E-Governance News: 18/9/09

NEW CENTRALISED TAX SYSTEM BY THIS YEAR-END: D P DASH
Hyderabad
The Economic Times  Business Standard  

The new centralised system for processing excise and service tax which would the save tax payers time and money would be rolled out across the country by the end of this year, CBEC Additional Director General of Systems D P Dash said here.

The new system-- Automation of Central Excise and Service Tax (ACES)-- is a web-based application and has been tested through pilot projects.

"With the roll-out of ACES, the taxpayers time and cost in complying with the tax provisions will come down drastically," Dash said at a programme, which marked the rolling out of ACES in the Hyderabad zone.

Making a detailed presentation on the ACES he said, "ACES aims to automate all major processes in Central Excise and Service Tax through a workflow-based application. A few modules would be implemented now and the entire project would be implemented in phases."

This system, he said, will also improve the efficiency of the Department.

Also present there Chief Commissioner of Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax (Hyderabad Zone) Ahmed Hussain said the roll out is continuation of the efforts of the Department to harness information technology to improve the taxpayer services as well as internal efficiencies.

TAPPING THIRD PARTIES FOR SERVICE TAX INFO
Deepshikha Sikarwar, New Delhi
The Economic Times (Delhi edition)

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) is examining a proposal to put in place a third party information system to tackle service tax evasion, a move that could place an obligation on some key data sources such as the Reserve Bank of India, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Registrar of Companies, National Highways Authority of India to provide the relevant information to the apex indirect tax body.

A finance ministry official said that the proposal had figured in the discussions at the recent annual conference of chief commissioners of excise and customs.

The board had introduced a Third Party Information System (TPIS) for excise duty last year and now wants to replicate the experiment with service tax. The idea is have an effective and non-intrusive system that can provide all relevant data without causing any hardship to taxpayers, the official said requesting anonymity.

Data from stock exchanges on brokers’ turnover, details of revenue of telecom companies from Trai, external commercial borrowing and agency commission received by banking and financial services providers from RBI, information of e-ticketing from Railways and highway toll collected by contractors from NHAI are some of the third party sources of information that are under consideration.

The TPIS, effectively used world over to check tax evasion, was first introduced by the Central Board of Direct Taxes in the form of annual information returns (AIR). AIRs are filed by mutual funds, credit card issuers, property registrars reporting transactions above the specified threshold. Purchase of property for over Rs 30 lakh, over Rs 2 lakh spend in a year through credit card or investment of over Rs 2 lakh in mutual funds have to be mandatorily reported by these third parties. This data is then matched with a taxpayer’s income tax return to detect any discrepancy in the income declared and expenditure incurred to ensure there is no evasion.

The CBEC had devised a third party information model for excise duty last year that made it mandatory for manufacturers to file a separate statement on installed capacity, details of electricity supply connection including total number of meters installed and sanctioned electricity load, permanent account number and value added tax registration number. Power consumption data has proved very useful for the Excise Department in tackling evasion.

ORISSA TO INTRODUCE E-PAYMENT FACILITY SOON
Kolkata/Bhubaneswar
Business Standard

The Orissa government is gearing up to introduce the e-payment facility for the contractors for payment of tender fee and earnest money deposit (EMD).

The new system is likely to be in operation within a month.

Though the state already has an e-procurement system in place, the payment of tender fee and EMD is being done manually in the absence of an e-payment facility.

The decision to introduce the e-payment facility was taken at a high-level meeting held recently. The meeting was chaired by the Chief Secretary of the Orissa government in the presence of the Accountant General.

“The e-payment facility would ensure hassle free payment of tender fee and EMD. The state finance department would have to amend some existing provisions of payments to the state government to facilitate the implementation of the e-payment system”, Pradipta K Mohapatra, the state IT secretary said.

“Our objective is to ensure that all departments of the state government gear up to ensure implementation of the e-payment system. The different departments have to create an electronic database of their records so that they can accept online payments”, he added.

Under the e-payment system, a unique identity number would be issued to the individuals or companies making e-payments. The banks involved in the transactions would prepare electronic scrolls to facilitate online payments.

“State Bank of India is the banker for the Orissa government. We would also talk to two-three additional banks for the e-payment system”, said Mohapatra.

