Leslie D'Monte, New
Business Standard
The battle over standards for the multi-billion dollar e-governance projects is once again hotting up. IT majors like IBM, Sun Microsystems and Red Hat have shot letters to industry bodies — Nasscom (for software) and MAIT (for hardware) — and the Department of Information Technology (DIT), protesting over the inclusion of clauses which allow for ‘multiple standards’ and ‘royalty on software’ versus a ‘single’ standard and ‘free’ software.
At the second meeting of the apex body on standards for e-governance held on June 17 this year, all the members approved Unicode 5.1.0 as a standard for e-governance applications for all 22 Indian languages (except Kashmiri). They also approved the Open Type Font as a mandatory standard for e-governance applications. With regard to metadata (name, age, sex, etc. for land records and the like) and data standards, too, there was a consensus.
However, it was on the draft policy on ‘Open Standards’ that the differences emerged. While Nasscom presented that ‘multiple’ standards should be allowed, Secretary DIT, R Chandrasekhar, himself pointed out that “complete interoperability could possibly be achieved through single standard.” However, he added that the “…possibility of ensuring the same through multiple standards can also be considered in consultation with Industry.”
Nasscom and MAIT were to get back with industry feedback on this subject by July 7-8 which they did. But players like IBM and Sun are not happy. Insisting that they do not subscribe to Nasscom’s views on the subject, they have put on record that they were not consulted by the software body before it presented its view to the government.
“Sun Microsystems believes the Draft Policy on e-Governance Standards, ver 2.0 is an extremely well drafted policy evolved by the government and the policy will help save valuable tax payer’s money from being wasted and in creating sustainable e-governance assets...Specifically, we believe that adopting multiple standards in any way will greatly damage the critical e-governance infrastructure of the country and would also increase its vulnerability. We also believe that adopting standards that are not Royalty free will compromise the technological sovereignty of the nation....Sun Microsystems was not consulted by Nasscom before presenting its view on the Draft Policy on e-Governance standards,” stated Jaijit Bhattacharya, country director, Government Strategy (Asia South and India), Sun Microsystems India, in a letter addressed to Nasscom President Som Mittal.
Ashish Gautam, country leader (open standards), IBM India, confirmed the same and said: “We have written to the DIT, expressing our concern on these suggestions.”
Venkatesh Hariharan, corporate affairs director, Red Hat, too, asserted that his company was not consulted, adding: “...We do not support the recommendations of Nasscom...since standards should belong to humanity and not be controlled or owned by anyone. In the physical world, we do not pay for using standards like weights and measures...In order to protect India’s digital sovereignty, we must ensure that national data is stored in formats that are open and free of all encumbrances like royalties, patent claims etc. The government is the custodian of data that belongs to the citizens of
Vinnie Mehta, executive director, MAIT, when contacted, said: “We are in the process of consulting our members, and will soon come up with a well thought-out stance.” The e-governance apex committee is expected to meet shortly.
Incidentally, there has never been a more intense global industry debate over ‘open standards’. On the one hand is Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) file format backed by Apple, Novell, Wipro, Infosys, TCS, and Nasscom. On the other is the Open Document Format (ODF), supported by the likes of IBM, Sun Microsystems, Red Hat, Google, the Department of Information Technology (DIT), National Informatics Centre (NIC), CDAC, IIT-Mumbai and IIM-Ahmedabad.
PLAN PANEL APPROVES RS 2,000 CR CYBER NETWORK PROJECT
New
The Times of
As many as 14,000 police stations and more than 6,200 important government offices across the country will soon be connected through a cyber network. The aim of the Rs 2,000 crore three-year project is to improve connectivity and increase the crime fighting abilities of the police and other official agencies.
The project, called the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems, was approved by the Planning Commission on Wednesday.
The ambitious scheme also proposes to link passport offices and immigration counters which would ensure that criminals trying to flee the country are not able to do so.
Under the scheme, all courts will also linked so that police offices at all levels get details of cases and take appropriate action. The home ministry is hopeful that once all the courts are connected, the number of pending cases will come down.
The ambitious scheme also proposes to link National Crime Records Bureau with state bureaus to facilitate better planning to handle rising crime.
For 2009-10, the government has set a target of covering 10% police stations and other major offices. The remaining 90% would be covered by 2010-11.
The project aims at creating a comprehensive and integrated system for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of policing at the police station level through adoption of e-governance, and creation of a nationwide networked infrastructure for an IT-enabled state-of-the-art tracking system for investigation of crime and detection of criminals in real time.
