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THE APPIFICATION OF THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT n 16th November 2015, Power Minister, Piyush Goyal, tweeted, “Track in real time as we electrify every single one of our villages. Hold us accountable�. The minister was referring to a specially created mobile app that citizens could use to check in real time how many villages were electrified. This tweet was symbolic of the Narendra Modi government's focus on ushering in transparency and holding the government accountable for any delayed work. Just like a corporate, the app provides access to a dashboard that shows the progress of work, the number of villages that have not been electrified yet, and the number of days left for achieving the target of electrification. With government organisations often being criticised for their bureaucratic way of functioning, the government is encouraging ministries and departments to come up with their own apps to show citizens the kind of work the government is doing. With a surge in smartphone usage, the government has realised the critical importance that apps can play in disseminating information directly to people. Apps have been developed for almost every function. From checking the enrollment status for Aadhar to knowing if a name has been included in the electoral roll of the constituency or checking the status of a passport application, there are a variety of central and state level apps developed. Thanks to this aggressive push, today the Indian government's app store has more than 700 apps. This approach has meant that various ministries are extensively going the app way. For example, the HRD ministry recently launched the ePathshala app that can be used by students to download all books of all subjects from class I to XII. More recently, the agriculture ministry released two apps, Crop Insurance and Agri Market. Similarly, the railway ministry has launched a mobile app which can be used by users to get tickets in the unreserved category. The huge focus of the central government on mobility has spurred other state governments and departments to launch their own apps. From Kerala to Jharkhand, every state is aggressively building its own set of government apps to improve governance. Citizens too have started creating and contributing their own apps. Mobile apps represent a huge opportunity for the government to provide quick and updated information about basic services. While India is still at an extremely nascent stage with respect to government departments developing apps, there are a huge number of catalysts today, that can lead to a surge in momentum with respect to creation of government focused apps in the days to come. This is just the beginning of an era of appification of the Indian government!
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WITH A SURGE IN SMARTPHONE USAGE, THE GOVERNMENT HAS REALISED THE CRITICAL IMPORTANCE THAT APPS CAN PLAY IN DISSEMINATING INFORMATION DIRECTLY TO PEOPLE
srikanth.rp@expressindia.com
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UTTAR PRADESH’S ‘NEXT CHAPTER’— IT& ELECTRONICS Akhilesh Yadav, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, says that bringing growth to the state’s IT and electronics industry is a key priority for his government.
case study
feature
MOBILE STRATEGY HELPS 26 STATE CORPORATION SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE ITS EFFICIENCY
WHATIS CAUSING THE CCTNS DELAY? The infrastructure for connecting different police stations on the network has not been built fully.
18 4
TOP 10 DIGITAL INITIATIVES BYTHE INDIAN GOVERNMENT
TCS SECURES CRITICAL DATA WITH PIM
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The government has launched several projects under the ‘Digital India’initiative.
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feature 32
THE PROMISE AND POTENTIAL OF FREE WI-FI: RAJGARH DISTRICT SHOWS THE WAY
interviews 38
EXPECTATIONS: UNION BUDGET 2016
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SURESH KUMAR Additional Chief Secretary, Development, Punjab
HowPunjab is using Drones to capture crop characteristics 44
WHATTHE E-COMMERCE INDUSTRY IN INDIAEXPECTS FROM BUDGET2016
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Director (IT), Maharashtra
opinion 26
AN IDEAL FRAMEWORK FOR RAPID ROLL OUT OF e-GOVERNANCE
30
HOWTECHNOLOGY CAN PREVENT ROAD ACCIDENTS
M SANKARANARAYANAN
Maharashtra is the leader in implementation of the Kisan SMS service 25
ALTAF HALDE MD – South Asia, Kaspersky Lab
Embedding security in government projects 36
ARUN
IMPORTANCE OF AN E-GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK
34 PARAMESWARAN Managing Director, VMware India
VMware is looking at riding the next wave of the National e-Governance Plan
event 58
CISCO BETS BIG ON DIGITISATION
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REPORT: GARTNER SYMPOSIUM ITXPO 2015
MICHAEL
50 SENTONAS VP and Global CTO of Security Connected at McAfee
Security,moving forward,needs to follow the data,the user and the application. EXPRESS COMPUTER
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Vol 27. No. 2. February, 2016 Chairman of the Board Viveck Goenka Sr Vice President - BPD Neil Viegas Editor Srikanth RP* Chief of Product Dr. Raghu Pillai Delhi Mohd Ujaley, Ankush Kumar, Rashi Varshney Mumbai Jasmine Desai, Abhishek Raval DESIGN National Art Director Bivash Barua Asst. Art Director Pravin Temble Senior Graphic Designer Rushikesh Konka Layout Vinayak Mestry, Rajesh Jadhav Photo Editor Sandeep Patil MARKETING Regional Heads Harit Mohanty - West and East Prabhas Jha - North Dr. Raghu Pillai - South Marketing Team Shankar Adaviyar Ranabir Das Ajanta Sengupta Amit Tiwari Mathen Mathew Navneet Negi Circulation Mohan Varadkar Scheduling Ashish Anchan PRODUCTION General Manager B R Tipnis Manager Bhadresh Valia
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INTERVIEW AKHILESH YADAV CHIEF MINISTER OF UTTAR PRADESH
UTTAR PRADESH’S ‘NEXT CHAPTER’ — IT & ELECTRONICS Akhilesh Yadav, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, says that bringing growth to the state’s IT and electronics industry is a key priority for his government. He wants to focus on empowering the youth of the state by overcoming the digital divide and creating new institutions for skill development
The IT City Project in Lucknow was inaugurated in October 2014. Since then, what kind of progress has been made in the project? The IT City in Lucknow is being developed in the Public-Private Partnership mode with HCL IT City on 100 acres of land in Lucknow. This initiative will have an investment of close to Rs 1500 crores from the private sector. The number of direct employment opportunities that we expect to be generated from the project will eventually go up from 3000 to around 25,000, once the construction of the entire IT City is completed. The indirect employment that the IT City generates will be twice the number of the direct employment opportunities. We have given the IT City Lucknow the status of Special Economic Zone (SEZ). The IT Units coming under the IT City will be eligible for all the benefits and incentives available under UP IT Policy 2012. The construction at HCL IT City project site is under progress. By October 2016, the Skill Development Centre (SDC) and a Hostel facility, for around 200 students, will be operational. In what areas of Uttar Pradesh do you expect maximum amount of investments in IT? Noida and Greater Noida are already regarded as premier IT destinations in India. IT companies like HCL, Wipro, IBM, Accenture, Adobe, and electronics companies like Samsung, LG, Lava, Vivo mobiles and many 8
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others are having their development centres in this area. Several IT, ITeS and electronics companies now are moving into the Yamuna expressway area due to the excellent infrastructure that is being developed there. We are sure that the three EMCs at Yamuna Expressway and Greater Noida will be the next major electronic manufacturing hubs in the country—here the world’s leading electronics, mobile manufacturing companies will be establishing their manufacturing units. The state government is also promoting other Tier-II & Tier-III cities such as Lucknow, Agra, Meerut, and Gorakhpur. HCL has already started constructing a 100 acre IT City in Lucknow. The Government of Uttar Pradesh unveiled the new electronics policy in 2014.What kind of response are you having from the industry on the policy? Also, please tell us about the progress that is being made in the development of electronics clusters. Currently we have very high demand for electronics products, and the Uttar Pradesh government is keen to ensure that a significant part of this demand is met through electronics industry based in the state. We have come out with a unique Electronics Manufacturing Policy 2014. The policy provides incentives like capital subsidy, interest subsidy, land rebate, VAT/CST exemption and it also provides for thrust on the availability of FEBRUARY, 2016
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INTERVIEW AKHILESH YADAV CHIEF MINISTER OF UTTAR PRADESH
The 1090 Women Power Line has been initiated by our government to empower women by making use of technologies like mobility and Internet
Lucknow IT City Master-Plan
quality and reliable power and the development of world-class infrastructure. Associations like Indian Cellular Association (ICA), Electronics Industry Association of India (ELCINA), Indian Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA) have expressed interest in investing in Uttar Pradesh. MOUs worth more than Rs 5000 crores have been signed. There is constant growth in demand for electronics products in all sectors like telecom, medical, automobile, consumer electronics and there is lot of scope for the electronics industry in Uttar Pradesh to grow manifold. What kind of progress is being made in the setting up of Electronic Manufacturing Clusters (EMCs)? The land identification and in-principle approval for setting up two EMCs of 100 acres each, one at Yamuna Expressway and other in Greater Noida has been obtained. Recently, the state government signed a MoU with TEEMA (Taiwan Electrical & Electronics Manufacturing Association) for 165 acres of land to enable the TEEMA member companies to establish their manufacturing units. We are witnessing a tremendous demand from the electronics industry, so the government is now going to establish a third EMC of 100 10
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acres at the Yamuna Expressway. The Information Technology and electronics industry can be one of the largest generators of good jobs for the youth.What kind of job creation do you see in the technology space? IT and electronics sectors have traditionally been the biggest employers. The IT cities, IT parks, start-up incubation centers and EMCs that we are setting up will lead to the generation of large numbers of new jobs. Since the IT and electronics sectors have to be supported by the allied industries such as engineering services, R&D, metal and chemical, embedded system design, telecom, hospitality, logistic and transportation, infrastructure, education, and many other sectors, the growth will be seen in almost all the sectors of the state’s economy and there will be a very healthy growth in employment opportunities for the state’s youth. What steps are being taken by the state government to develop infrastructure that will enable the youth to develop the necessary skills in IT and electronics? Uttar Pradesh has the privilege of having India’s reputed centres of learning like the IIT Kanpur, IIIT Allahabad, IIM
Lucknow and many other engineering colleges. Skill development has always been a top priority of this government. We have already launched the Laptop Distribution scheme for improving the digital capabilities of the state’s youth. More than 15 lakh laptops have been distributed to meritorious students from financially weak sections of the society. This initiative is helping us bridge the digital divide. Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission (UPSDM) is implementing a first of its kind integrated skill development training programme for youth, aged between 14 to 35 years, across 75 districts in the state. UPSDM aims to provide skill development training to over 2.3 million youth by 2017. We also aim to provide these youth with gainful employment opportunities. A 24 hour Woman Power Line has been started in Uttar Pradesh.What kind of impact is the helpline having? The 1090 Women Power Line has been initiated by our government to empower women by making use of technologies like mobility and Internet. This first-of-itskind service for women has been developed to function alongside the existing system of policing. The programme is for the women and by the FEBRUARY, 2016
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women. The focus of the initiative is not so much on apprehending or convicting the offenders, as it is on deterring potential offenders and raising awareness on woman safety related issues. Women need to stand up and speak about the crimes against them. While the victim is not required to come to the police station anymore, 1090 keeps them posted with the progress that is being made in regard to their complaint. Modern police control rooms have been launched in some cities of Uttar Pradesh. What are the main features of these police control rooms? Currently we are having Modern Police Control Rooms at Kanpur, Lucknow, Ghaziabad and Allahabad. All of them are functioning satisfactorily. Now we have decided to establish a State Control Room in Lucknow. This control room will provide services to all the 75 districts of the state. A high official committee has been constituted to execute this plan. Through a sustained publicity campaign, citizens are being encouraged to ask for police help simply by calling 100. Thereafter, the police setup automatically ensures appropriate action. With these systems in place, people don’t find it difficult to get a FIR registered. The police stations use modern systems like voice logging, GIS maps and customised software for recording complaints. The process of dispatch of police units makes use of latest technologies and is highly efficient. What is your message to the potential IT and electronics investors in Uttar Pradesh? Uttar Pradesh offers many advantages for investors. The state has high growth rate, abundant resources, skilled manpower, rising consumer demand, expanding infrastructure, and it has a government that is keen to enable the IT and electronics industries to grow. We are committed to making Uttar Pradesh the most attractive investment destination for IT and electronics industry. The government of Uttar Pradesh is continuously coming up with new policies for improving the business environment in the state. My message to the IT and electronics companies of the world is that it is time for them to start investing in Uttar Pradesh. EXPRESS COMPUTER
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INTERVIEW SURESH KUMAR ADDITIONAL CHIEF SECRETARY, PUNJAB
HOW PUNJAB IS USING DRONES TO CAPTURE CROP CHARACTERISTICS Punjab was included in the second phase of NeGP-A for Mission Mode Project- Agriculture (MMP-A) at the fag end of year 2014-2015. MMP-A supports NeGP-A to use ICT for agricultural development. The project is in the design and development stage. Punjab is using drones for mapping the crop conditions. Abhishek Raval speaks with Suresh Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary, Development, Punjab, DOAC on the progress in using ICT for agriculture
How is the drone technology being used in the state of Punjab and how will it benefit the farmers? The Borlaug Institute of South Asia (BISA) and Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), has kicked off drone trials. I attended the first trial and we are 12
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confident that the technology has a use case in agriculture. The drone technology can potentially capture the various stages of crop condition. So, farmers can optimally use agro- chemicals and fertilisers. It’s important to note that, typically, farmers
have a tendency to overuse it. Drones are connected to the satellite imagery which transmits the video footage from the inbuilt cameras to the laptops. What characteristics of the crop can a drone identify? The drone technology helps to capture the differentiation in fruiting, colour, growth of the plant - about what's going wrong and then the farmers are issued proper advisories by the scientists – whether it's about less watering, fertilisers, more or less chemicals etc. This is quite a next generation assessment of crops. As per the norms set by the scientists on the basis of the research, the crop is FEBRUARY, 2016
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delivery mechanisms more efficient, transparent and accountable. Further, it would facilitate farmers to have easy access to these services through multiple service delivery channels. Farmer portal under NeGP-A would become a common platform for resource sharing among the various line department and other stakeholders.