WIPRO EYES RS 700-CR GOVT BUSINESS
Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee, New Delhi
The Hindu Business Line

India’s third largest IT company Wipro is eyeing about Rs 700 crore from Government projects in the current fiscal. It intends to nearly triple this in three years. The move comes at a time when the Centre is clearing the decks for a slew of projects under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP).

“The targets for this year represent a 100-percent growth over the previous fiscal,” said Ranbir Singh, Head, Government, Wipro Ltd.

The export-oriented Indian IT industry has been facing headwinds in its traditional strongholds such as the US and Europe, and though things seem to be looking up, Nasscom’s annual projections have pegged software exports growth at 4-7 percent for FY10.

In contrast, the domestic market is expected to grow at 15-18 percent during the year. Projects such as MCA-21, e-passport and eBiz — which were handed out in the past — have whet the appetite of IT firms that are now looking to leverage opportunities closer home.

The Unique Identification (UID) project has created quite a stir among vendors and every IT player — Indian and MNC — is hoping to participate in the ambitious effort; the other large projects waiting to take off include eDistrict, eCourt, eOffice, Income-Tax and Central Excise.

“While the opportunity is large, it is also important to remember that the lead and the closing timelines tend to be longer for Government contracts. But, clearly, this is a space that every company wants to play in,” an industry observer pointed out.

Naturally, no one wants to be left behind in the race. Wipro’s Joint-CEO, Suresh Vaswani, told Business Line recently that the company was ‘revisiting’ its strategy and game-plan on government business.

The company has already clinched a Rs 1,200-crore multiple-year contract floated by the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC).

The project relates to computerisation of the ESIC and to provide smart cards to around 1.5 crore industrial workers across the country.

The contract brought its own share of controversies when rival firm TCS wrote to the Labour Ministry against the procedures adopted in awarding the contract.

WCD MINISTRY TO START E-TRACKING, SOCIAL AUDIT OF PROGRAMMES
New Delhi
The Times of India

The ministry of women and child development will launch e-tracking and social auditing of its programmes to ensure transparency and accountability in its projects.

Addressing the national conference of chairpersons of central and state social welfare boards, WCD minister Krishna Tirath said that efforts should be made to address people's grievances in public welfare programmes and there was no scope for negotiation in matters related to non-compliance or failure in programmes.

Expressing concern over criticism on the functioning of the Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB), the minister said the agency should evaluate its work and complete statutory compliances. CSWB has also been asked to conduct regular social audits.

The minister has initiated programme audit, social audit of schemes, NGO profiling, analysis of the gaps in services and reconstitution of the Board.

 

E-Governance News: 17/9/09

PASSPORT IN THREE DAYS: PROJECT DELAYED YET AGAIN
New Delhi
The Economic Times

A project to issue passports within three days - touted as a flagship e-governance programme of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government - may miss its second deadline in October, with no new dates being announced for its launch.

The ministry of external affairs' (MEA) Passport Seva Project is estimated to cost over Rs.1 billion (Rs.100 crore). But almost a year after the government signed an agreement with IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to upgrade the system of preparing passports, the project is yet to get off the ground.

"It is a highly complicated project which requires everything to be right. Once the project starts, we cannot leave any scope for commotion or chaos," an official, who did not want to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said.

After missing its deadline in June, the TCS had publicly announced that the pilot project in Bangalore and Chandigarh would start in October.

It has, however, been learnt from reliable sources that the project launch has been postponed, with no new dates for its launch.

As per the agreement, TCS is building the software and will operate the front-end of the passport 'seva kendras' (facilitation centres), but the back-end operations dealing with the "sensitive information" will remain in government hands.

Last week, a senior TCS official was quoted in the media as saying that the delay was due to setting up of a 'disaster recovery centre', which will have the back-up of all the passport records.

The state-run Software Technology Park of India (STPI) will be running the back-up data centre for TCS in Chennai at a cost of Rs.30 million (Rs.3 crore) over a period of seven years.

Incidentally, the National Informatics Centre, which runs the current passport software, PISON (passport information service system on the net), has already given the data for transfer of nearly 80 lakh passport records to TCS' new system.

