E- Governance News: 30/10/09

GOVT MAY SEEK NOD FOR GST BILL DURING WINTER SESSION
Deepshikha Sikarwar, New Delhi
The Economic Times (Mumbai edition)

The centre will seek Parliament approval in the winter session for amending the Constitution and preparing the ground for introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from April 2010, a finance ministry official said.

The move to amend the constitution and facilitate the levy and collection of tax on services by states and allow GST on imports is a clear indication of the government’s determination to press ahead with plans to implement the indirect tax reforms from beginning of the next fiscal.

The government is trying to put in the legal framework that will underpin the GST and the meeting of the empowered committee of state finance ministers with Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on October 30 will finalise the contours of the comprehensive value-added tax. The GST, which will replace the major indirect taxes—excise duty, service tax, value added tax and other state taxes—with a single levy, will create a national common market that is at present fragmented because of multiple levies.

Though the final shape of the proposed tax is not yet clear, the Centre is keen on moving the constitutional amendment legislation in the winter session. But a number of stakeholders have expressed doubt about the government meeting the April 1, 2010, deadline. Some states, including Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have cautioned against rushing into the new regime and suggested a rollout only after full preparation.

Reluctant to bear the cost of reform, states have also raised the issue of the Centre compensating them for any revenue loss that they may incur in the process of a switch-over to the new tax regime.

Mukherjee, who is keen on introducing GST from April 1, 2010, and has already given in to the states’ demand for multiple rates, is likely to take a liberal view on the issue of compensation as well.

The Centre has also initiated discussions with some large IT companies to create the technology infrastructure for the new tax and is ready to provide funding to states.

GANESHA SAYS... - CONSIDER E-AGRI
Ganesh Natarajan
The Asian Age

It is amusing, though probably not surprising, to find that many business schools and even some engineering and technology institutions today are mounting seminars on entrepreneurship as though the joy of starting a new business is a new discovery.

The truth is that jobs are few in every industry sector and the situation is unlikely to get much better in the next twelve months.

Entrepreneurship, then, may be one way of getting bunches of students out of the placement challenge.

And while this may sound rather cynical to the starry eyed Steve Jobs wannabes in our industry, new entrepreneurs must be clear that they are getting into a venture with their eyes wide open.

Apart from the dreams of making products for the global market in areas ranging from gaming to wireless to new financial services, the declared intention of the Government of India to make substantial investments in e-Government projects and other key, areas like Agriculture, Healthcare and Education should open up significant opportunities for entrepreneurs.

The e-Agriculture agenda is a compelling one.

Affordable applications for the bottom of the pyramid - are needed in a host of areas ranging from weather forecasting to geographical information systems.

As new business models such as contract farming evolve, ICT applications need to be available to optimise efficiencies and specialised finance schemes for installing ICT equipment will have to be t simultaneously thought of to avoid a digital divide t between the have and the have nots in the agricultural community.

Crop Load estimation models for yield optimisation, agricultural emergency resource management, electronic trade platforms in food networks and extensive knowledge management applications for e Agriculture can all provide a return in technology investment that can transform the rural Indian landscape.

A scalable idea, a team with the ability to imple ment as well as innovate - and a clear path to growth as well as profitability and if this simple list is easier said than done, who said entrepreneurship is for the faint hearted ?

Ganesh Natarajan is Vice Chairman & MD of Zensar

THIS SWAN SONG IS DIFFERENT
The Economic Times (Mumbai edition)

Click through: State-wide area networks to change the way we deal with govt

The national e-govt plan
It’s a $6-billion plan from the Central and State budgets to make common citizen services like tax-filing, house registartion, birth and death certificates, national ID database and storage of all government data through electronic means. It also involves networking of all state data centres through a common backbone so that one can access any citizen data from any part of the country.

How will NEGP help?

