Technological Assessment at Government Level

7/28/2019 Technological Assessment at Government Level

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TECHNOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT AT GOVERNMENT LEVEL

Electronic government: The term "Electronic Government" in a broadsense describes the use of new information and communication technologies(ICT) to support the workings of governments and public administrations.Usually there are three main effects expected:

Better and more efficient services to businesses and to citizensGreater efficiency and openness of government administration, andCost savings for the taxpayer

21st century is considered to be the age of information. Internet seems tohave shrunk the globe into a small village. The prime objective of e-Governance is to provide information to people at their doorstep. With this inmind, the Government has initiated the Mission Mode Project.Computerisation of various departments of the State and Centralgovernment and setting up of government websites in regional languagesare part of this project.

Through this portal the scientific advances in terms of informationtechnology will be accessed by rural communities and utilised by them. Theschemes and policies of the Government for the people is now madeavailable in many Indian languages. This would reduce the wastages of timeand money for the people who make umpteen rounds of visits to governmentoffices for the most basic information about the most basic needs, whichotherwise are out of access because of the information gap.

National e-Governance Plan (NeGP): The Government approved theNational e-Governance Plan, comprising of 27 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs)

and 8 components on May 18, 2006.

The Government has accorded approval to the vision, approach, strategy,key components and implementation framework for the NeGP. However, theapproval of the NeGP does not constitute a financial approval for all theMission Mode Projects (MMPs) and components under it. The existing/ongoing projects in the MMP category, being implemented by various CentralMinistries/ State Departments/ States would be suitablyaugmented/enhanced to align them with the objectives of NeGP.

Importance of E-Governance

E-Governance can transform citizen services, provide access toinformation to empower citizens, enable their participation ingovernment and enable access to economic and social opportunities.ICT tools (Information and Communication Technology) are effectivelyadding new dimensions to old institutional set-ups.

There is a reinforced thrust for an informed and participatory citizenryfor efficient e-Governance. It goes without saying that impact of ICT oninstitutional changes is spreading across the boundaries of social andpolitical arrangements of societies.

E-Governance uses Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

for delivering Government Services, exchange of information,communication transactions, integrating various stand-alone systemsand services between Government and Citizens (G2C), Governmentand Business (G2B) as well as back office processes and interactionswithin the entire Government frame work.


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Through the e-Governance, the Government services will be madeavailable to the citizens in a convenient, efficient and transparentmanner. Government employees are being trained on technology andICT. The aim is to make them responsive via the technology drivenadministration.

E - Governance seeks to achieve(i) Efficiency(ii) Transparency(iii) Citizen's participation

Enabling e-governance through ICT contributes to(i) Good governance(ii) Trust and Accountability(iii) Citizen's awareness and empowerment

(iv) Citizen's welfare(v) Democracy(vi)Nation's economic growth

e-Governance: Focus(i) Greater attention to improve service delivery mechanism(ii) Enhancing the efficiency of production(iii) Emphasis upon the wider access of information

State Wide Area Network (SWAN):State Wide Area Network (SWAN) is

an ambitious programme of Government of India to provide networkconnectivity of 2Mbps up to block level in all states and union territories toconnect all 7442 Point of Presence (PoP). The block level nodes in turn, willhave a provision to extend connectivity further to the village level usingcontemporary wireless technology. This programme has been started with anestimated outlay of Rs 3,334 crore in March 2005 under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) and has planned to implement across the countrywithin a period of five years by 2010.

NeGP vision: Make all Government services accessible to the common manin his locality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure

efficiency, transparency & reliability of such services at affordable costs torealise the basic needs of the common man

NeGP Approval:The Government approved the National e-Governance Plan(NeGP), comprising of 27 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) and 8 components,on May 18, 2006.

The Government has accorded approval to the vision, approach, strategy,key components and implementation framework for the NeGP. However, theapproval of the NeGP does not constitute a financial approval for all theMMPs and components under it. The existing/ongoing projects in the MMPcategory, being implemented by various Central Ministries/Statedepartments/ States would be suitably enhanced to align them with theobjectives of NeGP.


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E-Governance initiatives across the country: Over the past decade orso, there have been islands of e-Governance initiatives in the country at theNational, State, district and even block level. Some of them have been highlysuccessful and are ready for replication across other States. Experiencesfrom successes as well as the failures of the various initiatives played animportant role in shaping the e governance strategy of the country. The

basic lessons that emerged from the various e-Governance initiatives were: Need for political ownership at the highest level and a national vision

for e-Governance for successful implementation of the programme;

A dedicated /team with a stable tenure from within the organisation toconceptualise and implement the programme down the line;

New areas of public-private partnership in making e-Governancepossible should be continuously explored;

Defined architecture, standards and policies addressing issues ofsecurity, privacy, etc.;

An urgent need to develop the basic core and support infrastructure for

e- Governance such as Data Centres, Wide Area Networks and thephysical access points for delivery of government services, whichwould be common to all departments and where services could bedelivered at the doorstep of the citizen in an integrated manner;

Need to start with small pilots before scaling-up, as IT projects take along time to implement and often there are modifications to beincorporated along the way; and

Issues of re-engineering and management of change are of paramountimportance in comparison to technical issues associated with e-Governance

Hence, there was a felt need for taking a holistic view towards the entire e-Governance initiative across the country. Increasingly , it was perceived thatif e Governance was to be speeded up across the various arms ofgovernment at the national , state and local government level, a programmeapproach would need to be adopted, which must be guided by a commonvision, strategy and approach to objectives. This approach would have theadded advantage of enabling huge savings in cost, in terms of sharing thecore and support infrastructure, enable interoperability through standardsetc, which would result in the citizen having a seamless view of Government.With this background, the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was

formulated by the Government, for implementation across the country.


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The existing/ ongoing projects in the MMP category, being implemented byvarious Central Ministries/Departments/States are to be suitably augmented/modified to align them with the objectives of NeGP.

For major projects like Bharat Nirman, Rural Employment GuaranteeSchemes, the line Ministry concerned is to make use of e-Governance as alsoautomation techniques from the inception stage.States have been givenflexibility to identify a few additional state-specific projects (not exceeding5), which are very relevant for the economic development of the State. Incases where Central Assistance is required, such inclusions will be

considered on the advice of the concerned line Ministries/Departments.

Public Private Partnerships would be promoted wherever feasible to enlargethe resource pool without compromising on the security aspects and for thispurpose; the Parliamentary Standing Committee's recommendation listed at12(c) of Annexure-III would be the guiding factor.Adoption of unique identification codes for Citizen, Business and Property willbe promoted to facilitate integration and avoid ambiguity.

Implementation Framework:

Considering the multiplicity of agencies involved in the implementation ofNeGP and the need for overall aggregation and integration at the nationallevel, it has been decided to implement NeGP as a programme, with well-defined roles & responsibilities of each agency involved, and to create anappropriate programme management structure. For the effectivemanagement of the NeGP, a programme management structure with well-defined roles and responsibilities has been approved.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for programme levelpolicy decisions. A body under the Chairpersonship of Prime Minister hasbeen constituted with representation drawn from relevant Ministries/

Departments, the National Knowledge Commission, the PlanningCommission, experts, etc., to provide leadership, prescribe deliverables andmilestones, and monitor periodically the implementation of the NeGP. StateGovernments are responsible for implementing State Sector MMPs, under the


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overall guidance of respective Line Ministries, in cases where CentralAssistance is also required. An Apex Committee has been constituted at theState level headed by the Chief Secretary with a similar role andresponsibility to the Apex Committee at the centre. DIT is the facilitator andcatalyst for the implementation of NeGP and is tasked with providingassistance to the Departments & also serves as the secretariat to the Apex

Committee and assists it in managing the programme.

Central Mission Mode Projects (MMPs):

Banking

The evolution of Core Banking Technology in India has empowered andtransformed customer of the branch to the customer of the bank providinghim/her the convenience of anytime and anywhere banking in India. Thepresent stage of core banking limits anywhere / anytime operations to withinthe bank.

