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ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON E-governance ` 75 / US $10 / ISSN 0973-161X
SEPTEMBER 2013 | VOLUME 09 n ISSUE 09 n ISSN 0973-161X
e-Governance
in Rashtrapati
Bhavan
PRESENT
9th
INDIAS PREMIER ICT EVENT 23-24 July, 2013 Hyderabad International Convention Centre, Hyderabad, India
Coverage Dr Rajendra Kumar, Joint Secretary, DeitY, Government of India
Jiwesh Nandan, Principal Secretary (IT), Government of Uttar Pradesh
Madhusudan Padhi, CommissionerCum-Secretary (IT), Government of Odisha
Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary (IT), Government of Maharashtra
Sanjay Jaju, Secretary (IT & C), Government of Andhra Pradesh
Bipul Pathak, Commissioner/Secretary (IT), Government of Jammu & Kashmir
september 2013
Contents issue 09 n  volume 09 second grid grid name
12 in person
Shaida Mohammad Abdali Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to India
14 in person
MantriPrasad Naithani
Minister of School Education, Adult Education, Sanskrit Education and Drinking Water
18 in person
Madhusudan Padhi
Commissioner-Cum-Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Odisha
20 in person
Arvind Thakur Chief Executive Officer and Joint Managing Director, NIIT Technologies Ltd
61 in person
Jiwesh Nandan
Principal Secretary, Information Technology & Electronics, Mining & Additional Sources of Energy, Government of Uttar Pradesh
30 in person
62
Shibu Paul
Country Manager, Array Network
in person
Sanjay Jaju
Secretary, Information Technology & Communications Department Government of Andhra Pradesh
30 in person
63
Vishak Raman
Senior Regional Director, India and SAARC, Fortinet
in person
Pradeep Chaturvedi
Director (IT), Rajya Sabha
31 in person
64
Head of Maintenance Business - Emerging Markets, Fujitsu
Bipul Pathak
Aiham Al-Akhras
in person
Commissioner/Secretary, Science & Technology and Information Technology Department, Government of Jammu & Kashmir
32 in person
65
Director, India & SAARC, Enterprise & Telecom Networks, TE connectivity
Rajesh Aggarwal
K K Shetty
in person
Secretary, Department of Information Technology Government of Maharashtra
22 in person
Dr Rajendra Kumar Joint Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India
24 in person
Muktesh K Pardeshi
Joint Secretary (PSP) & Chief Passport Officer, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India
26 in person
Anand Naik Managing Director, Symantec India
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egov / egov.eletsonline.com / September 2013
33
66
in person
in person
Rita Soni
Dr Roshan Jacobs
CEO, NASSCOM Foundation
District Magistrate, Gonda, Uttar Pradesh
34 in person
Mohit Puri
Country Manager, WatchGuard India & SAARC
9th
india’s premier ict event
35 in person
Sudhkar Pennam CEO, Cigniti Technologies Ltd
44-66
eIndia 2013 event report
Time is Ripe for Digital Revolution in India
T
oday India sits on the cusp of digital revolution. The Data Portal (http://data.gov.in) set up by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) has so far published more than 3500 datasets from 49 government departments. The number of published datasets is increasing by the day. It is only a question of time before we see the rise in myriad apps that will make use of the information from the datasets to provide all kinds of e-Governance services to the common citizens of the country. The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) has already initiated the Mobile Seva programme that is dedicated to leveraging the available wireless and new media technology platforms, mobile phone devices and applications, for delivery of public information and services to citizens and businesses. In this issue of eGov magazine, we have the interview of Dr Rajendra Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY). He has spoken at length on the subject of the expanding the scope of e-Governance through the proliferation of mGov apps. Many interesting ideas emerge from the interview. Of course, the success of m-Governance and other e-Governance initiatives is directly linked to the quality of connectivity. Currently connectivity is a major stumbling block, in the urban areas the price of broadband is high and in rural and semi-urban areas we have concerns regarding not only the price, but also the speed. Without a robust backbone infrastructure, we will not be to achieve the aim of connecting all our towns, villages and cities through Internet. The National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project, which aims to connect 100,000 village panchayats through Internet, has been plagued by delays; it is now set to usher multi-dimensional e-Services only by March 31, 2013. It is clear that the Government of this country awards sufficient amount of importance to the area of e-Governance. Even the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residence of the President of the largest democracy in the world and a living heritage, has taken e-Governance initiatives to make it easier for citizens to have a tour of its premises. We have a cover story on this subject. This issue of the magazine also has a coverage of the eINDIA 2013 Summit, which we organized on 23-24 July, 2013, at Hyderabad International Convention Centre, Hyderabad. We have tried to present a summary of the views of all the speakers who attended that prestigious summit. Reading the report on eINDIA 2013, you do get a holistic view of the e-Governance initiatives that are being executed in the country. You will be pleased to know that eGov magazine is now organizing a Global Forum called Financial Inclusion and Payment System (FIPS), on 24-25 October, 2013, at Eros Hilton, New Delhi. The FIPS Forum will be attended by some of the most important stakeholders in the Financial Inclusion and the broader BFSI space. We will have Ministers, officials from Finance Ministry in Centre and the various States, representatives from Public and Private Sector Banks, Insurance Organizations and various other areas. We hope you will be there at FIPS to contribute to the discussions that take place on the crucial subject of how best we can manage the country’s finances so that there is inclusive and holistic development.
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september 2013 issue 09 n volume 09
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Special Focus
Rashtrapati Bhavan
Shri Pranab Mukherjee The President of India
“I believe that a multi-pronged strategy involving technology development, new marketing methods, precision in farm operations and innovative policy instruments is required to ensure agricultural sustainability and food and livelihood security and I would stress the importance of due attention to modernising food storage and its distribution�
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Rashtrapati Bhavan
Special Focus
The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, posing with the eINDIA 2013 award for e-MVS
e-Management of Visitors System at Rashtrapati Bhavan
R
ashtrapati Bhavan has a hallowed existence in the annals of democracy. It is the residence of the President of the largest democracy in the world and it is a living heritage. Few official residential premises of the Head of the State in the world will match the Rashtrapati Bhavan in terms of its size, vastness and its magnificence. It is a historical monument with immense significance in Indian social and political life. It is open for public viewing on selected days with a view to educating the public on various aspects of its archaeological, historical and social significance.
Launch of E-MVS Earlier, Rashtrapati Bhavan was open to a limited number of people who used to send written requests for permission. Visits to
Rashtrapati Bhavan were open on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The timings for the visits were from 0930 hrs to 1130 hrs and from 1430 hrs to 1600 hrs. This system was opaque, inefficient and out of bound for the common citizens. The President in his assumption speech mentioned our motto - ‘All for knowledge and knowledge for all.’ Taking an inspiration from this philosophy, it was decided to make access to this institution transparent, easily accessible, and equitable for the citizens by using modern technology. The idea is to provide quality services to the citizens who want to visit the Rashtrapati Bhavan. With this ideal in mind, the E-Management of Visitors System (E-MVS) was launched. Rashtrapati Bhavan is probably the first Head of the State office to introduce online visitors’ management system, which makes use of barcoded security systems for monitoring the visitors. The success of this initiative is inspired by the President’s desire to bring this temple of democracy within the reach of common citizens and students.
“e-Governance leads to the creation of equity and access, it creates a general feeling of prosperity,” says Suresh Yadav, IRS, Officer on Special Duty to the President, President’s Secretariat, Rashtrapati Bhavan The project was conceived to provide equitable access to the citizens with a unique experience for enhancing their knowledge about the September 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov
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Special Focus
Rashtrapati Bhavan
Indian democratic system. The priorities of the project were to bring this living heritage to the younger generation. Date of launch of the system was 21st December, 2012. The first visit to Rashtrapati Bhavan through this system took place on 3rd January, 2013.
Role of various stakeholders in making E-MVS • Security team, Delhi Police – to gear up for this change and be ready to use barcode system • Household team of Rashtrapati Bhavan – for identification of in-house guides, providing basic amenities like drinking water facility and tea/coffee etc. • CPWD – ambience improvement and designing of museum and garden routes • Art Section – upkeep of museums • e-Governance – Development, design, implementation and monitoring of online system for Visitors’ E-management • Press Division – for press release prepared by E-governance section for educating the citizens about the change of procedure for use in electronic and print media
Highlights of the E-MVS Initiative The online E-MVS has brought complete transparency and online monitoring of the requests. With the new procedure in place, the visitor will get SMS alerts at the time of registration as well as at the time of approval. He/she also gets an email of the final approval specifying the details about day, time, entry gate number and necessary security instructions. These details and approval are now available to the visitors in advance ranging from one month to two months. Scholar Guide Module is also used for allocation of roaster duties to the guides, who are trained to show around the visitors and handle them efficiently. This initiative is unique and it uses the online Visitors’ Management system for booking visits to Rashtrapati Bhavan with bar coded security features. The registration form of
the visitor contains the photographs, name, address, identity card details, email and other verifiable parameters. The bar code issued at the time of approval of the request is available at the Reception for issuing the visitor’s pass. This ensures the verification at the Reception in the shortest possible time and also in advance to the security. The access is available to Delhi police to check the authenticity of the applicant. In future, this system will be integrated with Criminal Trafficking Network System to weed out unwanted elements. In times to come the system will be further
Strategies adopted This project was implemented within five months of the thirteenth Presidency. For this project, the following strategy was adopted: • Use of e-Governance for equitable access to the citizens • Registration process to be free from human intervention at the receiver’s end. • On-line approval to avoid bureaucratic delays • Creation of front office and back office to cut down on the Hierarchies • Revamping the entire structure for taking around the visitors to the museums and the Mughal Garden by creating two defined circuits • Engagement of young generation, fresh from universities as Scholar Guides for the visitors • Comprehensive data structure at the time of registration to address the security concerns in the current security environment. • All information available on the website of the President of India through a weblink ‘On-line Booking to visit Rashtrapati Bhavan’. • Advance Information to stakeholders like the Members of Parliament in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha • Advance information to the public in the form of press release and through social media for educating them to the new procedure. • Transition to the new procedure through effective change management • Regular interaction with all internal stakeholders like Police, Military Wing, Household section and e-Governance • Facelift of souvenir shops and the basic amenities like drinking water and tea/ coffee etc. to the visitors at strategic locations
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upgraded to make all the parameters of visitor available at the security gates through a display medium. The system will also be extended to monitor the movement of visitor within the premises by using the RFID tag system. This system is replicable at a minimal cost as it was designed and implemented in-house. This has extendable features depending upon the needs of the organization. This process has made the visitor approval process for the citizens, paperless and environment-friendly. The new system has increased efficiency exponentially. The registration process is without payment interface and registration and approval processes are intimated through SMS and also a final mail is sent. The requirement of manpower is less now and the approval can be done on the same day. Therefore, the new system has brought increased efficiency, less human resources and faster approval and registration process. The outcome has been highly effective and the same has been widely appreciated by the visitors by sending positive feedback. The changed system has generated patriotism amongst the visitors after visiting the Office of Head of the State, which is seen as a living heritage. This is a multi-disciplinary Project involving different organs of Rashtrapati Bhavan under the mentorship of Secretary to the President. This is an in-house concept developed by E-Governance, President’s Secretariat. Currently the initiative is fully functional and irreversible. It has got the attention of the public and the media. This is a low cost solution and already sustained for a fairly long period since its launch in December, 2012. It is worth noting that the Project has been conceived, designed, developed and implemented in a short period of time.
In Person
Shaida Mohammad Abdali
Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to India
Creating World Class Education Infrastructure
D
espite many challenges, education sector in Afghanistan is gradually improving. How satisfied are you with the achievements made so far? Education in Afghanistan is making exemplary progress. Rather, we should say achievements in education are beyond our imagination. In last eleven years, a revolution in education has taken place. Large pools of students are moving for education within Afghanistan and beyond. For example, over seven thousand students are currently studying in India and there are 10.5 million children who are attending school in Afghanistan. But, I understand that we need to strike more to make further progress in terms of quality and quantity. You also have to take into account the fact that no country has gone through - the kind of trouble, we faced. We have started from scratch and I am proud to say that by now we have made substantial progress. We are a country of 30 million people; about 75 percent of population is below 25 years of age and that means we have the youthful energy to take the country far ahead.
When you meet the Afghan people what kind of enthusiasm do you see in them for education? Let me tell you a real story, when I was the Deputy National Security Advisor and Special
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“India is playing a highly constructive role in Afghanistan. Other countries in the neighbourhood should look at the kind of relationship that exists between India and Afghanistan and learn a lesson from it,� says Shaida Mohammad Abdali. In conversation with Mohd Ujaley
In Person
Assistant to the President of Afghanistan, I met a man from rural part of Afghanistan who was totally under the influence of radical groups. I asked him how he and his children were doing and where their children went to school. I was quite surprised to know that despite all the problems of the security, he was sending his kids to school. And, when I asked him - aren’t you afraid? He said, he wants his son to be dead rather than uneducated, that is the kind of mood about education in Afghanistan and this is leading to increased enrolment.
Channelizing the energy of young people in right direction is also a challenge. What initiatives are you taking to ensure that the development happens with equity, inclusion and quality? I agree, equity, inclusion and quality are big challenge for the developing countries of the world. In Afghanistan, we are in the process of making seminal improvements. Every year we are making new progress; there is improvement in quality, capacity and lot of new infrastructure is getting created. Equity and inclusion are directly related to availability of venue for education for each and every individual. We are coming up with new schools and creating institutions for higher education. As far as, quality is concerned, we are focusing on teachers training. Earlier, we did not have enough qualified teachers but now the trends are changing. Our teachers are being trained in Afghanistan and elsewhere. For me the most important thing is that these initiatives have raised the interest of the people in bringing their children to schools.
The proportion of girl’s enrolment in Afghanistan has risen from zero to 42 percent. Most interestingly around 35 percent of teachers are women. What are the reasons for this achievement? It is the inspiration of the people that has led to this achievement. Young population of Afghanistan has during the last few years witnessed the consequence of a lack of education. Due to lack of education, they did not progress, didn’t have own voice and did not have the potential to shoulder the responsibility for developing their country. After the bitter experience of last
“75 percent of our population is below the age of 25 years and over seven thousand students from Afghanistan are studying in India”
of the region will change. What kind of changes do you see in happening in the foreign policy of Afghanistan? If you look at the past history of Afghanistan you will realise that this is a nation whose foreign policy has never been dictated from outside. Those who try to influence Afghanistan’s foreign policy are always defeated. My advice is to learn from the past, whether it is Pakistan or any other country. Afghanistan is not going to succumb to any pressure from any country. We have a mutually beneficial strategic partnership with India, and that we hope will continue for all times to come. Afghanistan wants to have a good relationship with all its neighbours and with every other
“Equity, inclusion and quality are big challenge for the developing countries of the world” two decades, they want our people to be fully equipped with education.
India is playing an important role in re-building of Afghanistan. How do you look at Indo-Afghan relationship? I am very pleased with what India has done in Afghanistan during the last 12 years. India has contributed immensely. I am thankful to India and Indians for the way they are sharing their own bread and butter with the Afghan people. We are grateful to India for helping in developing new infrastructure in Afghanistan. India is building the Parliament, Salma Dam and other important infrastructure projects. I think, in the long run, the biggest impact of the help that comes from India will be in the area of education. Currently we have around seven thousand students studying in India. They are very bright, very happy and highly motivated. We would like to have more scholarships especially in medical, engineering and professional education.
It is highly probable that after the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan the dynamics
nation. Other countries in the neighbourhood should look at the kind of relationship that exists between India and Afghanistan and learn a lesson from it.
Is there any plan to develop a deeper collaboration between universities in India and Afghanistan? I am glad, you asked this question. We are keen to develop relationship between the universities of India and Afghanistan. Recently, I met the chancellor of Global Open University, Dr. P R Trivedi. We discussed in detail about the ways by which we can revive the relationship in the area of education. We need more exchange programmes for students and professors. We are planning to open Global Open University in Kabul; eventually more such institutions will be opened across Afghanistan. We also had a very productive meeting with Dr Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for Human Resource Development. During the meeting we decided that a consultive body must be created to improve collaboration between the two nations in higher and school education. We are also in discussion with many other countries including USA for improving the quality of education in our country. September 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov
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In Person
Mantriprasad Naithani Minister of School Education, Adult Education, Sanskrit Education and Drinking Water
Empowering citizens with education “If we want to have the best ICT infrastructure in our schools then we have to be ready to make very large investments,� says Mantriprasad Naithani, Education Minister of Uttarakhand. In conversation with Mohd Ujaley
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In Person
I
n the meeting of Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), you raised the issue of slashing the budget of states under Right to Education Act (RTE). What has been the response of Human Resource Development Minister on this issue?
