Wednesday, 15 January 2014

BEST PRACTICES : e GOV

1.Online Application System of Rajasthan Public Service Commission
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This initiative was conferred Gold award in the category of “Best Government Portal” in the National e-Governance Awards, 2013 [Uploaded on on 5th July, 2013]
Rajasthan Public Service commission (RPSC) is a constitutional body like Public Service Commissions in other states of India, established to take up recruitments for various Government positions. The Online Application System was initiated in year 2011 to cope up with the challenges of pendency in recruitment process. The System is unique with “Single Window” Online Application System. RPSC utilizes the services of e-Mitra and CSCs for Exam Fee deposition and Online form Submission.
RPSC has strived to make this system responsive. The candidates are being informed through SMS and email, if required. RPSC also promotes information through social networking sites, so that applicants should not only be properly acknowledged, but easily informed. Since the commencement of this System, 20 lac candidates have already applied for more than 100 exams. It has saved almost Rs 1.5 crore within one year, which recovered its project costs.

2.  Integrated System for Online Generation of Electrical Specifications for Transformers Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Piplani, Bhopal
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This initiative was conferred Gold award in the category of “Innovative Use ICT by PSUs for Customers’ Benefits” in the National e-Governance Awards, 2013 [Uploaded on 27.06.2013]
To automate the generation of Electrical Specification for Transformer design BHEL, Bhopal has developed an Integrated & Parameterized System for Generation of Electrical Specification. This system enhances the capability of Transformer Design Process by automatically generating the Electrical Design Documents. This was launched on 01-01-2011. The developed integrated system aids to enhance the current level of Design Productivity by enabling distributed information sharing and collaborative/cooperative design work. It takes advantage of shared information and allows simultaneous focus on different phases of the Transformer design life cycle. Errors are detected prior to being implemented in the product design by paying attention to all aspects of the design at each phase using developed system.
The Integrated system has multi Facets of Design Automation covering Automatic Generation of Electrical Specification Formats for Transformer Design in Autocad, Online Transformer Design Calculations, Archives of Transformer Design Data for Knowledge Management and various Data Entry and Design Calculation Reports.

3. Eastern Power Information Management and Reporting System (EPIMRS) Eastern Power Distribution Company of Andhra Pradesh Ltd.
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This initiative was conferred Silver award in the category of “Innovative Use ICT by PSUs for Customers’ Benefits” in the National e-Governance Awards, 2013 [Uploaded on 27.06.2013]
Eastern Power Information Management and Reporting System (EPIMRS) has been developed by the IT wing of Eastern Power Distribution Company of A.P. Ltd. (APEPDCL) to streamline and capture different activities performed at various offices across APEPDCL, eliminate redundancy, to incorporate work-flow management and reduce workload of the field offices. It is being used in five districts of Andhra Pradesh viz. East Godavari, West Godavari, Vishakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam in more than 400 offices. All the services provided by the agency are engineered to be processed by the system. Services such as new connections, meter management, consumer grievance redressal, DTR management etc are provided EPIRMS.
APEPDCL is probably one of the first distribution companies in the country to have implemented this project sewing a number of discrete applications under the sector, integrating the data outputs of a number of different databases to arrive at a comprehensive platform for information sharing and tracking.

4. IT Intervention for Managing Integrated Networked Enterprise (iMINE), Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation
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This initiative was conferred Bronze award in the category of “Innovative Use ICT by PSUs for Customers’ Benefits” in the National e-Governance Awards, 2013. [Uploaded on 27.06.2013]
Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) is one of the leading PSUs of Gujarat with a mandate to develop major mineral resources in the state. GMDC has state-wide operations, having Corporate Head Office in Ahmedabad and project / plant offices at 15 other locations, spread across 9 districts of Gujarat. The 2,425 Lignite customers of GMDC are spread across all the 26 districts of the state of Gujarat and other neighbouring states, mainly Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan. These customers are spread across 32 types of industries. The total production of lignite from GMDC mines is more than 100 lac MT. The average sales of lignite per fortnight to the industries was 3,27,773 tons during year 2011-12.
The project “IT Intervention for Managing Integrated Networked Enterprise (iMINE)” was designed to enhance GMDC’s operational efficiency by optimum utilization of its resources, improve customer relationship management to ensure customer satisfaction and also to improve employee efficiency through simplified and standardized processes and procedures.

