E-Governance Updates: 26/06/09

RATION CARDS WILL GIVE WAY TO SMART CARDS IN STATE
Gandhinagar
The Indian Express

In an effort to check the growing menace of “bogus” ration cards and diversion of food grains from fair price shops, the state government has proposed to introduce unique smart cards that will replace the traditional ration cards across the state.

The state Science and Technology Department has been asked to design the system for the proposed smart cards, based on biometric system. The smart cards will be prepared under the Gujarat ration card computerisation system, evolved by the State Food and Civil Supplies department.

Rajesh Kishore, Principal Secretary (Food and Civil Supplies), said on Thursday that his department was busy doing the digitisation of ration cards at present, with about 90 percent of the work is already over.

“The digitisation of ration cards has been undertaken in the first phase under the project. As soon as this exercise is over, we will take up the smart card preparation work in the second phase,” he said.

GET SMART AND DRIVE IN STYLE
Srikanth Hunasavadi
DNA (Bangalore edition)

To put an end to malpractices involving fake driving licences and registration books and check middlemen, the state transport department on Thursday introduced the computerised service delivery system by way of smart cards.

The project was launched by chief minister BS Yeddyurappa and transport minister R Ashok at the Vidhana Soudha.

With this, the transport department will offer a transparent and better service to the people.

"Karnataka is known for its IT prowess. So I appeal to all departments to make use of IT and formulate programmes through it," Yeddyurappa said.

"The state government has taken various initiatives to popularise the mass transport system. It started buses for all types of citizens. To control accidents, the government will open driving training centres at Kengari, Hubli, Haveri, and Hagaribommannahali. For that, we've already drafted a proposal. For the welfare of drivers, a sum of Rs2 crore is reserved in the budget," he said.

 

E-Governance Updates: 25/06/09

TCS PASSPORT PROJECT GETS DELAYED
New Delhi
The Economic Times  The Times of India  

Promising a passport within three days, it peddled a dream to Indians crowding understaffed and overburdened regional passport centres.

But the Passport Seva Project -- one of the government's flagship e-governance programmes -- is running behind schedule.

In October 2008, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) signed the agreement with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to implement the project, estimated to be worth Rs.1 billion. Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon had then said the pilot project -- with centres in Chandigarh and Bangalore -- would become functional in June 2009, with the rest of the country to be serviced by 77 stations in 2010.

But it seems increasingly unlikely that the schedule will be adhered to. A major reason for the delay is the inordinate time required to draft the software requirement specification (SRS) document, which was completed only recently.

"We didn't realise how much time it would take to draw up this document," a senior official closely involved in the process said.

The SRS, which details how the software programme will behave in diverse circumstances, had taken a lot of brainstorming sessions between MEA and TCS engineers. The final document comes to about 400 pages.

Also, the state-run National Informatics Centre (NIC), which had so far managed the back-end of the passport system, handed over the data for 80 million records to MEA earlier this month.

The data will be kept in a specially constructed data centre as it awaits 'migration' to the new software programme developed by TCS. But there's more to be done before the pilot project gets off the ground.

The ministry still has to sign a non-disclosure agreement with TCS, as the latter will have access to information of millions of applicants. Incidentally, MEA has insisted that all "sensitive activities" will be carried out only by government agencies.

While the main data centre is ready, the recovery centre is taking a lot of time to be set up. "It was assessed that it will be too risky to start the project without a back-up data centre," he said.

Last week the ministry signed a deal with the state-run Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) to build the recovery data centre in Chennai. The STPI has apparently said while the physical infrastructure would be in place by mid-July, the networking to different stations may take longer.

Confusion also persists on whether the NIC's current PISON (passport information service system on the net) will continue in parallel to the proposed TCS software - and, if so, their mode of compatibility.

The dilemma has arisen as Indian missions abroad -- which also issue passports and are linked through the NIC programme -- are not part of the Passport Seva Project.

This is not the first time the schedule has been changed. Earlier, before the formal signing in October, there had been assurances that the pilot project would start by March. But the formal announcement listed June as the deadline for the pilot project.

The agreement has a strict provision for levying penalty on TCS, but the ministry has decided to not yet invoke that clause. When TCS was contacted about the status of the project, its officials directed all queries to the ministry.

"It is a very complicated process. The project is ongoing and will be started very soon," A. Manickam, joint secretary, consular, passport and visa, MEA, said.

