Platinum Special issue of the eGov Magazine

www.facebook.com/egovonline www.twitter.com/egovonline www.linkedin.com/groups/eGov-Magazine

Celebrating the

ASIA’S FIRST MONTHLY
MAGAZINE ON E-GOVERNMENT
75 th
issue
juNE 2011 > ` 75/-
VOLuME 07 n ISSuE 06 n ISSN 0973-161X
www.egovonline.net

“The first IT revolution
took Indian IT to the whole
world. The second one
watCh out for
would bring the world of IT
to India”
1-3 AuGusT, 2011
THE ASHOk, NEw DELHI, INDIA r Chandrashekhar
www.eworldforum.net the witness to the Journey of e-GovernanCe

The eGov that was and
the eGov that will be...

t he eGov magazine is delighted to bring you its 75th Platinum issue, which
celebrates the very exciting journey of eGov over the past 75 months. The eGov
magazine started as a mission to build a bridge of communication gap between
the various stakeholders within government, private, civil society and academia,
working towards ICT initiatives in the area of Governance. In 2005, when we started the eGov magazine,
India was avidly talked, in the international communities, as a land of ‘pilots’ and satirically a ‘graveyard’ for
e-Governance projects. We thereby saw an immense need to create a platform where these ‘pilots’ and the
‘champions’, who were leading them can come together to discuss the challenges and opportunities they
were facing with the wider world inside and outside their respective ecosystems.
To say the least, this journey of 75 months has been an amazing one for us. We have ended up creating an
incredible community of national and international experts, practitioners and analysts on the multifarious
issues of e-governance. We have built a phenomenal knowledge base by carrying out interviews, features,
news and views on the myriad issues of e-governance. In these 75 months, we also ended up creating the
eIndia and eAsia conferences, duly known for their size and impact. In order to celebrate the 75 months of
our inception, we are organising eWorld Forum in August 2011 in New Delhi, which will be a global forum
for knowledge sharing in e-Governance.
To the best of our knowledge, eGov has become the first monthly print magazine on e-Governance
in whole of Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa to have achieved the feat of bringing out 75 issues of
uninterrupted publishing month by month on a regular basis till now. It gives us a sense of immense pride
that eGov magazine contributed in some way to have made a mark in the global e-Governance arena.
With the voice against corruption getting louder and louder, there is an inherent inkling in the
government to use ICTs more and more to make public service delivery hassle and corruption free as
much as possible. There is whole new generation of officers in the government, who have no aversion to
ICTs and who are championing e-Governance at various levels in the government. The initiation of large
projects like UID, e-passport, MCA 21, APDRP, e-district etc is giving a new life to e-Governance in the
country. This is good news. The other good news is that with more than 800 million mobile connections,
the country is now connected by cell phones in a big way. Both urban and rural areas are growing in mobile
phone adoption at an amazing pace. This has considerably reduced the problem of digital literacy and
connectivity. We are excited to take on the future and are geared up to work towards the empowerment of
effective governance through e-governance in this country.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my colleagues, who worked at the eGov
magazine and took it to great heights. I would also like to thank the people in the industry, who took time
to encourage us both morally and through supporting us through advertisements and sponsorships of our
events. Also, we would be failing in duty if we don’t acknowledge the government organisations, who have
supported us in all our endeavors.
We look forward to the path of next 75 months and beyond with all eagerness and excitement. We ravi gupta
remain committed to inform and update you month by month on the exciting arena of e-Governance. Ravi.Gupta@elets.in
Looking forward to your continued support in this life changing journey...

From the history
Email at subscription@elets.in
to get previous issues March 2011 April 2011 May 2011

June 2011 / www.egovonline.net / egov 03

Contents
june 2011
grid name 06 n volume 07
second grid
issue industry speaK

12 KisHor CHitaLe,
Capgemini india

13 deBraj dam, digisol
14 ravi Kumar,
emerson network
power

16 ram prasad, epson
india

egov 75 22 durgadutt
nedungadi, Hp enter-
vision prise Business

23 venKat patnaiK,
niit teCHnologies

06
58
24 sameer Batra, iBm
- india/soutH asia
r Chandrashekhar shankar aggarwal
25 sanjeev Kapoor,
infosys india

28 nitin garg, lenovo
india
Leaders speaK

20 17 ritoBaan roy, giZ 34 asHanK desai,
mastek ltd
interview
Lt CoL (retd) Hs Bedi 18 tapas gHataK, 42 ramsunder
on tulip’s focus on broadband former direCtor, kmda
papineni, mCafee
and future plans

29 CHetan vaidya, 44 ranBir singH,
direCtor, national
30 institute of urBan
miCrosoft india
interview
sandeep raina
affairs 45 gopaLaKrisHnan
paLaKKiL, mindtree
on the overall performance
of the government in the last
43 m K yadava,
seven years
amtron 47 eriC Kuo, msi – india
56 46 sanjay saHay, 49 sandeep menon,
spotlight igp, Bengaluru novell india
rana gupta
what has changed in the last
75 months in e-governance and
48 s n tripatHi, dept 52 neeraj giLL,
of rural development, polyCom
what more to expect
minsitry of orissa
39 54 sandeep seHgaL,
interview 53 sudHir KrisHna red Hat india
avinasH gupta speCial seCretary
on the need for capacity building ministry of panCHayati 57 r K BansaL, uniline
and it training in india raj energy systems