5. Mineral Administration & Governance through ICT (MAGIC) Commissionerate of Geology & Mining (CGM), Gujarat
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This initiative was conferred Bronze award in the category of “Innovative Use Technology in e-” in the National e-Governance Awards, 2013 [Uploaded on 27.06.2013]
The Commissionerate of Geology & Mining (CGM), Government of Gujarat has developed and implemented “Mineral Administration and Governance through ICT (MAGIC)” application with a goal to achieve “Zero Visit Office”. CGM has implemented many innovative ideas such as mineral exploration through outsourced agencies,identification of mineral blocks and putting the entire information in the public domain, e-Auction of new leases, integrated Lease Management System (ILMS), including weighbridge automation, use of technology to curb illegal mining – through establishment of Boundary Poles marking the boundaries of the mines using the latitude-longitude coordinates, system Audit by professional CA firms, etc.
The e-services provided by CGM covers all the 24 district offices of CGM in 26 districts of Gujarat. Approximately 6800 Lease Owners (Mining / Quarry) are covered under the e-services, in addition to other beneficiaries such as Mineral Stockists, Weigh Bridge owners and District Geologists.
The initiative has resulted in more transparent and hassle-free process, and elimination of redundant processes; reduction in the effort and time spent to fetch necessary information; reduction in incidents of illegal mining and increase in mineral revenue; and reduced corruption.

6.  Measuring Physical Accessibility to Healthcare Network and Population Coverage Modeling in Jammu & Kashmir using Geo-informatics
This initiative was conferred Silver award in the category of “Innovative Use Technology in e-” in the National e-Governance Awards, 2013. [Uploaded on 27.06.2013]
The geospatial model has been used to measure the physical accessibility to healthcare network in the entire state of Jammu & Kashmir using distance norms presently in vogue in the country, through proximity analysis. The model uses parameters like speed of travel of patients through varying landscape features, complexity of hilly terrain, road connectivity, mode of transportation, direction of travel of patients(whether uphill/downhill), spatial population distribution etc. to delineate the catchment areas of existing healthcare network and to scale it up for covering the uncovered population of the state, to ensure that patients can access a nearby health facility within a pre-determined travel time of 60 minutes.
The existing health facilities, although within short walking distances, are not accessible by the patients because of physical barriers like deep/fast flowing rivers/streams, cliffy mountain ridges, snow cover etc. The model helps create an equitable distribution of health facilities and paves the way for effective decentralized micro-level planning.

8. iBhuGoal (Bihar Infrastructure Mapping Geomatics Oriented Application Model)
This initiative was conferred Gold award in the category of “Innovative Use Technology in e-” in the National e-Governance Awards, 2013. [Uploaded on 27.06.2013]
The project was launched on 01 June 2011 with the basic objectives of creating State Spatial Database Infrastructure for use by various departments, and integrating Geo-spatial data and MIS data of different departments for informed decision-making. Through the project an in-house WEBGIS portal for Bihar has been developed [http://gis.bih.nic.in/]. The project has enabled proximity analysis for opening new schools, GIS mapping of national highways, state highways, major district roads, and rural roads on 1:1000 scale with integration of key indicators for all blocks, digitization of irrigation canals, rivers and streams on 1:1000 scale, mapping of 1,08,000 Habitations as per National Habitation Survey for micro level planning etc.

9. Mail Network Optimization Project (MNOP), Department of Posts, Government of India
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This initiative was conferred Silver award in the category of “Outstanding Performance in Citizen-Centric Service Delivery” in the National e-Governance Awards, 2013
Mail Network Optimization Project (MNOP) is being implemented with the objective of consolidation and optimization of Mail Network of Department of Posts with a view to improve quality of mail operations. MNOP project scope covers the entire country comprising of 22 Postal Circles. The benefits to citizen with the implementation of MNOP project are improved delivery performance of Speed Post by more than a day, increased number of Speed Post articles having end-to-end (both booking and delivery) information on Department of Posts website(tracking system). This led to faster customer complaint redressal, as the articles can be located conveniently in the operational chain.