The Minister has replied positively, he has explained the reasons behind the cut. However, in the states, we have to look into it from the point of practical implication of this decision. What has happened is that initially an amount was sanctioned for the states under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). After that the states started their planning for the expenditure but suddenly, the budget has been cut. This has created much discomfort for the states. For example, in my state – Uttrakhand, we have recruited people to work on RTE; however, now we are unable to ask them to join as we don’t have budget for the same. Such issues create lot of distrust and problem for the general public. I have spoken to Minister and requested him that at-least budget should not be slashed midway as investments on some of initiatives have already been done.
their own socio-geographic dynamics that is different from rest of the country.
universities to make them at par with central universities.
Requirement of minimum area under RTE is another bone of contention. In Uttarakhand, it is hard to get 3.5 acre of land for schools. What is your view on this subject?
Use of ICT in education has had varying degrees of impact on learning. What are the major challenges you see in ICT in education?
That is absolutely right. In Uttrakhand the population is booming and there is lot of pressure on land, therefore it is hard to get the land required to follow the RTE Act. That is why before finalising legislation, it is important to take into account the diversity and other sociogeographic challenges of the country. Various central government schemes have not yielded the anticipated results because we failed to
Use of ICT is good for education. Technology gives us an opportunity to reach out to maximum number of students. The main challenge that I see is that of investment - ICT in school requires huge investment, and there seems to be confusion on the best practices that have the best returns. Also, our aim should be to use ICT in schools for learning general subjects such as Maths, English, and Science etc., in easy and efficient way rather than getting carried away
“One good thing about RTE is that this initiative has created huge awareness about education across the country” adequately focus on the diversity of the country and I feel that is huge failure at planning level.
Large numbers of schools are yet to comply with various provisions of the RTE Act. What should be the best way forward for higher compliance?
In 2009, Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University was converted into central university. What is your opinion on central government opening more new universities in state?
We enact laws for the people; therefore, we have to see whether it is serving it purpose or not. An amendment can always be made if required. The good thing about RTE is that it has created huge awareness about education across the country. But best results can only be achieved when the government has to will to strictly enforce guidelines on the implementation of RTE. The gross enrolment ration (GER) has increased, but it is also true that there are large numbers of schools that are yet to comply with RTE. I feel we need to be more flexible and punish only those schools which have shown complete negligence. We may also give more time to schools for adhering to the guidelines of RTE. Also, we have to keep in mind that various initiatives under SSA or RTE cannot meet the deadline, because budget has been slashed midway and some of the states, such as Uttarakhand, have
I think, central government should open more new universities in the state. When centre opens an university, its structure, functioning and approach is bound to be more universal. State universities are created to serve the people of the state; the state government should try to bring them at par with central universities such as DU, JNU, JMI etc. The Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University has been converted from state university to central university. I am not in favour of such conversions, as they do not help the state. Through such conversions we are not creating new infrastructure or new jobs rather we are surrendering one of our universities to centre government. Now our local students are facing problem in getting admission. Ideally, centre should open more new universities in a state; the centre should also help the states to overhaul their state
by newer technologies. The other big challenge to technology is poor infrastructure of our country. You may have best of the technologies, but you can’t use it if you don’t have adequate infrastructure in place.
You have always expressed the opinion that education should have some kind of value in it to bring maximum benefit to the students. Can schools alone inculcate value in a student? School alone cannot do it. It is the shared responsibility of schools, parents and society at large to give right values to students. At government level, we can create syllabus, sensitise our teachers, but the parents also have to take an initiative. They have to play a more constructive role in the overall development of a child. I am happy now education is becoming priorities for the parents and it will surely produce good citizens in the country who will respected their elders, women and person in need. In Uttrakhand, we are heavily focusing on girl’s education and we are among the top states which fully utilises the central government initiatives. And, I feel, the more educated girls are, the better it is for the country. September 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov
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In Person
Madhusudan Padhi
Commissioner-Cum-Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Odisha
e-Governance for serving the people
T
he state of Odhisa has taken many new initiatives in the area of e-Governance. Please provide us with an overview.
Odisha has implemented the National e-Governance Programme (NeGP) with the help of Central Government. The main objective of this programme is to open at least one Common Service Centre (CSC) in every panchayat. These Common Service Centres are known as ‘Jana Seva Kendra’. We have taken e-Governance initiatives in all the major departments. Every major department in the government is citizen centric. As the Elementary Education and State Project Director of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, I have been personallly involved in conceptualising the project of Child Tracking System. The Child Tracking System has made it possible to track the education of each and every child right from the age of 0-14. The data generated through this system is used in secondary and higher secondary education. It helped in tracking children who are not going to the school and hence bring them to the mainstream education.
What are the other e-Governance initiatives that you are taking care of? I am also involved with the implementation of “Punarvaash” which is a project for rehabilitation and resettlement of people who were affected and displaced due to various developmental
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“The policies of the government must aim to enhance the quality of the government services being provided in rural and urban areas,” says Madhusudan Padhi. In conversation with Ankush Kumar
In Person
School & Mass Education
Department – e-Sishu Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) of Government of India is an initiative to provide free and compulsory quality education up to age of 14. Odisha Primary Education Program Authority (OPEPA) launched the project e-Shishu to track both school going and out of school children of the state within the age group of 0-14 yrs and bring them back to the mainstream of schooling.
Project e-Shishu was conceived by OPEPA and implemented by OCAC in the year 2005. A database of 10.8 million children (0-14yrs) of the entire state was generated using Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) Technology. Web-enabled application software was developed and enabled through the portal www.opepa.in.
projects. I was also associated in higher education where we launched a Student Academic Management System (SAMS). It is an online admission process for colleges. Through SAMS all the transactions were processed online. Almost 2,000 colleges have been brought under the purview of this system. Now, I am involved in digitisation of ration card for Food Department. We are planning to have end to end computerisation in Public Distribution System. We have digitised the electoral rolls and we have in place a system to enable people to seamlessly discover the booth where they need to cast their vote.
we do not have sufficient numbers of teachers. Government schemes can be implemented successfully only when there is proper planning involved in the system.
There are various challenges in implementation of government projects and schemes at the grassroot levels. What steps are you taking to overcome such challenges? There are certain initiatives that need to be taken to overcome all the challenges. For instance, we can enhance the system of Mid-day meal Scheme by creating a centralised system in each block for preparation of quality food and distribution within a radius of 20 kms. Once we have such a system, it will become easier to monitor the quality of foods. The system will also be helpful in easing the burden on the teachers who are currently responsible for managing the midday meal scheme. The teachers will be able to place more focus on teaching their students. You will agree that it is much easier to monitor 1,000 centralised food centres instead of managing midday meals in 50,000 schools. Our policy must aim to enhance the quality of the government services being provided in rural and urban areas. Quality management has to be the key. Today our schools are suffering because
At times of natural disaster, we often see a communication gap between the Centre and the State governments. In your
when we have such institutional mechanism. So it is necessary to have proper institutions like Disaster Rapid Action Force specifically trained to act in disaster.
How do you see the implementation of e-Governance in Odisha? In the year 2004 the government came out with the Information Technology & ITeS Policy. The e-Governance roadmap of Odisha was released on 14th June 2006 by the Hon’ble Chief Minister, which comprise of governance vision, governance strategy and blueprint and capacity building road map. e-Governance projects change the status quo. So in my opinion change management is the biggest challenge in the implementation of e-Governance projects. There are also issues related to the decentralisation of power because when we bring transparency, we empower the citizens and other stakeholders. There is a sense of power depreciation which needs to be managed. So I believe that change management is a crucial area which needs to be managed effectively.
“PDS Information System has brought transparency and accountability into the Public Distribution System” opinion, how can ICT be used to improve the communication during natural disasters? I don’t think we are having the problem of communication gap during natural disasters. The centre and state administration is run by the same set of people as far as the bureaucracy is concerned. At the time of natural disaster what we really need is the ability to make good decisions quickly. People who have been affected must be provided relief very quickly. They need food, shelter, medical care, etc. The main problem is that we do not give much importance to learning from past mistakes. We have to learn from the mistakes that have been made in the handling of past natural disasters and make adequate changes in our national policy for disaster management. Today only seven or eight states in India have their own disaster management authority. We need to formulate it in the entire country. We can initiate plans only
Another important challenge that we face has to do with the reengineering of government processes. If there are ten steps to be undertaken in a particular project, we must find a way of doing it in just three steps. The processes that are unnecessary should be weeded out. We need to look into such re-engineering of processes by making changes in existing policies and rules. We should have a clear vision, otherwise one will end up having high amount of inefficiency even after digitising the entire set of processes. Despite there being e-Governance, the citizens will not have access to better services. Finally capacity building in our entire service delivery system remains an important area which needs to be covered. Today we are asking people to perform online transactions who have never used computer. So it is necessary to first empower common people and create awareness among them regarding new technologies. September 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov
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In Person
Arvind Thakur Chief Executive Officer and Joint Managing Director, NIIT Technologies Ltd
“We provide hardware and software solutions to train people in latest technologies, so that they become capable of adding value to the entire service delivery system� says Arvind Thakur
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In Person
Focusing on Global Information System
N
IIT is executing lot of projects for the government. What is the reason behind your increased focus on the government sector? The primary reason due to which we are sharply focused on the Government sector is because this kind of business can be a good hedge against economic turmoil that we see around us. If you look at NIIT Technologies, you will find that we are having very balanced set of revenues coming from different geographical areas. The US revenue contribution is 36-37 percent, from Europe and Middle East the revenue is in the tune of 37-38 percent, and the rest comes from Asia. Our CAGR from the last three years stands at 30 percent because if USA revenue falls short, then Europe or Asia revenue will make up for the shortfall. In Asia the stability comes from the Government business because they have huge contracts and irrespective of what is happening in the economy, once a particular programme is sanctioned by the government it will happen. Therefore strategically we find it to be extremely useful for us to pursue the business. We are very sharply focused on the government business and one of the areas of our interest is GIS (Global Information System), which is our technology area. And we are seeing more and more traction in the use of geospatial technologies in the Government. Some of the projects like public distribution system, land records and power management are beginning to see the usage of more and more geospatial Technologies in these areas. Therefore it can be said that e-Governance is giving way to g-Governance.
How is strengthening of Dollar effecting your business? The volatility is not at all good for business. In
any case, you have to hedge and that ensures that you can’t get the whole value of the depreciated Rupee. A stable currency is important for growth of any business. A weak dollar is bad for the economy as inflation goes up and things become more expensive.
Please brief us with some of your key focus areas? What kinds of projects and initiatives have been undertaken in these areas? A very large programme is being conceptualised and that is the National GIS Programme and I think there is a lot of investment pending around GIS technologies. The other areas of our focus are the Ministries and various Government departments. We are very sharply focused on the internal security and defense vertical. In defense we are more into GIS and in home affairs, we have been doing a very large turnkey projects. BSF project has been very successfully implemented and now we are doing the CCTNS programme in Tamil Nadu, UP, Odhisa, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand. So the experience of delivering solutions to CRPF, BSF, defense and para-military organisations has improved our efficiency and effectiveness. For BSF we have gone to the remotest part of the country to create connectivity, train people, roll out the application; it was very hazardous terrain where our officials have worked with the defense personnel. Our aim is not only to provide the hardware and software solutions, but also to train the people and populate the data. We have actually done a lot of talent development as we need to train the people and communicate in their local language which is very challenging. We are currently working on a very good project for better financial management for the Government of Andhra Pradesh. The Airport Authority also has a very ambitious plan as they are putting together their operational center across ten Airports. This is a turnkey project in which NIIT will be responsible for putting the solution together and running and maintaining the solution.
Today NIIT Technologies has a footprint in many parts of the globe. Please provide us with an overview of the projects that you are implementing outside India. In Singapore, they are very concerned about young people, not getting married. So we put across a system for bringing couples together. We have also devised a solution for looking after the sports related activities; we are doing a lot of work for the land transport authority. Similarly in Australia we work with the public transport department. It is easier to do business with the Government in India as we have built a lot of brand equity. In corporate sector, if you have built a relationship and if they are comfortable that you can deliver the solution, then they will keep coming back to you. But in the Government the decision making takes into account many different factors and you have to make sure that commercially you are the best.
How do you analyse the IT scenario in India? In your opinion, what kind of progress has been made by NIIT Technologies in this area? On the axis of a two by two matrix on one side you have scale and size on the other hand you have quality and value. The ideal position for a company is to be on the top right of the matrix, where you are the biggest and the best. But we know that the biggest may not be the best and our whole approach is towards being the best. Our focus is on specializing in products and services, which will enable us to drive our vision. Our vision is essentially to be the first choice in GIS and some other segments like travel where nobody is even close to us. We are working in insurance - life and non-life. Our strategy is to focus and differentiate because only then you can create specialisation. During the last twenty years we have grown at a very fast pace. The growth that we had was basically due to the strength of our value proposition that we brought for our customers and for society at large. September 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov
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In Person
Dr Rajendra Kumar
Joint Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India
Enabling Government Services through Mobile Phones
W
hat is your vision for Mobile Governance? Please shed some light on the possibilities that lie in this new way of providing government services to the people. Mobile Governance, also known as m-Governance, is the name given to the strategy of leveraging the available wireless and new media technology platforms and mobile phone devices, tablets and applications for delivery of public information and services to citizens and businesses. We are working with the aim of making India a world leader in using the potential of mobile governance for inclusive development. Our aim is to build a system through which public services can be provided electronically to all sections of society, especially those who reside in the rural and the far-flung areas, through mobile phones and tablets. People living in any part of the country will be able to access government services and information on an anywhere, anytime basis.
You have launched a system of governance called Mobile Seva. Why is it required for better governance?
Dr Rajendra Kumar “Given the fact that most of the Indian citizens reside in rural areas, mobile devices can serve as a very convenient and easy tool for accessing a wide range of government services�
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As you may be aware, hundreds of millions of Indian citizens currently do not have access to computers or the Internet. Millions of less-privileged individuals without access to the Internet have no realistic chance of accessing public services. They are unable to take full advantage
In Person
of the new e-Governance initiatives that have been launched. In the last decade, the mobile phone scenario has changed completely across the world. Almost everyone owns a mobile now. Mobile Seva is basically a system through which people who do not have access to computers and Internet can be provided e-Governance services. Mobile Seva has been conceptualized and developed by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) and is being implemented by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). Given the fact that many Indian citizens reside in rural and far-flung areas, mobile devices can serve as a very convenient and easy tool for accessing a host of citizen-centric government services. The success of the proposed initiative on m-Governance will greatly depend upon the ability of the Government Departments and Agencies to provide frequently needed public services to the citizens through the mobile interface. For this, we need to create infrastructure for anytime anywhere mobile-based services, adopt appropriate open standards, develop suitable technology platforms, make the cost of services affordable, and create awareness, especially for people in underserved areas. DeitY has already created such a system under the Mobile Seva Project, which is currently being used by over 500 Government Departments and Agencies across the country in all the states. Over 20 lakh PUSH SMS based transactions per day are being delivered through this platform. The Mobile Seva portal is available at: http://mgov.gov.in/home.jsp.
Today majority of the people in the country don’t have smartphones. They are using mobiles for basically voice based communications and text messages. So how does m-Gov become possible through mobiles? Mobiles have the potential to be the most potent tool for bringing government services closer to the people. Currently, the e-governance service delivery platform consists of the core ICT infrastructure consisting of State Data Centres (SDCs), State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) and the middleware comprising the NSDG/SSDG (National/State e-Governance Services Delivery Gateway). The current architecture of NSDG/ SSDG or the domain gateways have to be supplemented with framework for mobile governance. A separate infrastructure is required to facilitate seamless integration with backend department
Government of India has laid down following measures to progressively adopt and deploy m-Governance in a time bound manner: • Web sites of all Government Departments and Agencies shall be made mobile compliant, using the “One Web” approach. • Open standards shall be adopted for mobile applications for ensuring the interoperability of applications across various operating systems and devices as per the Government Policy on Open Standards for e-Governance. • Uniform/ single pre-designated numbers (long and short codes) shall be used for mobile based services to ensure convenience. • All Government Departments and Agencies shall develop and deploy mobile applications for providing all their public services through mobile devices to the extent feasible on the mobile platform. They shall also specify the service levels for such services. through existing NSDG/SSDG eGov exchange infrastructure. It will provide common interface for mobile based services, such as SMS (Short Message, Service), USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data), IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System), CBS (Cell Broadcasting Service), LBS (Location Based Services) and mobile applications. Mobile devices are constrained environments, so to enable m-Governance we need to develop more flexible solutions.