CYBER LAB TO E-TRAIN COPS
Kolkata
The Times of
The crimes, they are a-changing. In this age of information technology, crooks have new tools in their kitty: the computer and the internet. Whether it was the 26/11 attacks, a bank robbery in Kolkata or terror mails threatening to attack parts of
The cyber lab, for which Kolkata Police is tying up with Nasscom and Data Security Council of India (DSCI), is being set up with the objective to improving skills of law-enforcing agency personnel, though not necessarily only those related to cyber crime.
Kolkata Police authorities are already in talks with Nasscom. On Friday, Nasscom officials took a look at spaces available at Lalbazar to examine if the lab could be set up there. The lab, expected to come up over 1,000 sq ft, is going to be the fifth one in the country after Pune, Thane, Mumbai and
Pratap Reddy, advisor and director, cyber security, Nasscom, said that there will be faculty at the lab who could help police identify and understand crimes through technological support. Reddy was in the city a month back and spoke to the DG and the police commissioner on the project. He said the industry body could help facilitate the technology to the police faster by bringing in the expertise that it already has.
The idea is to train law-enforcement personnel and the prosecution for understanding the technological aspects and their use in crimes. At a later stage, a request would also be made to the judiciary to avail the training, said an official.
The training will include both preliminary and advanced courses including computer data fundamentals, introduction to cyber crime, investigation of e-mails, the internet, cellphone investigation, disc encryption, case documentation and how to present cases well before the court, forensic investigation, advanced cyber forensic course, and hands-on training for cyber investigators.
It will also offer support to the existing cyber cell of the city police, which actually handles cases. "That forms a very essential part of the training," said Suparno Moitro of Nasscom.
COMPUTER-SAVVY STAFF ENSURE SMOOTH E-GOVERNANCE
Udupi
The Times of
The paperless office system, incorporated at the DC's office here as part of the advanced e-governance, is going strong with the support of the staff who have ensured they are now computer-savvy. This system is claimed to be the first of its kind in the entire state.
The paperless office, the brainchild of the then V Ponnuraj, was initiated at the DC office in April 2007. Ponnuraj, the present DC of Dakshina Kannada (DK) district has replicated the same system, a much improved version recently in the neighbouring district. However, the system has not become complete in both Udupi and DK yet, as public cannot submit their papers online, and can only see the position of their file through the existing system.
A Manjunath, head of the Udupi centre of National Informatics Centre, who is the technical chief and advisor, is responsible (technical) for the complete implementation of the Paperless Office (e-governance) at the DC office in Udupi. Manjunath told TOI: "Since April 2007, after the introduction of this system, till date 63,856 inward files have been processed through this system and later converted (reduced) into over 30,000 files for processing." Manjunath however, was not sure how many files have been exactly cleared, as it is processed at various sections in the same office, sometime at the higher level and others go outside the DC office for clearance by higher authorities. Roughly over 30% of the total files might have been cleared through the system, he said.
E-HEALTH ENHANCES QUALITY OF HEALTHCARE
The Times of
e-health enhances in several ways the quality of healthcare provided by the health professionals therefore patients should be made aware of its potential benefits.
These views were expressed by MD Tiwari, director, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad (IIIT-A) while inaugurating the five-day summer school on ‘e health care' here on Wednesday.
Tiwari said that the ministry of communications and information technology (MCIT) has set up the north zone resource centre at IIIT-A for generating contents, mentors, teachers and knowledge workers by conducting short term HRD courses for IT/IT enabled services sectors. "The institute, thus has identified has 20 areas to develop the e content. E health is one of them where the institute has started working to prepare e content", added the director.
BS Bedi, former senior director, medical electronics and telemedicine division, DIT, MCIT,
Prof R C Tripathi, Convener of the Summer School said that penetration of internet in the masses was growing at a faster rate. E-Healthcare services were competing through desktops and through mobiles. "Globally, people are gaining progressively enhanced awareness about best treatment centres experts, service providers etc in the world and how their services could be utilised remotely through telemedicine. This is soon to become a tough competition for each of them. The summer school would prepare participants to understand and gain from this new development occurring globally" , he added. Dr Anurika Vaish, Head MBA/ MSCLIS Division proposing vote of thanks at the inaugural session said that E-health was useful to make diagnostics since it could connect different health professionals, regardless of their place of residence.
