E-Governance: 31/7/09

UID PROJECT FACES HICCUPS
Namrata Biji Ahuja, New Delhi
The Asian Age

The ambitious unique identity number project of the UPA-2 government, which has been earmarked Rs 120 crore in the Union Budget, is facing hiccups. Government sources admitted that while the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) led by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has settled the issues regarding creation of data, the mandate for making of cards is so far neither with the Registrar-General of India (RGI) nor with the Planning Commission. The appointment of the Cabinet-ranked chief of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Nandan Nilekani has further created confusion over the allocation and distribution of work between the various authorities.

"The RGI has said that certain decisions needed to be taken at the top level for any further and final plan of action vis-à-vis the UIDAI, NRA (National Registration Authority) and the NPR (National Population Registry)," revealed sources. The RGI, under the ministry of home affairs, is responsible for all work related to collection of Census data.

The sticky points in the UID project, which is part of the 100-day action plan of the MHA, came to surface at a recent meeting held in July to review the progress of the scheme. It was noted that the EGoM has been unable to decide whether to place the NRA under the Planning Commission or any other ministry. Similarly, a decision is also pending on when to make the NRA a statuary body, sources said. A meeting is likely to take place soon between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission and Nilekani to resolve the confusion.

 

E-Governance News: 30/7/09

GOVT TAKES STEPS TO ENSURE TRANSPARENCY IN AICTE
Basant Kumar Mohanty, New Delhi
Business Standard

To ensure transparency in the functioning of AICTE, whose top brass is facing corruption cases, the government will make it mandatory for the agency to display information online about progress in the applications of institutes for approval or accreditation.

The government is set to launch e-governance system in All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) under which the representatives of institutes will not have to come to the agency's office to track their cases.

Under the e-governance project, any institute can know online the status of its application pertaining to approval for new courses, increasing intake of existing programmes or accreditation to its programmes.

"The purpose is to bring transparency in the system. By this e-governance system, every institute will be able to track the progress in their applications on line. They need not come to AICTE office. This will help reduce corruption," a source said.

This will be similar to the PNR number system of railways under which passengers are able to know progress in confirmation of their tickets.

"The AICTE will also display if there is any laxity on part of the institute which seeks approval or accreditation. The institutes can fulfill the deficiencies and comply," the source said.

Under the e-governance project, the regional offices of AICTE will be inter-linked. A high-level committee has been set up to go into the modalities for implementation of the project.

The HRD Ministry has also directed higher educational institutions to provide information in their website relating to availability of infrastructure and physical assets, grants-in-aid provided by the government and its utilisation and admission criteria.

 

INFOSYS PROMISES FAIRNESS IN UIAI DEAL
Chennai
The Times of India

Dispelling any doubts that one may have, IT major Infosys said that highest level of transparency would be maintained on inking a deal with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI) headed by former co-chairman of the company Nandan M Nilekani.

Nilekani was formally appointed as Chairman of UIAI, by the government last month. It has earmarked around Rs 120 crore to provide biometric identity card to every citizens.

Domestic players are likely to bid for the project, which could be valued around two billion dollars.

"Both Infosys and Nilekani will make sure that there is highest level of transparency in the deal. We have to wait and see," Infosys CEO and Managing Director S Gopalakrishnan said.

Gopalakrishnan was here to participate in the sixth edition of HR Summit 2009 organised by Nasscom.

 

IRDA EARMARKS RS 20 CRORE FOR AWARENESS DRIVE
TE Narasimhan, Chennai
Business Standard

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) is planning to join hands with the Ministry of Consumer Affairs to spread awareness on insurance and has earmarked Rs 20 crore for the campaign.

Irda Chairman J Hari Narayan said one of the biggest challenges for the industry was to spread awareness and make the industry more transparent. ?We are planning to create software which would capture the grievances data of companies, which in turn will be made public.?

E-Governance Updates: 29/7/09

INDIA POST SET TO GET NEW TECH ADDRESSES
Arindam Ghosh, New Delhi
The Economic Times (Delhi edition)

Targeting improved postal services in India, the government has proposed setting up 12 automatic mail processing centres (AMPCs) in the country during the ongoing Five-Year Plan (2007-12). The AMPCs will have high speed sorting machines that will lead to quicker distribution of mails.

