Report on
mGovernance:
Towards a more empowered society Date: 31st July, 2014 Venue: Mahatma Mandir-Gandhinagar
Organized By: Knowledge Partner: National Partner:
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INDEX
Table of Contents Background ................................................................................................................................................... 4
The event ...................................................................................................................................................... 4
Inaugural Session .......................................................................................................................................... 5
List of Dignitaries ...................................................................................................................................... 5
Sh. S.J. Haider, IAS: Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, ................................................ 6
Sh. J. Satyanarayana, (Retd.) IAS: Advisor (IT)- Government of Andhra Pradesh .................................... 6
Shri R.S. Sharma, IAS: Secretary, DeitY, Government of India .................................................................. 7
Shri Varesh Sinha, IAS: Chief Secretary, Government of Gujarat ............................................................. 7
Shri Bhupendrasinh Chudasama: Hon’ble Minister, Government of Gujarat .......................................... 8
Awards Distribution ...................................................................................................................................... 8
Winners ..................................................................................................................................................... 9
Mobile Application Launch ........................................................................................................................... 9
mGovernance Booklet Release ................................................................................................................... 10
Shri Gururaja Rao: Chairman and Managing Director, Gujarat Informatics Ltd. .................................... 10
Plenary Session 1: Leveraging the CSR amendments in Companies Act-2013 ........................................... 11
List of Panel Members: ........................................................................................................................... 11
Shri J Satyanarayana, (Retd.) IAS ............................................................................................................ 12
Moderator ........................................................................................................................................... 12
Dr. B K Gairola, IAS .................................................................................................................................. 12
Benefits and outcomes of mGovernance ............................................................................................ 12
Mr. Rajesh Agarwal, IAS .......................................................................................................................... 12
Developing mGovernance Strategy and Framework .......................................................................... 12
Shri Shekhar Agrawal .............................................................................................................................. 13
Key Barriers & Challenges in mGovernance ........................................................................................ 13
Shri Ramakant Jha ................................................................................................................................... 13
m-Enabled Next Generation Cities ...................................................................................................... 13
Session 2: Drivers of m-Governance ........................................................................................................... 15
List of Panel Members: ........................................................................................................................... 15
Smt Anju Sharma..................................................................................................................................... 15
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Moderator ........................................................................................................................................... 15
mGovernance for Women Safety and Empowerment ........................................................................ 15
Shri Manoj Dawane ................................................................................................................................. 16
Leveraging Technology to meet the needs of Citizen.......................................................................... 16
Shri Abhishek Parihar .............................................................................................................................. 17
Developing Government Mobile App Stores ....................................................................................... 17
Shri Shubranshu Choudhary ................................................................................................................... 17
Mobile Social Media for Participatory Governance ............................................................................ 17
Shri Nitin Dahiya ..................................................................................................................................... 17
mCitizen: A Step Towards a More Connected Society ......................................................................... 17
Session 3: Panel Discussion: Leveraging Social Media and mGovernance for Inclusive Growth ............... 19
List of Panel Members: ........................................................................................................................... 19
Sh. Shashank Ojha ............................................................................................................................... 20
Sh. Sanjay Swamy: .............................................................................................................................. 20
Sh. Manojit Bose: ................................................................................................................................ 20
Dr. Jaijeet Bhattacharya:..................................................................................................................... 20
Dr. Ravi Gupta: .................................................................................................................................... 21
Mr. Hasit Kazi: ..................................................................................................................................... 21
Smt. Neeta Shah: Director (e-Governance), Gujarat Informatics Ltd. .................................................... 21
Outcome/Suggestions by Panelists:............................................................................................................ 22
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Background There has been an exponential growth of mobile phone subscribers in the country over the last decade. There are around 910.16 million wireless subscribers in India out of which 54.5 million are in Gujarat. Mobile technology has today become an integral part of human life. It has provided a new paradigm for the delivery of Government services by removing the barriers of time and space empowering citizens to quickly and efficiently access Government for health, education, employment, public safety, financial, transportation, legal and other services “anytime, anywhere”. Besides improving responsiveness by better stakeholder participation, it is also helpful in reducing costs.