Please tell us about Mobile Service Delivery Gateway (MSDG). As I said, Mobile Seva, a countrywide initiative on mobile governance, has been conceptualized and developed by DeitY to provide public services to the citizens through mobile phones and handheld devices. Basically Mobile Service Delivery Gateway (MSDG) is the centralised platform created by DeitY through its implementing agency, Centre for Development of Advance Computing (C-DAC). MSDG has been developed around open standards and cloud-based solutions. The key implementation strategies under the Framework for Mobile Governance have been notified in February 2012. For the realisation of the ambitious goal of providing government services to citizens through mobiles using SMS, USSD, IVRS, CBS, LBS, and mobile applications installed on the mobile phones, the MSDG makes use of a state of the art integrated platform. MSDG is the core infrastructure developed by C-DAC for the enablement of m-Governance services. It uses interoperability protocols so that a multitude of participants can work together.
Today the use of mobile applications has become quite popular. Please tell us about the
mobile application store that you are developing. Also tell us about the eSMS Service? The mobile application store has already been launched and currently, hosts 161 live and fully integrated mobile applications for a range of government services. These can be downloaded and used by citizens free of cost. We are engaged in developing more mobile applications on behalf of various Government Departments and Agencies. It is already integrated with the MSDG and provides seamless and fully integrated services to the citizens. The store is based on cloud based technologies and uses open standards. The open platform works across all network operators. The M-AppStore can be accessed at: http://apps. mgov.gov.in/home.jsp. eSMS is a web portal for the Government Departments, where they can login and access the various mobile-based services of Moble Seva. It is available at: http:// services.mgov.gov.in/.
e-Governance cannot be fully successful until there is adequate amount of capacity building in ICT in various government departments. For m-Governance too such training would be required. What initiatives are you taking to ensure that officials have access to such training? Capacity building is a continuous process. We have been providing training to officials in various departments at regular intervals. We are continuously engaged in creating the right level of awareness about this initiative amongst all the stakeholders, particularly amongst the various Government Departments and Agencies both at the central and state levels and the citizens. September 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov
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In Person
Muktesh K Pardeshi
Joint Secretary (PSP) & Chief Passport Officer
Empowering Citizens with Better Passport Services
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he Ministry of External Affairs has decided to celebrate 24th of June every year as the “Passport Seva Divas.” What is the significance of this date?
Muktesh K Pardeshi
It was on 24th of June in 1967 that the landmark Passports Act was enacted, thus laying the foundation of a sound legal framework for issuance of Passports and other travel documents in the post-independent India. Today, Passport service is one of the important public services delivered by the Central Government. In 2012, 7.39 million Indian citizens were provided Passport services through the all-India network of 37 Passport Offices and 180 Indian Missions or Posts abroad. The numbers of passport applications have registered almost a three-fold increase since 2000. The Passport Seva Divas is intended to increase public awareness about the significance of passports in today’s globalised and mobile world.
The Passport Seva Project has played seminal role in this success that has been achieved. What is your view of the milestones that have been achieved under the Passport Seva Project? Also tell us about the other initiatives that you have taken to bring more convenience to the people. The Cabinet-mandated Passport Seva Project was undertaken to comprehensively overhaul
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“The Ministry of External Affairs is now looking at expanding further the network of passport service access points in the areas that have been left untouched as of now,” says Muktesh K Pardeshi
In Person
Passport issuance and delivery system. As you already know, this project has been a great success. The task of setting up 77 Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) was accomplished in June 2012. The transformational changes have been brought about with the aim of extending Passport services to the citizens by expanding the network for Passport services and ensuring service delivery with greater security, reliability and defined service levels. Now the Public Grievance Redressal Mechanism has been strengthened. A multilingual National Call Centre is operating round-the-clock; the portal is very user friendly. We also hold Passport Melas and Adalats in different parts of the country to reach out to the people. Improvement in physical infrastructure in Passport Offices and introduction of new security features in Passport are other significant developments.
Internet Banking for Speedy Passport Applicant needs to perform the following steps for payment through the Internet Banking payment mode • Register through the Passport Seva Online Portal and create the User Id. • Login with the registered User Id. • ● Click the Apply for Fresh Passport/Reissue of Passport link under the Services section. • ● Generate an ARN under the Normal or Tatkaal scheme either by filling the form Online or by uploading an e-Form. • ● Attempt to schedule an appointment by clicking the Schedule Appointment link on the View Saved/Submitted Applications screen. • ● Select the ‘Appointment Quota’ (Normal/Tatkaal). This option is available only to the applicants with Tatkaal ARNs. • ● Select the preferred PSK for appointment booking. • ● System will display the next available appointment date for the selected PSK. After verifying the details, click the Pay and Book Appointment button to redirect to the SBI’s Multi Option Payment System (MOPS) website. The MOPS screen will be displayed only when appointment is released for the selected PSK under the desired appointment quota. • ● Select NET BANKING as the preferred mode of payment by selecting SBI or any other SBI associate bank listed in the menu. Login using the Internet Banking User Id and password to make Online Payment of indicated passport service fee. • ● Login through the Internet Banking screen to make Online Payment of indicated passport service fee. • ● After successful payment, applicant is redirected to the Passport Seva Online Portal. • ● The Appointment Confirmation screen is displayed along with appointment details. • ● Click the Print Application Receipt button to print the Appointment Receipt, which contains details of the payment made along with the Payment Reference Number as proof of payment.
From June this year, you have made some changes to make it more convenient for citizens to apply for new passports. Please tell us about it. The process for booking appointments to visit PSKs through Passport Seva Online Portal has undergone a few changes. As per the new process, appointment date or time will be automatically allotted by the system as per the availability of appointment slots at the desired PSK. Prior payment of passport service fee has been mandatory for booking appointments at PSKs. For this purpose, the Online Payment feature has been introduced through the Passport Seva Online Portal. One can log on to www.passportindia. gov.in, and avail the online payment facility. An applicant will be able to cancel or reschedule the appointment only twice within one year of the first appointment date. System will not allow booking of online appointment for that ARN
once two reschedule options are exercised or first appointment was scheduled more than one year ago. With this, only genuine applicants will book the appointment and number of no-shows will reduce. All these measures have been introduced to give citizens greater comfort.
The primary reasons for the passports getting delayed is the delay in police verification reports. What are you doing to bring improvement in this area? The Police Verification system is a core component of the Passport Delivery System. The delay in Police Verification of passport applications
Benefits of Passport Seva Project
• • •
Longer working hours to benefit the citizens 24*7 Call Center Support in 17 languages Complete digitization and processing of application when applicant visits the PSK, reducing the overall time spent and eliminating multiple visits
• • •
Biometric data and photographs taken in highly secure environment Granting decision taken in front of the applicant, therefore greater transparency Transparency in the process and online real-time availability of data for ease of monitoring and decision making
often leads to delay in passport issuance. This is a major area of concern. I would like to share with eGov readers that online interface with District Police Authorities has been bringing encouraging results in some States. This model should be implemented across India. The Ministry has taken up this matter with the state governments. At the level of Passport Officers, I feel there is scope for increased coordination with the local police which would greatly help in reducing delay in clearances and improvement of citizen service delivery.
Tell us about the efforts that are being made to expand the reach of the Passport Seva Kendras. The Ministry of External Affairs is now looking at expanding further the network of passport service access points in the areas that have been left untouched as of now. The vision of the government is to set up a Passport service outlet in each State and Union Territory. We are also planning to set up Passport Seva Laghu Kendras in the Northeast over the coming months. We have also requested the National Institute for Smart Government to conduct a feasibility study on the ‘Next Steps’ that can be undertaken to bring about further improvements in the Passport Seva Project. September 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov
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In Person
Anand Naik
Managing Director, Symantec India
Managing
the Security
Landscape of India
D
uring the last few years, the Government of India has undertaken several key initiatives in improving the cyber security in the nation. Please give us an overview of the cyber security related projects in which Symantec has participated in the country.
Symantec, as you already know, is the world’s leader in management of information security. Symantec works with many governments around the world, including the Government of India, for developing systems that can lead to better online security. In India, we are working with various arms of the Home Ministry and Department of Electronics and IT for developing new security solutions for the government. We are also engaged with the various State Governments in India for developing solutions for State Wide Area Networks (SWAN) and other areas.
Detection of new security threats is a critical part of the overall security infrastructure. Tell us about the work that Symantec is doing in this area. Symantec is the key member in a subcommittee set up under the 12th Five Year Plan on e-security. We participate in defining the parameters of national e-security in the committee. Symantec is an active member of DSCI (Data Security Council of India), and of
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“Whether cyber-criminals are attacking computers, mobile phones or social networks, their ultimate goal is to obtain personal information including banking details, phone numbers and email addresses of friends and business associates, and even steal the target’s identity,” says Anand Naik
In Person
National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM). We are contributing to the formulation process of IT amendments and cyber policies. We actively participate with CERT-In to proactively detect threats that the country faces, and also identify the source of those threats. The sources of threat can be individuals, groups or states. We are using our own global intelligence network to identify these malicious sources and sharing this data with the concerned government departments.
Recently Symantec came up with a report that India is seeing a marked increase in bot infections. Tell us about it. Our Internet Security Threat Report has revealed that India has seen a 280 percent increase in bot infections, which are now spreading across many emerging cities. The truth is that the country accounts for nearly 15 percent of global bot-net spam, responsible for disseminating an estimated 280 million spam messages per day worldwide. In addition, the report highlights a 42 percent surge during 2012 in global targeted attacks, as compared to the prior year. Designed to steal intellectual property, these targeted cyber espionage attacks are increasingly hitting small businesses, which are the target of 31 percent of these attacks across the world. Small businesses are attractive targets themselves and a stepping stone to ultimately breach into the infrastructure of the larger companies. Our investigation also shows that the global average number of targeted attacks per day in 2012 was 116, compared with 82 in 2011 and 77 in 2010. So what we are witnessing is a phenomenal 42 percent increase in targeted attacks. Targeted attacks such as Disttrack in 2012 are commonly used for the purposes of industrial espionage to gain access to the confidential information or intellectual property.
There have been many instances of government websites being hacked by malicious elements. Do you think that new security steps should be initiated in order to protect the official data from being hacked? There have been major changes in the way the threat environment operates in the world. Earlier, major threats and cyber attacks were being launched in order to create nuisance in
the world. But the modern cyber attacks have become more organised and are often being done with the intent of stealing information. The cyber attacks can lead to identity theft, breaching of individual security and stealing of IP addresses. Symantec believes that whether cyber-criminals are attacking computers, mobile phones or social networks, their ultimate goal is to obtain personal information including banking details, phone numbers and email addresses of friends and business associates, and even steal the target’s identity. Strong action needs to be taken for thwarting the aims of these cyber-criminals.
How do you identify the government installations that need the kind of cutting edge security that Symantec is in a position to provide? We cover the entire spectrum of safety solutions. Today we are participating with the government and private companies to define the critical infrastructures that our country needs. We first need to create awareness, identify
with the support of Government of India. PPP model is also playing an important role in enhancing the capacity building of the government departments. I would also like to point out that the Government of India has already taken various initiatives to train its employees in various aspects of digital work.
In your opinion is the Government of India sufficiently aware of the threats that are constantly emerging? Government of India is very well aware about the cyber threats, and a lot of steps are being taken to enhance cyber security. But there is need to create even more awareness. It is not just the government that needs to be aware, the citizens should also be aware of the potential threats. So the need of the hour is to reach out to the maximum number of citizens and sensitize them on the security related issues. Everyone should have a modicum of understanding of the kind of damage that can happen if the security of the government data is compromised in anyway. One of the biggest advantages
“Government is aware of the cyber threats, and a lot of steps are being taken to enhance cyber security� important core information and then create a process that will solve the related issues. Symantec is working to create solutions that can counter the spate of cyber crimes and threats that are emerging around us.
People who need to implement solutions are not very well trained. Tell us about the initiatives Symantec is undertaking to enhance capacity building and boost cyber security? Recently we partnered with Government of Meghalaya to create a training curriculum for all their government employees in the area of security. I would like to tell you that this initiative has been a huge success. Now other states in North East are also being encouraged to replicate the initiative in their respective states. We are also undertaking awareness programme
that we bring to table for the government and enterprises is sharing of the knowledge and intelligence on threats through our Global Intelligence Network.
Please brief us on some of the landmark projects that Symantec has undertaken in India? Symantec in India is fully engaged in developing a model for better security. We are in the Indian market to bring value and awareness for the government and people. There is lot of R&D work that Symantec is doing in India. In fact, the products that Symantec develops in India are being used all over the world. We have operation centres in three major cities of India - Pune, Chennai, and Bangalore. We are fully geared to provide global solutions with localized flavour so that they can be implemented more effectively and seamlessly. September 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov
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Smart Cities
Smart City The Wave of Future
T
he concept of smart city emphasises the idea that information technology and digital data can be used to make a city more efficient. We can keep adding value to our cities through centralised energy production, self-sufficient blocks with solar roofs, mixed usage, district heating, waste recycling, electric cars and electric bikes. Openness is the key for any smart city. A state of the art communication and information sharing system lies at the core of the smart city. Through such system there is collaboration between the inhabitants, businesses, knowledge institutions and government departments. Smart city should have energy efficient solutions for street parking, traffic monitoring, waste management, environmental control, public lighting, public spaces use and public safety.
Essentials of smart city Services - Inhabitants in the smart city need access to hospitals, schools, sports halls, city hall for administration, police stations, museum, shops, law courts and much else. Multi-model Transport System - There should be seamless system of multi-model public transport system that includes tramways, roads, pathways for cyclists, pathways for pedestrians, etc. Such infrastructure needs to be backed by strong road signalling system so as to ensure smooth and congestion free travel of citizens. In the densely populated cites, the most popular means of transportation is bus; buses should be powered by natural gas in order to safeguard the environment. Use of Sensor Technology - A smart city can create an efficient and smart services delivery platform for citizens and municipal workers by installing sensors in the city and creating platforms that allow seamless sharing of information by citizens, city managers, businesses and professionals. The platform can have common data warehouse where different sensor systems store their information.
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Waste to energy Treatment Plant - Wind, water and the sun are well known sources of sustainable energy. Biomass can also be a source of sustainable energy. The waste that the city generates can be a source of energy. The waste that cannot be recycled to produce raw material can be incinerated. This process will lead to production of energy, heat and raw materials. Bio-climatic Principles - By applying bioclimatic principles in architectural design we can design buildings that are more efficient in use of power. Such buildings can make use of outside climatic conditions to maintain a comfortable living environment. Thus the use of fossil fuels is minimised and that of renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, water or geothermal energy is maximised. Remote control network - A Smart City must have an integrated control network for common data transmission infrastructure, which can monitor the municipal and supply networks. Such a system will generate real time information on the various issues that are in the network. The service network should include supply network, drainage network, rainwater
Prem Narayan, Director (JnNURM), Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India
network, public lighting, pneumatic waste collection, climatology, electrical energy and internal home comfort. Information & communication TechnologyInformation & communication Technology (ICT) improves the way cities function and there is exchange of information so that people can make informed decisions. ICTs can lead to cities becoming more participative way and facilitates active participation of individuals and local communities as well as provides efficient feedback system and improves internal and external interaction. It creates an urban commons for cities collaborations around the world. Smart Mobility - It is extremely important to ensure availability of open public data for analysis and onward distribution by users. It is in the interests of the city to ensure that people have access to good telecom network. Sharing of available resources as well as parking solutions in the city ensures use of resources in a smarter way. A better telecom network and systems is also necessary for improving the general quality of life in the city.
In Person
High growth through Innovation
High End Security is the Need of Hour
Shibu Paul, Country Manager, Array Network
Vishak Raman, Senior Regional Director, India and SAARC, Fortinet
Please give us an overview of the work that Array is doing in India? We started in the year 2000, when engineers from few companies moved out to form Array Network. In India, we started our operations in 2008. Array delivers multiple products, but we are primarily focused on application delivery “The first major breakthrough for us programmes, in which we in the country was the project that we have been quite successful. executed for UIDAI,” says Shibu Paul. We partnered with TCS and In conversation with Sruti Ghosal started delivering our solutions to the government. The first two years were quite difficult for us and after that we won the UIDAI project, which was a breakthrough for us. We are playing a role in the management of the data, which goes into the Aadhaar data centres.
In the government, the decision making is typically slow. What are the challenges that you face in this sector?