04 egov / www.egovonline.net / June 2011

june 2011 second grid grid name
issue 06 n volume 07

INbox www.facebook.com/egovonline
President Dr M P Narayanan
Editor-in-Chief: Dr Ravi Gupta www.twitter.com/egovonline

editorial team
Dr Rajeshree Dutta Kumar, Divya Chawla,
Sheena Joseph, Dhirendra Pratap Singh

SaleS & marketing team
Bharat Kumar Jaiswal, Fahimul Haque, Jyoti Lekhi,
Rakesh Ranjan (sales@elets.in )

SubScription & circulation
Gunjan Singh (Mobile: 9718289123)
(subscription@elets.in)

graphic deSign team
Bishwajeet Kumar Singh, Om Prakash Thakur
Shyam Kishore The very firsT issue of egov, being releAsed by The Then union minisTer of iT, dAyAnidhi
mArAn, minisTer of iT And The Then chief minisTer of orissA, nAveen PATnAik
Web development team
Zia Salahuddin, Amit Pal, Anil Kumar

it team readerS’ accoladeS on egov’S 75th iSSue
Mukesh Sharma

i like egov magazine because it keeps me updated with latest happenings in terms of People, Projects,
eventS Practices and Technological advancements of my home land.
Vicky Kalra —Saiyad Shamim Raza, Asst Engineer - GIS Projects & Engineering - Infrastructure Information &
Permits (II&P), Dubai Electricity and Water Authority
editorial & marketing
egov magazine is the only publication that reflects and focus on the transformation of one of the most
correSpondence critical contributory in india’s success as an economy, as a nation...very well called the ‘Public sector
egov – G-4 Sector 39, NOIDA–201 301, India enterprises’! A collection of truly inspiring and self educating experience!
Phone: +91-120-2502181-85 —Gulab Somaya
Fax: +91-120-2500060 egov magazine gives in-depth analysis with proper information synthesis; it never leaves out any major
Email: info@egovonline.net issue and other important topics.
-Dr Monika Koul, Assistant Professor, Department of Botany, Hans Raj College, University of Delhi
egov is published by Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd
i like egov magazine because it is “all embracing”, it encompasses the newest of technologies to clasp
in technical collaboration with Centre for Science, the e-governance policies of the government to the fullest and comprehend most of the developments
Development and Media Studies (CSDMS). in the iT world with alacrity.
—Jayadeep Nair, Kerala
Owner, Publisher, Printer: Ravi Gupta, Printed at
The magazine facilitates e-governance knowledge, provides e-governance based project insights and
Vinayak Print Media, D-320, Sector-10, Noida, UP, enables best e-governance practices to the citizens of the nation.
INDIA and published from 710 Vasto Mahagun —TGK Vasista
Manor, F-30, Sector - 50 Noida, UP
egov magazine is the first magazine to cover latest e-governance news and updates around the globe .
Editor: Ravi Gupta
—Vinod Kakde, General Manager, National Institute for Smart Government

© All rights reserved. No part of this publication i like egov magazine because it gives us great visibility to look around the best happenings of e-gover-
nance around us and a chance to implement new things in our area too”.
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
—Neelkanth Mattar, Gujarat
by any means, electronic and mechanical, includ-
ing photocopy, or any information storage or i read egov magazine and realised that there are no distinct boundaries for e-governance. The govern-
retrieval system, without publisher’s permission. ment services are now made available to the citizens in a more convenient, efficient and transparent
manner through icT (information communication technology).
—E Ramesh, Hyderabad


egov 75: vision


egov 75: vision

R Chandrashekhar
Secretary, Department of Telecom & Department
of Information Technology, Ministry of Communication &
Information Technology

“mobilewhich can
onl medium
y
is the
reach out to 850
million people”

T he rural areas though have the mobile
connectivity, the data connectivity is
abysmally low. So, what is the roadmap or
vision for the rural data connectivity?
One of the key objectives on communications infrastructure has been to provide
connectivity to the rural areas, to support various kinds of activities including broad-
band services, simple financial services ranging from education to entertainment
which are bandwidth intensive and livelihood services. It would be a wrong model
if we look at rural areas as mere consumers of various services and the communica-
R Chandrashekhar
talks about the noble
responsibility that he
is shouldering, and
the road ahead in the
Department of Telecom
in a freewheeling
interview with Dr Ravi
tion infrastructure to provide the services. Given the economic profile in the rural Gupta and Dr Rajeshree
areas, its equally important that this broadband infrastructure can be used by people
Dutta Kumar.
in rural areas for purposes related to their livelihood enhancing their own income,
opening opportunities for earning additional income by way of greater access to
markets, buying the kind of things that they need for the agricultural activities, train-
ing programmes for enhancing their skill sets and rural BPOs for providing market-
able services. So all of these, are linked to free flow of money. The combination of all
of these is important to make the communication revolution also result in economic
revolution for people in rural areas. If this does not happen then the mere avail-
ability of communication and broadband will only result in underutilisation of this
infrastructure as people will not have the buying power to consume the services. This
should be the emphasis. Between connectivity and services, it is connectivity that
should happen and open up markets. So the broadband has an important purpose of
integrating rural and urban areas, thereby spreading economic opportunities evenly
in both the areas.

