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Attitude is the Key Issue for E-Gov

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DQI Bureau
New Update

The ‘city beautiful’ Chandigarh is slowly emerging as a hot IT and BPO

industry destination in northern India. Leading the charge on behalf of the city

is a suave and articulate bureaucrat, Vivek Atray, the director of IT for the

union territory of Chandigarh. Under his leadership, the city has seen a range

of initiatives promoting the twin industries. Take for example CTOSS (Chandigarh

Training on Soft Skills)– a program to train local population for the BPO

industry. In an interview to Rishi Seth of Dataquest, he talks about his

strategies and plans for making Chandigarh shine on the IT map of India.

Excerpts:

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Chandigarh has often been ranked higher over other cities on many

parameters including infrastructure and human resources talent, but still the

city does not have many big-ticket IT companies to boast of. Where do you think

the problem lies?




Chandigarh had been recognized for many years, as a city, which has the
potential to be a leading destination for technology companies. In the last 3

years, after the announcement of the IT Policy, major steps have been taken to

promote the growth of the technology sector in Chandigarh, by creating the right

environment, and by providing the right infrastructure.

"Identifying

and entrusting enthusiastic and capable people with the

responsibilities is the key"

Chandigarh is fast getting attention of the big IT companies and is rated as

a strong emerging location for expansion plans of IT companies. World-class

infrastructure is being developed and companies like Infosys have already chosen

Chandigarh



for a huge software development center setup.

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What are you doing to attract big-ticket companies?



We have had one on one meetings with many major technology companies. We

participate in all major Nasscom events and also IT.Com and TiE/CII events. We

have already signed an MOU with Infosys and are holding extensive discussions

with Convergys. Our incubation center is full now with nine companies occupying

it. DLF is building an 800,000 sq ft world class facility at the Chandigarh

Technology Park (CTP) which has already started booking potential occupiers.

Neighboring states like Punjab and Haryana today vie with

Chandigarh for attracting IT and BPO projects, often offering discounts and

subsidies–for example–cheaper land rates. How do you plan to compete against

them?




Chandigarh is uniquely positioned at the confluence point of Punjab and Haryana.
Because of its high quality of life, Chandigarh is a preferred city to work and

settle in for professionals from Punjab and neighboring towns of Haryana.

Several incentives/tax exemptions are also provided at the Chandigarh Technology

Park. Chandigarh being a union territory has the advantage of being governed by

bureaucrats free from any political setup.

On the status of Chandigarh Technology Park?



Infosys as the anchor company has taken 20 acres in the Chandigarh Technology
Park and will be constructing their campus which is expected to employ 2400 IT

professionals. DLF is constructing 8,00,000 sq ft of ready built space in the

CTP. The space will be leased/sold to big IT/ITeS companies and would be

operational by November 2004. Other global companies like Dell Computers and

Convergys have shown significant interest in setting their offices in CTP.

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There are around sixty IT/ITeS companies registered with the

STPI and are operating in Chandigarh and Mohali. The software and IT services

exports from Chandigarh and Mohali amounts to approximately Rs 150 crore and is

expected to increase to Rs 600 crore in the next two years.

Chandigarh

Technology Park

Spread

over an area of 111 acres, the CTP offers campus sites ranging from

2 acres to 20 acres to IT and BPO companies. Besides there are build

to suit sites–about 600,000 sq. ft. of built-up space is expected

to be ready by November 2004. Facilities include on-campus retail

and banking facilities, public transport, restaurants, sports club

and ample onsite parking. Basic amenities like uninterrupted power

supply (66 KV double supply from 220 KV substation), redundant

bandwidth (city-wide OFC network, international satellite bandwidth

of 40 mpbs from STPI alone) are all there, along with a taskforce to

expedite setting up of offices.

What is your e-Governance strategy?



We have identified services related to 10 public dealing departments as our

priority areas for e-Governance. They are now ready at the back-end level and we

are front-ending them through our Sampark Centers and our new portal, which will

be launched by end of July. These departments include excise and taxation,

education, municipal corporation and driving licenses and vehicle registrations.

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For example, in municipal corporation, all services provided

by the corporation shall be computerized and residents shall be able to access

the various departments of the corporation online from the kiosks, which shall

be set up throughout the UT.

What challenges are you facing–internal and external–in

implementing e-Governance initiatives?



The challenges are the same everywhere. There are attitude and change

management issues. Training is often not taken seriously by officials.

Identifying and entrusting enthusiastic and capable people with the

responsibilities is the key. Process re-engineering is a must, so administrative

reforms have to be carried out as well.

Your expectations from the IT industry in terms of the

role they should play in e-Governance, and your message to them?



The IT industry should itself be more proactive in developing sustainable

and practical products for implementing e-Governance. They should aim to provide

workable low-cost solutions for e-Governance.

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Your one single e-Governance project which you are proud

of?



The Sampark Project, which involves setting up of 15 single window citizen

interface centers in Chandigarh, is our flagship venture. Project Sampark is a

multi-service single window system, which connects various public dealing

departments with electronic centers called Sampark Centers. These centers are

located in the already existing bill payment centers of agencies like

electricity board and municipal corporation across the city. The range of

services that it would offer include bill payments and space booking for

municipal corporation, complaint registration and tracking and even vehicle

challan payment for Chandigarh Police, issue of domicile or income certificate

for the office of DC, issue of bus passes for department of transport and many

more. The project will go live by August 1, 2004. Right now, we are selecting

banks for handling cash/cheques/online transactions.

We will also soon launch our interactive portal for residents

of Chandigarh to carry out department related transactions online, including

through payment gateways.

Rishi Seth in Chandigarh

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