajen Varada, Resource Person, Solution Exchange ICTD Community; Naimur Rahman, Director, OneWorld South Asia and Kamolrat Intaratat, Director, CCDKM. They enriched the session by providing a global perspective to the discussions. The sessions began with a brief overview of the CSC programme by Ashis Sanyal. He described it as the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest telecentre programme conceived so far, both in terms of its nature and scope. Shankar Aggarwal elaborated that the CSC programme has reinforced that technology is essential for reaching out to the remotest areas and to the most marginalised sections of the society. The presentations shared by the panelists focused on the main objectives of the sessions. Most of the SCAs are already using ICTs for community development in one way or the other. The CSC programme has provided them with an opportunity to integrate their ongoing work within this framework.

In addition, they have to understand the local needs and demands and then partner accordingly with other public and private sector organisations to deliver services. The challenges faced by the SCAs are related largely to their area of operation, services that they offer and CSC sustainability. The panel discussions revealed that some of the SCAs are working in remote and difficult terrains, which are dacoit, drought, migration and naxalite prone. Open Floor Discussions & Outcomes: The session generated a lot of discussions around the CSCs services and sustainability. The SCAs argued that they have to be innovative in deciding the services to be delivered through the CSCs. There was a heated debate on the G2C services, as several participants from the audience pointed out that initially such services were supposed to be the mainstay of the CSC programme. Moreover, G2C services enhance the credibility of the CSCs and increase the footfalls. Mukesh Hajela (NICT), on the other hand, argued that once they have shouldered the responsibility of setting up the CSCs,

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they have to be innovative in providing need and demand based services, irrespective of whether G2C services are available or not. In the context of innovations and best practices introduced by the SCAs, they also touched upon the issue of their replicability. SESSION: DIGITAL INCLUSION THROUGH TELECENTRES: CONVERGING OLD AND NEW Session II aimed at taking up the issue of digital inclusion through telecentres through convergence of modern and emerging technologies, such as the computers and the Internet and the traditional ones, such as telephone, mobile phone, radio and the television. The session was chaired by S N Goswami, Managing Director and CEO of Media Lab Asia. The panelists included G K Simli, Principal Consultant, Ministry of External Affairs; Sultanur Reza, Head, Community Information Centre, Grameen Phone; and Ashis Sanyal (DIT) S N Goswami began the session with an overview of Media Lab Asia which has developed some ingenious applications for connectivity, agriculture, health and other related areas. Sultanur Reza talked about his Grameen Phone experience. Since Grameen Phone is essentially a mobile phone company and connectivity provider, their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities are centred around providing shared voice and internet access to the rural poor. He informed about the Community Information Centres Initiative (CIC) which is supported through Multi Stakeholder Partnership with organisations like Catalyst,

which is creating agriculture related content in Bangla language. This project is known as eKrishak and has received good response from the users. They have also introduced a health helpline advisory service for Grameen Phone subscribers. As far as challenges are concerned, the biggest of them all is encouraging the villagers to visit the CICs. Others include the alarming illiteracy rate, connectivity problems, state of the economy and polity and infrastructure development. Reza’s interesting talk on digital inclusion in Bangladesh was followed by G K Simli’s presentation on telecentres, facilitating digital inclusion in India. He discussed it against the historical backdrop with special emphasis on the genesis and growth of the telecentre movement in India. According to him, telecentres act as catalysts in bridging the digital and other divides, such as economic, social and gender. He also brought forth the uniqueness of the Indian telecentre movement, i.e., creating synergy between various government mission mode programmes and public and private sector initiatives. He pointed out that affordability, replicability and being citizen centric is critical for addressing telecentre challenges. Open Floor Discussions and Outcomes: Interestingly, the open floor discussions brought out the social business or social entrepreneurship aspect of the telecentres and how the CSR activities of profit making companies like Grameen Phone contribute to it. The participants were also curious to know the Grameen Phone telecentres’ revenue sharing model. SESSION: KNOWLEDGE SHARING AMONG TELECENTRE STAKEHOLDERS

Sultanur Reza, Head- New Initiatives (Grameen Phone) speaking at the Digital Inclusion session. Also in picture: GK Simli, Principal Consultant (MEA) and SN Goswami, CEO (MLA);

