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ICTD PROJECT – ANNUAL REPORT 2006

UNDP, together with Ministry of Communica-

tions & IT, Government of India has conceptual-

ized the project, ICT for Development (ICTD)

with a mission to ‘make ICTs work for

people’. The National Institute for Smart Gov-

ernment (NISG) is the Implementation Agency

of this project. The project seeks to demonstrate

and further build on successful ICT for Develop-

ment initiatives through sustainable and repli-

cable pilot projects.

The activities undertaken during the period

January 2006 - December 2006 have been

described below:

The e-Procurement project funded under the

ICTD Project is being implemented in the state

of Karnataka by the Centre for e-Governance

(CEG) and e-Governance Secretariat. The e-Pro-

curement platform under implementation will be

common to all government organizations located

within the State. All tenders in the purview of the

Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement

(KTPP) Act will eventually be routed through the

State-wide platform and contractors will submit

their responses to the tenders electronically us-

ing the platform.

During the project development stage, the e-Gov-

ernance Secretariat had consulted and sought

decisions on all aspects of the Request for Pro-

posal (RFP) document from Project Implemen-

tation Committee (PIC) and Steering Committee

(SC).

The e-Procurement project is implemented on a

Private-Public-Partnership (PPP) mode. The pri-

vate partner will be remunerated for the e-Pro-

curement services provided on a transaction fee

basis. The business model devised is based on the

‘pay as we use’ logic and the government does not

make any upfront investments on the e-Procure-

ment application and in customization work. Even

the transaction fees due for the private partner

will not be directly paid by the Government. In-

stead, the contractors will pay transaction fees for

using the e-Procurement services.

During the year 2006, Hewlett Packard India Lim-

ited was selected to implement the project after a

detailed bid process mechanism. The e-Procure-

ment application will be hosted in the Internet

environment. End users can use the e-Procure-

ment application from their own offices through

the Internet medium or access the Internet from

any of the government or private owned kiosks.

The Government is in the process of scheduling

hand-holding and training exercises to end users

in the government and the contractor community

on the e-Procurement system. The training and

hand-holding exercises will be used not only to

I Pilot Initiatives

e-Procurement

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impart knowledge on the e-Procurement system

buy also to obtain inputs from the end-users on

the changes to be made in the e-Procurement sys-

tem. It is through such two-way interactions, an

e-Procurement system that meets the require-

ments of the end users can be developed.

The e-Procurement system implemented by the

Government is end-to-end in nature and it is com-

prised of the following modules:

i. Supplier registration

ii. e-Tendering

iii. e-Auctions

iv. Indent Management

v. Contract Management

vi. Catalogue Management

vii. MIS

With the implementation of the e-Procurement

platform, the manual submission of bids will be

replaced by electronic submission of bids. Fur-

ther, in due course, the payments for the

works/goods/services deliv-

ered by contractors will be

made online. In addition to the

above, several aspects of pro-

curement such as demand ag-

gregation, technical and ad-

ministrative approvals, mea-

surement book submission and

payment workflow will be

handled electronically.

The Government expects live

transaction to happen through

the e-Procurement system on a

pilot basis during the March-

April 2007 period. The Govern-

ment has initiated the integra-

tion of e-Procurement platform with the State’s

Treasury system (i.e. Khajane). Further, if the gov-

ernment agencies implementing e-Procurement

require integration with some of their relevant

legacy systems, such integration would be done.

The transaction fees due to the private partner

for the services provided will be paid by contrac-

tors bidding for government work. However, the

government requires funding for managing the

implementation of the e-Procurement system

across the State. The following types of expendi-

ture will be incurred by the Government for man-

aging the implementation of the State-wide e-Pro-

curement system:

q Awareness, Communication and Pub-

licity

q Payment towards salary and other al-

lowances of personnel of e-Procure-

ment cell (PMU)

q Honorarium for the experts who facili-

e-Procurement Governance Structure

e-Proc. Cell

Secretary, e-

Governance

(Project Director)

CEO, CEG

Project Officer

Manager, Process

Reforms

Private Partner

Project Director

Project

Manager

Steering Committee

Project Implementation Committee (PIC)

Secretary, PWD

Chairman PIC

Procurement Cell (FD)

Manager, Process

reforms

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tate the implementation of e-Procure-

ment project

q IT infrastructure for the e-Procure-

ment cell

q Travel expenses/conveyance of Ex-

perts/Officials/Personnel &

q Contingent expenditure such as pur-

chase of stationery articles, postage

stamps etc.

The funds provided under the ICTD project are

used by the government to address the expendi-

ture requirements listed above. The structure of

the e-Procurement cell is as illustrated below:

While live transactions through the e-Procure-

ment application are expected to happen during

the March – April 2007 period, the Government

has successfully completed the following activi-

ties:

q Constitution of e-Procurement cell

(Project Management Unit) under the

Centre for e-Governance, e-Gover-

nance Secretariat. Various positions in

the e-Procurement cell have been

filled by employing personnel on

deputation from the government and

also from the market

q Project Management Unit (PMU) of

the private partner is also in place

q The Private Partner has completed the

AS IS and TO BE process studies

q Amended the KTPP Act through Or-

dinance dated 25th November 2006,

which legally approves the implemen-

tation of “a single unified e-Procure-

ment platform for all procurement

entity”

q The MSA between the Government

and the Implementation agency was

signed on the 1st of December 2006

q Preparation of training plan

q Preparation of communication and

publicity strategy

q Empanelment of Certification Au-

thorities for issuance of digital certifi-

cates is under way

q RFP for selection of 3rd agency for test-

ing, certifying and security audit of the

e-Procurement system has been final-

ized

q Specifications and requirements for

up-gradation of IT and network infra-

structure have been developed. The

procurement process is under-way

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Bangalore One

Under the ICTD project the Government of

Karnataka (GoK) conceived the Bangalore One

project to provide integrated services to citizens

so as to enhance speed, certainty, transparency

and efficiency in providing various government

services to the citizens through the concept of

‘One-Stop-Shop’. It was envisaged that Bangalore

city would eventually need about 50 citizen ser-

vice centers to provide about 100 G2B, G2C and

B2C services in Bangalore City. It was decided to

initially establish 15 service centers in different

parts of the city and provide the services of 7 de-

partments/agencies participating initially in the

Bangalore One Project.

Currently as per the first phase of the project 16

centers are operational and there are 11 govern-

ment departments and 5 private players who are

offering services through Bangalore One. Two

centers in Srirampuram and Infosys campus in

Electronics city were opened in 2006.

Bangalore One Citizen Service Centers

1. Airport Road

2. Banashankhari

3. HBR Layout

4. JP Nagar

5. Jayanagar

6. Kalasipalyam

7. Malleshwaram

8. Nagarbhavi

9. RT Nagar

10. Rajajinagar

11. Shantinagar

12. Tannery Road

13. Vijaynagar

14. Yeshwanthapura

15. Sriramapuram

16. Infosys

A wide range of services from paying electricity

and telephone bills and property tax to submit-

ting passport application and renewing registra-

tion licence for shops is being offered. Currently

23 services are being offered and many more are

in the offing.

Some Interesting Statistics

The total number of transactions per month over

all 15 centres is approx. 40 lakh while the total

monthly collection is approx. Rs. 32 crores. In

contrast with the number of transactions at the

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Sl.No. Participating departments Services offered

BESCOM

BWSSB

BMP

RTO

BSNL

Cellone

BPS

SRO

Dept of labour

Regional Passport Office

BMTC

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2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

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a) Viewing and Payment of Bills

b) Statement of Accounts

c)Viewing and Payment of Bills

d)Statement of Accounts

e) Payment of property tax

f) Issue of Birth certificate

g) Issue of Death certificate

h)Renewal of Learners License

i)Collection of road tax for transport vehicles

j) Viewing and Payment of Bills

k)Viewing and Payment of Post Paid Bills

l)Collection of fine

m) Market Value Assistance

n) Renewal of registration certificates of Shops and

commercial establishments

o) Sale of Passport Applications

p) Acceptance of Applications for Fresh Passport for Major and

Minors

q) Renewal of Passport for Majors and Minors

r)Renewal of Monthly Passes

Tata Teleservices s)Viewing and Payment of Bills

Spice Telecom t)Viewing and Payment of Bills

Western Union Money

Transfer

RIC v)Viewing and Payment of Bills

Airtel w)Viewing and Payment of Post Paid Bills

u)Money Transfer Services

Business to Citizens

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14

15

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service centre only around 2,000 transactions

took place over the internet. In the share of ser-

vices by department Bangalore Electricity Sup-

ply Company (BESCOM) leads with a share of

over 65 per cent followed by Bangalore Water

Supply & Sewerage Board (BWSSB) with 13.5 per

cent and BSNL with 10.7 per cent. The preferred

mode of payment is cash with over 85 per cent

cash transactions followed by 14 per cent transac-

tions through cheque. Interestingly only 0.09 per

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eGovWorld is an important initiative of Depart-

ment of Information Technology, Government of

India aimed at building the capacities both within

Government and outside by providing access to

quality knowledge and learning in the field of e-

Governance. The creation of such a portal was ex-

pected to provide a significant boost to the imple-

mentation of National e-Governance Plan (NeGP)

of Government of India. The portal was concep-

tualized in Public Private Partnership mode so as

to leverage the capacities of the private sector in

developing and managing portals of such signifi-

cance in a sustainable manner. NISG is the project

manager for the project.