?The government has planned to invest Rs 275 crore to set up 12 automatic mail processing centres all over the country,? said a government official on condition of anonymity. The AMPCs are likely to come up in Delhi and Kolkata by the end of March 2010, the official said. By the end of the Plan period, AMPCs will come up in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubansehwar, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Kochi, Patna and Vashi, giving a boost to the efficiency of postal services all over the country, he said.

Recently, there were reports that India Post plans to invite consultants to help the loss-making institution acquire technology solutions, including software applications and computer hardware. The institutions also plans to spend around Rs2,300 crore on technology, according to the reports.

Two AMPCs are already functional in Mumbai and Chennai, which were established in 1993 and 1996 respectively.

?All the AMPCs will have highspeed sorting machines that can sort up to 30,000 letters in an hour,? the government official added. Under automatic mail processing, letters are sorted at a faster pace, leading to quicker distribution of mails. All the letters meant for automatic sorting must have a pin code and should be machinable.

The steps being planned to develop automatic mail processing centres is a part of the initiative taken by the government to modernise and upgrade the operations of the postal services and give a new corporate image to India Post.

 

E-FILING OF I-T RETURNS CATCHES UP, JULY SEES 1 LAKH NEW USERS
Shilpa Shree, Mumbai
Financial Chronicle

There is a sharp rise in the number of people filing income-tax returns online after the income-tax department clarified that there is no need to provide unique transaction number (UTN) this year.

3i Infotech Consumer Services, a subsidiary of Mumbai-based 3i Infotech, which is the only company handling e-filing of I-T returns of individual taxpayers, said the number has crossed 3 lakh, with around 1 lakh new users e-filing their tax returns in July. In 2008-09, the total number stood at 2 lakh.

The unique transaction number was supposed to be given out by the I-T department to employers, who paid tax for the year 2008-09. The department, though made it mandatory for taxpayers to quote the transaction number while filing returns, could not provide the unique number to employers.

3i Infotech is the only certified authority to provide online tax returns facility to individual customers. There are seven other certified authorities that offer digital signature services to companies and institutions. These include Tata Consultancy Services, Sify, Ncode (a Guajarat government-promoted company), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL), customs/excise departments, Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) and National Informatics Centre (NIC).

?For a long time, we did not see good response because the income tax authorities had not clarified the unique transaction number issue. But after they clarified, we are seeing almost 7,000 registration everyday, with around 3,000-3,500 people filing returns,? said Ravi Jagannathan, managing director and CEO of 3i Infotech Consumer Services.

 

PANCHAYATS TO BE COMPUTERISED BY 2010
Shimla
The Tribune

?The state is poised to give new dimensions to the use of information technology (IT) to deliver services to every citizen at their doorsteps as all the gram panchayats would have computers by the end of 2009-10.?This was stated by Forest Minister JP Nadda while presiding over the sixth meeting of the Cabinet sub-committee set up for monitoring and reviewing the implementation of the election manifesto, held here today.

?A total of 2,370 panchayats have already been provided computers in the first and second phase while the remaining 873 gram panchayats will be covered during the current financial year,? he stated.

While reviewing the progress of the Excise and Taxation Department it was informed that taxation procedure had been made transparent and practical. ?The Toll Policy-2009-10 has also been made flexible and toll tax being realised quarterly and yearly has been reduced by 50 percent for the people residing near the boundaries of the neighbouring states and are using their private vehicles,? he said.

Reviewing progress of the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department, Nadda said Rs. 322 crore has been utilised under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act during last year and about 2 crore-man days had been generated.

 

HANDS TIED, THANKS TO VINTAGE COMPUTERS
S Kushala, Bangalore
The Times of India (Bangalore edition)

The government initiative is good but there seems to be a problem in click-starting it.

The government on July 8, 2009, ordered that sub-registrars verify documents with the original survey sketches of agriculture lands by going online logging into the Bhoomi website and tallying the sketches with the documents submitted for registration.

But poor connectivity in the sub-registrars offices may make this initiative a non-starter.

The plus
Under Bhoomi, agriculture lands have been computerized and survey sketches are online. It will be easy for the sub-registrars to check the veracity of the documents.

The catch
Majority of the sub-registrar offices do not have upgraded computers and Internet connectivity is still a distant dream. The stamps and registration department has been talking big about computerisation since two years without much progress in that regard. Where is the Internet connection to log into the Bhoomi website? You cannot expect a sub-registrar to go in search of an internet cafe to log into the website and check the survey sketches. Even with the available computers, its difficult to manage, officials in the department pointed out.