It would be worthwhile to mention that Gujarat is the most eGoverned state, if we go by e-Taal (e Transactions Aggregation and Analysis Layer) Portal, with over 81.75 crore transactions since January 2013. It amounts to over 26% of the total transactions in the state’s project category. The state has won over 125 awards in governance projects at national and international level over the past decade.
Just as the decision to embark on the eGovernance was an important decision taken long back by the state government, the adoption of mGovernance is vital today for simplifying governance for the society.
The event
As a part of Vibrant Gujarat 2015 pre-summit events, Department of Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat and Gujarat Informatics Limited in coordination with Industrial Extension Bureau (iNDEXTb), Government of Gujarat, KPMG (Knowledge partner) and FICCI (Event Partner) organized the event “mGovernance: Towards a More Connected Society” at Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar
The event comprised of two plenary sessions and a panel discussion.
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Inaugural Session The event was inaugurated by Shri
Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Hon’ble
Minister, Science and Technology,
Education (Primary, Secondary and
Adult), Higher and Technical Education,
Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer
Affairs, Government of Gujarat who was
the chief guest at the event. Dr. Varesh
Sinha, IAS, Chief Secretary, Government
of Gujarat and Shri R.S. Sharma,
Secretary, DeitY, Government of India
were Guests of Honors. Sri J.
Satyanarayan, (Retd.) IAS, Advisor,
Government of Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Subho Ray, President, IAMAI, Shri Rajesh Agarwal, IAS, Principal
Secretary (IT), DIT, Government of Maharashtra also graced the occasion along with other dignitaries.
List of Dignitaries
Name Organization
Shri Bhupendrasinh Chudasama
Hon’ble Minister, Science and Technology, Education (Primary, Secondary and Adult), Higher and Technical Education, Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Government of Gujarat
Shri Varesh Sinha, IAS Chief Secretary
Government of Gujarat
Shri R.S. Sharma, IAS Secretary, DeitY,
Government of India
Sh. J. Satyanarayan, (Retd.) IAS Advisor (IT), Government of Andhra Pradesh
Shri Rajesh Agarwal, IAS Principal Secretary (IT), DIT,
Government of Maharashtra
Shri S.J. Haider, IAS Secretary, Department of Science and Technology,
Government of Gujarat
Dr. Subho Ray President, IAMAI
Shri K. Gururaja Rao CMD, Gujarat Informatics Ltd.
Shri Rajiv Vaishnav Vice President, NASSCOM
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Sh. S.J. Haider, IAS: Secretary, Department of Science and Technology,
Government of Gujarat
Welcome Address
Sh. Haider welcomed all the dignitaries and
audience present at the session. In his
welcome speech, he stressed on the duty of
the state to match up to the Millennium
Development Goals. He also highlighted the
importance of ICT to bridge the urban rural
divide. He also indicated that the state
government is all geared up to ensure the all-
round development and inclusive growth of
the state with thrust inter alia on the women
empowerment and youth. Sh. Haider also
acknowledged some of the state departments
which have already launched their mGovernance applications like Gujarat Police, Health and Family
Welfare Departments, Women and Child Welfare Department, Local bodies etc. He mentioned that
Gujarat will become a role model for the entire nation and will continue to lead India’s mGovernance
initiatives.
Sh. J. Satyanarayana, (Retd.) IAS: Advisor (IT)- Government of Andhra
Pradesh
Sh. J. Satyanarayana in his address
acknowledged the fact that Gujarat has been
leading the way on the eTaal portal since its
launch till date indicating the readiness of the
citizens for eGovernance initiatives.
Indicating the power of ICT in transforming
the society, Sh. Satyanarayana stressed on
the need of a set legal structures and
frameworks for the same at a national level
for validating all kinds of transactions. He also
highlighted the need to empower and to
connect the field workers. HE also indicated
the need for strengthening of mobile
networks and removing mobile pockets.
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Shri R.S. Sharma, IAS: Secretary, DeitY, Government of India
Guest of Honor
Sh. R.S. Sharma, IAS congratulated Gujarat for the
wonderful initiatives taken by the state government
and also the proactive participation of its citizens. He
indicated the power of mobile phone to help us reach
out to over 700 million citizens in real time. He also
indicated the importance of ICT in Banking Sector for
financial inclusion and thereby achieve the vision of
Digital India. Mr. Sharma also indicated the importance
of mGovernance in information and service delivery.