10. Use of ICT for Delivering Mechanized Agricultural Implements, Government of Odisha
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This initiative was conferred Bronze award in the category of “Outstanding Performance in Citizen-Centric Service Delivery” in the National e-Governance Awards, 2013
The project, which is one among the 20 ICT modules of AGRISNET, was developed under Mission Mode Project of Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India and was launched on 01 January 2011. The project activities include online dealer registration, online permit generation by the District Agriculture Officer, physical verification by the Assistant Agriculture Engineer (AAE) and uploading of joint photograph of AAE, beneficiary and implements online, and verification of bill details submitted by vendors by the designated bank and release of the subsidy amount through RTGS/NEFT. The project has enabled the farmers in getting mechanized agricultural implements on first-come-first served basis on one hand, and on the other, vendors are able to get their subsidised amount reimbursed in shorter time period.

11. Electronic Benefit Transfer through Business Correspondent (BC) Model Pragya Kendras, Government of Jharkhand
This initiative was conferred Silver award in the category of “Exemplary Re-use of ICT Based Solutions” in the National e-Governance Awards, 2013
Rural Development Department, Govt. of Jharkhand faced with the problem of non-availability of bank/post office branches necessary for disbursement of NREGA wages as per the provisions in the Act, mooted the idea of allocating one block to a specific bank so as to allow them to create a financially viable Business Correspondent (BC) network in their area of operations. That is, banks should appoint Common Service Centers(CSC) available at the village level as BC.With the start of this project, the NREGA payment is disbursed through BCs located at the CSC in panchayats. As on date, the project is active in 1200 panchayats across the state. The NREGA workers need not travel to far off places for receiving their wages.
12. Extended Licensing & Laboratory Node (XLN)
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This initiative was conferred Gold award in the category of “Exemplary Re-use of ICT Based Solutions” in the National e-Governance Awards, 2013
XLN is a web enabled application which has been developed by Food & Drug Control Administration of Gujarat with a view, inter alia, to improve the efficiency of issuance of sales / manufacturing licenses; to ensure quick & effective recall of substandard / spurious medicinesthrough mass message (SMS) and make the information about “Not of Standard Quality (NSQ)” drugs and formulations available in public domain; to make sure that drugs are sold to common man under supervision of a pharmacist – by restricting him to one medical store only at a particularpoint of time – by controlling multiple enrolments of pharmacists. XLN was replicated in Maharashtra in 2010, in Karnataka in 2011, and later in Kerala in 2012.

13. Computerization of Registration (Panjeeyan) Project in Assam
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Computerization of Registration (Panjeeyan) Project in Assam, Revenue & Disaster Management Department, Assam
Earlier, people of Assam had to wait for several years for receiving the original documents of registration because copying of the documents was done manually. To address this problem, Government of Assam has automated all the activities of registration through the project Computerization of Registration (Panjeeyan). With the automation of registration process, now the original documents of registration are delivered on the same day.
14. Transformation of Mineral Administration through e-Governance (Geology & Mining), Government of Karnataka
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This initiative was conferred Silver award in the category of “Excellence in Government Process Re-engineering” in the National e-Governance Awards, 2013
Karnataka pioneered the introduction of the system of ‘permits’ for efficient mineral administration by evolving robust procedures and their effective implementation to curb illegal mining. In just one year, the new system has achieved a 33% increase in government revenue through royalty and other taxes despite suppressed mineral extraction because of the temporary ban on iron ore extraction by the orders of the Supreme Court.
15. Hospital Management Information System, Gujarat