The integration of core banking solutions of various banks will bring inoperational efficiency, online fund settlement; reduce inter-bank clearingtransactions; reduce time & effort involved in handling clearing transactionsand their settlement thereby facilitating improved customer service &customer satisfaction; improved regulatory compliance; improved cash &fund management; standardisation of processes across the banks andimproved Management information system. One of the main utilities can beElectronic mode of payments using Smart Card and Point of Sale Terminalsas a viable alternative to paper based Cash Transactions of small value(micro payments) that will reduce the circulation of cash.

Central Excise (Customs & Service Tax):

The Central Board for Excise and Customs (CBEC) is implementing this MMPwith a view to facilitate trade and industry by streamlining and simplifyingCustoms & Excise processes and helping Indian businesses to enhance itscompetitiveness and create a climate for voluntary compliance by providingguidance and building mutual trust. This project intends to enable thetaxpayers with up to date information relating to Customs, Central Excise,Service Tax Laws, forms etc. through internet. It will also enable onlinetransaction, electronic filing, and web tracking of documents and even

electronic credit of the drawback amount directly into their account.The project aims to network 20,000 users in 245 cities using wide areanetwork. Some of the services proposed to be covered in the MMP are:

Simplification of Registration, Returns, Revenue reconciliation andExports procedure

Movement towards integration of goods and service taxation

E-Registration for excise and service tax

E-filing of returns and refunds

Integration of e-filing with system driven, Risk based Scrutiny

Export facilitation through linkages between Excise and Customs

Improved Dispute Resolution Mechanism Monitoring of arrears and their recovery

Central Excise Revenue Reconciliation

Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC)


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Income Tax

The Department of IT is implementing a comprehensive plan to deploy ICTfor setting up an excellent taxpayer service with the objective of promotingremote access to information and facilities to allow taxpayers and citizens to

transact all businesses with department on anywhere anytime basis. Theseinclude creation of national database, data centres, jurisdiction free filing ofreturns, online status of accounts and refunds. Some of the servicesproposed to be covered in the MMP are:

Submission of returns online

Tax Accounting

Processing of tax return

Processing of TDS return

Taxpayer grievance redressal

Taxpayer correspondence

Tax compliance Allocation of PAN

Insurance

With a view to improve services to customers in the General Insurancesector, this MMP has been conceived. The objectives of the MMP are:

To facilitate customer service through education, information, speedyprocessing of claims and online issuance of policies on web

To provide automated grievance reporting and redressal facility to

customers To create and enlarge business opportunities

To create holistic database of insurance users,

To integrate insurance database with other government database toanalyse social security aspects and facilitate service delivery

The project is proposed to be implemented through the four PSUInsurance companies.

Services:

Online forms filling

e-payment of charges company registration services

e-filing statutory returns

issuance of Director Indentification Numbers (DIN)The Ministry of Company Affairs (MCA) is implementing an e-Governanceinitiative called MCA21 e-Governance Project'. The Project offers availabilityof all MCA services including filing of documents, registration of companiesand public access to corporate information through a secure portalhttp://www.mca.gov.in the portal services can be accessed/ availed fromanywhere, at any time that best suits the corporate entities, professionals

and the public at large.The objective of the e-Governance program is to improve the speed andcertainty in the delivery of MCA services. This improvement is primarilyensured through the mechanism of secure electronic filing (e-filing) and easyonline payment options for all the services provided by the Registrar of


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Companies. Use of Digital Signatures has been mandated to carry out e-filingin conformity with the Information Technology Act, 2000.

The solution architecture provides for setting up of Registrars' Front Offices(RFOs) as facilitation centres at 52 locations through out the country. Thesefacilitation centres have been set up to provide complete range of servicesfor e-filing of documents to the stakeholders who do not have the necessary

computing/ IT infrastructure or capability to use the same for e-filing fromtheir own locations. Recognising the need for greater outreach for facilitationin e-filing, the Ministry has introduced a scheme of Certified Filing Centres(CFC)' wherein the practising professionals (Chartered Accountants,Company Secretaries and Cost Accountants) have been authorised to set upthe CFCs and provide services to the stakeholders on a user charge basis.

The project has been rolled-out at all the 20 ROCs locations and more than30 lakh users have visited and availed the services from the portal since itspilot operations from 18.02.2006.

The MCA21 Project has been awarded the Dataquest IT Path-breaker Award,2006 , and recognized as a major Government initiative in the field of e-

Governance, with use of technology for improving and changing the existingprocesses, and making life easier for India's business community, investorsand aspiring entrepreneurs.

National Citizen Database (NCD/MNIC)/ UNIQUE ID (UID)

NCD/MNIC: Recently, the first lot of 45 Smart Cards has been issued toResidents of Pooth Khurd, Narela, Delhi.The pilot project has been underimplementation since Nov'03 in selected areas of 12 states and 1 UT,encompassing a population of 30.96 lakh. Pilot has reached the stage ofdistribution of cards. The pilot project has 20 local service centres at thetehsil /block level on a fee based PPP model for providing services to thecitizens for updating and maintaining citizen database at local level.

UNIQUE ID (UID): UID process study recommendations have beenpresented to the Process Committee (Planning Commission) on 27th April.'Proof of Concept' (PoC) to establish linkage between partner databases suchas RD, PDS and EPIC has been initiated by the DIT as per the directions ofthe Process Committee. POC being carried out in 3 Gram Panchayats.Project UID, a Planning Commission initiative, proposes to

Initially create a central database of residents above the age of 18 years ,andGenerate a unique identification number (UID) for all such residents.

This UID is intended to be used in the first instance, as the basis for efficientdelivery of various social and welfare services to persons below the povertyline (BPL).Unique ID can be used as the basis for identifying and authenticating aperson's entitlement to government services and benefits through a singlesystem rather than all government departments individually andindependently investing in creating infrastructure, systems and proceduresfor verifying entitlement of residents under various schemes of the

Government.To this end, the project envisages provision of linking of existing databases,as well as providing for future additions, to the fields of content to thedatabase, by the user agencies.
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One of the key advantages envisaged as an outcome of the project is thatthe Unique ID will be helpful in reducing identity related fraud and allow onlytargeted people to get the benefits from the government.

The Planning Commission initiative with a focus on reaching the social sectorbenefits to the beneficiaries more efficiently and effectively is being steered

by the DIT, as the line ministry, through NICSI/NIC as the technical solutionprovider and a consultant for the process definitions for operation andmaintenance of the database.Ministry of Home Affairs (http://mha.nic.in/)

Passport, Immigration & Visa:1. Application for fresh passport, ECNR, renewal, application status

tracking etc.2. efficient and effective handling of immigration formalities for all

international incoming flights.Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Home Affairs &

Bureau of Immigration (BoI) have pooled their efforts and resources toconceptualise the MMP that aims at enhancing the experience of in-boundand out-bound travellers from India. The project is being implemented in two modules onelooking into aspects of immigration & Visa and second into passport issues. While the formeraims to reduce immigration clearance time and ensure better security checks. This includesmodernisation programme for immigration check posts and advance passenger informationsystem, latter is concerned with speedy resolution of issues related to issuance and renewalof passports including the robustness of the process of verification involved for the same.

The project is being implemented through BoI and NIC.

Pensions: Pensioners Portal Launched on 30 March, 2007,

A 'Pensioner's Portal' has been proposed to be set up which will have twocomponents1. Non-interactive: to provide updated information on pension issues and2. Interactive part: to monitor grievance redressal at three levels, viz

a. Central level in Departmental of Pension & PW (nodal point),b. Central Ministries/Department level andc. Pensioners' Associations level (field level).