NEMMADI CENTRES TO GET A MAKEOVER
Bengaluru
Deccan Chronicle

Acknowledging that all is not well at the Nemmadi tele-centers set up by the e-Governance department to provide citizens cost-effective services, Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Wednesday said the government is taking stock of the centres’ working.

The 800-odd centers that came up in hoblis, taluks and districts over a two-year period have been beset with several problems – from lack of power supply to corrupt operators of these centres.

Yeddyurappa told reporters after conducting a review meeting that he was making efforts to make the concept more effective. “Rs 5 lakh has been given to all deputy commissioners so they can deal with problems such as power immediately. Also, but for Nemmadi centres in the peri-urban areas, Bengaluru city itself lacks these tele-centers. To benefit urban citizens, the state government is contemplating setting up such centers in the city too, where citizens can avail Revenue Digital Services (RDS), including all land record documents, caste and income certificates, etc.,” the chief minister said.

GOVT TO UNVEIL E-SURVEILLANCE OF FUNDS FOR FLAGSHIP SCHEMES
New Delhi
Business Standard

Castigated by CAG for stepping away from protocol in releasing over Rs 50,000 crore meant for welfare schemes, the government is proposing electronic surveillance of flow of funds earmarked for flagship schemes.

While CAG, the top auditor of government accounts, made note of the deviation in funds allocation, the government's chief accountant - Controller General of Accounts (CGA) - has prepared the blueprint for monitoring flow of funds worth Rs 200,000 crore per annum to over 20,000 implementing agencies.

The blueprint is expected to be unveiled by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his budget for 2009-10. He had made a mention of it in the interim budget in February.

The mechanism will capture all data related to centrally sponsored and central sector schemes right from funds earmarked, sanctions, sub-sanctions to the names of implementing agencies at each level, details of associated bank accounts and payment to the ultimate beneficiary.

It will also track state-wise, district-wise and lower level allocation of funds under 1258 Plan schemes. Pilot programmes are already on.

"We are implementing the Central Plan Schemes Monitoring System (CPSMS) and have successfully carried out two pilot projects in Punjab and Karnataka for tracking releases and utilisation at ground level for establishment of a comprehensive Decision Support System and Management Information System," a source told PTI.

"There are some glitches in the present system which need to be ironed out as multiple registrations were being recorded as there are agencies involved in several schemes and receiving funds from various ministries resulting in duplicity of agencies. Also many sanctions were not being captured. We are working to streamline the flaws," the source said.

The official said that once the corrections are made they would be in a position to capture all minute details of fund flow including release and utilisation without hassles.

The initiative assumes special significance in the light of major increase in the social sector spending by the Government.

UGC REINVITES TCS FOR E-GOVERNANCE BIDDING
Mumbai
Business Standard

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided to invite Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for a second round of bidding for its e-governance project which was earlier awarded to the IT major. UGC is also planning to implement this project in phases.

TCS had received a clearance for the Rs 230-250 crore deal on March 13, 2009, that involved making UGC’s functioning more transparent.

Members of the UGC and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) had earlier expressed opposition to the deal being signed with TCS.

“Considering the size of the project, we had suggested that it should be taken on a pilot basis and expanded in phases. But UGC was in a hurry to award the contract to TCS. Now, there will be re-bidding and the proposal will come to the committee meeting for discussion,” said a ministry source.

The source further said that earlier there was opposition to the project as UGC did not follow the due diligence process.

A TCS executive said: “The company does not wish to comment, as it is in a silent period.” Wipro was the other player in the race for the deal.

Indian IT firms have increased their focus in the domestic market. Within this e-governance has constitutes a large pie. With a re-bidding in offing players like Wipro, Infosys and several others will again root for the contracts, say market experts.

Some of the largest deals in the last few months have emerged from the domestic market. For instance, the Rs 1,182-crore e-governance order from the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation bagged by Wipro Technologies or the Rs 2,200-crore, nine-year contract with Unitech Wireless. Similarly, towards the end of 2008, TCS had signed Rs 1,000 crore e-passport deal.

TRANSPORT DEPT TO BE COMPUTERISED
Chikkaballapur (Karnataka)
Deccan Herald

All the offices of the Transport department in the State would be completely computerised in order to stop corruption, informed Minister for Transport R Ashok.

He was speaking after laying the foundation stone for the new building of the Transport department, which is coming up at a cost of Rs 25 crore at Chitravathi, on the outskirts of Chikkaballapur City, here on Tuesday.

The minister said, the internet facility in the State would help people know about the details about driving license, purchase of vehicles, registration and other details about the Transport department, by sitting in their houses. All these details about the Transport department would be downloaded from the internet.