The Government of Gujarat (GoG) launched the Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) in 2006 for streamlining the day to day operations and enabling real-time monitoring of government hospitals across the state.
The HMIS has been envisaged to help health administrators in Gujarat to exercise an enhanced monitoring control over the functioning of government hospitals by using decision support indicators, to assist doctors and medical staff to improve health services with readily reference patient records and a work flow enabled less-paper process and to provide efficient and timely treatment to patients through automatic alerts during patient treatment cycle.
Prior to the HMIS, the absence of a coherent management system made the monitoring of diversely located hospitals difficult. Senior level officials were unable to keep adequate track on usage of funds and to record development on various health indicators of the state. At the same time, hospitals were facing day to day operational challenges and inefficiency in patient handling services resulting in wastage of time, manpower and money and a non-transparent and unaccountable working environment.
Through the efforts of the Commissionerate of Health & Family Welfare and Medical Education, the Health & Family Welfare and Medical Education Department of GoG and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., government hospital processes in Gujarat were re-engineered. This process of re-engineering included the creation of a system of online registration, simplification of diagnostic process through single sample collection, setting up of standardized administrative formats, setting up online inventory management, adoption of standardized biomedical waste management and the proper management and allocation of human resources under the HMIS. HMIS began as a pilot in four hospitals in 2006, by March 2008 the new system became live in all 30 government hospitals across the state.
With the HMIS, the loopholes in the operations of government hospitals throughout Gujarat are sought to be addressed. HMIS has enabled the provision of better care to patients by automating all the major functional areas of government hospitals. It is also facilitating the monitoring of pre-defined health indicators by generating periodic reports for the hospital management as well as state level administrators.


16. Ideas for CM: Innovative web portal for enhancing people's participation
Ideas for CM (www.ideasforcm.in) is a web based application through which citizens can participate in policy making by posting their ideas for good governance and development from any part of the world.
The Government of Madhya Pradesh, in partnership with the School of Good Governance and Policy Analysis, has designed an interactive web portal to bridge the existing gap between citizens and governance agencies by setting a platform for sharing ideas of good governance across departments and agencies of the government. No formal and well defined institutional mechanisms existed prior to the Ideas for CM project for involving citizens directly in the planning and development process within Madhya Pradesh.
Therefore, in order to enhance the number of people involved directly in suggesting course of development to the state government, information and communication technology has been extensively deployed to develop a web portal wherein any citizen from within and outside the country can post a state development related idea for the consideration of the CM. The project is functional since 2009.
Most important achievement of the project lies in its effort to encourage citizens’ participation in public affairs and in the decision making process which is closely related to a citizen's individual freedom as well. On an average, 3 to 5 ideas are posted on the website daily, indicating a sustaining interest of the citizens in the portal. Proficient use of cost effective technology has been a major cause of success and sustainability of the initiative.
Most striking challenge of the project lies in its web based application, which makes it available to only a small fraction of the state’s population as the state has a stark rate of digital divide and illiteracy. Statistical analysis of the user profile also indicates a rural urban divide in its usability. Lack of any form of measures to popularise the project among different section of the society can be a major reason for its uneven outreach among the population.
As of May 2012, 5562 ideas have been submitted by citizens on the web portal. Out of these, 12 have already been selected for implementation.

17. ICT initiatives in Madhya Pradesh Forest Department
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MP Forest Department control room; Source: OneWorld Foundation India
Madhya Pradesh Forest Department has utilised ICT initiatives to monitor its key activities in real time, both spatial and temporal, and to disseminate information to all stakeholders in an easy and visualised manner for facilitating social audits.
Realising the potential of Information and Communication Technology for bringing in paradigmatic shift in an organisation’s work culture and service delivery, the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department decided to integrate various technologies to develop innovative applications for its core processes. In March 2007, the Department decided to revamp its technological infrastructure and developed a set of applications such as the Forest Alert Messaging System, Forest Offence Management System, Forest Dwellers Survey System, Forest Financial Management System, Wildlife Management System and Forest Planning and Geo-mapping System and few others.
Space technology, GIS, GPS, image processing, mobile computing, and communication technology are integrated into a single frame to serve data in a visualised mode to make monitoring easy and effective for even the file level workers. All these applications were developed in-house without the services of consultants. All the hardware, software and system related tools selected for operations are cost effective and are simple enough to be used by the existent man power with adequate training. The Forest Department has conducted a series of capacity building programmes to train the man power on ICT applications and to make them familiar with the automated work environment.
The ICT application has made collection, dissemination and maintenance of data became easy, effective and accessible, which further aids the process of decision making. As the Department has made all the data online and free for public use, the initiative has enhanced transparency and accountability in the work of the Forest Department. With all its innovative applications and cost effective in-house technological developments, the Forest Department has emerged as a leader in developing and implementing ICT applications. The Department has been successful in disseminating its learning and expertise among other government departments and private organisation.
For its innovative applications that has changed the face of forest and management in the country, the project of Madhya Pradesh Forest Department has been honoured with the International Green Globe Foundation Award 2012, Prime Minister Award of Excellence in Administration, 2010, National e-Governance Award (Gold) 2010 and many others.