What are the activities that are happening at the block
level?
As of now, we do have reliable connectivity and more than 95 per cent blocks are con-
nected as there is optical fibre. But it is below the block level that the problem arises as
there is no optical fibre, where the quality and reliability is not so good. So the effort


egov 75: vision

Please throw some light other governance related areas which also
on USO funds. Are they need to be taken care of. The institutions
optimally used. Can you at the local level are panchayats, hospitals,
throw light on the ongoing schools etc which need to be connected.
changes? This is a mammoth task to achieving. Too
Yes, the USO fund has not been aggres- big a task which cannot be achieved by
sively used in the past. So we are work- one organization alone. The connectivity
ing on a strategy to use this funds to is entirely the job of the Telecommunica-
achieve the goals. The key government tions Department. There are other aspects
programmes are increasingly getting digi- which are also time taken. For instance, if a
tized, especially the rural programmes, so project for health services has to be imple-
the need for ensuring connectivity to the mented through the digital medium, there
last mile has increased. The next impor- are a number of functions that needs to be
tant thing is targeting or identification of put in order other than just laying of the
these programmes are also important. optical fibre, upon extensively. Along with
So UID is also getting its importance. So this, there are other governance related

“the broadband has an
important purpose of integrating
rural and urban areas to spread
economic oppurtunities
evenl in both the areas”
y
digitisation of these are happening now. In areas which also need to be taken care of.
the coming 2-3 years, the maturing of all The institution at the local level are panch-
these programmes can be seen.To ensure anyats, hospitals, schoolsetcwhich need to
the utilisation, we have created a dedicated be connected. This is a mommoth taskto
organisation to rule out the role of optical achieve which ia too big a task which
fibre. So that no time is lost in building this cannot be achieved by one organisation
organisation.This organisation is nucle- alone. The connectivity is entirely the job
ated within the organisation i.e BSNL. of the Telecommunications Department.
The next important aspect we are working There are other5 aspects which are also
aggressively is working on spreading infra- time-consuming. For instance, if a project
structure. Getting optical fibre to every for health services has to be implemented
panchayat is what we are targeting. But for through the digital medium, there are
is to extend the core network to connect all this creating the right content, digitiz- a number of functions that needs to be
the district headquarters to block levels GeTTinG ing and creating the necessary ecosystem put in order other than just laying of the
PeRSOnAl
and panchayats also. The objective is to are the challenging areas for us. The most optical fibre atleast equipped with some
reach every significant habitation which challenging part is to change the people’s functions ready. Like in schools, the HRD
education
is a mammoth task. So the first step is M.Sc Chemistry mindset. is already equipped with a massive pro-
to go with the aggregation layer which M S Computer gramme—National Mission on Education
connects the tributaries to the core like Science
Please share your through ICT, in which connectivity is an
in the telecom sector. Various service area of agenda on connecting all important part. As far as the hard infra-
providers can be connected through the specialisation institutions, offices and structure is concerned, the involvement
aggregation layer. When it comes to the Finding innovative
schools ? of private and public sector are involved.
solutions to IT
last mile, the strategy is to use wireless related problems The ultimate goal is to provide optical fibre The incremental infrastructure that is
in conjunction with wireline which will to each and every village with intention created is very important to achieve the
positions held
be provided by service providers and of connecting the key institutions, with goal. What is of prime importance is that
Associated with
also pursue the goal convergence at the organisations like developmental focus area like education, it should be available for a non-discrim-
carriage level to make use of all infra- UNESAP, health, skill development. These three are inatory usage of every service provider.
Massachusetts
structure. Getting optical fibre to all the Institute of
the major areas we have to work upon The mobile revolution is the only revolu-
village is a difficult task Technology extensively. Along with this, there are tion that has touched a billion people in a


