Governance2.Org

The work of obtaining or renewing trade licences or getting a building permission would not be as time consuming and tiring as it is now. The slow-paced manual work of the corporation would soon make way for complete e-governance.
Under the National Mission Mode Programme (NMMP)’s e-Bharat programme, the corporation would be empowered with most modern technologies to perform its work and 100 new e-kiosks would be opened up all over the city for the convenience of the people.
After getting clearance from the Central government, where the project was submitted on September 17, new kiosks would be developed in the city with computers and other technical facilities. A new software would also be installed to integrate data with all other kiosks and branches of the corporation. The total cost of this project is Rs 24 crore, out of which the Government of India would pay Rs 15 crore and the corporation would contribute Rs nine crore out of its general fund.
Once into operation, all the office work including building permission, accounting, tendering, trade license, registration of birth and death among others, would be done through this system. [Via]

About 18,000 Common Service Centres (CSCs) have been set up in the country to provide IT enabled services to the people in the rural areas. These are part of the overall plan of the Government to establish One Lakh CSCs in 600,000 villages. All the CSCs are scheduled to be operational by July next year.
In the states of Jharkhand and Haryana, the roll out of the Centres is complete while in Gujarat it will be completed soon. The other states where a number of CSCs have already become operational are West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Orissa, Meghalaya and Tripura.
A Common Services Centre is an ICT-enabled Service Delivery outlet providing a range of services to the people in the village / town in which it is located. The Government has approved the Common Service Centre Scheme that envisions CSCs as the front-end delivery points for Government, private and social sector services to rural citizens in an integrated manner. The objective is to develop a platform that can enable Government, private and social sector organizations to align their social and commercial goals for the benefit of the rural population in the remotest corners. The Centres are being designed as ICT-enabled Kiosks having a PC along with basic support equipment like Printer, Scanner, UPS, with Wireless Connectivity as the backbone and additional equipment for edutainment, telemedicine, projection systems, etc.
The Scheme is to be implemented through a Public Private Partnership. It 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. and the State Governments Rs 793 Cr. The balance resources would be mobilized from the private sector. [Via Release]

An ambitious project costing Rs 4.35 crore, seeks a major revamp of the examination system of the University of Kashmir with the introduction of “e-governed examination system.”
The project to be implemented in two years, envisages on-line procedures for filing forms, retrieval of results, issuance of marks sheets, gathering of information about academic background of candidates and intimation to paper setters and evaluators. The e-governed system aims transforming the entire examination wing of the University vis-à-vis all its operations. It will also provide for an effective support system for all the elements associated with the wing like students, evaluators and other conducting bodies. [Via]

Tata Consultancy Service (TCS) on Monday announced that it has signed a deal with Ministry of External Affairs for the “Passport Seva Project” valued at over Rs 1,000 crore.
After implementation of the project, the process of issuing a new passport will be completed in 3 days subject to police verification.
“The Passport Seva Project, based on a public-private partnership model, aims to provide passport-related services to Indian citizens in a speedy, convenient and transparent manner. The sovereign and fiduciary function of granting and issuing passport remains with the Ministry and TCS will be our technology and operations partner in this project,” said Foreign Secretary, Mr Shivshankar Menon. [Via]

To avoid communication gap and delay in despatch of letters from the state head quarter to different destinations in the state, the Orissa state Panchayatiraj department has introduced the e-despatch system.
The new system generates auto letter number and assigns address and mode of despatch for each letter. Then each letter and its attachments are scanned and saved in PDF format in a network data base.
A domain specialist attaches each and every letter to the corresponding scheme after which the letters are sent to the recipients by fax, e-mail, web posting (e-space) and AMS automatically in real processes without human intervention.
The copy of all the letters issued by the department will be available in the website for 3 years and be available for anyone to see.
The department has tied up with the state owned telecom operator BSNL to provide broadband connectivity in all the block headquarters.
Steps have also been taken to intimate the concerned officers about the despatched letter in real time through SMS. [Via]

Tamil Nadu’s new information and communication technology (ICT) policy aims at broad basing the IT industry as part of the efforts to bring development as an inclusive phenomenon.
According to K S Tripathy, chief secretary, Tamil Nadu has a well-established e-governance network in place. The state data centre is being upgraded and it will be accessible to users soon. Already, all the blocks and talukas are e-connected. In the first phase, seven districts have been identified for the purpose.
The government’s objective is to make technology reach the rural areas, and it is making an effort to set up Internet-enabled kiosks in 5400 villages in the state. [Via]

Encouraged by its pilot project Khairat near Mumbai, the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project in India has resolved to distribute three million XO laptops among the children entering schools by the end of 2009.
Chaired by MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte, OLPC is funded by a number of sponsor organisations, including AMD, Brightstar Corporation, eBay, Google, Marvell, News Corporation, Microsoft, SES, Nortel Networks, and Red Hat. While each company has donated $2 million, Microsoft is contributing through its features that are fitted into the XOs.
Each of these laptops costs approximately Rs 12,000 per set, and consumes just 1 watt of power. It has a screen that is visible in sunlight, resistant to water spilled on keyboards, has a dual boot system with Windows XP preloaded and MS Office access and several programmes that are open source-based that have been localised for various regions of India.
OLPC officials hope that if production increases, the price may even come down to Rs 1,000 per set. [Via]

A rather ambitious e-governance project, which among other things, aims to cut down the time taken to issue a new passport to 3 days from the current minimum 30 days (which usually stretches to even a year), is nearing completion, with pilot projects in Chandigarh and Bangalore, expected to be launched soon.
The Passport Seva Project began as one of the 27 Mission Mode Projects listed in the national e-governance plan. The Union cabinet approved the seven point plan last September, which included turning the current 36 regional passport offices into back-end offices and a private service provider setting up 68 facilitation offices. [Via]

With the Orissa government deciding to launch 8,558 common service centres — Biju Seva Kendra — at least one in each block to provide government-to-citizen, business-to-consumer and business-to-business services to citizens at their doorsteps, villagers would no longer have to run to the capital, district headquarters or towns to get copies of official documents or avail e-services such as Internet or get a railway ticket done.
IT minister Surya Narayan Patro said the common service centres, to function as front-end delivery points for all villagers closer home, were expected to be operational within six months.
Under the government-to-citizen services, providing land record, certificates, details of government schemes and utility bill payment would be delivered. Forms could be downloaded and submitted at the Biju Seva Kendra.
Similarly, services such as typing, photography, Internet surfing, agro-information, railway and air ticketing, astrology and matrimony, mobile coupon, exam results, online education services and distant learning courses and life and general insurance packages would be available under business-to business service. Market research, surveys, rural BPO services, advertising, branding and promotions would be provided under business-to-business package.
Each centre would have a furnished room at panchayat level equipped with a computer, printer, digital and web cameras, scanner, UPS and Internet connectivity.
Set up under a public-private partnership, the private players would set up the common service centres on build, own and operate basis, with the government providing revenue support for the first four years to make the scheme sustainable. [Via]

Introduced two years ago, India’s largest e-governance project, and the second biggest of its kind in the world, the MCA-21, which enables e-filing of corporate information with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, is set to be revamped shortly.
The ministry is now looking to launch the second generation of e-filing process, and has tied up with TCS for the same.
Once the revamped system is in place, companies would find it still simpler and convenient to file corporate information with the ministry while public and professionals would get easy access to relevant records and effective grievances redressal.
The move will also help in effective compliance of relevant laws and improve corporate governance, according to the Institute of Company Secretaries. [Via]