eGov Knowledge Exchange, Udaipur 2012, Event Report

8/14/2019 eGov Knowledge Exchange, Udaipur 2012, Event Report

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EVENT eGOV KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE 2012

42 egov / egov.eletsonline.com / January 2013

uring his keynote address on

e-Governance, at the eGov

Knowledge Exchange 2012,

B K Gairola, Mission Director, e-Governance,

Department o Electronics and Inormation

echnology (DeitY), Government o India,pointed out,e-Governance can be considered

D complete only when all the 1.2 billion peopleare able to interact with the government directlyin a transparent, open and easy manner.B K Gairola was speaking at the inaugurationo the three-day residential event held at Te

City Palace, Udaipur, between December 13

and 15, 2012. Te event was jointly organisedby the Department o Inormation echnology

e-Governance is All about

Inclusive GrowthThe ultimate agenda of e-Governance is inclusive growth. This is the clear message that emerged from

the recently held eGov Knowledge Exchange 2012, an event that offered a unique, leisurely environment

to experts and key decision makers from across the nation to come together and ponder over the

various issues of e-Governance

& Communication (DoI&C), Government o

Rajasthan, and Elets echnomedia Pvt Ltd, the

publisher o eGov Magazine Asias premier

magazine on e-Governance. eGov Knowledge

Exchange 2012 was held with the sole objective

o offering a networking platorm or discus-

sions by key government officials, industryexperts, stakeholders, decision makers and

L to R: Basanti Devi Meena, MLA, Udaipur; Mangilal Garasia, Hoble Minister for Sports, Government of Rajasthan; Raghuvir Singh Meena, Member of Parliament,

Udaipur; Chief Guest, Virendra Beniwal, Honble Minister for Home Affairs and Transport, Government of Rajasthan; Dr M P Narayanan, President, CSDMS; and B KGairola, Mission Director, eGovernance, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India


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eGOV KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE 2012 EVENT

43January 2013 / egov.eletsonline.com/ egov

private players on the essential issue o IC

implementation in governance.

The whos whoPresent at the eGov Knowledge Exchange were

an interesting mix o key officials rom the Min-istry o Communication and I (Government

o India); rom various e-Governance agencies;

heads o e-Governance, I and other nodal agen-

cies rom different states; I officials rom various

government establishments including, deence,

railways, NIC, data centres, science & technol-

ogy units, etc, as well as officials rom Mission

Mode Projects rom across the country. Te event

discussions converged on the idea o better gover-

nance through IC implementation. More than

90 delegates rom across the nation participated in

the event. Many accompanied their spouses andamily members, who took out time or exploring

the rich cultural heritage o the City o Lakes.

Eminent personalities at national and state

levels including J Satyanarayana, Secretary, DeitY,

Government o India; N Ravi Shankar, Adminis-

trator (USOF) and CMD, BBNL; Dr Omkar Rai,

DG SPI; O P Meena, Additional Chie Secretary,

ransport Department, Government o Rajas-

than; Ravi Saxena, Additional Chie Secretary,

Department o Science & echnology, Govern-

ment o Gujarat; Bipul Pathak, Secretary, I,

Jammu & Kashmir; Rakesh andon, MD, IRCC,etc, were among the delegates who participated in

the three-day event.

Rajasthan wins accoladeseGov Knowledge Exchange 2012 coincided with

the launch o Digitally Signed Jamabandi Pro-

gramme in Udaipur district, which has already

been launched in 23 districts o Rajasthan since

its inception in 2012. Te inauguration ceremony

also witnessed the elicitation o government offi-

cials or their exemplary work in e-Governance in

the state during 2011-12.

Lauding the achievements o the state gov-

ernment in the field o e-Governance, the Chie

Guest, Virendra Beniwal, Honble Minister o

State or Home Affairs and ransport, Govern-ment o Rajasthan, said: Rajasthan is playing

a leading role in the field o e-Governance,

despite I literacy levels being low and despite

being a late starter compared to southern states.

Raghuvir Singh Meena, Member o Parliament,

Udaipur; Mangilal Garasia, Minister o Sports,

Government o Rajasthan; Basanti Devi Meena,

MLA, Udaipur; Dr M P Narayanan, President,

Centre or Science Development and Media Stud-

ies; and Dr Ravi Gupta, CEO, Elets echnomedia

and Convenor, eGov Knowledge Exchange 2012

were also present at the inaugural session held atthe prestigious City Palace in Udaipur.

Brainstorming at its highTe three-day event witnessed sessions, thematic

presentations and discussions on landmark tech-

nologies. Overall 11 sessions were held, which

were clearly divided into technology-specific

sessions, such as Cloud Computing & Data

Centres, echnology in Security Optimisation,

elepresence & Video conerencing, etc; and

governance-specific sessions, such as Mantras o

e-Governance, IC Innovations in Governance,Public Saety, IC or Inclusive Growth, etc.

Besides, the event also offered a platorm to the

National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) executors

to talk about their projects in detail mentioning

the achievements made and obstacles aced.

One o the major challenges o e-Governance

programmes that emerged was the issue o lack

o cohesion. Government departments work

in silos, which is a major challenge. Te depart-

ments need to be much more cohesive to project

themselves as one single unit o the government

to the citizens. Proper I implementation is one

o the ways o achieving this, said Bipul Pathak.

alking about the importance o having a clear

vision in e-Governance, J Satyanarayana pointedout, We need to have clarity on what impact

do we want to have on the society through our

efforts and what difference can we make.

Sponsors and exhibitorsAlong with the DoI&C, Government o Raj-

asthan, RajCOMP Ino Services Ltd and the

National e-Governance Plan participated in

the eGov Knowledge Exchange 2012 as Host

Partners. Te Government Partners were SPI

and the Rajasthan Knowledge Corporation Ltd.

Cloud Partner was Akamai echnologies; SecuritySpecialist Partner was Check Point Sofware ech-

nologies; and Gold Sponsors were Cisco Systems

and Vakrangee Sofwares. Rajasthan Electronics

& Instruments Ltd (REIL) participated as the PSU

Partner while Radware, Presto Inosolutions and

Revolabs participated as the Sponsors o the event.

eGov Knowledge Exchange 2012 served as

a unique platorm or exhibitors to showcase

their I tools and solutions through an expo

that was running parallel with the sessions.