But officials privy to the project say the main delay is due to the fact that TCS had not got its software ready. Apparently, there have been too many "alarming errors" in the software, which is currently being tested.

The errors had also been detected by the Department of Information Technology, whose subsidiaries do the technical audits of all government software.

"The errors, which occur at the basic level, are quite alarming," said another official.

Officials say the October launch date is too optimistic. "We don't know when it will be ready," he said.

The agreement between MEA and TCS has a provision for imposing penalty for delay in the start of the project. So far the ministry has not invoked this clause, the official said.

 

SMART IDENTIFICATION
The Statesman

The appointment of Nandan Nilekani, a dynamic corporate leader, as the chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has been hailed as a good step. But many people are left wondering as to what is the role of UIDAI. Under the aegis of the planning commission, it is aimed at providing a unique identity number duly authenticated by biometrics to all Indian citizens. The Authority will lay down plans and policies to implement the unique identification scheme across the country.

In order to discuss the possibilities of the UIDAI in Indian and the security issues plaguing, it conference was held in Pragati Maidan recently.

Dr B K Gairola, director general, National Informatics Centre not only talked about the role of the government in the entire process of issuing the Unique identity card but also referred to the positives of the UID project in India as a whole.

E-Governance New: 16/9/09

NOW, FILE RTI APPLICATION ONLINE
Kumar Anand, Ahmedabad
The Economic Times (Kolkata edition)

If Right To Information (RTI) is a public movement, the country’s best brains have just given it a mass push.

Students of Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIMK), and alumni of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and Kanpur (IIT-D, IIT-K), have come together to launch a web portal, rtination.com, that enables online filing of RTI application and get replies delivered to them.

The effort is the first of its kind in the country to boost the movement.

Online filing would encourage people from even far-flung areas to seek replies through RTI without wasting time and efforts in reaching government offices.

“RTI application filing is a frustrating experience as it easily takes more than five hours to just fill in the form. We worked towards creating a platform for the public where they can apply for RTI in a simple way without spending too much time over it. The response is immense as we have already got 5,000 registered users at the web portal. Applications have been received from places as far and diverse as Los Angeles and Ajamgadh in UP,” said Rasaal Dwivedi, an IIMK graduate and one among the five-member team that launched the website.

The website serves as a onestop shop for queries and applications related to RTI as it provides details of what one wants to request and even helps in filling the form, thereby reducing chances of rejection.

MAIL FOR ALL GOVT STAFF
Thiruvananthapuram
The Hindu Business Line  The Hindu  

The Chief Minister, V.S. Achuthanandan, has inaugurated the ‘E-mail to All Employees’ project at a function here on Tuesday. The project aims to provide e-mail IDs to all the 4.75 lakh employees of the State Government in a phased manner. On Tuesday, over 4,000 employees received their official email IDs through a Web-based email service using an open source software package.

TN ANNOUNCES RS 204 CRORE SOCIAL SCHEME FOR UNSKILLED WORKERS
Chennai
Business Standard

As part of Aringar Anna 100th Year Anniversary Celebration, the Tamil Nadu government today announced various beneficial scheme, worth Rs 203.87 crore, for unskilled workers in the state.

The scheme would benefit 41.12 lakh workers, according to state government's release.

The scheme offers various social welfare measures including financial assistance to the workers families who have died in an accident or natural death, educational assistance, financial assistance for wedding, pension and others.

In order to take the scheme to those beneficiaries, the government has decided to computerise the department, which takes care of unskilled workers. The government is going to supply 303 computers along with broad band and application software to the offices across the state.

The state government agency Electronics Corporation of India (ELCOT) will build application software and main server through which these offices will be connected and monitored. The ELCOT will also give training to officials who are working in these offices, according to government’s release.

BARTRONICS READIES FUNDS FOR UID
K V Ramana, Hyderabad
DNA

Bartronics, one of the leading players in the RFID, smart card and biometric solutions market, is likely to raise equity to prepare for the unique identification (UID) cards project taken up by the Centre.

The quantum of funds to be raised would be decided in a month's time.

"We are slightly stretched on the debt front since we had to raise about Rs 600 crore recently to fund one of our major projects. We are evaluating raising further equity since we have significant headroom on that front," Bartronics managing director Sudhir Rao told DNA.