The order
Special secretary (Bhoomi), revenue department, Rajeev Chawla. wrote to inspector general of registration and commissioner of stamps K R Niranjan on July 8, 2009: As you are aware, 11E sketches are now created through the Mojini computerized system in about 120 taluks. It is noted that sometimes, fake sketches are being submitted by certain parties to the sub-registrar. It is therefore advised that the sub-registrars check the authenticity of the 11E certificates by logging into the Bhoomi website and verify the genuineness of the 11E certificates by keying in the serial number of the certificates.

Subsequently, Niranjan on July 10, 2009 sent out circulars to all the sub-registrars to follow the order. Not all sub-registrar offices have upgraded systems. We have placed orders for complete computerisation of sub-registrar offices across the state and in the next 15 days, the computers will be supplied. In the second phase, Internet Connectivity will be provided, says Niranjan.

What is Bhoomi
Bhoomi meaning land is the flagship e-governance project of Karnataka, wherein agriculture land records are computerized and are available online.

2 crore land-records of 70 lakh farmers in 176 taluks have been computerised Designed by NIC, the project gives out Record of right, Tenancy and Crop certificate (RTC) to the land owners. A user fee of Rs 15 is charged per record.

Bhoomi incorporates the process of online updation, which has adopted state-of-the art bio-metric system that authenticates users based on their fingerprints.

 

SMART CARDS TO CHECK MISUSE FROM AUG 1
Bangalore
The Times of India (Bangalore edition)

To avoid misuse of ration cards, the government will issue permanent ration cards along with smart cards from August 1 this year.

Food, civil supplies and consumer affairs minister H Halappa on Tuesday said the process of issuing permanent ration cards was already on in four districts Dakshina Kannada , Udupi, Kodagu and C h i k m a g a l u r. Though the Centre has fixed the limit of the below poverty line (BPL) cards at 32 lakh, the state has issued 1.06 crore BPL cards, making it obvious the lacunae in the system.

To avoid misuse of cards, he said the government had planned to issue smart cards along with ration cards. The smart cards will have the names and thumb impressions of the beneficiaries. The beneficiary should go to the shop, prove their identity through thumb impression and buy the ration.

Halappa said they had already started the pilot project to issue smart cards at 20 Points of Sale. We have allocated Rs 10 crore for the project. After the pilot, we will extend it to the entire state, he added.

 

RS 345 CRORE NABARD LOAN FOR RURAL PROJECTS IN STATE
Jaipur
The Times of India

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has sanctioned a loan of Rs 345.47 crore for infrastructure projects in the state under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) for the current year. This includes one rural drinking water scheme in Jodhpur, 237 e-Vikas Kendras in 22 districts and construction of 65 hostels for disadvantaged groups in all the districts.

The drinking water project in Jodhpur is meant for 6,78,825 villagers in 113 villages. The e-Vikas Kendras will serve as nodal IT centres for exchange of information between state headquarters and the blocks. They will also act as common service centres (CSC) to provide a single-window approach to facilitate various government to citizens (G2C) services at the block level.

The proposed investment for construction of hostels would create healthy learning environs for the students. This would enhance the quality of education and reduce dropout rates.

E-Governance Update: 28/7/09

HCL INFOSYTEMS TAKES UP PROJECT TO DISPERSE NREGA WAGES IN UP
Mumbai
The Economic Times  The Hindu Business Line  

HCL Infosystems on Monday said it has undertaken a project with the Uttar Pradesh government to facilitate disbursement of wages to workers under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) project.

As per the project, HCL Infosystems would implement technology for issuing e-job cards to workers in Sitapur district of UP.

"We are sure that using technology will further facilitate on-ground implementation of NREGA and the benefits of this initiative will reach the right individuals and thereby multiply its impact on the society," HCL Infosystems Executive vice-president George Paul said in a release.

As part of the phase one of the project, 1,000 e-job cards would be issued, it said.

E-GOVERNANCE INITIATIVES STAY ON RADAR
New Delhi
The Financial Express

In a seminar on “e-governance in India—the journey so far and the road ahead,” the role of key stakeholders in e-governance projects including the government, industry and civil society and progress made by them was discussed.

E-governance senior director SP Singh at the department of information technology (DIT) said, “The government has made progress on the infrastructure front in e-governance which can be seen through the state-wide area networks, state data centres and common service centres that have been developed. The next level would be required from service providers in terms of modules they will offer and also the service levels they will live up to.”

