Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander

2007 could be dubbed as the year for underdogs to emerge as

champions. It was the year when relative newcomers shone under the spotlight: be

it a Dhoni or a beanpole Ishant Sharma shining on the cricket pitch or an

effervescent kid walking away with the honors in Taare Zameen Par.

Even the Dataquest e-Gov Champions Awards 2008 followed a

similar pattern. Most winners across India were not from traditional

e-governance strongholds like Andhra or Karnataka. Instead the almost esoteric

mix of winners represented a geographic spread that would find pride of place in

the Lonely Planet. Our champions came from places like the drought-ridden

Bolangir in Orissa or the ever-derided Patna in Bihar, Naxal-infested

Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, from the terrorist hotbed in Kashmir or Lakshdweep

away from the Indian mainland. We call this the democratization of Indian IT.

Other than coming from places you wont even send your enemies

to, these champions also share some other common traits. For one, they have

consistently fathered initiatives or missions that have over the years touched

the lives of common citizens and have helped make their lives better. What also

separates many of these people from their peers is the sheer innovativeness

behind their ideas.

While these champions were honored for their endeavors over the

e-Gov Summit Dataquest recently organized over four cities, here we

present a brief snapshot of these illustrious sons (and daughters). And, as you

read, we are sure that you too would join us in saluting the champions, the

architects of tomorrows India.

All Chips in Place



A M Parial is known for his contributions to the e-gov initiatives taken in the
state of Chhattisgarh since its inception. With an experience of over 18 years

in MP and Chhattisgarh, Parial is presently leading various teams for

implementing e-governance projects such as CHOICE, GIS, e-gram suraj, CGSWAN and

State Data Centre. He has been awarded the Excellency Award twice by the

Chhattisgarh State Electricity Board.

CHIPS has successfully minimized the number of silos in the

system to create a single framework for citizens to interact with the

government. At CHIPS all the projects are citizen centric and each of the

initiatives taken has been institutionalized.

According to Parial, every solution provided should address

aspects such as front end services, back-end support, delivery mechanism etc. It

should not be limited and should be easily replicable. The horizontal and

vertical scalability of the IT solution should also be taken into consideration.

According to Parial, though most projects are vendor driven, the citizen should

feel empowered rather than being treated as customers.

The Chhattisgarh government is focused on enhancing the literacy

levels within the state with the help of simple technologies. So IT in education

and IT for education is the mantra today. But though there has been a great deal

of investments in the core sectors such as cement, power, steel, etc, nobody

wants to be the first mover in the IT sector. "There is an immediate need

for certain anchor tenants to enter and leverage the overall benefits that the

state has to offer from a long term perspective," says Parial. The

government is being increasingly proactive with a number of SEZs coming up.

The Utility Man



Lakshadweep has attained the unique distinction of being the first UT/state in
the country to fully digitize its employment exchange and related services in

the country. The Ministry of Labor & Employment, Government of India has

also evinced interest now, as this project has a high replicable potential and

would definitely help the young human resource of India to dynamically and

objectively participate in rapid economic development. The man responsible for

this has been the administrator BV Selvaraj, one who deserves the sobriquet of

being the architect of a modern Lakshadweep.

Selvarajs stints have been particularly fruitful in Union

Territories like Puducherry and Andamans. Counted among his biggest achievements

would be the appropriate administrative reforms he brought to facilitate

execution of projects such as the opening of eight virtual employment

exchange in different islands and decentralization at Sub Divisional Officers

level with power delegation of Additional District Employment Officers.

Fortunately, technology is a two way sword and it always cuts

both ways, so the very application, namely registration of seats on ships to and

from Lakshadweep, has not only been a boon to tourists but also to the local

population. Credit is due to a few individuals like the administrator of

Lakshadweep, BV Selvaraj and his team. They have taken upon the cause of

modernization and the result is robust and thriving ICT initiatives in the

various islands. In fact, over the years, e-gov projects in Lakshadweep have

received awards at different platforms in recognition of the path breaking work

being done by the smallest union territory.

Poor Mans Messiah



The Balangir district in western Orissa has always been in the news for its

extreme poverty, recurring droughts, and the pitiable state of its healthcare.

But, now, Belangir is in the news for happier reasons, thanks to its new rainman

CVK Maruti Rao.

Rao, the DIO of Balangir has been effectively championing the

cause of e-governance for over five years. Ever since his first posting in the

district in 2002, Rao has been creating the much-desired awareness about the use

of ICT tools. But these five years of dedicated service were not a cakewalk.

In his own words: "Accuracy in information, credibility,

and cost of acquisition with no or minimal time gap is what helps in strategic

timely decisions. For successful e-governance, one needs to meet these

requirements and generate a positive attitude for the users toward use of IT in

government processes."

Rao says using the existing infrastructure effectively is the

key to successful e-governance, followed by affecting a change in attitude of

the stakeholders in the government.