With these objectives in mind and an elaborate

Request for Proposal (RFP) and bid process, M/s

NIIT led Reliance Communication Ltd. consor-

tium was selected as an implementation partner

with a responsibility of development and manage-

ment of the portal application and infrastructure

along with the responsibility of providing rich and

useful content for the portal.

The eGovWorld portal was to be tested by a third

party agency before the launch. MindTree con-

sulting Ltd. was selected from NISG’s panel of

consultants for carrying out the Testing and Cer-

tification of eGovWorld Portal. The following was

the scope of the assignment:

1. Functional Testing

2. Performance Testing

3. IT Infrastructure assessment

4. Quality assessment including Security

Policy Review

Mindtree Consulting had declared compliance on

performance related SLAs on Sep 25, 2006. How-

ever, NISG and the Dept. of IT felt that the NIIT

led consortium had failed to develop content

which was rich in quality and useful to the users

of the portal. There were many instances of in-

cluding sub-standard and irrelevant content in the

portal just to reach the quantities specified in the

Service Level Agreements, with utter disregard for

quality and relevance. Regular and frequent re-

views and communications to NIIT pointing out

the deficiencies did not yield any positive results.

With the approval of the Chairman, Task Force

of the eGovWorld project, the agreement with

NIIT has been terminated. The exit management

process is in progress with the recovery of advance

from NIIT, PBG and penalties have been invoked.

Currently, alternative agencies will be identified

to implement the eGovWorld portal.

cent of the payments is made through credit card

or through the internet.

Though it was envisaged that 50 such centres

would be set up there have been difficulties with

finding space. The GoK also envisages that the

benefits of this kind of project will also be made

available in Tier II cities like Hubli Dharwad etc.

and a roll-out plan is being prepared.

eGovWorld

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EDSS

Development Alternatives (DA), a not for profit

organization in collaboration with Tarahaat is

implementing the pilot project “Enterprise Devel-

opment & Support Services (EDSS)” in two dis-

tricts of Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh/

Madhya Pradesh. The project focuses on provid-

ing entrepreneurship opportunities to youth,

women, self-help groups, landless and small land

holders, in entrepreneurial skills and in areas of

non-traditional agriculture and locally relevant

manufacturing businesses, through

TARAkendras, TARAhaat’s ICT enabled rural

community -cum- business centers. A key element

of the project is to provide ongoing support ser-

vices to assist entrepreneurs through heir busi-

ness life cycle.

The unique and comprehensive ICT based Enter-

prise Development Service (EDS), currently in its

final pilot stage, supports aspiring and established

entrepreneurs through every element of the busi-

ness life cycle. The primary components of the

service are (i) an Enterprise Packages to provide

both technical training in a specific type of busi-

ness, imparting the fundamentals of how to man-

age the enterprise and also imparts customised

concepts on how to establish market and finan-

cial linkages, (ii) an Entrepreneurship Develop-

ment Programme customized for the background

and life experience of rural citizens, to enhance

their understanding of how to set-up a business,

planning and management and (iii) an Ask the

Expert & an online FAQ service to provide on-

going business support, all in the local language

and where practicable in the local idiom. Addi-

tionally, an outreach programme to identify po-

tential entrepreneurs is currently being rigorously

field tested to ensure that the EDS products ben-

efit the maximum number of

individuals.

There has been strong acceptance of the products

within the EDS programme by both potential and

existing entrepreneurs as well as by institutions

supporting enterprise development. It is evident

that the EDS programme meets the needs of both

segments in a relevant and practical way, filling a

vacuum in existing programmes. It is also evident

that there is a demand for a variety of discrete

Enterprise Packages (EPs) to address the needs

of specific unserved demographic segments of the

rural community.

The programme is delivered through the

TARAhaat network of TARAkendras. Training is

imparted in a classroom environment. The EDP

and EP courses are delivered through LCD pro-

jectors and laptops and an intensively trained

trainer/ instructor facilitates the training

programme. Experts, including successful entre-

preneurs and bank officials, are invited to the

TARAkendra during training to share their expe-

riences with the aspiring entrepreneurs. The fol-

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low up and post training support is also chan-

nelled through these TARAkendras.

Development of EDS products has been based on

the following software tools:

• Enterprise Package

o Micro Concrete Roof Tiles (MCR)

– Adobe Premier & Media Player

o Broiler Based Poultry farming –

Adobe Premier & Media Player

• Enterprise Development Programme –

Macromedia Flash

• Web Based Support Service –

ASP.net,SQL (server end),Ms Access (cli-

ent

end)

EDP - The objective of the Entrepreneurship De-

velopment Programme is to train motivated in-

dividuals towards entrepreneurship, develop their

business understanding & skills and empower

them to independently establish and manage suc-

cessful enterprises. It covers the basics of identi-

fication, setting up and management of businesses

to meet the needs of budding as well as existing

entrepreneurs.

EP - Each EP teaches the aspiring entrepreneur

the fundamentals of business, and covers the tech-

nical elements of the business. It also covers the

areas of starting their business, finance, market-

ing, sales customer service and other essential

areas needed to ensure their success. Each EP is

delivered in local language and is designed to the

educational and cultural level of the potential au-

dience. Community input has been invaluable in

product design and content delivery architecture.

Web-based business support system - The web-

based business support system provides entrepre-

neurs with ongoing support, even after the train-

ing period is complete. It is a computer-based

system, which recognizes the inadequate level of

infrastructure available to the vast majority of

India’s rural citizens and does not rely on live

Internet connectivity. It has a userfriendly, multi-

lingual interface. The system integrates two ap-

plications; the first, a database of questions cat-

egorized by enterprise, domain and region, called

the FAQ Database. It is designed on a search en-

gine model allowing for free text, keyword based

and category-based searches.

The second application, Ask the Expert service,

allows entrepreneurs to submit queries to which

they has not found answers in the FAQ database.

The queries are submitted through a user-friendly

web site, which has been designed to support

multilingual voice or text format along with pic-

tures. The queries are stored in the computer un-

til it connects to the Internet and is transmitted

to experts identified by TARAhaat. Once these

services are fully operational, and the broadband

infrastructure supports online support, entrepre-

neurs can expect answers from the experts within

48 hours.

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Financial Linkages - Community input consis-

tently highlighted that a major impediment to

entrepreneur development in rural communities

was the lack of transparency, faced by the aver-

age rural entrepreneur, in financing a start up or

in acquiring funds to finance expansion. Many of

the potential candidates for training expressed the

futility in even attending any of the EDS semi-

nars since they had heard numerous anecdotes

on this issue.

Given the severity of this concern amongst estab-

lished and potential entrepreneurs, DA/

TARAhaat were forced to actively develop rela-

tionships with local financing institutions. Exten-

sive presentations were made to senior local bank-

ing mangers. Based on an in depth due diligence

carried out by these individuals, of the products

and services offered by the EDS programme, and

the roll of DA / TARAhaat in developing and de-

livering the service, many of managers were not

only willing to attend training sessions to discuss

how financial institutions approach the granting

of loans and evaluate credit worthiness, but they

have also offered to assist qualified individuals in

obtaining financing for eligible businesses. The

active development of alliances and linkages with

financial institutions has become a cornerstone

of the programme. TARAhaat has therefore in-

corporated the participation of financial services

institutions as a key element of its training

programme.

