Food For All : September 2010

LIVE Neeraj Gill on IP-based communications p22

a report p36

ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON E-GOVERNMENT

PDS must be ridded of its weeds to reach its most rightful recipient—the BPL population. Tech can help p14

the process

acceleratorhow e-procurement

can bring efficiencies in government p26

ALLFoodfor

SEPTEMBER 2010 > Rs 75/-VOLUME 06 n ISSUE 09 n ISSN 0973-161Xwww.egovonline.net

03 September 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov

editorial

For a less hungry nation

ood security exists when all people have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life, according to the 1996 World Food Summit.

India’s food security and nutrition indicators are among the worst in the world. In India 30 million people have been added to the ranks of the hungry since the mid-1990s and 46 percent of children are underweight, as per October 2009 BBC report.

In terms of calorie consumption in India, the scenario is even worse. The National Sample Survey Organisation’s (NSSO) survey of 2004-05 reports that in the period from 1993-94 to 2004-05, the average daily intake of calories of the rural population dropped by 106 kilocalories (4.9 percent), that is, from 2,153 kcal to 2,047 kcal. Such nutritional deficiencies have overwhelming implications for the well-being and future of citizens of India. As the noted economist, Jean Derez has rightly said, mass hunger is fundamentally incompatible with democracy in any meaningful sense of the term.

The UPA Government had included ‘Right to Food’ in its election manifesto and to fulfill this promise has recently proposed Right to Food Bill. However, this is not a novel initiative taken for addressing the basic need of the poor in the country. Way back in 1947, India’s nation builders had envisioned a nation where no citizen sleeps hungry.

The Constitution of India guarantees some positive socio-economic rights, including one that imposes some obligations on the government related to food security. This was done through the Section 47, which says, “The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties”.

Government of India had introduced public distribution system for procurement and distribution of commodities such as wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene to the poor during the inter-war period. However, the Right to Food does not mean that the state’s duty ends with the distribution of food to the needy. In fact, it goes beyond the provision of subsidised cereals.

This requires not only nutritious food but also attention to child care, clean water, hygiene, basic health care, and so forth. The Right to Food also needs to be linked to other economic and social rights relating to education, work, health and information. These plus political will and vision, will help achieve the goal of food for all.

ravi [email protected]

F

From the historyEmail at [email protected]

to get previous issues June 2010 July 2010 August 2010

grid name second grid

04 egov / www.egovonline.net / September 2010

14 | cover story

07gov talk ashank desaiUse dashboard-based approach

to monitor and manage Pds

22interview neeraj gillon how iP-based communica-

tions can help governments

20case stUdycitizen-centric!How sanjog Helpline is helping

orissa manage its Pds better

25oPinion needed, a unified clearinghouse!an it platform for all centre-state

transaction is a must for gst

32analysis extending moore’s lawwith Mcafee in its fold, intel is look-

ing at packing security on the chip

46oPinion a curve to the ‘B’ storm?india needs to find a non-intrusive

way of handling the Blackberry issue

48PatHtakers ashis sanyal

nurturing an idea is more crucial than

making strategies

editorial 03

news 08

indUstry news 10

eindia 2010 rePort 36

last Page 50

food for allwhile technology is not a panacea, it can still be a powerful tool in improving the effectiveness of Pds in india. it can help bring in the much needed transparency in the system and drive consistent efforts to streamline efficiencies at adminis-trative and monitoring levels

ContentsseptemBer 2010issUe 06 n volUMe 09

further reading

26tecHnology the process acceleratore-Procurement can help speed

up government project roll out


Yes we want ITSThis is in reference to the article ‘Say Yes to ITS’ (July 2010). I agree to the point raised in the write-up on the need for having a more holistic and integrated approach towards planning and management of transport and traffic system in the cities. Ultimately, a department like Urban Development should oversee the tasks, which is now being looked after by the cops.Padmalakshmi

Hyderabad

Government at citizens doorstepsThe article ‘Made for Local Governance’ (July 2010) updated me on automation efforts of government administration district level downward to reach the citizens faster and achieve transparent governance. It is heartening to know that now we can expect efficiency and better administration in the district,

which ultimately has an impact on common rural people, making their lives easy with better access to government services.Swati, Noida

Paperless departments, hurray!This is in reference to the DMS story ‘Turbo Charging Digital Governments’ (July 2010). Though the use of DMS in the Indian market is still in the nascent stage, the story has very nicely explained the use of DMS in the various domains of egovernance, healthcare and education. I agree on the point that the Indian government should focus on having ‘less paper’ departments to make the robust and effective use of DMS in the gov-ernment sector. Karan Khanna

New Delhi

It was a great experience to meet thought leaders and interact with other delegates at the eINDIA conference. I wish to convey my heartfelt thanks to the organisers.

Congratulations on the grand success of the event.Nagarajan M, IAS

The event was well organised and well structured. I would like to thank each one of you associated with this event for providing us the opportunity to meet up with honchos of the industry and the govern-

ment departments.Praveen Kumar

Programme Manager,

Indmax

Congratulations to Elets and CSDMS team for consistently organising the eINDIA 2010. I have been regularly attend-ing the eINDIA sessions since 2002 and have found it to be the best knowledge conference and a must annual recharging event. Great job guys!

As, I have already shared earlier during my interaction with eGov and Elets team,

such ‘Satellite Events’ are very important as a follow up to national events.Mukesh Hajela

CEO & Vice Chairman,

Network for Information &

Computer Technology

Thank you for organising a wonderful event and provid-ing practioners an opportu-nity to present their projects. It was a great learning and networking experience.Yogesh Kale

GIS Specialist,

CHF International

eINDIA Does it Again!

President Dr M P Narayanan

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gov talk

“old monitoring ways won’t do”

ASHANK DESAIFOUNDER, MASTEK

he public distri-bution system in India plays an important role in providing food

security for those who need it most. Millions of poor families depend on the PDS for their daily ration of necessities. India has been grappling with the size, spread and logistical complexity of the PDS for years now. Information tech-nology can transform the PDS. It can improve efficiency of the supply chain and make processes transparent; it can reduce leakage and improve delivery throughput, and most importantly, it can ensure that the right people get the right goods at the right time.

But there are challenges…In the Food and Civil supplies

department, how would a senior offi-cial, say at the secretary level, check the health of PDS? What parameters will he use to monitor it?

Traditionally, the monitoring would be done using parameters such as the number of BPL cards and fair price shops (FPS), and the distribution numbers.

But will these numbers tell him how healthy the PDS is? Officials typically have PDS data pouring in from hun-dreds of offices, and on its own, the data tells them nothing about the health of such a huge distribution network and operation.

Take the analogy of a routine health checkup, one that involves blood tests, chest X-rays and other such tests… Do the tests in isolation tell how healthy one is? No. One needs a doctor who looks at them holisti-cally to get a complete picture of one’s health.

It’s the same with the PDS. Instead of looking at different num-

bers in isolation, what if the officials had dashboards that gave them one view of the health of the PDS and also of the FCS.

Sounds great? But how is all this data going to end up on those dashboards, and offer insights on the health of the PDS?

Ok, let’s break down the PDS into some components.

First, we have the beneficiaries, who are identified by fair price shops

We need a dashboard-based approach to monitor and ensure the health of our public distribution system

through a ration card. Then there is the entire food distribution network at the end of which is the fair price shop (FPS), and finally there is a team that does budgeting and allocation.

In the current scenario, when a bene-ficiary walks into an FPS and buys a kilo of rice, no one in the distribution system other than the FPS knows that such a transaction has happened. Suppose, there was a way that the budgeting and allocation team could track transactions as they happened. Imagine the impact of such a capability on the efficiency of the supply chain!

Next, one would want to know if the targets were being met, i.e. the sales record should ideally show that 100 percent of BPL families have received the benefit. To get that, the dashboard could simply calculate the ratio of BPL families in the beneficiary database to the number of BPL families in the sales database.

What will make all of this possible?Well, only a well integrated end-to-

end solution that encompasses the value chain right from budgeting to logistics to beneficiary management.

T

muST READunlocking E-Government Potential Author: Subhash Bhatnagar

Publisher: Sage Publication

Price: INR 450/-


projectspeoplepolicyeventsproducts

news

Bihar Water Resources Dept launches e-tendering

the uttarakhand govern-

ment employees can now

track the status of their

General provident Fund

(GpF) accounts via sMs.

this makes uttarakhand

the only northern state to

have the service, which has

been jointly launched by the

office of the comptroller and

Auditor General and national

informatics centre (nic).

Government employees

can now get details of the

monthly deposit, monthly

withdrawal, yearly status and

opening and closing balance

through this new facility. to

avail it, the employees will

have to register for the sMs

service. the sMs GpF facility

will benefit around one lakh

state government employees

of uttarakhand.

By the end of december

2010, the Gujarat

government will be

issuing 42 lakh soil health

cards (sHcs) to farmers

to help them boost their

agricultural yield. of

these, about 20 lakh sHcs

have already been given,

according to the state

Agriculture Minister dilip

sanghani.

under the sHc

project, the soil is

tested scientifically

for various properties

Bihar’s Water Resources Department (WRD) has introduced e-tendering facility to maintain transparency in award of contracts.

The WRD also released a list of 250 offices across the state where e-tender-ing will be introduced.

Further to the com-munication, a letter had been sent to the 11 chief

engineers in the depart-ment where they were asked to complete digital certification requirements at the superintending engineer and executive engineer levels in their respective areas.

The communication also mandates use of digital signatures as a key component of the e-tendering process.

This move is aimed at bringing transparency in award of contracts and also minimise chances of violence and resistance at the time of tender submis-sion of tender papers.

Earlier complaints of irregularities in the allotment of tenders were received by the Depart-ment, as the tendering process was manual.

A satellite for monitoring the country’s forest cover will be launched in 2013, as informed by Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh to the Rajya Sabha in August this year.

Replying to supplementary questions, the minister informed the House that the country has gained over

three million hectares of forest in the last 10 years.

“India is one of the few countries where green cover is increasing. In Brazil, three million hectares of forest is cleared every year but in India we have gained three million hectares of forest in the last 10 years,” Ramesh said.

puBlic GrievAnce

Mumbai to pilot e-complaint systemLodging a complaint against any offence would be a click away for Mumbai citizens. Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has announced the e-complaint system, which will enable an online registration of any offence.

A person can register a complaint on the website of the police with his name and mobile number for identification. While the complaint will be registered within 24 hours and the person will get receipt of it, the Police Commissioner’s office will oversee if the complaints have been addressed by the concerned police station or not.

Maharashtra is the first state to provide such a facility.

security

Delhi Police to sport hi-tech surveillance during CwG

HCL Security, a subsidiary of HCL Infosystems, has chosen Barco to be the visualisation partner for setting up a new C4i—com-mand, control, commu-nication, computing and intelligence—center in Delhi.

The project, due to be completed shortly, is to provide a highly sophisticated surveillance system for communication with Delhi patrol officers during the Commonwealth Games 2010.

“We selected Barco for its state-of-the-art solution,

advanced technology and local service and support,” said Rothin Bhattacharya, CEO, HCL Security.

The C4i centre will have Barco’s latest LED-based technology, consisting of sixteen 50 inch display cubes along with two 46 inch Narrow-bezel LCD monitors and the state-of-the-art control room management suite.

Nearly 1,000 police con-trol room vans, 12 police video monitoring vehicles and 700 other monitoring vehicles are to be linked to the centre.

Uttarakhand GPF status on SMS GUjaRat FaRMeRS to Get Soil health caRDS

Geo dAtA

India to launch forestry satellite in 2013

news


policy

Punjab finalises blueprint for reforms

rurAl developMent

Jharkhand panchayats to have secretariat buildings

Supreme court to adopt e-mail services

california-based unicode

consortium, which sets

language standards for the

computing industry, has

voted to accept the rupee

symbol as part of its global

standards. the department

of information technology

(dit), under the ministry

of communications and it,

had on August 5 submit-

ted an application to the

consortium to adopt the

new symbol.

The Government of Punjab has finalised a blueprint for reforms in various departments including revenue, local government and police. In a related move, the state govern-ment also decided to put all the land records online by March, enabling land owners to access their account details at any place.

Taking about the state initiatives, Romilla Dubey, Financial Commissioner—Revenue, said that simplifica-tion of archaic revenue laws including those relating to partition inheritance and tenancy was going side by side.

She further informed that these amendments would decrease litigation besides empowering citizens by making the whole system transparent.

According to sources, the state government is also looking at setting up a network of e-Sewa kendras in all tehsils by March next year to enable citizens services like payment of water and electricity bills and property tax, and filing of various applications.

In a fresh impetus to grassroots democracy, the state has decided to provide every gram panchayat with a permanent secretariat building, equipped with computers and Internet connectivity.

According to sources, out of 4,564 gram panchayats in Jharkhand, the secretariats will come up for 1,610 pan-chayats by the end of this financial year.

The buildings will come up under the Bharat Nirman Rajiv Gandhi Seva Kendra programme, a scheme initiated by the centre this year.

The secretariats will also ensure 100 days of work and timely wages under MGNREGS by involving citizens to monitor the scheme, he added.

With state panchayat polls on the anvil, the secretariats will be the hub all poll-related activities.

Apart from these buildings at the panchayat level, the state will also construct block-level buildings at Rs 25 lakh each. Out of 221 blocks, 170 will get their buildings this year.

The Supreme Court of India has decided to use e-mail services to avoid delay in dispersing cases. The new procedure will entail the advocate to file the entire petition as a soft copy, and send both petitions and notices electronically to the respondent’s e-mail address. Statistical data indicates that on account of delay in process serving, arrears keep on mounting. In

Delhi itself, 50 percent of the arrears in courts, particularly in commer-cial cases, are due to delay in process serving.

The facility is being extended in addition to the modes of service mentioned in the existing Supreme Court rules. For the time being, the facility is extended to commercial litigation and to those cases where advocates on-record seek urgent interim reliefs.

Rupee gets Unicode identity

urBAn developMent

Government notifies UMTA for million-plus citiesNotifications have been issued for creation of Unified Metropolitan Transport Agency (UMTA) for the cities of Chennai, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ban-galore, Mysore, Ranchi, Dhanbad, Jamshedpur, Puri, Bhubaneshwar and Kohima by the concerned state governments. This information was given by India’s Minister of State for Urban Development Saugata Roy in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

Setting up of UMTA for million plus cities is one of the reforms conditions of sanction of buses for urban transport under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Mission (JNNURM) to be implemented by states and UTs. The minister also informed that no city or state has asked for any funding for setting up of UMTA.

Government has formu-lated the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) 2006, which envisages setting up of UMTA in all million-plus cities.

indiA

like productivity, mineral

composition, water

retaining capacity and

others. subsequently, the

cards are issued under

the soil Health programme

of the Agriculture

department.

the sHcs also contain

information on what kind of

pesticides, fertilisers, seeds

and water should be used

to get better productivity

from the land.

With the introduction of

sHcs, it has become easy

for farmers to understand

properties of the soil they

are ploughing.

the state is aiming to

achieve agricultural income

of rs 55,000 crore this

year, compared to an

income of rs 44,000 crore

in 2009.

since the launch of the

sHc scheme, which outlines

the manner of cropping

based on nature of soil,

farmers in the state have

even sown crops that

were previously unknown

to them.

news


FinAnce MAnAGeMent

TCs bags MP e-Government contract

agro info can help farmers save Rs 600 cr

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country’s largest IT services company, has bagged a Rs 150-crore e-Governance contract from the Madhya Pradesh government.

The Madhya Pradesh government is introducing an ‘Integrated Financial Management Information System’ to monitor the state’s financial transactions on a real time basis.

