Interoperablility and Open standards: September 2007 Issue

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INDIA

2007

Conference Photo Gallery

Key Note Session: e-Governance in India -Challenges and Opportunities

Session: State Wide Area Network (SWAN) After SWAN what

Sesssion: e-Governance in Urban Local Bodies

Session: Standards and Interoperability and e-Governance Architecture

Media Partner

Session: State Data Centres- Infrastructure for e-Governed India

Session: International Experiences of e-Government Strategy and Implementation

w w w . e g o v o n l i n e . n e t | volume 3 | issue 9 | september 2007

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COVER FEATURES

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Industry’s Commitment to Technical Standards

Brian Christinakis and Michael Mudd

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Realising the Goal of One-Window-for-All Government Services

Interview: Dr. Emmanual C Lallana, GIF Project Adviser, UNDP-APDIP and Lars H. Bestle, Programme Specialist, UNDP-APDIP

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Interoperability and Open Standards for e-Governance

17

Suchitra Pyarelal

20 23 25

Standards and Compliance Audits Renu Budhiraja

Adopting Open Standards for Data Storage Venkatesh Hariharan

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Opportunities for Growth Interview: Jaijit Bhattacharya , Country Director-Government Strategy, Sun

Microsystems India

27 29

Interoperability Defined

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Chris Levanes

Key to Government ICT Programmes Interview: Robert S Sutor, Vice President, Open Source and Standards, IBM

MCONNECT

Expanding Tele-revolution in Rural India

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Interview: Nripendra Misra, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

News

35

Key to Accessibility

37

John McClure

The Smart Governance

39

Jayesh Thakkar

COVER STORY

IT to Stimulate Democratic Participation

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egov India 2007 Conference Report

STAE FOCUS: PUNJAB

Punjab e-Governance Initiatives

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An Overview

R E GU L AR FEATURE

WHAT’S ON

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ov volume 3 | issue 9 | september 2007 PRESIDENT

Dr. M P Narayanan EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

EDITORIAL Open Standards and Interoperability Debate Hots Up!

Ravi Gupta SR. SUB EDITOR

Prachi Shirur SR. RESEARCH ASSOCIATE

Vignesh S MARKETING

Gautam Navin mob: +91 9818125257 email: gautam@csdms.in Himanshu Kalra mob: +91 9818485406 email: himanshu@csdms.in Debabrata Ray mob: +91 9899650692 email: debabrata@elets.in DESIGNED BY

Bishwajeet Kumar Singh Om Prakash Thakur WEB

Zia Salahuddin CIRCULATION

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

eGov

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LOBALLY, the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC) are responsible for approving an international standard. Currently, there is a lot of advocacy and activism towards approving a new open standard.

The rationale: once an international standard is approved, there is a huge impact in emerging markets for that standard. Often governments and major customers of software are keen to follow standards and would more desirously, apply interoperability for their services.

This is a very important issue of discussion and debate for the e-Governance scenario. Not only for online databases but also for documentation standards.

The power of the Internet and the processes, that the corporate houses applying for standards have to undergo, shows that there is always likely to be a clash of views and interests. Country representatives in the ISO/ IEC committee will be the members who vote and decide applications for approval of standards.

If a country absents itself, their votes are not counted. For a standard to pass through the next phase, there will have to be a clear two thirds voting in favour. For example, in the past, when the Open Document Format (ODF) was voted, they were voted on and approved without any single negative vote.

What does this debate mean to the e-Governance community? It indicates very clearly that there is lot of confusing statements floating around, not many are aware of the debate, the issues and the concerns. Not all clarifications are written in simple language for a wide range of practitioners to understand.

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

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Yashi Media Works Pvt Ltd New Delhi, India

In this issue of egov, we bring you the international perspective, the national government perspectives and industry perspectives on open standards, interoperability, data sharing, and audits for standards. This issue is an attempt to help more stakeholders to understand the importance of this issue for e-governance for the enabling effective decision making as well as to plan future programmes. A truly well defined Knowledge Society will allow knowledge to flow across borders seamlessly, and move across programmes and projects without being locked by the software on which the public domain knowledge is built on.

egov does not neccesarily subscribe to the views expressed in this publication. All views expressed in the magazine are those of the contributors. egov is not responsible or

We look forward to your inputs and feedback on other issues of e-Governance that you would like us to cover.

accountable for any loss incurred, directly or indirectly as a result of the information provided. egov is published in collaboration with Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd. (www.elets.in) Š Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies 2007 www.csdms.in

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September 2007

Ravi Gupta Ravi.Gupta@csdms.in 5

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EDITORIAL GUIDELINES ARTICLES / CASE STUDIES should not exceed

egov is a monthly magazine providing a much needed platform to the voices of various stakeholders in the arena of e-Government, apart from being a repository of valuable information and meaningful discussion on issues of e-governance in general, and e-Government in particular -- both to the specialist and the generalist.

Contributions to egov magazine should be in the form of articles, case studies, book reviews, event report and news related to eGovernment project and initiatives, which are of immense value for practitioners, professionals, corporate and academicians.

We would like the contributors to follow these guidelines, while submitting their material for publication.

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. THE MANUSCRIPTS should be typed in a standard printable font (Times New Roman 12 font size, titles in bold) and submitted either through mail or post.

RELEVANT FIGURES of adequate quality (300 dpi) should be submitted in JPEG/ TIFF format.

A BRIEF BIO-DATA and passport size photograph(s) of the author(s) must be enclosed.

ALL CONTRIBUTIONS ARE SUBJECT TO APPROVAL BY THE PUBLISHER.

Please send in your papers/articles/comments to: The Editor, egov, G-4, Sector 39, NOIDA (UP) 201 301, India. tel: +91 120 2502180-85, fax: +91 120 2500060, email: info@egovonline.net EDITORIAL CALENDAR 2007 MONTH

SOLUTION FOCUS

APPLICATION FOCUS

STATE FOCUS

SEPTEMBER

INTEROPERABILITY AND OPEN STANDARDS

CENTRAL EXCISE

PUNJAB

OCTOBER

WIRELESS

MUNICIPALITIES

KERALA

NOVEMBER

E-GOVERNANCE ARCHITECTURE

COURTS

MADHYA PRADESH

DECEMBER

MOBILITY

POLICE

WEST BENGAL

EDITORIAL CALENDAR 2008 JANUARY

RFID & SMART CARDS

TRANSPORT, PORTS & SHIPPING

GUJARAT

FEBRUARY

BIOMETRICS & IMAGING TECHNOLOGY

NATIONAL ID / PASSPORTS

DELHI

MARCH

PRIVACY AND INFORMATION SECURITY

E-BANK

UTTAR PRADESH

APRIL

AUTHENTICATION & DIGITAL SIGNATURE TECHNOLOGY

E-COMMERCE

ANDHRA PRADESH

MAY

ENTERPRISE ARCHITECHTURE

RAILWAYS

BIHAR

JUNE

META DATA & DATA STANARDS

POWER

HIMACHAL PRADESH

JULY

CONTENT TECHNOLOGY

COMMON SERVICES

JHARKHAND

AUGUST

DATA WAREHOUSING

IT INFRASTUCTURE

HARYANA

SEPTEMBER

BROADBAND

E-PANCHAYAT

RAJASTHAN

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STANDARDS & INTEROPERABILITY: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Industry’s Commitment to Technical Standards An Effective Protocol for Governments and Regulators Just as interoperability is a goal of government and the private sector, it is also a business imperative for the information technology sector. As demand for interoperability has increased, the IT sector has responded.

This article seeks to highlight the role of the IT sector in economic growth, the nature of the IT market and intellectual property protection, a better understanding of interoperability and open standards, and the means by which government can help to ensure interoperability in its own IT acquisitions.

Brian Christinakis and Michael Mudd INTRODUCTION

Now more than ever, governments and industry are seeking to gain maximum value from their information communications technology (ICT) investments. Over the past 40 years, government and enterprise ICT infrastructures have become increasingly multi-platform, multi-vendor, widely distributed and complex. At the same time, business processes and government services have become more and more complicated, interdependent and dependent upon ICT technologies.

Given this current state of affairs, the ICT industry recognises the increasing importance of systems and software interoperability to enable business processes and government services to change and grow. Further, the ICT sector is responding to these needs. There is a high level of interoperability in today’s information technology (IT) sector and it is constantly improving. Indeed, it is in the interest of the information technology industry to ensure that the industry continues to respond to customer needs in this area.

However, while there may be agreement on the need for interoperability, the scope and implementation as well as the means to encourage it remain controversial, politicised, and confusing. This article seeks to highlight the role of the IT sector in economic growth, the nature of the IT market and intellectual property protection, a better understanding of interoperability and open standards, and the means by which government can help to ensure interoperability in its own IT acquisitions.

The IT sector now consists of 1.1 million businesses that support 11 million high-paying IT jobs, generating $900 billion in taxes and $1.7 trillion per year to the global economy. The economic and productivity benefits, resulting from information technology use, positively impact individual economies and individual citizens. Therefore, growth of the technology sector and increased use of technology is a useful 8}

goal for policymakers. A steady stream of studies suggests that a proven means of promoting IT growth is through a combination of strong intellectual property protection to inspire the private sector and the smooth functioning of government and business IT systems to promote technology adaptation and use. Interoperability plays across both of these.

Interoperability Defined: The ability of software and hardware on different machines from different vendors to share data.

Interoperability is not a requirement for use of the same products or a single source of products: Interoperability does not involve making different types of products and technology homogeneous, but rather enabling effective communication of data between very different products and technology implementations.

Interoperability can be achieved through one or more of the following: • Implementation of market driven standards through market competition; • Development of software that is “interoperable by design”; • Voluntary publication and licensing of proprietary technologies and intellectual property; • Formal collaborations among businesses and governments to create interoperable systems, and • Use of standards developed in international standards bodies.

Standards Defined: A standard is a technical specification that is widely used. It may be a formal specification developed or approved by a formal or industry standards body like the International Standards Organisation (ISO), or a de facto or “proprietary” standard that is widely adopted in the market place without formal standardisation. Any type of standard, including formal standards, may require the licensing of intellectual property rights. www.egovonline.net

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We have identified three principles that will foster interoperability and therefore the growth of the IT sector as a vibrant creator of both employments and national wealth Principle 1: Technology neutrality Principle 2: Promote industry driven standards Principle 3: Foster strong intellectual property protection

THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT

Governments remain the single largest customer for the IT sector (20% of sales in the US, 25% in China and 40% in Australia). In business, large customers naturally sway the direction of product development through their demand.

As such, it is important for government to act as any other customer in the market place. If government is not conscious of this impact as it procures technology, there could be unintended consequences. In this regard, the roles of government are manifold.

Government Investment: In its capacity as a major investor, government has the ability to directly stimulate the marketplace. As noted in the first section, this investment can have direct economic benefits for the economy and to national productivity. However, it is also important to recognise that how that money is spent could impact product development of the competitive marketplace. If government requires a specific type of technology be used as a condition of winning a procurement bid – rather than any product implementations that meet a technical specification – the government is directly driving growth of one type of technology over another. Further, mandates or prohibitions may unintentionally exclude domestic players who have partnered with different technology producers or are leading in their own product areas.

Government as a Leader-e-Government: e-Government offers the opportunity for greater efficiency in delivery of services to the public. e-Government bidding requirements that mandate use of a particular type of technology, override 10

the market and drive research and devlopment to an area the market may not naturally take it. In its extreme, this could drive up costs and deliver less competitive, less technologically savvy products. A competitive and open procurement environment ensures that limited government funds for technology purchases are being used efficiently. An open, technology-neutral procurement system ensures that government employees have access to the best, most costefficient, state-of-the-art products and services.

Government as a Stimulant to the Local IT Industry: Rational government policies can act as a catalyst to stimulate local IT industry growth. No other entity has more ability to influence the growth and development of the information technology industry. In this regard, government often acts consciously to develop incentive programmes, such as tax breaks and free trade, to help encourage investment and grow the industry locally. But, governments can also impact the local industry through direct investment – spending procurement dollars. As long as that investment is unbiased, technology neutral, and open to all bidders – including qualified foreign bidders, it has the potential to be market-fostering.

Government as an Advocate of Intellectual Property Protection: As documented in numerous studies and detailed in the first section of this paper, strong intellectual property regimes are a critical foundation for innovation and growth in the ICT sector. Indeed, intellectual property frameworks arguably are the frameworks that have produced today’s modern IT industry. In this regard, government procurement that explicitly discourages the working of an intellectual property right also discourages a proven means to innovation.

WHAT IS INTEROPERABILITY?

Webopedia (http://www.webopedio.com) defines interoperability simply as “the ability of software and hardware on different machines from different vendors to share data.” US law terms it “the ability of different operating and software systems, applications, and services to communicate and exchange data in an accurate, effective, and consistent manner.” Similarly, the European Interoperability Framework defines interoperability as “the ability of information and communication technology systems and of the business processes they support to exchange data and to enable the sharing of information and knowledge.”

Interoperability thus does not involve making different types of products and technology homogeneous, but rather enabling effective communication of data between very different products and technology implementations.

WHY DOES INTEROPERABILITY MATTER?

As technology penetration increases, so does business and government dependency on computers. Craig Barrett, Intel’s Chairman of the Board said it best: “The world is getting smaller on a daily basis. Hardware, software and content move www.egovonline.net

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independent of, and irrespective of, international boundaries.

As that increasingly happens, the need to have commonality and interoperability grows. You need standards so that the movie made in China or India plays in the equipment delivered in the United States, or the Web site supporting Intel in the United States plays on the computer in China.”

More efficient delivery of e-Government. One of the many promises of technology is its ability to improve interaction and provision of services to a country’s citizens. In an effort to stem costs and speed efficiencies, the decentralisation of procurement has in some cases led to absence of interoperable computer systems.

Targeting interoperability as a goal in computer procurement can bring benefits to governments and to all customers.