BUREAUCRACY TRIES TO STALL E-GOVERNANCE
New Delhi
The Asian Age

The bureaucracy, which was popularly called the "steel frame" of the governance system in India during British rule, has been showing its steely resolve to stall the government’s attempt to make their work process e-enabled, as it is wary of loosing the "aura" of being the ruler.

The government, however, on its part to enhance level of performance and accountability among otherwise immune "babus", through department of administrative reforms and public grievances (DARPG), has recently circulated the first draft of the Central Secretariat manual of e-office procedure, a soft copy of which is with this newspaper.

The draft, prepared by National Institute of Smart Government (NISG), Hyderabad and PricewaterhouseCoopers, while improving upon the existing procedural manual, suggests that the procedures prescribed are intend to enable the office processes in ICT (Information and Communication Technology) enabled environment. "This manual takes care of the present scenario demanding simplified, responsive, effective and transparent working of government offices with the help of state of art cost effective technologies available in the market," it added.

The manual also emphasizes that the procedures have been improved keeping the core spirit of previous manual in consideration but incorporating procedures to support electronic environment and introducing transformational opportunities after due deliberations to give modern look to government offices.

Though the manual takes care of the issues relating to legality, privacy and official secrecy, bureaucrats expressed their reluctance to adopt the suggestions. "Improved security of e-files will be possible with the help of modern security services offered by specialised software packages. Further the digital signature technology will help in proper authentication and possible usage and legality of e-files on par with paper files/ documents," the manual asserts. However, most of the bureaucrats, who were contacted by this newspaper, showed reluctance to work in a paperless environment.

NILEKANI LOGS OUT OF TWITTER
Johnson TA, Bangalore
The Indian Express

Having become the chairman of the Unique Identity Development Authority of India with a Cabinet minister’s rank, Infosys co-founder and former CEO Nandan Nilekani has logged out of his blog and Twitter accounts.

Nilekani, who began his Imagining India blog and Twitter accounts in the run up to the release and subsequent promotion of his book Imagining India, signed off from his blog on July 23 and provided a last post on Twitter linking up to the final blog on July 24.

“In my new role, I can no longer comment on government policy. So this means the end of this blog. The blogging format was new to me, and I greatly enjoyed writing here and listening to your thoughts these past few months,” Nilekani who assumed office as the UIDAI chairman on July 23 said in the final blog.

Answering questions as to why he accepted the appointment of the UIDAI chairman, Nilekani says he saw the opportunity to head the authority as a chance to enable ideas he has supported for a long time.

 

E-Governance Update: 27/7/09

BABUS LUKEWARM ON TAKING UP UID POSTINGS
Prabhjot Singh, Chandigarh, July 27, 2009
The Tribune

That the country’s senior bureaucrats do not appear to have been infatuated by the formation of the Unique Identification Database (UID) Authority of India is evident by the fact that not many of them are willing to take up UID assignments even after several missives sent to chief secretaries of various states and UTs.

Despite the appointment of IT czar Nandan Nilekani as the body’s chairman in the rank of cabinet minister and Jharkhand IAS officer Ram Sewak Sharma as its member secretary, besides a budgetary provision of Rs 120 crore for the project, the personnel ministry has virtually drawn a blank from the states and union territories.

IT'S NEW LIFE FOR ME, SAYS NILEKANI ON THE ID CARD PROJECT
New Delhi, July 27, 2009
The Indian Express  

IT icon Nandan Nilekani, handpicked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to create a national database of identity details of citizens, feels he is beginning a "new life" and the world around him would be different from what it used to be in Infosys.

Nilekani, whose appointment marks induction of a competent corporate professional into a Cabinet rank post, said the assignment will be full of challenges as it will require him to interface with a large number of people in the government circle.

"It is a new life for me," he said when asked whether he would miss Infosys, a company he had co-founded 28 years ago along with N R Narayana Murthy, now chief mentor of the IT giant.

Asked how he will cope up with the multi-layered decision making process in the government circle, Nilekani, who resigned from Infosys to lead the newly created Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI) said he knew it would be a different world.

"I certainly think it is a different world," the 54-year-old IT expert said expressing confidence that his friend Ram Sevak Sharma who takes over as Secretary and CEO of UIAI will help him navigate the Government system.