To meet the objective of the EDS programme

identifying and negotiating partnerships and al-

liances with government, corporate and civil so-

ciety organizations is mandatory. Several avenues

for building such alliances have been explored,

and selected alliances have been consummated or

are in final stages of negotiation. Some of the prin-

cipal ones are listed below: -

• Regional Rural Bank, (Jhansi & Lalitpur)

• Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangthan (NYK’s-

Agra Region)

• Regional Employment Exchange Bureau

• Uttar Pradesh Udyog Mandal

• Central Bank, Lalitpur

• District Industries Centre

• Khadi & Village Industries Commission

• Central Bank

• NABARD, Lalitpur

• Local NGO’s

Revenue model

Based on the work done to date the following

sources of revenue enable the EDS programme

to be sustainable over the long run.

• Training Fees and support charges

• Advertisement & Sponsorships

• Fees to suppliers / vendors of enterprises

set up

• Consultancy fees to TARAguru (entrepre-

neur mentor)

• User Charges for web based support ser-

vices

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• Revenue share from entrepreneur’s prod-

uct/service marketed through the

network of TARAhaat’s kiosks

The i-CoSC project is being implemented by the

Dept. of IT, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh in Shimla

district. The objective of the project was to imple-

ment 17 i-CoSC centers covering all tehsils, sub-

tehsils, sub-divisions and district HQ in Shimla

district offering a wide range of government ser-

vices. It was also envisaged that a work flow sys-

tem would be implemented to facilitate citizens

to scan and send documents to higher levels in

the administrative hierarchy, thereby reducing

time to travel to government offices. In a difficult

terrain like Himachal Pradesh, the i-CoSC project

when implemented will offer many benefits and

will enable the citizens to access information and

government services cutting across different tiers

of administration closer to their homes and un-

der a single roof.

A team from NISG, UNDP and DIT visited Shimla

on Sep 28-29, 2006 to review the i-CoSC project

in Shimla district. While services are being offered

at the centers, the project is still a cause of con-

cern as backend integration of the applications

has not been implemented correctly, the workflow

has not been implemented and the centers are not

standardized.

Along with providing government services, an i-

CoSC was to facilitate faster communication and

easier access to information by giving people ac-

cess to the Internet enabling rural people to have

access to email and to surf the World Wide Web

including various departmental websites of the

Himachal Pradesh Government (like health, edu-

cation, agriculture, social justice and women wel-

fare, rural development etc.). This facility has not

yet been provided at the centers for the benefit of

citizens.

Project activities will be intensified during 2007

once the Himachal Pradesh State Wide Area Net-

work is implemented.

i-CoSC

As the programme is rolled out, it is anticipated

that additional revenue streams will be identified

and brought on stream.

The 2006 project year comprised two phases, the

first to develop, test and refine each of the com-

ponents of the basic service and the second to test

all elements of the delivery components for scale

up. Phase two, which will continue into 2007, is

currently underway with results exceeding the

programme commitments as summarized below.

Full-scale rollout of the programme will be

achieved within the committed time frame.

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e-Justice

The e-Justice project aims to create ‘a citizen cen-

tric approach for providing access to justice

through Information Communication Technol-

ogy’. The mission of the project is to create aware-

ness among the citizens residing in the rural and

semi-urban areas about the legal provisions and

the roles and responsibilities of the governmen-

tal functionaries, involved in the administration

of statutes. The mission is also to generate aware-

ness about the existence of various support agen-

cies and groups namely, Legal Aid Cells, the Le-

gal Services Authority, social workers (counse-

lors) and other activists. The project is being

implemented by the Center for Good Governance

in the districts of Krishna and Mahbubnagar in

Andhra Pradesh.

Four kiosks in Mahabubnagar are currently func-

tional and are providing services to the citizens.

In addition to the kiosks the e-Justice software

is being installed at all the LSA offices and of-

fices of NGO working on issues relating to women

& children. As per the architecture, business logic

and information database are installed in the

same machine to provide information on offline

basis. The kiosk is also provided with internet

connectivity using dial-up connection to synchro-

nize with Central Block at regular intervals using

Web Services. The system can connect to the e-

Justice Portal server at regular intervals the fol-

lowing services.

• Software patches.

• Legal Database updates

• Subscription Information and

• Uploading queries from citizens to the

server to be processed by the feedback

processing cell

The current services available at present are.

• Obtain the required legal information.

• Take a print out of the information if nec-

essary.

• Send queries to legal experts at CGG, the

Legal Services Authority or any other au-

thority.

• Send online application of your legal prob-

lem to the concerned authority.

• Check the status of your case if your ap-

plication has been accepted by the con-

cerned authority.

The e-Justice project has a formal linkage with

Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh and The Andhra

Pradesh Legal Service Authority. The department

of Panchayat and Rural Development is support-

ing the initiative in publicizing the concept to the

Self Help Groups, Civil Society Organizations etc.

The project envisages the collection of user/ ser-

vice charges from citizens making use of the e-

justice kiosk services. However, it is felt that the

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stabilisation of e-Justice kiosk services and ad-

equate traffic flow to the kiosks will take 18-24

months and only after this we may try for the rev-

enue model.

The District Coordinators of the e-Justice project

regularly conduct legal awareness camps, work-

shops and various awareness campaigns regard-

ing the benefits of the project. In addition, online

modules have been developed for greater under-

standing of the laws, along with courses for legal

awareness in specific areas wherein mere rudi-

mentary understanding would not be adequate.

Latest updates are made available to the target

audience and to those who subscribe to the mail-

ing list.

Some of the major outputs achieved during the

year include:

• A Handbook on essential citizen related

laws has been published for training pur-

pose. About 200 Para Legal Volunteers

were trained in Krishna District and 100

Para Legal Volunteers were

trained in Mahabubnagar

during the November and

December 2006. Such

training programmes will

be continued in the remain-

ing months.

• Four kiosks are

functioning which are pro-

viding services. Queries are

being forwarded to the

LSA.

• A special Lok

Adalat was conducted by

the LSA for solving cases

forwarded through the e-

Justice kiosks.

• About 300 Para Legal Volunteers have

been trained in the past 3 months.

• A workshop was held in November 06 on

the sustainability of the e-Justice Project

with participants drawn from the Bar As-

sociation of Hyderabad, state legal ser-

vices authority, Media, NGOs, MARG –

New Delhi, Professors of NALSAR and

Principals of Law Colleges from

Hyderabad

• A handbook on the simplified laws was

published and copies widely distributed

in both the districts.

• Linkage established with DRDA for using

their legal volunteers for promoting e-Jus-

tice.

• Linkage strengthened with LSA for install-

ing e-Justice software at all district LSA

offices.

• Linkages established with e-Seva for es-

tablishing kiosks at their premises.

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Mahiti Manthana

The Mahti Manthana project is situated in the

context of Mahila Samakhya – an established

grassroots initiative of the Government of India

for empowering socially and economically

disempowered women in rural areas though self-

help group activity. The self-help groups at the

village level are called

sanghas. The sanghas are

federated at the Taluk level.

Mahiti Manthana works

closely with Mahila

Samakhya Karnataka

(MSK). The Mahiti

Manthana project being

implemented by IT for

Change, an NGO based in

Karnataka, employs a

multi-pronged ICT strategy using video, radio,

and telecentres in 3 talukas of Mysore district.

The project is using inexpensive, locally made vid-

eos which carry relevant, local and contextual

knowledge for sangha women. Many of these vid-

eos feature sangha women themselves; some will

be simple recordings of taluk or district level train-

ing sessions that only a few women could attend

but many can view on video; some will capture

processes in one taluk or sangha which can be

replicated in others, some other videos will sim-

ply show women discussing key issues in the vil-

lage, or interacting with government officials.

Making and distributing these videos can be

cheaper today than developing and distributing

text based material. The impact of the audio-vi-

sual media is immense; it is completely accessible

to the largely illiterate women, and is easily ame-

nable to the context and needs of women’s

sanghas.

Mahiti Manthana also uses community radio in

Mysore to relay a weekly half hour program, which

is completely oriented to sangha women. The ra-

dio program plugs into

general MS activity in the

region, giving information

about or discussing vari-

ous activities conducted or

going on during the week

and future activity sched-

ules. Increasingly, more

and more programs are

made by women them-

selves. Apart from infor-

mational aspects and discussion of various gen-

der related issues, the weekly radio program will

enable the sangha women in the region articu-

late their collective identities as belonging to a

larger women’s group or movement.