Rao joined NIC in 2001, after which he started on his mission

with his very first posting in the Balangir district. He developed the first

district website, which had complete profiles and information about the

government offices. There has been no looking back for Rao. Some of his projects that truly deserve a mention include the web-based Information

Register of Public Authority, web-based Revenue Information System, the Orissa

Rainfall Monitoring System, and an RTI website hosting information from 80

district departments.

Pensioners Delight



Chauhans journey as an e-governance proponent began when he was asked to
computerize the states Finance department treasuries. By 1996, 20 treasuries

were fully operational and were able to give accounting information to the

Accountant General in time, using computers. Before the Treasury

computerization, the state government was under pressure from the RBI for

crossing credit limits, as there was no control on cash flow. But once

computerization happened, top officials of the government were able to see the

financial position every evening, and the decision on payments could be taken

without delay with no possibilities of overuling the credit limit of the RBI,

thus avoiding the bankruptcy of state.

Once Chauhan had proven his mettle in computerizing complex

financial projects, he was entrusted with the responsibility of Budget

computerization. The successful implementation of the project enabled error free

budget documents with appropriate budget provision in different schemes in an

electronic format. These could be easily ported to all the treasuries for bill

passing process.

But as someone who believes that the ultimate goal of ICT is to

help in avoiding wastage the time of those who come to government offices in

search of information, Chauhans dream project was the Integrated Pension

Management System (IPMS). The project had the provision of capturing photos and

signatures to avoid illegal issuance of payment orders.

However, at the end of the day, it is the satisfaction of

knowing that a retired employee does not have to run from pillar to post to get

his pension payment orders in time, which drives Chauhan.

Inclusive Governance



Madhuri Sharma, technical director of NIC posted at the Union Ministry of Rural
Development has been working toward the upliftment of rural masses along with

her senior colleague DC Mishra. According to Madhuri, the three main

contributions of e-governance are improving government processes

(e-administration); connecting citizens (e-citizens and e-services); and

building external interactions (e-society).

Sharmas latest achievement, the national level

transaction-based system implemented across the National Rural Employment

Guarantee Act (NREGA) districts in the country. NREGAsoft ensures that the

information of all the states is in the same format and in local languages. The

process flow at all level like gram panchayat/block/districts/state and Ministry

of Rural Development has been captured. The local language support is popular

among the rural citizens. The project strengthened the NREGA processes

on-ground, as it demands the information about all the processes. It is 100% RTI-enabled

as it shares all the data and information about NREGS in public domain through

the Internet, which is otherwise difficult.

Sharma and Mishra also developed an Intranet site

"Daily" (http://164.100.219.3/daily) for the Ministry of Rural

Development with an aim to strengthen the ongoing e-governance efforts in the

ministry.

SMART Governance



For NK Prasad, Principal Systems Analyst (Scientist-D), NIC, eGovernance should
aim at realizing SMART (Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent)

Government. Having strong grassroot level databases and a strong bottoms-up

approach forms the core of this SMART Government. What is also required is an

effective mechanism for instant monitoring. For Prasad, eGovernance should also

provide a single window for non-stop citizen centric eServices.

All said and done, eGovernance at the national level can only be

achieved with each village transformed into a SMART village. In the past Prasad

has been involved with the design, development and implementation of an ICT-based

solution for the Statewide Land Record Computerization Project in Bihar, called

Bhu-Abhilekh. Other projects include the University Computerization Project,

SCOPE, for the Veer Kuar Singh University, Ara as well as Schemes monitoring

System, SPECTRUM (Special Program Evaluation Customized to TRUe Monitoring).

A key highlight of his career has been the System for

Computerized Registration (SCORE) , a project that Prasad has been consistently

working on since 2005.

SCORE is an ICT solution incorporating all instruments under

acts for property registration in Bihar. It has been designed, developed and

implemented by NIC Bihar State Centre, Patna, and all 111 registry offices of

the state. The end result: transformation of the 200-year old system of manual

property registration to SOHO (Small Office Home Office) with less-paper office.

efficient Policing



Rajinder Vij has been serving as the IG of Bastar for the past 1.5 years. His
maiden project, on automated interstate checkposts, was to strengthen the Cyber

Crime Department. That is when he decided to go in for the first computerized

Finger Printing Bureau. All technical investigations, involving critical

documents, FSL, finger prints were assigned to him. With an initial budget of

just 30 lakh, the police department at Bastar chose Secure Mantra as their

vendor for the project.

According to Vij, India is lagging far behind in the science of

forensics. Earlier Chhattisgarh only had a regional laboratory while the central

lab was in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh. The regional lab conducted only minor tests

and the police department relied on the Central lab for major investigations.

So, the regional lab in Raipur was upgraded into a central lab with the

introduction of the latest international equipment and processes.

With the increasing rate of cyber crime in Chhattisgarh, the

Police Department has set up a Cyber Lab at the headquarters to tackle cyber

crime cases.

To strengthen the grievance redressal system, self-service

kiosks are being installed at the various stations. The Police Department is in

the process of implementing the Common Integrated Police Application (CIPA)

which is projected for completion in the next two years. Once the CIPA is fully

functional, it will serve as a centralized integrated platform for the Police

Department in Bastar and adjoining districts.

