‘Vendors should understand the end user requirements’

Whom would you like to give the maximum credit for winning the e-Readiness award?

I would like to give the maximum credit to the dynamic vision of the state government coupled with unwavering political and administrative will. I would also like to give due credit to team Gujarat that is responsible for creation and implementation of the robust e-Governance initiatives, organizational structure and infrastructure, collaboration, and strengthening of decision making as also citizen-centric approach of the state government which is committed to ‘maximum governance, minimum government'.

What are the management practices you follow to ensure that you take all stakeholders along in the e-Governance journey?

In our journey, each department works out its IT plan through the departmental IT committee headed by the respective secretary of the department. Each department is horizontally connected to the Department of Science and Technology (DST)/Gujarat Informatics (GIL) thereby, following uniform and interoperable standards for all applications as well as ensuring unified infrastructure and hardware systems. The following practices are followed:

• Centralized e-procurement is carried out transparently by the nodal agency Gujarat informatics which has acquired proficiency in overseeing IT demand with consummate expertise
• Procurement above one crore is cleared by Secretaries Purchase Committee (SPC-IT)
• Preparation of comprehensive IT action plan across departments and approval by the departmental IT committee
• Formation of state-level apex committee headed by the chief secretary for the state-wide roll-out of the projects
• Periodic review in the meetings of the committee of secretaries
• Identification of project priorities
• Engagement of TSP consultant
• Designing of detailed scope of work, SLA, RFQ, RFP with the help of consultants
• Identification of technical standards with the help of consultant
• Approval of RFQ & RFP by the IT committee

What are the pitfalls that, in your opinion, should be avoided to make e-Governance successful?

In order to make e-governance successful, we should avoid: Resistance to change, lack of integrated services, issues relating to privacy and security, enhancement citizen awareness, upgradation of skills, common standards, experience sharing, reliable infrastructure, fast changing technology leading to rapid obsolescence, and system and process driven approach instead of champion driven approach.

The bottomline lies in converting challenges into opportunities for the welfare and benefit of the people. Encouraged and supported by the government which has provided an enabling and conducive framework, we have been able to steer clear of the pitfalls.