All the three levels would be interlinked. Pensioners registering grievanceson the portal would get unique access code, which would help him/hermonitor progress of his case. The designated Nodal officer at the level ofDepartment of Pension & Pensioners' Welfare and at the level of Central

Ministry/Department would also be able to monitor the progress.The expenditure for providing S/w, H/W, phone etc. to pensioners'Associations would be made by Department of Pension & Pensioners' Welfarethrough recurring and non-recurring grants. The Central Ministries/Departments would meet such expenditure on their own. The mechanismwould be operated initially in phased manners covering larger cities in somestates. The design and software for the portal is being developed by the NICwho have been engaged for this purpose.
http://mha.nic.in/http://mit.gov.in/default.aspx?id=860http://mha.nic.in/http://mit.gov.in/default.aspx?id=860


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E-OFFICE: The need for efficiency in government processes and servicedelivery mechanism is a long-felt one. The Government of India hasrecognized this need and hence included the same as a core mission modeproject (MMP) under the National eGovernance Plan (NeGP). It is estimatedthat, if designed properly, the MMP could target over 2 lakh users. Thisproject is aimed at significantly improving the operational efficiency of the

Government, by transitioning to a Less Paper Office within next five years.The design this MMP is to achieve the following objectives:1. To improve efficiency, consistency and effectiveness of government

responses;2. To reduce turnaround time and to meet the demands of the citizens

charter;3. To provide for effective resource management to improve the quality

of administration;4. To reduce processing delays; and5. To establish transparency and accountability

The core of the project would be:

1. Work Flow Automation2. Knowledge management

A Project Management Team (PMT) headed by a programme coordinator andassisted by representative each of DIT & NIC along with two subject matterexperts will oversee the implementation of the project

State Mission Mode Projects:

Agriculture: Several initiatives have been taken by central government andstates such as ASHA in Assam , KISSAN and e-Krishi in Kerala, Krishi

Maratha Vahiniin Karnataka etc. aimed at meeting challenges facing the

agriculture sector in the country and have met with varying degree ofsuccess. As such, to consolidate learning from the past, integrate presentdiverse and disparate efforts and upscale them to cover the entire country,Agriculture has been included as a MMP in NeGP and is to be operationalisedby Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC).

The typical services envisaged in Agriculture as an MMP include:

Information to farmers on seeds, fertilizers, pesticides

Information to farmers on Govt. Schemes

Information to farmers on Soil recommendations

Information on crop management

Information on weather and marketing of agriculture produceDAC has adopted twin strategy to spearhead implementation of MMP inAgriculture through AGRISNET & two portals AGMARKNET & DACNET.Under AGRISNET, funds are released to State governments based on projectproposals submitted by them. So far, nine States - Andhra Pradesh, Assam,Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh,Uttarakhand, and West Bengal - have availed of assistance under AGRISNET.

Through the AGMARKNET portal, information on about 300 commodities from2000 mandis/markets is made available. The information is updated

regularly, directly from the markets. DACNET portal provides subject / cropspecific information from various Directorates under the Department ofAgriculture and Cooperation.Commercial Taxes: The maturity of VAT implementation varies acrossStates and the need has been strongly felt for streamlining VAT
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administration through citizen-centric, service-oriented processes, andestablishing a certain degree of standardization with respect to Commercial

Tax (CT) administration. Since the CT departments mainly interface withbusinesses and often account for 60% - 70% of the total revenue of theStates and UTs, their functioning can directly affect the attractiveness of aState as a business destination.

In this context the Commercial Taxes Mission-Mode Program (CT-MMP) hasbeen conceived under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) of the GoI. Theinitiative is spearheaded by the Department of Revenue (DoR), Ministry ofFinance, with the National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) and Ernst &

Young as Strategic Consultants to the DoR. In order to improve the efficiencyof VAT administration, it is important that administrative procedures aresimplified and processing timelines are reduced by usage of computerizedsystems. Faster grant of registration and electronic processing of VAT returnswould be important. CT-MMP has provided various change recommendationsto facilitate these. Some of the important e-Governance initiatives have been

recommended as part of CT-MMP is:1. Electronic filing of returns2. Electronic clearance of refunds3. Electronic payment of tax4. Online dealer ledger5. Online issuance of CST statutory forms through TINXSYS6. Facility to dealer to obtain various online information services

E-District: Districts are the de facto front-end of government where mostG2C interaction and bulk of citizen centric services are delivered. As such,there was a felt need to improve this experience and enhance efficiencies ofthe various departments at the district level to enable seamless servicedelivery to the citizen. The project scope is to integrate various departmentsof the districts to provide seamless services to the citizens.For successfulimplementation of e-districts, the redesigning of the existing processes anddelivery mechanism to facilitate an efficient and effective service deliverystructure, has been identified as a key activity.

The objectives of the MMP include backend computerization to enableefficient delivery of government services and to proactively provide a systemof spreading information on the Government schemes, planned

developmental activities and status of current activities.Front ends under the scheme are only to be built at District, Tehsil, Subdivision and block level, in the form of citizen facilitation counters. Villagelevel linkage would be established through Common Services Centres fordelivery of services.Indicative services planned to be delivered through this MMP include:

1. Certificates: Creation and distribution of certificates for income,domicile, caste, Birth, Death etc

2. Licenses: Arms Licenses etc3. PDS: Issue of Ration Card etc.4. Social Welfare Schemes : Issue of old age pensions, family pensions,

widow pensions etc.5. Complaints: related to unfair prices, absentee teacher, non-

availability of doctor. Online filing and receipt of Information relating tothe Right to Information Act.


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6. Linking with other e government projects: Registration, LandRecords, and Driving Licenses etc.

7. Information Dissemination : Disseminating Information relating togovernment schemes, entitlements etc.

8. Assessment of taxes: Property tax, and other government taxes9. Utility Payment: Payments relating to electricity, water bills property

taxes etc.Initially a few districts in some States are to be taken up for pilotimplementation of the MMP, and once the pilots have been implemented, thecontours of the e district project would be finalised as a MMP, to beimplemented across the country.


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Employment Exchange: Ministry of Labour & Employment is in the processof conceptualising this MMP. It is visualised that the MMP will help match therequirements of employers and potential employees. Through theemployment exchange portal, according to the requirement of employersquick lists of candidates and call letters can be generated. It will also providevaluable guidance to the unemployed and can facilitate online registration of

vacancies by employers. Computerized counselling is also likely to be madeavailable to unemployed youth.

Land Records Phase 2: There is an ongoing project for digitization ofland records, being implemented by MoRD.

a. Completion of data entry work including backlog validation and updating(Completed in 12 States)b. Providing legal sanctity to computerized RORs (Completed in 12 States)c. Stopping issue of manual RORs( Completed in 8 States)d. Setting up computer centers at Tehsils( Completed in 9 States)

e. Web enabling( Completed in 11 States)

The collection of land revenue and the existence of the institutions of theState have been co-terminus. Maintenance of land records has now becomemore vital for administrators and creation of a land information system isone of the key issues facing governance today. Land records itself is ageneric expression and could include records such as the Register of lands,Records of Rights, Tenancy and crop inspection register (RTC), MutationRegister, Disputed cases Register etc. It also includes primary informationabout land presented in terms of its geological information like the shape,size, landforms, soils; economic information related to land use irrigation andcrops; and the information pertaining to the legal rights, registration andtaxation.

Main objectives of MMP are:1. To facilitate easy maintenance and updating of changes which occur in

land database such as changes due to availability of irrigation/naturalcalamities/consolidation/ or on account of legal changes like transfer ofownership, partition, land acquisition, lease etc.

2. To provide for comprehensive scrutiny to make land records tamper-proof, this may reduce the menace of litigation and social conflicts,

associated with land disputes.3. To provide the required support for implementation of development

programmes for which data about distribution of land holdings is vital.4. To facilitate detailed planning for infrastructural as well as environment

development.5. To facilitate preparation of an annual set of records in the mechanised

process and thereby producing accurate documents for recordingdetails such as collection of land revenue, cropping pattern etc.

