National Workshop on e-governance: Issues and Challenges

National Workshop on e-governance: Issues and Challenges December 15th, 2012 Organized by Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore Supported by

Table of Contents 1. Workshop Overview... 1 1.1 Workshop Objective:... 1 1.2 Schedule of the Workshop:... 1 2. Session Summaries... 3 2.1 Inaugural Session... 3 2.2 Technical Session 1: National e-governance Plan... 4 2.3 Technical Session 2: Revolutionary Approach to Delivering Citizen-Centric Services... 5 2.4 Technical Session 3: e-governance and Society... 7 2.5 Technical Session 3: Best Practices in e-governance... 7 2.6 Technical Session 4: Role of Technology in e-governance... 9 2.7 Technical Session 5: Panel Discussion on Education and Employment for e- Governance... 9 3. Conclusion:... 10 2

1. Workshop Overview The Central and State Governments have taken major initiatives in enhancing public utility and citizen services to improve the Quality of Life. In order to increase awareness and effectively implement the National e-governance Plan (NeGP), the government has asked universities to conduct workshops on awareness on e-governance issues. The purpose of university level workshop is to generate awareness about e-governance in general and national e-governance plan NeGP (a flagship initiative of Govt. of India) in particular. In addition, the purpose is to inspire students about the various opportunities being created in this field career wise. Also, the students will be apprised about the proposed edelivery of service bill that will mandate delivery of public services in electronic mode. Finally, the workshop is likely to encourage academic/students to do more research in this domain which will be relevant in the Indian context and which will provide insights to project implementation and sustainability 1.1 Workshop Objective: To make aware of e-governance in public utility and citizen services. To introduce how e-governance is the application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for delivering government services and exchange of information communication transactions between Government-to-Citizens (G2C). To introduce how the government services are made available to the citizens in a convenient, efficient and transparent manner through e-governance. To discuss the role of e-governance in Academia and its effect on Society and routine life processes. 1.2 Schedule of the Workshop: Detailed session plan of this workshop is presented in following Table 1: 1

Venue: University Auditorium Table 1: Workshop Schedule Saturday, December 15, 2012 (9:30 AM to 06:00 PM) 09:30-09:40 Welcome address Professor D. P. Singh Hon ble Vice Chancellor DAVV, Indore 09:40-09:55 Presentation on State e-governance Initiatives by State IT Secretary. 09:55-10:20 Inaugural Address Ms. Vineeta Dixit, Principal Consultant, NeGP 10:20-10:50 Key Note Address Shri Kailash Vijayvergia Hon ble Minister 10:50-10:55 Vote of Thanks Dr. Sanjay Tanwani, Prof & Head, SCSIT, DAVV, Indore 10:55-11:15 Break for Tea 11:15-11:55 Role of IT and e-governance in Education & National Development Additional Secretary, DIETY, GOI 11:55-12:35 Expert Lecture: A Revolutionary Approach to Delivering Citizen- Centric Services 12:35-01:15 Expert Lecture: e-governance and Society 01:15-02:15 Lunch Break 02:15-02:55 Expert Lecture: Best Practices in e- Governance 02:55-03:30 Expert Lecture: Role of Technology in e-governance 03:30-04:10 Panel Discussion on A: Role of Academia in e- Governance. B: e-governance and Society C: New Courses in Academics 04:10-04:25 Break for Tea 04:25-05:05 Wrap-up Session Plan of Action with Timeline Ms. Vineeta Dixit, Principal Consultant, NeGP Shri Pramod Bhargava, COO, M.P. Online e-governance projects Dr. P. K. Chande, Ex-Prof, IIM, Indore, and Group Director, TRUBA Institute of Technolcy Dr. N.S. Chaudhari, Professor and Dean, IIT Indore Ms. Sunita Jain, NIC, Indore Professor Suresh Jain, Director KCB Technical Academy, Indore Ms. Vineeta Dixit, Chief Consultant, National e-governance Plan Mr. V. R. Sathe, Impetus, Indore Mr. Ashok Holani, Genesis, Indore Mr. Deepak Shirahatti, NIC, Khargone 2