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As discussed, telecentres are multi-stakeholder programmes. They cannot be set up in isolation; they require a conducive ecosystem to survive. These include innovative technologies, k n o w l e d g e resources and content, strong networks that contribute to their

sustainability and above all, research to guide them towards achieving sustainability as well as making them relevant to the community needs. The session was chaired by Naimur Rahman, Director, OneWorld South Asia. The panelists included Deepa Anandakrishnan, CEO, OneRoof, Inc. India; Niranjan Meegammana, Project Director, Shilpa Sayura Foundation, Kandy, Sri Lanka; Kamolrat Intaratat, Director, The Research Center of Communication and Development Knowledge Management (CCDKM), Thailand; Maud Chatelet, Executive Director, howtopedia. org, Switzerland; Peter Mozelius, Lecturer at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University, Sweden; and Maithree Malwattegoda, Business Development Executive, Sarvodaya-Fusion, Sri Lanka. Deepa Anandakrishnan’s presentation highlighted the OneRoof product‘Management Information and Reporting Software as a Service: The ‘OneRoof Reports’, which can be used by all kinds of public access computing centres. Their new product assures maximising sustainability and profits; better management of employees; strengthening community security; measurement of social impacts; and above all, it provides full ITA2008 compliance. It is available in different languages. Peter Mozelius shared his team’s research findings on telecentre models in India and Sri Lanka. The research is still under progress. He opined that in addition to the digital divide, the developing countries also have to tackle the rural and urban divide. Taking into consideration, the vast resources offered by the government, he favoured a combination of bottom up and top down approaches to make the telecentres economically and socially viable. Niranjan Meegammana took the telecentre sustainability issue to another level, that of the telecentre networks, through his presentation on the e3 framework. He has identified the areas eLearning, eBusiness and eLeadership, where networks needed support. It is essentially a bottom up approach that also requires top down linkages (for example, support from government) for sustainability. For him, telecentres have vast potentials to bring about social changes. Maithree Malwatteguda presented on her organisation, Sarvodaya Fusion and its capacity building programmemes. Their regional coordinators, chosen from among their telecentre operators and trained under the ‘train the trainers’ programmemes,

conduct capacity building programmes for their peers. They also have proper accreditation and certification processes in place. Following the Sri Lankan telecentre experience, Dr. Kamolrat Intaratat talked about the Thai telecentre network. It combines various telecentre models and receives proactive support from academic institutions. According to the infrastructure available at the telecentres, they are categorised very innovatively into XL, L, M and S sizes. The Thai telecentre network functions more like a family and operates both in urban and rural areas. All the telecentre operators have the membership of an online community. Maud Chatelet talked about the howtopedia project through which she has tried to enable information access in a very practical way. howtopedia is a kind of wikipedia of information. The main focus is on the diffusion of simple technology and practical knowledge/information to help sustainable development. The howtopedia, serves as a one stop multi-lingual place for information empowerment.

organisations can bring about socio-economic transformations because of their linkages with poor households on the one hand and the public and private sector organisations on the other. By strengthening these links, they help the poor households in like areas of health, education and livelihoods. D a t a m a t i o n Telecentre Forum Participants Foundation has taken the lead in addressing gender issues through their telecentres and Gender Resource Centres. The next speaker was Ananya Guha, who presented on the Community Information Centres of Meghalaya. These have transformed into community enabling centres through the intervention of IGNOU. According to Guha telecentres have the potential to SESSION: TELECENTRES: play the role of technology-enbled learning INNOVATIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES centres as well as vocational training centres. The last session was chaired and moderated The combination of the three will increase the by Ananya Guha, Officer on Special Duty, utility of the telecentres manifold. Next, Wilfred Varghese talked about SIFFS IGNOU and the key speakers were Chetan Sharma, Founder, Datamation Foundation; M Village Information Centres (VICs), engaged S Kiran, Researcher, Queensland University; in improving the lives and livelihoods of the Ajay Kapur, Senior Director, Oracle Education fishing community through information. The Foundation; Senthil Kumaran, Director, IEC, VICs were set up after the Tsunami disaster Jamshetji Tata National Virtual Academy of 2004 with support from NASSCOM and Training School, MSSRF; and Wilfred Foundation and other organisations. They have discovered a participatory approach Varghese, IT Manager, SIFFS. The session started with Chetan Sharma along with need based services and the sharing his experience on how civil society support of traditional institutions like the Village Panchayat and Church are crucial for VIC sustainability. The concepts of community ownership and participatory approach was further elaborated by Senthil Kumaran. His vast ‘on-the-ground’ experience in implementing the first Indian community informatics and Ajay Kapur, Senior Director (OEF) speaking at Session V. Also in picture, Ananya telecentre project, Guha, OoSD (IGNOU); Chetan Sharma, Founder (Datamation Foundation), the IDRC and MS Kiran, Researcher (Queensland University); Senthil Kumaran, Director, MSSRF supported JTNVA&TS, MSSRF; W Varghese, IT Manager (SIFFS)