6. To facilitate a variety of standard and ad-hoc queries on land data.7. To provide database for agricultural census.

Core Services offered under the MMP are:

1. Issue of copy of Records of Rights2. Crop, Irrigation and Soil details3. Filing and Tracking of Status of Mutation Cases4. Availability and submission of forms


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At present, a number of states have successfully completed the pilot projectand a few are planning/proposing Statewide rollout (Punjab, Puducherry,Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura , Sikkim and West Bengal).

State MMPsMunicipalities:The National Mission Mode Project (NMMP) for Municipalities

is one of the Mission Mode Projects that has significant citizen interaction,since municipalities provide a large number of basic services for millions ofcitizen living in India 's urban centres. It is envisaged that MMP formunicipalities would provide a major fillip to the Government of India'sMinistry of Urban Development's urban reform agenda. The vision for theNational Mission Mode Project for e-Governance in Municipalities is toleverage the ICT opportunities for sustained improvement in efficiency andeffectiveness of delivery of municipal service to citizens. The Key Objectivesof the MMP include

1. Provide Single Window services to citizens on any time , any wherebasis

2. Increase the efficiency and productivity of ULBS3. Develop a single and integrated view of ULB information system across

all ULBs in the state4. Provide timely & reliable management information relating to

municipal administration for effective decision making5. Adopt a standards-based approach to enable integration with other

related applications

The overall structure for the NMMP scheme has been divided into three tiersi.e. Centre, State and Urban Local Body (ULB) level. MMP, in its current form,envisages covering all ULBs in class 1 cities ( 423 in total) during the period2006-07 to 2010-11.In order to achieve its vision and objectives, NMMP envisagesimplementation of various application modules covering the followingservices/management functions within ULBs:

1. Registration and issue of birth and death certificate2. Payment of property tax, Utility Bills and Management of Utilities that

come under ULBs3. Property Tax4. Water Supply and other Utilities5. Grievances and suggestions

6. Building plan approvals7. Procurement and monitoring of projects8. E-procurement9. Project/ward works10. Heath program11. Licenses12. Solid Waste Management13. Accounting system14. Personnel Information System.

Grievances Handling, including implementation of the elements of the RightTo Information Act, Acknowledgement, Resolution monitoring

Gram Panchayats: As Panchayat represent the first level of interaction forover 60% of Indian populace i.e. the rural masses and provide a largenumber of basic services for millions of citizens living in India's rural centres,


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the National e-Governance Plan has identified Panchayat as one of theMission Mode Projects(MMP). The MMP has been designed to overcome thechallenges being faced in the villages such as lack of reliable communicationinfrastructure, delay in providing services to the citizens (Licenses,Certificate etc), Low revenue mobilization for implementing schemes at theGram Panchayat level, lack of monitoring mechanism for the schemes.

Some states (West Bengal , Orissa and AP) have implemented e-Government modules inPanchayat and achieved significant level of success. A National Panchayat Portal has beendeveloped by NIC which has a versatile front-end in terms of dynamic website for Panchayat,with information, content and services needed by people, links citizens with Panchayat, linksPanchayat with each other, allows access to information & services provided by Ministry ofPanchayati Raj, State Panchayati Raj Departments. There are also some backend solutionscurrently available from NIC, which are being used in Panchayati Raj Institutions:

Priasoft (Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Chhattisgarh)

PRIASOFT-PANCHLEKHA LI (MP)

PriaSoft-Aasthi (Karnataka)

PriaSoft-ePanchayat (Andhra Pradesh)

In order to achieve its vision and objectives, MMP envisages implementationof various application modules covering the following services/managementfunctions within Gram Panchayat:

Issue of Trade Licenses and NoC

House Related Services

Certificate of Birth and Death, Income and Solvency

Dissemination of Internal Process of Panchayat agenda, voting,resolution

Copy of Proceedings of Gram Sabha and Action Taken Report

Receipt of Funds / Progress Report

Dissemination of Data BPL, PF for Landless Agricultural Labourers,education, Health facilities & status

Digitization of the Village Infrastructure on a Map

Police: Common Integrated Police Application (CIPA) has been implementedat 128 Police Stations of Delhi.

Out of 1280 sites (10% PSs), to be covered in first phase, Hardware has beendelivered for 748 Police Stations in States; and CIPA is operational in 17states and partially operational in 6 states.Police has been included in theNeGP as a response to an ever-increasing threat of terror and ascendingcrime graph. It addresses the need to improve the efficiency of the policeforce. One of the major steps in this direction is the creation and sharing ofcrimes and criminal database. In addition, the MMP also includes personalmanagement and inventory control. However, there are large variations inthese functions across the States, which do not allow common developmentof the processes and consequently the software. The MMP therefore adopts aphased approach towards implementation.

In the first, phase only those functions, which are common across the States,and are driven by the CrPC, are to be attempted. This is being implemented

under the Common Integrated Police Application (CIPA) Project. This enablesbasic primary information, generated at the Police Stations, to becomputerized and helped the police officers in the police stations to reducetheir paper work thereby bring in efficiency in the police station operations.


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Implementation of CIPA started on pilot basis at six nos. Police Stations ofNew Delhi in April'05. Rollout at the remaining 122 nos. Police Stations inDelhi have been completed. Requirements for Customization in the CIPASoftware Core, and the additional Local Development, are being discussedwith States viz. Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,Uttarakhand, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh; and being incorporated/developed.

It is proposed to cover 30% more Police Stations in the second phase of CIPAimplementation during this financial year.

PROPERTY REGISTRATION: Successful implementation of the CARD(COMPUTERAIDED ADMINISTRATION OF REGISTRATION DEPARTMENT)project implemented by government of Andhra Pradesh resulted in the

countrywide initiative launched by DIT aimed at taking best practices ofsuccessful implementations as part of its Horizontal Transfer Programme.

The project objectives were to replace existing manual systems ofverification and scrutiny of documents, valuation of properties, capturing andpreserving copies of the documents, conducting searches and of maintainingback office records.As part of the MMP, the core services proposed to be offered under theproject are

1. Market Valuation (MV) calculator;2. Payment of stamp duty fees;3. Registration of Documents all movable and immovable properties;4. Issue of Encumbrance Certificate;5. Issue of copies of Certified Documents

At present, a number of states have successfully completed the pilot projectand a few are planning/proposing State-wide rollout (Punjab, Puducherry,Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura , Sikkim and West Bengal ).

Road Transport: With a view to create a unified data schema which couldbe used by all the states for computerisation of their transport offices forissuing vehicle registration certificates and driving licences, Road Transportwas included as one of the MMPs in the NeGP.

The implementation agency NIC developed a Smart card Operating Systemfor Transport Application (SCOSTA) to ensure inter-operability of smart cardRC and DL documents across the states & UTs. The development involvedthe implementation of two software VAHAN for vehicles registration activitiesand SARATHI for driving licence related activities in 24 and 16 statesrespectively.

Treasuries: Services

Payment of salaries to Govt Employees

All expenses paid through PLA

Account reconciliation Department wise and head wise expenditure compilation and

communication to AGDue to partial or non-computerisation of State Treasuries/Office of AGs, mostof the information relating to the operations in the Government account


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continues to be exchanged in paper form only. In order to get the accountsof State Governments expeditiously and to provide for better ManagementInformation Systems, networking of all agencies involved in finalisation ofaccounts of State Governments was felt necessary. A Core Group onComputerisation of Treasuries in State has been constituted to formulate adraft scheme on project for Treasuries Computerisation under e-governance

plan of Government of India.The detailed concept note is being worked out by the Department ofExpenditure.

Integrated Mission Mode Programmes:

CSC: Proposals of 17 States for setting up 87,419 CSC approved at a totalcost of Rs 1386.66 Crore; SCAs selected in three States, LoI to SCAs issued inone States and RFPs issued in 4 additional States.