egov 75: vision

short span of time. This could happen only when the health sector have to actually imagine how it it is done vigorously, that too in an appropriate time.
the price points were brought down and became would be in 2020, when the whole sector is con- We should be able to implement it quickly. Today,
affordable and acceptable to people. We are work- nected through broadband and whole system is we are on the threshold of bringing broadband in
ing on this kind of revolution. The second thing is digitalized. One should be able to envision an ideal the next two or three years in the rural areas, the
faster distribution. We are not rigid as to whether endstay and this requires intimate knowledge of timing is right to look at how those sectors can be
government or private sector has to do it. It is
whoever does it faster.
“the ultimate goal is
How do you see e-Governance in
the coming years?
to provide optical fibre to
e-Governance has come a long way in providing each and every village with
services to people which has improved the effi- focus on education, health,
ciency. Many of the departments and organiza-
tions have done great job but the progress has not skill development”
been as quick as it should have been. Of course the domain and should be able to reconfigure. reinvented. You could not have done it without
this is a journey which cannot be done in a day’s There is a need for change leaders to emerge in connectivity or broadband. So what is important is
time. So the advent of cloud computing has tre- each sector by a few forward looking individuals. doing the right thing at the right time. So this is the
mendous significance on e-Governance. right time to really put people together. It is evident
There is no shortcut or there is no magic wand What are the various initiatives in the education sector that things are moving in a
and the only thing is to keep planning. That’s why being taken in healthcare? positive mode but whereas in health, it is at an early
the overarching vision and the overarching con- When NeGP was approved by the union cabinet, stage where the seeds have been planted in differ-
vergence of approaches was so important . With- health and education were not put as explicit mis- ent places to really trigger that process.
out this, different people doing different things at sion projects. The mandate was that in both these
a different pace would become difficult. once the sectors the mission is to deliver health and educa- How can the national
overall vision and strategy and the architecture is tion. Wheras the other projects, the mission is the information Utility framwork,
common, then if people work at a different pace, service itself like the license. So there is a qualita- as proposed by the Technical
it is not disastrous. tive difference in both kinds of services. But while Advisory Group for Unique
approving various mission projects, it was clearly Projects play a role in
Having a global experience, how mandated by the Cabinet that major developmen- e-Governace?
do you foresee the future of the tal areas like education, healthcare etc would also As far as, information utility is concerned, the
iT industry in india? be moved on to e-Governance mode. For the emergence of cloud computing services and
As far as IT policy is concernced, our key goal has health, the critical element is actually packaging platform-based services are important. But for the
to be as to how to accelerate and proliferate the the real service itself and ICT is only a small part provision of platform, utility is important. So the
services. Technology and infrastructure are small of it. Whereas in other services like income tax or utility is the organisational phase of the cloud and
part in the whole creation of services. The real others, its different. the platform. The concept of Utility, which was
issue is about people, institutions and procedures. brought in by Technical Advisory Board, is the
This requires huge amount of rethinking of the Do you think there is a need for model going forward for the e-Governance across
implementation of plans. This rethinking cannot an evangelist push to happen? different projects as well. The generic platform and
be done by technologists. For instance, people in When you evengelise something, it is essential that the generic utilities will be driven by DIT.

R ChandRasekhaR : his soJouRn with e-GoveRnanCe
E-governance is 20 percent ‘e’ and 80 percent ‘governance’, so says R Chandrashekhar. His journey with e-governance started in
Andhra Pradesh with turning Hyderabad into ‘Cyberabad’. He established the first Department of Information Technology in the
country in Andhra Pradesh, and also heralded the most innovative and path-breaking efforts like the public-private partnership
(PPP) concept in e-governance projects. He was the first Andhra IT Secretary. Chandrashekhar is credited with the conceptualisa-
tion and implementation of various key initiatives like the setting up of the IIIT in Hyderabad. The plum of the pudding was his role
in developing the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), CSC and SWAN as well as driving the evolution of the concept of integrated
service delivery in e-governance projects.


Naghma returned to the
classroom again.

Ensuring
a certified It began with a training initiative by the
Bihar Urban Development Authority
future (BUDA) with Microsoft Learning.

Over 17 000 young
,
people in Bihar now
have relevant IT skills And a globally-recognised certification
to gain employment. Gained practical education. as a Microsoft Office Specialist.

Naghma now has access to a world of opportunities.
She is skilled to find employment, rise above the
poverty line and dreams of buying her own PC.

This is one of the stories of enabling change for India's
future workforce, by providing them with the right IT
skills. Every year, over 2,50,000 people in India are
Among them is Naghma Khatoon, who empowered to pursue better job prospects
Synapse | www.synapse.co

was forced to support her family after with Microsoft Learning courses and
her father’s tragic accident. certifications.

To know more about Microsoft's initiatives, visit www.microsoft.com/india/msindia

egov 75: industry speak

Finer aspects
of governance
The next decade will define all the
building blocks for the design and
running of effective e-Governance

e Governance in India has steadily evolved from mere com-
puterisation of Government departments to initiatives that
summarise the finer aspects of Governance, such as citizen
centricity, service orientation and transparency. An important
observation is that India has developed consciousness and cognizance
towards ‘citizen centricity’.
The Indian Government has already set up the National e-Governance
Plan (NeGP) with a vision to make all Government services accessible to
the common man in his locality, through common service delivery out-
lets and to ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services
at affordable costs. Also a move towards ‘self-service’ wherein the control
moves to the citizen rather than the service provider has been initiated, this
brings in transparency by eliminating intermediate touch points between
the citizen and the service provider, in this case Government agencies.
Appointment of professionals from the corporate sector to drive proj-
ects like UID is also a huge evidence of the shift in the intent and com-
mitment of the Government. A few e-Governance programs have been
implemented in India so far and the results have been encouraging. The
government’s effort on creation of various NeGP programs, policies and
implementation are in the right direction but the journey has just started
and we must ensure that we do not make the same errors as others have
made while undertaking this journey.
In the coming years too, e-Governance will further move from simply
e-enabling a particular service or department to a large program with a
solid governance structure, ultimately resulting in economic and political
Kishor Chitale development. This speaks of a radical shift from ‘what technology can do’
Head, India Domestic Business to ‘what citizens need and how can it be delivered’. So the focus shifts from
Capgemini India a technology stand-point to a user-driven perspective.
The globalisation of business, greater awareness among citizens and the
revolutionary force of IT have changed the perspective of what govern-
ments can do. All the work that is being done by the government and pri-
vate sectors will be wasted if we don’t devise a mechanism that incentivises
the people at large to adopt e-Services over conventional methods.