The software platform to be implemented by TCS will help the state revenue department develop an integrated solution to automate Public Provident Fund management, human resources and payroll manage-ment, and pension management.

educAtion

Canon, netspider join hands for Rajasthan’s sarva shiksha rollout

cloud coMputinG

Red Hat submits Deltacloud platform to standards group

industry

Open source solutions provider Red Hat has submitted the API specification for Apache Deltacloud to the Distrib-uted Management Task Force (DMTF) as part of its participation in the DMTF Cloud Manage-ment Work Group. Red Hat’s submission to DMTF is a step forward

in the company’s effort to offer users of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) clouds the benefits of portability across cloud computing deployments.

The Apache Deltacloud project is an open source implementation of a

RESTful web service API abstracting common proprietary IaaS cloud

management APIs. Innovation in the Deltacloud project has been instrumental in the progress of Red Hat Cloud Foundations, announced in June 2010.

“As cloud computing continues to expand into today’s enterprises, interoperability and portability become

Canon India, along with its channel partner Netspider India, will be working in partnership with the Government of Rajasthan, Education Council in the rollout of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan CTS 2010.

The initiative aims to create a database of the demographic attributes, education status, out-of-school children status and

many such minute details on every child in Rajasthan.

Canon India will be providing the automated document feeder scanners for the Rajasthan Sarva Shikhsa Abhiyan CTS-2010 project.

Netspider will utilise Canon’s high-speed docu-ment scanning solution integrated with Netspider’s DIMS and forms process-ing solution to transform

paper documents into database for effective information sharing and report generation of various types as required by the government.

This project involves scanning around 3 crore forms in just a month’s time.

Netspider India will be the end-to-end solution provider for Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan implemented by Government of Rajasthan.

Getting information quickly on best prices and cultivation practises, with special focus on areas like plant protection from diseases and weather-related damage, can help farmers take fast decisions, saving them about Rs 600 crore by 2015.

According to the recent report ‘Mobile Broadband—Outlook 2015 by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), the lack of information on

effective practises is leading to huge losses in the agriculture sector.

Reports suggest that between 1991 and 2009, the share of agriculture in India’s GDP declined by around 14 percent, whereas that of services rose by over 20 percent.

The PwC report also pointed out that mobile telephony would be a more convenient means of communication, as penetration of wireline infrastructure remains

low in rural India.PwC said that better

rollout economics of mobile broadband can enable the government to reach out to many more villages with common service centres (CSC)

It further indicated that the roll-out of 3G cellular services and Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) technologies, with better rollout economics, can enable the government to reach all 600,000 villages with CSCs.

increasingly important,” said Scott Crenshaw, vice president and general manager, Cloud Business at Red Hat. “We’re excited to submit the Deltacloud API to DMTF to help bring this level of interop-erability to all clouds. Red Hat is continuing to help enterprises build real cloud today.”

news


iBM announces PoWeR7 systems for data-intensive applications

FlAsH MeMory

Intel, Micron sample 3bpc nAnD flash on 25 nm silicon

IBM has announced its new POWER7 servers designed to manage the most demanding workloads and emerging applications, including a high-end system that offers markedly better energy efficiency.

The new 256-core IBM Power 795 offers better energy efficiency. It uses IBM’s leading-edge Ener-gyScale technology that varies frequencies depend-ing upon workloads. This new system supports up to eight terabytes of memory and provides over four times the performance in

the same energy envelope as the fastest Power 595 IBM POWER6 processor-based high-end system.

The new POWER7 technology supports four times as many processor cores as prior systems and uses the latest PowerVM virtualisation software to allow customers to run over 1,000 virtual servers on a single physical system. For the customers nearing capacity limits for energy, space and cooling in data centres, consolidating older systems to the new high-end Power 795 could result in more headroom – with

energy reductions of up to 75 percent for equivalent performance capacity.

IBM also announced Power Flex, a new environment composed of two or more Power 795 systems, PowerVM Live Partition Mobility and a Flex Capacity Upgrade on Demand option. This solution enables clients to shift running applica-tions from one system to another to perform system maintenance without downtime, helping to balance workloads and more easily handle peaks in demand.

Intel Corp. and Micron Technology Inc. have announced the delivery of 3-bit-per-cell (3bpc) NAND flash memory on 25-nanometer (nm) process technology, producing the industry’s highest capacity, smallest NAND device.The companies have sent initial product samples to select customers. Intel and Micron expect to be in full production by the end of the year.

This 25nm lithography stores three bits of information per cell, rather than the traditional one bit or two bits. The device is more than 20 percent smaller than the same capacity of Intel and Micron’s 25nm multi-level cell. Small form-factor flash memory is especially important for consumer end-product flash cards

given their intrinsic compact design.

The new 64-gigabit 3bpc on 25nm memory device offers improved cost efficiencies and higher storage capacity for the competitive USB, SD flash card markets. Flash memory is primarily used to store data, photos and other multimedia for capturing and transferring data between comput-ing and digital devices such as digital cameras, portable media players, digital camcorders and all personal computers. These markets are under constant pressure to provide higher capacities at low prices.

Micro FinAnce

sBI signs up Oxigen for kiosk banking Oxigen Services and Sahyog Microfinance Foundation have announced a tie-up with State Bank of India to offer banking services by connecting directly to SBI’s core banking system through Oxigen Web retailers.

According to the company, its existing web-enabled retailers will be appointed as Customer Service Points (CSPs) of Sahyog Micro Finance Foundation, to carry out banking transactions on behalf of the bank.

Talking about the initiative, Sunil Pant, CGM Delhi, State Bank of India, said, “The Web-enabled retailers will have SBI Kiosk Banking Customer Service Centre signs enabling them to do banking services for masses.”

He further said that in the first phase, the activity will be rolled out in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai.

industry

iNtel PReSiDeNt aND ceo

PaUl otelliNi oN the DeciSioN to acQUiRe McaFee

“in the past, energy-efficient perfor-mance and connectivity have defined computing requirements. looking forward, security will join those as a third pillar of what people demand...”

My tAke

News


economy-edition computing

A 35-dollar bill-of-materials tablet is doable by the government as it can keep duties out and ensure high volumes

By Deepak Kumar

hen in 2005, Nicholas Negroponte of MIT Media Labs fame unveiled a

$100 laptop goal as part of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) programme, he essentially talked of a price point as low as at least one-sixth the price of a low-priced laptop around that time.

OLPC approached India in 2006 with the programme, but found little encouragement.

Four years later, India’s union HRD minister Kapil Sibal has unveiled a $35 tablet PC prototype at a press conference in July this year.

The tablet-talk is probably not a political fig this time, as had been the case a few years ago when a touted $10 PC had turned out to be at best, a content-loaded USB drive.

W About a week after Sibal’s announcement, Negroponte, also Chairman of OLPC, responded with a gesture of cooperation. “Access to a con-nected laptop or tablet is the fastest way to enable universal learning. We agree with you completely,” Negroponte said and offered India free and open access to all of OLPC’s technology.

“The world needs your device and leader-ship,” he added.

The question: is a 35-dollar tablet viable? Well, a Bangalore-based company AllGo

Embedded Systems has produced a reference design similar to the prototype, which it had earlier showcased at the Freescale Technology Forum in Orlando. AllGo says the pricing can be directly relative to the number of units. For example, the device can be manufactured for around $50 per piece for a scale of 10,000 units,

while the price can come down to $45 per piece if the scale is upped to 100,000 units. And yes, if the volumes go up to a million units, then there can be a significant reduction in the price. AllGo refrains from indicating a price point for such high volumes, as that would be hypothetical now.

Nevertheless, the discussion does set a basis that makes price points of $35 and below look more realistic and achievable, from a bill-of-materials standpoint. However, any marketing overheads can’t be accommodated and would push the price northwards.

More importantly, the pricing excludes custom and other such duties. And it is for this reason alone that the tablet can be brought into being only by the government, which can keep the duties out.

It’s also important to note that only a government can promise the volumes that are required to make the price point succeed.

Incidentally, Negroponte too earlier revised the price point for the OLPC and put a price tag of $75 to it.

A low-cost tablet can be powered by a 450MHz processor and will be suited for run-ning limited applications, which, nevertheless, should suffice educational and learning needs of students—and several e-Governance needs of citizens.

Negroponte is quicker than anybody else to see the potential of a $35 tablet—and its viability. OLPC’s “experience with 2 million laptops, in over 40 countries, in over 25 languages” somewhere makes him see that the idea is not a pipe dream.

The device is important for India, which has steadily consolidated its position as an emerging global economy in the recent years, but its long-term sustenance will depend on empowerment of its younger population Education, and bridging of the digital divide, will be vital to achieving that.

And certainly, in a country like India, the digital divide cannot be bridged by way of devices that are currently available at their prevailing price points.

Also, given the power situation in the country, a desktop would be often unusable in large parts of the country. So the objectives need to be explored through a computing device that can run for long hours on battery, like a mobile phone.

A tablet is suitable from that perspective, and also has the added advantages of easy portability and mobility. One does hope that the government is serious about making it.

reason #1 eGovernance Directory reason #2 India eGov 2.0 Awards 2010

7reasons to smile

reason #3 Cloud Computing Summit

reason #4 Top eGov Vendors Survey

reason #5 egov Anniversary Issue reason #6 SmartCity Conference 2011

Contact: Debabrata RayEmail: [email protected]: +91-9899650692

reason #7 SecureIT Summit 2011

november 2

010

deCember 2010

January 2011

marCh 2011

oC

to

be

r 2

010

www.egovonline.net

cover story


By Prachi Shirur

cover story

PDS must be ridded of its weeds to reach its most rightful recipient—the BPL population. Tech can help

AllFoodfor

t is a paradox of sorts that although India is one of the fastest growing economies, mil-lions of its citizens reel under extreme poverty. According to Suresh Tendulkar Committee report, 37.2 percent of Indians qualify as poor. The recent National Sample Survey shows that about five percent of the total population in the country sleeps without having two square meals a day.

Right to food is a basic human right and reduction of poverty and hunger is the foremost goal of the Eighth United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Government of India has drafted the National Food Security Bill that promises 25 kg of food grain per month at Rs 3 per kg to each family, Below Poverty Line (BPL).

reaching out to BPL familiesPublic Distribution Systems (PDS) is India’s largest social assistance program, which has the objec-tive of maintaining stability of food grain prices by way of establishing minimum procurement

I prices and providing subsidised basic food grains, sugar and cooking fuel to the less privi-leged. It has its origin to the famines and the food shortages of the1960s.

Till 1992, the PDS was universal in India, available to all consumers. In 1992, Government of India introduced Revamped PDS (RPDS) in limited areas, primarily drought prone, tribal, hilly and remote. It was later substituted by Tar-geted PDS (TPDS) in 1997. TPDS is specifically aimed at BPL families in all parts of the country, under which each poor family was entitled to 10 kg of food grain per month at a subsidised price.

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The allocation was increased to 20 kg with effect from April 2000, and to 25 kg per family from July 2001 onwards. It was further increased to 35 kg in 2003-04.

In order to make TPDS more focused towards the poorest of the poor, the “Antyo-daya Anna Yojana” (AAY) was launched in December 2000. AAY aims at providing this target group food grains at a highly subsidised rate—wheat at Rs 2 per kg and rice at Rs 3 per kg. Under PDS, presently the commodities namely wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene are being allocated to the states and UTs for distri-bution. Some states also distribute additional items of mass consumption through the PDS outlets such as cloth, exercise books, pulses, salt and tea.

PDS is being implemented by the Depart-ment of Food and Public Distribution, Min-istry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Civil Supplies, Government of India, and covers over 65 million poor families in the country. With a network of about 5.01 lakh Fair Price Shops (FPSs) as per the ministry’s figures, PDS may well be the largest public food distribution network across the globe.

There are six key functional areas cover-ing all processes under TPDS, which include allocation and utilisation reporting, storage, movement, finance, licensing and regulation and grievance redressal.

PDS is being operated under the joint respon-sibility of the central and state governments, with the former responsible for procurement, storage, transportation (up to the district head-quarters) and bulk allocation of food grains. The state governments are responsible for dis-tributing these food grains to citizens through a network of FPSs. This responsibility includes identification of BPL families, issuing of BPL

lies living below the poverty line have not been enrolled and, therefore do not have access to ration cards, which amounts to the problem of exclusion. In its year 2005 report, the Planning Commission reported that “57 percent of the PDS food grain does not reach the intended people.”

There is also the issue of scale and quality of food grains provided. As Priyadarshan Nanu Pany, President and CEO, CSM Technologies, puts it, “The scale and quality of food grains deliv-ered to the beneficiary is rarely in conformity with the policy. Many FPSs are open only for a few days a month and beneficiaries who do not visit the FPS on these days are denied their rights. FPSs also use multiple excuses to both charge higher rates and deliver reduced quantity of food grains.”

The most serious flaw in the whole PDS is the lack of transparency and accountability in its functioning. The system lacks transparency and accountability at all levels, which makes monitoring of the system extremely difficult. Transportation of food grains and appoint-ment of dealers of FSPs are also difficult issues.

In spite of the presence of entities like the Vigilance Committee and Anti-Hoarding Cells constituted to ensure smooth func-tioning of the PDS, their impact is virtually non-existent at the ground level, leaving mal-

“There are vested interests operating at various levels as

highlighted by various re-ports on PDS in our country”

AShok kumAr meenACommissioner-cum-Secretary, Food & Food

Supplies & Consumer Welfare Department, Orissa

cards, and supervision and monitoring of the functioning of the FPSs. States are also respon-sible for movement of food grains from the district headquarters to the FPS.

many evils mar the systemThe success of PDS depends on proper target-ing and prevention of pilferage and corrupt practices. Given the large amounts of subsidies associated with PDS, and also due to the large number of FPSs, complaints of leakages and diversion of food grains during transporta-tion are common. Ashok Kumar Meena, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Food and Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Depart-ment, Government of Orissa, remarks, “There are vested interests operating at various levels as highlighted by various reports on PDS in our country.”

Jaijit Bhattacharya, Director, Government Affairs, HP India, rightly opines, “Efficiency is critical in PDS implementation, as leakages and diversions raise the delivery costs, making the subsidies provided redundant.”

The improper targeting of beneficiaries leads to problems of exclusion and inclusion. According to the Union Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry, there were a total of 21.82 crore ration cards issued by the state govern-ments in 2000 as against 18.03 crore house-holds, as projected by the Registrar-General of India. Talking about the issue of bogus and duplicate cards, Vilas Kanyal, Head for India and Asia-Pacific Business, Mastek, says, “It is a vicious cycle with the state and centre having to procure additional amounts of grain for ineligible, duplicate and bogus ration cards, with the additional grain eventually ending up in the open market.

On the other hand, a large number of fami-

“It is important to use the unique ID as a common

identification number, even for PDS. UID will help states

to get a single view of the various schemes, including

schemes for PDS”

VILAS kAnyALHead for India and Asia-Pacific Business, Mastek

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AnDHrA PrADeSH SetS uP DrIve FOr CleAner DAtABASe

initiatives and also advising states and UTs on a continuous basis on ensuring proper identifi-cation of beneficiaries, achieving timely deliv-ery of food grains and adoption of innovative ways of distribution involving community participation. Aspects like enhancing viability of FPSs, construction of additional and decen-tralised storage facilities, and monitoring of distribution of PDS items through social audit by local bodies or NGOs are also being looked into.

Information and Communication Tech-nologies (ICT) can play a major role in resolv-ing many of these issues. With the use of ICT, accurate allocation, accurate consumption reporting, visibility of grains across the value chain, and correct identification of BPL fami-lies is possible. The PDS process computerisa-tion market is estimated at between Rs 6,000 crore and 8,000 crore, as per industry sources. Kanyal of Mastek is optimistic that “In the next three-five years, all states in India would have embraced IT in PDS.”

