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On the role of mobile governance

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digitalLEARNING Network
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“Broadband connectivity to all gram Panchayats is a goal”

R Chandrashekhar, a 1975 batch Indian Administrative Services officer, has held a wide variety of keyassignments, both in the Government of India and the State Government of Andhra Pradesh. He has beenthe driving force behind formulation of various national policies, agendas, strategies and action plans for e-Governance in the country, as CMD of AP Industrial Infrastructure Corp., and later as IT Secretary, Department of Information Technology (DIT), Andhra Pradesh and as Secretary, DIT, GoI. Chandrashekhar has recently been appointed as the Secretary, Department of Telecom and Chairman, Telecom Commission, GoI. Having deep understanding of the issues and problems related to IT implementations in the country, expectations are high from him in his current assignment.
In conversation with Ravi Gupta,and Pravin Prashant, he talks about his Department’s focus on broadband-enabling the gram panchayats and on the role of mobile governance  Recently, you have moved from Department of Information Technology to Department of Communications. What would be your focus in your new role?
The top agenda for Department of Communications will be connectivity and e-Governance. We have some connectivity limitations in ruralareas. Clearly, there is a need to expedite role of connectivity. Certainly, we need broadband connectivity for Gram Panchayats.
What is the approach of the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) in chalking out a time-bound action plan for ensuring broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats? Broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats is on and we will put in place the details by the end of the current year. The broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats is not only for e-Governance but also for a lot of other things. The connectivity will support things like telemedicine, teleeducation, financial inclusion, gaming and entertainment. So, the rollout of broadband has an important purpose of integrating rural and urban areas, thereby spreading economic opportunities evenly in both the areas. In general, it has been observed that 10 percent increase in broadband would have 1.4 percent increase in per capita GDP growth. It will also lead to growth in governance and development.
What is the plan being worked out for connecting Gram Panchayats in the country?
 The 2G voice services are quite satisfactory in rural areas. In terms of Gram Panchayat connectivity, logistically as well as economically, it will be a combination of OFC and wireless. We have a good pan-India OFC backbone. Wireless will be used for providing last mile connectivity to public institutions and also for providing backhaul. In terms of wireless connectivity, we arelooking at area connectivity and not point to point connectivity so that the bandwidth is shared by all government institutions.
What changes do you foresee with the rollout of 3G and BWA services by private operators in bringing citizen service delivery through mobile and small form factor devices? BSNL, the incumbent operator had received spectrum earlier and has already commenced services. This will get accelerated with private operators rolling out 3G and BWA services in different circles. The services in rural areas will increase and a whole host of mobile applications will come in to create a new ecosystem

sanjay mehta : BI is the tool for decision makers in the government sector

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digitalLEARNING Network
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Insights (un)Ltd
sanjay mehta
ceo, maia intelligence
Today, public sector o r g a n i s a t i o n s increasingly function in a corporate manner. Their  challenges are no less than a private sector enterprise. They face unprecedented pressure to improve service quality while they are needed to progressively lower costs. At the same time, they are expected to become more accountable, transparent, customer focused and responsive to stakeholder and citizen needs. Government agencies are tasked with more than simply reducing costs and increasing service levels. They also face increased scrutiny from  egislators, executives and even the public in the wake of the Right to Information Act. The scams that keep surfacing from time to time bring additional challenges for the public sector organisations. Since asset misappropriations are at the centre of the scams, there is a need
to increase transparency, accountability and performance as well as solve operational challenges, improve customer service, maximise resources and eliminate fraud, abuse and excessive spends. Business intelligence (BI) technology has valuable applications in all areas and levels of government. If rightly implemented, BI systems provide executives, administrators, managers, outside contractors and citizens the crucial information ecessary to perform their jobs and make decisions more effectively, resulting in better governmental service and more productivity for every rupee of tax collected. BI applications can be used to improve financial management and compliance, program oversight, procurement and logistics processes, and government-to-citizen communication. And, it helps identifying scams
at an early stage as an alert. Getting data that matters There is a wealth of information and
data in public sector repositories, but making sure that information is of high quality,  accessible and accurate is paramount to improving and measuring performance across the organisation. The importance of accessing up-to-date and accurate information in a timely For the business of governance to be less of a hassle and more of an accomplishment, BI is the tool for decision makers manner cannot be underestimated, but how can one accurately shift through the massive volumes of available information to uncover the best decision support? Historic reporting doesn’t give the full picture. Also, understanding information availability risks and protecting high-value information are critical. With BI, it is possible to define which
information is appropriate for which department. With the emphasis on the public sector to improve efficiencies, it is important that information flow is seamless. BI spans a range of technologies, not all of which may be applicable to every agency or situation. Individual
BI components can be assembled into customised applications and solutions to meet specific needs. For the last few years, BI has consistently ranked as a top priority for government CIOs. By collecting and analysing data, BI creates detailed reports that provide invaluable system
analysis. The insights can improve performance and lower the cost of a service delivery,  mong other things. Using the   dashboard, decision makers can have immediate access to data that is most important to them.