For example, because of technical standards devices that implement the 802.11 WiFi standard, any device that uses the standard can communicate over a wireless network.

Another example is that documents implementing the Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) and Hyper Text Translation Protocol (HTTP) standards can be incorporated seamlessly into Internet web pages.

Effective Crisis Management. As has been the case too many times in the last ten years, the power of computers in aiding crisis management has become apparent. The inability of radio and communication devices to interact on 9-11 contributed to confusion in New York. In the aftermath of the 2005 South Asian Tsunami, the identification of and search for victims was complicated in several locations by lack of cohesive and interactive computer systems. Congressional investigations of the Hurricane Katrina disaster reveal issues with computer communications.

Indeed, battles have been lost and won based on how well communications flow on the battlefield. The absence of interoperability – a nuisance in normal times – is a disaster in a crisis or war time.

Seamless provision of business services. While the paper focuses on government interoperability and its relationship to the industry, it is important to note that businesses are equally impacted by interoperability issues. As with government, the technology sector is responding. On a daily basis, technology companies reach out to customers in all segments of the economy finance, education, healthcare, manufacturing, retail – any business with multiple destinations, multiple computers or multiple data points that need to be able to speak to one another. These issues often are addressed on a case by case basis, building these solutions to the interoperability needs of the user.

Open standards: ‘Open’ describes the adoption, not the content or use, of standards. Open standards are a set of technical specifications, developed or approved through a consensus process, that are widely reviewed and agreed upon, published in sufficient detail to permit a variety of implementations, and publicly available for use on reasonably and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms.

The word “open” is sometimes used erroneously to characterise the nature of the license or intellectual property used to distribute the standard. In most cases, the erroneous use centers on whether the technology specifications described in the standard may be implemented or exploited royalty free.

Open standards are not the same as open source.

HOW CAN INTEROPERABILITY BE ACHIEVED?

Just as interoperability is a goal of government and the private sector, it is also a business imperative for the information technology sector. As demand for interoperability has increased, the IT sector has responded. Numerous national and international bodies—formal and informal—have developed in the market to help promote interoperability.

The goals of interoperability can be accomplished through a variety of independent and interdependent means (See Figure), including: • Implementation of market driven standards through market competition; • Development of software that is “interoperable by design”; • Voluntary publication and licensing of proprietary technologies and intellectual property; and • Formal collaborations among businesses and governments to create interoperable systems.

STANDARDS DEFINED

A standard is a technical specification that is widely used.

It may be a formal specification developed or approved by a formal or industry standards body like the International Standards Organisation (ISO), or a de facto or “proprietary” standard that is widely adopted in the market place without formal standardisation. Any type of standard, including formal standards, may require the licensing of intellectual property rights. ov

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Each of these methods to achieving interoperability is discussed below. It is important to emphasise – particularly 11

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for policy makers– that these options are simply a means to an end; ultimately, the goal is interoperability.

In addition, it is important to note that these methods of achieving interoperability often evolve over time. As industry and consumer needs change, the nature of the interoperable element or “standard” may evolve. For example, the pursuit of a proprietary standard by a group of companies may make the most sense under certain circumstances because the standard can be adopted more quickly and because it is likely that only a few organisations will rely on the standard to achieve interoperability. Later, if that proprietary standard becomes more broadly known and implemented by other organisations, it may rise to the status of a de facto market standard. At that point, the standard may also be contributed to an open standards organisation, such as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) or the International Standards Organisation (ISO), for ratification as a formal open standard in order to achieve wider implementation, for example XML, a proprietary technology that has gained broad popularity, has been submitted to the European Computer Manufacturer’s Association (ECMA) for formal open standardisation.

Given this potential evolution through the various methods of achieving interoperability, it is important that governments embrace all methods to achieve interoperability in order to promote maximum flexibility and efficiency in the market place.

Implementation of Market Driven Standards Consumer choice is a powerful tool to drive interoperability. The market place has delivered a number of de facto technology standards. For example, Adobe’s market strategy to give away its PDF reader, coupled with the product’s ability to maintain document integrity on the worldwide web, drove consumer choice to PDF. Today, this is a globally accepted file format for transfer of electronic documents. There are many other examples. The IT sector depends heavily on market-driven development of such de facto standards, given the speed of technological development and the relatively slow pace of formal standards proceedings. As governments consider policies to achieve interoperability, they should keep in mind that the marketplace has been an important force in selecting technology winners and losers. Indeed, consumers and not government are the best judge of how and if technology works for them. In each of the listed means of achieving interoperability, there is a necessary element of market testing required to ensure the success of an interoperability effort.

Products that are Interoperable by Design: The marketplace is driving interoperability demands. As legacy systems and new systems increasingly need to interact, customers – whether they are government, businesses, or individual consumers – want all of their components to interoperate. In government, the tax authority’s computers should be able to speak to the department of motor vehicles.

In business, headquarters in Mumbai should be able to seamlessly access documents created in the London office.

And for consumers, their MP3 player should be able to talk to their PC. Businesses are responding by building products that are interoperable by design. Government can help advance 12

interoperability by (1) embracing technology neutrality, (2) promoting industry driven standards and, (3) promoting strong intellectual property protection.

A Model Public Policy Framework based on these three principles would include: Principle 1: Technology Neutrality Avoid policies that would mandate or prefer specific technology solutions, standards implementations, platforms or business models.

• Spain: In the Spanish Parliament plenary session held in Madrid in December 2005, an overwhelming majority of 290 votes against 15 rejected a proposal mandating open source software.

• USA: In July 2004, the US Office of Management and Budget issued a circular reminding agencies that procurement efforts were intentionally technology neutral.

Ensure that government policies aimed at promoting interoperability remain objective and performance-based.

Procurement acquisitions should incorporate criteria that incorporate the following: • Embrace a definition of interoperability focused on the goal – interoperability - rather than on the means to obtaining the goal.

• Review total cost of ownership.

• Secure competitive and fully loaded service plans as a condition of government purchase of IT. • Consider ease of use as purchasing criteria.

• Review security and seek assurances from vendors as to the integrity of their products.

Principle 2: Promote Industry Driven Standards • Allow industry to lead in promoting interoperability including by developing voluntary, industry-driven, consensus-based standards.

• Ensure that government interoperability programmes are based on a clear set of publicly accessible technical standards.

• Let the market work in the standards setting process.

• Provide a legal framework and regulatory framework that supports an industry-driven open standards process.

Where government is the representative to a standards setting body, ensure there is a strong consultative process in place open to all potential industry participants.

Principle 3: Foster Strong Intellectual Property Protection Support the role of intellectual property both in promoting and developing technology, and in promoting interoperability.

• Avoid policies that impose compulsory licensing requirements in procurement practices.

• Respect IPR & encourage this as a tool for innovation.

•

Mike Mudd (Mmudd@comptia.org) is the Director of Public Policy for Asia Pacific and has responsibility for running CompTIA’s Public Policy initiatives for the region. He is a regular presenter at regional IT forums and is the appointed representative to the ISO in Geneva for IT related standards for Hong Kong.

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STANDARDS & INTEROPERABILITY: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Realising the Goal of One-Window-for-All Government Services Interoperability

http://www.apdip.net/projects/gif/project

“Interoperability is the means by which governments can link and meaningfully utilise the vast stores of information they possess, regardless of whether it sits in one agency, on one particular vendor’s hardware platform or one particular software vendor’s application suite”.

Dr. Emmanuel C Lallana, GIF Project Adviser, UNDPAPDIP, and Lars H. Bestle, Programme Specialist, UNDPAPDIP, says this and more in a candid interview with egov magazine.

What is the vision and objectives of Government Interoperability Framework (GIF) Project? Which are the countries that are part of the GIF study group?

The idea for the GIF project came about during a policy dialogue at a regional conference on Open Standards that the UNDP Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme (UNDP-APDIP) organised with the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) in Bangkok in 2006. Participants agreed that government policies of interoperability are advantageous and that, if governments have not already done so, they should consider formulating their respective Government Interoperability Frameworks (GIFs).

Moreover, in our work, we find that many e-Government initiatives have resulted in a patchwork of information and communications technology (ICT) solutions that are unable to ‘talk’ or exchange data. Instead of transforming government, ICT has in many cases reinforced the old barriers that made government decision-making, not to mention citizen access to public services, more difficult. ov

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Recognising that e-Government should be transformative, that governments are generally willing to spend money to deliver better services and enhance transparency and accountability, and that without an interoperability framework, ICT expenditures in government would rarely lead to these goals, UNDP-APDIP launched this project.

The GIF Project aims to assist countries who are striving to build interoperable ICT frameworks for better e-Government delivery, whether they are in the process of or wish to start formulating their interoperability frameworks.

A GIF Study Group ensures that the final recommendations are properly oriented and adequately responsive to the requirements for interoperability in the respective countries.

The GIF Study Group include representatives from the Governments of Brazil, Canada, China, Philippines, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Victnam. Also represented is the European Commission and a standards expert from the United States.

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United Nations Development Programme – Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme (UNDP-APDIP), in partnership with IBM and Oracle held the GIF Workshop and Study Group Meeting at Beijing in April this year.

What have been some of the major recommendations and follow up actions?

At the Beijing Meeting, participants shared experiences, asked questions and set goals for their work. Participants agreed on the importance of standards, particularly open standards for interoperability. Some of the commonly cited benefits of open standards are that they enable choice, the use of multiple vendors, sharing of data across agencies, negotiation for better pricing and preservation of public records. Many expressed that it is not wise for governments to adopt unique national standards and that a more fruitful line of action is for governments to help develop and adopt open, global standards.

We also discussed the importance of capacity building to have the right skills and a critical mass of technical experts.

Another topic discussed is the need to secure buy-in from all levels of government during the formulation and adoption of the GIF. A mechanism suggested to accomplish this is to conduct sessions with agencies to get their feedback so that they are part of the standard-setting process and they will not resist the implementation of standards.

Given this, the Study Group agreed to produce two documents - A Policy Maker’s Guide and a Technical Officials Guide to Interoperability. These two documents examine the issues faced by countries developing GIFs and share major lessons learned from those who have already adopted theirs.

These documents build on the discussions in Beijing, online consultations, as well as further research on GIFs. What is the role of the private sector partners in GIF project?

The private sector partners provide technical information and advice.

We support the involvement of the private sector since they are usually in the leading edge of technological development.

They can also share their experiences in working with other countries on GIF development, open standards and Service Oriented Architecture. Industry can also provide valuable advice on what policy and/or incentive would strengthen public-private partnerships.

In countries with GIFs, their respective private sector representatives were involved in Working Groups that drafted the GIF or acted as external consultants to review and comment on draft GIFs. Please tell us about the status of the GIF project in terms of analysing what are the practices on interoperability achieved based on Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs) or Open Standards adoption?

We are finalising the Policy Maker’s Guide and Technical Officials Guide to be released this year along with a comparative analysis of existing GIFs, including those from Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Malaysia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, as well as the European Interoperability Framework, the US Federal Enterprise Architecture and 14

the Canadian Service Oriented Architecture.

What is the importance of interoperability for the public sector?

Interoperability is the means by which governments can link and meaningfully utilise the vast stores of information they possess, regardless of whether it sits in one agency, on one particular vendor’s hardware platform or one particular software vendor’s application suite.

Interoperability leads to better decision making and enhanced accountability through greater access to information that is available in the files, or databases of government agencies other than their own. In times of emergencies, this immediate need is even more critical.

Second, interoperability allows for better adaptability,

We support the involvement of the private sector since they are usually in the leading edge of technological development. They can also share their experiences in working with other countries on GIF development, open standards and Service Oriented Architecture. Industry can also provide valuable advice on what policy and/or incentive would strengthen publicprivate partnerships.

flexibility and innovation in government. Public administrations can innovate by mixing and matching various components to develop tailor-made solutions or to give local suppliers an opportunity to provide their services.

Without interoperability based on open standards, public administrations will be less responsive to changing technology and demands of their citizens.

Third, interoperability is the foundation of a citizencentric, one-stop delivery of services through a variety of channels. Without interoperability the idea of one window for all goverment services cannot be realised efficiently and effectively. For citizens, interoperability means they can access, provide and utilise government information using the IT solutions of their choice, without being stymied by closed, proprietary hardware or software solutions that do not support open standards.

Fourth, for developing economies in particular, interoperable IT architectures based on open standards are the best way to enable local businesses to succeed in global markets, to create competition and choice, and free up scarce resources for other pressing needs. Open standards will make it easier for local companies to participate as major players in supplying services and solutions to the government. This is because the local companies usually lack the strength and resources of multinationals and may be strong only in certain areas or solutions.

Last but not least, interoperability leads to cost savings and/ or cost avoidance. By making systems ‘talk’ to one another, the need for new systems is reduced, if not eliminated. We www.egovonline.net

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About Conference The International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV2007) will take place in Macao during 10-13 December 2007. The conference will bring together practitioners, developers and researchers from government, academia, industry and non-governmental organizations to share the latest findings in the theory and practice of Electronic Governance. In a diverse international setting for networking and community-building, ICEGOV2007 will foster a multi-disciplinary and multistakeholder approach to addressing the challenges of Electronic Governance. The conference and the future annual series will establish the state-of-the-art in practice, technology and research on various aspects of Electronic Governance.

Opportunities For You The conference will provide a unique opportunity for close interactions between the three categories of participants: From Government - Government participants will describe concrete initiatives, lessons learnt and the remaining challenges. In return, they will learn about the latest research results, and how such results are implemented by industry, non-governmental organizations and other governments to address the challenges they face.

From Industry and Non-Governmental Organizations- Industry and non-governmental participants will demonstrate concrete technological, organizational and societal solutions for governments. In return, they will learn about the real challenges governments face and the latest research findings available for their use in crafting solutions.

From Academia - Academic participants will present models, theories and frameworks which extend the understanding of Electronic Governance and upon which concrete solutions for governments can be built. In turn, they will learn about problems faced by governments, gain access to concrete cases, and identify opportunities to implement and deploy research prototypes.