ICT is being utilised in TPDS by the centre as well as state governments and UTs. At a conference of state and UT food secretaries on ‘best practices and reforms in targeted public distribution system’ held in July 2010 at New Delhi, it was resolved that rapid but phased rollout of IT in PDS must be given priority.

Department of Food and Public Distribu-tion has taken several initiatives for com-puterisation of TPDS. A pilot scheme on computerisation of TPDS has been approved in August 2009 with an outlay of Rs 53.47 crore. It involves computerisation of processes related to allocation of food grains to states, off take, storage, movement, finance, licensing and regulation, grievance redressal and report-ing. In the first phase, the scheme has been approved to be implemented in three districts each of the four pilot states—Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Delhi. Also, there will be piloting of food grain bag tracking in one district in Chhattisgarh.

The proposed IT system for computerisa-tion of TPDS is envisioned to be achieved by developing a TPDS portal, with the necessary automated workflow in the background to act as a single point of reference for all key func-tional areas to citizens and department users based on user roles and privileges.

Prior to this, a pilot scheme on smart card-based delivery of TPDS commodities was approved for the Chandigarh UT and Haryana

OrISSA tAkeS tHe SMArt rAtIOn CArD rOute

The state Food, Food Supplies

and Consumer Welfare Depart-

ment, in association with World

Food Program (WFP), initiated

a project for biometric-based

smart card ration cards, biomet-

ric bar coded ration cards and

bar coded coupons in Rayagada

district, which houses 1.96 lakh

families receiving PDS benefits.

Biometric ration cards,

bar-coded coupons and smart

cards, the distribution of which

began from 18th Aug 2010,

aims to reduce the pos-

sibility of pilferage of essential

commodities. The transaction

between the beneficiary and

the ‘fair price shop’ owner

will be made available on the

Government website, which will

further enhance transparency in

distribution.

According to Dr Nitin B

Jawale, Collector and DM, Raya-

gada, Orissa, “The vision behind

this project is to check the pilfer-

age in the PDS by application of

technology solutions based on

unique biometric indicators. This

is to ensure that the subsidised

an essential commodity reaches

those for whom it is meant and

to none else.”

Under this project, 6,000

village or ward-level biometric

enrolment stations were set

up across 2,445 villages in 11

blocks and 41 wards. The project

resulted in identifying 10,092

pairs of duplicate families

and 12,828 pairs of duplicate

individuals.

Dr Jawale adds, “This

project is unique in the sense

that for the first time all 13

biometric indicators are used

for the database and that

the ghost/bogus cards were

eliminated at the stage of

verification itself”.

In 2005, Government of

Andhra Pradesh had taken up

a project to issue new ration

cards after capturing iris of

family members. However,

the solution could not scale

up to perform iris matching

on large volumes of data due

to which duplicates could not

be detected. So the state

government decided to

take up the project of

de-duplicating the iris-based

ration card data.

The field verification was

done in four phases. About

25,000 officials were deployed

for the field verification

process during which they

visited every household to

verify the existence and

eligibility of the family for BPL

card, social security pensions

and housing.

Sanjay Jaju, Commissioner

of Civil Supplies and Ex-Officio

Secretary to Government of

AP Consumer Affairs, informs,

“The project has been able

to bring perceptible systemic

changes in building up the

institutions along with making

the public delivery systems

efficient and corruption free.”

The impact has been manifold.

Bogus and duplicate cards

detected to the extent of 15

percent have been removed.

Non-existent and permanently

migrated persons have been

removed from the ration

card data, while ineligible

ration card holders have been

deleted from the BPL list.

New key registers have been

generated showing the exact

list of ration cards under each

Fair Price Shop (FPS).

The entire purified

FPS-wise citihas been kept

online and brought into the

public domain. The same

can be seen at www.icfs.

ap.gov.in. The project can

be replicated easily in other

states in the country as

problems of duplicate, bogus

and ineligible beneficiaries

exist in their welfare scheme

databases as well.

practices in the system to thrive.

ICT can kick in the reformsTo address the problems inherent in public

distribution of food supplies, the country’s Department of Food and Public Distribution in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Civil Supplies, has been taking various

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in December 2008 with an outlay of Rs 142.29 crore. The scheme aims to assist in proper identification of beneficiaries and ensure that TPDS commodities are received only by the targeted persons. The smart cards will contain biometric features of adult members of the ration card holder families. The smart cards as well as smart card transaction terminals will also store details of transactions of TPDS commodities issued. Both Chandigarh UT Administration and Government of Haryana have completed trial runs of smart card-based transaction of TPDS commodities on June 7 and June 17, respectively. The project has been launched on July 13, 2010.

Replicating these schemes in other states and UTs will be considered after the schemes are evaluated on fulfilment of objectives and suitability of technology.

States going gung-hoWhile central government has been driving the initiative to cleanse the PDS system a lot of ground has been covered by some of the states towards digitisation of ration cards, procure-ment of food grains, allocations to fair price

for the poor to ensure effective implementa-tion of PDS food grains. The GPS devices will give complete information on where and for how long the vehicles carrying rice halted after loading at the warehouses and before unload-ing the rice at PDS shops.

Tamil Nadu: This is one state that is way ahead of others in using technology to prevent diversion and malpractices in PDS. The state government initiative includes an e-Services project that has been rolled out for updating the online ration card database and carry out corrections and modifications that have taken place over the last 4-5 years.

In fact, the corrections that are carried out at taluk level and the corrected data are expected to be posted in TNSWAN online. This ensures that the card database is dynamic and the latest information is available on real time basis. The state government is looking at using the data and the system for automating the shop wise monthly allocation generation process. The Government also intends to use this updated database for taking up 100 percent door-to-door verification of the ration cards to elimi-nate bogus cards in a phased manner.

To check diversion of PDS commodities, control rooms have been opened in all dis-tricts, including in Chennai. As a trial measure, a GPS-based vehicle movement monitoring

tDPS POrtAl StruCture

“While the UIDAI is correct in its suggestion of merger of Aadhar and PDS databases, the state governments also

need to plan for the next step which is the integration with PDS system to ensure

its true effectiveness”

BInod hrHead–India Business unit, Infosys

shops, issue of smart card based ration cards, and grievance redressal. Besides, some of the state governments like Chhattisgarh are also using GPS for tracking and monitoring of the entire PDS supply and distribution chain.

Chhattisgarh: In its bid to streamline the PDS system in the state, particularly to ensure that the benefits of Chief Minister’s special Rs 2 per kilogram rice scheme reaches out to the BPL population, the state Food and Civil Supplies department has created a central ration cards database, which is online for everybody to see.

The state has also completed the process of automating the entire food grain supply chain—from paddy procurement, its stor-age, milling and distribution of rice and other commodities to 3.7 million ration card holders through 10,416 FPS.

With the database of beneficiaries and the FPS in place, the state government is now not only able to monitor the inventory and accounts of State Civil Supplies Corporation, it can also keep track of record of lifting, sales of ration commodities and issue of ration com-modities from warehouses to fair price shops.

The project also has a component of public interface, complete with a call center for public grievances. The state plans to install Global Positioning System (GPS) devices to track the movement of vehicles carrying subsidised rice

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system has been implemented in Thiruvallur and Krishnagiri districts to track the movement of vehicles carrying PDS goods. Similarly the state government has also introduced an online warehousing monitoring system for enabling online capture of all transactions in a phased manner. To prevent mass diversion of goods by lorry drivers, every vehicle is accompanied by a department assistant who is provided with a special SIM card that helps in tracking the movement of the vehicle.

Further, SMS-based fair price shop stock monitoring has been set up by the Cooperative Department to track the stock of every com-modity at each fair price shop on a daily basis. Handheld billing machines with GPRS con-nection have also been installed in all fair price shops in Chennai to enable real time monitor-ing of sales and stocks.

Maharashtra: The Public Distribution Department of Maharashtra Government plans to provide smart cards with biometric information to 2.24 crore card holders in the coming year. The state government is also com-puterising the entire ration distribution system and planning to adopt newer technologies to stop pilferage in the system.

how Aadhar can be leveragedThe Unique Identification (UID) or the Aadhar program can share the burden of PDS reform

by assisting in positive identification of unique individuals and families. This can lead to a high-quality beneficiary database without duplicate and ghost cards, thus improving the targeting of benefits. In this context, a task force headed by Director General, National Infor-matics Centre and comprising representatives from Department of Information Technology, UIDAI, Department of Food and Public Distri-bution, FCI and the selected states and UTs has been entrusted with the responsibility of work-ing out the modalities for integration of existing projects and also to suggest how the unique identity number will eventually be leveraged for TPDS purposes.

Says Kanyal: “It is important to use the unique ID as a common identification number, even for PDS. UID will help states to get a single view of the various schemes, including schemes for PDS.”

PDS can benefit from the legislative, technol-ogy and administrative infrastructure being created for the implementation of the UID programme. Integration with the UID program will lead to better identification of individuals and families. This will lead to better targeting and increased transparency and therefore better functioning of the system and its public approval.

Binod HR, Head–India Business Unit, Info-sys, suggests, “While the UIDAI is correct in its suggestion of merger of UID and PDS data-bases, the state governments also need to plan

for the next step which is the integration with PDS system to ensure its true effectiveness.”

It is worth noting here that Madhya Pradesh government has become India’s first state set to deploy food coupon based PDS system to empower the poor and will be one of the largest ‘Aadhar’ rollouts in the country with 50 million UID numbers generated. These food coupons will capture all biometric, tax, demographic and personal information, enabling authorities to ensure proper distribution of food ration-ing and other benefits. HCL Infosystems has bagged this order, which will involve setting up an efficient model of food and civil supplies distribution in the state based on UIDAI guide-lines, for over 10 million expected transactions per month.

While technology is not a panacea, it can still be a powerful tool in improving the effectiveness of PDS. It can help bring in the much needed transparency in the system. It can drive consistent efforts to streamline efficiencies at administrative and monitoring levels so that any vested interests can be countered effectively.

WrITe BACkYour views and feedback matter to us. tell us what you think of the stories in the magazine or what more you would like us to cover. Write back to the Managing editor at [email protected]

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loG on to www.eGovonline.net

AnAlysis


Tying is a case for trying

Big Blue is under an EU scanner for allegedly shutting out its operating system to non-IBM big irons

By Stacy Baird

n late July, the European Union launched two antitrust investiga-tions into the business practices of IBM. While issues in the EU might seem distant, Asian countries

should take an interest as they increasingly develop as knowledge economies. Local com-panies need to know that they have the right to compete without fear of lock-out and that there are laws that protect them.

The European Union, U.S. and most developed markets have antitrust laws, also called ‘competition law’ in Europe, on the books. Indeed, the EU has worked with governments in Asia to enforce antitrust laws. Governments will step in to protect consumers and ensure a fair marketplace when a company uses contracts to impair competition, for

I

REGULATIOn

example, by fixing prices or restricting access to sources of supply. In one investigation, the EU is examining whether IBM uses its control of the availability of spare parts to impair competitors from servicing IBM mainframe computers.

A government will also step in where a company unfairly uses its market dominance or monopoly position to keep competitors at a disad-vantage or out of the marketplace all together.

There are many situations that may be an abuse of a market dominant position: unfair contract terms such as exclusivity; predatory or discriminatory pricing (imposing an unfair buying or selling price); refusal to give access to essential facilities; or, as is the case in the second investigation of IBM, “tying.”

Tying is where a company conditions the sale of a product (the tying product) on the

customer’s purchase of a second product (the tied product). For example, computer printer manufacturers often design their printers (the tying product) to accept only ink cartridges manufactured according to certain patents owned by the printer manufacturer (the tied product). The printer’s manufacturer, in control of who manufactures the ink cartridges through licensing, or in this case, not licensing, precludes competitors from making compatible ink cartridges. So in order to use the printer, a customer must buy the printer manufacturer’s ink cartridges.

An early case often used to illustrate tying to business and law students around the world involved IBM in 1936. At that time, punch cards were used to enter data into a computer. IBM had something close to a monopoly in comput-ers. They required their computer customers to also buy IBM punch cards, which they sold at a higher than market price. By tying punch cards to the sale of computers, IBM was able to keep competitors from entering the punch card busi-ness. Although IBM claimed the requirement ensured quality, IBM lost its case.

The EU will be examining allegations that IBM engages in tying sales of its operating systems to its sale of mainframe computers. The case will examine whether the alleged tying locks out competitors that offer operating system emulators that makes it possible to run applications written for IBM mainframes on non-IBM (e.g., Windows and Linux) servers.

Tying can make a market more efficient by providing consumers more complete packages of products—or enable a company to maintain high quality—but when a business with a dominant market position or monopoly ties products, antitrust law may kick in.

Given IBM’s ubiquity in the mainframe computing business throughout the world, the critical nature of mainframe applications in large and public sector enterprise, and the growing importance of IT integration and interoperability particularly in light of cloud computing, those of us in Asia interested in a vibrant, competitive IT marketplace should watch developments in the EU investigation of IBM closely.

the author

is former advisor to members of the U.S. Senate

and House of Representatives and author of the

book ‘Government Role and the Interoperability

Ecosystem’


Citizen-CentriC!

Sanjog Helpline iS working

well aS a grievance redreSSal

SyStem tHat prodS field officialS

until a complaint iS reSolved

Project NameSanjog Helpline

the orgaNisatioNDepartment of Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare, Government of Orissa

Key PeoPlen Manoj Ahuja, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Department of Steel & Mines, Orissan Ashok K K Meena, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, FSCW Department, Orissan S K Basistha, Managing Director, Orissa State Civil Supplies Corporation

Problems & challeNgesn Leakages in state PDS systemn Delays in addressing PDS beneficiaries’ grievancesn Near opaque grievance redressal systemn Lack of accountability among the concerned

By Prachi shirurPhoto by joe

G2CCase study

Manoj ahuja


The Food Sup-plies and Consumer Welfare (FSCW) Department is one of the premier bodies in

Orissa. Its functions cover formulation and implementation of policy relating to pro-curement, storage and distribution of food grains and implementation of the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).

With a population of around 3.6 crore, of which 38 lakh families are still below the poverty line, Orissa is one of the front runners in the implementation of PDS. But the state grapples with various issues of mal-functioning of the system, including leak-ages and diversion of PDS commodities. In such a scenario, a mechanism was required where the government and the citizens could both reap benefits and smooth imple-mentation of PDS could be effected.

the solutionIn its endeavour to achieve unhindered

PDS goals, the FSCW department, Orissa, initiated an integrated grievance redressal mechanism, Sanjog Helpline, through a dedicated call centre.

Earlier, a complainant had to travel miles to a Block Development Officer (BDO) office and stand in queues on a particular day and register complaint regarding PDS. The BDO thereafter, filed a petition and sent a letter to the field officer of the Food and Supply Department to enquire and file a report. Such activities made the process time taking and also often resulted in unin-vited prosecution.

t Now, through Sanjog Helpline citizens can register any type of complaint without any apprehension. It is a centralised call center for citizens, manned by call center executives (CCE) who receive calls on a toll free number 155335. Citizens can register their complaints through five different communication channels—the Web portal www.sanjoghelpline.in, fax, letter, SMS and the toll free number.

Having multi-channel communication ensures that the complaint is regis-tered at Sanjog helpline positively. After registration by the CCE, the citizens get a unique ticket number which helps them to track the status of their grievance anytime, with the help of the toll free number or the Web portal. The built-in intelligent system of Sanjog identifies the last level officer who is responsible for the jurisdiction and notifies him about the grievance in real time through SMS, e-mail and fax for immediate action.

The system ensures disposal of grievances by escalating the grievance to the higher authorities if it is not resolved in the stipulated time. The software is unique as it notifies the field-level government officer in real time via SMS in codes to look into the problem and in parallel follows the government channels where it generates a letter in the same format as a government letter, which is automatically faxed and e-mailed besides posting over the Internet.