Among the kiosks put up were o Vakrangee

Sofwares; DoI&C, Government o Rajasthan;RajCOMP Ino Services Ltd; and REIL

Its an opportune moment

for Udaipur to host an event

like this where experts from

across the nation have

assembled together. I hope

the brainstorming shall help

in more e-Gov initiatives

RAGHUVIR SINGH MEENAMember of Parliament, Udaipur

The state government

has decided to allocate

up to three percent of

the annual plan budget

for e-Governance related

initiatives

VIRENDRA BENIWALHonble Minister of State for Home Affairs and

Transport, Government of Rajasthan


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44

Virendra Beniwal, Honble Minister for Home Affairs and Transport, Government of

Rajasthan, greeting Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs)

Indu Gupta, NIC, exchanging few words with B K Gairola, Mission Director,

e-Governance, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY)

L to R:Dr M P Narayanan, Ranjan Dwivedi, N Ravi Shankar, Dr Ravi Gupta, AsutoshDeshpande, Sanjay Malhotra, R K Tandon, Anju Sharma

The City Palace, Udaipur at sunset

Delegates and Speakers on a tour of The City Palace, Udaipur

Speakers and delegates attending a session at The Durbar Hall in The City

Palace, Udaipur

J Satyanarayana, Secretary, DeitY, Ministry of Communication and IT, Governmentof India, writing on the white board

Traditional Dance Show at the eGov Knowledge Exchange Forum

from eGov Knowledge Exchange 2012 at Udaipur, Rajasthan

Snapshots


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Integrated Systems

are NeededThe myriad components of government-to-citizen services areexisting in silos. We need to separate the silos and integrate

them into a single, homogeneous whole

oday everybody has

accepted e-Governanceas an essential compo-

nent of progress. We

dont hear from any

quarter be it political, bureaucratic, technical

or business that e-Governance is not

required. Tis recognition has taken place over

the last seven to eight years and now the road is

clear for us to move forward in a rapid mode.

Integrating governmentdepartments

e-Governance targets are moving targets andthey have the acceleration components the

speed tomorrow is going to be faster than

the speed yesterday. Terefore, it is extremely

important that we dont plan for five years,

but for two years. At every stage we need to

optimise and keep track of the goals, because

expectations are changing fast, and hence,

technology has to keep pace.

Te myriad components of the govern-

ment-to-citizen services are existing in silos.

From the citizens perspective, the government

is a single entity. Our back-end systems arenot integrated and are in silos. We need to

separate these silos and integrate them into a

single, homogeneous whole. Te user can log

into the cyberspace without having to worry

about the security, the operations and the

implementations.

We have issues on infrastructure, mindset,

processes, data standards and meta data

standard operations. Unless and until we have

integrated systems, citizens cannot get the

holistic view of e-Governance. e-Governance

can be considered to be complete only whenall the 1.2 billion people are able to interact

TB K Gairola,Mission Director, e-Gover-

nance, Department of Electronics and

Information Technology (DeitY), Govern-

ment of India

is a unique network, one that encompasses

research and development, governance and ,

R&D into a single entity.

Te National Optic Fibre Network System

is an`20,000-25,000 crore project, which will

give connectivity up to Panchayat level. Tisnetwork will provide you a seamless network

across 20-25 lakh government employees who

can do their workflow and service delivery in

a seamless manner. Te idea is to understand

how an ecosystem can be built at the Pan-

chayat level by making technology accessible.

We have not focused ourselves on develop-

ing appropriate standards. It has taken us

two years to define what we call standard

for identity. Tere is the UIDAI, which has

uniquely defined identity for Indian citizens.

We are also working on making sure thebanking structure is rolled out to the last mile.

Te identification system, the banking system

and the workflow system of this application

is going to give us the framework in which we

will be able to provide effective services and

participative governance to the citizens.

Te other area we are working on is

information. Information can be used by

industry as well as the common man. So now

every government department is making all its

data available in open domain called data.gov.

in. You can use this data in finding out what ishappening in village,; you can also use to find

out which are the vehicles which have done

more accidents and hold more LIC polic y,

etc. We are now looking at making the data,

which is developed by the government for the

citizens, is owned by the citizens and public.

Tis will bring in transparency, openness and

democratisation of information.

So now we are working on three compo-

nents creation of a national information

infrastructure where government can work

homogeneously; generation of a platform forthe service delivery which has Aadhaar on one

side, banking system on the other side and

application in the middle; and ensuring that

bulk of data which is not confidential is made

available to the people of the country. Tis

cannot be done by central government or state

government alone.

Tere are issues that are yet to be resolved

in technology, in mindset and in process but

we have to proactively work with the citizens,

allowing them to participate, create capacity

and enable them to exploit and utilise theresources that we are making.

with the government directly and have

transparency, openness and participation in

the governance process.

Landmark initiativesIn the last two years, we have taken up two

new projects, namely National Knowledge

Network and National Optic Fibre Network

System. Te National Knowledge Network

is a `6,000 crore project, whereby we have

connected 5,000 knowledge institutions /

universities into a single gigabit backbone

network. We know that k nowledge economy

is the economy of tomorrow and equipping

people with knowledge will empower every-body to earn his livelihood. Tis network


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Outcome, Outcome

& OutcomeWhen it comes to e-Governance, it is the outcomes that mattermore than anything else

t the morning

session o the

eGov Knowledge

Exchange, they

had a white boardon which the delegates were asked to write a

message. When my turn came to write, I wrote

spontaneously, Outcome, Outcome and

Outcome. Te point is that the expectations o

the people rom the government are very high,

and ultimately it is the outcomes that matter. Te

people in the country have waited or too long

and now they demand results. It is a high- time

that we, the government unctionaries, produce

the results.

e-Governance is a way by which we can try

to meet the myriad expectations o the people.Te outcome o all governance related activity

may mean different things to different people.

It could mean a birth certificate to somebody,

it could mean easy access to land records to

somebody else. So we need to have clarity on

what impact do we want to have on the society

through our efforts and what difference can we

make. Once we are clear about this, we will be

capable o doing good work.

While delivering e-Services we need to

ask ourselves i the services are simply a case

o old wine in new bottle, or are they totallydifferent and transormed services? We need

AJ Satyanarayana, Secretary, DeitY,

Ministry of Communication and IT,Government of India

that idea? Ultimately it boils down to how?