He highlighted the need of re-engineering our current
platforms for a seamless access of these platforms on
a mobile interface.
Shri Varesh Sinha, IAS: Chief Secretary, Government of Gujarat
Guest of Honor
Sh. Varesh Sinha deliberated the fact that mobile
phones require just basic literacy, and therefore can
be used by a larger segment of population than
computers which usually demand higher skill sets.
Highlighting the achievements of Gujarat in
eGovernance and mGovernance initiatives, Sh. Sinha
stressed upon the need of speed in service delivery.
Sh. Sinha indicated that within governance, mobile
technologies can offer new means for empowering
citizens and stakeholders by opening and enhancing
democratic processes and mechanisms. M-
governance initiatives that expand access to
information and communications channels are
creating new venues for people’s participation and
giving new voice to those who have historically been marginalized. He wished the conference success and
urged all the speakers to have focused discussions and come out with a way forward of the daylong
seminar.
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Shri Bhupendrasinh Chudasama: Hon’ble Minister, Government of
Gujarat
Chief Guest
The Hon’ble minister congratulated the
Department of Science and Technology for
organizing the seminar and indicated that
mobile technology is significantly expanding
governments’ capacity to produce benefits
and deliver outcomes for governments,
citizens, businesses, and to impact positively
national overall economic growth. He also
deliberated that the objective of the event is
to integrate the advancements in mobile
technology with various Government
departments with an aim to create cost
effective, efficient and round the clock
Government information systems. He
congratulated all the winners of the mobile application making competition organized by Gujarat
Informatics Ltd. with Department of Science and Technology.
Awards Distribution Hon’ble minister also gave awards to the winners of the competition.
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Winners
Prize Name of Winner Application Organization
1st Prize
(Student Category) Mr. Bhumit R. Shah We Bhavnagar Nirma University, Ahmedabad
2nd Prize
(Student Category) Ms. Shagufta S. Sheikh Full Governance Dharamsinh Desai University, Nadiad
3rd Prize
(Student Category) Mr. Harsh Duttani e-Power Gujarat Forensic Science University, Gandhinagar
Appreciation Prize
(Professional Category)
Mr. Nitin Rola Darshan Institute of Technology, Rajkot
Mobile Application Launch The Hon’ble minister also launched a mobile application called “SUGAM” (Services Using eGovernance
Applications on Mobile). SUGAM is an Android based application for citizens to get information about
status of application filed and schemes pertaining to the collector’s office.
The collector of Junagarh, Shri Alok Kumar, IAS also gave a presentation on the functioning of the mobile
application.
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mGovernance Booklet Release The Hon’ble minister also released a booklet on mGovernance initiatives of various state government
departments.
Shri Gururaja Rao: Chairman and Managing Director, Gujarat
Informatics Ltd.
Thank You Address
Sh. Gururaja Rao thanked the Hon’ble
minister for attending the event. He also
thanked all the central and state
government secretaries attending the
event for sharing their valuable suggestions
and thoughts. Thanking all the panelists
and other delegates for attending the
event, he wished the event success.
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Plenary Session 1: Leveraging the CSR amendments in Companies Act-
2013
List of Panel Members:
mGovernance for Enhanced Public Service Delivery
Name Organization
Shri J. Satyanarayana, (Retd.) IAS (Moderator)
Advisor (IT), Government of Andhra Pradesh
Shri Rajesh Aggarwal, IAS Principal Secretary
Department of Information Technology,
Government of Maharashtra
Shri B.K. Gairolla, IAS
Mission Director, DietY
Shri Shekhar Agarwal National Head, Government Vertical, Vodafone India
Shri Ramakant jha Managing Director and Group CEO,
GIFT City, Gujarat
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Shri J Satyanarayana, (Retd.) IAS
Moderator
Sh. Satyanarayana spoke about how m-governance transforms the life of people. He spoke that today we
can apply for important documents through mobile like Driving license, land record etc. This is the time
to take one step further and create new category “service less service” in which we should eliminate all
unnecessary services and convert communication between government departments seamless. Second
point is that we should consider mobile handset more than an instrument which can provide several
services from healthcare to generating livelihood.