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E-Biz:The E-Biz initiative seeks to address several issues relating to approvals and permissions,reducing the points of contact between the business entities and the Government agencies,standardization of requirement information, establishment of single-window services and reducing theburden of compliance. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion is piloting the initiative.

The vision of e-Biz is to provide comprehensive G2B services to all thebusiness entities in an even driven manner. Its objectives include reductionof time for getting the G2B services in the pre-establishment and post

establishment periods to provide integrated services of central, state ad localgovernments, automate the workflow in the concerned governmentdepartments and above all to enhance transparency, speed and certainty inprovision of G2B services.E-Biz Project is designed to help a variety of stakeholders like theentrepreneurs, industries and businesses, industry associations, regulatoryagencies, industrial promotional agencies, banks and financial institutions,taxation authorities etcE-Biz pilot has been initiated and is proposed to be implemented in fourstates, namely, UP, Maharashtra, Haryana at 1 district in each state. 25 G2Bservices relating to 14 departments of central, state and local governmentswould be provided online.

E-COURTS: The Indian judiciary comprises of nearly 15,000 courts situatedin approximately 2,500 court complexes throughout the country. The totalno. of pending cases in these Courts as on 01.01.2005 was 2, 94, and97,251.

In the Indian Judiciary, effort for computerization of some of its processes hasbeen going on since 1990. From 2001-03, 700 city courts in four metros werecomputerised and during 2003-04, computerisation of another 900 courts

were undertaken.

Need was felt to make the programme of ICT enablement of the IndianJudiciary mission-critical. Under NeGP as a MMP, it is proposed to implementICT in Indian judiciary in three phases over a period of five years. The projectscope is to develop, deliver, install and implement automated decisionmaking and decision support system in 700 courts of Delhi, Bombay, Kolkata& Chennai; 900 courts in the 29 capital city courts of states and UTs and13000 district and subordinate courts.

The objectives of the project are:

1. To help judicial administrations of the courts in streamlining their day-

to-day activities2. To assist judicial administration in reducing the pendency of cases3. To provide transparency of information to the litigants4. To provide access to legal and judicial databases to the judges.

E-Procurement:This MMP is being implemented to ensure that governmentprocurement becomes simplified, transparent and result-oriented. It is beingimplemented through and in DGS&D, a central purchasing organisation

under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, having core competency inprocurement of goods and services and involves computerisation of DGS&D.The objectives of the MMP are:


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1. To establish a one stop-shop providing all services related togovernment procurement

2. To reduce cycle time and cost of procurement3. To enhance transparency in government procurement4. To enhance efficiency of procurement5. To bring about procurement reform across the government

National E-Governance Service Delivery Gateway

Introduction: The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) of the Govt. of Indiaaims to make all Government services accessible to the common man in hislocality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency,transparency & reliability of such services at affordable costs to realise thebasic needs of the common man. One of the goals of the Government tomeet this vision is the need to cooperate, collaborate and integrateinformation across different departments in the Centre, States and LocalGovernment. Government systems characterised by islands of legacy

systems using heterogeneous platforms and technologies and spread acrossdiverse geographical locations, in varying state of automation, make thistask very challenging. The National eGovernance Service Delivery Gateway(NSDG), a MMP under the NeGP, can simplify this task by acting as astandards-based messaging switch and providing seamless interoperabilityand exchange of data across.

Vision of the NSDG:The emergence of many e-governance applications for different departmentsto provide online services to citizens, businesses and government wouldrequire increasing interactions

amongst departments and with external agencies at various levels inGovernment. Departments would need to develop connectors/adaptors forpoint to point connections between departments creating a mesh as shownin figure and also tight coupling between applications. This would lead toapplications difficult to maintain and upgrade in case of version change andchange in government policies and business rules. The National e-Governance Service Delivery Gateway (NSDG) is an attempt to reduce suchpoint to point connections between departments and provide a standardizedinterfacing, messaging and routing switch through which various playerssuch as departments, front-end service access providers and back-endservice providers can make their applications and data inter-operable. TheNational e-Governance Service Delivery Gateway (NSDG) aims to achieve ahigh order of interoperability among autonomous and heterogeneous entities


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Help the Departments backend workflow evolve gradually as theGateway acts as a middleware de-linking the backends from the frontend. This means that even the Departments which do not have thecomplete automation or work flow at the back can still deliver e-Service to the citizens in a limited manner through the Gateway. Tocite as an example, a server may be put up at the department for

message exchange with Gateway in absence of readily availableinfrastructure at the department.

NSDG Conceptual Architecture and Gateway Messagingspecifications: NSDG as a messaging middleware acts as an intelligent hub

and routes service requests from a Service Seeker (Service Access Provider)to a Service Provider (typically a back end Government department that putsup its service for electronic delivery) and in return sends the response backto the Service Seeker through the Gateway.

The gateway achieves integration amongst diverse set of applications builton varying platforms through compliance with a set of e-GovernanceSpecifications- Interoperability Interface Protocol and InteroperabilityInterface Specifications (IIP/IIS) that are based on open standards such as theW3C XML and SOAP specifications.

The Gateway specifications developed for the Gateway messaging andsupport/common services are1. Interoperability Interface Specification (IIS)2. Interoperability Interface Protocol (IIP)3. Inter Gateway Interconnect Specification (IGIS)4. Gateway Common Services Specification (GCSS)

The NSDG will link three major entities:

1. Service Providers (SP): The back-end government departments or anyother third-party agencies offering e-services to citizens and businesses, and

to other government departments, are collectively referred to as ServiceProviders (SP). Third-party SPs may offer specialized services such asauthentication, payment gateway services, or joined-up services.

2. Service Access Providers (SAP): A Service Access Provider is an entity,which facilitates government service access by Service Seekers, by providinga front-end infrastructure. Linked to the Service Access Providers will be theDelivery Channels, which would be the access mechanism for the citizensand businesses to avail the e-governance services.

3. State Gateways/ Local Government Gateways/ Gateways inGovernment Verticals:

The future E-Governance space of India would see many GovernmentDepartments/local bodies and Businesses offering many services, which willbe consumed by the Citizens, Businesses and other Government


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Departments/local bodies. This would give rise to multiple Service AccessProviders (SAP) and Service Providers (SP) and these necessarily may notreside with one Gateway but may be distributed among more than oneGateways (Gateway Constellation) under different administrative domainsacross the Centre, State, and local governments including gateways inspecialized verticals.

The choice of a Gateway will be dictated based on the need for connectingmultiple e-Governance services on multiple technologies/platforms toincrease interoperability factor. In the absence of a gateway in any verticalor State level the service can still be offered through the default NationalGateway. When multiple Gateways become operational, NSDG will beequipped to route the messages to appropriate Gateways and reach out tothe service offerings of local bodies, state governments and centralgovernments, all working together in a peer-to-peer network.

However, in order to project a simplified and unified face of the

Government, it is imperative that all these unifying Infrastructures, undervarious administrative domains work in close co-operation and in unison tosupport the outcome based paradigm of service delivery to the Citizens,Businesses or other Government Department/local bodies.

There could be three distinct types of gateways: The Central Gateway,the State Gateways and Department-specific (Domain) or Purpose-specificGateways. The service scenarios cover three distinct groups: (a) Citizens (b)Businesses and (c) the Government departments / Ministries / Agencies. Thefollowing table summarizes the usefulness of the Gateway with in each ofthese entities:

Central Gateway State Government / Local Governmentgateways Department / Ministry / Purpose specific Gateways G2G in the Centre G2C in the Centre G2B relating to the departments in the Centre G2G within the State G2C within the State? A predominant service orientation G2B relating to the departments in the State, Local bodies and utilities G2G in the State-Centre interactions

G2G within the Centre spread across the country, with each unit of thedepartment having its own IT infrastructure G2B on matters relating to the Centre in business matters G2C on matters relating to citizens

National Services Directory:The NSDG system being implemented as an MMP by DIT also includes theNational Services Directory. This NSD shall be utilised by all gateways acrossthe country for address resolution of services. The primary function of theNational Services Directory (NSD) is to provide a registry, which acts as aservice resolution point for all the services in the Gateway constellation. NSD

is a collection of service hosting information outside the Gateway. All theGateways that need to resolve services, which are not in their domain, needto resolve it at the NSD. The Gateways need to register with the NSD beforethey can attempt to resolve a service from the directory.