2. Session Summaries All the sessions were held timely with live discussions in the one day National Workshop on e-governance: Issues and Challenges on 15 th December, 2012. The workshop was inaugurated by chief guest Shri Kailash Vijayvargiya, Hon ble Minister of Commerce, Industries & Employment and Information Technology and special guest, Ms. Vineeta Dixit, Principal Consultant, NeGP. The workshop was presided over by Prof. D.P. Singh, Hon ble Vice Chancellor, DAVV, Indore. Around 500 students and teachers from various colleges of DAVV and university teaching departments attended the workshop. Other dignitaries who were present include Registrar DAVV, Deans of various faculties and HODs of various UTDs. Dr. Sanjay Tanwani, Prof. & Head, School of Computer Science & Information Technology was the convener of the workshop. 2.1 Inaugural Session In the welcome address Dr Dhirendra Pal Singh, Hon ble Vice chancellor, DAVV stated that to achieve desired progress and get proper place in the world and country, e-governance is the key area to concentrate. He also mentioned that our university has state of art Information Technology infrastructure used for academic and research activities. Using the infrastructure, the university has initiated many e-governance services for citizens and students. He emphasised the need for further cooperation and collaboration of university with state IT department and NeGP in the area of e-governance and related activities. In the inaugural speech Chief Guest Shri Kailash Vijayvargiya, Hon ble IT Minister discussed various steps taken by the state government for implementation of e-governance. He mentioned that main problem faced by the government in 2003 was to increase the revenue so as to support development and social welfare services in the state. He shared that by using e-governance services the government is able to increase the revenue of sales tax, transport, excise and mandi. In the next stage, government is planning to improve the services provided to the common man. He emphasized the government s vision of head-less and holiday-less office using e-governance to provide citizen services at their doorstep, round the clock for all seven days in the week without any disruption due to holidays and without any personal discrimination. He also shared that the state has achieved phenomenal growth rate in various sectors like agriculture, industry, education etc. and stands far above the national average. He highlighted that the aim of the government is to develop Madhya Pradesh a 3

leading state in the country by using e-governance in various possible areas. He requested the cooperation of all the stakeholders and the audience in achieving this goal. The inaugural session ended with vote of thanks by Dr Sanjay Tanwani, Professor & Head, School of Computer Science & IT, DAVV, Indore. 2.2 Technical Session 1: National e-governance Plan In order to increase awareness and effectively implement the National e-governance Plan (NeGP), the government has asked universities to conduct workshops on awareness on egovernance issues. In another inaugural speech was delivered by Ms. Vineeta Dixit, Principal Consultant, NeGP. She mentioned that e-governance initiatives like Bhumi, Gyandoot etc. have already been already been taken. However, these initiatives have a limited outreach. In 2006, government has launched National e-governance plan (NeGP) to have a common e-governance platform and applications for the entire country. She has mentioned that with the help of NeGP, around 250 services have been provided in the villages at the same place. At present, more than 30 applications are running under the umbrella of NeGP. These applications are divided into three categories namely Central, State and Integrated applications. She emphasised on the use of following applications: MP Online and Nagrik Suvidha Kendra Unique Identification Passport Seva Kendra e-district Under NeGP two major initiatives include state wide area network and state service delivery gateway. With these initiatives, the government has removed the dependence on various private services providers. She also mentioned that to implement these and other forthcoming e-governance projects, a number of skilled man power from various streams will be required. To enforce the effective utilization, a new national level policy is being released with following features: 1. At-lease one person from each family must be e-literate. 2. Create a pool of 10 million skilled people. 3. Mandatory delivery of services in electronic mode. 4. All government transaction portals. 4