The company currently has an equity base of about Rs 29 crore and is evaluating options including a qualified institutional placement, private equity and infusion by promoters.

"Though we are also looking at a foreign currency convertible bonds, equity is the most preferred option," Rao said.

According to him, the UID processes are still being defined at this point and it would take another 6-8 months for the government to call for bids. "From our perspective, the project is about 12-14 months away. We are already well positioned to get a good portion of it. Since we were part of the multipurpose national identification card project which was considered to be a pilot for the UID project, we have several systems and processes already in place to handle the project," he said.

Bartronics is currently participating in five bids for government projects and the progress made in these orders would determine the equity quantum to be raised.

"We are strong in at least two projects which would offer us a market of about Rs 70 crore. But all the five projects together promise a market of Rs 200 crore," Rao said.

The company currently has an order book of about Rs 700 crore to be executed in the next one year.

Bartronics would set up kiosks for citizen assistance under Apke Dwar, a Delhi government programme to set up information kiosks at about 2,000 locations. "We are investing about Rs 800 crore on this project. We have raised about Rs 600 crore through debt, Rs 160 crore is being ploughed back from our accrued income and Rs 50 crore is being invested by the promoters," he said.

The company is expecting a major breakthrough in the Asian market with its association with the Singapore-based Avitar, a mobile phone distribution company. Avitar would use Bartronics' RFID solution to track mobile phones distributed through its network. "We are starting with a pilot worth a couple of crores. But, once we take it to commercial level, it would fetch us about Rs 50-60 crore. Avitar is also planning to commercialise our solution for other mobile distribution companies. This would mean a major global opportunity for us," he said.

Though the company continues to see difficulty in progressing at the desired pace in recording revenues, it is not revising its guidance. "We are not changing the revenue guidance as yet. We are confident of scaling the Rs 1,000 crore mark," he said.

RTO TO ISSUE SMART CARDS FROM TODAY
Mangalore
The Times of India

The Regional Transport Office (RTO) here will step into the smart-card age on Wednesday. The RTO is rolling out smart cards under its computerized services, according to J Purushottam, regional transport officer. The smart cards - one for driving license and the other for registration certificate - will each have a 16-kilobyte random access memory (RAM) chip embedded into them. These cards are made of plastic.

The benefit of these cards, each costing Rs 200, Purushottam stated is gathering of digital data, that is tamper free, easy retrieval, access to such information gathered and creation of a centralized database of driving license and registration certificate details. The bearer of the card will have an insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh in case of death for one year, and Rs 50,000 in case of permanent disability arising out of any accident.

As of now, 2.71 lakh vehicles have been registered with the Mangalore RTO, which in turn has issued 3.69-lakh driving licenses. Vehicle owners have two years time to get their driving licenses and registration certificates converted into digital format (smart cards), the RTO stated, adding that the cards will have the provision to record traffic violations committed by the DL holder, as well as punishment handed out for the same.

 

 

E-Governance News: 15/9/09

SOFTWARE FOR REAL DATA ON HEALTHCARE ON ANVIL
New Delhi
The Pioneer

Pointing to the lack of real health data across the country, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday announced that his Ministry was in the process of developing software that would provide real data for various health indicators. Starting with the pulse polio programme, the software will have detailed data about the number of children throughout the country who have been vaccinated.

At a function to launch the National Initiative for Patient Safety here, Azad said the new software would record the name of the child vaccinated, father's name and phone number. "With these details it will be possible to just call and check if the child has been vaccinated or not," Azad said.

The Minister and other participants at the event pointed out that patient safety was a relatively new health discipline (it came into prominence in the 1990's) that emphasised reporting, analysis, and prevention of medical errors that often leads to adverse healthcare events.

While data showed that less than one death per 100,000 encounters occurred in the nuclear power industry, the European railroads, and scheduled airlines, there was a risk of one death per 1000 encounters in health care. The frequency and magnitude of avoidable adverse patient events was not known until several countries reported staggering numbers of patients harmed and killed by medical errors.