From Archives

“We should see ‘rights’ not as stated rules of access to PSI – Public Sector Information, but as fluid environment
of information practice” – Michael Blakemore, Professor in Geography, Durham University, UK
August 2005



single Window
Monitoring
Bringing all NeGP projects under a
single monitoring authority would
accelerate the pace of implementation

I
n India, e-Governance initiative was started by late Rajiv Gandhi
and after that a lot of transformation has happened specifically in
the past six to eight years. In the last few years, the Government has
been putting lot of efforts to reduce the gap between citizen, industry
and government. Department of Information Technology (DIT) is
also putting lot of efforts to boost up IT infrastructures for the state
governments including districts, blocks, municipality levels. The
thrust has varied across initiatives, with some focusing on enabling citizen-
state interface for various government services, and others focusing on better-
ing livelihoods. e-Governance is now an integral part of India’s multifaceted
development strategy to take advantage of demographic dividend and is
moving beyond technological aspects.
We have seen very slow implementation progress in different projects
under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). It is mainly because of lack of
inter departmental or ministry coordination, transparency between agen-
cies and multiple nodal authorities. If we can bring all NeGP plans under
a single monitoring authority agency to grass root levels for all projects
then only we can see or expect better results. It can be further enhanced by
getting inputs from citizens about unresponsive and unreliable providers.
Government should also imbibe better mechanisms to carry out proper
survey to understand the ground level ICT requirement for urban and rural
areas by involving different agencies in consultation with state, village and
other councils in coordination with business people and citizen.
Capacity building is the prime factor where the local ICT manufac-
turing sector can play a key role in many e-Governance initiatives and
Government should invite and involve them for larger participation in
Debraj Dam e-Governance initiatives and thus improve the life cycle of Indian ICT
Vice President - Strategic Business industry. This facility has already been implemented by most of the coun-
and Partner Alliance tries including China, US, and Taiwan. Green governance is an important
Digisol part of e-Governance and to reduce OpEx costs of all projects under NeGP,
the manufacturing sector needs to be involved on a larger basis. Proper
power saving, RoSH-compliant (RoHS Directive stands for “the restric-
tion of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic
equipment”) green products will help reduce energy costs and thus make
e-Governance even healthier.

From Archives

“One of the important components of a complete e-Governance solution is the Geographic Information System
(GIS).” - Lokesh Sharma, Business Development Manager, Government, Education and Healthcare, Oracle India
eGov August 2008



Becoming of
an it era
In the coming years, India will have
more younger population than any
other country, thus literacy rate will
be encouraging. Tendency towards
ICT to avail Government services will,
hence increase

T
hough e-Governance began in India way before
National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) but it was brought
into one consolidated effort by the NeGP only. The
basic vision is to provide all government services to the
citizens in the comfort of his home through internet.
It also reflects that the programme aims to reduce per-
sonal interface with officials to a basic minimum.
NeGP has laid the foundation of what can be called the digitisation of
governance. But, what pose as major roadblocks in this path of digitisa-
tion are IT illiteracy among officials as well. Those who have to drive the
project don’t have the basic knowledge of the technologies being used and
thus ownership is not at that level.
Also, basic infrastructure used to be a problem, but, since now its majorly
a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model we are working on that issue is
more or less taken care of.
In the coming years we will see more and more projects being deployed
under the NeGP. There will be no more bureaucracy or the department-
centric structure. The structure will be more a citizen centric. In the
coming years, India will have younger population than any other country,
thus literacy rate will be encouraging. Under these circumstances people
will have more tendency towards ICT to avail various Government ser-
vices and it will be wiser for the authorities also to govern through innova-
Ravi Kumar tive use of technology.
Country Manager - Govt & BFSI In the coming years a couple of things should be taken care of. Firstly,
Emerson Network Power (India) Private Limited consultancy and vendors should have more ownership over the project
and not be involved in bureaucratic processes, which only takes up more
and more time and yields nothing and secondly; there should be better
and more efficient utilization of funds. There are huge funds allocated to
each of these projects but there is no proper monitoring for the utiliza-
tion. Thus fund utilization can be worked upon.

From Archives

“Internet is simultaneously a world of both ‘opportunities and challenges’ and online challenges are just an
extension of real life challenges” — Rajnesh D. Singh, Regional Bureau Manager, ISOC Asia
October 2009


I print…
my own high quality
identity cards instantly, on
the spot, on demand.

HID Fargo® printers give you…
flexibility to produce great looking ID cards in-house.

Save time and costs by managing on-site production of your own secure ID cards with
Fargo® card printers and Asure ID® software. Simple and convenient to use, HID’s solutions
produce high quality cards and choices of printing technologies to match your needs.

To secure your future, visit hidglobal.com/Iprint-eGov


Continuity:
an issue in
initiatives
Post-implementation analysis and
impact analysis are important to map
the success, failure and causes of both

