E-Governance News: 8/12/09

KARNATAKA LAUNCHES E-GOVERNANCE PROGRAMME
Chennai/Bangalore
Business Standard

As part of strengthening e-governance initiative, Karnataka government today launched the Karnataka State Wide Area Network (KSWAN) that seeks to establish a state information highway connecting its 2300 offices across the state.

Karnataka has been a leader in e-governance and the KSWAN, which uses Multi Protocol Lable Switching (MPLS) technology, will help tone up administration, chief minister B S Yeddyurappa said. It will help enhance the efficiency of administration, he said and described it as a boon to ensure better delivery of government services.

KSWAN, implemented at a cost of Rs 177 crore as part of the National e-governance programme, provides a highly ‘reliable and robust’ communication corridor between the government at all levels— state, district and taluks.

It will create a “plug and connect” environment for all government offices so as to provide connectivity and bandwidth on demand, besides providing “data”, Voice” and “Video services”.

With KSWAN, all government offices from district and taluk level will have video conferencing solution. 

EKGAON TO SCALE UP IT-ENABLED RURAL SERVICES, VENTURE OVERSEAS
Seema Sindhu, New Delhi
Business Standard

Ekgaon, a Delhi-based technology and management services company that focuses on rural areas, which recently won the Dell Small Business Excellence Award in India, is now looking to scale up its business and presence in both India and overseas.

Started in 2002, ekgaon provides IT-enabled solutions for financial services, agricultural services and e-governance in rural areas.

Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya, co-founder and chief executive officer, ekgaon, said, “We are looking for venture funding to scale up our presence. We plan to reach 15 million clients in the next five years.”

The company provides software solutions to banks and insurance companies to deal with rural markets. Through these solutions it has served 50,000 individuals in Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka with mobile banking for a minimal charge of 15-25 paise per transaction.

Now it plans to introduce remittance services by mid-next year. It will also launch these services in Nepal and West Africa.

It also provides agricultural services like weather forecasts, information on fertilisers and nutrients through SMS and IVR in Tamil Nadu free of cost. It will soon be launching these in Uttar Pradesh.

In February this year, the company had also bagged Best Paper of the Compendium Award in the 12th National e-Governance Conference held by the Central government in Goa.

Ekgaon has developed solutions, which allow central tracking and monitoring of rural entitlement programmes like PDS and pension. In collaboration with NGOs it collects information and data on these schemes from the entitled rural folk over mobile through SMS.

The data then enters a central sever directly and automatically generates a report on how many people have benefitted from the schemes. It then shares the report with the respective authorities to crack down on corruption. Ekgaon has covered 44,000 households under this programme in Orissa. 

BENGAL GEARS UP FOR UID PROJECT
Kolkata
The Indian Express

With Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh writing to the West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to expedite work on the unique identification project, the state government has geared itself up to launch a pilot project in the state.

The PM has advised Bhattacharjee to create two separate committees for this purpose — one to be headed by the CM himself to monitor the progress of the project and the other to look into the implementation at the grass-roots level. Sources said the CM has asked concerned officials to take steps to form the committees immediately. “Within a few days, the state-level committee will be formed,” said an official.

IT Minister Debes Das said the Unique ID Authority has identified two places in the state for implementation of the pilot project.

Sources, however, said executing the project in West Bengal may face some problems mainly because of the existence of a large number of fake ration cards and complicated demographic condition of the districts. The population staying close to the border with Bangladesh is another major hurdle, they said.  

MCCIA WORKSHOP ON E-GOVERNANCE
Pune
The Indian Express

The Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) has organised a workshop on “ Transperancy and efficiency through e governance” on December 15 from 10.30 am to 5.30 pm at MCCIA, Senapati Bapat Road.

The participants would be briefed about main motives for exploring e governance, focussing on public governance of safety and security, current issues in democracy as a government practice, public service design. There would be discussion on e governance in India and a assignment on developing a design specification for an e government or e governance application, said a press release issued by Anant Sardeshmukh, Additional Director General, MCCIA.

MCD ‘GHOST EMPLOYEES’ UNDER MHA SCANNER
Ayesha Arvind, New Delhi
The Indian Express

A week after a report submitted by Municipal Commissioner K S Mehra revealed that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) had 22,583 “ghost employees” on its payroll, the Home Ministry has reportedly inquired about the scandal and sought a detailed report on how the lapse could go undetected, and a list of all employees responsible for it. The ministry has also sought regular updates of the status on the findings.

“We are in touch with the Home Ministry and have briefed them about our findings so far,” Delhi Mayor Kanwar Sain said on Monday. According to Sain, an internal preliminary inquiry is already on and deputy commissioners of all 12 zones have been asked to submit reports of their respective zones within a month, after which the commissioner will submit a detailed report that is aimed at identifying all those responsible for the administrative lapse that has been costing the corporation a minimum of Rs 17 crore every month.

Meanwhile, a host of other agencies and institutions like the Delhi Police and Delhi University seem to have followed suit by announcing that biometric attendance systems are on the cards for their respective staff. The latest entry on the list is the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC). As part of its e-governance project, the NDMC will soon initiate a biometric attendance system for all its 15,000 employees. The attendance system is a part of its detailed plan of issuing biometric-enabled smart cards for employees.