Adolescent girls (kishoris) are an important con-

stituency for MSK, and Mahiti Manthana will spe-

cifically address their needs. Through the project,

young kishoris will run telecentres under the own-

ership and control of sanghas. While the

telecentres are designed to provide basic com-

puter education, and some fee-based computer

services to the community, which enables them

to earn some revenue, the real empowerment

possibilities of telecentres lies in linkages with

public institutions to obtain due entitlements. The

telecentres will be used for providing basic infor-

mation about government services and schemes,

14

and also used as Right to Information (RTI) fa-

cilitation centres. RTI, if used appropriately by

communities, is poised to become a major tool

for obtaining rights and entitlements, and it is

useful for MS sanghas and federations to engage

early with this empowering possibility. The

project involves collection of community data,

helping public service providers to use this data

for targeting interventions (like health interven-

tions for pregnant women, and infants), and to

extract accountability for services not provided,

by matching data of actual health interventions

with those listed in public records obtained

through use of RTI.

At present the following services are being pro-

vided:

a) Radio

• Developmental information

• Discussion forum

• MSK announcements

b)Videos (Different formats of video are classi-

fied as per their predominant use)

• Informational videos

• Videos as training aids

• Process documentation videos

• Identity building and discourse legitimiz-

ing videos

c) Telecentres (6 telecentres established)

• Computer education

• Community health database

• Right to Information services

• Literacy – learning and retention

• Government services related information

• Entitlement – information and taking

applications

• Computer-based services like print outs

and DTP

The Mahiti Manthana project has a very broad

canvas of application and objectives, and it is pos-

sible to chart its results in many different ways.

One important thing to note here is that because

of its breadth, the outputs are rather spread out,

but together contribute to a deep and sustained

impact towards many developmental objectives,

especially of women’s empowerment.

The outputs of the project are reported over the

following components: (i) the three ICT compo-

nents of MM, (ii) impact on MSK, (iii) direct im-

pact on women’s empowerment, and (iv) impact

beyond the project area.

As per three ICT components of MM

• Radio – The weekly radio program is becom-

ing very popular. It has become a key anchor

for identity articulation among sangha women

as belonging to a wider women’s movement,

thereby legitimizing sangha women’s world

view as an important discourse in the com-

munity. It is also an important source of im-

portant information.

• Video – A good amount of work has been done

to demystify developmental video, and many

videos have been produced by the project.

15

These videos have been classified in different

types as per their use, and different produc-

tion processes have been devised for each,

keeping the overall cost very low. Videos are

used as stand alone information sources, as

training tools, for peer-to-peer learning and

also for identity articulation and discourse le-

gitimization. Videos are being used in a sys-

tematic manner as constituting a new insti-

tutional form of learning, called Sangha Shale

or SHG classroom.

• Telecentres – Community telecentres, run and

owned by sangha women are providing vari-

ous services mentioned earlier. Services are

being developed both for positioning the SHG

as a key provider of services in the commu-

nity, and thus enhancing their social stand-

ing, and also to develop new linkages for SHG

women with local government machinery, and

institutions like banks etc.

At the level of MSK, Mysore, the main objective

of MM is to ICT enable MSK’s women empower-

ment strategy. All components of the project try

and follow MSK’s priorities closely rather than

devise direct interventions. For example, the ra-

dio is used as a forum to broaden and deepen

MSK’s reach, and videos are primarily made to

go with MSK’s current training needs. The project

has been able to obtain MSK’s complete partici-

pation in designing interventions and implement-

ing them, and increasingly also in building radio

and video skills, which they are starting to use in-

dependently. MSK staff has also been learning to

use computers in their own work. The MM project

measures impact over a progressive scale of ‘ac-

16

ceptance’, ‘ownership’ and ‘integration’ at the level

of MSK as well as of the community, for which

specific indices have been evolved.

At the level of women’s empowerment – Women’s

empowerment, by definition, is about changes in

gender power relationship and MM has triggered

processes of such power change at many levels.

Primarily,

• SHG women are exhibiting a new information

seeking behaviour – they demonstrate not

only a feeling that information is empower-

ing, but that there are means, within their

reach, to access most information.

• There is also a new communication behaviour

– which comes from a realization that what

they express is not only a legitimate

worldview, but that it can be greatly strength-

ened and validated through ICTs.

• Further, the women realize that not only can

they seek information and communicate on

their own behalf, but also on the behalf of the

wider community. This gives these women a

new social status in the community.

• And as women take on a new public role, in-

cluding as intermediaries to outside institu-

tions, like government bodies, their power is

enhanced vis-a-vis these institutions, and also

in the community through the use of these

linkages. A good example of this is the use of

a community health database, to assist pub-

lic health service providers, and if necessary

to extract accountability from them.

• Apart from the above, the use of specific in-

formation, in areas of health, livelihood, em-

ployment etc, and use of government linkages

for obtaining entitlements etc have an obvi-

ous empowerment impact.

MSK units in other districts, as well as some other

NGOs and public agencies, have been visiting MM

project sites and are interested in using the learn-

ing for setting up similar processes in their own

areas. A recent request by the Tamil Nadu State

Open University for learning from the experience

of our radio initiative is a case in point. The inter-

est to learn about the project applies to all the ICT

components – radio, video and telecentres.

17

E-Krishi

The e-Krishi project, being implemented by

Kerala State IT Mission, envisages setting up of a

network of farming communities throughout

Kerala who have access to information on mar-

ket demand, prices, good agricultural practices,

quality agricultural inputs, expert advice, etc. This

network is supported by a technology-enabled

robust platform that facilitates all on-line and off-

line activities.

E-Krishi addresses the existing gap in agriculture

information flow and transaction management.

The project will facilitate and enable farmers and

other stakeholders to interact with agricultural

service providers in the private, government and

non government sectors through agri-business

centres.

The project will provide a web based solution en-

abling the small and medium farmers as well as

owners of large landholdings. Piloting shall be

done in Malappuram district with the participa-

tion of the existing Akshaya e-Kendra Entrepre-

neurs. The facilities and resources of Akshaya e-

Kendras in terms of computers, printers, scan-

ners, cameras etc. and intranet/internet connec-

tivity, already established throughout

Malappuram District (About 550 e-Kendras), can

be leveraged to reach the masses of farming com-

munity and other stakeholders in Agriculture sec-

tor.

The key output of this initiative will be the facili-

tation and integration of all economic activities

of all stakeholders involved in agriculture. By

empowering the under-performing and non-per-

forming farms into one producing exemplary

products at a competitive price the project envi-

sions making farming a sustainable economic ac-

tivity.

E-Krishi initiative is aimed at providing basic in-

puts and value added information to the farming

community as well as to all stakeholders in the

agriculture sector of the State. The primary tar-

get groups include:

• Farmers, self-help groups, agri buyers, agri

exporters, agri product manufacturers

• Agri input providers for planting materials,

fertilizers, pesticides, test laboratories, equip-

ment suppliers, quality graders, logistics pro-

viders, warehouse corporations.

• Other stakeholders are banks, insurers, ag-

ricultural institutions, etc.

A Preliminary Impact Study of the e-Krishi project

was conducted by Prof. V. Mukunda Das of IIITM-

K. The data for the study was obtained through

unstructured interviews with various stakehold-

ers. The web portal of the project (www.e-

krishi.org) was also analysed in detail and evalu-

18

ated. The Impact study provided the opportunity

to review the e-Krishi project pragmatically.

Based on the lessons learnt from the field during

the first phase of project implementation, a more

holistic approach was considered to get the de-

sired results.

Appropriate linkages have been forged with the

e-extensions and education initiatives like the

KISSAN, Virtual University for Agricultural Trade

and Krishideepam TV serial so that the project’s

objectives and goals are achieved efficiently and

effectively. IIITM-K shall assist KSITM in e-Krishi

implementation in areas like technology develop-

ment, on demand information services, provid-

ing expert advisories, setting up on demand edu-

cational /training programs etc.

A revised proposal was submitted to NISG by

KSITM. NISG visited the project sites and also

had detailed discussions with Kerala State IT

Mission. The revised proposal was approved and

KSITM is working in close collaboration with

IIITM-K and VUAT in implementing the project.

Currently 114 e-Krishi centres are in operation

covering all the blocks of Malappuram district.