Media Partner

Contact: Center for Electronic Governance P.O. Box 3058, Macao SAR, China, Tel: +853 28712930 Fax: +853 28712940 icegov@iist.unu.edu www.icegov.org

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INTEROPERABILITY IS THE MEANS BY WHICH GOVERNMENTS CAN LINK AND MEANINGFULLY UTILISE THE VAST STORES OF INFORMATION THEY POSSESS

have seen this in the case of Brazil where interoperability among the ICT system of the various state public safety agency not only enabled civil and military police to have real time access, to registers of motor vehicles and persons with outstanding arrest warrants, among other information, but also saved the federal government from building an expensive, common system.

How will the formulation of a nation-wide strategy for coherent and efficient e-Government systems and services help ensure interoperability? Please provide your insight on this issue.

The process of formulating a GIF is as critical as the GIF itself to ensure appropriate support, governance, and a baseline for measuring success. As mentioned earlier, we have seen many problems with e-Government implemented in silos and not responsive to changing needs of citizens or agencies.

Just having officials from across government convening and discussing a framework, (e.g., the standards, procedures, document formats, etc.) for yet-to-be-solutions to work better with existing systems would go a long way. If GIFs are embedded in a wider-encompassing national e-Government strategy, one that sets out the values and principles for eGovernment, then the GIF is measured not only as a technical document but also on how well it supports the overall goals of flexible public service and good governance.

What are the key challenges in making interoperability a reality in various e-Governance initiatives?

Government agencies, because of their culture and/or mandate, may not be enthusiastic supporters of sharing information and promoting interoperability in government.

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Having policies and procedures on – as well as education to protect - privacy and security are critical to address some of the unfounded concerns of interoperability.

Another challenge is the lack of adequate information on and enforcement of the GIF. Simply having a document but not ‘selling it’ won’t do. The standards that the GIF prescribes might not be followed simply because they are not known. Or, there may be a lack of technical skills to implement/enforce the GIF. Thus, among our recommendations is the need to invest in developing technical skills in the bureaucracy.

How do you rate the Indian government in the adoption of open source and in publishing the government interoperabile framework? What are some of your suggestions.

As you may know, Smart Card Operating System for Transport Application (SCOSTA) is a national standard in India that address the lack of interoperability between smart card technologies for Driving Licenses and Vehicle Registration Certificates being employed by different Indian state governments.

With the adoption of the SCOSTA standard the number of vendors available to provide cards and card readers increased from four or five foreign companies to more than twelve Indian companies. Furthermore, the market price of the smart card has dropped from INR 300 per card to INR 30.

Given India’s population and vehicular density the savings are in several billions of Rupees.

The SCOSTA experience is a good example of how the adoption of an open standard can lead not only to increased interoperability but also reduced prices and increased bargaining power of the Indian government vis-a-vis private sector technology suppliers. www.egovonline.net

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Interoperability and Open Standards for e-Governance Enabling Data Sharing Open Standards enable interoperability and greater data interchange/exchange across the existing diverse technology components. Open standards have become the backbone of interoperable systems. They provide the system integrators with greater choice of technology and flexible and innovative technology platforms.

Suchitra Pyarelal

The wide spectrum of e-Governance applications ranging from information portals to G2G/G2C interactive transactional solutions have transformed the way government services are delivered to its citizens. The increased use of e-Governance applications stem from the lower cost, increased quality and speed of services.

In order to fully realise the aforesaid benefits, it is vital that the various systems and components of e-Governance interact with each other and interchange information in a seamless manner. The ability of various systems to interoperate and communicate with each other reduces the initial and operational costs of applications. Such interoperable systems are the key to the successful implementation of e-Governance applications across the country.

Standards play a central role to confirm that the services will work together irrespective of its sourcing. Suffice it to say that compliance with global standards will ensure quality, safety, reliability, efficiency and interoperability, all these at economical costs. In e-Governance operations, standardisation is an essential prerequisite for seamless information flow and inter-departmental process integration. The deployment of a standardised ICT infrastructure will streamline intragovernment and citizen-to-government communications.

When viewed from the angle of public availability, standards are sometimes classified either as ‘open’ or ‘proprietary’.

As the names imply, a proprietary standard is one that is owned by an individual or an organisation who can restrict its accessibility and usage, whereas, an open standard is one that is developed through a consensual process and is freely available to users.

Proprietary standards are not the outcome of a consensus building process and are derived from proprietary products. ov

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They, oftentimes, represent a sort of restrictive influence on the users through intellectual property (IP) rights.

On the contrary, open standards enable interoperability and greater data interchange/exchange across the existing diverse technology components. Open standards have become the backbone of interoperable systems. They provide the system integrators with greater choice of technology and flexible and innovative technology platforms.

The role of interoperability in e-Governance and the need for standards for ensuring interoperability are discussed in the following sections.

The term interoperability has been hitherto used in the context of systems and equipments having to work seamlessly.

Stating the common definition of interoperability as per the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers), it is “the ability of two or more systems or components to exchange information and to use the information that has been exchanged”, the term has assumed significant importance in the area of e-Governance applications; the area that has applications needing to interoperate, interchange information but stand isolated.

INTEROPERABILITY IN THE AREA OF E-GOVERNANCE

The European Industry Association for Information Systems, Communications Technologies (EITCA) description of interoperability as ‘the ability of two or more networks, systems, devices, applications or components to exchange information between them and to use the information so exchanged’ is more apt in the context of applications and more specifically here to e-Governance systems. The limitations in 17

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the existing legacy e-Governance applications that surface during integration for providing a single window services has made the demand for interoperability more felt. Fragmented approach taken during development is another major hindrance while having to share information. Given the growing diversity of technologies, access devices each having its own technical specifications, achieving interoperability at the technical specifications level or ‘technical interoperability’ has become the challenge. Emergence of IP as the preferred protocol for data exchange is an indicator of technical interoperability at the network layer. A second area that is critical for interoperability amongst applications is the ‘semantic interoperability’ to facilitate meaningful exchange of information between systems.

STANDARDS- ‘OPEN STANDARDS’ AND ITS ROLE IN INTEROPERABILITY

The pressing need in the e-Governance application systems and domains existing today is interoperability of software from different vendors. However, in reality the present eGovernance applications are fraught with many issues that are detrimental to interoperability and lack of standards stands out as one of the main amongst these. In the absence of standardisation, users may be forced to use technologies of any one particular vendor or more specifically tied to one single technology. Although standards are considered to be the panacea to interoperability, in reality, building applications based on the multitude of ‘standards’ available does not always guarantee interoperability .One of the reasons is the lack of a standard definition to the word ‘standard’. The various standards setting organisations have adopted their own principles while defining the principles of ‘openness’ in ‘standards’.

Open standards are commonly defined as “publicly available specifications that provide a common method of achieving a particular goal”. Open standards are also referred to as “voluntary consensus standard” that brings into focus the process of evolution of standard. The European Interoperability Framework for Pan-European e-Government Services defines the attributes of open standards as the following: The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a notfor-profit organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties (consensus or majority decision etc.).

The standard has been published and the standard specification document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a nominal fee.

The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present of (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis. There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.

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Image source: http://www.itias.org/images/interoperability.jpg

The above mentioned European Commission’s European Interoperability Framework (EIF) requirements of open standards should be that it must be available either for free or at a nominal charge for usage, copying and distribution and any patents present are to be made irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis, and there should be no constraints on the re-use of the standard.

American National Standards Institute (ANSI) describes open standards as those standards that are developed by a process where there is consensus by a group or ‘consensus body’. ANSI tries to balance the interests of the implementers and users of the standard with the parties who own Intellectual Property Rights that are essential to implement the standard by allowing the payment of reasonable license fees and/or other reasonable and non-discriminatory license terms that may be required by the Intellectual Proprietary Rights (IPR) holders. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) have also come out with their definitions and policies on open standards as one that should be published without restriction and in sufficient detail to enable a complete understanding of the standard’s scope and purpose and should be publicly available without cost or for a reasonable fee for adoption and implemen-tation. Any patent rights necessary to implement it are to be made available by those developing the specification to all implementers on reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms (either with or without payment of a reasonable royalty or fee).

The varying underlying principles make it apparent that what is really missing is the standardisation of the definition of ‘open’ in ‘open standards’ .The principles of ‘open standards’ must be evaluated keeping in view of the fundamental objectives of e-Governance applications viz. interoperability, reduction in vendor- and technology-specific lock-in situations that will eventually provide wider flexibility and choice of technology for service delivery, data accessibility and preservation. The implications of the principles of open standards are of consequence and we need to adopt those that are not detrimental to the interests at a larger perspective. We must also not forget that the ramifications of what we adopt today will be seen for decades to come.

The standards that are evolved without following a ‘consensus’ process has the potential of the leading to products that cannot inter operate. Such standards are evolved as new ones to meet the need of a particular technology or vendor, www.egovonline.net

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The pressing need in the e-Governance application systems and domains existing today is interoperability of software from different vendors.

However, in reality the present e-Governance applications are fraught with many issues that are detrimental to interoperability and lack of standards stands out as one of the main amongst these. In the absence of standardisation, users may be forced to use technologies of any one particular vendor or more specifically tied to one single technology.

even though similar international standards evolved through consensus process exist in the market and such standards may have the following drawbacks: • Detailed technical specifications for document formats, data formats and communications protocols may not be clearly or openly defined; • Other industry stakeholders (vendors, users) have minimal influence over the standards; and • Originating vendors may introduce barriers (software patents or related intellectual property claims) to ensure that competitors are legally encumbered or locked out of the market.

cannot be realised without adhering to a set of standards. The current disjointed scenario has come about as a result of lack of commonly accepted and widely available standards in the development of e-Governance applications. The importance of open standards stems from this scenario. It can be argued that a semblance of interoperability may result even without the use of open standards. Hence, to focus merely on ‘interoperability’, ignoring the importance of open standards will not take us any further than where we are today.

It is therefore essential to emphasise the use of open standards for the development of e-Government applications to achieve interoperability at the basic level. Interim solutions suggested such as interoperability labs or the use of adapters with non-open specifications to ensure interoperability in the last mile are all indicative of missing the woods for the trees. In reality, true open standards will eliminate the need for these and allow products and technologies to be interoperable, thus allowing the users to choose their own technology and even replace it with others.

Any policy in this domain must therefore promote the use of true ‘open standards’ that will ensure interoperability and thus free the user from being tied to any technology or platform. Without debating further, we need to strive to adopt truly ‘open standards’ and this is particularly crucial at this point in time when we are poised towards a major leap in the area of e-Governance. *The views expressed are of the author’s own and do not reflect the views of National Informatics Centre

CONCLUSION

While it is true that interoperability is critical for the integration of disconnected systems, its significant and beneficial features

Suchitra Pyarelal, (suchitra@nic.in), is Technical Director, in the National Informatics Centre (NIC), New Delhi.

Partnership for Roll-out of e-Governance Services in Haryana A leading provider of broadband satellite networks and services in India, Hughes Communications India Ltd, and the leader in enablement and delivery of e-Governance and Information based services to rural India, Comat, together with the Government of Haryana, are planning to roll out service centres named, e-Disha Ekal Seva Kendra across Rohtak division. These centres are aimed to give people access to e-Governance applications like certificates, land records, social welfare, and so forth.

In the first phase of the project, around 292 kendra’s (centres) will be set up in Rohtak, Panipat, Jhajjar, Sonipat and Karnal, in Haryana The kendra’s will help people to access e-Governance services like certificates, land records, social welfare and much more. Users can also take benefit of services like interactive education, railway ticketing, airline ticketing, mobile prepaid top ups and international voice calling from these centres. Additionally, these kendra’s will also generate employment opportunities for the people of the state. The e-Disha Ekal Seva Kendra is aimed to bring transparency and accountability for different government departments and allow people to have a single window to access various government records and apply for various services.

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Renu Budhiraja

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STANDARDS & INTEROPERABILITY: INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Adopting Open Standards for Data Storage Policy Challenges India’s Department of Information Technology has taken a great first step by mandating open standards. Now it must take the next step and come up with a clear definition of open standards to protect national data Venkatesh Hariharan

During India’s independence movement, Mahatma Gandhi said, “Real swaraj (self-rule) will come not by the acquisition of authority by a few but by the acquisition of capacity by all.” Several decades later, Gandhiji’s statement rings true in the context of the open standards movement which seeks to protect users’ freedom to access their data.

One of the unintended consequences of the digital revolution is that users have often found their data locked up in proprietary file formats. As a result, users own the data they have created, but have no control over the format in which they are created. This is akin to a situation where a builder transfers the ownership of the house but retains control over the keys to the house. Software vendors have often exploited this situation by changing file formats from one version to another and thus forcing users to keep upgrading their software. Clearly this is an untenable situation and this is why India’s Department of IT (DIT) has wisely chosen to mandate the use of open standards for data storage.

DIT’s move needs to be applauded because it addresses serious political and economic issues that concern India’s long-term security in the world of IT. The government is the custodian of the citizens data and it therefore has the responsibility of ensuring that this data is accessible for centuries and is not locked down in proprietary file formats that are known only to the creator of the software.

As a sovereign country, we cannot allow data that belongs to the people of India to be controlled by individuals or corporations.

It is a fact that the life of the data is often much longer than the life of the software which creates it. Twenty years ago Unix ruled, today it is Windows, tomorrow it may be Linux and day after it may be a software that has not even been imagined today. If data is tied to software platforms, we will need to recreate the data every time the software changes. This is neither practical nor desirable. For example, land records of last over four hundred years. If we take the average lifespan of a software platform as twenty years, this means that the ov

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data locked in proprietary file formats will have to be ported or recreated twenty times for it to be available to future users.

The only practical solution therefore is to clinically separate the data from the software that created it. This is what the open standards movement seek to achieve by giving users the freedom to encode and decode their own data.