5. Mobile service delivery. 6. e-pramaan Framework. 7. Citizen engagement framework and social media framework and guidelines notified. She concluded by providing the web address of NeGP and clarified the doubts of audience. She thanked university for organizing this workshop. 2.3 Technical Session 2: Revolutionary Approach to Delivering Citizen-Centric Services In technical session, the next presentation was delivered by Shri Pramod Bhargava, on MP Online e-governance Projects on a revolutionary approach to delivering citizen-centric services. In the beginning, he disclosed the vision of MP government as follows: Providing services to the citizens at their doorstep with special emphasis on the rural community Avoiding the need of citizens visit to the Government offices Making government services available anywhere and anytime Ensure transparency between citizens and government Minimize the delays in decision making process Reduction in transaction costs Minimizer the interaction between Government & Citizens Increasing the opportunity for gainful employment across the state He also shared that the government has planned to achieve this without any investment in infrastructure, without deploying and retaining trained IT personnel and with no additional cost to government departments. He then shared some historical and statistical details about the MP online start-up. In his presentation, Shri Pramod Bhargava stated various milestones achieved by MP Online as: Establishing presence in all 50 districts - in some villages of Madhya Pradesh. Generation of employment for over 12,000 people MP has been the leading state in the country where Citizen Service Centers (CSCs) are viable and the portal is running successfully. Yet another novel concept was introduced as Online Assessment Examinations commenced with Patwari Exams in March, 2012 and bagged National Awards for this initiative. 5

Gradual increase in number of B2C Services provided by MP-Online with better outreach and growing demand for the masses Started with 3 Departments currently catering to more than 45 Departments and hosting more than 250 Online services of various departments He also clarified the revenue model and district wise presence of MP online. He then discussed on the geographical presence of MP online in following areas: MP-Online has wide presence in all 50 districts, over 300 tehsils and 280 + blocks of MP. The most unique feature of MP-Online Project is the Kiosk network across the state of MP to provide the citizen services more efficiently and effectively. MP-Online kiosk spread is primarily in the URBAN areas. MP-Online has partnered with various Service Centre Agencies (SCAs) formed under NeGP, 2006 to utilize their CSCs to deliver service in the Rural Areas. Later, he explained that MP-Online services can be availed by two convenient methods as depicted in Figure 1. The citizen can select any one of the method suitable to them: Service Delivery through Kiosks Service Delivery via Direct login for Citizens Figure 1. Service Delivery Methods Finally, he described various services associated to academics also related to Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya including: Student Management System (SMS) Candidates can create user Id & password after enrollment number generation & use database for various applications. Admission/ Examination form/ Admit Card for PRIVATE candidates. Application for Revaluation/ Re-totaling 6

Counter Based applications Application for Migration, Degree, Provisional, Dup. Mark sheet, View Answer Book Online Assessment for CET/UTD Entrance Examination Collect Affiliation and Renewal Fee from Colleges Recruitment applications for vacancies in University Result Publishing and Online Mark Sheet for Candidates Online Mark Sheet printing for University Authorities Online Marks-Sheet Verification 2.4 Technical Session 3: e-governance and Society Professor P.K. Chande in the third technical session discussed issues related to e-governance and Society. He introduced the challenges and examples related to social issues and general human behavior. He also discussed scope of e-governance and unique challenges in India. According to him, the unique challenges in India are Awareness, Poverty Literacy Infrastructure Multi-Lingual Culture Demography Cas0074s Legacies Technology He emphasised on relationship building by Trust, Competitiveness, Satisfaction, Clarity, Speed and Flexibility. Finally, he explained an e-governance framework and Government to Citizen Concept. 2.5 Technical Session 3: Best Practices in e-governance Professor N.S. Chaudhari, IIT Indore, delivered his lecture on Best Practices in egovernance. He introduced various e-governance models. He also compared the egovernment with e-governance. The mission of e-governance was explained with the help of Partnership between various stake holders with objectives as follows: e-citizen: To receive govt. services, access them on line 24x7x365 days, and participate in governance process 7

e-business: To access Government services, for faster economic development, and participation in value addition to govt. services e Employees: For better communication / understanding, Increased productivity and participation in strategic planning. e Government: To Increase productivity / efficiency, build good relationships with others for good governance. He also discussed challenges and conceptual framework for e-government strategies like G2B and G2G. He also shared his experience of e-governance in Singapore and stages of e- Governance plan as: Early development stages 1981-1996 National Computer Board (NCB) as the IT agency under the Ministry of Finance Master planning, architect, tender spec, project delivering, user training, customization Nearly 80% of NCB staff were seconded to ministries/departments Major development stage 1996-2000 Privatization of the operational arm of NCB to form NCS NCB mission focused on policy and promotions Dec 1999 merger of NCB with Telecom Authority of Singapore (TAS) to form a single ICT agency Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) Major development stage 1996-2000 (cont.) Operational model: MoF controls budget allocation to ministries/departments for E-Gov spending IDA acts as CIO, regulatory, program/project management Private sectors takes government contracts to execute, deploy and maintain e-governance infrastructure and applications Mature stage 2000-2003 E-Government Action Plan I S$1.5B for 3 yrs Operational model remained the same Further development 2003-2006 E-Government Action Plan II S$1.3B for 3 years Operational model remained the same 8