Recognising that healthcare errors impacted one in every 10 patients around the world, the World Health Organisation termed patient safety as an endemic concern. The staggering statistics - 44000 to 98000 preventable deaths annually due to medical error and 7000 preventable deaths related to medication errors alone. The main causes for these have been attributed to complexity of the delivery of the healthcare process, human factors and system failures.

 

SOON: HEALTH DATA AT THE CLICK OF A MOUSE
New Delhi
Hindustan Times (Delhi edition)

Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad announced on Monday that his ministry was in the process of conceptualising software to maintain and track data for diseases in the country.

"It is an unfortunate reality that we have no system of maintaining a database of diseases. Even if there is, it is either very sketchy or at most times unreliable," Azad said.

"It is indeed sad that although we produce the best doctors and scientists in the world, we are nowhere near global data maintenance standards," the minister said, addressing the press at the launch of National Initiative on Patient Safety (NIPS) organised by AIIMS and WHO.

"We have no data for people dying in our country due to lack of safety measures in hospitals.

Even for this we have to fall back on American, European or Australian databases and draw up our data on mere approximations," he said.

In the first phase, the ministry wants to track polio cases across the subcontinent. And as the health minister put it, "It's doable."

"We will have all the relevant data of the patient so that we can track his case sitting in Delhi. In the second phase, we aim to track all new births and vaccinations," Azad said.

 

E-GOVERNANCE TAKES A LEAP
Sunitha Rao R, Bangalore
DNA (Bangalore edition)

Every individual's dealings with the Government of Karnataka will now be available at the click of a mouse.

The department of e-governance is upgrading its data centre by increasing the number of departments networked from 23 to 40. Government departments that determine everyday existence like transport, BWSSB and stamps and registration will be among those to be freshly networked.

The data centre, which is presently functioning from Khanija Bhavan, will not only move to a 600 square feet space in Vikasa Soudha, but will also be converted into a disaster recovery site and made to serve as a backup centre for every available document of the 40 departments, MN Vidyashankar, principal secretary, department of e-governance, told a gathering of bureaucrats at a workshop conducted by Intel here on Monday.

"It is the first Level 3 data centre that will be set up in any state in the government sector at a cost of about Rs 675-800 million," Vidyashankar said. The new data centre will become operational in seven months.

Besides, e-governance will be extended by installing 10,000 more nodes in the Secretariat, he said. "The departments are making use of the data centre for disaster recovery and business continuity. The revenue department and BangaloreOne centres are able to provide extensive services efficiently because of the data centre," Dr A Ravindra, CEO, department of e-governance, told the workshop.

 

E-HUB TO HOST STATE DATABASES
Bengaluru
Deccan Chronicle

The Karnataka government will soon build its own data centre, which will host and integrate the databases and IT operations of most government departments. The planned tier-3 data centre will be the first of its kind to be built by a state government.

To be owned and managed by the government, the data centre will come up on an as yet undetermined location in the central business district.

“We are finalising the location, a 5,000 sft space. The data centre will be ready in about seven months. The project is being carried out under the e-Governance plan of the country and it is expected to cost about Rs 55 crore,” state e-Governance secretary M.N. Vidyashankar said on Monday.

“The data centre will have state-of-the-art equipment and will serve most government departments. Barring the databases of a few departments, such as police, those of most other government departments can be integrated,” he said at a seminar on data centres in the city.

Centre for e-Governance CEO Dr D.S. Ravindran said the data centre will have three main applications: Managed services, such as human resource management for the entire state; business improvement, by providing round-the-clock database services to e-governance centres; and disaster retrieval, by backing up all government data.

“An integrated data centre is the only way to consolidate the large chunks of digital software and data available with several government departments. Moreover, the state data centre will be managed by experts from the US and Karnataka. The government is expected issue an order to integrate the different databases from the departments,” the official said.

 

E-HEALTH CARDS FOR NEWBORNS ON ANVIL
Parul Chandra, New Delhi
The Asian Age

It’s an idea who’s time may well have come.

Along with the UPA government’s ambitious UID (unique identification number) project, the health ministry has now come up with the idea of e-health cards for the country’s new-borns.

The idea is in a nascent stage and was discussed by minister of state for health Dinesh Trivedi with Nandan Nilekani, who heads the newly-set up Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), during a meeting last week. And among the advantages of having such an e-card would be the tracking of a child’s health right from the time he or she is born, says Trivedi.