Unfortunately, DIT’s mandate has also resulted in several spurious proposals that claim to be “open standards.” Just as we need to be vigilant against adulterated medicines, we need to be vigilant against proprietary standards masquerading as “open standards.” The increasing move to open standards in India and abroad has forced some of the most adamant companies to now seek the coveted status of “open standards.”

The purpose of open standards is to include and not exclude. As we have seen from the growth of the Internet, open standards bring tremendous benefits with them. Today the Internet has more than a billion people who use it as a platform to socialise, communicate and transact. The common, unified standards like HTML has enabled the Internet to grow rapidly. e-Government institutions across the country, and DIT in particular, must avoid being deceived by them.

The Open Source Initiative has published the Open Standards Requirement (OSR). By implementing standards that follow the OSR, organisations can ensure that they retain full control over their data and avoid paying extortionate royalties and license fees for accessing their own data. The Open Standards Requirements are: 1. No Intentional Secrets: The standard must not with hold any detail necessary for interoperable implementation. As 23

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create (encode) HTML and tools that read (decode) HTML. Software developers, web site designers, Internet portals, social networking sites, bloggers, photo sharing sites and many others use HTML as a global means of reaching out to others. This would have not been possible with proprietary standards because that would mean that the data is accessible only through a specific software to the exclusion of other software.

For example, in 1995, two companies came up with proprietary extensions to HTML which could be viewed ROAD WIDE OPEN WITH INTEROPERABILITY ACHIEVED THROUGH ADOPTING OPEN STANDARDS only with their own browsers and this development flaws are inevitable, the standard must define a process threatened to fragment the Internet. Fortunately, pressure for fixing flaws identified during implementation and from the World Wide Web Consortium and users forced both interoperability testing and to incorporate said changes companies to back down and adhere to common standards. into a revised version or superseding version of the However, we still see organisations optimising their systems standard to be released under terms that do not violate for one particular browser instead of following open standards the OSR. that can be accessible through any browser.

2. Availability: The standard must be freely and publicly We have all gained enormously from unified standards available (e.g., from a stable web site) under royalty-free for data exchange and the Internet. The best standards terms at reasonable and non-discriminatory cost. like American Standard Code for Information Interchange 3. Patents: All patents essential to implementation of the (ASCII), Unicode, HTML etc are ones that are created standard must be licensed under royalty-free terms for through consensus and collaboration. This promotes choice, unrestricted use, or be covered by a promise of non- encourages competition and brings down cost for end users assertion when practiced by open source software. as companies come up with the best implementation of the 4. No Agreements: There must not be any requirement standard. for execution of a license agreement, Non-disclosure As custodian of citizens’ data, the Indian Government agreement, grant, click-through, or any other form of must come up with a clear definition of open standards paperwork to deploy conforming implementations of the that protects Indian citizens and enshrines their right to standard. encode and decode data. The Open Source Initiative’s Open 5. No OSR-Incompatible Dependencies: Implementation Standards Requirement is a good first step for arriving at of the standard must not require any other technology such a definition. Such a definition will ensure real swaraj that fails to meet the criteria of this requirement. by ensuring “the acquisition of capacity by all” and not the The purpose of open standards is to include and not “acquisition of authority by a few.” exclude. As we have seen from the growth of the Internet, open standards bring tremendous benefits with them. Today the Internet has more than a billion people who use it as a platform Venkatesh Hariharan (venky@redhat.com) is Head of Open Source to socialise, communicate and transact. The common, unified Affairs at Red Hat India Pvt. Ltd. In this role, he works with industry, academia, government and the open source community to accelerate standards like Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) has the growth of the global open source movement. enabled the Internet to grow rapidly. Since the specifications for HTML are freely available, anyone can create tools that

egov Invites Editorial Contributions We invite editorial contributions from our readers in the field of e-Governance. Please be sure to read and follow the Editorial Guidelines available at http://www.egovonline.net/editorial_guidelines.asp All correspondence should be addressed to: The Editor, egov G-4, Sector-39, Noida, India, Tel +91-120-2502180 to 85, Fax +91-120-2500060 Email info@egovonline.net 24

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Opportunities for Growth Open Source Software

http://www.sun.com

“Deployment and exploitation of IT applications on a mass scale raises challenges of accessibility, affordability and, most of all, adaptability to the local contexts. Open Source software holds the answers to some of the vital issues India faces”, tells Jaijit Bhattacharya (Jaijit.Bhattacharya@Sun. com), Country DirectorGovernment Strategy, Sun Microsystems India, to egov magazine.

Please share with us the vision and objectives of Sun Microsystems in promoting Open Source Software (OSS) and Open Document Formats (ODF)? What are some of the initiatives taken by Sun in this area?

Sun Microsystems believes that technology and open source curriculum can remove barriers, and help provide better educational resources to teachers, students and parents worldwide.

The emergence of communities that interact, collaborate and share on a global scale is a hallmark of what we call the participation age and OSS is a key component of this participation age.

Sun has committed to open sourcing its entire software portfolio using industry-standard open source licensing models to allow customers to have easy and broad access to all of its source code. Many of the components of Sun’s integrated platform are already available as open source, including the Solaris OS, the Sun Java Application Server, the NetBeans software tools, and several ov

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key underlying services like single signon capabilities and the ability to connect multiple, independent applications in a standard way. This is a trend where Sun continues to be a pioneer.

ODF is an initiative of Sun. ODF addresses the concern that, as documents and services are migrated from paper to electronic form, governments and other public agencies may not be able to read important documents if they are not all using a common file format.

Return on government investment in IT is greatly improved by the ability to reuse information and services based on open standards like ODF. World over efforts are on to adopt ODF as they are comparatively cheaper from the operational point of view. For example A Sun Java Desktop System, which includes the ODF compliant Open Productivity software StarOffice, is priced at US$100.

What is your view on the spreadway the use of OSS has been spreading

in the last few years? Can you share with us the trend?

Well it is good, and we are pushing for the better. In the US, the State of Massachusetts has committed itself to implement ODF; similarly in SE Asia Philippines government is working towards the use of the format. OSS formats were initially relegated to development of horizontal formats for infrastructure software. Now complex application software is also picking up on this format. Currently there are open source projects underway which are even into content management, and this is really good trend. Earlier open source efforts were just used on niche applications, but now it is coming out in the open with enterprise ready software developed every other day.

What in your opinion is the current scenario towards the understanding and adoption of OSS and ODF in India?

India is slowly but steadily adopting to open source. Many corporate players, which have huge IT infrastructures at place, have gone in for open source software. Currently open source softwares are being used in non-mission critical areas, but such is the case even worldwide, but then, when there is a firmer belief that open source can be applied at the front end and millions can be saved, perhaps that will be the real driver. ODF is critical for India at this stage as the Government is pushing for higher IT penetration into rural India and is aggressively bridging the digital divide through its educational initiatives and through the common service center initiative. ODF enables India to have technological sovereignty over its own information.

We are also enthused by the positive response from the Indian Government on ODF and we believe that such enlightened support from the 25

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government to ODF will help to leapfrog to the next levels of development and prosperity for the large and diverse population.

Yet deployment and exploitation of IT applications on a mass scale raises challenges of accessibility, affordability and, most of all, adaptability to the local contexts. Open source software holds the answers to some of the vital issues India faces. OSS offers people a better opportunity to avail the technology as it can be made available at a cheaper rate.

Another benefit of this software is that in India, a large volume of rural population does not understand English; this software can be converted into local languages, as the source code of the software is made available along with the programme.

In a comparative analysis, how do you see India’s place in the whole OSS movement compared to the developing countries, especially Asia?

India is already the hub of software development. India is highly effective in implementing, with many public sector companies endorsing the use of such software. Open-source software has been deployed by both the national and state governments in India, although many of the large-scale deployments have happened in states. However, significant support is being extended by the central government as well. So we could safely say India is taking the lead in more than one way. However, in order to increase the speed of adoption of OSS in India, barriers to adoption such as access to bandwidth have to be addressed.

Open source software is also a cheaper way for developing nations such as India that have limited resources to help reduce the digital divide. Further open source also helps countries avoid proprietary monopolies, which remain a threat in developing nations. Open source in India offers a great solution to bridge the digital divide and take the benefits of technology to a larger cross section of people. The desktop market in India is in a rapidly evolving stage- it is one of the fastest growing PC markets in the world. In the next few years, the numbers of desktops in India are expected to touch 100 million. It is estimated that over USD 500 million is being leaked out of the economy because of adoption of non-open source, proprietary software in the bulk of the 5 million PC’s being sold in India.

Open source adoption is also driving innovation. Interestingly, the most innovative applications of government’s use of technology are coming from developing countries. With OSS adoption rising rapidly, particularly in China and India, Gartner believes that by 2010 it will account for 20 percent of the global software market, displacing over USD 100 billion in revenues from traditional software vendors.

OSS formats were initially relegated to development of horizontal formats for infrastructure software. Now complex application software is also picking up on this format. Currently there are open source projects underway which are even into content management, and this is really good trend.

Tell us something about the ‘Centre of Excellence on eGovernance’, an initiative recently undertaken by Sun Microsystems and Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Well, it is a global first for Sun, this being Sun’s first such centre for e-Governance with e-Governance through Research and teaching being the main objective. This is a good opportunity for us to interact with both faculty and students to develop knowledge together. For Sun it has always been all about sharing and innovation and our collaboration with IIT is perfectly in sync with our philosophy. This memorandum of understanding (MOU) is in line with the current emphasis on the subject of e-Governance by the Government of India under the National e-Governance Plan. Sun also intends to develop talent as well as fund projects, which will be jointly undertaken by both parties. Sun will be deputing its own senior management who will be interacting with the students as visiting faculty.

The case of Piracy can also be effectively dealt with OSS as it can be easily downloaded. Countries like India and China are facing a lot of software piracy problems, open source nips piracy in such manner.

On the other hand, ODF is critical for India at this stage as the Government is pushing for higher IT penetration into rural India and is aggressively bridging the digital divide through its educational initiatives and through the common service center initiative. It also reduces the cost of ownership of IT tools and office productivity solutions and to free the citizens from dependence on proprietary technologies for such basic IT solutions.

How important, do you think, OSS and ODF is to a developing economy such as India, especially in a scenario when the Indian government is moving ahead in a big way in its e-Governance drive and is trying to bridge the digital divide?

Open source software offers India tremendous opportunity to boost the country’s efforts to prosperity and a future of innovation. In India, many linguistic groups have started localisation groups to translate open source software into Indian languages so as to bridge the digital divide. This freedom simply does not exist with proprietary software.

What measures are you adopting to ensure the security, which is especially important for the public sector?

Security from the standpoint of both enterprises and individual consumer is something Sun looks at very seriously. When we are propagating the use of OSS and ODF formats, we understand that one of the very first concern, as a consumer is security, so for this we are quite prepared. We know that data loss however small can be avoided as open source products do offer the scope for interoperability. So whichever the model, with continuos and advanced services as well as updates, Sun intends to stay ahead.

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STANDARDS & INTEROPERABILITY: INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Interoperability Defined Enabling Co-existence Businesses and governments in Asia continue to rank the integration of diverse applications and the automation of business processes among their most pressing IT needs. In virtually every enterprise network environment, it is expected to find the co-existence of software from multiple vendors. Companies in both the private and public sectors are placing emphasis on interoperability as a way to leverage their existing infrastructure and application investments.

Chris Levanes INTEROPERABILITY DEFINED

Put simply, interoperability is the ability for information technology systems, components, and services to exchange data and information; to “talk and be understood”. Internet is perhaps the most obvious example of this kind of interoperability, where a wide variety of hardware, software connect and exchange data by adhering to the key protocols.

ACHIEVING INTEROPERABILITY

Due to the nature of competition and innovation, there is simply no one true path to interoperability; rather it is achieved via a variety of mechanisms, including: development of software that is “interoperable by design” (e.g., inclusion of XML-Extensible Markup Language-technology in software to facilitate the easy exchange of data across different applications) licensing /cross licensing of proprietary technologies and essential intellectual property collaboration with partners, competitors, and governments, as well as, implementation of industry standards (including open standards and proprietary standards) in products and services. It is important to have a realistic understanding of businesses and government’s IT environment and challenges in which they may be deploying both open source and proprietary software. If a new piece of technology does not work well - or creates problems with existing systems-the cost can be high. In fact, interoperability is almost as important a feature as security and reliability when business decision makers make purchasing decisions, interoperability - or lack of it - is now recognised to have a measurable impact on the efficiencies of exchanging data and business transactions inside and outside the organisation.

A LOOK AT THE PUBLIC SECTOR

One area of significant interest for many governments and public sector entities at the moment is consideration of the lasting preservation of data; and particularly file formats, since ov

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it is often one of the primary methods to encode electronic information for storage. Many Governments around the world have indicated the increasing importance of adopting open formats and standards, to guarantee the long-term access and retention of data, without unwarranted legal or technical restrictions. There are billions upon billions of documents in existence today, represented in a multitude of formats; so the consideration of transition to open formats is closely coupled with the problem of how to seamlessly and cost-effectively migrate the overwhelming amount of legacy data to newer and open formats. Similarly, there is a growing trend of using XML formats to represent the diverse spectrum of existing and future data, including: structured data (e.g. transactional information entered into a government payment portal), semistructured data (e.g. data stored in a patient’s health record), and unstructured data (e.g. narrative information such as a book or a report). Utilising industry-standard XML formats and incorporating XML technology in software, assists in the representation of data, as well potentially facilitating the exchange and consumption of data across different applications, platforms and systems.

Binary files (.doc, .dot, .xls, and .ppt files), which for years did a great job of storing and transporting data, are no longer able to meet the new workplace challenges that include easily moving data between disparate applications, and allowing users to glean business insight from that data.

