E-Governance in India - Center and State Integrated MMPs

We have seen the Center and State level Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) taken up by Government of India under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP).There are certain governance responsibilities, which are to be jointly undertaken by both center and state governments in India. The following are key MMPs considered from IT perspective to increase the efficiency in governance (source: http://mit.gov.in).

I wonder how many people know about how IT is being applied for e-governance in India ! After all these are certain good things being done by (any) government in the last decade or so.

Common Service Centre (CSC) http://www.csc-india.org/	CSCs were conceptualized as the front end service delivery outlets enabling smooth and transparent governance even at the village level. Under the scheme, over one lakh internet enabled kiosks are being set up in the rural areas spread across more than 600,000 villages. I used a CSC utility payments. I heard about entrepreneurs in tier-3 cities taking up the setup of such CSCs in an incentive-based model.
e-Courts	The objective of e-courts is to develop, deliver, install and implement automated decision making and decision support system in courts all over the country. Case Filing, Scrutiny, Registration, Case Allocation, Court Proceedings, Details entry of a Case, Case Disposal & restoration, Transfer of Case, Certified copies of orders and judgments, Case status, Calculation of court fees, Cause lists, Institution Registers, and Court Diaries, Monitoring of pendency in the courts. It seems there are 3 crore pending cases in courts in India. Can the government not increase the number of courts and court employees? Will the IT-enablement alone solve the problems?
EDI/e-Trade - http://etrade.gov.in/	Conceptualized to facilitate effective and efficient mode of transacting business in the area of foreign trade. The project is being pursued in trade regulatory and facilitating agencies like Customs, Ports, Airports, Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Banks, respective Container Corporation of India (CONCOR), export promotion organizations etc. Never heard about any issues at the border with respect to trade or customs (except for bollywood stars not declaring their valuables appropriately). Guess this MMP should have been implemented on very much effective in operation.
India Portal - http://india.gov.in/	There are over 5000 websites on the internet of various Indian government entities that include Ministries, Departments, States/Union Territories, district administration, organizations. The National Portal of India provides a single window unified interface for all these websites and acts as a logical front end to the e-governance initiatives under various central/state/UT government schemes and programs. Does the government really need so many websites?
National e-Governance Service Delivery Gateway (NSDG) - https://nsdg.gov.in	Different departments in the Centre, States and Local Government cooperate, collaborate and integrate information across the various levels, domains and geographies through NSDG. Does this mean we won't hear ministers say - "The file has not come to my table yet. I have not seen the file"?
e-Biz - http://dipp.nic.in	To transform the business environment in the country by providing efficient, convenient, transparent, and integrated electronic services to investors, industries and business throughout the business life cycle. After moving from License-Raj to Liberalization (1991 onwards), we have seen tremendous growth in business and economy in India. The businesses does not really seem to have much of problems with respect to approvals, extensions and funds.
e-Procurement	The e-Procurement MMP has been designed to take into account Government procurement of goods, works as well as services. It covers all aspects of procurement right from intent of tender to tender preparation, bidding, bid evaluation and award of contract. Could the government not use the applications from this MMP for CWG Games held in Delhi last year?

E-Governance in India - State-level MMPs

India is one of the largest democracies in the world and follows federal system of governance which divides the responsibilities of governance between Centre and States. While we have seen centre-level Mission Mode Projects (MMP) initiated by Government of India, this post gives a brief about the state-level MMPs. The intent of these MMPs cannot be appreciated enough, but does everyone realize the benefits of these programs made possible through application of IT ? Read my comments in bold against each MMP below and post your comments as well. (source: http://mit.gov.in)

