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Domestic

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has signed a partnership
agreement with Chennai-based Accel Frontline to develop applications and
software-based solution for the university's e-Governance cell. The cell is
expected to build applications that will enable digitization of all
administrative and admission processes for not only the university but other
affiliate universities as well. The project has been designed to optimize
utilization of resources, and streamlining university's operations. The cell
has been set up as part of the 10th Plan, with an Rs 50 lakh grant by the
University Grants Commission.

Further, Accel will train JNU officials. The project will also
include connecting departments of the university like finance, security,
maintenance and sanitation to ensure administrative efficiency.

BMC Opts for SAP

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Mumbai is planning
to launch another e-Governance program to increase the efficiency of its present
e-Governance services.

As part of the program, SAP system will be introduced to help
citizens pay water bills, property tax and electricity bills. BMC has plans to
display information of twenty-five municipal hospitals, and in addition
information on admitted patients is likely to be stored in the data warehouses.

The program will also include vehicle-tracking system wherein
1,400 vehicles of the Solid Water Management department will be organized.

BMC aims to bring transparency in its administrative process
thereby ensuring quick and efficient delivery of services to its people. The
system will also facilitate availability of data from different departments on
one single platform.

Easier Access for Citizens of Goa

The Goa Government plans to implement the Integrated Information
Infrastructure (I-3) project in the state in collaboration with 3i Infotech that
will enable citizens to easily access citizen services.

In order to help citizens access these services, the government
has launched the GoaOnline portal, and will set up 208 citizen service centers (CSC)
and a state data center.

Under the guidance of the state government, 3i Infotech will
work on the public-private partnership (PPP) model. Citizens can access G2C
services through the CSCs as well as the GoaOnline portal, while various B2B and
B2C services will also be provided.

The G2C services will include various departments of the state
government like labor and employment, settlement and land records, panchayat,
public works department, commercial taxes department, tourism department
corporation, transport department, electricity department and office of the
commissioner.

Haryana Gets e-Disha

In order to provide easy access to various government services
to people, the Haryana government will set up e-Disha Ekal Seva Kendras across
the Rohtak Division. To implement this project, the government has partnered
with Hughes Communications India and Comat. In the first phase, 292 kendras will
be set up, which include areas like Sonipat, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Karnal and Panipat.
In addition to providing access to e-government applications, land records, and
certificates, citizens can also avail ticketing services for railways, airways,
interactive education services, mobile prepaid top ups and international voice
calling facilities.

With this system in place, the Government is aiming to bring
about transparency and accountability in various government departments, and
also enable people to have access to single window system. Besides serving as a
platform for exchange of ideas and knowledge, the kendras will create employment
opportunities to the people of Haryana.

BangaloreOne on Wheels

Paying utility bills for Bangalore citizens will be made easier
as very shortly, mobile BangaloreOne centers will be operational in the city.
Through VSAT or GPRS these vans will be connected to the main server. The vans,
which will serve as additional service centers to the existing BangaloreOne
centers, will move in open spaces near residential areas where people can pay
their bills. The government also plans to operate these vans in the rural areas
so that the people will get respite from traveling long distances just to pay
bills. In addition to the vans, the directorate of Electronic Delivery of
Citizen Services will also set up 20 BangaloreOne centers in BDA complexes
situated at HSR Layout, Wipro campus, Indiranagar, BDA office and other centers.
These centers will have four counters to carry out services like KSRTC ticket
reservation, payment of income tax, commercial tax, multiplex tickets and also
Tirupathi tickets.

By setting up these centers the directorate aims to increase the
turnout of people from the existing 9 lakh to 10 lakh. Plans are on anvil to set
up more such centers by next month. A proposed Hubli-DharwardOne center is also
expected to come up soon. In this direction, the directorate has paid a sum of
Rs 1 crore to the Hubli-Dharward Municipal Corporation, and five such centers
will be operational in these twin cities.

Telecenter for Bhoomi Kiosk

To help citizens in fighting and curbing land disputes and fake
property document menace, the Directorate of Electronic Delivery of Citizen
Services of Karnataka will set up telecenters in the Bhoomi Kiosk (high court
premises) which is connected to 800 bhoomi kiosks at hoblis and back-end offices
in 177 taluks across the state.

Litigants can go to the telecenter and get RTCs (record of
rights, tenancy and crops) after entering their property details. The advantage
of this telecenter is that people can obtain the copy of their RTC even when
their case is being heard in the court.

The telecenters will be of immense help to those who come from
far off places, and many other litigants who can now access land records from
anywhere in Karnataka. These telecenters are connected to the main server in
Bangalore through VSAT network.

Kiosks set up in the hobli have jurisdiction limits imposed on
it and land records of the specific areas can only be accessed, unlike the kiosk
at High court where land records from any telecentre can be accessed. On an
average atleast 20,000 land records obtained from various hoblis will be
updated.　

1 lakh Internet centers by March '08

India will soon have one lakh Internet enabled service centers
by March 2008, as per the recent announcement made by A Raja, minister of
communication and information technology at the eIndia 2007 conference. The
proposed expenditure of this initiative is Rs 5,400 crore wherein one centre
will come up for every six villages. The funding for this project will be raised
on public-private partnership model. The central government has already
earmarked Rs 1,600 crore, the rest of it will come from private sector. The
initiative comes as a part of Government's efforts to provide basic
infrastructure for e governance projects in the country. The other services the
Government will deliver are last mile connectivity and window facilitation
centre.

Checking Efficiency

Chennai City Corporation in association with Electronics
Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) has chalked out plans to implement
e-Governance projects efficiently. ELCOT will provide an estimated sum of Rs 6.9
crore for software, hardware, maintenance and training of civic agency. In this
direction, software for property tax assessment, budgeting, geographic
information system, birth and death registration has already been developed. The
council has also decided that it will charge a fee of Rs 57, for those who apply
for birth or death certificate online, the fee will cover the postal charges as
well. The Corporation has planned to seek help from Jawaharlal Nehru Urban
Renewal Mission or the IT ministry for implementation of the project. Services
such as grievance redressal through SMS and wireless radio communication between
the corporation departments are other services to be introduced.

Pension Ontime@AP

In order to prevent delay in payment of the pension amount, the
Andhra Pradesh Government is planning to set up an ATM in every village of the
state for the convenience of pensioners. In this direction, smart cards will be
issued to them.

The total pension amount will be deposited in the accounts of
the Self Help Groups who in turn deposit the money in beneficiary accounts.

Chennai Citizen Services

The Information Technology Department of Tamil Nadu is all set
to launch tools for e-Governance in some of its sectors. The tools, to be
launched by December this year, will enable citizens to access information
pertaining to transport, land record, encumbrance certificate and other
municipal services from any part of the state. The first initiative by the Tamil
Nadu government came in the form of testing of Tamil Nadu State Wide Area
Network (TNSWAN) that established backbone connectivity network at the taluk
level.

For this program TCS will be the operating agency for the
network on BOOT basis, while bandwidth will be provided by BSNL. In order to
check the viability, BSNL links were tested in district and 204 taluk offices
through 700 point of presence. Now the project is in its first stage of
implementation were VoIP will be offered, followed by data services and video
streaming, video beaming and video conferencing, and the project will conclude
with the setting up of Common Service Centers.

The project will adopt the model of public-private partnership,
and a total of 5,440 centers will be set up. The government has already invited
tenders from the private sector; the state will also extend financial assistance
to private players for setting up of kiosks.

-Complied by H Chethana Gadiyar
chethanag@cybermedia.co.in