MGRM NET IN JV WITH DUTCH FIRM
Joji Thomas Philip, New Delhi, July 20, 2009
The Economic Times (Delhi edition)
e-governance firm MGRM Net has entered into a JV with Dutch identity solutions provider Dell ID to tap the Indian market. Both companies will jointly invest Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 750 crore each) in the first phase into the JV that will aims to work to work with other technology partners and provide backend support for projects such as the Unique ID one headed by the co-Founder and vice-chairman of Infosys Technologies Nandan Nikelani.
Both partners said that they would commit additional investments into the JV to target the emerging space of identity management in India, which is expected to generate business worth several billions of dollars over the next couple of years. The MGRM-Bell ID JV will become operational in the next quarter even as an operational team is expected to begin work as early as next month.
MGRM Net is the Indian subsidiary of the US-based MGRM group. It is also one of India’s largest E-governance firms and is currently executing a slew of projects for leading educational institutes, pharmaceutical companies and insurance players here. It is also handling several e-governance projects for several state governments and central ministries in India. For instance, the company runs the back-end platform for the health ministry for codifying and classifying all the drugs. On the other hand, Bell ID is the global leader in the field of smart card management and boasts of one of the largest teams in the world dedicated exclusively to developing software that manages the life-cycles of cards and their associated applications and cryptographic keys. The Dutch-based company manages over 125 million cards in different applications in all continents including handling over 100,000 corporate identities for Boeing in the US and executing the national ID for citizens in Macau & Qatar.
“This JV synergisies the unique strengths of both MGRM & Bell ID. Bell ID has experience in managing an unrivalled portfolio of international customers in many key markets while MGRM is the first in the world to offer research based integrated e-governance platforms.” Dr K V R Murthy, founder of MGRM Net said.
ENTER PWC TO REBOOT E-PROJECTS
Amit Gupta, Ranchi
The Telegraph
The state had never had it so good. Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), one of the world’s largest professional services firms, is extending technical and advisory support to expedite its tardy e-projects.
Jharkhand Agency for Promotion of Information Technology (Japit), an autonomous body under the IT department, has roped in three experts from PwC for satisfactory implementation of national e-governance projects (NEGP) in the state.
Narendra Singh, Anurag Jouhari and Nishi Malhotra who are now part of the e-governance mission team will help in capacity building of state officials and policy-makers among others. This, in turn, will ensure that the online services — including birth and death registrations and filing of income and commercial taxes — benefit the common man, particularly in districts.
E-governance involves the larger process of using IT to improve both the internal operations of a state and its interface with citizens. The increased emphasis on IT in governance is expected to reduce red-tape and lead to quicker decision-making. It is also expected to ensure a greater degree of transparency in governance.
Around 250-300 e-governance services have been identified at the national level, but till now Jharkhand has been able to implement only a few and that too partially. These include computerisation of treasuries, jail and transport and registration services, besides initiating video-conferencing and statewide area network, better known as Jharnet, to connect all administrative headquarters with districts, sub-divisions and blocks.
The PwC experts are expected to suggest new projects to be taken up by the state while the rest of the e-governance mission team will suggest policy changes, if any.
Japit additional director Sunil Kumar Burnwal said having PwC as a partner in e-governance would prove to be a big leap as far as reaching benefits on the doorstep of end users — the common people — was concerned. Burnwal was candid in admitting that, as of now, the state had not been able to offer most e-governance schemes as planned.
Japit project director Deepak Kumar Sinha said the Centre had agreed to bear the cost of getting the services of PwC experts to reboot the state’s e-governance initiatives.
PROGRESS ON PLANS
Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee, July 20, 2009
The Hindu Business Line
Be it the ambitious Special Incentive Package Scheme (SIPS) to encourage investments in semiconductor fabrication and other micro and nano-technology industries, or the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), the Department of IT is the nerve-centre of many flagship programmes and initiatives being rolled out by the Government. While 12 PV projects under SIPS have already been granted the in-principle nod and given an August-end deadline for the financial closure, on the e-governance side, the DIT hopes that rollout of one lakh common service centres (CSCs) would be completed by June 2010.
eWorld caught up with the IT Secretary, R. Chandrashekhar, to discuss a broad range of issues such as NeGP, IT Amendment Act as well as the response to the IT Investment Regions (ITIR) policy.
Excerpts from the chat:
The ITIR policy was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in April 2008. Since then, how many States have evinced interest in ITIRs or prepared project reports?
Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu had indicated their interest but we are still looking for detailed proposals from these States. For instance, they have to identify a specific area, extent of land, infrastructure linkages, among others. These are at a preliminary stage so they have not got down to identifying specific parcels of land or capacities for the infrastructure. As of now, they have just said that they are interested and would be working out the details.