T
he various e-Governance initiatives in India have changed
the way we interact with the government. There are so
many areas where we have made progress- online land
record details, income certificate, interactive classrooms,
e-Passport, online income tax return; technology has
transformed the way we do those necessary but time-
consuming activities.
Obviously, a lot more can still be done and there is a long way to go. Not
talking of bigger changes but simple services like booking movie or rail tickets
online has made life easier. Such small (though big in reality) changes actually
make citizens feel empowered as these are the ones that actually make a differ-
ence, make life easier for everyone across classes. Rail ticket is the need of all
the segments of people whereas filing income tax online might not be. In the
coming years such more services should come up coupled with better capac-
ity building and awareness programmes for the rural population.
Continuity is a major problem in majority of government initiatives.
Suddenly we see a lot of new developments happening in a project and
then all of a sudden it’s on a standstill, nothing is happening. A good exam-
ple here could be Common Service Centers (CSCs). We started off very
well but where are we now? We have not yet achieved the target of one lakh
CSCs and many of the ones started have been shut down. So how much
was actually implemented? Post-implementation analysis and impact
analysis are very important to map the success, failure and causes of both.
Ram Prasad Feedback from citizens is also very essential. The authorities should
Senior Business Manager - Consumer Product Group have clear targets. What is it that they want to ultimately achieve? Is it just
Epson India computerisation of some departments or they actually want to deliver
some application-based services too. Last-mile connectivity, disconnect
between employer and employee and non-awareness among citizens; all
these are major setbacks and need to be tackled.
Awareness is needed at a large scale. Common everyday education
is the key to success for these e-Governance initiatives and ultimately
achieving a digitized economy.

From Archives

“e-Government should be the enabler of public sector transformation, and as such it has to be an integral part of
administrative reform programmes rather than a stand-alone initiative” – Oleg Petrov, Programme Coordinator,
e-Development Thematic Group, Global ICT Department, World Bank
January 2008


egov 75: leaders speak

Miles to go for
e-governance
The power of media, marketing and
advertisement should be duly utilised
to increase visibility and outreach of
e-Governance projects

A
ll is not as well as it seems with the National e-Gov-
ernance Plan (NeGP). Various NeGP projects are
still under implementation and have progressed very
slowly from the year of implementation. State gov-
ernments are implementing their own e-Governance
projects for certain departments but the status too is
dismal in certain cases.
The reasons are many for this condition but mostly it is lack of IT pen-
etration and capacity building among the stakeholders. There are large
remote pockets where technology has not seeped in and even where it has
proper training is not there to use it efficiently. The coming years though
could see more adoption of broadband in urban areas; rural areas however
still would be a challenge.
Given the special status of NeGP, one expected faster implementation.
Longer the time to ‘go live’, more difficult is it to contain skepticism about
expected benefits from eGovernance. There could also be resistance to
continued funding of such projects if legislators do not see visible progress.
If we are to expect radical changes in the pace of implementation in
the coming years we should follow some strict measures like giving more
consideration to mobile technology and shifting towards m-Governance
as most users irrespective of the rural or urban category will access inter-
net on their phones.
A dedicated government task force at operational level that can go from
location to location and act as project manager on the government side should
Ritobaan Roy be made for all the projects for e-Governance. Certain prominent projects
Technical Expert, MSME Finance and should be selected and deemed ‘critical’ and should go live by December
Development Umbrella Programme, 2012. These projects should also be under a Ring-fence corpus so that they
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale are unaffected by changes in government or budget reviews. Also, the power
Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) or media, marketing and advertisement is undermined when it comes to
government projects. There are several good schemes up and running about
which a major section of the beneficiaries are not aware. Thus, for each of the
major projects there should a big launch with proper media promotion which
will not only increase its visibility but also enlarge its reach.

From Archives
“An examination of different areas where ICT impacts the overall framework for governance shows a clear trend
towards a more international and a more market-based type of governance” – Morten Falch, Centre for Tele-
Information, Technical University of Denmark
January 2005


‘Change’ Yet
to be Felt by
Citizens
Citizens should be inducted in such
programmes so that their active
participation makes the entire
system acceptable

I
t is about a decade when the process of governing the Municipal
Management System through certain electronic language has been
initiated with a hope that thereafter a better services can be provided
to the tax payers of the town and a holistic planning approach can
also be taken by using different sources of electronic media. This
of course includes certain hardware components, certain dedicated
software developed with customization for the use of local bodies,
net work facilities to interact with each other and finally sustenance of the
entire system through a knowledge sharing effort with the officials of the
urban local bodies along with the citizens. It is observed that in most of the
cases, the planning of such programme of any governance starts with the
initiative of the central planning system and gradually percolates through
different official procedures till it reaches the local Government and finally
to the citizens of the town. The stake holder remains cut off from such adop-
tion. So the change is yet to be felt in the citizen level per se.
The expectations of the citizens are no longer restricted in down loading
some applications forms or by using some of the maps showing his own
house. The citizens have started demanding more information through this
system for their daily use like bus routes, location of the services provider,
integration of education and health delivery system and so many other daily
required areas. Looking deeply in this arena, it seems that the effort in this
electronic dissemination of information to the citizen’s needs to be high-
Tapas Ghatak lighted in any adopted programme of e-governance for Urban Level Bodies’. It
Former Director is not just a specific section of people who are able to handle PC’s on a regular
Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority basis anymore. A large population has access to Internet through their mobile
Govt of West Bengal devices Cyber Café.
If the development of human resources within the local bodies for carrying
out the use of the application set is not addressed and in proper system it may
collapse without yielding proper result that was envisaged during the concep-
tion of the project. Citizens should be inducted in such programme so that
their active participation makes the entire system acceptable.