He said, the department was planning to introduce computerised vehicle driving test, as was in foreign countries, for the first time in the State. Apart from taking measures to increase the revenue of the Transport department, measures were also being taken to ensure that that the leakages in the revenue earned by the department would be plugged.

E-GOVERNANCE PROGRAMME
The Financial Express

Wipro said it is working with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for finalising a partner for the implementation of e-Governance programmes for the corporation. “MCD along with Wipro is in the final stages of short listing its implementation partner Going forward, Wipro will program and manage the entire program to ensure MCD meet its goal of being a socially committed, technology driven, transparent and professionally managed organisation,” Wipro said.

CENTRAL TEAM LAUDS E-SUVIDHA INITIATIVE
Pune
The Times of India

A three-member team sent by the Union government to check the performance of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) in implementing the reforms under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) has appreciated the civic administration's e-suvidha initiative.

The central government team visited the PCMC on Wednesday and made this observation, municipal commissioner Ashish Sharma said.

Sharma said, "The e-suvidha initiative was launched by scientist Vijay Bhatkar a few days ago. The PCMC has prepared a number of softwares under this project for e-tendering, paying property tax and water tax through the internet, SMS complaint system and others."

 

E-Governance Updates: 24/06/09

NEW FACILITIES AT PASSPORT OFFICE IN KOCHI
Kochi
The Hindu Business Line

In order to issue passports expeditiously and error-free, the Regional Passport Office at Kochi has decided to accept only online registered applications from normal and tatkal category applicants.

Those applicants who do not have access to Internet or are unfamiliar with online filing can avail of the services of ex-servicemen or physically-challenged at the passport office service centre by paying Rs 50, a press release said. The appointment date and time given by the system will be ignored and applicants are free to submit forms any day, any time during working hours of the Regional Passport Office (RPO), a release said.

A special passport adalat will be conducted at the RPO on June 27 and will be open to all those who have applied for a passport and have any grievance.

They can attend the adalat without registration or appointment from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. Passport office employees have volunteered to do this service on a holiday in order to help office-goers who are otherwise unable to attend daily passport adalats conducted at the RPO.

AG’S OFFICE SET TO OFFER SERVICES ONLINE
Thiruvananthapuram
The Hindu Business Line

The Office of the Accountant General (A&E), Kerala, will soon make available online a series of services related to general provident fund (GPF) and pension to government employees.

The Accountant General, V. Ravindran, said here on Tuesday that the office had embarked on an extensive computerisation programme over the past three years and the pension wing had been fully computerised now. The computerisation of the provident fund wing was set to be completed soon and beginning from August 1 this year, all final GPF withdrawal cases would be processed on computer, he said.

Ravindran said that the computerised dak management programme to monitor the receipt and disposal of all letters would be available soon on the office Web site – www.agker.cag.gov.in – which would enable the public to know the status of their letters.

COMMON SERVICES CENTRES FACE VIABILITY SNAGS
Surabhi Agarwal, New Delhi
The Financial Express

Common Services Centres (CSCs), the gateway for rural India to access every sort of service — from banking, mobile connections & recharge, Internet use, e-learning and government services — is sputtering to a halt as companies are closing down a large number of them for being unviable.

This is happening when the department of information technology in the central government has just got the mandate to enhance the CSC network to 2.5 lakh from the original 1,00,000. President Pratibha Patil, in her speech to the joint session of Parliament this month, said the centres would be transformed into Bharat Nirman Kendras.

Only three small states—Haryana, Jharkhand and Sikkim—have managed to achieve a 100 percent rollout of CSCs. Private players like Reliance Communications have shut their centres in many states while 3i Infotech has been pulled up for sub-par rollout of the centres in different states, including Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Though the original target for setting up all CSCs was March 2008, just 40 percent have come up so far. “The complete roll-out of CSCs is now expected by mid-2010. It will take another three years to take the number up to 2.5 lakh,” Shankar Aggarwal, joint secretary of the department, said.

“In West Bengal, Reliance Communications has shut down some of the CSCs it was allocated.” Its bank guarantee has been revoked, said an official. An e-mail sent to Reliance Communications from FE remained unanswered. The company was allocated over 1,800 CSCs in West Bengal. It is also allegedly facing a penalty in Maharashtra for not meeting its rollout target.