Ten comes the stage or planning where

you have to re-engineer or where there is no

process in place and you may have to invent or

design rom a clean slate perspective. You have

to entrust it to an agency which is competentenough and then monitor the project to ensure

its timely implementation. Tese are airly

simple or primary lessons in management but I

am putting it in perspective o e-Governance.

We also need to have an enabling environ-

ment. In a country as large as India with

35 states and union territories, certain

programmes are being conceptualised,

unded, promoted, supported by the central

government and several others are being

taken at state levels its not a trivial task.

Once you have the right environment it willenable quick and elegant transormation o

that idea into reality. So it will have several

other components clear implementation

guidelines whether rom the Centre or rom

the States. We also need to have flexibility at

various levels o legal rameworks so that the

new system is legally sustainable. Te last but

not the least, it is the leadership which is key

to the success o any project. Te leader is the

one whose mind is always occupied with the

outcome. His eyes are always glued to that

particular outcome. He does the consulta-tions, but at the end o the day he has his

clarity and he doesnt deviate rom the goal.

While developing its e-Goverannce initia-

tives, DietYs philosophy has been to guide,

to expedite, to acilitate and to produce the

desired outcome. Now a lot o guidelines and

rameworks have been put in place. We are also

attempting rapid replication, where there is

hope or quick success. Why dont you pick it

up and replicate rapidly, so that the outcomes

are achieved in much more quicker manner

across the country.I would also like to talk about the e-transaction

portal. We have designed it and it is now opera-

tional. In e-Governance, the scenario boils down

to e-transactions how many e-transactions have

we done today! So to enable some resonance to

happen across the country, this portal has been

created. Any service delivery mechanism, any

service delivery project can link to this portal

seamlessly through web services and report

the kind o transactions on a real-time basis. So

when a transaction happens in a remote village

somewhere, the next minute it is there on theportal and we are able to view it.

DietYs philosophy has been to

guide, expedite, facilitate and

produce the desired outcome

of its e-Goverannce initiatives

to assess the quantity o services that we are

delivering are we covering the entire set o

services and the entire set o target stakehold-

ers that are interested in taking those, are we

serving every nook and corner o this country?

Also the quality o services matter. Very ofen

deficiencies raise their heads when we are

defining one or more o these three essential

requirements o service delivery system. We

know what to do and also know how to dothings better, but then how do we implement


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Taking Broadband

to PanchayatsThe National Optic Fibre Network is undoubtedly going to be a

game changer. It would connect 2,50,000 gram panchayats to

the mainstream, hence enabling inclusive growth and facilitating

socio-economic transformation

o enable IC applications

and to have outcomes

we need to have very

good inrastructure. Te

National Optic Fibre

Network (NOFN) is an initiative o the Depart-

ment o elecommunications, Government o

India, or the purpose o creating e-inrastructure

across the country. It would connect 2,50,000

gram panchayats to the mainstream. Right now

optic fibre network is present only up to the

block level and the endeavor o the Departmento elecom is to ensure that this reaches the gram

panchayats as well so that our villages become

part o inclusive growth.

We have started pilot projects in three states,

with Rajasthan being one o them. In Arian block

o Ajmer district, Rajasthan, 30 gram panchayats

have been wired up and 100 mbps has been

made available. Tis bandwidth is ar higher than

what even the residents in urban areas have. Te

idea is i you have high quality bandwidth then

all the activities such as telemedicine, e-Learning,

e-Governance, e-Commerce can be enabled.Tis will give an opportunity to villagers to move

T

Ofen I is thought o as some instant trans-

ormation process. But in countries like India

we consider it as an incremental transormation

because there are many other actors that go into

creating the ecosystem or transormation. Tree

major policies by the Ministry o Communica-tion and I, namely the National elecom Policy,

the National Policy on I and the National Policy

on Electronics are dependent on the inrastruc-

ture that is expected to be created by the NOFN.

For instance, the National elecom Policy seeks

to have 600 million broadband connections by

2020. Tis will be possible only when the rollout

o the NOFN does occur. Te government

expects to roll out the project by December 2030,

which is a tough deadline. Fund is not a problem

or this project though. Tis initial estimate o the

project was`20,000 crore and we expect that theNOFN project would be unded entirely by the

USOF. Te Bharat Broadband Network Limited is

a special purpose vehicle created or this project.

As or the ecosystem and participation process

or the project, it is Public Private Panchayat Part-

nerships, because panchayats are an important

partner in the whole progress. We need to ensure

that first o all the I content being provided to

the masses is in local flavour. Tis implies that a

lot o I developers would be needed to ensure

that the back-end content generated is relevant.

Secondly, a lot o indigenously developed, afford-able devices would be needed that are accessible

to the local area. Te third thing is competitive

prices. Te data sector will have to monitor the

competition among players and ensure that on

the strength o content and devices being very

affordable, competitive tariff is also created or

the total ecosystem or broadband to take off.

NOFN is undoubtedly going to be a game

changer. All development indicators can be

monitored and this broadband network could

definitely acilitate growth. We have to use the

combination o both hand-held devices and alsodesktops and laptops, to see that we are able to

create the genesis o growth. I think all o these

would be definitely go to create an inclusive

paradigm. I would think that this broadband

will create a world o change or Rural India.

Fify years ago people used to sayMera Gaon

Mera Desh, but now with broadband penetra-

tion spreading up to village levels and helping

citizens avail various services online in their

villages, the uture generation will coin a new

slogan;Mera Desh Mera Gaon. And this will

be due to combination o IC and broadbandinrastructure.

Public Private Panchayat

Partnerships shall be the ecosystem

as panchayats are an important

partner in the whole progress

N Ravi Shankar, Administartor (USOF)

and CMD, Bharat Broadband Network

Limited

out o the poverty line. It is part o the inclusive

growth story that i you take inrastructure

to the villages, you will acilitate their socio-economic transormation as well.


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Meeting the Demands

of the Public throughe-GovernanceICT can serve as a big enabler by providing the tools that can

facilitate better service delivery by myriad departments and

thereby meet the expectations of the public

-Governance is basically

about the new ways in

which services can be

delivered to the public. oday we are witness-

ing a huge rise in the expectations that the

public has rom the government, municipal

administration and rom all the bodies o

government. It is immensely challenging or us

to cope up with the rising expectations.