A brainchild of the NDMC’s Information Technology (IT) department, the attendance system will accommodate the smart cards as well as thumb impressions of the employees. Also, besides serving as the attendance tool the new biometric smart cards will replace the existing I-card, Health Card and Library Card and will merge them into one. These technologically enhanced smart cards are almost “impossible to forge” and cannot be transferred to others.

The smart cards will also be used to control entry to Palika Kendra and some access points inside the building.

E-Governance News: 7/12/09

KERALA CM TO GIVE AWAY E-GOVERNANCE AWARDS TOMORROW
Thiruvananthapuram, December 7, 2009
The Hindu Business Line

The Chief Minister, V. S. Achuthanandan, will give away the Kerala State e-Governance Awards at a ceremony to be held here on Tuesday. Vishal Dhupar, CEO, Symantec South Asia, will be the keynote speaker at the function, an official spokesman said here.

Instituted by State Government, the selection of the awards was coordinated by Institute of Management in Government (IMG), an autonomous body.

The awards intend to recognise and appreciate the efforts of various e-Governance projects that have been implemented till last year (2008).

Nominations were invited in the categories ranging from online services and e-filing; best website; e-payment services; m-Governance; best implementation of the Service and Payroll Administrative Repository for Kerala (SPARK); and local language content development to maximum utilisation of Akshaya Centers.

The IMG received 33 nominations in all which were screened by a high-level jury. It comprised of V. Ramachandran, former chief secretary, Government of Kerala and Member, Administrative Reforms Committee, Government of India; Anand Parthasarathy, Consulting Editor, The Hindu; Upendra Verma, Director, IMG; and Dr Ajay Kumar, Principal Secretary (IT), Government of Kerala.

“E-Governance projects in various departments were started years back when computer as a tool had not yet gained popular acceptance among the average Government or public sector employee,” said Dr Ajay Kumar.

PAN TO BE LINKED WITH UNIQUE ID NUMBER
Surabhi, New Delhi, December 07, 2009
The Financial Express

Banking heavily on the use of biometrics, the ten-digit Permanent Account Number (PAN) and the 16-digit Unique Identification (UID) Number are set to be linked up. The government has decided to link the plan for biometric PAN cards with the UID project. The finance ministry has already begun talking to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in this regard. “We are having discussions with the finance ministry. Both projects will be using biometrics, so it is a good choice,” UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani said.

The move comes at a time when both the income tax department and the UIDAI propose to use biometrics to verify the identity of citizens and avoid duplication of cards. More importantly, it would help the UIDAI get easy access to the nearly 70 million PAN cardholders.

Under the proposal, the PAN card infrastructure will be used by the UIDAI for data collection and enrollment of citizens. Further, the UID number will be embedded in new PAN cards, while earlier PAN cardholders will be sent a letter with their UID number.

For the Biometric Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards, tax authorities were planning to capture the fingerprints of four fingers of an individual—two from each hand; along with the face (with the eyes fully visible), the UIDAI is expected to use only fingerprints.

While the Central Board of Direct Taxes has been planning to launch biometric PAN cards for over three years, it was just this year that it actually floated a tender for it.

Seven firms including Infosys, HCL, Tata Consultancy Services and its subsidiary CMC and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd, ITI and Bharat Electronics were shortlisted for the project.

In the initial years, the department plans to issue biometric PAN cards to new applicants and those seeking a re-issue. It would be extended to existing cardholders later. Nilekani has said that once all new applicants move to the UID-backed platform, existing PAN card holders can be given a specific timeframe of say, two years, to migrate.

But the cost of the card remains an issue and the department officials are staying silent about for now. At present, PAN cards come at a fee of Rs 67. The biometric cards are likely to cost about Rs 200 to Rs 300. Sources said the fee was likely to be hiked marginally, while the tax department too would chip in and bear part of the costs. However, higher fees could pose as a detriment to new applicants.

WHEAT E-AUCTION SOON TO CLEAR STOCKS
Sandip Das, New Delhi, December 07, 2009
The Financial Express

After a lukewarm response to the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) for wheat, the government has decided to launch e-auction of its stocks in select states.

Sources said that the e-auction would be launched in Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana this month and is expected to bring down prices of wheat offered under the OMSS. “Through online bidding, we intend to sell wheat in open market,” official sources said.

 

CAB DRIVERS: ID CARDS WITH IN-BUILT MICROCHIP SOON
Pune, November 07, 2009
The Indian Express

Come January and all cab drivers in the city would be seen sporting a uniform, either sky-blue or grey. In April, these drivers would also get identity cards from the Regional Transport Office (RTO) that will have an inbuilt microchip and general packet radio service (GPRS) system to track the vehicle.

The decision was taken at a meeting held by State Transport Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil with the cab-operators in the city on Saturday. Another important decision taken at the meeting was that henceforth if a cab driver was found involved in a crime, the permit of the cab owner, too, would be suspended.