Village Knowledge Centres, was evident in his presentation. From the beginning, they stressed on location specific, demand driven content and community ownership. Ajay Kapur spoke about think.com (now known as thinkquest) and its impact on enhancing the knowledge and skills of the poor and deprived children. His talk was interspersed with a short video on a 17 years old girl Radha, a first generation learner in her family, who shared her experience with think. com. M S Kiran informed about the role of the mobile infomediaries in disseminating information in the rural areas. He has applied the bottom of the pyramid approach to elaborate this concept. Explaining it in a historical perspective, he cited the traditional postman, the sales representatives and Bangladesh’s Mobile Ladies as some of the infomediaries, trusted by the village communities. Open Floor Discussions and Outcomes: The presentations were followed by open floor discussions where matters pertaining to capacity building in new and emerging skill areas, telecentre sustainability and understanding local issues from community perspective held the attention of the participants and speakers. Participants also debated the issue of information dissemination through mobile phones, as the rate of data transfer is quite expensive in comparison to the Internet. The mobile is used more as a means of communication rather than information access and dissemination tool. \\ Shipra Sharma shipra@csdms.in

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WORKSHOP REPORT

Child Online Protection www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/en/ICT-for-Development

INTRODUCTION A first step towards a discussion on Child online Protection in India, was taken by organising a session at eINDIA2009, at Hyderabad on August 26, 2009 to interact with varied stakeholders ranging from Central and State Government departments, Educational Institutions, Private Sector and multilateral agencies such as the UNICEF, UNESCO and UN Solution Exchange ICTD. CHILD ONLINE PROTECTION: DISCUSSION AND SPEAKERS Rajen Varada, Resource Person, ICTD Community, UN Solution Exchange welcomed all delegates while giving a background on Child Online Protection. He introduced the chairperson of the session Dr Gulshan Rai, Head of e-Security Group, DIT and Director CERT-In and expressed his confidence that Dr Rai’s chairing of the session was an indication of Govt. of India’s commitment to the cause of Child Online Protection. He hoped that all other stakeholders would also take cognizance of the fact that Child Protection is being taken up as a serious issue of concern at national and international level. Dr. Gulshan Rai dwelt on the initiatives taken by DIT, Government of India, towards putting in place the regulatory, legal and institutional mechanisms for addressing the issues of Cyber Crime, which also addresses the issue of child online protection. He said that convergence has already started happening in the IT sector in the country. This, coupled with the fact that there are about 1.45 billion websites on the Internet, has made controlling the Web a difficult exercise. He opined that website hosts and service providers were also responsible for cyber crime(s) as they try to attract maximum hits using content designed to appeal to younger users as also through pop up advertisements, etc. He stated that the Ministry has come up with a

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portal in collaboration with Microsoft Secure your PC . The portal provides information on cases of cyber crime and is updated regularly. Dr Rai added that laws and acts have been amended to include child pornography. He closed his speech stressing on the need for the IT industry in India to come forward with technologies and solutions to better deal with the menace of child pornography on the Internet. Rajnesh D. Singh, Regional Bureau Manager, ISOC Asia started off by introducing Internet Society (ISOC) and its work. He said that the Internet is simultaneously a world of both “opportunities and challenges”. Talking about cyber safety, he stated that online challenges are an extension of real life challenges. He then proceeded to give a slew of statistical data on Internet behaviour of children and young adults in the United States. He explained how the virtual world is different from the real world and how the anonymity it provides, gives users a false sense of security. He said that Internet safety should be part of a child’s school curriculum. Rajen Varada said that if relevant statistics were available on children’s online behaviour in India, the scenario would probably prove to be more serious. He mentioned the need to enable a deeper understanding on ways to tackle the child online protection issues. He gave inputs about the membership base of the Solution exchange, which consisted of about 16,000 members who were all in the development sector and potential change agents in their respective fields. He informed that they could be motivated to take up this very important issue to create awareness, develop practical tools and share knowledge and experience on the subject and disseminate it to a large online community in India. K. Anvar Sadath, Executive Director, Department of General Education, Government of Kerala, who spoke on cyber safety tips, listed various Internet security