expected to exhibit certain standard characteristics after a specific timeframe after the sowing period. For example, the age of the crop, if it is a thirty day crop or a forty day crop; what should be the height, the colour configuration or the fruiting level of the crop. That is a standard, which we know through agricultural research. Drones can help us identify if the crop is not fruiting as per the norms, if it's over fruiting or if it’s mellowing down in colour configuration. Crop losses due to natural calamities, unseasonal rains or hailstorms are frequent. How the drones can be used to assess crop damage? We are trying to do some trials to see if drones could be used to assess crop damages in case of natural calamities because we are advocating plot based crop insurance. Most of the insurance players are not convinced about the amount of damage as claimed due to excess rains, hailstorms or frost. Some plots are damaged and some are not damaged. The drones can be configured to navigate in a 30 mtr by 30 mtr plot to assess the damage. The insurers are also being associated to see whether we can successfully use drone technology to assess crop damages in the event of excess rains or natural calamity and try and introduce plot based insurance. BISA is also researching various applications of IoT for agriculture but it's at a very initial stage. We want to connect the farmers with the latest and the most modern IT techniques available. We also want to provide the best possible information available to the farmers to take farming related decisions and most importantly, the subsidy and other funding should be transferred directly to the farmer's bank account. Punjab has just begun its journey with respect to the Mission Mode ProjectsAgriculture .What are the key objectives of the Project? Some of the key objectives include: ● Bringing farmer centricity & service orientation to the programs ● Enhancing reach & impact of extension services ● Improving access of farmers to EXPRESS COMPUTER
Suresh Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary, Development, Punjab, Dept of Agriculture
information & services throughout the crop cycle ● Building upon, enhancing & integrating the existing ICT initiatives of centre and the states ● Enhancing efficiency & effectiveness of programs through process redesign. ● More effective management of the schemes of DAC ● Creation of Aadhar seeded farmers' database for DBT operations for disbursement of subsidies. The scope of the project includes provision of computer hardware down to block level, site preparation, data digitisation, capacity building, training, change management, application development and customisation for modules developed by DAC. What are the key milestones & measurable outcomes targeted for Punjab MMP-A ? The project is expected to bring the following benefits to the stakeholders – farmers, business and the Government: ● Provide uniform face of government to the agriculture sector stakeholder (especially farmers) ● Service-level governed service delivery with built-in checks and balances to increase efficiency ● Streamlined processes which make the government efficient and effective for service delivery ● Improved monitoring of compliance, MIS and utilisation of public money. It would make current service
What is the budget outlay and the implementation timeline? The estimated budget outlay on the project is Rs 6.28 cr. The cluster / services / components are to be implemented to block level during a time span of 5 years from 2014-2015. Punjab was included in the second phase of NeGP-A at the fag end of year 2014-2015. The project is in the design and development stage. The budget available for the year 20152016 is being utilised for creation of State Project Monitoring Unit (SPMU), purchase of hardware etc, and providing other infrastructure down to the block level. From the next year (2016-2017) onwards, the required manpower as per NeGP-A shall be positioned and required budget for the coming financial years shall be sanctioned. Further, customisation of modules as per the requirement of the state along with other required infrastructure would be computed to seek additional funds from time to time. What kind of challenges are being faced at the ground level ? Hardware down to block level was to be purchased by DAC, Ministry of Agriculture, GoI but in the later part of 2015-16, GoI decided that the states should purchase the hardware on their own. The process has been started now. GoI kept changing the sharing pattern (GOIS:SGS) from 90:10 to 55:45 to 60:40 for NeGP-A resulting in recasting of the schemes for obtaining the appropriate state government share. The field staff lacks the general level of awareness about IT. To add to this challenge, the non existence of IT cell in the department results in lack of staff that looks full time in tech related issues. abhishek.raval@expressindia.com
FEBRUARY, 2016
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INTERVIEW M SANKARANARAYANAN DIRECTOR (IT), MAHARASHTRA
MAHARASHTRA IS THE LEADER IN IMPLEMENTATION OF THE KISAN SMS SERVICE With usage of mobile devices on the rise in rural areas, the Department of Agriculture, Co-operation (DAC) for the state of Maharashtra is looking at providing all the key stakeholders timely and relevant access to information using mobile initiatives. Mobility is playing a vital role for fulfilling the government’s vision and objective under the NeGP, Agriculture - Mission Mode Project (MMP). To get a clearer perspective on how the state is progressing on the NeGP Agriculture MMP, Abhishek Raval spoke with M Sankaranarayanan, Director (IT), Maharashtra In the state of Maharashtra, specific to the NeGP, Agriculture - Mission Mode Project (MMP), what are the defined objectives, scope, milestones, as well as measurable outcomes and service levels? The Mission Mode Project was introduced during the last phase of the 11th plan to achieve rapid development of agriculture in India through the use of ICT for ensuring timely access to agriculture related information for the farmers of the country. There are a number of current IT initiatives or schemes undertaken or implemented by DAC which are aimed at providing information to the farmers on various activities in the agriculture value chain. These initiatives will be integrated so that farmers would be able to make proper and timely use of the available information. Such information is intended to be provided to farmers through multiple channels including Common Service Centers, Internet kiosks and via SMS. In Maharashtra, the NeGPA MMP was implemented as per the guideline of 16
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the Government of India. This includes improving access to timely and relevant information and services; bringing farmer centricity and service orientation; increasing effectiveness of government service delivery; ensuring effective management of schemes and finally, encouraging private sector participation to benefit farmers by providing an integrated platform to promote value added services. Can you share some details on the implementation timeline? Maharashtra was one of the states in the first phase along with six other states. The first phase was started in the year 2012-13. Accordingly, relevant hardware was supplied to all locations and at present 22 services are in progress. For example, information and best practices on pesticides, fertilisers and seeds, is available today online, as a part of the 22 services. We are also providing online information on soil health, crops and farm machineries. Additionally,
information on prices, arrivals, procurement points and the Minimum Support Price (MSP) is also provided online. We also provide information on forecasted weather. Agriculture is almost entirely located in rural areas. What is the scope for using Information Technology for improving the status of the farmers? The biggest benefit of using ICT in the rural setup is the ability to quickly disseminate relevant information to the farming community. Maharashtra is the leader in implementation of the Kisan SMS service, under which SMS on weather and crop advisories is sent to about 50 lakh registered farmers. Mobile penetration in the rural areas is on the rise. Mobile based initiatives such as SMS, mobile apps, USSD are some of the key information delivery channels envisaged under the NeGPA. In Maharashtra, under NeGPA, there are 214 kiosks (touch screen computers) installed at various field offices. Through these kisoks, the field officers are able to provide information. What are the challenges faced in taking IT to the farming community? Accordingly, how can they be encountered? In rural Maharashtra, one of the main problems is lack of network coverage in remote areas. This can improve in the near future due to increased bandwidth and by using network data cards. We also face the issue of call drops, which can be addressed by installing new mobile towers as per the need. Finally, there is also the lack of IT awareness. This can be FEBRUARY, 2016
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overcome through an awareness campaign and IT training at the field level by field functionaries. You have said that connectivity is a problem, especially for the rural areas. What steps are being taken for improving the connectivity in rural areas to help the farmers? In Maharashtra, the MahaKrishi Sanchar CUG scheme, launched in association with BSNL, is providing connectivity to over 11.57 Lakh farmers – most of them are based in the rural areas. 885 circle level officers (Agri. Assistants) have been provided with 1770 laptops and 885 datacards so that they can take the benefits of the Internet directly to the farm. What steps are you taking to ensure that farmers are able to use technology for learning about the rates of the crops in EXPRESS COMPUTER
The biggest benefit of using ICTin the rural setup is the abilityto quicklydisseminate relevant information to the farming community. Maharashtra is the leader in implementation of the Kisan SMS service,under which SMS on weather and crop advisories are sent to about 50 lakh registered farmers
real time so that they can derive the full value of their produce? The Buyer Seller platform (<http://mkisan.gov.in/ BREG/ Aboutbuyerseller. aspx>) is being implemented for connecting farmers with interested buyers. Buyers (FPOs, Exporters, Traders, and Processors) register on this platform and they can choose the area from where they want to buy the product. They can offer the price at which they want to buy the product. Farmers of that selected location get the SMS on their mobile. The SMS contains name and mobile numbers of all buyers and the price at which they are offering to buy a commodity. For example, an Agri Market mobile App was launched recently. Thus, a farmer gets the negotiating power and he can sell the product at a better price. abhishek.raval@expressindia.com
FEBRUARY, 2016
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FEATURE
CCTNS
»
WHAT IS CAUSING THE CCTNS DELAY? Shuffling among the centre, states and system integrators, mired with delays in digitisation, and hampered with different versions of software, and in limbo for want of funds, can the project of utmost national importance, CCTNS ever get completed in time? BY MOHD UJALEY
I
n October 2009, the Kolkata police arrested a person and held him in prison for 45 days in connection with a petty theft case and then let him off with a fine of Rs 90 because there was no means of verifying the false name—Md. Arshad— that he gave at the time of his arrest. According to The National Investigation Agency (NIA), he was none other than Mohammed Ahmed Zarar Siddibappa, also known as Yasin Bhatkal, an alleged Indian Mujahideen commander, who is alleged to have subsequently carried out terrorist attacks in Pune, Bangalore, Varanasi, Delhi and Hyderabad. Would this have happened if there was
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a system in place to fetch real time data about crime and criminals? Possibly not. That is why in 2009 in the aftermath of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, the UPA government launched the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) project aimed at digitally connecting all the police stations in the country and digitising all existing FIRs and other crime records. Once digitised, intelligent insights could be drawn by analysing the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data. “CCTNS is a bigger vision of the government to connect various police stations digitally and enable the police to take decisions based on real time data
related to crime and criminals,” says Rajesh Ramachandran, President and CTO at Rolta India. Former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram who sanctioned the project was of the view that each police station was an island, where records were maintained manually. The police of any state barely “talked” among themselves, or with the police of other states. Therefore, “a seamless, technology-driven network in which any police station could “talk” to another police station in real time, was needed.” Supporting the views, Ajai Sahni, Director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, told FEBRUARY, 2016
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Express Computer, “CCTNS is perhaps the single most critical project for India’s internal security. Networks like these are a fundamental requirement of modern policing and security management.”
Mired in delay However, since the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the project on June 19, 2009 with an allocation of Rs 2000 crore, nothing substantial has changed on the ground. Like other e-governance programmes in the country, CCTNS is also shuffling between central nodal agency NCRB, and the nodal agency of states, State Crime Record Bureau (SCRB) and private EXPRESS COMPUTER
CCTNS project is taking more time than what it was expected because infrastructure for connecting different police stations on the network has not been built fully
system integrators (SIs) from the last five years. In fact, in the two consecutive budgets of 2014-15 and 2015-16, no funds were allocated for CCTNS which seriously hampered the progress of the project. But in the wake of the recent Paris attacks, the government seems to shake off the dust, and has now decided to fast track the project and complete it by March 2017. Earlier in a written reply in Parliament, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary attributed the delay to certain states failing to select state system integrators, delaying handing over of the sites and delaying in commissioning of WiMax and VSAT sites. It is interesting to note that the initial deadline for the project was 2012, which was revised to March 2015. Initially, Rs 37.23 crore were given in the 2012-13 Budget and Rs 120 crore in the 2013-14 Budget. Of the Rs 2,000 crore outlay that includes operation and maintenance up to March 2022, Rs 878 crore has already been released to implementing agencies. “This project is certainly taking more time than what it was expected because infrastructure for connecting different police stations on the network has not been built fully,” says Ramachandran, adding that the solutions deployment for enabling police stations to use CCTNS is progressing and getting better day by day. “Basically there are two aspects to the network. Each of the states are supposed to have a data centre and then different police stations across the state need to be connected to the network. The problem is whenever there is an update happening in a particular police station, it has to come to a centralised server. This vital part of the infrastructure is yet to be completed.” Sanjay Sahay, who earlier headed the police computer wing in Government of Karnataka, says that the CCNTS project seems a simple project on face value. However, in reality, it is far different. “It is a complex project as there are multiple central and state agencies involved in it. Police, Law & Order is a state subject and systems across states are not uniform,” FEBRUARY, 2016
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CCTNS
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points out Sahay. Basically, a state selects a system integrator, sets up a state data centre (SDC) usually with the help of NIC, and then connects all the police stations with this data centre with the help of connectivity providers such as BSNL. It finally syncs all the SDCs with National Data Centres at New Delhi, Pune and Hyderabad which function as disaster recovery (DR) sites. And, on top of this, the NCRB provides a standard Core Application Software (CAS) which police stations use for lodging FIRs and for entering data. In each of these cases, there has been substantial delay and even today none of these cases are free from defect. It took until 2013-14 for a major number of states to hire a system integrator. And, in fact, two states—Bihar and Rajasthan—are still in search mode after their flip-flop with the existing SIs. However, the most troublesome has been the Core Application Software (CAS) provided by NCRB which has proved to be buggy and crash-prone. It took until 2014 for the more stable version 4.1 to be released. Now CAS version 4.5 is planned to be released in a few months and may be followed by CAS version 5.0. But with the release of each version, the state police, SI and SPMU have to undertake a number of activities including analysing, customising and testing, which requires a lot of time and effort. In fact, significant time and effort is spent due to excessive versions of CAS. Therefore, states like Haryana have suggested that the number of versions should be kept at the minimum possible and patches should be released for the modifications so that instead of customising the new CAS versions, the states may incorporate the patches which would need lesser time and effort. SDCs are mostly in place. As per the NCRB, 21 states are currently using the SDC for CCTNS. In Karnataka, the SDC is operational but not being used for the CCTNS project. Similarly, Delhi and Chandigarh have decided to use the Delhi police data centre and department of IT data centre respectively. In 12 states, SDCs are not operational, and hence these states are using alternate data centres. While a 20
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FEBRUARY, 2016
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national data centre (NDC) for CCTNS was proposed initially, it faced a problem due to non-allocation of funds. Now all the servers at NDC have been deployed over the NIC cloud network. Currently, connectivity from 26 SDCs out of 36 have been established from NDC over a National Knowledge Network (NKN) and replication from 18 states and union territory have been started. According to latest data from NCRB, over 11,000 police stations across the country are now using the CCTNS system to register FIRs and over the past one year, more than 26 Lakhs FIRs were registered through CCTNS.