“The software was designed to counter the inherent problems in paper based reporting system at various block offices”, says Manoj Ahuja, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Department of Steel and Mines, Orissa. And who should know better, for Ahuja is the man who was instrumental in rolling out this FSCW proj-ect during his earlier posting as the department’s Commissioner-cum-Secretary.

What’s more, the solution has also helped in improving the performance assessment module by creating a well defined escalation procedure, with the automated system sending faxed letters and SMSs to higher officials in the hier-archy of the scheme, if the action-taking authority is not able to resolve the issue within the stipulated time period.

After the implementation of Sanjog helpline, it has become imperative for all officers to solve issues pertaining to their locality. Else, their status on Sanjog HelpLine will display lack of activity and the system will automatically send them email, fax and SMS reminding them of the pending jobs.

Ashok Kumar Kaluaram Meena, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Depart-ment of FSCW says, “Sanjog Helpline has metamorphosed the complete inspection and reporting activity of the district level offices from an ad hoc pro-cess to a perennial process requiring little intervention. It is also a step towards strategic m-Governance.”

teCh@useapplication: ASP.NET 2.0Database: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard Editionhardware: IBM X Series x3650 and x3850 (DB Server)resources: Mobile, fax and Inter-net connectivityPlatform: Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition

the beNefitsgives complete picture of the complaint and the entire mode of operations

Helps improve performance assessment module

G2C Case study


IN PERSON

Video and voice conferencing have direct correlation to the reduction of carbon emissions by providing alternatives to travel

gRId NamE


Where is the world headed in IP-based, enterprise-grade communication? How can the government and public sector organisations benefit from it?

Current realities like globalisation and worldwide competition continue to drive the need for real-time and life-like collaboration over dispersed geographies. We expect this trend to continue into the future, as we constantly innovate to cater to the customer demand. Today, organisations want flexibility, choice, and investment protection and do not want to tie themselves down to a single-source vendor when choosing Unified Communication (UC) solutions.

Government offices are spread geographically, and the implementation of UC could help communications become easier and real-time, thus making the deci-sions sharper and quicker. Spontaneous and real-time UC will help the public sector in terms of improved efficiencies and enhanced mobility with anytime-anywhere services.

What are the key trends in the Video Conferencing and Telepresence and how is Polycom gearing up to meet the market needs?

A great range of social, technological and financial trends are influencing the market for UC. High-definition technology has been one of the most important key trends in the enterprise communication market. Polycom’s visual com-munication solutions provide a complete, UltimateHD experience—HD video, HD voice and HD content sharing to make the experience much more seamless and life-like. Polycom offers solutions for different application, space and budget requirements that work together seamlessly for enterprise-wide visual communi-cation. High-definition video and telepresence are expected to drive the growth of the industry.

The social issue that is also opening up the market for video conferencing and telepresence is Green IT. Being responsible to the social issues without affecting

dEcISION makINg IN gOvERNmENt”

As Managing Director–India

and SAARC at Polycom,

Neeraj Gill has been guiding

Polycom’s business strategy

in the region and working to

extend its share of key markets,

particularly in the fast-growing

video conferencing market. Gill

is credited for his outstanding

skills as a communicator, his

tremendous drive to achieve

success, and his exceptional

understanding of India’s

enterprise, financial services and

government sectors. Gayatri

Maheshwary spoke to Gill on

the changing paradigms in the

area of communications and the

promises and benefits that lie in

store for the government sector

“Uc caN lEad tO ShaRPER, qUIckER

Neeraj GillManaging Director–India & SAARC, Polycom

IN PERSON


the revenue is a challenge of the era. Installation and use of video and voice conferencing solutions has a direct correlation to the reduction of carbon emissions by providing an alternative to travel. Virtual collaboration technolo-gies deliver a raft of sustainability ben-efits to organisations.

Video traditionally was only used by large corporations but another notice-able trend is that now it is enabling new business models and giving small com-panies big presence and reach. Polycom is expanding the market for visual commu-nication with a range of new solutions that will drive new applications and put high-performance video conferencing and collaboration capabilities within reach of smaller organisations, small-office home-office environments, and new industries.

The deployment of high-definition telepresence and video conferencing solutions is expected to grow significantly in the world. Is India, which is still dominated by the standard definition, ready for the new wave?

According to a Frost & Sullivan study, India leads the SAArC region’s UC

GeTTING PersoNal

qUalIFIcatION

Master of Business

Administration

and Bachelor of

Engineering from

Punjab University,

Chandigarh

WORkINg

ExPERIENcE

More than 20 years

of experience in the

Information and

Communications

Technology (ICT)

market. Gill has

worked across

multiple geographies

in Asia, the United

States and United

Kingdom, and

has held senior

management

positions with a

number of high-

profile companies

including Intel, AT&T

and JDSU India

FavOURItE

PaStImE

Playing Golf

market in terms of total spending and better overall awareness. The report men-tioned that India has a good potential for the growth of UC applications. It is grow-ing at the CAGr of 7.9 percent currently.

Public sector cuts across service and manufacturing industries, policy making and implementing, and security enhancement and disaster manage-ment. All these areas need real-time presence. UC makes that happen.

The introduction of video conferenc-

ing with pretrials has helped to increase the efficiency of the criminal justice system by helping the police, judiciary and prisons departments to save man-power and bring speedy justice and increased security, while realising dis-cernible time and cost efficiencies.

How do you rate the government and public sector in terms of adoption of IP-based communication technologies?

Post the recession, the most impor-tant tasks for companies had been cost reduction, value efficiency, and real-time collaboration. Specific sectors like government, banking, financial service and service industry are the fastest adopters of this technology in India. However, while the technology is becoming essential in the Indian con-text, a lot of work still needs to be done.

The government sector can draw a great deal of benefits from IP-based com-munication technology for development of the rural India. Disaster management can be one of the most vital benefits for the government, at a large scale. Education and healthcare sectors could also be revo-lutionised with this technology.

In the Indian context, the market is

steady and is projected to grow at a CAGr of around 22 percent and would become $1,200 million by 2012, as per industry sources. Currently, the UC market in India stands at $549 mn, while $321mn comes from enterprise telephony that include 17 percent share of contact centre applica-tions, 11 percent email and messaging, 10 percent telepresence and conferencing while 1 percent comes from mobility, as per industry sources.

India has been experimenting with video conferencing in a big way on the judicial front. Can you give an update on this?

India has implemented the video conferencing solution to enhance the judicial system’s efficiency. Andhra Pradesh Department of Prisons and Correctional Services (AP Prisons Department) oversees seven central prisons, nine district jails, two women’s prisons, one Borstal school and 120 sub-jails for inmates serving less than one month or awaiting pretrial. The resource and security challenges prompted AP Prisons department to find a convenient way for the courts to effectively com-municate with the prisoners to ensure fair pretrial proceedings, without the costs and risks associated with transfer-ring prisoners to and from the courts to stand for pretrial.

Polycom’s cutting-edge technology uniquely satisfied AP Prisons depart-ment’s comprehensive requirements. Polycom’s easy-to-use and manage system allows judges, legal professionals, court officials, inmates and witnesses to seamlessly communicate face-to-face in real-time as effectively as if they were in the same room.

IN PERSON

FOR dEvElOPmENt OF RURal INdIa,

FOR dISaStER maNagEmENt”

“gOvERNmENt caN bENEFIt FROm IP-baSEd cOmmUNIcatIONS

WhIlE alSO USINg It EFFEctIvEly

AnAlysis


needed, a unified clearinghouse!

An IT platform that supports all center-state and inter-state transactions is a must before GST regime is kicked in

By Siddharth Mehta

ith the govern-ment working hard to expedite the Goods and Service Tax (GST)

implementation, one wonders as to whether we have the necessary IT infrastructure in place to support the new system.

Under the current system too, there is some degree of automation, both at central and state levels. For instance, most of the tax compli-ances around central taxes such as excise duty and service tax can now be discharged by tax-payers online through ‘ACES’ and e-payment facility. At the state level, an IT platform called ‘TINXSYS’ is used to track details of dealer registrations and issuance of declaration forms such as Form C for inter-state transactions of sale of goods. Additionally, some states like Kerala, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh

W

TAXATION

provide facility of e-payment and or e-filing to the taxpayers.

However, most of the other states are currently trailing behind, and still rely on manual registra-tions, tax payments and filings. Also, in view of the variations in compliance requirements between the central and individual state-specific tax laws, there is currently no national IT platform that can handle all indirect tax related compli-ances for the taxpayer.

The uniformity in tax provisions and compliances, likely to be offered by GST, clearly offers an opportunity to automate these compliances. Thus, with common registration and return formats, and similar tax-payment obligations, the government can create a unified IT platform for GST.

A pan-India IT platform is anyways inevitable under GST, in order to implement the proposed ‘IGST’ model for inter-state transactions. By design, GST would be a destination-based tax

i.e., in case of inter-state supplies of goods or services, the state’s share of GST would accrue to the destination state where such goods or services are getting consumed. However, for the convenience of taxpayers, they would be required to deposit IGST in the state from where they supply such goods or services.

IGST would be deposited with the central government or a nominated agency, which would then act as a clearing house and transfer the state component of IGST to the respective states on a periodic basis. Hence the need for a robust IT network that would capture details of such inter-state supplies, and facilitate reconciliations and fund-transfers between various governments.

Recently, an empowered group has been constituted under the chairmanship of Nandan Nilekani, to take appropriate measures for timely implementation of the IT platform required for GST. National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) has been selected for implementing this network.

As far as creating the platform for implement-ing IGST is concerned, TINXSYS may perhaps serve as a good base or prototype, to begin with. However, the system would need to have the ability to process, verify and reconcile dealers’ invoice wise details uploaded by inter-state sup-pliers. This is likely to be an onerous task with minimal room for error, as it would have a direct bearing on the funds to be transferred to each state for the IGST supplies attributable to them.

The other big challenge would be to expand the IT coverage to the not-so-tech-savvy states and remote parts of the country, to facilitate online registrations, filings and payments for all taxpayers. While we do have a similar online system for income tax, the geographical spread and challenges of GST are somewhat different from income tax. As regards the quantum of data to be handled by such system, while it would be huge, we already have precedents in terms of the IT systems used at the NSE and NSDL.

Once implemented, a common GST portal would not only help the taxpayers, but also help the government with better audit trail, and a facility for pattern-analysis.

the author

is a specialist in indirect taxes, and

is actively involved in analysing

the developments around the

proposed GST framework

E-PROCUREMENTTECHNOLOGY


Gone are the days when procurement and tendering process could take as many as 180 days. E-procurement has brought purchase-and-sales cycles in the government down to 30-40 days. No wonder then, e-Procurement has been included as an integrated Mission Mode Project under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP).

Essentially, procurement means timely acquisition, purchase and delivery of goods, works and services at the best possible total cost of ownership to the customer. It includes estimate or indent preparation, tendering, contract management, catalogue management and auction, and caters to procurement of all types—works, goods and services.

A few rollouts exemplify that adoption of e-procurement systems can bring in unprecedented efficiencies in governments

By Pratap Vikram Singh

TheprOCEss aCCELEraTOr

E-PROCUREMENT TECHNOLOGY


Despite the huge financial savings accrued through lowered bid values, shortened pro-curement cycles and transparencies in the system, the adoption of e-procurement sys-tems can still be termed as poor. Though some of the states, including Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are quite ahead in reaping the ben-efits from the automation of the procurement process, many other states and central minis-tries and departments are still following the traditional, manual system of procurement, plagued by wide spread inefficiencies and lack of transparency that throttles fair business and competition among suppliers.

Commenting on the adoption of e-pro-curement at Government of India bodies, V Ramachandran, Chief Technical Examiner, Central Vigilance Commission, said, “The overall adoption has been quite slow. In a circular issued by the Government of India,

all central ministries and departments were to adopt e-procurement by April 2009. However, roughly 35 percent of the departments have adopted automation of the procurement pro-cesses, but partly.”

Some organisations have made good prog-ress though. Centre for Railways Information System of the Indian Railways is doing good work in furthering e-procurement across the department. The pilot on e-procurement in the Northern Railway zone has been com-pleted and in the near future it is to be scaled up to each zone in the country. Gas Authority of India too is way ahead of others in adoption and usage of e-procurement. Besides, Ministry of Coal is doing quite well with its e-auction system being in place.

On e-procurement adoption in Karnataka, MN Vidyashankar, Principal Secretary, Centre for e-Governance, Government of Karnataka, said, “Only few states in India have currently adopted e-procurement. Even Government of India and PSUs are yet to adopt it. The state of Karnataka has been successful in implement-ing e-procurement in more than 63 govern-ment departments, agencies or organisations, with more than Rs 33,000 crore worth of pro-curement already handled since early 2008.”

In Chhattisgarh, “Currently, around 4,864 tenders worth Rs 15,020 crore have been processed. The adoption of e-procurement by different government departments and organ-isations in Chhattisgarh offered the solution of transforming the traditional tendering process

to a transparent online tendering system,” AM Parial, Additional CEO, Chhattisgarh Infotech and Biotech Promotion Society (CHiPS) said.

Giving details on the state of adoption in Andhra Pradesh, M Vidydhar, Project Man-ager, e-procurement, Govt of Andhra Pradesh said, “E-procurement is implemented success-fully in 26 government departments, 39 PSUs, 126 municipalities and 14 universities spread across length and breadth of the state. Since the inception of the project in January 2003, the portal has processed 106,532 transactions worth Rs 194,068 crore or US$ 36 billion.”

Legal compliance and securityOn January 30, 1997, the General Assembly

of the United Nations, by a resolution, passed the Model Law on Electronic Commerce adopted by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law. Following the suit, Indian IT Act was passed in the year 2000.

The IT Act 2000 mandates use of digital signature in e-procurement. It provides legal recognition for transactions carried out by means of electronic data interchange and other means of electronic communication, commonly referred to as electronic commerce, which involve the use of alternatives to paper-based methods of communication and storage of information, to facilitate electronic filing of documents with the government agencies.

The Central Vigilance Commission has pro-vided the stakeholders in e-procurement with a comprehensive list of security specifications.

10 eSSentialS to look for in an e-procurement Solution

Does the solution significantly

reduce the time taken to

prepare indents and tender

documents?

Are repetitive tasks in the

tender preparation process

automated?

Is paperwork significantly

reduced?

Do most significant activities

like document preparation,

verification, approval, escalation,

annotations and remarks occur

online, and are they auditable?

Can the solution import

data from item masters and

schedules-of-rates to build

tender documents?

Does the solution enforce

existing workflows

and escalation metrics in a

dynamic manner?

Does the solution keep track

of the sanctioning power of

various officials in the escalation

metrics?

Does the solution make use

of the Public Key Infrastructure

(PKI)? Are digital certificates

mandatory for signing

documents?

Is the solution integrated with

a payments gateway?

Are bids received online? If

yes, do they have to be printed

out to carry out technical

and commercial evaluation

or are comparison metrics

generated automatically

for both technical as well as

commercial bids?

“Cost savings and reduced cycles are

the motivating factors for adoption of

e-procurement. The number of departments using it has increased

from five in 2008 to over 63 now in Karnataka”

MN VidyAShANkArprincipal Secretary, centre for e-Governance,

Government of karnataka



“E-procurement benefits include transparency, cost savings through

increased competition and demand aggregation,

reduced inventory costs, and sustainable

contractor development”

AM PAriALadditional ceo, chhattisgarh infotech and

Biotech promotion Society

Putting the state laws into the given perspec-tive, Vidyashankar said, “e-procurement needs to comply with guidelines, acts and rules of the concerned state for its implementation at the state level. For example, the e-procurement solution of Karnataka complies with the Kar-nataka Transparency in Public Procurement (KTPP) Act.”