Rajnesh D. Singh, Regional Bureau Manager, ISOC Asia. Also seen in the pic Dr. Gulshan Rai

issues posed by fake sites, inaccurate health information, social networking sites and historical revisionist material. He talked about the responsibility the parents have with respect to children and their Internet usage. He also raised the question of how far it is practical to pursue prevention in this regard. He spoke in detail about the IT @ School Project in Kerala, which he implemented and touched upon the various challenges he faced during that time. Tulika Pandey, Additional Director, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (Govt. of India) spoke on the issue of Child Online Protection in Schools / Colleges. She stated that India with its ubiquitous ICT outreach to a very large present and future young population needs to set all requisite mechanisms and guidelines in place to tackle the menace of Child Online Protection. She stated that laws already existed for taking punitive action once crime against children

are committed, however, there is a need to address gaps which exist in the form of lack of awareness among parents and educators about handling children/youth towards safe internet access and use as also tools, technologies, other surveillance mechanisms that could be deployed by them. Developing child protection policy, screening staff and volunteers and providing training to all participants were some of the steps process, she suggested for protecting children in schools / colleges. The next session involved various members of the industry giving their views on the issues discussed till then. Deepak Maheshwari from Microsoft Corporation (India) Private Limited said the anonymity of the Internet can be used as an advantage to allow children to make complaints online. Rajendra Dhavale of

Computer Associates felt that there was a need to integrate all the work that has already been done in silos. Venkatesh H from Redhat was of the opinion that the generation gap between parents and kids with respect to Internet was a major concern in dealing with child online protection. Sanjeev Kumar Gupta from IBM suggested that this issue could be taken up with the CSR wings of IT companies. Dr Ravi Shankar from the Police Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh stated that the Police at present was ill equipped to handle issues of Child Protection. He added that even for the existing child helpline activities they do not have adequate trained manpower. He suggested that the Women and Child department could initially handle the issue.

Gitanjali Sah stressed upon the inclusion of inputs, comments and suggestions from the end users (i.e. Children) will be very important at every stage, as the COP guidelines should ultimately benefit children in the best possible ways. Providing the concluding note, Ashis Sanyal, Senior Director, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (Government of India) said that a close-ended case on the issue should be presented to the government with a definite time frame, so that the government can come up with the necessary legal framework in a reasonable time. At the end of the session, all the participants felt that this was a very relevant issue and should be taken forward. \\ Rajen Varada UN Solution Exchange ICT Unit