Te country is in the middle o a catharsis, as

the Civil Society is demanding more and more

rom the government. Te government in turnis trying its best to live up to the expectations

o the common citizens o the country. In such

an environment o rising expectations, IC can

serve as a big enabler. It provides us with the

tools that can acilitate better service delivery

by myriad departments and thereby meet the

expectations o the public.

All o us present here have definite roles

to play the role or those o you rom the

private sector is to maximise profit and the

role o those rom the government is to deliver

services to the public. But ultimately, we are allcitizens o this country, and we too are amongst

e

Sanjay Malhotra, Secretary, Department

of Information Technology & Communica-tion, Government of Rajasthan

those who will derive benefits rom IC initia-

tives o the government. So despite the position

we may occupy, it is in our interest to keep

implementing new innovations in governance.

Mantras of e-GovernanceFor both the public and the private sector who

are working or the government, the field o

e-Governance is raught with challenges. Sofware

development is very complex, tedious, time-con-

suming, requirement gathering, etc. So replication

becomes important. Te successes that we have

had lately have been aster on the replication side.

Arogya Online is a wonderul example o replica-

tion o sofware. Te sofware was already running

in one o the private hospitals in Maharashtra and

we replicated it in Rajasthan.

In e-Procurement, we are using e-enderingwhich is sofware o the National Inormatics

Centre (NIC). We are replicating the success o

e-Office, which is again an NIC product. Along

with replication, knowing your requirement

is also very important. You have to tell them

what you want. Tis is generally absent. When

we want to do something, we just do it or the

sake o doing it or it comes more rom the side

o the people who are selling it. Te project

shouldnt be vendor-driven.

I you are not replicating, the process o

implementing new ideas in e-Governance canbecome very long. You have to start with busi-

ness process re-engineering. Te thing is that

sofware development takes time. Lot o changes

have to be made. We also need to change the

mindset o the people who are going to use the

new IC based systems. We have taken certain

measures to reduce the time. We have tried to

adopt the philosophy o not trying to re-invent

the wheel. Tis cuts down drastically about

60-85 percent o implementation.

Urban developmentAs the cities are growing, problems o pol-

lution, traffic, garbage collection, municipal

services, etc become larger. As more and more

population is coming to cities, it becomes more

important to deliver those services through a

seamless online process.

Te pressure on municipal bodies and other

bodies is increasing with growing population.

And there are many areas where I can be used.

For example, Andhra Pradesh is using I or effi-

cient garbage collection, whereby they are using

mobile technology and photographs to monitor ithe concerned people are doing their job.

If you are not replicating, the

process of implementing new

ideas in e-Governance can

become very long


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IT is the Big Enabler

for Inclusive Growthe-Governance is all about enabling better governance in the

country. We need to ensure that the current level of governance

in the states and centre is close to the ideal of good governance.

People who are engaged in the task of governing must be con-

stantly assessing themselves

oday most state govern-

ments are at various

stages of rolling out

many of their services

in e format. Tis is an attempt to facilitate a

move towards good governance. However,

we are still far from the stage where we can

provide best possible governance to the

people. If you talk to the citizens, residing in

areas where such e-services have been rolledout, you will find that their expectations are of

even better services. Tey do not want to apply

for six different services from the same kiosk

six times. Tat is a major challenge.

e-Governance, within our system, is strug-

gling. Citizens perceive that the government

is contrived out of a singular unit, but behind

the scene we lack that kind of cohesion. Gov-

ernment departments work in silos. Hence,

the internal governance of the government

itself is a major challenge and the departments

T

Bipul Pathak, Commissioner & Secretary,

Science & Technology and Information

Technology Department, Government of

Jammu & Kashmir

need to be much more cohesive to project

themselves as one single unit of the govern-

ment to the citizens.

Tis challenge of lack of cohesion has to

be handled by most of the state governments.

Proper I implementation is one of the waysof achieving this.

Urban developmentIn our country, urban development catches

up with the existing realities rather than

being planned in a proper and thoughtful

manner. Many cities do not have plans for

the basic amenities even for the urban rich.

Even if planning catches up later, there is

hardly any advance planning. Tis phenom-

enon used to happen around metro cities;

but with rapid urbanisation in the last 10-15years, we are finding this phenomenon now

happening around cities with 1 million

population as well. We are talking about

places like Ludhiana and Jaipur. We are not

able to manage cities well, and these are the

sources of social exclusion.

How does I fit into this? Te telecom

revolution did bring about social inclusion.

At least the lowest strata of society today

is in the position to connect in the same

way as the rich people. In terms of urban

development, we are not able to manageencroachment on the public land. Better

deployment of GIS systems can lead to curb-

ing of encroachments. In fact, GIS systems

are already being used by many urban local

bodies to keep a track of the public land in

urban areas.

I would argue that I in various forms

can be a good enabler for advance planning.

Our piping networks have to be mapped, so

that we have a better water supply manage-

ment system. Same goes for other municipal

services and structures which have to beproperly mapped, planned, kept on mainte-

nance mode, etc, through the use of I. Ten

we will be in a position of advance planning,

not catching up.

Its all about advance planning; we need to

use technology, we need to use I and other

kind of technology available for better urban

planning, development and management.

Tat is the only way forward and hopefully

we will be able to achieve some kind of

planning model in urban areas.

Our piping networks have to be

mapped for better water supply

management. Same goes for other

municipal services and structures


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Ensuring Seamless

Delivery of RailwayTicketsIRCTC has been playing a big role in last mile connectivity. The

success of IRCTC can also be seen as a vote for e-Commerce

in the country

t is in the area of last mile con-

nectivity that the Indian Railway

Catering and ourism Corporation

(IRCC) has been playing a big role.

A large section of our population is

using IRCC services to reach their

destinations. Te success of IRCC can also

be seen as a vote for e-Commerce in the coun-

try. According to some estimates, in 2012,

the e-Commerce sector has seen a growth of

almost 80 percent in India, whereas the figurestands at only 25 percent in China.

e-Commerce also facilitates a more green

way of conducting business. For instance,

there is the IRCC e-ticket. Nothing gets

printed and yet the passengers are able to

conduct their rail journey in a s afe and

hassle-free manner. On the day when IRCC

portal was launched, only around 27 tickets

got sold. Since then the sale of tickets have

zoomed to levels that are beyond anyones

expectations. he highest ever per day book-

I

ing is 4.96 lakh e-tickets on July 13, 2012.