The use of digital signatures in electronic procurement has been mandated in almost all legislations, CVC directives and inter-national standards set by organisations like United Nations and World Bank. Neverthe-less, the awareness and education on using this cryptographic security mechanism at the government and citizen levels is not satisfac-tory. From the time a bid is submitted online, to its saving into the virtual tender box, and then to its opening, security is of paramount importance. The digital signatures are a must to ensure the non repudiation and authentica-tion of the users and the participants in the procurement process.

“It’s quite unfortunate that the awareness on the usage of digital signatures is not encourag-ing among the government bodies.” Moreover,

“The Net banking system is still based on the user name and password authentication mech-anism, and so it is vulnerable to illegal access. Still, the use of digital signatures in financial transactions is a distant dream. The Reserve Bank of India has come up with a circular that mandates use of digital signatures in every online financial transaction, including bank-ing and e-procurement related transactions. It has set a deadline of April 2011 for the banks and other institutions to adopt usage of digital signatures,” Ramachandran said.

Holding a positive view on the use of digi-tal signatures, Bhatt said, “Digital signatures are being used by thousands of suppliers and buyers in all our deployments.”

return on investment With the posting of tender information

on e-procurement website, the stakeholders have saved from investing in paper work and publishing ads in national dailies. The bid participants can access and download the tender document without any hassle. Earlier, because of vested interests, the tender document itself was sometimes not accessible by all.

State of e-procurement affairS

Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh Infotech and

Biotech promotion Society,

Government of Chhattisgarh

(CHIPS) has adopted a public

private partnership (PPP)

model whereby the system

is managed and maintained

by NexTenders. The contract

covers for nine separate

departments of the state

government.

Around 4,600 tenders

valued at Rs 7,500 crore had

been processed till end of

May 2010. There are about

2,700 vendors currently

registered on the govern-

ment portal.

Madhya Pradesh:

Madhya Pradesh Agency for

Promotion of Information

Technology (MAP-IT) is

the IT nodal agency for

implementing e-Governance

projects in the state.

The project envisages

implementation of a

Web-based centralised

e-procurement system for

departments and agencies

across the state.

Currently, there are 33

departments and agencies

using the NexTenders eGP

System. The rollout has

occurred progressively over

four years.

Andhra Pradesh

As part of the e-Governance

initiatives, the state

government has set up an

e-Procurement Marketplace,

linking government

departments, agencies

and local bodies with their

vendors. After a pilot was

successfully completed,

e-procurement was rolled out

in to service eight government

departments, 13 public sector

units, 51 municipalities and five

universities.

Starting from January

2003 to July 2010, 106,532

transactions worth Rs 194,068

crore have been done through

the e-procurement system.

karnataka

The State of Karnataka has

been successful in imple-

menting e-Procurement in

more than 63 government

departments, agencies or

organisations with more than

Rs 33,000 crore of procure-

ments already handled since a

beginning in early 2008. The

number of departments using

the e-procurement platform

has increased from five in

2008 to more than 63 till date.

The project is implemented in

PPP mode with zero-cost to

the government.

Elaborating on the security the compliance issues, Parial of CHiPS said, “CVC and other national and international guidelines for government procurement are designed with the ethical principles to achieve equity and economy.”

Sujeet Bhatt, Director Technical at Nex-Tenders, a company that specialises in e-Governance, opined, “The Central Vigilance Commission has issued a circular that provides a checklist to achieve security considerations in e-procurement for organisations interested in implementing the solution.”

He further said that CVC has man-dated the availability of security features as stated in this checklist for all government organisations having implemented or in the process of implementing an e-procurement solution.

Vivek Agarwal, CEO of C1 India, an e-procurement solutions company, said, “All e-procurement solutions in India need to follow guidelines established by CVC and the provisions as laid under IT Act 2000. For projects funded by the World Bank, procedures and guidelines set by them need to be followed.”



and has been a major hurdle in the adoption of e-procurement in many states and govern-ment departments.

On addressing the implementation hurdles, Agarwal says, “Change management and buy-in from various stake holders is crucial for smooth implementation of e-procurement projects. Another aspect that needs to be taken care of is the training on the processes involved.”

Parial said, “Implementation of the project requires not only technological solution but also process re-engineering and most impor-tantly change management. This makes imple-mentation of e-procurement a very complex project. The complexity acquires an altogether different dimension on account of the change management involved. Intrinsically, there is resistance to change any organisation and gov-ernment is no exception to it.”

Bhatt agrees, “The main challenge is buyer and vendor resistance. This is best dealt with by using a graduated carrot and stick approach. Successful implementations usually start with clients mandating the use of e-procurement for high-value tenders and then gradually reducing the threshold value to bring more and more vendors on board.”

“In some cases, manual bidding is allowed in parallel for a short time to ease the transition, and some governments have even offered mon-etary incentives for bidding online. Education and training hold the key, and experience shows that once stakeholders experience the benefits of e-procurement firsthand, there is no looking back. Availability of infrastructure like electricity and Internet access still remains a challenge in some remote areas,” he added.

The participants now need not come to the bidding centre to participate in the bidding process. With Web browser-based software, bidders can participate while sitting in any part of the world.

For e-procurement service providers, the increase in bidder participation has resulted in increased transactions, which in turn has increased the fee collection.

Recalling the benefits derived from e-pro-curement deployment, Bhatt of NexTenders said, “In our experience, an average large gov-ernment agency or state government which properly implements a robust e-procurement system can expect one-time savings of 10-30 percent and recurring savings of three-five percent annually through increased process efficiencies and throughput. When you are dealing with budgets in thousands of crores,

this is substantial.”Putting forth the observations from

Chhattisgarh, Parial stated, “Effective and innovative procurement has transformed service delivery and realised significant savings for our state. Efficient procurement benefits everyone—the state, agencies, suppliers and citizens. By achieving economies and efficiencies through procurement, the state could improve its effectiveness and also stimulate the state’s economy.”

The e-procurement platform of Karna-taka has been instrumental in savings to the tune of 10 percent of the value of procure-ment due to a competitive bidding environ-ment. Some of the departments have achieved negative premium on tenders, which was not thought of earlier in traditional mode of procurement.

“Also, the reduction in the procurement cycle enabled the departments to do faster procurement. The cost savings and reduced procurement cycle times are the motivating factors for adoption of e-procurement in gov-ernment departments. This is evident from the fact that the number of departments using e-procurement platform has increased from five in 2008 to more than 63 till date in Karna-taka,” Vidyashankar said.

implementation challenges For an e-Governance project, the most basic

hurdle remains the resistance to adopt new technology. Here, capacity building measures through regular training and change manage-ment assumes utmost importance. Vested interests of certain officials in the govern-ment is also one of the causes of resistance,

An average large government agency or

state government which properly implements a robust e-procurement

system can expect one-time savings of 10-30 percent and recurring savings of three-five

percent annually

“Since the inception of the e-procurement

project in January 2003, the portal has processed

106,532 transactions worth Rs 194,068 crore

or US$ 36 billion”

SujEET BhATTDirector technical, nextenders

M VidydhArproject manager, e-procurement, andhra pradesh

Last date for seNdING

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AnAlysis


Extending Moore’s lawIntel’s acquisition of McAfee literally amounts to packing security as a component on the chip. How will it work?

ntel’s co-founder Gordon Moore penned down an empirical observation in 1965, noting that the number of components that can be packed in an integrated circuit

would double every year. Later he made a revi-sion stating that the doubling would happen every two years.

The statement has since been formalised into one of the most venerable laws in the technology industry. It’s been a yardstick for setting targets at semiconductor companies, particularly at Intel. It has held ground for nearly half a century now and doesn’t show any definite signs of aging yet.

Moore’s law has served as an unwritten policy statement for Intel and has played an important role in steering the company to a formidably dominant position, so much so that the chipmaker’s performance today serves as a barometer of the IT industry.

That, however, will not be enough to take Intel far and beyond in an era where industry dynamics are rapidly shifting from PCs to mobile devices and from hardware to software.

I

SECURITY

By Deepak Kumar

AnAlysis


This is the premise that sets a basis for acquir-ing companies that can bring robust software capabilities to the chipmaker.

Does that fully explain Intel’s big-ticket McAfee acquisition at US$ 7.7 billion? Or are there elements of disconnect and ambiguity? Let’s view the announcement in the backdrop of some prior acquisitions.

Some prior movesIndeed, Intel has known the risks of sticking only to the PC and server segments for long. As early as 1999, it made serious attempts to extend its dominance to segments other than PC and server segments. With the objective of foraying into the mobile phone segment, it acquired DSP Communications for around US$ 1.6 billion, an investment that did not pan out as expected and led to an impairment charge of US$ 600 million later in 2003.

Intel’s energies have since remained largely focused on making PC chips better and better. Most of its acquisitions too—small or big—were aligned with this focus. Like last year, two small software snap-ups—Cilk and Rapidmind—were aimed at giving developers better leverage with the chipmaker’s growing portfolio of multi-core platforms.

However, Intel’s much larger acquisition in June last year—of embedded and mobile soft-ware maker Wind River Systems—was a bigger leap forward, into wider realms of software. The deal that was valued at US$ 884 million in July 2009, in the midst of an economic crisis, was stated in a press release to be “part of Intel’s strategy to grow its processor and software presence outside the traditional PC and server market segments into embedded systems and mobile handheld devices.”

That was logical given that Intel had actually stepped out of its stronghold of “traditional” PCs and servers and tasted fair amount of success with its Atom processors designed for a new genre of net access devices. An innova-tion in hardware had helped it travel a certain

distance, and there had to be a software vehicle to take the journey further...

The importance of hardware-software interplay is evident from the fact that histori-cally neither Intel nor Microsoft’s Windows platform have singularly been credited with the crowning success in the PC market segment; the honours have been given to Wintel—the unofficial combo engine at work.

At the same time, it’s been no secret that both Intel and Microsoft—while benefiting from their long-standing equations—have also clamoured to lead when it comes to determin-ing the direction of the PC and server market segments, among other IT segments as well.

Unsurprisingly therefore, Intel has a long history of duly supporting developments in the open source software spheres. The Moblin OS and application stack, which was later merged with Nokia’s Maemo project to create the MeeGo project this year, is also a software case in point.

Is it about security?If viewed independently, the McAfee deal indeed may be seen as Intel’s attempt at growing its circle of influence in enterprise IT market, considering that security has remained among the top-most concerns for enterprise CIOs and IT mangers.

One possibility would be that McAfee tech-nologies could be adding more teeth to Intel’s existing hardware-based security program vPro. However, there has been scepticism if hardware-based security will be able to provide quick guards against security threats that are ever new and so dynamic in nature.

Intel’s strategy on how it will meet this challenge is not pronounced, but logically it could be using Wind River’s technological depth in embedded platforms to stitch together an acceptable solution. Also, the fact that the McAfee acquisition has come only after Intel had reportedly worked with the security spe-cialist for several months on various projects indicates that a neat-enough roadmap might well be in place.

There is also a successful precedence in the IT industry that can come handy—EMC’s successful acquisition of RSA effected nearly four years ago.

Having said that, just security can’t be Intel’s strategy; it’s got to be much bigger—maybe to get a share of the software market pie. Some observers have even gone as far as speculating

that Intel would want to eventually put its fingers in the services pie too.

And the mobile piece?Well, the segment has gotten too significant to ignore, more than ever before. And from that viewpoint too, the Wind River buyout last year and the McAfee acquisition now, are impor-tant. Both have been fairly well positioned in the mobile space to serve as key footholds in developing an ecosystem around Intel’s proces-sor platforms like Atom.

Atom’s success so far has largely been limited to the netbook space and it will be critical for Intel to crack the smart phone segment.

Thankfully, equations in the mobile market segment have changed much since about ten years ago, when Intel would have been seen as a dreaded Goliath. Today, Nokia is working with Intel on MeeGo project, even as Intel has been porting Google’s Android to its Atom platform.

Security has not been much of a concern on mobile devices so far, but as preferences grow for mobile-based commerce and transactions, that would change. Arming these devices with biometrics-based protection, for example, would be a necessity in due course of time.

It’s another matter that the upgrades and innovations in the Atom-based product lines have been slower compared to those evident in the smart phone segment...

Building early adoptersIntel will need some early adopters for a “McAfee inside” approach to work as well as the “Intel inside” messaging has worked.

Government and education verticals, by virtue of their less ephemeral computing pro-cesses and application needs, would be better suited for a security-on-the-chip architecture. Early successes in these segments would also build a technology—and business—case for other verticals.

The security threats in the mobile space are not yet looming large and Intel will therefore have some time at hand to seal a compelling proposition before mobile security concerns get real and alarming! The chipmaker will

need early adopters for a “McAfee inside” approach to work like

the “intel inside” messaging did

the Author

is a market researcher and

consultant, specialising in IT

and Telecom

EVENT


The sixth edition of India’s largest ICT expo and conference, was held from 4-6 August 2010 at Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC). The event was hosted by the Government of Andhra Pradesh and organised by Elets Technomedia and CSDMS, along with the Department of IT (GoI), Ministry of Panchayati Raj (GoI), Ministry of Labour & Employment (GoI), UIDAI, Directorate General of Employment & Training, NeGP, and IGNOU. The three-day event was attended by over 5,000 stakeholders from across the development and government sector, including elected members of state Assemblies and the Parliament, senior level bureaucrats, policy makers, academia, NGOs and industry associations.

The chief guest Dr K Rosaiah, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, lighting the lamp at the inauguration of eInDIA2010. Standing L-R: K Ratna Prabha, PS, IT , GoAP; Dr Asraf Abdel Wahab, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Administrative Development, Egypt; Lt. Gen. (Retd) Bhopinder Singh, Lt Governor, Andaman & nicobar; R Chandrashekhar, Secretary, DIT, GoI; Komathireddy Venkat Reddy, Minister, IT & Communications, GoAP

D Sridhar Babu, Minister, Higher Education, Andhra Pradesh and J Krishna Rao, Minister for Food, Civil Supplies, Legal Metrology & Consumer Affairs, Andhra Pradesh talking to the exhibitors

R Chandrashekhar, Secretary, DIT, Ministry of Communication & IT, Govt of India

Jayashree Raghuraman, Secretary-cum-Commisioner, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Govt of nCT of Delhi

Ashank Desai, Founder, Mastek

RS Sharma, Director General & Mission Director, UID Authority of India, GoI

Loknath Behera, IGP, national Investiga-tion agency, Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt of India

Dr Ajay Kumar, Principal Secretary IT, Govt of Kerala

EVENT


D Sridhar Babu, Minister, Higher Education, AP & nadendla Manohar, Dy Speaker, AP Legislative Assembly

nK Pradhan, Minister–IT, Sikkim is all attentive at the Thought Leader’s Conclave

Agatha Sangma, Minister of State for Rural Development, Government of India along with Dr M P narayanan, President, CSDMS (centre) and Dr Ravi Gupta, Editor-in-Chief, Elets Technomedia (left) launching the special issue of eGov magazine.

eInDIA Award winners along with Dr M P narayanan, President, Centre for Science, Develop-ment and Media Studies (CSDMS) and Dr Ravi Gupta, Editor-in-Chief, Elets Technomedia

nibh ero cor si. Guerciduipis dolobore ent

A Raja, Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Government of India

Agatha Sangma, Minister of State for Rural Development, Government of India

Odissi dance performance by members of Smitalay

event egov india 2010


Fool-proofing is easier said than doneUID’s schema is holistic and biometric makes it free of any cracks but that also makes implementation a tough task

he Unique Identification (UID) project aims to give the 1.2 billion residents of the country

a unique 12-digit identification number. The number, by ensuring such registration and recognition of individuals, would help the state deliver their rights to them. Over five years, the UID Authority plans to issue 600 million Aadhaars. To understand the implementation strategy and the progress made at it, as also for leveraging it for maximum benefit and to discuss the security concerns, a session was organised with participation from government, potential players, vendors and civil society representatives.

