"PAWAN is our top priority"

Nirmaljeet Singh Kalsi, managing director, Punjab Infotech, and

director-cum-secretary, Department of IT, Government of Punjab, in a chat with

Jasmine Kaur of Dataquest, talks about how Punjab's IT policy powers its

e-governance engines and how it has helped roll out initiatives ranging from IT

education for school kids to easy pension plans for retired people. Excerpts:

What is the status of SWAN implementation?



The state-wide area network (SWAN), which the departments can utilize for

e-governance applications, would be ready in the next nine to twelve months. The

state government is also working out details for setting up state data centers

and district data centers for housing the applications and data, in consultation

with the DIT.

Punjab leads in the DIT e-readiness report. How has the state's IT

policy steered the development on this front?



As per the Punjab IT policy, the state government has been working under

four thrust areas: IT infrastructure, e-governance, HRD, and incentives for the

IT industry. An Empowered Committee on Computerization (ECC), under the

chairmanship of chief secretary of Punjab, has been set up for single-window

clearance and review of all e-governance projects. Videoconferencing facility is

already functional in all the districts. Tele-meetings with state officials can

now be held remotely, saving traveling expenses and valuable time.

While doing so, business process reengineering (BPR) and administrative

reforms (AR) have also been taken up simultaneously for ensuring maximum benefit

of e-governance.

What is the Suwidha project and what is its reach?



To provide convenient services at the grassroots level, more than 20 basic

services of the deputy commissioner's (DC) office have been made available to

citizens under the Suwidha project in all the 17 DC offices in an integrated

manner. The project has been developed by the National Informatics Center (NIC),

with an objective to improve government officials—citizen interface.

This facility is now being extended to the subdivision level. The government

is also planning to open more than 250 delivery channels at subdivision and

block levels.

How have the more complex e-governance projects related to taxation and

social security been tackled?



Punjab is the first state in the country, to have implemented value added

tax (VAT) software for management of business records. The model adopted has

been appreciated at the center. The state government has already introduced

significant computerization in the social security department for the pension

schemes.

Major pilot projects are also nearing completion in the important public

interface areas like land records, its integration with property registration

and transport services (Sarathi and Vahan). The successes of these pilots are

being implemented in the entire state on a public-private partnership (PPP).

Expressions of interest for integrating the two projects, namely land records

and property registration have already been invited, in which delivery of

services would be rendered through 150 plus centers up to the tehsil level. Very

soon, bids would be floated for the replication of transport services project in

the entire state.

What is Punjab's annual IT spend and how is the planning done?



In a year, about 2-3% of the state's planned budget is spent on IT

activities. The state government is taking up the public-dealing and

revenue-generating departments for the first phase of e-governance. At the time

of preparing budget estimates, IT projects are identified in the above-mentioned

areas and the requisite funds are provisioned.

Other than Suwidha, what are the other projects?



Compulsory computer education in schools has been successfully launched

through the 'ICT Literacy programme'. In the first phase, computer education

is being provided to about 7.5 lakh students, out of the total 13.5 lakh

students of classes 6 to 12 in the 1,299 government schools. In the second

phase, it is proposed to cover 1,572 higher and senior secondary schools.

Students and their parents have shown keen interest in computer education in the

first phase and the enrolment in ICT schools has gone up by about 15%. For

establishing IT infrastructure in schools, the government has used the BOOT

(build operate, own, and transfer) model by which PCs, UPSs, printers,

networking of computer lab, system and applications, and software will be taken

on a five-year lease on a maintain and transfer (LMT) basis. After five years,

the complete infrastructure shall be transferred to the department of school

education.

Punjab Registration Information System Management (PRISM) has provided an

innovative approach to the deeds registration. This avoids frauds related to

impersonation, change of photographs, etc. The valuation of the property is done

on the spot with PRISM, by dividing the whole jurisdiction into various segments

having government-defined rates, thus plugging the revenue leakage. PRISM

maintains a database of the market value of segments of habitation, depending on

type/sub-type of properties, both urban as well as rural.

What are the areas on which Punjab still has to work?



To interconnect all the e-governance initiatives, the state is establishing

Punjab State Wide Area Network (PAWAN) to act as the IT backbone for data,

voice, and video applications on a build, own, operate, and transfer (BOOT)

model; with financial and technical support of Department of Information

Technology (DIT), Government of India. All departments would use this network

for data, video, and voice services.

Punjab government is presently working to make the tendering process more

efficient and transparent. The pilot project is in progress and trial

e-procurement has been done. The state is progressing towards a statewide policy

for implementation of e-procurement. Some of the other areas include healthcare

services, police, rollout of municipal services in local government,

agriculture, establishment of state and district data centers and geographical

information system (GIS), and rural development and Gram Panchayat.

Can you summarize the e-gov works of the past six months, and give a

preview of what is on the cards for the next six months?



During the past six months, pilot implementations for transport applications

and multi service card (MSC) have been underway for on-the-spot services. NIC

has been developing Suwidha backend software for DC office applications. As far

as frontend services are concerned, replication of Suwidha-DC office application

has already been started in a few SDM offices with a plan to cover all SDM

offices in the state.

In the next six months, the state government would implement public-interface

applications, namely, land records, registration of the property and transport

vehicles, with participation of the private sector. At the top of the agenda is

establishment of SWAN, connecting the state headquarter with district

headquarters, subdivisions, and blocks on 2 Mbps bandwidth. We are moving

towards a stage where all our applications will be integrated and will talk to

each other in a secured manner for internal communication as well as for

delivery of citizen services.

What is the state government's vision and how does your IT action plan

fit into it?



Punjab Government's IT Vision states: "To improve the quality of life

of the people of Punjab by enriching their social, economic and cultural

well-being through the sustainable knowledge based development of the economy

and society".

As part of the Mission Mode Project program, the government of Punjab is

preparing two important documents: e-Governance Roadmap and Capacity-Building

Roadmap, for 20 selected departments. Based on these, department-wide IT action

plan would be prepared for implementation.

The key objectives of the present IT policy

• Improve the overall economy of Punjab by generating more
  
  jobs as well as domestic and export revenues, and ensuring even spread of
  
  such benefits to one and all.

• Creation of high-value employment potential through human
  
  resource development in IT and related areas.

• Make Punjab a favored industry destination for attracting
  
  investment from outside the state, by facilitating the creation of
  
  world-class infrastructure, institutional framework, and an enabling
  
  environment.

• Provide citizen-centered governance that is efficient, low
  
  cost, effective, transparent, friendly, affordable, convenient, and ensures
  
  full accountability of employees. The government would empower citizen
  
  through deployment of IT and e-governance.

• Make Punjab globally competitive.

• Turn the state into a smart and intelligent state and a
  
  knowledge society through IT education and e-governance, by promoting
  
  knowledge as the key resource for economic progress of individuals and
  
  institutions.