Tryst with system integrators In 35 states and union territories, 11 companies—TCS, Rolta, Wipro, CMC Limited, Vayam Tech, Tech Mahindra, Navyug Infotech, HP, HCL, NIIT Technologies, Keltron Payoda— are working as system integrators. After carefully analysing the monthly reports sent by state units to NCRB, few things appear to be common across the board— there is delay in data digitisation by SIs, hand holding resources are either of poor quality or yet to be deployed, payment for SIs and SPMUs are pending and there is serious deficiency in different version of CAS. For example, Haryana, Karnataka and West Bengal have raised the issue of delay in data digitisation, slow progress in completing site preparation and hardware commissioning by the system integrator HP India. Similarly, data migration is yet to be completed in Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Further, according to government officials in Madhya Pradesh, the data which has been migrated with the help of HCL, there are many errors in the migrated record. Other states such as Kerala are also facing the delay issue. Jammu & Kashmir is not happy with the performance of SPMU in field inspection of sites and digitisation of old records. In fact, it is looking to replace the SPMU project manager. Even the basics such as delivery of the paper toners and cartridges which TCS was supposed to start delivering from Feb 2015 to the Police units in Andhra Pradesh, is yet to EXPRESS COMPUTER
start, according to the report. “I agree that digitising the legacy document is a huge challenge. The number of legacy FIRs and other documents that need to be digitised is huge. But I believe that once it is done, the second phase of CCTNS, which is related to crime analysis will bring significant value to the overall police modernisation and will surely help the police in managing the city more efficiently,” says Ramachandran. Rolta India is a system integrator in three states—Manipur, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. Ramachandran says that today Manipur and Mizoram have gone live with the specific version of the solution, but the coverage for the various district and police stations is not fully established. But from the software solution perspective, the overall deployment on a centralised instance has been successful but the roll out for various police station has still not happened as there are challenges on the network side.
Lack of hand holding support Some of the states are also struggling with the project as the hand holding resources are either of poor quality or yet to be deployed by SIs. For example, in Manipur, Rolta is yet to deploy a support person. Similarly, TCS has not deployed permanent resource at Lakshadweep. Same is the case with the Nagaland and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu. The authorities complain that their system integrator Vayamtech is not offering adequate resources to the project. In Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Vayamtech has deployed 34 people but according to the report sent to NCRB by the state unit, they are “not working diligently” because the SI has failed to pay them on time. To seek the comments of different SIs, Express Computer did reach out to most of the system integrators. Except Rolta India, all declined to comment. In fact, HP India, after analysing the questionnaire sent to them, chose not to comment. “Some of the apathy shown by SIs could be attributed to delay in payment. Most of the states are facing the shortage
of funds on account of CCTNS and they have been regularly writing to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to release the payment,” says a state government official on condition of anonymity.
Can cloud be the answer? “We are clearly aware about the problems? Today everything is falling into place except the network. The time has come to look at the alternatives. Today, cost effective cloud infrastructure which can directly “talk” to different networks is available. Different police stations could be connected through a robust and secure cloud network which can be called a CCTNS Cloud. This will help in solving the problem of connecting end-points in CCTNS for sharing the information among police stations” states Ramachandran. He adds that possibly the earlier approach of connecting on the backbone network infrastructure is going to have its own challenges, and every government -- even in developed countries are leveraging the public cloud which is far more effective. In Australia, a secure network created for the states or the state bodies removes the dependency on the point to point network infrastructure. While the government today is reluctant to adopt the cloud for mission critical projects such as the CCTNS, the apprehension about security in cloud is more about perception and less of education on how the cloud functions. Companies need to create awareness and build confidence. From a technology point of view, the cloud (hybrid or public) is far more robust today, as most cloud service providers take a 360 degree view of security – be it application, data or network security. Above all, the target to complete the project by March 2017 will largely depend on how smoothly the CCTNS project shuffles among the centre, states and system integrators, and gets the required attention from the finance minister before the 2016-17 budget to address the challenge of want of funds. mohd.ujaley @expressindia.com
FEBRUARY, 2016
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CASE STUDY
BSBCCL
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MOBILE STRATEGY HELPS STATE CORPORATION SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE ITS EFFICIENCY After implementing the ‘Vodafone Location Tracker, the Bihar State Building Construction Corporation now has complete visibility into each and every scheme with respect to fund allotment, work status, expenditure and contractor assignments BY MOHD UJALEY
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ihar State Building Construction Corporation Limited (BSBCCL), famously known by its vernacular name – Bihar Rajya Bhavan Nirman Nigam Limited, is a state enterprise established in 2008 by the Government of Bihar under the Building Construction Department. The mandate of BSBCCL is to construct big and prestigious buildings, take care of their maintenance, administer townships and other constructions which the state government may assign. Within a short span of time, BSBCCL has delivered some key projects such as construction of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Gandhi
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Maidan, Adhiveshan Bhawan, Ghulam Sarwar Memorial Hall, and Loknayak Jayaprakash Institute of Technology in Patna. It is currently working on Kishanganj Agriculture University and some other notable projects. It is interesting to note that BSBCCL is among one of the few profitable state PSUs in Bihar and its success story has been hailed as a major achievement for any state public sector corporation in the country. From a turnover of merely Rs 3 crore and project outlay of about Rs 100 crore in 2012, today it has managed to achieve a turnover of Rs 4800 crore with a project outlay of about Rs 8000 crore.
Presently, it is executing work for over 25 government departments and various bodies, valuing over Rs 4,500 crore, covering nearly 1100 sites. To smoothly manage its projects, BSBCCL has adopted technology as part of its core operational strategy. Today, the state corporation has a well established system in place for e-monitoring, e-procurement, project management, financial accounting, e-leave management and managing security of the network and the devices. However, with the continued rise of smartphones, mobility and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) becoming a reality, FEBRUARY, 2016
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BSBCCL decided to overhaul its traditional strategy of using technology just for governance. The firm realised the need to go beyond e-governance and decided to adopt a mobile platform for ensuring transparency and accountability in the execution of the projects and its operations. “Since the past one year, efforts are being made to move the entire structure from e-mode to m-mode. Our e-governance systems are in place, and now the focus is to take it to the mobile platform and use it for the benefit of the people and the organisation,” says Ganga Kumar, Managing Director, BSBCCL. EXPRESS COMPUTER
As part of this objective, the firm wanted to have the ability to track its field force, which in turn, could help it monitor and execute projects at a faster pace. After evaluating various mobile based solutions available in the market, the firm decided to implement a location tracker solution from Vodafone. The 'Vodafone Location Tracker' (VLT) solution helps the firm in tracking the field force and their movements. The solution is a GSM network-based location tracking service where the location of the SIM or mobile number is identified on the basis of the cell tower it is latched on to. “The data, captured by a Vodafone
backend server, is then transferred to a secure, user-friendly web portal so that the organisation can manage and control its assets with ease,” informs Ajay Sehgal, senior vice president, SME business, Vodafone India. The teams from Vodafone India and BSBCCL collaborated to create the necessary accounts and dashboard from where real time reports could be accessed. The mobile monitoring tool has been operational for the past one year, and in this period, the tool has helped the firm in improving its operational efficiency and reducing cost of operations. “Today, our decisions are FEBRUARY, 2016
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CASE STUDY
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BSBCCL
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VODAFONE LOCATION TRACKER
Our e-governance systems are in place. Nowthe focus is to take it to the mobile platform and use it for the benefit of the people and the organisation Ganga Kumar Managing Director,BSBCCL
Vodafone Location Tracker helps in monitoring the location of assets and trackthe movement of field force,leading to improved business efficiency Ajay Sehgal Senior Vice President, SME business,Vodafone India 24
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Bihar State Building Construction Corporation Limited (BSBCCL) executes work for over 25 government departments and various bodies
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To smoothly manage its projects and workforce, the firm has implemented the Vodafone Location Tracker (VLT) solution
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VLT is a GSM network-based location tracking service. All the 2G connections of the BSBCCL have been mapped with this application
● The location of the SIM or mobile number is identified on the basis of the cell tower it is latched onto ● The application has been operational for the past one year.In this period, the tool has helped the firm in improving its operational efficiency and reducing cost of operations
Leave request is now being managed with the help of this application.An employee can apply for leave and see the status of the request on the mobile app itself
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more data driven and we know things in real time,” informs Kumar. Currenly, the BSBCCL is using VLT, to monitor the status of employees and projects. All the 2G connections of the corporation have been mapped with this application and the real time status of the project and the workforce is available instantly. The application has helped in monitoring each and every scheme with respect to fund allotment, work status, expenditure, contractor assignment and work details. In addition, the leave request is now being managed with the help of this application. An employee can apply for leave and see the status of the request on the mobile app. “It is essential for state corporations like us to set high standards for quality, timeliness and efficient delivery of the projects to succeed. In order to achieve these goals, BSBCCL has taken various initiatives in the area of project management, financial management, and offered incentive schemes for employees. Solutions such as VLT have helped us in fulfilling these objectives,” says Kumar. With the success of the mobile monitoring system, the firm is looking to create a bigger role for ICT in its day to day operations. For example, it recently automated the process of tendering for ensuring a smooth and corruption free tendering process. Now, the contractors
do not need to come the office of the firm, as everything is on the website and the same is being provided on the mobile app. Also, in the area of project management, which is very critical for the success of any project, the firm’s Project Management Information System (PMIS) is embedded with a GPS monitoring tool for monitoring and updating exact physical progress of the projects. The state corporation is also using the G-FACTS system, which is considered to be one of the best financial protocol and government accounting systems for transparent, accurate and error free account management. With the government's renewed focus on digitisation, BSBCCL, which works like the central government’s National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC), is now working to set-up a new IT infrastructure for automating a huge number of processes. For example, it is looking at implementing e-office for creating a paperless office. Similarly, it is looking at establishing an e-library for saving and viewing files online. Additionally, an online examination form for registration for jobs, and an online HR management system is also envisaged. The ultimate goal, according to Kumar, is to create a self-sustainable model for m-governance. mohd.ujaley @expressindia.com
FEBRUARY, 2016
INTERVIEW ALTAF HALDE KASPERSKY LAB
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The only way to predict and eliminate all possible security issues in the Digital India project is by embedding security from the planning stage to the actual implementation of digital technologies, says Altaf Halde, managing directorâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;South Asia, Kaspersky Lab, in a conversation with Mohd Ujaley
Embedding security in government projects What are the opportunities you see in the Government's Digital India programme? The Digital India initiative seeks to transform the country into a connected economy and it can be successful only when the security of the connected devices is assured. The Digital India concept involves so many different technologies communicating with each other in so many ways. The only way to predict and eliminate all possible security issues is by embedding security from the planning to the actual implementation of digital technologies along with strict compliance with the cybersecurity policy. This includes privacy protection, data protection and adherence to cyber laws. With the Digital India initiative, a lot of data will be collected by different bodies and this needs to be protected. We deal in protection of critical infrastructure and we intend to provide a complete security solution against all kinds of cyber threats to the government planners and builders to raise awareness about cyber threats and share information on how to mitigate these threats before they can impact the public. We do look at the government vertical as a big contributor to our business. We have alliances with specific partners who have a focus in the government vertical. What kind of cyber security challenges are we likely to come across? Many organisations are working on intelligent solutions to make Digital India a success but unfortunately, a relatively fewer number of organisations are considering the cybersecurity of the digitalised country. With growing digitisation, the landscape for potential cyber security threats will also grow. Therefore, if security is not addressed early on, it could make the programme difficult to achieve the real goal. Cybersecurity also affects physical security systems, especially critical public systems like video surveillance. When building the foundation of a Digital India, it is extremely important to not only think about the comfort, energy and cost efficiencies that the new technologies will bring, but also about the cybersecurity issues that might arise. Take an example of mesh-network based surveillance systems which is mostly used in EXPRESS COMPUTER
video surveillance. Let us look at how these systems can be breached. In mesh-network based surveillance systems, surveillance cameras are connected via a mesh network. This is a type of network in which nodes are connected with each other and serve as stepping stones for data (video feed in this particular case) on its way from a node to the control center. Instead of using a Wi-Fi hotspot or a wired connection, nodes in such networks simply transmit data to the closest node which transmits it further through other nodes right to the command center. Should an intruder connect to just a single node in the network, they will be able to manipulate the data transmitted through it. So, the challenges are huge. What should be done to mitigate these challenges? Partnerships with international researchers and organisations coupled with public and private partnerships will be the best way to address the ever increasing threats and potential risks for Digital India. In this context, we do not look at providing security only as a business opportunity. We have already initiated steps at an international level backed by leading IT security researchers, companies and organisations, including IOActive, Kaspersky Lab, Bastille, and the Cloud Security Alliance to solve the cybersecurity challenges through collaboration and information sharing.
When building the foundation of a Digital India,it is extremely important to not only think about the comfort,energy and cost efficiencies that the new technologies will bring,but also about the cybersecurity issues that might arise.