APPREHENDING INNOVATIONS ! (www.euroindia-ict.org) If we consider ICT to be a new set of technologies, then we could conjecture that whatever happens in the ICT sector in terms of product, process, or service delivery is innovation. There is some truth to this statement only if we still consider ICT as a new and emerging industry. Euro-India ICT Innovation Workshop sought to move the debate and research to address ICT innovations from a perspective assuming not only newness but also maturity of the phenomenon. In which case everything that comes out of the ICT industry cannot be assumed as innovative automatically; rather innovation in ICT needs be as unique as for any other technology, requiring a persistent effort in understanding how innovation takes shape. Only then can we manage ICT innovations for maximum benefit to the innovating entity and the recipients or users of the innovation. We need a nuanced understanding of ICT innovation that combines knowledge sharing, knowledge transfer, and knowledge capture issues, with ideas linked to the sustenance and management of innovation, with alliance building, and with domain as well as technology perspectives. The nuanced understanding of ICT innovation requires a broad as well as an in-depth understanding of how technologies, domains, social systems, cultures, organisations and management combine, resources and skills to persist in ensuring sustainable innovation in emerging economies. What are the specific challenges that innovators face in these economies? What are the mitigating factors that need to be considered to help innovators in emerging economies? How innovation takes shape in emerging economies and how is it different, if at all, and does the institutional and resource constraint provide opportunities for innovators to ply their trade or do they hinder innovators in the ICT sectors? These are some of the issues that the workshop invited discussion on. In Hyderabad amidst e-INDIA, Euro-India ICT Forum held the ICT innovation workshop. The primary focus of that workshop was to share the experiences of the Euro-India Knowledge mapping project, which has been toiling away, trying to understand the Indian innovative landscape across all the regions of India. This workshop invited industry representatives and non-government organisations and other stakeholders to understanding the findings of Euro-India ICT Forum and allow them to react to the data that they saw. There were a number of themes that emerged from this workshop. First the knowledge mapping project itself indicated that majority of ICT endeavour is focused on products. While innovation itself is accepted as an important value adder, there is very little concerted effort to understand innovation, manage innovation and leverage innovativeness. It also appeared from the discussion that policy has a critical role to play in innovation, primarily in the education sector and discussions around the e-Learning theme took a lot of time. The primary conclusion of the e-Learning debate was that policy makers really do not understand in full the real potential of IT in education and their efforts have huge gaps that need to be looked at comprehensively. Organisational innovation was another prominent theme being talked about from two perspectives. The first discussion on value appeared that IT provides a unique opportunity to shift the focus from price to value, but IT, while paying lip service to the idea of value, is primarily bottom line businesses. This attitude among the management hurts ICT innovation because organisations do not support their star employees. Furthermore, innovation takes sustained and long term view and since the business model of most IT firms are based on short term bottom line, particularly during recessionary times, innovation takes a back. This leads to the marginalisation of star employees who act like broadly spanners in the organization. The workshop concluded with three basic themes, first that ICT innovation is critical for Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sustained leadership in the high tech industry. Second, that policy is very seldom, not proactive but reactive and third, that Indian technology leaders do very little to raise the profile of innovation among companies. Dr Sudhanshu Rai Team Leader, Euro-India ICT R&D Project (sr.inf@cbs.dk)

egov OCTOBER 2009

WORKSHOP REPORT

Towards Universally Applicable Internet Policy www.InternetSociety.org

The Internet Society organised a special workshop on the Internet and Public Policy issues during eINDIA 2009. The workshop dealt with a range of Internet-related issues, with a particular focus on the Indian perspective. The workshop focused on issues which make up the Internet Society’s Enabling Access Initiative. This initiative focuses on enabling access to the Internet by addressing the fundamental impediments to Internet growth and usability. PRESENTATIONS Deepak Maheshwari, Director Corporate Affairs, Microsoft India, co-founder of National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) and former Secretary of the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) provided an overview of the evolution of the Internet in India, and some perspectives on the way forward. Tulika Pandey, Additional Director, Department of Information Technology, Government of India, provided some perspectives on the issue of Multilingualism and its role on the Internet. The Internet Society’s Frederic Donck and Sally Wentworth covered some global, but locally relevant, issues related to Internet Governance and IPv6. Slides of the presentations are available online at http://www.isoc.org/isoc/ conferences/other/eindia-2009.shtml PANEL DISCUSSION The workshop culminated in a panel discussion on Internet public policy issues in India. Panellists included Rajen Varada (UN Solution Exchange), Niel Hirjee (Calport Technologies), Jayalakshmi Chittoor (ICT4D Consultant) and Tulika Pandey (Government of India). The panel was moderated by Nikhil Agarwal, Director of the Europe-Asia Business School, and co-chair of the Internet