3i Infotech, which was allocated 12,500 CSCs, is also under the scanner. “Though the company has not closed any CSC, it has failed to roll out the centres on time and is also not able to manage the centres,” the official said. 3i Infotech’s executive director & president (South Asia), Anirudh Prabhakaran, however, said the firm has 6,000 operational CSCs and the rest will come up by December 2009.

Private players were hoping to lure CSC users to a host of private services they could provide on the same platform—like banking, e learning, Internet surfing and telecom. But there are only a few government services that are on offer. Even staples like land record or driver’s licences are not digitised across the states.

Even in states like Jharkhand, where a 100 percent rollout has been achieved, infrastructure hiccups like connectivity and power threaten their sustainability. An official of an infrastructure company closely linked with the project said the ministry of telecom & IT is doing a review at the ground level. “The picture is quite varied. While some CSCs are doing well, others have a question mark on their viability. The ministry is considering alternatives.” The revenue model for the CSCs envisages that only a third of their revenue will come from government services. Accordingly, the ministry had agreed to provide a viability gap funding of around Rs 3,300 per CSC for four years to the private party, assuming that each centre would generate Rs 10,000 per month. But companies like 3i Infotech and Reliance Communications were too optimistic about the level of expected revenue and, in fact, put in bids for negative VGF–meaning they were ready to pay the government for being allowed to set up these centres.

“The government consumer services would not be digitised in a day and will take some years to go fully online. That is why the subsidy was provided. But companies that failed to create a model based on that assumption are bound to suffer,” says Vikas Aggarwal, director, government sourcing, KPMG.

SOFTWARE WILL WEED OUT COP CORRUPTION
Manish K Pathak, Mumbai
DNA

Activists like Anna Hazare have often complained about corruption and money involved in police transfers.

But soon it may be a thing of the past.

The police department will have new software that will help store every detail of a policeman in the central server. And this data can be accessed by officers as well as the home minister while deciding on promotions or transfers. The police are in talks with a few companies, including Tata Consultancy Services.

State home minister Jayant Patil announced this on Tuesday. Patil was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of police quarters in Kalina. The process of receiving and processing requests sent by policemen to the office of the director general of police will be a transparent affair within six months, he said.

"Often, several policemen across the ranks send their requests to the DGP's office. These may range from seeking a transfer to a preferred place of retirement to seeking a transfer out of Naxalite areas," the minister said. "We are in talks with TCS and a few other agencies to set up an online software, which will be fed with extensive data about every policemen."

Speaking about the new software, an IPS officer said apart from transfer requests, the software would help expedite data retrieval. "We will have an improved system and this software will help maintain a database of manpower, police land and buildings, data related to all inventory and service matter, and statistics," he said.

Patil and several senior officers, including Mumbai police commissioner D Sivanandan, were present at the ceremony. "Earlier police quarters used to be small. But the new buildings are of better quality," Sivanandan said.

TCS LOSES RS 225 CRORE E-GOVERNANCE DEAL; REBIDS ON THE CARDS
Vineeta Pandey, New Delhi
DNA (Mumbai edition)

Sukhdeo Thorat, chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC) and a favourite of former human resource development minister Arjun Singh, is in dock for allegedly favouring Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in the bidding process for its ambitious e-governance project.

The matter has now reached the Prime Minister's Office, which has sought a report from the ministry.

A vigilance inquiry has found "several irregularities" in the tendering process of UGC's Rs 225 crore e-governance project.

The project, cleared on March 13, 2009, was meant to make the functioning of UGC more transparent and paperless.

Though UGC has denied Chief Vigilance Commissioner's (CVC) objections on specific discrepancies, it still has not been able to justify the award of tender.

Sources in UGC said out of 20 bids received for the project, Wipro and TCS were among the three bidders short listed for the e-governance project.

Wipro is said to have quoted Rs 90 crore less than TCS.

TCS was awarded the project despite strong and serious objections from UGC secretary Raju Sharma, MHRD secretary R P Aggarwal and financial advisor S K Ray.

Sharma, interestingly, was later removed from his post for jotting his objections on the tender files.

The CVC has also pointed to procedural errors committed in the process of selection of the consultant.

For instance, the last date of submission of bids was extended by three days even though 19 tenders had already been received by then, clearly indicating that UGC wanted to favour a particular company.

Besides, two parameters, which had not been mentioned in the notice inviting tender were added later while short-listing the consultancy firms.