Microsoft began to explore XML as a future industry standard in 1997, with the project of developing Office Open XML started in late 2000 and has been ongoing since then. The XML file formats used by 2007 Microsoft Office system, were submitted to an international standards organisation, (ISO) as requested by customers in the public sector from around the world. The specification, known as Ecma Office Open XML, is designed to meet a number of specific design goals being asked of Microsoft by users of Office technology within both government and the commercial market. These include: a) the ability to achieve high fidelity migrations of the pre-existing corpus of word-processing, presentations and spreadsheets documents to XML represented Open Formats; b) an implementation of an XML Open Format which offers 27

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interoperability, platform-independence, as well as support for internationalisation and accessibility features; c) meeting the requirements of long-term preservation of data; d) ability to leverage investments in technology via integration with business data through Custom XML Schemas (e.g. XBRL, Birth Certificate).

THE EMERGING MODEL OF CO-OPETITION

In recent years, the model that clearly emerged as a result of customer demand is that of “co-opetition” or competitive cooperation. Vendors are finding it important to partner with the same companies they compete with in order to ensure they deliver on the needs of what we call ‘shared customers’.

For example, while Open XML offers a significant value to customers to , we know that customers may want to use both Open XML and other file formats, consequently, Microsoft are taking steps to, give 2007 Microsoft Office system users the ability to do so.

Microsoft voted for addition of Open Document Format (ODF) 1.0 to the American National Standards list and funded the creation of translation tools to interoperate between Open XML and other Open Document formats, including ODF and Uniform Office Format (UOF). For another example, roughly half of Red Hat’s JBoss business runs on Windows, so there was a good opportunity for a dialogue for adding value and addressing the interoperability needs for shared customers, such as: the Swedish Medical Center with the physician portal solution, FirstGateways, which 28

included JBoss Enterprise Middleware System (JEMS) on the Windows platform.

INTEROPERABILITY CONTINUES TO BE A DESIRED FEATURE

In the interconnected world of today, customers want their IT infrastructure to blend and work together, regardless of whether it is from multiple commercial vendors or the open source world. This is becoming a reality as companies in both the commercial and open source space are working together to solve the interoperability challenge and bring a solution to one of the biggest pain points for customers today. Customer demand for interoperability solutions continues to escalate, driven largely by the need to cut costs, the need to maximise return on investments, and the need for standards-based solutions. Microsoft has arguably taken a leadership position in the ICT industry through its multi-year and multi-faceted efforts towards embracing all avenues towards interoperability, including: designing interoperable products; working closely with partners, vendors and competitors; providing access to our proprietary technologies; and developing and implementing standards.

Chris Levanes, Platform Strategy Lead, Microsoft Asia-Pacific

www.egovonline.net

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STANDARDS & INTEROPERABILITY: INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Key to Government ICT Programmes Open Standards

www.ibm.com

“Open standards are key to government ICT programmes because they provide insurance that the systems they have today will be able to talk to the systems they put in tomorrow, and next year, and in the decades to follow. This is especially true for documents, because what is expressed in the documents created by governments and citizens now will become the history of the future”, says Robert S Sutor, (sutor@us.ibm.com) Vice President, Open Source and Standards , IBM, in coversation with egov magazine.

What is the vision and objectives of the corporate open source and standards group of IBM? We operate as part of IBM’s full open source and standards effort, focusing on issues such as cross-unit business strategy, community membership, and intellectual property. Our goal is to help the company optimise both short and long term growth and revenue, while simultaneously working with the industry to accelerate innovation around interoperability and new technology.

What is your role as Vice President, Standards? What are the initiatives taken by your division towards the open standards? ov

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I work with colleagues in the hardware, software, legal, services, and industry areas to help develop and execute a coherent cross-IBM strategy around open technologies. In plainer language, this means that my team and I work with the various parts of our business that work with open source and standards. Some business units with IBM have been using open source, for example, for many years and have very mature business models. Other units are exploring new activities around open source and standards and we engage with them to optimise the expected results across all of IBM. We are involved with many of IBM’s initiatives around open standards such as promoting industry-specific and crossindustry standards (such as OAGIS), and helping people 29

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understand the need for true, non-vendor dictated open document standards like the OpenDocument Format.

IBM is the world leader in patents and also a leader in open standards and open source. How does your company find a balance between the two?

We very much believe that patents must represent true technical innovation and that improved patent quality is an increasingly important goal around the world. Ownership of patents grants great power but also great responsibility.

We seek to allow IBM to grow through our very large R&D investments but also recognise that significant innovation will come about when we collaborate openly with other technologists around the world. Moreover, we believe that software interoperability is best driven by truly open standards that level the playing field and produce a strong foundation on which many people can innovate. The days of interoperability meaning “buy all your software from one vendor” are over, though that message is still being perpetuated. In the end, with IBM it is a balance of how much we do ourselves and how much we work with the community to accelerate the creation of new technologies to improve our customer’s business.

What are the core strengths of open standards? Could you give a quick comparison on: Open Standards vs.

Proprietary specifications?

Open standards are developed by a community of independent people to create the rules, or blueprints, by which data is represented and transferred. No one party has any more advantage over another when it comes to implementing open standards. Since there is common agreement on the standards, work then proceeds to advance with regard to what one can do with the new abilities to share information in a form that everyone can use. Think of it this way, do you want vendors producing multiple “standards” for the electrical wires and outlets in your house or apartment, or would you rather they reached some agreement on the basic infrastructure and then competed to bring you better electrical and electronic appliances at a lower cost. It is the same with software standards.

Proprietary specifications are often called de facto standards because they come about because of wide adoption of particular products, for whatever reason. The control of a de facto standard often lies with a single vendor, who can change it at will and force customers to use it because of the dominant market share. This disadvantages competitors and keeps customers locked in to the controlling vendor’s products, which is exactly what that vendor wants. Lately we’ve seen a variation on this where an “open standard” is created by a vendor in a friendly trade organisation under the condition that the result must be compatible with the vendor’s already-implemented product. This is simply the old vendor lock-in game in a new disguise.

What are the benefits of interoperability in the eGovernance initiatives? How important is the open-source software for developing countries, requiring cost-effective solutions to reach its citizens in a big way?

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We should separate the ideas of open standards and open source. Open standards are the blueprints that tell you how to create software from multiple providers that can fully and faithfully exchange information. Open source is actual software, created by a community and licensed in a way so that it can be used and further developed by others. So the ideas are separate, though a particular piece of open source software might implement one or more open standards.

Open standards are key to government ICT programmes because they provide insurance that the systems they have today will be able to talk to the systems they put in tomorrow, and next year, and in the decades to follow. This is especially true for documents, because what is expressed in the documents created by governments and citizens now will become the history of the future. So governments should specific true, non-vendor dictated open standards to allow their systems to interoperate.

Open source might be part of the mix in the actual ICT environment that gets installed. The price and the features might match with the requirements of the programmes that the government is trying to execute, such as in education, but also in the backend enterprise infrastructure. It’s likely that governments will install a hybrid of open source and proprietary software. In this case, open standards can help ensure that they can talk to each other.

What are some of the barriers to open source adoption?

The first barrier I believe is education: what is open source, how is it created and maintained, and how does it fit in with the traditional, proprietary software already installed. The second is getting past the FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) that has been deliberately spread by opponents of open source whose traditional business models are threatened. Finally, the more experience people get with open source, the more firsthand knowledge they will get, and the better they will understand if it makes sense to expand its use.

Please tell us about the different open source options, especially the open document format?

The Open Document Format, or ODF, is an open standard.

It can be implemented by open source or traditional proprietary software (that’s one of the wonderful things about open standards). ODF is implemented in open source projects such as OpenOffice.org and KOffice, but also in proprietary products such as the forthcoming Lotus Notes “Hannover” release. If we look at software in general, there are thousands of open source projects from operating systems, to mobile phone software, to software development tools, to applications, to blogging software, to databases, and to everything else in between.

How do you see the future of open standards?

I think proprietary standards are dying. I believe that the example of the world wide web (www) and the open standards that underlie it proves that real operability that is not controlled by a single vendor is possible and preferable. The www lead to global business growth, extraordinary innovation, new markets & hundreds of new consumer “products.” Let’s repeat this success, create and use more open standards. www.egovonline.net

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DIGITAL EMPOWERMENT FOUNDATION IN ASSOCIATION WITH DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, AMERICAN INDIA FOUNDATION AND UNDP

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Understanding the Mobile Ecosystem

Improving Mobility with Connectivity

www.m-Connect.in

Expanding Tele-revolution in Rural India Vision of TRAI

www.traigov.in

What is the vision and mandate of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) ?

TRAI’s mission is to create and nurture conditions for the growth of telecommunications including broadcasting and cable services in the country in a manner and at a pace which will enable India to play a leading role in the emerging global information society.

While working on the above mission TRAI’s focus is on achieving the following objectives: • Transparency in decision-making by affording an oppor-tunity to all stakeholders; • Providing consumer with adequate choice, affordable tariffs and high quality of service; • Promoting level playing field and fair competition among service providers; • Access to world class quality telecommunications, broad-casting and cable services; • Promoting efficiency in operations in all the tiers of the industry; • Adoption of emerging technologies within the framework of a technology neutral policy; • Ensuring technical compatibility and effective interconnection between service providers.

Necessary regulations, directives, orders or guidelines are issued, from time to time, by TRAI to achieve the above mission.

What are the top priority areas that you would be looking in as TRAI Chairperson?

The priority areas would be: i) Improving the penetration of the telecom facilities including broadband access in the rural and far flung areas. ii) Fulfilling subscribers demand for newer services and applications iii) Improving the quality of service iv) Convergence of telecom, IT and broadcasting networks v) Consumer protection and privacy We have been getting news about the increase in the tele-density in India, what is the current rural tele-density in India?

In the month of June 2007, we have achieved a Global record of adding 7.34 million mobile customers. The total telephone ov

September 2007

“The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is concerned with the poor growth of telecommunication in rural areas.

The Authority had undertaken extensive consultation for proliferation of telecom services in rural areas, which will enable India to play a leading role in the emerging Global Information Society”, informs Nripendra Misra, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in an exclusive interview with m-Connect.

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

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connections in the country have crossed 225 million. While the over all tele-density is around 22 per 100 population, the rural tele-density is around 6 per 100 population.

What is the strategy TRAI is adopting to take the telecom revolution to the rural segment and bridge the digital divide?

The Authority is concerned with the poor growth of telecommunication in rural areas. The Authority had undertaken extensive consultation for proliferation of telecom services in rural areas and had forwarded its recommendations to government in October 2005. The mobile services hitherto were not covered under USO (Universal Services Obligation) schemes and therefore, Authority had proposed that the erection of mobile tower in rural areas should be supported from USO fund.

Accordingly, Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Act, 2003 was amended so as to extend support from USO fund for erection of mobile towers in rural and remote areas. In addition to this Authority has recommended Infrastructure sharing which is critical for growth in rural areas. The government’s role in funding telecom infrastructure will be crucial to the growth and spread of telephony in rural India. About 8,000 telecom towers across the country at an estimated cost of INR 25,000 million has been planned. It will provide about 50 million mobile connections in rural India. Government is also planning for setting up additional 10,000 towers. A minimum of three operators have to share a tower, rural India will also have a choice of service providers.

Utilisation of the USOF (Universal Services Obligation Fund) for broadband rollout in rural India through a bidding process is already being considered. It is planned to provide broadband connections within a 10 km radius of all block headquarters in the country. It envisages a minimum speed of 512 kbps, where the network connects community centers, primary schools, banks, health centers, panchayats and police stations located close to all block headquarters.

With more tenders in the pipeline, rural India looks set to keep its date with fast telecom growth.

What is the broadband take-up in India?

The broadband policy was announced in the year 2004.

Broadband has been defined as “Always on” data connection with minimum download speed of 256 kbps. Broadband coverage has been provided in more than 900 towns. There are more than 2.5 million broadband connections as on date.

The target is to achieve 20 million broadband connections by the year 2010.

How does TRAI plan to extend the scope of USOF for wireless broadband roll out?

As mentioned earlier USOF was created for promoting the growth of telecom services including wireless broadband in rural and inaccessible areas.

The government had sought TRAI’s recommendations on issues relating to USO. The Authority had recommended that initially Universal Service Levy (USL) be fixed at 5 per cent of the adjusted gross revenue of all telecom service providers. The Authority also recommended that 34

the USO support policy be implemented from April 2002: The Universal Service Support Policy came into effect from 21st April, 2002. Subsequently, the Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Act, 2003 giving statutory status to the USOF was passed by Parliament in December 2003. The fund is to be utilised exclusively for meeting the USO. The resources for implementation of USO are raised through a Universal Service Levy which has presently been fixed at 5% of the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) of all telecom service providers except the pure value added service providers like Internet, voice mail, e-mail service providers etc. At present an amount of about INR 99 billion is available in USOF. Presently the USO policy supports the following streams: Stream – I : Provision of public telecom and information services; Stream – II: Provision of household telephones in rural and remote areas as may be determined by the central government from time to time; Stream – III: Creation of infrastructure for provision of mobile services in rural and remote areas; Stream – IV: Provision of broadband connectivity to villages in a phased manner; Stream – V: Creation of general infrastructure in rural and remote areas for development of telecommunication facilities; Stream – VI: Induction of new technological developments in the telecom sector in rural and remote area.

Recommendation on growth of Telecom services in rural India: The recommendations provide for a higher quantitative and qualitative growth in telecom services in the country, particularly in rural areas. Since tele-density is interlinked with the level of development, the large differential between rural and urban tele-density cannot be sustainable. The Authority recommended that the present policy should shift from subsidy based on individual connections (DELs, VPTs, etc) to network infrastructure expansion approach and mobile services should be brought under the ambit of USO fund.

What is the current status of policy for Internet Protocol (IP) technology in India?

The policies are generally technology neutral. The present policy however facilitates growth of IP technology. The focus is on implementing the Next Generation Network (NGN) which predominantly uses IP Technology. The TRAI has set up an NGN expert Committee consisting of representatives from all stake holders (department of telecommunications, service providers, manufacturers, academicians etc) to recommend the strategy for implementation of NGN in India.