For the sale of online tickets, IRCC is

charging only `10 to 20. he Ministry of

Railways has been insisting that why we

should not make the sale of tickets free.

But we also understand that someonehas to pay for the infrastructure that is

leading to the efficient generation of

online tickets. It is better that we charge

this nominal sum from our end users.

In my opinion, anyone who buys a

railway ticket from IRCC is richer by

at least `90. his is because he will be

paying us only `10 out of the `100 that

he might have to spend in coming to

the railway station booking counter and

standing there for few hours. Even if he

comes by bus, he will have to spend atleast `100. If he comes by car, he will be

spending much more by way of fuel costs

and also the parking fees.

Now IRCC has started the service of

ticket on SMS. My appeal to all of you who

use IRCC services is that you should not

take a print out of the tickets. Te SMS

confirmation of the ticket booking that

you receive is a valid ticket. Nothing else is

required. In future, we plan to make even

the SMS ticket redundant. If you know

your berth number, coach number and thePNR number, you can just walk into the

train and occupy your seat.

At times, we have to face some flak

from users who find the speed of ser vices

being provided by the IRCC website

somewhat slow. In those times, when

there is heavy influx of traffic from users

all over the country, the website will slow

down a bit. But we are making a lot of

new technological changes to ensure that

the speed remains optimised at all times.

We are gradually shifting a number ofactivities to separate servers. Other strate-

gies are also being implemented.

he thing is that a ticketing portal

is not only a portal; it has a number of

services attached to it. he call centre,

service requirements, incoming mails,

trouble-shooting, ensuring payment

security, tying up with banks, manage-

ment of 18 payment gateways, and a huge

front-end all this needs to be tackled in

order to provide best possible services to

our end users.

IRCTC has started the service

of ticket on SMS, whereby

the confirmation of booking

via SMS is a valid ticket and

nothing else is required

Rakesh Kumar Tandon, Managing Direc-

tor, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism

Corporation (IRCTC)


10/22



eGovernance is definitely a challenge for both the public and the

private sector who are working for the government. Software develop-

ment is very complex, tedious, time-consuming, requirement gathering,

etc. So replication becomes important. The successes that we have had

lately have been faster on the replication side.

Sanjay Malhotra,Secretary, Department of Information Tech-nology and Communication, Government of Rajasthan

Debasish BandopoadhyayDeputy Secretary-IT, Govern-

ment of West Bengal

e-Governance is about freedom of

delivery mechanism and choice of

the citizen. It is not merely comput-

erisation of the existing projects,

but about increasing efficiency

of those projects. It is a mode of

service orientation, efficiency,

transparency and cost-efficiency.

Dr Aatul WadegaonkarManaging Director, Rajasthan

Knowledge Corporation Ltd

A lot of capacity building is taking

place through us, so that the targets

of all e-Gov initiatives are achieved.

Even in unreachable places, people

are able to take their learning. Digi-

tal Saheli is one such programme

empower women. In the last four

years, about 5 lakh learners have

been trained under this.

Dr Meera SinghHead Bioinformatics Centre,

Indian Council of Medical Research

IT has benefited mankind by

leaps and bounds in the field of

biomedical research. IT has played

a major role in the development

of immense databases needed in

the research; in the development

of data mining tools for those

databases; and in the analysis of

those databases as well.

Mantras of

e-GovernanceBy the virtue of being the enablers of e-Governance, ICs serve

as tools in processes for transformation and change. Te session

had a healthy discussion on how new initiatives in e-Governance

are leading to better social outcomes.


11/22



Indu Gupta,Senior Technical Director and State Informatice

Officer, National Informatics Centre, Rajasthan

The Pregnancy and Child Tracking System the flagship programme

of the Government of Rajasthan was one of its first initiatives in

the country. It has been highly appreciated not only by national levelagencies such as the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, but also

worldwide by the WHO, the UN, World Bank and by the advisor to the

President of the US.

Tapan Kumar

ACP (Deputy Director), Department of

Information Technology & Communication,

Government of Rajasthan

Aarogya Online project was started in 2007 with

the biggest hospital in western India that caters to

around 8,000 patients daily. We started with the

computerising the complete hospital in a phased

manner. As a result, our patient management

improved. Till date we have covered around 40

lakh patients and around 83 lakh investigations

have been done through this system. Investigation

reports and availability of blood in blood banks are

now available online.

Dr M B Dholakia

Joint CEO, Gujarat Knowledge Society

When you talk about ICT implementation, you have

to be very clear about what you want why you are

doing it, who are the beneficiaries, what are the

modalities, and the provisions that you are supposed

to make. We have to create that kind of governance

where we can moniotor the trainers, the trainees as

well as the private bodies. We need to be clear about

the objectives of the private bodies. We provide

the trainer and private companies provide funding.

The private players need to take e-Governance as a

Corporate Social Responsibility initiative and not as

a part of their business strategy.

Indu Gupta from NIC signing on the eGov Knowledge Exchange white borad Audience attending the session


12/22



Major Gen R Siva Kumar,CEO and Head, NRDMS and NSDI,

Government of India

The Government of India has realised the importance of g-governance.

So now in the twelfth five-year plan, under the Department of Scienceand Technology, it is launching a massive program called National

Geospatial Information Systems. It shall bring together all excellent

work done across the country and offer practical solutions.

Santulan Chaubey, Director, Delhi eGovernance Society

We created Delhi Geo Spatial Act 2011, which has made manda-

tory for all users of land departments to use the Delhi State

Spatial Data and also update it. Basically, the purpose is that

whatever data is collected will remain there and its updation will

be sustainable. So the data will be there and we can use this data

for our applications.

ICT Innovations in Governance

Dr K K Pathak

Secretary, Rajas-

than Public Service

Commission

While technology is

making inroads in all

aspects of governance

and making innova-

tions, we also need to

be watchful about tech-

nology not becoming

an obstacle in anyway.

We need to analyse

if there is a real and

genuine demand

for the services and

solutions that we are

offering.