The selection of Akshaya centres for the e-Krishi

project is based on their performance on the fol-

lowing criteria:

1. e-pay service

2. e-vidhya course

3. Internet to the Masses Programme

4. Intel learn Programme

5. Students Net Programme

6. Meeting attendance of Akshaya

entrepreneurs

In line with the revised proposal and

based on the learning from the prelimi-

nary assessment, the e-Krishi web por-

tal has been redesigned cater to new

requirements and additional

functionalities which are in alignment

with the trading and marketing func-

tions

The first version of the Web portal

(www.e-krishi.org) had the following sections:

a) Agri Trade Centre (http://www.e-krishi.org/

trade). The platform allows

i) Registration of Buyers/Sellers stating their

location and their produce.

ii)Posting of Trade interest stating quantity,

quality etc.

b) Agri Resource Library (http://www.e-

krishi.org/produce/Main.aspx). This

platform allows upload of information

documents with Abstract, Produce/item

related to, location etc.

c) http://www.e-krishi.org/SH/:   The platform

also allows information dissemination on

19

agriculture news, notes and related

information.

d) http://www.e-krishi.org/Price/:  Price

information of commodities. Produce,

Location District / Block / Panchayat /

Municipality, Item/type,  description and

price in Rs.  per unit

Multi Commodity Exchange(MCX)/NSEAP

An MOU signed with Multi Commodity exchange

to disseminate price information on produces.

MCX is also keen to participate in Procurement

of agri crops at Minimum Support Price.

Further portal enhancement undertaken

1. Buyers’ corner.

a) Buyer will be able to see postings by sellers,

category wise, panchayat wise, block wise and

district wise.

b)Buyer will be able to post his requirements.

c) Buyer will be able to see corresponding seller

ads .

d)Buyer will be able to search based on his

requirements.

e) See status of his postings and set alerts.

2. Sellers’ corner.

a) Seller will be able to post his ads and set alerts.

b) Seller will be able to see status of the postings.

c) View buyer request.

d) Seller will be able to see corresponding buyer

request that he is postings.

Toll free call centers:

Under the e-krishi project, a toll free call center

has been established  which is being managed by

the Indian Institute of Information Technology

and Management - Kerala. Three postgraduate

students in Agriculture have been recruited and

trained for the management of call center. The

call center is monitored and supported by the

experienced research and extension officers of

KISSAN Kerala available in the kissan data center

at IIITM-K. The farmers and traders can reach

the call center on the following toll free number

1800-425-1661. All the calls from BSNL and

MTNL will be free of cost from anywhere in the

country. The call centre is equipped with a latest

digital call center equipment and software.  The

call center is also equipped with call recording

facility during off time so as to retrieve it later.

Official launching of the portal has been fixed

during the second week of Jan 2007

All e-krishi centers are provided with Internet

connectivity by the Project. Farmers, agricultural

officer of the panchayat, field coordinators of e-

krishi are given free access to Internet by the

Project. This has increased the use of Internet for

posting agricultural products in the site. Apart

from providing connectivity, the Project has also

supplied educational materials (books, booklets/

CDS), which are of use to farmers-covering topics

on agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries etc. 

Around 30 such books and videos on 27 topics

were supplied to all the centers to establish the

library. These materials were collected from

Kerala Agricultural University, Farm Information

Bureau, Central Plantation Research Institute,

TBGRI, and KISSAN Kerala etc. The farmers are

free to access these materials through the Centers.

20

The Maihti Mitra project, being implemented by

Kutch Nav Nirman Abhiyan in Kutch district of

Gujarat envisages the cre-

ation of 18 ICT kiosks by the

Setu centres in their respec-

tive clusters, and developing

the kiosk as a platform which

enables the Gram Panchayat

bodies and Gram Sabhas to

access the various ICT technology applications

and simple information tools in order to improve

both their ability to self-govern and generate bet-

ter development opportunities. The kiosk is a part

of the Setu centre, though physically it is in a dif-

ferent location generally situated in the commer-

cial hub of the main village. It is a revenue gener-

ating centre. Creating a close communication link-

age between the Gram Panchayats and the dis-

trict administration/Jilla Panchayat is also envis-

aged in the programme.

The project envisages ICT as one critical element

in an overall effort to build capacities of the Gram

Panchayats for self-governance. Apart from the

ICT intervention, the Setu centres are also in-

volved in other kinds of training interventions.

The vision to develop a sustaining, reliable, effec-

tive, and replicable model for e-self-governance

in Kutch district is the driving force behind the

project.

Fifteen Mahiti Mitra kiosks have been set up

Mahiti Mitra

21

while the remaining 3 will be set by the end of

March 2007. The current infrastructure set-up at

the centres is as follows:

a) Hardware:

• All Mahiti-Mitra centres have a computer

with printer, scanner, web cam and speak-

ers.

• Most Mahiti-mitra kiosks are also pro-

vided with an additional computer system

to fulfill the need of computer

education.

• Phone and digital still camera is

available at every Mahiti-Mitra

kiosk.

• At K-link central hub, there are

3 Servers and 10 workstations

along with plotters and A3

printer

b) Software :

To make the application software viable to be used

in rural areas, all the software was developed in-

house that supports regional language and can

run even on poor bandwidth. The different appli-

cations that have been developed in house or pro-

cured from other agencies are as follows:

i. SIMS (Setu Information Management Sys-

tem):

• User friendly GUI allows to access the in-

formation of the cluster with many indi-

cators regarding Demographic, Migration,

Credit, Land and Crop pattern, profile of

artisans and profile of vulnerable and dis-

abled. Information about village

• Infrastructure and institutes.

• Information of all cluster villages are avail-

able at village and household levels:

• Report module that generates analytical

and statistical report with a single click.

• The databank is also linked with GIS and

can generate information in Map format.

ii. Yojanakiya Darshan:

• Structure & details of govt. departments

in regional language.

• Application forms for govt. schemes and

scheme related information.

• General information of Kutch.

iii. Mahiti-Mitra Visitor MIS:

• Visitor type, Service, Revenue and

Visitor’s satisfaction level can be moni-

tored.

• It can be used to track the feedback and

attitude of the user.

22

iv. K-Link Info Portal:

• Mail Service

• Employment News

• Help Desk

• Discussion Board

• Announcement.

• Laws and Government

Orders.

v. E-Forms (C-DAC Product)

• Efficient way to create

forms, and get the

analysis of data

vi. VYAPAR (C-DAC Product)

• Info Portal for Buyer and Seller.

vii. Multi media Educational CDs (Azim Premji

Foundation CDs)

• 20 CDs covering various subjects in re-

gional language

viii. GIS based Decision Support System

• Census 2001 data generated in Map form

for different Indicators

• Query based generation of Map

• Searching for the village and retrieving

village information

• Generation of Village Revenue Map

• Distance between two locations

• Customization of Map with legends

• Decision Support System Layout

ix. Stand alone Portal for Legal Information

• Regional Language

• Structure & Detail of Police and court

• Role and Responsibility of Police

• Acts and Laws

• General Information of Kutch.

x. E-Kanoon : Web Based Portal

• Regional language support

• To solve the query of end user regarding

legal issue

• Expert Centre : Centre for Social Justice

c) Network & Connectivity :

• All Mahiti-Mitra are connected with cen-

tral hub K-Link with Intranet.

• All Mahiti-Mitra are connected with the

rest of the world with Internet facility.

• Dial-up connection through PSTN or

WLL. Line provides two way data trans-

fer. However to access bandwidth con-

suming application with this scenario is

not feasible.

• To overcome with the problem of band-

width, technologies like Wi-Fi have been

experimented with

Four Centers (Adesar, Shamakhiyali, Khawda,

Bhadreshwar) are augmented with the VRC con-

cept of ISRO and provided V-SAT connectivity.

23

Village Information System

Village Information System, being implemented

by Gujarat Informatics Limited is targeted at the

rural population of Gujarat to bring better, effi-

cient, transparent and effective governance and

citizen services that are easy and simple to access

with minimum costs. Project will leverage the

existing infrastructure (network and hardware)

of Govt of Gujarat where applicable and develop

the application for entire gamut of citizen services

for rural population of selected Talukas.

Village Information System is an extension to e-

Gram targeted at rural population of Gujarat to

bring better, efficient, transparent and effective

governance and citizen services that are easy and

simple to access with minimum associated costs.

The village information system would run on the

backbone of the n-Logue and GSWAN connectiv-

ity.

Citizen services offered can be broadly classified

into three categories:

• Citizen Centric Services

• Information Services

• Internet Services

These services will be provided through a single

state level portal. Internet based services will uti-

lize existing applications already in place. This

approach will ensure that maximum number of

citizen services is offered and on the other hand,

existing applications are also utilized and dupli-

cation is avoided.