PRINTING SOLUTION COS KEEN TO TAP E-GOV BIZ
Swetha Kannan, Bangalore, July 27, 2009
The Hindu Business Line

As e-governance initiatives across the country gather steam, printing solutions companies are witnessing an increase in business from the Government.

Whether it is to print birth certificate in a city or digitise land records in a village, Government agencies are increasingly using digital technology from basic hardware to multi-function machines, which integrate the copier, printer and scanner into one unit.

“There is a shift in Government mindset towards offering citizens the best of information services. The Government wants to modernise itself, adopt best practices and be more efficient. It is investing even in tier 2 and 3 towns on machines. The priority growth areas for us are power, education and health services,” says Alok Bharadwaj, Senior Vice-President, Canon India.

Canon, which works both with the Central and State Governments, supplies printing equipment ranging from Rs 45,000 to Rs 6 lakh. It has appointed ‘special government managers’ in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi for “handling government opportunities and contacts,” says Bharadwaj.

Government contracts contribute 25 percent of Canon’s revenues from all its businesses. In the printing and copier category (which accounts for 50 percent of Canon’s business), half of the revenues come from the Government.

Canon’s business from the Government sector has been growing consistently over the years. In the last three calendar years, revenue contribution has grown from 25 percent to 33 percent to 50 percent in 2008 (at Rs 200 crore).

Xerox has also seen good traction from the Government. “About 50 percent of Xerox India’s revenues this year (from January-June) came from the Government,” says Princy Bhatnagar, Director – Office Business, Xerox India. Earlier, it was 25-30 percent.

As national e-governance initiatives (which are part of the Government’s Mission Mode Project) progress, increased use of printing technology is needed, says Puneet Chadha, Director, Graphics Solutions Business, HP. HP works with both State and Central Governments for printing office and election ID cards, ration cards and toll slips, and digitising old records and maps.

VOTER ID CARDS A CLICK AWAY
Mumbai, July 27, 2009
DNA

It's the same story every election. The voter turn-out in south Mumbai is rarely more than 48-50 per cent. A concerned district collector's office has now started a pilot project to bring out more SOBO voters during the forthcoming Assembly elections.

Photo ID cards, the Form 16 required as verification for the ID, and all other election-related verification material is just a click away for south Mumbai voters. "They have to log onto www.mumbaicityelection.org for details. We plan to start the pilot project from next week," Sanjay Bhagwat, deputy district Election Officer and deputy collector said.

"A voter can check details of his or her constituency, serial number, photo I-card and other material, and also apply for an I-card or a photo online. He just needs to use a webcam to upload his pictures, according to instructions issued," he added.

Once the district office receives details of the voter, it will process it and inform the voter. The voter can also verify the status of the I-card on the Internet.

In mid-July, an SMS service was started by the city collector's office. "Till now, they have received 500 messages from voters, requesting details. The office receives more and more queries from suburban voters and organisations every day," an officer from the collector's office said.

INFOSYS BAGS TEN-YEAR GOVT E-BIZ PROJECT
July 27, 2009
The Financial Express

Doing business in India is set to become easier, more convenient and investor-friendly, with the ministry of commerce & industry on Tuesday awarding the country’s second-largest software firm, Infosys Technologies a project to enable budding entrepreneurs to obtain central, state and even municipal clearances, licences and permits online.

The ten-year ‘e-biz project’ calls for the development and maintenance of a one-stop portal and is the third of 27 government mission-mode projects under an ambitious Rs 23,000-crore national e-governance plan. Infosys topped a pack of five bidders for the prestigious assignment under the department of industrial policy & promotion, the nodal central agency responsible for industry-related issues.

The e-biz project will have a pilot phase running over three years, which will cover five states—Delhi, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu—and offer 50 services. When completed in 2019, the portal will include all states and central government departments covering more than 205 g-to-b services, including the issue of licences and permits needed across a company’s business lifecycle.

“This is a path breaking initiative…This is another step towards liberalising and reforming our investor environment,” said commerce & industry minister Anand Sharma. The total cost of implementing the project would be Rs 15 crore. According to Infosys Technologies senior vice-president and head of India business unit Binod HR, this will go towards putting together the hardware and software for the portal.

Once the project goes live, the company will be paid a transaction fee on a revenue-share basis with the government. Some 100 people based out of Infosys’s Bangalore campus will work on the e-biz initiative.