What are the key challenges TRAI faces in its functioning?

How are you trying to overcome them?

The Telecom sector is experiencing explosive growth in India.

Also this is the sector where there are very fast technology changes. The most important challenge being a regulator of telecom sector is to keep pace with the explosive growth and technological changes and quality of service issues. TRAI achieves this through close and continuous interaction with the technology providers, service providers, manufacturers and all other stake holders and by following an open and transparent policy in its decision making. www.egovonline.net

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NEWS VSNL OFFERS WEB BASED CALLING SERVICE IN INDIA Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), one of India’s leading telecom service provider, will provide new facility, which will allow people of South Asian origin in the US to make calls to their country using its prepaid service without obtaining the calling cards.

The new service will provide superior voice quality, easy access and connectivity without a hidden fee or extra charges. The calls would be carried on VSNL’s extensive global fibre optic network. Customers can purchase the service either through online or by calling VSNL customer service directly.

It offers advanced features including a prepaid recharge option, which allows a calling account to be recharged through a credit card. Other features include instant recognition of calling line ID for PIN-less dialling from up to 5 registered phone numbers and the ability to make up to three follow-on calls without having to redial the access number, speed dial capabilities for up to 5 frequently dialed numbers, and last number redial.

NOKIA OFFERS MICROSOFT’S WINDOWS LIVE SERVICES ON NOKIA MOBILE PHONES Now Nokia S60 series users can directly access Hotmail and other features of Windows Live on their Nokia S60 series handsets. Nokia and Microsoft have signed a deal, which allows customers of 11 countries compatible with Nokia S60 to access a suite of Windows Live service.

Users would be able to download the new suit of Windows Live and access Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Contacts and Windows Live Spaces on their Nokia S60 handsets, specifically, the Nokia N73, N80 Internet Edition, N95, N76 and the N93i.

Users would also be able to chat with each other by using Microsoft’s Live Messenger as well as send Hotmail e-mails. They can share pictures and write blogs by using Windows Live spaces.

The service would be available in some countries, including Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, the U.K., Sweden, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Initially the service would be available for trial period but after that users will have to pay a nominal fee per month if they want to keep using them.

BT GLOBAL SERVICES CITED AS A LEADER IN THE GLOBAL WAN SERVICES MARKET A report by independent industry analyst firm Forrester Research has found that BT Global Services (www.btglobalservices.com/) has become one of the world leaders in the global wide area network (GWAN) services market. The report, ‘The Forrester Wave: Global WAN Services, Q2 2007’, ranked BT Global Services as number one in the strategy category and number one in the market presence category.

Since 2005, BT has invested heavily— both in its own global network and in acquisitions—to help it meet the networked IT services requirements of multi-site organisations around the world.

Acquisitions have included £500m purchase of Infonet in 2005, a provider of global managed voice and data network services in the Americas and Asia Pacific, and the £175 million acquisition of Radianz, a leading extranet provider, to significantly boost the reach of BT’s network services. In April 2007, BT began integrating Comsat, a leading provider of data communication services for corporations and public sector organisations in Latin America.

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This activity was reflected in the report, which commented that BT Global Services has “done a good job of using several acquisitions, including BT Infonet, to improve its overseas in-country delivery and support for large multinational corporations.”

Alex Pannell, general manager for global VPN products, BT Global Services, said: “Our aim is to become the global leader in the digital networked economy.

We are continuing to invest in application optimisation, ethernet technologies and improving the customer experience across our VPN portfolio. This is helping us to meet the networked IT services requirements of multi-site customers worldwide.”

The report looked at nine providers - only those that could offer global WAN services in at least 25 countries and across three or more geographical regions - and went on to say that BT Global Services had “the most ambitious plans for new and enhanced global WAN and international internet protocol

services in 2007-08.” It also concluded that BT Global Services is a “good choice for large multi-national corporations that have a high proportion of their corporate sites in Europe and in larger cities in the United States and Asia.” BT’s MPLS network continues to expand around the globe. Every week an average of one new city is added, and every month over 3,000 new customer sites are connected. In the last year, network capacity has expanded six times to carry the digitised equivalent of Washington’s Library of Congress five times a day.

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TRAI RECOMMENDS SUBSCRIBER-BASED SPECTRUM ALLOCATIONS The Telecom Regulatory Authority of as an interim measure so that the task spectrum beyond 10 MHz. India (TRAI) of India has recommended wide of spectrum allocation is not stalled.

For one MHz allotment in Mumbai, • range of measures for telecoms operators. • GSM and CDMA operators may be given Delhi and category A service areas, TRAI forwarded its recommendations to additional spectrum beyond 2X4.4 MHz the service provider shall have to pay the Department of Telecommunications and 2X2.5 MHz respectively after they Rs. 160 million as one time spectrum (DOT), Ministry of Communications and achieve required subscriber base and acquisition charge.

Information Technology, Government of subject to reporting compliance of roll- • All spectrum excluding the spectrum in India on policies that should govern the out obligation.

800, 900 and1800 Mhz bands should licensing frame work for access service be auctioned in future so as to ensure provision. The recommendations contain efficient utilization of this scarce proposals on a wide range of inter connected resource. issues that formed the basis of the reference TRAI has thus suggested a revised from the DOT dated 13th April, 2007. subscriber-based spectrum allocation TRAI said that the existing licenses should criterion raising the threshold subscriber be permitted to provide services either level for all bands. On the issue of service of the technologies, called code division providers using a combination of CDMA and multiple access (CDMA) or global system of GSM technology, TRAI said that all spectrum mobile communications (GSM) on certain should be auctioned except the 800, 900 conditions. and 1800 MHz bands. Any operator who is Some of the recommendations made by wiling to get additional spectrum beyond the authority are:the 800, 900 and 1800 MHz bands, would Entry Limit in Access Service Provision: have to pay a one-time spectrum charge of No cap be placed on the number • INR 80 crore for circle A region, INR 40 crore of access service providers in any • Any licensee wishing to get additional for circle B region, while INR 15 crore for service area. spectrum beyond 10 MHz in the existing category C. Currently, a company pays one In order to frame a new spectrum • 2G bands i.e. 800,900 and 1800 MHz per cent of its revenue to the government allocation criteria, a multi-disciplinary after reaching the specified subscriber for additional spectrum, being allocated on committee may be constituted headed numbers shall have to pay a onetime the basis of each company’s subscription by an eminent scientist/ technologist spectrum charge at the rate mentioned levels. TRAI has also asked government to take from a national level scientific institute. below on prorata basis for allotment back spectrum that is not being utilised by • Enhance the present subscriber norms of each MHz or part thereof of the operators.

MOBILE TELEPHONY FOR PAYING GOVERNMENT UTILITY BILLS Use of mobile phones is being proposed by the government of India to enable citizens residing in a remote areas, access government services such as filling forms and payment of utility bills. For this a roadmap is on the anvil.

The proposal comes in the wake of the increasing reach and use of popularity of mobile phones and the already existing infrastructure of mobile telephony in the country. There are 200 million mobile phone users in the country in contrast to about 36 million internet users, according to industry sources. As per a senior government officia, the government is also working out the details of setting up call centres or help desks for facilitating e-Governance projects.

BSNL TO LAUNCH WiMAX IN VISAKHAPATNAM, INDIA The State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) in India is planning to launch the seamless laptop connectivity using Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (Wimax), a technology to allow devices to form wireless connections to permit the carrying of Internet packet data.

BSNL has offered the trail version of WiMax technology in various parts of the country, including Visakhapatnam. BSNL is providing high speed broadband Internet access of up to 70 Million bites per second as well as wireless wide area network for VoIP services to be used as telephone, videoconferencing, and as wireless surveillance to monitor images from anywhere with wireless cameras in remote sites including CCTV wireless cameras in the buildings, public areas, land areas, and machinery.

Read daily m-Connect news update at www.m-connect.in

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Key to Accessibility Connectivity through WiMAX Technology www.intel.com John McClure

WiMAX broadband deployment is the key focus in the Intel world ahead programme, through its application Intel envisions enabling the people in developing nations to access high speed internet and internet connectivity

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s part of the World Ahead Programme, Intel is enabling people in developing communities experience the benefits of the internet by increasing the availability of high speed wireless internet connectivity.

Partnering with public and private organisations, Intel is driving WiMAX broadband deployments that will reach cities as well as suburban and rural communities that previously were either impossible or too costly for carriers to pursue. Intel World Ahead Programme will connect another billion children and adults to the Internet and to the rest of the world.

In the Indian context, the country is moving to a broadband market â&#x20AC;&#x201C; which is shifting slowly from wired to wireless, primarily as the need for broadband access far outstrips the ability to provide wired infrastructure for the last mile for all the consumers.

PC penetration is the primary growth driver for connectivity in India with consumers realising the next step after buying a PC as being connected. Affordability and lower cost mobile phone access is the next growth driver.

The sheer inability to lay copper or fiber for the last mile to every household or consumer is another key driver for the growth of broadband in India.

WiMAX offers the most cost-efficient way of connecting people over large distances, particularly for offering an inexpensive way for rural India to connect to the Internet and thus bridge the digital divide.

WiMAX is based on a wireless access technology called Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple (OFDM) which allows for highly efficient transfer of data bits across the air, hence being the most cost-efficient way of building wireless data networks.

Intel has been the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leader in bringing WiMAX technology and solutions to the marketplace. In 2006, we introduced Intelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s industry standard chip that is based on the 802.16e standard.

Around the world, there are several WiMAX networks that are being deployed in 2007-08. Several operators have committed to roll out mobile WiMAX networks in major cities by end of 2008. In fact, several operators in India have indicated that they will roll out WiMAX (fixed/nomadic) networks in ov

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several cities by the end of 2008. Several networks are now in field trials all over the country.

Most of the operators are waiting for the government to publicly announce the Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) and spectrum policy. Once that is complete, we can expect that a majority of these operators will go into full scale deployment mode.

Intel has been a key trusted advisor to several governments around the world on broadband and spectrum policy as well as in India, where we have been a trusted advisor to the Telecom 37

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Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and to the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) for helping solidify the BWA and spectrum policy.

We believe the key factors that will drive the adoption of WiMAX in India are: (i) The availability of the new technology in a robust form ready for mass deployment (ii) The price of the equipment - both on the consumer side and on the network back-end (iii) The availability of WiMAX operating licenses and the necessary spectrum (iv) The growing demand for data applications such as the mobile internet The commercial WiMAX deployments will start to happen this calendar year (2007). The build out will start with commercial deployments in major cities, followed by the service build out to consumers - both in urban and rural areas.

We expect the key applications that will drive WiMAX in India will be 1. Internet Connectivity (Web browsing, email, etc.)

2. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) 3. Media and entertainment (Audio, Video clips, etc.)

The first two are targeted equally to both corporations and consumers, while the third is targeted more towards the consumer.

Intel realises that the key government projects like State Wide Area Network (SWAN), Common Service Centre (CSC) and rural deployment through Universal Services Obligations (USO) are strategic for the growth of the country and bringing more than 70 percent of India’s population at par with urban communication levels. These pilot projects showcase the capabilities of WiMAX and its meeting or exceeding expectations. This is also an opportunity for Indian research, software, services and hardware industry to participate at the early stages of technology development. If taken seriously, WiMAX can create a strong eco-system for Indian industry.

With positive looking recommendations from TRAI, we believe significant steps can be taken up by Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to formulate industry boosting spectrum policy. With a sound policy, we realise the entire

eco-system is ready to take-off. Additionally, the government’s approach towards utilising Universal Services Obligation Funds (USOF) for broadband data connectivity is quite unique and innovative. India has possibly created a BKM for other countries to adopt. This leadership to innovatively utilise such funds to bridge the urban-rural disparity will also create a large market opportunity for multiple industry verticals - health, education, retail, agriculture etc.

The trials done by Intel in India have all been focused towards rural India. The other global trials had a larger urban deployment scenario and success results are available extensively. The trials in India provided multiple state governments, central agencies, operators and service providers with enough information on the viability of WiMAX for last mile connectivity and backhaul, particularly for rural broadband connectivity. Extensive trials were done in the states of Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Maharashtra. These states provided varied terrain and geographical requirements to enable a fit in any state in India.

Every technology follows a maturity-adoption curve.

Intel believes the WiFi evolution and adoption rate is a good showcase of how open standards communication technology fares. The WiMAX Community is quite big today and the momentum towards OFDM as well as end-to-end IP systems for reduced Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) and Operational Expenditure (OPEX) will help propel WiMAX forward. Most of the operators around the globe are under tremendous pressure to improve their Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPUs). The voice centric networks have a limited role in improving the revenues.

There is a growing realisation to carry fatter pipes till customer devises to deliver newer services and with higher preference on mobility, it is but natural for a path-breaking technology like WiMAX to be adopted.

John McClure (john.a.mcclure@intel.com) is the Director, Marketing, for Intel South Asia. He is in charge of Intel’s overall marketing for South Asian countries. John is also responsible for studying the South Asian marketplace to profile IT consumption drivers as well as driving the marketing of Intel’s World Ahead initiative.

MCAFEE, INC. ACCELERATES FOCUS ON GROWING MID-MARKET In recognition of the rapidly growing market of security products needed for mid-sized companies, McAfee is increasing its channel activity and retooling products to better compete for the business of organisations with 100 to 1000 users. To support the renewed focus, McAfee recently announced Indian availability of the Secure Internet Gateway 3000, a new addition to McAfee’s family of combined e-mail and Web security appliances, for the mid-market (http:// www.mcafee.com/sig).