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NSDG ServicesThe NSDG will be run as a managed service by the implementers CDAC,Mumbai and their partners. The specifications of the NSDG are built onService oriented Architecture (SOA) principles with the features of theGateway organised as a set of services, with the flexibility to add services as

and when required as support services, keeping the messaging service at itscore. Service levels have been defined for the various services being offeredby the NSDGFollowing are the list of services being provided by the NSDG:

Core Servicesa. Messaging

Support Services / Non-Core Servicesb. Gateway Services Directoryc. Enrolment / de-enrolment of back-end services and Service Providers

d. Registration / De-registration of Service Access Providerse. Gateway Interfaces SAP / SPf. Transaction managementg. Monitoring, Corrective Adaptation and Alertsh. Audit Loggingi. Administration

j. Reportingk. Billing

Common & Interoperability-related Services

l. Inter-Gateway Messagingm. Support for common services such as Authentication, Payment GatewayInterfacen. National Services Directory (NSD)

NSDG ImplementationAs part of its implementation strategy for the NSDG, the Department ofInformation Technology (DIT), GoI, has entrusted the responsibility forimplementation of NSDG to CDAC, Mumbai, a society formed by the GoI. TheNSDG is being hosted in the NIC Data centre at Delhi with Disaster Recover

at NIC Data Center Hyderabad.

The gateway being a middleware involves multiple stakeholders during theImplementation and O&M phase. During the O&M phase multiple SAP/SPshall be integrated with the gateway and requirement to monitor theservices and service levels and government transactions would be required.In the absence of a regulatory agency, a number of legal agreements have tobe signed between various stakeholders such as GSP-SAP, GSP-SP, GSP-DITetc. The GSP is responsible for all activities in O&M such as SLAManagement, Reporting, marketing, Service Integration, scaling of NSDGinfrastructure, performance optimization, billing, entering into agreements

with various stakeholders such as DIT, SAP etc.

State Gateway: The functionality of the State Level gateway is similar tothe NSDG at the Centre and shall work peer to peer with the Central NSDG


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and other Gateways. It shall use the National Level NSD to carry out addressresolution of the services listed on other gateways across the country. All theState services shall be listed on this gateway.

The figure below depicts the positioning of the gateway in the State DataCentre and the external entities interacting with the gateway for exchange ofdata using IIS/IIP message formats and protocols. The gateway thus enables

interaction between various departments /external entities using standardinterfaces/connectors. The gateway acts as the single point of access tobackend departments for all external entities. The state level gateway alsointeracts with the NSDG at the central level for exchange of data with centralMMPs.

India Portal:The National Portal of India is a Mission Mode Project under theNational E-Governance Plan being implemented by NIC. The objective behindthe Portal is to provide a single window access to the information andservices of the Indian Government at all levels from Central Government toState Government to District Administration and Panchayat for the Citizens,

Business and Overseas Indians. An attempt has also been made through thisPortal to provide comprehensive, accurate, and reliable and one stop sourceof information about India and its various facets. The information in thePortal has been well classified into distinct modules, which are alsointerlinked at relevant places to provide the visitor with a holistic view.Components

Common Services Centre (CSC)The Government has approved a Common Services Centres (CSCs) Schemefor providing support for establishing 100,000 Common Services Centres in600,000 villages of India. The Scheme, as approved by the Government ofIndia, envisions CSCs as the front-end delivery points for Government,private and social sector services to rural citizens of India, in an integratedmanner. The objective is to develop a platform that can enable Government,private and social sector organizations to align their social and commercialgoals for the benefit of the rural population in the remotest corners of thecountry through a combination of IT-based as well as non-IT-based services.

Figure: Honey Comb structure for location of CSCThe 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. andthe State Governments Rs 793 Cr. The balance resources would be mobilizedfrom the private sector. The Common Services Centres would be designed asICT-enabled Kiosks having a PC along with basic support equipment likePrinter, Scanner, UPS, with Wireless Connectivity as the backbone andadditional equipment for edutainment, telemedicine, projection systems,etc., as the case may be.

The Scheme is to be implemented through a Public Private Partnership. CSCsare the primary physical front-end for delivery of Government and private


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services to citizens. They are one of the three pillars of the core and supportinfrastructure of the National e Governance Plan for enabling anytimeanywhere delivery of government services, the other two being (a) the StateWide Area Network (for Connectivity) which has already been approved bythe Government for Rs 3334 Cr. and b) the State Data Centre Scheme (forsecure hosting of data and applications) for which the draft guidelines are

under preparation.

Implementation of a mission-oriented project of this size and scope wouldpose significant challenges of project management at the national level asalso in exploiting opportunities to achieve significant economies of scale inthe identification, customization and implementation of the physical anddigital infrastructure required for the project. Further, many of the potentialcitizen-centric services would lend themselves to aggregation at the nationallevel. To serve the above objectives and to enable the State-specificimplementation plans to benefit from such economies of scale, aggregationof best practices, content providers, etc. DIT has appointed a National Level

Service Agency (NLSA) with defined Terms of Reference to coordinate theentire activity.

The CSC Scheme has a 3-tier implementation framework:1. At the first (CSC) level would be the local Village Level Entrepreneur

(VLE- loosely analogous to a franchisee), to service the rural consumerin a cluster of 5-6 villages.

2. At the second/middle level would be an entity termed the ServiceCentre Agency (SCA loosely analogous to a franchiser) to operate,manage and build the VLE network and business. An SCA would beidentified for one or more districts (one district would cover 100-200CSCs).

3. At the third level would be the agency designated by the State- theState Designated Agency (SDA) - to facilitate implementation of theScheme within the State and to provide requisite policy, content andother support to the SCAs.

Core & Support Infrastructure

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

The objective of the Scheme is to create a secure close user group (CUG)

government network for the purpose of delivering G2G and G2C services.The duration of project is 5 years with a pre-project implementation period of18 months. The project is being implemented as a Central Sector Schemewith Rs. 2005 Crores as Grant-in-aid from Department of Information


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Technology and balance fund from the State Plan fund under AdditionalCentral Assistance (ACA) allocation.

Implementation of SWAN Scheme is in full swing across the country. Pre-project implementation phase (after the individual project is approved by theEmpowered Committee) includes Feasibility Study, Proposal Preparation, Site

Preparation, Bandwidth Operator selection, Network Operator selection,Network Implementation, Acceptance Testing and to operate network fornext 5 years. The monthly status of implementation across the States/UTs isavailable in the DIT Website.

Policy Guidelines/Document to Establish State Wide Area Network(SWAN)

State Data Centres (SDC): State Data Centre (SDC) has been identified asone of the important element of the core infrastructure for supporting e-Governance initiatives of National E-Governance Plan (NeGP).

Under NeGP, it is proposed to create State Data Centres for the States toconsolidate services, applications and infrastructure to provide efficientelectronic delivery of G2G, G2C and G2B services. These services can berendered by the States through common delivery platform seamlesslysupported by core Connectivity Infrastructure such as State Wide AreaNetwork (SWAN) and Common Service Centre (CSC) connectivity extendedup to village level. State Data Centre would provide many functionalities andsome of the key functionalities are Central Repository of the State, SecureData Storage, Online Delivery of Services, Citizen Information/ServicesPortal, State Intranet Portal, Disaster Recovery, Remote Management andService Integration etc. SDCs would also provide better operation &management control and minimize overall cost of Data Management, ITResource Management, Deployment and other costs.