MP GOVERNMENT WEBSITES SANS WEBMASTERS
Sudhir K. Singh, Bhopal, July 27, 2009
The Asian Age

Madhya Pradesh on paper figures among the 10 states where e-governance has taken firm roots. Going, however, by the abject condition of the state government’s websites, this may seem a preposterous claim. The overwhelming majority of departmental websites, including key ones like home, school education, finance, social welfare haven’t been updated for several months. Information on many dates back to January 2008. Departments like fisheries and animal husbandry may even have forgotten that they have websites of their own. Their last update: 2004. The most amusing of the bunch is the police department’s site. The only thing, it is said, that is updated here is the photograph of the DGP when a new one takes over.

State additional secretary (IT) Anurag Shrivastava, the one-man industry on whom rests the responsibility of pushing MP firmly into the computer age told this newspaper that the main reason why things were bad was because most government websites were running on virtual private networks. This required a fair degree of familiarity with network operations since individual sites had to be downloaded, updated, and then uploaded back. Some had outsourced their websites, but neglected to provide the latest info. And then their were some which did not even have the funds to annually outsource the job. Hence, the failure to update for years.

Another major shortcoming, he said, was the lack of a common theme or design. This made each site seem a standalone entity. Garish colours, dead links, and scattered info were all too common. Professionally managed websites stood on three pillars: Information, interaction, and transaction. MP government sites had yet to come grips with the first.

All this, however, was set to change with recent policy guidelines for Indian government websites readied by the National Informatics Centre, Shrivastava said. Compliance would ensure a high degree of consistency and unanimity in the content, coverage and presentation. The guidelines had three broad categories: mandatory, advisory, and voluntary. Each website would be checked against these guidelines when audits for compliance were undertaken.

It would be the responsibility of every department to address and bring into compliance any non-compliant issues found in any website under their ownership.

His department, said Shrivastava, would henceforth function like a holding company for all departmental websites, each linked to a national portal.

AIDING BANDWIDTH
July 27, 2009
The Times of India (Delhi edition)

Infosys Technologies Limited has announced that it has been awarded the eBiz Project by the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), ministry of commerce and industry.

The eBiz Project is among the 27 central, state and integrated Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) under the National E-Governance Plan (NEGP) of the Indian government. The scope of work under this agreement includes designing and developing the eBiz platform, establishing the support IT infrastructure and implementing, maintaining and expanding eBiz solutions and services for the next 10 years. As part of the project, Infosys will also undertake training, workshops, promotion and awareness campaigns.

 

PETITIONING PREZ A CLICK AWAY
New Delhi, July 27, 2009
The Times of India

Rashtrapati Bhavan is coming closer to the common man with a little help from technology. President Pratibha Patil launched a helpline portal that will not only allow citizens to register their grievances online but track them to various ministries as well. The portal will allow people to petition the President directly.

The portal — http://helpline.rb.nic.in — promises to process petitions and direct them to relevant departments within seven working days.

E- GOVERNANCE DRIVE GETS A BABU BEATING
Ashish Sinha, New Delhi, July 27, 2009
Mail Today

An ambitious government plan to revolutionise the trundling pen- pushing procedures of the Indian bureaucracy, by aligning it with an e- enabled computer friendly regime, is facing opposition from within.

The ‘ Central Secretariat Manual of e- Office Procedure’, the first draft of which was circulated recently by the department of administrative reforms and public grievances ( DARPG), is aimed at bringing higher efficiency, transparency and accountability among government officials.

However, computer- unfriendly Indian officials wary of e- enabled changes in the working environment are opposing the move citing concerns over privacy, legality and lack of computer training.

The existing manual on office procedure lays down in great detail how a central government office should function, right from the point at which a file is created till a decision is taken at the highest echelons of the government.

Now, in line with the government’s thrust on e- governance, the DARPG’s new ‘ electronic’ version of the draft manual incorporates changes in the system so that a “ modern office environment” can be created.

Steps have been taken to improve the core spirit of the previous manual by “ incorporating procedures to support electronic environment and introducing transformational opportunities after due deliberation,” reads the objective of the draft, prepared by National Institute of Smart Government (NISG), Hyderabad, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The draft makes far- reaching proposals. It suggests that chatting on the Net between on an issue can be a time- saving way of arriving at a decision and should be recognised as a means of “ official communication”. It also says that an exchange of SMSes between officers after sending a file from one office to another over the electronic system should be recognised as a way of acknowledging that the communication has been duly dispatched and received.