Prem Narayan

Director, Ministry of

Urban Development,

Government of India

e-Awas our e-Govern-

ance Award winning

national website takes

care of 66,000 online

houses allotments

in Delhi alone. Other

initiatives include e-Seva,

CPWD online service

monitoring for govern-

ment accommodation

and maintenance; and

e-Dharti, an initiative on

management of govern-

ment properties.

V K Sharma

CEO & Director, Guja-

rat Info Petro Ltd

We have created

Smartphone Surveillance

System for the ForestDepartment, whereby all

beat guards are provided

with a smartphone and

central control command

monitors their position

& alerts them. Also we

have Crop Certifying

System and Tablet-based

Seed Certification for the

Agriculture Department;

and e-Challan System

for the Traffic Police.

Sandeep Ahlawat,

Head, State e-Mission

Team SeMT, Govern-

ment of Delhi

In order to bring in effi-

ciency and sustainability,

around twelve states

have enforced Service

Guarantee Act. This

ensures that the govern-

ment departments

deliver their services in

a time-bound manner.

If a delivery is delayed

beyond stipulated period

then a penalty will be

paid to the consumer.


13/22



Bipul Pathak, Commissioner & Secretary, Science &

Technology and Information Technology Department,

Government of Jammu & Kashmir

We need to assess where we stand today. All state governments are

at various stages of rolling out many of their services in e form. This

is an attempt to move up the spectrum towards good governance.

But if we assess it in a rational manner, we would realise that we are

somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.

Aravind Sitaraman

President, Inclusive Growth, Cisco

We need to bring inclusive growthnot just to catch up with developed

nations, but to leapfrog into the

future. In order to do that we need

to: build strong partnerships of

government with service providers,

universities, NGOs and industry

associations; build human capital in

a way so that money goes back to

the rural systems; and build afford-

able business models in a way so

that people can utilise technology

and services.

Joan Mccalla

Distinguished Fellow, Cisco

The Government of Canadaadopted a four-stream

approach in the 1990s to

address the issue of inclusive

growth. These included address-

ing the market gap that existed

in both supply and demand

of technology, stimulating

demand, providing direct sup-

port to industry, and adopting

technology in its functioning

to prove how technology could

help in transforming operations.

Major Gen R Siva Kumar

CEO and Head, NRDMS and

NSDI, Dept of Science and

Technology, Govt of India

As most of the human activities

are related to location, there

is need for geo-governance

(g-Governance)) more than

e-Governance. Goverance has to

be location-based. We are trying to

use maps and are trying to migrate

from these maps to the apps that

people are using today. These

should provide g-Governance and

empower people.

Ravi Saxena,Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Sci-

ence & Technology, Government of Gujarat

Good governance obliges the state to perform its functions in a manner

that promotes the values of efficiency, zero corruption and responsive-

ness to civil society. Therefore, it becomes a principle that is largely

associated with the statecraft. Ensuring inclusive growth, leadership,

legal infrastructure, security, transparency, ability to deal with crisis,

education, effective execution, accountability and access to beneficiar-

ies are some of the parameters of good governance.

e-Governance for Good Governance & Inclusive Growth


14/22



K Gururaja Rao,CMD, Gujarat Informatics Limited

Had Cloud Computing come before applications, probably we could

have made better utilisation of infrastructure. But in India, it happened

the other way round. We started with individual apps for which wedeveloped individual hardware and kept them in different servers and

now we are trying to consolidate them into data centres. The challenge

is that hardwares exist in individual silos and we now need to devise

ways how to move towards a unified Cloud.

Ruchin Kumar, Security Evangelist India & SAARC,

SafeNet India Pvt Ltd

Security is a major concern for organisations to move into Cloud Comput-

ing. Our survey with large organisations showed that virtualisation, which

is sort of private Cloud environment for consolidation of data, has become

an important part of the complete Cloud infrastructure. Confidentiality,

integrity and accessibility at the very beginning of data lifecycle should be

incorporated to ensure that even if someone intrudes into the networks he

should only get trash and not access to meaningful data.

Cloud Computing and Data Centres

Jaydeep Nargund

Sr Service Line

Manager, Akamai

Technologies

Adoption of Cloud is

important not only

for the government

departments but also for

enterprises. Customers

trust our Cloud platform

to securely deliver high-

performing user experi-

ences to any device,

anywhere. Our platform

provides customers with

unmatched reliability,

security, and visibility into

their online businesses.

With more and more

businesses migrating to

the Cloud, the growing

Infrastructure-as-a-Ser-

vice market represents a

significant revenue gen-

erating opportunity for

hosting companies and

Cloud service providers.

Our Smart Choice Cloud

Partner Program will

give service providers

tools to meet the grow-

ing demand.

Sanjeev Chauhan

Technology Head

North and East India,

Radware

Sharat Kaviraj

SP, State Crime

Record Bureau, Gov-

ernment of Rajasthan

We are facing challenges

in rolling out the CCTNS

pilot project, a flagship

project of the Govern-

ment of India to connect

all police stations across

the country, through

State Data Centres. As

the SDCs are currently

not working optimally,

the implementing

agency suggested shar-

ing their data centre for

the pilot project roll-out.

Aman Madhok

Regional Head

North and East India,

Radware

Radware is a global

leader in application

delivery and applica-

tion security. Seventy

percent of data centres

of e-Governance are by

Radware.


15/22



Ranjan Dwivedi,Member, UP Police, Bharti Avam Pronnati

Board, Lucknow

We are often at a loss as to what to do when it comes to the issue of

security in cyber space. Although the common man knows how to use

IT, the whole issue of how to address security concerns eludes many of

us. And this is a serious problem. If we have a sense of security as to

what we can do to make our organisation, data, hardware and software

more secure, then we will be optimising at least our own environment.

Technology in Security Optimisation

Ramandeep SinghHead - Systems Engineering, India & SAARC

Countries, Check Point Software Technologies

In order to optimise the investments and decisions on

security deployment, we need to be very clear as to

what exactly are we trying to protect. In the current

scenario, there is a proliferation of collaborative

apps, P2P apps and gadgets which have to be con-

tinuously incorporated into the security framework

of computing. Security is a requirement which never

ends. So we need to keep evolving our understanding

of the risks hovering over new applications.