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Please provide us with an overview of the innovations that Fortinet is bringing in the area of Data Centres? The government spends about 16 to 17 percent of the total revenue in security and has initiated a lot of innovations. Lot of work is also being done for setting up State Data Centres. Many new initiatives are being undertaken in the e-Governance space. The data centres need high security, so implementation of high-end firewall and virtualisation is also taking place. A lot of projects are also coming up in the treasury department.
“The government spends about 16 to 17 percent of the total revenue in security and has initiated lot of new innovations,” says Vishak Raman.
What is your view of the market in the coming years?
One of the major challenges that we face with government has to do with predictability. The uncertainty that is there in the government project is huge. The UIDAI project happened in three months time, but some of the treasury projects that we have participated in have taken long as eighteen months. When your projects take so much time to get cleared it becomes a huge challenge to manage the business.
We expect the market in India for security related products to grow at a rate of 15 to 17 percent in the coming years. We are also looking at the Tier II and Tier III cities. With the advent of 3G and highspeed broadband, there has been rise in the need of security related products. All these and many other factors are contributing to high growth.
What are your policy expectations from the Government?
Why should a customer choose Fortinet over its competitors?
Currently we are forced to pay very high custom duties; the government should do something about it. The government must come up with the policies that lead to growth of the economy. Only when there is all-round economic growth that the IT sector can grow.
What we do is very unique. We provide application specific support. We are constantly innovating to create better and more secure systems. The solutions that we provide are very unique and affordable. Our competitors can match us in price and quality.
Tell us about Array’s scale of operations in India? What are your plans of expansion?
Tell us about the new innovations that we can expect from Fortinet.
We started from scratch and now we are a significantly larger team. We are now also planning to set up R&D centres in India. We are also looking at the manufacturing sector in India for the products which can be conceived in India. We are chalking out aggressive strategies for growth in India.
We are now working for developing the next generation firewall which we call NGF, which will have special security features to mitigate the advanced security threats. We have also done a series of acquisitions in the last three years. This strategic expansion is not only from the perimeter security point of view, but also for data base and wireless securities.
egov / egov.eletsonline.com / September 2013
Securing Future
In Person
Aiham Al-Akhras
Head of Maintenance Business - Emerging Markets, Fujitsu
Focusing on Indian Market this product. It can be very usefull for Financial Inclusion and Data Management in India.
What are your strategies for the emerging markets? Where do you place India among some of your focused markets for investment?
“We plan to be aggressive in the area of HPC (high performance computing) in the Indian market,” says Aiham Al-Akhras. In conversation with Ankush Kumar
P
lease provide us with an overview of the work that Fujitsu is doing in India? Please tell us about Palm Secure System?
All our Global solutions are available for the Indian market. The focus is mostly on SAP solutions and also on server consolidation and virtualisation. Fujitsu’s products, like Ultrabook, are available in the Indian market. Earlier identity identification required fingerprint or retina scan, but these can be copied. But veins and circulation of blood can’t be copied and it also ensures physical presence of the person. Our product, Palm Secure takes print of vessels and veins and hence is very secure. It has been installed in Japan and has banks as customers. Banking industry and ATM machines in Brazil also make use of
Fujitsu’s focus is on growing markets such as India. We are making concrete investments for developing capable solutions. Emerging markets are important to Fujitsu and India is one of the selected countries for strategic growth. We offer broad portfolio of products. We provide solutions and offer products and services on top of it. We have brought our wholesome global portfolio to India to complement the business requirements of customers.
Tell us about the work that you are doing for the automotive sector and other sectors in the country? Our major focus is on Automotive Sector, where we have advantage due to our Japanese origin. We work with some of the largest automakers in India. In Media Segment we work with some of the major English newspapers. They have been our customers for last six to seven years. Enterprise customers currently need to move on cloud; however, cloud requires consolidation, virtualisation and convergence of technologies.
What kind of projects you are doing in the government sector? What are your key focus areas in this sector? Fujitsu’s surveillance servers are installed in all major airports and railways. More than 60 percent of airport surveillance is done on Fujitsu’s servers. In railways, Fujitsu has 60-70 percent of market share in surveillance. Centre of scientific and industrial research (CSIR) has
42 labs in different locations, which are served by Fujitsu systems. We are also focusing on IITs and other Research Institutes. JLN Centre for Advance Scientific Research also uses Fujitsu’s solutions
In your opinion how will HPC (high performance computing) add value to the modern day computing? Tell us about the kind of technologies that you would like to bring to Indian market. We plan to be aggressive in the area of HPC (high performance computing) in the Indian market, but our overall major focus area will be on SAP. We have huge capability in terms of development, implementation, and support, as we provide unique value proposition to the existing customers. We bring best practices in India and get deeply involved with the customers, so that they keep coming back to us. Different parameters require different computing power to solve the problem which needs to be analyzed. For e.g., weather forecasting requires huge amount of computing power. We also have a significant amount of experience in super computers. It is noteworthy that Fujitsu has 10000 patents.
How do you look at the competition in Indian market? What are the challenges for Fujitsu? Fujitsu is a relatively late entrant in the Indian market where competitors have already taken the lead - this is the only challenge that we face. We have right portfolio and business culture in place. We have maintained our true identity while keeping high quality and cutting costs. We will take bigger steps to compete and we will be able to catch the league. Very soon the users of different providers will realise the competitive advantage that Fujitsu offer. September 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov
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In Person
K K Shetty
Director, India & SAARC, Enterprise & Telecom Networks, TE connectivity
Connectivity in its unique form
G
ive us an overview of the work that TE connectivity is doing in India.
We are a global company whose focus is on connectivity, and when we say connectivity we mean end to end solutions. We have provided solutions in almost all sectors, starting from defense, enterprise telecommunication and various other sectors. When it comes to connectivity, we are the number one globally. Broadly we are into four things - automotive, network solution, industrial and transportation. As far network solution is concerned we are into enterprise solutions, data centers, LAN connectivity etc. In telecommunication we have access network solution. We are present in 112 countries and in India we have more than 15 thousand employees. We are also involved in the various e-Governance projects of the government which involves LAN connectivity.
Different state governments are now focusing on building state data centers. How have you contributed in this sector and how do you plan to contribute? We mainly work with NIXI and NIC; they are the main implementing body. While implementing the data centers, there are few things associated with LAN cabling, servers, etc., that have to be taken care of these things are provided by us. We have also worked with some of the states for the implementation of the data centers. We have always worked with the partner organizations and we do not have direct involvement with the state governments.
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“In the next three years we can rightly say that the manufacturing sector will be booming. When the infrastructure projects starts, TE connectivity has a major role to play,” says K K Shetty. In conversation with Shruti Ghosal
Which are the key government departments that you are working with? We work with both the central and the state governments. We don’t work with the government directly; we work with the implementing bodies like NIXI and NIC. We work closely with the PMO and we have also worked with Jaipur legislature. We have also contributed in the power and energy projects; our involvement is there in most of the APDRC projects. We have also worked with NPCL, ONGC, Oil India and other PSEs. We have also built a lot of data centers for APDRP. It is going to be a very interesting project.
You have presence in all most all the verticals. So which vertical among these is the most important one for you? Our scale of operations is very large. But the focus areas changes from time to time. Previously we were focusing on the IT side, but now our focus has changed from IT to BSFI. Once
the government starts focusing on the BSFI sector, the manufacturing sector will also see an upliftment. In the next three years the manufacturing sector will be booming. When the infrastructure projects start, TE connectivity has a major role to play. Apart from these, our focus area is in providing enterprise solutions, telecommunication solutions. So we are doing our best to offer turnkey solutions.
How would you assess the growth of your company in the coming years? In 2014 we don’t see too much of a growth. Some areas like telecom, wireless, enterprise will grow in pockets. Presently we are focusing on the infrastructure management, so once the FDI comes in and the economic condition of the country improves, more people will invest in manufacturing sector. Once that happens we can expect the market to grow. According to me by 2015, the market will witness a rapid growth. With UIDAI and other projects coming in, the market is expected to grow a very rapid rate.
In Person
Rita Soni
CEO, NASSCOM Foundation
ICT for Inclusive Development development. The NASSCOM Foundation is also responsible for lot of research that is being done in the area of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D). With its objective to create an overall transformational impact in the country, the IT industry in India continues to re-invent itself with new business models. The Foundation, through its various programmes continues to serve as a facilitator of ICT4D and helping the industry achieve its goal of using newer technologies for public benefit.
“The NASSCOM Foundation is of the view that sustainability and inclusion are the core ingredients for development in a diverse country like India,” says Rita Soni
W
hat is your view of the IT scenario in India? How do you look at the journey of NASSCOM Foundation so far?
During the year 2000, we started having major breakthroughs in using IT technology for public benefit. There was an increased interest within IT companies to walk that extra mile and catalyse the nation’s development. In response to the direct need and the industry’s will to participate in the agenda for inclusive development, the NASSCOM Foundation was established in 2001. Being an offshoot of the industry body, NASSCOM, the NASSCOM Foundation has taken up the role of consolidating the industry’s efforts in the area of social
Please tell us about the initiatives that NASSCOM Foundation has undertaken to achieve its core objectives. The NASSCOM Foundation is of the view that sustainability and inclusion are the core ingredients for development in a diverse country like India. To achieve this noble objective of promoting social inclusion, the Foundation has come up with various programmes. These include the disability Initiative for sensitizing and assisting the IT industry to provide employment to persons with disabilities and creating accessible workplaces. We have a Business Responsibility Forum to help the industry understand the need to move beyond traditional CSR to mainstream business responsibility through dialogues and knowledge sharing. Then there is the MyKartavya initiative through which companies and its employees can empower NGOs through training or direct involvement. BigBridge is a hardware donation program via which the companies can serve the underserved communities by donating redundant computers and peripherals at the same time making sure responsible disposal of the e-waste generated by them. We also have BigTech, which is a software donation programme through which the software companies can meet the technology needs of NGOs .
e-Governance has now emerged as a potent tool for improving the lives of the people. What kind of work is NASSCOM doing in this area? We are looking e-Governance in a much more focused manner. We have created a knowledge network, which by itself is a clear demonstration of a model that supports development by helping all sections of society to access cutting edge technology. It functions across various means like bringing awareness about healthcare and education. It offers a platform that encourages and celebrates exceptional use of ICT for social development.
Please give us an insight into the work that is being done through the NASSCOM Knowledge Network? NASSCOM Knowledge Network is motivated by the idea of creating opportunities for all, irrespective of their caste, community, gender and social status. The NKN operates telecentres that provide access to technology to underserved communities and thus help bridge the digital divide thereby promoting digital inclusion. The NKN is designed to engage the industry, civil societies and communities in partnership to create an enabling environment that supports development of grassroots communities.
Do you think that PPP mode will change the dynamics of technology in India? Public Private Partnership plays a very important role in the area of business. When the government departments and private enterprises come together they can execute projects much more efficiently and thereby create better infrastructure and solutions for the people. Especially the IT companies can play a major role in this area. September 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov
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in person
Mohit Puri
Country Manager WatchGuard India & SAARC
Aggressive Strategy for Growth
Y
ou joined WatchGuard in 2006. Tell us about your journey so far with the
company.
In 2006, when I joined WatchGuard, I was a sales engineer. Basically, I was a technology person at that point of time and at heart I still am close to technology. Since 2008, I started looking after the Northern region, and by the end of the same year, I was looking after the entire enterprise business. Then in 2009 end, when my predecessor left, I took over as country head. I have been managing India & SAARC for four years now. I am proud to say that during the last few years we have grown exponentially at over 25 percent. This year is also quite exciting as first half is already gone and we have grown at over 30 percent. The journey has been really smooth, as well as challenging in terms of competition and market share that we have acquired. We have been acquiring new clients and growing simultaneously.
Provide us with an overview of the products & solutions that you have been offering in India. In India, we are developing product lines that we sell worldwide. Our flagship product is UTM (Unified Threat Management); we also call it XTM (Xtensible Threat Management). More than 90 percent of our business comes from XTM and UTM solutions. We have been in the Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for past four years along with few other brands. We have done extremely well in UTM market in the last few years. In 2010, we acquired a company called Borderware, which has an email security
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solution. We re-branded the solution and called it XCS. This solution is quite popular and it has anti-spam and ant-web filtering mechanism in it. Then we have DLP (Data Leakage Protection) and email encryption. We have customised solutions for different verticals like Retail & Hospitality, Education, Energy, Healthcare, Finance, etc.
What is your key focus area in India? What percentage of your revenue comes from Government Business? From the past few years we have been concentrating on the Government vertical. The other focus areas for us are Banking, Finance & Insurance and Education. We have been growing at a very healthy rate during the last few years. About 30 percent of our business came from Government sector. By any criteria, you can see for yourself that we have achieved lot of success in India. We are currently catering to some of the leading Public Sector Enterprises. We are playing a significant role in the power sector.
What kind of growth are you seeing in your government sector business? Please tell us about some of the landmark projects that you are doing for the government. Our focus will stay in the government sector. We believe in this sector and will continue to move strategically in this sector. Currently we are aiming to have 50 percent of our revenues from the government sector. Despite the slow condition that we are witnessing in the broader market, I believe that the business that we get from the government will continue to grow.
What is your view of the cyber security situation in India? Cyber security is a matter of great concern
“We have done extremely well in government sector during the last few years,” says Mohit Puri. In conversation with Ankush Kumar
for the Indian government. The government has already come up with a range of initiatives for safeguarding public data and keeping tab on organizations that are engaged in committing cyber crimes. Stringent initiatives are needed to curb cyber crime, as there exists the risk of losing intellectual property. WatchGuard has developed cutting edge solutions that can protect critical government data. We have joined hands with many other reputed vendors to provide a holistic solution to our clients.
In Person
Sudhkar Pennam
CEO, Cigniti Technologies Ltd
providing software testIng services globally where quality of software matters. Cigniti is well positioned to help Indian organizations improve business outcomes by assuring software quality. Cigniti has proven capabilities in testing applications across verticals like BFSI, Telecom, Retail and Healthcare. Currently revenues from India are less than five percent of our global revenues. However, we expect this to grow to about eight percent of our revenues over the next two years. We are seeing huge traction in the Indian IT market from enterprises, product companies and global corporations active in India. “Our goal is to eliminate the knowledge gap and reduce school dropout rates by creating infrastructures in the entire country,” says Sudhkar Pennam. In Conversation with Kartik Sharma
A
ccording to IDC India, over a period of five years (20122017), local IT services market will grow at a CAGR of 13.8 percent. How do you see Indian market for your company in the coming years? Enterprises and service providers will make huge investments in areas like cloud, mobility, Big Data across verticals like BFSI, Healthcare, Retail, Telecom, Manufacturing and Education. A recent Gartner study shows that the Indian financial services companies alone will spend 42,000 crores on IT products and services and there will be a 13 percent increase as compared to 2012. The investments are in business critical applications
Today Cigniti is regarded as India’s largest and world’s 3rd largest independent software testing services company. Where do you see the company few years from now? We are listed on the BSE and have been growing at above industry growth rates consistently over the last few years. We are providing significant value to our shareholders. We aim to become the world’s largest independent testing services company within the next three years through a combination of organic and inorganic growth. This will take our headcount from 800 to more than 2500 over the next three years. A majority of this work force will be from our Global delivery centres in Hyderabad. We aim to be the most preferred employer for every career tester in India.
Apart from the aggressive organic growth plans, what strategy are you making in the selected areas of focus which complement your capabilities as an organisation? Our executive management team members are industry recognised thought leaders. They share the wealth of knowledge by speaking out in leading forums like NASSCOM, STeP-In, STAR
Conferences, etc. We are also working with leading engineering colleges, finishing schools and institutes to improve the readiness and to help the students become world class software testing professionals. Cigniti has also undertaken various CSR activities through which we aim to impact more than one million lives through education. The goal is to eliminate the knowledge gap and reduce school dropout rates caused by lack of infrastructure and quality teaching. By translating and creating freely available videos into Telugu, this project aims to help more than 60 Lakh students in Andhra Pradesh. Currently the initiative is to produce, translate videos for Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology topics covered for classes V to X in the school syllabus. Cigniti is also working with NGOs to provide government school children with tablets with pre-loaded content. This will improve the quality of education and help lakhs of students stay in school.