From a regulatory point of view,what changes would you like to see in the area of cyber security? As far as regulation is concern, India has already started moving in the right direction. We have seen and observed a lot of action from governments across countries. They are doing their best, to get the ready infrastructure needed to counter cyber attacks. As the part of "Digital India" initiative, the Indian government has already planned to launch â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Botnet cleaning centers'. This proposal is part of the national cyber security policy to cleanup botnet infections in Internet-enabled devices. Botnet is a network of malicious software that can remotely gain control of devices, steal information and carry out cyber-attacks like Distributed Denial-ofService (DDoS), which can prevent access to websites. mohd.ujaley@expressindia.com
FEBRUARY, 2016
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OPINION
KPMG India
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AN IDEAL FRAMEWORK FOR RAPID ROLL OUT OF e-GOVERNANCE After more than a decade and a half of intense efforts to electronically enable the government and service delivery, it is time to take a pause and re-assess the frameworks used so far JAIJIT BHATTACHARYA
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o begin with, e-governance needs to be architected to be truly citizen-centric, moving away from the current models of being department-centric. This would require a complete overhaul of the manner in which e-governance had been architected till date. This is not an easy task and is perhaps the holy grail of governance. What exactly does “being citizencentric” mean? It means every time the citizen needs to interact with the government, the citizen need not start off on a discovery of which department and agency will provide the specific service required by the citizen. For that matter, the citizen may not even need to ask for the service – the system should be able to predictively find out the requirement of a citizen and deliver the same. So if a thirty five year old pregnant, tribal, handicapped unemployed woman needs to find what are the benefits that she is entitled to from the myriad departments and agencies of the government (as she is (a) pregnant, (b) tribal, (c) handicapped, (d) woman and (e) unemployed), an electronically transformed government should not expect that this lady will know
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Atrue “citizen-centric”service means that every time the citizen needs to interact with the government,the system should be able to predictively find out the requirement of a citizen and deliver the same how to login into the Internet, find the URL’s of the various ministries and departments, and apply for her entitlements, possible in English, and also furnish her documents digitally from a pendrive and upload the same. The lady should be able to go to a single window, possibly run by a single government or government outsourced agency, enter her profile in terms of age, her status as a handicapped, pregnant tribal unemployed woman, and the system
should be able to spew out all her entitlements. In addition, the system should be able to then track her pregnancy, delivery of the child, immunization requirements of the child, MNREGA payments made to the lady, and all this without the lady needing to get back and request. The system should be able to deliver the services in a personalised manner, through predictive analytics, without the citizen (in this case the lady in question), needing to come back to the e-government system. Hence the ASHA worker should visit the child thus born, on a periodic basis to deliver the immunisations without the mother needing to go back and request electronically. That would be a true citizen-centric system. What is required to build such a system? Technically, the answer is quite straightforward. The departmental systems need to be joined through a few key data masters. These data masters become the single point of truth for citizen information. Many parts of the puzzle are already in place in India. This includes the Unique ID of citizens (Aadhar) and State Residents Data hub. However, there is also data that is common across two or FEBRUARY, 2016
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more departments. Even if the departments agree to cooperate, one has to agree on the Truth Prioritization – that is, which of the departments actually own that data and hence would be responsible to change the data as and when required. As an example, if someone’s current address changes, and the person goes to book a railway ticket, can the person ask the railways to make the change in his or her address and that should be taken in by all departments as the new truth with respect to this citizen’s address, or should there be a process wherein the person has to necessarily go to say, UIDAI to change the current address before purchasing the railway ticket? The latter would obviously make the process more cumbersome. The former would lead to deterioration of the quality of data as all departments would not be equally equipped to make changes to key data. Moreover, departments would need to have integrated processes, requiring significant structural changes in the government. As an example, on applying for a government scholarship for education in a foreign university, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) should be able to automatically provide a passport to the student, which implies that the MEA should be integrated into the police systems to be able to quickly check the antecedents of the student, before automatically providing the passport. The above process implies that the processes of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of External affairs, Ministry of Home and state Police need to be all integrated. This is indeed a significantly challenging proposition. However, this is necessary in order to bring in the necessary change to make the government truly citizen centric. What else is required to move to the new framework? The framework needs to be ferociously inclusive. Inclusive in terms of language, interface and access. Hence, government services need to be provided in local languages. But what if the person is illiterate – as is the case with a significant part of the population. Thus the interface could be speech based or other such interfaces that support the print-blind and other physically challenged citizens. EXPRESS COMPUTER
WHATNEEDS TO BE DONE ●
e-Governance needs to move away from the current models of being department-centric
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Rather people going to the system,the system should come to the people.System should be able to predictivelyfind out the requirement of a citizen and deliver the same
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Government needs to create single source of truth for the data
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Departments need to have integrated processes,requiring significant structural changes in the government
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The framework needs to be ferociously inclusive.It has to be inclusive in terms of language,interface and access
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The Government should allow utilisation of TVWhitespaces frequency for rural connectivity
What is access? Access implies that anyone should be able to get access to the system, through appropriate connectivity, through a dedicated access device or through a community access device, at an affordable cost. If someone is living in a remote area, it would be extremely expensive to provide connectivity through
either fibre or through satellite. Hence enabling domestically created technologies such as utilization of TV Whitespaces frequency, that makes it realistically possible to provide rural connectivity at an affordable cost, becomes a critical policy issue. The government needs to take a policy call to keep public radio frequency resources for the public, instead of privatising the entire public resource. The TV Whitespace technology works on the principle of sharing the radio frequency resources through a community infrastructure, without the need to have large telecom companies involved. The technology senses that no one is using the spectrum and quickly sends or receives the data packet, thus enabling rural connectivity. Since this operates in the lower frequencies, one is able to connect across 20 km through a single set of antennas, as demonstrated by IIT Bombay. To make this a reality, the government needs to keep 40 MHz of spectrum to be freely used without license by general public, and thus avoid privatization of public resources. If we can achieve the above framework, we can achieve a truly citizen-centric and inclusive government that is able to care for the last person standing (antodaya). The author is Partner at KPMG India.
FEBRUARY, 2016
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e-GOVERNANCE
TOP
DIGITAL INITIATIVES
BY THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT
Ever since Narendra Modi has been sworn in as the Prime Minister of India, the government has launched several projects under the ‘Digital India’ initiative. Rashi Varshney of Express Computer checks out ten major recent initiatives of the government
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eSahyog: Streamline the taxation procedure in a click
Traditionally, if the Income Tax Department finds a mismatch in information shown in the Income Tax Return with the information submitted from third parties, the taxpayers are called to the Income tax office. e-sahyog is a project to provide an online mechanism to resolve mismatches in income tax return without requiring taxpayers to come to the Income Tax Office. In cases where a mismatch has been found, the taxpayers get informed by SMS, e-mails and letters.The taxpayer just needs to visit the e-filing website and log in with his or her user-ID and password. 28
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CPGRAMS: Use your smartphone to file grievances using QR code
A mobile application for Centralized Public Grievances Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) portal has been launched, which is aimed at providing the citizens with a platform for redressal of their governance-related grievances. A Quick Response (QR) code has been provided on the portal which can be scanned onto the smartphone after which the grievance can be sent from the phone directly on to CPGRAMS. The mobile app will not only allow lodging of grievances, but people can also track the grievance status.
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Olabs: Video tutorials for lab experiments
For the unprivileged children studying in small schools which do not have proper labs, the government has launched an online lab for school students, where science lab experiments can be taught online for all Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools. As the labs make use of cutting edge simulation technology to create real world lab environments, it has helped underpriveleged children to be at par with students in better equipped schools. FEBRUARY, 2016
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PayOnline: Payment portal for all government payments
An electronic receipt portal, PayOnline is fully compatible with smartphones or tablets.The portal is a comprehensive platform for all government payments â&#x20AC;&#x201C; inter-ministerial, vendor transactions or small payments by citizens of India for government services, which can be made electronically.The portal offers netbanking services from more than 67 banks.With an e-payment portal now in place, all the government departments are likely to adopt the platform leading to making government transactions cashless.
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eHospital: Healthcare on tap
With this initiative,one can skip the hassles of registration and other formalities at hospitals by merely identifying themselves through the Aadhaar Number.One can select hospital and department,select date of appointment and get the same through an SMS.This application provides important services such as appointments,payment of fees and access to online diagnostic reports.
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eSign: Sign documents with Aadhaar
eSign offers the functionality to authenticate users and perform the digital signing of documents using Aadhaar eKYC service (biometric or OTP) while submitting documents to agencies. Hardware tokens are not required to be used.
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MyVisit: Book an appointment with a government official
MyVisit.gov.in is a platform through which the public can make appointments with government officers online, without having to stand in long queues or wait for references. The portal and its mobile app, is integrated at all central government offices and ministries through which even the bureaucrats can interact with their visitors. The visitor details are automatically saved in a database as well. The portal has a simple registration form with the help of which citizens can make appointments with government officers.
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Digital Locker app: Digital Locker on your smartphone now
DigiLocker is a platform for issuance and verification of documents & certificates in a digital way, thus eliminating the use of physical documents. Indian citizens who sign up for a DigiLocker account get a dedicated cloud storage space that is linked to their Aadhaar (UIDAI) number. This e-facility now can accessed on mobile devices via its app, which is available on the Android and iOS platforms. With this facility, one can store documents on the locker directly from their mobile phones.
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MyGov: Become a participative citizen through your mobile phone
Through the MyGov innovative platform, the government encourages citizens to participate in policy making by giving ideas and suggestions.The website and mobile app allows citizens to volunteer for specific projects and also invite suggestions regarding various policy decisions.
Digitisation of Indian post offices
The Government of India has partnered with Ricoh India for implementing and operating an integrated rural hardware solution for around 1,30,000 post offices across India.The solution not only includes hand-held devices with camera and biometric facility but also includes a set of solar panels.These mobile terminals will facilitate all postal and financial transactions in the rural branch offices, and upload this data to the India Post data centre.This service is expected to significantly improve the delivery of services in rural areas. FEBRUARY, 2016
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e-GOVERNANCE
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HOW TECHNOLOGY CAN PREVENT ROAD ACCIDENTS Vinit Goenka, Member IT Task force, Ministries of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways talks about the grave situation of road related accident deaths in India and how the developments in the field of IT can be leveraged upon to ensure safe commuting.
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ndia has one of the largest and densest road networks in the world. However, these highways are also counted among the world’s most unsafe road networks too. According to figures from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, India’s daily death toll due to road accidents is more than four times the annual death toll from terrorism. As many as 139,671 people lost their lives on India’s roads during 2014 – which translates to 382 deaths every day. For comparison, if 57,844 people lost their lives due to over speeding, 6968 30
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Indians died in 2014 because of rash driving in an inebriated state. According to some estimates, roads were at their deadliest in 2015 claiming more than 16 lives every hour on average. Over 1.41 lakh people died in crashes, three percent more than the number of fatalities in 2014. The available data and established parameters suggest that many Indian cities are also among the polluted urban clusters of the world. Be it New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata or Chennai, people residing in all these major cities have to
spend their days in exorbitantly polluted environments. For any developed country to maintain a sustainable growth, transportation network such as ‘Roads, Highways, Ports and Waterways’ are key factors. The PM has already stated that his government will soon introduce laws to enhance road safety as traffic fatalities and injuries mount. A new Road Transport and Safety Bill is under preparation and a group of experts underlined the "urgent" need of a comprehensive national road safety FEBRUARY, 2016
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legislation. The rate of road accidents is among the highest in the world and a lot of initiatives have been launched by public and private actors. Only a mass awakening would generate a mobilisation in the society in getting rid of this situation.
IT for Parivahan A thought on these lines struck us to conceptualise a people driven campaign in order to improve our transportation system, which in turn gave birth to 'IT for Parivahan', an initiative that motivated over forty five thousand people to share their ideas to overhaul our commutation apparatus. In four months’ time and three phases of campaigning, our team of 200 volunteer technocrats at ‘IT For Parivahan’ established a direct contact with 2.5 crore Indians through social media tools, web mails and by organising seminars, live interactions and events. In return, we were flooded with responses from the respondents who not only expressed their grievances but also shared innovative ideas to overcome difficulties and hindrances they faced on a daily basis while commuting. People shared some amazing ideas to make our transportation world class which would be cheaper, safer, faster, more regulated and pollution-free. Our campaign proved that IT plays a vital role as the single most important tool to improve efficiency, safety, durability, cost management, timeliness and transparency in transportation. We believe it is high time to let IT take the driving seat while proposing solutions for the smarter cities with smarter transport systems.
Ideas from Citizens Just to take an example of a crowd sourced idea during the ‘IT for Parivahan’ campaign, Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) can be developed for various vehicles by using GPS technology. The owner may get to know about the exact location of his vehicle and what is the prescribed speed limit on the stretch of road it is moving. Thus, he may install a device (through a software or app) of cutting the fuel flow, the moment EXPRESS COMPUTER
ITplays a vital role as the single most important tool to improve efficiency,safety, durability,cost management, timeliness and transparency in transportation.We believe it is high time to let ITtake the driving seat while proposing solutions for the smarter cities with smarter transport systems a driver tries to exceed a speed limit, which makes it physically impossible for him to overspeed. These systems can be used to improve road safety, traffic efficiency and passenger comfort. A cooperative connected car, would receive not just information about a hazard detected by its own sensors (through a sound or vibration, which is more likely to catch the driver’s attention than a road sign), but also through alerts from a vehicle further along the road. Communication systems between vehicles and infrastructure providers have the potential to revolutionise the transport sector. While “connected cars” (i.e., vehicles enabled to communicate with infrastructure through embedded devices) have existed for several years, communication and cooperation between vehicles and connected transport-related infrastructure (such as traffic lights, parking lots, etc.) is a new phenomenon. By installing “V2X” communications (vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-toinfrastructure communications— basically a variant of Wi-Fi) in vehicles, carmakers can interact directly with other vehicles and provide advanced applications by exploiting real-time data
from vehicles and infrastructure. Technology has improved lives across the board and will continue to offer opportunities to develop better public transport systems. Traditional models of the inter-relationships between service planning, operations control and passenger information, have been based largely on the independence of these functions from one another. One of the suggestions we received during the 'IT for Parivahan' campaign relates to drivers having to adjust their speed to desired levels to accommodate other road user needs. Dynamic Speed Adaptation (DSA) technology offers remote speed advice to drivers about appropriate speeds in particular stretches of roadway and trials of it have already been conducted in Sweden and the Netherlands. Cameras of every kind are already proliferating at an incredible rate to measure speeds over long distances. CCTV cameras may be installed on all traffic signals where they may read number plates of the vehicles and instantly compare them to a National Database. This means that illegal vehicles can be intercepted to bring criminals to a speedy justice.