18. MPOnline: A public-private intervention in improving public service delivery

MPOnline is a public-private partnership model that has contributed significantly to improve the delivery of public services in Madhya Pradesh and promote effective governance using ICT as a tool.
MPOnline was formed in 2006 as a part of a collaborative endeavour between the state government of Madhya Pradesh and Tata Consultancy services. This partnership was established to forward the goals of responsive governance through effective, transparent and accountable system of public service delivery.
The portal is based on a one stop shop model that avails a variety of government services to all citizens. It has a growing network of clients that have been integrated into the system to ensure the effective delivery of more than 200 educational, recruitment and business to citizens based services.
The geographical coverage of MPOnline spreads across 50 districts, over 300 tehsils and more than 280 blocks in the state. Citizens can access the portal through authorised kiosks, Common Service Centres and cyber cafes within their residential area. The kiosks are operated by a network of franchisees. Over 9000 kiosks and Common Service Centres are spread across the state of Madhya Pradesh and provide round the clock services to the citizens in real time.
The portal has extensively contributed to transform the demand and delivery of services into a hassle free, cost and time effective exercise. The infrastructure and technical costs for developing the software were incurred by TCS. As a revenue generating model, it has not only enabled the private company to recover its initial investments within a short period of time but has also benefited its clients and franchisees in significant ways.
With the innovative use of information and communication technology, MP Online has played a key role in promoting government's efforts to make itself and its services available to the citizen at their doorstep.




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e-BRC project wins 2013 eASIA Award
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade’s electronic Bank Realization Certificate (e-BRC) project has won the 2013 eASIA Award under Trade Facilitation category as announced by Asia Pacific Council for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (AFACT).
 This project is a significant step in this direction and will contribute considerably in reducing the transaction cost of our exporters.

e-BRC project launched on June 5, 2012 created an integrated platform for receipt, processing and subsequent use of all Bank Realization related information by exporters, banks, central and state government departments. It was made mandatory with effect from August 17, 2012.

Bank Realization Certificate is required for discharge of export obligation and to claim incentives under Foreign Trade Policy. Earlier this certificate was issued by banks manually. BRC is also used by state government departments for refund of VAT.

e-BRC project enables banks to upload Foreign Exchange realisation information relating to merchandise goods exports on to the DGFT server under a secured protocol. So far 89 banks operating in India, including foreign banks and cooperative banks have uploaded more than 64 lakh e-BRCs on to the DGFT server.

This initiative has reduced the cost of transaction for exporters by eliminating their interface with bank (for issuance of BRC purposes) and enhanced the productivity of banks and DGFT.

At the state level, Commercial Tax Departments of Maharashtra, Delhi, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have signed MoU with DGFT for receiving e-BRC data for VAT refund purposes.

Many other states are in the process of signing MOUs. e-BRC project is a success story involving multiple stake holders, each with a different technology platform. This project is a live example of power of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) to improve service delivery. 



‘Mobile Seva’ Launched

IT Signals the Beginning of a Nationwide Initiative Aimed at Providing Government Services Through Mobile Devices
The ‘Mobile Seva’ (the national mobile-governance initiative of DeitY) was dedicated to the citizens here today by Shri J. Satyanarayana, Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), at a function organized at DeitY, Electronics Niketan. The logo for ‘Mobile Seva’ too was unveiled at the function.