Coming, the five-sense cities!

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

ICT has constructed pockets of efficiencies into governance; it’s now wiring up the pieces to build a pulsating entity
magine a city where information systems of different government agencies talk to each other for better service delivery to citizens; where public safety system allows real-time video  surveillance and faster response to emergencies, and where advanced analytics can interpret large amounts of data to improve healthcare. Imagine a city where traffic congestion is eliminated and pollution is reduced; where people get timely insight into their own water use to locate inefficiencies and decrease unnecessary demand, and where smart power grids smooth up consumption and lower energy usage. No, this is not a city of tomorrow. It is a  vision of city of today and such cities are already in the making in many parts of the world.
What’s driving their arrival? City administrations are responsible not only for core services  such as energy, water, environmental sustainability, urban planning and architecture, but also needs to focus on reducing congestion in transport systems; improving public safety by reducing crime and emergency response time; improving education and training delivery, and enabling wider access to healthcare. The application of advanced information and communication  technologies can help administrators better understand, predict and intelligently respond to citizen needs. Prakash Rane, Managing Director, ABM Knowledgeware, says, “The term smart city encompasses a fairly wide canvas. A smart city
would mean clean city with easy and timely access to critical civic services ranging from
health, education, disaster management, affordable housing for the urban poor, adequate  water supply and sanitation, solid waste management and so forth. Each of these domains  would have abundant scope for deploying technologies such as SCADA, GIS, wireless  communication, wide area networking for any time anywhere service; suitable application  oftware for automating  business processes with different Web services and a service-oriented  rchitecture;  mobile computing, RFID, biometrics and other such technologies.” On the   dvantages of a smart city,
AK  Mehta, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, says,   A smart city delivers  goods and services more efficiently and at a lesser cost, increases   roductivity per capita  and lowers human and financial costs. So there is no option for   overnments worldwide but to   adopt the concept of smart city.”  Talking about the technology   trends in the  smart city domain, Mathew Thomas, Vice  President, Strategic  ndustries, SAP India  Subcontinent, notes, “Technology drivers for  smart city point at   irtualisation and consolidation  of technology assets like computing  devices, networks and   torage, usage of the  Internet and user-friendly interfaces such as  kiosks and the emergence of  hared services  through service orientation.”  The experiences worldwide  The smart city   oncept has been triggered by the  rapid growth of urbanisation. A number of cities  across the   orld today are on way to become  United Arab Emirates. Planners are working  with top  cientists, engineers and innovators  to create interconnected systems and manage  them   hrough an integrated city dashboard  to be able to fine-tune their metropolis in real  time.   his  is shaping up what could be the world’s first economically and environmentally  sustainable city, with zero carbon emissions. India too is on way to develop smart cities  and  has initiated pilot projects to develop ‘smart communities.’ The pilots have been initiated in Haryana (Manesar Bawal region), Maharashtra (Shendra industrial region) and Gujarat (Changodar and Dahej). These eco-friendly cities would provide world-class facilities with 24-hour power supply and drinking water, mass rapid urban transportation, with bicycle andwalking tracks, complete waste and water recycling, systems for smart grids, and  digitally managed systems to control energy consumption. What planners are thinking The  government realises the importance of ICT for more liveable, citizen-centric, connected and smart cities. According to Mehta, “ICT use is very important in city administration since it lowers costs and helps in better service delivery. We need to look at city as a system, and all its verticals should have the same basic backbone of IT, which should be shared by all stakeholders in city management.” He emphasises the significance of planning ahead, “The city planning should be done keeping in view the infrastructure needs of the city 20 years from now and not as per needs of today. The cost of planning ahead is much less than doing it all over again 20 years later.” The city infrastructure also needs to be developed at a faster pace. The current state of the infrastructure is dismal, remarks SR Rao, Additional Secretary, Department of Informa- “Technology drivers for smart city are virtualisation of assets like computing devices, networks and storage, and usage of the Internet and kiosks” Mathew Thomas Vice President, Strategic Industries, SAP India Subcontinent ‘smart cities’, combining technology and urban policy for streamlined urban systems. This is  leading to the transformation of public safety and disaster management, education, healthcare, transportation, water and power sectors. Transport officials in Brisbane, Singapore and Stockholm are using smart systems to reduce both congestion and pollution. Public safety officials in major cities like New York are able not only to solve crimes and respond to emergencies, but also prevent them. City managers in Energy Australia and IBM are workingtogether to apply 12,000 smart sensing devices throughout the electricity distribution  etwork in Australia to make power grids. New York, Syracuse, Santa Barbara and St. Louis are using data analytics, wireless and video surveillance capabilities to strengthen crime fighting and coordination of emergency response units. Malta is building a smart grid that links the power and water systems, and will detect leakages, allow for variable pricing and provide more control to consumers. Ultimately, it will enable this island country to replace fossil fuels with sustainable energy sources. Masdar City is being built from scratch near Abu Dhabi,