Global experience The global status report on road safety published last year by the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that approximately 12 lakh people die every year on the world’s roads and that 27 percent of all road traffic deaths are pedestrians and cyclists. However, the same report also suggests that the countries who have implemented the first grade technologies have controlled the road rage deaths. The IT for Parivahan campaign ultimately provides a platform to unleash the common man’s ideas related to IT solutions and use the global experience to improve our transportation. The campaign is encouraging people to come upfront and take the charge. Instead of cribbing and cursing the establishment, the campaign gives them a platform to share their vision in order to get rid of their transportation and commuting troubles. - As told to Abhishek Raval FEBRUARY, 2016
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e-GOVERNANCE
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THE PROMISE AND POTENTIAL OF FREE WI-FI: RAJGARH DISTRICT SHOWS THE WAY
When the Internet is offered as a utility and free of charge, the results can be extraordinary. Rajgarh District in Madhya Pradesh is aiming to become the first district in the country to offer free Wi-Fi to all its people BY MOHD UJALEY 32
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ecently Rajgarh, a district in Madhya Pradesh made headlines for turning its three remote villages into free Wi-Fi hamlets in the country without any government funding. IT professionals, Shakeel Anjum and Bhanu Yadav along with Tushar Bharthare and Abhishek Bharthare left their plush jobs at MNCs to formally launched the services on January 1 after a two-month trial run. Inspired by the project, the district administration is now FEBRUARY, 2016
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aiming to be the first district in the Madhya Pradesh to offer free Wi-Fi services. “Yes, we are aiming to become the first Wi-Fi district. It will involve the effort of various entrepreneurs, social organisations and administration,” Tarun Kumar Pithode, district collector, Rajgarh told EC. While many innovative ideas have been discussed on how to do it, the district administration is broadly mulling on three EXPRESS COMPUTER
ideas. One is to promote volunteer organisations like the one done in the panchayat Bawadikheda, but they are not sure about the sustainability of the project. If sponsors come onboard, then the model could be sustainable in the future. The other model is to let it be free for the entrepreneurs to implement and levy a basic user charge. This may involve complex issues of licenses and therefore legal modalities are still being worked out. The third model involves helping the local bodies to implement such a service. “We are working on details of all such models. There could be two other ways also, but it is still in the process of development and discussion,” says Pithode. Pithode, a 2009 batch IAS officer, who recently joined as a district collector is wary of the fact that most of the egovernance project in many cases have not delivered the anticipated outcomes. Therefore, to bridge the gap between conceived outcome and actual delivery, Rajgarh is only looking to implement the most sustainable model. “The gap between planning and delivery is a serious issue, that is why we are of the view that the most sustainable model should be implemented,” states Pithode. He believes that the government should only be facilitators and promoters of various e-services, and the rest of the things should be left to forces of demand and supply. Broad vision of the district is to provide multiple connectivity options, technology and training so that people’s livelihood in rural areas could be improved. “Our broad vision is to make people capable through various inputs like training and technology to ensure they take the right decisions at the right time leading to improvement in the quality of life for all the residents of the district, especially rural folks,” informs Pithode. According to government officials, one of the main requirements in a village is information relating to farming, health consultancy and education inputs for the students. “If we can create a low cost WiFi zone, it will ensure that people get these services on their own,” adds Pithode. “My first priority is to ensure that all the schemes of the government are implemented to the satisfaction of the
people , as this can create confidence among the masses,” he adds. It is interesting to note that after the scam broke out at Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), famously known as Vyapam, Pithode was posted there. He turned to technology to plug the loopholes in the system. During the initial few months, he tried to understand the loopholes and then decided to act against the fake selections. “Our analysis revealed that the technology used in the computer section of PEB was too old, yet the word computer made people shy away and led the power be concentrated in few hands. We understood this and decided to modernise the system with the help of the IT department of the Government of Madhya Pradesh,” adds Pithode. “This involved starting the process of computerisation of all the processes of examinations. We also started the process of introduction of online examinations. This took more than a year starting with an EOI to floating the tender and finalising the party and finally starting the online examinations. Before I left, we had already conducted four examinations involving more than two lakh applicants. This started the era of mass computer based examinations in PEB,” points out Pithode. This experience shows how technology can help in weeding out corruption. If basic Internet is offered for free, then more people would be aware and knowledgeable. More education related options would be available, and villagers will have an option of conducting business on online forums. Basic Internet connectivity can lead to a transformational effect as it can empower better decision making, and encourage better inclusion and outreach. Can Rajgarh become the first district in the country to offer free sustainable Wi-Fi services? While these are early days, the best part is that a beginning has been made, and hopefully will inspire several other villages and districts to experiment and try out different models for providing affordable or free Internet services. mohd.ujaley@expressindia.com
FEBRUARY, 2016
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INTERVIEW ARUN PARAMESWARAN VMware INDIA
VMware IS LOOKING AT RIDING THE NEXT WAVE OF THE NATIONAL e-GOVERNANCE PLAN The Digital India initiative offers huge potential to transform lives of the citizens. However, this ambitious initiative can only succeed if necessary policy-related changes are made quickly. In an extensive interaction with Mohd Ujaley from Express Computer, Arun Parameswaran, Managing Director, VMware India, highlights the key initiatives that the Indian government must take to make national projects such as Make in India and Digital India, achieve its full potential
Where do private companies stand in the overall scheme of the Digital India initiative? As far as the private sector is concerned, I believe that Digital India holds great potential for the growth of the private sector by creating opportunities for greater training and development for the youth, a less convoluted regulatory environment to do business and by providing easier access to finances for entrepreneurs. Private sector companies can also adapt technology to the requirements of the industry and create marketing initiatives that takes the consumer behaviour and 34
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evolving nature of the Internet into account. The private sector can also further the initiative taken by the government to create greater employment opportunities for rural India. It will be then in a position to take in a major part of the 100 million computer-educated youth in India from the smaller towns and villages. Through e-governance, the private sector can help the government to improve the current services and assist the government in making better informed decisions. Private sectors can provide technology to solve the grievances of citizens in various fields keeping in mind the nine pillars introduced under the Digital India program. Also, the private sector can FEBRUARY, 2016
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provide technology for eKranti which is one of the pillars of Digital India and has potential to bring reform in sectors like education, healthcare, farming or banking. What is your take on goals set by the Digital India initiative and the required policy around it? The Digital India project is functioning at a very large scale. There are several sectors that need focus and development. As a result of this, several measures need to be undertaken in the human resources function and the financial sectors. There needs to be a restructuring in terms of the financial resources to make space for the new programmes to be undertaken along with the existing ones. More skilled professionals must be inducted in order to make the growth a smoother process. Ministries might be required to appoint chief technology officers along with restructuring of partner organisations like NIC and DeitY. The scope of this program also goes way beyond just the Department of Electronics and Information Technology. I feel, there must be superior coordination efforts between all the involved departments and different stakeholders. The objectives of the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) and the National Knowledge Network (NKN) are yet to be fully realised. Aren’t they the biggest hurdle to the Digital India programme? There have been issues with both NOFN and NKN but neither are completely catastrophic and can be worked around. The major problem that NOFN faces is the delay in laying the fibre optic cables that are key to the Digital India program. The current rate is 500 km per day versus the required rate of 30,000 km per day which is essential for accomplishing the target date of June, 2016. The technology is also quite unaffordable for rural Indians. To counter this, the Government of India will have to enable smart, secure and cost-effective solutions. As for NKN, data and cyber security pose a major EXPRESS COMPUTER
The scope of the Digital India goes way beyond just the DeitY.Therefore,there must be superior coordination efforts between all the involved government departments and other stakeholders problem. This can be dealt with efficiently, if the data handling methods are improved along with figuring out innovative algorithms in data analytics and high resolution data visualisation techniques and tools. In what way is VMware looking at opportunities emanating from the Digital India programme? VMware is keenly eyeing the e-Governance programmes under e-Kranti that have been prioritised by the government of India. We are looking at riding the next wave of the National eGovernance Plan, also called e-Kranti, that clearly lays out the road map by the new government for e-Governance. There are 10 or 12 projects that are being defined under e-Kranti in terms of what the government will do. Our approach is to work with these customers and help them understand the power of what VMware brings to the table from a software defined datacentre standpoint. Can India achieve the scale of production like China with the help of the ‘Make in India’ initiative? ‘Make in India’ is an ambitious project. A scale of production like China is difficult but not impossible. India has the human resources and the capital but what it
lacks is training and experience in the manufacturing sector. While this sector had great potential, the lack of a vision, understanding of the potential and administrative bottlenecks have resulted it in losing out on the development it could have achieved. ‘Make in India’ attempts to rejuvenate the manufacturing industry in India and create around 100 million jobs by 2025 and the statistics say the same story. India’s Index of Industrial Production has shown year-on-year growth levels between 0.4 and 5.6 percent since April 2014 and both FDI and manufacturing export levels have also increased progressively. This optimism with regards to the campaign however will be rewarded only if the government takes care of certain basic necessities to ensure the success of the program. As of now, it has promised measures to increase the efficiency of the government bodies and ease of doing business. They need to bring about labour law reforms, uninterrupted and consistent power supply as well as stateof-the-art infrastructure that is needed to carry out business at this scale. There needs to be an increased focus on the training and development of the workforce. This is necessary so that the human resources does not become the cause of failure for this project. How does VMware look at India’s digital growth from an investment point of view? India’s projected digital growth is phenomenal. It is likely to become the second largest IT market in the AsiaPacific region by 2018. The Digital India campaign is aiding this extraordinary development and key verticals like education, healthcare and telecom are also gravitating towards a more technological approach. Companies have already started leading the way with their contribution to the Digital India initiative. The IT sector, therefore, is opening up to great opportunities. Investment in this sector can only mean greater growth and success for the companies. mohd.ujaley@expressindia.com
FEBRUARY, 2016
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OPINION
e-GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK
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A STANDARDISED e-GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK IS REQUIRED TO INFUSE LIFE IN eGOV PROJECTS Dr Vijay Bhatkar, Chancellor of India International Multiversity is most well known for architecting the indigenously built super computer- PARAM 8000. A member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet of the Govt of India and Chairman, e-governance Committee for the governments of Maharashtra and Goa, Dr Vijay Bhatkar says that India requires a unified architecture for e-governance. Here is a first person account:
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n a large democratic country like India, e-governance can provide the answer to challenges of corruption, obstructionism and delays. It got a national level importance during the tenure of Dr. Manmohan Singh. In the current scenario, India requires a unified architecture for e-Governance. The evolution towards a mature e-Governance model has taken more time than required. Similar to how ERP has taken a firm foothold in the Industry, the same should have happened with e-overnance. With all the fuzzy processes, requirement of files and the series of processes involved, to evolve a ERP like system for governance is a challenge faced by countries the world over. Another pothole in the e-governance journey is the application incompatibility. There is an urgent need to adopt standards for seamless communication inbetween applications. Moreover, the bureaucracy is not up to the speed with developments in the space of IT. The lack of accurate data in government departments is also a challenge. Usually, the issue is about incomplete data.
Governments unclear about their requirements The IT companies from the private sector often complain about late payments from the governments and the difficult terms and conditions to be adhered in the e-governance contracts signed. Many companies have burnt their hands in handling government projects. The Government doesn’t know what they want in a project. On top of that, the Government in a way is not ready to take the responsibility of what they don’t know, as they put unreasonable terms in the contracts with the private companies. For example, if a particular software does not serve the purpose, then the Govt turns up and says, “this is not what I want, I want something else.” Rewriting software to match the changed requirements is a big task. From the government point of view, the deliverables are still pending according to the contract, and thus the payments get delayed. Even in the case of the consultants appointed to draft the tenders, the consultants are themselves not aware of what they want or what the government wants, because their domain EXPRESS COMPUTER
like a mobile or a laptop that will get the work done in no time.
The way forward for e-governance
One of the secrets to get e-governance right in the state is to have all the state departments collaborate, standardise processes and share data knowledge is very limited and that’s why many state level data centers and computers procured by the states have become outdated in just three-four years after they were bought. The Government had no provision for updating the infrastructure. The last mile connectivity issue can be solved by making the computers available in the rural areas, getting Internet penetration into these areas and training the masses on how to use these systems. At times, nonavailability of power makes all these initiatives useless. The penetration of mobile devices certainly helps. The Govt of India has set up kiosks for accessing the Internet at a nominal cost. A large number of such centers are created but people, culturally don’t like to walk down and access them without any formal understanding. What they want is a device
One of the secrets to get e-governance right in the state is to have all the state departments collaborate, standardise processes and share data. Most of the states have their respective IT departments. At times, it is merged with other departments. The IT budget for each department is separate. The local government bodies have to get their budgets sanctioned from the respective departments under which they operate and they are giving contracts to disparate vendors. Ideally, the IT department should set standards and take decisions accordingly but these departments are not adequately staffed to take the decisions at the pace at which they should be taken. At the same time, the applications cannot wait because the IT landscape and various other standards are evolving fast. This challenge has been there and it still remains and “our work is more in the files,” The central government is starting to use standardized softwares for e-grampanchayats, e-districts etc. To make all e-governance applications mobile enabled will be critical. The citizens should have the power to get G2C services on their mobile -- even upto the level of giving a Siri like experience, where the phone is able to understand the speaker’s command. - As told to Abhishek Raval FEBRUARY, 2016
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FEATURE
BUDGET 2016 EXPECTATIONS
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E X P E C TAT I O N S :
UNION BUDGET 2016
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As the Indian Government continues to introduce a huge number of economic programmes one after another, the expectations from the Union Budget 2016-17 remain high. To get a perspective of budget expectations, Ankush Kumar spoke to some major industry leaders. Here is a brief snapshot:
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FEATURE
BUDGET 2016 EXPECTATIONS
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KUNAL NANDWANI FOUNDER AND CEO, uTRADE SOLUTIONS
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eing a start-up in the Fintech space, we look forward to a more congenial and consistent taxation regime. While retrospective taxation should no longer raise its head, the Union Budget 2016 should support Prime Minister Modi’s ‘Start-up India, Stand up India’ initiative by introducing tax incentives for enterprises founded in the last 5 years. A tax holiday for start-ups (much like that for IT companies during the 90s) for a period of 3 years would facilitate India to become the start-up capital of the world. Shareholding premium from investments should not be considered as income and hence taxable. SEZ companies should be allowed to conduct domestic sales in Indian rupees rather than in foreign currency as per a recent knee jerk change. India should also look at bringing in a
Atax holiday for start-ups (much like that for ITcompanies during the 90s) for a period of 3 years would facilitate India to become the start-up capital of the world Kunal Nandwani Founder and CEO,uTrade Solutions
legislation that replicates the JOBS act of the US. In summary, we yearn for an ecosystem
devoid of red-tapism, paving the way for greater ease in doing business and creating the ground for ‘Innovation’.