What is your company’s go to market strategy for Indian market? Our go to market strategy for India has a three pronged approach. Firstly, we offer our specialised capabilities in areas like Performance Testing, Security Testing, Big Data testing and Mobile Testing. We are at the forefront in areas like Big Data testing, Mobile Testing and Security Testing which are emerging as big opportunities as an outcome of the increasing complexity of applications deployed by Indian enterprises. We are Partnering with tool vendors to offer unique solutions like automation migration and optimisation. Cigniti’s products like RoboQuick are being used by Indian enterprises for test automation migration. Lead with IP led testing services with tools that address gaps in commercial tools and speed up testing for our clients. As part of this strategy, we continue to invest in Cigniti Smart Tools. September 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov
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Software e-Gov initiatives Industry
Ensuring IT Recovery Readiness Narayana Menon, Director - Marketing, APAC & Middle East, Sanovi Technologies Pvt Ltd
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ll of us would remember the days of long queues, time consuming paper work, delays and associated hassles for simple things like paying electricity bills or depositing property tax, filing tax returns, or applying for a passport. Nowadays we can take care of such work with a click of the mouse. Today digitisation has become fairly advanced in India, and we are on way of creating an environment for making IT the backbone of governance in the country. The government has already taken initiatives to ensure that there is data sharing among departments at the centre and states to facilitate faster decision making.
Key Initiatives According to Gartner, Government’s expenditure on enterprise IT has reached nearly $7 billion in 2012 and is likely to grow at a CAGR of 9.8 percent from 2011 through 2016. Gartner also mentions that the major driver of government expenditure in IT is the ambitious Aadhaar project (UIDAI). Aadhaar is now being used for the implementation of various e-Governance initiatives. Another major initiative that is now nearing completion in many states is the Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (R-APDRP), which is focused on strengthening and up-gradation of Electricity Sub-Transmission and Distri-
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Narayana Menon
Software e-Gov initiatives Industry
Sanovi DRM software solutions achieves the following objectives • • • •
Validate complex recovery processes for heterogeneous environments Gain real time insight into application data loss and recovery time Rapidly identify causes of recovery test failures Automate DR procedures facilitating increased frequency of DR testing (drills) with significantly lower dependency on expert resources,thereby saving time and costs • Design recovery workflows to meet service levels and RPO/RTO objectives • Eliminate operational disruptions with offsite recovery preparation and testing • Perform recovery audit reporting and documentation
bution networks and adoption of Information Technology. Several other key e-Governance initiatives include systems for electronic registration of excise and service tax, land records; passport services across various states, processing of tax deducted at source, police criminal procedure codes, and unified data schemes for road transport. In 2011, the government launched its e-payment gateway, which handles all government payments to citizens. The government is also driving development of IT infrastructure and connectivity in the northeast region with increased funding.
A reliable Disaster Recovery (DR) solution Considering that IT is going to drive these initiatives, the effectiveness depends on the services being ‘always on’ or available to the consumers. This demands strong business continuity and disaster recovery plans to combat both natural and man-induced IT outages. These IT outages could be the result of floods, tsunamis, fires, power outages and even cyber-attacks and war. e-Governance and operations should move seamlessly to the DR site and be up-andrunning from there to ensure that the country functions optimally and IT enabled services demonstrate reliance in the face of adversity by being available to both internal (government agencies) and external (citizens) consumers.
Challenges faced in a typical IT DR landscape The typical challenges faced in ensuring recovery readiness are – to know that the DR will work as it has been designed and configured to,
Government’s expenditure on enterprise IT has reached nearly $7 billion in 2012 and is likely to grow at a CAGR of 9.8 percent from 2011 through 2016 within the typically heterogeneous technology environments, adhering to set SLAs (Service Level Agreements) regarding the Recovery Point Objectives and Recovery Time Objectives. This includes the ability to test DR readiness regularly, reduced dependency on experts for drills as well as to initiate fail over, automation of DR processes to avoid manual errors and also the ability to provide regular recovery readiness reports to all stake holders. Designing effective and efficient recovery workflows tend to be complex, with multiple steps and dependencies both latent and evident. Besides, validating recovery readiness/ recoverability on an on-going basis can be a problem. Performing actual recovery tests may be the best way to prove that a recovery solution works as designed, but there are good reasons why most organisations test less than they should. These reasons include operational disruption and costs, labour-intensive coor-
dination efforts between multiple groups, and lack of updated documentation reflecting the most current recovery workflows.
The Sanovi DRM Advantage Given the criticality, scale and the heterogeneous nature of IT deployments, DR management software plays a very important role in ensuring that critical IT applications are able to recover within set recovery objectives and meet the citizens’ expectations from e-Governance services. The need to address the complex IT DR challenges led the e-Governance project teams to evaluate an effective and tried and tested DR management solution, which is where the cutting edge Sanovi DRM software from Sanovi Technologies came in to the picture. Flagship government projects like the UIDAI as well as many of the R- APDRP projects in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand have entrusted their DR management to Sanovi DRM software. Sanovi DRM is also being actively considered for many other e-Governance projects as they decide on and implement their IT DR strategy. With Sanovi DRM, these critical government-led projects that are shaping the nation’s future will be confident of their ability to recover from outages, whether disaster-related or infrastructure failure-related. Sanovi is engaged in most of these projects with partners like WIPRO, HCL, TCS, HP, IBM and few others. Sanovi DRM software is a game changer for their DR landscape design and addresses many of the concerns and challenges mentioned above. Partners are able to leverage the Sanovi DRM capabilities to complete their DR equation to create a win-win situation for all involved. The bottom line is that Sanovi Technologies with its Sanovi DRM software is playing a key role in transforming the IT roadmap of the Indian nation. Ensuring recovery readiness to vital IT projects would be a key factor in India scaling up to a completely e-Governance ready super power. At the same time, it guarantees uninterrupted e-services from the Government to the common man making their life much easier when it comes to interacting with the various departments. It is our honour and privilege at Sanovi to be a part of these key initiatives of national interest as technology enablers. September 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov
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viewpoint
Online e-Governance at this time precisely only for privileged people with digital access
V
arious initiatives taken up in the last 15 years or so by the State/Central government departments, agencies and other entities, have endeavored to reach the benefits of the government-administered welfare schemes and also to deliver the basic citizen services to the under-privileged citizens located at the remotest part of our country. The vision of National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) has also focused to reach the government services emerging out of identified Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) to the citizen’s doorstep at an affordable price. However after six years of NeGP implementation, many pertinent questions come to our mind: Are the e-Governance Initiatives, including NeGP MMPs, adequately geared up to meet the aspirations of the underprivileged citizens for whom these were originally planned? Obviously the implementation has not been in fast track and not in the top priority radar of the authority, but is it going in the right direction? Are the implementation phases for the projects well-coupled and in the correct relay of sequences? Have we put a robust monitoring and evaluation framework for these green field activities of governments so as to enable probable on-course corrections? After all, UNOadministered researches reveal that only 25% of the e-governance initiatives have met with total success while 50% with part success and balance 25% failed totally or abandoned in the middle of implementation. Incidentally, to get answers to all such questions some agencies in the country have taken pains to carry out occasional survey to develop some sort of score cards for the government which also do not reflect, in some cases, the true picture of the existing situation. A dip stick analysis of the current status would indicate a mixed scenario of success and failure and a long list of pending activities, to be done on priority by the government, both on short term and long term basis. As it appears on the ground reality, whatever success has
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been achieved so far in various e-governance programmes and projects have effectively benefitted limited number of privileged residents of major cities and towns having necessary technical and financial resources required to adopt ICT in to their daily chores of activities. But what stops these benefits to proliferate in the remote habitats of the country? Nonavailability of telecom connectivity with appropriate bandwidth capacity is a major one while reliable and un-interrupted power is another profound reason. Slow improvement in these two basic infrastructure elements across the country has surely put the usability of the core and supporting e-government infrastructure like, State Data Centre (SDC), State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG), State Wide Area Network (SWAN), Common Services Centre (CSC) at a sub-optimal level. There is a requirement of proper strategy to commit to IT-isation of governance which can compensate for undesirable sluggish implementation in many states. For example, e-District Scheme would be successful in any State only when SSDG, SDC and SWAN are in place. However, if all these three are functional but numerous digital applications and content pertaining to the five G2C service sectors identified under e-District Scheme, are not ready then nothing would happen. And to appreciate all these phasing, sequences etc essentially well, the project nodal officers (read IT secretary, commissioner, district collector etc) should remain in the position continuously for at least three years which is usually least probable! And even if all these happen incidentally, hundreds of involved officials do not receive ICT and application-specific training on time to take up the ICT-donned roles in the electronic service delivery chain! After the declaration in the Joint Session of the Parliament dated June 4th, 2009, on expanding broadband coverage to connect every panchayat to a broadband network in three years, three Block-level pilots for the National Optical Fibre Cable Network (NOFN) project could be completed in recent past. Roll out of this Scheme have not yet picked up the momentum and the
project is likely to miss its early 2014 deadline, as reportedly apprehended by Mr Pitroda, Adviser to PM. Many of the e-District applications ( panIndia roll out for most of them yet to be firmed up ) would need higher level of bandwidth which can only be provided by NOFN, when gets rolled out across the country. Since the submission of the ‘game changer’ Bill on Electronic Delivery of Services (EDS) in the Parliament in December 2011, it is now with the Parliament Standing Committee and we have little knowledge when this Bill will get in to an Act and pave the way for mandatory electronic delivery for suitable services. The EDS mandate ( when it comes ), the MMPs, especially the e-District project, the fast proliferating Mobile Service Delivery eco-system, all will call for development of numerous digital applications and content in next 2-3 years. But so far no concrete step is in view to create an appropriate incentivized digital content and application policy which may excite non-state actors to invest on development of applications and content on priority. Till the time EDS Act, e-District projects, Mobile Service Delivery Gateway, all other core and support e-governance infrastructure including CSC at every Panchayat village, NOFN project, all are fully implemented with the support of a comprehensive digital content policy, it appears that online e-governance will be confined to the privileged financially included citizens having access to limited available broadband connectivity, through desktops, smart phones, tablets, cyber café etc and not to the huge mass of rural population of 83.3 crores. We have to go a long way to translate the NeGP vision in to reality for these people for which it appears that the urgency and involved workload are not fully appreciated by the people who matter.
Ashis Sanyal Consulting Editor, egov
Digital Economy Policies
An Initiative of Centre for Digital Economy Policy
Cybersecurity Dr Jaijit Bhattacharya, Partner, Catallyst Constellation Parminder Singh, Chairperson, Cybersecurity Cell, Centre for Digital Economy Policy Research Saurabh Singh, Public Policy Executive, Internet Governance, HP
T
he increasingly important role played by information technology and telecom in India’s growth, and their growing reach and usage in India’s socio-economic activities have highlighted the need for cybersecurity. Without a robust security infrastructure in place, cyberspace can become a vulnerable nerve-center where any act of sabotage or espionage can compromise India’s financial systems, citizen’s services, and sensitive data leading to partial or complete paralysis of India’s critical infrastructure. Recent cyber offensives, such as the Stuxnet virus attack on Iran’s nuclear reactors, and the espionage attempts against several states by hackers based in China, have put cybersecurity at the heart of national security. Cybersecurity comprises of multiple facets including network security, information security, critical infrastructure protection, law enforcement, and disaster recovery. These facets come with their unique and often inter-dependent issues. For the smooth implementation of cybersecurity they need to be addressed keeping a holistic perspective in viewrather than following a piecemeal approach. What makes creation and implementation of cybersecurity challenging is that its scope goes beyond the traditional jurisdiction of government ministries and departments. Another challenge is to incorporate security parameters at the design and operations stage rather than as an additional feature to be put on the top of existing systems and processes. Since cybersecurity is a critical component of national security, it is primarily the concern of the government. However, it is the private sector that controls most of the critical information infrastructure in the cyberspace. This implies that the government must look beyond the regulatory framework and partner with the private sector in
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order to create sustainable mechanisms that can introduce and maintain national cybersecurity. The private sector not only has a stake in working on cybersecurity as it controls substantial critical information infrastructure, but also it has the required technical know-how that can create the requisitestructure for cybersecurity using costeffective and implementable security solutions. The recent steps by the government, such as setting up Joint Working Groups, on different facets of cybersecurity will enable greater trust and cooperation between the government and the private sector, thus creating an atmosphere conducive for private-public partnership. India’s Cybersecurity strategy needs to be geared towards achieving a fine balance between security through data encryption and the necessity for law enforcement agencies to monitor the information exchange for national security and anti-terrorism operations. For this it becomes imperative that a national encryption policy is formulated and rolled out at the earliest to prevent possible conflicting situations. With increasing number of cybercrimes, the pursuit and conviction of transnational cybercriminals has become essential for implementing cybersecurity and deterring future offenders. Any clamp down on international cybercriminals requires sustained global cooperation between governments. This kind of government-togovernment collaboration that moves beyond national boundaries and jurisdictions, and requires multiple-level engagements is challenging. However, the potential threat of cybercrimes to the maintenance national security calls for fresh
avenues of dialogue between sovereign nations through existing and new forums that can establish international treaties for law enforcement pertaining to cybersecurity. Implementation of cybersecurity also calls for greater education and awareness regarding cybercrimes. At the moment India is facing a shortage of cybersecurity experts with reports indicating that India will need half a million cybersecurity professionals by 2015. Partnership with the academia will help develop thismuch needed skilled-security manpower, fueling research into cyber forensics and analytics. A cybersecurity educational eco-system supported by leading technology institutions is also essential for such capacity building. The nation and industry are anticipating a comprehensive and progressive cybersecurity policy that takes into account the multiple dimensions and challenges that are faced by a diverse nation like India. An institutional framework for managing these dimensions should be responsive, agile, and adaptable. As the government rolls out the national cybersecurity architecture in the coming months, the nation hopes that a resilient mechanism will be put in place that can withstand any future cyber warfare.
the author is President, Centre for Digital Economy Policy Research; Partner, Catallyst Constellation
Empowering India
The Future is Solar Power Samit Mitra, Senior Vice President (Sales & Service), Su-Kam Power Systems Ltd
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u-Kam Power Systems Limited is an Indiabased power solutions provider with a presence in more than 70 countries. The company provides power backup solutions for both domestic as well as industrial markets, and its focus is on ecofriendly, inexhaustible energy solutions like solar power. Su-Kam has emerged as the biggest brand in its category in 22 countries, and we have sold our products across the world. Su-Kam has six operational units in the state of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and also in Nepal. We are planning to start another manufacturing unit in Himachal Pradesh. Su-Kam is also in the process of starting its own battery production unit in India.
Rapid growth With the present enterprise strength of over 1500 people, Su-Kam brought freedom from power problems to millions across India and in 70 countries across the globe. Two years ago inverter was our predominant division and it used to contribute almost 95 percent of the revenues. The share of inverters in our overall business has now gone down to 80 percent. Though the share of business in inverter division has gone down but in the last two years we have doubled our turnover. We have completed one year in automotive battery segment which is growing at a rapid speed. Automotive batteries and gen-sets are among the future growth plans of the company and the segment will contribute 25 percent in the overall turnover.
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Samit Mitra Su-Kam has successfully accomplished and delivered number of government projects in the recent times. In year 2012 we have successfully executed a project of developing 1kVA (755 No) and 5kVA (29 No) Solar PCU and RTU (784 No) for one of the client to be installed in Madhya Pradesh forest department. With the installation of Su-Kam’s Solar Power Conditioning Unit, the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department now has clean and green energy available for their remote offices, chowkies and range offices thus minimizing damage to the forest and natural resources. The Solar Power Conditioning Unit helps MPFD to protect the forest and wild animals in the forest.
Initiatives in solar energy Su-Kam is the largest provider of Solar Powered backup Solutions in North East India. We have undertaken several key projects in coordination with various government authorities. Su-Kam has successfully installed solar powered backup solutions of the capacity of 700 KW which is one of the largest installations in
the region. Assam Rifles project is a landmark project in the history of solar power projects at Su-Kam. The Assam Rifles Project required Su-Kam to supply, install, and commission and maintain 50 KW off-grid solar power plants at nine locations in Manipur and Nagaland, three locations in Nagaland and six in Manipur. We have also worked with Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA) for a street lighting project. Under this project we have installed 500 Watt inverter with battery backup solution in the rural areas of Tamil Nadu. Solar energy is going to play a major role in fulfilling the energy gap in the country. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is the nodal Ministry of the Government of India for all matters relating to new and renewable energy. Su-Kam is one of the channel partners of Renewable Energy division (MNRE). In Kerala, we have provided solar facilities to almost 10000 customers in five months with the involvement of Agency for Non-Conventional Energy and Rural Technology (ANERT) State governments are also aggressive towards the usage of solar energy like Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Kerala. The Government of Tamil Nadu has issued a notification which makes it mandatory for commercial organizations to consume six percent of its power consumption through solar devices. We believe that as a private entity we can do it to a certain level and we feel that the government should popularize the usage of solar energy. Chhattisgarh is the leading state in the country which provides highest amount of subsidy to install solar rooftop solutions. In fact, there are only six states in India where per capita of solar conversion is highest which includes Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Uttaranchal.