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Society’s Advisory Council. Deliberations during the workshop touched on some key issues facing Internet development today. These included: Need to ensure capacity • building initiatives are allencompassing, serving all levels of society Need for standardisation Panelists along with the participants • efforts related to multilingualism, with a particular focus requirements and other regulatory and policy on keyboard layouts and input methods factors can slow or prevent Internet growth. Need to consider “appropriate Policymakers must be encouraged, at both • technology” when delivering access national and international level, to adopt solutions ICT policies and positions that promote the Need for a bottom-up centred expansion and reach of Internet infrastructure • consultative and development process on a national and global basis. There is Need to implement technology-neutral also a need to eliminate (or revise) national • forward-looking ICT policy with an Internet and telecommunications regulations appropriate licensing and regulatory that impede Internet growth. A key factor in framework achieving these is the need for policymakers The challenges of improving Internet to be aware of contemporary Internet issues growth are multifaceted and interrelated, and broader economic/social factors that particularly in developing countries. They impact Internet development. include, for example, access to technical Under-served communities – including skills and knowledge, the regulatory and people that use non-Latin language scripts, policy environment for information and people with disabilities, and geographically telecommunications services, and broader remote and dispersed communities – face economic and market factors, linguistic additional challenges in accessing the diversity, and the diffusion and reliability of Internet. The Internet Society encourages basic infrastructures and services. and promotes work towards enabling For the Internet to grow and be sustainable, access to the Internet by under-served network operators need the technical capacity communities. Key to this is the development necessary to build, maintain, and protect and distribution of technologies that support networks, as well as make informed choices the use non-Latin language scripts on the about new infrastructure implementation and Internet (in a manner that upholds the overall methodologies. With Internet technology end-to-end connectivity of the network), changing rapidly, capacity building needs to and the development of technologies that be an ongoing process and local information- facilitate the use of the Internet by people with sharing mechanisms must be in place disabilities. Industry and Policymakers both to sustain knowledge transfer beyond have a key role to play in facilitating access to classroom training. Regulatory impediments the Internet to under-served communities. \\ to internetworking, onerous licensing Rajnesh Singh, singh@isoc.org

STATE FOCUS

www.apstatepolice.org

T KRISHNA PRASAD INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF POLICE (POLICE COMPUTER SERVICES), ANDHRA PRADESH POLICE

“Because of information derived from applications like third eye, many parts of the investigation are consistent and transparent. Resultantly, the Investigation Officers are able to file the charge sheet within the stipulated time as mentioned in Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Most importantly, the courts are now appreciating this move and thereby the rate of conviction has gone up”.

What is your perception about ICT implementation in police department? Before an individual goes to police station to request a First Information report (FIR) or any grievance, primarily he/she hesitates and thinks at least twice before doing so. It is because of lack of two major factors in police stations, one consistency and another transparency. I will explain how. In a couple of similar theft or murder cases, lets say I am the Investigating Officer. Now according to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), the investigation in both of the cases should be identical. However, many a times one case becomes more important and another less important, though ideally, I should follow the same process for each of the cases. This is the lack in consistency in handling of several cases. Moreover, there is a lack of consistency among the police stations, as well. The second factor is transparency. As an applicant, neither you know what is the process being followed in the investigation, nor you have any idea about the new developments in the case. This is the dearth of transparency. This is what we are trying to target. It is a huge challenge. What are challenges on the way to ICT enabled policing? On one side we have cultural and attitudinal issues. If you go to the lower level of hierarchy, the cops think hiding information is their right. . On the other hand, the police department is among the government departments that lack in terms of integrating themselves with the latest technology and simplification of processes. Technology was some thing, which was not being identified as a helping tool, except wireless communication systems. Therefore the staff is not typically tech savvy in police departments. They still depend on the outdated methodologies, on manual systems. Percentage of the cases, investigated on the scientific evidence is quite low. Again, it’s a legacy. Police as an agency, particularly

egov OCTOBER 2009

// INTERVIEW

at the investigation level, has been overtly dependent on interrogations, and has more subjectivity, instead of objectivity. So finding out the truth, using the scientific methodology is the crux. And to move such an organisation, with employee strength of 1 lakh and 20 thousand, and which is not so tech savvy, is a mammoth task. So question is how to make it move towards this direction. This is a huge challenge. How successful is the computer wing in putting the department on ICT mode, initiating the computerisation in 2002 with 400 desktops across AP? It’s true we started with just 400 systems. From there, we have come to a situation today, where all of the 1643 police stations are having at least one computer, all of the 460 Circle Offices andabout 450 sub-divisional offices now have at least one PC. All districts Superintendent of Police, all of the senior officers, every body in the line, are having 1 PC today. Today we are having 5000-6000 constables who are trained in computers, who are given in-service computers training. About 5 constables in every police station are computer literate. Now comes the application part. We have gone through a very strong and long process of evolution of software application. Learning in quite hard way over a long period of time, we have developed application called eCOPS or e-Computerised Operations for Police Services. This is an application that is fully tested and stabilised. It is fully functional today. Can you elaborate on the enterprise version of eCOPS? It is an initiative towards the standardisation of processes in the police department. eCOPS is a central mother application, which helps an SHO or the investigation officer in issuing an FIR and in the investigation. While developing this application, we developed detailed and long process flow chart, on how things go on in any typical police case. Interestingly, it involves a few hundred of steps until you file a charge sheet. After completion of this comprehensive and systematic flow chart, we moved to coding, and writing the language. But policing is not just confined to the above-mentioned things, there are several other things done by the department likegrievance monitoring, inventory management, patrolling, surveillance, beats, traffic management. So you have eCOPS as the mother application surrounded by

