Bhoomi has been out of the key e-governance project handled
by Comat. What is the status of the project and what are the new challenges?
The key challenge ahead is to bring Bhoomi to the village
level. Bhoomi project is implemented in 167 taluk offices spread across
Karnataka's 190,000 square km. For a rural family wage earner to travel from the
village to a taluk Bhoomi kiosk and back can cost a day's labor. Now if we
multiply that by 7 million farmers, we can make a fairly straightforward assessment of economic
impact on each family in this state.
We must now rise to this following challenge. In the first
instance, there is a fragile eco-system between all infrastructure requirements
to provide a service at acceptable levels, and the appropriate community to
nourish and sustain that service. Karnataka officially counts some 5,567
villages. That is over 33 times the current number of taluk Bhoomi offices. It
would be naive to expect to simply place 5,567 Bhoomi kiosks in distant
villages, in harsh conditions, and expect an identical performance as Bhoomi.
Secondly, we must model for entirely different financial
realities. Using simple numbers for the sake of illustration: 20 mn land records
divided by 167 taluk offices is 1.2 lakh records per office. Priced at Rs 15 per
RTC certificate, would average roughly to Rs 18 lakh per office in revenues.
This is sufficient over time to cover operating costs, provide a modest return
to state revenues, and ensure good service levels.
How can one optimally replicate projects like Bhoomi?
Well, while it would be a complex proposition to maintain a
proper structure to support infrastructure in 5,567 villages, such a project
cannot simply be a mechanical extension of Bhoomi. We would have to continue to
apply our analytical skills and culture of working closely with all
stakeholders, to harness and integrate best resources from around the world and
pioneer innovative e-governance best practices.
In the next phase of Bhoomi, the challenges are multiple,
dynamic, complex and inter-dependent. The solution is not simply an ICT
breakthrough: it lies in interplay of people and cultures.
Comat has been in an interesting "pressure cooker"
role for many years to co-ordinate extraordinary demands. From a logistical
viewpoint, we have been forced to grapple with and overcome many of the
obstacles that plagued decades of previous efforts to provide Bhoomi services.
What are the challenges that public sector IT executives
face today?
The biggest challenge is their continuity in a position till
projects are completed. The second challenge is the reuse of efforts made in
successful states.
On a more general note, IT issues tend to be increasingly
generic and 'blind' to public or private spaces. Most executives face the
challenges of budgets that are typically insufficient to cope with the vast
potential IT demands and opportunities. I think it is fair to say that for most
executives, IT has become more than a full-time job. Managers increasingly need
to have polyvalent skills.
What role is an external provider playing in today's
environment where IT budgets are being constantly scrutinised?
It is important to distinguish between external providers
positioned as 'commodity suppliers' versus external providers positioned as
'strategic partners'. Commodity players will be edged out or absorbed. All
suppliers must adapt and add value, or lose to competitors.
I definitely do not see external suppliers disappearing: it
is not viable or efficient for a non-ICT core-business organisation to make
strategic choices or manage ICT infrastructure without specialised third-party
expertise.
As for IT budget scrutiny, there is the trend towards new
management tools, increasingly better equipped to monitor, generate more secure
audit trails, and produce faster and more complete management reports to
identify fraud, corruption, negligence, or other issues. Over time this will
help root out budget mismanagement.
How have you coped with IT budgets and management agenda,
which changes with each election?
It would thus be fairer to turn the question around and say
with all respect this is a mixed blessing. Our vibrant democracy creates the
landscape where miracles of e-governance will contribute significantly to
strengthening our social and economic well being.
We have been a significant direct contributor to the
electoral process. For several years, Comat has been serving Election
Commissions of several states, preparing tens of millions of Election Photo ID
Cards (EPIC), as well as assisting in maintaining electoral roles and even
developing software. We have literally had face-to-face contact with millions of
voters.
We cope with the realities of change by addressing
fundamental social issues. For example, Bhoomi is a manifest success so most
political parties strive in one way or the other to leverage goodwill from it.
Given our expertise with land records in rural India, there is a persistent
ongoing demand for our services.
How promising are state and local government data center
spending trends, especially on the open source front?
It's better to adapt solutions, and not be dogmatic about
any particular trend. For different state governments, we have innovated and
deployed several generations of Bhoomi solutions, ranging from two-tier
client-server to three-tier Web-based proprietary solutions to totally open
source systems.
The auspiciousness of a spending trend will vary depending on
the sector or niche in which a supplier has their core competence and business.
Companies like Comat are greatly encouraged by the approval of the National
E-Governance Action Plan (NEGAP).
Which areas provide the highest scope for e-governance
service providers, besides systems modernization? How are you helping the public
sector and government IT officers keep up with best practices and understand new
technologies?
We are all racing to keep up and to help each other! In my
view, robust commitment to partnership and stakeholder ship is the key to
surviving challenges and storms.
As for the first question, like most people we believe the
future will be shaped tremendously by innovations in mobile computing,
convergence, and decentralisation of services, as well as efficiencies which
drive down costs to bring goods and services to market. Mobility includes
innovations such as Wi-Max, which Comat is architecting in Bhoomi village
solutions. Such mobility innovations have the potential to contribute to rapidly
and efficiently connecting rural India to the Internet, reduce the digital
divide, and make dramatic changes in empowering citizens with new services.