The project proposes to upgrade the existing sys-

tem to provide services which can be broadly clas-

sified in the following categories:

• Citizen Centric Services – These

would cater to the citizen centric services

like:

q Online Submission of application

forms for issuance of Farmer Certifi-

cate, Income Certificate, Domicile

Certificate, Birth Certificate, Death

Certificate etc.

q Public Information Services like

Health Information, Agriculture infor-

mation, Education information, Ani-

mal Husbandry Information etc.

q Public Grievance Redressal System

• Information Services – These would

provide specific information which could

be utilized by the villagers to improve their

productivity:

q Agriculture Mandi Rates

q Stocks information for farmers

q Fairs, Festivals and events

q Government Schemes

q Government/NGO sponsored camps

and programs

• Messaging and Internet Services –

Audio, video conferencing, e-mail facility

across Departments / Kiosks and Broad-

casting of Bulletin containing information

on:

q Diseases / Primary Health Issues

q Agriculture

q Pesticides

24

q Veterinary / Animal related problems

q Meteorological information – fore-

casts on rainfall, climatic conditions,

warnings on cyclones / floods, etc.

National Informatics Center (NIC) has been in-

volved in the designing and development of ICT

interventions for VIS Project. The village

panchayat services are being made available

through the existing e-Gram software application

developed by NIC using Microsoft Visual Basic

and having Microsoft Access Database as the

backend. It works on stand alone basis. The fol-

lowing services are provided through it:

q Birth Certificate

q Death Certificate

q Caste Certificate

q Character Certificate

q Income Certificate

q Domicile Certificate

q BPL Certificate

q 7/12,8/A Certificates

The e-Gram software also maintains the Register

of Revenue from Certificates provided through it.

e-Gram software developed by NIC has been

preloaded along with Windows XP in all the com-

puters provided to the village panchayats under

VIS Project.

NIC has also developed e-PRIMA in .NET tech-

nology using N-tier architecture. UNICODE sup-

port in local language is also available. Login is

provided up to Village Panchayat Level. Provision

is also made for District user to enter the data re-

lated to all talukas under that district and Taluka

users can also enter data of the Village Panchayats

under them.

Various other information and services related to

Agriculture, Health, Education, Employment,

Transportation, Schemes etc. will be accessible

through Internet. Three-Dimensional Education

Software is also likely to be deployed in all the

villages.

Village Computer Entreprenuers (VCEs) have

been appointed and trained for 66 villages. They

would assist the Talati at the village level to main-

tain accounts and provide required certificates to

the citizens. The remaining VCEs have to be ap-

pointed and trained. The computer hardware and

software have been procured and installed in all

the 100 villages.

25

DRISTI

In the light of the 73rd and 74th constitutional

amendment, more power and functions are de-

volved to the lower tiers of the Panchayats. This

necessitates the function of the PRIs should be to

deliver better services to its stakeholders. Effec-

tive participation of the people in their self-gov-

ernance necessarily requires access to informa-

tion regarding the func-

tioning of the Panchayats.

Panchayats need to play the

role of “information pro-

vider”.

Use of IT will bring more

transparency in the func-

tioning of the government

and help people to partici-

pate in decision-making

process. Against this back-

drop, the DRISTI project

was conceived of by the

West Bengal State Rural

Development Agency (WBSRDA)

It is felt that the traditional system for manage-

ment and flow of data are not adequate for the

MIS activities of the Panchayat bodies. In this per-

spective the Department of Panchayat and Rural

Development defined that IT has a major role to

play in strengthening the Information Manage-

ment system at PRIs for its efficient functioning.

The DRISTI project was conceived with the

following major objectives:

• Improve efficiency of PRIs in managing

various programmes and delivery sys-

tems,

• Provide decentralized information using

GIS at Block and Gram Panchayats.

• Create a better monitoring and compli-

ance machinery

• Promote social audit.

The entire project has been divided into four com-

ponents:

1) Sub-Project IA: Gram Panchayat

Management System

This sub-project will provide a complete IT solu-

tion for transacting all the business of a Gram

Panchayat. With this software total fund moni-

toring of a Gram Panchayat will be possible. The

project will also provide general information re-

lating to the Gram Panchayat and will provide a

module for assessment and collection of tax and

other non-tax revenues by the PRIs. It will also

26

provide other utilities like information on Below

Poverty Line (BPL) population, death and birth

registration, trade registration and issue of cer-

tificates; vital statistics disaggregated up to vil-

lage level.

2) Sub-Project IB: Decentralized Informa-

tion Management using GIS

• To create a GIS based information network

for enhanced information flow between

Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti, Block

administration, line departments at block

level, Zilla Parishad, District administration,

selective line departments at the district level

and the state.

• To enable all the stakeholders to monitor the

development indicators at the grassroots

level on a regular basis, procuring informa-

tion at a shorter interval and planning and

executing focused interventions based on

recent information.

3) Sub-Project-II: Integrated Fund Moni-

toring and Accounting System

This is a complete IT solution for the financial

management for the upper two tiers of the PRI

system, i.e. for the Panchayat Samiti (at the Block

level) and Zilla Parishads (at the district levels).

Monitoring and accounting of the entire fund

management of the upper two tiers of the PRI

system is possible through this software. The so-

lution itself will provide a communication mod-

ule through which the incremental data for each

day will be transmitted to the upper tier of the

PRIs at a predefined hour of the day, through a

dial-up network.

4) Sub-Project-III: Government to citizen

Interface

This sub-project will focus on establishing strong

machinery to foster social audit, transparency and

responsibility of the government to the civil soci-

ety. It is envisaged that the entire business trans-

action by the three tiers Panchayat System will

be possible through the IT solution provided by

the Sub-Project-IA,IB and II above. The incre-

mental data of daily transaction will be ware-

housed at the State Level. Here all the relevant

information having bearing on public interest and

involvement will be extracted, summarized and

will be published through website for perusal of

the entire civil society. This is an effort for pro-

moting the social audit. The process will also gen-

erate and monitor an interface for online regis-

tration of grievance of any stakeholder through

the departmental website www.wbprd.nic.in . The

stakeholders will also be apprised about the ac-

tion taken on the basis of the grievances expressed

by them. Through another component of the

project, all the notifications, circulars, guidelines

issued by the department and case studies on best

practices related to PRIs, SHG, Watershed De-

velopment, Sanitation, Public Health, Alternative

Primary Education, etc will be categorized and will

be made available through the department’s

website.

The pilot project has already been extended to

cover 106 Gram Panchayats (as against the ini-

tial target of 50) and to 24 Panchayat Samitis (as

against the initial target of 20).

Current Portfolio of Services

a) At the level of Gram Panchayat:

27

i. Informational Service - BPL list, village in-

formation, rural household data.

ii. Transactional service - tax assessment &

collection and accounts maintenance;

iii. E-Gov Service – birth certificate, death cer-

tificate, trade certificate and certificates

related to residence, caste, income etc.

b) At Panchayat Samiti Level:

i. Transactional service – account mainte-

nance and financial management, fund

monitoring for various programmes. It is

imperative that transparent and standard-

ized accounting is a step towards promot-

ing accountable and transparent gover-

nance. The transparent accounting reduces

fiduciary risk and helps effective statutory

as well as social audit.

Capacity Building/ Workshops:

Training courses were conducted both for GPMS

and IFMS. GPMS related trainings were organized

in two phases and follow-up trainings were orga-

nized for IFMS also. Hand holdings, objectives of

the training, preparation of manual were com-

Name of the

componentLevel of training Participants

Number of

trainings

conducted

Total number

of participants

GPMSComputer Basics &

GPMS SoftwareGram Panchayat

Sabhapatis, Sahayaks,17 250

IFMS

Basics, IFMS

softwareBDO, Extn. Officer of Panchayats, Accoun-

tant, Cashier, Accounts Clerk6 120

RefresherBDO, Extn. Officer of Panchayats,

Accountant, Cashier, Accounts Clerk 6 120

GIS

GIS Technology

Data porting and

report generation

BDO and other officials

Head of Panchayats and other

elected members

2 8

2 8

pleted for GPMS and in process for IFMAS.

Communication & Publicity Strategy:

The details of the projects, its objectives, expected

outcomes has been publicized through the depart-

mental web site. The progress of the DRISTI

project has also been depicted with special em-

phasis on the GIS component through the web-

site www.trendswestbengal.org. Some of the fea-

tures of GIS based initiative are also available in

the web-site of the Panchayats and Rural Devel-

opment of West Bengal (www.wbprd.nic.in). Sen-

sitization workshop has been organized at

Burdwan district with a cross-section of stakehold-

ers.