“In the next one year, we would like to have high speed connectivity in 6,000 blocks and 4,000 tehsils across
India.” – Subas Pani, Secretary, Planning Commission, Government of India
eGov January 2009


in person

Lt Col (Retd) HS Bedi
Founder and Managing Director
Tulip Telecom Limited

“Uid has provided
the first bUilding
block in the form of
a strong database”

W hat was your vision when
you founded Tulip?
When we founded the organisation, the
only competition of data connectivity
was with BSNL. At that time data con-
nectivity was confined to only few cities.
In 1999, after seeing a huge potential in the wireless business, Tulip
started its operations in this field. We started covering the whole country
with wireless connectivity. We were looking for a big order and we got
one from a bank. In 1999, we were able to connect a bank across multiple
states through wireless technology. This became the first and one of our
biggest successes. We quickly captured the low bandwidth market.
With India’s economic growth, every Indian is going to prosper. Today,
Indians are at par with the Americans. India has suddenly become popu-
lar because of improved governance. We’ll be increasing market share
in data services and looking at international long distance, corporate
Internet and national long distance markets. Over the last two years, the
wholesale market has changed; companies like AT&T, Orange and even
Tulip have got international licenses.

What are the major policy hurdles?
The government also realises that they have to ensure the upliftment
of every person. They have to provide the services of the last man. Only
challenge is telecommunication i.e. data connectivity. Government needs
Tulip IT services is one of India’s largest network infrastructure to deliver services. This infrastructure can be in the form of
integrators. Lt Col (Retd) Hardeep Singh Bedi served road, water or data connectivity. Data connectivity is fundamental infra-
in the Indian Army for 22 years before he set out to start structure for delivering services, today.
his own company, Tulip. Government already has preferences; it creates certain degree of
uncertainty. There is a need of some clarity on this policy. There is lack
In conversation with Dr Ravi Gupta, he talks about of clarity in government policies in wireless network. There should be no
Tulip’s focus on broadband and future plans. Excerpts: subsidy for anybody. The telecom companies have already set up their
networks. There is no need to create individual networks.


in person

With the help of UID, you have a database; vices. We have successfully laid optical fiber in connectivity segment. Server virtualisation is
you will have the first building block. We can various cities covering major commercial areas. driving the adoption of the latest data center
be way head for developing world. This fiber rollout has helped Tulip grab more unified fabric technologies that seamlessly

What type of opportunities do
you see in enterprise data ser-
vices space in India?
“cloUd compUting, Uc
There are enterprise networks and retail net- and virtUalisation are
works. We are enterprise network. We have a giving sUbstantial boost
unique portfolio of enterprise data services
ranging from MPLS VPN, corporate internet,
to the enterprise data
managed services, data center solutions, and connectivity segment”
international connectivity. Tulip does not
address the retail market. I believe, in India the and more customers pan-India, successfully merge storage and network infrastructure into
enterprise data services space has tremendous using Tulip fiber for their data connectivity a unified, highly flexible transport.
opportunity and Tulip is strategically placed to requirements.
offer data services to all customers. The government is planning to roll out What are your future plans?
We could not go to the smaller times pri- fiber that goes beyond the block level to the We are a premium Data Company. Our aim is
marily because linking copper is becoming panchayats. So our recommendation is that to reach every village within two years, but that
more and more challenging. the government takes on rollout of fiber from depends on us to be able to pick up the orders.
between the blocks to the panchayats, which is The point is that we are willing to make the
The government is connecting the big void today and which does not make investments to reach out, but now it is for the
every panchayat through optical commercial sense for the current telecom government and business organisations to see
fibers. How do you see such steps? companies, and thereafter make this infra- whether they need services there. If it becomes
The government has come out with a good structure available to all telecom players for profitable, then we will go there. Last year, we
plan of fiber connectivity. The government rolling out of services. My suggestion is that had about `2,000 crores of revenue. We should
decision to connect every panchyat by fiber is that there should be private participation in its see an increase as the pattern has been of about
a good step. The reality is that as of today, a lot implementation. 20 percent and if we continue to see this kind
of fiber and telecom facilities are available up of a growth, we should cross about `3000 crore
to the level of most districts. But the moment What are your views on Cloud as we go forward in the next three years. We
they start going beyond district, that is to block Computing? also expect about `1,000 crores revenue to
and taluka level, a lot of telecom facilities such It is an application focus. Cloud computing, come from the data centre business, so in the
as fiber are not available, fiber. With our own virtualisation and unified communications are next three years, we should be on track for a
fiber we can now offer high bandwidth data ser- giving substantial boost to the enterprise data billion dollar revenue.

CATCH UP WITH
latest news, articles, interviews and case studies at

@
www.egovonline.net


soaring
High on
e-governance
The awareness and demand for better
services from people has led to many
developments in e-Governance