Additional Secretary, Department of Information Technology, MoCIT, Government of India “Municipal projects would bring about a positive change by developing urban infrastructure and also encourage accountability of ULBs to citizens” Shrik ant Shit ole Vice President, Transformational Business, Cisco-India and SAARC tion Technology. He says, “Before we move towards the next level of cities, it is important to understand the current level of  rbanisation.
It is interesting to note that 40 percent of the treated water is unaccounted for. Forty percent of the urban population lives in slum areas. A mere 50 percent of the total garbage produced is scientifically treated. Almost 80 ercent of the electricity consumption is on  water and sewage. The turbines and propellants used are age-old.” This necessitates the urgent need for ICT enabled integrated cities. Mehta recommends, “We need to create 21st century cities, characterised by inter-connectivity of governance, health, education, security, water and energy. For achieving this goal, there is a need for laying cables in the cities urgently. The wireless technology does not have the necessary bandwidth.” A framework is in making With the goal of achieving fast-track and planned development of identified mission cities, Ministry of Urban Development in the year 2005 launched the flagship programme, Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (Jnnurm ). Under Jnnurm , the National Mission Mode Project (NMMP) on e-Governance in municipalities has also been taken up, under which the urban local bodies (ULBs) get funding from Government of India for upgrading their civic infrastructure with use of technology. The ministry has done a mid-term correction in December 2009, modifying the implementation approach for e-Governance under Jnnrum . The entire focus of current monitoring of e-Governance of ULBs is now ’outcome’ based. “This approach, by Commercially-off-the-Shelf (COTS) approach
in their information application infrastructure. Also, the Ministry of Urban Development has taken steps for adoption of state-level software applications for all ULBs to ensure uniformity and compliance to standards. In this regard,
Mehta, points out that for upgrading of the ULBs, state-level solutions rather than municipal
level solutions are needed. “State level IT architecture for ULBs will ensure interoperability and synergy, and bring down the cost,” he notes. Lalit Kumar Gupta, Vice President, Public
Sector and Higher Education, Industry Business Unit, Oracle Asia Pacific and Japan, suggests,
“Municipal governments need to ensure transparent and consistent citizen services. They also need to provide the right mechanisms to attract business investment into theirmunicipalities. Legacy systems need to be updated. ICT can play an important role in this transformation of municipal governance.” Talking about the significance of e-Municipality MMP, Shrikant Shitole, Vice President, Transformational Business, Cisco-India and Saarc , is optimistic, “The municipal projects would definitely bring about a positive change through their increased focus on developing urban infrastructure, and would also encourage community participation and accountability of ULBs towards citizens.” He lays stress on the network as the underlying service delivery platform and envisions interconnected government.

