The Champions of Madhya Pradesh

The DQ Mission Governance Series held in Bhopal on March 23, discussed the
need to provide a speedy push to e-governance projects in Madhya Pradesh, the
idea was to strike a major change in the efficiency and transparency of the
systems.

Anurag Shrivastav, MD, MPSEDC, inaugurated the event. Ashok Awasthi, DIG,
Bhopal and Anil Oberoi, additional chief conservator of Forests accompanied him.
Lajpat Ahuja, deputy secretary and additional director, Public Relations
Department; and Satnaam Sethi, COO, MP Governments MPOnline, were also present.

What they Said

Sarman Nagele, editor, e-News Portal, MPpost.org opened the event by taking the
audience through the progress made by the state in the field of IT. Quoting the
report of the National Knowledge Commission, he added that the United Nations
and Global e-Governance in a recent study has stressed that efforts should be
made from all corners to extend  the benefits to the common public.

Later, addressing the audience, Shrivastav underlined the necessity to train
more government officials in ICT and e-governance project management. We have
to build capacity in the government cadre itself. There is no point in training
people above 55 years of age. We have to concentrate on young officials, he
added.

Awasthi warned the audience against the growing threat of cyber crime. He
advised the assembled gathering to not reveal their bank accounts, credit card
numbers and other personal information on the Internet. He also warned girls
against uploading their pictures on the Net. This could lead to various crimes
related to spam and morphing amongst others. However, there are provisions in
the IT Act of the Government of India to take action against such crimes, added
Awasthi.

Anurag Shrivastav, MD, MPSEDC stressed on the importance of training more government officials on ICT and scaling up the government cadre

Oberoi said that the Madhya Pradesh Forest Fire Alert System and other
applications were generating interest in other states. Gujarat and other states
with large tribal populations are consulting the MP Forest Department to
replicate the same in their state.

Underlining the tremendous potentiality of using information technology as an
enabler for agricultural growth in the country, Kamal Jain from the agriculture
department informed the audience on the information and advisory needs of
farmers. Jain also spoke about the services provided to the farmers by Hindi
portal Krishinet and Kisan Call Centre. He urged on the need for building an
integrated database that may serve as a repository of target beneficiaries for
different departments and agencies working in the field of rural development.

Lajpat Ahuja, additional director, Public Relations Department described the
rich, cultural and traditional heritage of the state and stressed on the need to
showcase the strength and opportunities in the state by the use of ICT.

Sandeep Jain of CRISP, Bhopal analyzed the potential of m-Governance, looking
at the increasing penetration of mobile services. Professor Anurag Sitha talked
about the IT applications employed by Makhan Lal Chaturvedi Patrakarita VV
Bhopal towards achieving e-University.

An active participation by the Bhopal audience was heart warming for the event organizers

Conquering Challenges

The workshop agred on the need for transparency in effectively making
information available to citizens using ICT tools. It was also felt that there
is a need to empower the service providers lobby in the state. The three main
challenges facing Madhya Pradesh today are illiteracy, lack of computer
awareness and low connectivity in the rural areas. Only once these three issues
are addressed in a proper manner will e-governance achieve real success in
Madhya Pradesh.

Dataquest has been regularly pioneering e-governance through editorial
content and workshops. As part of the Mission Governance Series, Dataquest has
been organizing events in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala and Haryana. The series
aims at getting all major stake holderssenior government officials in various
departments, local bodies and private players on one platform, the ultimate goal
being to enable the common man to avail of the transparent and effective
government services.

Various professionals and officials working in the field of e-governance
participated in the workshop and raised queries during the panel discussion.

Besides this, the Forest Fire Alert System of the Forest department and the
Krishinet applications of the Agriculture departments were specially lauded in
the Mission Governance Summit 2009. Anil Oberoi, additional chief conservator of
Forests and Kamal Jain, assistant director, Agriculture received the Dataquest
e-Gov Champion awards during the days proceeding .

Team DQ

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in