NeGP is broken up under different Mission Mode Projects (MMPs): Currently these include:

Income Tax: PAN/TAN registration online / e-filing of returns
Passport/VISA: Online Status Enquiry
Company Affairs: Registration of a company online
Central Excise: e-filing of excise returns
Pensions: Online Status Enquiry of Pensions
Land Records: Checking Land Registration Record
Road Transport: Online Driving Licence and Vehicle Registartion
Property Registration: Land Registration
Agriculture: Check Crop Prices Online
Municipalities: Death and Birth Certificate issuance online
Police: Online Status of Stolen Vehicles
Employment Exchange: Registration of employees / employer online
E-Court: Case Status / Cause List / Judgements

1. INFRASTRUCTURE ROLLOUT FOR NEGP

CSCs: Common Service Centres : What are these?

These are kiosks being implemented in 600,000 villages in India in a PPP model. The Kiosks will have a PC along with basic support equipment like Printer, Scanner, UPS, with Wireless Connectivity as the backbone and additional equipment for edutainment, telemedicine, projection systems, etc. All MMP services will be available through Common Service Centres

Budget:
The Scheme has been approved at a total cost of Rs 5742 Cr. over 4 years, of which the Government of India is estimated to contribute Rs 856 Cr. and the State Governments Rs 793 Cr. The balance resources would be mobilized from the private sector.

How can it help citizens?
At the first (CSC) level would be the local Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE- loosely analogous to a franchisee).

At the second/middle level would be an entity termed the Service Centre Agency to operate, manage and build the VLE network and business.

At the third level would be the agency designated by the State- the State Designated Agency (SDA) - to facilitate implementation of the Scheme within the State and to provide requisite policy and content.

Leaders in CSC Implementation

1 - Jharkhand
2 - Haryana
3 - Gujarat
4 - Tripura

Laggards in CSC Implementation
Rajasthan, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman Diu, J&K, Mizoram

2. STATE-WIDE AREA NETWORKS (SWAN)

What is a SWAN?
The objective of the Scheme is to create a secure close user group (CUG) government network for the purpose of delivering G2G (Govt to Govt) and G2C (Govt to Consumer) services.

Budget:
The SWAN Scheme for 29 States & 6 Union Territories, at an estimated outlay of Rs. 3334 Crores, was approved by Govt. of India, in March 2005 to set up State Wide Area Networks (SWAN), interconnecting each State / UT Head Quarter with District Head Quarter and below each District Head Quarter with the Block Head Quarters with minimum 2 Mbps leased line.

How is SWAN going to help industry?
Right from the consultants, to Bandwidth Operator to Network Operator, and IT equipment vendors. The scheme is largely going to benefit system integrators and IT companies in the country. SWAN is critical for rollout of all services.

3. STATE DATA CENTRES (SDC)
SDCs will house all your data from your birth till death, as an Indian citizen. It is expected that the SDC shall be set-up and operationalised by 2010 - 2011 across different States/UTs in the Country.

The work related to the various activities towards setting up of SDC is in progress in the States. Draft RFP from 15 states has been received by DIT out of which approval to 10 states has been accorded and the remaining 5 are in the process of being approved.

Budget:
SDC scheme has been approved by Government with an outlay of Rs. 1623.20 crores over a period of 5 years.

E-Governance News: 24/9/09

TCS BULLISH ON GOVERNMENT DEALS WORTH RS 3000 CRORE
Shelley Singh, New Delhi
The Economic Times

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is looking at Rs 3,000-crore government projects to help it double its revenues from the domestic market in three years.

The country’s largest IT services company is chasing 24 projects related to technology implementation in railways, defence, power and several state governments. The company hopes to bag a large number of these projects in the coming 12-18 months and double the share of its domestic business to 10 percent in three years. “We expect to increase domestic revenues to double digits by 2012,” said Tanmoy Chakrabarty, vice-president and head of global government industry group at TCS.