Dr. B K Gairola, IAS
Benefits and outcomes of mGovernance
Dr. Gairola spoke that mobile technology is easily available and everyone is using it to communicate. There
is problem with data bandwidth but as 3G, 4G and LTE are coming existing problem of bandwidth can be
resolved in coming years. He said that mobile is most user friendly device and can be transformed in more
user friendly by upgrading them with voice command recognition, icon recognition etc. but still there is a
challenge that mobiles does not gel well with existing IP infrastructure due to which large number of
services are ruled out. There is need to upgrade the data system as mobile technology is very radical and
keep on changing so conventional data systems can’t survive more than five years if we want to achieve
service less service. There are many other dimensions which needed to be upgraded from mobile system,
data base, intermediate interfaces etc. but most importantly need to update the process engineering.
Through process engineering we should look towards citizen side rather than government side he
mentioned, most of the services are upgraded having government in centre where it should be done by
focusing more on citizen. If we want to use mobile technology than we should first integrate all back hand
information then only it is possible to execute m governance efficiently. In the end he said that cyber
space is becoming more proactive than reactive where it provide answers of the requirement of user
rather than react to query.
Mr. Rajesh Agarwal, IAS
Developing mGovernance Strategy and Framework
Mr. Agarwal spoke about electronic transaction and gave new name to it said that it should be called
“eliminated transaction”. He mentioned that still most of the rules we are following are 100 year old and
now there is need to change these rules and look towards e-governance, m-governance and BPR.
Systematically government is eliminating affidavits from processes to provide any service. Giving an
example of village “Latur” and named it as “Dakhila Mukt” where government has provided all the
required documents to the citizen at their home and they don’t have any need to go to any oofice for
application. He told that more than 80 percent of sales tax is come through RTGS and about 90 percent of
transaction from treasury is done through RTGS in Mumbai. Rather than using Master & Visa platform for
transaction we should use “rupee platform” so that 1.4 percent of transaction money which is going out
of country will remain here. Mobile is most talked instrument in this seminar and most of the status check
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are available on it from driving license to PNR status of your travel. To change your name previously it
take 3-4 months but now we have changed the system you need to tell done your UID verification at the
counter and tell new name to officer and by evening you will get the certificate of name changed. One
more example where we have eliminated transaction is for verification of tenants through “EKYC” in which
landlord has to do e payment and download form through internet and submit it. We are focusing on
“SMACK” where S stands for Social Media which is playing a major role in governance, M for mobile, we
are launching new service in Lonavala (near Pune) in which you can apply for driving license through
mobile to “EKYC” and officer will come to your place and complete all the formalities. “A” for analytics
this is very important point as we have different databases and there are lot of irregularities in them, if
we centralized these databases and remove duplication and irregularities than huge amount of subsidies
can be saved, “C” stand for cloud computing it makes process smoother and fast to execute
Shri Shekhar Agrawal
Key Barriers & Challenges in mGovernance
Mr. Agrawal told that in last decade mobile technology has become bridge between people and
government. For any efficient G2C initiatives dependent on parameters like access, reach, adoption and
cost effectiveness. The e-governance and m-governance platforms compliment each other. Thus mobility
becomes very important to take e-governance initiative to common man. The government of India
launched “Mobile Seva” with higher penetration in rural areas for m-commerce, m-governance etc. The
focus of m-governance is to provide information and services to people through mobiles, these services
will reach people through SMS’s, IVR or through Smart phone application. Vodafone has collaborated with
society to work on m-governance. We have initiated e classes where current ly around 50,000 students
are studying.