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A Global Conference on Financial Inclusion & Payment Systems FIPS 2013 24-25 October 2013 | Eros Hilton, New Delhi
Mee Seva Setting new standards for e-Governance
FIPS Conference
Empowering the Nation with IT
FIPS Awards FIPS awards will recognize the achievements and best practices by government and private organizations in the Financial Inclusion space. The multiple award categories will identify the initiatives taken up by the organizations which are active in this area.
Transforming India through e-Governance
FIPS 2013 conference will delve into all the nuances of the inclusive growth strategy and come out with a roadmap for a better and inclusive society. The conference will see participation of various stakeholders in the banking and finance sectors that have been working seminaly in financial inclusion and related areas.
Exhibition The FIPS exhibition will provide a global platform to organizations for displaying their outstanding initiatives, products and services in the domain of banking, financial inclusion and payment systems. For more details log on to fips.eletsonline.com
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eINDIA 2013 Convened with the theme of ‘Building a Knowledge Society,’ eINDIA 2013 Summit was held on 23-24 July, 2013, at Hyderabad International Convention Centre, Hyderabad. The Summit was divided into three parallel thematic tracks on Governance, Education and Health. The eINDIA 2013 was inaugurated by the N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Chief Minister, Government of Andhra Pradesh.
L to R: Sanjay Jaju, Secretary, Information Technology & Communications Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh; N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh; Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Minister - IT, Government of Andhra Pradesh; J Satyanarayana, Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India; K S Rao, Union Minister for Textiles, Government of India The eINDIA 2013 was held with the sole objective of offering a networking platform for discussions between key government officials, industry experts, stakeholders, decision makers and private players on the essential issue of ICT implementation in governance, education and healthcare. Inclusive growth can only become a reality when the government takes some significant initiatives for deployment of ICT in all the major areas - this is the clear message that emerged from the eINDIA 2013 Summit. The Summit offered a unique, leisurely environment for experts and key decision makers from across the nation to come together and ponder over the most important issues that the nation faces today. In the pages that follow we have done the coverage of the eINDIA 2013 through a series of pictures and texts.
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Building a Knowledge Society
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Inaugural Session Information technology has evolved much in the past 25 years. It is very important that technology must be cheap and affordable. It should be within the reach of common man and must change their life. For a government, it is very essential that any citizen of the state must get government services which he requires in an easy, accessible and corruption free manner. The concept of Mee Seva was initiated in a review meeting where I expressed the need for a system which could deliver services to the citizens in just 15 minutes. N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh
Mee Seva, from a very modest beginning of 100 centres, 10 services, and one district, has now got 7000 centres, 150 services across the state of Andhra Pradesh. We have covered more than 2 crore 35 lakh transactions in the last one year.
Last year, we crossed 108 million dollars nationally in terms of the turn over of IT sector and now we are looking to cover 300 million dollars by 2020. The National ICT policy of 2012 aims to take the IT in India to the next level. We want that India should rule the world in terms of product manufacturing.
Sanjay Jaju Secretary, Information Technology & Communications Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh
J Satyanarayana Secretary, Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India
Youth are the biggest power and asset of India. Talent has wiped out the barriers between the rich and the poor. I want to make Hyderabad a synonym for letter H. We want to make Hyderabad a global leader in Information Technology. World Bank rated Hyderabad as the best metro city in India.
Ponnala Lakshmaiah Minister - IT, Government of Andhra Pradesh
The reasons which I believe that are ill for the society are red tapism, in-decision, and corruption. All these are spoiling the progress of the entire country. But at the same time, I am very happy to see Andhra Pradesh government taking IT initiatives which have checked these ill practices. Today one can get government certificates in just 15 minutes through these e-Centres. I honestly admire the youths of the country who are rendering their services for the society. K S Rao, Union Textiles Minister, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India
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ICTs in Financial Inclusion There has been a great thrust in last four to five months from the Department of Financial Services, Government of India, to put a lot of energy into the system of financial inclusion and to direct transfer of benefits. The backend computerization and the backend digitization of the department of social welfare in J&K government have already started and it is going on. Bipul Pathak, Commissioner/Secretary, Science & Technology and Information Technology Department, Government of Jammu & Kashmir
Ministry of Urban Development has taken lots of initiatives in the area of e-Governance and our ministry is guiding the states/UTs and urban local bodies for creating fully fledged IT Infrastructure which is creating transparency, speed, visibility of the benefits for the citizen at large. approved under JNNURM. Out of 65 Mission cities, 37 Mission cities have implemented e-Governance reform.
Central Bank of India is one of the pioneer banks in both the financial inclusion and in direct benefit transfers. We have covered financial inclusion in around 200 villages. Central Bank of India is undertaking various financial inclusion activities in around 377 districts throughout India.
Prem Narayan Director (JNNURM), Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India
Ashok Kumar CGM, Central Bank of India
Banking and financial inclusion needs technology. Financial Inclusion is somewhat different from traditional banking, it has very basic characteristic which will have to address will take the financial inclusion forward. The few of characteristic are convenience, security, flexibility and at low cost, in examining this characteristic. I think ICT can help in extending these services. B R G Upadhyay Chairman, Deccan Grameen Bank
Technology is the key to provide low cost financial services. It has the potential to address the issues of outreach and create delivery of the twin objects of financial inclusion initiatives. The outreach is expected to cover the poor, under privileged, uneducated sections of the society which is more prevalent in rural areas causing financial exploitation. Some of the challenges need to overcome with technologies intervention in the areas of distance and reach. Raveendranath Hebbar DGM, (Agri, SME, OPS & Financial Inclusion) Corporation Bank, Mangalore
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When I was heading a sub division in the state of Jammu & Kashmir, we were facing problems in enhancing confidence level in government officials to launch various new initiatives. To overcome it, we started undertaking various exercises like automation of bank branches, introduction of insurance schemes, building network of mobile towers and organization of MSME workshop. Various initiatives are taken to bring the rural masses to the mainstream governance system like e-Chopal. Amit Sharma, Additional Secretary, Revenue Department, Government of Jammu & Kashmir
e-Governance: Changing Expectations
Today e-Governance is a whole sea of change in the governance sector both in government and private sector. All the governance initiatives basically targeted to improve service delivery today have reduced corruption and have increased transparency in the entire service delivery system. These initiatives have increased revenue in taxation department. J Raymond Peter Principal Secretary, Social Welfare, Government of Andhra Pradesh
Citizen centricity is the ultimate feature of any e-Governance initiative. We are looking to make our internal transactions more transparent and efficient, but our key idea is to improve the life of the citizens. When we started Mee Seva, we wanted to include services which were directly linked with citizens. Sanjay Jaju Secretary, Information Technology & Communications Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh
The subsidy provided under Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas accounts to about Rs 1, 80,000 crores. A large percentage of fiscal deficits are due to subsidies. The role of IT becomes very important to improve the efficiency of supply chain. We have taken initiatives to encourage indigenous market and reduce our dependency on imports. Dr Neeraj Mittal Joint Secretary (Marketing), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India
One of the most important aspects of UID is the accuracy in the database. It is happening for the first time when the database is speaking to other database. Whenever we match any database with the UID, all the fake registrations get vanished. We have now ventured into newer areas where in we have linked our data with the database of various other departments to verify the authenticity and credentials of people applying for various government certificates. Rajesh Aggarwal Secretary IT, Government of Maharashtra
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Today the mobile penetration has increased tremendously in the country. Governments have now started to focus on m-Governance. We have developed a mobile based application under Home Ministry for border areas. It is a very successful project as it includes around 5,000 schemes varying from small to medium which are directed by the Home Ministry. It is replicated by the Government of India and can be used in the other border states of the country. Bipul Pathak, Commissioner/Secretary, Science & Technology and Information Technology Department, Government of Jammu & Kashmir
It is very important to enhance capacity building in the system as per as the implementation of any e-Governance is concerned. Capacity building has to be improved in both the segments; the people who are in governance and the people who are going to use the services. Dr Ashwini Kumar Sharma Managing Director, National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT)
We have introduced the concept of e-Auction through MSTC. We have emerged as a major player in the country for promoting e-commerce. It has presented with e-Auction portal namely, www.mstcecommerce.com which has become an immensely popular tool for transacting business over the internet in a most transparent and fair manner. B B Singh Director (Commercial), MSTC Ltd
Speakers at the session on “e-Governance : Changing Expectations�
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Today Government is trying to focus on social delivery of services. There are major challenges in the management of the schemes in both the financial and physical terms. Identification of correct beneficiaries, awareness among the beneficiaries, and the outreach are the issues which we need to enhance. All of us agree that technology is the great enabler. Dr Gautam Bose Deputy Director General National Informatics Centre
L to R : Sanjay Jaju, Dr Ashwini Kumar Sharma, Dr Gautam Bose
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Railway IT Indian Railway is efficiently using ICT technique to increase the efficiency of service delivery system. Indian Railways has been a pioneer in the use of IT, as applications for interaction with the customers. Railway has taken various landmark initiatives which have changed the concept of travelling in the country. The best example of IT in railways is the Passenger Reservation System, which enables us to manage the reservation of millions of travelers in a seamless and efficient manner. Muktesh Pardeshi Joint Secretary and CPO, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India
Indian Railway has been pioneer in the use of ICTs for its various businesses. It was being used for operating statistic, payroll and inventory management. We want to eliminate delay & red tapism which is the biggest barrier in the functioning of the government and also we want to have higher revenue realization through the usage of IT. Shailesh Tiwari Director E/C&IS, Railway Board
We have also started working on computerization of the works of the manufacturing units. Our coach factory in Chennai has completed the first phase of modern ERP system in factory which will improve its efficiency. We are taking various initiatives throughout India. S S Mathur General Manager, Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS)
L to R : Shailesh Tiwari, Muktesh Pardeshi, S S Mathur , Sunil Kumar
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IRCTC has registered user database of more than three crores and our annual financial transaction were around `13000 crores. Out of 31 crore booking last year, Railway counter booking was 55 percent and e-ticketing through IRCTC was ranging around 45 percent, out of this 45 percent, 37 percent individuals directly making the tickets through website. Sunil Kumar GGM, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC)
S S Mathur addressing the session on “Railway IT�
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Smart Cities: Creating High-Tech Urban Infrastructure In India, 2001 census says that 70 percent population in coming future is going to become urbanized. Hence we can take steps to make our cities smarter by analyzing the errors, which we made in the past. Smart cities must be more and more energy efficient and citizen friendly. Ensuring the safety of people which are living in cities becomes important. Technology can really help in ensuring the citizen centricity and can make our cities safer. S K Joshi, Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh
Technology is really as essential as the three utilities- water, gas and electricity. We have started various initiatives like issuance of Smart ID cards to the residents with the RFID for smart monitoring, entry and exit in the President’s Estate. We have also launched of e-Management of Visitors System (e-MVS) for citizens to visit the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Suresh Yadav Officer on Special Duty to the President, President’s Secretariat, Rashtrapati Bhavan
Centre for Good Governance (CGG) undertakes action research, provides advice, and conducts change management programmes for government departments and agencies to help them implement their reform agenda successfully. We are involved in delivery of services by providing backend solutions.
We are working on the concept of smarter cities for last five years. IBM has undertaken various initiatives in the area of operations, transportations, and water. We are working with many governments and cities across the globe. IBM has solutions which improve operational efficiency within each of these sectors.
K Ramakrishna Rao Director General & Executive Director, Centre for Good Governance, Government of Andhra Pradesh
Naval Khosla Client Solutions Professional Manager, IBM Software Industry Solutions, India/ South Asia
Motorola enables Mobile workers with Rugged Hand held devices that can access, enter data and complete tasks right from the field thereby increasing productivity & efficiency through Workforce Mobility. Motorola has successfully initiated traffic management system called as e-Challans. It enables Law Enforcement Agencies to capture standard citation data like a paper Traffic Ticket electronically and transmit that data via a GPRS connection to a Central Server. Biometric Identity Management solution can be used to determine any person’s previous arrest records. Manish Khanna, National Head - Government Business, Motorola
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Information Technology has transformed our lives in a big way. If there was single biggest game changer in the past 30 years, then it would be surely Information Technology. It is also not exaggeration to say that information technology has also changed urban lives. Right from running traffic signal to running metro lines, from water supply lines run through micro processor, IT has played a very important role. Sanjay Jaju, Secretary, Information Technology & Communications Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh
New Dimensions in e-Governance Lessons and Steps
We have initiated Passport Seva Project as there was a massive increase in the demand for passport and related services. We wanted to meet the expectations and demands of the citizens. Our vision was to deliver all Passportrelated services to the citizens in a timely, transparent, more accessible and reliable manner. Muktesh Pardeshi Joint Secretary and CPO, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India
State Employment mission is the subsidiary body of ETET. Odisha State Employment Mission Project strives for bringing speed and transparency into the system. We have developed Online Recruitment for Odisha State Employment Mission (e-Nijukti). Dr. Chandrashekhar Kumar Commissioner Cum Seceratry, Employement & Technical Education & Training Dept, Government of Odisha
Several new initiatives have been taken in the forefront of e-Governance. Over years, citizen centric has gained importance. Every department under central or state administration is giving importance to services which can bring a positive change in the lives of citizens. In past few years, many state governments passed acts to give right to public services which made it mandatory for governments to deliver services in a time bound manner. IT made public officials more accountable towards the citizens.
Madhusudan Padhi, Secretary IT, Government of Odisha
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Apart from the initiatives started by the bureaucracy themselves or by the citizens, political commitment is required. Transparency can check the level of corruption which is mixed in the entire service delivery system at various levels. It empowers people and they can make the governments accountable. Transparency is maintained in every aspect of governance. R Damodar Secretary, Legal Affairs, Government of Andhra Pradesh
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MeritTrac offers a wide footprint of services for recruitment of candidates into various positions for government departments, PSUs and PSBs. We design and develop customized tests including content for specific recruitments. We also provide biometric candidate authentication solution to verify the authentication of candidate. We believe in enhancing security and transparency of recruitment through computer based examinations. Daljeet Singh Head Government Business, MeritTrac
Dr Daljeet Singh receiving the speaker’s momento from Madhusudan Padhi
Our vision is to create participatory, transparent and collaborative environment, accessible and available to everyone. The idea is to truly reinforce the principal of citizen centric governance. For open standards many of the e-Governance initiatives look for an enterprise class open standard solutions. Shashank Tapliyal Director, Enterprisedb
We have launched Centralized unique data repository named AP State Resident Data Hub (APSRDH). It aims in Reduction in cost and time for beneficiary selection and service delivery. APSRDH application framework contains a utility to Cleanse departmental database; Seed with Aadhaar Number. Anoop Singh, Special Secretary, Department of IT, Government of Andhra Pradesh
Speakers at the session on “New Dimension in e-Governance Lessons and Steps
Shashank Tapliyal receiving the speaker’s momento from Madhusudan Padhi
L to R : Madhusudan Padhi, Muktesh Pardeshi, Shashank Tapliyal
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Comprehensive Financial Management System (CFMS): Leveraging Technology Availability of capacity is an important aspect for ICT in good governance. Skilled and trained IT professional in governance can ensure effective delivery of services in a planned way. But the most prominent challenge which we need to address is to change the existing mindset at every stage of governance. If there are certain rules which are reluctant then there should be a mindset to amend them. Rajesh Aggarwal Secretary, IT, Government of Maharashtra
We need to assess where we stand today. All state governments are at various stages of rolling out many of their services in ‘e’ form. This is an attempt to move up the spectrum towards good governance. Bipul Pathak Commissioner/Secretary, Science & Technology and Information Technology Department, Government of Jammu & Kashmir
National GIS Programme is highly conceptualized and I think there is a lot of investment pending around GIS technologies. The other areas of our focus are the Ministries and various Government departments. So we are very sharply focused in internal security and defense.
Arvind Mehrotra President, Asia Pacific, NIIT Technologies
With comprehensive financial management system, we have made several innovations inside the department. We have automated the treasury management system and now automated the budget management system to an extent that the expenditure process and accounts generation is now an automated process. These are all bits and pieces; our first effort is to integrate all the elements of financial management.
Dr P V Ramesh Principal Secretary Finance, R&E, Government of Andhra Pradesh
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Country’s development is basically dependent on two major areas; education and healthcare. We also focus on defense, internal and external security. We provide technology solution to the defense forces in the country. We also target urban management of various cities. SAP has designed billing software systems for electricity boards.