The Pilot project was awarded the Mirosoft e-Gov-

ernance Award 2006 for excellent work in the field

of promotion of rural local self governance.

A Government Order has been issued by the Gov-

ernment of West Bengal to introduce computer-

ised accounting and fund monitoring in the gram

panchayats. The success of the GPMS pilot has

been cited as the basis for this GO.

28

ASHWINI

Project Outline:

ASHWINI aims to provide a means of on-line in-

teraction between the village community in 32

villages of East and West Godavari and subject

experts in health, education, agriculture, liveli-

hoods, etc. who would be placed in Hyderabad or

even abroad. The project makes use of 802.11b

wireless technology to provide a 2 Mbps band-

width to every village covered through a cluster

system. This system would enable the population

from any of the selected villages covered, to in-

teract with experts and service providers from

Bhimavaram and Hyderabad. To bring focus to

the endeavour, one subject (Health, Governance

etc.) is taken up each day. Each day is further di-

vided into 7 Knowledge Blocks (KB) of 2 hours

each. Every KB covers one sub-topic in the broad

area (e.g. Gynaecology, Paediatrics etc. under the

broad area of Health). Using this system, people

with specific issues/queries would be able to con-

nect to the corresponding expert virtually at their

doorstep. In addition, the project will also bring

service providers in contact with the village popu-

lation. Within each KB described above, the rel-

evant service providers will be given time to con-

nect with the village population so that advice/

discussion is backed by decision making and ac-

tion at the village end. The program will be su-

pervised on a day to day basis by the Grama Vikasa

Samiti, a democratically constituted village-level

leadership body.

Project ASHWINI would have three streams of

revenue:

1. User charges

2. Sponsorship from service providers

3. Transaction fee

User charges: Since the services provided in each

Knowledge Block are targeted, and only those who

feel the specific need for that service will be at-

tending the respective Knowledge Block, reason-

able user charges are proposed to be collected.

The actual user charge would vary from KB to KB

depending on the service on offer and the target

segment of the population. The range would vary

from Rs.2 (as entry charges) to Rs.10.

Sponsorships: In addition, another channel of

revenue is sponsorships from the service provid-

ers who would use the channel to market their

goods/services. For each KB, the project would

provide at least 2 service providers who will then

be allowed to use POP displays, communication

material etc at the ASHWINI center. The charges,

which the service providers incur, would be to-

wards the interaction with captive customers and

for disseminating information to their target au-

dience.

Transaction fee: The center would also get its rev-

enues from the transactions, which it enables for

the service providers. Since the enabling infra-

29

structure like online payments are not considered,

the charges would be nominal (say, Rs.1 per trans-

action). Other revenue streams possible are the

inclusion of various services such as printing,

photocopying, e-Seva services etc. at the

ASHWINI center.

Video-conferencing studios have been set up at

Hyderabad, Bhimavaram and Alamapuram of-

fices of Byrraju Foundation. A wireless broad-

band network with Bhimavaram as the hub and

32 Ashwini village centres in East and West

Godavari districts has been established. This net-

work is connected to Hyderabad office of Byrraju

Foundation using 2MBPS VPN connection using

PSTN lines. A network bandwidth of 16MB

backhaul is created between Bhimavaram and

Amalapuram and then 2MBPS of intranet band-

width to each village Ashwini centre is provided.

Also 2MBPS of shared Internet bandwidth is pro-

vided to all the Ashwini centres to facilitate

Internet browsing, video-conferencing e-mail fa-

cility etc. A studio has also been established at

ASRAM medical college at Eluru, West Godavari

district for conducting telemedicine programs to

the villages where Ashwini centres are available.

Connectivity has been established for 25 Ashwini

centres in East and West Godavari districts. For

other centres in East Godavari, connectivity will

be established by end of March 2007. Video-

conferencing software from Polycom for indi-

vidual Ashwini centres as well as the multi-

conferencing software/hardware has been pro-

cured and put into operation at respective loca-

tions. Also multi-media facility with audio equip-

30

ment is put in place in 25 Ashwini centres and

the remaining centres also will be provided this

facility by March 2007.

For the delivery of various programs to the re-

spective Ashwini centres at a pre-designated time

and schedule resource persons have been hired

and content identified/prepared for spoken En-

glish, Mathematics, embroidery training, sciences

for the students, computer education, personal-

ity development etc. Besides a number of virtual

leaders from around the world and alliance part-

ners are identified to roll out various programs

aimed at improving the quality of life of the rural

people. Also the Non-resident Villagers (NRVs)

who have migrated to various places from the vil-

lage are told about the program and provided an

opportunity to connect to their roots using the

virtual medium. Apart from this, a team of vol-

unteers are working in the villages to conduct a

sustained advocacy and awareness campaign

among the villagers to impress upon them the

need to utilize these facilities available at Ashwini

and also capturing their specific requirements.

Current Portfolio of Services

Informational Services: Information about vari-

ous Govt. schemes and services offered and tar-

geted at rural communities; banking information

services like loan eligibility for crop loan, loan for

livestock etc, availability and timings of rail ser-

vices to different locations, details

of courses offered in various edu-

cational institutions; latest news

pertaining to the locality and inter-

est of the villagers, etc are being of-

fered.

Transactional services: Currently

no transactional services are of-

fered to the rural people through

Ashwini centres. Efforts to intro-

duce banking transaction services

through SBI and ICICI are at an ad-

vanced stage.

e-Governance Services: Only informational ser-

vices on various e-Gov initiatives pertaining to the

rural people like the pension scheme, employment

guarantee scheme etc, are offered. No transac-

tional services or certificates are being offered to

the communities.

Development related services: Spoken English for

housewives, students and youth in the villages is

offered regularly. Computer education, livelihood

training (embroidery, saree making, tailoring

techniques), mathematics and sciences using

multi-media techniques is offered to higher sec-

ondary students. Agricultural advisory services to

the farmers is being offered in collaboration with

Acharya Ranga Agricultural University, Krishi

Vignana Kendras and domain experts in the

paddy and aqua.

31

S. No Month Newsletter Topic

1) January i-Governance – The DRISTI way

2) February Developing Community Radio Skills

3) March Creating Rural Entrepreneurs – EDSS

4) April Village information System – Attempting to transform rural e-Governance

5) May Rationale for single state wide e-Procurement system

6) June Workshop for review of ICTD projects

7) July Results Based Management

8) August ICTs in NREGS

9) September Efficient Programme Monitoring (e-Krishi)

10) October Road Ahead for CSCs

11) November Taking ICT to marginalized communities (Mahiti Mitra)

12) December Women’s voices on air – Potential of Community Radio

Comprehensive discussions between NISG and

CSDMS were held to determine the engagement

terms for the year 2006. Based on the discussions,

NISG has made amendments to the contract for

funding of i4d magazine under the ICTD Project.

While most of the terms agreed upon last year

remain the same, under the amended conditions

for the year 2006, the funding has been reduced

to Rs. 20 lakhs from the earlier sanctioned bud-

I4d Magazine

get of Rs. 23 lakhs for the year 2006. Hereafter,

NISG will prepare the content of the newsletter

in-house. CSDMS will only print and circulate the

newsletters. The recommendations were circu-

lated to the SC members through email and have

been approved.

The newsletters printed during 2006 covered the

following topics:

32

II NISG Activities

ii Review Workshop for ICTD Project

A Workshop was organized at Hyderabad on May

8-9, 2006 at the Indian School of Business involv-

ing all the project partners to find out possible

gaps between targeted goals and those achieved

so far. The workshop was attended by senior offi-

cials from MoCIT, Govt. of Indian and UNDP,

along with representatives from each of the

project partners.

i CISCO Summit

The National Institute for Smart Government

(NISG) and Cisco Systems organized the 2nd Pub-

lic Sector Summit on Infrastructure for e-Gover-

nance in New Delhi on March 9th - 10th 2006.

The Summit theme was “Connecting Govern-

ment, Empowering Citizens”. The Summit pro-

vided a platform for government leaders, deci-

sion-makers, policy designers and international

experts to exchange views and share case studies

on common challenges relating to establishing

infrastructure for information sharing and col-

laboration, business models for supporting ICT

infrastructure, governance and standards issues

and the role of a CIO among others.

