Governance2.Org

The Bharatiya Janata Party wants to become the most automated political party in the country.
The BJP National Information Technology Cell was set up in July 2007 under Prodyut Bora, an IIM graduate, and now its convenor.
Since then, the party has set up similar cells in 15 State including Tamil Nadu.
While the Delhi party office became the first in the country to achieve complete automation, efforts are on to replicate it in the State by January 2009, R Kothandaraman, president, BJP IT Cell, Tamil Nadu, told Express Buzz.

Every time citizens pay for a driving licence or a marriage certificate in Punjab, they are — unknown to them — funding a variety of goodies for bureaucrats, a right-to-information query has revealed.
The cash is supposed to be used to create infrastructure and run more public services, but instead Government records reveal that Deputy Commissioners have been buying laptops, mobile phones, air-conditioners, plasma TVs, laptops, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, water purifiers and digital cameras says the Hindustan Times.
This money is collected by what are called Sukhmani societies, government organisations that collect “facilitation charges” from the public to perform a variety of government services, including registration of deaths and marriages, driving licences, ration cards and arms licences, under one roof.
After the Hindustan Times expose on the Red Cross, the Punjab government had returned Rs 1.95 crore to the Red Cross, while several IAS officers were forced to pay back lakhs of rupees that they spent for personal purposes.

The Haryana State Electronics Development Corporation (Hartron) is planning to diversify its operations into newer areas and is scouting for business opportunities outside the state.
The corporation which, so far, has been taking up projects like voter ID cards or smart cards, now wants to expand its portfolio in the power and other sectors by supplying equipments, providing managed services/facilities and extend the e-governance initiatives to other states.
“Outside Haryana, we had only done the voter ID card projects in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chandigarh. But now we are thinking of going ahead with new initiatives like smart cards in other states as well.
The smart cards project in Haryana is likely to cost around Rs 150 crore and will be complete within 15 months of approval. We have sent the detailed project report to Government of India and approval
is expected soon,” V.S Kundu, special secretary & director IT, Haryana told Financial Express.

Digital Society Foundation (DSFI), Karnataka Institute for Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs (KILPAR) and KLE Society’s Law College (KLESLC), Bangalore are jointly organizing a One day seminar on “Privacy and Data Protection in Cyber Space” On October 17, 2008 At KLE Society’s Law College auditorium, Rajaji Nagar, Bangalore.
Confirmed speakers include Naavi (Founder Cyber Law College), Sanjay Vir Singh, (Registrar, Bangalore University), Vijayakumar (National Law School of India), J. Prasanna, (Cyber Security Expert), J.M. Mallikarjun (Principal KLESLC), K. S. Sudheer (Advocate).
Delegate fee is Rs 1000/-. For Students Delegation Fee is : Rs 500/-.
Contact Person: Sri J M Mallikarjunaiah, Principal KLE Law College, Rajaji Nagar: E-Mail: mallikarjun_jm@yahoo.com or Na.Vijayashankar, Chairman, DSFI, naavi@vsnl.com

Bangalore-based e-governance services firm Comat Technologies has raised $15 million (Rs. 60 Crore) in its third round of funding from Omidyar Network and the Unitus Equity Fund (UEF) says VCCircle.
This is the first non-microfinance investment for UEF and the first direct investment of Omidyar Network in India.
Comat, which operates a network of rural business centres, had divested 10.5% stake to raise $5.5 million from Hughes and Intel Capital in the first round in March 2007, and late last year had raised Rs 25 crore ($6.2 million) from Avigo Capital Partners.
The company plans to use the investment to expand to new states, accelerate service delivery for training and financial services, strengthen management bandwidth and enhance its brand.
In March 2007, Comat had divested 10.5% stake to raise $5.5 million from Hughes and Intel Capital in its first round, and late last year had raised Rs 25 crore ($6.2 million) from Avigo Capital Partners.
Comat delivers information-based services to rural citizens through its wholly-owned network of ICT-enabled Rural Business Centres. By March 2009, Comat is aiming to increase its network six fold to own and operate 6,800 rural business centres from its present 1,100 centres, across 10 Indian states.
The Centres act as the last mile solution for delivering employability training, education, insurance, finance and essential government services in a predictable and efficient manner to rural customers. [Via]

While Delhi, Chandigarh and Goa are rated the best in terms of e-network access by their households where a State’s e-network policies are concerned, the Southern regions take over, according to an Assocham assessment on ‘E-governance initiatives’.
“A country’s e-readiness measures the current state of its ICT infrastructure and the degree to which its consumers, businesses and governments are able to capitalise on Internet-based opportunities. It determines the degree to which a country is prepared to participate in the networked world. The States have been rated on parameters: network access, e-learning, network society, e-governance and network economy,” said Assocham Secretary, General D. S. Rawat.

• Delhi, Chandigarh and Goa have been rated the best in terms of network access. Moreover, Delhi and Chandigarh are equally well in e-learning, which is based on percentage of colleges and schools with Internet access, universities offering infotech courses and computer labs.
• Network policies, which are evaluated on government’s efforts to address issues, related to telecom and e-commerce is better in most southern States including Maharashtra.
• Network society, which is measured on the number of online companies and local language websites is better in States such as Karnataka and Chandigarh.
• Andhra Pradesh’s initiatives such as Rajiv Internet Village launched in 2004 seeks to provide a host of services to the rural population through its 22,000 kiosks. Due to these measures it is estimated that Andhra Pradesh will capture 41% of the national IT and IT-enabled services market by 2010.
• Sikkim from the North-Eastern region has done well with its community information centres (CICs) and well established network access. [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]

According to a new study by TCS, India, the world’s IT services backyard, figures quite low in a global e-governance ranking with a per capita IT spend of just $1.29. Compare this with $199 in New Zealand and $153 in Singapore.
According to the WEF Global Information Technology Report, India ranks 44 out of the 122 countries analysed even behind countries like Barbados, Latvia, Tunisia, Thailand and the Slovak Republic.
The White Paper is an attempt by TCS to use its experience in e-Governance projects to define a road-map for India and highlight current impediments like a silo-based approach that is limiting the benefits of technology use. [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]