R Shekhar Director Pre Sales, SAP
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I think we have been very sharply focused in the Government space predominantly because Government business is a very good hedge for the economic turmoil that we are seeing globally. Moreover what makes NIIT Technology somewhat unique is that we have very balanced revenues coming from all our geographical areas.
S Prabhu SAP Practice Head for NIIT Technologies
e-Governance Achievements in Uttar Pradesh
We have underlined three main focuses as far as IT is concerned in Uttar Pradesh. One of the most popular is distribution of laptops to students. It enhances the future potential of the state. We have successfully distributed one crore digitally signed certificates to the citizens in past 14 months. Jiwesh Nandan Principal Secretary, Information Technology & Electronics, Mining & Additional Sources of Energy, Government of Uttar Pradesh
We want to have a well defined IT set up in governance sector. I am very hopeful that in coming future many more cities in the country will cater Bangalore and Hyderabad. It is a great opportunity for us to adopt and apply the best IT practices in the country.
The Corporation was setup with the main objective of promoting IT and Electronics industries in the State of Uttar Pradesh. Electronics Corporation Limited is presently engaged to procure and supply of Computer Hardware, Development of Computer Software and to provide Computer Training to the government employees.
Dr P V Ramesh Principal Secretary Finance, R&E, Government of Andhra Pradesh
Praveen Kumar Senior Manager, UP Electronics Corporation Ltd
We are consultant to the Government of Uttar Pradesh. Government of Uttar Pradesh wanted to take IT initiatives to attain inclusive growth in order to make the lives of citizens more vibrant. We advised government that IT units setup in IT Cities / IT Parks on Independent Feeder shall be provided uninterrupted power supply from State Utility. Government directed each department shall earmark a minimum of 2 percent or as per directions of Government of Uttar Pradesh from time to time of its plan budget for IT applications. Shrimant Dash, Senior Consultant, KPMG
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We have defined two zones one as core zone and the other as non-core zone. Core Zone (60%) consists of Computer Hardware & Peripheral Units, Software Development Units, Middleware Units, BPO/KPO/ Consulting Units. On the other hand Non-core Zone (40%) consists of Education, Infrastructural Support like Power Generations, Voice & Data Communication, Water & Sewage Management, e-Waste Management, and Healthcare. Adil Zaidi Senior Consultant, Ernst & Young
ICT for Public Safety & Security
Our aim was to position Uttar Pradesh as an attractive & preferred IT/ITES investment destination. We wanted to Promote Tier II & Tier III cities as IT Hubs by setting up stateof the-art infrastructure like IT City, IT Parks etc. we created a portfolio of IT enabled services (Public & Private) for making Intelligent & Smart cities. Uday Singh Senior Consultant, KPMG
We wanted to create a dynamic, world-class model police organization by providing innovative IT solutions that would not only facilitate law enforcement for community safety but would also aim to build crime and criminal information database for effective crime control and deliver citizen centric services in a proactive and efficient manner.
There is a big challenge as the volume of digital data is increasing tremendously. There are industry pointers that say eight per cent of information is not in format. It is adding pressure to IT. We need to look solutions which can look into end to end solutions.
Manoj Agarwal Inspector General of Police - SCRB, Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat
Devesh Ranjan Solution Architect, Industry Solutions - Government Sector, India Software Labs
ICT is being used increasingly by the security agencies across the world and in our country for many purposes. Detection & Prevention of crimes, for surveillance, and issues regarding the security in the cyber space, cyber security. There are provisions in the IT Act where the offences committed in the cyber space are punishable. Every state government has the cyber cell department under the police who are looking into the cyber crimes. Madhusudan Padhi Secretary IT, Government of Odisha
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Multi-Stakeholder integrated initiatives that deploy appropriate ICT technologies, to enhance public and private authorities’ ability to monitor threats and vulnerabilities, provide actionable early intelligence, speedy resolution of security vulnerabilities, incidents, and coordinated response to emergency situations in urban areas. The four major components of the safe city method are: public private partnerships centered on communities and businesses for law-enforcement and enhanced security. Rama Vedashree, Vice President, e-Governance and Domestic IT, NASSCOM
Suresh Kumar Jindal receiving speaker’s momento from Madhusudan Padhi
IP-Surveillance system is a security system that gives users the ability to monitor and record video, audio over an IP network such as a local area network (LAN) or the Internet. Safe Cities start by integrating and unifying a variety of disparate technologies: Municipal surveillance into one integrated solution, Cameras from private sources. Devraj Dam, VP, SmartLink
Safety involves whatever contributes in maintaining the “Steady state” of a social and physical structure or place in terms of whatever it is intended to do. Safety connotes stability over time, continuity of function and reliability of structure. Public safety in the ICT parlance is being talked about only in terms of Command and Control Centres and Safe Cities. Suresh Kumar Jindal Director, DRDO, Government of India
Speakers at the session on “ ICT for Public Safety and Security ”
Rama Vedashree receiving speaker’s momento from Madhusudan Padhi
L to R : Suresh Kumar Jindal, Manoj Agarwal, Devraj Dam
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ICT in Telecom, Power and Energy One important thing which I have learned is the capacity building in the system and one should never feel defeated. Telecom whenever is talked comes to communication challenge whether is a television, postal or mobiles phones. We love to use technology in every sector and hence the challenges increases. ICT today can play a very important role in telecom, power and energy.
Pradeep Chaturvedi Director (IT), Rajya Sabha Secretariat, Government of India
There is lot more to be done in terms of ICT in power sector. It should be used effectively in transmission and distribution of energy. Today there is a need to develop disaster risk management website for the control rooms of our power plants. We must be in identify before hand that what is done wrong then only suitable IT solutions could provided.
Gujarat Info Petro Ltd. (GIPL) is a state owned PSU under the Government of Gujarat. We can broadly divide our services into three categories, software, ISP, and consultancy. We not only give solutions but we also provide manpower to various important projects. We are successfully running various government departments.
Suresh Chanda Chairman, AP Transco
V K Sharma Director & CEO, Guj Info Petro Ltd (GIPL)
Speakers at the session on “ ICT in Telecom, Power and Energy”
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One of the most prominent features of Mee Seva was the catogorisation of G-C services. We made it mandatory that no services would be given without digital signature certificates.We have completed more than 1.60 crore transactions in past one year
Anoop Singh Special Secretary, Department of IT, Government of Andhra Pradesh
Pradeep Chaturvedi receiving Speaker’s momento
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Jiwesh Nandan
Principal Secretary, Information Technology & Electronics, Mining & Additional Sources of Energy, Government of Uttar Pradesh
Empowering Citizens with IT
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What steps could be taken to make the Common Service Centres more financially viable?
ttar Pradesh has taken many initiatives for improving the infrastructure in the area of Information Technology. What is your vision for a digitally empowered Uttar Pradesh?
State of the art IT infrastructure is a prerequisite for improvement in governance. There are basically two prominent aspects of governance. One is citizen centricity and the other is the internal functionality, which is not connected with the citizens. But the most prominent area that we need to focus upon is the quality of services. We have launched e-Procurement to bring transparency in the procurement process in the entire state of Uttar Pradesh. As far as IT is concerned, we have underlined three main focus areas. One of the most popular initiatives that we have is concerned with the distribution of laptops to the students. By distributing free laptops to students, we are ensuring that the next generation gets good experience of computers and computing, and they are in a position to take IT forward in the state. We have created a stable policy environment, and now we are attempting to involve major government departments into the umbrella of e-Governance. We have launched 98 lakh digitally signed certificates, which are being used in major government and financial institutions.
Today many states are taking initiatives to use ICT solutions for improving security. Projects like CCTNS are being implemented. What kind of work
We have established the institution called Lokvani Kendra, which is responsible for delivering e-services to the common people. At present we have 3300 lokvanis, 15,800 common service centres, and 100 E-suvidha kendras. We also created 885 SWANs in the entire state. But these services can be provided only with the help of effective and skilled IT professionals. Many other kinds of businesses can also be conducted by the CSCs and the Lokvani Kendras. Such freedom is being allowed only to ensure that these centres can become financially viable.
“By distributing free laptops to students, we are ensuring that the next generation gets good experience of computers and computing, and they are in a position to take IT forward in the state,� says Jiwesh Nandan
is being done in Uttar Pradesh in this area? CCTNS is a mission mode project, for which lot of work has already been done in Uttar Pradesh. We are currently having a pilot for CCTNS in three districts. All the police stations of the state have been computerized and are being connected under the project. All the stations register are being digitized and being placed online. Once the CCTNS project has been fully implemented in these three districts, it will start getting implemented in rest of the districts of the state. It will take about one year for the pilot project in these three districts to be completed, after which it will take about two or three years to expand the project to rest of the state.
What are the challenges faced in terms of implementation of various e-Governance initiatives? Human resource is a major challenge. Uttar Pradesh is facing major constraint of IT professionals in government departments and PSEs. We are trying to update such departments according to the latest technological developments. To solve these issues we have set up Centre for e-Governance under The National e-Governance Plan. The centre is responsible in bringing the entire spectrum of IT talent in various government agencies under one body. We see it as an important part of government infrastructure. We have succeeded in utilizing only 30 percent of State Data Centre. We are facing difficulty in bringing various state departments into our State data centre, as these departments have their own private data centres. There is a lot of duplication where every department is doing projects with other agencies. We are in a position where we require only services. We don’t want to own infrastructure if there is any mechanism which could provide us with their infrastructure. September 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov
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Sanjay Jaju
Secretary, Information Technology & Communications Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh
Serving the
people with ICT a National model for delivering G2C services and the e-district MMP has been accordingly redesigned making it ready for replication at pan-India level. The Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India, has already sanctioned a grant for replicating Mee Seva in five states. The idea is also to convert Mee Seva into components, which can be placed in the National eGov app store for wider use. Essentially, the project is self-sustainable and highly replicable.
What kind of changes or benefits has Mee Seva brought into the entire service delivery system?
“Information Technology has proved to be a runaway winner when it comes to improving the quality of people’s lives,� says Sanjay Jaju
M
ee Seva is now being replicated in many other states of the country. In your opinion what are the factors that are contributing to the rapid replication of Mee Seva?
As far as replicability is concerned, we have achieved both vertical and lateral expansion in the state. Now Mee Seva has been adopted as
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Initially Mee Seva had a very modest beginning of 100 centres, it had only 10 services. Today it boasts of more than 7000 centres and 150 services across the state of Andhra Pradesh. I am happy to inform that we have been able to conduct more than 2 crore 35 lakh transactions in the last one year. We are now looking forward to making further improvements in Mee Seva; by the year end we could be offering as many as 300 services. Mee Seva will become an entry and exit point for all the services from to all the departments in the government. In the area of e-Governance Andhra Pradesh has achieved great success, not only due to Mee Seva, but also due to the rapid strides that the state has made in Aadhaar and Direct Benefit Transfer. Before Mee Seva started, Government service delivery systems were manual and opaque. Quite often, the service delivery took too much time. Instances of overcrowded government offices with unfriendly employees and plagued by chronic absenteeism, inefficiency in service delivery, long queues, delays and rent seeking were common. The focus of the administration was on following procedures and keeping
records rather than catering to the needs of citizens. The vision of governance was being lost, and citizens were being treated as the subject rather than the object of development. With Mee Seva, things have completely changed.
How do you view the importance of citizen centricity in the e-Governance projects? Citizen centricity is the ultimate feature of any e-Governance initiative. We are looking to make our internal transactions more transparent and efficient, but our key idea is to improve the life of the citizens. When we started Mee Seva, we wanted to include services that are directly linked to the citizens. The biggest challenge that we encountered in Mee Seva was the silos. Earlier citizens use to run from one department to the other to get the government services. I wanted to break that system of silos in the government. Today technology allows us to connect so that various departments can directly talk with each other. Change management was an important challenge when we started Mee Seva.
The value of rupee is depreciating at a fast pace. In your opinion how is this affecting the Information Technology sector in the country? It is true that rupee is depreciating, but that has more to do with global economy. Since there is overall slow growth across all the major economies in the world, we have also been impacted. But despite these challenges, it is also true that our IT industry is doing quite well. We are no longer achieving the 25 percent growth that occurred between 2003 and 2008, but we can regain the momentum by focusing on strategic leadership and product innovation.
Pradeep Chaturvedi Director (IT), Rajya Sabha
Aiming for a
paperless parliament
W
and start using them. The applications are very user friendly and give access to large amounts of data about various aspects of the country. Obviously the main vendor for the creation of our applications is NIC, but for hardware and software, we have a tie up with NIC. Our server requirements are mostly met through IBM technology that comes to us through organisations like NIC and NIXI.
hat kind of IT implementation are you doing to bring about an improvement in the working of the Indian Parliament?
Currently I am looking after the ICT needs in the secretariat. The process of computerisation was started in 1995, when many members started asking that computer technology should be deployed to get work done in a more efficient manner. We began with computerisation and gradually moved towards having a broader implementation of ICT in 1997. Currently, we are much behind the developed world. With all the ICT deployments that have already happened, I can proudly say that there is very significant amount of improvement in efficiency and transparency.
Tell us about the new technologies that are being installed in the parliament. Also, what were the challenges that you had to overcome in bringing new technologies? The technologies being used in the Parliament are of an international standard. We have done research on the deployments that are being done internationally before coming up with the solutions that would be most suitable for the Indian Parliament. I must say that there has been ample support from the National Informatics Centre (NIC). The website, as you might already know, is lot more informative now. As far as challenges are concerned, I have to say that there are always going to be challenges in whatever you do. We are able to overcome all the challenges as the members of the Indian Parliament are very keen to use new technology. Recently we introduced tablets for the
Few years ago the nation was shocked to see the visuals of the parliament being under attack by terrorists. Are you using ICT to further enhance the security of the parliament?
“Eventually we plan to develop a fully paperless system of work at the Indian Parliament,� says Pradeep Chaturvedi, Director (IT), Rajya Sabha Secretariat. In conversation with Ankush Kumar
members, and eventually we plan to develop a fully paperless system of work at the Parliament.
What kind of applications are you having in the tablets that are being used in the parliament? Also, tell us about your tie-ups with private companies for the hardware and software needs? We do have customised applications in the tablets that members are using. These applications have been released on http://data.gov. in, from where anyone can download them
Earlier there used to be an easy access to the parliament, but now we have various security check points. There are more barriers and barricades. Even an officer of the Parliament like me, cannot move after a certain point. We are using all kinds of modern technologies to improve the security system. Earlier we only had the CCTV cameras, but now we are having advanced technology through which even the voice can be recorded. We are looking towards NIC to support us in all the aspects. We have NickNet server in place for cyber and security control, and for protection of our data.
In times to come what kind of ICT deployments can we expect in the parliament? Our main priority is to ensure that the Indian Parliament becomes completely paperless. A paperless Parliament is of great importance as members from remote areas find it difficult to get all their papers over here. Once we have the paperless system in place the members will be able to transfer their papers through the online mode. Considering the complexities of providing connectivity to a large country like India, the development of this kind of system will take some time. September 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov
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Bipul Pathak
Commissioner/Secretary, Science & Technology and Information Technology Department Government of Jammu & Kashmir
Striving for Financial Inclusion
T
hese days we are having lot of discussion on financial inclusion. What is your vision for this area?
I would like to mention that it is the vision of Government of India and all the state governments in the country to promote financial inclusion and Direct Benefit Transfer. Government of India has been putting lot of thrust into developing new ways of developing solutions that can facilitate financial inclusion. Direct Benefit Transfer is an area of great importance. These are two connected things but the initiatives have to be different. The financial inclusion part is a mandate given to all the public sector banks, the regional rural banks and the cooperative banks working in the states. The idea is to make the benefits flow to the common citizens electronically without any human intervention. At the national level, I think, some 50 to 60 districts have already been identified for the benefits to start flowing.
Tell us about the work that State Government of Jammu & Kashmir is now doing for promoting financial inclusion? In the state of Jammu & Kashmir, the mandate is with Department of Finance to carry out the process of the financial inclusion as well as transfer of benefits. There is Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme in which the pensions are being sent to the beneficiaries through the electronic route only. The backend computerisation and the backend digitisation of the data with the department of
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social welfare in J&K government has already started. We have started building the applications. The Jammu & Kashmir Bank is playing its part in many districts and hopefully we will be able to achieve financial inclusion.
Now it seems that e-Governance is paving way for m-Governance. What is your view of m-Governance? Obviously m-Governance is an idea whose time has come. Today the mobile penetration has increased tremendously in the country, so it is imperative for governments to start focusing on m-Governance. We have developed a mobile based application under Home Ministry for border areas. It is a very successful project as it includes around 5,000 schemes, varying from small to medium. All these schemes are being executed under the directions of the Home Ministry. It is replicated by the Government of India to use it in other border states of the country.