He also discussed e-governance operational model and six national strategic ICT plan of Singapore. He completed his presentation by introducing some of the key projects of Singapore e-governance. 2.6 Technical Session 4: Role of Technology in e-governance In the post-lunch session, Ms. Suneeta Jain, District Informatics Officer, National Informatics Centre, Indore discussed on Role of Technology in e-governance. She said that egovernance itself is technology driven governance and information technology, communication technology and power technology are among the main pillars. She discussed various components of information technology including computing, storage, printing and content dissemination. According to her, the important components of Communication Technology are coverage of geographical area, media, speed, bandwidth, content carrier and dissemination channels. Charging units and backup devices are the components of power technology. She focused on the mission of NeGP as to make all government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets, and ensure efficiency, transparency, and reliability of such services at affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common man. Finally, she discussed various projects of NIC Indore center including Gyandoot project in Dhar, Samadhan Ek Din Indore and later replicated in M.P., Right to Information, Lok Seva Guarantee Act coined by Madhya Pradesh and e-panchayat etc. 2.7 Technical Session 5: Panel Discussion on Education and Employment for egovernance Panel Discussion was attended by following Professors and eminent personalities from academia, government and industry: 1. Dr. Suresh Jain, Director KCB Technical Academy, Indore 2. Ms. Vineeta Dixit, Principal Consultant, National e-governance Plan 3. Mr. V. R. Sathe, Impetus, Indore 4. Mr. Ashok Holani, Genesis, Indore 5. Mr. Deepak Shirahatti, NIC, Khargone The important points emerged out of the panel discussion can be summarized as follows: 9

Real life e-governance projects for the students E-Governance training for common man Emphasis on computer literacy Cloud computing services must be used for e-governance E-Governance in provident fund department Proper monitoring of responsibility for the assigned work of e-governance Development of soft skills among students Extensive training is vital 3. NeGP-University Collaboration and possible outcome: During the workshop, the university contribution in the national mission on e-governance was discussed by university professors and principal consultant, NeGP, Ms. Vineeta Dixit. The current state of IT infrastructure and related facilities in the university were briefed by Dr Vrinda Tokekar, Head, Information Technology Centre and Professor and Head, Information Technology, IET, DAVV, Indore. Considering the experience and qualification of university faculty, it was suggested that: IET and School of Computer Science may assign 1-2 major M.Tech. projects in the area of e-governance every year. The projects may be of research & development nature to specifically address the technological hurdles faced by NeGP and state IT department for effective IT implementation of e-governance services. The school of social sciences, management and economics may take up case studies for the outcome and effectiveness of the e-governance services in society. The school of computer science proposed to develop a case study for teacher s portal so as to keep the academic and research activities of teachers at school, college and university level. The portal will have the features to extract knowledge regarding faculty expertise, syllabus coverage, student attendance, and details of research activities. Similar workshops may be planned at rural and tribal areas of colleges under Devi Ahilya University, Indore jurisdiction to increase awareness of NeGP. 4. Conclusion: 10

The workshop was organised with the primary objective of increasing the awareness of national e-governance plan among the teachers and students. Around 500 students and teachers from various affiliated colleges of DAVV and university teaching departments have attended the workshop. Discussion was held during the workshop on wide range of topics related to e-governance. The topics included various projects under the NeGP, the approach of MP-Online web portal for delivering the citizen services, impact of e-governance on society, various technologies used for e-governance and e-governance implementation strategies used in Singapore. All the presentations of the workshop were very useful and from the audience s feedback it can be concluded that the workshop has achieved its objectives. The workshop ended with the future collaborative plan of action of NeGP and DAVV, Indore and associating faculty and students by means of projects, case studies and workshops on e- Governance. ************************** 11