Of late, the Kerala government has proven that it is not behind any other
state in imple menting e-governance projects than s to a new breed of officers
who have approached the task of computerization with a missionary zeal.
Even when citizen friendly projects such as Friends, Smart Ration Card,
Sevana, e-shringala, Keralcraft.com, treasury computerization and the like get
national attention, very few are aware of the sweat, toil and above all the
leadership qualities of those fast track officers that enabled it to happen.
Here is the story of five of them (both IAS and non-IAS) who had the vision and
dynamism to make IT happen.
Ration becomes smart…
In January, Kerala achieved a unique feat by launching the first smart
ration card. The officer behind it was M Sivasankar (IAS), Director of Civil
Supplies. "For the citizens, a smart ration card may not be of much help
but it certainly helps the administration prevent hoarding, black marketing and
pilferage of PDS goods into the open market," said Sivasankar. "The
larger objective is to set up a citizen database using the information on ration
cards," he added.
Sivasankar who was involved with the IT implementation in the government for
the past five years still feels FRIENDS, the one stop shop for payment of
utility bills, is the show piece for Kerala. "In FRIENDS the emphasis was
on training the employees to behave pleasantly with the public rather than mere
deployment of IT," said Sivasankar. Getting departments to co-operate with
the project was also an initial hurdle. He and his team went to Andhra Pradesh
to study the `twin city’ project before launching FRIENDS.
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"In 1998-99 when I was with the IT Mission Group and Administrative
Reforms Committee (ARC) our job was to evolve a framework for e-governance
rather than implementation. Our survey revealed that Rs 45 crore had already
been spent on computerization in departments but none were used for citizen
friendly services," reports Sivasankar. IT firms provided some technology
and solutions without understanding the government ethos, processes, systems and
work culture. The gap between the government and service providers was bridged
by ARC and by total solution providers. "Now many departments have definite
plans for IT deployment most of which are citizen friendly," he adds.
Kerala has adopted the Maharashtra model of empanelling PSU’s as total
solution providers because government departments feel comfortable dealing with
them instead of a multitude of private firms. The limitations in computerization
continue such as lack of co-ordination between departments, portability of
software and legacy systems, and lack of uniform Malayalam fonts.
Buses adopting IT
S Manoharan Nair, a superintendent at Kerala State Road Transport
Corporation (KSRTC), has proven that even non-IAS officers can take a lead in IT
implementation. Manoharan who joined as a clerk in 1971 is now implementing an
ASP-based business transaction model, Venus, whereby 83 depots and five service
depots of KSRTC are linked through a web server.
Programmed on visual basic riding on SQL servers, Venus integrates
collection, inventory, fuel, payroll, accident, and accounting details on a
daily basis and will be available for analysis/batch processing at the head
office. "Many schedules are cancelled for want of tyre cards. As many as
500 tyres get punctured every day but the repaired tyres cannot be used unless
its tyre card which is with the respective bus depot is send on time. At
present, it may take a week to get the tyre card", he added. Now the tyre
cards can be generated electronically from any depot by feeding the required
information on website.
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Manoharan left KSRTC a few times only to be persuaded to rejoin. In 1985 when
a computer cell was formed in KSRTC he was the first to pass the Keltron test in
COBOL and BASIC. Keltron was assisting KSRTC with inventory control and MIS.
Later, KSRTC decided to do it in-house thanks to the confidence shown by
Manoharan. In 1988, he took up centralized vehicle management and in 1995 one of
the depots was made online for waybill, ticket collection and accounting.
"In 1995, I took a five-year leave to join Tandem Infotech as a trainer for
their C-DAC courses. In 1996, I cancelled the leave to rejoin KSRTC. Then I
found it difficult to get the IT proposals approved by the Director board."
Subsequently he went on leave in 1997 to rejoin Tandem where he was also
responsible for software development. He led the team that devised a web-based
business transaction model and Café Manager software for cyber café
management.
"In July 2001, I rejoined KSRTC following persuasion from the new
Transport Minister K B Ganesh Kumar who was keen on implementing IT," said
Manoharan. "The Minister assured me functional autonomy and sufficient
funds for deployment of IT," he added. Despite being a junior officer
Manoharan has managed to get his ideas implemented in the organization.