Also, I suppose, they are re-evaluating the situation in the backdrop of the current market conditions. I mean, issues such as how much of investment are you likely to get, which kind of companies would be interested, the level of interest that companies have to set up presence in ITIRs, etc. As you know, the growth rate in the IT sector has come down sharply — that has its own implication for projected requirement of infrastructure and overall plans. Hence, these States are looking at the whole issue with reference to the current scenario.
What is the update on the rules and regulations around the provisions of the IT Amendment legislation?
We have already published the draft rules on the Internet on some of the critical sections. We hope to be able to enforce the amended Act, which requires these rules, sometime around July. Specifically, the critical sections pertain to interception of data and communication, and the specified and designated authorities to be vested with various responsibilities.
Have you outlined the 100-day action plan for your Department? Also, the progress on rollout of common service centres has been slow. By when is that likely to be completed?
If you look at the President’s announcement for the 100-day programme, the main item against the Department of IT was to initiate steps to make e-governance services available in Bharat Nirman kiosks in all the panchayats.
These kiosks are CSCs repositioned to become Bharat Nirman kiosks. The CSC programme entailed establishment of one lakh kiosks and the number of panchayats are 2.43 lakh, so we are still working out the detailed action plan to do that — which is what will come out in the course of the 100-day plan.
There are three major parts to this.
Our first goal is to complete the rollout of one lakh CSCs. Yes, there have been slight delays due to general slowdown, difficulties faced by some operators in raising funds and the entire election process, but the programme is on track. Today, we have crossed 40 percent or 40,000 CSCs. We expect to reach the figure of one lakh between April and June 2010. From here, we expect things to pick up. But the more important question that we are dealing with is how to speed up the Government services.
Could you elaborate on that point? What has necessitated the roll-out of Government services earlier than was originally intended?
In the original plan of common service centres, we had assumed there would be a three-year period in which the Government services would build-up…These things take time as some States do it faster, some slower, some services are more complicated than others …So, all-in-all, the build-up to substantial levels would have taken about three years.
Today, what has prompted a bit of a course correction on that is that many of the CSC operators, during the bid process, have perhaps factored-in — despite explicit provisions to the contrary — some revenue from Government services also. Therefore, the sustainability of the CSCs requires some support of Government services sooner than later… Simply put, our estimate was a higher quantum of Government support because Government services would take a little time to build up. In the competitive process, people bid lower, perhaps factoring-in revenue from the Government services. So, it is now important for us to get the Government services running as quickly as possible, and faster than we had originally planned for.
We are working out a game plan to fast-track the Government services (available through CSCs). For that we are looking at a timeline of June to December 2010.
The other critical aspect is connectivity… everyone knows we do not have connectivity in all villages today. We have been working with the Department of Telecom, telecom service providers and USOF to fast-track the connectivity aspect. Our strategy is three-fold. Complete the roll-out of the 1,00,000 kiosks, speed-up the connectivity rollout, and speed up the rollout of Government services.
CIVIC SOLUTIONS TO GO E-TRACK
Sunitha Rao R, July 20, 2009
DNA (Bangalore edition)
Next time you make a call to the central control room of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), you will get an invoice immediately saying the matter has been referred to the official concerned.
So welcome the new initiative of palike officials to address public grievances. The BBMP is planning to make its control room on line. The system will be in place within a month.
Any complaint that you make to the central control room will be immediately absorbed by the software and the officials concerned can see it online.
A message in the form of an SMS, which has the public grievance number and area from where the complaint is received, will be sent to the officer concerned immediately.
"The initiative is to make the public grievance redressal system more effective," said Manjunath SL, BBMP's deputy commissioner of administration.
"Each officer will have a log in ID for the software called Public grievances redressal system and they will be immediately informed about the complaint received. Through this log in ID, senior officers will also be able to monitor the alertness of their subordinate officers in attending to the complaints made by the public," a BBMP official said.
The control room will also develop a database of the complainant which will have details about the citizen, how many times he or she has lodged the complaint, and what were the issues highlighted in it.
DTC E-TICKETS FOR INTER-STATE ROUTES
Siddheshwar Shukla, New Delhi, July 20, 2009
The Pioneer
Getting tickets in DTC buses for a tourist place in the neighbouring States would soon be a click away. The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) is preparing software to introduce online ticket reservation in its inter-State bus services. The Corporation operates its services on 81 inter-State routes mostly connecting to tourist places of North India in six States. The scheme is likely to be launched in coming September.
“The software is being prepared and other technical works are being carried out with fast pace. We hope to launch the service by coming September. The service will be available on the website of DTC from where the passengers can get their tickets reserved like railways,” said Naresh Kumar, Managing Director of DTC. The corporation may tie up with State Bank of India or Syndicate Bank for the gateway on internet for online fare deposit. “The online reservation in DTC busses will help the passengers in many ways. They can ensure their seat from their home and enjoy a hassle free travel. Further, they will not be bound to carry large amount of which posses risk even for their life,” said NN Mishra, president of Mayur Vihar RWA.