S.RAJENDRAN CMO, ACER INDIA
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he expectations ride high for the Union Budget 2016 as this is the second full-fledged budget of the government. The government needs to demonstrate concrete actions to revive investment, increase growth and generate employment which will impact the industry. We are hoping that the Government will unveil the Union Budget 2016-17 with a pragmatic recognition of macro-economic woes and a thrust towards structural reforms. One of the primary things the government should do is to adopt IT for citizen facing services and delivery centres in both central and state government. The government must also roll out the much delayed Goods & Services Tax (GST) as it will boost economic growth and will benefit manufacturing and exports. This is very important given that India has one of the lowest IT penetration rates at under 20%. Once rolled out, the IT sector has to be kept under the lowest percentage
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One of the primarythings the government should do is to adopt ITfor citizen facing services and deliverycentres in both central and state government S.Rajendran CMO,Acer India
slab which will enable companies to take greater advantage of the benefits and invest more in manufacturing. Introduction of accelerated depreciation for government buying will lead to faster refresh cycles, which in turn will give a boost to the industry. For SMEs, accelerated depreciation will also serve as a tool for competitiveness amongst the category as latest technology and IT systems serve as distinguishers for SME’s. The IT penetration in the country is yet to reach satisfactory levels and providing tax benefits to consumers purchasing IT products, at regular intervals, will help to increase the penetration levels. One shining example is of this practice is Malaysia where tax relief is provided on purchase of PC’s every three years. Increased IT penetration will bring in an increase in productivity among a large section of population and this in turn will contribute to the country’s economy. FEBRUARY, 2016
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MANISH SHARMA
VINAY SINHA
MANAGING DIRECTOR, PANASONIC INDIA
HEAD OF SALES – INDIA, DIRECTOR COMMERCIAL BUSINESS, AMD ASIA PACIFIC-JAPAN (APJ) MEGA REGION
for use in manufacture of IT hardware. However, Appliance and Consumer Electronics (ACE) manufacturers still face the same issue as the value addition in this sector, for several products, is quite low and results in an inverted duty structure. Also, the GST rate should be reasonable and in line with rates prevalent in other Asian countries (varying from 6% in Malaysia to 17% in China) Presently, the value of LCD panel in applications like TV, smartphones etc imported is approximately INR 10,000 cr. By providing a conducive environment for their manufacture, import substitution can be achieved. This will also encourage setting up component manufacturing units for LCD Panel FAB and the development of the entire ecosystem around LCD panels. An incentive scheme should be introduced to encourage manufacturers to produce high energy efficiency rating products. This could involve providing benefits either on input/ procurement side, or
An incentive scheme should be introduced to encourage manufacturers to produce high energy efficiency rating products Manish Sharma Managing Director,Panasonic India
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ndia has the potential to develop and manufacture electronics hardware for the global markets and gain higher global share besides meeting the country’s future requirements in the converging areas of information, communication and entertainment. Firstly, there is a need to address the inverted duty structure. Budget 2015 extended SAD (Special Additional Duty) exemption on import of certain products EXPRESS COMPUTER
levying concessional rate of duty on manufactured products based on their EER. The industry was excited with government’s efforts and intent for increasing manufacturing in India but the new FTP is a setback to industries exploring export opportunities. Also it will compel the EMS companies to relocate to other countries which will impact the initiative of “Make in India”.
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ast year’s budget was rational and realistic for IT companies, and we hope that this year’s budget will continue in the same vein. In fact, programs such as Digital India, Start-Up India, Stand-Up India, Smart Cities and Skill India require the creation of technological infrastructure that will need budgetary support. We therefore expect the focus of this year’s budget to be on digital literacy, improved connectivity and access to technology supported by radical government process re-engineering. This will not only empower citizens but also enable startups and large organisations to experience digital transformation. If schemes like the IT based student financial aid scheme for animation and gaming along with the Innovation Promotion Platform to foster a culture of innovation, research and development are implemented this year, they will positively impact the Indian IT ecosystem. This year’s budget should aggressively promote R&D benefits so that the organisations are encouraged to innovate and come up with newer technologies. Investment allowances for IT adoption must also be made to promote India as a premiere destination for both hardware and software development. FEBRUARY, 2016
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BUDGET 2016 EXPECTATIONS
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DEEPAK MAHESHWARI DIRECTOR – GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS, INDIA & ASEAN REGION, SYMANTEC
The need of the hour for the Government is to set aside about 10% of ITbudgets for cyber security which would ensure long-term benefits of IT investments and engender trust across the ecosystem Deepak Maheshwari Director – Government Affairs, India & ASEAN Region,Symantec
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ndia continues to be the bright spot in the global economy which makes it more important for us to be wary of complacency especially while setting prebudget expectations. Role of Information & Communication Technology in this pursuit cannot be overstated as it is being leveraged across all sectors of the economy. Its beneficial impact is showing up right from the financial inclusion
through JAM (Jan-Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and Mobile) to making our habitat more livable under Smart Cities and enhancing the ease of doing business by reducing the paperwork and associated delays. Headlines scream of data breaches and website defacements. Unless addressed properly, critical infrastructure can come to a grinding
halt. However, threats are also on the rise and despite less than 30% of Indians on the Internet, India is amongst the leading source as well as the destination of cyber attacks, according to Symantec’s 2015 Internet Security Threat Report. Even individuals suffer from identity theft, impersonation, cyber bullying and frauds. In this context, it is pertinent to mention that the Honorable Prime Minister Modi had given a clarion call to focus on cybersecurity on March 1, 2015 the day after the union budget was presented on February 28. Government departments had begun earmarking 2-3% of their total annual budget for IT projects following the recommendations of the IT Task Force in 1998 set up by the then Prime Minister Vajpayee. The need of the hour for the Government is to set aside about 10% of IT budgets for cyber security which would ensure long-term benefits of IT investments and engender trust across the ecosystem. Costs of cyber breaches, both direct and indirect, are massive. Hence, it does make sense to invest wisely in security.
SUNIL JOSE MANAGING DIRECTOR, TERADATA INDIA
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upport for Digital India initiatives and access to Internet connectivity in rural areas will boost the economic and domestic spending of the country as more citizens will be able to access e-commerce sites. This will provide much needed growth to the ecommerce sector. The Government also needs to explore bringing down the excise duty on hardware so that better technology becomes more accessible to a wider market and that would be a huge boost for us to provide superior technology to a wider audience at a more competitive rate. 42
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The Government needs to explore bringing down the excise duty on hardware so that better technology becomes more accessible to a wider market Sunil Jose Managing Director,Teradata India FEBRUARY, 2016
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PRABHU RAMACHANDRAN DIRECTOR, WebNMS
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his year, hopefully the budget should focus more on ‘smart cities’. With 98 smart cities listed in 2015 across India, 2016 seems prospective for the IT sector, particularly for the IoT players. We had spoken a lot about smart cities in the last 2 years and this year should witness ‘real action’. Smart cities - the fine amalgamation of technology, environment, governance and people, should be a predominant piece in the union budget pie. We expect announcement of a vivid, descriptive road map and implementation plan for the humongous task of transforming the cities to a smarter phase, with select few cities embracing new technologies and people friendly applications. Real-time apps like 'smart metering, smart road & rail transport management, smart metro,
Smart cities - the fine amalgamation of technology, environment,governance and people,should be a predominant piece in the union budget pie Prabhu Ramachandran Director,WebNMS
smart water & waste management, smart lighting and traffic control' etc can be initiated in those chosen cities which
could serve as blueprints for implementing future projects among the rest, in the years to come.
VIRENDER JEET SR. VP – TECHNOLOGY, NEWGEN SOFTWARE
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iven that India is being looked upon as an advanced technology hub by foreign multinationals, a lower corporate tax will make the India software market more lucrative. This will also boost R&D activities in the country in terms of software platforms. Some of the announcements which we would eagerly look forward to in the Finance Minister’s budget speech of 2016 are Lower Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT ), incentives for setting up more data centers and incentives for digitisation of SME’s. To make this concept more attractive, our foreign trade policy must recognise that encouragement of domestic manufacturing of world-class standards is a preferable alternative to protection and subsidisation through high tariffs, trade remedy measures and financial giveaways. The policy must encourage free imports of capital goods, industrial raw materials, components, EXPRESS COMPUTER
Some of the announcements we expect in the budget speech of 2016 are Lower Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT),incentives for setting up more data centers and incentives for digitisation of SME’s Virender Jeet Sr.VP – Technology,Newgen Software
tools and devices, as well as technologyladen imports, with a view to upgrading the quality and competitiveness of our domestic manufacturing. Apart from that, the importance of the
protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the scheme of attracting foreign investment and establishing high quality domestic manufacturing must not be overlooked. FEBRUARY, 2016
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FEATURE
SETTING STAGE FOR 2016!
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WHATTHE e-COMMERCE INDUSTRYIN INDIAEXPECTS FROM
BUDGET 2016
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The e-commerce market in India is at a nascent stage, yet to explore its potential. However, it is undisputedly the fastestgrowing digital commerce market at least when it comes to the Asia Pacific region. According to Gartner, India represents a $7 billion market, growing at more than 40% every year. Currently, the B2C commerce market leads the market in India, while the B2B market is limited to organizations that drive online sales while trying to cut costs in dealing with their partners and distributors. Presently, there are many roadblocks in India that can prevent making e-commerce a roaring success in India. We spoke to a few e-commerce companies to gauge their expectations from the upcoming budget and the key changes they expect to see for ensuring that the e-commerce industry in India achieves its full potential BY JASMINE DESAI
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FEATURE
SETTING STAGE FOR 2016!
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VIKAS MALPANI CO-FOUNDER, COMMONFLOOR.COM
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he e-commerce industry has disrupted the market thoroughly and brought so many innovations to the fore. However, it is not without its share of challenges. As an online merchant, safety and security of online monetary transactions is one of the most critical issues the industry faces and one that needs urgent attention. The other drawbacks include: ● Limited availability of credit cards and a nationwide credit card system ● Underdeveloped transportation infrastructure. ● Lack of skilled human resources and key technologies. Even within this segment, there is a surprising lack of awareness or lack of trust when it comes to online businesses and their inherent functionalities that can simplify life. ● Fear factor: The mindset that online transactions are unsafe is hugely prevalent in Indian consumers. Once this mental block clears, it creates that many customers and the industry grows even further. With ambitious plans like Digital India, the Union Budget 2016-17 is expected to deliver on providing investments in India’s
technology infrastructure. A substantial amount would be required to develop a robust network infrastructure across the country to build the foundation for India’s digital economy. Programs such as Digital India, Smart cities and Skill India require the creation of technological infrastructure that will need budgetary support. With Smart Cities bringing in lots of opportunities for private developers, the real estate sector expects government to further liberalize norms and allow FDI in construction and affordable housing apart
from re-introducing tax benefits under section 80 IB (10) of the Income Tax Act. The development of e-commerce has revolutionised the way business operates. It has also challenged the adequacy and validity of principles of international taxation such as physical presence, place of establishment etc. that has formed the basis of asserting tax liability. In India especially in the e-commerce industry as of 2015, the taxation laws are advent of multiple e-commerce ventures in India. The Government is finding it difficult to adapt its existing rules to meet the requirement of newer kind of businesses. The allocation of taxing rights must be based on mutually agreed principles and a common man understanding of how these principles should be applied. While the Economic Survey appreciated the services sector for being the primary trigger in growth in FY15, importance towards a promising FY16 in the form of reduced vulnerabilities, coupled with a heightened sense of expectation for increase in growth, better infrastructure and steps taken towards increasing manufacturing should lead to a better market.
encouraging e-commerce . It is a fact of life that most start ups fail hence bankruptcy laws should be eased to encourage entrepreneurs. GST would have been a shot in the arm and we hope that it is passed in the next parliament session. In absence of the same, the current VAT norms should be made more transparent by consensus building among center and states. Indian e-commerce companies selling goods outside India should get support from government. The Government should provide commercial , legislative and judicial guidance to start up e-commerce
companies for them to sustain and be compliant. Such transparent information would be greatly welcomed by numerous young companies in this space.
SAURABH RAI CEO, SURPLUSS.IN & BIZPLUSS.IN
e
- commerce industry in India faces a challenge of profitability . The absence of path to profit makes institutional investors like banks vary of dealing with start ups. The second is access to cheap funds and FDI norms limiting the fund flow. The last being absence of alternate markets . These need to be tacked institutionally by government. I am expecting that there are no surprise service tax impacts. There is an easing of FDI norms and government led institutions are encouraged to invest more in e commerce start ups. Lastly, easing of multiplicity of taxes and associated red tape will go a long way in 46
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ANKITA TANDON CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, COUPONDUNIA
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OD option allows customer to reject the product or there are products returned back due to other discrepancies. Such facilities are given to consumer for convenience but it creates a huge financial turmoil for the company and bottlenecks. Lastly, most start ups are partially funded or get sporadic funding due to which companies try to adopt marketplace models which lead to financial complexity. So, in a nutshell, most financial challenges are resultant of ad-hoc policies and lack of structured strategic planning. It is a known fact that the Indian e-commerce market is gaining momentum at a high speed. Since India has an aspiring and vibrant customer base, it is a place that every brand should be present in. The upcoming budget should look aim at simplifying the tax structure for the e-commerce sector. The government should also look at zeroing in some ground rules in order to boost the e-commerce sector. The budget should also look to roll out the implementation of GST by 2016. E-commerce companies expect ample Foreign Direct Investments, which will ensure huge growth, faster building of logistics and better funding option. As promised in the Union Budget of 2015, implementation of GST from April 2016 will help e-commerce companies rationalise supply chains by addressing taxation issues. Due to the virtual nature of e-commerce transactions relating to goods and services, taxation of such activities raises several issues. While tax authorities may track those e-transactions where-goods are delivered physically, tax evasion becomes a distinct possibility in direct e-commerce. The technical feature of online transactions creates various problems for the taxing authorities, such as establishing audit trails, verifying parties involved in transactions, obtaining documents, and fixing convenient taxing points. Internet operations lend anonymity to the parties
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in various ways despite the availability of email addresses and domain particulars. The implementation of GST will be a boon to the e-commerce industry as indicated by a recent study that GST could well boost India's GDP growth by anywhere between 0.9% to 1.7%. India is yet to have precise tax laws to regulate the e-commerce industry. This leads to a fair amount of confusion, as tax is imposed according to the interpretation of local taxation authorities in different states, as was seen in the case of Amazon in Karnataka. However, with the GST, which makes no
distinction between goods and services, e-commerce companies will not have to deal with complicated regulatory structures of each individual states. With the introduction of GST, logistics decision making will become much simpler. Instead of maintaining several warehouses in different states, companies can now have fewer, larger ones, strategically located warehouses to serve several states together. Additionally, GST will enable goods to be priced without taking into account the destination of the product, therefore profit margins will be easier to calculate. FEBRUARY, 2016
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FEATURE
SETTING STAGE FOR 2016!