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47 satellite applications. Sitting in a police station, if I want to do multiple things together, I could not do that earlier, but with this enterprise application a cop can go to the website with his/her username and password, and he has options to work on multiple applications simultaneously. Also, the enterprise module requires the user to enter the data only once in some application and it is automatically copied and pasted in other required sections. How effective are the applications like third eye and criminal intelligence system? Third eye application: Third Eye is a veryvery powerful tool in the hands of our forces. It’s a criminal intelligence software, which is actually a database of the people having passport, driving license, motor vehicle, voter ID, ration cards, cell phone, etc. So, in any given case, if a number related with these certifications comes across way of investigation, the cops can easily fetch it’s details. Earlier it used to take 40 days to get this information. Now with this application, a cop can have the same info in seconds. Criminal Intelligence System (CIS): As Third Eye, Criminal Intelligence System is a data-mining tool, which helps the investigation officer (IO) to nab the criminals. It is a huge data bank on criminals and criminal gangs. It has a data of one lakh apprehended criminals and gang profiles. Using this application, a cop can identify a criminal through the modus operandi, through his first name, or alias name. Now, many of the parts of the investigation are consistent (because of information derived from third eye, CIS) and transparent. Resultantly, the IOs are able to file the charge sheet within the stipulated time as mentioned in Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Most importantly, the courts are now appreciating this move and thereby the rate of conviction has gone up. Please throw some light on the CCTNS and recently mooted passport project. Interestingly, there is a similar project planned at the national level by the MHA, Government of India -– Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS), which will be implemented all across the country. It is more or less the same what we did at the state level, in coordination with other state departments. It’s not that we have generated all of the data on our own. As in third eye, the concerned departments gave access to their data to our department, in the same manner in CCTNS we have to share the data

at the pan India level. In a meeting held with Regional Passport Officer, we discussed on how do we ensure that citizens applying for a passport can get the status of the verifications online. The applicant submits his application to the regional passport office, then the data comes to my office from where it will be sent to the respective districts. Respective districts will do the verification and will send back the reports to my office. Now from here, a copy will be sent to passport office so that they can process and provide the passport and another copy to the applicant. Meanwhile, if any citizen logs on to my site and asks for status, the system will tell him/her that the verification is over and it has been sent to passport office. Eventually this sharing of information through the partnership leads to better citizen service delivery mechanism. Please tell us about the projects in the pipeline? We have a proposal ready for a very significant project in surveillance in particular and public safety and security in general, called Command and Control Centre. As you know, there are hundreds and thousands of security cameras (CCTV) deployed in most of the public and private vital installations and as well as in many of public places like airport, railway station, bus stands etc. If we integrate all of these cameras to a central server, we can make a master video wall. Now all these particular cameras windows will be watched by a group of people on selective basis. In case if something fishy pops up on a camera, the monitoring team can call the concerned the security department and in a moment of time they can very well see the exact situation. Now the beauty lies in integrating this camera to the system positioned in the offices of authorities sitting in Delhi or else where, with just passing on of the particular camera code. Through this way, the authorities will be able to see what exactly is going on and they can take the speedy decisions. We have prepared another proposal for the use of biometrics in user authentication and monitoring at pan-India level and we are approaching the Government of India for it. Through a biometrics system, the palm of a person gets completely scanned, with the capturing of finger and thumb prints. With the availability of this system, the biometric identification of all the arrested criminals can be easily done and the data can be stored in a central server. \\ Pratap Vikram Singh pratap@egovonline.net