Mobile Seva aims to provide government services to the people through mobile phones and tablets. It has been developed as the core infrastructure for enabling the availability of public services through mobile devices. Mobile Seva enables the integration of the mobile platform with the common e-Governance infrastructure consisting of State Data Centers (SDCs), State Wide Area Networks (SWANs), State and National Service Delivery Gateways (SSDGs/NSDG). It enables a government department to integrate both web and mobile based services seamlessly and enhances the access to electronic services tremendously leveraging the very high penetration of mobile phones, especially in rural areas. Availability of government‐wide shared infrastructure and services enables rapid development and reduced costs for the departments in rolling out mobile based services.

As on date, 833 Central and State Govt. Departments are using Mobile Seva for providing SMS-based services, and over 55.25 Crore SMS notifications have been sent to citizens for various mobile based services. Citizens can now directly interact with Government Departments through SMS. As on date, 254 public services have been made available to the citizens. A Mobile Applications Store (m-App Store) has also been developed by DeitY as part of Mobile Seva. The Mobile Governance Portal and the m-App Store can be accessed at http://mgov.gov.in/. The m-Appstore currently hosts over 240 live mobile applications. The live applications can be downloaded and installed free of cost on a mobile phone by any person.

A Mobile Applications Store (m-App Store) has also been developed by DeitY as part of Mobile Seva. The Mobile Governance Portal and the m-App Store can be accessed at http://mgov.gov.in/. The m-Appstore currently hosts over 240 live mobile applications. The live applications can be downloaded and installed free of cost on a mobile phone by any person. Citizens can visit http://mgov.gov.in/ for more information. 




‘E-Inclusion: IT Training for Rural Sc/St/Women Beneficiaries’ Project Launched
The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, launched the ‘E-Inclusion: IT Training for Rural SC/ ST/ Women Beneficiaries’ Project here today. Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communication & IT, formally launched the Project by releasing the Handbook titled ‘E-Literacy: Towards Empowering Rural India’ containing profiles of 50 beneficiaries who have successfully undertaken the basic IT training programme under the E-Inclusion project. Shri Sibal also felicitated ten beneficiaries by distributing certificates to them on the successful completion of the programme. Around 100 beneficiaries, which included young boys, girls and women, including the Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) attended the event from the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal.

The Project is part of the Government of India’s initiative under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) for creating a transparent and accountable governance model for enabling service delivery at the doorstep of citizens. To achieve this mission, DeitY has setup over 100,000 Common Services Centers (CSCs) on a Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model. CSCs are the front-end delivery points for government, private and social sector services to the citizens of India.

Shri Kapil Sibal mentioned that Digital Literacy is an enabler for empowering communities and providing them real freedom. The Government initiative for making one person in every family e-Literate is a step in that direction. This is in fact a revolution for enabling citizen’s participation in nation building. By making the girls and boys in rural India to become digitally literate, the Government is achieving the objective of empowering and enabling them to acquire information, knowledge and skills. This would also help in enhancing the employability of these young men and women. Besides this, this will go a long way in bridging the digital divide. He suggested that in this task we should also involve States, industry associations such as NASSCOM, NGOs and other stakeholders. He also mentioned various government projects that are in the pipeline like the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN), Aakash 4.0, etc. He was hopeful that NOFN will enable delivery of health, education, agriculture and other services in a seamless manner at the doorsteps of the citizens.

Shri J. Satyanarayana, Secretary, DeitY, on this occasion mentioned that India stands at third position globally in the field of ICT. He spoke about the various dimensions of E-Inclusion – Digital Literacy, Financial Inclusion, E-Governance, E-Livelihoods and how to mainstream physically disabled into the digital movement. He stated that Government is actively considering to provide e-Literacy to 10,00,000 (10 lakh) men and women living in rural India at a cost of Rs. 100 crore. The CSCs will be utilized to achieve this target. This would cover one block in every State and one individual in every family will be made e-Literate.