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VINEET SINGH CO-FOUNDER & CEO, BUILDZAR.COM
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he e-commerce industry has seen unprecedented growth in the last two years and is expanding at a rapid pace. While the growth in this sector excites entrepreneurs and financial investors alike, it is also facing some serious challenges, which is access to capital: Too much money too early in the game is instigating excessive burning of cash. Online marketplaces operating in niche segments generally have five to six well-funded players battling it out for business. This is leading to tight competition in prices and pushing the margins to almost nothing. The greatest dilemma of the current e-commerce industry is aggressive customer acquisition, which is shadowing the urge to offer better product or service. Today, marketplaces are focusing mainly on offering deals and discounts. Rationalising the customer acquisition costs and building the
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customer loyalty without burning cash is one of the major problems to solve. Another big challenge faced by the ecommerce sector is the poor supply chain infrastructure and the prohibitive logistics costs. The e-commerce market is slowly penetrating into all tier-2 and tier-3 cities, which calls for an organised supply chain. Despite the presence of multinational courier agencies like DHL and FedEx in India, many e-commerce companies are shipping through smaller and cheaper third party couriers. The Indian Government should also provide clarity on how it is planning to use the Rs.10,000 crore fund it had earmarked for the program “Startup India, Standup India” in 2014. It must also come up with a concrete plan grounded on the announcement made by it in 2014 regarding reactivation of incubation centres for start ups by premier engineering schools. The Government
should also focus on coming up with tax policies which encourage start ups. The Australian Government recently announced relief in taxation norms for investors investing in start ups in their 2016 Budget. In the UK, investors receive tax credits for investing in start ups. The Indian Government can plan similar incentives.It should work on encouraging tech-enabled start ups to participate in government tenders. This will boost many start ups such as Buildzar in procuring materials and services for government housing schemes such as affordable housing. The Government of India should also allow 100% FDI for e-commerce to move ahead of competition. Foreign investors can make strategic investments in smaller online retailers. The indirect taxation laws in India have become a hindrance in the ecommerce operations, as they have not been able to identify the continuously evolving hybrid business models.When talking about the challenges, the entire ecommerce segment is facing issues in categorising their offerings as ‘Goods’ or ‘Services’ for charging the Value Added Tax (VAT)/Central Sales Tax (CST) or Service Tax. Presently, both VAT and Service Tax are levied on all digital transactions, leading to frequent disputes. The e-commerce industry is looking forward to tax incentives that will help promote investments in logistics and technological innovation. There should be a better clarity in the tax guidelines for all types of online transactions such as ewallet, drop shipment or gift voucher. It is expected that Goods & Service Tax (GST), which is likely to be implemented from the next fiscal, may be the answer to most of these problems. The government should incentivise the SMEs to sell on e-commerce marketplaces by providing them easy access to loans. These sellers are the backbone of e-commerce and growth in their sales on marketplaces will bring rapid growth to this industry in India. FEBRUARY, 2016
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SANJEEV MOHANTY CEO & MD OF JABONG
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ndia has seen unprecedented growth in e-commerce for the better half of the past decade. Venture capitalists and investors see huge potential in the sector and are thus pouring in huge funds into start ups that show potential in attracting huge audiences. This success can be attributed to the various upsides that ecommerce in India has, such as huge availability of funds, open market for entrepreneurs and so on. However, despite this boom, there are key challenges for the sector that will test the tenacity of this growth. As e-commerce in India continues to grow and the Tier 1 market saturates, players will look at Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities to reach out to the next set of audiences. This will require better and improved logistics such as increase in the number of warehouses, reliable transportation and postal infrastructures. For most Indian players, product differentiation does not come into play as much as the discount factor does. Though highly competitive, this approach does not help in establishing a loyal customer base as the audience is most likely to go where they see better discounts. In order to ensure the sustainability of the ecommerce sector, it is important for the players to work on product differentiation. There needs to be long-term clarity on the future of FDI in retail. Tax irregularities bundled with lack of clarity on FDI can seriously hamper the e-commerce boom. E-commerce, as new as it is, is an industry that has huge potential to reduce unemployment in India. A few expectations we have from the budget that would help the industry serve its purpose in a better manner are in: ●
Logistics and infrastructure: In order for the players to reach out to their target audience and ensure smooth and effective operations on ground, our infrastructure needs significant improvement. Poor infrastructure bundled with logistic concerns such as unreliable transportation, lower number of
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The government should implement necessary changes for various e-commerce business models in order to help make the Indian e-commerce industry globally competitive.There is a need to bring in tax incentives that provide the e-retailers with the option to boost investments in sectors such as logistics, technology and innovation. Implementing GSTwould introduce uniform tax laws across the country
warehouses, etc. can seriously hamper the growth of e-tailers. ●
Policy reforms: The rapidly booming e-commerce sector can highly contribute to state revenues. The lack of clarity and uniform procedures however prevent e-commerce from unleashing its true potential. Existing laws and tax policies need to be revised and should be in line with the ever-evolving e-commerce business model.
● Implementation of GST will be a big reform for e-commerce to boom, especially with the sector now spreading fast and deep into rural India from the metros. For Indian e-commerce, Direct Tax or Income Tax does not pose to be a major
hindrance due to the uniformly applicable laws that are in place. What is of concern are the Indirect Taxes including VAT/CST and Service Tax, the laws for which act as bottlenecks as they do not match the evolving business model. In the last year’s budget we saw an increase in service tax from 12.36% to 14%. The government needs to curb these rates in order to avoid the adverse effects it will have on online buyers. Another major challenge that we see is the impediment faced by the players in identifying whether a transaction is carried out for the sales of a good as opposed to a service. This is a major cause for dispute and litigation issues. Smooth interstate business transactions face hassles such as requirement of road permits, statutory forms, etc., thus making interstate transactions cumbersome for the players. The government should implement necessary changes for various e-commerce business models in order to help make the Indian e-commerce industry globally competitive. There is a need to bring in tax incentives that provide the e-retailers with the option to boost investments in sectors such as logistics, technology and innovation. Implementing GST would introduce uniform tax laws across the country which would make for a hassle free environment for the e-commerce players to do business in. A clear approach regarding the tax mandates for transactions such as gift voucher, drop shipments, e-wallet, etc. needs to be in place. In order to ensure rapid growth in India’s e-commerce sector, there is a need to promote foreign investment in the sector. A strategic investment by a foreign investor can help small online retailers grow faster which will catapult the sector to the next level. While most etailers favor 100% FDI in e-commerce, what is important is to bring in clarity in addition to a well-planned e-commerce and online business policy. FEBRUARY, 2016
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INTERVIEW MICHAEL SENTONAS McAFEE
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Michael Sentonas, VP and Global CTO of Security Connected at McAfee Intel Security shares his perspective on issues surrounding security, ransomware and how to have a risk based approach to security, with Jasmine Desai
Security moving forward needs to follow the data, the user and the application Could you give an overview of Data Exchange Layer (DXL) security communications fabric that includes deeper integration with Intel Security products? Security needs integration. It needs to have an architecture that will allow different technologies to work together and share intelligence. As of now, there is no messaging layer that exists among different vendors. DXL is a messaging layer that allows different technologies to share information on threats using a common platform in real-time. The idea is if a threat is detected in any end-point it can alert all other devices in the network. We are integrated with Brocade, Rapid7, Cyberon and many other vendors. We decided to focus on some core areas. Those core areas are end-point. It becomes even more important as we start to think of what I call "New end point" or as industry calls it IoT. Presently, end points are very dynamic. The end point might not reside within traditional network, wherein the traditional firewall might not be able to protect it. Security moving forward needs to follow the data, the user and the application. Similarly, Web Gateway Security both on-premise and on cloud is very critical to us. Security incident and event management (SIEM), advanced malware detection and analytics both onpremise and on cloud, Forensics and detection are core to our strategy. Critical for our strategy is Data Loss Prevention (DLP) as well. Which are the pillars for security in design? First and foremost organisations need to look at what technology will be used. Any technology which is being rolled out needs to be checked if it has security built into it? One needs to isolate devices with sensitive information to make sure they do not come under attack. Do organisations understand what is their most valuable data? Many organisations in India lack the knowledge of what is their most valuable information. How can organisations secure their valuable data, if they do not know what it is and where is it. 50
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Where is the vendor community failing in combating security threats which have already been there, and yet they seem to grow? From an end-user perspective, it is a challenge to know what security solutions to buy. Vendors talk about lot of statistics and trends, but they do not talk about what is the outcome of using their product. Thus, the industry needs to start talking about outcomes in a very clear basic way. Another major challenge is that lot of technologies out there do not work together. An average organisation uses technology from 1520 different vendors which are not interoperable. What ends up happening is that the end-user ends up becoming a system integrator. From an attack perspective this also leads to many gaps through which an attack can take place. We speak about Threat Defence Lifecycle, wherein we want to help organisations detect new or potential threats in the network. We would enable them to automate the lifecycle that would allow them to do it with faster time and fewer resources.
Many people do not have back-up of their information and that is when they have a ransomware attack,they tend to panic.They pay the ransom which is never a good idea, because it is funding the attackers with money to get more sophisticated technology
Presently, when most organisations have multiple layers of security, how can they take advantage of it or react to it? Sentonas: Organisations need to pause and rethink their security strategy. They need to ask some tough questions about what they have been doing. They need to assess that whether the architecture they have today will help them in the future. If it does not, then they need to make changes accordingly. Organisations should not get confused between defense in depth versus vendor in depth. Many misconstrue defense in depth by buying security solutions from all different vendors. The value to such an approach is very limited. Defense in depth means what vital security controls, one needs in every part of the network. If one can get those security controls from one vendor then it is easier, because then one gets integration and common management. Organisations can get optimal security by having one or two vendors in their environment and not 15-20 of them. jasmine.desai@expressindia.com
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BUSINESS AVENUES
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CASE STUDY
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TCS
TCS
SECURES CRITICALDATA WITH PIM TCS transitioned from manual systems for privileged user access and password management to Secured Access by implementing ARCOS, a Privileged identity Management (PIM) solution BY ABHISHEK RAVAL
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CS, India’s largest IT services company, is also on the forefront of offering services to its clients on a shared services model. The shared services unit of TCS was started with a team size of only 15 employees. Now it has grown to 350 employees, handling around 35 clients. The employees in this unit work with the highly confidential and critical business data of the customers.
Need for Secured Access Management Solution Till 2010, TCS was using manual processes for access as well as password management of several privileged user ids to ensure adequate control over access to client servers. However these manual processes had inherent
limitations. Further, the size of the shared services (MSP) business was growing at a fast pace. This created several operational challenges in managing multiple client systems and efficiency of shared staff (controlled by manual processes) was constantly an issue. The larger issue was however the higher risk from shared access, unlimited privileges, incomplete audit trails and limited password management capability due to large number of client systems. “Too many passwords, multiple accesses and excessive privileges were being generated and shared, which was against the TCS internal compliance norms”, says Nilesh Bhate, Head ICC Delivery, IT Infrastructure Services, TCS. FEBRUARY, 2016
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Also there was an expectation especially from the BFSI clients that while the services were shared there should be complete logical segregation of client systems during a live session. The governance teams at the client’s end also started demanding audit trails on a regular basis and thus compiling them with adequate tagging to the IDs and the name of the employees was a cumbersome task. “The reporting of which employee was working in which shift and accordingly map their system activities in line was a challenge. Thus fixing accountability was also near to impossible because the same IDs and passwords were being used by different employees,” explains Bhate. In the recent past, there has been a EXPRESS COMPUTER
focus on risks emanating from outsourcing of IT operations whether on site, through MSP or the cloud. There are now various standards on governance and oversight of outsourced operations. Also various regulators require companies to have stringent policies on access control, password management and audit trails especially in an outsourced environment. TCS anticipated these risks and challenges. In order to create efficiency in a complex environment and provide highest possible governance around privileged access and client data, the company established a crack team to identify and implement a system which could provide a holistic solution and improve governance.
Reliable, Scalable and Cloud Ready PIM In the enterprise space, clients generally operate on multiple platforms viz: Windows, UNIX, AIX and AS400, or several databases like Oracle and MS SQL. Further there are many networking devices viz: CISCO, Juniper, Nortel etc. The complexity increases when some systems are onsite and some are hosted with a service provider. In an environment such as above, any solution should be highly reliable with flexibility to cut across platforms. Also for an MSP, reliability would mean a solution that is highly available and secured as they service several clients. While the PIM had to provide functions to mitigate risks highlighted above, it was essential that the FEBRUARY, 2016
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CASE STUDY
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TCS
PRIVILEGED IDENTITYMANAGEMENTIN ACTION TYPICAL ENTERPRISE ITAND VIEWOF PRIVILEGED ID LANDSCAPE Business Unit 2
Business Unit 1
Business Users
IT Support Staff
Standalone Apps
IT Development
IT Support Staff
IT Development
Business Users
Standalone Apps
VIEWOFATYPICAL GROWING ENTERPRISE WITH INFINITE PRIVILEGE IDENTITIES Corporate Data Centre
System Admins
DBAs
Net Admins
Business Critical Applications
Outsourced Staff
Support Control Applications Privileged Identities solution was scalable as the complexity would only increase with more clients and more devices in future. The architecture of the solution should be such that it could be rapidly deployed and being cloud ready could be of added advantage as a single implementation could be leveraged for several clients.
Implementing ARCOS To address this issue, TCS implemented ARCOS, a Privileged Identity Management (PIM) solution from ARCON. 56
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Shared Access The system governs the access to the administrator user ids of all the client systems managed by TCS under the MSP business. The solution creates an arc around the client systems and manages the entire lifecycle of all privileged accounts which includes granting secured access based strictly on “need to know” and “need to do” basis. The access can be regulated based on criticality of the systems, time of the day, period of access, type of access and with many other control features. The entire access mechanism is
based on approval workflow to ensure that requisite authorizations are taken from appropriate levels before any super user access is granted. The entire session/activity of the user on client systems is recorded or tracked with his employee id. In the event of any untoward incident, whether intentional or unintentional, the system has the capability to alert and infact logs can be reviewed to establish accountability. This has significantly improved the entire governance process. In fact, the feature of FEBRUARY, 2016
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COMMON CHALLENGES ●
●
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No control over shared user access across enterprise Excess privilege assignment for least critical activities No control over activities of third party staff
person implementing the new policy knows the policy, but not the password. There is a virtual vault, which activates dynamic password change and it also keeps the password secure. Whenever the engineer is logging in, he does not know what password is being used. This solution can manage passwords for thousands of systems/devices at the same time and that too with uncommon and strong passwords,” says Bhate. This is a marked change from days where the passwords were manually changed for hundreds of servers, recorded on paper and stored in envelopes.