What are the major challenges that you face when it comes to the implementation of Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme? The major challenge that we face has to do with interoperability in J&K. We have half the district with J&K bank as the lead bank and half the districts with the State Bank of India. We have started the process of EBT, but it can only be a success when we address the issue of interoperability. In urban areas also we face the issue of interoperability. This is because many people have accounts in private banks and they do not have any accounts with the public sector banks , so the interoperability between the systems of private banks with the other banks will also have to standardised
“We will successfully demonstrate to the entire country that Jammu & Kashmir can achieve all the set targets in the area of financial inclusion,�says Bipul Pathak
and achieved. The public sector banks in my opinion are not taking enough extraordinary initiatives to develop more and more innovative, customer friendly services. The challenge also exists in the involvement of various state governments and ministries at different level. For instance, if we want to transfer benefits for LPG directly to the citizens, then the data is required from Ministry of Petroleum and the Oil Companies, as they own the database of people who use LPG. We also need the data from the Consumer Affairs Department of the state government. The entire sets of data must co-relate with each other.
eindia 2013
report
Rajesh Aggarwal
Secretary, Department of Information Technology Government of Maharashtra
ICT to Ensure cyber safety ments to verify the authenticity and credentials of people applying for various government certificates. The money that we save by removing the fake beneficiaries from our databases can be put to good use by increasing the scholarship that we provide to our students.
What steps are you taking in Maharashtra to use ICT for ensuring public safety?
“Security is like a cat and mouse game. The criminals keep mastering new ways of breaking or bypassing the security systems, so you have to constantly evolve and upgrade your systems,” says Rajesh Aggarwal
U
IDAI has brought a seminal transformation in the ways by which service is delivered to the citizens of this country. Please tell us about your views on how UIDAI is helping in verifying the authenticity of the beneficiary.
One of the most important aspects of the UIDAI is that it leads to the database to become more accurate. It is for the first time that different sets of databases in the country have started communicating with each other. Whenever we match any database with the UIDAI database, all the fake registrations get identified so that they can be removed. We have now ventured into newer areas where in we have linked our data with the database of various other depart-
ICT is being used increasingly by the security agencies across the world and in our country for many purposes like detection & prevention of crimes, for surveillance, and for addressing issues regarding security in the cyber space. There are provisions in the IT Act where the offences committed in the cyber space are punishable. Every state government has the cyber cell department, under the police, for addressing all kinds of cyber crimes. We have also set up a network of CCTVs in the state of Maharashtra. In Mumbai, we are trying to install 6,000 cameras each interconnected with each other. We are also incorporating these cameras with facial recognition system. The entire project will cost `600 crore. People now use CCTV cameras to ensure safety of their home. It is a big and major upcoming market. In Mumbai many housing societies have already installed CCTV cameras.
What is your vision for online security for banking and credit card users in the country? What kind of system should we have so that the banks are not victimised by fraudsters and the interests of the common users are safeguarded? I would begin by saying that it is in the nation’s interest that the use of currency becomes less and less. We have to engineer a rise in the usage
of plastic money, by which I mean credit and debit cards, net banking, etc. But while going electronic, you have to ensure that there is a well-designed security system in place for safeguarding the consumer’s interests. The security system has to be balanced against the cost-benefit ratio. Across the world, banks basically take into account the amount of money that they are losing due to credit card or online banking frauds, and to protect such losses from happening, they invest in security. RBI has issued guidelines regarding international use of credit cards; it has been advised that banks should use chips rather than magnetic strips. All these systems have to be in place. Security is like a cat and mouse game. The criminals keep mastering new ways of breaking or bypassing the security systems, so you have to constantly evolve and upgrade your systems.
You have been instrumental in the implementation of many e-Governance projects in Maharashtra. In your opinion what is the most important factor in the success of an e-Governance project? Capacity building has a major role to play in the success of e-Governance. Capacity building has to be improved in both the segments; adequate training has to be provided to both, people who are in governance and the people who are going to use the services. The next important aspect which we need to focus is digital divide, which is one of the biggest challenges in implementation of any e-Governance project. We need to bring down the levels of digital divide; people in all sections of society should have access to education facilities for gaining digital literacy. Also, we need to understand that no technology can deliver hundred percent results. So it is necessary to focus on the change management in the system. September 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov
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Dr Roshan Jacobs
District Magistrate, Gonda, Uttar Pradesh
improving service delivery for citizens
“Many of the departments are doing excellent, remarkable, and path breaking work but the only thing is that it doesn’t get projected as well as it gets in the other states” says Dr Roshan Jacobs
P
lease tell us about your responsibilities as a District Magistrate?
As a district collector, our prime focus in the district is to ensure citizen centric service delivery and to make our government mechanism more accessible and transparent for common people. So we put the fingers in all the departmental mechanism and try to make it smooth and transparent.
Can you brief us with some of the quality initiatives that you have taken in the near future? If I talk about my personal experience about the districts that I have been, two initiatives we took, one was in the agricultural sector to
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make available the different services which are offered by the agricultural department to the farmers because they are the biggest beneficiary population. Therefore we aim to reach out to the farmers and form a way so that they come to one place and avail all of the different services like all agricultural inputs ie seeds, fertilizers, subsidy, crop loans and soil testing etc. Hence we have put all such different services together and put them under one name which is called “Krishak Information System” for Kisan, which was started in 2012 and developed by NIC, Gonda. We have launched it in the District Gonda and even the Government of UP is planning to roll it across the whole state. It is highly appreciated as farmer don’t have to go again and again to the department and keep finding out what happened to their application, instead they now go to nearest CSC center. In UP our brand of common service center are called as Lokvani Centers, so the farmers go to these centers and apply within the requisite number of days where they get the services that they applied for.
In UP there are lots of hurdle that the government people generally face due to corruption, red-tapism and nepotism etc. Tell us about the challenges you have faced while working in Uttar Pradesh? Some of criticism is very broad generalisation actually but then lots of good work is happening in the UP and considering the size of state and the population of the place, it takes huge efforts to roll a policy. Our attempt is to work constantly and make the Government citizen interface as smooth as possible. Many of the departments are doing excellent, remarkable, and path breaking work but the only thing is that it doesn’t get projected as well as it gets in the other states. Moreover because of the population expansion and low literacy levels among the people, it takes time to get those initiatives actually implemented at the grass root level.
Tell us about LPG Distribution System which is now being implemented in District Gonda? Another thing that we have done is LPG Distribution system. It was started in 2008 in the District Basti and it is being replicated now in District Gonda in a little more professional manner. We have developed a system called “Easy Gas” which is basically accounting software which takes care of LPG input in the district and outside. This is the first time that the administration understood the supply and distribution of LPG wherein a person can book through it’s nearest Lokvani Center and wait at home for seven days to get the delivery of the same. The administration reviews the dependency on oil companies wise so that the Government can understand where this cylinder is going. Though companies have launched IVRS in Big cities but the rural consumer is still in the dark about what is happening, so there was a situation of holding, black marketing, over pricing of cylinders which is still happening in rural areas. Therefore after implementing this software we get remarkable results, the queues before the gas agency simply disappeared and no complain of holdings because we are accounting company wise, agency wise, cylinder wise and we are able to provide a kind of smooth service system to the people.
How much fund was allocated by the government for these two initiatives? We did it on our own; we told the government our success story which has changed the lives of so many people. So far we haven’t received any funding because our system is based on the Lokvani Center which is already there and also the Easy Gas project has given the extra source of income to the Lokvani operators. So more & more Lokvani Centers have opened and therefore it has made the CSC financially viable. So rather than getting money from government we have given money to the people.
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projects people policy events products
Know Your Customer service from UIDAI The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is transforming the entire KYC (know your customer) process by making it paperless, instantaneous, secure, economical and non-repudiable through electronic medium. According to UIDAI sources, the electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) service from UIDAI will enhance customer convenience and greatly increase business efficiency across
sectors that require proof of identity and address to open customer accounts. The Ministry of Finance, Government of India, has
already recognized e-KYC as a valid document for all financial services under the Prevention of Money Laundering (PML) Rules.
CCTNS
Assam Police to link Criminal Tracking Network with Center Assam Police is planning to launch the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) project by October 2013. With the CCTNS, 309 police stations across the state will be seamlessly connected with the Union ministry of home affairs and the National Crime Records Bureau. At least 154 higher offices in the state, including police headquarters, scientific and technical organizations, ballistic and finger print bureaus will also be linked by the project. The state police are setting up 33 training labs across the state under the scheme. The labs are now providing the investigating officers with training in IT systems that can be used for criminal tracking. So far 2,000 investigating officers have been trained.
Online Taxes
Nagpur Plans to Develop Hi-Tech Property Tax Recovery System Around five lakh property tax payers in Nagpur can hope to get a hi-tech property tax paying system if the plans of standing committee chairman Avinash Thakre become a reality. The new system will allow taxpayers to pay taxes at their doorsteps or in the zone offices using credit and debit cards. They can also make online inquiries about their
taxes. Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has already started the process of procuring the hi-tech system. 150 tablets with inbuilt systems, printer and card swiping machine will be procured to put an end to the existing manual systems. NMC is spending around Rs 10-15 lakh per year to upload the data of tax collected from 10 zones.
Indian Railways
Efficient Monitoring of Food Served in Indian Railway Trains Indian Railway has set up a centralised Catering Services Monitoring Cell in the Board’s office. Railway passengers can call toll free at 1800111-321 for prompt redressal of their grievances related to the catering activities. The Catering Monitoring Cells have been set up at Zonal and Divisional level for daily monitoring of the catering activities. If any irregularity is found punitive actions like imposition of fine, warning and termination of contract etc., can be taken according to the gravity of offence/irregularity. New Catering Policy, 2010 makes it mandatory for Indian Railway to assure effective and quality food to be provided to passengers which must meet international standards.
Election Commission to Use VVPAT System The Government of India has amended the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, enabling the Commission to use Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail system (VVPAT) with the Electronic Voting Machines. In the current
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bye-election in Nagaland, the election commission will use the VVPAT. The bye-election is to be held on 4th September 2013. Instructions are being issued to hold special meetings with the contesting candidates in this
constituency to brief them about the use of VVPAT system. The Commission is organizing special training sessions for poll officers in the use of VVPAT and steps are being taken to educate the electors on the use of VVPAT system.
india
Mobile Money Media Initiatives
Prime Minister Inaugurates National Media Centre
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has inaugurated the National Media Centre in the capital. The National Media Centre (NMC) was initially conceptualised by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, in 1989 to facilitate better interaction between the Government and the media. The National Media Centre has been planned on the model of media centres in some other capital cities in the world, places like Washington and Tokyo. The NMC will have offices of the PIB, and it will be incorporated with state of the art technology for better communication and information dissemination. The National Media Centre has a Press Conference Hall for 283 media persons, a briefing room for about 60 persons, 24 Work stations for the media. It also has a library, media lounge and cafeteria. The press conference hall and media lounge are Wi-Fi enabled.
e-Governance in Hazaribagh Municipality With the introduction of the new e-Governance system, Hazaribagh municipality has become one of the very few civic bodies in the state where all transactions are being
done through the Internet. The new system is helpful in quick disposal of mutation papers and there is general improvement in the working of the municipality.
People online
Vodafone, ICICI Bank launches M-pesa in Mumbai Vodafone India and ICICI Bank have introduced ‘M-Pesa’ - a mobile money transfer and payment service in Mumbai. This service will now be available through over 1400 specially trained authorized agents. To register for the service, Vodafone customers need to visit an ‘M-Pesa’ agent outlet, fill up a form, submit identity, address proofs and deposit a minimum amount along with it, to open their ‘M-Pesa’ account. Following the registration, Vodafone will activate the ‘M-Pesa’ account for the customer who will be able to use it as a closed wallet and make a variety of transactions including cash deposits, transferring money to any bank account, transferring money to any other ‘M-Pesa’ customer .
UIDAI
Aadhaar mandatory to avail LPG subsidy The Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG (DBTL) Scheme has been launched so far in 20 districts of the country covering 7.3 million LPG consumers. As per the scheme, the transaction for purchase of any LPG cylinder has to happen at the market price only; the subsidy will later on be transferred to the bank account number of the buyer. In order to avail transfer of cash subsidy into
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the bank account, Aadhaar number of the LPG consumer has to be linked to the LPG consumer number and the bank account of the LPG consumer. The DBTL scheme is now slated to be launched in another 34 districts of the country.
India has 3rd largest number of people online
Com Score, a leader in measuring various aspects of the digital world, has released the 2013 India Digital Future in report, which states that India has third largest number of people logging into the Internet after China and USA. Today about 73.9 million homes in the country are connected to the Internet. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the Indian market and identifies the prevailing trends in web usage, online video, social networking and online advertising that are defining the Indian online landscape, said a company release.With 75 percent of its internet users under the age of 35, India has the youngest skewing online population among BRIC countries.
Bangladesh comes 2nd in financial inclusion According to a new survey, Bangladesh stands second among South Asian nations in ensuring access to financial services for its citizens, a recent study found. Around 66 percent of the households in Bangladesh now have access to services including credit, savings and insurance from banks or microfinance institutions (MFIs) and cooperatives. The country comes second only to
Sri Lanka, where 80.4 percent of the population is covered by the financial umbrella. In contrast, only 48 percent of the households in India have access to such services and 60 percent in Pakistan.
September 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com / egov
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PIN*****
A Global Conference on
Financial Inclusion & Payment Systems
FIPS 2013
24 - 25 October 2013, Eros Hilton, New Delhi Restoring the very essence of inclusive growth is at the radar of Financial Inclusion and Payment Systems, 2013, Conference. At the Conference, we will have vibrant round of discussions on the various challenges that are being faced in having effective financial inclusion in the country. The Global Summit comprises of three chapters: the Conference, Exhibition and FIPS Awards.
Key Speakers
Professor M S Swaminathan Former MP, Rajya Sabha, MSSRF, Chairman, Conference Advisory Committee, FIPS
M Narendra Chairman and Managing Director, Indian Overseas Bank
Sudhir Kumar Jain Chairman and Managing Director, Syndicate Bank
Chandrasekhar Ghosh CEO, Bandhan
Ela Bhatt, Chairperson, SEWA & Founder Chairperson, Women’s World Banking
Shuvalaxmi Panse Chairman and Managing Director, Allahabad Bank
S S Mundra Chairman and Managing Director, Bank of Baroda
R K Dubey Chairman and Managing Director, Canara Bank
A P Hota Managing Director & CEO, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)
Archana Bharagava Chairman and Managing Director, United Bank of India
Ramnath Pradeep EX-CMD, Corporation Bank
Mehboob Chowdhury Chairman, Citycel, Bangladesh
SG Anil Kumar CEO, IFMR, Chennai
Ari Sarker Head -South Asia- Mastercard
John Owens USAID, MBAP, Philippines
Emmanuel Okewagle Chief-Mobile Money Africa, Lagos, Nigeria
Sunil Chandiramani Partner & National Director, Ernst & Young LLP
Lucy Muchoki CEO, panAAC, Kenya
Key Sessions _ Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme of
_ Prepaid cards, Virtual cards , Loyalty
Government of India _ Aadhaar Initiatives _ Acquisition of ATMs, White- label guideline for ATMs _ POS Acquisition policy, Specs, Interoperability
and Cash cards _ Automated Clearing houses _ Mobile based services – remittances, banking & VAS _ Biometrics and capturing faultless database
fips.eletsonline.com
_ Banks & new banking Licence; Post Banking
_ Insurance & Mutual funds for the Masses
_ Agency Banking or Business Correspondent guideline including operations streamlining
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FIPS Awards FIPS Awards aim to recognize the seminal role that various organizations have been playing in the areas of Financial Inclusion, Banking Technology, Payment System, Mobile Banking, Health Insurance and other verticals
AWARDS
Award Categories Financial Inclusion
Payment Systems
Banking Technology
Mobile Banking
• Organisation of the year • Access to banking and financial services • Capacity building and financial literacy • ICT based innovation • Health Insurance • Financial Inclusion in Health Sector
• Online Payments Solution • Mobile Payments Solution of the Year • Multi-Channel Payments Solution • Contactless Payments Project • Cashless Health Payments • Online Health Payments
• Industry Infrastructure Initiative • Institutional Infrastructure Initiative • Internet Banking Service • Security Initiative • Health IT • Technology in Rural Health
• Overall Mobile Banking Application • Mobile Application Design • Multiplatform Service • Tablet Application • Health Services on Mobile • Online Health Services
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