Shri Ramakant Jha
m-Enabled Next Generation Cities
Mr. Jha spoke that this is the era of smart applications in various things and people are trying onvarious
fronts. At GIFT city we are trying to add smartness at planning, design and execution level. GIFT is
developing as global financial hub and as it will be a financial hub expectation of people rise for the
services that are available in these kinds of hub. GIFT city is planned to be better than the best, we are
competing with the world. City has all the smart applications which are available as of now and talked
here. GIFT city is strategically located and magnitude of the city is so large that it will create 1 million job
in coming years due to huge amount job creation population add to Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar will be
around 3-4 million. City is first of its kind as both financial as well as IT sector will work together, many
other smart applications and technologies are present in the city to support the businesses and many of
these services are implemented first time in the world. I few will look at the master plan, city has built up
area of 62 million sq. ft and this is all vertical space, 67 percent of occupancy of city is commercial, 33
percent residential. The infrastructure of the city is so integrated that it will be command and controlled
from single control centre. Each and everything in the city is smart from transport, streets to landscape of
the city.
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Session 2: Drivers of m-Governance
List of Panel Members:
Drivers of mGovernance
Name Organization
Smt. Anju Sharma, IAS
(Moderator)
Secretary, Women and Child Development, Government of Gujarat
Shri Manoj Dawane VP, Head - Technology, Govt & Industry Relations, Sustainability, Ericsson India
Shri Abhishek Parihar Head, Chang You Limited (MoboGenie)
Shri Shubhranshu Choudhary Founder, CG Net SWARA
Shri Nitin Dahiya Head Sales – Mobile Broadband, Nokia
Smt Anju Sharma
Moderator
mGovernance for Women Safety and Empowerment
Smt Anju Sharma, Convenor of the second session on “Drivers of m-Governance” welcomed everyone.
She highlighted that the foremost task at hand is to convert the need to demand and then equalize this
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demand to supply. Right now, there is a significant amount of latent need to improve the quality of life,
which needs to be captured. With reference to m-Governance, it is of utmost importance to develop apps
and technologies so that the demand of enhancing quality of life can be met even for the poorest of the
poor in the most effective manner.
She stressed on the fact that mobile is an important devise especially for women as it gives a sense of
connection to the world, makes them feel secure and helps in their empowerment. She then highlighted
to major initiatives of the Government of Gujarat in this sphere. First, 181 Abhayam Women Helpline. It
provides guidance and also deliver the details of women-oriented schemes. It has helped at several
occasions rescue women from traumatic situations. Second, 1091 PoliceHeart for Women which stores
your details of residence, relatives, etc and sends across emergency messages when need be. Besides
security of women, there are several apps which help in empowerment of farmers like e-Kisan, maternal
health and connects health workers through CUG, forestry, etc
Mobile technology has made services of the Government more accessible and delivery services more
effective. But there is a huge potential in this sector, one of them being connecting the women to the
market, while still being at home thereby empowering them. Even in the fields of health and nutrition,
many more sophisticated and detailed apps are required which can help bring hospital and treatment on
mobile.
Shri Manoj Dawane
Leveraging Technology to meet the needs of Citizen
Mr Dawane’s presentation focused on: Current Trends & their drivers and the future of m-Governance &
what is the roadmap. He began his presentation with a video on the networked society of 2020 and how
it will affect us. Trends such as increased penetration of smartphone, rapid urbanization, shifting of global
consumption towards emerging markets, world becoming smaller, new services governed by the network
society will define our future. Out of the 6.4 billion people of the world, nearly 5.2 billion have basic mobile
connection with little bit of broadband. Such demand is driven by 3 sides: people, industry and society.
They have a need for instant services, enhanced connectivity and accountability. He was amazed by the
efforts of the Government of Gujarat in using m-Governance for health, farmers, women and everyone
else. The state has done a lot and is willing to further invest in innovations and m-Governance for
enhanced service delivery.
He christened mobility, cloud and broadband as Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh and the country will benefit
a lot from these. All these were the domains of engineers, but due to increased demand for these services,
they have become an order of the day for even the layman. This is he said is our present and anticipates
that in future this will be coupled by terms like industrial biotechnology, augmented body, internet of
things and smart materials used in defense, mind reading, etc.
A key component here is an active network facility which is omnipresent. The time has come where we
need to go ahead to 4G and 5G. The presentation ended with a brief video presentation on the future 5G
society.