“Mid-sized businesses do not have

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the same resources of an enterprise, but face many of the same increasing security risks,” said Ashley Wearne, Vice President, Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia and India, McAfee. Mid-sized business, as one of the fastest growing market segments, offer a strong opportunity for resellers to benefit from the uptake of comprehensive solutions such as the McAfee Secure Internet Gateway 3000 and McAfee has developed resources to assist in the support and education of the channel. McAfee’s channel solutions include: Launch

Pad, a tool on their website to help resellers identify the right products for their customers by business profile, customer needs or network setup; Global Support Lab, a real-world lab equipped with the latest McAfee technologies where partners can plan, test, train, and demonstrate the latest McAfee hardware, and software products to support their customers’ network security implementations; and Product Quick Reference Guide, a resource which provides a snapshot of McAfee’s latest products that effectively solve real-world security problems.

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COMMENTARY

The Smart Governance IT in Governance

www.casatyam.com

Jayesh Thakkar

The Indian government is using IT to facilitate governance. The IT industry is doing its bit to help as public-private partnerships become the order of the day The last few years have not just seen e-Governance drop roots in India, but also make some in roads. IT enables the delivery of government services as it caters to a large population of people across different segments and geographical locations. The effective use of IT services in government administration can greatly enhance existing efficiencies, drive down costs, and increase transparency in the functioning of various departments. It also gives citizens easy access to tangible benefits. Over the past many years Government has introduced many technologies as part of e-Governance initiatives and one such technology is smart cards.

The smart card way Though smart card use in India still lags behind other Asian giants like China, the potential is huge, since a range of applications can be incorporated into a smart card. Unlike normal plastic credit cards, smart cards are embedded with a small microchip, which can be programmed to perform specific functions for the end-user. Smart cards can also store up to a thousand times more data than other traditional media (like the magnetic strip) used on credit cards.

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more, each application can have its own logical space on the card, and can be read or written onto thousands of times. It is not surprising therefore that smart cards have now begun to proliferate in almost every sector.

sector is the e-Passport due to the international interoperable standards developed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for the next-generation of machine-readable travel documents based on contactless chips and including biometrics.

The next large sector is the national smart identity card. While national smart identity cards are a growing market, every country is following its own standards. The Indian government is planning to use SCOTA (Smart Card Operating System for Transposrt Application) standard which is currently widely used in driving license and vehicle registration applications. The third-largest application in the public sector is national smart health cards which, like national smart identity cards, are also typically issued to most citizens in a country where they are launched. National smart health cards have also been hampered by a lack of international interoperable standards for medical informatics and e-Health. The market for national smart health cards has considerable potential for further development.

Road Ahead

Key Applications The key applications of contact smart card and contactless smart cards in the public sector are e-Passport, national smart identity cards, national health cards, national driving licenses, vehicle registration, government (government employees including military and also or service workers) identity cards. Of these the most rapidly growing ov

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While the good part is that the government is keen to increase usage of smart cards in various citizen applications and have initiated many projects with the help of private sector, the pace at which these projects are taking off or being executed is an area of real concern.

Another important aspect is to keep pace with changes in the technologies and technology standardisation. The government should have a clear vision to utilise the technology to its fullest. While India is introducing various smart card based applications it is important to think of multi-application cards where one common card issued by the government say national ID card also acts as your driving license, health card, PAN card etc. In the absence of a clear vision we may end up with many applications each using different cards forgoing the real advantage of multi-application smart card technology.

Jayesh Thakkar jayesh@casatyam.com, CEO, CASatyam

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COVER STORY

IT to Stimulate Democratic Participation egov India 2007

http://www.eINDIA.net.in/egov

INAUGURATION

THIRU A. RAJA, HON’BLE MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, INAUGURATING THE CONFERENCE

INTRODUCTION

The egov India 2007 conference was part of the eINDIA 2007 event. A four-day Indian ICT conference and exhibition, aimed at providing a unique platform for multistakeholder partnership from across the world to share a level playing ground through active conferencing, serious business networking and showcasing of innovations and solutions through a full scale exhibition.

Held from 31 July-3 August at Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi, the conference, was organised by the Centre for Science Development and Media Studies (CSDMS) and co-organised by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India and UNDP. It received overwhelming support from four key ministries, namely the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. Along with the seven seminal tracks- egov India 2007, Digital Learning India 2007, Telecentre Forum India 2007, eHealth India 2007, mServe India 2007, Community Radio 2007, there was the first ever film festival showcasing grassroots initiatives and innovations in ICT usage for those who need it the most.

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The inaugural session was graced by the luminaries such as Thiru A. Raja, Hon’ble Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, Maxine Olson, UNDP Resident Representative in India, Dato Halim Man, Secretary General Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications, Malaysia, Jainder Singh, Secretary, Department of IT, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, R. Chandrasekhar, Additional Secretary, Department of IT, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, Champak Chatterjee, Secretary, Department of Secondary Education and Literacy, Ministry of HRD, Government of India, Isabel Guerrero, Country Director – India, World Bank, Michael Clarke, Head ICT4D, IDRC, Canada and Astrid Dufborg, Executive Director, GeSCI, Dublin, Ireland. Through their keynote address, the speakers set the pace of the conference. MP Narayanan, President, CSDMS, gave the welcome address.

While inaugurating the conference by the ceremonical lighting of the lamp, Thiru A. Raja, Hon’ble Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, said, “The potential of IT to stimulate the development of different sectors of the domestic economy in India is enormous. It can dramatically reduce the cost of communications, improve access to technology and marketing capabilities for the rural poor, eliminate intermediary exploitation in the production and distribution chains, increase government accountability, and stimulate democratic participation”.

Delivering the guest country lecture at the inaugural session of eINDIA 2007 conference, Dato Halim Man, Secretary General, Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications, Malaysia, remarked that these events should not be just the platform to exchange ideas and experiences, but should go further to explore how we can assist the rural communities, who do not have access to technology.

OBJECTIVES

The egov India 2007 Conference aimed to assess the National eGovernance Plan (NeGP) implementation, a plan launched by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology www.egovonline.net

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for leveraging the capabilities of ICT to promote good governance across the country. The conference also covered other important topics such as standards and interoperability, ePolice and cyber crimes, e-Governance impact on government to business transactions, e-Governance case studies from India and last but not the least, the international experiences of eGovernment implementation.

PARTICIPATION

There was an enthusiastic participation both from the government and the private sector. There were more than 30 speakers from the government representing the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Ministry of Urban Development, Central Information Commission, National Informatics Centre, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Directorate General of Supplies and Disposal, and Central Board of Direct Taxes. There were IT Secretaries from the states of West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Haryana and Delhi. The leading industry players in the domain of eGovernance like IBM, 3i-Infotech, HP, Nortel, Motorola, Sun Microsystems, SAP, NIIT Technologies, Alcatel-Lucent, Red Hat, Globus Infocom, Telelogic, Computer Associates, BEA Systems, and FINO, shared their experiences, opinions and concerns.

PROCEEDINGS

The conference comprised three days of key note and panel discussion sessions, as well as presentations by the speakers. With speakers from the right mix of government functionaries implementing the programme, industry providing the solutions and academia providing the right kind of research and insight, there were discussions on state data centres, state wide area networks, e-Governance in urban local bodies, standards and interoperability, e-Police and cyber crimes, e-Governance impact on government to business transactions, ov

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e-Governance case studies from India and the international experiences of eGovernment implementation.

The conference started with the key note session titled ‘e-Governance in India: Challenges and Opportunities’.

Chaired by Vikram Chand, Senior Public Sector Specialist, World Bank, India, the session discussed the key deliverables of NeGP, role of right to information (RTI), process reengineering, key opportunities and challenges in implementation of NeGP, the role of public-private-partnership, and other integral issues.

Wajahat Habibullah, Chief Information Commissioner, Government of India, emphasied that e-Governance is never going to be really effective unless it is also tied in very closely with the right to information. On the other hand, RTI is not going to be very successful and in fact it could be doomed to be a failure, if it is not tied with the concept of eGovernance. However, he expressed happiness that the government is already investing heavily on the concept of e-Governance.

R. Chandrasekhar, Additional Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and IT, Government of India, felt that it is the right time for implementing e-Governance effectively and a better way. For instance, explosion in IT and IT-enabled services, explosion of service providers and manpower, mobile telephony, ICT services in the economy and market, explosion of ICT4D and e-Government initiatives. The overall environment is now supportive with increasing focus on improving governance, Right to Information (RTI) Act, emergence of media as a powerful enabler, an enabling environment has been created for e-Governance in India.

However there are some challenges that need to be overcome to realise the full potential of the factors conducive for e-Government. They are as follows: lack of domain understanding; lack of skills and capabilities to conceptualise and lead e-Governance initiatives; lack of institutional mechanisms for such projects to handle issues covering the entire project life-cycle; converting political will into service delivery projects is a challenge; instability of

Partners and Exhibitors

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The New Interactive Online Academy

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political/ administrative leaders; and lack of adequate training for leading eGovernance efforts.

On behalf of the industry, Satish Kaushal, Country Manager Government and Education (GSMB), IBM India, thanked the DIT for bringing the e-Governance architecture.

Endorsing the government’s initiative of back-end being made ready, Anirudh Prabhakaran, Chief Operating Officer, South Asia, 3iInfotech, said that more 41

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citizens are going to be benefitted if they can get what they want in a very simple and efficient manner. However, there some areas of concern, which are: plethora of architecture, systems, legacies, different types of softwares, data in many different formats lying across many states and many central government areas.

Sanjeev Gupta, IT Secretary, Himachal Pradesh, was of the opinion that there is much hype created about interoperability and data sharing, across the platforms. According to him, data porting is a simple technology, and with XML coming into play, it is no longer a challenge. One can share data across platforms, across databases, using the same portal, without much difficulty.

B.K. Sinha, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, raised the important issue of ownership of data. For instance, regarding the land ownership data, both the ownership and creation of data, should rest with the villages.

Nabrun Bhattacharya, Program Manager, Economic Growth Office, USAID, elucidated the benefits of e-Governance projects for Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) from the point of view of citizens, municipalities and decision-makers. From citizens side, the key expected benefit is the access to municipal services, hassle free payment of taxes and user charges, and quick redressal of grievances. From municipalities side, eGovernance would bring in improvement of efficiency and effectiveness of business processes and functions of ULBs.

EMINENT PANELISTS OF THE KEY NOTE SESSION

S.P. Singh, Senior Director, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and IT, Government of India, emphasised the importance of the state data centres, which is part of the three core infrastructure which is the pillars of NeGP, viz., State Data Centre (SDC), State Wide Area Network (SWAN) and the Common Service Centres (CSCs). According to him, design of the data centre is a complex task, it involves various stakeholders, its design objectives needs to take care of all the parameters, which address the technological issues, security issues as well as the implementation issues.

The session on State Wide Area Network (SWAN) discussed the issues regarding awareness/sensitisation across all states/ union territories government departments/entities about extensive usage of SWAN, challenges in the reform in policies to make SWAN as part and parcel of government functioning, using SWAN as a vehicle for perceptible improvement in the internal government processes, and technological issues 42

related to SWAN performance and usage. Chairperson, Ashis Sanyal, informed that the SWAN project was the first eGovernment project approved by the government in the year 2005. Shekhar Agarwal, Director, Enterprise and Verticals, Alcatel South Asia suggested that government need to be flexible to the service providers in the sense that even if the solution does not comply on all the counts, government should look at whether the intent is being fully satisfied or not. Navin Kumar, IT Secretary, Bihar, told that the capacity building should take place in the regular way, there is no short cut to this. The theme of the session after SWAN was something that the state of Haryana is already grappling with, as per the Principal Secretary, IT, VS Kundu, since the SWAN is almost ready. However, he cautioned that in the enthusiasm towards making government information available in the pubic domain, great care needs to be taken in maintaining the confidentiality of certain data.

Srinivasan Ramani, Director, Science and Technology, HP, suggested that a matrix of success of SWAN could be prepared. The success of SWAN can be measured in terms of time reduction in transactions and the efficiency achieved in the economy.

The other highlight of the conference was the ‘ICT leaders Forum’, which saw nine leaders of the National e-Governance Programme, led by R Chandrasekhar, on one platform discussing and debating the way forward for e-Governance in India. The IT secretaries who participated in the forum included Vivek Bharadwaj, Special Secretary IT, West Bengal, Naveen Kumar, Principal Secretary IT, Bihar, R S Sharma, Principal Secretary IT, Jharkhand, Rajendra Kumar, Secretary IT, Delhi, Sanjeev Gupta, Secretary IT, Himachal Pradesh, Kshatrapathi Shivaji, Secretary IT, Maharashtra, R P Pal, Secretary IT, Goa and V S Kundu, Secretary IT, Haryana, apart from the participation of Satish Kaushal from IBM and Sanjay Jaju from Hyderabad government. There was consensus that the integration, technological compatibility, and comprehensive/ integrated planning for e-Governance are some of the missing linkages at the state level which must be addressed. They also emphasised that e-Governance can be an important medium for addressing equity and discrimination issues, enabling all sections of society to access services.

The panelists of the session, on ‘Standards and Interoperability’, agreed that standards in e-Governance is a high priority activity, which will ensure sharing of information and seamless interoperability of data and e-Governance applications under NeGP. In this context, it was informed that the DIT had constituted a core group on standards to arrive at an institutional mechanism and processes to be put in place and recommend key areas for standardisation.

The international e-Governance perspective was provided by participants from Malaysia, Japan, Kingdom of Bahrain and Korea. The session on e-Governance experiences from India had case studies of e-Government implementation from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi, while there was also the presentation of case study on caring for retired colleagues through e-Enabled way. Prakash Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, informed the reasons for the failure of e-Governance projects, some of the reasons being concentration on technology centric www.egovonline.net

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projects; lack of sufficient flow of information; improper information systems; management related organisational factors; organisational culture; lack of support from top bosses; and a lack of supporting environment – political, socio-cultural and legal. The session on impact of e-Governance in G2B Transactions discussed the status of projects such as e-Procurement, e-Biz, central excise, banking, commercial taxes, single-window services, issues of standardisation, learnings from Ministry of Corporate Affairs 21 (MCA21) Project and how to optimise Return on Investment. Some of the key learnings of the MCA21 project was listed by Y S Malik, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, as follows: • Issue of ownership is basic and fundamental.