Union Budget 2014: Makings of a true ‘Digital India’

Mumbai: From smart cities, to an e-biz platform to integrate government departments, digital classrooms, introduction of e-visas, sops to encourage manufacturing of electronic goods, and increasing broadband penetration, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s budget proposals are full of steps aimed at giving India the much-needed digital push that can contribute to increasing the wealth of the nation.
Coupled with Wednesday’s Railway Budget announcements of bullet trains, bio-toilets, ultrasonic fixes for railway tracks, GIS (geographic information system) mapping, digitization of railway land, Wi-Fi connectivity at select stations and in trains, logistics support for e-commerce companies and going paperless in five years, the Narendra Modi-led government appears to be charting a road map for a truly Digital India.
While finance minister Arun Jaitley proposed to allocate `7,060 crore to develop 100 smart cities and satellite towns on Thursday, he set aside `500 crore for the propagation of broadband, information technology (IT) hardware manufacturing and software development, with a special focus on software start-ups.
Jaitley also announced `100 crore for digital classrooms, especially in rural areas. He said e-visas will be available at nine airports, with the infrastructure to be put in place within the next 6 months to facilitate visas-on-arrival.
Broadband penetration is crucial to a developing country like India, and experts say there is a direct co-relation between increasing broadband and mobile penetration and the gross domestic product (GDP) of a country.
According to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the number of broadband users increased from 61.14 million at the end of April to 65.33 million at the end of May.
Yet India, with an average Internet speed of 1.7 mbps, ranks 117 internationally in terms of average broadband speed—the slowest average Internet speed among countries in the Asia-Pacific region studied by content delivery network Akamai Technologies for its Q1 2014 ‘State of the Internet’ report.
Trai has mandated that the minimum broadband speed will be 512 kbps from the earlier 256 kbps, and subsequently to a minimum speed of 2 mbps by 2015.
According to a November 2012 study by Deloitte Llp, London and Cisco, for a given level of total mobile penetration, a 10% substitution from 2G to 3G penetration increases GDP per capita growth by 0.15 percentage points.
A doubling of mobile data use increases the GDP per capita growth rate by 0.5 percentage points. Moreover, a 10% increase in mobile penetration increases total factor productivity in the long run by 4.2 percentage points, the study added.
Smart cities, too, are a need of the hour since India’s urban population is estimated to reach 590 million by 2030, and they will live in at least 60 cities with a population of more than a million each, requiring an investment of over $1 trillion for their development, according to industry estimates.
A smart city is typically one that runs overwhelmingly on technology—be it for electricity, water, sanitation and recycling, ensuring continuous water supply, traffic and transport systems that use data analytics to provide efficient solutions to ease commuting, automated building security and surveillance systems, requiring minimal human intervention, and Wi-Fi-powered open spaces and houses that ensure 24x7 high-speed connectivity.
The “smart city” concept is gathering momentum. Smart systems are transforming energy grids, supply chains and water management, as well as helping to confirm the authenticity of pharmaceuticals and the security of currency exchanges.
Stockholm, for instance, has used smart traffic systems to cut gridlock by 20%, reduce emissions by 12% and increase public transportation use dramatically. And smart healthcare systems can lower the cost of therapy by as much as 90%.
Singapore and Masdar in Abu Dhabi are other good examples of smart cities.
The Narendra Modi-led government is likely to take the help of the Singapore government to build these smart cities. On 1 July, Singapore—India’s largest trade partner in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)—offered its expertise in building smart cities.
Technology firms such as Cisco Systems, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc., besides research institutes, are helping make cities more responsive to the needs and desires of inhabitants.
Among the smart projects Cisco is working on is the 1,500km-long Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor. In Haryana, it is working on a project to connect all police stations in the state with an open source database—this will gradually be introduced across all Indian states.
Cisco is also engaged in smart city projects coming up in Kerala, in Greater Hyderabad and Greater Bangalore. And so is Schneider Electric SA, an energy management company, that is also working on several smart projects in India.
Closer home, IBM is helping Palava city by the Lodha Group to become the first-of-its-kind partially completed smart city project in Mumbai. The project is expected to be completed in 2025, and will span 4,000 acres, and cost `14,000 crore.
Companies like Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, too, are already looking to tap into the potential. In its annual report in May, Reliance Jio said it was working on providing fibre-to-the-home to 900 cities and towns across India, which will be powered by 4G broadband speeds.




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