Key Benefits of ARCOS
Outsourced Data Centre
IT Staff Third Party Access live recording helps to monitor in real time all commands fired on a particular system, which are then tracked in the TCS Command & Control Centre in Mumbai, “With the password vault, we can change the password based on the policy set by the customer on a single click. If the customer policy states that there has to be a monthly change in passwords, with 15 character length password, the policy will be applied and the change will be made across the systems and all the users. The EXPRESS COMPUTER
With ARCOS, the entire IT governance around the privileged access management is now automated, which has further created efficiencies in the data centre operations. The visibility on all systems and devices is better from an operational perspective and it also helps to mitigate risks from misuse of super user-ids and passwords. In fact, the logs of all administrator usage is now kept secured in a vault and can be used for forensics. This solution has ready integration with several other leading solutions viz: Bio-Metrics, Hard Tokens etc for Dual Factor Authentication, SIEM (Security Information and Event Management System), Change Management Systems and GRC (Governance Risk and Compliance Solutions). This offers interoperability and better RoI across various security solutions. ARCOS is a cloud based architecture, which can be managed centrally. “We have done some customizations in the cloud architecture to allow auditors of our clients to access certain logs. Further Privilege Identity Management as a service can now be offered from our Cloud Infrastructure ,” says Bhate. Anil Bhandari, Chief Mentor, ARCON explains that currently the efforts are on to bring deeper integration in the system. The monitoring dashboard is being improvised to offer end-user analytics and identify rogue devices or user accounts in the data centre. abhishek.raval@expressindia.com
Currently,The ARCOS monitoring dashboard is being improvised to offer end-user analytics and identify rogue devices or user accounts in the data centre Anil Bhandari Chief Mentor,ARCON
This solution can manage passwords for thousands of systems/devices at the same time and that too with uncommon and strong passwords Nilesh Bhate Head ICC Delivery,ITInfrastructure Services,TCS FEBRUARY, 2016
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EVENT CISCO
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ith an aim of accelerating local innovation to enable digital transformation of enterprises, Cisco unveiled its strategy for taking advantage of the digitisation wave in the country at the recently organised iExpo 2015 at the India Engineering Centre, Bangalore. The flagship event kick-started with a brief presentation by Amit Phadnis, president, Engineering and India Site Leader as he shared the core values and vision of the company for the Indian market. “From a vision perspective, we want to create a product culture and inculcate a sense of ownership in our engineering team.” said Phadnis. The company sees a huge opportunity in the field of digitisation and firmly believes in getting a strong hold through co-development, partnerships and investments in startups. Phadnis stated that the company was actively working with startup companies as it believed that 58
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partnering with system integrators, codevelopers and startups were key to riding the wave of digitisation. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Cisco announced its intention to invest $240 million in the startup space. The investments will be targeted at startups that have a global appeal and specialise in technologies such as cloud computing, mobile technologies and Internet of things (IoT). Giving a brief insight about the investment, Phadnis said, “We are not just investing in startups with returns in mind, but we are looking to partner with startups, that build products which can be used by Cisco. We have invested $240 million so far from a fund perspective in the country. We have not yet exhausted the entire investments yet but are focusing on 25 startup companies in the country at this point in time. The rest of the fund is available for us to invest further in new innovations.” The focus of Phadnis’ presentation
revolved around digitisation and how it was transforming businesses across the world. Phadnis also spoke in brief about codevelopment, which Cisco is experimenting for about 18 months now. “Our partnership with Philips is a good example of the codevelopment model. We bring significant amount of technology with respect to the network in the lighting space.” Recently, Cisco announced a global strategic alliance with Philips to create new value in energy savings, building efficiency and employee productivity, made possible by the Internet of Things (IoT) in modern offices. This alliance brings together Philips’ LED based connected lighting system and Cisco’s IT network to address a global office market estimated to be worth EUR one billion. Details were also shared about the company’s increased investment by $20 million from last year in the network academies which was very significant investment from the skill India perspective. FEBRUARY, 2016
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CISCO BETS BIG ON DIGITISATION:
PLANS INVESTMENT IN STARTUPS AND CO-DEVELOPMENT WITH PARTNERS At the recently concluded Cisco iExpo 2015, the company announced its intention to invest $240 million in the startup space and also launched three new products
If we need to capitalise on digitisation, then we need to aggressively partner with system integrators, co-developers and startups Amit Phadnis
BY ANKUSH KUMAR Pipeline of Innovation Today, India is at the center of Cisco’s global plans. For example, Cisco has 27 principal engineers who are true global leaders with 25 – 30 years of industry experience. These engineers have created some significant product lines for Cisco. From a scale perspective, Cisco has around 11,000 engineers. During its 20 years in the country, Cisco India has contributed to filing 1000 global patents and 600 such patents have been issued for innovations across all major technologies. Some examples of innovation were revealed when Cisco unveiled three products, (1) Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS) 1000 Series; (2) Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS) 5000 Series and (3) 5520 and 8540 Series Wireless LAN Controllers, at the event. The three products, showcased at the event, continue Cisco’s tradition of ‘reverse innovation’ where engineers in EXPRESS COMPUTER
President,Engineering and India Site Leader,Cisco
India contribute to developing products, to address requirements of emerging countries like India, which in many cases turn out to be globally attractive and competitive. Such efforts are tightly aligned with Cisco’s global strategy, research and development. These products have been conceptualised, designed and developed in collaboration with some of the world’s leading web companies based on their operational best practices. Cisco said that these new products will enable service providers and large web companies to reinvent the way in which services are built and delivered. Spanning the areas of mobility, cloud and computing technologies, the networking products have been designed to enable the digital transformation of enterprises that rely on technologyenabled networks to exchange digital value, including data and transactions. ankush.kumar@expressindia.com
Cisco has a tradition of ‘reverse innovation’ where engineers in India contribute to developing products,to address requirements of emerging countries like India FEBRUARY, 2016
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EVENT GARTNER
ALGORITHMIC BUSINESS, BI-MODAL IT AND SMART AGENTS:
GARTNER SYMPOSIUM ITXPO 2015 The Gartner symposium presented a brief preview of emerging technologies which can have a big impact on enterprise technology adoption BY JASMINE DESAI
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he Gartner Symposium ITxpo 2015 recently held in Goa was abuzz with latest topics like algorithmic business, bi-modal IT and ground-breaking concepts that every organisation needs to adopt in 2016. Mike Harris, Group VP, Gartner stated, “In five years, five million devices will come out every single hour.” He posed the question which was to become central to the Gartner Symposium event this year, “What are your most important algorithms?” Global digital commerce is over $1 trillion. He stressed on the fact that for leading CEOs, the digital business will increase by 2020. He also explained that digital does not compete with analog as commonly believed but works together with it. Digital organisations start with customer behaviour. In 2015, cloud adoption hit mainstream globally. Speaking on the concept of bimodal IT, he said that platforms matter because businesses have become bimodal. IT only controls 62% of total enterprise technology spending. By 2017, 50 % will be under IT control. It clearly goes on to show that technology ownership has shifted. For example, 40% of Salesforce’s sales were made by non-IT personnel.
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In some geographies, CMOs will have a bigger IT spend than CIOs. With emerging important roles like CDOs, CIOs need to figure out how to collaborate with them. It is now upto organisations to change the way IT is perceived . They need to understand that big data is not where the value is. Big data by itself is inherently dumb. Algorithms is where the value lies, as it defines action. Introducing the gamechanging idea of algorithms, he mentioned that they can literally be a recipe. For example, the Coca-Cola recipe helped the firm create a global empire. Algorithms in BFSI created FinTech. Flipkart’s product
recommendation keeps one buying more products. They define the way we buy. Algorithms determine how will cars run, how cities will run. By 2020, smart agents will facilitate 50% of our interactions. By 2020, Microsoft’s strategy will be around Cortana and not Windows. He later on stressed that organisations should assign ownership to algorithms. They should classify which algorithms should be private or public. He mentioned thata market for algorithms will emerge. Products will be defined by sophistication of algorithms. Algorithms also take ethical positioning inherently. Algorithmic business is a way to act on data coming into the organisation especially through IoT. For example, HPCL has deployed sensors across their pipelines. IoT providing feeds of information helps in improving the service.
The rise of the Digital Risk Officer Speaking on another pertinent topic, he said that by 2020, 50% of large organisations will have a Digital Risk Officer managing IT, OT and IoT. Presently, security is not among the top ten priorities in India, although it is at number 7 across the world. Security has always been an area of under investment. CIOs still look at it FEBRUARY, 2016
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from a traditional perspective. India still falls under emerging markets. Risk management is indeed an area to be looked at, but is not. Organisations need to pay attention to the fact that expert security people are getting expensive, earning Rs 80 lakh per annum. On the brighter side, by 2020, 90% organisations will be resilience based. 71% of enterprises went into IT DR mode in the past two years. He also suggested that security has to be increasingly people-centric. One of the reverberating questions asked was ‘How can organisations transform?’ They need to play a far more active role in venture investments, developing innovation competencies and digital supplies. Techquistions are becoming more common by enterprises in traditional industries, which clearly means that winners will be investors in future technologies. What is keeping organisations from transforming? Skills, funding, culture, misalignment, legacy infrastructure. CIOs need to increase influence even if they focus on less.
The economics of connections Don Scheirbrieff, VP Distinguished Analyst, Gartner spoke about the economics of connections. He showed how EXPRESS COMPUTER
Types of CIO-CEO relationships
companies can chart a way to increase density and creation of value. The first step was ‘give’. For example, Tesla has shared its superchargers for free. Goldman Sachs started sharing its trading algorithms. By allowing corporate customers to use these innovations, these organisations have enabled deepening of ties. By 2018, one out of three businesses will be monetising their assets. The second step entailed ‘take’. He mentioned that organisations should take advantage of new resources. Mumbai international airport for instance, introduced T2 applications. Another example is a product called smart chopsticks which checks the freshness of food. The ‘take’ approach also includes ‘MESH’ wherein one sees the value in every new connection which is made.
Mary Masaglio, Research VP, Gartner, spoke about how to let control turn into influence. There are four types of CEOs and CIO relationships: at risk, transactional, partnering and trusted ally. 23% CIOs mentioned that they are a trusted ally. Almost 50% of these CIOs lead digital initiatives that spans the enstire organisation. 78% said that their influence is on the rise. There is a way to accelerate this. “The main trait which is a gamechanger for CIOs is that they use intuition. They are better at dealing with uncertain situations. This can have a huge positive impact in an algorithmic businesses”, said Masaglio. Masaglio also spoke about how organizations can overcome IT inertia. One of the surprising and ingenious solution she gave was divesting. For example, GE is currently divesting its consumer and financial division. Philips is divesting from the lighting business. According to Harvard Business Review, the best divestors produce a return 1.8 times bigger. She stressed that organisations must not do things that do not add value. It is time that IT divested itself of the fear of cloud, ownership bias and legacy infrastructure. For example, in FEBRUARY, 2016
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EVENT GARTNER six months, Ardent mills moved 60% of its infrastructure to the cloud. 50% of its CRM sales are done in cloud, while the HR rollout will happen in 2017. Things to never divest from include innovation, lynchpin algorithms and an organisation’s digital strategy. She then expounded on how distrust can be turned into trust. According to the Edelman Trust baromater Annual Global Survey, people’s trust in business is down to 57%. Trust is an emotion in the confidence people have in future behaviour. Organisations should trust wisely but not blindly. Harris suggested to divest in activities which can be done better elsewhere. Design must be done for inclusion to connect and not for exclusion.
India to be the fastest growing IT market Gartner said that India will be the fastest growing IT market in 2016 with 7.2% IT market growth. In 2017, it will be fastest growing globally with 6.8%. The growth is coming from IT services (13.8%), software (12.7%) and devices (9.4%). The largest segment experiencing IT growth is Telecom. Data centre systems will grow by 4% in which networking will grow 5.9%. IT budget growth will grow 11.7% in India which will be the highest globally. Malaysia will be following India. When it comes to digital business, IoT is core. 25% of organisations said that IoT is on their mind. BI, analytics and cloud will be top priorities for CIOs in 2016. Infrastructure and datacentre will be fourth. India is growing through replacement buys especially in the Telco, manufacturing and BFSI sectors. SDDC, SDN are huge topics of discussion. The economics of it makes infrastructure very cheap. ‘Anything as a service’ is a huge investment. SMBs are looking at it aggressively. IT spending in 2019 will be a $87.9 billion in India as compared to $429 billion in China. Gartner highlighted that digital commerce was at a nascent stage in India, and it accounted for less than 1% of total retail sales in 2015. However, India is one of the fastest-growing digital commerce markets in Asia/Pacific. Said Gene Alvarez, Managing VP at Gartner, “India 62
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TOP 5 THINGS THATDIGITALCOMMERCE PLAYERS MUSTFOCUS ON TO DRIVE GROWTH Customer Experience
This is the most important differentiator of a digital commerce service as price becomes transparent across sites. Providers that can design a compelling user interface (UI) will win over those that cannot
Product Range
Due to the nascent nature of India’s digital commerce market, product range and choices are still quite limited even on major market places. Providers will need to expand the product ranges to make the service attractive to shoppers through organic growth and partnership
Delivery
This is a key challenge in India given the less developed logistic infrastructure and the lack of last-mile connectivity in remote areas. Providers will have to partner with multiple logistic providers to impact the customer experience
Payment
Customer Service
Despite regulatory challenges, digital commerce providers should work with payment providers to offer a frictionless payment experience
Digital commerce providers should think carefully about their return strategy.A generous return strategy encourages sales especially for categories such as fashion and consumer electronics.
represents a $7 billion market, growing at more than 40% every year. Currently B2C commerce leads the market in India, while B2B is limited to organisations that drive online sales while trying to cut costs in dealing with their partners and distributors.” For the digital business to succeed, companies are creating innovation units. New digital initiatives are running alongside their traditional analog businesses. The business itself is bimodal. “Organisations are creating separate business units, focusing on digital and separate from their traditional businesses (Mode 1),” said Partha Iyengar, VP Distinguished Analyst, Gartner. “Traditional organisations move too slowly when they
build digital on old Mode 1 platforms. The solution is to create a type of bimodal organisation, introducing a new Mode 2 platform, with a different emphasis. The Mode 2 platform uses more cloud than in-house infrastructure and applications, “added Iyengar. The new platform is less about data gathering, and more about intelligent algorithms to act on the data. Platforms matter because business as a whole has gone bimodal. You need IT that supports a bimodal business. Over a third of CIOs have gone bimodal just within IT, creating innovation units, running at Mode 2 to break out of the traditional, slow, but stable approach, which is Mode 1. jasmine.desai@expressindia.com
FEBRUARY, 2016
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