Department of Information Technology (DIT) has formulated the Guidelinesto provide Technical and Financial assistance to the States for setting upState Data Centre. These Guidelines also include the implementation optionsthat can be exercised by the State to establish the SDC.

SDC scheme has been approved by Government with an outlay of Rs.

1623.20 Crores over a period of 5 years. It is expected that the State DataCentres shall be set-up and operationalised by 2010 - 2011 across differentStates/UTs in the Country.

Since the approval of the scheme by the Government, the empoweredcommittee has already approved specific proposals of 31 States/UTs forestablishing State Data Centre. The work related to the various activitiestowards setting up of SDC is in progress in the States. ImplementationCommittee on SDC has been constituted by most of the States. Draft RFPfrom 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. Draft RFP is under preparation by other States
http://mit.gov.in/default.aspx?id=967http://mit.gov.in/default.aspx?id=967http://mit.gov.in/default.aspx?id=967http://mit.gov.in/default.aspx?id=967


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To facilitate better monitoring and implementation of the SDC scheme acrossthe country, a State Data Centre Programme Management Unit (SDC PMU)has been put in place at the DIT, that shall be interacting with the States;monitoring/ reviewing the progress and follow up action on SDC, if any,required by the State and DIT.

Capacity Building

Keeping in view the enormous task of driving NeGP in line with the overallspirit of service orientation most states are inadequately equipped in termsof personnel and the skill-sets needed to handle the host of issues involved.For this purpose, the Capacity Building Guidelines for developing institutionalmechanism was prepared by DIT in consultation with Planning Commissionand was issued to all the State Governments and UTs. The capacity buildingguidelines take cognizance of the fact that different states are at differentlevels of readiness for e-Governance and have different levels of aspiration.Capacity gaps are therefore not viewed in an absolute context but relative to

the goals set out by the respective state government for itself.Therefore, for NeGP to achieve its goals, capacity gap that need to beaddressedInclude engaging experts, developing skills and imparting training. CapacityBuilding scheme is aimed at addressing the above challenges in a holisticmanner including support for creation of State e-Governance Mission Teams(SeMT), and Project e-Governance Mission Teams (PeMT). This scheme is alsomeant for initiating through various activities like empanelment ofcandidates, facilitating States in recruitments and providing orientationcourses for SeMT, Training initiatives, curriculum and content developmentand continuous capacity and HR management.

Standards

Technical Standards and E-Governance Architecture

A draft document on Enterprise Architecture Framework prepared

A draft Interoperability Framework for eGovernance prepared

Network and Information Security

The group has recommended the ISO 27001/BS 7799 as the basestandard to be used in various e-Governance implementations.

Draft E-Governance Information Security Standard - Based onIS/ISO/IEC 27001 plus has been prepared.

Localization and Language Technology Standards

The group has prepared broad generic recommendations forLocalization on OS support, Content creation, Fonts, Coding, SearchEngine supporting local language etc. These are yet in the draft stage.

Metadata and Data Standards for Application Domains

The group has identified the Generic Data elements including theirformats, which are applicable horizontally to various e-Governanceapplications.

The UNIQUE ID (UID) data elements are under review of the WG.

Quality and Documentation


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The group has also prepared a Conformity Assessment Framework guideline,which is extremely relevant for any e-Governance project.Draft Policies on Identity & access Management and e-Forms prepared by the

Task Forces

NeGP PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT UNIT

The DIT has set up a Programme Management Unit for The objectives of thePMU are to help the DIT assist the Apex Committee to drive NeGP througheffective programme monitoring and management; provide assistance inpolicy and strategy formulation; support the DIT in implementing thoseprojects and components of NeGP for which DIT is the implementingdepartment; and augment capacity of various departments to enable themto implement their MMPs successfully. The roles and responsibilities in thevarious areas of the PMU are:

AWARENESS & COMMUNICATION

The success of the Plan hinges not only on accessibility and availability tothe information and various services but also awareness regarding theProgramme, effective branding of NeGP and finally a communication strategythat addresses the above two. As such the team is responsible for creatingand implementing the strategy to achieve the following objectives - To builddistinctive brand of NeGP which be utilised across Departmentalcommunications; to create awareness among citizens about the initiative &its objectives; to motivate stakeholders, with an emphasis on the point thatNeGP is not about computerisation or technology but making interaction withgovernment easier; and to create a demand driven atmosphere which wouldensure the service delivery & its quality are met. The team will also create aset of communication guidelines that can be used by otherMinistries/departments to design their own communications plan.

ASSESSMENTThe Government of India is proposing to invest a significant part of its scarceresources in e-Government projects. However, even with its perceivedpotentials, e-Government projects are fraught with risks and the success rateacross the world is not very encouraging. Given this scenario and the factthat e-Government projects are inherently complex, it therefore becomes

imperative that a robust assessment strategy is devised for the existing e-Government projects that not only provides valuable understanding onindividual projects but also provides for a backward integration into theprocess of project appraisal and capacity building. The team is responsiblefor creating robust assessment strategy that can be used to objectivelyassess e government projects.


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CAPACITY BUILDINGKeeping in view the enormous task of driving NeGP in line with the overallspirit of service orientation most states are inadequately equipped in termsof personnel and the skill-sets needed to handle the host of issues involved.

The capacity building guidelines take cognisance of the fact that differentstates are at different levels of readiness for e-governance and have

different levels of aspiration. Capacity gaps are therefore not viewed in anabsolute context but relative to the goals set out by the respective stategovernment for itself. The role of the capacity building team is at theprogramme level to provide leadership and vision including policyformulation, preparing roadmaps, prioritization, preparing frameworks andguidelines, monitoring progress, inter-agency collaboration & capacitymanagement. This cell would identify and fill the huge capacity gaps, whichexist in the departments at all levels, more particularly at the levels of CIOs,CTOs etc.

COMMON SERVICES CENTRE

CSC scheme will be the most prominent face of NeGP. As such, specificsupport is being provided for this scheme. The scope of support includesIdentification of core components of CSC Scheme; Frame problem agendasrelated with application software, legal instruments, essential backend forCSC, critical RFP conditions, pace synergy in core infrastructure projects(CSC, SDC, SWAN); Review and advise on Project Development Document forCSC; Review and advise on various aspects of CSC RFPs, State Guidelines,Roll out plan etc.; Analyze Service portfolio (G2C, B2C, C2C) based on needsof Citizen and financial model; Review and advise on Structure of CSCScheme, IT and Functional Architectures; Review and advise on proposals,MoUs and project specific deliverables prepared by NLSA or received throughState Governments at DIT; and Monitor activity wise deliverables andtimelines mentioned in the contract of NLSA.

INFRASTRUCTURE & TECHNICALThis cell provides support to the DIT in implementing those projects andcomponents, which are direct responsibility of DIT SWAN, SDC & CSC. Thescope of work includes - Technical assistance for State Wide Area Network;RFP review and other technical related problems raised by States forestablishing SWAN; conceptualization of State Data Centre (SDC) projectincluding preparation of technical and financial guidelines, technical

specifications for SDC viz. physical requirements, Network and Securityinfrastructure, Computing resource, Storage requirements and certain nonnegotiable parameters for the SDC; technological parameters that areessential for last mile connectivity; and assisting Technical Committee onWireless (TCW) on various parameters that need to be considered whiledeciding wireless connectivity for the last mile.

Technical inputs are also provided to various technology (IT) projects comingfrom different central line ministries to DIT.

MONITORING AND EVALUATIONThe Program Management, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit of the Programme

Management Unit for NEGP will develop a comprehensive MIS at programmelevel and track the physical and financial progress of various projects. Thecell would also serve as the knowledge repository and will provide and assistin developing and implementing a comprehensive framework for assisting


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these projects, to the extent that they fall under designated MMPs, with acentral pool of support resources, to generate cross-project and cross-statesynergies, avoid inefficient overlaps, and take advantage of comparativebenchmarking based on common Program Management, Monitoring andEvaluation (M&E) Frameworks.