The session was chaired by VS Bhaskar, Deputy Director General, UID Authority of India, Government of India, who put UID in its correct perspective, and discussed its conceptual framework and the progress made so far. He also elaborated upon the implementation and operational challenges, interoperability issues, and how one would utilise an UID number.

TThe UID number is a unique and a random

number. There is no duplication because of the biometric de-duplication being in place. And even though UID is not mandatory, Bhaskar is hopeful that as the value of UID number is enhanced, more and more people in India will join the ecosystem of UID.

Srikanth Nadhamuni, Head of Technol-ogy, UID Authority of India, talked about the technological aspects related to UID. If a resident submits his biometric information and substantiates it with the proof of his identity and address, he could be issued a UID number, after the system checks his biometric details against the entire central database of UIDAI. “Since there is no shortcut to matching one’s biometrics

(L - R) Srikanth nadhamuni, Head–Technology, Uidai; Sanjay Jaju, Commissioner, Food & Civil Supplies, andhra Pradesh; vS Bhaskar, ddg, Uidai (Chair); guru Malladi, Partner, advisory Services, ernst & Young; Rana gupta, Business Head (india & SaaRC), Safenet india; vishal dhupar, Md–Sales, Symantec india; Savitha n, Principal Sales Consultant, oracle

with the entire records, this is the most challeng-ing problem UIDAI is facing,” noted Srikanth.

Rana Gupta, Business Head, India & Saarc, SafeNet India, dealt with privacy issues and the role information security would play in the successful rollout of UID. He commended UIDAI for considering security of database from a data center point of view rather than taking a network or periphery standpoint.

Sanjay Jaju, Commissioner, Food and Civil Supplies Government of Andhra Pradesh, gave the perspective of Registrar of Enrolment and also talked about the experience of AP with the biometric ration card implementation in the state. One challenge that was faced in implementation was that de-duplication and enrolment generation of cards was not happen-ing simultaneously.

Savitha N, Principal Sales Consultant, Oracle, discussed the role that a master citizen data solution could play in the UID program for consolidating the master database, cleaning data centrally and distributing data as a single point of truth.

Guru Malladi, Partner, Advisory Services, Ernst & Young, applauded the UID program for being holistic and subsuming all other

identities because of the uniqueness that the UID number commits. He also said, “UID programme will be very successful because it connects with the social and democratic fabric of the country.”

Talking about the need to keep abreast with security threats in the digital world, Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director of Sales, Symantec India, remarked that, “UID gives us a business opportunity to prosper in this digital world.”

The question and answer session followed the panel discussion, where participants put forth queries on how universal coverage could be achieved, how it would be ensured that people with multiple disabilities don’t get excluded, and how the security compliance can be met.

Uid and PeoPle

Since TheRe iS no ShoRTcuT To maTching one’S biomeTRicS wiTh The enTiRe RecoRdS, ThiS iS The

moST chaLLenging pRobLem uidai iS facing

egov india 2010 event


It’s got to be a data-drill Standardisation and interoperability of panchayat-level data is as important as capturing it rightly in the system

iten Chandra, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, session chair, provided

an overview of the rural scenario of India, informing that rural India had more than 17 crore people living in nine lakh habitations. Government of India is spending around Rs 90 crore per year in rural development programs that are development, project or area-oriented. The issues that the ministry is grappling with in this regard include data capture, trans-formation of data, loading of data into data warehouses, data mining and data analytics, for which it seeks support of ICT experts.

The panel included experts from both government and non-government secors. Major Gen. (Dr) R Siva Kumar, Head,

NNatural Resources Data Management System (NRDMS), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, highlighted the use of spatial data for better planning of rural development programmes. He however, emphasised the need for standardisation and interoperability of data. Recalling Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) program, which has connectivity as its base, Dr Siva Kumar said, “Spatial data is the underlying requirement of PURA.”

Rakibul Hasan Khan, Local Development Associate, Access to Information Project Prime Minister’s Office, Bangladesh, shared his country’s experience with ICT interventions in rural development. The government is trying to strengthen the union parishads (similar to pan-chayats in India) in Bangladesh through ICT to deliver services to people at their doorstep. For this, it plans to establish 3,396 union informa-tion services centres by December 2010.

SK Hudda OSD, e-Gram, Department of Panchayats, Government of Gujarat shared the e-Gram Vishwagram project, which aims at providing e-services at panchayats. e-Gover-nance application entails computerisation at the village level itself for instant processing of birth and death registration, and issuance of certificates such as agriculture, caste, income and electricity. For access, broadband Internet connectivity has been provided to all 13,693 gram panchayats, using the VSAT technology. Niten Chandra applauded the project, saying that, “e-Gram implemented by Gujarat govern-ment is a very innovative project and even the Ministry of Rural Development has drawn a lot of lessons from it.”

Dr Naimur Rahman, Director OneWorld South Asia & MD, OneWorld Foundation, India, informed about the joint partnership program between Ministry of Rural Develop-ment and OneWorld Foundation to bring in transparency and public accountability in MGNREGA by e-enabling all the processes. These include biometric-based registration, demand for work, issue of dated receipt, allocation of work, recording of attendance with GPS coordinates and work measurement using hand-held devices like mobile phones. SB Singh, Deputy Director General, National Informatics Centre (NIC), Uttar Pradesh State Unit, provided an overview of various programmes that Uttar Pradesh was doing in rural development using ICT. “If e-Governance is moving in Uttar Pradesh, which is such a large state and thereby has so many challenges, in smaller states, the technology application by government should not be an issue.”

Rajgopal A Srinivas, Senior VP, Tulip Tele-com, discussed how Tulip discussed some of its solutions for rural India such as rural on-line banking, e-literacy and e-enabled education centres, healthcare, e-posts, Internet telephony and video conferencing.

K Manohar, General Manager—Bangalore, Railtel India, emphasised, “e-Governance is associated with access to broadband con-nectivity.” He apprised that Railtel was on its way to provide countrywide broadband and multimedia network to help Government of India achieve 200-500 million broadband users by 2015. Talking about the challenges in rural broadband, he suggested use of simple technology that would be manageable. The complexity should be pushed to the network, he said.

iCT for rural developmenT

(L - R) maj gen. (dr) r Siva Kumar, Head–nrdmS; rakibul Hasan Khanm, local development associate, access to information project, Bangladesh; rajgopal a Srinivas, Sr vp, Tulip Telecom; dr naimur rahman, director, oneWorld South asia; niten Chandra, Joint Secretary, rural development, goi (Chair); S K Hudda, oSd, department of panchyats, gujarat; S B Singh, ddg, niC–uttar pradesh; K manohar, gm (Bangalore), railtel



India needs a clinical approachSporadic uses of technology have been made but the system needs an end-to-end IT overhaul to get functioning-fit

he session was chaired by Sanjay Jaju, Commissioner, Food and Civil Supplies, Government of

Andhra Pradesh saw panelists presenting update of their work on ICT for food security front.

Talking about the initiatives by Orissa, the state Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Wel-fare Department Commissioner-cum-Secretary Ashok Kumar Meena said, “PDS is nothing but a supply chain, from production at the farm to procurement, from giving the minimum support price to farmers to keeping food grains in storage and distributing it to the districts and to the fair price shops (FPSs), from where it gets distributed finally to the targeted below poverty line (BPL) beneficiaries.”

Meena also spoke on the biometrics-based ration cards pilot project of Rayagada district in Orissa, introduced in the year 2008, with the support of the World Food Program and Government of India. The project aimed at stopping wastage and fraud in PDS through use of biometric ration cards in order to better

Tmonitor and manage distribution of foodgrains. As per Sanjay Jaju, “The project has a lot of bear-ing on the biometric capture and ICT use that is gaining ground in the country”.

Amod Kumar, Director, Maternal and New Born Health Project, Intra Health International, briefed on the IVRS-based daily monitoring system for mid-day meal (MDM) scheme in Uttar Pradesh. The lack of proper mechanism to monitor the implementation of the MDM scheme, prompted for a Web-based MIS for transporting data directly from school to the state. The school authorities can now inform the number of students availing meal on that day without any time lag and all reports can be viewed and managed in real time due to auto-

ict for food security mation of information exchange between school authorities and the Department of Education.

Jayashree Raghuraman, Secretary-cum-Com-missioner, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Government of NCT of Delhi, dealt with the challenges Delhi faced with regard to the identification of beneficiaries since it had issues like migration of people to Delhi from various states of India, movement within Delhi from one area to another, and shifting of people from BPL category to above poverty line population. She felt that ICT can be very effective in dealing with such issues. In this regard, the Department did a Biometric review of all existing BPL and AAY cards and deleted bogus cards.

Vilas Kanyal, Head—Asia-Pacific, Mastek, was optimistic that the goal of “Food for All” could be met through use of ICT. India does have pilot projects and projects that are part of other program, but there is no end-to-end solution to tackle the ills of PDS. In this context, he provided an overview of Mastek’s ‘e-FCS’ solution that provided the advantages of a com-prehensive solution, with a quick rollout time. The modules in this solution included ration card management system, backend supply chain system, issuance system, FPS management

module, and budgeting and accounting system.Srinath Chakravarthy, Vice President,

National Institute for Smart Government, informed about the computerisation of TPDS program of Department of Food & Public Distribution, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, GoI to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the entire system. Government of India had engaged NISG to provide consultancy services in designing a comprehensive e-Governance framework at the central and state levels, formulating a set of solutions to be implemented. He advocated that beneficiaries should be able to get food grains from any FPS in India, using UID as a pan-India identifier.

(L - R) amod Kumar, director, Maternal & new Born Health Project, iHi; ashok Kr Meena, commissioner-cum-secretary, food, civil supplies & consumer Welfare, orissa; Jayashree raghuraman, secretary-cum-commis-sioner, food, civil supplies and consumer affairs, delhi; sanjay Jaju, commissioner, food & civil supplies, andhra Pradesh (chair); srinath chakravarthy, vP, nisg; vilas Kanyal, Head asia Pacific, Mastek

Food gRain pRovisioning needs To be viewed as a

suppLy-chain acTiviTy ThaT musT have an mis sysTem FoR

acTionabLe Review

event


It’s not a thumbs-up, yetWith low utilisations of existing data centres, full-blown clouds won’t be a govt priority now, but SaaS is ok

jay Kumar, Principal Secretary, Government of Kerala, chaired the

session on ‘Cloud Computing & RoI for the Government Sector.’ He set the premise that RoI on cloud computing was a challenging task and there was an important need to discuss the indicators of a positive RoI and the various benefits of using cloud by the government.

He said it was important to create cloud infrastructure and cloud middleware. Both tangible and intangible savings, better infrastructure, less use of too many separate data centres, provisioning of on-demand resources were some important advantages of the cloud technology, he said. The biggest concern highlighted was that of security. Also, performance of the cloud depended on the availability of the resources. He put forth the concern that the current usage of data centres

Awas only 15 percent and hence it was difficult to discuss the RoI on cloud computing.

Ashok Kumar Meena, Commissioner and Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department, Government of Orissa, emphasised that for the RoI on cloud computing it was important to have a dedicated IT setup.

Sanjiv Mittal, CEO, National Institute for Smart Government, pointed that lot of government departments were in the stages of their automation processes. He emphasised on Software as a Service (SaaS) as a model, as for transactions to keep going, it’s then someone

(L - R) Sumeet Bhatt, Director, NexTenders; CSR Prabhu, DDG, NIC, Hyderabad; Sanjiv Mital, CEO, NISG; Dr Ajay Kumar, Principal Secretary–IT, Kerala (Chair); Ashok Kr Meena Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Welfare, Orissa; Sethumadhavan Srinivasan, Dy Director-Network Strategy, Huawei; Prashant Chaudhary, Consulting Manager (Govt), CA; Ravi Joseph Pinto, Principal Architect, Oracle

else’s responsibility to keep adding the hardware.

CSR Prabhu, Deputy Director General, National Informatics Centre, Hyderabad highlighted that all models were developed independently by different agencies and that there was no interoperability. He emphasised upon the need to develop the technology locally and make things integrated, and opined that data centres can be made available in the state and servers can be made available locally in remote areas.

Prashant Chaudhary, Consulting Manager—Government, CA, informed that cloud services should be leveraged on demand and be used when needed through cloud, depending upon the need at a particular stage. He advocated that at the moment it was too early to talk of RoI in the Indian context as there was not much usage of the data centres and servers.

Ravi Joseph Pinto, Principal Architect, Strategic Architecture and Programs, Oracle, focused on IaaS and PaaS as the cloud models. The focus is also on the private and the public cloud and on the emergence of the hybrid cloud going forward, he noted. He pointed out that it was important to have the consolidation of data centres.

Sethumadhavan Srinivasan, Deputy Direc-tor—Network Strategy, Huawei, said that cloud computing was all about security and offering reliable services around private, public and hybrid clouds. He pointed out that for better utilisation of services the security aspect had to be addressed properly.

Sumeet Bhatt, Director, Nextenders was of the view that cloud computing and e-Governance could be a revolutionary idea for India. The main challenge was security and the possible tampering of data. He advocated security measures to be independent of any human involvement.

ClOuD COMPuTING

SecuRity conceRnS deteR cLoud-thinking AS much AS

the view thAt AvAiLAbiLity of ReSouRceS cAn be A queStion

mARk



Banking for allThere is a crying need for building infrastructure that makes financial services available to masses at affordable costs

n India, a large section of the popula-tion is poor and lives in rural areas. A large number of this population is financially excluded due to factors

such as lack of information, insufficient docu-mentation, lack of awareness, high transaction charges, and lack of access and illiteracy. So there is a huge need for financial services where banks can deliver banking services at affordable costs for the excluded section of the society. The session on “Financial Inclusion for Effective Governance” aimed to take care of these problems with the help of ICT.

The session was chaired by B Sambhamur-thy, Director, Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDBRT) who briefed what is financial inclusion, and discussed its conceptual framework, the progress made so far, and implementation and operational challenges.

RS Sharma, Director General, UIDAI gave his perspective of financial inclusion taking into account Adhaar, the unique identity number

Iprogram for Indian residents. He highlighted that the extent of financial inclusion in Indian villages was only five percent, with the main challenge in rural areas being non-availability of banks and the high cost of operating bank accounts. There is an urgent need to create the national infrastructure to make the electronic money transfer easy, said Sharma.

Ajay Singh, CEO, Forbes Technologies, pointed out the main challenge in the financial inclusion is at the front-end or at the delivery end and typically pertains to the high transaction cost. The need is for a viable model that can be sustainable for all stakeholders, he stressed. Financial inclusion is important

Financial inclusion

not only for the rural masses but also for the economy at large.

Prof S Subramaniam, Chairperson, African Centre for Mobile Financial Inclusion (ACMFI), spoke on the broader perspectives of financial inclusion, focusing on the need to improve the state of the services. There is a need for both public and private sectors to work in close collaboration. He pointed out that the shortfalls in the system are because of the various unmet commitments, and there was a need for transparency in the manage-ment of the resources. For effective governance, not only technology but effective and viable policies are needed too, he said.

Santanu Sengupta, Director, Corporate Affairs and Finance, ACMFI compared the Indian scenario of financial inclusion with other successful models, globally. He emphasised that the main challenge faced in India was that a huge population was bankless and illiterate. This needed to be addressed to make financial inclusion work in rural areas.

Satyajit Nath, Chief Architect, Family Hat spoke about the various challenges faced in rural areas. The distance to the nearest bank is a major challenge faced on the demand side, i.e. by the

consumer, especially in the rural areas. Also, the products provided are not so very useful for the people. Another important challenge that is a barrier on the demand side was illiteracy and had to be addressed seriously, he added.