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Shri Abhishek Parihar
Developing Government Mobile App Stores
Mr Parihar works at MoboGini, which is third party store for Android apps. On an average almost 10
million downloads take place from this store. He highlighted that as we speak more than 40 per cent of
searches on Google are happening on our mobile phones, the 25 – 34 years old dominate over 60 percent
of the customer space of the mobile phones. The mobile space is changing at a rapid pace, but there are
certain aspects which are missing or lagging in some of the applications. These include ease of installation,
user friendly interface, pace of innovation to reach to a bigger mass, crowdsourcing and constant re-
engineering of platforms. He suggested that we need to make the websites more mobile friendly and
should encourage the talent pool of developers in India. These initiatives need to be propagated in rural
areas where government can help.
Shri Shubranshu Choudhary
Mobile Social Media for Participatory Governance
He is trying to decode if with the help of new technology they could democratize journalism, where the
last person will have equal right to be heard. Almost 100 million people live in indigenous areas in India
and have no voice, no newspaper, no radio, no TV and they are the poorest of the poor. In such areas,
internet penetration is less than 1 per cent. Due to this, his company started looking at mobile phones as
a way of hearing the voices and stories of these people in their own language. His company then approves
of the news content, which is uploaded on various websites and on social media. The impact is
revolutionizing. He said that in the age of smartphones, there is a huge per cent of the population which
still functions on “dumb” phones and sadly they form the majority of the mobile phone users. The scope
of work for these people is immense and needs to be given more impetus.
Mobile gives us an opportunity that we partner with the most destitute and the richest in our growth
journey. It gives an opportunity to connect and learn from each other and have a dialog with the last
person in the economic strata.
Shri Nitin Dahiya
mCitizen: A Step Towards a More Connected Society
He started by saying that mobile has penetrated faster than any other technology and is something that
appeals to the masses, both the most educated and less educated. Due to this it has become easy to
integrate various apps and enhance service delivery. However, he expressed concern about the network
that can handle wider coverage. The data traffic in India is growing at 100 per cent every year and hence
network which can deliver such huge amounts of data is imperative. It is anticipated that with this
increased traffic, the network needs to deliver 1GB of traffic/ user/ day in a cost efficient manner. There
is also a need to provide bespoke services at the same time. This requires more investment, more power
coupled with technologies like cloud and automation. Efforts need to be put for delivering data at an
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optimum cost to the rural areas and not just concentrate on urban areas. This is where m-Governance
becomes crucial. We should also focus on bundled services and with such a huge population, the cost of
operations is bound to come down. He concluded his presentation by saying that we need to create a cost
effective environment, reasonably better power facilities to reduce the cost along with innovation, we
can make mobile technology go places.
After these presentations, the forum broke into a Q&A round. The questions revolved around the security
of data and how innovative ideas of the citizens can be shared with the government.
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Session 3: Panel Discussion: Leveraging Social Media and mGovernance
for Inclusive Growth
List of Panel Members:
Leveraging Social Media and mGovernance for Inclusive Growth
Name Organization
Shri Pankaj Gupta IL&FS
Shri Shashank Ojha Senior E Government Specialist, World Bank
Shri Sanjay Swamy Ex-Chief Executive Officer, mChek, UIDAI
Mr. Rajiv Vaishnav Vice President, NASSCOM
Dr. Jaijit Bhattacharya Partner, KPMG
Dr. Ravi Gupta Chief Executive Officer, Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd
Shri Hasit Kaji VP, Special Initiatives, Tata Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd
Shri Pankaj Shah President, GESIA
In the third session, the panel discussed on the topic “Leveraging Social Media and mGovernance for
Inclusive Growth” In this session, Ms. Sushma Oza from Adani Foundation emphasized on networking and
sharing knowledge and experiences through CSR. She said, “Corporates can not only bring finances but
also professionalism, Knowledge, expertise into the whole system.” Ms. Prerana Langa from Yes
Foundation gave impetus to the idea of working to improve the existing infrastructure for the society as
a part of CSR activities.
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Sh. Shashank Ojha
o eGovernance picked up strongly over the last decade and has become a pillar in the developed
world. However, in the developing world it has not made a big progress. Major reason for this is
“Low Internet Penetration”.
o mGovernance can help you remain always connected. Mobile phone through the medium of voice
and reach cuts through the main challenges of language and literacy.
o Mobile Applications have been used as an instrument of social revolution. This tool is available.