"The expression of interest for the work was published on 23/2/07 (Friday) and the due date for opening of bids was 27/2/07 (Tuesday). The time available to interested firms to submit their bids was thus unusually short. According to tender norms, a period of 21 days should be given to the potential bidders to respond. There is contradiction in various sections in the tender document which creates confusion about how the best value offer is to be judged," the CVC report further said. A TCS spokesperson told DNA Money "the company is not in any way involved in the selection process," and "would not like to comment on the issue any further".

Interestingly, the technical scores of TCS and Wipro were 95% and 75%, respectively. Though the firms were informed that they had technically qualified, their scores were not declared before the opening of commercial bids while the standard procedure is to announce it before opening of the bids.

The CVC said that the weightages given to technical and financial scores appear to be "biased unfairly in favour of the technical scores." This can enable a lower commercial bid to lose out to a much higher value bid having a higher technical score while a fair and objective system should judge two technically qualified bids primarily on cost basis.

The CVC observed that the total value of the project may not have been correctly estimated and may be on the higher side. Besides, it has noted that the project could have been managed better by starting small and expanding thereafter.

"The commission has also observed that the cost projections need to be revised because prices of hardware have fallen since the project was first approved by the UGC," the report said.

The CVC has clearly said that though it ordinarily does not interfere in the tendering process but in this case "in view of the above observations the commission feels that it may not be prudent for the UGC to go ahead with the project in its present form. The process needs to be reviewed and made more professional and transparent," it observed. Sources said a retendering of the project through smaller contracts is more likely next.

 

ID CARDS
The Hindu Business Line

The Union Cabinet, on Thursday, is expected to clear the establishment of the National Authority for Unique Identity Authority (NAUID), likely to be headed by the Co-Chairman of Infosys Technologies, Nandan Nilekani.

 

E-Governance Updates: 23/06/09

NEW WEB-ENABLED SINGLE WINDOW FACILITY FOR ENTREPRENEURS
Lucknow
The Pioneer

In a bid to attract more investment in the state and simplify the process for the same, the state government is set to launch a new web-interface single window facility especially for the entrepreneurs willing to set up industry in the state.

The move would also help streamlining the functioning of various departments associated with the process of industrialisation.

The facility, called ‘Nivesh-Mitra’ (Investment Friend), is proposed to be launched in 18 identified districts on July 6.

The selection of the 18 districts had been on the basis of level of industrial activity.

According to highly placed sources, Nivesh Mitra, the software available on the Internet, would facilitate faster and time-bound issuance of various approvals required by the applicants before setting up an enterprise in the state.

The new web-enabled software package would provide seamless interface between the entrepreneur and various departments issuing clearances, approvals and NoCs required for setting up of a project.

Online submission and updating of all forms would be made easier through this software.

The software, developed jointly by National Informatics centre (NIC) and Udyog Bandhu, would generate a unique reference number of the proposal after the submission of an application for various approval consequent to registration of entrepreneur on the website.

PILOT PROJECT SOON FOR E-GOVERNANCE IN WAKF ADMINISTRATION
New Delhi
DNA

Government will shortly launch a pilot project to introduce e-governance in Wakfs to streamline and energise the Wakf administration. Noting that the identification of Wakf properties spread over various states is a serious problem, minority affairs minister Salman Khursheed said, "there is a need for computerisation to maintain records of Wakf properties online. A pilot project for it will be launched very shortly."

The ministry has already sought funds for the project from the government. The fund will be disbursed to states, which in turn will give the money to respective Wakf Boards to start the computerisation process.

"It can be done in one or a few states first. Then other states could follow. Ultimately, everything must come to the e-governance model. Wakf properties should also come under e-governance like other properties which get registered," the minister said. He felt that the computerisation of Wakf properties will also help in dispute resolution.

The ministry's move comes in the backdrop of president Pratibha Patil's address to the joint sitting of Parliament on June 4 in which the issue of strengthening and modernising the administration of Wakf boards was mentioned.

The government is also working towards bringing a fresh legislation to streamline Wakf administration on the basis of recommendations of Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), which went into the issue.

BBMP WEBSITE DISAPPOINTS CITIZENS
Senthalir S.,Bangalore
DNA (Bangalore edition)

People are finding it difficult to access BBMP website www.bbmpwards.org, a site which provides the option to file objections or suggestions online to the delimitation proposal. With accessing the website becoming difficult, the urban development department has so far received only 18 oppositions to the proposal. Many of them are related to the renaming of their wards. At least four objections had come from Kyasanahalli village, opposing the inclusion of the village in Kalkere ward from Mahadevapura zone.