The prime objective of the unit will to provide dashboards and other critical

information that may be needed by key stakeholders to effectively roll outNeGP. It will also serve as a unit to specify impact in terms of improvementsin the quantity and quality of public services actually delivered bygovernment. In this case, it suffices to compare service quantity and qualitymetrics before and after program implementation and specifying impact interms of improvements in government service delivery capacity. In this case,the factors entering into the evaluation of impact are all endogenous to theprogram and essentially amount to a measure of program outputs.

The unit will be closely working with the respective line ministries/SeMT'sand would provide a professional guidance in terms of effective rollouts. Theunit will serve as abridge between the implementing agencies and key stake

holders namely; PMO, Planning Commission, Apex Committee and otherbodies which might be formed for overseeing effective implementation ofNeGP

PROJECT FINANCE & APPRAISALThe cell would identify resources to provide assistance in projectconceptualisation, development and implementation to variousimplementing agencies. The cell would also appraise various MMPs to assessimplementation methodology, overlaps etc.

This cell would be responsible for helping DIT in finalisation of guidelines,checklists and formats for project appraisals and developing methodology forproject selection. The cell would support DIT in appraisal of proposals forCentral/State MMPs and other projects. It would also support DIT in itsdialogue with World Bank and developing the World Bank project report aswell as interfacing with other departments of GoI for this purpose. This wouldinclude conducting studies needed for the World Bank project, finalization ofrules of engagement, operational manuals, formation of Special PurposeVehicle (Central e-Governance Society) and collating other inputs. The cellwould also be responsible for finalizing fiduciary and procurementarrangements for the Plan.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENTThe e-Governance R&D team in the PMU provides consultancy and researchinputs in the areas of e Governance Technical Standards includinginteroperability standards e-Government Enterprise architectureframeworks ,Information Security, Data & Metadata Standards , and Qualityand documentation that includes e Governance Quality Manual, e-Governance Project Life-Cycle, Project Management, Program ManagementConformance Assessment Frameworks, SLA guidelines, etc. The group is alsomember of working group on e Governance Standards. It also providesconsultancy and IT support for the National e-Governance Service DeliveryGateway (MMP) including activities such as review of RFP, preparation of

DPR, SLAs, proposals for SFC approval etc. In addition, it publishes papers one-government standards website for reference and as discussions papers forworking group members; reviews technical papers, proposals, documents,guidelines; provides technical inputs on various open standards and


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technologies , architectures, middleware, to the e-Governance directorate.The group is also involved in collaborations with industry and academics inthe area of e-Governance research and innovations. The Microsoft InnovationLab has been set up for developing innovative e-governance solutions andresearch in the area. The group is also responsible for organising seminarsand discussions with Gartner Global experts

Major e-Governance Projects In India

E-Governance in Ministries/Departments and State GovernmentsThe website of the Ministry of Information Technology (MIT), Govt. of Indialists briefly the E-Governance Initiatives undertaken by the variousMinistries/Departments and States Governments.

Gyandoot: Gyandoot is an intranet in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh,connecting rural cybercafs catering to the everyday needs of the masses.

The web site is an extension of Gyandoot intranet, for giving global access.

The site has these services to offer: Commodity/ mandi MarketingInformation System; Copies of khasra, B1/khatauni and maps; On-lineregistration of applications; Income Certificate; Domicile Certificate (moolniwasi); Caste Certificate; Landholder's passbook of land rights and loans(Bhoo adhikar evam rin pustika).

Warana: The primary objective of the recently launched Wired Villageproject is to demonstrate the effective use of IT infrastructure in theaccelerated socio-economic development of 70 villages around WaranaNagar in the Kolhapur and Sangli districts of the state of Maharashtra. Theexisting cooperative structure has been used in concert with high speedVSATs to allow Internet access to existing cooperative societies. The projectaims to provide agricultural, medical, and education information to villagersby establishing networked facilitation booths' in the villages.

E-Governance in Noida city: Compaq India has joined hands with ElectronicsResearch and Development Centre of India (ERDCI), Noida, to set up acompetence centre that would enable e-governance in Noida city andvarious other states. Residents will be able to pay electricity and phone bills,file I-T returns, register marriages and deaths, among other things atinformation kiosks located in the city. Once the project becomes fully

operational citizens can pay utilities, get grievance redressal and a variety ofother essential jobs through these info kiosks.

"RajNidhi": Information kiosks"RajNidhi" is a web enabled information kiosk system developed jointly byRajasthan state's Department of Information Technology and Rajasthan StateAgency for Computer Services (RajComp). Earlier on March 23, 2000, Naylabecame the first village of Rajasthan to have a "Raj Nidhi Information Kiosk"when the US President, Mr. Bill Clinton visited this village to observe thefunctioning of a Gram Panchayat.

"raj-SWIFT": Rajasthan government's IntranetThe Rajasthan States Department of Information Technology (DoIT) hasdeveloped Governments own Intranet called as "raj-SWIFT". SWIFT herestands for Statewide Intranet on Fast Track. This system which has been built


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using Internet technology and tools, would facilitate online data, text and e-mail communication between the office of the Chief Minister and all the 32District Collectors on one-to-one basis, thus bringing the Chief Executive ofthe State and the district administration close enough to be just a mouseclick away.

Mechanism of Single Window Clearance SystemTo overcome the inordinately long time required to obtain the statutoryapprovals/licences etc. from various government departments/agencies, theBureau of Industrial Promotion & Office of the Commissioner (Investment &NRIs), Government of Rajasthan, has introduced a Single Window ClearanceSystem through a Single Composite Application Form.

E-Governance in Panchayats in KeralaThe website of the department of Administrative Reforms and PublicGrievances, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions featuresan article on the e-governance initiatives adopted by the panchayats in

Kerala.

E-Governance in Himanchal Pradesh: Himanchal Pradesh to focus on IT-enabled services & e-governance, which would include medical transcription,call centres, data processing, back office operations and GIS.

Package for Effective Administration of Registration Laws Project in KeralaTHE Government of Kerala has launched a project titled PEARL (Package forEffective Administration of Registration Laws) for computerisation of theRegistration Department in the State.

E-Governance Centre at Haryana SecretariatThe Haryana Government has set up an e-governance centre at theSecretariat to effectively monitor information technology in the state.

Research Centres

Centre for Electronic Governance, Ministry of Information andTechnology, Govt. of India

The MIT website features the Centre for e-governance set up by the Ministry

of Information and Technology (MIT), Govt. of India. Apart from offering e-governance solutions and services, the Centre showcases applications byvarious IT majors like C-DAC, CMC, IQ Virtuals, Microsoft, NIC and Oracle.

This list will expand soon. The Centre aims to offer services such as technicalconsultation, proof of concept and thematic presentations, apart fromcreating awareness amongst decision makers at the Central and State leveland helping them in defining and implementing process and policy changesfor effective e-Governance.

Centre for Electronic CommunitiesThe IBM Centre for Electronic Communities, Institute for Electronic

Government, is a leadership resource in strategy, policy and development ofonline resources in Government, education and healthcare.

Commonwealth Secretariat's Centre for Electronic Governance


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As part of its activities on Public Services Management, as mandated by theCommonwealth Programme "Towards a New Public Administration", theManagement and Training Services Division of the CommonwealthSecretariat has announced the launch of a special focus centre under thename of The Centre for Electronic Governance. Currently the Centre is avirtual organisational entity. The status of the Centre's physical

manifestation is the subject of discussions and consultations with a numberof organisations and institutions. However, the Centre's virtual presence is tobe located the following URLs, for which the website is currently underconstruction:

National Informatics CentreThis is the site if a premier IT organization in India which provides state-of-the-art, solutions for the IT needs of the Government at all levels The NIChome page gives access to a comprehensiveDirectory(http://goidirectory.nic.in/) providing links to web sites ofGovernment of India Ministries, Departments, States, Organizations, Union

Territories.