Radio Active



Right since the beginning, Sheo Shekhar Shuklas focus was to interact
directly with the rural citizens in far-flung areas and to receive direct

feedback from them about the government machinery and its effectiveness on. This

motivated him to adopt a medium like radio that had great penetration within the

state. He spearheaded a radio program called Jan Samvad, where citizens could

call and Shukla and his officers would discuss their grievances.

To inform the masses about the action taken by the

administration, the team also set up a Jan Samvad website. All the grievances

that were addressed on air were immediately posted on the website. Also, the

officers were provided log-in IDs for accessing the website and taking

appropriate action on the queries. The officers in turn had to post their report

on the actions taken, back on the website. In this way, all the information was

available to the citizen, stakeholders as well the administrative bodies.

In addition, Shuklas team identified certain private kiosk

operators in the rural areas and they were doctored into the system. As the team

could not attend to all the calls that came in during a one-hour window, the

citizens were motivated to post their queries with the help of the private

Internet kiosk operators who uploaded all the queries onto the website.

These initiatives helped in creating transparent and direct

interface between citizens and the administration. It proved to be a great

success story as it was for the first time in India that the public could

interact directly with the collector of the state and discuss their problems.

The government officials were also cautious in their dealings with the citizenry

as the public was empowered and had direct access to the administration.

A Sensitive Touch



The pretty Sonal Mishra works with the Directorate of Urban Bodies, and is
responsible for looking after a total of 161 municipalities in Gujarat.

When she was the Municipal Commissioner of Jamnagar, she tried

to work out the modalities of the various services which the urban bodies

provide to citizens. Having realized that the IT solutions have to be customized

to the needs of the people, she set about in her path to successfully integrate

IT and governance to create a proactive and transparent mechanism.

While talking about her award-winning initiatives, her

enthusiasm and passion for the cause shines through. She speaks fondly of the

Jan Seva Kendra (JSK) or the Citizen Service Centres that have been set up in

Gandhinagar, where all the applications, petitions and problems of people are

redressed in a very systematic and scientific manner. It all starts from a

Citizen ID System, which is a centralized point where all the details of a

citizen are recorded. This brings in transparency and prevents any application

from getting lost within the system.

Mishra explains that effective e-governance brings a great deal

of responsibility for the bureaucracy. She says, "Personally, as we go

forward, I feel there is need for a proper mandate to bring about solutions in a

time bound and integrated manner." She further stresses on the need to

focus on the single citizen interface and develop a system around that.

Bureaucrats have to look beyond their respective departments and work in a

cohesive manner.

Change Agent



For Sunil Kumar Barnwal, Inspector General of Prisons and more recently
additional CEO of Jharkhand Agency for Promotion of IT, e-governance brings

about an opportunity to use IT to transform government processes.

Among his notable past assignments Barnwal has served as

director, Information Technology, Government of Jharkhand from March 2006 to

January 2008, wherein he was involved in almost all e-gov projects in Jharkhand.

During his tenure, he had been involved in the states SWAN and CSC. He is

also looking after the implementation of these projects. His stint as director

IT led Jharkhand to bag the Best e-Governed State (Future Potential) award in

2006 and Progressive e-Governed State award in 2007 from the Computer Society of

India.

Some of the key projects to Barnwals credit are Jharkhand

Automated Registration System, e-Kuber, Jharnet, Pragya Kendra, e-Gyan, and a

Child Tracking System. The current projects that he is handling include

videoconferencing between jails and Civil courts and Prisoners Management

Information System.

The Prisoners Management Information System is a complete

management information system of jails in a web-based environment. Presently the

project is being implemented in the Ranchi Central Jail.

Barnwal is responsible for monitoring the use of this system and

updation of databases by the jail superintendent. His responsibility also

involves planning and budgeting of jails using the information of prisoners.

Spirited Champion



With a background in public administration, Kapur, whose earlier stints included
working with the Tea Board of India, has always been an active proponent of

utilizing technology for better governance whether it is working on revamping

the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) pass system or transforming the much lax

file movement procedures in the government departments by introducing the file

monitoring system.

His first brush with technology, however, came in 1992 when he

decided to computerize liquor sales in Delhi. Before the implementation of the

barcode solution at IMFL vends, the government received a large number of

complaints about over-charging or black marketing of the brands. Post

implementation, customers are satisfied because they are not being over-charged,

and, also the brands available can be checked at the counter. One can also check

the sale, stock and availability of the brands on the Internet.

The File Monitoring System, which Kapur developed, has now

become a lifeline for many. Kapur was moved by the plight of the common man

facing delays in file movement in government departments and of making a number

of trips for getting a small job done. The FMS was tested in-house for six

months, and has now been in use for over a year. It prevents officers from

withholding files for long periods without stating clear reasons.

But no e-governance initiative is complete without the active

participation of the common citizen; and it was Kapurs belief in the

importance of this feedback that was the driver behind all his initiativesputting

the common man first.