K RamAdditional Director General, Intelligence

Bureau, Jaipur

For companies to survive in present times, its no

more enough to recruit skilled manpower, unlike the

past. Rather, incorporating advanced technology has

become a must. We dont have a choice, as we have

competition across the globe. Hence, its mandatory

for us to have the latest technology. If we are opting

for advanced technology, we have to also guard it well

in order to ensure that it is not taken away.

Audience attending the session L to R:Dr Ravi Gupta, Muktesh Pardesi, A S Bhal, Prem Narayan and V K

Sharma during the session


16/22



K Gururaja Rao,CMD, Gujarat Informatics Limited

Video conferencing is an area which is effectively being used in improv-

ing the quality of governance. In Gujarat, we are using it especially in

education and medical field. SWAGAT (State Wide Attention on Griev-

ances by Application of Technology) an online grievance redressal

programme - is an initiative whereby our CM directly interacts with

people at various levels. It has won UN award for the Best Interaction

with Citizen-Centric Service. I am hopeful that more departments

across the nation shall adopt this techniology for better governance.

Prakash Kumar,Director, Internet Business Solutions

Group, Cisco

Telepresence solutions that enable us to participate in another loca-

tion without physically travelling there are being used by different

industries, namely healthcare in the form of telemedicine, banking

sector, retail, manufacturing, law & judiciary, as well as media &

entertainment.

Telepresence and Video Conferencing

V K SharmaCEO & Director, Gujarat Info Petro Ltd

In Gujarat, we are utilising the facility of video conferenc-

ing for healthcare and education. If any major operation

is happening, it is videocast to all medical colleges across

the state. Similarly, there is a collaboration with ten

universities in the US whereby every year lecturers deliver

lectures to students of Pt Deen Dayal Petroleum Univer-

sity through video conferencing. Under the Sarva Shiksha

Abhiyan, all schools in the state are being connected

through technology and if teachers are not available,

lectures are still being provided through teleworking.

Roshan GuptaCountry Manager, India & Middle East,

Revolabs

Collaboration over video and audio nowadays has

become an important tool for efficient communica-

tion, productive meetings and saving time. However,

the adaptability and usage is not as high as expected,

mainly because of poor availability of tools. Revolabs

microphones have an edge as they offer great audio

quality, are totally cell phone interference free, are

small and easy to handle, highly secure & encrypted,

and are cost-effective as well.


17/22



B??????, S??????????Sanjay Malhotra,Secretary, Department of InformationTechnology & Communication, Government of Rajasthan

As the cities are growing, problems of pollution, traffic, garbage collec-

tion, municipal services, etc become larger. As more and more popula-

tion is coming to cities, it becomes more important to deliver those

services and IT has a huge role to play in this. For eg Andhra Pradesh is

using IT for efficient garbage collection, whereby they are using mobile

technology and photographs to monitor if the concerned people are

doing their job.

Bipul Pathak

Commissioner & Secretary, Science & Technology

and Information Technology Department, Govern-

ment of Jammu & Kashmir

We are not able to manage encroachment on the

public land and for that I think the GIS system should

be used more. Its all about advance planning; we

need to use technology, we need to use IT and other

kind of technology available for better urban plan-

ning, development and management. That is the only

way forward and hopefully we will be able to achieve

some kind of planning model in urban areas.

A S Bhal

Economic Adviser, Ministry of Urban Develop-

ment, Government of India

We are very emotionally attach with the term rural.

Cities are the great inclusive growth engines and we

must encourage them to grow. The huge challenge

of urbanisation is lack of infrastructure in terms of

water supplies, sanitation and urban transport. Thats

because we came in late on to the urban development

escalator. The IT is the great enabler which will help us

develop inclusive and smart cities.

Urban Development& New Horizons of

Social InclusionIn order to cater to the needs o the large numbers o peopleliving and working in urban areas, the government departments

need to deploy new technologies to bring more efficiency and

transparency into their operations. Tis session at Knowledge

Exchange Forum was devoted to analysing new technologies

or better decision making and anticipating problems that ofen

surace in modern urban societies


18/22



N Ravi Shankar

Administrator (USOF) and CMD,

Bharat Broadband Network Ltd

The National Optical Fibre Network

project will be a game changer.

Fifty years ago people used to say

Mera Gaon Mera Desh, but now with

broadband penetration upto village

levels, the future generation will coin

a new slogan; Mera Desh Mera Gaon.

This will be due to combination of

ICT and broadband infrastructure.

Sanjay Malhotra

Secretary, Department of

Information Technology &

Communication, Government

of Rajasthan

The expectations of people are

increasing so much that now it is

increasingly becoming a challenge for

us to learn how to cope up with those

expectations. We have had challenges

in producing the outcomes at the

speed that everyone would want.

Ritu Maheshwari

District Magistrate, Shahjahan-

pur, Uttar Pradesh

Unless all the schemes or projects

reach the final stage or to till

that time they are useless. All the

schemes should be focused on

the common man. Health is a very

crucial parameter of development

but we are still way behind the

Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs) set by the United Nations.

J Satyanarayana, Secretary, DeitY, Ministry of Communicationand IT, Government of India

What counts eventually is the outcome of all our efforts. Irrespective of

the departments and the agency (public or private), it is eventually effi-

ciency, convenience and transparency in service delivery that we look for.

Whether its service to a citizen or service to a business or internal service

within the organisation. Expectations of the people from the government

are very high, and ultimately it is the outcomes that matter. It is high time

that we, the government functionaries, produce the results.

LeveragingConnectivity tothe Last MileTe central governments promise to provide connectivity to

2, 50,000 Gram Panchayats is all set to come true in 2013, as the

project for laying of National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) is

underway. Tis session had an excellent presentation of ideas on

how the NOFN project will make a difference.


19/22



Mayur Maheshwari, Special Secretary, Irrigation

Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh

We have created a database that is helping us reach indivdual

families, and also helping us in involving the communities. With thehelp of database, as we are involving all stakeholders, including

aanganwaadi workers, gram pradhans, etc, so our reach and penetra-

tion has increased tremendously and we are able to reach right up to

the individual level.

Anupam Shrivastava

Senior General Manager, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd

About 70 percent of the work of NOFN is executed

by BSNL. A pilot was carried out in the Aryi block

of Ajmer district, which has a total of 30 panchyats.