Land Records (NLRMP) http://dolr.nic.in/Nlrmp.htm	The National Land Records Modernization Program (NLRMP) has been formulated by merging two Centrally Sponsored schemes of Computerization of Land Records (CLR) and Strengthening of Revenue Administration and Updating of Land Records (SRA&ULR). Several departments are involved in managing land records in most of the States, and the citizen has to approach 3 to 4, or even more, agencies for complete land records leading to waste of time, exposure to rent seeking, and harassment This MMP provides the citizens free accessibility to the land records thereby reducing interface with the Government functionaries, rent seeking and harassment. If this is being implemented as envisaged, would it not solve 25% of corruption problems in the country?
Road Transport http://morth.nic.in/	Under the Transport MMP, all the RTOs in the country will implement standardized software - Sarathi (for driver licenses) and Vahan (for vehicle registrations and permits). The Transport MMP also intends to setup National and State Registers. The setting up of these Registers will facilitate in providing the real time services to the citizens. Undoubtedly, this will form a touch-point with Government for many citizens.
Agriculture http://agricoop.nic.in/	The proposed scheme (NeGP-A) aims to provide an integrated and seamless interface to the farmers for making informed decisions. Additionally, under the proposed scheme, information is proposed to be delivered using multiple delivery channels such as the internet, government offices, touch screens, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, electronic media, Kisan Call Centres, Agri-Clinics, Common Service Centres and mobile phones , which will enable easy access to information for the farmer. If this is implemented across the country, does it not take away all farmers problems (except for natural calamities and access to enough funds) ?
Police (CCTNS)	Provide Enhanced Tools for Investigation, Crime Prevention, Law & Order Maintenance and other functions like Traffic Management, Emergency Response. I am sure it must have helped with the internal efficiency in police functioning, but are the citizens less intimidated to approach police because of application of IT?
Treasuries http://finmin.nic.in/	The State Treasuries are the structural and financial unit of the Government Financial System and are responsible for handling the day-to-day transactions of receipt and payment of Government. This project will promote real-time reconciliation of accounts, strengthen Management Information Systems (MIS), and improve accuracy and timeliness in accounts preparation. I wonder when this treasury would be disclosed to the public in real-time !
Municipality http://jnnurm.nic.in/	This initiative envisages covering Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in 35 mission cities identified, from 15 states (~ 80 ULBs), having more than 1 million population as per 2001 census to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of delivery of municipal services to citizens. I guess there is good progress, but are we anywhere near the end-goal?
e-District	This project aims at providing support to the basic administrative unit i.e. 'District Administration' by undertaking backend computerization to enable electronic delivery of high volume citizen centric government services which would optimally leverage and utilize the three infrastructure pillars of State Wide Area Networks (SWAN), State Data Centers (SDC) and Common Service Centers (CSCs) to deliver services to the citizen at his doorsteps. How come no one - including government employees - talk about the benefits of IT being applied at the district level? Is it that people are not able to see any benefits or things are taken for granted?
Commercial Taxes	Sales tax/VAT is one of the most important sources of indirect taxes for the purpose of taxation by the State Governments. The tax is levied and appropriated by the States on sale of goods. The Commercial Taxes Departments in the States are entrusted with the administration and enforcement of commercial Tax legislations. Commercial Taxes MMP will support the States and UTs Governments to computerize their Commercial Tax administering departments.
Gram Panchayat http://panchayat.gov.in	Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in India is a concept of local self governance, which promotes decentralized governance by participation of the ordinary public in their own governance. PRIs function at the village, intermediate (block) and district level. Planning & Budgeting, Accounting, Scheme implementation and monitoring, Social Audit and Grievance redress are some of the services envisaged under this MMP. Has any third-party every conducted an independent study to ascertain the benefits of IT-enablement of Panchayats?
Employment Exchange (EE)	The overall aim of the EEMMP is to provide gainful employment to all job-seekers registered with Employment Exchanges by facilitating interaction between jobseekers and employers and disseminating accurate and consistent labor market information to the policy makers on time. Wonderful program ! Not sure who would still register with these employment exchanges, though.

E-Governance in India - Center-level MMPs

This post is slightly longer and can pass for a dry subject. But do read-on as a proud Indian !

India has become one of the Information Technology (IT) super-powers across the globe no sooner than the computers were invented. Indian IT product and service companies have empowered many organizations in different Sectors and Industries across the Globe with IT solutions. In that context, is it a wonder if government of India has embraced the IT to increase efficiency and provide transparency in the processes while serving the Citizens and Businesses?

It was perceived that if e-Governance was to be speeded up across the various arms of government at the national , state and local government level, a program approach would need to be adopted, which must be guided by a common vision, strategy and approach to objectives. This led to the creation of National e-governance Plan (NeGP) in 2006 by government of India. NeGP comprises of 27 Mission Mode Projects (MMP) to be implemented at Central, State and Local Government levels.