S Kuberan, Project Manager, Electronic Benefit Transfer, Department of Rural Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh was of the view that financial services should be for the disadvantaged and the low-income groups. He spoke of the various successful financial inclusion models used by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, particularly the branchless banking model.

(L - R) Rs sharma, director general, uidai; ajay singh, ceo Forbes Technologies; B sambhamurthy, director, id-BRT (chair); Prof s subramaniam, chairperson, acMFi, santanu sengupta, director, corporate affairs & Finance, acMFi; satyajit nath, chief architect, FamilyHat; s Kuberan, Project Manager (electronic Benefit Transfer) Rural development, andhra Pradesh

TheRe Is a need To deveLop a fInancIaL IncLusIon fRamewoRk

foR enabLIng pubLIc and pRIvaTe secToR oRganIsaTIons

To coLLaboRaTe



Blueprint now, no e-blues laterStandards and frameworks lay the foundation so essential for an effective delivery of future e-Governance services

ven as the Indian government prepares to roll out new infor-mation technology schemes to deliver faster, better public ser-vices to its citizens, formidable

challenges remain for the successful implementation of its e-Governance systems. The ability of e-Governance to deliver on its promises tomorrow will largely depend on aspects related to standards, architectures and interoper-ability today.

But how have other countries addressed these issues? It is against this backdrop that the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) organised a session at eINDIA 2010 on the European experience with e-Governance and compared the best practices there with the Indian experience. The session was organised in association with the Standardisation Testing and Quality Certifica-tion Directorate (STQC), Department of Information Technology.

Showcasing the German experience through “e-Gover-nance Standards and Architectures,” Rico Apitz, Managing Consultant, ]init[, shared the current status, scope and goals of standardisation in the country while also elaborating on future possibilities. He spoke, for example, of SAGA, which provides the blueprint for any IT project taken up by the German federal government and con-tained recommended standards, architectures, infrastruc-tures, specifications and technologies for e-Government applications in the country. “No longer does SAGA simply represent Standards and Architectures for e-Government Applications; with the onset of SAGA 5, its scope has gone beyond e-Government applications and now addresses all software systems,” commented Apitz.

Moving beyond German best practices, the session also showcased speakers from STQC to bring in a comparative framework with which to look at the path taken by India in implementing e-Governance systems. A case in point is the Quality Assurance Framework (QAF), developed recently by STQC in collaboration with GTZ.

EIt addresses similar issues that SAGA does.

Sharing the experience of developing a standardised code for quality in the Indian context was Alok Sain, Director of STQC IT Services in Kolkata. He highlighted the transformation of public sector’s internal and external relationships through Net-enabled operations, IT and communications, among others. He was supported by NE Prasad, who currently heads STQC IT Services in Hyderabad, and by Dr P Balasubramanian who is working on the ‘Open Technology Centre (OTC) Project’ of the National Informatics Centre.

The session then came to a close with an interactive Q&A session with the audience, drawing out similari-ties, differences and good practices emerging from the comparison of experiences.

In cooperation with Cluster Pulse, GTZ also organised a workshop titled ‘ICT 4 SME—A Sustainable Approach to the SME market.’ It focused on the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) within small and medium enterprises (SME) to increase their business opportunities.

The speakers, representing academia, industry, and development organisations, looked at the three main aspects of the ICT 4 SME approach. While the first aspect represented the main challenges SMEs in the country were facing, the second showcased the approach GTZ chose to establish a sustainable business model to pen-etrate the SME market and increase ICT adoption. As a special focus, the third aspect provided an insight into the role of BDS providers as an adoption catalyst with respect to ICT in the SME segment. The workshop concluded with examples from the field and the practitioners shar-ing their experiences.

As Professor Amir Ullah Khan, Research Director at the Bangalore Management Academy, summed up, “The session was useful as it presented an insight into the productivity increases resulting from the use of ICT in the SME sector. Increased ICT usage and exposure leads to higher skilled and unskilled employment too, though the rate of increase in skilled employment is more. Ease of ICT penetration will depend of availability of power, pricing of hardware and training of manpower. “

alok Saindirector, STQC iT Services, Kolkata

Dr P BalaSuBramaniumopen Technology

Centre Project, niC

n e PraSaDSenior director, STQC

rico aPitzManaging Consultant,

]init[, germany

ritoBaan roySenior Project officer,

gTZ

gTZ worKShoP



three ‘C’s to cheer e-GovernanceConnectivity to the network, capacity building for govt employees and change in peoples’ mindset—these are the big factors

shank Desai, Founder, Mastek, discussed India’s standing in e-Governance

compared to other countries in the world. He spoke about the e-Gov development index comparing the performance of India with the developed countries of the world. He further discussed about the Indian government’s online participation, which is way behind various other countries.

Commdr Shyam Kaushal, designation, WiMax Forum, emphasised that it was impor-tant to have the will of the government to make changes in the system to meet the set targets. It was equally important to make the masses literate to ensure the required services reached the right individuals at the right time, he added.

Suresh Chanda, Commissioner, Commercial Taxes, Government of Andhra Pradesh, said that to bring changes in the system, a political demand and awareness among the government officials needs to be created. It’s also important to

Ahave pro-IT leaders in the system. To make e-Governance a success, awareness among citizens is equally important, Chanda noted.

K Ratna Prabha, Principal Secretary, IT, Government of Andhra Pradesh pointed out that there was a huge digital divide in the country between the rich and the poor. A major lacuna in the system was the non-availability of services for the common man in regional languages. The government is working towards providing citizen-centric services for the common man but illiteracy comes as a hindrance.

SN Tripathi, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Information & Public Relations Department,

ThoughT Leaders ConCLave Government of Orissa, said it was important to have good governance before having e-Gover-nance. To improve the scenario in India, it was very important to create transparency among government officials at all levels, he added.

Rajiv Aggarwal, CEO e-Governance, Spanco, opined that to improve e-Governance in India it was important to create awareness both at the public and the citizen levels so that the right services reached the right people at the right time. Capacity building was equally important to make sure the right methods were used to deliver the services. He also discussed the need for change management at all levels among government officials.

Dr Ajay Kumar, Principal Secretary, IT, Government of Kerala, advocated for the need of political commitment along with the capacity building to make e-Governance a bigger success.

Susanta Mazumdar, Joint Secretary, IT, Gov-ernment of West Bengal, discussed factors such as poverty, education and peoples’ mindset in rural areas. To improve the state of e-Governance improve in our country, he emphasised that that there was a need to work upon these factors.

Rajesh Verma, Principal Director, IT, Government of Sikkim, pointed out that lack of computerisation in the backend in govern-

ment departments was one of the main reasons for insufficient success of e-Governance in the country. He further pointed out that to bring improvement, Internet connectivity in all places at all times was needed and the mindsets in rural areas had to be changed.

CD Arha, Former CIC, Government of Andhra Pradesh, pointed out that the pressure from Right to Information (RTI) will enforce better e-Governance.

NK Pradhan (not in the photograph), Minister—IT, Government of Sikkim, spoke on the need for transformation in the overall administration to keep pace with changes hap-pening in the rest of the world.

(L-R) Cd arha, Former CiC, andhra Pradesh; Commdr shyam Kaushal, regional director india, WiMax Forum; suresh Chanda, Commissioner Commercial Taxes, andhra Pradesh; ashank desai, Founder, Mastek (Chair); K ratna Prabha, Principal secretary–iT, andhra Pradesh; s n Tripathi Commissioner-cum-secretary information & Public relations, orissa; rajiv aggarwal Ceo, e-governance spanco; dr ajay Kumar, Principal secretary, iT, Kerala; susanta Mazumdar, Joint secretary, iT, West Bengal; rajesh verma Principal director, iT, sikkim

it is impoRtAnt to cReAte AwAReness At the pubLic And

the citizen LeveLs so thAt Right seRvices ReAch the Right

peopLe At the Right time



Modernise policing, with ICtA safe and secure state is not only comforting for citizens but also gives fillip to economic activities and growth

he session discussed the state of modernisation of security forces, especially of the police force, which

is poor to say the least. It was moderated by Loknath Behra, IGP, National Investigation Agency. In his opening remarks, Behra said that a safe state would foster growth. “The Prime Minister has said that unless there is security there will be no development. It is quite essential and the need of the hour to modernise, equip and strengthen the security forces with latest technology and assist in dealing with the security threats in a better manner,” he noted.

T Krishna Prasad, IGP and Director, Police Communications, Andhra Pradesh Police,

Toutlined the state of computerisation in AP police and said that since January 2009, the first information reports (FIR) were being posted online. “In 2010, the entire investiga-tion process has been made online, including filing of charge-sheets and appeals. We have a database of 17 lakh FIRs and 6,000 criminals and history sheets, unidentified dead bodies and most importantly the investigation tool

Public safety & security kits to access database of various departments. This would help in establishing identification of various individuals,” he stated.

Puneet Gupta, Vice President—Public Sector, IBM India, spoke about integrated intelligence solutions which can assist agencies in anticipating and preventing events like 26/11 and 9/11. He laid stress on refining the data into intelligence and said, “We don’t have any dearth of data around us, but we need mechanisms through which we can standardise the data format, and analyse and share it across agencies.” He also spoke about the advanced identity rec-ognition and resolution technologies, wherein the system can throw back data once something similar is fed into it, thus helping in establishing any relationship between identical inputs.

Initiating his presentation with brief note on CCTNS, Sanjay Sahay, IGP, Head of Police Computer Wing, Karnataka Police said that Wipro Infotech had been chosen to develop the core application software in 52 weeks. The project is to be completed by the end of the financial year 2010-2011 and would enable the delivery of nine citizen services of the police department. He underlined that the ICT framework for security is mainly limited to the command and control centres and the safe-city concept. Rural India has been quite aloof from the modernisation of security systems.

Ajay Sharma, Global Head—Presales and Solutions, TCS, said what is more needed is capacity building and change management for the security personnel. Terming cyber security

as another area to be guarded, he emphasised on a more serious and focused approach towards it.

Prakash Kumar, Director Internet, Cisco Systems India, Cisco, brought home the point that in an event of terrorist attack, the most essential thing is to disseminate the real-time information about the event and channel it to the authorities and to have a reliable G2G communication network.

(L-R) ajay sharma, global Head -Pre sales & solutions, tcs; Puneet gupta, vice President, Public sector, ibM in-dia; Prakash Kumar, director internet, cisco systems india; sanjay sahay, igP, Police computer Wing, Karnataka; loknath behera, igP, national investigation agency, Ministry of Home affairs, goi (chair); t Krishna Prasad, igP and director, Police communications, andhra Pradesh

AuTomATion of vARious poLicing pRocesses is needed

And cAn mARkedLy impRove LAw And oRdeR siTuATion in The

counTRy



City bodies need geo appsGiven the complexities of modern urban development projects, tools like GIS can ease the planning and decision making processes

n today’s world, management of urban development and governance demands integration and col-laboration cutting across different government departments for efficient

delivery of services to citizens. The session on Urban e-Governance, which was moderated by Rajendra Erande, Director of Information Technology, Pune Municipal Cooperation, focused on the strategies for leveraging e-Governance in dealing with emerging chal-lenges in the urban governance domain.

Prakash Rane, Managing Director, ABM Knowlegeware, described administration reforms as a must for time-bound service delivery in urban local bodies (ULBs). He professed that unless a department went for business process re-engineering (BPR), it was not practical for it to offer effective citizen services. He also led stress on standardisation in accepting citizen data for various services.

IThis could be achieved by standardising the formats of application forms.

An e-Governance project starts after the IT project ends, Rane noted. The IT implementa-tion is about just 40 percent of the project. The rest 60 percent of the project comprises data management, cleaning of data and excessive public scrutiny of projects. The major part of the project is the institutionalisation of IT into the department. Importantly, BPR should have the broad perspective in view that not technology but good governance is the ultimate objective.

Urban e-governance Ashish Sanyal, Senior Director, Department of IT, Government of India pointed out the significance of GIS in governance. GIS enables representation of information in the form of visuals and graphics, which comes as an easy tool for decision making. He threw light on the application of GIS in sales, marketing, distribu-tion, sales profiling, utilities, transportation, demographic trends and types of soil.

Talking about the ICT experience at Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), its General Manager–IT, Sanjay Gupta pointed out that the authority with 18 state head offices and 37 divisional offices, and over 300 visitors per day had no mechanism to verify what an official wrote on the given land file.

He further informed, “A 24x7 data centre was established. Post the deployment, services like online tracking of applications were offered to citizens. While the number of delivery channels was reduced to five from more than 10 earlier. The deployment enhanced revenue generation by 20-30 percent.”

In his presentation on ‘Roadmap for using GIS in e-Governance,’ Rajesh C Mathur, Vice Chairman, NIIT GIS said, “GIS brings ease in the planning process, makes it more transpar-ent and acts like a powerful tool in decision making.” He stressed that GIS served as a platform for collaboration among government departments, “It’s a platform for integration of

information collected from various sources.”Srikanth Shitole, Vice President—Transfor-

mation, Business and Managed Services, Cisco India & SAARC, said, “By 2025, 70 percent of the population will be living in urban areas rather than in the country side. This shift will put huge pressure on ULBs in managing the cities.” He advocated change in the role of an ULB as an urban service provider. He proposed an ICT solution that would integrate all other departments with a single network and data centre.

(L-R) Prakash rane Managing, director, abM Knowlegeware; ashis Sanyal, Sr director, diT, Ministry of communi-cations & iT, goi; rajendra erande, director iT, Pune Municipal corporation (chair); Sanjay Sharma, gM, iT HUda, Haryana; rajesh Mathur, vice chairman, niiT Technologies Ltd; Srikanth Shitole, vice President - Transformation, business & Managed Services, cisco india & Saarc

Much pRocess sIMpLIfIcatIon can be achIeved by

standaRdIsIng cItIzen data foRMats acRoss vaRIous

seRvIces



Infrastructure firstLike sound mind lives in a sound body, e-Govt apps too run smoothly on a robust data centre underneath

ata centre and net-working are essential components of an IT infrastructure and can be seen as the head

and nervous system of a human body. Effective management of these core IT components in the government was the talking point of the session on “ICT Infrastructure, Data Centres, Network and Communications.” The session was moderated by Sanjay Sahai, IGP, Police Computer Wing, Government of Karnataka.

Recalling the dilemma that the state of Gujarat faced way back in 2000 on whether to first create an integrated ICT infrastructure or to take up the applications, Neet Shah, designation, said, “The state chose for creating the infrastructure.”

Shah informed that the state had completed one BOOT cycle for the SWAN project and that around 30,000 villages in the state had

De-Gram centres. “The data centres became operational in 2008. We are using bandwidth from four service providers including BSNL, Tata and Airtel. Gujarat is the first state in the country to have 3-tier data centre and 4-sub data centres,” he told.

On applications front, Shah said, “The government used Integrated Financial Man-agement System to close the financial books for fiscal 2010 by March end. Earlier, the same work used to cross the deadline by a month. Besides, we now publish the budget online.”

Technologies 4 governmenT

Arun Shetty, Head, Avaya Aura Sales and Consulting, said, “Our focus is on serving citizens and meeting specific objectives established by the government.” Shetty proposed the contact centre model, where the reach can be through an SMS, e-mail, fax or even by posting messages on social networking sites. He said the continuous improvement in service delivery, safety and operational continuity and budget constraints were some of the challenges in realising the objective.

Deepak Jain, Head, Data and Storage Solutions, Huawei Symantec India, while proposing that the consolidation of the existing data centres was very important, pointed out the requirements of the next-generation data centres and said that these should be scalable and built for future requirements.