• Need for change management at all phases of the project.

• Start with a high quality request for proposal (RFP) and generously invest time and expert resources to effectively articulate RFP.

Adequate attention should be given to infrastructure like data centre, disaster recovery center etc.

The concluding session of the conference discussed issues of e-Police and cyber crimes where speakers, Prof. Subramanian Krishnamurthy, Deputy Director General, National Informatics Centre, R P Pal, Secretary IT, Government of Goa, Pavan Duggal, President, Cyberlaws.net and Advocate, Supreme Court, and Barun Kumar Sahu, Director (Personnel), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, agreed that cyber crime is dynamic and there is a need for dynamic laws to tackle it. One of the key issue in cyber crime is fixing the responsibility and accountability.

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EXHIBITION AND VALEDICTORY

Through the exhibition, the conference provided an opportunity for updating on new advancements, solutions and services in the field of e-Governance.

The event had different exhibitors from

CONFERENCE RECOMMENDATIONS e-Governance projects need to bring in the citizen centricity. They should not concentrate just on impact efficiency but also address transparency and accountability issues. Affordability is another criteria that e-Governance projects should fulfill.

For Public-private partnership, that the there is a need for change in the methodology of the bureaucratic functioning. It was suggested that the bureaucracy should work as a corporate entity.

Replicability and sustainability issues are also critical element in eGovernance. Most of the projects are driven by champions, especially in the Indian context. And since re-engineering is a norm for officers working within the government, so the officers/leaders being on transferable job, their championship is not carried through.

Assessment of success of e-Governance projects should take into account the feedback obtained from the common people. For assessing the e-Readiness Index, the assessee must not just rely on IT department records, but must also incorporate the field data regarding the e-Readiness of the people.

The criticality of the data center as an important infrastructure requirement was emphasised. The speakers attention need to address the major power and cooling issues in the data centre servers.

It was also agreed that for planning and good decision making, good quality data is required.

The data could be complemented with the use of the GIS tool fpr planning and decision making It was recommended that e-Governance applications should be interoperable. The eminent speakers agreed that the current scenario with entrenched usage of a proprietary standard cannot be totally ignored. But we need to phase it out slowly. In the interim period,we can work towards interoperability with open standards installations and/or use file format conversion tools.

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the government and industry, who showcased a wide range of products, services and initiatives in the domain of e-Government. These included IBM, HP, Nortel, Motorola, SAP, NIIT Technologies, Alcatel-Lucent, Telelogic Globus Infocom, Department of IT, Govenment of Delhi and Centre for Advanced Computing. eINDIA 2007 conference concluded with the i4d Awards ceremony, during the valedictory session on 2nd August 2007.

FEEDBACK FROM DELEGATES “It was wonderful experience. The entire conference was well organised and well co-ordinated”..

Mizaji Lal Defence Institute for Advanced Technology “Congratulations to CSDMS for successfully organising such a wonderful event. We are happy that our people could fruitfully participate in the same”..

R K Upadhyay Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL) “Our team certainly did enjoy the e-Gov conference and we look forward to attending similar sessions in the future”..

Rubaiya, UNDP “This was one event that truly went beyond our expectations!!! Thanks to the entire team in putting up a super show! We will surely look forward for eIndia 2008”..

Chetan D’Souza, 3iInfotech The conference was very well organised.

The themes were comprehensive. Some more successful national and international experiments and innovations of ICT in learning may be included. Overall, the conference was successful in helping the participants gain insight into various implications of ICT. Priya Khanna, Delhi e-INDIA2007 is one of the few event of this size which in 3 years of its organisation has reached this level of participation and management which is comparable to any international standards. The service and hospitality provided to exhibitors and presence of your team on the spot was unique to this event.

Amit Gupta, S. Chand & Company Ltd.

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STATE FOCUS:PUNJAB

Punjab e-Governance Initiatives: An Overview e-Governance in Punjab Major focus areas:Land Record Property Registration Transport Excise and Taxation

e-Governance Projects Punjab wide area network Common service centers State-data centers E-District Suwidha integrated citizens services ICT Education project Transport service Social security management system Excise and taxation Treasury and accounts management system Integrated land record management Agrinet Punjab Food and civil and supplies Personnel management system e-Procurement

INTRODUCTION

Punjab is situated in northwestern part of India, covering 54 percent of the country’s total geographical area with a total population of 24.3 million (2001 Census). The boundary of Punjab is bordered by Pakistan on the west, the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir on the north, Himachal Pradesh on its northeast and Haryana and Rajesthan to its south.

Enterprise and endevour are the two words that symbolise the true spirit of the people of Punjab. Since independence, in over 5 decades the state has recorded the average growth rate of 10 percent ( amongst the highest in the country (www.punjabgovt.nic.in) through its enterprising spirit and untiring toil of its people. On the technological front Punjab was the first state to translate the agricultural technology into “green revolution” recording the highest growth rate in food production.

Punjab was also the first state to realise the importance of electronics and computers for technological development and targeted this sector through policy planning and establishing Punjab Infotech in 1976. Today Punjab has 2.04 million of small and medium industries and over 600 large scale industries. In the recent liberalisation of Indian economy, Punjab has started making a mark in the global business mainstream through forming joint ventures with major players in the world.

IT POLICY IN PUNJAB

IT Budget for e-Governance Budget outlay for IT is revised from 2.50 crore for the year 2006-07 to 22.62 crore for the year 2007-08 in the state budget.

Major Challenges Geographical distance Lack of trained human resource Lack of ICT penetration in remote villages

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In consonance with the national objective of making India a global IT Power and a front runner in the information revolution, the Government of Punjab set up the Department of Information Systems and Administrative Reforms (DISAR) by merging the Department of Administrative Reforms, Evaluation and the Computerisation Wing of the Planning department.

The new Department of Information Technology (DoIT) has been entrusted to execute IT policy framework in the state and to give technical assistance in formulating and implementing IT in all government departments of the state of Punjab. The government of Punjab formulated Punjab IT Policy in the year 2001. The major objectives of Punjab Government IT policy focused upon improving the overall economy of the www.egovonline.net

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state through generation of more jobs and revenue, creation of high value employment through human resource development in IT and related areas, make Punjab a favoured industry destination through creating world class infrastructure and an enabling environment, provide citizen-centric governance, make Punjab globally competitive and turn the state into a knowledge society.

E-GOVERNANCE IMPLEMENTATION IN PUNJAB

Punjab was the first state to implement the national e-Governance plan under National common service centers (NCSC) (http:// egovernance.wordpress.com/). The e-Governance initiatives of the Punjab IT policy(2001) focused upon creating efficient and cost effective government by improving the internal processes of the government through administrative reforms, process re-engineering, modernisation and deployment of IT for an efficient, productive, objective and accountable government.

E-GOVERNANCE PROJECTS IN PUNJAB

The various e-Governance project initiated by DoIT are summed up as following: 1. Punjab wide area network- Project PAWAN acted as the vehicle for effective implementation of Electronic Governance (e-Governance). PAWAN is aimed at serving the requirement of all state departmental applications and also shall enable access to central government applications through interconnectivity with NICNet (National Informatics Centre Network).

2. Common service centers- The project aims at establishing (PPP) Public Private Participation partnership module in the state, which allows for rural entrepreneurship for the base at the front end and market mechanisms to determine the contents, along with government services, to be piped through this delivery platform 3. State-data centers- With a vision to creating a knowledge based society and providing better public services to its citizens through e-governance the government of Punjab has established one state data center at Chandigarh and 19 district data centers at district level.

4. e-District-e-District project envisages integrated and seamless delivery of citizen services by district administration, through automation of work flow, backend computerisation, data digitisation across participating departments.

5. Suwidha integrated citizens services- The major objective of the project is to facilitate citizens through providing single-user-friendly windows help-line to applicants.

6. ICT Education project- Under the project, Government of Punjab in the Department of School Education has decided to provide Information and Communication Technology (ICT) / computer education to the students in upper primary 5400 selected government schools in a phased manner 7. Transport service- The projects aims at computerisation of transport department though application of issuance ov

September 2007

of driving licenses (Sarathi), application of issuance of registration of vehicle (Vahan) and application for issuance of permits.

8. Social security management system- The project of computerisation of social security department has used Information Technology as an effective tool for monitoring/ implementing schemes, budget and targets, transfer of funds and disbursement of pension, payments/recoveries of loans.

9. Excise and taxation- The excise and taxation project aims at providing better services to tax payers through bringing efficiency in the tax collection, Value Added Taxation (VAT) compliant system and capturing on-line cross verification of business records.

10. Treasury and accounts management system- The projects aims at implementing the payment module, receipt module, pension module, loc module, stamp module, bank module, data transfer module and web module in the state.

11. Integrated land record management- The prime objective of the project is to provide an integrated computerisation of land records management system and registration of documents.

12. Agrinet Punjab- “Agricultural Information System Network (AGRISNET)” in collaboration with NIC aims at (i) the state-of-the-art IT infrastructure requirements to establish AGRISNET as the intranet over NICNET, (ii) development of databases and information systems for decision support for evaluation, monitoring and policy formulations, and (iii) human resources development, (iv) multi-media based training and demonstration of transfer of technology to strengthen farm research and education using broadcast VSATs, (v) special interest groups in respect of subjects, problems, programmes, schemes, etc.

13. Food and civil and supplies- The Department wishes to explore new perspectives in leveraging the best of technologies and also redesigning/ re engineering its current processes in the envisaged environment, taking cognisance of the efforts of other states. The department has identified Information Technology (IT) as a key enabler in achieving the objective of good governance and taken this initiative to redefine and computerise the core business processes.

14. Personnel management system- The project aims to cover the 6 functional areas of Punjab government employee’s information, personnel information system, pay accounting system, leave accounting system, loan accounting system, general provident fund accounting system, pension accounting system 15. e-Procurement- The objective of the government of Punjab e-Procurement initiatives is to develop a coordinated approach to attain best procurement practices across the Government departments.

REFERENCES: www.punjabgovt.nic.in http://egovernance.wordpress.com/ http://punjabgovt.nic.in/budget/SPEECH.HTM punjabgovt.nic.in/WHATSNEW/India%20Tech%20Awards%20-%20Punjab%20EGovernance%20Strategy.ppt

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WHATS ON

8 NOVEMBER 2007 e-Democracy ’07 London,UK

3-5 OCTOBER 2007

http://www.headstar-events.com/edemocracy07/

13th International Summit India Telecommunications 2007 New Delhi, India http://www.india-telecoms.com/

17-20 SEPTEMBER 2007

8 OCTOBER 2007

Smart Event ‘07 - Smart University 2007 Sophia Antipolis, France

Conference “e-Governance: transforming Government to Built Trust and Quality” Vilnius, Lithuania

http://www.strategiestm.com/conferences/smartuniv/07/ index.htm

09 NOVEMBER 2007 2nd Annual Data Protection Practical Compliance Conference Dublin, Ireland http://www.pdp.ie/

http://www.eurospacegroup.com/eng/pubblicazioni_news. php

13-15 NOVEMBER 2007 Asia Rail 2007 Grand Hyatt, Singapore

18-19 SEPTEMBER 2007 Global Biometrics Summit 2007 Brussels, Belgium www.biometricssummit.com

8-11 OCTOBER 2007

http://www.icin-conference.com/

www.strategiestm.com/conferences/we-id/07/index.htm

19-21 SEPTEMBER 2007

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

09 OCTOBER 2007 eGovINTEROP’07 - eGovernment Interoperability Campus 2007 Paris, France http://www.egovinterop.net/SHWebClass.ASP?WCI=Show Doc&DocID=2736&LangID=1

4th Ministerial eGovernment Conference European eGovernment Awards 2007 Lisbon, Portugal http://www.megovconf-lisbon.gov.pt/

6-7 DECEMBER 2007

http://www.fineid.fi/vrk/fineid/home.nsf/pages/ 6F4EF70B48806C41C225708B004A2BE5

Securing Your Organisation’s Information in the Digital Age Sydney, Australia http://www.arkgroupaustralia.com.au/events-b090infosecurity.htm

24 OCTOBER 2007 Challenges e-2007 Conference and Exhibition The Hague, The Netherlands http://www.echallenges.org/e2007/

25 SEPTEMBER 2007 e-Billing for Law Firms United Kingdom http://www.arkgroupaustralia.com.au/events-b073-soa. htm

Mobility World Congress & Exhibition 2007 Hong Kong

18 OCTOBER 2007

World e-ID Conference and demos 2007 Sophia Antipolis, France http://www.strategiestm.com/conferences/we-id/07/index. htm

4-6 DECEMBER 2007 www.MobilityWorldCongress.com

Porvoo 12 Grosseto, Italy

19-21 SEPTEMBER 2007

27-29 NOVEMBER 2007 WIMAX Eastern Europe Eastern Europe

19 SEPTEMBER 2007 World e-ID 2007 Sophia Antipolis, France

http://www.asiarail.com/

ICIN 2007 - Emerging Web and Telecom Services: Collision or Coopetition?

Bordeaux, France

10-13 DECEMBER 2007 ICEGOV 2007 - International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance Macao SAR, China www.icegov.org

24-26 OCTOBER 2007 eChallenges e-2007 The Hague, The Netherlands http://www.echallenges.org/e2007/default. asp?page=exhibinfo

25-27 SEPTEMBER 2007 SECURE 2007 Warsaw, Poland

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

http://www.eema.org/static/isse/warsaw.htm

3-5 OCTOBER 2007 San Sebastian, Spain 9th European Conference for the Advancement of Assistive Technology (AAATE 2007)

6-7 NOVEMBER 2004 E & E Government Asia Restructuring governments to be more efficient and process friendly, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

28-30 DECEMBER 2007

http://www.marcusevans.com/html/eventdetail.asp?sector ID=32&EventID=11149

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

http://www.fatronik.com/aaate2007/

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INDIA

2007

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