It should be interesting for every citizen of India to know and appreciate how the Global IT super-power is applying IT in its own backyard to provide good governance to Citizens. Take a brief look at the center-level MMPs which are being implemented and operational ! (source: http://mit.gov.in)

MCA21 (http://www.mca.gov.in)	A secure portal that offers availability of all registry related services including filing of documents, registration of companies and public access to corporate information. There are more than 100 services covered within the scope of MCA21.
Pensions (http://persmin.nic.in/)	The pensions MMP is primarily aimed at making the pension/ retirement related information, services and grievances handling mechanism accessible online to the needy pensioners, through a combination of interactive and non-interactive components, and thus, help bridge the gap between the Pensioners and the Government.
Income Tax (http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/)	Provide PAN card to citizens and improve authentication for all major financial transactions. To enable all taxpayers to fulfill their statutory obligation of filing their Income Tax Return electronically, securely and conveniently using the Internet. Fast track issue of refunds through agency bank (SBI) and enable web based tracking of refund status
Passport and Visa (http://mha.nic.in/)	For delivery of Passport Services to the citizens in a timely, transparent, more accessible, reliable manner and in a comfortable environment.
Immigration (http://www.immigrationindia.nic.in/)	A secure and integrated ICT system for Immigration, Visa Registration & Tracking and an interface with the e-Passport, Emigration and other relevant systems.
Central Excise (http://www.cbec.gov.in/)	The Central Board for Excise and Customs (CBEC) has brought about a major change in the way the Central Excise and Service Tax formations conduct their regular business vis-à-vis the trade & Industry, by developing and deploying a software application called Automation of Central Excise and Service Tax (ACES). ACES aims at improving tax-payer services, transparency, accountability and efficiency in the indirect tax administration in India. This application has automated all major processes in Central Excise and Service Tax through a web-based and workflow-based system.
Banking	The MMP which is being implemented by the banking industry aims at streamlining various e-services initiatives undertaken by individual banks.
National Population Register (NPR)	The Government wanted to create a NPR of all the usual residents in the country to help in better targeting of the benefits and services under various Government schemes / programmes, improve infrastructural planning, provide a fillip to strengthen security of the country and prevent identity fraud.
UID (http://uidai.gov.in/)	The Unique identification project was conceived as an initiative that would provide identification for each resident across the country and would be used primarily as the basis for efficient delivery of welfare services. The UIDAI collects 10 fingerprints, a photo and an iris scan (eye scan) of citizens as part of the biometric data collection exercise for the Aadhar ID card project. NPR and UID are being collated now.
e-Office	The e-Office Mission Mode Project has been taken up by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DAR&PG) in order to improve efficiency in government processes and service delivery mechanisms. The e-Office MMP aims at driving the transitioning to Less Paper and efficient Offices (LPO) in the Government of India and all State Governments.
Insurance	The insurance MMP has been envisaged to provide easier, faster and  transparent services to the customers of all public insurance companies. It will help Intermediaries such as agents and brokers to retain their clientele. The services under Insurance MMP include: Online Issue / Renewal of Policies Premium Calculations and online Receipt of Premium Online Processing of Claims and Settlement of Claims Storing policy documents in soft form Improve Customer Awareness, through education and Information Online Registration / Redressal of Grievances (Direct from Customers) Online Registration / Redressal of Complaints / references from DPG / GOI / VIPs

As a part of Government-to-citizen (G2C) services in India, every one of us would encounter the above IT touchpoints at some point in time. Any experiences?

India Budget 2012

The advent of Internet and WWW has brought content - professional, academic, corporate, user-generated and also junk - to the Net surfers. The content in the form of text, images and video presents various topics for effective consumption of the users. The topics range from news to entertainment to complaints and fun & learning for kids. There are numerous sites on the Net which offer professional content for free, http://moneycontrol.com being one such site. This site offers comprehensive information about finances especially the stock markets.

India being one of the key emerging markets, every Indian would be interested to know what is happening with the union budget 2012. With slowdown in economy growth and debacle in recent elections, union budget would be of more interest this time around. I found moneycontrol site (http://www.moneycontrol.com/budget2012/) to offer good information about the upcoming budget. Check out the key economic indicators and pre-budget reports from some of the stock brokers like ICICIDirect in this site.

Some of the key dates you need to remember:

Railway Budget	March 14 2012
Economic Survey	March 15 2012
Union Budget	March 16 2012

If you are looking for comprehensive information about previous budgets, you can access them at http://indiabudget.nic.in/. As budget has impact on every individual - professional, retired, home-maker, businessman or NRI, it's important to follow the same.

I really wonder, how people used to follow the budget (just the newspapers? Radio? Doordarshan?) in pre-Internet eras :-)