BSNL is willing to provide end-to-end solutions to

several citizen-centric services. We must convert

Rajiv Gandhi IT Centre into an edutainment centre,

where we can provide Internet services, voice

telephony, and IPTV so that the villagers can come to

the IT Centre and avail these facilities.

Rakesh Tandon

MD, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism

Corporation (IRCTC)

IRCTC is going to revolutionise the concept of e-ticket

from February 2013. A passenger will not have to carry

even an e-ticket on his or her mobile phone. Rather, a

simple ID proof with the PNR written on his palm will

be sufficient to traval by train. It will be a true green

initiative by the IRCTC.

L to R:Dr Omkar Rai, Muktesh Pardesi, Samir Chaudhury attending

the sessionAarti Grover, Director CMS, participating in the question & answer round


20/22



Prakash Kumar, Director, Internet Business Solutions

Group, Cisco

We need to analyse three aspects: how do we use technology to accelerateincident detection; how do we automate response; and how do we enablecollaboration between people who are on the site and those who are sittingat the district head quarters like SP, IG or the CM. The objective is to reducethe time between incident detection and response by empowering thefield personnel to make decisions based on available information and to

disseminate right information to the right people at the right time.

Sharat Kaviraj

SP, State Crime Record Bureau,Rajasthan

ICT has not been effectively used bythe police department yet. CCTNS isa major project to be implemented inthe country, that will connect all policestations across the country to statedata centres, which in turn will beconnected to the national data centre.It will also automate all crime recordsof the police stations, implying thatthe entire country will have one VCNB(crime records of police station), thusleading to integrated crime records.

Purushottam Sharma

ADG (Police Reforms &Community Policing), Bhopal

The Indian railways and the bankingsectors have been the two largestbeneficiaries of IT revolution in thecountry, and I am optimistic thatthe Indian police will be the third inthis respect. Twenty-two states inthe country are having AutomatedFingerprint Identification System(AFIS), by which you capture thefingerprint of a criminal and canfind him/her. Eleven more statesneed to go for AFIS.

Manoj Agarwal

IGP, State Crime Records Bureau(SCRB), Government of Gujarat

In Gujarat, we have been trying tocomputerise each and every levelof the police department. We havedeveloped web-based applications,not only for tracking criminals,lodging FIRS, or investigations but wehave gone ahead in covering otherambits of the police department aswell. Apart from the CCTNS, AFIS andMIS, we have also adopted apps likee-prison. We are optimising the exist-ing manpower by using IT services.

Ranjan Dwivedi,Member, UP Police, Bharti Avam PronnatiBoard, Lucknow

Only seven to eight percent of the countrys population speaks English.Unless you can mainstream English language computing in IT anddevelop protocols and interoperability that pre-requires that Indianlanguage should be mainstreamed in official work in the country, justiceto the people will remain a distant dream.

Public Safety


21/22



Aadhaar is our future. With the direct cash transfers coming in, we have a

long way to go. Both the Government of India and the state governments

are in the process of working out the detailed modalities for all the 42

schemes that have been taken up for Aadhaar. We belong to an era in which

a lot of e-Governance applications have been developed at various levels in

the government. These applications have brought in a lot of change in not

only the governance but also in peoples lives.

Anju Sharma,Secretary, Women & Child development,Government of Gujarat

Dr Omkar RaiDirector General, Software

Technology Parks of India

Including people while we are

growing is a big challenge, espe-

cially for a country like ours with a

population 1.2 billion. Definitely the

benefits of prosperity and growth

havent reached all. However, with

the advent of IT tools, we are find-

ing it easy to take the prosperity,

jobs and growth to the masses.

Muktesh PardesiJt Secretary & Chief PassportOfficer, Ministry of ExternalAffairs, Government of India

The Passport Seva project was

conceived in 2006 with the intention

of giving hassle-free service to the

citizens. In 2011, we issued more than

73.65 lakh passports. This year we

are expecting to issue passport to

eight million people. ICT enablement

has improved the overall operations

in passport offices.

Ajay BhargavaAGM, Corporate Planning and

IT, Rajasthan Electronics &

Instruments Ltd

We have been trying to leverage

ICT in our various initiatives. Our

company is an outcome of the

NDDB initiative of the Government

which was aimed to take electron-

ics to the villages in order to

empower the rural folk and bring

inclusive growth.

ICT for Inclusive

GrowthTe nation needs to ensure that every section of society is able

to reap the fruits of development. Tis session was devoted

to discussing the ways by which development could be made

more inclusive through the use of ICs and by other means.


22/22


Samir Chaudhury,Additional General Manager, Power Grid

Corporation of India

Information Technology and power network have both similarities as

well as dissimilarities. Both are utilities and on demand services. They

both are connected in interconnected mode in which power is named

as grid and interconnected network is called Internet. Both these two

components are equally dynamic in nature. However, as far as power

is concerned there is zero tolerance unlike the Internet, where we can

wait for a few seconds before it starts functioning.

Korath V Mathew

Senior State Projects Coordinator, UIDAI

Aadhaar is the largest biometric database, consist-

ing of more than 25 crore. 28 crore has already

been enrolled. We have very successfully piloted our

applications, and we have been able to get online

authentication from remote places. The online

authentication system is very fast and operates at a

speed of 200 mili second. It is a super fast process.

Indu Gupta

State Informatics Officer & Senior Technical Direc-

tor, National Informatics Officer

L to R:Dr Ravi Gupta, Sanjay Malhotra, Samir Chaudhury, Muktesh

Pardesi, Dr Omkar Rai, Anju Sharma, N Ravi Shankar, Indu Gupta, Korath V

Mathew, Ajay Bhargava, Krishan Giridhar

Question answer round during the session, while Prakash Kumar from

Cisco looks on

For UIDAI direct cash transfers, scheme inforamtion auto-

mation is imperative. Scheme data and beneficiaries data

have to be made online. There are two major challenegs.

First, Aadhaar seeding in the existing databases is needed.

Databases are ready but how do we populate them with

UIDAI? Secondly, bank accounts need to be made and

mechanism of direct cash transfer has to be evolved.

eGov Knowledge Exchange, Udaipur 2012, Event Report

Documents

Transcript of eGov Knowledge Exchange, Udaipur 2012, Event Report