Of glorified typewriters…
S Ajayakumar (IAS), Industries Secretary and Managing Director of Keltron is not
disturbed by remarks that PCs in offices are nothing beyond a ‘glorified
typewriter’. "Using it as word processor will be the beginning," he
says. He is proud that Keltron is involved with most of the e-governance
projects in the state. Ajayakumar was also responsible for Keltron’s foray as
a total solutions provider for IT during the past three years. His most
ambitious project is the‘ e-shringala‘, the community information kiosks
being set up in all the panchayats in Kerala. This was launched with the
involvement of panchayats and local bodies. The series of e-governance
activities in his domain include an e-com portal (Keralcraft.com) for
traditional industries, a sub-contracting exchange for small business men
interested in taking up contract jobs for large industry, a web based monitoring
system for Ministers, heads of departments and secretaries to track the
performance of plan schemes, utilization of funds, work progress etc. He was
responsible for the Keltron-billjunction.com tie-up to facilitate utility bills
payment online and the Vehicle Traffic Management System to monitor police,
excise and sales tax raids is another project being undertaken by Keltron.
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Keltron devised an ISDN based messaging system for the government in record
time when it was required during the month-long strike by government employees
in February. Many departments are facing the problem of non-availability of
machines. Only 20% of the requirement of 1000 PCs is currently available. The
mindset of using IT for productive purposes has not fully dawned in a state that
was traditionally not computer-friendly. Citizen friendly services cannot take
off when PC penetration is low. Hence, Keltron used the kiosk model for e-shringala.
Many agencies agreed in principle to utilize Keltron-billjunction.com facility
but are slow in implementation. "Many departments are reluctant in sharing
information vital for total solutions providers to implement solutions," he
said. "Even when solutions capable of being deployed across departments are
developed they are not utilized resulting in duplication", Ajayakumar
added.
Pensions become hassle-free
Many retired employees now need to spend less time before the payment
treasuries to get their monthly pension thanks to IT deployment in payment
treasuries in the state capital. The Finance Department expects the Treasury
Networking and computerization to be over by 2003. IT deployment had helped the
Budget Wing in the preparation of the 2002-03 State Budget despite the month old
strike by government employees. One of the key resource persons in implementing
IT in Finance Dept is Prof R Sahadevan, Director, Information Systems who is
also a consultant to various other departments.
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Prior to this he was the joint director of the LBS Center for Science and
Technology, Thiruvananthapuram and Chairman, Computer Society of India (Kerala
chapter). His technical background has provided him with a firm base to
conceptualize and advise the department in its various ventures.
"Treasury computerization will lead to better `money management’ while
computerization of commercial taxes will lead to better monitoring of
revenue," feels Sahadevan. The mindset of the average employee in the
Finance Department has changed due to extensive training – including basic
computer training, application software and implementation. However, no miracles
can be expected in the government. "This is largely because of procedural
delays. For e.g. for procurement of hardware, store purchase manuals may have to
be adhered to. No department head will go out of his way in the procurement or
implementation deviating from the procedures and rules," claims Sahadevan.
During the past few years a cultural change has taken place in departments and
now PC’s are no longer dumped into unopened boxes for rats to feast on.
Educating the next generation
Despite Kerala’s good track record in literacy it is still behind other
states in IT deployment. Making up for the lost time and making do with a
shoestring budget is indeed an arduous task. However, V P Joy, IAS, Director of
Public Instruction has taken it up with a smile. For the past six months, Joy
has been in charge of Kerala’s ambitious IT@school project. He studied the IT
projects implemented in other states. "But the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
models of open tendering cannot work in Kerala." Primarily because of
constraints in fund allocation and secondly the need to have control over the
curriculum and course material.
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IT@School is being implemented on a unique and decentralized manner from the
8th standard in 2004 government schools from academic year 2002-03. The State
Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) has prepared the curriculum
while it is up to the panchayats, parent teacher associations, and elected
representatives to implement the project. They have to raise the resources
through MP Funds, panchayats own funds, and contributions from PTAs. Rooms,
air-conditioning, furniture, and power have to be ensured by the schools while
private agencies will be entrusted with hardware supply and software. This will
be done on a BOT basis for five years after which the entire system would be
handed over to the government. Schools have been allowed to levy a maximum fee
of Rs 25 per month from a student while fees will be waived for SC/ST students.
"The aim is to introduce IT as a topic of study and as a tool for
education," Joy said. Government will only act as a facilitator and provide
broad guidelines.
Although IT@school was talked about for the last two years it has achieved a
concrete shape only during the last six months.
This was after innumerous meetings and discussions between the education
department, SCERT, panchayat leaders, PTA’s in schools. "Now there is
enthusiasm to implement the project in schools," he added. Joy was also
instrumental in implementing computerization in tabulation work for SSLC final
examinations last year that resulted in the announcement of results much
earlier.
Kerala seems to be copying the model of success from other IT savvy states.
And given the red tapism and archaic rules that exist in government departments
the Herculean efforts of these individuals are more than creditworthy. If the
efforts of these men are allowed to take shape, very soon the state will have
more than reason to cheer!
R Sreekumar/CNS in Thiruvananthapuram