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ASK SAP

Integrated eHealth As Vice President of the Public Services group for SAP’s Asia Pacific Division, Adaire FoxMartin oversees the strategic direction and activities in the area of public services in the health, education and defence sectors across the region and executive relationships with customers and partners. Ms. Fox-Martin is a key member of the SAP leadership team and plays a lead role in delivering SAP’s offering to public sector customers. A respected thought leader, Ms. Fox-Martin continues to be invited at seminars and conferences by the media and analysts to address public services issues ranging from e-Government transformation and reengineering of Government processes to public service policies. She is regularly featured and quoted in numerous publications throughout Asia and Australia. Ms. Fox-Martin has over 20 years of experience in the field of information technology and management. Effective e-Governance can take information technology (IT) to the common man, while helping Governments to regulate their services in line with the changing needs of both citizens and stakeholders, as well as develop the economy. Recognising the growing importance of e-Governance we have been bringing you a much needed, regular, interactive platform, where questions on a pre-defined theme are answered by Adaire Fox-Martin, Vice President, Public Services, SAP Asia Pacific and Japan. Health sector reforms have been marked with several initiatives. Such reforms have focused on all aspects that impact health – nutrition, hygiene, drinking water and healthcare itself. Government of India has placed special emphasis on healthcare programmes with National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) as one of its flagship programmes. Government owns the majority stake in the health infrastructure and is, therefore, one of its key responsibilities. Integrated eHealth is a necessity for the various governments – both Central and States to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of their health programmes. Why are eHealth initiatives significant? The importance of quality healthcare cannot be understated. However, more and more citizens and governments around the world are deeply concerned about the sustainability of their healthcare systems. Even in a country like Austria, which many consider to be an exemplar of a welfare state, 82% of the population is concerned with the potential collapse of their health system. In several countries, healthcare expenditure will grow at a faster pace than their economic growth (20% of GDP by 2014 in US). With public health spending set to rise in the coming years and new initiatives taken as a result of the reforms, the Departments of Health, Medical and Family Welfare will face challenges. This requires a robust Health Information System to provide decision support (operational, managerial and strategic), enhance evidence based policy making and undertake effective monitoring leading to improved accountability and effectiveness at all levels of the health system. What are the characteristics of healthcare industry and what should eHealth address? Healthcare systems involve a complex web of stakeholders including hospitals, primary care organisations, the pharmaceutical industry, research and medical technology companies, health insurers, medical professionals, the government and, of course, patients. The players are acutely aware that healthcare can only be effectively addressed with the cooperation of all participants. Also, studies carried out for the White House have found that as much as $300 billion is spent each year on healthcare that does not improve patient outcomes – treatment that is unnecessary, inappropriate, inefficient, or ineffective. This necessitates that integrated eHealth addresses the • Effectiveness of Health Governance to improve the administration of human, financial and other resources directly or indirectly, involved in the delivery of healthcare services • Delivery of healthcare through Preventive, Curative and Epidemic management

•

Reliable and timely information

Does integrated eHealth have examples globally? There are many inspiring examples of changes happening. However, a much more collaborative and integrated approach is required to accelerate healthcare transformation. Usage of passive RFID Tags for medication tracking; Portal as single point of access for integrated scheduling throughout 150 clinics (Sacre’Coeur Hospital of Montreal); Collaboration of hospitals, primary care doctors and other providers (HMO in US); sharing of resources and patient information (The Hamburg hospitals Mariahilf and AK Harburg) are only few examples amongst increased participation by all stakeholders. What are the basic tenets of an efficient and effective eHealth system? By combining best practices in healthcare with an open, scalable technology platform and the collaborative power of the internet, providers of eHealth systems (such as SAP) aim to improve the efficiency of healthcare delivery and increase the quality of patient care. Some of the ways this can be achieved are: •

•

Superior patient value: Enabling delivery of eHealth solutions for inpatients and outpatients as well as services to elders at home, for superior therapeutic outcomes, at a lower cost Product and service leadership: Delivering a standards compliant clinical operations management solution to enable better patient care and lower cost and time-to-market Demand to supply management: Implementing responsive supply networks to enable producers, distributors, retailers and providers to plan, collaborate and deliver A common collaboration platform: Connecting providers, producers and payers on a single, open healthcare IT platform \\

Next Month’s Topic: “Financial Services and Inclusion”. Please write to us your queries on this topic or mail back to us at info@egovonline.net 50

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