The website was launched exclusively to help people file their objections and suggestions online, saving them the trouble of personally bringing it to the notice of the urban development department. But unfortunately, it has not been working."We have uploaded all the details on the website. It also contains applications in detail on the objections filed by people.

The maps and boundaries of the wards can also be seen," said RS Basappa, special deputy commissioner (enforcement). But B Shekar, a resident of Basavanagudi, said: "I have been trying to log on to the website for two days in vain. I request the BBBMP to update the website and provide the map and ward details."

PRIME MINISTER AWARD FOR ITPO CMD
The Times of India (Delhi edition)

Dr. Sheela Bhide, CMD, India Trade Promotion Organization, was recently awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for excellence in public administration for conceptualizing and designing of MCA-21 e-governance project, during her tenure as joint secretary, ministry of corporate affairs. She received the award under the Team Effort category along with five other officials. The MCA-21 has brought about a revolution in the way new companies can be incorporated. Registered companies can also file their documents under the Companies Act. The facility offers easy access 24X7, based on the principles of ‘anytime and anywhere’.

 

E-Governance : 22/06/09

PUNJAB GOVT LAUNCHES COMPUTER-AIDED LEARNING IN SCHOOLS
Chandigarh, June 22, 2009
The Pioneer

The Punjab Government has launched Computer Aided Learning (CAL) program in primary and upper primary schools in the State with an interactive approach to improve the grasping power of students.

Education and Languages Minister Upinderjit Kaur said the CAL program was started under the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) project to establish an enabling environment for teaching and learning and to combine learning with play.

Besides this, the program makes learning interesting and joyful by breaking pressure and monotonous teaching system. It would also promote creativity and thinking of the students as well as teachers also, she said.

In an effort to provide quality education, Education Department has developed interactive multimedia CDs incorporating multimedia educational content for subjects like Mathematics, Science, English and Social Science so as to teach children in play way techniques.

ALL POLICE STATIONS TO BE LINKED VIA INTERNET
New Delhi, June 22, 2009
The Tribune

Policemen sitting in police stations across the country will be connected via a ?cyber-highway? to improve connectivity and increase crime-fighting abilities.

The Rs 2,000 crore project will cover all 14,000 police stations spread across the country. The Union cabinet has approved it.

The project is aimed at enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of policing at the police station-level through e-governance, and creation of a nationwide networked infrastructure for an IT-enabled state-of-the-art tracking system for the investigation of crime and detection of criminals in real time, Home Minister P Chidambaram said here.

The crime and criminal tracking network and system (CCTNS) project would be initiated by Home Ministry and implemented by National crime records bureau.

The objective of the CCTNS is to streamline investigation and prosecution processes, strengthening of intelligence gathering machinery.

It will also facilitate collection, storage, retrieval, analysis, transfer and sharing of data and information among police stations, district and state headquarters and other organisation and agencies, including those at the central government level.

MANNING THE NETWORK
Nivedan Prakash, June 22, 2009
The Financial Express

NDMC has deployed Cyberoam content filtering solutions that play a critical role in protecting its entire network.

New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) is going in for an image makeover. It has resolved to intensify its efforts in providing better civic services to the citizens and a multitude of visiting patrons from all over the country and overseas. NDMC regulates and superintends all matters pertaining to taxations, budgeting, revenue, accounts, contracts, audits, sanitation and public health, streets and public safety etc. In other words, it is directly responsible for the well-being of the entire population that resides in New Delhi.

NDMC has set up an IT infrastructure to provide a backbone to the entire administration and back office operations. It has installed computers in various departments, offices and in NDMC schools. It has also designed and developed customised software for various departments such as health, civil, commercial, accounts among others.

NDMC was already using Cisco PIX, which did not fulfill their requirements. They wanted to replace this legacy firewall and also wanted to protect their 15 servers. A legacy firewall solution could not control indiscriminate surfing and blended threats originating on the Web. One of the main challenges faced was unproductive use of Internet bandwidth.

Opening up access to these sites for all users resulted in bandwidth getting choked. Hence selective blocking of sites was required. K Murugan, deputy director?IT at NDMC says, ?With Cisco, we didn?t have the content filtering and mapping options. Earlier, they had declared that Cisco PIX is end of life.

But it had problems, wherein they did not provide any kind of support, especially post sales for this particular product. The most important thing was that the Cisco PIX was not able to give the report. We needed a gateway level solution for three specific purposes.? NDMC wished to replace its legacy firewall because the firewall had limited efficacy in combating blended threats. For total business connectivity, the corporation has three Internet service provider (ISP) links.