Though the terminology being used for the proposed project is "e-health cards", there will be no cards as such. Instead, just as in the case of the UID number, the health ministry would also like to have a number which can be allotted to each child when born, said Trivedi.

With the help of this web-based number, not only can a child’s health parameters and milestones be tracked but it can also be ensured that the vaccinations and other medication is given on time.

For instance, he said parents can be informed about when a child’s vaccination or polio drops are due.

E-Governance 14/9/09

ONLINE REGISTRATION OF COS GETS E-STAMP
Souvik Sanyal, New Delhi, September 14, 2009
The Economic Times

Entrepreneurs can now pay stamp duty sitting anywhere in India electronically by logging on to the corporate affairs ministry’s website.

This removes the last hurdle for electronic incorporation of new companies without visiting a government office.

The on-line payment facility, which does away with the need to buy, paste and submit physical stamps with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), is now available in 22 states. The government expects to extend it to the rest of the nation soon.

Electronic payment of stamp duty for setting up a company, which has been introduced on September 13, 2009, will become compulsory from January 1, 2010, an order issued by the ministry stated.

The twenty-two state governments, which authorised the central government to electronically collect stamp duty on their behalf, will be paid back the amount by the Centre.

Collection of stamp duty falls under the exclusive domain of state governments. The states which are yet to authorise the Centre on collection of stamp duty on their behalf and where the physical stamping procedures will continue, include Chandigarh, Daman and Diu, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.

The facility of e-stamping is being extended through the web portal of the ministry of corporate affairs. “The government’s aim is to make all transactions faster by improving service delivery and making the office of the RoC paper-less,” a senior official in the ministry said.

With the facility already available, the ministry has given a transition period of three and a half months till the end of 2009, by which time, companies can exhaust their already collected stamps, said the official.

While the Central government expects to get the authorisation from the remaining 12 states and UT’s before January 1, 2010, the states that do not authorise the Centre by then will continue to collect stamp duty through the physical mode.

The ministry, which has a computerised network called the MCA-21, already enables e-filing of other statutory documents required under the Companies Act.

 

TAXMAN BRINGS IN SOFTWARE FOR POST-RETURNS SCRUTINY
New Delhi, September 14, 2009
The Economic Times  Business Standard  

The Income Tax department is deploying a new software solution to scrutinise the accounts of companies once the firms have filed their returns.

The software solution, called CAIT, will help match account books with the returns filed by the respective companies and find out if there is any discrepencies, a key official source said here.

The installation of the software is part of the ongoing efforts by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to modernise its scrutiny system to catch the defaulters.

The CBDT has already installed the 360-degree profiling solution, which assesses expenditure and investments of assessees from various sources and throws up alerts to income tax officers where there could be a possibility of tax default.

This 360-degree profiling, technically called IT-DMS software, throws up cases for scrutiny before returns are filed and the CAIT will do so after submission of returns by companies, the source added.

CAIT will do away with the manual scrutiny of accounts. "Over the years, more and more assessees have taken to maintaining their books of account on computer. The accounts have become more voluminous and complex. However, methods of scrutiny by the Income Tax Department have remained manual," he said.

 

MCD PURCHASING IPR OF E-TENDERING SOFTWARE FROM WIPRO
New Delhi, September 14, 2009
The Economic Times  The Times of India  

Giving a boost to its ambitious e-governance programme, the MCD is planning to purchase intellectual property rights of an e-tendering software from IT giant Wipro.

The software was being used by the Engineering Department of the civic agency under a three-year contract with the company, the period of which has now ended.

The software firm was providing the e-tendering system on application service provider (ASP) model under which it had retained its ownership and ensured maintenance and support services. With the MCD purchasing the "source code" of the system, the IPR will shift to the civic body.

"We are using the e-tendering system successfully since 2005. The MCD used to pay charges to Wipro per tender and the company ensured the maintenance of the system," a senior MCD official said.

The civic body will now purchase the source code or IPR of the system at a cost of Rs 60 lakh.

"Procuring of the source code will be beneficial to the MCD. The system is successful and it has a scope of integrating with the e-governance programme," the official said.