E-Governance : 27/11/09

DELHI 1ST INDIAN CITY TO MAP UTILITIES DIGITALLY
S Ronendra Singh, New Delhi
Financial Chronicle  The Tribune  

The national capital on Thursday joined an elite league of cities such as New York, London and Paris when Delhi government unveiled a unique portal consisting all the over ground and underground utilities such as telephone lines and water pipes in three-dimensional digital format.

Chief minister Sheila Dikshit inaugurated the Rs 120-crore Delhi state spatial data infrastructure (DSSDI) project on Thursday.

Launching the portal, Dikshit said, ?The underground utilities comprising water, sewer, telephone, power line have been mapped for the first time using modern technology. The availability of underground utilities in digital form would enable the concerned line departments to undertake preventive maintenance programmes as well as locate the fault in the underground utility with precision.?

The developed nations such as the US, Europe and UK have taken advantage of this technology for enhancing transparency in government functioning. Delhi being the first state in the country to have such a project, the ?aam aadmi? will also benefit by way of reduced time taken for maintenance, upgradation and laying of all city services with transparency in government functioning and accountability of services rendered through this project.

The portal will provide access to departments such as MCD, NDMC, DDA, Delhi Police, besides bodies of central and state government.

GOVT TO HOLD TEST FOR COMPUTERS
Chandigarh
Hindustan Times (Chandigarh edition)

The Haryana government has decided to conduct a State Eligibility Test in Computer Appreciation and Applications (SETC) for recruitment of data entry operators, office associates, clerks and computer operators in various departments, boards and corporations.

The test to be conducted by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology will be mandatory for promotions at various levels. "The objective of introducing the eligibility test is to give impetus to e-governance projects and applications of information technology," an official said.

As per the notification issued by the General Administration Department, the pass percentage for candidates is 50 percent. There will be no restrictions on the number of chances to pass the test, which will be held at least four times a year. Those declared successful will be awarded a certificate of eligibility by the Electronics and IT Department.

HIGH COURT TO GO DIGITAL FROM DEC
New Delhi
The Indian Express  Hindustan Times (Delhi edition)  

The Delhi High Court plans to start e-courts by next month to reduce paperwork and turn eco-friendly.

With this, lawyers and litigants can stop carrying bulky files and start using a pen drive or a compact disc. Court proceedings, from the stage of filing a petition to getting copies of judgments, will be paperless.

?The necessity of e-courts has arisen due to shortcomings of a paper-based system like storage, maintenance and wastage of a lot of paper,? said Justice B D Ahmed, in-charge of the e-court committee, during the presentation of the project to lawyers and judges on Thursday.

?We?re also working on the project in which live court proceedings would also be seen on the website,? Justice Ahmed said, adding the project will be first started in one court and will soon be followed in all other courts, including the five district courts in the Capital.

E-Governance News: 25/11/09

14,000 POLICE STATIONS TO BE INTERCONNECTED
New Delhi
The Times of India (Delhi edition)

Aiming to beef up the security apparatus in states, the government has embarked upon a project under which about 14,000 police stations and 6,000 other police offices will be interconnected for evolution of an IT-enabled sophisticated tracking system of crime investigation and detection of criminals.

The nationwide project, Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), is estimated to cost Rs 2,000 crore during the 11th Five Year Plan, Ajay Maken, minister of state for home affairs, said in LS.

 

WHAT USE MICROCARDS?
DNA (Bangalore edition)

The horticulture department has embarked on a mammoth exercise of handing out ID cards to walkers at Lalbagh and Cubbon Park. This comes at a time when the prestigious Unique ID project, led by Nandan Nilekani, is already underway. The UID, once in place, will make the likes of such cards redundant.

 

SOON, BOOK FILM TICKET, PAY TAX AT E-SAMPARK CENTRES
Varinder Bhatia, Chandigarh
The Indian Express

Soon, e-Sampark centres in the city will offer more. From booking flight, railway and movie tickets to getting vehicle and marriage registered, these centres will have everything on the menu.

For five years, the 10 e-Sampark centres in the city have been providing 28 services.

The five-year contract between the Chandigarh Administration’s with the Wipro Consulting Services to run these centres ended recently.

Now, the Administration has decided to renew the contract on the existing business model — Build Operate Transfer (BOT). Like earlier, there won’t by any transaction or service fee.

In a presentation on Monday, Wipro Consulting Services, in agreement with top UT officials, proposed to introduce the new facilities.

Talking to Newsline, UT Director of Information Technology Manjit Singh Brar said, “The success of e-Sampark centres has been phenomenal. We’re gong to make these centres more user-friendly. Certain new facilities are going to be added. Also, more such centres will come up in the city.”

 

HP MOBILE GOVERNANCE
The Financial Express

The Himachal Pradesh government has switched to mobile-governance, through which information will be available through SMS. Expanding the scope of m-governance, chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on Tuesday launched new services through SMS. As part of SMS gateway programme launched in September last by state’s information technology department, a citizen can get complete information of their polling station by sending a SMS to a code ie 56300, principal secretary IT B K Aggarwal.

 

NILEKANI PITCHES UID TO OFFSET BOGUS RATION CARDS
New Delhi
The Financial Express

Even as agriculture minister Sharad Pawar revealed on Tuesday that over 1.5 crore bogus ration cards have been unearthed in the last two months alone, Nandan Nilekani is trying to get states to log on to the unique identification platform to ensure that subsidised PDS food grain reaches intended beneficiaries.

“We are working with the food & civil supplies department in the agriculture ministry to explain to states the advantages of using UIDs for schemes like PDS. We have held one workshop in the Capital attended by all states. We have also visited 12 states and explained to them how the UID would work,” Unique Identification Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani said at an Idea Exchange programme hosted by The Express Group.

Nilekani, co-founder and former chairman of Infosys Technologies, refused to name the states that have evinced interest in the UIDAI’s pitch so far. However, from what Pawar told the Lok Sabha during Question Hour, some states have begun to take the problem of fake ration cards seriously.