There are challenges but with a structured approach, we can leverage on this.
Sh. Sanjay Swamy:
o New apps like Zip Dial can help people connect to the masses on social media without actually
using facebook/ linkedin/ twitter
o Voting on particular ideas via social media can help create localized maps on views of people
o Aadhar provides a platform that enabling paper free governance and helps provide services that
will be mass available and cost efficient
Sh. Manojit Bose:
o Inclusive Growth is not only about the pace of growth but also the pattern of growth
o There is a need for business process engineering, integrating the databases and leveraging the
technological advancements
o Unless the growth is broad based, it is not sustainable
o Currently mGovernance is being used largely for disseminate information. But mobile as a
platform can be used significantly to engage the masses in a lot of development programs
o The reliability of these applications is an important aspect. The telecom network and support
mechanism to address that is something that needs to be taken care of.
Dr. Jaijeet Bhattacharya:
o For inclusive governance, it needs to be understood that at what level, who the stakeholders are.
what are the different needs at various levels of the society
o A mixed platform cannot solve the problem. The social media channels have to be target audience
specific, in the local language and at a platform that is accessible by all.
o Localization of content is important, i.e. data needs to be provided in regional languages.
Developing an m-government application does not necessary means that it will be used by all
citizens. The success of mobile governance would largely depend on our ability to focus on
reaching the maximum number of mobile users. Thus, the M-Government application must serve
a specific purpose. Awareness should be made to the citizens about these applications and citizens
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need to be educated on the use of these applications and services. For this, the benefits of these
services should be highlighted
o Besides this, considering the huge population if India, there is a need for analytics to be put on top
of all this in order to channelize the responses
Dr. Ravi Gupta:
o There is a huge potential for eGovernance and mGovernance in India. The huge presence of Indian
community on the social media platforms can be leveraged for various aspects of governance
o But unless government mandates use of these platforms amongst their offices, there are less
chances of mGovernance initiatives taking a center stage
Mr. Hasit Kazi:
o The ultimate agenda of e-Governance is inclusive growth
o Education and Skill development of Rural people is very important for their inclusion in
governance
o There is a need to mobile enable the websites, but in the long run we need to create specific user
scenarios
o Strong Back end support systems are required to enable effective systems that we are looking
forward to
Smt. Neeta Shah: Director (e-Governance), Gujarat Informatics Ltd.
Thank You Note
Smt Neeta Shah summarizing all the speakers and panel discussions talked on how mGovernance can help
aggregate the efforts, leading to a bigger impact. She also added that m-Governance is an extension of e-
Governance to make Government services and information available to the citizen “anytime, anywhere”.
He congratulated all the organizers, speakers and participants for their respective contributions to make
the event a success.
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Outcome/Suggestions by Panelists:
In India, Government can start implementing m-government in three different phases:
o Firstly, applications should be developed to reach citizens in time of crisis such as earthquakes,
fire, floods, disease outbreaks etc. These types of services are mainly government to citizen (G2C)
and the flow of information is one way.
o Secondly, more interactive m-government applications can be developed to allow citizens’
participation in government activities. This will encourage citizens’ participation and enhance
democracy and brings accountability.
o Thirdly highly interactive government applications can be developed. These applications range
from simple transactions such as payment of taxes, bills and inquiries to mobile identification
cards where a citizens’ mobile phone functions not only as device for making calls but also an
identification card, payment wallet, driving license and health insurance card.
The mobiles have the ability to push information rather than the user needing to pull information. The
Unique Identification (UID) project is a perfect example for the use of mobile technologies, where the
services can be targeted to a specific set of citizens such as those eligible for Mahatma Gandhi National
Rural Employment. Guarantee Scheme (MG-NREGS) or Below Poverty Line (BPL) benefits. In fact, with
a combination of International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, phone number, and voice
biometric authentication, mobile device itself can be used as an identification device.
Localization of content is important, i.e. data needs to be provided in regional languages. Developing
an m-government application does not necessary means that it will be used by all citizens. The success
of mobile governance would largely depend on our ability to focus on reaching the maximum number
of mobile users
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