Governance2.Org

Government on Friday approved a central scheme to use the Information Communication Technology (ICT) in providing personalised and interactive knowledge modules to students, a step aimed at increasing enrolment rate by five per cent in higher education in the 11th Plan.
The HRD Ministry scheme would cost Rs 4,612 crore in the 11th Plan, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said, with budgetary provision for the scheme for this financial year at Rs 502 crore.
As per the scheme, ICT potential will be used to provide high-quality personalised and interactive knowledge modules over the Internet and intra-net for all learners in higher educational institutes in any time and any where basis.
The mission will generate content and provide connectivity to institutes and learners. It will extend computer infrastructure and connectivity to over 18,000 colleges in the country, including each of the department of 419 universities, deemed universities and institutions of national importance.
The scheme is expected to increase enrolment rate in higher education from 10 per cent currently to 15 per cent by 2012. Read on …

With the chairman of board of revenue of Uttar Pradesh, Vinod Kumar Malhotra, Friday inaugurating the e-governance centre (Jan Suvidha Kendra) on a public-private partnership basis, Ghaziabad has become Uttar Pradesh’s first electronically governed e-district.
This district-level centre run by SGS InfoTech Private Limited has a direct link with the various government offices like tehsil (sub-district) and block development offices.
The required verification for issuing certificates would be made through the internet from the concerned offices, thus also saving the effort and time of the applicant.
A fee of Rs.15 would be charged for a certificate. At present caste certificates, domicile certificates and income certificates will be issued from this centre.
Later, 32 facilities including services for RTI, bank information and even railway booking would be included. [Via]

After facing the tough and tricky problem of providing high bandwidth access to government offices across large and rough terrains where wired network is not an option, and after successful implementation of WiMax in the northeastern states of Assam,
Meghalaya and Tripura, Nortel has partnered the Chhattisgarh state government to modernize its communications infrastructure through a new, high-bandwidth State Wide Area Network (SWAN). This will
connect all the departments of the state. The Chhattisgarh SWAN (CG SWAN) is a hybrid network with a mix of wireless and wire line access supporting voice, data and video traffic. This huge deployment of WiMax will provide access to 3,000 locations in the state. Read on …

The Union Cabinet on Friday had on its agenda the launching of the Rs 5,000-crore `National Mission in Education in ICT’project, which envisages the creation of a National Knowledge Network across institutes through a 15 Gigabit broadband connectivity.
A key recommendation of the Sam Pitroda-led National Knowledge Commission (NKC), this project first mooted in 2007 envisages networking across some 15,000 colleges and universities, putting learning material online and sharing the expertise of centres of excellence with institutes spread across the country. With the Cabinet nod for the project, this will be one of the few NKC proposals which has found favour with the Arjun Singh led-HRD Ministry.
The Ministry will be tying up with the Department of Telecom for creation of a countrywide broadband access network by utilising its existing optical fibre network. The Mission is expected to cover some 18,000 colleges eventually and make available facilities like e-books and e-journals in digital libraries. [Via]

Computerization in various government departments have proved beneficial to the citizens. The direct cost savings averaged Rs.60-110 and it has also helped reduce corruption to some extent.
These are the findings of a study on`Impact Assessment of e-Government projects’ by Prof. Subhash Bhatnagar of IIM Ahmedabad.
The report was released on Wednesday at a two day workshop jointly organized by the IIMA and Department of Information Technology, Government of India. [Via]

Majority of passport applicants in India still prefer to seek agents’ help in processing application forms, despite an online access to passport offices, according to a study conducted by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A).
The impact study, a part of the National eGovernance Program (NeGP), DIT, found that around 23% of the online users and 28% of the offline users mentioned agents as the best source of information, with only 17% of the respondents having used the online services for registration of applications, fixing appointments with regional passport offices (RPOs), submission of application forms or checking the status of their applications.
There has been a 75% rise in total number of passport applications in five years, from 2.6 million in 2000 to 4.5 million in 2006 according to the report. [Via]
No doubt as people get used to the online process, they are going to take to adopting it in a big way. I know I would.

The Department of Elections at Puducherry has launched the website (www.ceopondicherry.nic.in) to enable people to file their applications online.
The election authorities are currently updating the voters list relating to all the thirty Assembly constituencies (as per delimitation) spread over Puducherry region ( 23), Karaikal (five), Mahe (one) and Yanam (one). Final publication of electoral rolls has been scheduled for January 10 next. [Via]
Last when I checked, the site was down.

CA, the IT management and security solutions vendor, is betting on strong demand in India and Japan to drive growth even as it seeks to increase revenues from the Asia-Pacific region, which comprises about 12% of its earnings.
Recently, CA charted a strategy for the India market wherein it aims to double its revenues every two years.
As part of the new strategy, CA was relying more on partners such as Wipro, TCS, Satyam, HCL and Infosys to drive its business in the country while targeting newer verticals such as e-governance, defence, pharmaceuticals and healthcare and retail sectors.
CA and its partners are providing solutions to nine of the 15 States in the country that are setting up state-wide area networks (SWAN) as part of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). [Via]

A five-year programme to reform governance in Bihar, with support from the British government’s Department For International Development (DFID), is slated for launch.
Titled ‘Governance Mission’, the programme is meant to improve governance and administration in the state.
“The DFID will provide 18 million pounds for the programme which aims to improve governance and administration in the state,” says Chris Charmers, a senior programme manager with the DFID.
Amir Subhani, the secretary of the state’s Personnel and Administrative Reforms department, said that initially five departments including Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Land and Revenue, Human Resource, Registration and Commercial Taxes, had been selected for the programme which will foster transparency, e-governance, better delivery of government services and accounting.
Subhani made it clear that state government has formulated an agenda of its own to improve governance.
The DFID will work in partnership with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to begin its engagement with the governance reform programme in Bihar. [Via]

In a major step towards evolving a transparent system, the BMC recently floated its first online tender. Calling for a supply of 3,500 raincoats and rainsuits for civic security department, the tender invited vendors from across the country to bid on the web.
A pilot project, the online tender-floating procedure is part of BMC’s e-governance plan, which will put an end to all conspiracies to rig contracts worth crores of rupees by a handful of contractors, said additional municipal commissioner (projects) Anil Diggikar. According to civic data, as many as 2,000 tenders are floated every year for various infrastructure and civic projects, but only a cartel of contractors collude to inflate the cost of a wide range of contracts, officials said.
On the web, the procedure will be closely guarded and a vendor will not even know who his competitors are. The bidders, who will get an authorised user ID and password, can submit his amount. During the process, the vendor will be able to see all the items for which a bid is submitted and the vendor can thereafter enter the price. [Via]
Raincoats??? I guess its a start.