T
he government at all levels is embracing e-Governance
and adopting proven best practices and technologies for
improving customer service and business performance.
Internet and technology are drastically changing the way
the government operates and delivers services to the
residents and businesses. Moreover, implementation of
e-Governance has seen a paradigm shift from the depart-
ment centric structure of the government to citizen centric structure where
the citizen deals with one government.
The past years have witnessed the emergence of e-Governance as a
potent tool for the government in improving their productivity and
enhancing customer satisfaction levels. India has made significant strides
in the application of e-Governance in improving the interface between the
government and its constituents.
Although India has seen great development, we still face challenges to
smoothly execute e-governance plans. However, the awareness and demand
for better services from people has led to many developments in e-Gover-
nance. Lack of IT literacy and awareness regarding benefits of e-governance
is one of the biggest challenges for successful government initiatives.
Technically, what needs to be looked at is re-engineering of government
departments and procedures. Effective usage of communication and IT is
the biggest opportunity in the government’s efforts towards achieving the
Durgadutt Nedungadi goals of financial and social inclusion. The availability of broadband in
Director - Sales the heart of rural India will result in a quantum leap in the effectiveness of
HP Enterprise Business healthcare, education as well as efficient disbursement meant for the rural
citizens. Once we also cross the regional language hurdle, we will see sub-
stantial positive impacts in agricultural productivity as well as rural wealth
creation. With initiatives like UID Aadhar we can clearly see that effective
use of e-Governance could galvanize the rural development of India. All
these projections indicate that the next 5 to 10 years in the e-Governance
domain will be even more interesting and challenging than the past.

From Archives
“The State Data Centre (SDC) would provide common secure infrastructure enabling seamless delivery of Government
to Government (G2G), Government to Citizen (G2C) and Government to Business (G2B) services.” – SP Singh, Senior
Director, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and IT, Government of India
eGov December 2009



digital divide
Continues
The next five years focus should be
more on integration of various services
and infrastructure platforms

M
any things have changed in e-Governance in India but
not with the desired results nor with the expected speed.
Many programmes were announced during last six
years but remained in the vicious circle of EOI, RFP or a
pilot and did not achieve the desired scale of economics.
India, no doubt is moving towards becoming a power-
ful nation on world map. My personal opinion is that we may still con-
tinue focusing on micro-level things and lose focus on the goals planned
through perspective planning. More and more citizens will be IT savvy
but not because one is enabling people at village level but because villag-
ers are moving towards cities. The next 5-6 years focus should be and will
be more on integration of various different services and infrastructure
platforms which are presently working in silos and not able to talk to each
other. Going forward, one may end up having “cloud” as the suffix or prefix
to all ICT based services. Government institutions will be forced to move
towards paperless offices. Judiciary will have a major overhauling in terms
of people, process, speed etc. Similarly education and Health sectors will
look different as ICT will play a critical role in their transformation.
The processes initiated or created, intended for large participation of
society did not happen. The outcome is still driven by the large, big and
the powerful entities. Hence, the mismatch or the digital divide is still
continuing. In short, either the wrong stakeholders are occupying the
right place or the right people are made to sit at wrong places. This needs
corrections.
We must ensure that the basic infrastructure reaches the last mile for
Venkat Patnaik digital connectivity, electricity and financial transactions. There is need
Head - Government Business of tax holidays for private entities for providing citizen services at the
NIIT Technologies Limited village level. Last mile employability, wherever there is scope, should
be programmed in all initiatives. Citizens should be taken on board at
operational level decision in each and every citizen related projects and
programmes.

From Archives

“In most advanced countries, power utilities have made major gains in terms of productivity, efficiency, reliability
and commercial management through the use of modern IT tools” – Karan Bajwa, General Manager, Public
Sector, Microsoft India
April 2010



ppp has been
a right Choice
There is no dearth of technology but
infrastructure in rural areas is not
so good and hence one has to look at
solutions which are more pragmatic

I
n India, we have seen a rapid deployment and progress of the
National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) and large IT modernisa-
tion projects. The government is now looking to leverage IT to
improve citizen services, efficiency and lower the total cost of opera-
tions. They are re-orienting their structures and policies around the
citizens they serve. The progress in the recent past is enviable by
any global benchmarks. This journey has just started and we have a
long way to go before the impact of IT is felt across all sections of the soci-
ety. IBM has a powerful technology stack of Software & Hardware which
offers proven frameworks and solutions to the Government. IBM strategy
is to leverage the technology stack and experience with various Government
organisations across the world, to build customized solutions for Govern-
ment organisations.
Some of the major solution areas which have great potential for the
future are- postal services, defense, homeland security, GST, municipal
bodies and other databases related to Government functions.
In future, we need to look at the unique challenges that the country has.
No country in the world can be compared with India—no other country
has a challenge of dealing with so many languages that a solution provider
needs to handle for a pan India deployment or while doing projects across
various states. Besides, while deploying technology in rural areas one
needs to be practical and prudent in their approach in terms of under-
standing the infrastructure in these areas. They should first go for a pilot
and then opt for a full scale deployment. There is no dearth of technol-
Sameer Batra ogy as it can be delivered but infrastructure in India’s rural areas is not so
Director, Public Sector good, non-existent in certain areas and hence one has to look at solutions
IBM - India/South Asia which are more pragmatic and relevant and can meet the needs of these
local markets.
PPP is certainly a step in the right direction. In the last few years there
has been immense learning on implementing PPP projects for both Gov-
ernment and the Industry. Both the sides should work together to apply
the learning for implementing future projects.

From Archives

“The biggest challenge in developing e-Procurement systems is the lack of widely adopted data exchange
standards, which leads to the incompatibility of various procurement systems. As a result, government
procurements are heavily fragmented.” – Mark Fleeton, CEO, Development Gateway
eGov April 2007


Platinum Special issue of the eGov Magazine

Platinum Special issue of the eGov Magazine

Recomendados

Recomendados

Mais conteúdo relacionado

Mais de engineeringwatch

Mais de engineeringwatch (20)

Platinum Special issue of the eGov Magazine