Sanjay Kumar, Managing Director, Andhra Pradesh Technological Services, Government of Andhra Pradesh notified about various ICT initiatives taken up in the state since 1999, including the SWAN project that provided 8Mbps connectivity at the state-to-district level and 2Mbps connectivity at the district-to-mandal level. He also informed that a pilot was being done for setting up connectivity in villages through a Wi-Fi system. The pilot would be completed by December 2010, and then would be scaled to all villages having

population more than 2,000.L Suresh, President, ITSAP presented the

citizen’s perspective of the robustness of IT infrastructure and its subsequent impact on citizen services. BV Sharma, DDG, National Informatics Centre, Hyderabad outlined various hosting services being offered to government bodies from by the NIC Hyder-abad centre. P Venugopal, Director, STPI, Hyderabad detailed various initiatives taken up by STPI for the promotion of software and IT industry.

(L-R) dr neeta shah, director, e-governance, gujarat; deepak Jain, head–data & storage solutions, huawei symantec india; arun shetty, head, avaya aura sales & consulting, avaya; P venugopal director sTPi, hyderabad; sanjay sahay, igP, Police computer Wing, Karnataka (chair); l suresh, President, iTsaP; Bv sarma, ddg national informatics centre, hyderabad; sanjay Kumar, md, aPTs

Way back in 2000, GujaRat toGGLeD on pRioRitisinG the

infRastRuctuRe oR the apps. buiLDinG the infRa yieLDeD

GooD ResuLts


here is more to the BlackBerry issue than meets the eye. If we think it’s about secu-rity through encryp-

tion, we are assuming that the largest cache of wealth lies behind the biggest lock, one we have yet not broken. This assumption is wrong and is leading us on to the wrong track.

The BlackBerry issue has seen a series of cover page appearances across dai-lies, and news and business magazines. Some of the reporting has been biased (even to the point of misinformation) giving PR managers nightmares that may not cease too soon. And some are struggling with what really the issue is—why is BlackBerry behaving haugh-tily? Still others have remarked that Blackberry is exhibiting double stan-dards as it has given in to other western governments.

Truth is never black or white. It lurks somewhere in between and this situa-tion can therefore be no different.

Let’s start from the very beginning. BlackBerry’s security architecture

is based on the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), one that is also adopted by the government of USA and consid-

ered to be among the most robust in the industry.

The government’s demand of ‘unre-stricted’ access to information residing on Blackberry servers at one level smells of a bit of ignorance that is not fathom-able because it is not a problem they cannot crack.

As a matter of fact they have. A state-ment released by the government nearly a year ago claimed, “The government has decrypted the data on Research In Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry networks. The department of telecommunication (DoT), Intelligence Bureau and security agency National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) have done tests on service providers such as Bharti Airtel, BPL Mobile, Reliance Commu-nications and Vodafone-Essar networks for interception of Internet messages from BlackBerry to non-BlackBerry devices. Initially, there were difficulties in cracking the same on Vodafone-Essar network but that has also been solved.”

What it means is that the government can snoop on e-mail messages sent to the BlackBerry through the Internet service and not through Blackberry Enterprise Service (BES). It is this service that the government wants to be opened up.

However, the security built into BlackBerry devices by RIM is based on a system that allows customers to add a layer of security on top by creating their own key, and RIM does not have a master key or any mechanism that will allow it to gain access to crucial corpo-rate data. So if RIM claims it cannot read the encrypted information, the company is not entirely incorrect.

The government’s demand that RIM opens this platform amounts to asking a company to let loose a lever on which the very foundation of the company rests. The government is thus asking RIM to put its business model of ensur-ing safety and privacy of data in transit at risk. And thus it came as no shock that the company’s valuation took a beating when this issue took center stage.

Security of its data in transit is exactly the reason why corporate honchos love their berries. They are assured that the ‘sensitive’ data that resides there is vaulted safe. Real-time monitoring of data that flows through the BES eco-system will create risks of its own to businesses operating in India by expos-ing confidential corporate informa-tion to the eyes of others for potential misuse. Our track record of protecting

T

Tomorrow it could be the Internet which can’t be just ‘switched’ off, a luxury that government enjoys with BlackBerry

A curve to the ‘B’ storm?

Government’s real worry is probably that the service could be a backdoor for espionage, yet non-intrusive workarounds are needed

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such information is something that we cannot pride ourselves of. And the logic of access to the very corporate BES defeats me, it is largely a preserve of the corporate, and it is very improbable (if not entirely impossible) that terrorists will be able to use a corporate account.

And I have reason to believe RIM’s claims that it does not offer even the US government to spy on customers real-time. And there is no reason why RIM should not extend the same measure to India, the world’s fastest growing tele-com market.

While not many of us know of this, the terrorists are smarter than we often assume. This hue and cry about ‘opening up’ of the BlackBerry will only forewarn them not to use the service at all. And why should they, when they have their own encryption standard, which also has not been cracked yet.

Yes, they have their own encryption standard which bears the name Mujahi-deen Secrets. Early last year, an update to the same was also released. Mujahideen Secrets 2 is an easy-to-use tool that pro-vides 2,048-bit encryption, an improve-ment over the 256-bit AES encryption supported in the original version. It has a very good Graphical User Interface (GUI) that is targeted at average IT users.

The second version of the software is interesting because it allows the user to encrypt not only e-mails but also Yahoo and MSN chat messages. But that’s for the IT-literate terrorists...

There is another variety of terror-ists—those who are technology-averse. One of them is the grand old man of this trade—Osama Bin Laden. He has been evading authorities not because he has or uses any best-of-breed technology, but because he is a marginal user and therefore leaves no digital footprints.

So is the BlackBerry issue really about encryption? The government’s appre-hension could be about something else

too. Since all data travels to BlackBerry servers, this may provide for a ‘back-door’ to other western governments. And governments have in the past used companies to further their goals of this nature. This fear and assumption is defi-nitely worth considering.

A backdoor of this kind can make espionage easy and hassle free, albeit with limited results. And if it is this argument that the government is push-ing underneath, it may make sense. Yet, the question remains how India should look at addressing such an issue.

Tomorrow it could be the Internet and there it would become impossible to ‘switch’ things off, a luxury that the gov-ernment enjoys with BlackBerry. Will it then be a matter of having institutions or companies listen to the government’s demands? If yes, then the matter will have to be in the realm of compliance.

This throws another question: com-pliance with what? After all, the gov-ernment’s reaction to the BlackBerry controversy (and I use the stronger sibling to the word ‘issue’ on purpose) is best described as knee-jerk.

To continue with the example of BlackBerry, the company operates in nearly 175 countries and its operations in all of these, I assume, are on the right side of the law. So why would BlackBerry want to be any different in India?

These issues and the risks associated with new-age services can only be miti-gated if there is adequate and appropri-ate legislation in place. However, the law cannot and must not take a lopsided view of any situation, even if it involves national security.

For instance, laws in many countries stipulate that companies must open up in case of any emergency. This approach is widely accepted but I feel it is largely reactive and again goes against what governments are trying to achieve, monitoring on a real-time basis.

There can be less intrusive solutions. For instance, applying the fundamental principle of an escrow account can help solve such a situation. The keys or whatever IP that needs to be accessed can be placed in an escrow account, the withdrawal or access to which can be subject to certain conditions. Such arrangements can create a win-win situation for all—the government, the service provider (RIM in this case) and the customer too, who will continue to get access to uninterrupted services. And all of this does not challenge the very business models of companies. It’s time that someone in the govern-ment sits back and ponders over the system’s weaknesses and the more trans-parent and democratic ways to address things.

A soluTion is To cReATe An escRow AccounT wheRe keys cAn

be plAced, wiTh Access beinG subjecT To ceRTAin condiTions

PrivaCy opinion

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etting a goal is not the main thing. It is decid-ing how you will go about achiev-

ing it and staying with that plan,” the famous statement made by Tom Landry, the noted American Soccer Coach, is also the doctrine of Ashis Sanyal, Senior Director—e-Governance, Department

of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in Government of India.

An ardent advocate of using tech-nology for the masses, Sanyal strongly believes that one should not even start executing a plan till the process of plan-ning is complete.

“I am so obsessed with this thought that in my entire life, I could not go even go to

see a movie at a short notice, just because I had not planned for it,” Sanyal shares.

Having started his career as an Indian Engineering Services (Electronics) offi-cer in 1976, Sanyal soon joined the M/o Communications and later, Department of Electronics (now Department of IT), through an open interview in 1982. The decision, according to him, proved to be a pillar stone of his career and provided him the opportunity to handle various national-level projects in the areas of citizen-centric e-Governance program design, management and implementa-tion, rural service delivery programs and implementation, and design of last mile connectivity policy, among others.

Sanyal has been singularly respon-sible as mission leader for implementa-tion of policy, planning, implementation and monitoring of the core e-Gover-nance Network Infrastructure Program of USD 850 million—the State Wide Area Network (SWAN) for the entire country. He made vital contributions in

S My InspIratIon

The fact that soci-ety always moved

forward with the sustained efforts put in by unsung

heroes who never bothered to enjoy

the outcomes

patHtaKErs ashis sanyal

a pErfEctIonIst polIcy MaKEr

Nurturing of an idea is more crucial than making strategies, feels Ashis Sanyal, Senior Director—e-Governance at DIT, Govt of India

By Tanu Kaur | Photography Joe


ashis sanyal patHtaKErs

Up, cloSe & perSonal

bIrtH

December 23, 1950

annIVErsary

December 7, 1981

bIGGEst

acHIEVEMEnt

My colleagues,

peers, juniors and

even some of my

seniors (!) take me

seriously when i

speak on the subject

assigned to me

sUccEss

Mantra

Do not start

execution till you

finish your planning

pUrposE In lIfE

To be profoundly

known as a good

human being

before i die

“Yes, as a human being. I feel disappointed if I do not see the results. But at the end of the day you are a part of a large system, so it’s important to do your part sincerely and give your best,” he tells.

And he certainly has given his best, be it formulation of the broadband access policy for rural service delivery or formulating technology framework for laying of a network for telemedicine services in Africa.

In the course of his illustrious and wide-ranging career, he was engaged as the member-convener of the Inter-Depart-mental Technical Committee on Wireless Broadband Access Policy, mandated to formulate the broadband access policy for the rural service delivery outlets and other government and private entities located in rural India. This important technical committee outlined the appropriate broadband wireless last mile connectivity policy for the government with a long-term vision on futuristic technologies. Recommendations of this committee in August 2006 led the foundation for the rural broadband wireless access implementation framework for the government, leading to large broadband wireless projects cur-rently being implemented across the country by the Depart-ment of Telecommunications, Government of India.

He was also involved in formulating the technology framework for network design and architecture for the satellite and submarine cable based backbone network for pan-African e-Network which would connect 104 nodes in 52 African Union (AU) member countries and 12 nodes in India, to provide tele-education and telemedicine ser-vices for the AU countries.

Sanyal feels that this assignment gave him a unique oppor-tunity to design the technology architecture and implemen-tation framework with defined service level requirements for underprivileged countries of African Union with varied e-readiness, opportunities and technology absorption.

Despite having stuck with pragmatic work approach throughout his life, his faith in God and destiny is surpris-ingly undivided.

“I am very God fearing. I would always think that every-body is destined to play a particular role in his life. Faith not only keeps you focused but also puts pressure of doing right things in the right manner, which is extremely crucial in the life of any human being,” Sanyal reasons.

Hailing from Bengal, he is a voracious reader and has got a great collection of books. He is also passionate about music and though work does not permit him much time he is planning to start practising Sitar, something that he had learnt during his college days, more religiously.

And while he is currently spending his valuable time in enablement of citizen-centric e-Governance policy for-mulation with a specific emphasis on rural service delivery and strategy, given an opportunity, he would also like to realise his theatre skills and direct plays and even movies.

“That is exactly what I wanted to make a career of. But now the way things are going on, I do not know whether it’s pos-sible until I take a re-birth!” he laughingly shares.

standard-based wide area network architecture includ-ing security, interoperability and manageability, which would be made applicable for all the states and UTs in the country. This has led the network and system integra-tors to provide standard-based network solutions for the wide area network requirements all over the country.

He has also been alternate mission leader for policy, planning, implementation and monitoring of the USD 1.6 billion national scheme for establishing 100,000 Common Services Centres (CSCs) across the country.

While he was responsible for drafting policy guide-lines and development of basic framework for the CSC program, the experience also helped him provide valu-able inputs for Telecenters at the global level.

The CSC project envisages ubiquitous access to bridge the digital infrastructure divide and to facilitate eco-nomic upliftment of various strata of rural community coupled with service delivery mechanism.

Sanyal’s contributions in the area of core e-Governance infrastructure projects in the National e.Governance Plan (NeGP) have been significant and continued, and he is closely involved as a senior team member in e-Gover-nance policy formulation.

“I was privileged to handle many projects at DIT. I have never believed that e-Governance can be done by government alone. Most of the e-Governance projects need to be on a PPP model,” he says.

But isn’t the bureaucratic system itself responsible for making things complicated in the project implementa-tion primarily?

“We certainly need smart processes. I mean let’s take the case of issuing a driving license. Why do you need a government person to take photographs or having a separate lamination department? It takes lot of effort and government expenditure. These are the non-core func-tions and can be outsourced,” Sanyal strongly opines.

So, has he ever got frustrated with some of these unending processes?


logoff

Spatial data policy please!

We don’t even have a nationwide plan for spatial data, let alone its usage.

Time to hurry up

Shubhendu ParthManaging Editor

eGov

eographic information system or the GIS plat-form that should run across all other develop-ment platforms—be it

education, health and security or mega projects like Jawahar Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), Rajiv Arogyasri or the Unique Identification Number—still remains off India’s and NeGP’s radar.

In fact, it’s strange that India is yet to even draft a policy on creating a national spatial data (NSD) platform, not to talk about its usage. And while government agencies have the option of seeking help from the Survey of India for their topo-sheets, they need to get in touch with the nearest Regional Remote Sensing Services Centres (RRSSC) of ISRO or with NRSA, also a division of ISRO for more complex analysis and cases where geo-referenced data (data with latitude longitude information) is required.

So what can India do on this front?The government can set up a National Spatial

G Data Infrastructure (NSDI) to support public and private applications of geospatial data—from agriculture, health and transportation, to emer-gency response and public safety.

For example, on the critical issues of land acqui-sition, the GIS infrastructure can help the state’s land management initiatives, including collecting and indexing digital geographic information like cadastral, terrain, environmental datasets, as well as information on ownership and land use.

The collected datasets can be fed into the spatial data warehouse of the respective state land com-mission that can help states take more informed land planning and management decisions—from land suitability assessment to management of land reserves, development of commercial and residential hubs.

In fact, an integrated GIS platform along with common spatial data model and metadata development can further improve the quality of land use data, a critical input when it comes to determining the compensation for citizens for acquisition of their land.

Interestingly, the same data, particularly for

rural areas, can be used to chalk out better agricul-ture policies and infrastructure to improve irriga-tion, roads, warehouses and agriculture markets or mandis. It can even serve as an input for the MNREGA or the Rajiv Arogyasri program.

Or, let us consider its use for the national census that collects humongous socio-cultural and demographic data. The use of GIS as a plat-form for undertaking the massive census exercise would mean much faster analysis of data, which in turn would ensure that respective government agencies would know how to spend money at the right place and at the right time, and the areas where they would need collaboration and invest-ment from the private sector.

Further, the policies, plans, spending or quality of citizen service can be presented as dots on the maps that can be made public to allow citizens to actually give feedback or even register their protests, a concept that would actually lead to a real-time evaluation of all government projects.

The GIS-based public scrutiny and feedback mechanism would also make the various gov-ernment agencies more accountable.

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Food For All : September 2010

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