Attended by over 120 delegates from across the

country comprising senior officials from DIT,

NIC, NeGP PMU, IT Secretaries, IT Directors,

System Managers from state governments and

various key agencies involved in the implemen-

tation of the National e-Governance Plan. Inter-

national speakers included Hon’ble Andrew

Thomson, Minister of Finance & Information

Technology, Govt. of Saskatchewan, Canada; Mr.

Lawrence Knafo, First Deputy Commissioner &

Deputy CIO, City of New York; Mr. Jeff Kaplan,

Founder & Director, Open ePolicy Group,

Harvard University among others.

Objectives of the Summit

1) Provide a framework for developing State-

level infrastructure strategy that supports e-

a) Workshops Governance roadmaps

2) Present and discuss business models and

technology options for top-priority ICT infra-

structure issues

3) Address key implementation challenges of

State-level ICT infrastructure

4) Share lessons from different jurisdictions

inside and outside India to leverage best prac-

tices

5) Provide an opportunity for feedback and

discussion on the national e-Governance

Roadmap blueprint

6) Explore trends and issues on key ICT infra-

structure issues such as Data-Centers, Storage

and Wireless

Through presentations, the Summit showcased

innovative models that have raised the levels of

connectivity and competence of national and in-

ternational governments. The Summit also

blended together workshops providing an oppor-

tunity for the delegates to have more in-depth

discussions on specific issues related to the roll-

out of SWANs, e-Governance roadmaps and the

NeGP.

33

The Report on the Workshop was published as

part of the i4d magazine in the June 2006 ICTD

newsletter.

iii. Workshop in Bhubaneshwar:

A Workshop to discuss the “Roadmap for the

Gyan o Soochna Kendras (GSKs)” in Orissa was

organized in association with UNDP and

NASSCOM Foundation in Bhubaneshwar on June

22-23 2006. The objective of the workshop was

to build a roadmap to strengthen GSKs as

• Centre for public information sharing

• Implementation of Right to Information at

village level

• Training and learning centre

• Service providers to the line departments

• Business Centre promoting entrepreneur-

ship

• Centres of e-governance with citizen cen-

tric services

The workshop focused on sharing the experiences

of various governmental, non-governmental and

corporate sector agencies, in implementing rural

ICT programmes in various parts of India. Nearly

40 participants representing government, re-

search institutions, NGOs and private sector par-

ticipated in the workshop and presented their

experiences and learning.

Some of the key learnings from the Workshop

were:

a) ICTs for Development should focus on

knowledge empowerment..

b) ICT strategies are only effective, sustainable,

and worth the effort if they are integrally

linked to broader, more comprehensive de-

velopment, and poverty-reduction strategies.

c) ICTs are, to some extent, social constructs.

Therefore, they need to be adapted to differ-

ent social contexts.

d) ICT4D should not be confined to computers

and internet alone. Other forms of media and

communication networks should also be in-

tegrated.

e) A pilot project at two or three district level

should pave way for self-replication

f) Participatory mechanisms are crucial for the

success of the project

g) Potentials of schools as GSKs could be ex-

plored.

h) It is possible to blend enterprise model with

social development perspectives.

i) Projects should have process of targeting is-

sues such as class and gender.

j) ICT4D should add value to the social and

economic value chains of the local economy.

k) Evolving grassroots institutional structures

to convert generic information into locale

specific knowledge is vital for ICT4D.

l) Content Management System and Learning

Management System are important for

ICT4D.

m) Query less system of answering the informa-

tion need is effective.

n) Plan for outcomes rather than outputs

o) Address needs of different sections of the

community rather than treat it as a unit.

iv. Workshop on Results Based Management

NISG engaged Accounts Training Institute (ATI),

an organization based in Bangalore to deploy a

Result Based Management System. A 2-day

Workshop on RBM was organized at Hyderabad

for all project partners to introduce them to the

concept of RBM and its application for their pi-

lots. The RBM-MIS developed by ATI was also

34

introduced to the partners during the workshop

v. Review Workshop – November 2006

A Review Workshop of the ICTD Project was held

in Mysore on 30 November & 1 December.  All

the pilots were represented at the review. Repre-

sentatives of UNDP and DIT were also present.

The pilots gave an update of their respective

projects from the last review (May 2006) till Nov

06. The RBM framework of each pilot was also

presented and discussed. A field visit was also

organised for the partners to the Mahiti Manthana

project. Two telecentres: Atiguppe and Chaman

Halli hundi were visited where all interacted with

the sangha women and the sakhi of the telecentre.

At the Chaman Halli Hundi centre the partici-

pants witnessed the launch of the radio

programme “Kelu Sakhi” produced by sangha

women.

b) Documentation Activities

NISG has engaged undertaken case studies dur-

ing the year 2006 that will be completed in the

year 2007.

(i) ICT in Agriculture: The case study will map

the operational issues and linkages between

ICT for Development applications and im-

provements in agricultural production, pro-

cessing and marketing. This would generate

recommendations that are relevant in formu-

lating viable linkages between agricultural

information producers, users and technol-

ogy-service providers in rural areas (such as

the village knowledge centers or the CSC’s).

The study would also capture the lessons

learnt which can be plugged into the NeGP

specially the Mission Mode Project for Agri-

culture. Based on the discussions with

ICRISAT, NISG has engaged ICRISAT to

undertake this study.

(ii) ICT and Gender: Within ICT initiatives, the

focus on gender has varied from targeting

women as beneficiaries to other projects be-

ing ‘gender neutral’. But all projects have

some impact on gender, whether positive or

negative. It is important to identify what are

project design options available, which can

lead to gender equal and women’s empow-

erment outcomes in ICT initiatives. NISG has

engaged IT for Change, an NGO based in

Bangalore and working on women empow-

erment issues for this study.

(iii) Gender Perspective in ICTD Project: The

United Nations Development Assistance

Framework has as its main focus the promo-

tion of gender equality. The first theme of the

UNDP Country Programme (2003-2007)

identifies promotion of human development

and gender equality as a primary concern. In

the above context it is imperative that the

promotion of gender equality is an impor-

tant aspect of the ICTD project. This study

aims to examine the current ICTD pilots in

the light of a gender framework and make

recommendations for aligning the projects

with the gender framework. The study will

also draw recommendations for future ICTD

projects to be implemented by UNDP or DIT.

NISG has engaged Asmita, a gender special-

ist for this study.

(iv) Integrating existing CSCs with the proposed

govt. CSC project: The study will assess the

35

implications the govt. CSC scheme has for

the estimated 13,000 kiosks currently opera-

tional in the country, understand the opera-

tional issues and capture the lessons learnt

from existing kiosks that can be beneficial for

the rollout of the CSCs. NISG has engaged

Chetan Sharma of Datamation Foundation

for this study.

c) Results Based Management

To be able to effectively monitor the projects for

outputs and outcomes NISG felt the need to put

in place a Results Based Management (RBM) sys-

tem. A RBM framework would not only help the

implementing agency manage the programme

more effectively by focusing on outputs and out-

comes but also help NISG monitor the projects

better with the help of a pre-defined framework.

For each of the ICTD pilots NISG has imple-

mented a Results-Based Management (RBM)

framework for monitoring and evaluation factor-

ing in the Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs). In June 2006, NISG engaged Accounts

Training Institute (ATI), an organization based

in Bangalore to deploy a Result Based Manage-

ment System at the pilot sites and consolidate the

results at NISG. ATI in consultation with NISG

will monitor and evaluate all the pilot projects

based on the RBM frameworks over a 2-year pe-

riod. ATI has also developed an RBM MIS. All

projects have started reporting to NISG using this

MIS from the end of November onwards.

Methodology followed: A workshop was held in

July for all the implementing agencies to acquaint

them with the RBM framework and methodology.

A team from ATI and NISG then carried out pre-

liminary visits to each of the projects and helped

the partners draw up the initial frameworks. Then

the partners worked on the frameworks further.

During the second round of visits, the frameworks

were refined, indicators selected, targets set for

each indicator and data sources identified. The

frameworks were now falling into a usable shape.

Preliminary data entry for the months of October

and November has started. During the third

round of visits in December any minor flaws were

ironed out and the frameworks frozen. Septem-

ber was taken as the starting point for baselines

and data entry for the months of Oct to Dec started

in earnest and the partners started reporting to

NISG in the RBM format.

In the meanwhile an in-house team at ATI was

working on the MIS software. The software was

installed at the partners’ site and they were trained

in using the software. Based on suggestions from

the partners and NISG the software was refined

many times so that it would facilitate the work of

the partners and also enable NISG to monitor ef-

ficiently.