Early building blocks
Some successful projects for providing e-Government solutions to municipalities are being implemented in states. These include, Smart Parking (Spark) at the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation parking complex, property tax management system using GIS in Kanpur Municipal Corporation, State Urban Bodies Integrated Data Handling and Access (Subidha) in Bhubaneswar, municipal reforms through Municipal e-Governance Project in Pune, MAINet project in Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation, Complete automation of birth and death registration certificates in Chennai, birth and death certificates through e-Seva centre in Hyderabad, and integrated ERPbased solution implementation in the  Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, among others. MAINet: MAINet is an end-to-end computerisation program for creating an e-Municipality involving all departments and over 100 citizen services to be rendered in a time-bound manner through citizen facilitation centres (CFCs) in Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation

“Municipal reforms through service level benchmarks and e-Governance are here to stay and will be much more than just digitisation of a few services”

Classteacher Launches Classpad Tablet

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Rohit Pande, a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and Indian Institute of Management- Calcutta launches Classpad.

Classpad facilitates personalised and interactive learning in the classroom and makes education accessible to every student according to his/ her individual intelligence level and talent. Using the Classpad, teachers can effortlessly transfer class work to the students’ tablet, share their own content instantly and conduct tests/ assessments hassle free. Students can also give undivided attention to class lessons, attempt assessments and get immediate results to further enhance their learning.

Classpad has a touch screen with a 7 hour battery life, 1.3 Ghz processing speed and a built-in memory of 4 GB expandable upto 8 Gb.

Addressing the participants at the launch, Rohit Pande, CEO, Classteacher Learning Systems said, “Our education system does not differentiate students according to the learning capabilities and teach them at the same level, but the software installed in Classpad tests students’ problem solving, creativity and application of language skills. It provides them with personalized teaching as per their learning capabilities. Equipped with artificial intelligence, Classpad can help to categorize students as fast learners, average learners and slow learners. Classpad can assist in reducing the monotony of repetitive sessions in the classroom. Teachers can now complete their syllabus within schedule and get considerable time to focus on slow learners.

“Available for students in standard 3 to 12, Classpad can serve as an interactive e-reading device, with the capability of storing dozens of books. Equipped with distinctive software that is designed to integrate smoothly with existing school platforms, Classpad can easily be connected to the interactive whiteboards. The Classpad is available in two models: Trolley model for multiple student usage and One Tablet per Child (OTPC) model.

In urban millennium, with smart cities

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

There has been a rapid growth of urbanisation worldwide in the past 50 years. According to  the UN State of the World Population 2007 report, a majority of people worldwide will be  living in towns or cities, a phenomenon the UN referred to as the arrival of the ‘urban  millennium.’ The UN World Urbanisation Prospects report finds that the proportion
of urban population rose dramatically from 13 percent (220 million) in 1900, to 29 percent
(732 million) in 1950, to 49 percent (3.2 billion) in 2005 and is likely to rise to 60 percent
(4.9 billion) by 2030. The increase in urbanisation creates vast pressure in the capacity of the cities to provide services such as energy, education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation and physical security. There is an urgent need for cities to apply advanced information technology and analytics to develop a more citizen-centric approach to services in the competitive economic environment of today. While industrial infrastructure such as rails, roads, and telephone lines were the cornerstones of development in the previous centuries, 21st century is marked by growth of information technologies. Today, urban planners and developers, and governments and industries can use technologies to transform their cities for enhancing the quality of life of citizens and for sustainable urbanisation. It is in this backdrop that the concept of ‘smart city’ has evolved to deal with the challenges that rapid  urbanisation is posing. A smart city is about the use of technologies and new models to make cities more productive, efficient and responsive. It envisions the use of information and the network as the underlying platform, to plan and build an efficient city that touches every aspect—transportation, commerce, education, public safety and securit, water, sanitation, healthcare, environment and governance. Smart cities are therefore, the future cities that countries are aspiring for, where everything will be connected, intelligent and green: from office buildings, homes, cars, public transport, hospitals and schools to policing. The world’s most advanced city is being constructed in Portugal. An important feature of this city is that the road pavement is specially treated to allow it to use as energy the natural sunlight and the friction heat that is generated by cars travelling on it. The roads are also equipped with sensors that measure the amount of traffic. India, too, is on the road to building smart cities—world-class, self-sustainable habitats with minimal pollution levels, maximum recycling, optimised energy supplies and efficient public transportation. The pilot projects to develop the ‘smart communities’ are underway in Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra. In this endeavour to transform the rapidly growing urban areas into smarter cities, a collaborative partnership between government, industry, academia, and civil society will the pave way for attainment of this dream

SecureIT 2012 :: March 1, 2012 :: The Claridges, New Delhi

By
digitalLEARNING Network
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As technology becomes increasingly integrated with day-to-day governance, the need for securing electronic data, protecting privacy of individuals and guarding systems against unauthorised access is becoming paramount. Technology is also being increasingly deployed to minimise loss of life and property in times of disaster, and to ensure citizen safety and security.