The increased activity in the domestic market - particularly from under-penetrated government departments and ministries - will help the portfolio of the export-focused domestic IT services firms as the global slowdown has seen their growth tapering off.

“Prior to elections, decisions were on hold. But now with the new government settling down, we expect quite a few large projects to be announced in the domestic market in 12-18 months,” said George Paul, executive vice-president for marketing at HCL Infosystems. HCL is also pursuing technology projects related to power, telecom and computerisation of municipal corporations in several states.

Infosys Technologies, the country’s second largest IT services company, is similarly pursuing opportunities in the domestic market. The Bangalore-based company’s nascent India business unit has bid for defence, telecom, railways and some power projects. The company was unavailable for comments as it is observing a mandatory silent period before announcing its financial results for the second quarter.

Small to mid-sized companies such as Mumbai-based Spanco that has bagged projects in Maharashtra and Orissa see opportunity in the domestic market. “We are chasing businesses like modernising public distribution system, border check posts and developing e-districts,” said Kaustubh Dhavse, head of business strategy at Spanco.

As government departments increasingly take the hi-tech path, there will be plenty of business for locally-focused IT players.

 

TCS BAGS RS 140 CR AP NETWORK PROJECT
Mumbai/Hyderabad
The Economic Times  Financial Chronicle  Mint  The Hindu Business Line  Business Standard  

Tata Consultancy Services on Wednesday said it has been awarded a state-wide area network (SWAN) project from the Andhra Pradesh government, which targets to connect the state’s headquarters with all 23 district offices in the state to increase efficiency in government functioning.

Andhra Pradesh IT secretary Sameer Sharma said the size of the deal would be about Rs 140 crore. This is the largest such contract in the country and will be based on the build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) model that is typically used in infrastructure projects for five years, TCS said in a statement.

TCS had previously won three similar projects to manage infrastructure in Chattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Bihar. The SWAN project will allow the Andhra Pradesh government to start and run various e-governance projects and citizen services and is scheduled to be rolled out within 12 months. TCS, as per BOOT model, will maintain the contract for the next five years. “This SWAN project is yet another initiative of the government to bring a wider array of government services to the common man,” Sharma said.

The network will enable the state government to have video conferencing facility across government offices and also enable government offices to communicate and conference with each other over VoIP (voice over internet protocol). This will reduce communication expenses. Various e-governance applications, such as RTO, healthcare, education, municipality, will be on this network backbone.

“We will lay a state-wide network of IT infrastructure and set up common service centres for people to take advantage of e-government services,” said TCS VP Tanmoy Chakrabarty. The company will also set up a network operations centre and helpdesk to monitor the facility and services.

 

NREGS GETS E-TRANSPARENT
Suresh Dharur, Hyderabad
The Tribune

A unique software solution adopted by Andhra Pradesh has brought transparency and accountability in implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the flagship programme of the UPA government.

Developed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the web-based software package has helped check corruption, fix loopholes in identification of beneficiaries and the works and resulted in effective implementation of the scheme, covering nearly 11 million people in the state.

From the time a job seeker enrolls with a local panchayat office to monitoring of assigned work and final wage payment, the entire process is registered and tracked online, using the software solution.

The system allows the officials to sift through entire data, including the number of job cards issued across 22 districts and identify the loopholes.

The progress of the NREGS works could be monitored through an automated system and the workers have been paid based on the amount of work they complete, independent of the number of hours they put in.

 

E-SAMARTH LAUNCHED IN 244 MIDDLE SCHOOLS
Patna
The Times of India

Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday inaugurated 11 Soochna Bhavans in districts and also kicked off computer-aided learning E-Samarth through video conferencing.

He said that so far 14 Soochna Bhavans have been opened, three during his Vikas Yatra, and 20 more were under construction of which 10 will be inaugurated by March next and another 10 by August 2010. He asked information and public relation department (I&PRD) officials to establish relations of faith and confidence with the people and not remain only an advertising agency.