SecureIT 2012 will discuss issues such as threat of cyber terrorism, data security, security against malware, use of IT in border security and in disaster management.

The one-day Convention will discuss on leveraging the private sector expertise in ICT, for providing advanced and intelligent solutions to the security forces and contemplate on various issues across way of synchronisation of the security set up with the consistent advancement in technology.Security is a prime concern of a state. Increased violence by the extremists, and the spur in extremism, terrorism and anarchism in many countries, with clear intentions of undermining the faith of people on state authorities, indeed to the very concept of a democratic safe state itself, has alarmed the governments the world over to tighten their seat belts. To restructure the security system, hardening of immigration rules, modernizing the security forces and have tempted to go to the extent of waging war (against terrorism). Formation of homeland security department in US, and proposition of National Counter Terrorism Centre in India are few such examples.Perpetrators have access to state of the art technologies and are swift in their actions. By the time, the security forces come into action, the life comes to a standstill. In the given backdrop, the issue of pro-active action from the security agencies – to secure homeland through smart intelligence gathering and sharing, vertically and horizontally, better surveillance, enhanced border and coastguard security, better communication systems, citizen centric and citizen friendly policing and security blanket to all- assumes utmost importance.Moreover, a safe state fosters growth and development. Businesses flourish and economy strengthens. In a developing economy like India, having a billion plus population, maintaining the GDP growth rate of 8 to 9 per cent is one of the prime concerns of the government.

digitalLEARNING Weekly Newsletter Archive

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Society is growing sans development: Prof Winston Dookeran at IGNOU

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digitalLEARNING Network
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“In today’s interconnected world, small economies are more connected than the large. If one has to characterize the society today, it is growth without development. Development has become an issue of research for new space. This new space is around people to build upon their own capabilities,” said Prof. Winston Dookeran, Minister of Finance of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, while delivering a special lecture on ‘Political Economy Of Small States’ at the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).

Focusing on the need for future sustainable development he highlighted three major themes viz, financial and economic vulnerability, resilience and buffers. “Financial and economic vulnerability can best be achieved if we can develop flexibility to this economy. India has insulated itself but we cannot due to our size. Flexibility is must and how do you arrive on that is what the scholars have to decide,” he said.

Talking about the capacity to be resilient against the external issues he said that it can have political or economic impact. He also emphasized upon the financial buffers within and outside and said that, “These are small economic country’s reserves in case of external shocks.”

“Now we look forward for commercial and technological ties for a bilateral relationship with India. To do that we can start with our institutions,” he added.

“High per capita income does not lead to development. We as a country should know how poor or rich we are. We have to move towards effective distribution in order to play an important role. If we don’t have an effective delivery system then we would not be able to develop. Institutional collaboration should be the way for developing bilateral relations,” said Prof M Aslam, VC, IGNOU.

EduSports to Raise VC Fund for Expansion

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digitalLEARNING Network
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EduSports, provider of end-to-end sports education solutions to K-12 schools, is planning to raise Rs 20 crore to support its expansion plans.

“We are in discussions with venture capital and private equity firms. The fund-raising proceeds will be utilised for expanding our reach, building systems and processes, infrastructure and creating platforms to do the business,” said Saumil Majumdar, co-founder and chief executive officer of EduSports.

Source: Business Standard

Investor Education to Join CBSE Curriculum

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digitalLEARNING Network
-

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will be adding Investor education in its curriculum in the near future. The introduction of new syllabus will primarily focus on educating children on stock markets and giving them an insight into investment of surplus money in the market.

Stock market regulator, Securities and Exchange board of India (SEBI) consulted HRD ministry and CBSE on including investor education/financial market literacy and CBSE agreed to the proposal after it realised the need for such education and communicated its interest.

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